Take Two Round Two

by Third Fang

What do you get when you cross several interdimensional god like beings, raw boredom, a world of Naruto that went wrong, several years worth of off screen training, common sense, insanity, humor, sarcasm, the Log, explosions, plot, and overall chaos? Apparently a lot of headache medicine for Tsunade. May the Games Begin. Sequel to Yet Again With A Little Extra Help.

34. Chapter 33

Chapter Thirty Three: … The Author is questioning whether or not he is going to go insane if he can't finish the arc by the end of this cha-FUCK!

I don't own Naruto, any of its characters, or any references in this story. If I did, horrible things would happen. Neither do I own any other anime that I reference. I do own all OC's and new Jutsu in the story as well as every ounce of pure awesome spawned by this.

o. o. o.

X years ago. Grand Line.

"… I was away for a month. Just one month. And in that time, the kid did WHAT?"

"I told you, he-"

"I was being sarcastic!" Ghost threw his hands up in the air, cutting off the current King of the Pirates. "For fucks sake Luffy! I know I didn't expect anyone to babysit the minion, but how the hell did all of you jackasses miss THAT!? Zoro I can understand, but all of you?!"

The green haired swordsman took offence to the jab. "I'm not that bad."

Robin, the ship's archeologist stifled a laugh. "Zoro, your lack of situational awareness is so absurd at times it deserves to be a Devil Fruit power. Need I remind you of how you got stuck in another dimension and somehow got back here just by wandering around?"

"Tch."

"It was kinda hard to miss when he almost killed all of us." The blonde chef Sanji breathed out heavily, the smoke from his cigarette for everyone to see. "Good thing Nami-chan is so divine at what she does. Otherwise we might not have been able to get him back to normal without killing him."

Him, being an unconscious and bedridden Naruto Uzumaki, currently being held within the medic bay of the ship.

"It caught us all by surprise Ghost." The ship's navigator, Nami sighed. "I mean, I've heard the stories about that move. We all have, but it was the first time we've seen anyone use it in person. We didn't know what it looked like or what leads up to it. By the time we realized what he was doing…"

"Yeah. Yeah. I got it, I just… fuck. Seriously kid? Of all the things you pulled out of your ass by accident…" Ghost ran a hand through his hair in frustration. First that stint in the other multiverse and now this. The kid was giving him more headaches than most of the actual children he's had. Even the ones that turned out… less than ideal.

Even by his standards.

This was going to be a bitch and a half to deal with once it got out. It was never a matter of "if" when it came to shit like this.

"He's been out for almost a week." Chopper, the ship's doctor informed him. "The fox, Kurama, occasionally talks to us, but it sounds like him and those other people in Naruto's soul were affected by the event as well, and must recover too. I'm good at what I do, but I'm not Big Mom. I'm useless when it comes to spiritual healing. That's more Brook's thing."

"Yohohoho! Sorry. But my brand of spiritual healing tends to send spirits to the great beyond more often than mentally stabilize them!" Brook, the walking skeleton and musician laughed cheerfully at his own ineptitude. "Ah. Maybe if I write a new song in a different key, I'll get a different effect…" The easily distracted not-dead man began to pluck some strings on his guitar.

"The fur ball and his roommates would be messed up from all this. From their perspective, it's like their entire home had just twisted itself inside out while they were stuck inside." Great, he'd have to check up on them too just in case.

"The Sunny took some big hits. I've been doing some SUPER repairs since everything stopped and I'm still not done," the shipwright, Franky, added.

"Fine. Fine. I get it. Add the bill to my tab, like normal. But under no circumstances are any of you to tell anyone about this. Not Scab. Not Shadow. No one." He didn't have the greatest reputation, and if one of the many, MANY people that never gave him the benefit of the doubt heard of this without proper context, it would cause… problems.

"Hey, Ghost." Monkey D. Luffy, the current Pirate King spoke up with a skeptical look in his eyes. "Is it really that bad? I mean, it was bad for us 'cause, you know, we almost died. But is it actually that bad for you?"

"It can be." The immortal let out a heavy sigh, running through all the things he'd have to address now with regards to Naruto's current state. The kid only had roughly six months left in the standard multiversal timestream before they had to return. That was nowhere near enough to get him back in functioning condition. He'd have to pull a few tricks and extend the trip a few more years in a dilated timestream to address everything.

Both for recovery.

And training to prevent a worst case scenario.

o. o. o.

He screamed in agony.

It was maddening. Every inch of skin. Every breath of air. Every miniscule thought was accompanied by an orchestra of pure pain that should not have possibly existed.

Make it stop. One way or another, for the love of god, the devil, of whatever could possibly be out there, make it stop!

The man writhing on the ground didn't notice the dozen people in the same exact state as him all over the area; nor the hundreds of corpses bleeding out within the same vicinity.

Call me.

The shape of a triangle within a circle virtually impaled his mind, but he was so overwhelmed by his current state that he couldn't make sense of anything.

Call me.

"What the hell do you mean call you?!" A man? Woman? Someone hysterically shouted nearby in confusion, slightly more sane than the man himself.

Call me, and you shall have my blessing. Your misery will end.

The design grew more vivid in his skull, glowing crimson like blood.

No, not like blood. It was blood. Throbbing. Spilled, perverted blood, and… and…

By the time he realized his hands were on the ground. By the time he recalled what he was doing. By the time he figured out his situation, it was already too late.

He was already inside the seal. And he was screaming again.

o. o. o.

Naruto smirked, calm as could be as Hidan made his ominous re-entrance.

"Figures. It's not a final boss fight unless the prick survives at least two certain defeat scenarios. I hate it when that asshole Ghost is right." Kushina grumbled, clearly annoyed. "What is it going to take to get rid of this guy?"

"Don't know. But who wants to take a guess that he isn't approaching us from Iwagakure and looks completely healed by sheer coincidence?" Naruto asked inwardly, taking note of the fact that Hidan had all of his skin again. The fact was odd since the bastard had taken so many Rasenshuriken blasts to the face that the guy was perpetually half flayed by the time he was shot into orbit.

"There's definitely a reason. And I don't think it's a good one." Minato grimaced, his mind already going through various possible reasons. "Naruto, what about your curse. Is it still in effect?"

"Yeah. Thankfully it's still intact. Problem is, he's still here." Naruto passively felt the timespace around Hidan. If the freak had forced his way back into the planet's atmosphere, said atmosphere would be literally tearing him apart to kick him out again. On the other hand…

The Abandoned Reaper grinned as it strode the earth once more, securely tethered to the realms below.

"Something's keeping him down here. He didn't get back on his own steam." Naruto reasoned.

"Meaning if you throw him into space again, he'll just use the same resource to come back." Kurama came to the same conclusion. "How ridiculous. This guy is supposed to be an idiot. Don't tell me he prepared ahead of time like we did."

In short, Hidan set something up that revitalized his power, teleported him back to earth, and did it quickly within the confines of Iwagakure.

Their other clues were that he was possessed by a God of Empathy, was a mass murdering psycho cultist, and many of his techniques were blood and ritual based.

Naruto didn't know the details yet, but he already knew that whatever he would find out was likely going to be ugly.

With a passive wave of his hand, the small army of clones behind him vanished…

o. o. o.

A dozen clones appeared over Iwagakure. Their time was limited, as the second Naruto restarted the fight with Hidan, it would only be a matter of seconds before they'd vanish again. In that short period, they had to… to…

"Well, that was easy." One muttered bluntly as they looked down at the absolutely massive glowing crimson Jashinist circle that encompassed a sizeable portion of the Village.

They tried to ignore the chorus of screams below.

o. o. o.

Naruto blinked as he almost immediately got feedback from his clones. "That fucker. He pulled a Crypt."

"Oh? That's quite a dirty look you have, Lord." Hidan giggled. The lower half of his body was shrouded by an unidentifiable black material while his waist up was completely bare. In his right hand, he casually spun his trademark scythe in hand as if it was just another normal day. "Don't tell me you're that unhappy to see me so soon?"

"Bitch, you're like an ex-girlfriend that nobody likes. Stop hanging on me and get back in the hole, thot." With a snap of his fingers, the Grand Spiral Lotus in the background opened up once more, though this time it wasn't rotating and sucking in nearly as much material as it did previously.

"Mhmhmhm. Kinky. But I have a better idea." The madman purred sensually.

One second he was standing in place.

The world shook.

The next, his scythe was digging into a spontaneously made oversized Rasengan.

"How about I show you some of the holes I can make this time?"

o. o. o.

"Hey." Hana didn't turn away from the screen as Naruto and Hidan once more blurred in and out of focus in a fast paced melee.

"Hm?" Ghost hummed.

"Why are they fighting at lower power again?" Hidan wasn't using the Gates, and Naruto's performance was noticeably stagnated compared to before. It was only noticeable to seasoned fighters, but more than one person picked up on it quickly.

She didn't blink as she watched the silver and blonde streaks dart and maneuver across the twisted battleground, occasionally bending the environment in the process.

No. More than that. Naruto was more on the defensive than before, and using his Presence less frequently than Hidan.

"Can't say for certain for the Priest, but I'm assuming that he's regulating multiple energies within his body." Ghost hummed. "Godly power, Presence, doesn't matter what it is. If you don't have that shit moderately stable and under your thumb when you go all out, you can literally explode. More so if you're managing multiple forms of it at once. Ironically, that's actually one of the minion's specialties. Brat can adjust to nearly source of power on the dime. A pretty rare skill to have all things considered."

"On the other hand, the kid's starting to reach his limit." Waltz mused. "Using large scale Presence based techniques as frequently as he did takes a toll on the user. It wears down the soul, so to speak. You can consider it a third way a person can exhaust himself, next to chakra and stamina."

"He's also had to constantly keep his Presence up at a bare minimum level to keep the Acolyte's powers from reflecting back at him. The kid's been trained for a few years, but that's not something just anyone can do reliably." Shadow added factually. "Rather, it'd be more accurate to say that the he's a borderline freak to be able to do so much with the training and time he's had. A natural top point one percent talent."

Shadow looked down at the audience below her. There was only one other local in the entirety of this universe they had trained in Presence that was capable of a similar feat, and she was watching the current fight with an unwavering gaze.

"So bottom line is Naruto's in deep shit." Anko summarized with a grimace.

"If it had just been Hidan from the start, the kid could have kept the game up for days if he wanted to." Ghost admitted. "But that Kaguya lady forced him to overexert himself to get around her natural defenses. Atlas is a simple enough move to use, but even I have never seen him use Whitebeard, Sans, and Rift within half an hour of one another, let alone ten minutes. Even then, he rarely ever risked using them without going into Sage Mode or the using the Fox. His arms must be absolutely killing him by now."

It was true. From their standpoint, they could see Naruto keeping a set distance from Hidan whenever possible, using projectile jutsu as his main means of attacking.

"… Is it me, or is his control over the air look a bit less, overwhelming, than before?" Anko narrowed her eyes with some concern.

"The latter." Dima hummed in thought, scratching his chin in thought. "Ghost, you said that it takes the kid a while to set up that Heaven's Fall move right? Active environmental conditioning like that is pretty finicky. It gives one hell of an overwhelming impression, but if a big enough force throws the pre-established settings out of whack, or if the sources that fuel it power are destroyed, they tend to unravel themselves pretty quickly. From what I saw, there wasn't any energy source for this version, but…"

"Wait." Anko figured out what Dima was getting at, looking past the fight and at the titanic chakra construct still hovering in the sky. "Are you saying that Naruto willingly and knowingly canceled out his overkill Heaven's Fall move in order to use that thing?"

"Looks like it." Shadow, conversely, did not seem alarmed or surprised in the slightest. "Under most circumstances, it wasn't that bad of a tradeoff. It did pretty much cinch him the win against both the crazy rabbit lady and the priest at the same time. If the kid could drag the fight back under the flower, he'd be in the clear again with an overwhelming advantage, but his opponent surprisingly isn't that stupid. Imagine that."

It was true. While it looked like the two were simply randomly moving and hacking at one another, more experienced viewers could tell that Naruto was passively trying to guide it closer to the flower while Hidan ensured that things stayed a safe distance.

"As it stands, the battle has turned lopsided." Ghost summarized. "It's not a matter of who can surpass who. Hidan's immortal, near inexhaustible, and his innate powers prevent him from being kept down for anything longer than a few minutes at best if conventional means are used. The minion's max output, skill, experience, and versatility vastly surpasses Hidan's though, even in his exhausted state, but that matters little if the guy won't stay down."

Those listening understood exactly where he was going with this. The conditions of the fight wasn't to see who can murder the other. Instead, it was a race to see what will happen first. Will Naruto manage to identify and cancel Hidan's outside resource, and kick his ass to space again? Or will Hidan wear him down and kill him?

Several explosions shook the screen.

"Oh, good." Ghost sounded moderately pleased. "Looks like the Minion didn't use up everything he had saved in that massive attack earlier just yet like a complete scrub. I was worried I'd have to relentlessly harass him for the next three months about that if he survived."

"Ghost. You harass everyone relentlessly. Whether anyone in their right mind wants you to or not." Hana deadpanned.

"Yeah, but I don't want to waste my time doing it for something stupid." He replied as if his reasoning was obvious.

No one dared to comment. They all felt as though something important inside of them would die a little if they did.

o. o. o.

With a wave of his hand, Naruto kicked up a literal wave of dust as he retreated backwards while Hidan chased after him.

The dust did little to slow the man down, but the hidden exploding tags inside of it did leave a few deep marks.

The marks vanished a few scant seconds after he barreled through the smoke of the explosions.

In those few seconds, Hidan had managed to deflect one Rasenshuriken from cutting him in half, while contorting his body to avoid the second.

He had failed to miss the discharge of the third, hammering him with a pillar of microscopic chakra needles.

Naruto lazily rested his left arm in his sweater pocket, while his dominant right seemingly guided his various projectiles like a professional maestro.

"Haaaa." He breathed out slowly, allowing the air that once contained his chakra to return to the atmosphere.

Ever since he had almost won the fight, he had been re-absorbing the power in the atmosphere to replenish his reserves. It would weaken his hold on the atmosphere, but not by any significant margin. More importantly, he needed to refill his own stores for the fight ahead.

He had released several hundred exploding tags in the air that were hidden by a simple illusion, but most of them were generic bombs that wouldn't do much. On top of that, he had four Rasenshuriken flying about, and the Grand Spiral Lotus in the background, so it wasn't like he was completely helpless.

But on the other side of things, Heaven's Fall was gone, and he had overused his Presence to the point that he couldn't use it for much more than negating Hidan's own passive abilities. If that guy manages to get in close and tries something big, Naruto would be in a bad spot to deal with it.

This couldn't go on for long. It wasn't often that he was on the losing side of a game of attrition.

He tilted his head to the side to avoid a Presence enhanced kunai from piercing his eye socket, and ducked at Hidan seemingly teleported right in front of him, thrusting out with his scythe.

The winds shifted and the atmosphere moved, forcing Naruto to the side just as Hidan followed through seamlessly with a kick to the front. Simultaneously, he turned the scythe and yanked back in an attempt to claw at the teen from behind.

Instead, he lost his leg in the process as Naruto's swipe with his free hand exposed a near transparent wind blade that severed human flesh and bone without pause.

Hidan ignored the injury and whipped out the scythe once more, throwing it with a spin at his enemy with a back hand, connecting the weapon to his body with an unknown bodily fluid. The same substance was simultaneously fusing his severed leg back together.

The scythe cleaved the teen in half faster than he could react. But a moment later, he popped in a cloud of smoke to reveal that he had just been a butchered rock.

A rock covered in exploding tags.

Naruto skated back away from the explosion twenty meters to the side, wiping away the small cut on his cheek and holding back a grimace as the echoes of another wave of eldritch pain annoyed his body. It was the third time the bastard had managed to get a cut in since the fighting had restarted and it was starting to get annoying.

Still, he couldn't get distracted now. With an instinctual command that was as natural as moving his limbs, his chakra flared.

Next to Jiraiya, a clone popped into existence.

"Are you ok Naruto-chan? That's the third clone you've had to replace." Pa looked at the latest copy with worry.

"I'll be good when this shit's over." Said clone grimaced, glancing at where Kakuzu, Sasori, and Tobi were warily on guard a short distance away, and for good reason. The three were staring down the metaphorical barrel of a Dust Release technique via Onoki, who was being protected from Hidan's powers via Roshi. Tobi could get away from the blast, but the fact that he hadn't left yet meant that he really needed Sasori and Kakuzu's help later on if he could help it. "Bottom line. Hidan's literally unstoppable as he is right now. He's using whoever's left in Iwagakure as literal torture fuel to keep him going, and a summoning point to call him back if I send him into orbit. Cult shit with seals. Take out the massive seal, and I can put him away."

"Can't you do it yourself?" Kurotsuchi asked with a hint of frustration. "You seem to know more about this mess than anyone."

"I-" The clone started to talk before it grimaced and popped out of existence. A few seconds later, a new one replaced it, clearly more annoyed than everyone else. "Lady does it look like I'm in a situation where I can waste time thinking about this shit?! I'm barely able to hold a conversation with you guys like this! And you really want me inside Iwa proper with guns blazing? I'd wreck half the place before having a hope of taking that thing out."

"Kid has a point. I wouldn't want him taking this mess back home either." Roshi grimaced as he occasionally glanced at the real Naruto fighting Hidan at high speeds, tearing up literally every and anything that got close to them.

"And how exactly are we supposed to do it?" Onoki growled, not taking his eyes off of his intended targets. "The only one among us that is halfway decent with seals is Jiraiya, and he's as busy as me keeping these three bastards in line."

"I-" Naruto's clone started to talk, but popped out of existence again, but this time for a different reason.

o. o. o.

Inside Naruto's mindscape, Minato, Kushina, and Kurama were examining the frozen memory image of Hidan's Village sized seal from above.

"It's disgustingly basic." Minato frowned. "Looks more like one of those alchemy inscriptions than anything."

"A complete circle with an equilateral triangle inscribed within, the corners all tangent. Three corners. Specifically tying together the blood of the victims and the caster… basic in design, basic in execution, basic in purpose, basic in element, basic in substance, basic in three, basic in harmony, basic in…" Kushina ran through several dozen rune theories in her mind while staring at the seal, before her eyes widened significantly and focused at the corners of the triangle. Minato was an excellent seal master and combat specialist, but he was better at dealing with established systems. Raw metaphysical theory and reverse engineering seals was Kushina's specialty. "I got it!"

"Hoh? Care to share?" Kurama asked curiously.

"No time!" She made herself known to Naruto, who was occupied with fighting Hidan. "Naruto! I figured out the seal! Get me to Ero-Senin!"

"Right!" Naruto's voice echoed all around them, and soon a wave of chakra swept the woman and forced her outside.

o. o. o.

Pop.

"That's…"

"Kushina?" Jiraiya blinked in surprise.

Her first action on the outside was to make several rapid hand signs and slapping her stomach with a hand, making several seal inscriptions travel all over her body. If she had the puppet frame, she'd be far more stable, but Naruto didn't have the time to set that up now. Seconds later, she flinched as a shallow cut raced up her right arm, but stayed in existence. Staying on the outside was going to suck.

"I'll be quick. Each corner of the seal is the site of both a massacre and a small cluster of living victims." She spoke quickly to get the information across. "They represent the three stages of life, of existence. The grand cycle. Birth, life, and death. It forces a corrupted harmony on anyone linked to it. Getting your blood involved in any way is the biggest tie in. Trapped, caster, or otherwise. That's how it works despite being so simple and basic. All of the safeties that you'd find in most seals are completely skipped, but that only works to the guy's advantage because he feeds off of the aftereffects it has on everyone else."

"Destroy the corners, destroy the seal. Sounds simple enough." Pa rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Which obviously means it's not simple."

"Yeah-sunnofa!" Kushina swore as her thigh was cut. "Stop tanking and dodge already for fucks stake!"

"Why don't you try this shit!? It's not easy lady!" Naruto shouted from a good distance away.

"That brat…" The dead mother muttered, completely missing the looks she was getting from everyone else there. "From what we could see, everyone inside the boundary of the seal is affected by it, meaning they're all experiencing insanity inducing levels of pure agony right now. If anyone tries to get in to save the victims, odds are they'll be one too."

"But you just said that there's a load of people in each of the… oh." Ma paled as she realized what the biggest hurdle would be.

The people channeling the seal in each of the corners would have to be dealt with, one way or another.

"How, how many people are at each site?" Roshi swallowed his pride and asked the questions that Onoki was too outraged to ask.

"I couldn't say exactly, but, a decent crowd's worth each. One, maybe two hundred a site. Not including the dead." Kushina grimaced. She had no lost love for Iwagakure, but even she had limits. "One way or another, they have to get out of there."

"Do we need to hit all three?" Jiraiya kept the conversation going, knowing that rushing in would only make things worse.

"I don't know." Kushina shook her head. "We might need to only do one corner. We might need all three. This thing is massive and simple in design, but that simplicity makes it incredibly stable as far as seals go."

"It sounds like you've forgotten something important though." Everyone paused and turned to see Tobi looking smugly at them. "You can't risk splitting up now, can you? Especially with me. The moment you get sloppy, we'll get away, and you can't risk that."

"Oh right. The used goods is still here." Kushina gave him a potent glare, ignoring another cut that was made on her left arm. "Why don't you just crawl in some hole and die already. Your goals are a lie. Your plan's a bust. Your foundation's a mess. Everyone knows about you already. Face it asshole. You're fucked."

"There's more than one way to harness the power of the Biju, and your son has already shown that Kaguya is not invincible." He stood his ground. "I've been around for quite a while and have the means to outlast all of you. If you're expecting me to die of old age anytime soon, you'll be disappointed."

"No. But I do expect you to be obliterated now." A ring of gold surrounding the Akatuski shone brightly, surprising everyone there. "'Noki!"

Tobi's lone Sharingan widened in alarm as he looked down and instantly recognized what was going on. "This is?!"

The Tsuchikage had no idea what was going on, but he knew a go ahead to obliterate asap when he heard one. Before anyone had time to fully react to what was going on, the old man let loose the hair trigger on his Dust Release technique, enlarging the cylinder in his hands instantly to a size that could not be dodged unless it was expected beforehand, and literally wiping out the three shinobi in an instant.

They knew that it had worked in time because when the jutsu had ended the targets, along with a part of the landscape, were no longer there.

"… What was that?" Kurotsuchi asked, blatantly confused, turning to Kushina. "And who are you?"

A snake of chains coiled around Kushina's arm, lined with seals. "The prick in the mask has an annoying timespace jutsu that lets him phase through anything. My chains were laced with anti-timespace fuuinjutsu. And I'm Kushina Uzumaki. Dead badass mom, and one of the voices in my idiot son's head. The brat thinks he's being clever when he uses that joke, even when he's beaten it into the ground several times over."

Those Akatsuki bastards thought that the only things the previous clones were doing were relaying information. After the second clone had popped, the whole Uzumaki Namikaze family had already planned on having Kushina relay the final results while setting up the three S ranked criminals for the kill. That idiot Tobi had foolishly forgotten that Naruto's Seventh Sense could mask and get in the way of chakra sensing techniques. Doujutsu were no exception.

"Wait. You mean he's had his mom's soul in his head the entire time?" Kurotsuchi blinked owlishly.

"And the Kyubi. And his father." Kushina waved her off as if the fact wasn't a big deal. "Don't talk to him about it. He'll just go on a rant about how he can mess with shrinks by proving he isn't crazy by having legitimately several people in him in controlled intervals."

"And that you and Dad can't stop going like fucking rabbits in my head!" Naruto shouted in the background. "I'm literally and metaphorically mind fucked because of you assholes!"

"Not this again. You try being perpetually stuck in your twenties! Do you have any idea how many hormones go through a woman's body during child birth?! Because I died right after you were born, I'm spiritually perpetually stuck with swinging unstable emotions like this! I've told you this a hundred times already!"

"You! Have sex! Inside your Son!"

"One Time! You walked in on us One Time!"

"You forgot to bribe the fox to keep quiet about all the other times you dumbass!"

Kushina paused as she contemplated the new revelation. "Oh that fucking furball is so neutered when I get my hands on him…"

Her threats were interrupted however as she hissed in pain and hunched over. Off in the distance, something had just been hit hard enough to make a large impact in the ground and subsequent cloud of debris.

"Kushina, I don't think now is a good time to have another one of these arguments with Naruto." Jiraiya advised cautiously while debating whether or not to selectively forget or simply store away what he had just learned for future exploitation.

"Thank you!" Much to everyone's discomfort, Hidan of all people joined in on the conversation with obvious frustration in his voice.

"Did he seriously just-?" Kurotsuchi began to ask, before Roshi cut in.

"When things get that messed up, you know it's time to go. 'Noki. Juice everyone and lets deal with that seal already."

"Yes. Lets." Jiraiya stood imposingly over Kushina, no, it was not him, but the Toad Elders that were truly losing their patience at this point.

"F-fine. I won't last long at this rate regardless." The redhead conceded her position as Onoki flew around, patting everyone on their backs to enable them to fly.

"If you idiots can't get used to flying, too bad. The rest of us will drag you."

"I'm good. Naruto has a similar technique." Kushina surprised most of the others there.

"Same, but I'm not used to it yet. Might have to drag me along to speed things up." Jiraiya agreed, only to suddenly get wrapped up in one of Kushina's chains and was pulled by her rather forcefully. "Hey!"

"That'll work." Onoki nodded, giving the woman a skeptical glare before floating to his village. "Now hurry up! My village has suffered enough this past month!"

The group of shinobi darted back to Iwagakure, pretending to ignore the sounds of battle behind them.

o. o. o.

"Aaaah. That one hurt." Naruto grimaced, laying on his back in the crater that Hidan had kicked him into. Nothing was seriously damaged, but he wouldn't be surprised if he developed a few nasty bruises soon.

"Stop fooling around. He's getting stronger and faster with every passing moment." Kurama chided from inside his host. "Or do you need me to join in again?"

"Don't give me that. You know what I'm whoa?!" Despite literally being embedded into stone and debris, he still managed to seemingly teleport out in time to avoid several black rods from impaling him with enough power to destroy a building or two.

"Shut up!" Hidan roared as he dive bombed the teen from a higher angle with his scythe. "Shut up shut up shut up shut up already!"

"… Oi."

Three crimson lines tore apart the landscape viciously, but Naruto had long since jumped out of the way of the attack. Hidan was already charging at the teen's new location like a bullet, but a Rasenshuriken that had been cloaked revealed itself and unleashed its contents on the madman, stalling him for at least a few seconds.

"Yeah. Yeah, I noticed." The blonde muttered under his breath, eyes darting around to keep track of his enemy. The fox had not been understating Hidan's progress. Already, Naruto estimated the guy was fighting with two Gates unleashed again, and building up to the third.

More worrying though was the fact that Hidan was now healing faster from Naruto's Rasenshuriken attacks. Not instantly like from other moves, but quick enough that it was noticeable and a problem.

"That seal we saw must be supplementing and stabilizing his body by siphoning the pain and agony of the victims inside." Minato hypothesized. "Morbid and cliché as it may sound. Pain yields more pain, and Hidan is reaping the benefits. It's a near perpetual motion device unless the seal is stopped."

"Or unless everyone inside the seal dies."

"We would like to believe that option is not necessary." Minato glared at the Fox, who was not ashamed with his observation in the slightest, even if he was right.

The point Minato was trying to make was that Hidan now had a near limitless tank of power, and was applying it to healing as well. So his wounds didn't last long. His strength was greater. And his stamina was endless.

Talk about a mirror match.

But there were still a few tricks he could use.

"Stop running already! Are you that much of a faggot that you can't fight unless you're near your fucking flower?!" Once more Hidan closed the gap between them with absurd speed despite Naruto's efforts to do the opposite.

Instead of using another Rasenshuriken this time though, the blonde counter attacked with both hands clasped together and making a greatsword sized chakra blade five times the length of Hidan's scythe.

Hidan could literally feel the amount of weight that was behind the swing as it came down, a mass surpassing what he could handle, and immediately tried to change directions to dodge the strike as he came upon it.

He did succeed in his initial efforts, ducking below the swing and attempted to follow through with his charge.

However he had forgotten to take into account Naruto's rather diverse catalogue of abilities when it came to manipulating air in particular, and failed to anticipate that the reason why the chakra blade's swing was so heavy was due to the several hundred kilotons of air mass dragged along with the improvised weapon itself. The blade missed, but the mere shockwave flattened and crushed the right half of Hidan's body almost instantly, sending him away alongside a monsoon's worth of violent winds.

Not wasting any time, the teen instantly followed through not by continuing the attack, but kicking up a massive cloud of dust that could cover most large towns.

Hidan managed to regain his footing just as the cloud covered him. The dust and dirt made it a pain in the ass to see and breathe, but he didn't need them in order to find the…

"Oh that annoying…"

Instead of feeling the physical agony and exhaustion of one annoying teen, he was sensing it in roughly three hundred.

"Fucking clones?" He had thought that the kid would have gotten through his head that the things were useless. All he had to do was scratch one of the damn things and all of them would vanish, allowing him to locate the brat again. Just like in Iwa. Just like the… last…

Oh that little bastard.

"Don't you fucking DARE!" With a massive heave, Hidan swung his scythe, unleashing another massive crimson triple wave of pure agony and malicious intent at the cluster of clones, which had begun to scatter in all directions the moment they had come into existence. Due to their nature and the fact that the boy was in tune with the atmosphere itself, they managed to get a good deal of distance from their starting point. Some even managed to dodge the titanic attacks that swept through the dense cloud of dust and dirt, but within seconds, the first clone fell victim.

Pop.

And the following moment later, all the clones vanished.

But Naruto was not there. He was not seen. He was not heard. He was not felt.

"No. No no no NO! You have got to be kidding me!" It was just like before, when he was being sucked into space. Naruto had cut himself off from the outside world by falling asleep and becoming invisible.

He was still here… somewhere. But finding him was going to be a pain in the ass.

Worse. The longer the kid rested, the more he would recover. The more his Presence would stabilize. Anyone with a remotely decent background in the field knew at least one or two tricks that vastly magnified healing rates while sleeping.

Hidan wasn't ignorant. He could tell that Naruto had been reaching his limits when it came to fighting with Presence. It was the reason why the kid had been holding back since he had reappeared; why the kid had been overly reliant on that giant ass monstrosity in the sky after a certain point in the battle. He had pushed himself too hard.

But that stress can recover incredibly quickly if given the time to relax.

If he was as good as he feared, three minutes would be enough for Naruto to put up a solid fight again.

Five minutes would be enough to allow him to use some of those disgustingly overpowered moves.

Ten… wouldn't be a complete recovery, but it would be enough.

Straight ahead. Left. Right. Up. Down.

No sign of the kid, nor sensation of pain. He was hiding himself somehow. Probably that annoying cloaking illusion. Or maybe he was underground? He couldn't get that deep so quickly…

Hidan readied his scythe, blades glowing crimson. Twisted and modified as it was, the tool was originally a farming implement. It could reap. It could harvest.

It could also plow.

The abused earth was upturned violently in the whiplash of his attack, three giant vertical blades tearing three trenches in the ground. Even if the attack missed, the displacement in the dirt made was severe and deep enough that only a genuine master of Earth techniques would manage to come out of it unscathed. And they needed to be awake to do that.

But even as the ground was abused and mutilated in the far distance, there was no pain felt. Well… none significant at least.

"So he's in the sky after all." Hidan cocked back his scythe, and repeated the previous action that ripped apart the earth, only this time he didn't stop. Crimson claws flew and scattered in each and every random direction upwards in a blind attempt to get the bastard. Even the clouds in the sky that remained from the chaos of the day were within range of the wild assault. If the kid was floating in place, he shouldn't be too high up, and if he was wandering about randomly, then even getting close to his attacks should be enough to wake him up.

But still, nothing.

"Aaaaah? You got to be kidding me! I didn't even come close after all that?! This is bullshit!" He knew Naruto was somewhere nearby. He could literally feel it.

This host was useless. The body had potential, but the previous owner was a fool that possessed little viable knowledge outside of his craft.

Gods rarely get annoyed, as they were experts in playing the long game. However they were not immune to the influence of their hosts from time to time. More so when the fragment of the God in question was cut off from the source.

As it stood, Hidan was not really Hidan, but Empathy emulating Hidan, because the personality template that was Hidan was the only thing that was available to work with. That's why he was fully aware of how the outer systems work, but otherwise didn't know anything else new.

The madman looked around with focus. Other than the spectators watching him from around the Elemental Nations through Tinker's toys, he didn't feel anyone or anything focusing on him in particular. No immediate threats, despite that absurd construct in the distance and those annoying invisible spinning disks that were still flying around.

Should he just run back to the village and mess around until the kid wakes up? Fighting there would be in his interests… wait, no. He probably wouldn't make it in time, and if he started something there, he might accidentally kill someone important in the thrill of things, and leave him in a bad position when the kid catches up. He was strong, but the Lord was faster and could trace him wherever he went at this point.

That, and turning your back on an overpowered invisible opponent was simply a stupid idea. Even for him.

"Fine then. If that's the way he wants to play it…" He bent his knees, crossed his arms, and breathed in deeply. The final action had the after effect of tearing apart some of his lung tissue due to the vicious nature of Naruto's power still in the area, but he paid it no mind.

Third. Fourth…

"Ngh." A new, yet familiar pain rippled through his body. His muscles and blood vessels ruptured, and pressure built between his skin and bone. Exquisite, yet peculiar. Without anyone to share it with, agony of this quality made him feel awkward. It was like eating a Five Star meal by himself. Satisfying, yet empty.

Fifth.

"Come. Wake up Lord. Don't leave me here alone with these feelings I'm having. There's so much I want to SHARE!"

Sixth Gate. Open.

With his final word, Hidan's body erupted in chakra blasting air and debris in all directions violently. Making streamlines and gales that were not of Naruto's making.

Waves of power rolled through the sky, rippling when and wherever there was something in the way. The Rasenshuriken, nearly perpetually hidden from view, were blown off course, and their transparent skins stripped away to reveal their heavy cores to the world. Boulders were dislodged from the earth, and the air seemed to scream in the whiplash, as if it knew that this force was not natural or healthy.

And yet… somehow, Naruto was still nowhere to be found.

Of course he wouldn't be found. Not by a simple shockwave. The illusions around his Rasenshuriken were one thing, but the one around himself was a grade higher. Visual concealment. Audio concealment. And a third illusion physical barrier around those two that not only would not be blown away by shockwaves and debris, but hid the fact that said projectiles and displacements were hitting something in the first place.

It was a basic genjutsu by most masters' standards, but from a distance it was nearly impossible to identify. Even sensors would have problems finding it due to Naruto's Seventh Sense masking his illusion's chakra with the background.

"Zzzzzz." Naruto slept with a large snot bubble inflating and deflating from his nose, his body perpetually climbing higher into the sky as if he was attached to a balloon, which wasn't too far from what he had done. It was a simple setup that kept him moving without any extra input that few would ever expect, or be able to appropriately react to in time.

It was actually a pretty common blind spot most fighters had. Between the area that was directly above a person, and the easy to see area that ranged from straight ahead to what they could see if they tilted their heads up from a standing position. That narrow space, when rotated around a person, looked like a funnel.

Ghost called it the blind crown. And it was a near perfect angle to either assassinate an enemy with minimal chance of being detected, or hide in from a distance to recover a bit. Once a person got far away enough in that spot, it didn't matter if they were caught or not.

"So far, so good." Minato muttered, making sure not to pay attention on Hidan in particular, lest he give away their position. Keeping note of any projectiles was good enough for now.

Naruto had rested for thirty seconds by this point.

"Don't jinx it, idiot. Remember who we are with." The fox chided. The second they let their guard down, Naruto's luck would kick in and screw them all over.

Hidan looked around warily, body radiating with energy and power, but nothing to use it on.

He grit his teeth in annoyance. The Gates were a useful trick, but even he didn't have endless reserves of resources. Rather, his victims in Iwagakure were supplying him with the energy needed to heal and maintain this output, but even they were a finite resource. This body was a host for endurance. Not power.

Think. He had to come up with something in spite of this psyche's limitations. The Lord was not stupid. He would not leave himself undefended. He had too much to lose. He had to maintain his authority over the world, alongside… the fox.

"Aaah. That might work…"

Without warning, Hidan slit his wrists and throat, severing his arteries and bleeding profusely.

Within seconds, the man found himself within another one of his ominously glowing seals, albeit the lines making this one were significantly thicker than the norm.

A demented grin stretched Hidan's face and a pike pointed to his chest. "Tell me beast, when was the last time you felt pain?"

The sensation of being impaled rippled through the air, assaulting everything and anything within range that could experience pain. Humanoid or not. Coherent or not. Living or not.

"Hungh?!" "Gah?!" Minato and Kurama lurched forward, both grabbing at their chests despite the fact that there was no wound to be seen.

Naruto twitched.

Hidan's head shot to the sky with a euphoric glee. "Found you."

Minato stilled, feeling the reaper's gaze directly on him, despite the fact that he was neither visible, nor in the physical world to begin with. "Shit! Kurama!"

In the time it took for Naruto's supporters to realize what had just happened, Hidan had already leaped straight at their host as speeds that vastly surpassed the speed of sound.

He had approached so quickly that he barely noticed something was amiss before something large and orange flash past his eyes, hammer into his skull, break his spine, and send him flying back to the earth.

He stood up seconds later, twitching erratically like a deranged and malformed puppet until his skeleton had fixed itself, bones popping and cracking all the while.

"One minute. That idiot fell asleep and managed to hide from you for only one minute. I can't tell if I should be disappointed or impressed by that."

Floating down from the sky, Kurama landed quietly, four tails lazily flowing through the air like streamers.

Even at a glance, Hidan could tell that each one of the tails held at least as much power as he was channeling right now.

"Heheheh. Sounds like a one sided relationship." Crack. The madman's head tilted to the side at an odd angle. "Hooh? Heeeeeh? How odd. Now that I get a good look at you, I'm surprised I missed it earlier. Rude. How rude of me. How rude of you. How could we go this long without greeting one another? Cousin?"

o. o. o.

Hana looked at Ghost worriedly. "Cousin?"

"All the Biju have been tainted by the flaws and greed of Humanity over the past millennia or so. The Fox's become attuned to the malice of others in particular. So much so that he can sense it. Minion can too if he uses its power." Ghost shrugged. "In reality, they're less "cousins" and more "second cousins twice removed"."

"Will it be a problem?" Anko pressed, warily.

"Who knows? The God's the senior in this situation, but we're only dealing with a tiny fraction of the original. That and this is the Fox's territory. All in all, it's anyone's game."

o. o. o.

The fox frowned, knowing exactly what the Acolyte was getting at. The idea of having anything in common with this abomination genuinely nauseated the beast. "Don't try to be cute, Empathy. A distant relation at best is not worth either of our time recognizing. Certainly not worth enough to dismiss the pest you have been."

Hidan pouted like a child. "Oh? Well aren't you a generous host. And here I was about to offer you a joint partnership in this world once I claim it. It's not like you are able to do anything, playing the role of a pet of all things."

Kurama huffed, not in anger, but in annoyance. "And people pity me because of my container. Use your eyes, fool. Your host is so retarded that he's even made you embarrassing to acknowledge."

"Ah?" Hidan frowned in confusion, tilting his head so far to the side that his neck should be broken. "Whatever do you… oh? Oh. Oooooooh."

Throughout his drawling recognition of whatever Kurama was referring to, the madman slowly returned his head upright, his body hunched over slightly, and the hand gripped on his scythe just a bit tighter than before.

And then he politely bowed.

"My apologies. I was so into the festivities that I did not recognize you for yourself…

"Arbiter."

o. o. o.

Around the world, the minds and souls of several Biju froze as a forgotten memory they never had suddenly clicked into place.

o. o. o.

The one that judges. The one that sentences. The one that see's the truth that dwells in the hearts of others. The one that declares the final verdict of the world's inhabitants with an unquestionable power and authority.

This world is the Nine Tailed Fox's territory. It belonged only to those it accepted. And none else.

The Fox did not accept the Reaper.

"I will overlook that oversight, however, I hope you do not believe a mere apology will convince me to dismiss your transgressions." Both Kurama and the image of his greater self glared at Hidan.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Hidan smiled. "I aim to take what is yours. That has not changed. But there's no need to be rude about it."

"It is far too late for you to say that."

"Hahaha." Hidan's scythe twitched, ready to move at a moment's notice. "Be that as it may, a curiosity, Arbiter. Why the Lord? Unlike myself, you have no love for mortals. No endearment. No fascination. The Lord's ego is as tolerable as this vessel's. No. You should know by now, how dreadfully unreliable humanity in particular is in its entirety. Entertaining and curious, without question, but never reliable. Never consistent. Pointless afterthoughts of Chaos and Life itself. To depend on them is laughable… unless, oh. Oh, you poor thing. You had no choice, did you? The Abomination left you with little option…"

Kurama was disgusted by the look of genuine pity Hidan was giving him.

One of his tails twitched, the tip pointing straight at the man, but no chakra was gathered.

"?!" Despite his heightened state, Hidan was forced to guard just as he was nearly impaled with a contained circular shockwave that cut cleanly through the earth and trailed off into the distance. Even so, it didn't stop the skin and flesh from his body from being ripped off as he endured the strike.

As soon as it had started though, it was over.

"Haaah. Ow." The human staggered to his feet, his wounds already healing. "Ah. I should have expected that reaction. That bastard has that effect on everyone."

"Be quiet. If your asinine assumptions weren't so astonishingly infuriating, I would be laughing at how wrong you are."

Kurama's words surprised his opponent. "… What?"

The fox sneered. "The Third Truth is insufferable, obviously, but to assume that my will is so easy to cow, I would kill you myself and be done with you if the curse you bare was not in effect. You speak as though the brat is my inferior? That I am merely being used as a glorified crown?"

The murderous intent radiating from the biju was literally tangible. Anyone short of an experienced Jonin would literally suffocate and die under the pressure the beast was emitting, the malice and rage saturating the very space around it.

"… Ha. Hahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

And then the infuriated monstrosity laughed. Bellowing from the depths of its chest.

Even Hidan was somewhat unnerved and confused by the sudden swing of emotions.

"Aaaaah. Fool. Foolish god and human alike. Ignorant and oblivious, the both of you." The beast calmed down with an absolutely murderous and genocidal smile on its face that had even most of the audience scared despite being a safe distance away. "Hashirama Senju subdued me with the Mokuton. Madara Uchiha controlled me with that blasted Sharingan. The Uzumaki and that hypocrite Namikaze kept me down with sealwork and the aid of the local divine. All of them using powers that were either borrowed or spawned from that infernal tree and woman alike. But the boy…"

o. o. o.

If anyone that had born witness to the battle could describe what they had been present for, all of them would have said the same thing.

The Apocalypse.

A Titanic Nine Tailed Fox, greater in size and scale than most futuristic skyscrapers, roared with enough power alone to change the landscape and the weather. A swing of its tails crushed mountains, plowed canyons, cleared forests, and obliterated the land around it.

At the tip of each tail was a massive orb of power that could discharge blasts or lasers at a moments' notice. A single one of them was enough to completely wipe out a mountain range, tear apart the earth's crust, and cut the sky in two, and yet would soon be easily replaced as if its cost was inconsequential.

And yet, despite its titan, divine like presence…

Above it, its foe was just as abominable.

A sentient storm. An endless cloud of pure annihilation that went as far as the eye could see, cutting off Heaven from Earth just by existing. Tornados connected the land and sky in countless numbers. Lightning strikes firing off so frequently that there was no need for the sun in order to see the world clearly.

Dotting the clouds were countless swirls of power. Balls of condensed energy, spinning and humming to their own symphony, a chorus of authority that was just as if not more overwhelming than the Fox's roars.

And if one looked carefully enough, they could see a small silhouette floating in the chaos. Shadowed by the clouds and emulated by the lightning. Blonde hair and glowing blue eyes ringed by crimson skin.

And donning the same incomprehensibly violent and rapturous smile as the Fox itself.

o. o. o.

"He beat me. Not that useless tree. Not those infernal eyes. Not the pointless divine. Not some perverse contortion of the world." Kurama took a single step forward, and the world trembled, his expression turning more feral and maddening with every passing instant. "Not for my power like some mindless fool. Not for petty revenge. Not for that pathetic dwelling or that useless village, or for those mindless monkeys that share a species with him. No. We fought because that was what we have always, always known it was going to come to eventually. Neither one of us dared to let anything get in the way of it. Neither of us tainted it with any pointless meaning or purpose. We owed one another at least that much. And it, was, exquisite."

The Arbiter had deemed the Lord of the Chaotic Heavens worthy. Of the world. Of power. Of itself.

Neither would suffer the loss of the other without retaliation. Neither would stand aside for the other's fall.

The Storm and the Beast clamed all in this land.

And all that would dare to claim otherwise shall be Judged.

o. o. o.

The group had to land prematurely in the outskirts of Iwagakure due to the cataclysm that was taking place behind them. The shockwaves rolling through the air left them all at risk of taking serious injury or being blown into Hidan's seal if they weren't careful.

"▄▄▄▄█████!"

"The hell is going on back there?!" Kurotsuchi yelled, more to make sure that her ears were still functioning than to be heard over the roars and chaos taking place. The explosions and tremors being made were so severe that many of the buildings nearby were actually collapsing, their foundations unable to handle the constant beating being taken.

"I'm not fluent in Kaiju, but from the sounds of it, something tweaked the Fox off big time." Kushina answered, not sure if anyone heard her. "More importantly, if that bastard is taking things seriously, then we better hurry. It means that that asshole priest is stronger than we thought, or the fighting has a chance of spilling over into the village itself by accident if left unchecked."

"Noted. Now shut up and move!" Onoki barely gave the woman any thought before moving in the direction of the seal, more specifically, the point in the triangle closest to them before they were forced to go down. Due to the fact that they were still flying, they weren't hampered by the tremors shaking the ground, and made good time…

"AHAHAHAAAAAAA!"

"Tsuchikage-sama!"

"STOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPIT!"

"It's Onoki-sama!"

It was a scene of mass confusion and hysteria that could be divided into two sections. The first was where the earth itself was painted red with the blood of loyalist, activist, and civilian alike. Man, woman, child and beast were all either motionless in the dirt, or writhing and screaming their lungs bleeding, completely oblivious to the world around them. All they knew was pain and suffering. Any excess information that they would otherwise have obtained from their senses was drowned out completely. While they were at the point where the triangle met the circle, the area in question itself was still at the very least fifty meters in diameter, containing an absurd amount of victims within it alone.

The other section comprised of those outside of the seal, bewildered and confused, scared and completely unaware of what to do other than the fact that stepping foot inside the other section would render them as much a victim as the others. Shinobi and ANBU alike were desperately trying to prevent as many people from crossing the threshold as possible to prevent any more casualties, but it was difficult with the fear and hysteria spreading through the populace.

In that regard, Onoki's appearance was a very welcome surprise.

"Shut up and move!" The old man didn't have the time or the patience for pleasantries, flying over his people until he was at the edge of the seal. Looking around, he instantly identified the highest ranking ANBU there and locked eyes with him. "What have you tried?"

The question alone insinuated that the old man knew exactly what the seal was and what it did, skipping the need to explain what had happened.

"Washing away the seal and standard sealbreaking techniques are ineffective. Clones and summons are useless. We tried methods to lure or assist the victims out of the seal, but they are incoherent."

"What about using ninjutsu to move them outside, or disrupt the seal physically?" Jiraiya moved forward, finally being noticed by the populace there.

To his credit, the ANBU did not appear to be surprised by his presence. "The seal is disrupting our chakra. Not completely but enough to prevent us from any substantial progress. The blood is the medium for the seal, and…"

"It's sunk too far into the earth, probably locking it in place." The Toad Sage nodded, landing on the ground. "Drunk. Brat. Work with me on this. Mobile Earth Core with a bit of extra juice."

"Right." Roshi and Kurotsuchi landed to either side of the sage, all making seals at the same time.

The Toad Sage of Mt. Myobokuzan…

The Ancient Volcano…

The Molten Fluids of the World…

"Earth Style! Mobile Earth Core!" All three of them slammed their hands down perfectly.

The Mark of Empathy was strong, binding and linking all within to one another… however…

"HaaaaaaAAAAAAAH!" All three shinobi pushed as hard as they could, both with their Presence and their Chakra against the Seal itself and the curse that locked it in place. The wide area, the amount of power keeping it in place. For several agonizingly long moments, it almost looked like the three's efforts were ineffective.

The Sage denounced its purpose.

The Volcano rejected its domain.

The Molten fluids denied its hold.

Soon enough though, changes were seen. Slowly, the ground began to swell. Miniscule amounts at first. Barely visible, but once it started the changes only accelerated. A stone tower slowly made its way into the sky, the dirt and stone consisting of the top ten meters dyed a pulsing and corrupted crimson hue, but soon enough ebbed away into a healthy natural brown that matched that of the surrounding landscape. Once the tower hit the thirty meter mark, all three shinobi released the technique and breathed out slowly.

"Holy hell. I didn't think it would be that heavy." Roshi leaned heavily on his knees, his lungs taking in deep breaths at a quick rate.

"How, the fuck, did it put up, such a fight?" Kurotsuchi settled for panting, her face flush with sweat and words intermittent.

"Bullshit, that's how." Jiraiya, still in sage mode and in the best shape of the three, let out a single breath of relief and inspected their work. It was a simple yet massive square tower, but the Seal was still in effect, and there were still people on top of the thing. "Now how do we get rid of this thing and get the people on it out?

Onoki apparently was way ahead of Jiraiya as a small glowing Dust Style disk flew from his hands and split the top and bottom halves of the tower seamlessly. A second later, the old man floated next to a portion of the top half that wasn't corrupted by blood while making some seals, and touched it.

The gnome then single handedly grabbed the disconnected rock formation, lifted the several hundred ton structure up as if it weighed nothing (which it probably did at this point), and then tilted it, allowing each and every delirious and tortured individual on it to slide off into safe territory, albeit covered in blood.

Once everyone on the platform had fallen off and was in safe hands, the old man almost lazily threw the construct into the air and obliterated it with a Dust Technique.

"… Well that takes care of those problems." Jiraiya, Ma, Pa, and Kushina blinked owlishly at the sight, not used to seeing the Tsuchikage work in person. Secretly, both were glad that he was on their side.

The old man turned his attention back to them, his eyes cold and clearly in no mood for jokes. "Well?"

Kushina blinked, smiling nervously and knowing exactly what Onoki was getting at. Turning around, she looked back at the remains of the seal, and those inside of it.

The corner of the triangle itself no longer existed, and the circle was disrupted, however there was still an ominous glow emanating from what was left of the seal, and those trapped inside were still ensnared by overwhelming agony.

Her nervousness fell away to annoyance. "It didn't work. Like I said, we might have to destroy all three points before the array falls apart. It was wishful thinking that we'd be able to get rid of this thing on the first try."

"That might be a problem. Just dislodging one of the corners took a lot out of us." Roshi grimaced, looking at what remained of the tower they made before turning to the clearly exhausted Kurotsuchi. Chakra wise, they were good to go, but using their Presence so much against something of an otherworldly nature like that was… abnormal. They weren't used to it. Like training a muscle that they didn't know they had. There was only so much they could do. "I don't think we'd be able to do this two more times. Once more, yeah, but that might be our limit."

"We'll think of something." Kushina supported them. "At the very least, the stability of the seal has been compromised with what we've already done. Hopefully it'll make the next sites easier to d-SON OF A BITCH!"

Everyone there had the opportunity to witness the woman jump sky high into the air while grabbing her tail bone and swearing like a veteran.

"What?! What happened?!" Jiraiya looked alarmed as she fell back to earth, her face scrunched up in pain.

"Aaaah! Owwwww! I'm mostly made of Naruto's chakra, and the Fox is fighting that asshole. I'm getting ghost pains of whatever that furry bastard gets hit with, and that includes what happens to his tails, apparently even if I don't have any." She hissed in pain while rubbing the crack of her ass. "It feels like half the thing just got torn off and it fucking hurts."

"Then we'd better stop wasting time." Onoki floated down and refreshed the flying technique on his entourage before looking at the populace around him.

Rebels. Loyalists. Civilians.

Corpses.

"Tch." The Tsuchikage's anger spiked. As if Ghost's visit wasn't damaging and scarring enough, they now had to deal with this mess. "Shut up and listen! High level Earth Level Ninjutsu specialists, go around the seal until you find the next point where the inner triangle meets the outer circle. Under no circumstances is anyone to enter the seal! Everyone else do what you can to tend to the wounded!"

"Tsuchikage-sama! What is going on?! What's happening?!" One civilian asked, literally on the edge of hysterics.

Onoki desperately wanted to tell her the truth, but thought better of it. Even he had trouble digesting what he had just learned in the past hour.

Thankfully, Jiraiya and Roshi had more experience covering up this level of insanity with bullshit on the fly.

"Akatsuki betrayed the rebels." The Toad Sage came up with a half truth on the fly, truly a tale only a fictional writer could conjure so quickly. "They're the ones that set up this seal in an attempt to strengthen themselves and take over Iwagakure while you are weak."

"It's true." Roshi joined in seamlessly. "That blonde brat is impossibly annoying, but he isn't our enemy. At least not for now. He's single handedly holding off the worst of the bastards while we get rid of this thing. As much as I hate to admit it, he's the only one that can finish this mess."

"Stop wasting time!" Onoki snapped, getting everyone to jump. "If you want this mess to end, then follow my orders! My group will head to the other corner and address it, but we will need help for the final one if it comes to that! If you care at all about Iwagkure and your fellow man, then do what I say or get out of my damn Village!"

Without waiting for a response, the Tsuchikage flew off in the direction of the other corner of the triangle.

"Wait! Hold on Gramps!" Kurotsuchi chased after him soon afterwards.

Jiraiya, Kushina, and Roshi looked around uncomfortably before following as well, the sounds of battle in the distance still going strong prevented any hope of an awkward silence from taking place.

"I'd hurry up if I were you. 'Noki's pissed, and I'm not much further behind him." Roshi advised the group on the ground. "You have no idea how bad this shit show's been. Considering the fact that I've fought in the past couple of wars, that's saying something."

"No kidding…" Jiraiya muttered, noting the three beams of pure black chakra that just tore across the skies of the village and obliterating parts of the walls surrounding it.

o. o. o.

Hidan panted heavily, blood weeping from various wounds on his body and a wide grin made wider by his torn cheeks etched on his face. Even so, it did nothing to stop him from walking in a wide circle, his eyes never leaving his enemy.

Kurama was in better shape, but not unscathed as he too waked around the invisible circumference. One of his tails had a deep gash that seemed to refuse to heal.

The two leered at one another as animals of the hunt, eying the other as prey.

One of the Fox's tails twitched in such a slight way that unless one was paying attention to it carefully, they wouldn't have noticed anything odd at all.

Hidan vanished just before the spot he was in was completely cratered.

All the tails were endlessly twitching now.

The battleground was relentlessly assaulted and pocketed. Countless perfect circles and gashes spawned instantly without any prior warning, save for Hidan's fleeting image sporadically flashing in and out of sight.

"Quite fast. All that excess chakra and your latent knowledge is proving to be quite the boost." Kurama did not have the Sharingan, however he had no issues keeping up with his target. Rapid fire shunshins weren't uncommon to see in high level fights, but they were draining and horribly inefficient. Even Presence couldn't mitigate that drawback much, and as a result, there was a general consensus as to how fast the technique could make the user.

Of course, that was simply for shinobi, and shinobi related techniques.

In a split second, one of the Fox's paws struck the ground ten times.

He vanished, and appeared right in front of his target with a gleeful smirk, and tails flared out, twitching and strained like bowstrings.

The Arbiter has made its decision.

Hidan stilled, momentarily surprised by the turn of events before his eyes widened in genuine alarm, his chest already screaming from the impact that was destined to come. "This is?!"

Naruto wasn't the only one that learned and recreated some nasty tricks over the years.

Its verdict is assured.

"Scathach."

The three uninjured tails of the Biju extended and fired off at irregular angles, changing directions dozens of times each in less than a few seconds. Twisting and perverting reality itself, yet all homing in on the same target.

The Reaper will not-

"Gah?!" Hidan tried to escape the attack and deflect the others with his scythe, however his escape and defenses were not up to quality as one of the tails hammered the scythe with an absurd level of power and force that rivaled one of Naruto's Rasengan, throwing him off balance and opening him for the remaining two to impale the priest's chest.

"I thought as much." Kurama grinned. Hidan was a powerhouse and had endless stamina, but there was a limit to his output.

Hidan's and Naruto's strikes were akin to a high grade bomb going off each time.

Kurama's were that of a mountain.

"Idiot…" Despite all logical reason that would say that the man would die from having half his chest impaled, Hidan seemed to be more pissed than anything. Blood poured from his mouth as he readied to swing his scythe in his right arm, as the pectoral muscle in his left was all but nonexistent at the moment. "You fucking dumbass beast!"

Kurama didn't look too surprised. "Shed."

As one, all the corrupted chakra fur on the tails stood on end, tearing up some more of the Priest's insides.

"Shatter."

Said fur then fired off like needles with the force of high caliber bullets in all directions.

Hidan didn't have the opportunity to go through with his strike, as his body was literally torn apart from the inside out in a spectacular explosion of blood.

"You have some nerve, calling me an idiot in your situation." Each one of the fox's tails was radiating corrosive chakra and intense heat. Not a single drop of blood got even close to the creature without burning up and turning to ash and corrupted smoke in an instant.

Instead of staying in place for a moment, or getting closer, Kurama actually widened the distance between himself and the pile of meat that was Hidan.

Said pile of meat soon began to twitch and writhe, gathering onto itself into an even uglier meat blob, saturated and sparking with corrupted black energy until a human frame was visible once more.

However, it was not completely back to normal, as countless painful welts and swellings were visible all over the man's body. Half his face was inflamed, and one of his eyes was barely visible due to the skin sagging over it.

"You fuck-r." Hidan slurred, staggering due to his legs being mismatched. "Your chakra's dithgusting."

Kurama would have retorted, but noticed a certain familiar twitching in his enemy's body language and dilating of the eyes.

With a disgusted look, his tails twitched again without warning, and Hidan's body once more exploded into pieces. "The Oogakari are infuriating, but even they aren't so vile as to get off on being in that state."

There were masochists, and then there were mistakes like Hidan.

He did have one point though. Kurama's chakra was disgusting. After all, it was saturated by the malice of humanity, fermenting for a thousand or so years. And people wondered why the Biju was nearly perpetually in such a poor mood.

Hidan was merely embodying the physical empathy of pain. He, and pretty much everyone else, were not geared to handle that much raw emotional malice. If Hidan's power blinded its targets, Kurama's twisted them into an eldritch abomination that reflected the madness of man.

Be that as it may, Kurama was no fool. If he gave Hidan an instant to recover things could get out of hand quickly. He had seen enough abominations over the past few years to know when a fight was won, and when things were merely being stalled.

As such, he chose the unfair, practical, boring, and cruel path, and ensured that Hidan could not recover by constantly reducing the madman into chopped meat every few seconds from a safe distance.

Cheesing it, maybe. But he'd rather be doing that then risk having one of his tails being almost cut off again.

Speaking of which.

Seemingly putting his other three tails on autopilot, obliterating Hidan's progress every few seconds, he lifted the limp end of his fourth tail in front of him. It wouldn't be off to say that the tail was held together by the bone, if there was one in the first place, and the thing hurt like hell due to Hidan's lingering powers.

"How annoying." Without hesitation, he opened his maw wide open and tore off the useless appendage in a single go.

Not stopping there, the fox chewed on his tail for several intimidating seconds before swallowing it at once.

His tails. His body. They were all mere physical constructs made of his chakra. A representation of his ego, not unlike his Presence image. So long as the energy came back to him in one manner or another, it didn't matter how his power was used. What he wouldn't tolerate though was leaving any portion of his power absolutely useless. There was no point in allowing such a thing to persist. A waste.

Ignoring the crimson haze that started to emerge from his damaged appendage, he pondered his current situation.

He was more or less effortlessly stun locking Hidan for now. Kushina and the others meatbags were dealing with the seal, and the idiot was napping and recovering up in the sky, using the fox's other five tails as foundation to boost his recovery.

The setup was pleasantly in their favor for once.

Which meant that things were about to go to shit again because why the hell not?

Kurama expanded his senses in all directions and was on high alert, but still portrayed himself as if he had already won the fight. His abilities were not as fine-tuned as Naruto's were, but he still had a number of tricks he could use aptly.

Hidan stood out like a fog light. Meaty chunks and all. The possessed man was so twisted with malice that the fox was almost surprised that he wasn't physically mutating already. Every part of him stuck out like a sore thumb. His body parts. His soul. Even his power.

"Hoh?"

Crimson eyes turned down to the ground.

Especially his power.

The fox vanished an instant before several tendrils of wood shot from the earth to impale him.

"… No. Not wood." He corrected his initial assumption from a seemingly safe distance, only to vanish once more to avoid getting tangled in another mess of plant life that spawned beneath him.

Only this time, he whipped down two of his tails to hammer the earth in front of him, causing two massive walls of stone to shoot up in front of him and isolate Hidan.

Along with the walls, a plethora of familiar pale human bodies also erupted into the sky.

"He was right. Those pathetic things are like weeds. They simply won't go away or die." It was too much to hope that all of the annoying things had been wiped out during the fighting before Kaguya showed up, and as much as he wanted to ignore them, he couldn't risk ending up like Kokuou.

What they could do, unfortunately in this case, was feel pain. Something that Hidan could exploit if the residual powers that were invading each and every one of the plant men were any indication.

Sadly for them, their quality was woefully lacking.

Soundlessly, the fox landed on top of one of the freshly made barriers like a cat landing on a thick fence. His gaze turned down to see Hidan almost completely healed. Unfortunately for the monster, the walls to either side made obliterating him into meaty chunks again a simple task.

"Haaaaa!"

"Make it stop! Make it stop!"

"What did you do?! Mother! Mother help me!"

Dozens of Zetsu fell from the sky like rain, their bodies already morphing into plant like abominations to either attack or latch onto the biju. Their twisted minds already halfway lost to the pain and agony that Hidan was inflicting onto them.

With a disappointed sigh, Kurama moved his tails into a new pattern, extending and whipping them around like the world's most violent ribbons before spinning them rapidly, tearing apart each and every would be attacker like they were in a blender.

"I thought that your range of abilities was peculiarly limited." He voiced his own assumptions as Hidan began to reshape again. "You are Empathy. Your domain is of physical sensation. It shouldn't be surprising to assume you can control others via their nervous system using false pain signals to move them whatever way you wish."

The more he looked at it, the more he agreed that Hidan needed to be dealt with immediately. Putting the monster in a populated area of any form of life would only lead to a massacre. Most Presence users could be beaten if enough power and numbers were thrown at them, but this bastard was an exception. More people would only make the freak more powerful. This monster literally could not be stopped if he was left alone.

The fact that the idiot didn't use this tactic before meant that there were limitations though. Likely it was a matter of concentration and focus. Controlling someone via the nerves was bound to be vastly more difficult than doing so via the mind or soul. It would be a very imprecise method at best, especially given the fact that the user was an idiot. Only the most basic of commands would be usable at best passively. Especially if he wanted to influence large numbers of victims.

"… Wait."

o. o. o.

"What the hell is going on?"

It was a scene of pure madness.

Onoki and his entourage looked down at the second site to see a massacre taking place at the scene of a prior massacre.

People trapped within the seal were still oblivious to the world around them, entrapped by the raw agony that blinded them to reason. Fuel for a god that equated suffering to living itself.

However, outside of the stain, there was a confused battle taking place between the citizens of Iwagakure. People screaming out in agony, moving around as if they were possessed or drunk, attacking friends, family and allies alike without restraint or control.

"They're… attacking themselves?" Kurotsuchi paled in disgust and horror. Even worse, she recognized a good number of the faces below her. Friends and coworkers. Dead and alive.

"Look at them." Ma frowned. "Even the ones attacking are screaming out in pain for some reason."

"That bastard. Somehow Hidan's upped his game. He can somehow control his victim's movements through pain now." Kushina grit her teeth. She had seen all sorts of nightmares in her travels with Naruto, and many were worse than this. Even so, for something of this scale to happen in her home world made it hit far harder than it should have. "This is, bad. Real bad. We need to get rid of this thing before the guy comes up with any more tricks he can use and increase the range of his power."

Pa looked at everyone. "Ma. Onoki. Kushina. Knock them out. I don't care if you're gentle. A concussion's better than leaving them in their current state. The rest of us with Presence will deal with the seal corner here. If we're lucky, it'll stop with this end, but we can't stop here."

The group only hesitated for a brief moment before nodding and getting to work. Kurotsuchi, Jiraiya, Pa, and Roshi used their Presence enhanced jutsu to raise and dislodge the portion of the seal in front of them out of the ground. Onoki set up a stone barrier around them so that they wouldn't get attacked from behind, and then joined Ma and Kushina in organizing whoever was sane in the area and knocking out those that were under Hidan's control.

All of them hoped that it would be over with this corner.

It wasn't.

o. o. o.

"Tch." Kurama jumped a small distance to avoid another slew of weed like appendages. "This is getting annoying."

It wasn't hard to avoid the seemingly endless tiny assaults from the Zetsu while keeping Hidan in meaty paste like status. It was just tedious.

Or rather, it would be, if there wasn't one tiny fact that was becoming more and more apparent.

Hidan was healing faster than before. Twice as fast, to be specific, and speeding up at that. Whether it was out of desperation, or he was getting stronger was anyone's guess, but it was a problem all the same. He couldn't take his attention off of the monstrosity for more than a second lest he fully reform now.

Oh well. He had stalled long enough as it is. Might as well take things into a new direction to make things easier.

With a large leap, the fox landed on the other side of the reforming mass that was his enemy within the artificial crevice he had made. A small, pulsing ebony orb of power already primed in his mouth. He did not bother to make note of the weed like tendrils that were lancing out at him from nearly all directions.

The blob twitched, as if aware and alarmed of what was about to come.

The world around the beast disintegrated into oblivion the instant the power was unleashed. All went deaf, for there was no need for sound in this new realm. It went blind, for there was no need for light where nothing existed. All that truly mattered in that instant was power.

Kurama smirked as everything fell away to his might. The stones around him. The annoying plant men that were rendered silent. Hidan, who was blasted a good long distance away from him. It was good to feel on top once more.

Even if he knew it wasn't true anymore.

With a burst of speed, he rushed forward, knowing that his enemy was alive and already recovering again. Dozens of smaller chakra bombs shot from his mouth with pinpoint accuracy, hammering exactly where he knew Hidan was and launching him even further back.

Further away.

And closer to the giant flower in the sky.

That wasn't to say that the Fox's advent was unimpeded. The instant he chased after his new toy, walls of stone and plants stared to spawn from the ground as makeshift barriers to slow down his progress.

They did little next to nothing, as they were all torn apart by his tails before he even came close, blasting through the remains as if they weren't even there to begin with.

And yet, despite all his progress, Kurama felt that something was off.

The first visible sign that his instincts were correct was when one of his mini biju bombs didn't explode on contact with the target, but instead was deflected.

That alone was enough to force the fox to realize that the game had changed.

Skidding to a stop, he charged a larger bomb in his mouth and fired it off into the sky. The moment it was roughly overhead of Hidan, it burst into countless smaller bombs and fell to the earth from above like hellfire. Each "ember" that touched down erupted like a small volcano, taking out whatever was unfortunate enough to be within its blast radius.

Well, almost anything.

"Haaaaaa!" Flying from one of the explosions, a black and red blur trailing substances of similar colors sliced through the sky and arced itself right at the fox.

All four of the beast's tails twitched rapidly, unleashing a massive barrage of powerful concussive blasts at that oncoming man, who was still lacking most of his skin, but they were all either batted out of the way or dodged almost instantly despite having no foothold. Not wanting a close ranged battle, Kurama made to move-

The Reaper always gets its prey in the end…

"?!"

However Hidan seemed to suddenly speed up and jump through time and space in an instant, closing in on Kurama before he could properly retreat.

The world moved in slow motion as the scythe closed in on the fox's head.

Damn it. He had let his guard down. Of course the bastard would use The Ways. When it came to cheap shots, that particular use of Presence was leagues above the standard methods. The most common way to reliably counter someone that could use it was via Assurance.

And of course, Assurance was the hardest to use of the standard methods of Presence. Bending time and space, and altering causality like that was not an easy trick to make happen. Even Naruto had trouble pulling it off.

Kurama… had slightly less trouble.

The Arbiter has made its verdict.

"No."

Crack.

With a sickening sound, the Fox's mouth opened almost instantly with the same unnatural process that his enemy had just employed, even within the miniscule amount of time it was taking for Hidan to carve him apart.

More importantly, within said mouth was an already primed ball of black chakra.

"Shi-!"

The world exploded as Hidan took a point blank Bijudama to the face, altering the already viciously abused landscape to kingdom come with a new crater to add to the view.

As much as he hated to admit it, training with Ghost and Naruto had proven useful at times. Storing a spare sphere in his mouth long term for emergencies during battle had save him more often than he'd ever admit, even if it had been a pain in the ass to do it properly.

Still, it hadn't been enough to completely get him out of harm's way.

"Tch." His front left leg now sported a long gash from shoulder to elbow, and burned with an infuriating agony that was more than a bit distracting. After being saturated in the malice of humanity for so long, the pain merely fell into the realm of annoying, however the damage itself was enough to hamper his movement a bit.

He didn't bother to address or pay the injury much mind though.

Instead he focused on the fact that while his attack had made a massive crater, it was one that was shaped peculiarly, as if the blast had encountered an obstacle that split the hole it made in half.

His eyes narrowed. His tails whipped about violently. Chakra was gathered.

He barely had time to react as what appeared to be a raging cadaver, stripped of skin and half his muscles blasted out of the debris with his scythe, screaming through his mouth and a hole in his neck like a possessed berserker.

"Sky Style. One Thousand Leagues."

The monster was slowed down instantly just a few scant meters away from its target, suffocating under the sudden pressure that it found itself in.

The Kyubi however, did not experience such a handicap, and grinned malevolently.

With a massive swing, all four of his tails, positively glowing with chakra, hammered into Hidan's body and sent him flying into the air.

"Bout time you woke up."

Naruto floated down casually next to his life long friend. Physically, he looked ok. He didn't have a scratch on him despite his ruined clothes. Other than his rather tired expression, he appeared to be as good as new. "The nap sucked. Had a nightmare about some asshole that kept on stabbing me."

"You don't say." The Fox's tails flared out, gathering power for a full scale Bijudama. "He's getting stronger."

"Sounds like a problem." Naruto held up a hand, glancing at the gathering point. Almost instantly, wind chakra joined into the mix in horrifying quantities, forcing the beast's chakra to get caught in the currents of power and follow the three dimensional flows.

"Make it extra spicy. His regeneration's getting annoying. Even by our standards." Strands of the beast's coarse fur shed without warning, joining in the manifesting chaos seamlessly and giving it a faint red hue.

"Really? Well I can't say no to any requests now." The human's eyes narrowed with concentration, and the streams of wind chakra thinned, doubled, and increased in velocity almost instantly.

Soon enough, the howling winds began to hum with a tune.

One row.

The Lord of The Chaotic Heavens.

Two rows.

The Arbiter.

Three rows.

The World.

A pitch black Rasenshuriken hummed an eldritch tune that no group of humans, much less any set of living sane beings, would ever match. With green and crimson highlights, and a twisted swirling core, the twelve bladed jutsu radiated with so much power that those watching it through the screen could feel the thing from where they were. The fact that so much chakra was gathered between the two, let alone the fact that a human had matched the raw power of a Biju to create something, was quite frankly absurd.

"Extra spicy you said?" Naruto asked, his focus already honed in on Hidan, who had just landed and was already making his way back to them at record speeds.

"Modified Ghost Pepper." Kurama confirmed, lowering his head to aim the flat side of the spinning triple layered fan at their target.

"Damn. He must have really pissed you off." As if on cue, all three blades seemed to exponentially increase their rotating speed, increasing their pitch to ear shattering heights. Somehow, the increased spinning resulted in light and space bending around its edges, causing the world around it to alter and twist to its very existence.

Dozens of tendrils burst out from the ground around them. For an instant, it almost looked like they would manage to interfere with the technique before it was used.

The next instant though, all of the plantlife near the pair was shredded to pieces. They didn't even count as an afterthought.

"Final Art."

Hidan's eyes narrowed in frustration. Even if he was immortal and recovered from most things quickly, even he wouldn't enjoy suffering from a direct hit from that monstrosity.

With a single step, the Reaper closed in on its-

T̶̬͙̚ḧ̴̙͉̞͎́́i̵͉̓̌̇͛̎͘s̷̡͎̑̏ ̴͇̟̝́̂͘̕͠i̵̦͈͐̄͠s̴̱̉̽̃̀ ̵̛͖͉̝͈̌̾̀̃͘͜ͅn̷̝̯̑̽o̵̬̪̲̓͜t̸̡͓͍̪͝ ̸̜̔̋̍̐̚t̷͇̩̯̰̽͝ͅh̶̡̨̲̠͕͎͗͋͝͝e̴̼̲͇̾̀̿̀̚ ̵̧̒̌̂͊̆͑Ṟ̶͉̞͂͌̋̕ě̶̢͕̹̫̗̌̎͒ȁ̶͕̜p̸̮̯͑̔͠ͅê̵̢̞͉̬̎̍̐̃r̵̪̟͛'̴̲̬̉̃̏s̷̫̿̄̈́͠ ̸̛͖͙͈͌̂̉̾̚T̴̝͋̒ͅe̷̮̳̰̮̿̅̿̃r̴̮̫͙͝ŕ̵̢̤̣̪̍̒̒͝ȉ̷̟̩̥t̶͈͍́̆̾̆̇͝ȍ̷̟̱̳͙r̵͓̙̅͆́̕y̶̡͖͎̤̱̎̊̃.̵̤̩̤̮̓͐

"Hngh?!" Instead of appearing right in front of his prey, Hidan merely traveled a normal pace, and was thrown off balance, landing on a knee and holding his body up with a hand on the ground.

Hidan may be an extension of a God. He may even know their ways.

Even a God requires permission to do as it pleases in another's realm.

"Primal Chorus."

The ebony beam of power unleashed by the tag-team of Naruto and Kurama absolutely dwarfed its lesser two ringed counterpart. The output of a Bijudama, condensed by the constant spiraling of a Rasengan, supplemented by Level Two Chakra, Wind Chakra, and Presence, turned the discharge into a literal force that only an entity of the Juubi's pedigree at full power could survive a direct hit.

And that didn't even take into account that the space roughly two hundred meters in any direction of the thing was spinning around the thing. Earth, sky and all.

"Fuck fuck fuck FUCK!" In the scant seconds before he was going to be obliterated, Hidan managed to push himself back onto his feet, twirling his scythe in his hands, opened the Seventh Inner Gate, channeled all of his power and Presence into his scythe, and slammed the butt down on the ground, bracing himself just in time…

"FUUUUUUUUUUCK!"

To apparently be slowly rendered into shreds of tiny biological matter instead of instantly, if his lingering frame within the unending cylinder of power was any indication.

Said beam of power proceeded to blast forward without pause, literally impaling and punching a hole through the nearest mountain as if it wasn't even there to begin with. And the one behind that. And the one behind that. And so on, and so on.

To the point that it actually exited the mountain range of the Land of Earth, abusing the skies over some of the neighboring low level planes and continuing to slowly climb in altitude.

Following the initial mutilation of nature was no less pleasant to witness, as the bending space and hypersonic winds generated around the thing then hammered into the front sides of every mountain that was speared through. The titanic faces of stone were violently stripped like layers of skin, while their bodies twisted and contorted under the unnatural nature of the beam itself.

The end result was something that genuinely looked like it belonged in another world.

A titanic canyon that dwarfed the Valley of the End. Stone spires, the remnants of the mountains that had once been there, clawing up to the skies on each side as if representing the earth's displeasure at the skies above.

o. o. o.

"I know that we all agreed to not have any max expectations of what Naruto could do when he came back, but… shit. When the hell is it going to end?" Ino summed up everyone's thoughts adequately.

"In the back of my mind, I always wondered what it would look like when he worked together with the fox, and not simply use his power." Sakura shivered. "I was right to fear that possibility."

"The sad thing is, if the other Jinchuriki see this, I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to do something similar so they wouldn't get left behind." Kiba scratched the shaking Akamaru in a vain attempt to forget his own insecurities. As an Inuzuka, he knew damn well how absurd collaboration techniques could get, but this was just stupid.

"H-heh. Looks like you've lost your spot when it comes to best tag team jutsu with Naruto." Chouji tried to make light of the situation, turning to Sasuke with an unsteady smile.

The accused in question merely glared at the screen with crimson eyes. "Fuck that. All this means is that I have a standard to beat now."

Besides, as far as he was concerned, this didn't count. The fox was just an outside well of power. No finesse. No actual jutsu. Just absurd strength. Furball could say whatever it wanted. In the end, he'd have the last laugh.

Kakashi sighed, recovering quicker than most of the others there. "Well, at the very least-"

"Guys? Something's wrong."

And like that, everyone's stomach dropped for an entirely new and vastly less plesant reason.

Turning to the speaker, they all witnessed Hinata beginning to panic.

The cause being fox in her arms that was currently having a seizure.

o. o. o.

All around the world, everyone watched, seemingly in slow motion, as both Naruto, and Kurama, collapsed face forward with little energy in their bodies. Their eyes wide open and dilated, as if trying to scream through them.

o. o. o.

Jiraiya had only managed to see Kushina's face for an instant before she popped out of existence.

The expression of pure agony, so extreme that she could not even move or breathe was enough to know that something had gone very wrong.

"Kushina!" The sage shouted, his face turning pale. "No… wait, something's happened to Naruto!"

"Then hurry up!" Onoki shouted as they approached the third corner of the seal. "You're the strongest out of us against that stupid jutsu! The sooner you get rid of it, the sooner you can get to that jackass!"

Jiraiya was about to argue, but one look at Onoki's infuriated expression cut him off. Ever since they approached the second corner, they had been witnessing nothing but carnage and torture as the people of Iwa either fought one another in senseless battle, or screamed their lungs bloody in agony, tortured by invisible forces.

Onoki was right. The seal took priority. The seal was what was empowering Hidan. If they got rid of the last corner, they might be able to help out Naruto.

Hopefully.

The sight of a massive brawl between the shinobi that Onoki had sent to the final corner and those under Hidan's influence didn't help things.

o. o. o.

"Ghost? What the hell just happened?" Hana asked, clearly alarmed and worried as she and everyone else watched Naruto spasm on the ground next to the equally paralyzed Kyubi.

"Hm…" Unlike most people there, as usual, Ghost and the other immortals were vastly more curious and calm than concerned about Naruto's current situation. "Hey Shadow, you catch that seal?"

"Yup. Don't know what it was though." When Hidan had staggered from Naruto's and Kurama's efforts, he had placed his hand on the ground. As he got back up, for a brief moment, the screen showed a small inverted Jashinist seal where his hand had been. A circle within a triangle. Said seal was also obliterated during Naruto's attack, but otherwise didn't do anything at face value.

"Hmmm." Waltz scratched his beard in thought. "Maybe a Karma seal?"

At once, Ghost, Shadow, and Dima groaned in annoyance. From their expressions, it was clear that they all resigned themselves to that conclusion, much to their chagrin.

"Those annoying things? Again?" Dima languished. "They're such a pain in the ass."

"Aaaaah! Fucking Karma Seals! Every time! Every time things look like they're going well, someone just HAS to whip one of those stupid things out!" Shadow was almost on the verge of tears. "Why can't people just stop using them already!?"

"What's a Karma Seal?" One of the ANBU there asked confused, more or less for everyone else there.

"It's a crude cheapshot." Sylvia sighed, knowing exactly why everyone else hated the things so much. She didn't have nearly as much trouble with them as the others due to her powers, but she could understand their frustration. "A onetime use seal that acts like that man's voodoo technique, except instead of directly linking the victim's wounds with the attacker, it functions differently."

Ghost elaborated. "It's triggered by being destroyed. Then it takes the existence of the phenomena that broke it, records and accumulates literally all damage done to living beings by the same phenomena, and then imposes that damage onto the source. It's basically an ultimate move counter. The more wide scale destruction done, the harder the person or thing responsible for it gets hit. Problem is that they are a bitch to use properly without getting caught in the blast themselves, they are only useful in certain circumstances, and they have a crappy shelf life. All in all, they are annoying when they are used, but aren't that reliable most of the time."

"And considering young Naruto just obliterated a wide path into the Land of Stone's mountain range, he's probably experiencing the damage he's done not only to Hidan, but also what he's inadvertently done to the local wildlife as well." Waltz summarized.

It was a typical flaw in most typical "hero" types. Huge flashy attacks were well and good if you could use them reliably, but collateral damage was still collateral damage.

"If they are so dangerous, then why aren't you worried?" Anko was barely holding herself together, but she had known Ghost for a long time now. If the asshole wasn't alarmed about something there was a reason for it, as infuriating as it may feel.

"Because he's still in one piece. And awake. Barely." Shadow nodded to the screen. "Considering who the user was, that move should have obliterated the minion's body as thoroughly as Hidan's. Kid must have been able to use his Presence to mitigate the worst of the effects, but it was still a close call. Bottom line though?"

o. o. o.

The fight's not over.

"… Ah… ah."

It hurt.

Oh sweet merciful gods above and below it hurt.

He couldn't tell if the feeling he had of having every nanometer of his flesh stripped apart from itself was a genuine representation of what state he was in, or simply what was imposed on his body.

Some tiny, barely self-aware part of his mind reasoned that the fact that the pain had yet to go away yet in any part of his body meant that he was still intact.

The rest of his mind though told it to shut up and continued to scream out violently.

This, this level of pain, was unimaginable. It was impossible to fathom any combination of torture methods and chemicals that could match this blinding inferno that seized every living part of his body.

It was… it was…

"Ku-ma…"

Just shy of what was needed to put him out of the game. Barely.

Never. He would never thank Ghost for this conditioning. For the shit the asshole had put him through. For the nightmares he had to deal with.

But… as much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, he could not deny that it had been for a reason.

For the bullshit times where he was hit was something overwhelmingly nasty, not for laughs, but because someone who was just that sick and disgusting wanted him dead. Wanted him to suffer.

For situations, just like this.

The fox didn't immediately reply to him. And when he did, it was with an animalistic snarl.

Great. His partner in crime was also still among the waking world.

"Haaaa." Oh. He could feel himself breathing again. Good. That meant that the pain was starting to die off enough for him to regain control of his bodily functions soon. That what he experienced was only a short term burst of absolute hell.

His body was not going to work in his favor anytime soon. His mind was in such a delirium from the agony that he was going to need time just to remember how to move again.

He was a sitting duck. But…

"Haaa." He breathed out slowly again and withdrew his mind from the world. From himself. Going into his mindscape wasn't going to help after the major psychological blow he just took. Not that he could logically deduce much in his current state. He was running more on instinct than anything right now, but it was instinct that had been pounded into his very being after years of training with Ghost. Years of being horrible situations. Years of facing impossible questions.

Years of learning absurd tricks.

It wasn't a clone. It wasn't his spirit. It wasn't his soul or anything like that. But, as the seconds passed, Naruto was more aware of his surroundings, and less aware of his body.

The pain was still there, but it was an echo of what it should be. Something that was tolerable.

Normally, this trick was too dangerous to use in times of extreme stress for anyone to use. Especially without an adequate medium.

Thankfully, Naruto had gone through enough out of body experiences to curb some of that danger. That and the air around him was a suitable enough medium for the time being.

He wouldn't be able to do much fighting like this, but at least this way he wouldn't be blind to the world. Ironic, since most people wouldn't be able to see him like this.

A series of feet landing nearby caught his attention.

He held back a groan. Not of pain this time, but of pure annoyance.

Why were these idiots still around?

"I don't see Hidan." Sasori looked around with his plastic eyes. "I think the Kyubi might have killed him for good this time."

"Wonderful. Now hurry up and grab the damn fox so we can get out of here." Kakuzu hissed, being supported by Sasori's chakra strings, coughing up enough blood to stain the mask that covered his face.

"Careful. We don't know what jutsu defeated the beast. Don't want to get caught in it. Its mind and body may be weak, but its chakra is still overwhelming." Tobi advised, leaning against Sasori. Not because he was particularly injured…

… But because both of his eyes were dull and colorless.

Onoki's jutsu had indeed obliterated the Akatsuki's bodies, however all three of the monsters had escaped certain death their own way.

Sasori had been controlling his main body remotely, having implanted his real heart in the body of a spare puppet and using one of his stored axillary hearts from earlier as a red herring.

Kakuzu had done something similar. He had two spare hearts at the time, and so used one of them to facilitate in making a clone that was exactly like him in every way before he had even arrived with Kurotsuchi. He didn't trust anybody right now, and that included his so called allies.

Tobi had used Izanagi, sacrificing his greatest asset in a moment of panic to get around Kushina's seals for a second time.

He could no longer use Kamui.

Of all the major losses and setbacks he had experienced this day, the loss of Obito's Sharingan was right up there with the loss of Nagato and his Rinnegan.

On a side note, ironically, the blank eyes almost made him look like he had become a Hyuuga.

The three had laid low and played possum after their staged deaths. Hidan was now unreliable to put it lightly, Naruto was a wildcard, and the Kyubi was the Kyubi. All three were beaten down, crippled and low in resources. Direct confrontation would only get them killed for real now.

Naruto kept quiet though and watched. He couldn't do much in his current state, but that didn't mean he was helpless.

Besides. The longer they stalled, the more his body recovered.

An annoyed growl to his side caught his attention.

Oh. And Kurama recovered.

Sasori stepped forward with his current body, surprisingly his original puppet body, and took out a scroll. He was still a good distance from his targets, which was unfortunate. Even blind with agony or in the middle of a panic attack, Naruto was still surrounded by a barrier of invisible vicious winds that would tear apart most people that got too close. A quick and easy kill he was not.

Both parties were about to start their work, when a chill traveled through both of their beings and drew their attention to the side.

To the direction that Naruto had just blasted.

It was like something from a horror film. A shattered, incomplete, disfigured corpse was dragging itself across the ground. Bone blood, and muscle were all visible in equal amounts. Most of the thing's limbs weren't even there, none of its skin, half of its skull was caved in, literally only half an eye was present, and what was left of its organs were halfway hanging out of its body and torn to shreds. Each and every part of its body, inside and out, was littered with countless chakra microneedles and hair fibers that impeded and impaired his chakra flow and body's ability to function in virtually every feasible way possible.

And yet it was still moving. And yet it was still alive.

"The hell?" Kakuzu rasped, half in bewilderment, half in disgust. Even after seeing his partner get butchered in nearly every possible way over the years, he had never seen the bastard in this twisted of a state.

Naruto on the other hand, was only slightly relieved in the fact that he had not actually blasted the prick to the other side of the continent. It would have been a pain finding him again.

It still didn't change the fact that the thing was radiating pure malice, directed right at his supposed coworkers. Nor the fact that if one looked carefully, they'd see that it was actually regenerating, albeit at an incredibly slow pace.

"…ooooo." The thing seemed to hiss, blood pooling from its body as it used its one semi intact arm to drag it to their direction.

"What is it?" Tobi asked.

"It's… Hidan, I think." Sasori surmised, before dismissing the newcomer and turning his attention to the scroll. "It's nothing to waste our time thinking about."

The sudden wave of crippling killing intent and rage that washed over them begged to differ.

"Mine."

The lone word sent chills through everyone's bodies, even though it was not even spoken.

"The Lord, The Arbiter. They are mine."

"What on earth..?" Sasori blinked in confusion, pricks of pain raced through nerves that did not exist in his puppet body, as if it was flesh and blood.

"I-Tobi. I've been around Hidan longer than anyone else. So you better believe me when I say that that's not him." Kakuzu warned.

Ever since the Nanabi incident, the freak's been off. He didn't see what happened exactly, but it was big enough to cause the beast itself to go mad. But seeing it firsthand like this… there really was no other possibility it could be. He had heard enough of the freak's endless sermons to put the pieces together to realize that what he was seeing with his lone good eye was related to his stupid religion.

"Not without the Kyubi. If we run now, then this entire operation is a failure." Tobi hissed viciously. Kaguya. The Gobi. Iwa. Nagato. His sharingan. He was not going to end this day empty handed. "Grab him. Sasori!"

Knowing full well that it was probably a bad idea, the Puppetmaster unfurled his scroll and brought out a trio of specially made puppets designed to trap and imprison high level targets.

Had Hidan not been there, Naruto would have done something about the puppets and whatever sealing technique they had. His Rasenshuriken were still flying about aimlessly in the distance. Moving and directing them would have been an easy task.

Instead, Naruto had returned his consciousness to his body, grit his teeth through the agony that flooded his mind once more, and conjured up as much Presence as he could to protect himself from what was about to happen.

o. o. o.

"More! Just a bit! More!" Jiraiya shouted as he, Roshi, and Kurotsuchi were aided by several squads of Iwa shinobi in lifting the last corner of Hidan's seal out of the ground to finally get rid of the thing.

Of course, the urgency in the Sage's voice was for his Godson. However from the native's perspective it was because behind them, a massive bloodbath was taking place. One between a large mob of victims that were screaming, tortured, and blind with pain, and a small group of elite shinobi that were barely keeping themselves together while trying to hold off the former group without killing them.

He didn't know if it was because Hidan knew what they were doing, or because all of the weight of the seal was now on this section, but it felt as if this part was monumentally more difficult to dislodge than the other two combined. Even if he, Roshi, and Kurotsuchi weren't exhausted from dealing with the other sections, they would be hard pressed to make much progress with this one.

He had to give it to the couple dozen shinobi helping them though. Even if things looked nasty, Iwa-nin were stubborn bastards. And for once, he was thankful for it.

Just a bit more. The stain in the dirt and stone lifted in front of him was starting to finally lighten. After that he could…

That was as far as his thoughts went before things went to shit.

First came the ominous vermillion glow from the seal etched in blood.

Then came the vast increase in screams. In the agony they portrayed. In their volume. In their richness. The air itself was polluted and saturated in it.

So much so that somehow, that pain, that agony, the very idea and feeling of it all, actually became visible. Everywhere.

And it was being channeled somewhere.

o. o. o.

"Aaaah. Aaaaaah! Haaaaaaaaaa!"

Almost as if he was a Jinchuriki himself, the corpse that was Hidan almost spontaneously exploded with power.

The waves of corrupted aura that surged from the monster spread out in every direction. It was only due to the fact that Naruto was perpetually shielded by the air around him and Kurama via his own corrupted aura that they were not swept away in the mess.

Hidan's former compatriots though, were not so fortunate. Whether they were blown away, or ran was anyone's guess, but Sasori's puppets were obliterated almost instantly, and the three injured men were nowhere to be found moments afterwards.

Naruto grit his teeth as he weathered the aftershocks while frantically regaining control over his body. Ironically enough, focusing on resisting the blast was doing wonders for distracting him from his earlier injuries. He had expected Hidan to do something to dissuade the assholes, but this was vastly outside of his expectations.

This was bad. The asshole was radiating a huge amount of corrupted chakra. More than Naruto could handle in his current state. More than he'd be able to handle with Kurama in his current state.

He looked up, past the powering up madman. The Grand Spiral Lotus. It was close, but not close enough. They'd still need to move a bit more in order to get directly, under…

"I'm. An idiot." He grimaced, and using what little focus he could spare, got to work with the changes that would hopefully save his ass. Onoki would probably have a few things to say later, but fuck it. He'll burn that bridge when he got there.

Even if he wanted to, he couldn't use Sage mode or the Fox's chakra reliably. His mind and body were too disjointed and erratic to handle those powers safely. No. Even if he wanted to go berserk with Kurama's powers, the fox probably wasn't in a state to give it.

Damn it. Damn Gods. Damn Hidan. Damn Ghost…

"Haaaah. Haaah." He didn't know how long Hidan had been screaming and getting stronger, but it wasn't long enough as far as he was concerned. As the power died down, Naruto was able to finally get a good look at his opponent, and he didn't like what he saw.

It wasn't the corrupted aura that was clinging to Hidan like a biju's cloak. It wasn't the well of power he was sensing. It wasn't the inverted skeleton skin pigmentation from the normal voodoo trick the man was sporting.

It was the absent, almost vacant look in Hidan's black eyes that sent chills through the teen's spine.

Shit.

Shit fuck son of a bitch Zuzushi damn his forsaken existence.

He knew that look. He had seen it before.

Right now, the God part of Hidan's current persona was calling the shots. Not whatever was left of the man himself.

If there was one opinion Naruto could completely share with Ghost on without hesitation, it was that dealing with legitimate Gods sucked.

He wasn't going to be able to stall anymore. Not this. Hidan he could stall easily. But a God? No. Those fuckers were all business. And this bastard's business was either literally sharing pain with everything that lived, or expanding its influence.

He had literally nothing that would be of interest to a genuine God that the thing wouldn't get from killing him and Kurama… except…

… Damn it.

"Kurama. Get in. Hurry." With a great deal of effort, Naruto pushed himself up and pressed a hand on his friend's side. It exemplified just how bad of a state the fox was in when it didn't say or do anything in retort other than immediately loosing form and retreating into his host.

Well. Step one went well at least.

A quick internal check showed that Kushina and Minato were out cold, probably caught off guard by Hidan's seal as well. He'd have to prepare for that as well.

Just as he returned his attention to reality, he noticed that Hidan had moved.

And was standing right in front of him. His flesh had returned, albeit, it was all clearly still agitated from its previous state. Even with all that power, the possessed man had been incapable of a full recovery from Naruto's last attack. A pike in one hand, and a three bladed scythe in the other.

And an expressionless face that betrayed no emotion.

Damn it.

"Ghost." Naruto spoke the word quickly, just before he was stabbed in the heart faster than he could react.

The fact that his skin was touching the pike didn't make him feel better.

"Hidan" frowned, glancing at the invisible camera, at the mentioned party in question. "The End cannot help you. That abomination is not allowed to directly interfere on this scale without consequence."

True, but it got the asshole to start talking again. Just the mere idea of Ghost possibly getting directly involved was enough to make the deity second guess everything around it.

The man enjoyed bragging about his "awesomeness" like a child, but the action in itself was a joke. A mockery for those that were not important enough to understand, and a taunt to those that did. Refuge in audacity in its most petty and childish form.

Even the Gods could not risk carelessly antagonizing that monster.

Not again.

"Perhaps." The teen resisted the urge to push the pike away from his chest, but knew that would only get him killed. "How about a deal? The way I am, the way you are. I only have one trick left that might do anything."

"A deal insinuates an exchange, Lord. I do not see how allowing such an event to pass could ever benefit "me"." Hidan's grip on his pike tightened so slightly, ready to thrust.

Naruto's grin widened. It was a cruel and malicious thing, one that would belong to a demon tempting the unprepared. "Even if it will get Ghost in trouble?"

There were few things that Gods actually found value in. Especially from those in the lower realms.

However, it was a multiversal fact that the vast majority of the divine absolutely loathed Ghost. As such, the market for any new dirt on him was always extremely high in demand.

"It's simple. You let me live long enough to use the move, you have dirt on the jackass, if you live long enough."

Naruto had learned well.

He may be dealing with a God.

But right now, his sweet and tempting words were no different than the Devil's.

o. o. o.

The immortal of topic ignored the looks he was getting from everyone around him. "… Damn it."

It came to this after all. Of course it would come to this. Not like there wasn't enough foreshadowing to completely ignore after this long.

"Ghost?" Shadow asked slowly, and not in a comforting way. "What did you do this time?"

"Oh you know. Context." He stood up with an annoyed grunt. "And now I'm going to do some more things. Because reasons."

The rest of his relatives and people that knew him groaned in frustration. "Context" was generally the term they used whenever Ghost in particular got himself stuck in a situation where he'd easily get into deep shit if the whole story wasn't known by all parties. And even then, most parties would ignore the important details specifically to get him into trouble.

It happened more often than anyone would like to admit. Mostly because the Gods of Luck really did have it out for the guy.

Case and point. The vast majority of Ghost's debt to Scab actually consisted of legal fees for getting the former out of trouble in the first place.

After a while, Ghost had given up trying to fight being misunderstood all the time and just rolled with it.

Hana looked at him skeptically. "Wait what are you-"

Before she could finish her sentence, he took a small step forward.

The simple small movement, in spite of the laws of physics, completely relocated himself from his spot in the upper seats to right behind Hinata, who was cradling the catatonic Level Two clone in her coat while she and Sakura desperately tried to stabilize the thing and keep it from popping.

"Hello little girl. Please hold still for a moment while I touch the shaking fuzzy toy between your tits."

"Wh-The hell? Ghost-sensei?" Sakura, much like everyone else there, jumped in surprise by the man's sudden appearance, but he didn't seem to pay them much mind.

Reaching forward, he pressed the flat of his thumb on the forehead of the clone, and instantly calmed it down.

"His, his chakra's stabilized." Hinata blinked, genuinely astounded that the clone's near imminent demise was halted so easily.

"As good as that is, I don't think that that was the reason why you came to us." Kakashi gave the newcomer a wary look.

Ghost hummed whimsically as he looked at the shinobi in front of him. Students and supposed friends alike. "I'd stay near the furry for the time being. Talking to and reminding him of things wouldn't be a bad thing either."

Sasuke was starting to get a very bad feeling. "What aren't you telling us?"

"… Stuff." The immortal didn't even bother to hide the fact that he was being suspicious.

Unfortunately, before anyone could question him further, he had already taken another small step forward, and completely vanished.

o. o. o.

Naruto and Hidan both immediately broke out of their staring contest the instant Ghost seemingly popped into existence to the side, hand lifted in the laziest greeting known to man. "Suuuuup?"

Judging from the looks both fighters were giving him, he was not an expected, nor wanted party.

Ahh. These was just something so satisfying about a God having the "oh shit" expression and actually meaning it.

"No kidding? Fascinating." Said unwanted party completely ignored the looks he got and casually walked to them as if he was doing nothing out of the ordinary.

Just as he got within a few meters of the pair, Hidan moved almost instantly. His scythe and pike flashed viciously, and Ghost was torn to pieces. His head, arms, legs, and torso were shredded in a single sweep, rendering him into meaty chunks that saturated the-

▄.█.█▄.█

-Completely dry and unremarkable earth that the man lazily walked past, completely intact without a single blemish.

"You." Only Hidan's eyes expressed unmatched disgust and rage despite every other part of his mutated body portraying an almost serene calm. With casual ease, the possessed man turned around for another go at the newcomer…

"The first was common courtesy." Ghost didn't slow down, not worried about being attacked in the slightest. "The second is an invitation."

Much to the surprise of everyone watching, Hidan actually flinched before reluctantly lowering his weapons.

The unspoken message was heard loud and clear by anyone and everyone watching the exchange. Ghost was vastly stronger than even the monster known as Hidan. So much that the latter didn't even contemplate the idea of fighting him.

"The Lord speaks the truth then. You are interfering to hide your sin, regardless of the penalty."

"Oi. The kid's been with me for years. You think I'm dumb enough to not tell him how retarded it is to lie to one of you pricks? Give me some credit here." Ghost snorted sarcastically, stopping in front of Naruto.

Genuine Gods were part of the System that ran the Multiverse itself. Whatever they said and did was considered the "Truth". That also meant that they knew whenever an "untruth" was present. Bottom line. It was literally impossible to straight up lie to a God, and calling one a liar was one of the fastest ways to get on their shit lists.

Blatantly brushing them off was not that far behind.

"Relax. I'm not interfering, and I'm not stopping him. Just gotta clear things up before you two proceed to kill each other and shit on my worthless name." He crouched down and inspected Naruto close up. "You look like crap."

Naruto wasn't in the mood for small talk as he struggled to get back on his feet. He was already getting a headache from Kurama's yelling inside his soul to not do what he was about to do. "What, do you want?"

The immortal shrugged, holding up a finger and poking the kid on the forehead.

Almost instantly, the large otherworldly sealing array that was shown earlier that day to restrain the Fox's and his Sage chakra revealed itself around the teen, and then shattered.

"I was gonna get rid of it at the end of the day regardless. Truth be told, it was also designed to help you recover from that last fiasco you had. Keeping you together and all that. But, right now it would only just get in the way. Probably would have killed yourself if you went ahead with everything with the thing still in place."

Completely ignoring the genuinely surprised look he was getting from his student, Ghost stood back up as if he was stretching, walked to a small rock that was nearby, sat down, took out a bottle of alcohol, cut off the top, and leaned back as if watching a show. "Ok. Sorry for the interruption. You may proceed."

God or not, even Hidan had to take a moment to process what had just happened, and the fact that Ghost was not going away. Judging from his expression, the possessed man was severely uncomfortable just being around the newcomer. "… Must you be here for this?"

Ghost shrugged. "Considering what's going to happen, it really would be a dick move of me to not be present for it. Some things, can and should only be experienced in person."

Both fighting parties glared at the newcomer before glancing at one another warily. A silent conversation that more or less devolved into resignation, as both parties admitted to one another that there was nothing they could do to get rid of the spectator now.

"… I accept your offer. Lord. I will allow you to use the technique in question, and only that. And then our events will conclude. One way or another." Hidan relented, turning back to Naruto, and pretending Ghost did not exist.

"Fine by me." Naruto managed to stumble back onto both his feet with a dry smirk on his face. Good news was that his bluff had worked. Bad news was that he now had to own up to it, and he really wasn't looking forward to it.

"Naruto! Don't you dare!" Kurama snarled from within, his mind and chakra cleared up after rejoining with his main body, but all in all, he was still far from an ideal state. "You barely recovered last time, and that was with help from other Family members! Even with the training, you know the risks are terrible, even for you!"

"Heh. Come on Kurama. You should know better. The worse the odds, the dumber my luck us." Naruto swayed as he finally stood up straight. Good god his body hurt. Every single one of his nerves was firing off so viciously that he was surprised that he had enough muscle control to make it this far.

"Now is not the time for false bravado you idiot! I am not helping you kill yourself! Just stall for a minute! Thirty seconds! With the seal gone, I can send chakra into your body to accelerate your healing again and-"

Naruto shook his head, and put a hand on the seal in his stomach. "Kurama…"

"You?!" The Fox knew what was going to happen, and was utterly enraged by the mere thought of it.

"Thanks. And Shut the fuck up."

Naruto grabbed the seal…

And tore his hand away from it, dragging out the fox in his entirety and jettisoning it to the side, landing the beast on the other end of the battlefield in a titanic wave of red.

o. o. o.

Those watching were struck mute. Anyone that knew anything about Jinchuriki more so. A container that lost their biju was doomed for death.

And yet, Naruto willingly had done just that. He had given the Kyubi what it had desired for almost a century.

He had given it true freedom.

o. o. o.

"… I fail to understand. Was that the technique?" Hidan asked with a confused and disappointed expression, completely ignoring the infuriated roar in the distance.

Naruto held back a groan of pain as he experienced his body begin to collapse from the inside out. Something that even Hidan's patron god was unable to accurately simulate or emulate. He fucking hated this feeling, "Ngh. Nah. That was just, preparation. Sorry about the confusion."

"If your plan was to kill yourself before I claim your essence, then your education is more lacking than assumed." A crimson scythe and ebony pike moved slowly, like a snake arching itself to strike.

"Heh. Don't worry. You'll have plenty of time to snag it." Despite his body and soul screaming in his current state, the blonde couldn't help but laugh. "Just gimme a sec. It takes me a bit to get it right."

In the background Ghost coughed, viciously resisting the urge to shout "that's what she said" at the top of his lungs.

"Guys." Without looking at the camera, Naruto addressed his friends and allies with a small, shit eating smile. The kind of smile that sent chills down all their spines, due to the fact that it was a prelude to something that none of them were going to like. "Watch and remember this very carefully. Because, I'm going to do something, really stupid this time."

The fact that he actually admitted it this time only made those that knew him genuinely alarmed and worried about what he was about to do.

He breathed in deep, savoring each and every scent, gas, and taste in the cool mountain air. The myriad of sensations soothed his mind almost instantly.

He listened in the distance. To the fighting. To the rivers. To the destruction. To the sky. To the weather.

He felt the streams of wind around him, curling and coiling in infinitely endless flows and patterns.

He sensed all the eyes on him, watching, worried, and waiting.

Mine.

This was his home. These were his people. This was his territory.

This is all, mine.

Hidan wasn't even in the picture anymore. He wasn't part of it in the first place. Enemies were never a part of who he was. Of what he was.

The skies. The realm. The people.

The winds. The Heavens. The Madness.

Slowly at first, Naruto's Presence began to rise.

Every breath. Every sound. Every cloud. Every blessing. Every storm. Every ray of light that passed through this domain.

MINE.

Hidan frowned as he noticed the winds around him begin to pick up. As if a dam was in the process of breaking slowly. Up above, the clouds began to act erratically, moving in all sorts of abnormal directions, up down, left and right, visible even from the ground itself.

Higher and higher, stronger and stronger. The world itself began to shake, responding to the abnormality that was taking place.

And yet, despite it all, Naruto wasn't generating that much chakra. It was all from his Presence.

"This… no. No. It couldn't be…" Hidan's eyes narrowed as he slowly began to decipher what it was Naruto was doing. He appeared to think of something in particular, but surprisingly looked like he was trying to find reason to disprove it. Almost as if the conclusion he came to was simply too unreasonable to believe.

MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE.

"Tsuuuu. Haaaaaaah." Naruto began to inhale and exhale deeply, with each breath entered and exited entire atmospheres of gas. Quantities that would make any other shinobi, or human being for that matter, explode from the sheer mass involved.

The winds around the teen were getting violent now. Enough to start cutting into everything around him. Rocks and boulders were sliced randomly without order. Funnels began to drop from the sky, only to twist and turn like coiled snakes.

It was eerily similar to Heaven's Fall, and yet, there was something else in this phenomenon that made it somehow more. More chaotic. More vicious.

More personal.

The Abandoned Reaper stood its ground, unmoved by the storm, unmoved by Na-

"?!" Hidan's eyes widened in genuine shock and surprise, his head turning to Ghost accusingly, and yet with a hint of deranged and gleeful excitement. "How dare you?! You are bound by the Scarred Accord, yet you still defied it so willingly?! In spite of the sacrifices made for you?! Do you wish for your demise so desperately?!"

The accused, didn't looked bothered or surprised in the slightest about being called out. The flows of wind curled around him harmlessly as he drank his alcohol as if there was nothing odd happening. "I dare many things. I'm still bound. Maybe. And yes, but not in this case."

The skies began to marshal. The howling echoes of the mountain demanded for vengeance. The cutting winds honed themselves to fissure the lines between space itself for war.

"Still…" Ghost mused, reaching up and taking his glasses off, showing his disfigured eyes to the world and staring off blankly up into the air. "I gotta admit. The kid really impressed me this time. Didn't think he'd ever actually be willing to use this again. He's got balls, I'll give him that."

Naruto had not moved from his spot, and physically, he looked as well as he could be, but there was clearly something abnormal going on. Every other second or so, his body seemed to, flicker, in and out of view. A static like phenomenon that was being imposed on his very being.

"Now then kid." Ghost smirked, a dark and wry grin etched on his face, showing teeth in a way that revealed that he simply didn't care who saw just how much he was enjoying what was going on.

In that moment, it almost looked like he was the main villain of the day's events.

"Entertain me."

No one knew if Naruto heard him or not, however, it was impossible to miss the fact that at that very moment, the student was grinning just as viciously and malevolently as his master.

"Reaper…" The blonde (-rd) whispered, and yet was heard as clear as day. "You invaded my territory. You killed my subjects. You intend to take what is mine."

Blue eyes as clear as a storm looked down on the world.

"Thus. I declare… (Thus. I invoke…)"

"I've seen enough!" Hidan lost his patience, turning on Naruto with vitriol and rage in his pitch black eyes.

In a single instant, he had crossed the distance between himself and his target, and speared him through the chest with his spike.

Naruto didn't bother to move. To react. To be surprised.

Instead, the impaled teen merely smiled.

"L̷̨͕̭͔͕̺̗͓̝̙̬͖̝̿̈́̎́̓͐̏̌̑̽̂̎͝͝a̶̢̨̡̜͍͚̖̱̪͍̯͚̐͛ẃ̶̛̫̤̌̀̉̐̀͛̌͊̉̕. (M̷̨̨͕͙̦̺̹͇͆̅͝y̵̨̧̧̧̖̘͔̞͓͂̇̈ͅs̸̡̩̹͖̼̙̦̮̬͗̈́́͌̋̂͋̓͘ȅ̸̪̟̖̭̺̠̥͒̀͂͝͠l̵̛͉͖̬̰̮͇̟͊͌̌̉͂̈́͌̚͘f̸̡̡̨͇̺͉̼̦̣̱͉̒̓͛͜͝ͅ)."

Hidan was now alone. Arm and weapon stretched out, with not a single drop of blood to be had.

o. o. o.

The Fourth Stage of Presence Mastery: Law

Thus I Declare Law. Thus I Invoke Myself. [Spinning the Coin to see Both Sides.]

All information regarding Law, its uses, and methods to use it are restricted to only the highest level of security clearance of the *Redacted*.

Anyone suspected of trying to learn or study Law is to be immediately isolated for interrogation and extreme psychological evaluation and treatment head by *Redacted* or those approved by *Redacted*. Under NO circumstances is anyone without proper clearance allowed to interact with any potential users without explicit permission AND supervision from *Redacted*.

Any location where Law is suspected to be experimented in is to be quarantined and examined by *Redacted*. Range may vary depending on nature of the user. Under NO circumstances is anyone without proper clearance allowed onto grounds of a site where Law is or has been utilized without explicit permission AND supervision from *Redacted*.

No exceptions, under any circumstances. Consequences for insubordination or inability to follow instructions are as follows:

*The rest of the attached documentation has been redacted.*

~Naruto Uzumaki.

o. o. o.

A/N:

As always, thanks Kagaseo for betaing this.

(Slams head on the ground).

Sorry guys. I tried to finish this damn thing this chapter. I really did. But I'm a chunni through and through, and the blood is strong in this one.

Seriously though, next chapter will finish this fucking arc up. I literally have nothing left to cram between here and the end save for the fight itself.

Yes Naruto knows Law. Out of all the things that happened to him during his trip, accidentally learning Law was by FAR the thing that screwed his head up the most, and the thing that Ghost spent the most time trying to fix.

Ghost is an ass, but even he isn't cruel enough to teach Law to people.

A couple shoutouts here. Me being a jerk there. The world is going to hell. Yadda yadda yadda.

Oh. Just made a new shirt, and reposted an old one:

Teespring website /the-book-of-the-log#pid=2&cid=103056&sid=front

Teespring website /demon-chicken-of-doom#pid=2&cid=2122&sid=front

Yes. I made a Book of the Log shirt. And I think I'm going to hell for this one, so um, please support me by the time I cross over. Or the mobs find me. Thanks.

I hope you guys are happy. I was trying FOREVER to get that modified picture's dpi to 120 and keep it to a big size and keep the image remotely crisp, but I couldn't fcking find out how. I am not a photoshop guy. If anyone wants to tell me how to do this shit, PLEASE let me know.

Ok. FF shoutout. I don't do this often, but if any of you haven't read some of Xomniac's stuff, do it. This Bites is probably the closest thing you will ever get in style and length to one of my works in the One Piece universe and I love it. Good, slowish pacing, but the character development, chaos, and humor are all top notch. Read that shit.

Work is work. Life is life.

Oh, and right now, the Midget (my sister) is waiting on the results from her interview with Google. She made it all the way to the Third Round of interviews in NY for this thing, so her odds are really good. Wish her luck guys. She really… hates her current job.

Like, really hates it. As in, every time we pass by a branch of her current employers on a normal day, she flips off the building as a reflex.

What else? Beat KH3. Final thoughts… where the hell are all the FF characters? It's like Disney's gotten so full of itself that it just decided to take over the whole game for itself and turned it into one giant advertisement. The plot… kinda was lackluster too. Nothing really happened until the final third of the game. I know it was supposed to be kid friendly, but… I almost felt like it was treating the players like idiots in a way.

Good gameplay though, as always, and expected. And it looked damn good.

Honestly though? I preferred KH2.

That's about it for now. Sorry it took so long to get my chapters out lately. And uh, that's about it.

REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! WORSHIP THE LOG BY BUYING A SHIRT THAT WORSHIPS THE LOG! AND REVIEW AGAIN WOW THIS ENDING IS STUPIDLY REDUNDANT THIS TIME!