If you're reading this chapter, drop a review byyyyy!

First time in my life I've ever updated this quick I think. Inspiration was in a good place, and the fact that I'd mapped the entire arc out made it a lot easier to write this. Anyhoo, it's time to jam, this is a monster of a chapter.

DISCLAIMER : Naruto and AC are not my works. They're works of art, and this disclaimer forty-odd chapters in shouldn't really be the first time you're told that. Tradition, ah, well.


"Mizukage, Kisame-kun? Never considered you for a potential leadership role..."

The street-light flickered, and it made the shadow of the ghosts underneath it flicker too. Silence now. Two criminals, albeit one former, stared each other down.

A second flicker. One of them disappeared. Hoshigaki Kisame tightened his well-honed muscles, his facial structure changing slightly with how hard he was clenching his jaws. His eyes flitted around the dark street at Kirigakure.

A third flicker, Orochimaru re-appeared on top of the street-light, crouched. Body Flicker.

The fourth, and the Shark pounced.


Kirigakure II : From Monster To Demon To Human


The street-light came crashing down, a groaning screech. Orochimaru leapt, and Kisame, driven by momentum didn't change tack. Instead he craned his neck around; A glob of water shot out of his mouth. In the darkness of night only barely mitigated by the light, Orochimaru could spot it at the last second, yet he was late. It was too small and well-aimed to dodge.

The moment it made contact with him, the pale man came crashing down as if there was an invisible rope yanking him.

"HHHkkhhh-"

Orochimaru crashed onto the ground, he attempted to scramble up, spotting Kisame walking up to him calmly through his peripheral vision. Yet even as he attempted to, the invisible ropes seemed to get stronger. The droplet of water Kisame had trapped him with vibrated, stuck onto his chest, and a moment later, suddenly encased him in a small water prison rising from the ground, forcing him to remain prone.

Kisame walked, closer and closer and closer until he was an arm's distance away from the imprisoned Orochimaru. The pale man's face was facing the ground. Orochimaru could hear Samehada being drawn.

"Feeding time, Samehada." Kisame's voice scraped abrasively. The terrorist rasied his sword but stopped short when he heard the crick. Orochimaru's head rotated around his neck, that same slack-jawed, malevolent grin on his face.

"RASHOMON-"

Kisame tried to bring his sword crashing down, but was an entire second late. The words hadn't yet left Orochimaru's voice from within the water when the massive gate emerged. The entire street imploded, houses nearby getting destroyed as screams both human and inhuman rent the night. The single red gate assembled eerily quicky, shooting an array of swords all pointed at Kisame.

The terrorist wove, but he was much too close, and at near point-blank range a lesser ninja would have perished, impaled unto death. Kisame, however, sported a large gash across his chest, his Akatsuki cloak now ripped to reveal a bloody blue torso. A single sword had made meaty impact. His head had turned and in that fraction of an instant Orochimaru was gone, the water prison now empty.

Kisame chuckled, his eyes now fully wide. So the twisted little snake was never captive within the prison, it was merely a ploy to trap him into Rashomon, an ancient technique he'd only heard of.

"Come out come out, I admit I took it easy, little snake-man..."

Silence. He observed the scene. Sheer destruction, yet the radius was contained. He let out a frustrated growl, he didn't have space to work with, he could not afford to destroy the village no matter his lack of empathy.

He wordlessly formed the seal, gritting his teeth. A massive globe of water manifested cleanly around a him, the lack of a tell indicative of his water affinity prowess. The broken debris of the deserted houses from the Rashomon floated into the globe. And sure enough, from beneath the ground, Orochimaru emerged, effortlessly swimming upwards until he was level with him.

Neither of them spoke.

Kisame tightened his grip on the bandaged Samehada, his eyes taking in the grim darkness of the water around him. He was home. A single sound, and the terrorists pupils dilated animalistically. Samehada morphed, climbing up his hands and through his skin, giving rise to the fused being.

Hoshigaki Kisame smiled, exposing rows of shark-like teeth within his mouth. Orochimaru, silent within the globe of water smiled back, raising his hands to summon three lithe, long snakes that coiled around him almost immediately.

Kisame lurched, shooting through the water faster than he ever was in air, and Orochimaru twisted. One snake hissed, shooting venom into the water while the other two attacked.

"How dense must my venom has to be to pervade your water volume, Kiiiiissssame?"

Orochimaru was communicating through Genjutsu even within water, raising Kisame's bloodlust as he snapped the first snake in half with his mouth, and clawed the second apart with his hands. The blood tasted sweet to him, yet there was a tinge of metallic bitterness.

Again, another lunge, and this time without tell two sharks that seemed to manifest in oposite corners shot at Orochimaru along with Kisame. Orochimaru ducked and dodged, weaving in three dimensions as if he'd done it all his life. The snakes reappearred, this time bigger, thicker ones that whipped at the sharks while one of them spat the same venom at Kisame. Kisame's hands reached out, the extended reach digging into Orochimaru.

Orochimaru's eyes widened, the danger of making the mistake of being in Kisame's hands was unnaturally fatal. Kisame roared, sheer animal instinct as he sunk his fangs into Orochimaru's neck ripping straight through him. The morphed Kisame stayed still a moment, bathed in the snake's blood.

Silence.

He turned. Orochimaru's head was floating lifelessly, yet his body didn't sink. Suddenly, his sharks sank, and he knew that that moment he'd given the snake-man was a mistake.

A twitch on that lifeless face floating by, and then, the same slack-jawed grin. The detached body suddeny rose, navigating errily towards the head, until it was near enough for two more snakes to emerge and re-attach the disembodied head back on.

"Little shark is in his own cage at Kirigakure, Kiiiisssameeeee-"

The metallic bitterness in the water suddenly compounded and Kisame's chest exploded with pain. The same gash Orochimaru had created with his Rashomon was open still, and only then did Kisame realize his mistake. Orochimaru wasn't his prey, he was the predator. He'd been pumping the water cage with venom through his snakes, and the proportion of venom had peaked now, the snake had toyed with him until then.

Kisame screamed, the pain and and animalistic fury all meshing into one. His chest was on fire, and the only way to stop it was-

With a roar embodying the ocean's fury the water globe burst open and the two criminals landed with wet thud's. Kisame was clutching his chest, now looking normal again, and Samehada was back at his side, the bandages starting to open. Orochimaru stood still shaking his long wet hair loose, surveying the surroundings again like he was a child as he hummed. He could sense a few civilians at the perimeter of their battle.

"That venom's side effects should start manifesting right about now, Kisame-kun. This battle was over when you opened up your little aquarium..."

Hoshigaki Kisame roared, trapped inside the prison that was being the Mizukage of the village. Samehada's bandages loosened entirely, and a second roar, that of the sword, joined its owner.


A single sharp scrape resounded across the lowermost floor of the prison. It was a drawn-out screech of chakra-charged Braider's Silver on cell bars. The screech crescendoed and the bars gave, three of them breaking off and colliding against the dank wall.

Uzumaki Naruto stepped out easily through the gap and turned. Mei was standing uneasily in the cell, swaying on the spot a little. "Not used to the movement, eh?" Naruto surveyed her swaying visage before stretching out his hands. She took them surprisingly quickly, taking a moment to steady before getting her legs out of the cell one by one.

"I will be, in just a bit." Her voice was firm as ever, belying the unease of her movement. She straightened the blood-stained smock she was wearing before drawing a few bangs over one of her eyes. Naruto grinned back at her, reaching inside his jacket to draw the second trench-knife.

"Want one?"

She looked at the dark weapon in the boy's hand. "Two Kekkei Genkai that took years to master and he hands me a pocket knife."

Naruto smiled wryly, tightening his grip around the knives and starting to walk. "Suit yourself. Careful not to bump into the walls on your way out." The noise on the upper levels were starting to permeate.

'Old Snake's started some trouble it seems...'

The upper floors had resounded with echoes of screams across the halls, yet as Mei and Naruto ascended it seemed to die down suddenly. They walked in silence, one level higher now. He craned his neck towards the high ceiling. The torch flickered, but the orange was only ephemeral in the boy's vision. Everything took on the comforting dark blue as he triggered the Vision. The voices weren't lying, what was left of the massive number of Kiri ninja guarding the prison were all moving extremely quickly in a direction away from them, outlined in flecks of red on the Eagle Vision.

"Seems clear. We just keep walking."

Their quick pace slowed as they ascended yet another level. "We're one floor below ground-level, Mei-san." Naruto blinked in and out of the Vision, twisting his neck around to free it off some residual soreness.

Drip.

A single droplet of water fell behind him. Silence, for a heartbeat, and then with a muted roar he felt the unmistakable swing of a sword. He bounded forward, detecting the movement behind him and turned just in time to see Mei's decapitated head roll on the floor, blood spurting from the hole in her neck. In the back, a young ninja with pale blue hair stood deadly still as the woman's body crumpled to the floor. The big sword in his hands was covered in blood. Even as droplets of blood dripped off the weapon, Naruto could see them turn to water before they hit the ground.

A sudden image flashed through his head, that of Kakashi boring a hole straight through the ninja named Zabuza, before the body exploded, exposing it as a clone. Mizu Bunshin.

"Tch...not enough control, Suigetsu. I taught you your liquification, boy, you expect to catch me unawares?" Mei's voice echoed from the back lazily. Naruto hadn't even sensed when she'd deployed the jutsu, and how long the clone had been walking with him and not her.

"Shut up, bitch," the pale man was snarling at her, a lone pointed teeth poking out of mouth. He shifted the entire weight of the sword onto his right hand, his left hand resting against the wide flat of the blade that was almost as wide as a tree-trunk.

"Time I killed you didn't I, Terumi?"

Mei looked at him, an innate hardness in her eyes. "I watched you waddle around, a play-sword in your hands, Suigetsu. You're still nothing more than that little child, even at seventeen."

Suigetsu laughed. "Spare me the sentimentality, bitch. This is Kiri. There was no sentimentality when we killed our best friends, was there? There was no sentimentality when Yagura destroyed my fucking clan out of mere suspicion. There is no sentimentality here. The Akatsuki are the best thing to happen to this place. We need to ally with power."

Terumi Mei said nothing, but Naruto brought his trench knives up, formulating his movement in the narrow space.

"No." Mei was looking at him, shaking her head. "This is our fight, Uzumaki."

Suigetsu whistled. "And now we protect the outsider. I wonder how much time you spent combing your hair while twisted little Yagura-darling was tearing people's eyes out in his obsessed little regime. You were sitting tight because you come from an important family, Terumi. YOU were the power."

"You're talking quite a bit for someone who knows nothing, Suigetsu."

Naruto waited a moment before turning out of the corridor quickly. Suigetsu's and Mei's voices died down. A roar and a giant hiss suddenly succeeded it. He wouldn't see it, but he knew their battle would be bloody, frightening and ugly. There was a lot of hidden Kiri history between what seemed a teacher-student relationship gone to rot.

The enclosure's doorway finally came into view. 'Ground floor.'

He stood outside the open door. Orochimaru was causing a commotion somewhere, he was sure of it. Whoever he was targeting knew he was in the prison, and had sent Suigetsu. Somehow the blonde knew the empty courtyard outside would not be so empty. The leader had to be-

"Ah..." Deep breaths. He calmly dropped the trench knives where he was standing as he walked out into the dark, wide courtyard. He didn't know when they'd come in useful, but it wouldn't be in close-combat with this man. He reached back, drawing Sasayaki. It glinted against the odd orange flicker of the few torches lining the prison grounds.

"I've thought often about you." The blonde spoke, looking at the tall, lean man standing unnaturally still, the mask covering his mouth and exposing only those familiar cold eyes.

Momochi Zabuza unhooked the monster of a weapon from his back, and the mist immediately obscured all that could be seen physically. The familiar low drone of Zabuza's voice floated in through the mist. "It has been a while, brave Uzumaki Naruto."


Naruto turned on the Vision and the obscurity faded. The haze-filled courtyard became an open dark arena, and he could see Zabuza outlined in faint dark grey against it. He kept the Vision on, and the grey moved with a demonic quickness towards him. He blinked Eagle Vision away immediately, knowing the weapon would close down on him.

The blade came in a clean horizontal strike, and he ducked low, keeping his breathing even as he used Sasayaki's flat to divert it. The contact was easy, there was a large area to use, yet the sheer venom in Zabuza's strike was intimidation in its purest form to him.

Ezio Auditore tore through his defence easily past the bokken. This was the Assassin with all he could put into it, and the blows were sharp and targeted. The boy doubled, yet knew he had to keep going, keep trying to dodge and parry, dodge, parry, dodge, parry, dodge-

He blinked again, and the misty obscurity faded in his eyes to reveal the speck of grey to his left, staying still.

Poof

He quietly manifested two clones and they spread immediately. He could hear their footsteps away, and Zabuza surely would too, but just as he couldn't see Zabuza, Zabuza wouldn't see his clones. He knew what he wanted out of both clones, and so they would too.

He stepped, blinking rapidly in and out of the vision. While it wasn't as fast as he'd wanted it to be, the two images composited into one slightly unclear one. Zabuza's grey moved as he closed, but Sasayaki was just long enough to catch the man's elbow.

Shhhk

It was the unmistakable sound of Sasayaki drawing blood, and Zabuza reacted immediately. Uzumaki Naruto's breath tightened. 'Here it comes.'

He tossed Sasayaki in the air as silently as he could, and the clone stepped in seamlessly, catching the blade amidst the now incredibly thick mist. Zabuza's blade came crashing down with unbridled force, and Naruto knew he had to harness his fear. He couldn't obey instinct and leap if he wanted to fool Zabuza.

He stepped just once to the left, and the clone stepped right much more loudly, Sasayaki in the clone's hands. He switched vision, and grinned as he backed away slowly. Zabuza had taken the bait.

"How's the girl...?"

It was a hiss, almost an exhale. Naruto heard the clone speak back, the clone's words not audible the way Zabuza was.

'That's right, keep him, keep him.'

Suddenly information blasted him and he trembled with the after-shock. The clone had been sliced clean by Zabuza, and the ghost of the terror the clone had felt echoed within him. 'You don't have time, boss.'

He heard Sasayaki fall on the ground, and blinked into the Vision while manifesting a third clone, this time pumping all the chakra he could afford to in the timespan. The infuriatingly thick mist billowed and out came the weapon, as if guided by more than the criminal's instinct. They split in opposite directions, this time his footsteps were heavy and the clone's light, inverting the pattern he'd followed the previous time.

Zabuza took the bait again, chasing after the lighter footsteps instead of the heavier ones. That clone would pick Sasayaki up and continue. He backed away again towards the perimeter slowly. One of the two original clones he'd manifested was still around, and by now...

The Vision triggered, and sure enough the older clone had done exactly what he'd wanted. He was squatting amidst the battle, not in the corner, yet away from where Zabuza and his latest clone were fighting.

'Squat when you find the trench knives and get into position.'

The thought right before you manifested a clone was incredibly important, Naruto had realized, for that thought would define a large part of the clone's being. If you wanted a clone to try to kill you, and put that thought in at the very last minute before you manifested it-

Poof

A slam of information again. The second clone had been decapitated frighteningly quickly, and the terror coursed through him. 'What would it feel like to have that blade slice me in half?' There was one clone left, and two weapons. Sasayaki might as well have been a toothpick toe-to-toe against Zabuza but it was a beautiful reinforcement technique. Somehow, he'd programmed Zabuza into thinking the one with Sasayaki was the one that should be killed.

He trembled slightly, Zabuza was at home, yet-

He heard the screech, Sasayaki was meeting the monster of a blade. What was the clone thinking? He walked, willing himself against the primal instinct to rush. One rushed move and Zabuza would know, would divert.

Primal. The tail flicked. No.

Slowly, ever so slowly. He bent and picked up the two knives, feeling the combat happening between the clone and Zabuza so, so close to him. The metal was cold, colder than it had ever been.

Poof. The last clone died. Naruto prepared himself for the fresh coat of fear, but this time it was calmness, it was stillness. It was the poise, the gait, the crouch before the pounce.

'It's simple, boss-'

It was simple. The realization that he must kill stole over him, calmed him. Zabuza wasn't home. Zabuza couldn't kill, he had to capture. But Naruto could kill. He was home. He was home. You're home. You're home. You'rehomehomehomehomehomehome-

He had only a fraction of a second, Zabuza was just adjusting to the clone's disappearance. The clone's final message rang through his head. All was still, all was silent, and Naruto finally pounced.

Chakra pulsed through the trench knives in his hand, crackling and bending and twisting itself into the weapon's very molecular composition, and it passed clean through Zabuza's right hand, the sword hand. Naruto heard the man let out an extended, painful breath. The mist suddenly dispersed as blood splattered from Zabuza's stump of a right hand. The behemoth of a weapon rattled out of the now limp fingers.

It was a moment ever so transient when their eyes met.

"How chivalrous. Bravery is always a spectacle to see in one as young as you are."

He stepped and ran the knife straight at Momochi Zabuza's head, extending every single bit of chakra he could. Disoriented and in a tornado of pain, the man still wouldn't relent, sinking to the ground but holding the burning, pulsating trench-knife away from his head with his left hand. Naruto tightened, his mouth curling into a snarl as he forced it lower and lower and lower, until it was an inch away, the gold sparks dancing against the criminal's deadened eyes.

"Where is it?"

"Kiri is home to an old clan...a clan that Yagura tore apart...Enjoy your...soup."

"Naruto looked at the dark eyes, illumined now and then with gold. "You're a monster, Momochi."

"There...is no shame in being a monster, Uzumaki. But you and Yagura? You're demons-"

And the weapon lodged itself into the man's forehead, the chakra seeping in and imploding. Zabuza fell, a mundane, pointless thud, and Uzumaki Naruto stood, his hands still trembling violently as he gasped, looking at the blood anoint the courtyard black against the dull orange flames. When his hands finally stopped trembling he walked over to the weapon the man had wielded. It lay still in the palm of the severed hand.

He picked it up slowly. It was such a heavy, solid weapon, he realized as he pointed it forward with difficulty. It's reach seemed to stretch on endlessly. The rough-hewn handle was already cutting into his palm. His mouth opened and then curled;

A demon smiling over the remains of the monster.


He walked out of the prison, the massive sword dragging behind him. Sasayaki and the trench knives were back at his side.

Eagle Vision was on, and he was navigating to the pulses he was getting. There were people...a lot of people gathered at one place, he knew. Two powerful pulses resonated amidst them. Orochimaru and...It had to be Hoshigaki Kisame. He ran, dispelling the Vision. His biceps were hurting with the effort of carrying Zabuza's blade, but he knew it was important, he knew, if-

He turned, and the destruction hit him. There was debris everywhere, what remained of houses buildings, wood, bricks stone...and at the centre of the destruction, Orochimaru stood. Kisame, a massive muscular being was at his feet, moving and struggling against snakes that were coiling around him. There was yet another creature next to him, bound too. Kiri ninja surrounded them, and they meshed with civilians, each and every one of them still, but blazing with hostility.

The sky was showing the first hints of lightening.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

The Kiri ninja turned around first to see a blonde-haired boy with a sword as big as him. The boy was slamming the sword against a small piece of metal on the ground. On the fifth slam, the metal pipe broke in half.

"KIRI OF THE AKATSUKI!"

Uzumaki Naruto screamed. Silence followed. In the far distance, Orochimaru stood still, although the boy could bet the man was smiling slack-jawed.

"Is that Zabuza's-"

"Zabuza is-"

"Mizukage-sama-"

"Uzumaki-"

"KIRI OF THE DAMNED."

"-The boy killed-?"

"-Prison-"

"-Zabuza's dead-"

The civilians filtered back slowly, huddling with each other, leaving what looked like thirty ninja, who all had the same dead expressions in their eyes.

"KIRI OF THE CORRUPT."

"-has the Executioner's Blade-"

"-he's against the Akatsuki-"

His voice was a steady roar. He knew it was young and high-pitched, yet the intent drove the point.

"HEAR ME NOW, FOR THE DEMON HAS-"

"Kill him. Kill him"

"Kill him, kill him"

"KillhimKillhimKillhimkillhimkillhim-"

His voice broke. Zabuza's last words rang in his head.

"ARRIIIIIIIIVED!"

They roared as they ran forward, every single ninja. Orochimaru leapt from behind them, ensnaring two ninja with an Earth jutsu before summoning three snakes, but it was Uzumaki Naruto that the ninja wanted, knowing that he had killed their beloved Zabuza.

And Uzumaki Naruto was every bit the demon he had promised them he would be. His use of the Executioner's Blade was unrefined, and all the more ugly.

"AAAAAAAAGHGHHHH-"

He swung it like a madman, and the force and lethality of the weapon swept a wave of ninja back, bleeding immediately. A quick circle formed around him, the twenty-odd ninja closing in. The first blow was crude, at the back of his neck. He dropped the massive weapon, but used the moment amidst the pain to manifest three clones. Two swiped a trench knife each away from him while the third removed Sasayaki wildly from the scabbard, cutting him slightly across the back in the process.

Uzumaki Naruto didn't mind. The clones roared out with the same fury that was dancing on his mind. It was a drug, it was an addiction. He picked up the Executioner's Blade roughly and only in time to slice two attacking ninjas' chests. They fell back screaming in pain. There was tell, a sudden roar before he could sense a water jutsu manifesting.

Orochimaru was quick, bringing up a wall of stone in front of them.

"COME ON, AKATSUKI SCUM!"

He roared, slamming his own sensei's earth wall with the blade. It broke, and the remaining ninja leapt, their circle now broken. The four Naruto's attacked, carving into the wall of ninja. At close range, the Executioner's Blade, two chakra-charged trench knives and a sword that was very familiar to its user was a force of viscerality. The blood and screams intensified, with none of the clones being touched. Naruto, wielding Zabuza's weapon had taken damage, cuts opened his torso to the air, yet it didn't seem to matter.

And finally, the screams subsided. The two last ninja moaned, crawling on the ground amidst twenty-eight dead bodies, before Orochimaru silently killed them.

"-The demon-"

"-The demon-"

"-The demon-"

He walked unsteadily towards the struggling Kisame, the new Mizukage who'd seen his men massacred. The source of Kiri's corruption lay on the floor, laughing.

"Heh heh heh heh heh-" It was a slow, high-pitched laugh, strange coming out of the mouth of the huge shark of a man. Naruto bent, cradling the man's head. He was no longer struggling.

"How does it feel to be a criminal Uzumaki? You're one of us now."

Uzumaki Naruto regarded the beaten criminal with a cold, distant look. "I'm nothing like you."

"There isn't so much between us, boy. Now do it, demon. Truly become one of us." The criminal goaded him, but to Naruto it felt like there was more yet he could've said. The Hidden Blade emerged from his left hand and sunk into Kisame's neck. He held still, watching as the life slowly drained from the terrorist's eyes.

When the moment passed, he turned towards the twitching weapon and plunged the still-extended blade into its fleshy exterior. It twitched violently for a second before going limp. Naruto stood up, emotionless, and started walking back towards the dead bodies.

"FATHER!"

A child broke out from the civilian crowd, running past him as Naruto stopped, swaying and bleeding. An older woman screamed, rushing at the child. She grabbed him wildly and ran away, looking at Naruto, her eyes wide with petrification.

"My- my son-"

An older man, this time. Orochimaru was walking towards Kisame, leaving Naruto alone amidst the dead bodies and the civilians. The middle-aged man bent, closing his son's eyes, wiping the blood away from the gash on his neck. He turned, walking up to the still young boy.

Crack.

The slap echoed. Naruto reeled, having no will to guard against it.

Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack.

"STOP THAT NOW."

The rest of the crowd simply stared at the scene, and the man stopped, the crude anger on his face ebbing away when he heard the young girl's voice, not one other person would move. Naruto swayed violently, before collapsing. He hit the ground hard, yet his brain wasn't processing anything. He'd somehow just...become numb, knowing that he had to face the civilians.

Help, then, came from an unexpected source, at an unexpected moment. The sky was sporting a dark blue now. Haruno Sakura's eyes met his, she was kneeling above him, her lips trembling... Tears fell from her eyes to his. He closed his eyelids.

"Zabuza-" he began, smiling weakly with his eyes closed.

Sakura took his head in her lap, her hands were moving across his lower back, and a cool sensation stole over his wounds.

She'd learnt to heal.

"Shhh...shut up, idiot."

"Zabuza-" he began again, not wanting to be stopped. "Zabuza said he didn't feel ashamed he was a monster, but he said I was worse, he called me a demon, Sakura..."

More tears flowed, Naruto could feel them, warm against his eyelids.

"But ya' know. I'm not ashamed of being a demon. That man...?" He pointed to Kisame's unmoving body. "He's a human. So is...so are...allllll of us," he waved his hands loosely in the air. Sakura pushed it down gently. "And being a human's the worst of the three."


Dawn broke, and the sobs hadn't subsided. Slowly, civilians had come to take ninja away, and some bodies still remained, unclaimed. Naruto carried them one by one, placing them in rows, a distant, detached look on his face. Sakura simply watched him. She watched him do it again, and again and again, finally placing the tenth unclaimed body.

"It- I didn't-"

She whipped around, hearing a woman's voice she hadn't detected.

"Is he dead?" Naruto was standing straight, looking at the body the woman was carrying.

"I didn't-, I didn't-"

That's all she could say. Naruto walked up to her and took the pale-haired boy's body into his arms gently. Sakura looked at him, he seemed no more than seventeen, he was so young...and when she saw an even younger boy carry him off to place him into the eleventh spot, the harsh cruelty of their world seemed to collide with her all at once. She broke down again, sobbing, but stopped when she felt the woman's hands on her head, patting it comfortingly. Sakura looked up into her eyes, green like her's.

"I saw you healing him. In a world where we are forced to kill, girl, how noble an art is it to be able to heal, isn't it?" She held her tightly against her before walking away, leaving the Naruto to place Suigetsu's body as Sakura and Orochimaru watched silently.

Naruto bent, trying to place the body on the ground as gently as possible, but stopped when he heard a familiar old voice.

"Don't mind, don't mind. That's my grandson, little boy."

The crab-soup cart trundled up to the spot. The old man had the same sad smile on his face as he manoeuvred the cart past the remnants of the massacre. The sun was an orange ball peeking over the horizon.

Naruto turned, an immense, indescribable look on his face. The man looked into the boy's eyes and knew. He placed the cart with a sigh, and stood for a moment, looking first at Kisame's dead body, and then past Naruto at his grandson, Suigetsu. He sighed again, reaching into a drawer on his cart. It opened with a rough creak, the wood old and battered. The ball-like object seemed to emit a dull golden glow from within the drawer. He picked it up carelessly and tossed it at the blonde-haired ninja. Sakura let out an exclamation.

"I shall sing your praise. Do not worry. Now old man Mugetsu bids you farewell, Uzumaki-sama. May the demon born at the Hidden Mist remain ever a stranger."

The sun was starting to rise. The old man of the crab-soup stall watched the three ninja walk away silently. The sun would rise, day would come, the stench was rid the only it could ever have been, yet he knew business would dwindle as usual.

That was life at Kirigakure, after all.


Hey Seven,

I think I'm changing. I think killing changes people. But it has to be done, and I think I'll have to do it. Can't wait to meet you some time.

I love you.

There, we've barely been together at all, and I'm already saying strange words. Hope ya' don't mind.

N


End.

One more chapter to wrap this part up and then we're done.

Continuing on from when I'd said Naruto was a more middle-ground character, this is what I was talking about. Canon Naruto doesn't strike me as someone who would massacre people, regardless of whether or not they were allied with the Akatsuki. But with a greyer Naruto, I can push him to do greyer things, and see how he reacts, thus building a character off of canon, but from canon.

Tell me what you think! Please do leave reviews, I'd love to interact witcha!

Spyash2 : Yeah, it's been a while, hasn't it? I think I've said it often, but thanks so much for hanging on!


One more chapter, and we wrap this part up! It's time for a time-skip!