Merry Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanzaa/Saturnalia/whatever. Sorry for the extra-long delay between chapters, but between the holidays and work, I was only ever going to be able to publish one chapter this month. That being the case, I obviously had to put it out on Christmas day. I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or Naruto. Unless I do. I have not yet opened my presents.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Chapter 18

It started off as whispers. Jiraiya couldn't say exactly when he began to hear them, so soft were their words at first. Just the faintest hint of voices coloring the otherwise dull sounds of the cave, easily dismissed as his imagination. It was only after he had been walking for most of half an hour that he could no longer deny it. He was hearing voices whispering in the shadows.

Even then, he could not immediately make out what they were saying. If he concentrated, though, he could just make out a few words and phrases here and there. None of it was reassuring.

"Failure…"

"Abandoned him…"

"… couldn't save…"

"… weren't there."

He shivered unconsciously. Something told him that his tests were not over yet, and he had an awful suspicion of what he was going to face next. It was something he had no desire to go through, but he saw no way around it. Not if he was going to find Naruto. Holding that goal in his mind, he walked on, ready to face whatever else the cave offered him.

He didn't have to wait long. Less than ten minutes later, he noticed the shadows around him growing deeper, darkening from mere patches of dimness to pools of inky, impenetrable blackness. They spread, spilling out across the walls and floor, swallowing all detail into a blank void. Jiraiya marched on, heedless of the encroaching darkness. He could still feel the pull of his crystal, and he was hardly going to let some two bit illusion deter him from his goal.

Before long, he was walking in pitch blackness, unable to see anything aside from his own body and a small patch of ground beneath his feet. That, oddly enough, was perfectly visible, as if still lit by the same bluish glow that had illuminated the cave. That more than anything else convinced him that the shadows, and the whispers, were just another Force illusion. The whispers had grown louder, and he could hear more words clearly now, but he resolutely ignored them. He had faced far greater terrors than some creepy voices in the shadows.

It wasn't until he recognized one voice that he hesitated. It was a young, female voice, and one he hadn't heard since his time in Amegakure.

"You didn't protect us."

"Konan?" He whispered.

As if summoned by her name, the blue-haired girl appeared out of the darkness. She looked exactly the same as when he had last seen her, a teenager just growing into adulthood. Her face was twisted with rage, and her amber eyes bored into his, the accusation in them obvious.

"You left us," she spat. "You said we were ready, and you left us to die."

Guilt welled up within him at that. A mere Force vision she may have been, but her words didn't hurt any less. He had spent the past few decades regretting not bringing those three kids with him when he had gone back to Konoha, and her bitter recriminations brought that old hurt right back to the surface. Jiraiya sighed and looked away.

"What, no apologies, sensei?" She asked, loading the last word with all the disgust and vitriol she could. "You're just going to leave again, like last time?"

"Maybe he hopes we'll just die again if he walks away," another voice said. Jiraiya glanced in its direction, already knowing who it was. Sure enough, Yahiko was standing next to Konan, his orange hair a dead giveaway. Just like her, he looked at Jiraiya with naked hostility.

"Is that it, hmm?" A third voice said. Completing the trio, Nagato materialized next to his old friends, his Rinnegan eyes shining with fury. "You can't stand to look at your failures, so you'll just move on and hope they disappear?"

"I suppose that shouldn't surprises us anymore," Konan said. "That's always been your strategy, hasn't it? Just run away and damn the consequences."

Jiraiya wrenched himself away from the sight of his three former students. He still had a job to do, and apologizing to the ghosts of his past wasn't a part of it. As he walked on, he sought to ignore the three phantoms dogging his steps. They didn't exactly make it easy, though.

"Run away all you like. It won't change anything," Nagato said. "After all, we're dead. We have all the time in the world."

"You know, maybe if you hadn't filled our heads with your ridiculous ideas about peace and cooperation, Hanzo wouldn't have killed us," Konan said. "Did you know we started our little revolution to make you proud? Are you proud of us, sensei?"

"You should be," Yahiko growled. "After all, we followed your example. We went off on some idealistic crusade, failed miserably, and got all of our comrades killed. That is your specialty, right? Getting others killed because of your failures? At least we had the decency to die too. You just keep on running, leaving bodies in your wake."

Jiraiya shook his head, unable to tune out the vicious accusations. They rang far too true for comfort, reflecting many of the secret fears and regrets that he normally kept well buried. Hearing them from the mouths of his beloved students, the first team he had ever taught, made it a thousand times worse.

"Oh, so you can hear us," Konan said, her tone mocking. "So tell us, why did you leave?"

"Why did you leave us?"

"Why, sensei?"

"Why?"

"Why?"

"WHY?!"

"Because I thought you were ready!" Jiraiya shouted, unable to ignore them any longer. They stopped their yelling, but their faces remained unchanged. They just glared at him, blame etched into every angle of their faces.

"I thought you were ready," Jiraiya repeated, his voice dropping to a whisper. "I thought I had taught you enough to survive, to find your way in the world. I had no idea you would try and overthrow Hanzo. Not like that. Not so soon, without honing your skills. I just wanted you guys to be able to look after yourselves."

"We told you we were going to end warfare and reform Amegakure!" Yahiko shouted. "You even told Nagato that he was the Rikudo Sennin reborn. That he was prophesied to bring peace to the world. What exactly did you expect us to do?"

"I… don't know what I expected," Jiraiya admitted. "When I thought that Nagato was the Child of Prophecy, I was so excited I didn't even think it through. I just figured it would all work out somehow. I suppose I thought that you three would gather allies and win people over until Hanzo had no choice but to step down. I thought Nagato would be invincible, with the power of the Rinnegan and my training to rely on."

"Tch. Well, you know how that turned out," Nagato snorted contemptuously. "Looks like you were wrong."

"It was hardly the last time either, was it?" Konan asked. "Tell me, how many of your students have you let die over the years?"

Jiraiya winced at her question. Before he could even try to formulate a response, though, he saw a fourth figure emerge from the darkness behind Konan. Jiraiya froze when he recognized the newcomer. His white robes flapped in a non-existent breeze, and his broad, red trimmed hat shadowed his face.

"Oh, don't be so limited, my dear," he said. "After all, it's hardly just your students that you've let die, is it Jiraiya?"

"Sensei," Jiraiya breathed. He could hardly believe his eyes. Before him stood Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage, the Kami no Shinobi, and his old teacher. Like the others, the old man's face was twisted in rage as he gazed upon Jiraiya. The look seemed especially out of place on his face, however, as Jiraiya always remembered him with his kind smile and easy laugh. Seeing that spiteful expression now was nearly as big of a shock as seeing Hiruzen in the first place.

"You let your teacher die too," the old man continued.

"That's… that's not true," Jiraiya protested, any thoughts of ignoring the accusations gone from his head. "I was there, protecting the village from Orochimaru right along with you. I was following your orders."

"And when you let Orochimaru escape from the village all those years ago, when you froze like a rabbit? Were you following my orders then?" Hiruzen's voice could have etched stone; his tone was so caustic.

Jiraiya swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly dry. Yet another old regret of his reared its ugly head. He considered his inability to stop Orochimaru from abandoning the village to be one of the greatest failures of his life. All he could offer were the same words he had given more than a decade earlier, when he had first reported his failure.

"I just couldn't bring myself to attack him," he said weakly. "I still thought of him as my friend."

"Your 'friend'," Hiruzen spat. "And tell me, how many hundreds, no, how many thousands of people do you think your 'friend' killed? All because you couldn't finish the job when you had the chance."

"I tried to fix it," Jiraiya said. "I spent years hunting him, trying to bring him down. I never stopped blaming myself for what he did. Never!"

Hiruzen let out a harsh bark of laughter. It contained no humor though, only bitter amusement and anger. As suddenly as it had come, it vanished again, and the deceased Hokage once again fixed Jiraiya with a venomous glare.

"A fat lot of good that did, you blaming yourself. Did it bring back the dead? Did it get you any closer to catching your 'friend'? No. You didn't spend years hunting him. You spent years failing! Failing his victims, failing your village, and failing me."

His words were like knives to Jiraiya. They stabbed into him, cut out all his buried fears and regrets, and laid them bare to the harsh light of reality. All the excuses he used, layering them around his failures like armor until they no longer grated so painfully, those words shattered all of them.

Jiraiya blinked back the sting of tears as he listened to his sensei's words. With a morose sigh, he turned away, focusing once more on the pull of his crystal.

"I'm not listening to anymore of this," he said shakily. "I still have a job to do, and it's more important than my old faults and failings. I have to find my crystal so I can get back to Naruto."

"Oh, so you're concerned about Naruto now, huh?"

Jiraiya nearly swallowed his tongue when a fifth figure appeared directly in front of him. With his spiky bling hair and piercing blue eyes, he first mistook him for his wayward student. A split second later, though, he realized he was looking at-

"Minato," he gasped.

"Now you feel the need to help my son?" Minato hissed, heedless of Jiraiya's shock. "Now you want to be in his life. You abandon him for 12 years, left him to a childhood of abuse and neglect, and you want to act like his family now?!"

Jiraiya couldn't even flinch. Of all his failures, of all his mistakes, this one he knew was the most egregious. Abandoning Naruto was, by far, the greatest regret of his entire life. He had often wondered, usually in those moments of awful clarity that come right before sleep, what Minato and Kushina would say to him if they knew how he had shirked his duties. Many an awful scenario had haunted his dreams at night. Now, it seemed he was going to get to experience those nightmares for real.

"Did you 'think he was ready'?" Minato asked, unrelenting in his fury. "Were you 'protecting the village'? Tell me, why did you abandon my son?!"

"I-I…" Jiraiya stuttered. Words just refused to come. He wanted to run, to flee from the horrible truth, but his feet felt rooted to the ground. Unbidden, a memory from a year ago played through his mind, of Naruto's face when he found out Jiraiya has his godfather. That look of confusion giving way to despair and anger as he realized that the one family member he had left had abandoned him. Worse than all of that, though, was that awful question he had asked.

'Why? D-did I do something wrong?'

Even now, that question gnawed at him. That Naruto would ever believe that the way the villagers had treated him was his own fault said far more about the sorry state of his childhood than any amount of horror stories ever could. Replaying that moment again in his mind, Jiraiya once more grasped the sheer enormity of his failure when it came to Naruto. His face fell as the truth of Minato's words struck home. What right did he have now to act like a proper godfather? Was he really so foolish as to believe that a year's worth of training could ever make up for 12 years of cowardice and neglect?

Minato leaned in, as if he could smell Jiraiya's mounting despair.

"Are you finally starting to understand?" He asked. "You. Are. A. Failure! That is all you have ever been, and all you can ever be."

"You left us to die," Konan said.

"You failed as a teacher," Yahiko added.

"You allowed Orochimaru to escape," Hiruzen said.

"You failed as a student," Nagato added.

"And worst of all, you abandoned Naruto when he needed you," Minato said.

Each statement came down like a death sentence. With each one, Jiraiya's head drooped lower and lower, his shame and regret weighing him down like anchors tied around his neck. When Minato delivered the final blow, however, something sparked within him.

Once more his mind flashed back to that night when he had told Naruto the truth about his lineage. This time, however, instead of Naruto's look of defeated despair and confusion, or his terribly misinformed question, Jiraiya recalled what had happened shortly after that. He had given his reasons for leaving, both the bad ones and the good (and there had been good ones) and waited for Naruto to make the next move. The kid had kicked him square in the nuts (the cheeky little shit), and he had thought that was it. That Naruto would hate him forever. Then something completely unexpected had happened.

Naruto had hugged him. Jiraiya could still remember the feel of his godson's small arms wrapped around him, his body shaking with emotion. More importantly, he could practically still hear Naruto's words, the ones he had repeated over and over again.

'I have family.'

Jiraiya's shoulders straightened as he recalled those words. Naruto's tone had been so desperate, so relieved. He had latched onto that one fact, that he had at least some shred of family left in the world, with a zeal only available to those who had experienced true loneliness. Fixing those memories in his mind, Jiraiya stood up straight and looked directly at the four figures in front of him. They were still hurling abuse and accusations, but somehow they had lost their sting.

"Enough!" He shouted, and his voice cut through the storm of insults like a knife. "Enough. I have better things to do than listen to some whiny Force visions tell me things I already know."

"So you admit that you're a failure, then?" Minato, or rather the illusion of Minato, asked.

"Oh sure," Jiraiya said. "I've never denied that. I've failed as a student, a teacher, a soldier, an author, a lover, and as a godfather."

"Then how can you-"

"But I'm here now," Jiraiya said, plowing on regardless of interruptions. "Naruto let me be a part of his life. I'm the only family he has left, and I'm going to act like it. Right now, that means finding this damn crystal so I can get back to him."

"It doesn't matter!" The Hiruzen-thing shouted. "You'll just fail again."

"No doubt," Jiraiya said calmly. "I'm sure I'll fail in all sorts of new and spectacular ways in the future. But I'm done letting those failures define me. If there's one thing you can't help but pick up from hanging around Naruto, it's how to never give up, no matter what happens."

"You would dare speak of him to me," the phantom of Minato said. "His own father. I'm-"

"You are not Minato! None of you are the actual spirits of my old comrades. I'm honestly ashamed that I ever even suspected you might be."

He pointed at the trio from Amegakure. Now it was Konan's turn to be pinned in place by his stare.

"If you three were really my first students, then Nagato and Yahiko would both be doing their whole lovesick puppy routine around Konan. She'd act like she hated it, while she secretly soaked up the attention, especially from Yahiko."

His finger jabbed at Hiruzen now.

"If the old monkey were really here, he'd have no doubt turned this whole thing into some absurd teaching moment. Doubtless he'd utter some obscure pearl of wisdom that I wouldn't understand for a decade or so."

Finally, he turned his attention back to Minato.

"As for you, if Minato's spirit were really here, he wouldn't be wasting time yelling at me. He'd be with Naruto, getting to know his son and coming up with really dumb names for his techniques. You lot are nothing but Force visions meant to test me, and I'm giving myself a passing grade. So long."

With that, Jiraiya turned back toward his crystal and started walking. The illusions, which had finally fallen silent at his rant, did not follow him. The whispers stopped, and the impenetrable darkness receded. What had once been a mere two meter wide circle of illuminated ground beneath his feet rapidly expanded, and the dim shapes of the cave walls emerged from the gloom. The shadows seemed to retreat down the tunnel as he walked. When they finally vanished completely, they revealed a pleasant surprise waiting for him.

The tunnel stopped at a dead end, a smooth wall of stone capping off the passage. What Jiraiya found more interesting, however, was the bright green glow that shone from a crevice in the wall. The glow called to him, filling his mind with a sense of rightness, of belonging. It was the same feeling he had been following ever since he had gotten separated from Naruto. There was no doubt about it. He had found his crystal.

Eager not to waste any more time, he rushed over to the wall to examine the crevice wherein his crystal lay. At such a close distance he could practically hear tot singing to him in the Force; a continuous pure chime, like the last note of a bell before it faded away, stretched on indefinitely. Jiraiya could almost feel his being resonating to the same frequency.

He could tell at a glance that the crevice was too narrow for him to fit his fingers through. He reached out with his hand, while at the same time extending himself through the Force. It took him a few seconds to get a feel for what he was doing, but before too long he had a firm, if non-physical, grasp on his crystal. Once he was confident that he would not mess anything up, he gently began to work the shard of Kyber out of its resting place.

The pace was slow, as the crystal was lodged deep in the wall, and barely fit through the narrower sections of the crack. Eventually, though, by dint of much patience and concentration, Jiraiya saw the tip of a glowing green gem poke out of the crevice. A few more seconds of work served to free it entirely, and it floated into his waiting hand.

It was about the size of his thumb, he saw as he examined it. Much like the weapon it would soon form the heart of, it was heavier than it first appeared. It sat in the hand more like a chunk of metal than a shard of crystal. A faint warmth emanated from its depths, along with a gently pulsing green glow. While Jiraiya was hardly an expert in judging gemstones, to his eyes it seemed perfect in every respect.

He reluctantly shook himself from admiring the crystal he had spent so many hours searching for. While he felt he could have gazed at it forever, he still had work to do before he could leave. He shucked his pack and opened it up. Inside lay the various components he would need to fully assemble his lightsaber.

"Alright then," he said as he laid out the pieces on a cloth. "Time to work."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Naruto wasn't entirely sure what had happened. One moment he had been falling through the dark, flailing around for any handhold. The next thing he knew, he was sliding down an ice slicked slope that twisted and wound its way into the earth. He couldn't remember actually landing, but he had no time to dwell on the weirdness of his situation. Even as he adjusted to sliding down the ice chute, he spotted something which had him muttering every curse he knew.

Ahead of him, and getting closer by the second, there was a gap in the slide. A break of about ten meters, where the stone and ice had apparently succumbed to the ravages of time. He could tell at a single glance it was too far for his momentum to safely carry him to the other side. He would have to jump.

He couldn't risk using chakra to strengthen his muscles. Naruto was relying on his Force senses to guide him towards his crystal. Using chakra would blind him to its location, and with how much focus this slide was taking, he wouldn't be able to find it again until he came to the end. By then, it could very well be too late.

Fortunately, augmenting his physical abilities with the Force was one area Naruto was quite confident in. He watched and waited as the gap got closer and closer.

100 meters…

80…

50…

20…

10…

5…

Now!

With a grunt of effort, Naruto propelled himself over the void. The Force flowed exactly as he had wanted and extended his jump from being merely impressive to physically improbable. He sailed through the air, reveling in the brief feeling of flight and weightlessness. He easily cleared the gap and came in to land back on the icy slope. Briefly, Naruto wished he had a clone watching him as he did this. He was sure it must have looked awesome. Then he landed.

On his ass.

Hard.

"Gaahh! Damnit."

'Note to self,' he thought. 'When tailbone meets frozen rock, frozen rock wins. Boy, am I glad no one was around to see that.'

Over the next few minutes, he had to clear several more jumps just like that one. Despite his initial poor landing, he had been right to use the Force rather than chakra to empower his jumps. A dozen times or more, the slide split and forked off in different directions. It was only by focusing on the pull of his crystal that Naruto knew which paths to take. Still, winding though his route may have been, he could feel his crystal growing ever nearer.

Finally, after sliding for long enough that his butt was growing numb from the cold, Naruto reached the end of the slope. It deposited him in a round, nearly featureless cavern, about twenty meters across. Aside from a few scattered stalagmites and a couple of small pools, it had no real standout features.

Despite its plain appearance, Naruto could tell that his crystal was somewhere in the room. Its presence surrounded him. It was like standing in a pool of warm sunlight, or being enveloped in the smell of freshly made ramen. It was unlike anything he had ever felt through the Force. There was only one problem.

Where was the damn thing?

There was nothing to show where in the cave his crystal was located. No glowing rock, no soft chime, no irresistible pull towards one spot, nothing. He frowned and walked around the room, hoping to find something to go on.

He checked each of the stalagmites and looked into every pool of water. Nothing. He tried walking in a grid pattern, hoping to feel a pull one way or another. Still nothing. He even examined the walls, trying to find a hole or a loose stone that might hide his crystal. More nothing.

"Okay, what the hell is going on here?" Naruto yelled. "Where is this damn thing?"

"Wow," someone said from behind him. "You are really pathetic."

Naruto whirled around and readied himself for an attack. After what had happened with the visions of his old teammates, he was taking no chances. While he could not immediately place the voice, something about it seemed familiar.

He immediately spotted the source of the voice. A figure perched on one stalagmite like a bird. As he took in the person's features though, Naruto froze. It became immediately apparent why the voice had sounded so familiar, yet at the same time, difficult to identify.

"You… you're me!" Naruto yelled, shocked at what he was seeing. The person on the stalagmite was him, but it also wasn't. There were several key differences between him and the mysterious doppelgänger.

The first and most obvious difference was in their general state of dress and cleanliness. While both of them were wearing a Jedi tunic with a Konoha chunin flak vest over top of it, and a Konoha forehead protector on their heads. However, while Naruto's clothing was in good condition, if a little dirty from the day's events, his doppelgänger's clothing looked like it had been through a war. It was ripped and torn, with burn marks here and there. Mud and blood stains marred the tattered clothes, along with his hair and face.

It was in his hair and face that the next major difference lay. While Naruto's hair was definitely longer than the typical male Jedi youngling, the other's was downright shaggy. It hung past his shoulders, matted and filthy. It looked as if he had not had a haircut in well over a year.

The differences in their faces were what Naruto found truly unnerving, however. The doppelgänger's whisker marks were thicker and more feral looking. His teeth, which were exposed in a savage-looking grin, were longer, looking more like fangs. His eyes were the worst, though. Unlike Naruto's sapphire blue eyes, his were red, with slit pupils and black sclera. They glowed with barely restrained hatred, and more than a hint of madness. Those were the eyes of a savage animal, not a human.

Accompanying his more brutal appearance was a truly horrible Force presence. Naruto had little experience in differentiating the feel of different beings through the Force, but he could never mistake what he felt now as anything but evil. It slithered over his skin like cold, rancid oil; he almost wanted to retch from the feel of it. There was no happiness, no calm, just pure hatred and anger, all congealed into a single presence. It could not have been more obviously of the Dark side if there had been a giant neon sign.

"What are you?" Naruto demanded. "Who are you? Kyuubi?"

"Sooo impatient," the evil copy of him said. "And sooo stupid. What do I look like, dumb fuck? Do I look like that fucking fox? Are there tails growing out of my ass? I'm you, dipshit. You as you should be."

"What are you talking about? I'm nothing like you! You're-"

"Evil? Is that what you were going to say? Or maybe you think I'm possessed by the fox?"

Naruto glared at the mocking tone, but stood his ground. He didn't know what was going on, but he didn't want to be surprised. Nothing in the caves had made much sense so far, but he was fairly sure this… thing… was the last obstacle between him and his crystal. He didn't want to just charge in like some hothead.

"I suppose you would think that. After all, you still believe in things like good and evil, right and wrong. Honestly, it makes me sick just to look at you."

"What are you talking about, jackass? Start making sense, or I'm gonna kick your ass."

Okay, so maybe he was still a little hotheaded. That was fine. No one wanted to be some stone cold brick wall, anyway. Then you'd be like Neji. Or worse, the emo-teme. Ick.

"The Kyuubi, the Dark side, anger, hatred, all of it is power! Just power. And I took that power for myself, so no one could ever hurt me again. So I could live my life however the fuck I want. Now there's just one obstacle. You."

As soon as he said that, the doppelgänger leaped down from his perch on the stalagmite and landed noiselessly on the ground. Naruto tensed, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. The evil version of him just stood there, though, glaring a hole in his head.

"If I kill you, I get to live. I get to be free. I'm gonna take everything this galaxy has to offer, and no one will ever take anything from me again!"

"That doesn't make any sense. You're just some Force vision I have to get through to get my damn crystal. You can't just become real if you kill me. It doesn't work like that."

"Oh it doesn't, huh? Let's find out!"

Suddenly, the doppelgänger held a lightsaber. He activated it, and it bathed the whole cave in a crimson glow. The pools became puddles of blood, while the stalagmites turned to blood stained fangs tearing through the ground. Naruto barely had time for a single phrase as the evil copy charged towards him.

"Oh kriff."

Then the doppelgänger was on him, his light flashing wildly. Naruto backpedaled furiously, trying to stay out of the reach of the deadly arc of red plasma. The copy was fast, though, just as fast as him. Before Naruto had gone five steps, he had to duck to avoid being decapitated. It was a near miss, and the lightsaber scorched some of his hair. The smell filled Naruto's nostrils, making his eyes water. He took advantage of being crouched low to the ground and tried to sweep his opponent's legs out from under him. The copy jumped over his leg though, and blocked his follow-up kick. The two struggled for a few seconds, deadlocked against each other. Finally, with a grunt of exertion, both fighters sprang back to regroup from their first exchange.

The doppelgänger had the advantage, Naruto knew. They seemed evenly matched in both speed and strength, which made sense, he supposed. After all, they were identical. The problem lay in the lightsaber. Naruto had a set of kunai and shuriken, but he had nothing that could defend against a lightsaber. That only left him with dodging and attacking any gaps in his enemy's defense. He had to even the playing field somehow.

The answer came to him immediately. His chakra. He didn't care how fast and strong this weird, evil version of him was, there was no way it could handle getting dog piled by 1000 shadow clones. Even with the lightsaber, at least one would get a hit in. His confidence restored, Naruto pulled his Force presence back into his own body in order to generate chakra. That was when everything went wrong. Nothing happened.

Nothing happened! The Force just wouldn't obey. It resisted all of his attempts to channel it through his cells into a chakra network. He didn't understand. This had never happened before. It was always easy to switch to using chakra, way easier than going the other way. Something was keeping him from using chakra.

"Double kriff!"

Naruto felt a pit of dread curdle in his stomach. He nearly panicked. Not being able to use chakra was like having his lungs removed or his eyes gouged out. It was a nightmare right up there with the Kyuubi taking him over. He would have broken down and had an epic freak out, but the sight of a red lightsaber stabbing towards his heart proved to be a highly effective distraction. His self-preservation instincts hijacked his gibbering brain, took a quick stock of the situation, and leaned hard on the lever marked jump.

Jump Naruto did. He practically left an after image of himself from leaving the ground so fast. He shot up so high that he had to twist in midair and rebound off the ceiling, or else he would have cracked his head open. Still acting more or less on instinct, Naruto pushed off of the ceiling and launched himself back towards his opponent, his fist cocked back to deliver a devastating blow. The doppelgänger tried to dodge, but Naruto was traveling too fast.

His punch caught the evil twin on the shoulder and sent him spinning like a top. He landed on his feet though, and wasted no time in charging at Naruto once again. Naruto soon found himself right back where he had started, dodging vicious swings from the red blade, each one meant to kill him. As he dodged, his mind raced, and he desperately tried to think of a way out of his predicament.

'Come on, come on. Think, dammit. What do I do?'

He flung a handful of shuriken at his attacker to buy some time and distance. The doppelgänger just slashed them out of the air with his lightsaber. The crimson blade moved so fast that, for a moment, it became a solid wall of ruby energy. Naruto's attack had not been completely in vain, however. Unlike blaster bolts, the shuriken were solid metal, and they melted or vaporized rather than being deflected. Naruto heard a scream of pain from behind him and risked a backwards glance. It seemed some of the molten steel had splashed onto his copy's face.

"Aarrghh!" The doppelgänger screamed. "You little shit. That fucking hurt. You're gonna fucking die slowly for that."

Naruto ignored the insane howls from behind him. Instead, he concentrated on his training, trying to devise a strategy.

'Okay, what was it Jiraiya-sensei is always saying? Analyze my opponents and search for weaknesses? Let's try that. It's better than playing dodge the lightsaber until he cuts me in half.'

With that in mind, Naruto began a deadly dance with the murderous look-alike. He spent most of his time dodging wild slashes and thrusts, often by very uncomfortable margins. He had to stay close enough to get a good look at how the doppelgänger moved, and that meant flirting with painful dismemberment far more often than he would have liked.

It wasn't all just dodging, though. Whenever an opportunity presented itself, Naruto would go on the offensive. The clone drove him back quickly each time, but Naruto still landed a fair few blows. Sadly, none of them seemed to do more than wind the enraged doppelgänger, driving him to ever greater heights of fury. Overall, they seemed fairly evenly matched. As the fight went on, however, Naruto noticed a pattern.

The doppelgänger was sloppy. There was no other word for it. Sure, his attacks were fast, strong, and brutal, but they had no proper form. There was never a proper sequence, never a feint or a trap, not even a single attempt at strategy. It was all just random slashes and thrusts, with no effort given to defense. Naruto had actually landed far more blows than his enemy, taking advantage of massive holes in the copy's defenses. The evil bastard just seemed to soak them up and push on, relentless in his quest to kill Naruto.

Another thing Naruto noticed was how much the doppelgänger relied on his lightsaber. He only ever attacked with his weapon, never with his hands or feet. Even when Naruto moved in to deliver his own hits, the copy would use his lightsaber to try to block the incoming blows. He never tried to dodge or defend himself with his bare hands, even when it would have been far better to do so.

Despite how much he relied on the weapon, it seemed ill suited for him. He was constantly adjusting his grip, as if he couldn't find a comfortable place for his hands. The hilt slipped back and forth as he swung, a sure sign of a poor match between blade and wielder.

With those observations, Naruto put together a plan. He could see how to beat this guy. The only problem was how to do it without dying. Even with all of his obvious weaknesses, the doppelgänger still held the advantage. With such a superior weapon, all it would take was one mistake on Naruto's part and he would be lying on the ground in pieces.

'Well, I'll get nowhere if I don't try,' Naruto thought. 'Step one, tire him out.'

Something else Naruto had noticed was that the copy was, in fact, getting tired. He didn't know how that was possible, since he was still sure that it was just a Force vision, but it didn't matter in the end. The animalistic creep had a stamina limit, so Naruto would force him to reach it.

He sank as deeply into the Force as he could. Surprisingly, connecting to the Force was easier here than he had ever felt. It was almost as if something was trying to drag his Force presence into the larger world, encouraging him to delve into the flow. Naruto did not know what to make of it, but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. With chakra out of his reach (which was something he really didn't want to think about), he would take any advantage he could get.

With his deepening connection to the Force, Naruto's precognition played a telling role in the fight. He just knew when and where the copy would attack, which made dodging far less perilous. It was like what he imagined having both a Byakugan and a Sharingan at the same time would be like; near total awareness coupled with a glimpse into the future.

He pushed his limits more and more as time went on. When the doppelgänger went in for a thrust, Naruto slid directly beneath it, leaving only the slimmest of margins between his head and the humming blade. Before the doppelgänger could react, he snapped off a kick straight up into his solar plexus. The red-eyed bastard doubled over as all the air left his lungs in an instant. Naruto jumped to his feet and slammed his knee straight into the copy's face. He heard a crunch of bone and cartilage, and felt the doppelgänger's nose break. The evil maniac wheezed in pain, unable to find the breath to scream. Blood and snot dropped down his face as he glared at Naruto.

He wasn't out of the fight just yet, though. With a murderous roar, he launched himself at Naruto, slashing with furious abandon. His pain and anger seemed to give him even more fuel, as his speed had increased markedly. Even with his newly enhanced precognition, Naruto still had to push himself to his limits to stay alive. His clothes picked up several new scorch marks from near misses with the lightsaber.

The new speed had a cost, though. For all that he was pushing Naruto back, the doppelgänger was leaving even more openings than before. He had abandoned even the barest presence of defending himself, instead giving everything he had to an overwhelming offense. Naruto took full advantage of the slew of opportunities and landed as many hits as he could manage.

A downward slash; dodge left, two punches to the ribs.

A cut to the waist; jump over, flying knee to the face.

A rising slice; slip right, kick to the stomach.

On and on it went, with Naruto landing more and more hits on his opponent. The evil copy was tough, but even he couldn't last forever under such an assault. Slowly but surely, he began to flag. His breathing became ragged. His attacks grew slower and clumsier. Sweat poured off of him. Naruto, on the other hand, was still relatively fresh. They had both been working just as hard, but Naruto hadn't been taking a beating the whole time.

'Well, that's step one completed,' Naruto thought when he judged his enemy was sufficiently exhausted. 'Damn him, he's tough. He took most of those hits like they were nothing. Still, it's time for step two. Make him mad. Or madder at least.'

When it came to making people frothing at the mouth furious, be they enemies, friends, or random passers-by, Naruto considered himself something of an expert. He had all sorts of tools and tactics he could use for the purpose, ranging from exploding paintballs to stink bombs. For this fight, though, he chose his oldest and deadliest weapon. He opened his mouth.

"Damn, you're pretty pathetic," he said. "I mean, do you like being punched in the face? Because it sure seems like it."

The doppelgänger snarled back at him and jumped in with a powerful slash. Naruto dodged out of the way, being sure to make it look far easier than it had actually been.

"Wait, you're not a masochist, are you?" He asked. "Are you getting off on this? You're definitely sick enough, but that would just be… ick. Man, you're just all kinds of fucked up."

"Shut your fucking mouth!" The doppelgänger roared. "I'm gonna kill you, you worthless shitstain."

Naruto jumped to the top of one of the stalagmites and gave a cheeky wave.

"You keep saying that, but you're terrible at it," he said. "I mean really terrible. Just plain fucking awful. All you've killed so far are a bunch of rocks."

The doppelgänger made to cut Naruto in half vertically. The former shinobi flipped over his head and landed delicately on one of the other spires. The one he had just vacated fell to the floor in two pieces, having been neatly bifurcated by the vicious strike. In the confined space of the cave, the boom was deafening. It echoed off the rock walls, adding an eerie soundtrack to the already creepy lighting.

"There you go again, killing rocks," Naruto mocked. "Seriously, do you have some sort of problem with rocks? Is this like a childhood trauma thing we need to unpack? Maybe you should see a therapist. Hating rocks can't be healthy."

"Die!"

Once again, Naruto jumped to another stalagmite just as the crazed doppelganger destroyed the one he had been on. This time, the doppelgänger slashed at the base of the spire, probably in an attempt to unbalance him. Once more, the cave echoed with the death throes of a stalagmite as several tons of stone hit the ground. Between the red light casting the stone spires as gore stained teeth and the fading rumble sounding like a predatory growl, it felt as though they were fighting in the mouth of some enormous beast.

"You know what, I'm going to call you Rocky," Naruto said. "That's your name now, Rocky the Masochist. Or is that last bit something you want to keep private?"

"Shut up!"

Boom!

"Wow, you almost had me that time, Rocky. Maybe if you aimed a little better, and didn't suck so much, you'd be able to get me."

"Fuck you!"

Boom!

This time, rather than landing on the top of his new stalagmite, Naruto clung to the side, right below the tip. Rocky was panting heavily, exhaustion and anger taking their toll. It was clear from the look in his eyes that he had lost any grip he once had on sanity. His rage and bloodlust had completely consumed him. Naruto smirked as he beheld his work with satisfaction. One more push ought to do it.

"Rocky, you are way too hotheaded," he said, adopting the tone of a condescending teacher. "And that's coming from me. You definitely need to cool off."

As he spoke, Naruto used the Force to splash the water from one of the pools right into Rocky's face. Controlling fluids was harder than solids, but creating a simple wave was easy enough. The ice cold water seemed to briefly stun the now soaking wet Rocky. He just stood silently for a second, as if frozen him solid. Then his head jerked up to look at Naruto.

"Graaaagh," he roared. The last threads of his sanity had snapped. He leaped at Naruto, his lightsaber cocked back to deliver a deadly horizontal slash right to Naruto's neck. The surrounding Force boiled with blind anger and animal rage.

'Got you,' Naruto thought, as he spun to the other side of the stalagmite.

Just as with all the previous times, Naruto dodged the incoming attack. This time, however, he didn't leap straight to another perch. Instead, he flipped straight up, while maintaining a grip near the top of the stalagmite. The lightsaber passed just a few inches below his fingers, cleaving straight through the entire width of the stone spire in an instant. Suddenly, the rock Naruto was holding wasn't connected to the rest of the stalagmite.

As soon as he felt the tip of the stalagmite come free, Naruto kicked his legs down to rotate in the air. As he turned, he kept his grip on the pointed rock, and lifted off the rest of the spire. He continued the motion until he was once more right side up.

With the additional weight of the rock he was holding, his movement was slow, but Rocky was exhausted, battered, and blinded by rage. The violent doppelgänger didn't even try to dodge. He was oblivious to the threat of Naruto, right above him, holding a sharp rock.

Naruto didn't hesitate, and drove his impromptu weapon down into Rocky's shoulder as hard as he could. Between the force of his stab and the weight of the rock, it tore straight through the tattered flak vest and sank deep into Rocky's torso.

"Aaaaaarrrggghhh," the doppelgänger screamed. He didn't even sound human. His yell of pain sounded more like the cry of a wounded animal.

Naruto didn't have time to feel pity though. Instead, he sent out the strongest Force push he could, straight at the wounded Rocky. The doppelgänger turned into a blurred streak as he shot across the cave. In less than a second, he smashed into the opposite wall with enough force to crack the stone. As he slid to the ground, he left a streak of blood on the wall.

Naruto landed on his feet, panting heavily. The fight had taken a lot out of him; especially his last use of the Force. His technique still wasn't great, and he wasted a lot of energy when he used the Force like that. Still, he forced himself to check on Rocky to make sure he was defeated. The last thing he needed was to be taken down because he dropped his guard.

He relaxed when he saw the state the doppelgänger was in, though. Rocky had blood pouring from both his shoulder and his mouth. His face was a blood smeared mess, his nose smashed almost flat, and his eyes nearly swollen shut. His right arm was lying limp and useless, as the improvised knife had clearly severed some nerves. The rest of his limbs moved feebly, but he clearly could not stand. When he looked at Naruto, the madness had vanished from his eyes, leaving only bitter hatred and resignation.

"What are you waiting for?" He wheezed. Blood sprayed out of his mouth with every word. "Finish it. Kill me."

Naruto looked at him for a long moment, his face expressionless. After a minute, he shook his head.

"No," he said. "I'm not going to do that."

Rocky's eyes widened in shock before he growled weakly.

"Bastard, don't mock me. Just do it."

Naruto shook his head again.

"No. It's not the Jedi way."

"You fucking stupid piece of shit. I should… just fucking…" Rocky swore violently. He raged as best he could before his tirade dissolved into a fit of wet coughing. When he had recovered, he glared at Naruto with contempt.

"Don't kid yourself with that Jedi bullshit," he wheezed. "I know better. After all, you and I are the same per-"

"I am nothing like you!" Naruto shouted. Rocky didn't reply, and just smirked at his outburst. Naruto took a deep, calming breath.

"I am not like you," he repeated, though this time his tone was calm. "Maybe once I could have turned into you. Hell, maybe I still could. But that doesn't matter, because right here, right now, I am not like you at all. I never will be."

The two just stared at each other for a few minutes, one in anger, and the other with caution. Finally, after the silence had long since become uncomfortable, Naruto made to turn away. Just as he did, though, he heard Rocky begin to speak.

HOW REMARKABLE. YOU TRULY ARE AS FOOLISH AS YOU APPEAR.

Naruto turned back around in a flash. Whatever was speaking, it certainly didn't sound like Rocky had. Indeed, it didn't sound like anyone or anything that Naruto had ever heard before. The words seemed to slip straight into his mind without going through the bother of passing through his ears first. What he saw stilled him in an instant. The image of his foe faded away, replaced by the form of a tall, bald man, clad in dark armor, with burning embers for eyes. Had Naruto not been frozen in place, he would have collapsed to the ground from the sheer presence the man had. He filled the cave like an iceberg made of fire. Cold, burning rage and a vicious hunger radiated off of him, along with immense power. It even dwarfed Anakin's strength in the Force.

I TRIED TO SHOW YOU THE TRUTH. I TRIED TO SHOW YOU THE POWER OF THE DARK. THE INEVITABILITY OF IT. YOU SHOULD HAVE LISTENED.

Naruto didn't know where he found the strength to speak. Ice water had filled his lungs, his throat practically burned from the air. Nevertheless, he summoned up the will to croak out a few words.

"I don't know who you are, but I'll never listen to you," he said. He tried for a defiant yell, but his voice came out as a dry, scratchy whisper.

The man, if he could even be called that, growled at his defiance. His eyes glowed like two miniature bonfires, and shadows seemed to bend towards him. He drew himself up and made as if to attack Naruto. Just as he was set to move, a warm, comforting light flared up from behind Naruto. The man drew himself up short, a look of surprise and annoyance crossing his face. Even more surprising was what Naruto sensed from his presence. Where previously it had been a near vortex of greed and anger, now a sense of fondness crept in. Even love.

YOU? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, SISTER?

His voice sounded almost petulant, like he was a naughty child who knew he had been caught red handed.

Leave him be, Brother.

The latest unfamiliar voice, which Naruto assumed belonged to this 'Sister', was melodious and pleasant. For all that though, it rang with an iron authority that Naruto had only heard in the Sandaime and Master Yoda. He tried to turn and see the owner of the voice, but the powers around him had rooted him in place. At his front was the cold, dark ocean of anger and greed. At his back was a blazing inferno of light and life. Caught in the middle as he was, it was all he could do to stay conscious.

THIS IS NOT OVER, SISTER. THERE WILL BE A RECKONING.

Perhaps, but not today.

The dark figure in front of him growled and clenched its fists, but the light behind Naruto flared brighter. The man covered his eyes, but still hissed one last thing to Naruto.

FIGHT IT IF YOU WILL BOY, BUT THERE IS NO RUNNING FROM YOUR DESTINY. YOU WILL DESTROY EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING YOU HOLD DEAR. I HAVE SHOWN YOU YOUR FUTURE THIS DAY.

Naruto grimaced as the words stabbed into his head like hooks, pulling on old fears he had thought long buried. The sudden rush of darkness threatened to overwhelm him, but before it closed in completely, the voice from behind him rang out once again.

Begone, Brother! I will not say it again.

The dark man scowled, but seemed to reach a decision. With a final growl, he vanished in a burst of shadow. The moment he vanished, the oppressive weight of the Dark Side lifted from Naruto's shoulders. Freed of its icy grip, Naruto's strength immediately gave out. He would have fallen on his face were it not for the pair of strong, slender arms that caught him. In their warm embrace, he felt his strength return. When he turned to see who had caught him, his gaze fell on a woman. Her whole being seemed to glow, as if suffused with an inner light, and her grass green hair floated around her head like a halo. She looked down at him with a kind, if somewhat sad, smile.

"Who-"

Hush, young warrior. I cannot answer your questions, not yet. I have broken enough rules with you as it is. Just know this; you are on the right path.

Naruto was not about to accept that though. His head was fizzing with so many questions that his brain felt like it might actually boil. Nothing made sense, and he was determined to get answers.

"I don't-"

Questions will have to wait until another day. We will meet again, but for now, my time here draws short.

Something about her tone (could words spoken directly into his mind have tone?) shut down any further impulse he had to question her. It was still patient and kind, but now it held hints of the same harsh, blinding light that he had felt from Ilum. It was not scary, exactly, but certainly worth attending to. Whoever this lady was, vision or no, she was clearly of the Light. That said, as Naruto had heard before, Light could burn just as easily as nourish. With a swallowed gulp, his mouth clicked shut.

She set Naruto on his feet and turned to where the doppelgänger had landed earlier. With an ethereal, otherworldly grace that Naruto found almost difficult to look at, he walked over and picked something up off the ground. When she moved back to him, Naruto saw it was a lightsaber. The same lightsaber, in fact, that his twisted copy had wielded against him. She held it out to him with an encouraging nod.

Take this. You will need it for what lies ahead.

"Um, thanks, but no thanks," he said, his voice wary. Naruto wasn't sure what was going on anymore, but he did not want to accidentally offend the nice lady who radiated more power than the whole Jedi High Council combined. At the same time, he was not eager to use anything that had belonged to that monster.

"I'm gonna build my own."

The woman shook her head and laughed, high and clear and bright. Before Naruto could ask what was so funny, she pressed the lightsaber into his hands.

Dear child, what do you think you have been doing this whole time?

With that, she gave him one last smile, and then gently poked him on the forehead. As she did, he felt everything around him recede into the distance. His vision dimmed, and the last thing he saw was the mysterious woman looking at him.

You did well.

With those last words, everything faded into darkness, and consciousness left him entirely.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

And that marks the end of the tests. I'm still not entirely satisfied with how Naruto's second test turned out, but I think it got the point across well enough. For those who are wondering, Rocky is not Yami Naruto. It is not the Kyuubi. He was a vision fashioned by the Son, representing all of Naruto's potential paths to the Dark Side. The reason he looks like a blend between Naruto's dark half, Kyuubi Naruto, and Sith Naruto is that Naruto does not draw much of a distinction between his own anger, the Kyuubi's hatred, and the lure of the Dark side. He is still a child, and that sort of emotional maturity is, for now, a little beyond him. It doesn't help that he currently views the Dark side and the Kyuubi as being almost synonymous.

Please let me know what you think of this chapter in the reviews. I am always eager to receive feedback and constructive criticism. I will endeavor to answer any questions I can without spoiling too much of my plans. Have a happy holiday, and I'll see you next time.