1Author note: The Furious One hereby apologizes to all his readers for having been a fucktard and stuck up to boot. We is promise to write more now, yeah.

Aidis: I hate you all. Die.

Islagatt: Aidis, that is decidedly unyouthful.

A Demon's Dream

Chapter Thirteen: Guilt, and the Subjective Evil

I do not own Naruto

Konoha was not an old village. As far as the other villages went, centuries into the past, Konoha was not even two hundred years old, having really had only four kage in its time (the Yondaime's reign was such a brief footnote, that it scarcely seems chronologically important). Nonetheless, it was a power to be reckoned with in its heyday, and as such, the guards of the four gates had witnessed many strange things in their time.

There was actually a chronicle, each gate kept one, of who and what came through them, so that the new gatekeepers could benefit from the experiences and strangeness of their predecessors. For example, the northern gate had a record of a team of ninjas riding summoned beasts into Konoha (not terribly odd but for the fact that one had been a rather imposing lizard-like being and another had been a slug). There had been another record of a guard on the east gate admitting a christian missionary, only to have him chased out of town less than three hours later.

Stories of what went through the gates were numerous and varied, but none of them quite compared to what was now approaching the western gate to Konohagakure no Sato.

What approached was not a burning spark of angry red or blue light, was not an undeniable wall of debatably evil energy, it was instead, an average ninja, jounin if the vest were an indication. His hitai-ate was slightly odd from the current distance, because every time the guards looked at it, the forehead protector seemed to writhe and shift, as if desperate to escape identification. It was further odd that the hitai ate was not tied to his head, shredded remains of cloth flapped about in a frenzied manner while the metal plate stuck fast to the ninja's head, more like it'd been pounded into it. Of course there were stranger and more noticeable aspects about the ninja, such as the fact that he seemed to be moving rather like a puppet, limbs awkward and jerky. Or perhaps the fact that he had black, empty eyes. Maybe it was the potent aura of concentrated purple energy that surrounded him for seemingly no reason and what seemed to move before he did.

Yeah, probably the purple chakra.

It was the opinion of the guards of Konoha's gate that things approaching were to be treated uniformly, all in a similar manner, and with a certain procedure. Sometimes, they decided as the figure jerked and jeered closer towards the gate, procedure had to give way to common sense. That and there was the small matter of the man raising a hand, palm open towards the gate when he was still meters away, and throwing it open with a wave of invisible but palpable energy.

The disorienting feeling of the not-quite-human chakra also left the guards retching and incapacitated on the ground.

-

Along the streets the figure walked, flanked on either side by a squad of nervously twitching ANBU. The ANBU had been surrounding the target since it had arrived in Konoha, tracking the creature but at the same time unable to do anything about its presence. Honestly what it was had completely eluded the ANBU forces and the squad of jounin tailing the thing.

It's chakra didn't feel human, that was for sure, and it most definitely was not a demon, for it hadn't actually harmed anything yet. It lacked the Kyuubi's malevolence, and seemed to carry its own air of emotions that hovered in the purple chakra surrounding and preceding it. However, the lack of hostile intent meant little against the fact that its desires were totally unknown, and the direction of its march was somewhat difficult to perceive as well, at times it went this way, and other times that way, it had passed by training ground twenty seven and the old, abandoned section of Konoha. It had moved by the repaired arena and was presently making way for the Hokage tower at its own slow, purposeful twitch.

Tsunade had been alerted as soon as the being had made its way through the gate, she had been looking through sheaf upon sheaf of documents searching for any ideas about what the being might be, and had found nothing. There were simply no documents that seemed to pertain to this particular type of being, which could only suggest that it was something either far older than humanity that had not yet reared its head, or something new, and intimidating. She wasn't entirely sure which one she preferred.

But there was no more time for her to look for information, she had to go out and confront the entity ambling through her streets and do whatever she could to keep her ninja and her civilians safe. The order had already gone out to begin evacuating the civilians (herding the cattle, depending on who you asked), and with them went the majority of the genin. The wave ninja were supposed to have left three days prior but they hadn't and now, they were still waiting, this time to find out what the new thing was.

And so, Tsunade stepped out into the street, staring down the approaching man, the ANBU retreated to the rooftops, most readying jutsu or weapons and waiting for the Hokage's signal. The Godaime glared coolly at the still-advancing man and spoke with all the authority and dignity she could muster, if she shook just a bit, the ANBU decided that they didn't notice.

"HALT! State your business with the leaf!" The jerking motions paused, as the body lifted itself to stand straight and regarded the Hokage without its eyes. "If you don't comp-" her threat was cut off by no fewer than four voices.

The first voice was deep and strong. "Old hag." The second, joining the first a half second later was bright, content perhaps "Tsunade" The third voice came thin and raspy from the body itself, blood spattered, black and crusted from its mouth when it spoke. "Hokage-sama…"

The fourth voice was familiar, quiet but dominating the others while they still faded from away, it was powerful, and yet distracted, it was a voice that wasn't entirely human anymore, but was far closer to it than the other three. "Obaa-chan…" the other three voices quickly echoed the first, prompting nothing but abject confusion from the Hokage. That sounded almost like Naruto's voice, but it couldn't be...

"Who are you! What do you want with Konoha? And-" she was once again cut-off as the third voice gave a strangled cry of pain and misery. The man was collapsing to the ground as the purple chakra surged and swayed around him, its potency quickly overwhelming the leaf ninja with sheer alienness. While they were all still reeling from the impact and while the chakra was surging and railing against the bond of the body, another person arrived, rather unnoticed by most of the ninja present as the pressure of the foreign chakra increased.

The power being created was literally making the atmosphere heavier, bringing the team of jounin to their knees and then driving them completely to the ground. The ANBU kept their footing through nothing but abject determination, and the Hokage stood staring at the body. Totally unaffected, the newcomer watched with rapt attention.

"Naruto-kun…"

The body smoldered, sizzled, flesh liquefied and ran, while more purple chakra burst free by forcing the flesh to split and burst into geysers of black, unhealthy blood. The purple chakra surged, and then retreated once more, falling into the ruined body, leaving many to believe that the strange jounin was simply dead. Then the purple drifted up, seemingly unattached to the body that restrained it, drifting upwards into a cloud, sparks of red and blue flying from the central mass.

There was no pressure on the air anymore, the ninja about were still rooted in place though watching the entity hover for moments more. Most stood with their attention fixed completely on the cloud that hovered ominously in place, but a few (the hokage among them) noticed now the presence of the ninja woman standing beside the Hokage. However, as much as she wanted to, Tsunade couldn't turn to ask what she was doing here and risk taking her eyes off the floating cloud of chakra. She was actually considering doing just that when the cloud suddenly became infinitely more, not an oppressive feeling, rather, it was as if it was just letting the people know it existed, albeit it a rather forceful and vehement manner.

Before anyone could be properly impressed or afraid of the power suddenly on display, there was an explosion and thoroughly underwhelming 'phut' sound while the chakra cloud vanished, leaving behind a short, blonde, orange-jumpsuit-clad genin in its place. Uzumaki Naruto stood there, looking proud and about as happy as he ever got, his fists placed on his hips in a cavalier manner while he beamed the broadest grin he possibly could. The previous Naruto, the one who had lived in the village before, had exuded an aura that inspired others when he was confident or determined. Naruto of now however radiated raw power in a way that made you just kind of want to bask in it for a while. For a long moment there was silence, stunned for the most part, awkward for Naruto, and proud for Tsunami.

As the moment stretched longer, and longer still Naruto's smile dropped away and he began looking about in a confused manner, he glanced to the jounin behind him and the ANBU on the rooftops on either side, and then finally his eyes looked to Tsunade herself, standing before him with an expression of uncomprehending shock.

Apparently fed up with the silence, Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and glared about him. "What?"

----------------

Tsunade stared straight ahead, the swirling mist of airborne chakra existed without any being apparently maintaining it, as if it were a free-floating chakra system that simply decided to exist. That couldn't possibly be, and it had just hauled itself out of a body that she was very sure had been dead to start with, again acting as if it hadn't needed the body at all and was possessing it.

As far as the Hokage knew, only ghosts went about possessing random bodies, but the typical concept was that the bodies had to be alive for the ghost to use them. This was closer to something manipulating a zombie, like some kind of parasite. Then again, what kind of parasite would exist as a mass of chakra without need of an actual body, seemingly able to replicate infinitely without fuel. Had the body's life force been fuel? Then everyone surrounding was at risk, she would have to be ready to defend everyone there, even though she had no idea what she could do to that.

A part of her tensed, the chakra was growing rapidly, it was going to attack and infect another host body! But wait, if that was the case, then why was it shrinking? Before Tsunade could come up with a jutsu that would even affect the cloud, there was an explosive sound, an underwhelming noise and a sight she hadn't seen in seven months.

Naruto? Was that why Tsunami was here? Was it really Naruto? Hadn't he said that he'd be gone for a long time? Why was he back so soon when Jiraiya had planned to take him for three years, how did he get so strong, what was he now that he could exist without a body? Why was he suddenly looking indignant?

"What?" he said in an almost accusing voice.

Tsunade growled and flicked him in the forehead. "Idiot! Don't ruin the moment!" She noticed her finger had actually stopped when it touched his head, with no momentum or force imparted to the blonde. That was disturbing, but the fact he didn't seem to notice was a bit more so. He reached behind his head and scratched absently, a fierce blush overtaking his features.

"Sorry," was all he answered with. Seeing that the simple apology wouldn't cut it, Tsunade was imploring him to continue (read: she was cracking her knuckles loudly, in spite of the fact her flick had done nothing, she was sure a punch would affect him). "Uhm… I lost Yondaime's seal?" There was a widening of eyes and a gasp before him. "It's no issue though, Kyuubi is long since dead. Kyuubi, the spirit sealed in me, and Naruto, the spirit of what I would have been without Kyuubi no Kitsune, are sorta merged, more or less… But they did things I didn't want them to, so obviously I'm not them, so I'm just Uzumaki Naruto, me." (Aidis:1)

Tsunade rolled this idea over in her head and was about to ask another question when the other ninja could apparently no longer contain herself. Tsunami launched forward at a very surprised Naruto, and glomped onto him. There was a loud cracking sound that Tsunade hoped was Naruto's ribs. "NarutosamaNarutosamaImsogladyourealiveIvebeenwaitingsolongforyouwitheveryoneelsefromwavewevebeenhopingyoudcomebacktousandnowyourbackand!" There was an overall, collectively confused blink from the ANBU, hokage, and jounin. Tsunade added a sweatdrop moments later and sent one of the ANBU squads to cancel the evacuation order, it made her pause to think that the village had to suffer two such orders within one year, and never had such a thing occurred before. Was Konohagakure no Sato already in its twilight?

"Ts-tsu na mi -chan… my… ribs…" the little blonde squeaked from beneath an aggressively devoted ninja woman. Tsunami gasped, bashing herself internally that she had hurt the precious Naruto-sama, and extricated herself from him, her face a bright pink normally reserved for Hinata and close encounters of the jinchuuriki kind. Naruto stood himself back up with a smile, purple chakra leaking around his midsection whilst his body righted itself. "Ah, better… Ascension is good for the body." (1)

Tsunade gave him an incredulous look, "ascension?" It seemed a pompous thing to say, ascension, one typically reserved that particular verb for deities and near-deities becoming such.

Apparently unconcerned by the question, Naruto scratched the back of his head for a minute and couldn't seem to look at Tsunami without blushing, cute in an impossibly frustrating sort of way. He looked back to the hokage and absently scratched the back of his head. "Ah… Why don't we um… talk about this in your office. Nice to be back and all but it'll be raining soon." He pointed up at the clear sky as it started to cloud over, the dark-ish condensation rolling in faster than it really should have.

Whether Tsunade was impressed by his display or not she wouldn't show, she simply turned and began hopping away across rooftops towards her office. Naruto, on the other hand, remembered something he learned when he was more human, and flashed Tsunami a grin that made her chest flutter. Then he exploded from the spot he stood upon with a flash of golden chakra.

Tsunami stared after him for as long as it took to process what he had done. In the nanoseconds her accelerated mind took to realize it, she bolted from where she stood, her chakra-saturated blur chasing after his own towards the Hokage tower. Though it took the pair less than a minute to reach the Hokage tower, it allowed Tsunami a moment to reflect on some of the changes that had overtaken Naruto, and herself.

First of all she'd recognized him as being him because of his chakra, somehow she just knew it was him, she wasn't adept at identifying chakra signatures or any such thing, but there was the not-quite-demonic taint to his presence. Then there was the issue of his having allowed both his souls full presence to exist simultaneously. Humans and demons only have one soul, but he had two, what did that make him? He'd been human for fifteen years, was he now something else? Perhaps that was what he wanted to discuss upon reaching the hokage tower. The pair gracefully stopped just before the oaken doors to the tallest tower in Konoha, there weren't any guards here so they walked into the building, utterly unopposed.

---------------------

When they reached Tsunade's office she did two things, one was to punch Naruto in the face and send him into a wall in the process, and the second was to hug him, almost crying while Naruto kind of stiffened uncomfortably. Tsunami was almost jealous when she saw the type of affection this hug represented, then she smiled at the pair, missing Naruto's apparent unease. The blonde pushed down the merely human feeling in the back of Naruto's mind and hugged Tsunade back, an awkward smile slowly forcing its way over his features.

Naruto wasn't human anymore, but he remembered his humanity, it compelled him every now and again in fickle, human situations. Like right now. He murmured quietly to his adoptive… Tsunade "I'm back, Baa-chan."

She choked back a laugh, only partially successful while her tears streamed down her face. Since Dan, she hadn't been an emotional woman, but Naruto was her adoptive… something, and he was such a sap too! Reining herself in she muttered back to him "Welcome back," and hugged him again.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, one composing herself and allowing the rare moment of happiness, the other sorting himself out about this place and his condition with his leader and variable role female figure. When Tsunade had composed herself, she parted from him, and walked back towards her desk, she settled into her chair and motioned towards the other two chairs. This was obviously not an invitation, and the other two in the room quickly sat in the offered chairs, which were not quite as plush and luxuriant as the hokage's- though by no means uncomfortable.

Naruto took note that there were no papers on her desk anymore and rose an eyebrow inquisitively. He looked back to the woman and was about to ask when her gaze locked on him and he kept his mouth shut. Tsunade nodded at him and spoke. "Thank you for returning so quickly, I take it you were able to achieve what you set out to do?" He nodded, and she continued. "Good. Since your departure, things have changed in Konoha, I think you'll like how it is here now, but I'll tell you about it later. Now you will tell me everything that happened after your departure from Tsunami-san's house. And you will not leave anything out."

Naruto nodded, feeling distantly menaced, and began the story. "Well… Naruto was kind of in a haze when he left Tsunami's house. He was-"

"You don't have to speak in third person, you're not writing a story." Tsunade interrupted him.

Naruto eyed her strangely before answering. "I'm not speaking in third person, I'm not that Naruto, that was Naruto my human soul." Tsunade twitched slightly but relented and let him continue. "Anyway, by that time my… Naruto's…" he faltered, debating internally, then he figured it out. "By that time Uzumaki Naruto's body had already been so saturated by demonic chakra that its chakra pathways would only accept it, given that the inner coils had already been tainted, it wasn't hard to do, the body was essentially demonic. However, Naruto was still human in soul, he hadn't discarded his humanity yet, so Kyuubi, who was no longer a demon, created an illusion for him.

"For the entire day, Naruto was forced to witness every positive and negative event in his life, emotions amplified infinitely so that they burned out. Of course they didn't, and eventually the memories blended together and pushed him past where he'd been, where any human was really meant to go. He broke and shattered at that moment, Kyuubi was panicking, and the death god came and destroyed the seal, it no longer applied to Uzumaki Naruto because he was no longer the creature initially used in the sealing. Kyuubi and Naruto split apart, and I was vaguely defined at that point.

"You look confused, alright I'll explain it again then. Kyuubi and Naruto are only souls, however they also both have a nature in mere concept, platonic ideal, as such they couldn't not exist, so they were essentially unlimited energy. That and since they weren't human or demon, they defied classification, not being classified, rules stopped working with them. Again you look confused. The world runs on basic, fundamental rules. The rules are impossible to break but if there aren't any rules to you, then there's no limit to what a being can do. If that's not being ascended I don't have a concept for what is.

"Anyway, Kyuubi and Naruto, despite being unlimited, were incomplete when they were separate, and they were separate because they were sharing only one mind at the time, they needed to separate their personas so they could be one body again and I could exist." He paused, thinking again, a distant whispering in his mind coming from the bickering essences that he had been. "They made bodies to further the sense that they were different from one another, I don't mean like shadow clones, I mean they actually compressed and twisted chakra around until they became human bodies, and then they possessed them.

"From where they were in the forest, they walked, trying to talk to each other instead of for each other, and that was a chore believe me. They got to a village, hidden star…" He paused slightly, but pressed on. "Met with the village's leader, and were sent on their way, he wouldn't let them stay there I guess. They were in the woods for months again, just walking, and then they found another village, ruled by Beings, the village of the hidden cosmos. Cosmos is a strange village and some of the things are scary, mentally scarring. Like a Maito Gai clone dipped in neon tie-die and with an afro instead of a bowl cut." He let his audience shiver as they visualized the man, and then pressed on.

"Kyuubi and Naruto met with their leader, the Prince, who came from the same realm Kyuubi no Kitsune did. For the record, Kyuubi calls it the Platonic dimension, based on an old philosophy… Anyway, the Prince told them that he, and many other Platonic dimension Beings knew that they were alive, and rewriting rules, they wanted to see what would happen by our work. Some didn't want to see what would happen, so he told them that they should hurry up. Then he sent them away, destroying the bodies they had made in the process.

"Looking back on it now, it took them a month to figure out something that would be so terrible that it would split their mind in twain. Finally they found something, and they left… to…" He looked over at the other woman in the room. "Tsunami-chan, could you tell her? It's hard to say…" Tsunami blinked at him but slowly nodded and put a calming hand on his shoulder.

"Of course Naruto-kun… Tsunade-sama, with your leave?" the blonde kage nodded, dumbfounded by the entire story so far. "Thank you. Naruto and Kyuubi went to the village of hidden stars, and destroyed it, devoured the souls of every living thing within the village or beyond it. They burned out their chakra coils and erased their minds, nothing was left alive, but nothing was destroyed."

On her feet instantly, Tsunade faced the wave-woman. "What! How can you know any of this? You were here!" Tsunami nodded to her.

"I was, but I kept having visions until we felt resonance with Naruto-sama's chakra. He is wave's spirit, and when he disappeared we felt it, that brought Naruto back, and we felt that too. Am I right, Naruto-sama?"

Naruto gave a barely perceptible nod. "Yeah… Kyuubi and Naruto did it, I didn't want to, I wouldn't do that kind of thing. There was no reason for it, if the people of hoshigakure did something –malign or not doesn't matter- then maybe I'd understand but they knew that there wasn't any reason for them to do it. But I'm here now, and they won't get to do something like it again." He declared the last with a firm resolve in his voice.

There was a long silence in the room, as Tsunade thought about what she had heard, and Tsunami tried to comfort Naruto through her presence. For his part, Naruto let his sclera (2) flash to one red and one blue, shine brightly and then fade away to human white. He looked back up to Tsunami appreciatively and she smiled back at him.

Apparently reaching a decision, Tsunade gave a slight nod. "Well then… Naruto… why don't you go rest for a bit-

"I don't need rest anymore Baa-chan, I'm limitless, remember?"

Tsunade twitched uneasily and glowered at him once more. "Then go talk around the village for a while… I'm sure Sakura would be happy to see you." The sour looks on both of their faces didn't go unnoticed by the Hokage, but she pressed on. "Some of your other friends have missed you too. Stay here until the villagers are all returned, and then you can head out to meet with them… I'll go and help out with the explanations." She got up and walked away, looking for an excuse to leave the two together.

------------

Naruto looked over Tsunami when he was sure Tsunade was gone and gave her a smile. "Ishougakure no Sato? Fairly clever Tsunami-chan. But you know you can't be allowed to have a ninja village in the way other countries do." She looked at him strangely and he gave her a fox-grin.

"How did you…?" she began.

Naruto shrugged dismissively. "Just did. My supposition is that your entire ninja crew are drawing off of demonic chakra, it makes you all an open book to me… Well that's what I think at least. Or maybe I just had my own vision, eh?" She had the decency to blush at that.

"Well… at least its you." She smiled a bit as she said that, drawing a blank stare from Naruto. "If someone can read my innermost thoughts without any apparent effort, I'd rather it be someone who… well…"

Naruto smiled slightly. "Someone who you want to share your innermost thoughts with anyway?"

She smacked him upside the head. "Not what I was gonna say! I was about to say someone who won't use it with meanness in mind." He smiled at her and leaned back in his chair, letting his eyes close. "Tired?"

He shook his head, then shrugged. "Who knows, I really don't know how any of this situation works anyway, and I don't know if my friends' opinion matters to me anyway… I rather gave up on humans when I gave up humanity." She gave a small, sad nod, thinking she had no chance with him now. "'Course, the people of wave aren't human. The nin at least. I feel a kind of draw towards them, like that's where I belong, ever feel something like that, Tsunami-chan?" She blushed a bit, and nodded.

"Why can't we be a village like normal ninja?" She asked quietly.

Glancing back at her, he lifted his own head for just a moment, as if to make sure he understood her. Then he shook his head and sank back. "You'll figure it out in due time Tsunami-chan. I'm sure of it." That wasn't the answer she wanted, and being Tsunami, she always had a fallback option when things didn't go her way. This particular scene prompted backup plan three-delta-one.

Tsunami pouted and huffily leaned back against her chair, decidedly not talking to Naruto.

----------------

End Chapter Thirteen: Guilt, and the Subjective Evil

1: Keep reading, the whole ascension thing is explained. I can't fathom fiction readers being offended by the word's use, but if it does then understand I didn't mean it in any religious sense.

2: Sclera is the white of the eye. I just feel like using more correct terminology. Apologies to people who already know this.

Aidis 1: Hehehe…. Confusing much? XD

Author Note: So the Furious One is really sorry to everyone who reads this story. Islagatt promises to write more for this story. Many stories have writers who have put in more time and effort, written better and gotten fewer reviews. So I'm not gonna bitch about reviews anymore, and I'm not gonna make demands, I'm just gonna write the best stuff I can, and hope that you all like it enough to review, Yeah. So… Abaiyo, minna-san.

Aidis: Islagatt's not bitchen about reviews any more but his beta damn sure is! REVIEW YOU BASTARDS! IF YOU READ THIS CHAPTER THAN YOU HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO FREAKIN REVIEW! If you don't... well I suggest not falling asleep for as long a period a you can manage. You never know if you'll wake up again.

Islagatt: blink wow… defensive isn't he?