A/N: Please read this note, would you kindly?

EDIT: Aw, look at the cheeky flames. Aren't they cute? Also added some more content for you all.

WARNING! Minor language and blood in this chapter.

As ever, we're still following the Ember's Rule here, folks.

If readers don't like this, it'll be deleted. Poof! Gone! Every bit of feedback helps. That's no joke.

I simply can't write without it. That truth still holds true here. So by all means speak up! Make yourself heard! Your feedback matters! I cannae write without them!

No questions this time! I'll let the chapter to do the talking for me! Hell, it practically shouts!

AS EVER I own no quotes, references, memes or themes. Not a wit or a one!

Minor verbatim from canon here.

Now then. Here. We. Go.

"Fool! She will be the end of us all! You would damn the world to save her?!"

"You keep saying that. She'll be the end of us. Us? Or YOU?"

"I will not let you do this! I'll stop you! I must!"

...you will try."

~The future.

What is a God?

"WAKE UP!"

Many might say this was no way to address the God of Darkness in his home; that to speak in such a crass manner to him would surely invite divine retribution, curses, or worse. Indeed, any sane individual would've gone weak at the knees, knowing someone was willingly and deliberately courting the wrath of a being who could easily annihilate all life from Remnant.

Naruto didn't care.

He was too angry too care-no, that wasn't it. Here, in this moment, he lacked the capacity to care. It was still there of course, but his emotions were simply too raw to do anything other than shout right now. One had but to look at him to see why. His world was red. Salem lay in his arms, her body cold as ice. His own stood stained with her black blood, leaving grisly patches of pale corruption upon his skin. Perhaps they were beginning to affect him. Salem was a child of darkness, after all. He'd all but bathed in her blood as he held her in her final moments.

He. Did not. Care.

"I said!" his voice boomed, "WAKE! UP!"

Powerful though Darkness might be, he was not infallible. Naruto knew that. Even gods could be fooled, harmed, taken by surprise. He'd seen it before.

Because that was clearly surprise writ across the silhouette of his face as he rose from his pool of darkness. Though he lacked visible eyes or a mouth to express it, one could behold it in his brow. The very instant he saw Salem's broken body cradled in his arms, he burst into a towering rage.

"Blood of my blood!" his voice was thunder, wrath incarnate. "My child?! Slain in my domain?!"

In a flash of dark smoke he became a towering dragon, looming with wrath.

"Who has done this?!" Mighty jaws snapped at him! "Tell me!"

Even caught in the throes of his rage Naruto felt it; his anger was just and genuine; a righteous fury equal to his own. Whatever ruse Light was playing at, it didn't involve Darkness. It was the only thing that kept him from flying off the handle and striking him down where he stood.

"Who do you think?"

"LIGHT!" Darkness spat the word like a curse. "And so my beloved brother meddles again! I will rend the flesh from his bones!"

"I'll deal with him." And he would. Afterward. Only one thing mattered right now. "You're a god, aren't you?"

The dragon reared back, offended. "Of course I am! Do you dare say otherwise?"

Naruto held up Salem's limp form. "Then bring her back."

The God of Darkness went terribly, horribly still.

"You ask much of me, my knight."

"I've never asked you for anything!" Naruto set Salem down and flung a hand out, right arm shimmering with terrible power. "Not once! I know you can do this! Please!" The word tore from him in a sound more beast than man. "You have to. This isn't fair. It isn't right! You know it!"

An awful moment of silence passed between them.

Naruto held his breath. If he said no, if he refused him...those thoughts spiraled into a dark place. If the Gods wouldn't save her, he would make them. Take them. Break them. Darkness hadn't done a thing to cross him, but if wouldn't do this...this ONE THING...

"We've bested gods before." Kurama's growl matched the anger seething within him. "We can do it again."

Still the silence persisted, stretching into eternity.

Finally, Naruto's patience slipped its leash.

"BRING HER BACK!"

Chakra burst from him in a singular shout, rending heaven and earth alike. Grimm near the Pool recoiled from the flaming fury. Darkness recoiled before them and assumed his humanoid form once more.

At length, he spoke.

"You truly wish for me to raise her?"

"What, do you want me to kneel or something?! Fine! Here!" Naruto cast aside his pride and did just that. "This is me kneeling. Please. I'm begging you." he pressed his forehead to the ground, all but prostrating himself before him. "I can't live without her."

...my brother will take offense to this." his head snapped up to find the younger brother contemplating him anew. "Though perhaps that is his intent. I have never tried to raise one of my children once they passed on. Nor he, his. It is something on an unspoken rule between us...to break it would violate our pact."

Even kneeling wasn't enough?!

"Then break it." a clenched fist rose. "Or I break you."

That horned head tilted. "You would slay me to save her?"

"Can a man kill a god?" he didn't rise from where he knelt, but his words were pure iron. "Can a god kill a man? No. People die when they are forgotten. Remember that." a long finger stabbed forth. "If you're not willing to help your own followers, what kind of god are you?!"

The God of Darkness leaned back. "Perhaps...you are right."

A most unexpected surprise, but a welcome one!

Naruto felt his fury flicker. "Eh?"

"My brother has become a nuisance." Darkness reclined in his pool of black tear with a put upon sigh. "This is not the first time he's sought to push me; merely his most overt. His ways are old. Stagnant." that horned head looked up, regarding the starry sky high above. "Perhaps a fresh perspective is needed. I would not object if someone were to...take his place."

Kurama bridled in his head.

A weight settled upon Naruto's shoulders. "You don't know what you're asking of me."

"I do." that eerie blank visage stared into his soul. "More than you could possibly know. This is not something I say lightly."

He climbed to his feet with an effort, wincing as his body burned. Why was it burning? He hadn't been hurt. Blue eyes ought his bloodstained arms and a frown marred his features. No. It was nothing. He was fine. There would be time to dwell on that whatever was happening to him...late.r

...y'know, underneath all that hot air, you're actually a pretty cool guy."

"Cool?" The faceless visage of Darkness furrowed. "I do not understand the meaning of this world "cool" you speak of. What does it entail?"

Naruto nearly fell for the banter; nearly smiled and slipped back into conversation with the lonely god. It was a very near thing indeed. His anger reeled him back in. They could chat all they liked later. Every second they wasted was another in which Salem wasn't here. No

"I'll tell you after you raise Salem. Please." his voice broke. "I don't think I can live without her...

Darkness pulled himself forth from the pool, rising to his full, towering height. "You are certain of this path, then?"

...I am.

"Many outside this kingdom will hate you for it. In their eyes you may well be scorned for this action. Cursed. Forsaken."

"Even so."

"Such determination." The God of Darkness bowed his head and placed both hands before his chest. "You have my blessing, then. Do as you will. I look forward to seeing the end of your tale."

Naruto grit his teeth. Enough beating about the bush. "Can you bring her back or not?!"

"Rejoice, my knight." A violet hand rose, bidding him to stand. "Your faith in me will be rewarded." That same hand swept out, indicating the sea of black tar from which he had emerged. "Bring her body hence, and I will raise her. Through light she fell, and through darkness she will rise again. As shall you, if you wish."

...what?"

Confusion reared its head, mingling with dread.

"Her blood has touched your body. You are marked by her. Now and forevermore."

"And?" He took a sharp step back. "I feel fine."

"You know this is not true." Darkness considered him for a long moment. "You feel it, don't you? The anger. The rage. The primordial need to rip and tear, or perhaps...

Naruto raised his arms and considered the ghostly white patches haphazardly spattered across his arms and chest; rimmed now with pulsing red-veins. Was it just his imagination, or were they spreading? He blinked and shook his head. Even his face was not...unaffected. He caught a glimpse of himself in a nearby pool. There was a pale handprint there on his right cheek, where Salem's bloody hand had touched him. He could see the veins pulsing in his face there over the whiskers, horrid and red.

"So, what?" he babbled. "Her blood's turning into something else? She's," the word caught in his throat. "Driving me mad?"

"Not mad." Darkness shook his head. "Merely breaking your chains."

That...didn't sound entirely like a good thing. His morals were what rooted him. Tethered him. Without them, what was he?

"Kurama?"

"Don't look at me." his vulpine partner snarled. "I'm trying to get red of them. Persistent little bastards...

"You would become more powerful than you could possibly imagine," Darkness crooned. "Think of it. With my power added to yours...

Naruto set his jaw. "I'm strong enough."

"Strong enough to protect her forever?" the challenge cut him to the quick. "You are might, make no mistake. I suspect you could kill me, perhaps even my brother if it came to a fight. But for all your strength you are still mortal. Eventually you will die."

He didn't waver. "I've got good genes. I'll be around for a bit."

"And what then?" Darkness materialized at his side and laid a hand upon his shoulder. "You are not eternal."

Naruto chewed at his lip. "If its a life with her, then that's a life well lived."

"Until she outlives you."

"Bull." he shook off that heavy hand and whirled to face his ally. "She's not immortal. She died!"

"She did." Darkness conceded his point with a nod. "But my children have been known to live for thousands of years...if they are not killed. You've seen it for yourself. How slowly she ages."

"..."

"Search your feelings. You know it to be true. Perhaps that is why my Brother hunts them so." a note of discord pushed itself into his voice, vibrating with menace. "They are not like precious "Warriors". If left unchecked, they would live their lives and overrun this world. Another reason for him to cull them so.Your kind may be long lived, but how long would that life last? What will happen when you're gone?"

"She'll be fine." he knew the words for a lie even as he spoke them.

"Fool! Her life is centered around you. If you die she'll go mad. Her magic will surge as it has before."

There was a hole in his logic, one that, for all his anger, he felt compelled to point. "You could just bring me back."

"I cannot. You are not of this world and thus not bound by many of its rules rules. Your soul will likely go elsewhere when you pass from this world. Neither I nor my brother has any claim on it. Your body we may be able to affect, but your soul? No." he shook his head. "Impossible."

A muscle jumped in his jaw. "Then I won't die."

"Oh?" That horned head tilted anew. "And how do you intend to accomplish such a feat?"

"I've beaten the odds before. I'll do it again."

"I am trying to help you!" his voice cracked like a whip. "You have already been marked. You may well become like her in time. Why prolong the inevitable?"

"Because its my choice!" he snapped back. "I want to remain as I am. I won't give into this."

"Think of it. Legions of Grimm under your command. All would be yours."

In the end, he made his decision.

"I don't want the world. I just want her. That said," he turned toward the dark waters and swallowed once. "I'll do whatever it takes." Even then, a thorn of hesitation pricked at his heart and held him back. He hesitated. "Will she...be the same as she was?"

The God of Darkness offered him a rare, helpless shrug.

"I cannot know. The answer lies with her." His arm rose. "Now let us begin...

Slowly, gingerly, Naruto stooped to retrieve Salem's still form. Then he waded into darkness.

(.0.0.0.)

Salem opened her eyes in the void.

"Ah." she realized with a pang of dread. "I'm dead."

Her brow furrowed in mild consternation. Then anger. Fury.

"Nope." her spirit sat up with a scowl. "Not having this. Not having any of it!"

She was just building up for an absolutely TOWERING rant when something -or someone?- yanked her back.

(.0.0.0.)

"Its working!"

Naruto felt a smile stretched across his face as he watched Salem's body begin to mend. Her image was blurry -indistinct in the water- but he could see the hole in her chest closing. Pale flesh mended before his eyes as he looked on. He kept his focus on her, and nothing else. Even then his mind threatened to buckle beneath the strain. The fell tides tugged at him, promising him power, whatever he wished. He resisted, even as he knelt in their dark depths. Corruption crept into his skin and he grit his teeth against it.

Pain didn't even begin to describe what he felt.

Thankfully, pain was also an old friend to him by now. He'd endured worse.

"Hold tight to her." Darkness warned somewhere above him. "She will not drown, but she must remain submerged until her wounds are healed."

Bleary eyes fluttered open in the pool, not quite comprehending. He saw the panic in them. She tried to rise in a panic; to which he gently-yet-firmly forced her back down.

"Hey," Naruto grabbed her hand. "Its alright. You're okay. Just don't move. Do you understand? You have to stay in the water for now. Everything's going to be alright."

Her eyes drifted shut again, that brief moment of consciousness lost to her. Panic flared to life in his chest and he suppressed it.

"What have you done?!"

A peal of anger pierced the night.

Naruto looked up, Salem's hand clenched tight in his. All his fury, all his rage, all his wrath, already at a fever pitch, boiled over. He whirled to face its owner, already knowing what -whom!- he would find there. He wasn't dissapointed. The God of Light descended from on high in all his golden splendor, shoulders tense with anger.

"What foolishness is this?" he paused on the final step, glaring down at them. "You would violate our agreement?"

"I have done what I please, brother." The God of Darkness remained unbowed as his brother moved to meet them. "You may bask in the powers of creation but you do not own them."

The larger god bridled. "This is not creation-

"DO NOT LECTURE ME!" Anger knotted the younger brother's voice.

The air boiled between them. Neither spoke for what felt like an eternity. And then:

"...enough." A golden palm rose in Salem's direction, "I will do what I must to maintain order."

Darkness slapped his limb aside. "You dare enter my domain and attempt such disrespect?! After all you've done?!"

Light rounded on darkness. "I am abiding by the rules WE agreed upon!"

"Rules that I now see were ever weighed in your favor!" The God of Darkness stalked forward, the earth shaking beneath his feet with each step. "You hoard your worshipers like a greedy child, and yet the moment someone asks a boon of me," ghastly wings sprouted from his back as his body began to writhe and twist, "So do you arrive to lay your judgement upon me!" Before his very eyes the God shifted and became a dragon once more, fangs bared.

"Begone!"

Even when faced with an open maw rearing back to bite him, the God of Light did not recoil in the face of such adversity, Instead another dragon was born in a great flash of light, a mighty curling serpent soaring through the sky overhead. Flames flickered between its teeth, yet it did not unleash them.

"I know we have our differences," he intoned solemnly, gazing down at him. "But I have not come here with the aim to control you."

"Liar!" Naruto set Salem down in the shallows and burst to his feet. "You absolute hypocrite! You started this! I know you did! I could smell you on Ozma!"

"Indeed!" Darkness beat his wings once with a mighty guffaw. "My knight came to me with honest intentions, and no deception in his heart." That grisly maw parted in a dark rictus of a grin. "Which is more than can be said for you."

Naruto couldn't quite restrain a growl at that. "Come down here, you overgrown lizard. I've got a bone to pick you!"

"Silence." That flat gaze met his. "Your...pet was not my intended target. Count yourself lucky that you yet live."

Salem whimpered in the shallows, still not quite awake.

Something cracked in the back of Naruto's mind.

...pet?"

Kurama tried to say something, but the words distant. Muted. Fuzzy. Pet. He'd called Salem a pet. That broken little girl; the helpless waif he'd taken in and loved like his own, and he dared to call her a pet? A sharp pain stabbed at the back of his skull. Control. Keep calm. Light wanted him angry. Wanted him reckless. It didn't bother him. It didn't bother him...it did not...bother...him...

"And you slew one of my newly chosen." the god barreled on, heedless of what he'd just woken. "It will take me eons to reconstitute his soul, if I even care to. I would have recompense-

CRACK.

Clenched knuckles plowed into Light's face, obliterating what passed for the dragon's jaw and flinging him to the ground. He struck the ruined soil and skidded across it, leaving a mighty tear in the earth. Yet when he rose, there was no sign of any such injury. Grave glowing eyes regarded him, as a giant might unto an ant.

...you dare strike me, mortal?" there was an edge of mockery in his words. "What do you hope to accomplish by doing this?"

"Its too late now." Naruto lowered his arm and pressed a hand to his forehead, grimacing as his migraine intensified. "I don't know what's right anymore." bitter laughter tumbled past his lips. "Gods are supposed to be good, aren't they? Yet you aren't." He hung his head. "Your brother is, but not you. So the only choice for me now...

He raised his gaze, one eye shimmering blue, the other a bitter black and red.

"Is to face the consequences of my actions...as a human being...

He swept an arm forward, uncaring as the stained limb shimmered a ghastly white. Corruption crept across the length of his limb -fueled by his emotions and the darkness of the pools- leaving pulsing red veins behind in its wake. His skin itched like nothing else, and where he able to see his face, he would've seen the last semblance of color drain from his whiskered visage, leaving his hair a shocking ashen grey. He felt awful. He was sure he looked worse; like some kind of of monster. None of that mattered now.

...and see this through to the bitter end."

"Naruto! Are we doing this? Now? Right here?!"

...yeah." He stalked forward. It had always been building to this, he realized. From the moment he'd met Salem. "I'm sick of gods."

"We are not simply your gods." The god of Light righted himself with nary a sound, face mending as he looked on. "We are your kings. Kneel and we shall forgive such defiance."

"You keep using that word. We." Red eyes flashed with baleful light. "I don't think you understand what it means." He crossed his arms, golden-black light shimmering around his shoulders. "I only see you. You're alone."

A frigid wind blew through the Grimmlands as the God of Light turned to face his sibling. "Stand with me, Brother. We shall eradicate this aberration together."

The God of Darkness rose to his full towering height...and did nothing. "I think not...

The elder brother bridled.

"Think very carefully before you finish that sentence." his very voice shook the earth. "Lest you upset the balance of this world."

"Balance?" Naruto all but spat the word. "Balance?! This isn't balance at all! This is stagnation! You started this!"

"Because it was necessary! You know not what you do! That child is destined to destroy everything!"

Who decided that? A prophecy? Some words spoken in the past? The future was what you made of it.

"There comes a time in every man's life when he must make a choice." he lifted his chin in naked defiance. "I've made mine. And I'm prepared to live with it."

Mighty jaws snapped at him, easily dodged amidst the blasted plains. "She'll destroy us all!

"Maybe." Naruto shrugged. "Maybe not. That's a risk I'm willing to take."

And he was, wasn't he? Once the realization might have shocked him. What happened when you killed a god? Did the world break? Did time cease to be? Would every vestige of light vanish from this world with the death of Light himself? There was only one way to find out.

"You would go to war?! For one girl?!"

"Not one girl. THE girl."

"I will not be betrayed." The God of Light frowned and caste a baleful look toward Darkness. "When this is over, when I slay this whelp, I will have you answer for-

A golden hand closed around the dragon's tail and yanked, whipping him into the air. Up he went. Down he came. His face kissed the ground in a way no-self-respecting deity desired. Before he could even think to mount himself a counterattack he found himself whipped back again. One. Twice. Thrice. Back. Forth. Back again.

Finally, his tormentor slammed him down, trapping his back in the blasted soil.

"Puny god!"

Light barely even felt the weight settle on his chest; but he certainly noticed the golden hand that followed. Clawed fingers around the face of a deity.

"You don't seem to understand. I'm not playing games. So keep your schemes to yourself!" Black light built between his fingertips as a tailed beast bomb took shape. "And just die!"

"Enough!"

The God of Light shimmered back into his human form in an instant.

A gilded hand snapped up and the world howled into light, sending Naruto sprawling

"You and your foolishness!" He snarled after him. "Why, why, why? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting?"

He made it to a knee before Light blasted him again.

"Do you believe you're fighting for something?" wild light flickered in his grasp, ready to strike him down. "For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Could it be for love?

Another bolted ripped through the gloom, narrowly dodged. A smoke bomb sailed out, kicking up noxious fumes to blind him.

"Illusions, boy. Vagaries of perception." the dragon whirled, seeking him in the dark fog he'd created. "Temporary constructs of a mortal human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose." he saw a flicker of movement and howled at it, obliterating a shadow with his voice alone. "And all of them as artificial as your resolve itself." Another shadow, another swipe, with nothing left behind. "You must be able to see it. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, then? Why? Why do you persist?"

A giant hand closed around the back of his head.

...someone has to."

The God of Light never saw the Tailed Beast Bomb, but her certainly felt it as Kurama's body slammed him into the ground. Black-and-White light blazed over his back, shattering his defenses like so much glass. Have you ever heard a God scream? There's no sound quite like it. Light lashed out and sent him slamming away, yet the deed was done.

"May you be cursed!" He spat. "So long as Remnant turns, may you never know peace!"

Naruto staggered upright. "Didn't ask, don't need it, go fuck yourself!"

"If you kill me, you will steal all light from this world!"

...and?"

The shinobi surged forward with a snarl. Kurama's maw yawned wide. The God of Light whirled to meet them, a palm flashing with holy splendor. The fox bit it clean off at the elbow. A single desperate blow battered him back again. Yet even sthat action cost him dearly. His might spent, the broken god collapsed, shimmering and flickering where he lay.

A pleading hand stretched forth as he crawled away.

"Brother!" he cried! "Help me!"

Here at last, his pleas appeared to move Darkness. He vanished and materialized at his side.

"No!" Naruto surged upright. "He's mine!"

Darkness drew Light into his arms and helped him stand. For a moment, the two Brothers looked upon one another.

"You have my thanks, Brother." Light rasped out a breath. "Come, let us put an end to this."

"Yes."Darkness agreed. "An end, indeed.

A sword of sheer shadow burst from Light's gut, skewering him on its wicked edge. The elder brother gasped; had he eyes, they would've been most wide indeed. A wordless cry fled from his lips as his brother thrust the barbed blade deeper, all but impaling him upon the dread weapon he'd created.

"But...why...?"

Darkness drew him close and hissed four little words in his sibling's ear.

"Long. Live. The King."

A palm planted itself upon Light's chest and pushed, ripping the wounded God from the sword to fling him back into the fray. Back into oblivion. Back toward the giant fox that was even now barreling towards him with fell intent. Caught in the air, Light flailed for salvation, too wounded to do anything but howl in impotent rage.

He was still screaming when nine tails of pure chakra coiled about his broken body. Still screaming, as Kurama's maw yawned wide.

Powerful jaws closed around Light's head and clamped down with almighty force.

Motes of light and blood sprayed through the air.

A/N: What's that? You think this is over? No, no, no...I'll let you guess what happens next.

As ever, we're following the Ember's Rule here.

If folks don't like this, it'll be deleted. Poof! Gone! Every bit of feedback helps. I simply can't write without it. That truth still holds true here. So by all means speak up! Make yourself heard! Your feedback matters! I cannae write without them! That's not a joke. Looking forward to your feedback/chatting with you all! No review is too large or too small! Thank you all! By all means, speak up!

Make yourself heard! Because silence, silence only hurts.

So In the Immortal Words of Atlas...

...Review, Would You Kindly?

NO PREVIEWS THIS TIME.

Okay. Just one.

Two?

Three?

(Preview)

"How does a god taste?"

Kurama barked a laugh. "Divine."

"You have a choice to make. I pray that you choose wisely."

"Have you ever given thought to the future?"

The King in the Broken Tower sent more men, of course.

Foolish kings always do.

She stroked his arm. "Eternity is painful, isn't it?"

"Not if I spend it with you."

R&R~!