AN: Here. It. Is! I guess? Idk no one ever tells you ending a story is hard when you start them. I might try and avoid any stories longer than a few chapters in the future, but i am a dumb bitch so we'll see about that!

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Naruto woke up in daze, his vision blurry and ears ringing. He tried to climb to his feet but struggled to raise his body with one arm. As he fell back to his side he tried to see what was wrong with his right arm, only now noticing his lack of one. As he stared at the stump his mind cleared and he began to remember what had brought him to this moment.

"Hopefully Kakashi stocked some more instant ramen here" Haku began to wander the few rooms of the safe house Sasuke had led them to. "Otherwise it's on you to feed Naruto whatever's here."

"Don't worry" Sasuke had gone right to the small kitchen to check. "We've got lots of soup, and that's a lot like ramen."

"If it's all the same to you both" Naruto looked at the can of soup Sasuke held up. "I actually wouldn't mind trying my luck with the hunters."

"Right you weren't there for that, Naruto does not like soup."

"Who doesn't like soup?"

"Me."

Sasuke sighed and put the can away. The safe house was built into the side of an isolated mountain, they wouldn't have any easy way to get ramen for him. Haku looked over the few things he now had on his person and remembered the letter.

"Oh Itachi gave me this for you, and since we're not actively running" he put it down by Sasuke. "You could probably read it while Naruto does his ancestor talking."

"Actually the voices stopped a little bit ago" Naruto found a good spot to sit and relax at. "So I figure I'll just wait til they start back up."

"Perfect now we can both watch Sasuke read this letter from his brother, in a very polite and not nosy way."

"I'll read it outloud" Sasuke knew this would be easier than having him try to read it discreetly.

Haku sat down next to Naruto while Sasuke opened the letter up. Having grown up with Zabuza he'd missed out on having a family drama so he got his fixes from the Uchiha.

"Hello Sasuke. If you're reading this then I may never see you again, I'm sorry I won't be able to help celebrate your [insert age] birthday. I have always tried to do right by you as an older brother, and so I wrote this to come clean on a few things. First, when you turned four I was the one who ate your birthday cake that night I just faked a raccoon to avoid being punished. Second, the magic holiday fae don't actually exist, it has just been me or Kakashi giving you presents. Third, this is likely the biggest of my confessions. I technically have a son. I just haven't ever met him so feel free to look him up if you want a nephew. Love Itachi. Ps. I killed our parents."

Haku and Naruto stared at him as he finished reading the letter in a stunned silence. Sasuke's face was covered by the letter so they had no way of knowing what he was thinking about or how he'd taken that last line.

"THAT BASTARD" Sasuke punched his fist through a nearby wall, causing the two of them to jump. "I'VE BEEN KILLING EVERY RACCOON I SEE BECAUSE OF THAT CAKE."

This was not the response the two of them expected.

"HE COULD'VE JUST TOLD ME THE TRUTH ABOUT IT, YES I WOULD'VE BEEN MAD BUT I WAS FOUR I THINK THAT'S JUSTIFIED FOR A FOUR YEAR OLD."

Naruto opened his mouth to say something, Haku put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

"THIS KID OF HIS BETTER NOT BE FOUR I'M GONNA EAT THAT FUCKERS CAKE AND RUIN THE HOLIDAYS FOR HIM."

"Sasuke" Naruto decided to finally speak up, earning him a burning look from Sasuke. "I think, maybe, you shouldn't do that."

"Well obviously I shouldn't do it, but I'm still going to."

There was a weird silence that filled the room. Naruto wasn't sure how to cope with Sasuke clearly choosing the path of evil when he didn't have to. Sasuke smoldered over the injustices of his past.

"Ok is no one going to point out the very important fourth thing from the letter?" Haku had waited a respectable amount of time before speaking.

"Fourth thing? Oh the post script."

"YES! Do you not care about that?"

"Oh I already knew about that, it was like literally the worst kept secret."

"You knew he killed your parents? Did you just not care about that?"

"Well like, our dad kinda really messed Itachi up as a kid. So when I came of age for the super child soldier training Itachi very ominously came into my room at night and whispered, to my not sleeping self, about not letting it happen to me too. It was not the most surprising thing when our parents were then dead."

"He literally thought you didn't know this whole time."

"Well he should have killed our parents in a much more discreet way then."

Haku didn't know what to say to that, so he just sat there silently. Sasuke just fumed over the letter to himself while looking for something to cover the hole he'd made. Naruto just sat there not very sure of what exactly was going on. In an attempt to distract Sasuke from his feelings, Haku decided to start making some food.

"Can one of you light the stove for me?" he didn't see the need in finding a match with both of them around.

"Yea sure" Sasuke tossed some wood into it and lit a fire.

Haku made a note to check the chimney of it later, there was an odd amount of smoke coming out of it. Of course that was an issue for later, so he focused on cooking the soup.

"Are you burning something?" Sasuke came back into the kitchen to investigate, the smoke having spread to the other rooms.

"No, I think the chimney for this thing is closed or jammed. I'll check it after I'm done cooking this."

"I guess that makes sense for how much smoke there is" he wasn't too sure of this, but couldn't think of another explanation.

He stood and watched the pot of soup. After ten minutes of waiting around Haku was sure it should at least be boiling by then. He touched the stove top, but it was still cool. Confused he opened up the compartment. He'd seen Sasuke ignite the logs within it, but there they sat, lightly charred yet pouring smoke into the room.

"H-" he stood up to call for Sasuke again but the words choked in his throat.

He tried to smash the wall to get someone's attention, but the smoke solidified around him binding his limbs as well.

"Shhh" as he lost consciousness Haku could hear the smoke, its voice almost familiar to him.. "You'll all be together soon enough."

Naruto had been sitting a bit away from Sasuke while Haku cooked in the other room. It'd taken a while but the smoke had finally cleared from the room, meaning they could reseal the entrance. Sasuke headed into the room to check on the food, only to see a lack of Haku. He did find a note next to some bowls.

"Went to fix the chimney" Sasuke read it to himself. "Hm, explains why the smoke stopped. Hey Naruto, the food is ready!"

"Is it soup?"

"Uh, no?"

"Good, I hate soup."

"Uh actually, I'll grab you some of it, you just wait out there" Sasuke tried to think of a solution to his current soup predicament.

Mentally preparing himself to hold Naruto down and possibly drown him with soup Sasuke only poured the one bowl. With a deep breath he approached the blonde.

"What's in that bowl."

"Ramen."

"Let me see it."

"No just trust me, and um, close your eyes."

"I've heard that before Sasuke, that doesn't smell like ramen. What's in the bowl."

"You'll find out if you trust me."

"No."

"Just, open your mouth."

"No."

"Look. It's soup. I need you to eat this soup."

"No! I refus-" as Naruto began to refute this soup Sasuke leapt forward and began pouring in his open mouth. "Hjgjrgkegnergkjergnje"

"JUST SHUT UP AND EAT THE SOUP" he'd managed to wedge the bowl edge into his mouth to keep the soup pouring into it.

"ABHJHSEFJ ITNSNSWOIEJFBJI"

"SHHHHHHH"

After a few moments of futile struggling Naruto gave up and swallowed the soup. His mouth bent up in a frown at Sasuke.

"It's the only food we have I'm sorry."

"Did it have to be cold and gross?"

"What? It's not cold."

"Yes it was, here" Naruto flicked some of the remaining soup in the bowl on him."

"A" his yelp of pain paused as he realized it wasn't actually hot. "But, Haku's been cooking it? Why is it so cold?"

"Well" Naruto looked deep in thought. "If Haku was alone in the other room cooking it, and isn't there now, but left the soup out for us. It can only mean one thing."

"Oh god he got kidnapped while cooking!"

"What? No that's crazy, he clearly just wanted to mess with us and didn't actually cook it."

Sasuke thought over what Naruto had just said. It almost made said sense? Before he could put forward any other theories, something hooked around him from behind and ripped him away.

"WHAT" Naruto tried to leap after him but crashed to the floor, whatever it was had grabbed him and vanished.

He scanned his surroundings. The entrance was still sealed so it had to still be inside with him somewhere. As he searched the room for any signs of what had just taken Sasuke he failed to notice what slowly floated towards his feet. Two small smoky tendrils extended out from under the chair he'd been sitting on earlier. They slithered towards his legs preparing to link up around them."

"BELOW YOU" a voice roared inside his head warning him of the danger.

Following its guidance Naruto looked down in time to see the tendrils. He dove forward to escape them and blasted a wave of flames back where they came from. As the ash settled all he could see was the mark he'd charred onto the wall, and the smoldering remains of that chair. Scrambling to his feet he quickly spun around, searching all corners of the room for any other smoky things.

"Loud voice in my head, more help would be appreciated" he didn't know what was going on or what the hell he was dealing with.

"DEMON …. FIGHT … CAN'T …. LOSE" Naruto didn't quite understand all the weird static in the message, but understood the words.

"Alright weird smoke demon, come on out and fight me!"

To his immense surprise, it did. The smoke began pouring into the room from all over and congealed a few feet in front of him. It appeared as a masked person in a robe, the right sleeve hung limp against its side. He noticed the smoke didn't disappear entirely into it, a small cloud of it still hovered behind it.

"Ok well, thank you for making that part easy" he was glad this demon at least seemed polite. "I guess we'll get to the fighting then?"

The demon's mask tilted to the side at that. Naruto hesitated at its lack of aggression, something that was a rather large mistake. In his moment of hesitation its left arm swept upwards and a pillar of black smoke blasted into him. He was thrown through the ceiling of the room and outside of the safe house. He crashed onto the mountain's exterior incredibly bruised and with a cracked head.

"It raining?" Naruto used a nearby rock to climb onto his feet, the world around him spinning as he tried to check his surroundings. "Huh musf be me."

He could barely make out the cloud of smoke approaching him, he was able to see the masked figure as it formed in front of him once more. It cocked its mask to the side again while looking him over.

"Boryifend" Naruto's mouth had difficulty forming the words as he blasted the demon with a wall of fire. "Stoler."

As his attack dispersed he saw the smoke begin to form in on him and blasted it again. He fired off blast after blast into the cloud of smoke and dust before him. With each attack his vision became clearer, helping him determine he should fire another since it was still there. Finally after he'd fired off eight blasts he stopped. As the smoke in the air before him didn't attempt to fly towards him, he let out a sigh of relief.

"FUCK" this was cut short as blade of smoke shot upwards slicing through his right bicep.

Before he could try and attack with his left arm a tendril of smoke solidified into a claw and grabbed him by the head. He could only assume it based his skull against the rock as his memories stopped there. He finally checked his surroundings now that those loose memories had fallen back into place, he was within a molten crater in the land of the fire demons. Judging from the lack of ancestors, he didn't think he'd be making it back this time.

"Hello!" he called out, he wasn't surrounded like last time so he'd have to try and find someone. "Is anyone here!"

It was hard to tell if the sound he heard was in reply to him, but he was sure he heard something. With a massive amount of effort he climbed his way out of it. From this new vantage point he could see thousands of other craters like the one he'd just climbed out of. He looked for the source of the sound, and quickly saw the massive fox in the distance. He could tell it was going away from him.

"Wonder if being dead stops exhaustion" he took a deep breath and started to follow the fox.

It was slow, his human form couldn't cover as much distance but he didn't want to figure out fox form being down a limb. He ran for what felt like months, refusing to stop for anything in his journey. Finally he could see them, like his first visit to this world there was a circle of demons around the massive crater. The massive fox was easy to see amongst them. With a final push he shoved in between two demons and fell into the crater.

"WHERE THE HELL IS" the massive fox paused mid yell as it saw Naruto tumble down the side of the crater. "Oh no."

"Yeah no one uh" Naruto slowly pulled himself up. "No one help the one armed guy up, real cool everybody."

"Naruto" he snapped his head towards that voice, and saw his mother once again.

"Mom."

The other demons watched in silence, many having similar experiences once arriving here. Naruto didn't know what to do, he'd never really put thought into what he was supposed to do if he ever met a parent. It was lucky for him that she knew exactly what to do. As quick as she could she closed the distance between them and enveloped Naruto in a hug. Overwhelmed by this sudden feeling, all he could do was cry. He cried for the life he never got to know growing up alone, for his mother and the life she should have had. Most of all he cried for the knowledge that he couldn't stay here with her. What felt like lifetimes passed before he was ready to speak.

"Mom there's so much I want to say, but I-"

"You can't stay" she pulled away from and smiled. "And I don't want you to. I didn't die so you could be robbed of a life too."

Once again unsure of what to say, all he could do was smile back.

"Not to ruin that sentiment" the large fox spoke up. "But he is well, he's dead. There isn't exactly a way back for that one."

"He's right" she sighed. "That did kind of ruin the sentiment."

"So you have a plan to cheat death?"

"I just might" she cast her gaze to Naruto's missing arm.

"Well, CHOP CHOP PEOPLE WE MIGHT NOT BE EXTINCT JUST YET."

Haku woke up to not his favorite situation. His limbs were bound and he was hanging upside down. He couldn't be entirely sure, but was pretty sure he was also tied to Sasuke.

"We have got to stop getting trapped together" to wipe away his doubt Sasuke spoke up. "Might give people the wrong idea about us."

"Yeah people are gonna start calling you clingy if you keep this up."

"Me? Clingy? I dumped you, remember."

"Hm, no can't say I do."

"Denial can only get you so far when our lives are very close to ending."

"HEY SMOKE MONSTER CAN YOU KILL HIM FIRST SO I CAN BE IN DENIAL FOR LONGER?"

"Very mature."

"It's worth a shot, any idea what this thing is?"

"Well, it sure is made of smoke?"

"I'll take that as a no."

"Not a damn thing."

"Well I'm sure it followed Zabuza to us like everyone else."

"Yeah that's a given at this point."

"You think it wanted us or Naruto?"

"Well I don't see him tied up here, so I think just us."

"Maybe it just left him alone and he's safe then."

"I appreciate the optimism but I doubt it. Of course let's not count Naruto out, maybe he killed it?"

To prove Sasuke wrong, smoke poured into the room and swirled at its center. Slowly the robed figure formed out of it. They could see parts of its robe body had scorch marks on it.

"Ha Naruto kicked its ass and it came runni-"

He was interrupted by the demon throwing Naruto's severed arm at his face.

"What made that sound?" Haku couldn't see what'd hit Sasuke.

"Oh shit."

"I can't see it, tell me what it is!"

"I think, I'm pretty sure it's Naruto's right arm."

"Oh shit."

Haku glared at the masked demon, he wanted to rip it pieces more than he'd ever wanted anything before. His glare wavered as a strangely familiar laughter filled the room. He couldn't place it but he knew it.

"Oh this might help" it's voice gave him the same feeling as it reached for the mask.

It pulled it lower, revealing only the eyes. Haku's breath caught as he met those eyes. A pair that matched his own brown eyes, his father's eyes. All at once his rage came back as he began to flail against his restraints.

"I'LL KILL YOU."

That laughter filled the room again, echoing inside his head and fueling the rage further. His restraints disappeared and he fell to the floor. Throwing himself back on his feet he lunged towards the demon only for it to vanish in a cloud of smoke.

"What are you doing!" he turned back to the origin of the voice, there he was again. "Haku what the hell are you doing!"

Sasuke climbed to his feet having been released with Haku. He watched him thrash at a cloud of that smoke before calling out to him. He backed away as he saw Haku's eyes, there was something wrong with him.

"I don't care how you made it out" Haku took a heavy step towards the man he believed was his father. "But I promise, you'll wish you hadn't."

Sasuke held out a hand to him trying to reach him. Haku stepped forward and plunged a blade of ice through the center of his hand. Sasuke clenched his jaw in pain, pushing through it he swept Haku's legs and pushed him down with his good hand. He didn't go down easily and used his legs to trip Sasuke as well. Soon enough Haku was on top of him, wielding two ice blades and trying to slice him apart. He grimaced and used the already impaled hand to stop one of the blades, letting it sink into his forearm. He used his good arm to grab the other wrist and struggled against Haku.

"Stop! It's me!" he tried to get him to see the truth.

"Funny" Haku pushed harder with both blades. "When I said that you just stabbed me again!"

Beneath its mask the demon smiled. Watching Sasuke struggle for his life against Haku was everything it could have ever wanted. It couldn't wait for the grand finale of the show, and so it moved in to fan the flames inside Haku more.

"It's only fair isn't it" small streams of black smoke drifted into his ears. "He should have scars to match your own."

Sasuke could see the smoke and felt the effect it had on Haku. His arm couldn't handle much more he knew that, he had to try something else.

"Sorry buddy" Sasuke took a deep breath and let go of one arm.

As the blade sank between his ribs Sasuke ignited the air in the room. With his free arm he threw Haku to the side and covered him. As blood dripped onto Haku he eyes lost their murderous intent. The visage of his father left Sasuke, and he realized what he'd done.

"Sasuke I" he let the blade in his arm melt, focusing and the one he'd sunk into a lung. "I didn't, it wasn't you I-"

"Just uh" Sasuke gave him a bloody smile. "And I don't usually say this, but please don't pull out."

"THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR A SEX JOKE" Haku restrained himself from hitting the already very injured Sasuke.

Slowly he repositioned Sasuke so he was back laying on the ground. Haku didn't have any magical means to try and fix this, and only basic first aid knowledge was not going to fix this. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the smoke begin to swirl and reform once again. The demon once again stared down at the two of them, this time it was significantly more burned.

"Igniting the air with your dying breath" it spoke in a chorus of voices Haku knew but couldn't place. "A brave move."

"Blow it out your ass" Sasuke had some choice potential last words.

"Well, you've already ruined my show, I'll just put you down."

The smoke swirled in front of it and formed a blade for the demon. Taking the sword it approached the two of them. Haku couldn't peel his eyes away from the sword that would likely spell both their ends. Sasuke instead watched something strange. The severed arm that remained after his last attack. It now laid on the floor giving off a dim orange glow. As he watched the glow grew stronger. He couldn't be sure if it was the ice blade in his lung slowly killing him, or magic of some kind, but he felt Naruto.

"You think they made it?" Zabuza was being helped along by Kakashi as they traveled to the safe house.

"Given everything I've seen in the past day" Kakashi looked towards the mountain. "Probably not."

As a massive red arm blasted out of the mountainside the two stopped. Kakashi had been filled in on some missing Naruto information, but that did not prepare him for this. Zabuza saw the massive fox emerge, and felt compelled to smile for some reason.

"I think you might wanna change your mind on that one."

On the mountain things had changed drastically for Haku. In an instant Naruto's demon form grew from the severed arm that had been abandoned on the floor. Just as quickly he blasted their way out of the mountain. He held onto Sasuke as they were picked up by the tail. Haku wasn't sure what had changed since the last time Naruto entered this form, but appreciated it not burning them to a crisp.

"Sorry I'm late!" it was weird hearing his normal voice come out of a massive fox head.

"You missed my super funny joke!" Sasuke was somehow still alive.

Unfortunately, so was the smoke demon. It reformed hovering at Naruto's head level. It was of course rather annoyed to see him alive again.

"YOUR CORPSE IS LITERALLY RIGHT THERE!" it pointed at that very dead body of Naruto.

"Yeah but when you cut that arm off I was still alive so it was still alive so it all works out" Naruto didn't remember how this whole thing worked, but remembered it was related to the arm. "My mom said it would work so you know, take it up with her?"

"You know what" the demon sighed as more of the smoke began to circle around it. "Fine. I'll just kill you again. Even if you ruined what I had going on in there."

Naruto wrapped his tail around Haku and Sasuke to help secure them. The demon lashed out with a massive smoke blade that Naruto leapt over. This was a poor choice for dodging as the demon then shot harpoons into him. Without the element of surprise, and Naruto being in his demon form, these attacks weren't as deadly as before. Without fear of getting killed Naruto let a flame begin to charge in his mouth. Landing with a few extra holes he ignored the pain to aim his own attack.

"Ah" the smoke demon realized it might be a bit too outclassed now.

Naruto unleashed a massive jet of flame from his mouth. It completely enveloped the smoke demon. It didn't stop there of course. The torrent of flames spread forming a massive pillar of fire around Naruto. Across hundreds of miles people could see the pillar as it reached towards the sky. Naruto was sure he'd got the demon with his attack, he'd also managed to paint the world largest target on himself.

"I may have gone overboard."

It took Haku a few moments to reply, as he saw the flames begin to spread he'd formed a barrier for Sasuke and himself. As it melted he saw the pillar slowly disperse above them.

"We should get a move on Naruto, if anyone wasn't already following Zabuza to us they probably saw that."

"Oh right" in an attempt to stand out a bit less Naruto shrunk to his human form, he flexed the new right arm he had. "Is it weird to say I liked the old arm better?"

"I'll let you know once I get a new lung" Sasuke was still very much dying. "Well. If."

"Any chance you learned a trick for healing him?" Haku had already begun trying form a wolf for travel, thanks to the pillar of flame there wasn't a lot of moisture to work with.

"I'll ask" Naruto held his two hands together and closed his eyes.

"We really put it all on the line for a bit of weirdo."

"At least he didn't stab me in the lung."

"I'm not sorry about it, you would've done the same in my shoes."

"Sure thing daddy issues."

"Nope!" Naruto interrupted the fight that was about to start.

Haku looked him over, without some Naruto based miracle his chances didn't look good. He could only assume someone was headed towards them now, meaning they couldn't sit around much longer. Something had to be done.

"Sasuke, do you trust me?"

"You stabbed me in the lung."

"Listen, I can try and stop you from dying, but you'll have to trust me. We will come back for you."

"Well" he spat out some blood. "Given the odds, why not. If you don't come back, I'll be mad."

"I know, Naruto start moving, I'll follow you in a bit."

"But wha-"

"Trust me."

With a nod he started down the mountain leaving the two of them alone. Haku had a lot of things he wanted to say to him, their history was nothing if not colorful. Instead of any words, he leaned down and gave him one last kiss.

"Knew it" Sasuke smirked at him as he prepared to leave, his lips turning blue.

Haku followed after Naruto, he could feel the magic start to take effect behind him. Ice began to grow from Sasuke's body, it was slow at first. Just covering him and some of the ground around him. It did not take long for its growth to speed up, as large icicles began to shoot upwards. By the time Haku reunited with Naruto at the bottom of the mountain it hard formed a block he could see from there.

"If we're lucky people might get distracted by that and give us a head start."

"We'll see him again right?" Naruto watched the ice grow, his heart heavy.

"Of course we will."