Death. Taxes. My incomprehensible update schedule. Only these three things, my friends, are guaranteed to never change. I hope this chapter finds you all well. I meant to publish it last night, but my internet decided to give out on me and erase the last 500 words or so that I'd added in before attempting to save.

...yes, I use FFN's doc editor instead of some other word processor. I promise, this is one of the least deranged facts about my life.

Let's get this trainwreck moving.


On the fourth night after their arrival in Konoha, Yugito and Tayuya stood with Yuurei in the middle of the street. Their location, on the northeast side of Konoha, was halfway between the village's stone monument and its central tower. Not far away from them were Shikamaru and Sai; the Nara heir and his deeply-estranged cousin coordinated to keep people unaware of the events about to transpire. The road beneath Yuurei's feet featured interlinked black stones—among the village's citizenry, this site was well-known as the place where the Yondaime Hokage and his wife had drawn their final breaths.

What they didn't know was that these black stones were a far-reaching seal, and that their color came from the dried blood Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina had shed to chain a demon. During his battle against the Shinigami in the Blessed Lands, Yuurei had seen a vision of their final moments—his predecessor's venomous oaths, his mother's swift death, his father's horrified expression as he looked into a stillborn baby's eyes and witnessed demonic life. Looking down to the seal beneath him, Yuurei had the presence of mind to wonder how his parents might feel if they could see him undo their final legacy. After that moment of quiet sentimentality was over with, the blond demon reached down and slammed his palm in the center of the sealing array.

In an instant, as Shikamaru and Sai struggled to shield it from view, an oppressive and intimidating red light began to shine out from the ground, and Yuurei felt his heart clench in his chest as a nameless dread overran his mind. Feeling his thoughts go numb, the blond wasted no time in letting his own power loose; in sync with his surging strength, the seals on Tayuya's clavicle and Yugito's neck began to shine. Black wings emerged from Tayuya's back, while Yugito felt a tingling sensation that ran from her neck through her body. Unlike a Jinchuriki taking power from the demon sealed inside of them, she felt like it was her own power that had been directly increased.

Sighing, and filled with the knowledge that he would have to invent some kind of explanation for the Hokage upon his return, Sai felt a suppressive force wash over his body as Yuurei's nine tails gently floated behind him. Though it didn't weigh him down nearly as much as Shikamaru, due to proximity and familiarity, this was the first time that his former teammate had refused to restrain his power from affecting any allies. The two women following behind Yuurei seemed wholly unaffected, but Sai knew that appearance was a deception; even if they were immune to Yuurei's suppression, there was no way they could ignore the aura hemorrhaging out of the Shiki Fuin on Konoha's street. The air itself had a caustic bite to it, and the shining stars twinkled mockingly.

Who would dare release the maelstrom's eldest and strongest child? If the Great Darkness stood above the Juubi and the other kings of Makai who reigned above all demon-kind, then Uzumaki Kurama was in the third echelon of unholy power—and at least a full step above his siblings in strength. The treading of his feet caused earthquakes, and the twisting of his tails brought tsunamis; what fool would knowingly challenge him?

Ruddy miasma billowed out from the seal as great chains of gold rose up from the ground. Slowly, a humanoid man came into view—tightly bound by those golden chains, his messy red hair framed two blood red, bloodshot eyes. Looking at him, Sai was taken aback. He recognized those eyes. He'd looked at them for nearly a decade, before Yuurei had traded one for a Sharingan. If he were to imagine that the chained man had blond hair instead...he might not be able to tell the difference between them.

"Sai? Shikamaru? Evacuate the people you can," Yuurei said. Not bothering to acknowledge the verbal command, the two young men vanished into the night. Only after activating the Shiki Fuin had the demon realized he made a mistake that he couldn't back out of. Though he'd never used this seal, his knowledge of Fuinjutsu was broader than most humans, and he'd seen a vision of the Shiki Fuin in use—at no point had this caustic, blood-scented fog been present. Something was clearly wrong.

"You realized it's not too late? Good for you. Now, undo these chains! Set me free!" Kurama demanded, shaking futilely. Yuurei didn't answer, stalking forward as he summoned a sandworm tooth. "The Blood Queen and her progeny don't need to gain a new foothold in this world, now or ever!"

Blood sprayed out as the younger Kyuubi split his own throat open, gathering chakra to manipulate the liquid as he began to draw symbols in the air. After the grim wound healed itself, Yuurei coughed once to expel the blood that had dripped backwards into his throat. Utterly focused on his task, Yuurei lost his sense of urgency and danger. And, with every movement that his hands continued to make, the bound demon in front of him grew more alarmed.

"Why are you making those seals in blood?" He asked, frantic and incapable of resolving his current crisis. "What can I not offer you to buy my freedom? We are of the same race! On the same side! The passive protection of my strength, and my siblings' strength, it what has safeguarded your world for thousands of years!"

Yuurei's right cheek twitched, though he didn't allow it to interrupt the flow of his Fuinjutsu. The sharp look in his eyes turned from focus to irritation, and he brought the razored edge of his sandworm tooth to split open his right wrist. With the extra blood he'd provided for himself, Yuurei began to modify his original sealing parameters. All the while, a potent demonic power continued to seep into the air—only when Kurama was re-sealed, or dead, would that process stop. The light from the black stones underfoot highlighted the darkness of the blood Yuurei was using in his sealing technique, giving him a sinister and occult appearance. Drop by vital drop, the seal was set in place, and soon a pair of concentric rings had formed to contain the two nine-tailed demons. A mass of sigils hung in the air between them—far too many for Yugito or Tayuya to count, read, or recognize—and yet more laid horizontally in the outer circle.

Yuurei had remained silent throughout this process, and had ignored the remainder of Kurama's increasingly panicked questions and offerings. As he held up a half-Ram hand seal and activated his Fuinjutsu array, the blond demon broke his silence.

"You can't offer me my parents back, you bastard," he said, leveling a pointed glare in Kurama's direction.

As the seal began to make its effects known, Kurama howled in misery. The once-mighty Kyuubi no Kitsune, trapped in his human form, had no recourse but to sit through whatever torture this blond brat was going to put him through. As he continued to protest, though, he felt his strength begin to fade; it was the first time he'd felt something like this since the night he was sealed into the ground, when he'd lost a sizeable amount of his power in a bid to escape the Shiki Fuin. Horrified, he looked at the young demon in front of him, putting two and two together.

His youki had infested a stillborn infant, one that had taken on the guise of a human while slowly working to corrupt its physiology. Now, that reanimated corpse had grown up, and was on the cusp of breaking through the final barriers to that realm. It had come here, intent on reconciling with its originator to fully transition into a demon. He was being cannibalized.

Roaring in anguish, Kurama's tails made pitiful attempts at twisting a tornado into existence. While they still maintained the strength to gather up a gust of wind, that effort did nothing but spread his fog of youki further into Konoha.

"Why?" Kurama shouted, his tone pleading. He didn't need to finish his question. Involuntarily, he transformed into a man-sized fox, gnashing his teeth in anger and frustration. This loss of control, and the burgeoning power that had begun to fill his meridians, was enough to prove to Yuurei that his seal had been formed correctly. "Why are you doing this? Even if you don't know better, you should be aware that your actions are unnecessary! Are you truly that desperate to see this city become a wasteland? Release me, and I can prevent the corruption from spreading further!"

After several minutes had passed, throughout which Yuurei never lost eye contact with his predecessor, the blond demon felt his body become sluggish. A deep pain stretched over his tall frame, with his keirakukei as the origin of the agony; still, he persevered. On his left wrist was a circular tattoo that held the symbol of death inside of it, and as he pressed his right index and middle fingers into it, an unfamiliar weapon found its way into his hand.

The Shinigami's tanto. An inescapable doom.

Though Kurama now lacked the physical strength to protest as he had before, the fear in his eyes was unmistakable. Among demons, who could live through millennia without feeling the ravages of time, who wouldn't covet life while fearing death? Even with no way to avoid the coming death blow, who wouldn't continue to struggle in the hope that a miracle might occur? To resign oneself to fate was cowardice.

"Please...even if you won't free me for my own sake, will you not do it for the people who live here? This is the place you were born and grew up, isn't it? These people are innocent. They don't deserve to bear the consequences of your actions. Are you truly willing to consign this world to a nightmare without end? Please..."

If Kurama had been able to release himself from his fear and his struggle, then his final thoughts might have been of his siblings, his parents, and the life they'd shared with all his father's other wives. Even if it wasn't a peaceful life to grow up in, it had been a fruitful one, and he wouldn't have traded it for anything in any world. As it happened, however, he had no such ideas of reminiscence. Instead, just before the reaper's blade cut through his flesh, he had the presence of mind to realize that he'd freed his left foreleg from his last Jinchuriki's golden chains.

A great thunderclap resounded overhead, in the darkness of night, as the Kyuubi no Kitsune's disembodied head smacked the stone road beneath his corpse's feet. Sealing the Shinigami's knife back into his wrist, the Kyuubi no Yuurei felt his knees buckle out from under him as the world went black. In spite of the danger, he felt no fear—Tayuya and Yugito knew where they were going. His tails shifted unconsciously, remaining in sight rather than receding as they normally did.

One of the women had Yuurei in her hands before he hit the ground, turning on a dime as she began to head straight east. Her companion followed, well aware of the plan; more than anything else, they were anxious to get away from the thick miasma that had now blocked out the night sky. Neither of them knew what had caused it, and they had a feeling that Yuurei didn't either—or else, why tell the people who'd come to help him that they needed to retreat? By all accounts, it similarly didn't make sense that the now-dead Kyuubi had been sealed in a humanoid form.

The things they didn't know made them worried...but if they knew, they might have worried more.


Hot wind and the burning sun shook Yuurei from his comatose state, and even without opening his eyes, he knew where he'd been brought to. Whether it was the shift in his heartbeat, a deeper intake of breath, or something else, the woman carrying him knew he'd come awake.

"Rise and shine," Yugito said, crouching just enough for her master's feet to feel the shifting desert sands underneath them. Without ceremony, Yuurei forced his stiff muscles to move, tucking into a roll as he fell off of Yugito's back. Sand sprayed to either side of Yuurei as he twisted, and it rattled off of him in waves as he shook his body about.

"How long was I down for?" He asked, unable to tell their distance from Konoha by the geography.

"Six and a half days," Tayuya answered, casting an aggravated look in the demon's direction. "Why the hell are you so heavy? We could have been in Suna by now if we didn't have to carry your sorry carcass so far. And why the hell are your tails still out?"

"First, I'm not certain we'd want to beat the Hokage and any of Konoha's Genin teams to Suna in the first place. Second, I don't know," Yuurei replied. Noticing that his nine multicolored tails had become a permanent fixture—and Tayuya's wings had remained a part of her physique.

"Why not? I'd think it'll do us a lot more harm than good by arriving after them. If we go all out, we can still outpace Konoha's group and make it to the Kazekage's mansion before they even see the walls," Yugito said.

"It brings too much attention. Do you think the Hokage would miss, or ignore, a cluster of chakra signatures this intense? I'm confident, but I'd rather not push my luck," Yuurei said. "And, frankly, I feel like we'd cause much less of a spectacle if we arrived with another group."

"You feel like you would cause much less of a spectacle. I doubt anybody but Temari or her brother remembers jack shit about me or Yugito." Tayuya's accusatory tone didn't disappear.

"Do you know something we don't?" Yugito asked, her expression sharpening as Yuurei began moving in the direction that she and Tayuya had been facing.

"No, but my senses are much sharper than they were before we reached Konoha. Mei is close, and it seems like she's moving towards Suna," he explained.

"Kiri is competing in a set of Chunin exams? Already?" Tayuya was incredulous. "That doesn't make sense."

"It does if you're willing to assume she wanted to see us again," Yugito said, smirking.

"And go this far out of her way to do it? No fucking way," Tayuya replied.

"Either way, it would be less conspicuous to enter with a larger group. And, on top of that, they'd be entering from a different side of the city," Yuurei said, changing his direction and beginning to run away.

"Do you ever get the feeling that our lives consist of trying, and failing, to make him change his mind?" Yugito asked.

"Oh, baby, I've been there for months," Tayuya said. Together, the two of them began to chase after Yuurei, who'd gained a sizable lead on them.

Flapping her radiant black wings, the redheaded pseudo-demon made sand scatter as she began to fly. Only a handful of her own body lengths above the ground to avoid attention, she saw a black and purple bullet explode out from the cloud she'd raised; on all fours, Yugito had begun to tear across the desert with abandon. Not to be outdone, Tayuya allowed a warm tailwind to carry her forward. Releasing chakra to hasten her speed, it wasn't long before she'd overtaken her taller companion in their race to reach Yuurei. Climbing higher, a golden light began to shine from her collarbone, and her wings folded back as she entered into a sharp dive.

Whether it was speed, strength, chakra capacity and control, or any other trait they could measure themselves by, the seals Yuurei had given them were showing a new level of effectiveness. Yugito's arms pressed pillars of chakra deep into the dunes she ran over, and the only indication that her limbs touched the ground were the short grooves that her hands and feet left behind. Those tracks quickly collapsed on themselves as a strong gust of wind washed over them; Yugito shuddered instinctively as the dunes let out a deep and distant rumble. She remembered what that signified—but how big was the sandworm in question, if she could feel those tremors from the other side of Sunagakure?

Or, perhaps: how close was it to the surface, that she could feel it tunneling underneath her?

It was times like this that made Yugito miss having Matatabi's presence in the back of her mind. She didn't know where the feline demon had disappeared to after her death, and she wasn't sure she wanted to...but second opinions, and a knowledgeable person who was willing to spout exposition, weren't easy things to come by. Even more importantly, the Nibi had been her only friend and ally in the twenty-six years before she met Yuurei. Whatever happened, Yugito hoped that Matatabi hadn't suffered too harshly.

Ahead of his companions, Yuurei had nearly reached Mei's position when he felt the Mizukage's chakra signature begin to move closer to him. Handfuls of smaller clusters, and another over-large one hat Yuurei recognized as Fu, changed course to match her new trajectory. A small smile twitched its way onto the blond demon's face as his tails shifted unconsciously, and he slowed down to allow Tayuya and Yugito to catch up to him. Almost simultaneously, Tayuya pulled out of her dive as Yugito made a final leap to Yuurei's side; while Yugito rose to stand straight up, Tayuya's wings flared out to let her glide gracefully down. Continuing forward, it wasn't long before some familiar figures were within sight.

"It's good to see you again," Mei said, breaking the ice once she, Chojuro, and Fu had come face to face with Yuurei's trio. Though her companions might have thought she was only speaking to the towering demon in front of her, Tayuya and Yugito knew she was referring to them as well.

"Forgive me if I don't say that it's been too long." Fu spoke coolly, her gaze leveled solely on Yuurei. She hadn't forgotten, and still wasn't over, his spur-of-the-moment decision to annihilate her home village. Traveling with Mei, she'd decided, was solely to continue stretching her legs—a luxury she hadn't been afforded as a member of Takigakure.

Though Tayuya returned Fu's sentence with a derisive stare, Yuurei shook his head and turned his palms upward, as if to say he couldn't dispute her claim.

"It's an honor to meet you, Kyuubi, sir." Chojuro bowed his head in greeting, only to be met with a light laugh.

"You can call me Yuurei. Formality is...something of a lost cause when it comes to me," Yuurei said, his smile widening. In the next moment, though, he felt a pair of ominous and invisible weights settle on the back of his head; Yugito and Tayuya seemed to be attempting to melt holes through his skull with their stares.

"You don't say," the redhead replied with a dangerous monotone.

"I cannot believe you had the audacity to say that out loud," Yugito said in a low voice.

"At any rate..." Yuurei's tails splayed out, prodding his companions' faces. "We were on our way to Suna when I felt your chakra signatures. I didn't want to get mixed up in the chaos of Konoha's groups entering the village, so I decided to come to you instead. Mind if we tag along?"

"Not at all." Mei had the decency to ignore the way that Yugito and Tayuya slapped their leader's tails away, offering a gracious smile that could have enslaved a weak-willed civilian. Together, the six ninja resumed their trek towards Sunagakure.