So, this one took a little bit, and maybe took a little bit out of me, but it's written. Many thanks for putting up with me, and my erratic update schedule.

Review response:

1. Noahendless: Yes, they're the only group. In WTSIG, it's noted that the gods (Antal Dara specifically) enjoy fucking with Naruto every time they ruin his latest incarnation's life; this culminates in the idea that the world where WTSIG takes place is actually the second world, as the first one is doomed and desolate. Because I take the "Flashpoint" view of how spacetime works, World 1 is incapable of being saved, because it would change the events of WTSIG and possibly negate them. This rule doesn't apply to any of the other worlds in the multiverse, which is why WTSIG Naruto & co. can wage their war against every god in every world with relative impunity after the events at the end of WTSIG. All the gods being dead in every world means that there's no reason for the other multiverse Narutos & co. to travel across spacetime with the World Tree, and no way for them to meaningfully contribute if they did. "Yuurei" is an exception to this rule, I think, but I haven't decided if he'll meet the Juubi in the flesh rather than only meeting the clone. But things worse than the gods of men lurk in the corners where angels fear to tread...

2. TigrezzTail: Yes, another one so soon, but mostly as a deus ex machina to avoid letting Naruto and Yugito get eaten by Terramorphous the Invincible. I don't know if I'll include more of the remnants from WTSIG's cast—namely because I'm not sure who else might make sense in what location—but I also don't intend for them to be relevant for several years.

IN THE FIC. SEVERAL YEARS IN THE FIC, NOT IN REAL LIFE. I DO NOT INTEND TO GO ON ANOTHER STRETCH OF ONE CHAPTER A YEAR FOR TWO YEARS.

3. CygnusFang: Good to see you again! While I wouldn't call this a spinoff of WTSIG, it's definitely in that multiverse, and (as I said above) I'm not really sure I'm going to add any more of that fic's cast; it would get way too confusing to denote between "WTSIG character" and "Oathkeeper character" when they look the same and share a name. As for power ups getting handed out to Yuurei like so much Halloween candy left on a porch with a note that asks you to abide by an honor system...well, could you imagine the scale of the enemies he'd be facing after taking in that strength? I'm going to let the fic itself answer the rest of your review, since the name of the game is to show instead of tell, but trust me on this one: it's good to be back, even if I'm going off the rails in slow motion.

Let's get this trainwreck moving.


"Do you think they're staring because of how good my muscles look?" Yuurei asked, well aware of the eyes upon him.

"They're staring because you're shirtless, you've got a foreign hitai-ate, and you talked the Ichibi down from a killing spree." Yugito answered, long ago having accepted that she was to be the straight man in their interpersonal comedy routine.. "Also, they're preparing for an invasion, and they don't know if you're friendly or not."

The storm cloud they'd passed through had split their sand bullet in half, allowing both ninja to free themselves, and the rain had washed off two weeks of sand and dust. A day later, heading back east, they had arrived at the least-used gate in Sunagakure's history. Though the pair of guards had been a little reticent to let in a pair of foreign ninja, especially one who didn't have any identifying papers with him, they'd eventually made their way into the city. They had to admit that Yuurei was being honest; all he had on him was a pair of pants, a headband that doubled as an eye patch, and a sandal on each foot.

"What are we going to do about food, or a place to stay?" Yugito asked. The look Yuurei gave her only managed to confuse her. She really, really hated how his inability to lie led to ridiculous points of conversation.

"Do you want to do it the legitimate way, the illegal way, or the easy way?" He said with a sly grin, and she raised her left hand to cover her eyes as she looked away from him. She was starting to wonder what was worse: Yuurei's way of speaking, or her cousin Kirabi's.

"The easy way." Yugito said through a lightly-clenched jaw.

"You say that like we didn't just survive a series of life-or-death events." Yuurei complained.

"You're the one who got us into that mess. Not me. Remember? None of this is my fault. I will remain blameless for all of this." Yugito bit back.

"ALright, point taken." Yuurei said before pointing to a multi-storied white-clay-brick home in the distance. "We're heading to that big house with a gate in front of it."

"That's...the Kazekage's mansion." Yugito said.

"I'm aware." Yuurei responded.

"You killed the Kazekage." Yugito continued.

"I'm aware." Yuurei repeated himself.

"Why are we going to his mansion?" Yugito asked.

"That's where we'll be staying." Yuurei answered confidently.

"I..." The Nibi Jichuriki faltered. "I literally do not have the words to describe how stupid this is. What makes you think this will work?"

"Who lives in the Kazekage's mansion?" Yuurei asked.

"His family." Yugito answered, putting the pieces together.

"And Shukaku's host is his youngest son." Yuurei grinned. "Worst case scenario, I steal the supplies we need from around the city, and we camp out until it's time to start killing people again. But if Shukaku's change in attitude extended to his Jinchuriki, we may be in luck."

Having said so, he walked a little faster, intent on reaching the clay-brick house sooner rather than later. After a few minutes of walking through busy city streets, and Yuurei inwardly mocking the three urchins who attempted to pick his empty pockets, they arrived at the gate.

"No guards stopping us, the gate is wide open. They've probably been told we're coming, but I'm still going to knock." Yuurei said. The backs of his knuckles came down on the mansion's ironwood front door, four short tones ringing in the air. After a few moments of waiting, it swung inside as it was opened, and a black-clad teenager looked at the two blondes in mild confusion.

"Hello?" He asked, very aware that the hitai-ate on their heads weren't from Sunagakure. Yugito raised an eyebrow as she looked smugly at Yuurei, who sighed in an admission of defeat.

"A couple weeks ago, I made a deal with Shukaku to stop him from going on a killing spree. I'm here to wait until I can honor that agreement." Yuurei said.

"And I'm stuck with him." Yugito added.

"Well, uh, come in, I guess. I'll go get my sister." The black-clad boy led them to a living room and watched them sit down, clearly eager to put distance between himself and the pair of foreigners who'd shown up at his door unannounced. After a few minutes, A blonde woman around Yuurei's age entered the room. From her expression, she wasn't displeased to see Yuurei and Yugito, but she couldn't be called happy.

"And what does my father's killer want from me?" Temari asked. "I'm not horribly upset about that, by the way. He wasn't a good man, and he shouldn't have inherited his title. But he was my father."

"Surely you're aware that Iwa, Kumo, and even Kiri will be coming to retaliate against you after the strings your father pulled to convince them to attack Konoha." Yuurei spoke bluntly, not caring how painful the truth was, or that the sins of the father had passed to the children. "I'm here to make sure that as many of them die outside your walls as possible. I made a bargain with Shukaku, and I intend to fulfill my half of the promise."

"How long do you think we have?" Temari asked.

"Six weeks, give or take a few days. In Konoha, some of the powers that be are aware that I'm here, so they won't be sending anybody after you." The clone Yuurei had made before heading into the desert had a few purposes, but the main one had been letting his former companions know that he was alive. "After that, my intention is to leave, and wander my way across the Elemental Nations. And...for what it's worth, my apologies about your father. He was tricked and betrayed."

"No, I know. And you don't have to be too apologetic. He was a terrible father." Temari grinned wryly. "If not for the fact that all our aunts and uncles died, he wouldn't have inherited the position of Kazekage. Losing our mother brought him to the brink, and he never recovered. I don't remember him being warm or caring."

Nothing had ever been good enough. Not for Temari, whose inner Futon nature was the rawest talent of her generation. Not for Kankuro, whose skills in puppetry were prodigious enough that some whispered he might rival the Akasuna one day. And especially not for Gaara, brought into the world through no less than the dying grace of his mother's love, forever demonized in Rasa's mind as the one who killed his wife—never mind that he was the one who sealed the Ichibi into Gaara while he was still in the womb.

"At any rate, I'm going to have to ask you for a place to stay. Preferably here, if the seal on your youngest brother is as poorly-done as rumors made it out to be." Yuurei sad after digesting the information Temari had offered. With his superhuman hearing, it hadn't been hard to pick up whispers in the streets of how Gaara had 'lost control' during the battle in Konoha.

"To kill him in case he goes on a rampage?" Temari asked, her eyes narrowed.

"Bad Fuinjutsu irks me. It's a hereditary trait." Yuurei responded.

"You're aware of the danger involving a Jinchuriki's seal, yes?" Temari asked. Though most Fuinjutsu practitioners would never need to think about such a circumstance, as tampering with seals designed for Biju was an effective way to get themselves killed, there were rare occasions where it proved necessary.

"I have something that Shukaku wants desperately." Yuurei replied with a grin, and Yugito couldn't help picturing the mass of black youki that he'd revealed in the forests outside of Konoha. "I already offered it to him as part of my deal, but giving it to him now might even make him willing to help me with the sealing."

Temari's eyes widened, shocked that the young man in front of her would be able to offer something that made the bloodthirsty Ichibi willing to cage itself more strictly. Yugito closed an eye as she watched her companion's expression, noting his seriousness.

Is that a deal you'd make, too? She asked.

In a heartbeat. What he offered is powerful beyond anyone's ability to measure, because there's no way to tell what benefits might be gained from it. In fact, you could almost say the opportunities are limitless. Matatabi replied. My father's list of abilities was innumerable, and comprehending one of them through the use of that youki would offer an incredible boost to anyone's arsenal...even mine. And even if absorbing it would only boost my general combat strength, it's not a far stretch to say I'd become the most powerful of the Biju—maybe even stronger than Kurama was.

Is that little bit of youki so strong? It didn't seem like much. Yuurei produced more than that to make his battle cloak.

Yuurei isn't even a full demon yet, and my father was one of the kings of Makai. His youki was more dense, more pure, and more powerful than almost anything I've come across. Using the amount Yuurei showed that day, he could have slaughtered the sandworm earlier without thinking.

Demons really just aren't fair. Yugito mused.

"Well, alright then." Temari finally responded. "Frankly, you'd be selling me two favors with what you're doing, so I'm not inclined to turn you down."

"I don't sell favors. I offer contracts." Yuurei grinned.

"Yes. Well. I may take you up on that at some point. Either way, I'm grateful. Both for the fact that you're willing to stand by us now, and that your interference with the Ichibi is what allowed Kankuro and I to leave Konoha alive." Temari bowed her head in gratitude, "So just pick one or two of the guest rooms, and they'll be yours until you leave."

"You don't need to lower your head to me." Yuurei stood to his full height, half a head above Temari, and the shorter woman's head rose as her eyes tracked his movement. "Only someone who's my person should show that kind of deference."

"Your person?" Yugito interjected accusingly, red eyes offering a pointed look to the man who'd put an enslavement seal on her.

"Someone who follows me because they choose to, who recognizes me as their leader, and who has an unshakable faith in the bond between us." Naruto clarified. "When I was a child, I rescued a girl out of a burning building, and she choose to become my subordinate rather than die in the streets. I conquered the street rat gangs in Konoha's slums, and I made them my people, because my fist was biggest and my brain thought hardest. My people belong to me because they accept the idea that they owe me something they can't repay, and I owe them loyalty for standing by my side."

If any of the urchins he'd presided over in his tenure as the Banchou had left, it wouldn't have mattered much to Yuurei; even if Ayame had gone, he would have moved past it. But because they stayed with him, he treated them like family. It wasn't quite the master-and-servant relationship that his spoken words unintentionally alluded to, but he wasn't incorrect to phrase things that way.

Yugito's slight nod of understanding came with a removal of hostility from her face. Looking between her fellow blondes, Temari couldn't help but wonder why a kunoichi from Kumogakure would be traveling with a man whose hitai-ate bore a crest she didn't recognize. The confusion on her face was evident to Yugito and Yuurei, who shared a look that seemed to mask an argument of who would do the explaining. Yugito won.

"She was part of the attack force that Kumo sent to attack Konoha. I offered her a chance to leave, she refused, and I placed a seal on her that forces her to follow after me."

"An enslavement seal?" Temari covered her mouth in shock and horror. "You put an enslavement seal on the Raikage's niece?"

"It is not an enslavement seal. That would have required a lot less effort. You just slap the sign for 'slave' into the matrix and you place it on someone. It's banal, it's cruel, and it has a host of limitations and loopholes that I'm pretty sure Yugito could work with. But that's not the point." Yuurei's attempt to defend himself didn't go over very well with either of the women in the room.

"No, that's kind of the entire point." Yugito said.

"You made...an improved slave seal. Mid-battle. What the fuck?" Temari asked.

"I would appreciate not being demonized for sparing your life." Yuurei said.

"Okay, first of all, there was any number of things you could have done, like leaving my body the fuck alone? Second, you've never even attempted to look at your seal to see if you could do something with it? Third, you went out of your way to trap me before you started making the seal, so you literally set out with the intention of...ugh. No, I'm not going to finish that train of thought." Yugito stood to walk away, but before she could turn away from the room's other occupants, her body fell victim to Yuurei's command.

"You can only breathe." He said, and for a moment, even her psychic link with Matatabi was severed. Despite her struggles, she couldn't move a muscle, and couldn't make a noise with her breathing beyond the quiet noise of her breaths themselves.

"An apology has been a long time coming, but you deserve one." Yuurei continued. "I didn't know who you were related to when I fought you outside of Konoha. I just knew you were a Jinchuriki. I didn't want to kill you and release your Biju on the village. Putting a seal on you was the first idea I came up with to keep you from fighting me, so I went with it. It's because I feel remorse over putting it on you that I haven't brought it up, attempted to modify it, or used its effects on you until this moment. Now that we're going to be staying in one place for a while, I'm willing to sit down and look at modifying the seal to prepare it for removal. I'm sorry about what you've been through because of me. You have autonomy."

"You're modifying it after I get something to eat." Yugito's voice was full of venom, but the softer expression on her face let Yuurei know that his words had reached her. She was one of the few who knew that it was impossible for him to lie; that was probably the only saving grace he had. Without another word, Yugito walked away, and Temari gave Yuurei an ominous look as she followed after the older woman.


The Otoyon looked between each other somewhat nervously as they waited for Orochimaru to speak. This was the first time he'd summoned them since the invasion of Konoha and the subsequent death of the Sandaime Hokage. From his bloodshot eyes and hollowing cheeks, it was clear that the Byahebi's condition was worsening, but his body remained sharp. He sat in the back of the room, with his throne at the far wall's midpoint, and his hands were bridged in front of his face.

"Two months ago, I marked a girl in Konoha with the Infuin no Ten." Orochimaru spoke at last, his elbows failing to depress the armrests of the Basilisk Throne he sat on. "I've received word that she'll be leaving her village to join us here. I want you to bring her to me personally, and in a timely manner. No mistakes, and no excuses. You have an hour to prepare."

"On my honor, my lord, we won't fail you." Jirobo said.

"See that you don't. She's a close acquaintance of the demon you call Yuurei, and I'm sure none of you want to imagine what he might do to you if something were to happen to her." Orochimaru replied, his interlaced fingers shifting between one another until his left hand cupped his right fist.

The Sound Four walked out of the room to that thinly-veiled threat, remembering all three of the times they'd experienced the nine-tailed demon's overwhelming power. As a fresh Academy graduate, he'd broken through their offensive, and they'd witnessed the horrific death that Mizuki experienced. Then, in Nami no Kuni, he'd traded blows with a member of the Seven Swordsmen before his attacks sank the entire island. And in Konoha, not only did he rob them of their own barrier technique, but he'd killed the Yondaime Kazekake with relative ease before fighting the Ichibi into submission—what other reason could there be for the outpouring of Shukaku's screams for his father and the fluctuations of its youki?

The non-aggression pact they'd inadvertently made with him had gone from a mild inconvenience, half a year ago, to the most important layer of defense they could possess. And yet, with the knowledge that their target was one of his friends, their feet could only move in fear as they made their preparations to leave Otogakure.