Not quite as long as the last chapter, but I think ya'll forgive me. It's pretty long anyway.

Enjoy.

Hinata moved through the caverns like water- fluidly and gracefully. Her Byakugan was active, but she didn't need a bloodline to follow the carved walls in the blonde's wake. Every passing moment made her soul sink that much further; had Naruto succumbed to the fox? "Did I wait too long?! Am I too late?!" She uttered a silent prayer to the heavens as she moved; she didn't want to end things this way. "Even if it does end eventually, I don't want it to end now! Not like this!"

The Hyuuga had a fair idea of where the Uzumaki was travelling, and the rampaging teen's marks only confirmed her suspicions. "He's headed for the ROOT compound…" Her armored foot graced the ground and shifted to shove off when she felt a sudden tremor. Memories of Suna's tunnels flooded her mind and she knew that only a mighty force- possibly one she couldn't handle- was responsible. She gulped, fearing that it was Naruto. Her pace quickened and her worries mounted when she felt another blast of malevolent power surge through the disfigured cavern. She was nearing the source of a great and evil chakra, and she didn't allow herself to stop and reconsider going up against it. "Be strong, Hinata," she assured herself, "Do it for him…"

--

Tsunade sat in her office; it was getting late and she was becoming irritable. She sighed for the umpteenth time and glanced out the window.

"Lady Tsunade," Anko replied from her seated position, stacks of yellowed papers on her lap, "You look tired."

The slug mistress spared the Mitarashi a glance and noticed that Temari shared a similar gaze. "Yeah, I'm beat. You guys probably are, too."

"Amen to that," the blonde teen nodded instantly. She obviously wanted to split as soon as possible.

The female Hokage chuckled. "Alright, you guys head home. I'll stick around a little longer and- what the hell?!" A sudden tremor rang through the entire tower and interrupted her chain of thought. Its intensity wasn't dangerous but it was noticeable, and it repeated once more before subsiding entirely.

"What was that?" Anko inquired in a subdued voice and wide eyes.

Temari released the breath she unconsciously withheld; this was all too familiar. Tsunade noted the sand shinobi's reaction and immediately knew something big was going down. "You two!" she ordered, "Start on civilian evacuation! The whole village probably felt that, and if people panic, things could get worse!"

"Yes ma'am!" the snake charmer affirmed the order while her blonde counterpart simply nodded. She bolted from her chair and charged through the door with Temari in tow, almost bumping into a disgustingly familiar face. She backed up, muttered an incoherent apology, and continued on her way. The blonde sand sibling merely regarded the two elderly people with a cocked eyebrow before following after Anko.

Tsunade bit her thumb as she stared out the window. Sure enough, lights were snapping on everywhere as the denizens of Konoha were alarmed at the mild tremor. "Damn it," she mumbled, "Let's hope this doesn't get out of hand…" She heard untamed footsteps behind her and shot her head around only to relax upon finding Homura and Koharu standing before her. "Now's not the time," she warned them, "I'm busy right… now… are you okay?"

Both the elders clung to their heads with all their strength. Their posture suggested great pain and they could only stammer a response. "My… head," Homura sputtered, "It… hurts so… so bad…"

"Oh God," Koharu was having an equally difficult time mastering her torment. "It… hurts!"

"What's wrong?" The blonde medic leapt into action. She may have hated these two's guts, but she was still a medic by trade. "Where does it hurt? Your head?" She approached the old man first and frowned when she noticed something wrong with his arms- long vertical cuts were forming all the way across his forearms. "What the hell…?"

"The pain…" the aging man's voice grew with his bizarre injury. "It hurts!" He snapped his arms at the head ninja and long blades sprang out from within the flesh.

The female Sannin ducked just in time and delivered a solid punch to the man's gut. He flew back, slammed into the wall, and then righted himself as if nothing happened. Her eyes darted between Homura and Koharu to find the elderly woman in much the same shape- blades now protruded from her arms and she had this vacant glint clouding her eyes.

"What the hell's going on?!" She didn't have time to contemplate further before the seemingly possessed elders lunged at her again.

--

Jiraiya was enjoying yet another casual night of peeping on the lovely ladies in the bathhouses. He felt a general sense of accomplishment, seeing as how he had all but remedied the Hyuuga's doubts, and this was his personal pat on the back.

He leered with a lecherous grin when he spied one particularly gifted woman walk by the knothole. His smile grew from ear to ear as he pulled out his notepad now that his inspiration was in full swing, but his eyes fell when the women began dozing off. "What the hell?" he wondered as the rest of the women went limp with unconsciousness in the steamy room. He felt his breath becoming taxed and heavy before leaping into action. "Something's wrong," he knew, "I haven't felt this off since Tsunade poisoned my drink…" He fought the intense drowsiness as his vision swum before his eyes, and he scanned the horizon like a drunk until he found someone staring him down.

"Evenin'," a casual voice greeted him, "The toad Sannin, Jiraiya. So nice to meet ya!"

He eyed the stranger in the abnormally thick jacket. "Who are you?" he kept his voice steady even though his feet wouldn't do the same.

The newcomer waved it off. "Ah, that's not really important. My bosses kinda jumped the gun a little, so I gotta keep you company for a while."

The legendary ninja drew a kunai and leveled it at the stranger. "I'll ask one more time: who are you?" His distorted vision noted someone staggering out of the bathhouse in nothing more than a towel, and his normally perverted mind panicked that it was a civilian. "Wait, no… that's, uh… Shizune. Doesn't look like she's holding up very well either…"

Said medic woman was worse off than Jiraiya. She recognized the symptoms of some kind of widespread anesthesia in the bathhouse and barely kept herself awake so she could find the source. Her drunken eyes laid on the first living thing closest to her; a strange man who looked like a civilian in an unusually thick and rigid overcoat. "You…" she began before the individual raised a palm into her face and blasted a stream of smoke into her nose. She fell flat on her butt from the surprise and blinked at the apparent hostile. "W-what are you?" she stammered as the man's humble smile melted into a glowing grin that spanned his entire face. Her legs fought to scoot her body away from him when his features morphed into something inhuman; his lips parted in shrill laughter and ebony bile oozed from between his teeth and empty neon eyes. She raised her arms against the shimmering hallucination and screamed and shook in terror.

Jiraiya couldn't do a thing about it. "You're a poison user," he stated dully. "Damn it! One of the worst possible matches for me…"

"Like I said," he turned back to the monumental shinobi with a pleasant smile, "I'll keep ya company for a while…"

--

Anko and Temari charged headlong through Konoha; something wrong hung in the air. "I don't like this," the Mitarashi commented lowly, "Not one bit."

The sand sibling eyed their surroundings. "Didn't the Hokage tell us to evacuate civilians? Where the hell are we going?"

"Kurenai's place," the snake charmer replied, "She's alone right now, and I got a hunch she's in more danger than- what the fuck?!" A kunai flew right by her face and scratched her nose. Had she been an inch or two forward…

Temari brought her fan to bear but couldn't find any targets. "Where'd that come from?!" She scanned the horizon and quickly found someone staggering out of an alley. Her eyes narrowed; something was wrong with this guy. He staggered like a drunk with his arms held away from his body but smiled like a maniac at the same time. Deciding to strike first and ask questions later, she beaned him in the temple with her unfolded weapon. He crumpled to the ground…

And someone else appeared in their windowsill and threw a shuriken at her. "Shit! Where'd he come from?!" She swung her fan again and demolished the side of the building, but another civilian appeared from within his home and lobbed yet another weapon at her. "What the hell's going on?!"

Anko watched in confusion; if all these random people were hostiles, then why didn't they attack at once? Why one at a time? She unsheathed a handful of kunai and prepared to toss them at the next thing that moved. Her eyes spotted another civilian emerging from a doorway and her arm responded…

But the figure leaned against said doorway for support and called out to them with an unattached voice. "Not such a good idea…"

Temari almost swung her fan at him but stopped when she found the Mitarashi in the way. "Anko, move!"

"Don't be hasty." The stranger didn't appear worried in his stupor. "You don't want to kill any more civilians, do you?"

The dango lover's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?" she inquired apprehensively.

He suddenly stiffened and blinked in confusion. "W-where am I? How did I get out here?"

Anko was about to drive the blade through the man's skull while he put on this ruse but halted when another kunai crossed her path from another direction entirely. She whipped around and glared at a shadow atop a roof, squinting to find that it was a fellow shinobi. "What the hell are you doing?! You almost hit me!"

But Temari was slowly figuring it out. Every opponent acted in the same lethargic manner, and they didn't attack all at once. Almost like they were being hypnotized one at a time… "Anko, wait! Look at him!"

The Mitarashi checked her temper for but a moment and glared at the seemingly drunk ninja. She lobbed an experimental kunai at him and he staggered out of the way. "They're all the same…" she put the pieces together as well. "Temari, hit him with the fan!"

The blonde teen didn't need to be told twice. She swung her massive weapon at the man and clipped him and the edge of the roof with the same breeze. The affected ninja fell out of sight on the rooftop before his groans of pain alerted them to his sudden confusion. No sooner had the sand sibling prepped her fan for another swing than a civilian dropped right behind her from an overhead balcony and took a swing at her with a kitchen knife. She easily dodged the poor swing and planted a foot in the woman's face, frowning when she realized it was a mere housewife. "What the hell's up with these people?!"

Anko checked the cramped buildings with suspicious eyes. "I think… this is an old Yamanaka technique…"

--

Kakashi and Tenzou bounded across rooftops and dodged between the various heightened buildings of Konoha for their lives. Mere moments after they felt the tremor, they knew Tsunade would want to see them, so they made way for the Hokage tower. Shortly after that, however, they came under attack from tiny slivers of metal that flew impossibly fast.

"Kakashi!" Yamato called from his temporarily safe position, "Can you see the enemy?!"

The Hatake glared at the horizon with his implanted Sharingan before ducking and narrowly avoiding a thumb-sized slug of metal going through his skull- it painfully raked his scalp, though. "I think they're on the Hokage tower!"

"Are you sure?!" He had already been clipped a few times in the shoulder. The wounds wouldn't kill him, but they burned like fire and were already slowing him down.

Kakashi glanced out from behind his cover and confirmed his belief. His gifted eye noticed the slightest of movement in the shadows atop his superior's building before he ducked back in time to avoid having his head pop like a watermelon. "Yeah, I'm sure!"

Tenzou grimaced and tightened his grip on the painful injuries in his shoulder. "I won't make it that far! I'm bleeding pretty badly here and it's slowing me down!"

The silver-haired jonin considered the situation for a moment. He knew that his partner needed medical attention and that lady Tsunade wouldn't be available since she was supposedly in her office, so that left… "Shizune. She mentioned earlier that she was going to the public bathhouses tonight, so she should be there." He didn't pause to consider why she specifically told this fact to him of all people, but he refused to pry further. "Yamato! Go find Shizune at the bathhouses and get yourself patched up! I'll cover you!" With that, he charged from his cover and kept his bloodline eye open for the thumb-sized slugs whizzing his way.

Tenzou obeyed, but the moment he stepped out and began running he received one of the metal shards in his leg. "Shit!" he swore as he limped behind a stone pillar, "You suck at covering!" He controlled his voice and began evacuating the scene as quickly as he could with such small yet agonizing injuries.

Kakashi watched him leave then turned back to the tower in question. "Well then, now it's just you and me…"

--

Hinata arrived at the usually hidden entrance of the ROOT compound to find said doors nowhere in sight. Her sharp eyes saw clear lacerations around the opening where the blonde attacked the door as well as a few warm embers here and there, but no evidence that there was ever a door remained. She grimaced and ran into the open hallway before her.

The remnants of battle instantly met her sight. Blood smeared the walls like so many coats of paint and mutilated bodies were dotted the dim landscape. There would be a limb here, a torso there, and a head or two hanging around somewhere else, but intact corpses were too much to ask for. "My God, he really has succumbed to the fox…" Her mental voice was more worried than anything else- not that she had to confront this monster, but rather for the blonde's safety. Her resolve unwavering, she continued onward.

The honeycombs of the ROOT complex were a mess. Entire passageways had collapsed and room after room was choked with rubble and dismembered bodies. Bones ripped from flesh riddled the walls, flung into the hard stone by an amazing force, and their corresponding owners weren't far from them. As Silence ventured further, she felt this aura of impending evil weigh upon her shoulders. She knew it was the evil chakra's presence causing this, and the sheer malevolence of it was enough to frighten any sane man. Fortunately for her, she was no man… and sanity was probably a little out of reach at this point, too.

She hurried through trembling passageways as the ground shook and the walls cracked under the pressure. "Did he slaughter the entire ROOT organization?" she wondered, having not come upon a living agent of said group. As if by command, her Byakugan detected movement in an intersecting hallway and she unfolded her shaft of a spear in preparation. Seconds ticked by and a group of eight masked ninjas crossed her path, although they didn't seem privy to her. The Hyuuga contemplated engaging them from behind- an excellent flanking maneuver- but decided against it. "I'm here to rescue Naruto, not deal with the ROOT."

Knowing that this handful of odd shinobi was probably headed towards the scene of their destruction, she followed them. Of course, she kept her distance so they wouldn't notice, and every time they turned a corner she would wait until they were at the opposite end before continuing after them. As she stalked her handy prey, she was mildly distracted by the increasing destruction around her. Her previous incursion into the rogue outfit revealed that, while messy, it was fairly organized and kempt. The interconnecting passages and their series of rooms weren't a chaotic mess; complicated, yes- but there was a method to the structural madness.

But no longer. Her superior eyesight, while having trouble focusing on anything other than the massive signature emanating several levels below her, noticed that all the chambers she had seen previously had either collapsed or were hopelessly cut off. "He really did a number on this place…" Byakugan blazing, she noted more movement- the group she had been trailing was no longer alone. Pockets of the possessed masked shinobi poured from nooks and crannies with inhuman coordination, and she soon found herself surrounded by enemies who ignored her in favor of an unknown location.

She held absolutely still in her family's standard combat stance, spear in hand. Uttering a silent prayer that this many hostiles would leave her be, she sighed in relief when the heavens answered her favorably. "Looks like they're all interested in wherever they're going. It has to be Naruto- it can't be anything else!"

With that in mind, she slowed her pace so as to not attract attention and scooted along the wall. By this point the terrain was no longer smooth and stable, and her footwork born of the Hyuuga family's training style came into play. She methodically danced around the rubble while keeping her pearly eyes peeled for attackers. She froze when a band of ROOT agents dropped from a hole in the ceiling right next to her and bounded away. Two of the masked enemies stopped though, and they swiveled their bodies to look at her with blank eyes. "Oh, that's creepy…" Hinata wondered if remaining still would do anything, but they didn't move either. She stood there for several minutes before they whipped around and ran off in perfect synch, allowing her to breathe a sigh of relief. "That was close…"

She was instantly jolted from her thoughts by another violent rumble. This time, however, it was closer… much closer. "Shit!" she swore when the ground beneath her armored feet heaved upward and almost crashed into the ceiling. Her superior eyesight noted tiny streams of malevolent chakra seeping through the newly formed cracks and fissures in the floor, and a second later she was scrambling for solid ground. Out of instinctual desperation, she jammed one end of her spear into a crack in the ceiling and held herself in place as the floor crumbled away. "Oh my God…" she muttered under her breath as the horizon shifted beneath her.

The floor and surrounding hallways and chambers utterly collapsed. Huge sections of thick stone fell into jagged patterns and the contents of any affected chambers littered the scene. Surprisingly, quite of few of the enemy ninjas didn't die- there weren't many casualties, and those who were unfortunate were all merely crushed by the rubble. The blue-haired genius felt her weapon loosen as the fissure in the ceiling gave way and she angled herself in midair so she could safely drop onto a makeshift tower of debris. She landed and instantly scanned the view for further enemies, her jaw dropping now that she saw the full scope of the collapse.

She wasn't at the epicenter, not by a long shot. The center of the upheaval was at least a hundred meters ahead of her, and she was merely caught at a weak point on the outskirts. Before her laid absolute darkness; all the dim lights were obliterated, and yet that didn't stop the ROOT agents from scurrying forward alongside their comrades. She concentrated ahead and her vision pierced the darkness and chaotic rubble. Pillars of stone and skeletons of steel muddled her sight as a rolling environment of debris cascaded into hills of destruction.

"He's close," she swallowed nervously, "I can see his chakra signature…" Her mind blanked out as she swiftly waded through the sea of dust and rock and metal; she had no inkling of how much time had passed. Slowly yet surely, she neared what appeared to be a giant hole that looked a lot like the Hub, albeit much larger. "I can see Naruto's chakra down there, too…"

She ducked when a slew of ROOT ninjas leapt over her and descended freely into the vertical passage. Glancing across the chasm, she noted the other waves of hostiles doing much the same; they were obviously prioritizing targets if they had yet to attack her when she was so close to the source of their impending demise. "He's on the other side of this," she eyed the ridge several feet from her prone form. Anxiety and fear gnawed at her system, urging her to turn back rather than face the rampaging blonde. "No! I can't turn back now!" With that, she forced her feet to scramble her to the edge and audibly gasped when she found the blonde in question.

Naruto stood atop a mountain of rubble and corpses that had filled much of the chasm. He bled from every available surface, and the fox's chakra coated his body with the crimson fluid like so many cans of paint to give the appearance of fur. Four tails swung around his crouched form and his blank eyes glared at the many enemies attacking him in unison. A band of sixteen masked ninjas, all dropping from separate points high above, descended on him with blades drawn in an ornate circular pattern. The cold steel penetrated no flesh, but the teen instantly retaliated by swinging an arm and slamming the attackers into the walls with the singular attack. Many of the hostiles were crushed to death by the force of the blow, but the others disregarded their lethal injuries and continued onward with their arriving comrades.

Hinata observed this one-sided war without budging an inch. She felt incredible pressure weighing on her soul, as if the slightest movement would flatten her innards into pancakes. "I have to go in soon," she analyzed, "But the ROOT agents will still be around if I bring Naruto back… if I can bring him back…" That last notion struck a chord; was it possible for someone like her to return the Uzumaki to sanity? "Only one way to find out."

She scuffled to her feet and prepared to leap into the deadly pit when the Uzumaki raised an arm and slammed a fist into the ground. The chamber shook violently, and a wave of malevolent chakra pulsed through the hive. Silence leapt from her perch when the rock exploded from the sudden pressure and sailed into the wind, unable to obey gravity until the forceful energy dissipated. As she was propelled upwards, her acute eyes saw that this was the blonde's method of collapsing the tunnels; a tremor shook from his lowered position and undermined the levels around him, harkening the further collapse of three more floors. The debris slid in to bury him but he simply swatted it aside like a gnat; mere rubble could not stop him as he was.

The Hyuuga slowed and finally succumbed to gravity. Knowing that a fall from this height would kill her, she unraveled the cable wound around her stomach, coiled it around her folding spear, and lobbed the bladed shaft into the nearest cliff edge. It worked, and she halted with a jerk before bolting herself to the wall with chakra-laced fingertips. Now that she was out of immediate danger, she continued observing the berserking blonde as he progressively dug into the rubble beneath him.

After a while, the bottom of the chasm gave way and the Uzumaki fell into another chamber. Hinata's pale eyes widened when she saw this- her advanced vision hadn't penetrated anything beyond the stone floor until now. A swell of ROOT ninjas fell with him, but no more arrived after them. "That must be the last of them…" She nodded to herself; the time to act was almost upon her.

She retracted her spear and cable and rapidly descended to the rubble below. Once her feet touched down she approached the pit, the logical portion of her mind whimsically noting that it resembled an oversized ant lion trap. Utilizing her Byakugan, she peered into the hold and frowned at what she saw.

The walls in this hidden interior were lined with uncountable numbers of pipes. Steam hissed from certain intervals, and Silence recognized their design as that of an organ. "That's a big organ…" Scrutinizing the locale further, her eyes followed the reflective metal tubes to their point of origin and frowned upon locating it. "Who's that?" she wondered, eyeing an individual who wore a pale mask that hugged his features as his hands danced across a silent keyboard. Focusing on the stranger, she watched as his fingers graced the ivory keys in swift yet cautious rhythms, and her peripheral vision noted how groups of the dwindling ROOT agents moved with every stroke. "He's controlling the ROOT," she concluded, "Danzo would never let someone control his subordinates like this; he's not the one in charge." Her brow furrowed as the blonde proceeded to wreck the room without resorting to another blast- apparently the lack of enemies meant there was no need for enormous destruction in his distorted mind.

The Hyuuga briefly wondered if the unusual masked man pulling the strings was connected to Jess Burgess; both seemed to operate by controlling others, though their methods were vastly different. She watched with mounting anxiety as the remnants of the ROOT organization were struck down and burned away by the Uzumaki's hands, knowing that she would have to jump in soon. When the final possessed hostile was cleaved in four, she dropped onto a rough outcropping created by the blonde's explosive entry and set her folded spear to the side- she was not here to kill her fellow prodigy, and it would only get in the way of her mobility.

The masked man at the bottom glanced up without a sound, silently noted that his temporary puppets were finally gone, and raced his hands across the keyboard before him. Contrary to its previous use, the pipes on the walls came alive and rang out with grandiose melody. Phantos knew in his mind that there was no more he could do, so it was time for the finale. He felt an intense heat build above him and ignored it; there were a mere handful of keys left to caress before the play came to an end.

Naruto responded to the sudden noise by flinging spheres of blood and chakra from his body. His tails bent before his face and gathered the unholy energy as the pipes reverberated around him, and when he compressed the ball of intense power, his mouth split open and he swallowed it. The intensified chakra sphere detonated within his belly and he angled his head downward, released it, and obliterated everything within eyeshot.

The blast blinded Hinata's senses for a moment as it scraped away everything it touched. When her vision corrected itself from the overload, her pale eyes widened to find the entire lower half of the cylindrical chamber gone… and replaced by the largest blast doors she had ever seen. "Those are here too?!" She remained stunned for a few seconds before shaking some sense back into her head- she couldn't afford to lose it now. Focusing on the blonde below, she ran for his platform of pipes and steel, ready to do what she came to do. Thankfully, the Uzumaki was oblivious to her existence as he focused on the annihilation of the offending chamber.

But for every upside there is a downside; Silence didn't know what to do at this point. She yearned to bring back the genius she knew from the fox's influence, but she had no idea how. Out of desperation, she focused her bloodline on the teen and squinted hard to find the fox's seal. Sadly, the demon's energy overwhelmed her pale eyes, but she noticed a tiny pattern swirling outward from his abdomen. "That might be the seal," she concluded, "But it might not be. There's only one way to find out…" Without making a sound, she approached the berserking blonde and wrapped her arms around him. Her flesh instantly warmed to an uncomfortable level as her armor heated from the fox's power and her leather bodysuit began flaking away. She accessed the crystal housed in Yin and Yang's frame and channeled as much of its power as she could through her body and into her arms. Her fingers dug into the boy's supposed seal and she began the arduous process of forcing the demon's power back through brute force.

Unfortunately, Naruto's possessed mind didn't take kindly to this. The moment she laid hands on him he began flailing about to shake her off. When that proved ineffective, he began bashing her with his fists and whipping her with his tails. These actions also proved fruitless, although not for a lack of trying.

Hinata's armor survived the onslaught with deep dents and trenches and she could feel muscles bruising and bones breaking from the pressure. She grimaced at the pain and did her best to shut it all out; all that mattered was returning the Uzumaki to his proper state. An elbow smacked her in the shoulder and she felt something crack, her arms remaining steadfast but her feet faltering at the pain.

The possessed prodigy acknowledged this momentary lapse in strength and acted on it by leaping from his position and into the wall behind him. The power surging through him enabled a breakneck speed; surely the full force of the blow would knock the assailant unconscious.

But it wasn't to be. The Hyuuga did slam into the wall, but her armor and Yin and Yang cushioned the blow as much as metal was capable of providing. Apparently, the housing on her modified top of death cracked a bit- a sudden wave of untainted chakra rushed over her and she couldn't contain it all. Granted, the crystal was a bottomless pit of power, so it wouldn't dry up anytime soon, but her sight was fluttering and she wondered if she could hold on much longer. She concentrated on pouring a sudden glut of chakra from the machine shard into Naruto's cursed seal and did so… with disastrous consequences.

The fox felt the surge of power attempting to force his influence back. It reacted by unconsciously screaming at its host to slam the girl into the wall harder. Curse was in no state of mind to resist, so he obeyed. He lurched forward and reeled back. Then he did it again. Then again. And again…

Each blow felt like it was growing in intensity; Hinata didn't know if she would remain amongst the land of the living much longer at this rate. Her flesh felt cold; she glanced at her armor and found the outer layer bubbling. The logical portion of her mind dully noted that her flesh was burning away, and the heat was so intense that her nerves had died and could no longer transmit the sensation of heat. The edges of her vision darkened and filled with veins. Her sharp mind took in the fact that her bloodline had been deactivated during this ordeal without urgency; it was an inconsequential matter by now. The Hyuuga's pale eyes felt hot and her body felt limp; was she even holding on to the boy anymore? She checked- she was, but barely. It was now a battle of mind over matter, her resolve versus her instincts. She felt extraordinarily sleepy and knew that if Naruto didn't return to her within the next few seconds it would be over for her.

With this in mind, she knew that this might be her final chance to say anything to him. Swallowing what felt like a million times to moisten her throat, she leaned her face forward to the Uzumaki's ear and whispered the words she wanted him to hear. "N-Naruto," her voice cracked, "I-I'm sorry… please c-come back to me…"

And that was it. Her vision faded and she found it odd that she was still conscious- at least as far as she could tell. "Was that all a dream?" she mused, "How much of it was a dream? Was it my life? Am I really just some girl waiting to wake up from all this? Is… is Naruto just a dream too?" She wandered for what felt like an eternity in this hallucinogenic trance; unsure what was reality and what wasn't. Was she really a genius ninja named Hinata Hyuuga? Or was she not really a prodigy like she believed? Or was that still true and Naruto was from her imagination? What if she was insane and unable to differentiate between her reality and the truth? "What if… Naruto never really existed…?"

That thought filled her with morbid dread and she instantly wished it wasn't the case. "No! That can't be true! If it's not, I don't want to wake up!" She wailed in anguish at the notion that her life was a lie and felt… strange. An odd feeling of awakening washed over her and she realized that, whatever her reality was, she was about to find out.

Her pale eyes fluttered open and screwed shut in pain; they were unbearably dry. Her arms instinctually twitched to cover the hot sensory organs to shield them from the invisible heat but they wouldn't move- there was an intense weight holding them at bay. For a moment, Hinata felt absolutely relieved; that weight was her scarred and melted armor. She then knew she was alive and was grateful for that. "And if I'm still alive…" She moved to open her eyes again but her eyelids did not obey- they knew better. Annoyance streaked through her mind and she attempted to activate her Byakugan. It drained her of what little strength she had left and she barely saw anything. She then came to the distant conclusion that her flesh was still numb from the burns, but then what was this sensation of touch around her eyes?

"Don't do that," a raspy voice ordered sullenly. She realized it spoke of her wasting energy trying to use her bloodline, so she obeyed. The veins receded and she was once again blind to the world.

She opened her mouth to speak and was amazed that she could. "N-Naruto?" She heard a grunt in response. "I-is th-that you?"

"Yeah," his dry voice replied. He sounded like he was in a lot of pain. "Y-you were a-able to push the fourth tail back be-before you passed out. I d-did the rest."

She breathed a sigh of relief; her voice failed, and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing at the moment. She felt something swirling on her stomach and wondered what it was.

The blonde said nothing for a moment. He seemed to be doing something that took a good bit of concentration. After a while though, he broke the silence. "I heard you."

Now it was her turn to say nothing. She knew it was her fault that he bent to the fox's will. What was there to say? The best she could do was arc her eyebrows in an understanding gesture. Minutes passed and she felt a sudden jolt of chakra run through her system. Surprised by the unexpected jumpstart, she bolted upright and immediately regretted it- every cracked bone in her body creaked and her burnt flesh inflamed her senses. She opened her pale eyes and beheld the blonde- his burns were much worse than hers, as they covered his entire body. He twitched violently to keep steady and not black out from the agony. Hinata glanced down on her stomach and found a seal she hadn't seen in a long time- the chakra transfer mark. The only other time she had seen this was when Naruto reinforced her coils during their fight with Takaimi of the Sound.

"Alright," the blonde heaved as he crashed to the ground, "Do your thing." With that, he closed his brilliant eyes and slipped into unconsciousness.

The Hyuuga regarded him with sad eyes. Here she was, once again by his side, and she felt nothing but regret over her actions that drove him to this. Shaking her head to clear her mind and focus on the task at hand, she popped a few of her specialized pills meant to promote cell growth and chakra production. She then placed her gentle hands on his chest and began redirecting the crystal's bottomless energy across his seared skin; it was handy now that they were in such sore conditions. She winced at every one of her cracked ribs and patches of burned flesh, but she knew from experience that the Uzumaki's contribution would be just enough to compensate.

Hinata sat there for at least an hour healing both their wounds before the blonde regained consciousness. When he did, he was uncoordinated and lethargic, so he simply lay on the ground as his body pulled itself together. He eyed the blue-haired prodigy, wondering why she was there. For that matter, why was he there? "Oh right… the ROOT…" he recalled his hazy thoughts that preceded the fox wresting control. His body felt stretched and numb; that was the longest time he had ever spent under the monster's influence.

"Are you okay?" the Hyuuga asked softly as she removed segments of her melted armor and winced at the burns underneath. "Do you feel okay?"

The blonde glanced at her and found concerned eyes staring back. "Why are you here?"

"I… there's… something I need to say…" Butterflies flittered in her stomach; she had never been so apprehensive. "Was this how Naruto felt when he told me about the fox?"

He blinked lazily. "What?"

She swallowed; it was time to admit fault, something she'd never imagined she would ever do in life. "It's… it's… uh…"

"About the fox," he ended her statement without emotion. "What else could it be?"

She hung her head. "No… it's not about the fox. It's… about us…"

If the blonde genius was surprised or taken aback, he didn't show it; his face remained stone cold. "Us," he repeated, "There isn't an 'us'. You made that pretty clear the first time..." He stopped when the Hyuuga suddenly went to her knees and gently put her arms around him. His eyebrows rose at the gesture. "What are you…?"

"P-please forgive me!" she yelped, her voice choking with moisture.

Naruto frowned at this. "Hinata," he kept his calm, "This isn't something you just ask forgiveness for…"

"I know," she trembled as she spoke and tears seeped from her eyes, "I know it's not…"

"Then why…?"

"B-because," she raised her head to reveal her pale eyes wet with salty fluid, "Because I'm sorry…"

His frown died and he opened his mouth to speak. "Hinata…"

"I-I was foolish," she planted her head against his shoulder to conceal her tears. It was hard enough to fathom the blonde considering having nothing to do with her, much less looking him in the eye as he said so. "I… I was scared, and I took it out on you. It was wrong- I was wrong."

"Hinata," he found the strength to sit up, "What you said hurt. It hurt a lot."

She sat back on her legs while avoiding eye contact. "I know."

He regarded her with serious eyes that glistened at the painful memory inflicted by the girl. "Do you really know how much it hurt?" His voice was sullen and humble. "It took a lot for me to tell you that, and it broke my heart to hear you say what you did…"

The Hyuuga couldn't bear the thought of being rejected herself and broke down. "N-Naruto," she glanced at him through watery eyes, "I-I know I hurt you, a-and I'm sorry! It's the worst choice I've e-ever made and I-I regret it! It w-was the worst thing I could have e-ever done to you, and I w-wish I could take it back!"

He looked at her with sadness; wasn't this what he went through? He had been ejected from her life and was miserable because of it. "Is it possible she felt the same way?" he wondered, leaning forward to speak. "Hinata," his voice became heavy, "What do you want from me?"

She gazed at him and held her tears long enough to reply. "I want a second chance. I want… to be by your side…"

Naruto frowned ever so slightly. "Then… why did you reject me in the first place?"

"I don't know!" she wailed, her tears beginning anew, "I was scared!"

"And what's changed since then? You saw the fox…"

She shook her head. "I saw you! I always saw you…" She met his brilliant eyes and scooted closer to him. "I don't care about the fox, I… care about you…"

The blonde sighed and shut his tired eyes. "And why should I forgive you? Why should I forget what you did to me?"

Tears streamed down her face when she heard those words. "Because… I love you. I… can't stop thinking about you… and… and I just want to be by your side…"

This struck the male prodigy and a part of his mind was grateful that his eyes were closed. He remembered the promise he made to himself the night he discovered Hinata's true self, and he recalled how his hopes had been dashed she told him she was too afraid of the fox behind his soul to stay with him. "Is this how she really feels?" He cracked his eyelids open and gazed at the girl on her knees. A voice inside his head clearly remembered the pain her words had caused him- the torture that she unknowingly inflicted upon him. It called for her to have a taste of her own medicine. It was furious that she admitted fault and now begged for forgiveness.

Minutes passed, the silence broken intermittently by the Hyuuga's hushed sniffles and sobs as the Uzumaki wondered what to do. That small voice of his own personality told him to dismiss her the way she had him; to make her experience firsthand how it felt to have the most important person in her life say 'no' to her. His vengeful side wanted her to feel his emotional pain so that she may also know a vacuum in her heart. "I can't forget the pain," he genteelly rubbed his face with a palm, "But… do I really want her to suffer the same? To feel alone and empty?" He looked at her one last time and weighed his choices; revenge or forgiveness.

The pale-eyed girl cried softly as the boy deliberated. "I know it's a lot to ask for," she pleaded quietly; "I know I hurt you and you have every right to hate me. But… I want to make things right. I want to stay with you…"

"Hinata," Naruto began, breaking the weeping girl from her thoughts, "What you said hurt me more than anything could have."

She felt the tears beginning anew. "He doesn't want me anymore…"

"You're the most important person to me, and to hear you say you were afraid of me hurt more than anything. It was one of the most painful experiences I've ever felt. I want you to know that…"

Her head touched the floor and she struggled to keep her cries from escaping her throat.

"But... I can't put you through that."

Her heart skipped a beat and she wondered if she was hallucinating.

"I know how much it hurts, and… I don't want you to go through the same pain." He lowered his hands and lifted the Hyuuga's face from the floor. An inkling of a humble smile etched into his lips and he said, "Hinata, I forgive you."

Seconds that felt like hours ticked by. The female genius didn't know what to feel. Reflection? Elation? "Y-you forgive me…?"

He nodded slowly. "Yeah," his voice was soft, "I do." The torment was still fresh in his mind, but a large portion of him wanted nothing more than to become part of Hinata's life again. To be sure, he wouldn't forget those tumultuous days anytime soon, but his heart's desire was to move on rather than dwell on it. He pulled her in close and embraced her, taking care not to put stress on her injuries.

Silence buried her face into Naruto's chest and wept tears of happiness into his ripped clothing. Nothing could compare to the joy of his forgiveness, and she swore to herself that she would never leave him again. "Thank you, Naruto," she gasped for air, "Thank you so much…"

They rocked back and forth for a while, the Uzumaki rubbing the Hyuuga's back. A content smile found its way on the male prodigy's lips, and silently thanked the heavens for their graciousness. "C'mon," he whispered in her ear, "I'll walk you home."

--

A pile of rocks and dirt stirred and a clawed hand burst from it. The armored limb pulled the rest of its owner from the rubble and Shia shook herself off and checked for wounds. "Nothing serious." No sooner had the disturbed girl confirmed her state that she continued on her swift trek. Silence had left in such a hurry and was so fast that she was just now catching up, and the fact that she was almost crushed twice in the collapsing tunnels hadn't helped. "I just hope I'm in time. Curse, please be safe."

She stepped up to a ridge and found the vertical chamber in shambles. Glancing down, she found another hole leading deeper into the earth and cautiously made her way to it. Slowing her descent as she neared, she crept to the edge, peered in, and froze at the sight.

Before her lied an incredible scene of destruction, and in the middle of it all was Silence on her knees before a prone Curse. "What's going on?" She couldn't hear their voices, but before she could move to scramble down to them, something happened that changed everything for her.

Curse pulled Silence into an embrace- her Curse. She watched as the blonde caressed her former teacher and as Silence returned the affection. To anyone else, this scene would have been one of innocent passion. But to her, it was the boy she loved choosing the girl who had hurt him over her.

It felt like a detached vision. She fell to her knees and her eyes watered without her even realizing it. "Curse… he chose Silence… and not me. I've… lost Curse…" Her chest heaved as her breath quickened in preparation to cry, but the seal on her back warmed and her body stiffened as her second personality took the reigns.

Aiya observed the prodigies through borrowed eyes and a sullen expression. She could feel the dominant mindset's agony; it was strong, even rivaling her own. A tear rolled down her cheek and she forced her legs to stand. Knowing that she had little time left before she joined Shia in sorrow, she carried herself as quickly as possible back to her home- the home once shared with the teen she admired.

--

The two prodigies strolled through the night with no sense of hurry, and both stayed silent for much of the journey. There was little to say now that they had come together again. Naruto glanced at Hinata's pale eyes and stared a second too long, attracting her attention. She gazed back and he felt something on his fingers. He looked down and found her hand gracing his in invitation, so he grasped it softly and continued walking alongside the Hyuuga.

Said girl didn't want to spoil the mood with words. She had already said everything she needed to back the battlefield and the blonde had been gracious enough to hear her out. He had even gone so far as to forgive her for her foolishness, but she knew that her actions still weighed heavily on his mind. "He'll get over it with time. Until then, I'll stay by his side…" She walked closer to him until her arm touched his and she leaned her head against shoulder as they walked hand in hand. She was glad things had gone back to normal; now all that was left was to see where they would go from here.

The streets they took were as eerily silent as a ghost town, leaving the two alone to contemplate their thoughts. After a numbing silence had passed, the Uzumaki was the first to say something. "Hey, Hinata," his voice was no higher than a whisper in her ear, "Do you want to keep playing dumb?"

She glanced at him and produced a humble smile. She could see the seriousness in his eyes and was happy that he was willing to move on as well. "Yeah. A little while longer." She returned her head to his shoulder, hooked her arm around his, and wove her fingers with his. "I think… we should stay like this until everything's been settled."

He let that turn over for a moment. "Until what's been settled?"

"You know… everything in the tunnels."

Once again, a pause. "And why do you want to wait?" His voice was calm and undemanding; he seemed more curious than perturbed. "It would be easier with others helping us."

"I know. But if the whole village starts working with us, there won't be as much time for us to be alone like this." She knew it was a selfish reason, but a small part of her told her that Naruto desired much the same.

And he did. He smiled lightly and nodded. "Yeah. That'd be nice."

They continued on to the Hyuuga complex in silence. Both knew that the other was glad to put their problems behind them, and while it would take time to mend their wounds, they were grateful that at least they had each other to get through it. The blonde genius's lips cracked into a tired smile whenever it returned to the fresh memory of Hinata's heartfelt words, and the Hyuuga felt her burden lift ever time she recalled Naruto's forgiveness. They reveled in these musings until they reached a familiar pair of crisp ivory gates.

"Well," the Uzumaki began quietly, "Looks like this is where we part."

She squeezed his hand then released it, but she didn't move away. Instead, she swiveled in place and wrapped her arms around the object of her affections. "Thank you," she spoke into his warm chest, "Thank you…"

"Hey," he returned the intimate gesture and kept his voice low so as to not spoil the mood. He brought his hand around and caressed her forehead, prompting her to look into his face. "I already forgave you, you know? We'll just move on." He smiled at her, although his usual brightness was meek to her trained eyes.

She felt her eyes warm with wetness derived from joy. "I know," she averted her gaze downwards and tightened her grip around him. "Thank you for accepting me…" She smiled in return and felt her tears inch down her cheeks. She was about to return to the heated comfort of his chest when she felt his strong fingers cup her chin.

Naruto leaned in, entranced by the Hyuuga's moonlit eyes. He didn't say anything, knowing his actions would do that for him. His hand angled her face a fraction upwards and he brought his lips to hers. "They're so soft," he thought, not content with breaking the gentle kiss just yet. For the moment, he was able to shove aside his previous frustration and sadness and focus solely on this bliss.

Hinata felt similarly and didn't resist. Instead, she shut her eyes and reveled in the moment. Nothing else mattered in the world at this time; not her experiments, not her secret life, not even the problems she introduced into their relationship. At that moment, everything was perfect despite its preceding turmoil. She kept her lips pressed against his until she felt him back away. When their soft flesh parted, her eyes opened and she gazed at him.

After an eternity of minutes, they finally released each other. No words needed uttering; they could read each other's minds through their eyes. They held a mutual understanding on their true feelings, and it was nothing that mere words could dictate.

"Will I… see you tomorrow?" the Hyuuga whispered hopefully.

He regarded her with a simple smile and a nod. "Yeah."

Her lips parted in a wide content smile. "Then goodnight…"

The blonde returned the gesture. "Goodnight." He watched Hinata hesitantly turn and enter the gates and knew she had to enter her home alone- bad things would happen if he was caught here. But his feet didn't want to leave yet. He stood there for several minutes longer, watching after her until she disappeared from view. When she did, he turned on his heel and started for home. "I'll get over all the bad stuff," he knew, "But at least I know how she really feels now…"

--

Tsunade stood before the wreckage that once was a comfortable room. The Hokage tower still stood, but not for a lack of trying. Homura and Koharu had pushed her to her wits end, and the only way she could stop them was to obliterate their bodies. "What the hell happened to you two?" she muttered under taxed breath, eyeing the remains of the advisors.

Ever since the beginning of the indoor battle, the aged ninjas exhibited signs of hypnotism or something of the like. They were also armed in ways she hadn't seen- mainly, weapons that had been surgically implanted. "Reminds me of puppets," she mused, comparing the deceased duo to the specialized art. Kicking Homura's torso over, she grimaced at the steel barbs that had replaced his ribcage. "This is advanced stuff, but I can tell by the cuts that it was done by an amateur…"

"Tsunade!" a voice echoed from the other end of the cracked hallway. "Get out here!"

She recognized the booming voice of Jiraiya and obeyed without a word. Charging into the corridor, she instantly found her old squad mate stumbling around with Shizune draped over his shoulder. "What the hell did you do?!" she shrieked, reeling a fist back to pound him in the face. "Why is she naked?!"

"Whoa, hold on! We got attacked!" This managed to save him by four inches.

"Attacked?" she blinked, "By who?"

"A poison user…"

Things clicked in her head and she realized why her older assistant was out of commission. "Shit! Hurry, lay her down! She inhaled poison, right?!" He nodded wearily, set the woman on an undamaged section of the cold floor, and Tsunade began to perform emergency extractions.

Shizune seemed frightfully unaware of her surroundings. Her eyes stared ahead blankly and she couldn't stop giggling as she chanted, "Danzo's men, Danzo's men…"

"She's so far gone," Tsunade realized. "How long has it been?!"

He glanced at the destruction around him with twitchy eyes. "Don't know… you get attacked, too?"

"Yes," she replied curtly.

"Alright," he knew the assaults were connected, "About the same time you were."

She glared at him in shock. "That long?!"

"Yep." He immediately keeled over, succumbing to the chemicals running through his veins.

"Jiraiya!"

"Saw… Kakashi up on the roof," he wheezed, "He's conscious but… he's bleedin' pretty bad. Yamato's tending to him…" With that, he shut his eyes and drifted off to fidgety slumber.

"Jiraiya! Wake up! Get up, damn it!" She kicked him once and he didn't respond. "Shit!" For once, she didn't know what to do. "Both of them are poisoned, but I can only tend to them one at a time. Damn it! Sakura, where are you when I need you?!"

"Lady Tsunade!" a female voice rang out. Anko slammed into the doorway with a bleeding arm but no other apparent injuries. The moment she laid eyes on the interiour her tone quieted. "Here too?"

"Anko! Go get Sakura!"

"Ma'am?"

"Get her in here now!"

The Mitarashi jumped at the yell. "Yes ma'am!" She darted off, leaving Temari behind.

Said blonde teen approached the female Hokage and leaned over the toad Sannin, wondering with wide eyes who could've been strong enough to compete with one of the legendary ninjas.

"What did she mean, 'here too'?" Tsunade calmed herself and questioned the sand shinobi while she worked.

"We got attacked by a… Yamanaka… I think," she responded airily. The wind had been knocked out of her way too many times in the fight with the mind-jumping freak.

"A Yamanaka?"

She nodded. "Can… I explain later? I'm… really tired now."

The blonde medic glanced at the girl and quickly noticed extreme signs of fatigue. "Yeah. Go hail a medic squad."

"Yes, lady Hokage…"

--

As Naruto made his way home, he didn't know whether to smile or cry. Hinata was back in his life, and this time she wouldn't be taken away by the accursed fox. "Not this time," he swore to himself, "Not this one, you damn fox."

He reached the door to his modest apartment and entered, feeling as if he walked on air. "What'll things be like from now on?" he wondered wistfully. Thoughts of him and the Hyuuga becoming more than comrades- more than friends- flooded his mind. It was almost enough to completely strike away his previous sadness regarding the opposing prodigy, and he couldn't help but smile to no one as a tear of joy escaped his eye. "Heh, guess those couldn't make up their minds either!"

But he noticed that something was off; his abode was empty. He descended the trap-laden ladder into his private chamber and his sharp ears overheard something emanating from the former prison adjacent to the hidden room. He popped his head in and frowned upon finding Shia huddled in the center of the cluttered mess with her back to the door. "This… isn't like her." He was already worried about this turn of events. "Shia," he started, "What's wrong?"

Instead of an answer, the preteen replied with a choke. She was crying, and her arms cradled her small frame in a desperate attempt for self-comfort.

Naruto instantly forgot his joyousness and rushed over to her, kneeling before her face when he got close enough. "Shia, what's wrong? What happened?" He hadn't seen this side of her in years, and it bothered him to see her like this.

She glanced at him with tearing eyes and scooted in another direction, her suppressed voice sounding out a few syllables and gurgles. She buried her head between her knees to hide from the blonde, but even in her misery she knew it wouldn't work.

"Shia…" he repeated once again. This time however, he placed a hand on her shoulder in the beginnings of an embrace. Imagine his surprise when the girl shook it off with a sudden wave of the arm.

"G-g-g-go a-a-aw-away," her stutter returned. Nothing more needed to be said about her mental state if that old habit had resurfaced. "L-l-lea-leave m-m-me a-alone…"

"What's wrong?" He persisted in the embrace, and was continuously startled by how she resisted; she had never refused such a gesture before. "What happened?"

"Y-y-you k-k-k-know w-what h-h-happened!" she spat with tears streaming from her eyes. Her gaze locked with the genius, and her dull eyes revealed a mixture of lament and frustration. "Y-you a-a-and S-S-Silence…!" She left that statement hanging, but the blonde understood its meaning.

"What about me and Hinata?" he murmured, keeping his voice low so as not to provoke her further.

"S-s-she t-took y-y-you aw-away f-from me." She cried so hard that she had to come up for air.

"So that's it," he figured it out, "That's what's bothering her." His eyes sketched the air to the floor as a sinking feeling rose in his chest; he knew what Shia was trying to say, and he knew that it was ultimately his fault. He gently overpowered the struggling girl, enveloped her in an embrace, and held her close.

"S-s-stop i-it!" she shouted in anger but her eyes and voice conveyed sadness above ire. "L-let g-g-g-go of m-m-me!" Her arms wormed their way free from between their bodies and began pounding against the blonde genius in an attempt to force him to release her.

But the Uzumaki did not yield. Instead, he merely stared into the abyss as Shia's small hands weakened against him. His brilliant eyes didn't sparkle now; the auburn-haired girl didn't deserve this. "I led her on when Hinata rejected me," he knew, "I knew how she felt, and I never gave her a reason to think otherwise. This… is my fault. I'm the reason she's so sad." He felt Shia give up and soak his jacket in tears as her arms found their way to his back in a hug of her own. Glancing down at her buried face, he felt a few tears of his own gather in his eye; he might not have felt the same towards her as he did Hinata, but that didn't mean he felt nothing at all. In fact, he knew that despite the disturbed girl's current anguish, he felt a special connection with her that he didn't yet have with the Hyuuga. He allowed Shia to empty her tear ducts into his clothes as he softly rubbed her back to comfort her, and soon enough she couldn't force any more of the salty liquid. "Shia," he lowered his face and almost placed a chin on top of her head, "I'm sorry."

She choked a few times then slowly raised her moist eyes to his. Her pain was no longer so strong, but it was still obviously prevalent on her features. "C-Curse," she stammered, "A-a-after e-ev-everything she d-did t-t-to y-you… I w-w-was th-there…"

"I know." He still held her close, although neither side exhibited signs of releasing the other anytime soon. "I know."

"A-and a-a-after a-all th-that… s-s-she j-just c-comes b-b-back and t-t-t-takes y-you from m-me…"

"It's not like that." He almost winced; that was pathetic, even by his standards.

"I-I k-k-know y-you l-l-l-lo-love her," her stutter grew for a moment before she finally found her voice again, "B-but I l-l-love you t-too!" Her arms tightened around him, if such a thing were possible. "I-I l-love y-you so m-m-much! A-and a-after s-s-seeing…" Her throat cracked and the waterworks found new ground as she retreated back into his soaked chest.

Naruto continued to hold onto her as she deposited the newfound tears on him. He knew that he had been avoiding this every bit as much as he did in telling Hinata about the fox, and once again it had cost others dearly. But this time he knew what to do; the path was finally clear to him. He was Shia's emotional support- had been for years- and it was time for him to shoulder the responsibilities that came with it. When he felt her second watery assault subside, he began again. "Shia, I know."

She gazed at him. "A-all th-th-this t-time?"

He held back a wince; he could easily hear the hurt in her voice. "Yeah. I was wrong to lead you on, and I'm sorry." His mind knew that a simple apology wouldn't be enough, and the girl's downcast eyes confirmed that belief. "I was in a lot of pain at the time, and I just needed someone to be there. And that was you."

She didn't appear any more distraught but she didn't seem to be alleviated either. Her eyes glazed over as she took everything in and mulled it over in her tormented mind.

"And it's true that I love Hinata," he admitted with a humble smile. He noticed that Shia's stare fell at these words, but he continued nonetheless. "She's very special to me. But you know what? You're something that she's not."

This seemed to grasp her subsiding attention, if only by a hair. Curiosity overtook her misery for a fraction of a second and she peered up with her tear-stained cheeks.

The Uzumaki smiled at her. "You're family."

For a moment the disturbed girl forgot her qualms. "I-I'm w-what?"

His smile widened. It had taken him a while to admit this to himself, and it was comforting to him to finally know where his feelings stood for her. "You're family to me. You were always there for me no matter what happened," he stroked her cheek with a finger to mop up the drying tears, "And I can't thank you enough for that." Shia stared at him for a few seconds and he thought that the weeping would begin anew. "And I want you to know that no matter what happens, you'll always be my family," he reassured her, "And I'll always love you."

Shia's mind went blank for an indeterminate amount of time. One part of her fractured mindset was still focused on the fact that Curse would never look at her as he did Silence- she would never be someone he wanted to spend his life with in that special way. But another side argued that she had taken root in his life in a way Silence never could- as a surrogate sibling. "I'll never be a… a lover… but I'll always be family. I'll never be… with him, but he'll always be there for me. Isn't… isn't that good enough? Isn't that what I've always wanted?"

Aiya stirred within the mental confines. "Don't kid yourself. That's not what you really want." She sounded unusually sullen.

"I… I just want him to be happy…"

"But you wanna be happy too."

The primary personality considered this with moroseness. "I… I do."

"Then what's more important to you?" Aiya was being uncharacteristically considerate of her better half. "Your happiness or his?"

This question forced Shia to delve into the depths of her soul. She firmly believed that everyone deserved a little happiness in life, no matter the situation. Her personal joy was something that had been trampled on for the better part of her life, and she was long overdue for feelings that had been denied her. But then again, Curse was the person who gave her felicity and provided meaning in her life. She owed him a great deal for everything he had done for her. The selfishness in her character wept for its due, and she made up her mind.

"My happiness… would rob Curse of his. And I can't do that to him. Curse has been through more than me, and yet he's still so kind. I… I want him to be happy… no matter what."

Aiya sat behind the imagined barrier as she listened to Shia, and if she had lips, they'd be parsed in a grin. "Then do it." With that, she receded into the darkness of the girl's mind with an echo of a projected smile.

She didn't say anything. Instead, she brought her hands back to her face and rubbed her eyes. Naruto loosened the embrace so she could do so comfortably, but she pulled him back in with small hands grasping his jacket.

"You okay, Shia?" the blonde whispered.

She sniffled away the physical remnants of her anguish and nodded with her head against his chest. "Yeah," her voice answered softly, "I-I'll be fine…"

And so the two sat there for what felt like hours before the younger one dozed off in the warmth. The blonde prodigy couldn't help but feel some sense of closure, and he was glad that he could finally define the girl as the only family he ever had. He smiled and brushed his lips against her forehead before gently laying her down and covering her with a sheet that could pass as a cot. He sat down next to her with the barest of smiles plastered on his face. For once in his life, everything felt all right. "I've got Hinata and I've got Shia. I have someone I love and a family…"

He felt his eyes droop and he resolved to stay with his surrogate sibling for the night, but before he could do anything he was interrupted by said preteen rising from her prone position. "Shia…?" She glanced at him, but it wasn't the insecure girl he knew so well. "Aiya?"

She nodded, but for some reason her eyes weren't so distinct anymore. Their usual sharpness was dulled and she appeared somber. "Hey, Curse," she greeted with no aggressiveness, "I want to ask something."

"Yeah," he nodded. It was rare to see Aiya like this, so he knew something was up. "What is it?"

"I remember what you said… you know, to live for myself…" Her mannerisms were subdued and she was beating around the bush. "And… I was wondering…" she trailed off.

"Wondering what?" he prompted.

Her eyes stopped wandering and met his, familiar determination returning to the forefront. They appeared overflowing with emotions that Aiya normally suppressed until she could deal with them in private. "If… if things with Silence hadn't turned out… you know…" she glanced down at the insinuation before returning her gaze to his eyes, "If things had gone differently, could there… could there have been an 'us'?"

Naruto blinked at her question; she was serious about it. "I…" he scratched his head, "I… I really… don't know…" He honestly couldn't answer the secondary self, not now. Not with things as they were. Maybe if Hinata had permanently abandoned him, but that wasn't reality anymore. "I… can't say… sorry."

Aiya took that answer with a straight face, which spoke volumes of her mood. Calm to her was like grief or sorrow to others, at least as far as the blonde figured. She was still such a mystery to him that he couldn't even begin to judge her based on expression alone. Her lips turned upwards by a millimeter. "Thank you, Curse."

She then leaned forward, causing the Uzumaki to unconsciously back up. Her arms gently wrapped around him and her chin rested on his shoulder. The blonde hesitated then returned the gesture, ignoring the occasional tear that soaked all the way through his clothes. He knew that Aiya must have come to a decision herself, and for her to act so emotionally must have taken a toll on her.

"Curse," she spoke into his ear without choking- her tears weren't quite so harsh, "Please take care of us."

He rubbed her back. "I will. Promise."

Aiya's face broke into a sad smile; the genius couldn't see it, so she was fine. "Let me stay like this for a while. It'll be over soon enough."

Naruto silently agreed and let her do as she wished. A handful of eternal minutes passed and both unofficial siblings finally succumbed to the embrace of unbiased slumber.

--

A certain dim leaky prison lied silent in the night, its massive demonic entity locked away behind an enormous cage. "So, you've solved one of your problems," the fox muttered to itself. It was a persistent habit that it cursed merely because there was no one else to hear him. "You've robbed me of some of the best entertainment I have seen in a long time." It grinned to no one. "But rest assured, boy; your troubles are far from over. In fact," the monster recalled the masked man it had abolished mere hours ago, "Your troubles have only just begun. You will face much more, and I cannot wait to see how you fare against this eternal struggle." The fox mentally berated itself for this demeaning tendency to talk to oneself, but its cage rattled with laughter nonetheless.

Speculation, anyone?

Well, as you can see, this is a pretty big wrap-up (not of the permanent kind, though). I wonder what's gonna happen next...?

Obviously, reviews containing constructive criticism are highly encouraged, especially now. I already know one or two of you will do this, so I'm asking the rest of you to do the same. Please.

Pretty please? Ahahah!

Catch you guys later!