Disclaimer: Naruto and all its characters are the properties of Masashi Kishimoto. No profit is made off of this fan-fiction story. Any additional original characters located in this story are designated as such and belong to the author, Jae (Dae T. Angel).

A/N: Y'all, for better or for worse, we're close to the end. The next chapter is the finale, and then after that, it's the epilogue. If I'm to be honest, it sort of terrifies me. I've been writing this story for a long time. It's my first baby. It's also the bane of my existence. I may or may not have gotten a little emotional while mapping out the ending for this story...haha.

Anyhoo, I'm truly humbled every time I see a new story fav, or kudos, or even a review/comment on this story. The same goes for when I see the views go up from new and old readers. Thank you so much. Due to so many things, I haven't been the best at updating, but y'all are the reason I keep writing. xoxo (I hope y'all are keeping healthy and safe.)

Also, ninja magic is ninja magic. (I'm looking at you canon lore). That said, this story is still canon-ish, and that's all I'm gonna say.

—.&.&.—

XXI.

What It's Worth

There was a strange humor in how opportune this moment was. He had always known that patience would be a key factor in the success of his endeavor, but he never considered how Sasuke could also fit into that equation. That asshole fox thought it was clever, colluding with Sasuke and convincing the other man to use his Sharingan to aid his alter ego. However, the thing the creature seemed to underestimate was how well he could navigate this mind of theirs.

When Sasuke had placed his other self under hypnosis, it was fairly simple to hide within the protection of their subconscious thoughts. Sasuke was only targeting the dominant half, after all.

He stared down at the blond man seated before him, their appearances exact mirrors of one another. A disgusted sneer distorted his expression the longer he watched his twin's frozen state.

Pathetic, like always, he thought as he crouched to be at eye level with him. Briefly, his gaze shifted to the rippling ball of light hovering between them.

Sasuke had instructed this one to focus on a memory that had recently returned to him, but little did any of them know about who these memories really belonged to. It was the greatest advantage he had over that arrogant furball. All those memories the Kyuubi had swept up in the past, they were wholly his now. Despite being locked away in that aberrant limbo between their mind and the bindings of Kurama's cage, he had held onto these memories. He had refused to be erased, and they had sustained him. When he had fought through the fogginess and oppression of his prison, these reminders were like guiding lights for him. Nothing would or could happen to them without him knowing about it.

They were also the central part of his plan to attain dominance.

All it had taken was an innocuous suggestion whispered into the fox's ear while it trounced around the coppice of memories it had assembled. Being as self-important as it was, it had hardly noticed his presence and had jumped at the opportunity to do something petty. That was all he needed to get a foothold in their conscious mind again.

With that bridgehead, he could influence his lesser self as he had done in the past. It should have been that simple, but Kurama kept getting in the way. However, none of that mattered now that he had his twin sitting haplessly here before him.

Again, he could laugh at how easy Sasuke's presence here made this for him.

He reached forward, intent on wrapping his fingers around the neck of the traitor of a man in front of him. This fool deserved to be shunted to the deepest, darkest spaces of their mind. For years, he had endured the indignities this coward had allowed those villagers to inflict upon them. The isolation. The violence. The way people disregarded how they both felt because it was an inconvenience for them. Worst of all, he had tried to write it all off—pretend like none of these things happened or that if he just proved himself enough the entire village would finally recognize them.

Except that's not how things worked. Grievances could not just be forgotten and the memories of cruelties do not just disappear. Someone needs to suffer them, and that someone has always been him.

The scowl marring his expression deepened as his fingers brushed the skin of the other blond's neck.

"Naruto," a soft feminine voice spoke out from within the surrounding void.

He paused in his action, then growled irritably.

"Go away," he groused. "I don't want to hear anything you have to say."

"I'm your mother, brat. Show some respect!"

A slim young woman with vibrant red hair stepped into existence beside him. Her delicate brows were buried in a deep frown while her hands sat akimbo on her hips. She wore a simple green apron dress and a bright white short-sleeved shirt. By appearance, she seemed younger than him, which made her assertion about her parental status more comical.

He glanced up over his shoulder to give her a flat look.

"Fine. Go away, okaasan. I don't want to hear anything you have to say," he retorted.

A twitch of her eyebrow was the only warning he got before she aimed a kick to his side that had him scrambling to block.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" he shouted, springing to his feet. At his full height, he towered over her petite form. This did not, however, stop her from standing her ground.

"Be quiet and listen, because I'm not going anywhere until you hear what I have to say," she snarled.

He opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off.

"Don't do this to yourself," she said firmly. Her blue eyes bore straight through him. They were glassy with emotion while her mouth pressed into a determined line. She drew in a deep breath, and when she released it, her features softened—the angry furrow of her brow shifting to concern.

"I know you're angry and sad, Naruto, but you don't need to go down this self-destructive path again. Be kinder to yourself, please," she finished.

He gaped at her with a mixture of indignation and disbelief. What did she know about how he felt? She had not been the one trapped for over a decade—suffocated by that damned tether the fox used to cull him from his own consciousness. Where was she when that so-called father of his had aided Kurama in locking him away?

"I already told you, I didn't want to hear any of this bullshit," he spat. "Especially from someone who wasn't around to make any of that worth a damn."

The younger woman flinched at his words, her expression growing more concerned as her shoulders drooped. The glassiness of her eyes shimmered with unshed tears.

"Naruto," she said again, voice trembling slightly. She stepped closer, one hand reaching out to touch his cheek. He recoiled from the gesture.

She hesitated, looking hurt.

"I am so sorry, my sweet boy," she breathed. The welling tears in her eyes began rolling down the sides of her face.

"You're right. I should have been there for you, and I'm sorry. But please don't do this to yourself because of it. You deserve so much better," she said.

The quivering of her voice wrapped around his resolve, making it difficult for him to keep scowling at her, and his expression tightened from the uncomfortable ache that squirmed around in his chest. He drew in several deep breaths, releasing each as a heavy huff through his nose. He shook his head, banishing the doubt that threatened to derail him.

He fitted her with a dark glower.

"No one," he growled, "is going to tell me what I can and cannot do anymore."

A bright glow of chakra started pulsing around his body. The woman's teared-filled eyes widened with distress.

"Naruto, wait—"

Without a second thought, he let the tightly wound ball of energy that he had gathered close to himself shoot out in a lashing force, banishing all intruders from the forethoughts of his mind.

—.&.—

A sudden jolt ricocheted Sasuke's awareness back to the setting of the house.

Something was wrong.

Sizzling along his senses was the discomforting feeling that only came when another's chakra had rebuffed his own. He blinked, refocusing his gaze on Naruto. The blond was watching him with a guarded expression.

"Na—" Sasuke's words fell short as the disorienting force of something striking either side of his neck sent him tumbling into unconsciousness.

—.—

Sometime later, awareness slowly slunk its way back to Sasuke. Then adrenaline and instinct quickly shoved it the rest of the way as he opened his eyes.

He was blindfolded.

In an attempt to move, he found his wrists bound separately to two unidentified structures while his legs were strapped together below the knees.

He stilled, trying to assess his situation.

"You enjoy your nap?" the sound of Naruto's voice drifted in from somewhere above him.

Unable to see anything past the diffused specks of light seeping through the fabric of the blindfold, Sasuke tilted his head toward where he thought the voice had come from.

"Is this some weirdly timed foreplay, or should I be worried right now?" he said calmly.

His hands brushed against the structures they were tied to. From the texture and presence of squared edges, he assumed these constructs were the legs of some wooden piece of furniture. There were not many items like that in the house. His best guess was that he was secured to the legs of the low table he and Naruto had been seated at.

One mystery solved.

Naruto laughed, verifying for Sasuke the blond was indeed positioned somewhere above him. Though, Sasuke was unsure how close.

Second mystery pending.

A blunt, flat-edged object suddenly pressed into Sasuke's sternum. The pressure deliberately applied to it as the object weighed down on him caused Sasuke to grunt in discomfort.

"He's right. You are pretty charming when you're not being a total asshole," amusement colored the disembodied voice, then it gave a wistful sigh. "You know, if that loser wasn't always in my way, it would have been nice to experience fucking you for real rather than vicariously. You seem like a fun lay."

The object was shoved down further into Sasuke's chest. He gritted his teeth. The pressure was bordering on bruising.

"For what it's worth, I would've stayed," the voice continued. "I would've beaten your ass for being a dick back then, but I wouldn't have left like a coward. That loser was always scared to show people why they shouldn't mess with us."

Its last statement was punctuated with another shove into Sasuke's abused sternum.

In the space of the heavy silence that hung after, Sasuke's brain hastily tried to come up with another evaluation of what was happening.

Naruto's speech pattern was off. The voice that Sasuke assumed was his spoke in a bizarre context that made little sense. This vocalization didn't sound like the Kyuubi either, and if for some strange reason it was the creature, why would it sabotage its efforts to re-assimilate Naruto's memories by expelling Sasuke from the man's mind?

Unless…

"You must be Noboru," Sasuke said, hazarding a guess.

A shift in the air around them and the object was roughly dug down further into Sasuke's chest. Air rushed out of his lungs with another pained grunt.

"Don't call me that," the voice retorted.

Despite the throbbing pain radiating from the singular spot in his sternum, Sasuke drew in a new breath. The concentrated pressure that remained on his rib cage did not make the action easy. Absently, he wondered at what the object could be. It was flat-edged and stiff, but not resistant enough to be metal. Judging from the way his captor applied pressure and the distance of his voice, it seemed likely that the item was long and narrow. What else was in the house that could fit that description?

Then he thought of the two wood sheath katana he had brought back from the compound's hidden armory that morning. If the intent was to intimidate and send a message, it made sense for his captor to have one of them. Sasuke also concluded that the rope he was restrained with had to have been pilfered from the other supplies he had set aside in his room.

Equipped with this knowledge, Sasuke spoke again: "What would you rather be called, then?"

Surreptitiously, he tested how restrictive his wrist bindings were. They were tight, but if he gritted through the discomfort, he could shift his grip around the girth of the table legs. Also, if he were to make another assessment, he had noticed that the table felt weighted when he had first attempted to move. Considering the proximity of the blond's voice and the sheathed sword on his chest, it was fair to assume that the other man was seated atop the table.

Sasuke had what he needed.

"Hmm," Naruto's alter ego said thoughtfully, "you know, no one has ever asked me that before."

"Sounds like you haven't thought this through," Sasuke remarked, aiming to distract the blond while he tested the mobility he had from his bound legs. His shins were secured tightly together, but his feet were unrestrained and so were the upper half of his legs—which meant he could still bend his knees and hips.

Good.

"Don't worry abou—"

Tightening the muscles in his abdomen, Sasuke swung his legs up, folding himself in half with their momentum while he bent his knees and kicked up in the direction he judged the other man to be.

A surprised curse and the quick retreat of the katana sheath from his chest signaled the shift in balance Sasuke had hoped for. Gripping the table's legs, he slid himself up and levered his body higher. The weight on the table continued to slide backward, allowing room for Sasuke to complete his flip and upend the table. The moment he felt its axis change, Sasuke released his grip on the table legs and braced himself to balance his landing. When his feet were planted solidly on the floor, he straightened, flexed the muscles of his lower arm, and yanked up—forcing his bound hands closer to the blocky ends of the table's legs. He endured the chafing friction of rope and hard-edged wood against his wrists. He just needed to get one hand free.

A movement to his right telegraphed an incoming assault to his flank. Thinking fast, Sasuke readjusted his grip. He hefted the table up and to the side, shielding himself from the attack. The table creaked on the impact of the strike. His assailant growled in frustration before Sasuke felt the force of a kick shunt through the shield of the table and send him hurtling backward into a wall.

"I forgot how fucking wily you can be," Noboru grumbled, annoyed.

Slightly winded from his collision into the wall, Sasuke looked up with an annoyed glare, his sight still obstructed by the blindfold. That was another damn thing he needed to get off!

A distant part of him groused at how much of a pain in the ass all Naruto's personas were proving to be, surrogates of preternatural creatures or not. However, Sasuke shoved the sentiment aside. Despite all the hassle, his Naruto needed him. He supposed he could deal with a minor skirmish for now.

Luckily, Sasuke had stayed on his feet—being flung into an unforgiving wall notwithstanding—while the weight of the wooden table still hung in his grip. Drawing in a deep breath, he braced his back against the wall—concentrating a small amount of chakra into his feet as he lofted the table higher. With practiced dexterity, he sprung up off the balls of his feet, tucking his knees up between his extended arms, and kicked out with enough force to dislodge the two table legs from their brackets and send the rest of the table flying away from him. He heard the crash of the unfortunate piece of furniture colliding with the opposite wall.

Feet back on the floor, Sasuke focused his chakra into tendrils of electricity. They skittered up his legs in a frenzy, burning away the fibers of rope that bound his legs. With that done, he easily kicked away the remnants of his leg bindings.

"Don't expect me to apologize for that," Sasuke replied as he made quick work of the bindings on his wrists and discarded the orphaned table legs.

He pulled the blindfold from his eyes.

Several Narutos wielding sheathed katana glared back at him.

He frowned.

"Whatever," the Narutos said in unison. "I just need to tire you out, and I know you don't have an infinite store of chakra. Lucky for you, I'm feeling feisty. So, let's see if you'll take a chance at attempting your hypno-eye trick three times in a day before I wipe the floor with you." They smirked.

Sasuke eyed them warily. "What's you're goal in doing all this?" he questioned.

The Narutos—no, Noborus—laughed.

"I've been trapped in my mind for the better part of a decade. Someone needs their ass kicked for that, and unfortunately, you're the only one around right now," they answered.

"Again, I don't think you've thought this through," Sasuke said, edging away from the wall. His wrists ached from the abuse of getting free, but they were no worse for wear. Also, the pain in his chest was dulling with the rush of adrenaline. "What do you gain from fighting me? I'm trying to help you."

Four Noborus broke from the cluster to start flanking Sasuke.

"Bullshit. You, that fox, and everyone else only wants to keep me weak," the group said. "The loser is a lot more susceptible to your manipulations than I am."

Sasuke spared a glance to the pair of blond men standing on either side of him. Regrettably, it seemed this personality of Naruto's was much more observant than he expected. Aside from the quandary of how this ego was able to make his assessment about Sasuke's Sharingan, the man was right. Sasuke's prolonged use of the hypnosis aspect of his blood inheritance had used a significant portion of his chakra reserve.

"You seem to have a lot of notions about things. You also seem to be pretty observant," Sasuke said, thinking through the next set of actions he was about to take.

"Yeah, teme, I am. I can also see that you're trying to distract me again."

Sasuke smirked. "Well, aren't you smart?"

In a flash of hand movements, he activated his desired technique. On the last seal, a spiraling stream of gale-force wind shot out in a funnel toward the group of men in front of him. Anything that was not secured to the ground was flung through the air in a flurry. The band of Noboru in the path of the wind tunnel broke formation, trying to weather the force of the attack or avoid being hit by flying remnants of broken furniture. Though, as expected, this meant the group of men on either side of him sprung into action.

Sasuke let his wind tunnel jutsu taper out as he quickly tapped his left hip, releasing the hidden seal stitched into the seam of his pant leg. Three small throwing stars popped into existence. He gathered them up in his hand and expertly sent two flying toward the pair on his right, then he turned back to his left and sent the remaining shuriken toward the second pair. He heard two distinct pops sound from his right.

Two clones down.

The third shuriken impacted with a thud, then another pop. Meanwhile, Sasuke was already meeting the fourth man head-on. They collided in a clash of striking limbs and blocked blows. This Noboru managed to land a jab to Sasuke's abdomen with the sheath of his sword. Sasuke countered with a Chidori-charged spin kick to the side.

"Shit!" the other man swore as he slid a few feet to the side from the force of the kick. He had barely managed to block the electrified attack with the wooden sheath of his sword.

He had not popped out of existence from the impact like the others. This was the real Noboru.

"Dick move, man," the blond glared back at Sasuke reproachfully.

Sasuke raised a brow at him.

"Says the pot to the kettle," he rebuffed.

Noboru straightened and tsked, annoyed.

"Fine," he said resolutely, putting one hand out to the side so he could manifest a miniature Rasengan in the palm of his hand. He repositioned the still sheathed sword in his other hand. "If it's gonna be like that, I'm taking the kid gloves off."

Sasuke grimaced, readying his stance. This was going to take longer than he thought.

—.&.—

Kurama's ears perked up as it felt the connection with its avatar abruptly drop. Brows furrowing, it reached out for the link again. This was unusual.

Its senses were met with empty silence.

Confusion lingered a few moments longer before suspicion took hold.

Uchiha, it projected, a sinking feeling creeping into its gut.

Again, silence.

Kurama growled as it reached out along the tether of its cage to probe for Noboru's whereabouts. An aggressive lash of chakra bucked against its own from the other side of the cage. When Kurama tried again, the reaction increased by two-told.

"That son-of—" Kurama lifted its awareness to the upper parts of Naruto's mind—only to encounter the familiar barrier of being locked out of Naruto's surface thoughts.

"Don't tell me this is what I think it is," Kurama snarled as it unfurled itself and got to its feet.

Outside its cage, the figure of a young, red-haired woman manifested.

"Fox, I thought you said you had a handle on things," she said angrily, catching Kurama by surprise. "This does not look handled."

To her left, another figure appeared.

"Let's not get too belligerent, dear. If we were blindsided by this, you know there was no way for it to have known this would happen either," Minato soothed.

Uzumaki Kushina whirled on him with a sweltering glare. "Don't you try to manage me, Minato! I am pissed off that our son is doing this to himself again and will remain so until the problem is resolved," she retorted.

Her husband's only reaction was a strained but patient smile and hands held up in placation. This seemed to quell her bellicose demeanor as she eventually released the angry tension in her shoulders and gave a heavy sigh.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm just upset with the situation."

Placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, Minato squeezed. "I know," he replied softly.

Kurama watched this entire exchange, unmoved and with a measure of annoyance. These two have been insufferable and bedeviling as of late.

"If you're both done," it interjected loutishly, "would either of you mind elaborating on what's going on?"

Both humans glanced up at the same time. Kushina's blue eyes narrowed with distrust, but Minato gave her shoulder another squeeze.

She spared him a glance before turning back to Kurama. "I'd tracked down Naruto's other self by using that tether of yours. However, by the time I'd found him, he had already come across Naruto locked in stasis."

Kurama huffed out a heavy breath through its nostrils as a growl rumbled within its throat. It should have paid closer attention to Noboru's peculiar silence after their last interaction. It had known he was up to something, but not what.

"He took control, didn't he?" Kurama asked, already knowing the answer.

Kushina nodded, and Kurama swore.

"He threw me out of his thoughts before I could do anything," she finished.

"There's not much you could have done if it wasn't directly related to the seal," Minato added. His normally calm facade seemed to fray at the edges.

"Can you talk to him?" he directed his question at Kurama.

Tails moving listlessly around it, Kurama shook its head.

"I've been barred from his conscious thoughts," it said, "and I can't seem to conjure my medium along the tether."

A third attempt to channel its chakra through the cage's tether resulted in another whiplash of combative chakra. Kurama did not understand why this was happening.

"You," it addressed Minato. "Why can't I use this tether anymore?"

The man grimaced as he looked down at the seal floating beneath the seam of the cage doors.

"This was created so you could occupy the void left behind after you ensnared Naruto's alter ego. Now that he's in control again, there's no space left for you to fill."

"Then what's the alternative?" it pushed. "If you want me to fix this, I need the means to venture beyond this cage. Who knows how long the brat's mind will keep stable if I can't actively maintain the mechanisms I put in place."

Kurama began pacing.

"Perhaps I should just brute force it. I'm bound to have a lingering connection left that I can leverage," it muttered.

"That would be counterproductive. You'd cause friction with the seal of the cage, and you'd do more harm to him than good," Minato countered.

"Then why don't you just release me!" Kurama snapped. It was tired of these ineffective games. All they ever did was handicap it. "I could easily help him that way."

"Naruto is the only one who can decide that. You made a deal with him, remember?" Minato's voice was steel as he fixed Kurama with a steady gaze. "Also, to release you would be to dispel the only anchor that keeps Kushina here, and I won't have that. Naruto must know that we've both been with him the whole time, despite not being able to do so in life."

Kurama stared back at him and the woman, unable to find an appropriate response. Its tails stood mostly rigid, though a few quivered with the runoff of its emotions. The ever-present clinch of conflicting feelings tightened around its thoughts. A significant part of it hated these two. It hated what they represented. Every time Kurama saw them, it was a constant reminder that its liberty was subject to the whims of self-important humans. However, it also could not deny the truth behind Minato's words. Kurama knew what it would mean for Naruto to know that they were here.

"The tether's seal can be stripped down to its base function, which is simply a conduit," Minato's words broke through the buzzing of Kurama's contemplation. "It's a more elegant way for you to filter a portion of yourself through your cage, without the prerequisite of there needing to be 'room' for you. But…" he turned to Kushina, his expression grew taut with the weight of whatever it was he was going to say next.

"… I'd need your help, Kushina, to implement this change," he continued. "I don't have enough chakra left to fuel the technique on my own."

An unspoken communication passed between them. Kurama saw the way Kushina's countenance grew solemn but determined. She gave a single nod, causing a mixture of relief and apology to wash across Minato's face.

"I'm here for whatever you need," she said. "What's important is Naruto's safety and happiness." She took hold of Minato's hand.

By the way the woman gripped her husband, the gravity of the decision being made slowly dawned on Kurama. Was she going to follow through with this? Was she really giving up her last gambit against it?

The inner turmoil Kurama had about the pair peaked to new heights. These damn people made it so difficult for it to keep a single viewpoint of them!

The two ninjas stepped closer to Kurama's cage, then kneeled before the seal of its tether. Hands still clasped tightly, they both raised their free ones and began forming their hand seals in unison. Bright blue chakra gathered around their bodies, pooling with guided purpose around their moving hands. As the last seal in their sequence was formed, they each placed the tips of their index and middle fingers together on the tether. Kurama could feel the wave of chakra being funneled into the jutsu. It watched the markings of the tether warped and shifted until the characters settled into the arrangement of the kanji for "conduit."

The conversion was complete.

Minato and Kushina rose to their feet, eyes focused solely on Kurama. Taking in a fortifying breath, Minato said: "It's done."

Kurama's wordless gaze moved from their faces to the newly established conduit. It hesitated.

"You two—"

"Stop delaying," Kushina interrupted. "You and I have never seen eye to eye, but I'm taking a chance at trusting you now. Please, just help my son." The strength in her voice wavered at the end.

Kurama's mouth pulled into a grim line. It nodded.

For a fourth time, it focused its chakra. This time, when it channeled itself through the other seal, it found no resistance. Relief fluttered through it as it felt the hold of the cage loosen around the parts of itself that passed through the conduit.

While Kurama reestablished its avatar and sought out the lost connections it had scattered throughout Naruto's mind, a transient thought passed through its mind. Its eyes flicked down to the two figures observing the formation of its humanoid form outside the cage. Dissonance roiled in its heart again. Scowling to itself, Kurama allowed a stream of its chakra to pass over Kushina.

Shocked, the red-haired woman looked down at herself, then quickly back up at Kurama.

"Don't make a big deal out of this," it grumbled, refusing to meet her stare. It completed the process of establishing a link with her, similar to the one it had with Minato and the array of memories it attended for Naruto.

Beside Kushina, Minato smiled but said nothing. Kurama knew what that annoying fool meant by the gesture.

Truly, it really did hate these two.

—.&.&.—