A/N: Sorry if this seems short. Work calls! Please read this note, would you kindly?

Can anyone see this? Notifications are acting up again and the site seems to be glitching out once more. Please let me know if you can see this!

On that note, I'll be creating a plot bin after this called Fragments of Teyvat, to prevent my Genshin stories from multiplying out control, and the better to focus on my current tales.

Remember, this is a work of fiction. Lets just sit back and enjoy the story, eh?

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.

"You will bring forth an age of chaos!"

"And? I fail to see how that's my problem."

~The future.

A Miserable Pile of Secrets

Can a god truly die?

Is it possible to kill such a being?

To end a creature that does not understand the concept of death?

And if so, what happens after said death? Do they form anew? Simply dissipate altogether? Perhaps they reincarnate in another world, another form? Who can say? Such knowledge is often unknown, even to the gods themselves. In his final fleeting moment of existence, the God of Light was left to ponder this. He knew not what end awaited him, only that it was here. He tried to fight in his last throes. Tired to speak. To say something. Anything.

All he managed was a singular scream.

Jaws of fire-filled fury closed down around his head.

They ripped and they tore. Then the Light knew no more.

(.0.0.0.)

How does a god taste?

Some might say divine. Heavenly, even.

Naruto disagreed wholeheartedly; because know he knew first hand. It was a strange taste; like biting into sunshine while simultaneously drinking sour milk. He swallowed on reflex and immediately regretted it, turning away to retch. Something rushed down his throat, bringing a wretched burning sensation with it.

"Blech!" He gagged as motes of light and blood sprayed through the air. "He tastes horrible!"

"Perhaps," Kurama mused, watching the fallen deity crumble away. "But he had a certain crunchiness to him there at the end."

It might've been funny under any other circumstance; were it not for the enormity of what they'd just done. Even now he half-expected that giant, headless corpse to spring back to life at moment; to stand, grow a new head and fight him anew. Instead those strange motes of dust swirled through the air, coalescing around him. He alighted on all fours and sprang to his feet. A clawed hand swiped at them to no avail, they yet lingered, suffusing his skin even as his throat continued to burn.

He'd never killed a god before.

Sealed, yes, but to slay a divine being, to tear off his head and stand tall despite it all...? No. He'd not done that. There were consequences to killing a god; just as there were consequences for Light starting this. He had finished what this so-called god began, but despite all, his demise didn't give him the satisfaction he sought.

Even with Light's death, Naruto found he wasn't pleased.

He wanted to bring the bastard back and kill him again. Rinse and repeat. A single death was too good for him. After all he'd put them through?! To simply roll over like this?! He deserved to die over, and over! And! Over! Again! His fingers twitched restlessly at his sides, longing to rend into that still-dissolving corpse, to rip and tear as he never had before.

"Easy, there. Breathe."

Naruto sucked in a shuddering breath through his teeth. He tried. He really did. Every breath seemed a struggle. Salem's blood still boiled in his veins, a wrath yet unspent. His time in the pool, coupled with her blood, had changed him. He was both himself and not himself. Even now his mind remained ravaged by what he'd endured. Not corrupted. Infected. Altered. Mingled with her essence and changed. He could feel the God of Darkness watching him, no doubt wishing to speak with him, but his presence seemed muted. Distant, somehow.

Because he'd just caught sight of his ghastly reflection in a nearby pool of shadow.

"Ah, hell." he muttered. "How am I gonna explain this to her...

A clawed hand touched one side of his face.

His once vivid blue eyes burned in his skull like twin coals, a furious slitted red bearing Kurama's telltale slits. Dark marks flowed up the edges of his now-pallid visage; the trio of whisker marks that had once tripled either side of his cheeks were still visible, but they were deeper and darker now. Vivid black likes trailing out to flow up from his eyes and neck. Even his hair lay altered; it seemed to shimmer in the low light, glowing a soft golden gold in the gloom.

All in all, he looked like a male version of Salem.

It did precious little to explain the swirling red cloak that stemmed from his shoulders, nor the sweeping tails of energy that trailed from it. He felt as though he could drop it at any time and be fine, but there was a part of him that didn't want to, that longed to hold onto this incredible new power, to use it to rip and tear...and it frightened him.

A forlorn breeze rippled through the Grimmlands, tearing at his strange new cloak.

"What is this?" Naruto glared down at his hands, not quite comprehending.

...if I didn't know better, I'd say this was Baryon Mode."

His brow furrowed."Bar-what now?"

"Something you never want to use. It'll kill us both. Still, for all your anger, this form feels oddly stable."

"Thanks ever so much." the words tore out of him in a growl. "Since when were you the calm one?"

"Give it time. I'm sure I'll have a panic attack of my own any second now."

Naruto grit his teeth and exhaled, willing the fraying threads of his anger to unspool. It proved an effort in of itself. He could feel the red veins thrumming furious at the edges of his vision, all but branching down to pulse wildly in his flesh. He felt stronger for it; more powerful than he'd ever been. On a whim he threw a quick punch, only to blanch at the shockwave he created. The ground cratered beneath him, and he hadn't even touched it in the least.

It terrified him. Intoxicated him.

"And so it is done." For all his participation in his siblings demise, the god of darkness sounded strangely melancholy. "My brother is dead. I never thought I would see the day."

He sounded so miserable; so broken, so alone now, that it broke Naruto from his reverie. Pivoting on one heel, he dared to look away from the slowly dissolving corpse. It made no effort to rise; if anything its collapse was a slow thing indeed, the work of minutes rather than seconds. But still, he had to know.

...is he gone for good?"

The last thing he wanted was a vengeful deity stalking him.

"Of that, I know naught." Darkness looked just as lost as he. Not reassuring. "Neither of us ever expected and...end." his featureless visage turned away, confiding in the dark starry above. "I suppose we will know sooner rather than later. He was ever the spiteful sort."

"You don't sound too pleased with yourself."

"I am a kinslayer now." those violet shoulders hunched with a sigh. "Whatever our differences, in the end, we proved to be no better than wild beasts." A low, shuddering sigh escaped him, then he rallied. "But enough of sadness and sorrow. I am not the last of my kind. Nor am I your enemy. I would have peace with you."

"Wait, you sound startled." realization dawned and Naruto found himself taking a step back. "Are you...afraid of me?"

"I just watched you slay my brother, helped even, something I never thought possible. Least of all for a mortal." A dark brow quirked. "But you aren't mortal anymore, are you?"

...what's that supposed to mean?"

.

..

...

"That you'll soon have a choice to make." Darkness said at last. "When the time comes, I pray that you choose-no, its nothing." He cut himself off, pinched his brow and made a noise of discontent. "Forgive me for being a bit shaken."

"Alright...?" Naruto reached up and patted the only place he could reach on the towering god's form, namely his leg. "For what its worth, I appreciate the assist."

A scoff. "Assist, he says. You would have slain him without me."

"Maybe, maybe not." it was becoming more and more difficult to hold onto his anger. Perhaps that was for the best. "You were still a big help."

"Hrmmph." Darkness grunted and padded past him. "Come. Your mate stirs."

Naruto felt his newly pale face flood with color of a different sort.

"I keep saying! She ain't my...!"

(.0.0.0.)

Naruto!

Salem jolted awake beneath the water.

Her first thought was not for herself, but for him. The second was of her death. She couldn't forget it; that cold touch of the abyss as it dragged hr down into darkness. The fading of her vision, the horrible sadness as she realized that yes, this was the end, and there was naught she could do about it...only to undone at the last.

At least she assumed it was undone. If not, then what witchery was this?

If there was life after death, she'd not been gone long enough to truly experience it-not that it mattered now.

Everything was heat and fire and rage, blood boiling in her veins like so much superheated plasma.

She inhaled on reflex and dark, brackish water flooded her airway. Ack! Hack! Her lungs liked that not at all and her body even less; she kicked her way upright and broke the surface. Pale hands flailed for her wound, expecting to find a grievous tear in her chest, but no. She found only the swell of her breasts, utterly untouched. Among other things.

Salem looked down. Blinked.

Once. Twice.

Thrice now.

"Alright," she frowned a little, "Where the devil are my clothes...?"

Had they dissolved in the water of the Grimm pool...? She cast an embarassed glanced about and was rewarded for her curiosity. Sure enough, tattered shreds of colorful fabric floated by on the dark waters. Heat rose to her cheeks and she covered her bosom with a pale arm. She stood slowly, not quite trusting her quivering legs to hold her. Alright. She was fine. This was fine. So long as no one saw her-

"Salem!"

The poor Grimmling made a keening noise between her teeth and whirled in the dark waters.

She saw Naruto approaching at speed and try as she might, she couldn't quite fight down the flinch that followed. Because you see, she understood. One look at his newfound transformation struck her; she understood what he had done. He looked like her. He'd gone and changed himself to save her; for that, he might well never be the same. Heat pricked at her eyes, not from anger, but sorrow.

He reached her sided and looked away, not from embarrassment, but shame. "That bad, huh? The big guy said you might not remember-

No! None of that! Salem surged up and kissed him. Pale arms wrapped 'round his neck, clung on for dear life, then pulled.

"Oi!" his words piqued into a yelp that bordered on a laugh. "Wait a second! Clothes, damnit! Where are your-

Naruto didn't have time to protest further as she dragged him into the shallows with her.

"Say that again," she touched a hand to his cheek, "And I'll be very cross with you...

A/N: And there we go.

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)

"This isn't over! Not if I have anything to say about-URK?!"

Do pipe down. Your arrogance is showing.

"Your poor face."

"It should've been me. I should've taken the hit, not you.

Her temper blazed. A single word sprang to her lips.

"Fool!"

"Fool!"

Salem drew him down into her arms; at such close proximity he could feel her trembling.

...are you sure you want this? You don't have to-

"Yes," she spoke quickly, voice breaking a little. "This is what I want. More than anything."

She pulled him into her embrace.

"You've damned us all!"

"Knock the tower down!"

R&R~!