Thanks to everyone who reviewed! This fic is so dark, idk whats wrong with me...just kind of setting some stuff up and giving background information in this chapter before the next. Please let me know what you think!


Naruto poked his head out from under the thin blanket. It was almost time for him to head to breakfast before attending his bi-weekly sealing lessons with Orochimaru-sensei. Shisui was, as usual, snoring quietly beside him. He would work with the labor force until Naruto was finished with Orochimaru and then would continue Naruto's instruction in more general ninja arts.

The blond silently slipped off the cot, shivering in the moist but cool air and trotted out of his cell. There were few people milling the underground halls and he didn't have to wait in line for his food. Naruto had grown leaner and taller, and though still short for his age, he had a lanky appearance and was quite clumsy when he wasn't concentrating on being stealthy.

He stood outside Orochimaru's laboratory door as he finished his mush before setting the bowl and spoon on the floor by the doorframe. No food or drink allowed in the lab, one of the first rules he learned. Naruto stood tall and tried for a smile as he entered, greeting, "Orochimaru-sensei!"

The dark haired sannin merely glared and shoved a stack of papers at him. Naruto pulled a stool to his small desk and began studying the notes of calculations and theories and trying to ignore the various and sometimes gruesome experiments being done elsewhere in the lab. Sealing was mathematical, it was one of the only subjects he could sit and read about before working silently for hours on problems and developing theories.

When he was finished about a half hour before lunch, Orochimaru looked over his work, giving insults and corrections in tandem.

"Finish these for your homework, and apply the corrections to your theories and redevelop them." Orochimaru-sensei shoved the papers in a brown bag before grabbing a small bottle filled with a dark liquid. "Tell Shisui to drink all of this, no complaints."

Naruto nodded. "Thank you. He's…he's getting worse, Sensei."

Orochimaru nodded, for once showing concern in the slight twisting of his mouth. "We may have to commence with the plan sooner than we thought. Bring him here tonight."

Nervousness and sadness quelled in Naruto's stomach, but he nodded anyway.

Back at his cell, Naruto carried two bowls of soup. He placed a silencing seal on one of the bars of the cell door and gently slipped in to shake Shisui awake. The older boy was slow to open his eyes, bags dark and deep beneath them. He didn't need help sitting up or holding his first soup bowl, but he didn't get off the cot either.

"Two bowls of soup? Thank you, Naruto-kun!" He patted the blanket by his side. "Come sit and tell me how your lesson with Orochi-teme was."

Naruto complied, pushing the medicine bottle into Shisui's hand before almost curling into the fever induced warmth Shisui provided. "He said we begin tonight."

Shisui briefly stilled but continuing eating, mulling in his thoughts. "Alright. I'm ready."

Naruto stared at him and started trembling. "I'm not," he whispered, "Shisui-nii, I-I can't. I don't want to go, please."

"We've talked about this, Naruto. Nothing good will come from staying here."

"But this is my home! This cell is all I've known, I can't leave. I don't belong anywhere else!"

Shisui gripped Naruto's knee. "Have you seen yourself? You're way too short and sickly looking, and that scar—on your chest—Naruto, that's not-not good. You'll die here if you stay. The world out there needs you, remember?"

The blond boy started crying. "I don't care. I'm scared and I don't want to be a hero. All those ninja stories you tell, good ones and bad ones, I'm not a ninja and I never will be."

Shisui started and moved his arm to wrap around Naruto's shoulders. "Of course you will be, Naruto. You're almost genin age anyway, and more than talented enough for it. Besides, you won't be alone; you'll have comrades and teammates."

Naruto eventually ceased crying; making sure Shisui drank all the dark liquid in the little bottle given to him by Orochimaru, and curling up on the cot to fall asleep until it was time for them to escape. Four years of learning and planning and anticipating, and now that the moment was finally here, Naruto was scared and unwilling.


Kakashi was dreaming. He knew, he'd had this dream several times before. He was in a dark hide-out on the outskirts of Konoha, holding the cold hand of a young, red-headed lady. An orange-masked nin had just intruded, and killed Biwako-sama and took Minato-sensei's baby away before anyone could blink. Minato-sensei told him to stay with Kushina and flashed away and Minato-sensei didn't know, he didn't know that he asked Kakashi to stay with a dead woman. To watch over the body of someone who was no longer loud and vibrant but small and pale, skin turning waxy as the moon filtered in through the window and illuminated the profile of her face.

He shuddered and gasped as he felt an enormous, malicious chakra erupt too far away and yet too nearby. He squeezed the stiff hand, almost wanting to curl his lip in disgust as he felt the unnaturalness of it, but instead managed to whisper I'm sorry, Kushina-nee.

Kakashi leapt out the window and to the roof of the little house, hardly needing to search much to spot the large, orange form of the Kyuubi attacking the village. He was entranced for what felt like eons, but eventually bounded forward toward the ensuing battle.

Minato-sensei was fighting the masked nin, Jiraiya-jii was fighting the Kyuubi, and Sarutobi-sama was working on the seal to bind the Kyuubi to the small bundle in Kakashi's arms. His name was Naruto, and though Kakashi knew there was trouble and danger just in front of him, he couldn't help glancing back at the baby. Naruto was tiny, and blond, and though he wasn't a day old he was wide awake. Kakashi thought he could sense the massive chakras flying about the area from the Kyuubi and the ninja, and he tried to use his own chakra to shield the baby with more calming vibes but wasn't sure it was working.

Then things happened too fast, and it was only through the repeated occurrence of this nightmare that Kakashi could piece the events together in his waking hours.

A large claw was heading his way, and though Kakashi was leaping, running with all his might, he knew it wouldn't be—no it was Jiraiya there a black point running through his chest—and a toad, swiping at the claw, twisting its tongue around the tall sannin before poof back to Mount Myobuku. And Sarutobi-sama, the old man was tackling him, grabbing at little Naruto and flash the monstrous fox was screaming and growling and being pulled toward them and Naruto was screaming and Sarutobi-ji-sama was collapsing and he looked toward Minato-sensei who was darting toward them, panicked that the flailing of the slowly sealed fox would harm them and then he, Sensei, was just…gone.

The fox was gone.

Jiraiya was gone.

The masked ninja was right in front of him and why was Kakashi so useless Naruto was gone and his arms felt cold and he attacked the masked nin. Again. Again.

He landed a hit on the orange mask and it cracked and the enemy stilled and Kakashi, for the life of him he'd never figure out why but he also stilled. He didn't move to finish the kill.

He knew that face. The scars, the red eye, the dark hair: Obito. He choked on his next breath, already trembling from sorrow and rage and nauseous from confusion and fear. But still, Kakashi's own sharingan eye processed what he saw with painful clarity.

Obito looked panicked. He was breathing too fast as he stared at Kakashi, then his gaze darted to the cracked mask on the grass below, toward the body of the Sandaime, and back to Kakashi. "I-I didn't-I don't! Kakashi, I don't! No…no!"

His teammate, back from the dead, let out an anguished scream. "Get out! Get out of my head, you bastard!"

Three figures appeared in the space between them. A dead sensei, a dead baby, and a decrepit wretch with shaggy hair and rimmed eyes. The third figure stood tall, gazed disdainfully at Obito and Kakashi before leaping away.

Kakashi jolted out of his bed and into his bathroom, leaning over the toilet and letting loose all he had for dinner the previous evening. He leaned his head against the cool porcelain for some time before standing and rinsing his mouth.

He dragged himself out his window, through the rain, and to the balcony on the floor above. Obito was leaning against the wall, red-clouded cloak wrapped tightly around him. Kakashi sighed. "I always dream of that night right before something big happens."

Obito snorted. "I always dream of that night."

Kakashi decided now was a good moment to suggest again, "We're the last of us, Obito, help me kill him."

He was promptly shoved backward, the railing of the balcony digging into his lower back and his head and upper torso sticking out into the rain.

"I've told you, Kakashi, don't call me that anymore. I am not Obito. I can never be Obito again. My mind, my self, my soul, I am something different than what you knew."

Kakashi hummed. "Different, but no less than usual, Obito."

Kakashi was tossed off the balcony and out into the rain and the mud and he didn't even try to stop his fall.