A/N: Thanks to Deepsealife and Joseph for supporting me as Patrons!

This chapter was supposed to have a table in it showing Naruto's scroll of speculations which is mentioned later in the chapter. Unfortunately, FFN removes everything but the most basic of formatting, so I had to take it out. However, you can still See Naruto's scroll in all its glory on my website, the Need to Become Stronger DOT Wordpress DOT Com.

By the time Sasuke finished his speech the mood of the group had lifted a little, finding a strange healing in their collective grief and the tasks that lay before them. And yet, after so many words were said, and so many agreements made, the gaps in their ranks were still the same as they had been before.

"I again apologize for my inexcusable actions," Neji told Sasuke, sounding as though he really meant it, though Naruto suspected it was not the damage to the Uchiha shrine that he truly regretted.

"The same goes for you as well," Neji said, after Naruto finished the reverse summoning seal and sent Sasuke back to the place from whence he came. "I should not have criticized the way Team Seven mourns their dead." He seemed to hesitate. "I was not in the right state of mind to ask you this before, but did Tenten and Lee… before they died, did either of them say anything to you?"

It took Naruto a moment to remember – something which he would have much preferred not to do at all. "The last thing Lee said was that he did not like the way the Sand fought," he said, though he realized that Neji had probably not meant it so literally. "After that there was no time to say anything, he just… charged forward, moving to save the others without a second thought. Before that…" He hesitated. "Lee said he wanted to thank me, back in the tunnels – for what I did for him and Tenten. For making their dreams come true. For giving him everything…" His voice caught. "Everything he ever wanted."

Naruto felt his eyes burn with shame, and he could not help but turn away. It had felt wrong to say it, as if he was using this moment to brag about what he had done. After everything that had happened, after humiliating Lee in front of everyone during the chūnin exams and making Tenten so mad that she ended up helping Naruto's opponent in the finals, their gratitude was the last thing he thought he deserved.

"I see," said Neji, and Naruto realized in shock that the Hyūga's eyes were moist as well. "Thank you."

"Don't," said Naruto, blinking hard. "Don't. I don't deserve… all I ever did was lecture them. I thought I was so clever and, and everyone else so dumb, I thought I could… that I could save them." He squeezed his eyes shut. "That I could fix them. But now they're dead, and all my plans and tricks didn't do anything to change it. I couldn't do anything at all."

Neji tilted his head slightly. "Uzumaki-san, did you think Lee was weak? That he was afraid of death?"

Naruto looked at him in confusion. What did that have to do with it? People as a rule did not want to die, whether they were afraid of it or not. "Uhm, I guess not, but…"

"Uzumaki, I do not believe you quite understand what it is that you just told me. Lee had always expressed the desire to defeat me – to prove to the world that hard work could beat genius. And I, genius that I was, ground that dream to a pulp at every available opportunity. I had believed that he was killed without ever achieving that dream; that he died in the middle of nowhere fighting for nothing at all, while his true opponent was hiding away on the other side of the Village, forever out of reach."

His Byakugan flared into life, and this time Naruto was certain he did not imagine it – there really was enough power in there that it radiated physical light. "Now, instead, I've learned that he had long put me aside. That he was fighting alongside his comrade for a far more worthy cause than I, having already learned to use ninjutsu despite my claim that this would never be possible, thereby defeating me and surpassing me in every possible way." Slowly, calmly, Neji lowered himself to his knees, and bowed until his forehead almost touched the floor. "Uzumaki Naruto… you have saved half my soul from damnation. I do not know if it will ever be possible to repay you, but if it is within my power, it shall be done."

"But I didn't," said Naruto, "I didn't really do anything…"

Soon after he dispelled the summoning technique and sent Neji back to his compound, feeling almost glad to be relieved from the pressure, only to realize that everyone else was now staring at him. Their expressions seemed to have softened, somehow, as if whatever remnants of blame they had held for him was now gone, and what remained was only guilt for having ever felt it in the first place.

"Okay," he said, wiping his eyes using the sleeve of his Konoha uniform. "Next one."

Ino and Shikamaru left without saying anything, though Ino did shoot him a sympathetic look that he really wished she hadn't. As for Shikamaru, he wished there had been some kind of reaction. Any at all, really.

Shino gave him a silent nod of respect, and then he too was gone.

"Someone will have to take care of Kakashi-sensei's dogs," he said to Kiba when it was his turn. "I mean, I'm not saying they could ever replace Akamaru of course," he added, feeling twice as stupid for having to say it out loud. "But, I mean, I kinda figured that they don't have anyone else either, and so…"

Kiba nodded. "Yeah. Okay."

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. Then he sent Kiba away, followed by a contrite Kabuto who looked like he had been about to say something profound, but who was unfortunately cut short by virtue of instant teleportation – a power which Naruto now dearly wished he could use on anyone, all the time.

"I wanted to make sure I was last," Chōji said. "My dad asked me to pass you a message. It's from Kakashi-sensei, right before he died. He was supposed to give it to either the Hokage or Jiraiya-sama, but he figured that since the Third is gone and your dad isn't back yet…"

"Okay," said Naruto, feeling apprehensive again. "I'll pass it along."

Chōji looked furtively around the room, as if to make sure that everyone else had really left, and then leaned over to whisper into Naruto's ear. "He said it's the same as last time." He paused, perhaps waiting for some kind of reaction. "He said that Jiraiya or the Third would know what that meant."

Naruto nodded slowly. There was really only one thing it could mean, but without context it did not tell him much that he did not already know.

"Thank you," he said, and then he sent Chōji away as well.

On the other side of the village, a tired and rather tipsy Naruto finally made it back to his apartment. He fumbled with the opening seals for a moment, not even having to pretend to look like a drunken idiot anymore. He stumbled into the dimly lit apartment, nearly tripping over the clothes that he had discarded there when he had hurriedly left that morning, and collapsed into the nearest chair.

After a few hand signs a shadow clone popped into existence next to him. "Tea. Big pot. Now."

"Hey, no fair! I feel just as crappy as you do – how come I'm the one who has to make the tea?"

"Because we already decided that whoever was created first gets to call the shots, I pre-committed to obey myself if I ended up being the clone and do we have to argue about everything?"

As the clone grumbled and headed off into the half-kitchen, Naruto closed his eyes and groaned, but he could not afford to lose consciousness just yet.

He sighed and stood up, heading for Jiraiya's study. Along the way he came across the Uchiwa Gunbai, which for the time being he had haphazardly stashed in a corner of the living room. Ancient relic of untold power it might be, the thing was also huge, and the fact that Naruto could not actually afford to be seen with it in public made it into one of those incredibly expensive gifts that you wished was just a little bit smaller so you could stuff it into a drawer somewhere and then never look at it again.

Or maybe I should just practice with it out in the open and to hell with what Ibiki thinks. After all, the reason Sasuke had given the priceless artefact to him was because he could not stand the thought of it just gathering dust. It was easy to think that Sasuke had just wanted to piss off the Anbu, but Naruto knew better by now. To him, it was more than just a relic – it was a symbol of the Uchiha clan, a way of reminding the world of who they had been. Don't you dare forget about us… that was what it said.

Naruto ran his hand across the painted lacquer, lingering briefly when his fingers brushed across the faded Uchiha crest. Sasuke… when you said that I was family, what did you mean by that exactly?

He shook his head. Even after all these years, trying to understand his teammate was difficult at best.

His last remaining teammate.

He stared at the wall of Jiraiya's room, at the scroll which he had put up there for clarity. On the left side were all the mysterious events that had happened over the years, and on the right side, running from top to bottom, were the names of all the people who he thought might be capable of such things.

Solving the mystery should be as easy as connecting the two, he thought.

The First Hokage's death might well have been a genuine accident, but Naruto had added it anyway because it had happened relatively shortly after Madara was defeated by the First Hokage. The second obvious suspect was the person who had been training with him at the time – his wife, Uzumaki Mito – but even that was a stretch. The other incidents, however…

The Uchiha massacre was too convenient not to have benefited somebody. After asking himself what Sakura would do, Naruto had visited the library to look up the official explanation and found an entire treatise by the Second Hokage in which he expounded to great length on how the Uchiha were a cursed clan because their eyes gradually drove them to madness the more they gained in power.

That was certainly one theory, Naruto thought. The other explanation he saw was that somebody had taken the Second Hokage's implication that perhaps it would be better if the Uchiha clan destroyed themselves sooner rather than later slightly more literally than he would have dared say out loud.

For the rest… The Kyūbi's attack and the destruction of his mother's village were almost certainly done by the same person, Naruto thought. Killing the world's greatest seal users before releasing the Fox simply made too much sense. Other events like the attack on the hospital could just be the doing of opportunistic third parties, Naruto supposed. But if that was not the case, then…

"It's the same as last time," Kakashi had said. "Tell Jiraiya or the Third, they'll understand."

Naruto's clone had thought that this did not tell him anything new, but he realized now that that was wrong. After all those years of failing to communicate he had finally come to understand that most statements told you more about the person who said them than they did about the thing itself.

If I were Kakashi-sensei, what would cause me to say those exact words?

His late teacher was no fool. Hatake Kakashi had been renowned as a genius across the world, and Naruto had seen first-hand the speed with which he had deduced Momochi Zabuza's true aims during their mission in the Land of Waves. If there had been a specific piece of evidence that led him to conclude that it was their old enemy at work, he would have certainly said so. The very fact that he had been so vague implied that there was no such evidence, and yet he had concluded it all the same.

"It's the same as last time…"

It reminded Naruto of his father's last words, he realized. The Fourth had also been strangely cryptic in the end, declaring that an ancient ninja had come back from the dead without ever explaining why he had thought that such a thing was likely in the first place. It seemed uncharacteristic, somehow, for all that he had never met the legendary shinobi. It implied that there was something about those events that could not be put into words, a feeling, a sense that something was off which defied explanation.

Which meant one of two things. The first was spooky and involved a mastermind with mystical powers and planning capabilities that exceeded human imagination. The second involved drugs.

Kakashi-sensei had been poisoned. That was the first piece of information Ino had been able to procure from her father. He had been mortally wounded after his fight with Lady Chiyo, and had then stumbled all the way past the Konoha forces guarding the hospital and straight to his death – where his eye had been taken by someone who had seemingly been waiting for him. Add it all together, and the first thing that came to mind was genjutsu, or some other kind of mental influence.

Similarly, the Fourth had taken one look at the Kyūbi as it burned his Village to the ground, and concluded that the only logical explanation was that a hundred-year-old legendary ninja had somehow survived his death and planned all of this from the shadows just to get back at the Village that spurned him. And then he had promptly killed himself to cast a sealing jutsu, as opposed to… literally doing anything else.

It reminded Naruto in an eerie way of something Sakura had once told him, back when they studied at the academy together. About how certain parasites could take over the host's brain, like making an insect climb to a high leaf and encouraging birds to eat it, so that it could then take over the bird as well.

What was it that the Third had said, the first and last time Naruto had spoken to him? All over the world, darkness is spreading; a rolling tide of hatred that never seizes in its attempts to swallow us whole...

With quivering fingers, Naruto took out a brush and wrote darkness of this world at the bottom of his list of suspects. And then, after hesitating only a moment, circled the words Curse of Madness next to Uchiha massacre. And underlined them twice.

How had Kurama put it, back before the exams? Your enemy is, and has always been, madness…

"Your tea, Uzumaki-dono."

Naruto jumped in his skin and nearly splashed ink all over his precious scroll, but it was only his clone who – yes, had transformed himself to look like a sexy maid. He wondered what was wrong with himself, sometimes.

"Thanks," he said dryly. He cupped the steaming hot bowl of tea in one hand, taking careful sips so that he wouldn't get burned and spill it all over the place. Tea was easy enough to clean from the floor, but the ink pot he was holding less so.

"Aha, I see," said the clone, turning to the scroll, "that we've completely lost it. Who is this 'darkness' fellow, and how is he a suspect, exactly?" She pursed her lips sexily. "Hmm, he sounds mysterious…"

"I'm not sure exactly," Naruto admitted, plonking his tea back down onto the wooden tray which his clone had left on Jiraiya's desk. "I don't really get it either, but I've got this strange feeling, like I'm getting closer somehow." This whole time they had been looking for a single ninja acting behind the scenes, but what if that was not the case at all? When he took a step back and looked at the overall picture, it did not feel like the actions of one person, but rather, a whole bunch of people all acting self-destructively for no good reason. And if there was someone behind all of that, then…

A draft of cold air brushed past his feet.

Naruto spun around, taking care to not make a single sound. His clone dropped his illusion and drew his sword, before silently taking up position next to the bedroom door. On impulse, Naruto reached for the Uchiwa Gunbai, holding it in front of him like a shield as he slowly advanced towards the entrance.

"Yare yare, that was a trip and no mistake. I-"

The remainder of the intruder's words were cut off as Naruto nearly pounced on him. He stared at the white-haired giant in shock. "What the- Jiraiya? What are you doing here?"

"Hey, I do technically live here, ya know! If you don't like it, I could stop paying the rent." Jiraiya harrumphed loudly, then did a double take as he seemed to notice Naruto's strange appearance for the first time. "What uh, what's with the giant fan and the ink pot?"

"Never mind that," said Naruto, stuffing the items back into a corner of the room where he would no doubt trip over them later. "Now's not the time. Dad, we were attacked by the Sand, the Hokage died and Kakashi and Lee and Tenten were all killed and, and we can't find Sakura anywhere!"

"Yeah, I heard. It seems I just missed the old man's funeral, though frankly I've already attended enough of those to last a lifetime." Jiraiya perked up as he spotted Naruto's clone near the entrance to his room, who was once again holding his tea tray. "Ah, tea! Just the thing a man needs after a gruelling S-rank mission. Though, no maid costume this time? Hmmm, I really do pay too much rent…"

"Now is not the time for jokes, dad!"

"There's never not a good time to keep a cool head – especially in times of crisis. I did teach you that, didn't I?" He took one of the cups from Naruto's clone and sipped it appreciatively. "Remember, when you tried to steal the Fourth's scroll and I tried to convince you to stay out of all of this?"

Naruto nodded, not having the strength to argue. Somehow, he could never manage to stay mad at his godfather, no matter how inappropriately he acted.

The old sage sighed and ruffled Naruto's hair affectionately. "Kakashi knew exactly what he was getting into, and yet he never hesitated. The man was a hero through and through, even if he never admitted to it. It's almost an insult to mourn someone like that if you ask me. Little Sakura, though, that's darker stuff, and I can't say I get why they took her. If they wanted leverage over me, it'd make a lot more sense to go after you." He stepped into his room and turned towards Naruto's investigative scroll with a frown. "Hey, what's this hanging on the wall? Why isn't this sealed?"

"No point," said Naruto. "You already covered the whole apartment in better seals than I could manage. If anyone comes in here, they'd get through my defences too."

"Kid, just because you can't see a good reason to do something doesn't mean you shouldn't do it." Jiraiya plucked the scroll from the wall with one hand and let it roll up with a fwap, before stuffing it into a lockbox in a single motion. "Otherwise, all it'd take for someone to beat you is for them to think of something you didn't. Trust me kiddo, I've been fighting enemies smarter than me my whole life, and I'm still here. Why do you think that is?"

Naruto looked at the imposing figure of his godfather, and frowned. "Honestly? If I had to guess, I'd say it's because every single time there's a crisis and we desperately need your help, you're on the other side of the world on some kind of mission that you conveniently can't tell us about."

Jiraiya let out a sigh, and sat down on the side of his bed, still holding his bowl of tea. Naruto's clone looked at it, shot a forlorn glance at the other tea cup which Naruto was now holding, and then shrugged and vanished, leaving only an empty tray and some very confusing memories behind.

"Alright," said Jiraiya. "Yeah, I guess I can see why you'd feel that way. So then, what'd you have me do? Stay near the Village at all times, just in case the bad guys decide to make a move?"

"Well, yeah. Dad, I think it's pretty obvious at this point that the Enemy doesn't want to have to deal with you. Maybe they're afraid of you or you have a defence against their techniques somehow, I dunno, but every single time they're attacking us you're nowhere to be seen! And if that's the case, then it's almost true by definition that you should do the opposite of what they want."

"Okay, that's a fair point," said Jiraiya, who seemed to consider it. "I suppose I'll just have to do away with my S-rank missions then, since I can't exactly do those from home. That means giving up on pursuing leads on Akatsuki, which is a shame since they're a pretty likely suspect for everything that just happened. One of them might have captured your little girlfriend too, come to think of it, if they're the ones who are behind this." He yawned and lay back on the bed. "Hmm, what do you think? You want me to go out and look for leads on Sakura, or should I stay home and maybe do some housework?" He glanced around. "Place could use a good clean…"

"I'd like you to go look for leads on Sakura," Naruto said, staring at the ground.

"Ahhh, that's a pity. And here I was looking forward to finally resting my legs for a bit and spending some time with my favourite godson." He stood up and stretched his back, putting his full height on display. "Ah well, the work of a hero is never done it seems. In that case, I'd better go and find out who's in charge of this Village nowadays, since I went rushing over here first thing when I came back. Unless, of course, there's some other urgent business you need to talk about first?"

"Yeah actually," said Naruto, still looking at the floorboards. "Though not with you, specifically."

Darkness enveloped Naruto.

Once again, he stood inside shallow waters in front of titanic bars, but this time the Nine-tails was nowhere to be seen. He looked around, confused, but found only darkness and metal.

"Kurama?"

He held up his right palm, and after a moment of concentration a globe of light formed within his hand. Realizing that his usual limitations did not apply in this place, he allowed the orb to fly freely, letting it float around his head like a lonely will-o-the-wisp. In fact, when he turned his mind elsewhere, it kept moving on its own, illuminating the place as it bobbed this way and that like an inquisitive child.

It was probably just being steered by his subconscious, Naruto decided. He hoped.

"Kurama?" He began walking along the side of the cage, his steps echoing wetly as he trudged through the pale waters. "Are you there? Hello?"

His orb of light cast long shadows as it passed the bars, lines of black stretching out in front of him.

When he found what he was searching for, he had to look twice to make sure it was really him. The fox was… small, smaller than Naruto had ever seen him, and with barely any fire left to its fur. It looked just like an ordinary animal almost, small and frail. And if it was indeed fury that fanned the flames, then he did not have to think much about what that meant. "Kurama?" He hesitated. "Are you… okay?"

"I yet live."

"I wanted to thank you," Naruto said. "I mean, that was you, right, who healed my hand? I don't think I could've won otherwise… I don't think I could've saved the others without your help."

"Thank your rage. For a brief moment, we saw the world the same way, and your chakra was able to mix freely with mine. For however small an amount it was, and for whatever little good it did." The small fox gazed up at Naruto, and its flames were dull enough that its eyes looked almost a normal yellow. "Kit, did you have to be so full of rage when you killed my brother? Did you have to make me watch?"

"That's-" Naruto stopped, his voice caught in his throat. "That's not… I didn't mean to…"

"Never mind." The fox lowered its head again, resting it on its paws, its eyes closing. "It is not your fault. I should not have blamed you." One of its eyes opened slightly, looking at Naruto in a way that was not unfriendly. "Kit, I no longer think I can prevent you from destroying yourself. My species will end with you, I think, and only chakra and madness shall remain. Perhaps… perhaps it is for the best."

"Oh come on," Naruto said. "That's just way too defeatist! Aren't you supposed to be a demon lord, the greatest of the Nine? The sins of the shinobi world made manifest, the incarnate of flame or something like that?" Naruto kneeled down next to the cage, lowering himself until he was almost at eye level with the fox. "Look, I can't release you, and even if I did, the Village would just instantly recapture you again. But I've been thinking, and if you want I could ask Jiraiya to teach me the five-element unsealing technique. You know, so I could come down here and talk to you every once in a while, if… if you like."

"A conversation with you," the fox said slowly, "is perhaps not the single greatest reason to live."

Naruto stared at the fox for a moment, but then started to grin when he realized Kurama was joking. "Hey, you're not exactly the best conversationalist either, you know! I mean, you keep setting the people you talk to on fire. It's quite rude."

"Really? And yet I find it makes these talks so much more tolerable." Kurama stood up on all fours and stretched. As he did so, some of the flames seemed to reignite along his fur, covering him in a crimson sheen and lending him an eldritch aspect once more. "Well then. Since we're in such a giving mood today, I have something for you as well. Something that might help in your investigations."

"My investigations?" Naruto blinked. "Hold on, how do you know about that? I thought you could only see through my eyes when I'm angry."

"Then it is fortunate for us that the Uchiha are so infuriating. Watch." As he spoke the view behind him shifted, the air blurring as if by heat, and then the bars and the water were all gone. In its place was an underground chamber illuminated by twin braziers, its walls covered in crimson strings anointed by white clouds with silver wings, like a sea of heavenly fire. A stone plaque stood on display in between the braziers, resting against the far side wall, and in front of it stood a teenager with raven hair, dressed in a black and blue Konoha police uniform, the Uchiha crest upon his back.

"Sasuke? What…"

The figure turned around, and his lips started to move – it was too fast and the details too blurry to make out much, and yet Naruto found that he did not need to. As if by magic, he found that the knowledge was deposited directly into his brain. Knowledge of the Mangekyō, secrets of the Sharingan, speculation on their true enemy – it was all there, as if Naruto had known it all along.

"That was our secret meeting beneath the Uchiha shrine," Naruto said, realizing. "But, he destroyed that clone by converting its chakra to light-release. How…"

"The Uchiha was clever indeed, but he had not counted on a second observer." Naruto turned around, but the fox was nowhere to be found – the voice seemed to be coming from inside his head. "Each time you split yourself, a copy of me is created as well – and it was only your chakra he destroyed, not mine. All that you have forgotten, I still remember."

"Kotoamatsukami," said Naruto, right as Sasuke's lips mouthed the same word. "A permanent genjutsu." And that was the Curse of Madness right there, Naruto thought – the means by which the insanity spread. All it took was a single person to start the chain, to cast a technique that both imparted the suggestion of despair and to cast the same technique on others so that it propagated itself like a disease. A psychic plague that would tear through the world's genjutsu users until none were left.

Sasuke had thought that Kakashi was the Enemy's agent, and it made sense if you considered the death of Kakashi's team as another event on the list that needed explanation. The technique was presumably too subtle to control someone as powerful as Minato, but if you managed to find his prize pupil alone, and compelled him to take his useless teammate's Sharingan, then what you were left with was a genjutsu-capable sleeper agent that the future Fourth-Hokage would allow within his guard…

And then, when the puppet had served its use, the evidence could be easily dispensed with by simply compelling him to march to his own death.

Naruto watched as he revealed the secrets to unlocking the Mangekyō to Sasuke; the means by which his friend might damn himself. He watched Sasuke slump down and crumble, revealing his weakness, having already decided that nobody would remember it regardless. At last, he watched as Sasuke turned around to look Naruto directly in the eye with his Sharingan blazing, and then the image froze.

"Why, Sasuke?" Naruto gingerly stepped closer, taking a better look at the person who had called him family. "We could've worked together. You should've known, even if I never told you, even if I never admitted it to myself, that I always looked up to you. It would've taken only one word, one moment of genuine kindness, and I would've done everything to help you get your revenge. I… I would've died for you, I think, if you really had been a brother to me. I would've trusted you to fix the world for me…"

He really was handsome, Naruto thought, still staring at that frozen image. That stupid, perfectly smooth ivory skin that girls seemed to like so much. That daft raven hair that jutted out at the back like a duck's feathers. He wondered, sometimes, if that was all it was. That if Sasuke had just been slightly less good looking, if he did not have his Sharingan and his money and his fame, then everyone would have seen right through him and he would have had no choice but to be good…

"He cannot help but act the way he does," the voice said, sounding strangely gentle. "Kit, please take it as the greatest compliment when I say that you are the worst ninja I have ever met. For one, you are a terrible liar, and that is as close to honesty as you can find in this world. But his kind are ninjas through and through, and the thought of acting honestly simply does not occur to them. They will choose destruction even if peace serves them better; defect even when it would help them more to cooperate. I cannot say I truly understand it, but if you ask me, it is not anything to do with eyes or genjutsu that is the true poison of this world."

Naruto nodded mutely. He had forgotten, in his most lonely moments, that there was at least one person who really did understand what was going on inside of him.

"Kurama," he whispered. "Why are you really helping me?"

"I would like to say that I only wish to increase your odds of survival, since my existence depends on yours, but I suppose that the question would then be of why I wish to live in the first place." The vision around them faded, leaving only a pale liquid and familiar iron bars, and behind it a gently burning hearth which seemed to have regained some of its power. "I suppose that, after all this time, it is simply refreshing to find someone who hates ninjas as much as I do."