Naruto: A Red Eye Hidden by Shadow

by Tatanka4Life

On the fateful night of the Uchiha Massacre, a girl of Uchiha and Nara blood is spared and left with no memories of her past. Now she must walk on the path left by her family to help her build a new future for herself. Her path will be hard, full of struggles and pain, but as long as she has her friends and family at her side she will keep forging ahead, even if it was a drag.

160. Chapter 159: Soul Singularity

Chapter 159

Soul Singularity: Never Stop Fighting, Never Fade Away!

Mighty walls of metal layered the land-ship's exterior. Its walls of unbending steel were constructed through many long hours of labor—doubtlessly performed by slaves or the puppet soldiers. It may have taken months to build. Years, maybe.

It took all of two seconds for their mighty walls to rupture beneath the might of the Iron Sand. May as well have been a glass house.

Shikamaru's eyes roamed the gaping passageway of wrecked metal each time he entered and exited the tower. He'd seen it all go down, yet the carnage still amazed him. Baffled, really.

Were a traveler to stumble upon the land-ship now, they may have mistaken the damage as the result of a gigantic boulder rupturing the plate armor, before it crashed through, crushed, and rended the guts of the land-ship. An easy mistake to make, honestly.

They may have suspected the boulder was launched by a trebuchet or, more likely, hurled by a mythical monster woken up from a millennium long slumber; something as tall as the mountains were old.

Hell, looking at the gaping passageway, the Nara wouldn't have faulted anyone for concluding a massive, armored snake had tunneled through the land-ship.

He may have bitten at the idea. May have chewed on it and reached a similar conclusion. At least after witnessing the devastation Orochimaru's summoning snakes caused; summoning creatures of that size were capable of inhuman levels of destruction. The stuff of nightmares.

However, a mythical monster hadn't ruptured the armored shell. No snakes, armored or otherwise, had peeled back its heavy and thick steel walls as though casually peeling a banana on a comfortable spring morning.

The bent walls, the split and flared metal, the collapsed piping and ventilation thrown aside, out of their direct path, were the byproduct of one girl's fierce determination.

This is why you never stand between a girl and their goal, Shikamaru concluded as he dashed along a narrow bridge of tan sand. Sheesh. Getting married is going to be such a drag. I just know it.

The bridge led to and from the bronze heart, where the glowing containment spheres decorated the bronze tree like a disturbing set of holiday baubles and ornaments. The whole place gave him the creeps.

Shikamaru passed once sturdy walls, now molded into flared, circular portals after their meeting with Hikari's Iron Sand.

It was no wonder, really, why the Iron Sand became so renowned. Hikari hadn't even hit her prime yet, and this was the level of carnage she could unleash, performed as though plucking blades of grass from the ground.

I'm glad she's on our side.

He shook the thought off and kept his eyes forward. Although the pools of lava now lay cooled and black, sealing the entry points the invader's metal soldiers attempted to flank from, and petrifying some of them, too, the scent of heat lingered on the crisp desert air.

Some of the soldiers could still be seen, frozen in stone as they reached their hands out, or gripped their weapons. Poor guys were lucky their metal bodies weren't the real deal. Lava Petrification was not a peaceful way to go.

Overhead a flock of crows darted towards the exit, wings beating as they passed over the Nara.

Osamu and his squadron were working seamlessly in their operation. One Crow would crack open an orb and, if it was somewhere high up, another would swoop in, catch the prisoner, and then they would dematerialize amid a fluttering flock.

We're moving at a good pace.

Shikamaru entered the bronze heart into its dimly lit chamber, sealed off at its main entryway by a solid wall of desert sand. A few metal soldiers lay on the walkways, flattened, crushed, or otherwise broken in their initial assault. Now combat took a backseat, allowing them to focus solely on rescuing the civilians without potential collateral damage.

Floating beneath the tree, Gaara stood upon a cloud of sand, arms crossed, countenance neutral and calm. Ino was offloading two more civilians onto his cloud, in addition to the two already lying on it. Once done, she leapt back into the luminescence.

A tongue click signaled Hikari's approach towards him, bearing a similar load of unconscious prisoners. Chōji had an adult slung over his shoulders in a fireman's carry and two small children—no more than six, if they were lucky—beneath his arms. Hundreds of people still occupied the glowing spheres.

Their work was far from over.

Can't stop now. Gotta keep moving.

He hoped things were going smoothly for the assault team.

---

"Ha, found you!"

Sakura sucked in a sharp breath as the feral silhouette of Fugai dropped from the shadows of an open ceiling.

She had hoped to lose the wolf woman in the maze of dark hallways she'd located within the chamber adjacent to the sanctum. She had hoped to regain the initiative to counter the lieutenant's immense speed and powerful howl.

Why can't I catch a break on this mission?

Sakura immediately tried to halt, and found herself sliding instead. Sandals grating against stone, she glided almost a full meter closer to the wolf woman, as though being pulled by a gravitational force towards the enemy.

She eyed a conjoining hall ahead on the left side of the darkened hall; only a quick leap separated the kunoichi from temporary relief. Could she make it? Would she be quick enough to evade Fugai's attack?

I have to try.

In a split second, she shifted her weight on her feet, bent her knees slightly, and sprang for the opening.

At the same time, Fugai flashed ahead with a cruel laugh. Sakura raised her arms to block.

Flesh shredded. A powerful blow dazed her. Air hissed past her ears as she flailed head over heels, followed by the harsh and dull thud of her chest crashing harshly against the floor.

Her right knee followed, jamming the cold floor so fast, so hard, the sudden impact stole her breath. She couldn't even gasp.

Sakura flopped, skipped, and tumbled over the ancient floor, forgetting her knee as the pain receptors across every inch of her adrenaline fueled, damaged body screamed at once.

In spite of the pain the kunoichi rolled out of the tumble onto her feet, only to suck in a sharp breath as pain erupted from her knee, the sensation akin to ten kunais suddenly plunging into her right knee. She had no time to adjust her weight. No time to recover.

Her right knee buckled instantly, and with it her center of balance was thrown off entirely.

She stumbled then crashed onto her buttocks with a grunt. Warm, crimson steams trickled down her forearms; further down she felt a bead of either sweat or blood sliding down her right shin. Probably blood, given her recent string of luck.

Fugai whirled around, lips twisted by a vile and ugly grin, revealing more of the needle-like fangs filling her mouth. She'd transformed into a hybrid of wolf and human, maintaining a mostly human form, but with traits of a wolf—pointed human ears, fangs, and a somewhat elongated face.

It's like fighting someone with a Curse Mark, she thought, listening to how the woman grunted and growled. Only to grimace as she flexed her leg. Ggh, my knee…

Suddenly Fugai sprang ahead. Sakura quickly scrambled onto one foot, heart jumping into her throat.

Not good!

A second shade zipped down from the ceiling in front of her, shining steel glinting in the dim and dark hall as it hissed through the air.

Warm blood splashed across the floor, flecks splattered onto the young girl's surprised face. But she was left unharmed by the exchange.

The shade, like a nightmarish ghoul, suddenly whirled on her, long hair whipping violently through the air.

Before Sakura could process the sensation of her heart jumping and permanently making its residence in her cramped throat, a shoulder jammed into her midsection, heaving the kunoichi off her feet in a flowing movement she barely perceived.

With a powerful leap, the shade carried her deeper down the hall, deeper into the maze. From their shoulder, the kunoichi saw Fugai slap her hands over her eyes, saw the crimson stains beneath the wolf woman, and fresh rain of blood spurting and splashing against the floor.

It took her a heartbeat to recognize the empty scabbard strapped to the Anbu agent's back, and the sword gripped in her hand, painted with a fresh coat of blood.

Everything was happening too quickly. Her knee was throbbing. She couldn't even find her voice before the masked woman spun on her heel, turning towards a new hallway.

In the brief second before she sprang ahead, through undulating pink tresses, Sakura saw Fugai again. Her eyes went wide. And she understood why the Anbu agent turned to retreat.

The Anbu kunoichi leapt again. Not even a moment after her feet touched the floor, a terrible, stomach-turning scream howled down the hallway, shaking the walls, striking the ear with the harshness of a metal nail scratch glass.

"Rrragghhhhhh! I'll kill you!"

Sakura's face contorted beneath the eardrum pounding howl. At the same time, cracks ruptured from floor to ceiling, appearing to chase the two Leaf shinobi. Then, to her horror, sheets of rubbles began collapsing from the ceiling.

These ancient caverns can't withstand this kind of damage. She'll collapse this whole place on top of us!

The Anbu agent moved like a gale. She evaded left and right as debris fell around them, escaping, momentarily as it would be, into an undamaged hall.

Dark halls of cold stone whipped by. At times massive, tangled root systems obstructed their path. Howls echoed from all directions, and stones ruptured, exploding like paper bombs or crashing dully against the floor.

Finally, they exited out of the cramped halls onto a small rocky ridge, out into the open chamber adjacent to the main sanctum.

There wasn't a moment to be relieved. A bellowing, reverberating howl cascaded from deep within the halls.

The Anbu agent was already on the descent of a leap before it crashed against their previous position; sharp sensory abilities were a gift on any battlefield. So was reasoning. And it was clear Fugai would be following them out the same exit.

From the woman's shoulder, Sakura pulled a kunai and paper bomb from her pouch and whipped it towards the ridge.

Fugai flashed out of the hallways, metal boots grating against the stone as she skid to a halt on the ridge now above them. Blood coated her face, a long scar carved a path from her left temple to right earlobe, and it was clear her eyes were casualties of it. However, the wound itself was already sealed.

The Anbu agent landed. The paper bomb struck the ridge, exploding, launching debris through the air and enveloping the wolf woman in smoke.

A wolfish howl threw back the smoke. The Anbu agent leapt again.

"How did she even manage to track us?" Sakura wondered, bewildered.

"I can smell your blood!" Fugai growled, whether in arrogance or rage was difficult to say.

"Scent, huh?" the Anbu agent ruminated.

Fugai sprang off the ridge, landed on the side of a large stalagmite, then flickered across a gap to a collapsed stone pillar, and unleashed another roar.

The Anbu kunoichi slipped behind a thick mound of solid earth. Half of it crumbled into pebbles, showering them with tiny stone debris.

The echo carried through the chamber. Yet a new sound joined it—the sound of heavy stones shifting. Cracking.

It ricocheted along the walls. But what was the source? Where was it? Sakura lifted her head, scanning their dimly lit surroundings for whatever had captured Fugai's howl. A collection of stone columns dangling from the ceiling caught her eye; they swayed hazardously, a veil of stone particles drifted at the top of the structure.

An epiphany struck the kunoichi then and there.

"Excuse me, Miss, but I've got an idea."

"One moment."

She sheathed her sword, whirled low to the ground, and deposited Sakura onto the ground gently, though not without a tumble. She then caught Fugai by the wrists as she pounced from above.

Rolling along her back, the Anbu agent kicked and threw the wolf woman off. She all but glided to her feet in a graceful motion and drew her sword, slashing it at the floating second-in-command.

Sakura only heard the razor sharp vibration of wind in the still chamber. And then armor and flesh split like paper. Copious amounts of blood poured from Fugai's abdomen, and a scream instead of a howl echoed across the chamber.

Whoa, that Wind Style ninjutsu cut straight through Fugai's armor.

Despite that, Fugai twisted through the air and unleashed another howl upon the Anbu agent's position. Steam was rising from the wound.

A small, pot-shaped crater formed where the Anbu agent once stood. Fugai landed on all-fours, but staggered and clutched her abdomen, growling viciously.

As Sakura rose she felt herself suddenly heaved off her feet, and then she was on the Anbu agent's shoulder again, flying through the air as small shards of stone pelted them.

The ricochet of shifting pillars reverberated, too. Fortunately, it seemed the Anbu agent was of the same mind.

She was bringing them right towards the hazard.

"Can you move?" the Anbu agent asked as she bounded from stalagmites, broken platforms, and across ancient walkways.

"Yes."

Her knee was definitely bruised and bleeding, but it wasn't broken.

"A wound as deep as the one she incurred should take some moments to heal," the Anbu kunoichi informed.

She paused, briefly, setting Sakura onto her feet again. Her knee felt weak, tender, but she'd manage.

"I suspect I know what your plan is. Come, I've already made preparations."

"Preparations?" Sakura asked.

"You will see."

---

Fugai sniffed the air. The scent of blood on the air, the taste of iron on her tongue, it was leading her straight to the filthy natives.

She stomped ahead, no longer tripping over stones, no longer wary of drop-offs; her other senses were already adjusting and compensating for the lack of sight. The Power of Gelel also contributed to the keenness of her senses.

Plop…plop…plop.

Fugai paused. She grinned a vile grin.

"Now," she drew the word out. "Where could you…" She snapped her head straight up. "Be!"

She could not see the young girl balancing high above her, hands and feet pressing between two hanging pillars. Fugai knew her prey was there, however. Trapped like a rabbit beneath a wolf's fangs.

Building up a howl, she heard the whistle of a blade flying, a puncture of stone, and something like a wire tightening. Then she howled with all of her malice, all of her power, all of her savagery.

And then she screamed.

The echo of her own howl pounded against her sharpened sense of hearing, hammering her eardrums until she felt blood against her palms—now pressed against them in a futile attempt to dull the noise.

Fugai did not see the young girl swing on a wire to safety. Did not hear how the stone columns, capturing the noise and encapsulating her within the agonizing cacophony, began to crack and shatter.

When she writhed and screamed, unleashing another howl of anger and pain wherever she might, her muscles suddenly went stiff as steel. She could not see the black binds of a technique formula unraveling across her body.

"Dammit!" she bellowed. "I'll kill you!"

All she could do was scream. At first in rage.

When the pillars dislodged and began to crashed over her, breaking her body, she screamed in agony. So loud it could be heard over the collapse of the ancient architecture.

Then all went silent.

---

When they approached to ensure Fugai had perished, Sakura could only grimace and look away at what they found.

"It appears even the Stone of Gelel has limits to what it can heal," the Anbu agent said without emotion.

It was going to be a hell of fight to forget the puddle of blood and gore that was once Fugai's skull.

---

The rapid clickity-clack of a wooden puppet echoed along the abandoned ruins of the main, circular sanctum. The cloak worn by the puppet—Crow was its name—fluttered as it chased the hybrid of woman and bat, blades whistling from its secret compartments in an attempt to induce some manner of damage.

The invader, Kamira, evaded with grace and agility, laughing arrogantly as she swept up, dove down, and corkscrewed through the air, beating the membrane-like wings grown from her arms courtesy of the Stone of Gelel. She twirled, dancing, almost, to evade the barrage of small fireballs.

"Aw, you jussst missed me. Better luck next time, handsome." Kamira blew the Uchiha a kiss at the end of her spin, then darted off again to evade the puppet.

She really is annoying, Sasuke thought passively, crimson gaze tracking her movements.

Her maneuverability and agility outmatched his own. Down on the earth, held down by gravity, and lacking any and all foundations to close the distance, he may as well be trying to sever the wings off a distant fly with a senbon.

He had tried climbing the walls, but then she kept her distance, annoyingly enough. Leaping into the massive empty space would only leave him open to a counter.

So, Kamira continued to fly about, much like an annoying fly buzzing by his ears, evading all of their attempts to pin her down and eliminate the target.

She wouldn't stop anytime soon, she had a seemingly endless supply of power, after all. They didn't.

It's obvious we won't get anywhere playing her game—she's too fast in the air. She can outmaneuver Kankurō's puppet and my Fire Style. But if we could limit her range of movement…

The Uchiha began scanning and measuring the distance between the walls. Despite being an ancient ruin, the walls were mostly intact and sturdy. Plenty of points prime for anchoring a shuriken or kunai.

His crimson eyes fell upon Kamira and the puppet again.

Limiting her range of movement will limit Kankurō's puppet as well. She'll use that to her advantage, and then we'll be exactly where we are now. It'd be easier if I could just get close enough to knock her out of the air, but she'd see me coming a mile away.

If I used the Second Stage Curse Mark, I could finish this with ease. I could fly straight to her.

To waste it on her, though?

Sasuke shook off the idea. He needed something more reliable, something that wouldn't degrade his mind and willpower. Better to think of a strategy as if he never had been branded with the Curse Mark, using only his current abilities and nothing else to overcome the challenge.

And save the Curse Mark for a life-or-death situation.

If I could just get some footing, or fly like that puppet… Wait a minute…

His gaze lingered on the Sand shinobi's weapon.

All of that wood, the cloak, the secret compartments and weapons, it has to weigh a decent amount, he considered. What if we…

"Hey, Kankurō," he spoke up without taking his eyes off the enemy. "What's the heaviest puppet you've ever controlled?"

"Huh? What's the heaviest puppet…"

He could almost hear the gears in the Sand shinobi's mind, ground to a halt in frustration, begin spinning rapidly beneath newly applied grease.

"Heh! You've gotta be crazy."

Though Kankurō was positioned behind him, his sudden laugh and the tone of his voice made the smirk on his face vivid to Sasuke's mind's eye.

"Hm!" Sasuke snorted. "Well, think you can handle it?"

"Oh yeah, I can handle it," Kankurō grinned. "So, how you want to do this?"

"Pull your puppet back and make whatever preparations you need to," he said, reaching into his pouch for shuriken. "Once I'm done there won't be much space for her to move around. That's when we'll make our move."

"Got it."

Sasuke didn't wait for his puppet to return to begin. He whipped a set of three shuriken out first, straight for Kamira, then a set six—two between each finger gap—immediately after.

The metal missiles whirled, then, of course, impacted and embedded into the stone wall behind the bat-like woman.

"Such cute little toys." Kamira dove beneath the following six. "But I'm afraid you won't touch me with these, sweetie. Better try something else."

More shurikens flew, the Uchiha throwing with one hand and digging into his pouch with the other, to maintain a constant barrage of missiles.

Soon enough a new noise began to reverberate through the circular sanctum—that of metal on metal, as shurikens bounced off each other, redirecting, narrowly whistling past the evading woman, before anchoring into walls.

The Crow puppet floated past him. At the same time, Kamira began to comprehend his attack.

She struggled to see the glint of ninja wire in the dim lighting. As more and more shuriken whirled and anchored, however, the clearer the net became.

Wires running horizontal and diagonal from wall to wall, wires running on vertical planes, bound to other wires, created the massive web of a bat-eating spider.

Kamira evaded more shuriken, pushing back, then, breath catching, beat her wings to counter her backwards motion as she neared a set of wires. She ascended, twirled out of the path of a shuriken, and struggled to find a path through the web.

Sasuke threw his final shuriken, then brought together the handful of wires he kept a hold on—the wires which connected the entire web. He placed them between his teeth, weaved his handseals, and inhaled, expanding his diaphragm and chest to maximum capacity.

Fire ignited and streamed across the wires, spreading within seconds over the metal web, casting the dimly lit sanctum in the glow of orange flames. Flickering black shadows danced across the ceiling, floor, and the walls.

As did the shadow of a human-sized bat barnstorming through the gaps in the web.

Sasuke tied his wires off on a kunai. He anchored the blade to the floor, then watched as Kamira finally found a space where she could hover and fly without imminent danger. As planned.

"You ready?" he asked, eyes never leaving the invader.

"Yeah. Let's do this."

"Oh, would you look at that," Kamira purred. "There's a safe path straight to you two. Maybe I'll fly into your arms, handsome." She feigned swooping closer, then swept away, returning to her safe zone. "Jusssst kidding!"

"Heh," he smirked, channeling chakra to the soles of his feet. "Guess that just means I'll have to make a noble sacrifice."

"And what noble sacrifice is that?"

"Getting closer to someone so utterly annoying."

He released his chakra. Like his shuriken before him, he torpedoed straight for Kamira, who's eyes widened at the sight of the human missile flying between flaming wires. Heat from his jutsu stung his skin and eyes, but he didn't take his eyes off the enemy.

Just have to get close enough…

His fist moved into a position somewhat natural to him. He drew back and threw it as he neared the woman. She twirled out of the way with a laugh, unscathed.

"Ole!" she giggled, crossing one leg over the other as she floated.

Sasuke felt a sudden, foreign tugging sensation on the backs of his arms, legs and torso.

He smirked.

Now to end this.

Glancing over his shoulder, crimson eye piercing through the strands of his growing bangs, Sasuke eyed his enemy's position.

In the distance he saw Kankurō, who bore a similar expression on his face to his own.

Kamira blew him another kiss. "Buh-bye, handsom—"

Unnaturally, Sasuke's body changed trajectory. He flew with the agility and maneuverability of a puppet, sweeping around into attack range within a heartbeat; it felt like he was being carried by a bird, truthfully.

Kamira's big ruby eyes went wide again. It was a satisfying expression, and would be one of her last.

"Now, Sasuke!" Kankurō called.

He swung his leg and crashed it into the exposed crook of Kamira's neck. The strength of the blow sent her shooting through the air. She tried to recover, to her credit; she spun and rotated, throwing her arms to extend her wings.

However, in the crimson eyes of the Sharingan the reflection of a flaming wire flickered and danced, and the Uchiha smirked.

Too late.

The flaming wire snagged around her waist. He couldn't hear her, the air still whistling in his ears, but the sharpened perception of the Sharingan her neck muscles going taut, her nose flaring, and her chest suddenly expanding with a sharp, stunned intake of breath.

What occurred next happened within moments—a chain reaction, much like a domino effect. Once the first wire snagged, all the others began to react, snapping, pulsing, and recoiling as the trap was triggered.

In an instant the wires wrapped around Kamira's arms and legs, they hooked around her neck and bound her torso within their burning, metal clutches. The flames began to burn through armor; the odor of scorching flesh and burning hair wafted into his nostrils.

Sasuke, carried by Kankurō's chakra threads, floated back onto solid earth gracefully.

No sooner did his feet touch ground did he hear another wire snap. Glancing over, Sasuke observed Kamira's freed left arm and the steam rising from her burn wounds; the result of the Stone of Gelel, no doubt.

All the same, her right arm remained strung up above her head. She writhed like a worm—a fitting display before she died, in his opinion.

"This…isn't…over," she growled, shredding the wires around her neck.

"You're right. It isn't. But it's about to be." Sasuke lifted his chin towards the woman. "I'd check my surroundings if I were you."

"Huh?"

Kamira turned her head. There, floating behind her, awaited a floating puppet with a bucket-like head, bearing two sharp red horns, three eyes, dark-disheveled hair, and six arms. Two of the puppets arms drew back the cloak covering its whole frame, revealing a barrel-shaped body.

"And when you reach hell," Sasuke added, "tell them the shinobi of the Leaf and Sand sent you."

The barrel snapped open. Chakra threads leapt from the stomach, binding around Kamira before yanking her free of the ninja wire and dragging her inside of its stomach. Then the barrel doors slammed shut, and the lock sealed over it.

"Hey!" Kamira screamed, kicking and thrashing at the walls. "Let me out! Let me out! Let me—"

Scythe like blades emerged on the sides of the barrel. With the smoothness of cutting silk with a samurai's sword, the scythes reaped from one side of the barrel to the other, showing and meeting no resistance—a testament to the sharpness of the blades.

Streams of crimson flowing down the sides of the puppet was the last he saw of Kamira before the puppet dropped its cloak.

"Secret Black Move: Iron Maiden 2. Heh, gotcha!" Kankurō grinned triumphantly.

"Nice work," Sasuke complimented.

"Been waiting to use the Black Ant. Just couldn't get her into position," he replied, drawing in his second puppet in. He glanced off to the hanging threads of his trap. "Pretty interesting move with those ninja wires. And the addition of fire was a nice touch. Got her right where we needed her."

"Speaking of, she was burning. Won't that effect your puppet?"

"Nah, we craft our puppets from flame-resistant materials." Kankurō shrugged. "Something we picked up from years of conflict. A puppet is useless if a little bit of fire or water is enough to destroy it. Wind, Lightning, Earth, those are more difficult to craft resistances for, but some more advanced puppets have them. Usually at the cost of limited joints and articulation, which means less weaponry overall."

"Huh. I'm surprised you'd tell those secrets to an outsider."

"It's common knowledge, actually. Had a war between our Village broke out beyond the Invasion, you would've been debriefed on the abilities of puppet users. Our real secrets aren't something I'd give up, even to an ally."

"Mm. I get it," he replied, nodding once. "It's no different than protecting the secrets of a Clan or a kekkei genkai."

"Pretty much. Anyway, what's the plan from here?"

"That other woman has finally stopped her howling, so it's safe to say Haido's lieutenants are dead. That leaves the rescue operation, and Haido and Temujin…"

He glanced towards the gaping hole the old man had taken Temujin down.

Haido destroyed that stone seal with a single punch. And then those strange orbs he manifested…

They needed to regroup with Amari and Naruto.

He could feel it in his bones.

---

The Chamber of Sealing, as the old man called it, was a vast, two-floored circular chamber, who's intricate columns, capitals, and delicate archways were wholly untouched. Undamaged.

The chamber existed as it had at the height of the empire. It was truly a marvel.

It never should've been forgotten. He would see that wrong righted.

Temujin awed at the chamber as he moved along the back wall, decorated by ancient and colorful murals depicting the history of his Clan's former kingdom, from the moment they first discovered the power of Gelel, through the wars that inevitably destroyed it, and finally…

Approaching a pitch black mural, depicting nothing except a blank void of darkness, Temujin rested his gloved hand upon the dark stone. Even then it felt cold to the touch.

"Old Man, what's this?"

Kahiko approached, hands clasped behind his back. "Ehhh, a portrait of despair, perhaps. The empire was reduced to nothing, like the picture you see before you."

"How promising," Temujin smiled. "Our search hasn't been in vain! It's everything we'd dreamed it would be!"

"And you're telling me you're not horrified by all this?" Kahiko demanded, his own horror plain to hear. "That ghastly mural proves it! This kind of power breeds only destruction and nothing more."

"People will always fight," he replied calmly. "With or without this power. We…" He felt a sudden strength and righteousness fill him. "We shall be wielding it for the greater good!"

"Is that so? Well, unfortunately, our journey will end right here!"

Temujin heard the old man's sudden, frenzied approach. Spinning around, he caught the glint of a hidden stiletto dagger clasped between Kahiko's old, frail hands. The knight swayed smoothly to the side, but felt the hot tearing of flesh along the width of his bicep.

On instinct he struck the old man with a powerful fist.

Kahiko cried out, flying several meters, before crashing near the center of the chamber.

"How foolish!" Temujin chastised. "Did you honestly think you could surprise me?"

"No," grunted the old man. His cheek already showed signs of bruising; his skin was old, weak, and weathered by the sun and time.

Any regret Temujin felt washed off easily, for self-preservation could wash even the darkest of sins clean.

Kahiko rose, features resolved, as they were before. A thin trail of blood painted the stiletto blade. "No, I suppose I didn't," he said. "But I've achieved my goal all the same."

"What?"

"Do you know what the sign on this floor is? It's an ancient form of Summoning Jutsu used to call forth an immeasurable power."

"Summoning Jutsu?" The words tasted strange on his tongue. And powerful. "What are you getting at?"

Kahiko stepped onto the seal. He cast one last look at Temujin, and the knight felt a coldness race up his spine.

Gripping the dagger in both hands, the old man raised it above his head and declared,

"Here we breathe our last!"

The wall which sealed over the ancient elevator exploded violently. Another, smaller blast ripped the blade from Kahiko's hands.

"Gah!" he cried out as the stiletto clanged noisily against the stone floor.

"I'm not altogether sure what he was planning to do there," his Master's voice resonated within the room. "But I'm glad I came when I did."

Temujin drew his eyes to his Master and the four devoted comrades flanking him, astounded by his presence.

How had he descended the elevator so quickly? He couldn't have jumped after them. Such a fall would be fatal.

How on earth had he destroyed the wall and knocked the dagger from Kahiko's hands?

"M- Master Haido!" Temujin felt himself unconsciously begin crossing the floor towards the man.

His Master, too, stepped out from the rubble and entered the chamber, approaching him.

"Temujin, are you all right?"

"Master Haido, how did you…"

"Oh." His Master looked down, lifted his right hand up, and pulled the white glove off of it. "I was using this."

Temujin sucked in a sharp breath. His thoughts raced to the cave Amaririsu brought him to.

"There is also the Stone he keeps for himself."

No.

"He attacked me with it as I nabbed his precious book."

It can't be.

"So, he's hidden even that from you. Now that's interesting."

Beneath the pristine white glove his Master wore another, black and fingerless. Secured upon it was a turquoise stone.

A Stone of Gelel.

You mean, he felt himself take a hesitant step back, they were telling the truth?

"I wonder what else he's lied about, then."

"That's… That's a Stone of Gelel," his voice barely rose above a whisper.

"Hmhmhm," his Master chuckled, lifting his hand higher and turning as he examined the Stone with a strange smile.

It was not the smile he remembered his Master for.

"It's just like in the Book," he claimed. "Amazing, isn't it? I can blow things away without even touching them."

As if to prove his point, he turned his back to Temujin and aimed his fist at a column decorated by ancient carvings that had stood for centuries untouched.

The Stone glowed. Then the corner of the column suddenly shattered in an explosion of stone and dust.

Satisfied by his display, his Master began to tread further into the chamber, an excited bounce in his step as he looked around for…something. Temujin watched him in stunned silence, while the world beneath his feet seemed to spin faster. And faster. And faster.

Master Haido… He lied to me. He…lied.

"It's you," Kahiko rubbed his hands, old features fierce. "You're the one who destroyed this boy's village and killed his family, all to get the Book and the Stones."

His Master paused.

"Huh." An abrupt laugh broke from his throat. It sounded strange, stranger than any laugh he'd ever heard before.

Turning around, Master Haido raised his hands in a shrug, smiling that same foreign smile Temujin didn't recognize.

"What is the cause of all this doubt?" He almost sounded amused by the accusation. "My only goal in life is to rid this world of war. How could you even say such things?"

Something about those words were off. They sounded…wrong. Different than all his Master's previous speeches.

They sounded disingenuous.

"One who truly wanted peace would never seek out the Power of Gelel!"

"I desire the ability to put an end to all war," his Master said more firmly. Stronger. Hungrier. He turned away to continue his search. "There's nothing more to it than that. Let's see now, where is the entrance to the Vault?"

"I can tell how black your heart is just by looking in your eyes!"

"Hmm. I don't even know where to begin," his Master ignored the old man.

At that moment, a granite pedestal rose from the floor at the far end of the chamber; it resembled three twisting branches winding around each other, leading into three cylindric shapes—buttons, to his untrained eyes.

Excitedly, his Master approached it.

"Ah! Is this it? The key that grants access to the Vault of Gelel!"

"No! Don't touch it! That isn't meant for you!"

A quick moving tan object ripped by in his peripherals. As Temujin turned his head, drawn by the movement, Nerugui leap at his Master with claws and teeth barred, hissing and growling with the fierceness of a lion.

An invisible blast—a shield, of sorts—batted the small ferret away.

Nerugui bounced once, then twice against the chamber floor. And did not move again.

No, Temujin's heart tightened and sank. What was… What was even the point of that?

From Nerugui's open mouth, a tiny green gem the size of a pebble rolled on the floor.

"Nerugui!" cried Kahiko, rushing to his companion's side. He cradled the dead animal gently in his trembling arms, tears in his eyes, as though his own child had died. "Ah… Nerugui…"

Why? Temujin stood frozen, eyes stinging. It doesn't make any sense. Why did Master Haido do that? Nerugui wasn't any real threat.

"Oh! There was a Stone in its mouth. The poor thing," his Master feigned compassion. It sounded so easy for him. "Yet another noble sacrifice! Honestly, those at the top have to make such tough decisions."

He's…lying, Temujin noticed. It was easy for him. His words…there's such malice in them.

"I- I've had just about enough of you!" Kahiko declared through his fierce tears.

"Ah." Master Haido aimed his right fist at the old man. Temujin felt his heart skip when the Stone began to glow. "It breaks my heart. Oh well, one more sacrifice for the cause it seems."

Kahiko cried out as the blast struck him and shredded the fabric of his sleeve to the flesh beneath, painting the once beautiful garment with dark crimson. The old man was flung head over feet, crashing harshly on his back.

The blast exploded against a pillar behind Kahiko, shattering off fragments of ancient stone.

What in the world is Master Haido doing? What's the point of this?

"Oh dear," his Master began with a laugh in his throat. "I can't control my power very well. Hmm." He eyed the Stone. "Well, anyway…"

He aligned the Gelel Stone to Kahiko again.

Temujin's body moved without his conscious consent. He watched like an observer as someone else, for it could not be he who took such drastic action, dashed swifter than a cheetah across the chamber floor in shining white armor, drew their sword and held it before the old man.

A metallic ringing resonated through the still and silent chamber. Like a trilling song of defiance.

Temujin felt his shoulder shudder beneath the power of the blast as his sword glowed a green hue and vibrated. An instant later the blast reflected and struck a wall behind his Master.

Surprise crossed his Master's face first. Then it quickly morphed into agitation.

For it was he who had flown on the wind to the old man's side. It was he who had drew his sword and protected the frail old man from his Master's unprovoked attack.

For none of this pointless cruelty made any sense.

"What do you think you're doing, Temujin?" Haido demanded.

Out of instinct he knelt onto one knee, feeling duly chastised and conflicted.

"Forgive me, Master. It's just…" He paused briefly to gather his scrambled and racing thoughts.

What on earth just happened? Why was his Master acting so strangely? Why did he have a Stone? Why did he kill Nerugui? Why did he try to kill the old man?

Why did he stop him?

"The Vault of Gelel is in our possession now," he began anew when he found a calm and logical argument. "If we were to toss the helpless old man aside, we could begin—"

"That's not what I meant," his Master interrupted firmly.

"Huh?" Temujin raised his eyes, wide, appearing less like a knight and more like an innocent and confused child.

"Don't stand in the way of my target."

A strange sensation swept over Temujin.

Suddenly the chamber fell away and he was standing in the ruins of his home, watching again as an observer as the man in the cloak, the man raiding his parent's home, stood amid his crumbled sanctuary.

The ruins vanished and the chamber returned, with his Master standing in the place of the cloaked man.

His height. His shape. Even his voice…

They all matched…

"Master Haido?" Temujin struggled to form the words.

"You heard me, lad. You're in the way! Step aside!"

His Master aimed the Gelel Stone at Kahiko once again, and the turquoise crystal radiated as power concentrated within it.

I…don't understand. I…don't…

"You do not wish to accept the truth. It is a natural reaction," the disembodied voice whispered, gentle, motherly, and yet commanding. "But the truth now stands before you. Do not ignore it. Please."

Temujin watched the Gelel Stone's glow burgeon as it had before, legs feeling sunken in quicksand or concrete.

It…can't be. It can't…

Purple and orange flickered from his peripherals, leapfrogging his comrades.

His firm foundation vanished beneath him. Suddenly he and Kahiko were uprooted from the floor, swept away by the blurs of motion.

Stone shattered. But no flesh was rended, as was his Master's cruel intention.

Temujin could only stare at the floor, hung over a familiar small shoulder.

"Saved you again, Princess," Amaririsu jeered without malice.

He felt no mortification to be treated like a sack of potatoes once more. No. He couldn't feel anything except the world shifting and cracking beneath him.

"What the heck is going on down here?" Naruto demanded, Kahiko held in his arms.

When his comrades moved to aid, his Master halted them with a single look. They lowered their weapons, obediently.

Amaririsu deposited Temujin onto the ground as gently as she could.

"Remember what I told you before, Haido? This is as far as you'll go," she declared.

Amaririsu stepped slowly aside, farther from the knight. She didn't want him targeted by chance, he felt that even through his shattering world.

"You'll die here," she continued. "You'll die with the Power just within your grasps, but still too far for you to reach."

His Master exhaled a long sigh, realigning the Stone.

"This is becoming so tiresome."

Amaririsu jumped away. Another blast struck a pillar behind her.

His Master suddenly turned his fist towards Naruto and Kahiko, and soon the boy, too, sprang and jumped as his Master fired off a rapid barrage of attacks at both children.

Everything they tried to warn me of…

Temujin swallowed roughly, watching on as helpless as the child who hid as his ruined home was raided.

"It's never too late to change your path," the disembodied voice whispered.

"Aid them."

"Fight, Temujin."

"It's the only way we can save everyone."

"Together we can stop him from destroying more lives."

"Ah, Temujin," his Master's frustrated voice drew him from his thoughts.

None of his attacks had landed. The two children were too quick, they already grasped the limitations of the energy blasts.

Haido jabbed his finger at Naruto and Amaririsu.

"What are you just sitting there for? Are you going to kill them or not?"

Kill them…

In silence, Temujin rose to his feet. Amaririsu gripped her short sword, but it did not sing from its scabbard.

Blazing crimson and hardened lavender flicked between him and his Master, observing, judging who and what kind of fight they had on their hands. Meanwhile, in the lull of combat, Naruto set Kahiko down behind a pillar, then bounded to stand by her side.

Temujin stared at his Master, stupefied, as if truly seeing him for the first time.

He felt his heart break.

"You call this…a noble sacrifice?" he questioned quietly. So quietly and heartbroken he barely recognized his own voice.

It was the first time he'd ever questioned an order. The wrongness of it was only matched by the wrongness of the situation at hand.

"What's wrong? Take care of them like you always do! Hurry up!"

Again he felt his mind tug at the strings of his childhood memory. The more he stared at his Master with clear vision, the more the shade from his nightmares gained detail and form.

How could he not have seen it? All this time…

"No," Temujin said, feeling a sudden wave of exhaustion. "I've had enough."

He'd never said no before. If only he had…

"Huh, Temujin," his Master exhaled a long sigh. "I am very disappointed in you."

"Yours cannot match the disappointment I feel in you, Master Haido."

"Hmph." Master Haido smirked a contemptuous smirk. "You really are an inferior individual. No different from your parents."

There was no overwhelming shock. How could he feel shock when the truth was so clear now?

Temujin felt only heartache and betrayal. His eyes stung and blurred with tears.

"My parents… All of my friends… You murdered them o- or bound them to a plane where there is no solace."

"Ha! Ahahahaha!" His Master threw his head back, shoulders shaking with a sinister laugh. "That's right! It was me! Such blindness. Latching onto the very man who murdered your parents. What an adorable little pawn you turned out to be.

"You gathered friends and strangers to our noble cause, sacrificed their souls without hesitation. Truly, you were my greatest disciple, you pathetic little brat."

Temujin lowered his head, jaw and vocal cords tightening.

How could he let this happen? How had he not seen it from the start?

Amaririsu and all of her comrades had seen Master Haido with such clarity, yet he, so blind, so foolish, so stupid and naïve! He had sacrificed the souls of countless people to a mad tyrant in the name of a false dream.

They were right, he choked, a tear as potent as acid burning down his cheek. I was just a tool the whole time. Everything I've done… Everyone I gathered to this cause… The towns we destroyed…

What was any of this even for?

All I've done is caused people to suffer.

I did onto others what Master Haido did to me. Under a righteous banner, blind to the souls he was binding, blind to the suffering.

He felt a terrible, serrated blade shimmying inside his heart. For it could only be a blade that caused such an awful sensation in his chest.

I just wanted to build a utopia. I wanted to build a world where children like me never existed. Yet, instead, I've built him a staircase to the throne of the world, where he will sit as our new god-king.

I've plunged this world towards its doom. Under the pretenses of peace.

I haven't changed anything.

The approach of footsteps drew his glistening gaze up.

Haido approached, his satisfied smile bearing menace and maliciousness at the sight of his broken pawn. He lifted his gloved hand over his chest, and light burgeoned from the Stone of Gelel.

Sniffling, hands trembling and legs weak, Temujin lifted his sword. Instinct, truly. It seemed so much heavier now. Truthfully, he didn't want to lift it.

He didn't want any of this anymore.

"Now that I know where the Vault is, I hardly need you anymore," his former Master claimed.

Somehow, he deflected the first blast. But it was only the beginning.

Raw power swirled around Haido as another blast met his blade; his former Master's new power tore the priestly robes from his body, revealing light grey skin beneath as his obese belly transformed into a powerful, sculpted physique.

His monocle flew off his face. His hat tore to shreds as his brown hair turned white and grew to his shoulders. His sclera flushed red, his pupils became slits, finishing his transformation from man to monster.

Four light red floating orbs took shape behind him as he fired off another blast, knocking the sword from Temujin's weak grip.

Metal clattered and clanged against the ground. He could only grab his hand and watch Haido approach through blurry vision.

Why did any of this happen?

Why was I even born into this world?

From his flank, a blast of compressed Wind suddenly crashed into his former Master. Haido did not flinch or stumble. The attack of wind merely caused his unkempt hair to whip about.

Pausing his approach, Haido turned his head towards Naruto, an unimpressed and cruel smile curling onto his lips. The boy looked on bewildered.

"I'd almost forgotten about the other rubbish. Now, where did Amaririsu g—"

Amaririsu flickered into existence on his blindside, short sword coated in flames. Haido spun his head, a vile grin overtaking his features.

One of the orbs mutated, stretching into a black shield of an oily-appearing constitution. There was no doubt in Temujin's mind it was stronger than steel.

To his surprise, Amaririsu phased through the shield.

"What?" Haido gasped, as if seeing a ghost.

He lifted his gloved hand. Amaririsu slashed.

Roaring flames arced from on high to the ground, following the trail of the blade. His former Master stepped back.

At first Temujin, standing flat-footed, nursing his aching hand, believed Amaririsu's futile attack had failed.

The rain of four grey stubs bouncing then rolling on the ground caused him to suck in a sharp breath.

Haido's red eyes were wide in sudden, sharp agony. No blood spurted from severed ends of his gloved fingers, the wound was cauterized by the flames sheathing the short sword, making the gruesome amputation almost seem harmless.

She was aiming to remove the Stone…

"You impudent little mongrel!" roared his former Master.

Amaririsu evaded back and slashed, unfurling a blade of fire as another sphere transformed into a pillar of stone, crashing into her previous position within a breath.

The blade of fire struck Haido, burnt his skin, but steam quickly rose from the wound as it healed.

A third sphere transformed into a malleable black four-pronged claw.

Quick on her toes, Amaririsu sidestepped, narrowly evading the claws, then sprang back towards Temujin with elegance and agility he could only envy; her movements allowed her to simultaneously evade the fourth sphere, which took on the appearance of a stone jousting spear.

Haido suddenly flickered before the girl. The Stone of Gelel cast a powerful hue of turquoise light over her.

Temujin recalled Amaririsu's sudden cry. He recalled something solid crashing into his body, striking him how he imagined it must feel to be struck by a cannonball.

Yet, unlike a cannonball, he did not die. Limbs weren't torn off his body by the force of the impact. His insides weren't left decorating the floor.

One crash was followed by another as he slammed against the floor. Terrible pain lit his torso, front and back, afire.

Lying on his back, face twisted in a grimace, he grunted as he lifted his thrumming head, and came face to face with fresh blood splashed over his white armor. Like a bucket of paint had been thrown over him.

Though his body's instinct was to gasp, he could not, for the air was already knocked from his lungs.

The blood did not belong to him.

Amaririsu lay on the ground beside him, legs draped knees first over his chest.

"Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto's voice sounded far away. So far away to his ringing ears.

Temujin could only look at Amaririsu. Her shirt was shredded, barely hanging onto her small frame due to the harness she wore; he could see the mesh armor she wore beneath, torn through to the fragile flesh.

Blood was seeping into the fabric, dripping down her right shoulder; the blast had fissured flesh along her abdomen, across her chest, gouging the leather harness to her shoulder beneath.

All the same, though trembling and grimacing, though her forehead was planted against the hard earth, Amaririsu began to crawl off his body.

What are you doing? Why are you still fighting? He wanted to ask.

We've already lost. He's claimed the Vault.

Amaririsu struggled to rise to her knees. Once there, she all but collapsed backwards, coming to sit on her heels as she breathed heavily. Laboriously. As if a great weight was still pressing against her chest.

I've doomed us all…

Temujin's vision blurred. He blinked and felt tears stream down his cheeks.

Beyond his line of sight his former Master laughed so cruelly, so savagely, all while he batted away and bested a horde of Naruto's duplications with ease.

He was enjoying himself. Enjoying his new power.

"What's the matter, Temujin?" Amaririsu suddenly spoke up, voice heavy and weak. "Don't…tell me you're giving up already?"

"What?" he murmured.

Her back muscles visibly spasmed. Every inch of her small frame trembled. Yet she moved from both knees to one foot beneath her.

"You didn't…expect a utopia to be easy, did you?"

With a pained grunt, she pushed herself onto two feet. After a sharp breath she tore the destroyed threads of her shirt off and tossed them aside, leaving her in the torn remnants of her bloody mesh long-sleeve.

Amaririsu turned towards his former Master, and staggered two steps towards him.

Her legs buckled. She was brought to her knees once again, where she pressed a hand to her bleeding abdomen.

"You said," she began again in her heavy and weak voice. "That without someone guiding us from above, this world will never know peace. The truth is, though, we cannot look to something above to change this world. Because it wasn't a god that made our world the way it is. Humans did. Our world is the way it is because we made it this way.

"The Power of Gelel cannot change that. Only we can. We made it this way, so we must fix it."

"You mean… Even though he has…"

"I told you already, changing the world was never going to be easy. This is… Gggghh!" Amaririsu forced herself to stand again.

On weak, trembling legs and through heavy breaths she staggered forward again.

"This is just another obstacle on that path," she declared. "Another setback. But that's no reason to quit. This isn't the end. Not yet.

"You have to keep standing up." She staggered closer to the cluster of Naruto's and Haido, a trail of bloody footprints forming behind her. "You have to keep pushing forward. Even if you keep failing. Even if nothing ever seems to change. You have to stand up again and again. As many times as it takes. That's the only way to change your life. That's the only way we can change the world."

What drives you? He watched her, caught in a stupor of awe and bewilderment. In your condition, why are you still trying to fight?

"I know it can be done…"

Amaririsu collapsed to her knees, body quaking as blood slowly rained on the floor beneath her. She heaved two heavy breaths, then sat back on her heels, bringing her hands in front of her.

"As long as you never quit… As long as you keep standing up…"

Five black tendrils, their ends shaped like dragon heads, snaked across the ground, weaving between the feet of the duplicates, then lunging off the ground to wrap around Haido's legs, arms and neck.

They didn't hesitate to sink their sharp teeth into his flesh. Bones crunched, and his former Master's arms suddenly bent unnaturally behind his body.

Haido writhed and screamed.

"Even the impossible can become possible! Naruto, now!"

The hue of his strange blue orb swirled into existence. Through the duplicates the real Naruto dashed, whipping by as a blur of orange. He'd never seen the boy move so fast.

Was it the urgency to eliminate his former Master, or the urgency to rescue Amaririsu?

Haido could do nothing except watch the orange bullet thrust the orb of power into his abdomen. And then he felt the same baffling power Temujin had.

"Go to hell, you bastard!" Naruto roared.

Haido torpedoed off the floor, towards the ceiling, spinning and whirling so rapidly through the air he became a grey blur. A breath later he slammed into the ceiling, cracking it; his arms, legs, and head were visibly bent and twisted at unnatural directions.

He peeled off the stone ceiling and, beneath a rain of heavy debris, crashed against the floor.

Dead.

Temujin struggled to sit up. Their strength…where does it come from?

Naruto didn't spare a second glance to his former Master. He leapt across the room and kneeled at Amaririsu's side, hands and body trembling.

Anxiety.

Fear.

Temujin understood why. He felt it, too. For he had seen the wound clearly.

"He- Hey! Hang in there, Amari. I'll, uh, I'll get you to Sakura!"

A futile promise. It was a lot of blood. Temujin wasn't sure she'd…

"No."

"Don't argue—"

"No, no, no, no. You have got to be kidding me!" Amaririsu interrupted Naruto's heated argument.

Temujin couldn't see her face, but he could sense her horror.

Naruto's head whipped towards the rubble.

"No. Don't tell me he—"

The debris suddenly exploded upwards, launched as though from a volcano. Temujin watched with wide eyes.

Haido stood in the center of the cleared debris, his mangled body twisted and contorted inhumanly. His head was spun around towards his back, neck twisted what appeared to be two or three times around. The Stone on his hand was glowing.

"Well, well!" Haido said. "That certainly stings a little!"

How could this even be possible? What sort of nightmare had he fallen into?

From the hole in the ceiling a veil of vaporous green energy unfurled, surrounding his former Master.

Bones cracked and crunched as his arms and legs twisted into their natural state. His scorched stubs regrew into full fingers.

"Ha ha ha! Wonderful! My wounds, their healing!"

"It can't be," Kahiko gasped. "It's the Vault of Gelel!"

"Hahahahaha! So much power!"

Haido gripped his head. With a grotesque crack he twisted it back into its natural state.

"Temujin, get up!" Naruto commanded.

He blinked, startled. "Huh?"

"We can't handle this guy on our own."

"You mean… You still…"

"Of course. I don't ever back down. Now get on your feet and help!" the boy growled.

"Hm? I've heard enough of this pathetic blathering," Haido claimed, turning towards them. "Let me deliver you to your utopia!"

His Stone glowed with the might of the Vault. Brighter than before, and yet darker somehow.

From it a beam of turquoise chased by streaks of lightning barreled towards all three of them.

"Naruto, Amaririsu!" Kahiko cried out.

Naruto jumped in front of Amaririsu. Amaririsu reached into her pouch. Temujin could only stare in horror at the sight of certain death, heart slamming against his chest.

Green light enveloped his vision. He felt no pain, but was certain of his demise.

When he smelled smoke on the air, and the light faded, Temujin found his certainty broken by the sight of two of his comrades standing over him, shielding his body with their large, plated frames.

Behind them, yet before Amaririsu and Naruto, were two more.

Smoke rose from their metal frames. The red mono-eyes dimmed, then vanished.

Amid the vapors he witnessed the spirits of a boy and girl—his friends—rise from the shells. They, too, vanished into the Vault.

Tears stung his eyes.

"Everyone… What have I… What have I done?"

Their empty shells collapsed to the ground with a dull, metallic thud. His tears spilled over.

"Foolish children," scoffed his former Master. "I told them to stay out of my way, but it seems they're at that age."

Naruto grunted. "I've had all I can stand of you, you bastard!"

"Calm down, Naruto. They're not lost yet, and breaking open apart of the Vault works in our favor," Amaririsu reassured despite the weakness of her voice.

"What?" Naruto turned his head to look at her. Temujin saw his cerulean eyes widen. "Hey! Wait a minute, we don't need to risk that."

"I won't last long without it, Naruto. You know that. I feel it."

"Amari, just hold on—"

"It's now or never. We need her power. She said this will save me. Don't worry," she grunted, "I know we can trust her. "

Amaririsu removed her hand from her pouch. Temujin gasped.

That was Wakiko's Stone of Gelel. She can't—

"Amaririsu, wait," he grunted, forcing himself onto his hands and knees. "You'll be corrupted! I can…"

What could he do? Heal her? He could barely use the Stone to heal himself.

I have to try. For her sake. I have to do something. I can't let her die. Not like this. I can't…

"I won't let you be corrupted," he said, slowly crawling towards her.

"How charming," his Master drawled. "It seems you're quite taken with her, but poor Amaririsu's already halfway to the grave. And merging with a Stone isn't something a nobody native can do. You're doomed to die here, Amaririsu, kneeling before the Power, but never truly reaching it. Those were your words, weren't they?"

"Please, just give me a chance," Temujin ignored his cruel taunting, tears in his eyes. "Even if I must take your place—"

"I won't let you. And I won't be corrupted," she declared, bringing the Stone to her heart.

"Wait! How can you be so certain?"

"Because the spirit… It's me."

Stone and flesh fused in an instant.

From the ceiling a stream of vaporous energy flowed down, encapsulating the girl in a veil.

"What?" Haido gasped, gawking at the stream of energy.

Steam suddenly rose from the girl's wounds, the fissures sealing shut. Her hair defied gravity, undulating beneath a rippling power, and then blinding light enveloped Amaririsu.

None could move. Not even his former Master. They all shut their eyes and turned their heads. Kahiko cried out wordlessly. Naruto and Temujin both cried out for the same person.

"Amari!"

"Amaririsu!"

Though blind, somehow Temujin could vividly see what was occurring.

He saw, as clear as a sunny day, Amaririsu's body lift off the ground, levitating, drawn up by the Power, as though the stream were an umbilical cord.

Amid the veil he could see the spirit of a woman descending towards her. And as she neared, she reached her hand out. Amari reached a hand out in response.

The tips of their fingers touched.

And white light overcame his strange vision.

---

She could see the whole chamber at once, now frozen in time.

Naruto stood before her, shielding his shut eyes from the white light encompassing the chamber. Behind her, Temujin clenched his eyes shut, frozen mid-crawl; his once pristine white armor was painted by splashes of crimson.

Kahiko cowered behind a pillar, covering his face with his hands. Nerugui lay dead on the floor. Haido had turned his head away, lifting his grey arm in a futile attempt to block out the light.

What's more, she could see herself. She was levitating high above the others, enveloped within the Power of Gelel, rendered into a detail-less white silhouette of light. Healed. Alive. And frozen in time, like all the others.

Reaching her hand out, Amari drew her fingers along the stream and watched as ripples cascaded over the image, as though painted upon the watery surface.

"When did you discover the truth?"

"'A woman with eyes like blazing fire.' Few eyes blaze as brightly as the Sharingan," she replied. Then quickly shook her head. "I wasn't one hundred percent sure. It was more of a…feeling I had. In my gut. I couldn't help but wonder, 'what if she's an Uchiha.' Then that transformed into, 'what if she's me?'

"You knew my birth name. You chastised me for trying to debate philosophy with Haido. You saved Hikari. When I thought about it, I could see myself taking those same three actions. I'd use my birth name in your position to gain my undivided attention as quickly as possible. I'd chastise myself if I knew Haido could not be debated and redirect my focus onto something actionable—like stealing the Book. And I'd bend space and time if it meant saving Hikari or any of my friends.

"So, either you were a benevolent and all-knowing spirit within The Beyond, or you were me, trying your damndest to prevent a catastrophic future from unfolding."

Amari rose out of a kneel and turned to face the woman. She pursed her lips in thought.

"Looking at you now, it's clear you aren't future me from my timeline, swimming through the streams of time to change what has already happened. You're another version of me. From another world."

The young woman before her nodded.

For all their similarities, which there were plenty—they could have easily passed for mother and daughter—there were plenty of stark differences between them.

Thicker, more untamed black hair flowed to the woman's low back. She had two crimson eyes, like blazing fire, and lacked Kasai's parting gift.

She attired herself in a halter top the color of freshly bloomed vanda orchids, a black, asymmetrical hemmed mini skort, mesh leggings, high-heeled sandals with knee-high shin guards, and a black, hooded cloak. Two black straps adorned her right thigh, silver studs pierced her earlobes.

She was tall, too. Taller than her mom by a few inches. Tall and womanly.

It gave Amari hope.

"At least in one world I get to be tall," she said,

"Most of us are late bloomers. Some are early. All possess the chance to be 'tall' as we wish, wished and are wishing at your age," replied the woman.

"Which am I?"

"That would be telling."

Amari puckered her lips in a pout. "Can't you give me a hint?"

Two fingers jabbed her forehead.

"Ah! Hey!" She slapped her palms over her forehead.

"There are more important matters. The interloper, Haido, must be stopped."

"I know. But…" She sighed. Learning her future height could wait, she supposed. "So, you are Haya Uchiha from another world?"

"Yes," Haya Uchiha nodded.

Amari hummed, examining her other self closer.

They were similar, but they were also different. Age and a different genetic roll of the dice were the obvious differences. Some pieces of her were exactly the same—like the fused Clan pendent resting beneath Haya's clavicle.

A constant. They were both born of Nara and Uchiha blood, likely to parents who shared the same names, but possibly befell different fates. Just as they had.

However, there were several obvious differences as well. Such as the second necklace worn by Haya—a longer black string, adorned by a familiar green gem resting against her breastbone.

It was the necklace of the First Hokage. For it to be in her possession… It told a story. A heartbreaking story that made her heart sink into her gut, but it was only the beginning chapters of a dark tale. The prologue to this other Haya's long and painful history.

Tattoos instead of scars decorated her left arm. Every image made her heart sink deeper and deeper into sorrow; the symbolism Haya had chosen were poignant reminders of fallen friends.

An abundant of cherry blossom blooms flourished across her shoulder, a white-feathered and amber eyed eagle soared on the inside of her bicep, two wolves—one an adult, one a pup—lay together beneath a full moon on her forearm, and a silver fox slept on its underside.

"What happened?" Amari asked softly. "How did you end up trapped here?"

Haya gestured her chin down the stream. "Walk with me."

Amari obeyed, falling in beside the woman.

"Where are we anyway? I don't recognize this as my mindscape."

The plane they inhabited stretched infinitely in every direction, and though they walked upon blades of grass beside a stream, the sky and world beyond them was filled by strange nebulas constructed of colors she did not recognize, forming indistinct shapes her mind processed as mountains, canyons, valleys, rivers, trees, even birds and snakes, rings and spheres, and so much more she could scarcely describe.

It glinted with swirling galaxies. It shimmered with the powdery constitution of The Power. Beings similar to birds flew high above them.

"Is this The Beyond?"

"Presently, you stand at the precipice. From here you can see a fragment—a grain of sand—of what you know as The Beyond all around us."

"A grain of sand? This is bigger than a grain of sand!" Amari couldn't help but laugh at the sheer scope of it all, spinning around slowly as she walked to take it all in.

"Is it? You consider yourself small. But small is relative to your perspective. Beside a mountain we are all small. To an ant you are a giant. When standing on the shore, the ocean appears to stretch to the edges of the world. However, compared to the vast size of the universe, the ocean is but a tiny, finite molecule of water.

"You believe the sky is above you, but what is above? What is below? You inhabit a spherical planet which rotates upon an axis, which orbits the sun, within an ever-expanding universe where concepts such as up, down, left and right bear no real meaning outside of human perspective."

"I think you just melted my brain," Amari deadpanned.

"Hmhm," Haya chuckled. "Allow me to try another example: To your eyes, this minor fragment of The Beyond is as vast as the universe itself. Yes?"

"It definitely seems that way."

"Well, from my perspective this is but a small village. A rest stop along a never-ending road."

"That's…wow," Amari struggled for words.

A small village? They had what appeared to be the entire universe stretching before them, and she saw only a rest stop?

How vast was The Beyond?

"All of this really makes me feel small and insignificant," the young girl awed at the space.

"You shouldn't," replied her other self, shaking her head gently. She gestured to the magnificent nebulas above. "We are all apart of this universe, and all of the universe is apart of us. There are an infinite number of ways you could be different. An infinite number of universes where the person known as Haya Uchiha isn't you, as you know yourself.

"There are worlds where you do not exist. Worlds where you die as a child. Worlds where, by a twist of fate, you save Shisui, at the cost of your own young life. And he is the one who lives on. He is the one who must walk your path, bearing that unimaginable pain of our final words. 'You'll always be my hero.'"

Amari felt a sharp blade pierce through the awe and magnificence straight into her heart.

"God," she felt her eyes burn. "You met him here, didn't you?"

"I have, I am, and I will."

"I…I'm not sure I understand. Is he here?"

Amari looked around, desperate for even a glimpse of her cousin. She saw no one else but them, and the reflection of her world within the stream.

"He was, he is, and he will be," Haya replied sagely. And unhelpfully.

"You're speaking in riddles."

"You will see. Soon."

"What do you mean?"

"It is as I said. Anyway, to your point on feeling small and insignificant, you shouldn't. Of all the possibilities, of all the worlds that exist, you, as you know yourself, have been born. You are alive. You could've been anyone. You could've never existed at all. Yet you do. That is significant in its own way."

"I am apart of this universe, and the universe is apart of me, right?"

"Precisely," Haya nodded.

"It's amazing. And crazy. All of this. But I've taken us off track." Amari turned her head to look at the woman as they walked. "What happened to you? How did you come to be here?"

"In my world, Haido successfully claimed The Power," Haya answered plainly. "I never found the Book of Gelel. I never learned of The Power or The Beyond, nor did I try to reach Temujin.

"It was a mistake I made countless times in my life. First with Haku, then with Sasuke and Sakura."

"You didn't try to reach out to them?"

"No. Many of my comrades, who I should've uplifted, I left to their own devices. Naruto, Hikari and Mimi were the only ones I ever earnestly tried to reach. For whatever that was worth, in the end…"

"Are they… Did all of them…" She could barely bring herself to say it. To ask. It felt like she was placing a knife against her chest.

"Yes." Haya's candid answer drove that knife straight through her heart. "I watched Haku die by Kakashi-sensei's hand. I…wanted to save him. I could see his pain. Feel it. I wanted to free him of it. I wanted to show him he had more to live for than being a weapon for another's ambition.

"But I didn't. Despite all of my wants and hopes, I…didn't move. I hated myself for it. There is a part of me that still does. Because I am one of a minority who lacked the spine to take that gamble."

Haya looked at her, and her crimson gaze seemed to pierce straight through her.

"You possess something I did not at your age. Even with my parents and Shisui alive," she said.

"Reckless abandon for my own life?" she offered with a weak smile, trying to alleviate the awful feeling in her chest.

"There is that. However, more importantly, you possess wells of empathy I lacked. You understood the sanctity of life—all life—and how precious it should be. You understood the importance of mercy. Forgiveness. Redemption.

"Father, Mother, even Shisui, they all imparted those lessons onto me. I knew those ideals in words, but I did not know how to embody them. I was self-assured in myself and lineage."

The image on the stream changed. The chamber vanished, and in its place the mist covered bridge returned.

Amari felt her heart tighten at the sight of Kakashi frozen in time, lightning coated hand plunged through Haku's chest; he'd successfully taken Zabuza's place.

All while a young Haya Uchiha watched from the sidelines.

"Yet when it came time to act, I faltered," Haya explained. "I valued my own life more than Haku's. For all the wisdom they shared with me, for all the strength of my lineage, when it counted, I was no different from an ordinary person. Fearful. Afraid. Driven by self-preservation.

"I wanted to go home at the end of my missions, while the path of a shinobi—a warrior—demands the acceptance of death. Your death. Once you accept that you will die, you can learn to handle fear. For fear is natural. All soldiers feel it. Only the stupid do not feel fear. And only the brave act in spite of it.

"I was far from a shinobi," said Haya, shaking her head. "Zabuza called it perfectly: I was an upstart. A no-nothing, naïve little Genin."

"It seems the Land of Waves made us both face uncomfortable truths about ourselves," Amari said.

"Indeed. But life is full of uncomfortable truths we must face. About the world around us. And about ourselves."

The mist-covered bridge vanished from the stream.

"Now," Haya made a small gesture to Amari, "knowing your own actions and what it has led to, imagine the ripple effect my inaction caused to my world."

The answer was obvious, truly.

"Our communication with the Mist, the possibility of an Alliance, it wouldn't even exist."

"Leaving our world even more unprepared for the war that would come. A butterfly is a small, insignificant creature to humans, and yet its fluttering wings can alter the course of the world. Quite significant, wouldn't you say?"

"Except I was the butterfly this time," Amari realized.

"A single act can change the course of history. A single person can change the world. Never doubt that," Haya said.

Lights arced across the sky and through the nebulas. The field of grass and the stream showed no sign of ending.

"What about Sasuke and Sakura?" she asked hesitantly.

The tattoos on her shoulder and the inside of her forearm said enough about Sakura's and Kakashi's fate, just as the First Hokage's necklace foretold Naruto's. But she saw nothing signifying Sasuke.

She wanted to know, no matter how painful it was. If she knew the circumstances or the missions they died on, and the actions Haya failed to take, maybe she could prevent them all from befalling the same fates.

Maybe her tiny butterfly wings could evolve into a majestic dragon's.

The truth, she would soon learn, was a bitter pill to swallow.

"Sasuke despised me," Haya declared sincerely.

"He…what?" Amari recoiled, taken aback by the statement.

"After the Fourth Hokage sacrificed his life, our father ascended to the seat of Fifth Hokage over Fugaku—Sasuke's father and Head of the Uchiha Clan. It sowed the initial poisonous seed of enmity between us.

"From there, everything seemed to feed this poisonous seed the toxic nutrients it desired. Our father made time to train Shisui and I, despite his duties, while Fugaku only ever paid attention to Itachi. Itachi accepted me. He treated me as a little sister. The Villagers treated me like a princess, annoyingly enough."

Scenes flashed across the stream. The shapeless silhouette of a man carrying Haya on his shoulders, joined by Shisui as they walked through the Village—Haya's father, doubtlessly. Fugaku ignoring Sasuke in favor of his eldest son. Itachi rubbing an even younger Haya Uchiha's head and laughing, while Sasuke watched on from the shadows. The hatred in his dark gaze was palpable.

Images of the Villagers treating her, as Haya said, like a princess started to follow. As did what appeared to be memories of Haya's and Sasuke's childhood encounters, from giving each other stink eyes in the street, to the fierce spars at the Academy, with dark thoughts in his eyes, and bored annoyance, bordering coldness, in hers.

Then the images faded away.

"Each act everyone took was another slight to Sasuke," Haya explained. "As we grew up, people began to take interest in my growing abilities. Word spread of the Fifth Hokage's daughter, said to be the strongest of her generation, capable of reaching the heights of those who came before her. While Sasuke always lived in Itachi's and Fugaku's shadow.

"Eventually he came to see his own father as weak for allowing anyone—even an Uchiha—to pass over him to the seat of Hokage. He saw him as the Village carpet, walked over by everyone. Because everyone knew our father should've been the Head of the Clan. Everyone knew our father was the strongest Uchiha of that time.

"I never tried to reach Sasuke. I never tried to reach through that darkness he cloaked himself in. I didn't like him, to be honest. He often scoffed at me. Called me a half-breed. So I took nothing to do with him.

"Later, when Team Seven was formed, he became obsessed with Naruto's sudden growth. My father assigned Naruto a special trainer, after I informed him the Academy teachers were sabotaging his studies or ignoring him outright. All except Iruka-sensei, anyway."

Another constant, it seemed. She was almost relieved to hear it. Almost, but she could feel the dark twist of the tale coming.

"Because of that special attention from the Fifth Hokage, and because Naruto was finally coming to stand beside us instead of behind, the festering darkness clutched Sasuke even tighter. You might say it was the final straw. Naruto was supposed to be the dead-last loser. Someone he could be better than. Suddenly, very suddenly, that wasn't true. And it was all my father's fault.

"Orochimaru and the Foundation used his hatred to their advantage. They enticed him with power, and he grabbed at it without hesitation."

Amari's stomach dropped. "You're kidding…"

New scenes of Haya's life formed on the stream. A fight on a hospital rooftop between Naruto and Sasuke. Sakura nearly dying by diving between them, before Haya tackled her out of the way and Kakashi flung the two towards a pair of rooftop water towers.

Then a familiar recovery team, forged of Team's Seven, Eight, Ten, and Team Guy gathered at the front gate. Mimi, Haya and Shikamaru were leading them.

"Naruto never gave up on Sasuke," she said. "Partly because he wanted to gain his approval, partly because he wanted to be acknowledge, but mainly because he saw Sasuke as a teammate, a rival, and a friend. To Naruto, those bonds were too precious to let go of. Even if he had to beat sense into Sasuke, he would.

"So, inevitably, it came to that. Sasuke went rogue, we all chased after him. One by one our squad was separated into smaller units battles by Orochimaru's and the Foundations agents."

Familiar and foreign faces passed across the stream, facing off against members of their squads. Members of the Sound Four, Kimimaro, a strange pale faced boy wielding a paint brush, and others she didn't recognize.

"Naruto went ahead to fight Sasuke to a stalemate. They were both at their limits. That's when he lowered his guard, trying to finally talk sense into Sasuke… And Sasuke killed him. Without flinching."

The knife in her chest twisted.

Haya looked at her hands. "I was the one who sent him ahead. He had the better chance of reaching Sasuke, and I had the better chance of defeating Kimimaro. I was so certain the light he carried could pierce Sasuke's darkness, I was certain I'd eliminate Kimimaro fast enough to help him."

Naruto lying in a pool of his own blood, a gaping hole plunged through his chest, appeared on the stream. Haya was kneeling beside him, face stricken by horror, grief, and rage, hands covered in blood as she cradled his still body in her arms.

As tears of blood poured down her cheeks and the Mangekyō Sharingan blazed.

"Instead, I arrived at the Valley to find that," she said. "I took him into my arms, and then into a genjutsu… I suppose I hoped I could reassure him he'd live, but he knew… And I did, too. He let me see his memories, begged me to stop Sasuke, no matter what, and gave me words and wishes I held onto until my final day.

"After… I let him live his final moments in an illusion, living his entire life in an instant, achieving all the dreams he had ever dreamed. He died in my arms, smiling. The Nine-Tails thanked me for sending him off peacefully before he, too, vanished."

Amari's eyes burned with tears.

"Naruto was the first," Haya continued, "but he wouldn't be the last. Sasuke went on to kill more and more Leaf shinobi—allies to my father, and comrades and friends of mine. Drugs and Forbidden Jutsu, taking over Orochimaru's body, he did everything he could to become stronger."

The faces of the dead passed across the stream as she spoke. All slain by Sasuke, evident by their fatal injuries.

"By the time I caught up to him and his new allies, I'd lost nearly everyone I loved to his madness. Ryu, Kasai, Naruto and Sakura, Kakashi-sensei, Mimi and Aoko, Itachi and Aimi, even Hikari, the one person I was able to reach. The person I loved. She stayed with me after the Invasion. She was my first kiss. My first for everything. I loved her, and she loved me.

"For that reason, the Foundation leaked her whereabouts to Sasuke. He killed her with the Amaterasu. There wasn't even a body to bury. Not even an ash to collect."

"God…" Amari choked.

"Why are you crying?"

"Because you aren't!" She wiped at her eyes. "Because you aren't. You're just reciting it like you're reading a grocery list."

"You truly are one of the best of us." Haya rubbed her head. "Do not cry. These events happened long ago. My suffering ended when I entered The Beyond. All those I lost have already completed their journey to the Pure Lands. I saw to that. And Hikari… She waits for me. Patiently, as is her nature," Haya added, smiling softly. "I am a lucky woman."

"You never met Yukiko, did you?"

"No. I traveled to a different world. I called it the Titan World."

"Why Titan?"

Strange, colossal creatures appeared on the stream next, as humans with swords flew through the air using some sort of advanced grappling equipment.

Amari made a face. "Those are…kind of gross."

"Agreed. The Scouts called these massive, humanoid creatures Titans. They were tormenting their lands."

Ripples caused the image of the creatures and humans to fade.

"Did you meet a kindred spirit?"

"I did. However, my heart was already committed to Hikari. In another world, though, they were, are, and will be my Yukiko."

"Did you kill Sasuke?"

"I did," Haya nodded. "He was my responsibility. As Kasai is yours."

"What about Haido? Temujin?"

"Haido ripped the Stone from Temujin's heart, snapped his neck, and destroyed the Stone. Once he was dead, there wasn't anything I could to do to stop him then and there.

"With no one to stop him, Haido went on to wage an all-out war on the shinobi continent. He razed the Five Great Nations and bound our continent beneath his iron fist.

"Over half the population was lost. What shinobi and samurai remained formed an underground resistance. Haido's greatest weakness was the scope of his ambition. He stretched himself far and wide, targeted areas of major populace to assert his rule over, leaving plenty of ground for us to sneak by unnoticed, sabotage and build a resistance.

"On one such sabotaging mission, Shisui acquired the Book of Gelel and a Stone…at the cost of his life. Shisui was…all I had left at that point," Haya explained, eyes raising to the nebulas above. "But his sacrifice was not in vain. With the Book in our possession, I was able to learn about The Power, The Beyond, and formulate one final daring mission. One that would take us straight to the heart of his power."

"The Vault," Amari realized.

"Precisely. Though we sustained heavy losses, I made it here," she gestured to the stream, and Amari's world frozen in time returned. "Powered by The Stone, Haido and I entered our final conflict. One which I finally had the upper hand in, for he had bound and trapped many souls into The Beyond; they became my allies, they granted me access to The Power without restraint or subjugation, and I finally bested him.

"But it was a hollow victory. Our continent was nearly unlivable because of him. I also realized that, though he lay dead at my feet, in an infinite number of worlds he would persist in existing, causing untold amounts of pain.

"So, I made the choice I had always failed to make. I used my body as a vessel for The Power to restore all he had destroyed, giving birth to new, fertile lands for those who would inherit them. I then Sealed my spirit into The Beyond.

"Now I exist wherever The Power does. Here I can aid those he traps across all timelines, and aid every individual who seeks to stop him, before he destroys their worlds as he destroyed mine."

Amari's mind was spinning, all but tripping over itself trying to keep up with the tragedy of Haya's life, and the complexity of her current state of existence.

"So, wait, you exist in every timeline now. Just you. Are there no other versions of us who sealed themselves into The Beyond?"

"Correct. There is no necessity for more than one of us to be here. By sealing my spirit into The Beyond, I exist at every moment in time, in every world The Power exists, while never existing at all."

"Tha- that's incredible. You must have seen…well, everything! That's how the author of the Book of Gelel met you, even though you didn't seal yourself into The Beyond until years after the destruction of the kingdom. Even though you were from another world entirely. I have so many questions."

"Is there hope for humanity?"

Amari recoiled. "Ho- how did you know I was—"

Haya smiled wryly. "Though our threads are woven differently, we are cut from the same cloth. I have, I am, and I will answer this same question many times."

"…Is there hope, though?" she asked hesitantly.

"Why is it you ask that question? I know the answer, of course, but I want you to answer it. Honestly."

Amari took a moment to gather her thoughts before she answered.

Why was she asking about hope? Haya would see through any lie or half-truth. So, what was the real reason?

"…Because so many people in our world believe there is none," she replied after a beat. "They point to our most cynical and darkest actions, to tyrants and leaders who always drag us backwards, or hold people down."

"And?" Haya prompted.

"And I want to believe they're wrong. I want to prove they are wrong," she said firmly. "It's true there are people like Haido who are out for their own self-interests. Who drag us all along with them down whatever dark road they've chosen. There are cynical people who uphold the status quo because they don't think anything will change.

"But, when I think about it, the tyrants who rise and drag us backwards, or hold people down, they aren't ever around very long. Not in the grand scope of time. The status quo is always changing. Humanity is always pushing forward. Progressing forward, no matter how many tyrants try to stop us. It's our way.

"So, I can't help but think, why do we always point to the worst examples of humanity as proof that nothing will change? Honestly, why? For all the selfishness humanity is capable of, there are so many more people who are selfless. So many examples exist of our empathy and selflessness. They exist everywhere, as you do, in everyday life. In normal people who aren't trained soldiers.

"There are so many people in our world who are truly good. Yet so many cynics point to our worst impulses when they say, 'see, this is what humanity is.' When those worst parts of us are a small minority. They truly are. I believe at our heart, at our core, the soul of humanity is always trying to build a utopia. Little by little. One generation at a time, we push forward towards that egalitarian society."

Haya smiled at her. "Wouldn't you say that sounds like hope?"

Amari exhaled a soft laugh. "I guess it does."

"Every generation improves upon its predecessors," Haya explained patiently. "It is up to the past generation to help pave a way forward, and teach the next generation of its mistakes, not to dig its heels in and prevent progress in order to keep things as they were in the previous era.

"Humanity always moves forward. Always. Even when tyrants drag us back, or clamp us beneath an iron fist, humanity will always reject their chains. They will always fight to be free. It may take years. But, inevitably, tyrants will fall and humanity will once again begin moving forward. That is true in every world.

"At its core, humanity is an empathetic species. The majority of people do not want to hurt anyone. They do not want to take or steal the livelihoods of others. The majority of people, across every world, want a utopia. In fact, were even one person capable of snapping their fingers and changing society into a true utopia, the majority of humanity would be ready for it.

"Those who would struggle are those the current hierarchy and system benefit most. Those who hold others down, who would lose power in a true utopia."

"Hmm," the young girl hummed deeply. "I guess I just have to keep to my path and light the way for the next generation to one day see utopia. By the way, are those birds flying?" Amari pointed to the sky, where beings flashed across the nebulas.

"No. You are witnessing the first Soul Flights of Temujin's people."

"Amazing…" she gasped. "Can they see us?"

"Mmhm. They suspect we are spirits of Gelel itself."

"I'm surprised they aren't trying to approach us."

"They have tried, but we are too far. To put it in perspective, you would have to travel around the earth a dozen times."

"To reach us?"

"No. To make it a quarter of the way."

"But they seem so close!" Amari retorted, looking back to the sky with awe.

"It's a matter of perspective. For example, when you look across the stream, are we the ones standing on its left bank…

"Or are they?"

"Huh?"

Drawn by Haya's voice coming from across the stream, Amari's eyes widened as she recoiled, stumbling back into Haya. The woman, as if anticipating the reaction, gently caught her and rested her hands on her shoulders.

Across the stream, her reflection mirrored her actions move for move. Except it wasn't a reflection at all. The girl across the stream had shoulder-length hair, and she attired herself in mid-thigh length cargo shorts and a floral pattern kimono-styled blouse.

"Which of us is on the left side of the bank?" the other Haya asked, appearing exactly as her own.

"Is it us?" her Haya asked.

"Or is it them?"

"You literally exist in every timeline?" both Amari's questioned in unison.

"At all times," her Haya explained.

"In every world," the other followed.

"We have, we are, and we will use this example many times."

"Look further ahead and you will see we've already moved on."

"Look behind and you will see we've only just met."

Both Amari's looked up and down the stream. Sure enough, a dark-haired version of herself was already moving on beside a different stream, glancing back in bewilderment at them. Behind them a boy of short blue hair was crouching in front of their own stream, examining their frozen world.

"I'm a boy in another world?" both Amari's wonder aloud.

"There are an infinite number possibilities," her Haya said.

"Imagine his surprise when he learns I am him, and he is me."

"But, as you see, it's all a matter of relative perspective."

"We have, we are, and we will."

"Past, present, future."

"For me they are seamless."

"So, does that mean we've already won?" both Amari's asked.

"No," the other Haya answered.

"You have yet to fight, so you cannot have defeated Haido. We must, as we like to say, blaze a trail to that future."

"Do we really say that a lot?" they both asked.

"In every world."

"In every timeline."

"Now," both Haya's patted the shoulders of their Amari's, "walk with me again."

Amari turned from the stream to follow Haya. The other version of herself faded from view, but, in her heart, she knew they were walking beside each other.

"As should be clear," Haya began after a long moment, "The Power is not a means to accomplish a utopia. It is a tool for societies that have already reached utopia. In your current world, with the current hierarchy, it would be used as Haido used it in my world."

Glancing back, Amari couldn't help the bewildered expression that crossed her face when she saw two other versions of herself standing at the stream.

One had their black hair in a Nara ponytail, and, annoyingly enough, owned a flak jacket that actually fit, worn over a short-sleeved mesh shirt paired with black pants. The other blue-haired girl wore, to her utter horror, a fuchsia crop top revealing most of her midriff and a black short skirt with mesh, knee-length leggings.

Talk about opposite sides of the spectrum. Mimi was right. There has to be a deviant version of me somewhere in the multiverse, and someone really needs to stop her.

"Uh, what's your plan, then?" Amari asked, trying to refocus.

"We will use the Stone of Gelel to defeat Haido."

"Wait, we will?" Amari tilted her head. "I figured you'd help me draw from The Power, but it sounds like you are intending to fight beside me."

"In a manner of speaking. You and I," Haya gestured to Amari and then herself, "will merge our souls, temporarily. All of our power, our experiences, our knowledge, our skills will coalesce and create a new being—a single, powerful soul forged from two."

"A single soul forged from two… I guess I'll have to experience it to understand it. Sounds like nonsense, honestly," Amari said, shaking her head. "So, we fight Haido and kick his butt, then what?"

"You assume it will be so easy. By cracking open the Vault, Haido now possesses a pipeline to The Power. He will continue to subjugate more and more of it, until even our power alone will not be enough to eliminate him."

"That's…troubling." Amari frowned. "How do we stop him, then?"

"You witnessed his accursed power to regenerate severed appendages and survive his body being mangled." She nodded despite the rhetorical nature of the statement. "So long as he wields the Stone, he can survive nearly everything."

"But so can we?"

"We can. However, I do not intend for us to test the limits of the Stone and Vault's ability to heal injuries. It is unnecessary to risk prolonged combat. Instead, we will aim to achieve an indisputable victory through the most efficient means."

"Teamwork," Amari judged.

"Precisely," Haya dipped her head in a nod.

The stream banked off to the right, but they continued straight along a well-traveled dirt road. Above souls, like shooting stars, flew among the colorful nebulas.

"First, we will delay Haido—see if we can break his Stone in the process," Haya explained. "Assuming he adapts quickly to The Power, as he has in countless worlds, we will buy time for Sasuke, Sakura, and your guard to arrive; they have already eliminated Kamira and Fugai and should be descending the elevator shaft as we speak.

"Once they arrive, I will share The Power with them and Naruto, this will boost their strength and speed and heal whatever injuries they possess. Then, together, we will launch a coordinated assault upon Haido."

"And then we destroy the Stone he wields and kill him?"

"That is the aim," Haya said. "Should we succeed, I will remove the Stone from yours and Temujin's body. Without killing either of you, I promise. Then I will Seal the Vault away—forever." She shook her head gently. "Your world is not yet ready for this power. One day it could be. But not yet. So, until that day comes, all of you will have to put in the work to build a true utopia."

"We're ready for it."

"I know."

Their path led them to a four-way crossroads. Amari looked at the empty roads, then up at Haya with a cocked eyebrow.

"Is this some sort of metaphor?" she asked.

"Patience. They're almost here."

"Who is?"

"You will see soon enough."

As Haya predicted, Amari didn't have to wait long. Six silhouettes—two per each road—approached the crossroads.

Once they finally settled at the end of their roads, Amari counted the three Haya's with ease. The other three newcomers stole her breath, stunned her to question her own sight. But no matter how many times she blinked, they remained, wearing the same stunned expression as her.

On her right was a boy, now grown to her age, right eye covered by a Leaf headband and his left eye a familiar lavender Byakugan. She didn't need to see beneath the headband to know a Sharingan—her Sharingan—was in his possession.

"Ryu…"

"Amari…"

They gasped each other's names in near unison.

Eyes stinging, Amari looked ahead and slapped a hand over her mouth to suffocate a sob.

Directly ahead was a girl, older than her by two or three years, wearing a Leaf headband around her neck, and a purple bandana around her right wrist, just beneath a tattoo of a grinning skull and two flintlock pistols.

"Amaririsu," Yukiko Igarashi whispered, the storm of violet glistening with rain. "You… You're here…"

A kunai adorned with a fuchsia and white petal amaryllis flower rested against her chest, joined by a pendent of the Nara and Uchiha Clan crests fused together.

It said everything she needed to know.

Finally, she set her eyes on the person on the left, and tears streaked down her face. Muffled sobs vibrated against her hand.

An adult, missing his right arm, wore a purple bandana on his left wrist and a white, high-collared shirt, doubtlessly printed with the Uchiha Clan crest on its back. But it was the sight of his familiar red eyes, his face, that caused her to nearly fall to her knees.

"Haya…" Shisui's eyes glistened, but then his lips split into a trembling smile. "Looks like you haven't hit your growth spurt yet, huh, little sis."

Amari choked on a sob and shook her head to indicate she hadn't. Not yet.

"Looks like that's one of your constants, huh, Amaririsu," Yukiko added, chuckling and sniffling.

"Height was always a sore subject," Ryu said, smiling serenely through grief.

"Traitors," she wept. "Troublesome boys and girls, all of you! I get taller! The proof is right beside you!"

"Yeah, but you're still small and adorable. You're…the way I remember you," Yukiko said.

Amari tried to step forward, tried to rush and tackle hug all three of them. Haya's arm gently blocked her path, as the other three Haya's blocked Ryu, Yukiko and Shisui's path.

"Why are you… Why bring us together if you aren't going to let me hug them?" Amari asked.

"So you may all remember what it is you fight for," her Haya replied.

"So you understand what is at stake," Ryu's Haya said.

"Haido cannot be allowed to claim The Power," said Yukiko's Haya.

"He was on the cusp of understanding how to use The Power to transfer his soul between worlds," Shisui's Haya followed.

"He sought new worlds to be his next plaything, once he finished ravaging mine."

"And he will do the same in each of yours, should we fail."

"We cannot allow him to succeed."

"We must fight to win. There is no other option."

"Though separated by time and space, we must fight together to stop him in every world."

"Should even one of us fail, he will ravage worlds where those we lost still live."

"Take heart. One day you will meet those you held most precious once more."

"But until that day comes, each of you must continue to push forward. Each of you must continue to blaze a trail to the future you envision."

"A future where we are free," her Haya said.

"A future those we lost can be proud of."

"So do not hesitate."

"I will be with you every step of the way."

"Your precious people will be beside you, always, so do not falter from your paths. I believe in you, as each of you believed in me."

"Never forget that you do not walk your paths alone."

"Trust in your comrades. Trust in yourselves."

"And walk tall with the courage and Wills of those you hold and held dear to new horizons. Never stop fighting. Never let hope fade away."

They all stood in a heavy silence for a moment. Absorbing the gravity of the fight ahead of them.

A fight that could dictate the future of other worlds, if they failed.

"I… Heh," Shisui exhaled a shaky laugh. "I'm proud of you, Haya," he directed to his Haya. "I'm proud of the person you would've become, had I been able to save you. You truly are amazing, and you've become an even greater shinobi than I ever could've dreamed."

"I will never be as great as you, Shisui," Haya said. "You were, are, and always will be my hero."

Shisui shut his eyes, head bowing as his features contorted.

"Ever since that day…" He paused, took a breath. Then began again. "Ever since that day, hope has always seemed far away. I feel like I've been drifting wherever the wind took me. I convinced myself I was trying to build a future you could've been proud of, but I've begun to lose faith in that goal. What was I even doing? What was the point of it all? It's not like it'd change anything. It wouldn't bring you back."

"Shisui…" Amari whispered.

"Seeing you here now… It's almost too much to bear," he admitted, voice cracking.

"I know."

"But," he continued shakily, "at the same time, seeing you like this—seeing both of you here—for the first time since that day I feel hopeful again," Shisui said. "This place has broadened my horizons. You have. I finally feel like I know what I need to do. What I have to do. So, I promise, no matter what, I'm going to stop Haido. I'm going to protect my world, and all the others where you still exist."

"Me too," Yukiko agreed softly. "Once, before she… Amaririsu, me, Naruto, and Shikamaru were all hanging around together, talking about…I don't even know anymore. Everything, I guess.

"Amaririsu said something that stuck with me ever since. It's…one of the few things that keeps me going day in and day out. 'The world we live in is full of cruelty and death,' she said. 'Nations compete against each other, doing all they can to sabotage the lives of the others across an invisible border, instead of cooperatively building towards the future. Pretty stupid, don't you think? I say we change it.'

"Always taking on the impossible, heh," Yukiko's forced laugh cracked with grief. "Another constant, I guess. Goddammit." She wiped at her eyes. "I miss you—her. I don't know how this brain-melting crap works. I wish everyday I could hold her, kiss her, tell her everything I was too stubborn or too afraid to say."

"She knew, as do I, as do all of us who are fortunate to meet," Yukiko's Haya said, resting a hand on her shoulder.

"I haven't known what I've been doing since," Yukiko said, wiping away more tears. "Naruto and Shikamaru kept pushing me ahead. I kept trying for them, because I was afraid they might give up if I did. But I don't know what the hell I'm even doing. I'm not a shinobi. I wasn't even a Hero in my world. Just some worthless delinquent lucky enough to be saved by the best girl in the universe. And I… I couldn't even do anything for you."

Amari opened her mouth to speak, to console and counter her despair, but felt her Haya clench her shoulder.

Not yet, the gesture signaled to her. So she shut her mouth and waited, watching Yukiko slowly regain her composure.

"I haven't had a reason to live since, but now…" She sniffled. "Now I've got plenty. I'm not going to let Haido have his way. I won't let him destroy the future she believed in or crush her dream."

"Nor will I," Ryu spoke up. "In my world, Amari entrusted her eye to me so I could see the future for us both. I…couldn't protect you. I couldn't stop Kasai or save you from him." Ryu clenched his hands into fists. "I was too weak. Too slow. More than anything, if I could have taken your place, I would have… But I cannot. I cannot save the Amari I lost, she is forever out of my reach.

"But I can protect the future you believed in. I can protect the dreams you dream within every world where you still exist. I can protect the Amari's who have survived, who have yet to be born, and all the worlds where she does not exist at all from Haido. For the future she entrusted to me, and for the future of every world that exists, I will not fail."

Amari clutched her hand around her Clan crests pendent, eyes glistening.

Their feelings resonated within her heart. Loss of hope. Feelings of drifting. Feelings of not knowing what she was doing or why she even bothered to continue. Doubts. Grief. Failure and weakness. She knew them well.

But rising from those feelings were renewed hopes. Purpose. Love. A yearning to protect, to defend the dreams of their Amari or Haya, to safeguard the future for countless worlds where she may or may not exist.

Because they loved her. As much as she loved them.

Amari swallowed roughly.

"I…"

Her hand tightened around the pendent.

"I was so fortunate to have all of you in my life," she said. "Even though our time was short. Even if what we had was but an insignificant moment—a blink in the grand scheme of time. I was so lucky to have you."

She felt her whole body beginning to quake. Her voice began to tremble as her eyes, stinging with hot tears, blurred.

"Shisui, Ryu, Yukiko, thank you so much for being apart of my life. Thank you for existing. My life, no matter what world it is, no matter if I live a long life or die young, was made better because you were all in it. I know," she sniffled, "your versions of me felt the same way. I know if they could stand here in my place they'd tell you this.

"No matter what world we come from, no matter how far apart we may be, even if death itself separates us, I'll always be with you. In your hearts and in spirit." A trembling smile formed on her lips. "I promise. You'll never be alone. Because…Because I'm not either."

The first tears finally fell. From there they rained freely down her cheeks.

"You're always with me. Your words. Your smiles. Your laughter. Your joy. Your dreams. Your spirits. Your love. I carry them with me everywhere. Into every battle. Through every hardship, you are always with me, there to provide me the strength to walk this path I've chosen.

"So, please, keep living," she begged, covering her eyes with her hand as her whole body shook. "That's what I want most for each of you. Live! Just keep living. Never give up on the future. Yours or the worlds. This life… This life may be crazy and painful and hard, it may be full of contradictions and lies and darkness.

"But it is also full of love, triumph, joy, friendship, and compassion and light and hope. That is the truth across all worlds, across all timelines. So don't give up. Keep living. Keep fighting. And just know… Just know I'll always love each of you!"

"And I'll always love you, Haya." Shisui inhaled a long breath. "I…I know it's not entirely accurate, but I'm glad I was able to see you again." He smiled one last time. "Do your best, little sis."

"I will, Big Brother," she wept.

Shisui turned to his Haya. "Thank you for this."

Haya dipped her head in a short nod. Then extended her hand to him. "Are you ready, Big Brother?"

"Yeah," he gave a sharp nod, clasping his hand around her tattooed forearm. "I'm ready, little sis."

Shisui vanished a moment later.

"You better live, too," Yukiko said, wiping her nose. "That way I can crush you later for making me cry in front of your cousin and brother."

Amari snorted wetly and wiped more tears from her eyes. "I love you, too, Yukiko."

"I love you, Amaririsu." Yukiko turned to Haya. "All right, I'm ready. Let's fuse souls or whatever and go kick Haido's ass."

"I appreciate your enthusiasm," Haya said, smiling.

She rested her hand on Yukiko's left shoulder. Yukiko clasped her left hand around Haya's elbow, then smiled roguishly.

"Be gentle."

"Hmhm," Haya chuckled, shoulders shaking. "Always."

They vanished.

Amari turned to Ryu. Her brother. Seeing him again, alive, it filled her with yearning and regret.

"Ryu…I'm sorry… I'm sorry I couldn't…"

"As am I, my friend. I wish I could have saved you. More than anything else in this world, I wish for that… But we cannot change the past. We can only strive to build a new future. One where we are free."

Ryu smiled at her, as he always had. "Let's see the future together, Amari." He tapped his finger against his right temple, beside his covered right eye. "Through our eyes."

Amari blinked two new tears and nodded. "We will. I promise."

"As do I." He turned to Haya. "Thank you for this opportunity. I am uncertain of how this fusion of souls will work. However, I know without a shadow of a doubt, together, we will stop Haido."

Haya nodded and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Come. Let us show Haido the power we wield."

They, too, vanished.

Standing at the four-way crossroads, Amari wiped her eyes and nose, sniffling as she tried to recompose herself.

"That was…hard." She sniffled. "But good."

Haya turned to face her. "Are you ready to face Haido?"

Amari nodded, wiping her nose again. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm ready. A bit of a mess, but ready to end this. We'll stop Haido across all timelines, that's a promise. No other world will suffer the same fate as yours."

Haya's hand came to rest on her shoulder. "Then let us show him what happens to those who underestimate our power."

"Right," Amari nodded sharply.

---

In one moment, the shapeless void flickered with a tiny ember—a candle flame, small and thin, dancing far, far in the distance.

In the next, a supernova erupted into existence.

A wave of gooseflesh washed across Hikari's entire body. She felt the surge of power steal her breath away, set her heart aflutter, and a sensation akin to heat, to a desert summer gust of hot air brushing across her body.

So startled, so overwhelmed by the immensity of the power to awaken, the Iron Sand faltered and she dropped two feet before regaining control of herself.

"Wh- what on earth is this feeling?" the Leaf kunoichi, who smelled of freshly cut flowers—Ino Yamanaka—wondered aloud.

The Leaf kunoichi could feel it, too. She could feel the coalescing of raw power. The arrival and convergence of a being from beyond their world, beyond the realm of mere shinobi.

"'Tis Amaririsu," Hikari didn't realize she was still out of breath until then. "Su- such power. 'Tis greater than any shinobi I've ever encountered. There is no end. There is no beginning. 'Tis life. All life blending together at once, or that is how it feels."

"How is this…this overflow of power coming from Amari!" Ino asked. She was out of breath, too.

"What incredible power," Gaara sounded amazed. "Even Shukaku is unsettled. Is this truly Amaririsu?"

"What's happening, Hikari?" Shikamaru asked.

"The threads of Amaririsu and the spirit are intertwining. Their existences are blending together. Their souls are… I think… I think they are becoming one. They feel almost identical. There is so much light. So much power. I can sense both of their spirits at once, existing in the same plane, from the same source, but I cannot fully grasp it. 'Tis like trying to feel all of the world at once. Trying to hold every ocean, every tree, every waterfall, every mountain—everything—in my small hands."

"It feels like being caught between two colliding ocean currents," said Ino.

"'Risu…"

"Amaririsu will be all right, Shikamaru," Chōji Akimichi reassured. "Remember, she's counting on us to finish rescuing the hostages, so we can't let her down."

"…Right."

---

"Can you feel that?" Sakura asked over the screech of their sandals skating down the elevator shaft.

"Yeah," Sasuke confirmed, sounding as unsettled as his teammate. "The power is so potent, my Sharingan can see it through the walls even at this distance."

"Has Haido claimed the Vault?"

"No," Yūgao answered, heart slamming against her chest and skin covered in gooseflesh. "Haido has drawn power from the Vault, but what you are feeling now is The Power merging with Haya. The Power… It's enormous! It's even greater than a Tailed-Beasts."

No end. No beginning. Haya had transcended into something she could barely comprehend. A being of power that surpassed even a Tailed-Beast.

Is this what the Vault of Gelel contains? Is this all of the power? No, she reached her senses deeper into the Vault. No, this is but a small fraction of it. But if Haido claims this power, he could wipe out our entire continent with ease. And…

Yūgao's brow knitted together beneath her mask.

Haya's chakra and the spirit, they're almost indistinguishable.

What is happening down there? Haya…

Please, just hang on. I'll be there soon.

Please don't leave me behind.

---

It had all happened within seconds.

The integration of stone and flesh, the vaporous and powdery energy of Gelel seeping out of the Vault, drawing straight to Amari. Then she was floating, the wounds on her body miraculously healed, steam rising from them as flesh sealed shut, hair undulating as though she was drifting in the sea.

Naruto had managed to see all of that before the blinding white light encapsulated the whole room. Then there was only light. So much his eyes slammed shut on their own.

He threw his arm over his eyes, but it seared through the darkness, through the shield of fabric and flesh.

He cried out her name. The name of his friend who had dropped the strangest conclusion into their laps before deciding to let a mystical stone sink into her chest cavity.

What could she possibly mean by it? How on earth could the spirit be her? It didn't make any sense.

He felt the intensity of the light pouring into the room. They all did. But then he felt a new sensation.

Power.

He felt it flicker at first. Like small flames igniting the kindling of a campfire. Then, out of nowhere, a forest fire exploded all around them.

Such raw power. Such an immense presence. There was…so much of it! The pressure was greater than Kisame Hoshigaki's, Itachi's and Aimi's all together. Greater than Kasai, Arashi, and even Gaara when he handed the reins over to the Shukaku!

An inescapable weight, heavier than all the rubble left behind by the invasion, crashed down onto his shoulders. It crashed through the room, left his fingers twitching, his knees shaking, and set loose an army of gooseflesh tingling across his skin.

He felt the Nine-Tails lift his head inside his cage, ears raised, and heard his unsettled grunt.

What the heck is going on? Is this The Power? It's… It's… It's too much! I'm not sure anyone can control this much power!

He wanted to scream out Amari's name again, but found his voice utterly failed to rise out of him.

The blinding light, the flourishing of power, they happened one after another. Within seconds so quick he could've only counted two or three heart beats crashing up into his throat, pulsing like concussive shockwaves through his entire torso.

Then the next series of drumming heart beats came, and the blinding light dimmed.

Slowly, body trembling, Naruto lowered his arm and cautiously opened his eyes. He sucked in a sharp, cold breath.

Amari was nowhere to be seen. Now a person—a woman—shrouded in the vaporous energy of Gelel took her place.

She descended elegantly. Her thick, untamed waterfall of hair, colored black with predominant blue highlights of a familiar shade, undulated beneath the waves of power rippling off her.

The woman was on the tall side. Like other adult kunoichi's he'd seen, the likes of which included Kurenai, that crazy proctor Anko Mitarashi, Shizune, and that purple-haired Anbu agent, her physique was super fit with plenty of vivid curves.

Nothing, he examined, was too big, like Granny Tsunade or that unrealistic billboard he'd seen in Sasame's town. And she definitely wasn't a prepubescent girl, either.

Naruto's eyes trailed up her high-heeled sandals and knee-high shin guards, past the mesh leggings, the black straps adorning her right thigh, the black asymmetrical mini skort, and felt his mind run face first into a wall.

What the heck…

Beneath a purple halter top the woman wore a mesh long sleeve like Amari. Normally, not a strange thing, at least among shinobi. However, the undershirt she wore was an exact copy of Amari's, bearing the same rips and tears caused by Haido.

But that was not all. Her left arm had scars just like Amari, intermingled with tattoos—cherry blossoms on her shoulder, two wolves sitting together beneath a full moon, and it looked like there were more on the underside of her arms that he couldn't quite see.

When he laid his eyes on Amari's damaged harness, her Clan crest pendent, he felt the pieces coming together.

When he saw a familiar green gem also slung around her neck, his hand slammed to his chest, feeling for the First Hokage's necklace through his jacket.

It was still there. So how on earth had this woman…

Finally he saw her tantō in its sheathe, Amari's purple bandana worn as full bandana, and a familiar scar through a matching pair of crimson eyes.

"You're…" Naruto took an involuntary step forward as the woman touched down on the ground.

Suddenly, just beneath the edge of her bandana, her forehead seemed to split open. Naruto recoiled and grimaced at the sight of the lavender eye of the Byakugan.

That's…gross.

"Amaririsu?" Temujin sounded hesitant to speak to the woman before them.

The shroud of Gelel's power did not lash or whip about, it was like a calm stream of power pouring off her.

"In a manner of speaking," she replied, and it was as though two people were talking at once. Harmonizing, even.

One was a powerful and melodic voice, the other was softer but firm, younger, and without a doubt Amari's.

"I am now the fusion of two souls. One of those souls is the Amaririsu Yūhi you both know, the other is the soul of Haya Uchiha from another world, who sealed herself within The Power in order to stop Haido across all worlds and all timelines."

"She resembles Madara to an even greater extent now. How repulsive," the Nine-Tails growled deep in his gut.

"Sealed her soul…" Temujin trailed off. "You mean this Haya Uchiha—this other you—sacrificed her life to become one with Gelel?"

"Self-sacrifice is the only true form of sacrifice," Amari, or Haya, or whoever it was replied.

"To think The Power welcomed her. Hmmm. This Uchiha spawn… Right now, with unfettered access to The Power, she has ascended beyond even that of Madara and Hashirama."

Even beyond you, huh?

"Ha! Don't make me laugh, brat. There are none who can match my power."

Is that why we're stuck together? Because no one can match your power?

"You should be more concerned that the other Uchiha spawn sealed herself within The Power to stop one measly human. And that you are clearly dead in her world."

He didn't know which he found more concerning, honestly. The fact another version of him died in unknown circumstances, or that another version of Amari found it necessary to sacrifice her life in order to stand against Haido in every world he existed.

What on earth did Haido do? What is he actually capable of? Naruto wondered.

Joyful and mocking clapping sent a jolt through Naruto.

"Well, well, isn't this a treat to behold. Amaririsu, you impress me!" Haido said. "Subjugating the Power of Gelel to achieve greater heights. We aren't as different as I thought."

Amari's cutting gaze landed upon Haido. "Subjugate? As always, your eyes see nothing. We couldn't be farther apart, Haido."

Stepping softly, elegantly, and with arrogance, Amari pat Naruto on the shoulder and said,

"Naruto, regroup with Temujin and stay vigilant. I may need your help soon."

"Uh, hey, wait a minute…"

"Don't let your guard down," Amari said, unsheathing her tantō as the vaporous aura flowed around her. "Haido is on the cusp of something you cannot fathom. Stay back and stay prepared. Both of you."

Amari… He watched saunter ahead, gait long and confident. She's different. Stronger, sure, but…I don't know. It's kind of weird. Not just because she's an adult. But it's she's like another person.

"Of course she is different, you fool. Half of her is your little friend, but the other half is no longer human," the Nine-Tails said. "She is constructed purely of life energy now. She is a being beyond your comprehension, neither living nor dead, existing within the endless flow of The Power's life energy. One with it. Capable of accessing limitless amounts of power you cannot begin to fathom the potential of.

"This Uchiha spawn has traveled through timelines and worlds we will never know. I bet she has seen this battle play out an infinite number of ways."

It almost sounds like you're suggesting I listen to an "Uchiha spawn."

"Use your head, you insufferable halfwit," snarled the Nine-Tails. "If that other half sealed herself inside of The Power to stop Haido, and you are dead, what do you think happened to me? I would've killed Haido the first chance I had, meaning she wouldn't exist if I succeeded. Which means Haido likely attained power to subjugate all nine of the Tailed-Beasts."

Or you died, too.

"Hmph," snorted the Nine-Tails dismissively. "My kind do not die so easily. Either way, do not take Haido lightly. Listen to that Uchiha spawn and retreat. Leave this battle to her. You'll only get in her way."

Get in her way?

Naruto grit his teeth and grunted. He didn't want to be deadweight. He wanted to help, but—

"Truly, what hope do you have against me?" Haido pondered. "You said it yourself. I've ascended into something you cannot fath—"

Haido's eyes went wide. He whirled around and struck, but his wrist was snatched up and raised above his head by a humanoid shadow. At the same time it lifted its opposite arm, and four tendrils pierced through his torso.

Blood sprayed from his mouth.

Naruto blinked and Amari was suddenly upon Haido. Tantō glowing with the Power of Gelel, she slashed for the Gelel Stone secured on his glove.

Two of the floating orbs expanded into wing-like shields. They were the color of oil, but constructed of a material resembling stone; they wrapped around Haido to block not only his arm and the Stone, but the whole of his upper body as well.

The shields impeded Amari's direct sight of Haido, reverting the corporeal Shadow to its natural state.

Simultaneously, the tantō struck the oily-colored shield, and cleaved through the solid stone as if it were made of silk.

Vaporous energy and smoke expelled in a V-shape from the parting walls of stone with the explosive force of a hundred geysers expelling at once.

A whirlwind swept through the chamber. Naruto squawked and shielded his face with his arms, but felt an invisible mule kick him in the gut. His sandals screeched against the floor as he slid back against his Will.

For a second time he missed the movement of battle. Haido, no longer covered by his shields, flickered behind Amari; the holes in his body were sealing shut and a set of newly reformed orbs were floating behind his back.

His Stone-less hand was already plunging towards Amari's back, set to pierce through it, and through her heart to the Stone she wielded.

His hand phased through her. The Afterimage Clone faded as the real Amari, suddenly floating beside him, crashed her leg into the skull of Haido.

Air pulsed. Naruto felt the shockwave rattle his skeleton.

Haido torpedoed away from Amari, whistling head over foot through the air as a blur. He quickly realigned himself mid-flight and ascended into the air. A nasty grin formed on his face.

"Such power!" he snarled like a ravenous beast. "But make no mistake, girl, my knowledge of the Book and all its secrets far outweighs yours."

"Your knowledge amounts to a single grain of sand amid an ever-expanding desert," Amari replied, raising her weaponless hand above her head. "You are a small, power-hungry, under-qualified tyrant."

She swept her hand down. From the breach, a roaring rapid of vaporous energy rushed forth in the form of a dragon. It caught Haido around his body beneath its open maw, snaked towards the ground, and crashed him into it.

The floor cracked. Then sheets of stone folded and pancaked Haido, burying him.

Streams of The Power pulsed from the point of impact, gushing across the floor, and Naruto felt himself lift off the ground, fly a meter or two, before landing on his feet and sliding back even farther.

The entire chamber rumbled and roared, then fell silent.

"What about your feeble existence should impress me?" Amari wondered coldly.

I'm…going to get in her way, Naruto realized, bewildered, and a bit frightened, by the power his friend now wielded.

"Hmph! Finally realizing that, huh brat?"

Unfortunately, he didn't have a witty comeback. He could only do as Amari asked and fall back.

And hope his Amari would come back from this.

---

What an unimaginable amount of power, Temujin awed. This power should be used to heal the world, to cure sickness and create a utopia, and yet…

A blast of concentrated green energy surrounded by lightning pierced through the debris burying Haido. Amaririsu slashed her blade, sheathed in the Power, as it reached her.

The beam deflected off and up into the second floor of the chamber, exploding stone and causing his heart to jump.

Amaririsu pivoted and fluidly moved her blade into a guard as a red orb, appearing behind her, expanded into a lance. Sparks jumped from her blade alongside vaporous energy, when a barb suddenly expanded from the lance.

Blood rained off of Amaririsu's bicep as she pirouetted away and slashed towards Haido's position. The Power, like fire, leapt from her blade and cleaved the debris in half.

Haido's seated position within was revealed as the stones separated and flew across the room, as if thrown by God.

Already, Temujin noticed, the top of Haido's scalp was regrowing. His face was twisted by a vile grin.

"Feeble? Your eyes need checked, girl. I dare say I've attained immortality. Ha ha ha! Even when you remove pieces of my body they regrow. This Vault is more than I could've dreamed! Now there's nothing anyone can do to kill me."

"My eyes have already foretold your future. You will die as you lived—kneeling before the throne of power, but never truly reaching it."

Ten duplicates formed around Amaririsu.

Haido slammed his fists into the debris, the shockwave flung him to his feet. Chunks of debris scattered and rolled across the floor.

"Cheap tricks and mind games won't work on me, girl."

"The famous last words of a dead man walking."

The ten duplicates and Amaririsu charged ahead so quickly, he blinked and opened his eyes to the flying of fists, shockwaves of colliding flesh pounding through his chest plate and into his heart, and his former Master's laughter as he fought, deflected, and attacked with all four orbs and his new power against the crowd of Amaririsu's.

This power should be used to create a utopia, Temujin thought, and yet it's being used for the purposes of combat. War. That's what this is. A small war between two people enhanced by the Power of Gelel, fought for the sake of the future.

His previous argument with Amaririsu came to mind.

"Once they see the good this power is capable of—"

"They'll want it for themselves. Either they can have it, or no one can. That is the world we currently live in."

She hadn't even glimpsed the full nature of Gelel's power then, and yet she'd known what unearthing it would lead to. What people would do once it was returned to the world from its ancient slumber.

Duplicates dispersed. Haido gripped a long battle-ax shaped from one of his spheres, its silhouette mirroring a bardiche due to its sizable cleaver blade, and covered his Gelel Stone with another of the orbs as an extra defensive shield; obviously his former Master realized he wasn't nearly as invincible as he boasted without the Stone.

With a powerful sweeping motion, even as the duplicates slashed and gouged flesh, he cut down more of the duplicates.

When had Haido even had time to learn combat? Before their meeting? While he was away on scouting missions?

Either way, the difference of experience was clear. He swung the weapon around, forcing it to move the way he most desired, rather than moving fluidly and one with it.

Amaririsu possessed grace, elegance, she and her duplicates danced around his blade, made flexible evasions, and struck with years of experience to draw from—more years than Temujin could possibly know.

A hand suddenly shot out of the debris beneath Haido, snatching him by the leg. In an instant he was dragged beneath the earth, out of view.

For a moment the chamber sat still. Naruto approached Temujin out of a jog, kneeling beside him.

"Hey, are you all right? Are you wounded?"

"No," he answered. "This blood was Amaririsu—"

The chamber floor fissured, spraying vaporous green energy as though a geyser was venting it from below.

Tremors seized the chamber as the fissure raced across the floor, farther from them, until Amaririsu exploded out of the earth, flipping rapidly head over foot. She landed feet first against the capital of a pillar on the second floor.

Her hands flashed through their strange hand signs. As Haido rose out of the floor, the floor itself began to shift. Tremendous walls rose in the fashion of a pyramid, smashing into his former Master, and confining him within the stony prison.

Amaririsu leapt to its top. Vaporous energy began to draw into the pyramid, doubtlessly by Haido.

The warrior woman created another strange sign with her hands. She articulated the knuckles of both hands towards each other, then spread her fingers so each middle knuckle of her pinkies, ring fingers, and middle fingers rested on top of the other. At the top, her pointer fingers were extended, creating a sort of triangle shape, while her thumbs were bent and pressing at the bottom of her pointer fingers.

Inhaling an immense breath, Amaririsu expelled not a stream nor a ball of flames, but a roaring sea of fire into an opening at the top of the pyramid.

The expulsion of fire was so powerful, the air shuddered when she unleashed it. So powerful the four vents at the bottom of the pyramid gushed jets of roaring flames that scorched the stone black.

The heat was so intense Temujin felt perspiration dampen his skin in a mere instant of being within its vicinity, felt the heat sting his face and eyes.

"Damn," Naruto grunted, raising his arm in front of his face.

Amaririsu suddenly cut off her sea of fire and pivoted, but she was too slow. An oily-lance pierced through the earth pyramid and shaved past her side, tearing apart fabric and taking a chunk of flesh with it.

As she leapt off and away, a grimace on her face, steam rising from the healing wound, tremors rumbled through the pyramid. Cracks fissured across it.

Suddenly, violently, the pyramid exploded. Stone missiles torpedoed for the woman, yet Amaririsu cleaved them apart.

"Too slow!"

Haido flashed so quickly through the air, Temujin failed to track him or his attack. But its effect was clear when Amaririsu crashed against the chamber floor, shattering a chunk of stone before flipping onto her feet.

Already his former Master was upon her.

Amaririsu was ready this time. She caught him by both of his hands, whirled around, and flung him away. He spun through the air and shoved his fist at her, she thrusted her sword point towards Haido.

Streams of vaporous energy burst forth from both his former Master's Stone of Gelel and from Amaririsu's blade like white-water rapids, before colliding against one another, emitting a blinding light across the entire chamber.

Yet even as overwhelming energy rushed over his and Naruto's bodies, fluttering their cape and poncho, even through the blinding collision of light, he could hear the two reengage in battle.

He could hear the swiping of blades, the rupturing of stone, the harsh collision of punches and kicks, and through that sound he could almost see the scene of conflict playing against his eyelids.

Haido's crude and straightforward attacks, backed by immense power. Amaririsu's elegant dance, counters and overwhelming presence.

Worst of all, he could tell Haido was adapting to the Power of Gelel. Second by second, minute by minute, he was grasping more and more of its power. Subjugating it to his tainted Will.

His power, it was growing! It was rising to meet Amaririsu's with every second she failed to destroy his Stone.

Finally, the light faded.

As Temujin opened his eyes he saw Amaririsu's shadow coiled around Haido's neck, but rather than snapping it, she reeled him in, yanking him off his feet headlong towards her blade.

An invisible blast of energy did little except push Amaririsu back two feet and force her to relinquish her shadow; the wound she incurred to her shoulder was already healing.

A sphere floated in front of Haido and rapidly extended into a pillar of stone. Amaririsu bounded onto it, pivoted and cleaved a second pillar down its middle, unleashing another expulsion of vaporous energy and smoke.

The cleaved pillar did not crumble. Instead, it remained under his former Master's control.

One half of it swung to swat Amaririsu. She quickly vaulted over it, pressing her hand against its top and using it as a moment of solid ground.

The second portion of the cleaved pillar came shooting at her from the side, searching to ram her. With a push off the previous pillar, she cleared over its top, rolling through the air, then kicking her feet out, twisting through a corkscrew to land atop the traveling piece.

She leapt, flipped backwards and arced her back to evade an oily lance shooting through the broken column.

From her hand, as she descended, a short blade whistled free, seeking Haido below. He merely dodged his head out of the way with an unimpressed and sadistic grin.

Another lance flew for the woman. She landed, spun three hundred and sixty degrees on the chamber floor, equipping a second short blade as she did. She then thrust the flat of its hilt towards the lance.

Temujin sucked in a sharp breath. Naruto did, too. For time and space seemed to bend around the hilt of the short blade, strange patterns—lettering and scripture—extended out from the warping.

The lance slowly began to be absorbed.

"Here."

It vanished.

"This belongs to you," Amaririsu said.

Temujin blinked and missed it. But he heard the familiar sound of a blade suddenly plunging through flesh, then piercing stone.

For a second time Haido coughed up blood. To Temujin's bewilderment, the black lance was now impaled in the second floor of the chamber, and his former Master had a gaping hole in his chest.

"How on earth…"

"It came out of her other kunai," Naruto awed. "Whoa… She teleported his attack with the Flying Raijin. I didn't even know that was possible…"

This is… This is like observing a battle between gods, Temujin thought. Nothing they do kills them. They just keep fighting. Endlessly. That's how this will continue if neither Stone is destroyed. We have to do something.

We cannot let him destroy this world.

"Well, that's quite the trick," Haido grunted, the hole in his torso sealing shut as he began to ascend. "Now you're beginning to annoy me, girl."

"You always say that, just before you die."

"Speaking of dying…"

He aimed his Stone at Temujin and Naruto. Vaporous energy leaked from the Vault, gathering into the Stone, swirling around Haido.

Two red orbs rosed above his head, morphing into saucer-shaped razor blades with a diameter exceeding an adult arm; the other lance reshaped into a sphere and hovered close to his former Master, while the fourth shielded his Stone.

"I think it's time the trash was removed, don't you?"

A roaring rapid of green energy descended upon them. At the same time, the saucer blades whirred not towards them, but for the columns and second floor above them.

Naruto moved to carry Temujin. Temujin froze in horror.

There was no way they could dodge both. No way they could survive against such monstrous power.

The short, black blade Amaririsu wielded suddenly pierced the earth at their feet. Again he felt his heart jump. In that same amount of time it took for his heart to skip, the woman materialized, standing defiantly before the energy.

He felt a strange sensation in his gut, a sort of primal spasm as the veil of Gelel shrouding her, once calm, swelled and swirled viciously, like a dam had opened and the vast lake it contained was now gushing forth towards a small town, no longer restrained.

What…is this…

Debris cleaved by the saucers blades collapsed from above. The energy barreled straight toward Amaririsu. Yet amid the green powdery veil beginning to swell around her, he saw thick ribbons of royal azure rising, as if summoned from the earth itself.

The power…it was burgeoning. More. More. And more.

Amaririsu's hair began to levitate.

Temujin felt all his nerves being pricked by tiny needles at once. His heart hammered against his breast. His hairs stood on end as he, and Naruto, he noticed, went wide eyed at the overwhelming cascade of sheer power Amaririsu was unfurling.

The moment lasted less than a heartbeat. Yet he could see every detail so vividly. Like a film played at less than half its natural speed.

Ribbons of royal azure coagulated into what, at first, appeared to be a towering wall of azure energy. Energy which whipped his hair, his cape, and Naruto's poncho.

However, the wall, his subconscious mind noticed, had a startling resemblance to a human back, bearing lines and striations imitating anatomy photos of the muscular structures beneath the skin. In fact, the wall appeared to have two arms, a head, and long undulating hair.

He dared say the wall even bore a distinctly female shape and anatomy.

When the vaporous energy crashed against the royal azure barricade, Temujin shut his eyes in anticipation of blinding light or heavy debris crushing his body.

Instead all he felt was the vibrations of debris crashing around him. He heard the collision of energy, felt its power pulse in his chest like an explosion, but blinding light did not encapsulate them.

He opened his eyes and found the world sheathed in a veil of blue. Debris littered the earth all around him and Naruto, but none appeared to have come close to touching them.

This energy…

Temujin raised his eyes to the wall and gasped.

"Whoa…" Naruto muttered beside him.

It wasn't a wall at all. A humanoid woman forged of royal azure energy had coiled her hair around them, forming a seemingly impenetrable shield. She crossed her arms in a guard in front of her torso, from which steam rose; a result of the incredible power of Gelel, doubtlessly.

Amaririsu stood within the humanoid's abdomen, posture unfettered, green veil of Gelel creating a turquoise hue around her.

"You know, Haido," she began in a bored drawl. "No matter what world it is…"

The humanoid swung its arm and swatted his former Master out of the air. The chamber flooring shattered beneath his mangled body.

"Killing you is always such a pain."

"Haya, you have to stop!"

Temujin turned to see Sakura, Sasuke, and a woman with purple hair and a cat-motif mask with three red stripes approaching quickly from the elevator.

"If you continue to use the Susanoo, your vision—"

"It's fine," Amaririsu interrupted. "In this form, with The Power flowing through me, there are no limits to the Mangekyō Sharingan. Besides, these aren't your Haya's eyes."

"If there aren't limits, why not use the Susanoo's full power to eliminate him?" Sasuke asked.

"If I did that, I would level this entire ruin, destroying what safety measures that are containing the cataclysmic power the Vault possesses." Amaririsu shook her head, allowing the humanoid to fade. "That cannot be allowed to happen. It would endanger your lives, and the lives of this whole world."

"All right, so what's the plan, Amari?" Naruto asked.

"I don't want to prolong this battle and give him a chance to attain even more than he already has. The most efficient path is for all of us to combine our strength and unleash a coordinated strike."

Haido ascended out of the debris bearing an ugly expression of frustration and pain. His mangled bones began to twist back into their proper position.

"It's not enough," he declared. "I need more. More! I know this Vault possesses it, but if it won't give it to me so willingly, as it has you, then I will take it!"

He shoved his fist towards the sky. Invisible blasts shattered portions of the ceiling, and from the holes more energy spilled forth, gathering into his former Master's Stone.

Temujin felt a squirming sensation in his stomach.

"This feeling…" Sakura muttered.

"We're running out of time," Amaririsu said. Streams of the vaporous energy flowed from the ceiling, shrouding around Amaririsu's comrades, and then Temujin as well.

Temujin felt a rush of power he'd never experienced before. A sudden renewal of strength as even his smallest lingering aches and pains vanished.

All of Amaririsu's comrades were caught in awe as well, looking at their hands and examining their bodies as wounds sealed shut.

"I'll share The Power with each of you," Amaririsu said. "Our objective is to destroy the shield around his Stone, and then the Stone itself, preventing his ability to regenerate. If we fail, this world, and countless others, will be razed by his lust for power and war."

"Then failure isn't an option," Naruto declared, moving to stand beside her. "We're gonna put an end to this, right here, right now."

"To think this mission started with a ferret," Sasuke said, moving to stand on her other side. "Now the whole world's at stake. Hmph. Sounds like the perfect mission for us."

"We're never going to live this down, you know," Sakura said, joining their line. "We'll be bad luck charms forever. No one will ever want to go on missions with us."

"Guess that means they'll miss out on all the fun," Amaririsu replied.

"Haya, Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, whatever you do, do not hesitate," the masked woman unsheathed her sword and joined them. "There will be no second chances here. Keep moving forward. Carve a path straight through Haido."

"We will. We'll carve it straight to the future," Amaririsu said.

So much was at stake. So much Temujin felt himself hesitate even as Amaririsu's comrades gathered around her.

Where does their power come from? It's not the Power of Gelel or their strange abilities. What pushes them forward, even when faced with a man who's become a God?

"Temujin, you're coming too, aren't you?" Naruto asked without looking at him.

Yet Temujin felt the confidence in his voice, as though he already knew the answer.

"I…"

"This world of pointless war and suffering, where we hurt and kill each other despite the fragility of our own lives, was created by the hands of mankind," Amaririsu said. "If you don't like it, change it."

"But I've done so much wrong. How could I…"

"Don't give up, Temujin."

He sucked in a sharp breath.

The soft and familiar voice to ring within his mind belong to his childhood friend. The only other survivor from the raid that destroyed their home.

"We're still with you."

Another voice, that of one of the girl's he had saved when his journey first began.

"We all believed in Haido's lies. We helped him reach this place."

"We have a responsibility to stop him."

"Come on, this time we'll do this together."

Teeth grit, vocal cords tight, Temujin let two tears fall.

My friends…

He pressed his hands into the ground.

This time…

On his feet, Temujin slowly lumbered towards Amaririsu and her comrades on stiff and heavy legs.

This time I'll do it the right way. This time I won't stand by and let others sacrifice themselves for utopia. This time I'll…

Haido aimed his Stone at their group, filled with more of the Power of Gelel than before. Temujin eyed the small pebble where Nerugui once lay; the ferret had vanished amidst the battle, likely as a result of the shockwaves, he assumed.

"Now, let me send you to your utopia!"

"If it's a path you need," Temujin said. "Then I will carve it for you."

The energy Haido unleashed was like standing before an avalanche. Yet Temujin didn't hesitate.

He charged through their line straight towards the avalanche. Straight towards the pebble.

This time, if there's a sacrifice in need of making, then I will be the one to make it!

"Rrrraggghhhhhh!" His wordless cry started off soft, but built into a powerful scream.

The avalanche of green consumed his entire line of sight.

Closer.

Closer.

Closer.

He snatched the pebble off the ground and thrust it in front of him, channeling the Power of Gelel to form a shield as he sprinted headlong towards it.

Then the avalanche of energy crashed against his shield. He grunted, feeling as if his arm would be torn off, but Temujin refused to stop pushing ahead.

Even as it felt as if his former Master's power would swallow him whole. Even as it all seemed impossible, he resolved to keep running straight into the avalanche of energy.

I'll carve the shortest path to their goal for them!

His gauntlets tore off his arms. The skirt of his chest plate ripped clean off him. Something sharp cut past his cheek.

As he was certain his arm would rip off next and his legs would collapse, his shield suddenly grew wider, stronger, as did his body.

Amid the blinding green sea, apparitions of his friends appeared beside Temujin, hands raised to split apart the avalanche with him.

Naruto, Amaririsu, you were right. Temujin's cape tore off his armor. There's no point of building a future that doesn't include your friends!

A shockwave struck his shield, and the back of his chest plate snapped off. He hurdled over the front piece.

Ahead of him, in his mind's eye, was neither his former Master or an enemy. He imagined the frustrating blue-haired girl who kept standing in his way, who kept challenging his ideals, who kept pushing ahead no matter what stood in her path.

He was chasing her. Chasing her towards the future she'd try to show him, the future she still sought despite everything.

Forward, he commanded of himself. Forward. Forward. Forward.

Forward!

He stumbled against another shockwave, but did not growl or grunt. He kept his composure, becoming one with the Stone, drawing out its potential instead of forcing his Will onto it.

Keep standing up.

Keep pushing forward.

Another shockwave. A deeper stumble followed, but the Stone remained ever in front of him, ever mighty as a shield against the sea. His former Master was hellbent on stopping him.

Even if you keep falling. Even if nothing ever seems to change.

He couldn't stop. He wouldn't. He could sense someone behind him, following him through this outrageous sea of power. Doubtlessly Naruto. Only he would be so reckless to follow him this far.

As many times as it takes. Keep rising. Keep pushing. If you can do that…

The Stone in his chest and the Stone in his hand glowed brightly.

Temujin shut his eyes as he ran. He could feel the Stone and all its potential power. He could feel The Beyond and all of the Wills of the trapped souls, and he could feel them gifting him their power.

Even the impossible can become possible!

The sea of energy parted suddenly.

And the path towards the future opened.

---

The massive wave of energy opened up, allowing Naruto to see his target still floating above them.

Haido looked like he couldn't decide whether to be disgusted, annoyed or furious.

"Nice work, Temujin!" Naruto shouted, legs picking up steam and carrying him out from behind Temujin, who had begun to stumble and fall.

The swirl of not one Rasengan, but two, echoed through the chamber as he utilized the veil of Gelel to contain the power without a Shadow Clone. The vaporous green Rasengan formed in his left hand, in the other a vermillion Rasengan took shape.

"Finish this, Naruto," the Nine-Tails commanded, lending his power to the boy. "Do not let this human succeed!"

Yeah, yeah, I hear ya!

Naruto released chakra from his feet and flung himself through the air.

"Now leave the rest to us!"

"Useless boy! A simple attack like that won't touch me!"

One of Haido's red spheres moved in front of the would-be tyrant, then widened and elongated rapidly into a column of stone.

"Go to hell!"

Naruto thrust the vermillion Rasengan ahead of him. Thunder rattled through the whole chamber as the stone column shattered and exploded.

Before he could even consider his next move, a new wave of vaporous energy came rushing towards him.

Out of instinct he thrust the Gelel Rasengan at the wave, and felt what may as well have been a herd of rhinoceroses crashing into his arm.

He grunted and grimaced. He felt his arm wobble. The hue of green consumed his vision, leaving only his hand and the Rasengan clashing against the stream visible to his eyes.

"We always like to jump the gun."

Naruto heard the mildly amused voice clear as day within his own mind, and, though strange, it sort of sounded like his own voice.

"Surely a future Hokage can clear a path for his friends and comrades. I mean, that's sort of the duty of a Hokage, you know. You've gotta learn to lead the way. So, come on!"

Over the back of his hand he saw the slightly larger hand of an apparition rest over his.

"I'll lend you my power and help you carve a path."

The sphere swirling against his palm, burning his skin, ballooned into a giant Rasengan without warning.

"Let out a roar if you've gotta! And remember: There's no easy road to utopia or to becoming Hokage. You're gonna stumble. You're gonna find people who try to drag the world down in flames. It's gonna be a hard road, you know. So stay true to yourself, no matter what."

"What's the point, boy?" he heard Haido taunt over the roar of power. "You'll never reach me. Why don't you give up and die already?"

"No way," Naruto grunted, unsure if the bastard could even hear him. "I never quit. I never back down. And I never go back on my word. That's my nindo—my ninja way! So when I say I'll carve a path…"

He shoved harder against the wave of energy. His poncho tore off his body. His jacket's zipper broke open. His arm shook. His muscles spasmed. His skin burned beneath the power.

But he felt the wave of energy wobble.

"That means, no matter what, I'm gonna do it!"

"Now! Give it everything you've got, other me!"

"Rrgghhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

The wave of energy didn't part, but suddenly exploded backwards straight at Haido, like a backdraft of immense power.

"What?!"

On the other side of the wave, Haido curled into a ball and extended his wings into shields of an oily-constitution. Then his own wave of energy crashed over him.

Naruto whistled through the air, flipping end over end, repelled by the power of his Rasengan.

At the sudden cry of a thousand chirping birds, he couldn't help but smirk.

The path was clear.

---

As Naruto's body slammed into the giant, open hand of Amari's Susanoo, and Sasuke summoned the power of the Chidori, Sakura rushed ahead while weaving handseals.

I can feel so much power flowing through me.

She skidded to a halt as Haido opened up his cracked and crumbling wings; his face, arms and chest were covered in steam as the flesh, muscles and tendons, seared almost all the way down to the bone, regenerated.

More than that, I can feel it running through all this earth around us. In order for Sasuke to strike with the Chidori, he needs to gain speed and close the distance on Haido. So the best use of my power is…

Sakura knelt down and slammed her hands against the chamber flooring. The ground trembled and quaked as a series of square shaped columns lurched diagonally out of the ground towards Haido, forming a three meter wide bridge.

Is to raise a bridge he can cross!

Blue lightning and the cry of a thousand birds whipped past her and up the bridge.

---

Now I have a path straight to him. Nice work, Sakura.

"Foolish children!"

Another pillar of stone formed from Haido's renewing spheres. It steamrolled straight for Sasuke, but to his eyes it appeared to be moving in slow motion.

He sidestepped it, Lightning Chakra tearing apart both its side and the earth beneath him as his long, quick strides carried him halfway up the bridge, than three-quarters.

Almost there.

---

Sakura saw the pillar zeroing in on her. There wasn't time to move beyond rising. There wasn't time to think. She could only act, clenching a fist even as her heart leapt into her throat.

"Don't panic. Breathe and focus."

The voice… That voice sounded somehow like her, yet older, maybe. The sensation of an apparitions hands gently resting on her shoulders calmed her. It brought her into a state of serenity and focus.

"You've got this. Show them that, no matter the obstacle, you can do more than be the bridge that supports them. Show them that you aren't chasing their shadows anymore. You're strong, too. So walk beside them every step of the way."

Sakura slammed her fist into the pillar.

It halted.

"And obliterate any obstacle in your way!"

From the depths of her belly a scream rose out of Sakura.

"CHAAAAAAAAA!"

An explosive fissure erupted through it, shooting geysers of dust, debris and green energy down its center as the pillar cleaved in two.

Haido hadn't expected the attack.

When the green energy broke through the other end of the column, he had no choice but to shield himself once more behind his wings.

---

Sasuke bulleted through the air, drawing back his Chidori as the energy dissipated, leaving behind cracked wings.

Once the sphere protecting his Stone of Gelel was destroyed, they'd have a small window to actually destroy it before he reformed the small shield. Doubtlessly Amari and her guard had calculated the same conclusion as him, which meant he had to make this strike count.

Could he break through the shield and hit the sphere covering his Stone with a single Chidori?

"Short-sighted as always."

That was… That was his own voice, matured, and apparently amused by his younger self.

"You have two hands, don't you? Or are you going to let Naruto surpass you so easily?"

From the veil surrounding him, the hand of an apparition took form behind his free hand.

Suddenly onyx lightning surged around it; the power was so immense it felt like it was pouring out of his hand. He could feel his skin peeling off on his hand and forearm.

"Come on. You know you'll need two passes in order to break the sphere, so use the environment to your advantage. Eye your landing. Then carve a path right through this warmonger's shield."

Sasuke measured his trajectory and eyed a broken capital on the second floor of the chamber.

There.

He set his eyes on the warmonger's shield. Now or never.

It was time to end this.

Thrusting the blue Chidori into the shield, he shattered straight through it and whistled past Haido, who shifted out of the direct line of his onyx Chidori.

"Ha! It's futile! No matter how many times you throw yourselves at me, you'll always fail!"

Sasuke twisted his body and landed feet first on the capital. He bent his knees and zeroed his Sharingan on his true target—the sphere over Haido's Stone.

"Now go." He felt a light pat on his back despite the absence of another person. "She won't slow down, so if you want to stand by her side, you'll have to keep up."

He launched off the capital. Haido, thinking he would crash, turned his head, eyes wide with bewilderment at the sudden onyx lightning casting its hue over him.

"Just shut up," Sasuke growled.

He thrust the onyx Chidori for the sphere shielding the Stone of Gelel, and shattered it with a single blow.

"And die already!"

---

Haido ground his teeth together and began forcefully drawing the power to reform his versatile orbs.

Die already? It was almost laughable. He'd finally reached the Vault. He'd finally claimed the Power he'd sought, and now the world and all its riches were his to claim.

All his!

Did these foolish children truly believe he'd come this far just to be stopped by brats? By whelps who hadn't even finished puberty? What a ridiculous notion. No. He'd kill them all, right now.

As his Stone began to glow, he noted Amaririsu—the only true threat to his power—was standing beside the other woman, hand resting on their shoulder.

Then he heard the whistle of a blade on the air. Instinctively, he evaded his head back and watched the blade sail long ways past his chest, thrown by Naruto.

He would be the first to die.

Raising his hand to align his Stone, he sucked in a sharp breath as a purple-haired woman suddenly appeared beside him.

What? But I thought only Amaririsu's blade's could teleport… Wait, he panicked, recalling Amaririsu's hand resting on her shoulder, don't tell me—

The woman caught the small blade in one hand. With the other, she slashed her sword, whirring with wind.

Haido was struck by horror first, at the sight of the green shards of the Stone shattering beneath her blade. Then agony as his hand was amputated by the same strike.

Suddenly he was falling. He watched the woman grow farther and farther away as he and his severed hand fell, unable to control the Stone or its power to keep himself afloat.

The short blade the purple-haired woman caught whistled into his view.

Amaririsu suddenly materialized before him, purple lightning far more controlled than that other boy's held in her palm, casting its light and shadows over her features.

Two crimson eyes and a lavender burned into his memories.

No! Noooo!

"Wai—"

Her lightning covered hand plunged through his chest and out his back like a blade. And he felt every agonizing moment of it.

Then he felt nothing at all.

---

Review Response to Guest: Glad you enjoyed the last chapter!

All the turmoil and tension came together here, in the final fight, so hopefully it was an enjoyable, if not long, read.

Nothing wrong with needing logic in a story to pull you in and keep you grounded within the tale. I get that. And I don't think there's anything wrong with constructive criticism over something you enjoy, in the hopes that it may teach someone else or the actual writer of a series how to improve on their craft going forward. I've had my fair share of moments in the war arc of shippuden that were facepalm worthy or just down right groan inducing. I think its just finding a balance between seeing the flaws in something, being able to calmly discuss them, and still allowing enjoyment, entertainment, or joy in whatever it is, whether its popular to enjoy it or not.

I suppose I'm just forgiving of plot holes if my overall experience is good. Not saying I won't notice them or ignore them outright. I have no issue discussing them, as I've had plenty of discussions talking about errors or critiques I've had with how certain movies, anime, books or games I've encountered. I just don't let it ruin the overall experience, if the rest of the experience has been a hell of a ride. If it isn't enjoyable, then I usually stop watching, playing or reading and move on. Nothing wrong with not enjoying something. I just don't bother to bring up my lack of enjoyment.

As for your friend, I can't speak for his writing or stories, since I don't know if I've read them or if they're even on this site, but depending on how long he's been writing, it may just be a knee-jerk reaction due to a lack of confidence in his ability. Even if he's been writing for a while now, stories and the characters in them are personal to every writer, I think. Because, in a way, each story is a snapshot of who we are at that moment in time. I look back at a lot of my first stories—which will never see the light of day, if I have any say—and first fanfics I posted here and cringe because of grammar mistakes, because of immaturity I can see and feel in my writing, and other reasons as well, but those stories, those characters, are, in a way, reflections of where I was as a person at that time.

The same is likely true for your friend. And if he's roleplaying each character, it may be even more true for him, as pieces of himself may be in those characters, pieces he may not be comfortable revealing to the world outside of stories or characters, so he may feel that criticism of his characters, like telling him they are awful—not saying you did, just using an example—is in a way telling him that 'he' is awful. He may also have other stressors in his life and writing is his one escape where nothing has to be perfect. Where it can just be an escape and he can have things go the way he wants them to.

I don't know that for certain. I'm psychoanalyzing a stranger based on limited information. But, in my experience, just opening up and blasting the criticisms cannons, even when you truly want to help someone, even with the best of intentions, isn't the best way to go. Sometimes it may just be the way you deliver the message. I find opening up with positive things, like listing the things you like about something first helps. Then addressing criticisms not by saying "I don't like this" or "this is bad" but just the slight turn of phrase of "I like this concept, but have you considered..." or "I like this character. It could be cool if..." They may have a reason they don't do something, or have a plan somewhere down the line for the character or concept that you don't yet know. And sometimes even just mentioning something from the perspective of a reader can help a writer, even if they don't actually do the exact thing you think of.

Sometimes its just how a message is delivered, I think. And sometimes its just the messenger. You could be the nicest, gentlest person in the world, but they may not be willing to hear critiques from you personally. They may just need to hear it from someone else. People are strange that way. Not saying you shouldn't try to help, just offering another view.

The lack of character growth in Naruto is problematic. It's one of the reasons I try so hard to give everyone a chance to grow and have moments, because it's the one thing I wish would've happened in the series. And the Hidan and Kakuzu example is perfect, honestly. Rewatched it recently and just felt frustrated afterwards, because Ino and Choji should've had a chance to shine. It should've been the three of them and Kakashi who avenged Asuma, and yet Naruto comes in and tells them all to stay back so he can prove to himself he can...do a new Rasengan? Stand against a member of the Akatsuki? I don't know, just doesn't sit right with me.

It's not perfect by any means. But, for all its flaws, it was still a hell of a ride.

As for Boruto, I get the criticisms. You sort of lose the old world feel that Naruto had with skyscrapers and newer tech, which was a part of its charm. And I do agree the Genin seem a bit too strong, but that's looking at it from where Naruto and the gang started. Before Otsutsuki's existed and Zabuza was a frighteningly strong enemy, with Water Clones, Water Prisons, and Water Dragons. And a big sword. But, as I said before, I can't judge it until I've actually sat down to watch it. Seeing something in passing or hearing about it isn't enough to form an opinion, at least not for me.

I may like it. I may not. Either way it's fine, as are your criticisms of it.

Anyway, thank you for the review!