AN: Our Lord Kyuubi worked extremely fast to beta read that so I could deliver it to you. Not only did he polish the occasional grammatical atrocities, but he also ironed out some details and as everybody knows, it is precisely there that the devil hides. As for me, I would like to thank you all for the overwhelmingly positive response to chapter 13. Enjoy!

Dying was not so much painful as it was unpleasant. Very, very unpleasant. And slow. Naruto could hear his heart pumping blood out in the open, quickening his asphyxiation, hastening his doom. The blond could not breathe anymore, his attempts at supplying oxygen to his lungs filling them with red life liquid and resulting in gurgling sounds and blood red bubbles escaping the gash on his throat. His brain was shutting down quickly and the pain was made distant by the heavy, tar-like cloud of darkness weighing on his mind and quickly eradicating his consciousness.

He had no strength left in him to protest his fate -being beaten to a pulp and then having his neck slashed open did that to a man- and the numbness seeping into his very bones was relaxing anyway, keeping him calm about his incoming end. Funny how he had been worried about dying back in Konoha, afraid of it even, before leaving for the mission. Death was nothing but appeased silence. Expectation and reality were really two different things.

He was maybe a little bit angry at being left to die in Rice Country -one more reason to despise this shitty place- after barely three months as a ninja but all in all, he felt too tired to muster any real heat.

He knew full well there was nothing he could do about it anyway. He had lost too much blood, and no one was there to save him. He had "killed" the training golem enough time to know that and had confirmed it first-hand with his three first and last kills: a slit throat was unforgiving when left alone for too long. The "no return" time limit had since long been exceeded in his case. He had given his best but the enemy jonin had utterly overwhelmed him, leaving him no chance. That was the reality of a shinobi fight: they were all-out murder matches from the start, not a show where the action would slowly ramp up in intensity.

There was no audience to please, no noble to distract. Only an enemy whose heart had to be stopped with extreme prejudice. Naruto had given his best shot, but it was his heart that was inexorably stopping right now. He supposed that was part of the rules. The shinobi life was one of giving death and receiving it. He was dying a warrior's death, as was fitting.

Death was not such a horrifying possibility anyway. The process was unpleasant, yes, but there were good sides to it. First of all, he would not be missed; no one would be saddened or cry for him and that was a relief, if slightly frightening. Then maybe he would get to meet his family? That was not such a bad thought.

What about Jijie and Ayame, though? What about Iruka and Teuchi? What about Konohamaru and Ichiro? A small functional part of his otherwise foggy, dying brain asked himself, needling him uncomfortably.

What about Tiger and Dog?

Alright, he would be missed a little bit. He found that oddly comforting; he would be remembered, even at the cost of causing others pain. It meant that he was not alone.

Also, not being able to see Konohamaru get his headband and taste Ayame's super ramen was a shame. He would also have liked to die a full-fledged ANBU, to leave the impure lands a member of the family but such was life he supposed. He hoped he would still be remembered within the halls under the Hokage Mountain. That was all that mattered.

He did not have too many regrets and that was a good thing. At least, he was leaving after making up with his grandfather. That would have sucked big time if he had not reconciled with the Hokage not too long ago.

What about Cat?

Pain came back at the thought of Cat and cleared his mind for a second. The woman had been captured and who knew what horror she would have to endure. Ninja were not tender with captured enemies.

The last figment of his fluttering reason quickly appeased him. It was terrible and he was angry about it but with his broken body and his throat cut open, he could not do shit about it. He was dead. Tiger and Dog would have to chase after them. The fat, mean looking one was already hurt badly anyway, and Naruto had no doubt the woman would fall to the might of his teachers.

That being said, the knock-off Akimichi had seemingly risen from death so maybe he was not in that much of a bad shape. Bah, Tiger was a badass shinobi. He would slaughter the two of them and Cat would be safe. Plus, Naruto was quite sure he had left the lady with a rather mean parting gift.

That would teach her to break his fingers and cut herself on his kunai. Whatever worked after all, as Tiger would say, and poison definitely did work. This compound especially was a mean one: hidden within a haemophilic agent that stuck to the enemy's blood and with a delayed release triggered by specific chemicals found in the brain. A nasty piece of work devised by the ANBU labs.

He had played the part perfectly, fumbling around his pouch like he had been hit too hard to think clearly, but he had not taken this very specific kunai by mistake. The kunoichi had been fooled though, believing it to be his attempt to a last stand. Heh. The bitch was going down with him.

Or maybe Cat was already dead, and he was worrying over nothing. Whatever the situation, he was out of the race anyway. He just hoped La had made it out alive. The dog had not asked anything.

Content with his conclusion, Naruto allowed his brain to continue dying from the lack of oxygen and immersed his consciousness in the flow of his chakra. He was dead and he would enjoy the ride one last time. The blond relished the familiar feeling of the rushing flow, even if he could feel it slowly dying down.

One last ride and he would go. At least, he was not fussing about it like the two weaklings he had terminated four days ago. Departing with dignity, that was important too. He was definitely not turning into a ghostly cry-baby. With a smile on his face, the blond gurgled one last time.

"That punk took five minutes to die. What a fucking roach." The Not-Akimichi said angrily, looking at the corpse of the young ANBU and spitting a glob of blood, saliva, and other fluids at it before kicking it squarely in the ribs.

"Stop moving Jirobo-sama. I cannot heal you correctly if you do not stand still and you'll risk losing your hand." The jonin answered dispassionately.

"Tch! This little shit. Shame you didn't keep him alive though; two hostages are better than one." Jirobo grunted, glaring once more at the blond cadaver.

"I apologize for that Jirobo-sama. I let-"

"Yeah, yeah whatever. We can't stay for long so hurry up!"

"I made sure any and all their attempt at contacting the rest of their team was suppressed. We do have some delay before they realized something is wrong with their rear-guard, Jirobo-sama."

"Just shut up and hurry up," growled the man in retort.

"Yes, Jirobo-sama."

Silence fell around the two standing Oto-nin and their restrained prisoner, disturbed only by the humming of Iryo-jutsu and the chirping of various birds. A cool breeze whirled past them and a minute went by before the woman suddenly wobbled. The healing chakra sheathing her hands flickered out and she breathed in heavily.

"What is it, Kagero?"

"I do not know, Jirobo-sama. I feel… Weak. Lightheaded."

The fake Akimichi threw a glance at his wrist and, judging it sufficiently repaired for now, turned to his subordinate. "Poison?"

"Possible, Jirobo-sama." That was only fair; she herself had poisoned the boy after all. A powerful opioid-based substance had invaded his body in a matter of seconds and had lowered his inhibitions. She had topped that with a genjutsu. There was nothing worse and messier than a panicked man dying from having his throat opened so making death welcoming was actually a good way to go when murdering someone. It avoided needless shouting and thrashing. Plus, opioids were never considered when building poison resistance: they were the basis for too many painkillers.

"Take care of yourself. I'll carry the prisoner. we leave in a minute."

With a nod, the woman gathered her thoughts as best as she could and, after a series of hand-signs, healing chakra shone and hummed once again around her hands. She was dizzy, nauseous, and her heart was beating madly in her chest as if she had exhausted herself. Dark spots pulsed in front of her, obscuring her vision. Kagero inhaled deeply but the feeling of suffocation did not leave her.

She knew what she had been poisoned with. Cyanide was a bitch. To makes things worse, somehow, it had been delivered to her brain already despite her built up resilience to it. She turned toward the smiling corpse of the young blond and scowled. This rat had distracted Jigumo to his death and killed Kamikiri. There was no way he was taking her too.

With a murderous glare that the dead ANBU ignored, the woman sat in seiza, slowing down her heartbeat and scanning herself with her iryojutsu.

It was then that the world exploded.

Dog knew something had gone wrong. She had nothing to base the thought on but the fact that the hair on her arms was standing and her spine was constantly run through by an electric shiver were just two of many signs which could well have been hard facts to her.

A ninja had to trust their instincts and the Inuzuka had the best instincts of all.

When La barged from their rear, alerting his brother Hai and Dog, the Inuzuka operator realized that in the mix of emotions she was experiencing, surprise was ranked low.

Worry, on the other hand, was off the charts, especially when her eyes zeroed on the wound on her canine companion. The veterinarian in her cried a tear at the sight: the left hind leg of the dog was a bloody mess. With a whine, the exhausted dog came crashing down two meters away from her.

Hurryingly and ignoring the hushed whispers of the civilians behind her, Dog closed the short distance while speeding through hand signs, and as she kneeled near her companion, her hands glowed a soothing, pale green. La groaned and whined something she could not hear.

"Shhh, boy. It's gonna be okay." Dog interrupted the wounded animal, her jutsu sending a flow of feelings and impressions to her brain, a vague canvas of what the wound truly was like, a puzzle she had to piece together to get a clear view of what had to be done.

La stubbornly whined again and nudged her elbow, begging for her attention. Dog sighed and broke the flow of her chakra, interrupting the iryojutsu.

"I need to heal you-"

The dog interrupted her, growling this time, before yapping two low barks on two very precise notes and moving both his snout and his right front paw in an established pattern as his ears flattened on top of his skull.

Dog felt herself go pale. She whirled around and stood up just as her officer joined her.

"Maru and Cat have been attacked. There is a powerful jonin among them. They are in danger." Dog informed the man before he could ask any question.

Tiger nodded. "Fix La first and foremost. I'm going first as recon, join me when you can."

"Sergeant-"

"You have your orders. See you later." The ANBU officer turned to face the civilians. "Do not move from here."

Before Dog could add anything, Tiger disappeared in a powerful flicker, leaving behind only a trail of vapour and some dancing leaves. The Inuzuka clicked her tongue in annoyance and turned to the wounded dog, who pointed his black nose toward its wounded leg.

"Yes, yes, let me fix that."

Speeding through hand signs again and sheathing her hands in healing chakra, the ANBU kneeled again, preparing herself for the mad task of repairing damaged living tissue while in the wild, without any of the auxiliary machinery any modern hospital had, and at night.

A piece of cake for a tested field surgeon, of course. Reaching into her satchel, the Inuzuka took a waxing band and a vial full of powerful antiseptic. Eliciting a pained whine when she mercilessly did away with the fur around the wound, she poured a good half of the disinfectant on the bleeding flesh. No use allowing the wound to become a festering playground for infections.

The rudimentary pre-op done and over with, Dog took a powerful, steadying breath and slowly, agonizingly slowly, ran through two different sets of one-handed hand seals, sparkling with two different iryojutsu. Sweat pearling on her brow, she approached the wound with her hands.

This was the reason medical ninjutsu was so entirely ignored by a large part of the ninja population. The difficulty did not come only in the form of the insane amount of knowledge necessary to properly treat various ailments. It truly came with the necessity to maintain two jutsu simultaneously over an extended period of time, which required a level of chakra control many considered to be simply insane.

One jutsu for constant diagnosis, the other for actual tissues manipulation and regeneration. The iryonin had to maintain and work with two activated jutsu simultaneously, one that was desperately trying to scramble their brain with information about the wound, the other that was desperately trying to scramble the wound by bypassing their brain.

There was also no faster way to make everything worse. A failed iryojutsu could turn a benign scratch into a life-threatening mess. On the other hand, there was no faster way to heal on the battlefield. A ninja on death's door could literally be brought back to battle-ready by a sufficiently experienced medic-nin. Or so did the rumours go.

Dog exhaled and bit her lower lip. Good thing she was a talented medic. She had yet to fail an op, even in the field.

The cut was deep and had severed many layers of muscle, countless little blood vessels, and had even opened the artery. Not completely, thankfully, or La would have never survived long enough to join the convoy. Not losing a second more, Dog carefully but steadily sewed the two sides of the cut artery back together, flesh mending itself under the impulse of the jutsu, the process guided, accelerated, and nourished by her chakra.

Dog allowed herself a relieved breath once the artery was closed. She had just bought herself a bit of time. For a second, she racked her brain, searching how the hind leg of a dog worked, so as not to reconstruct anything the wrong way, before she inhaled again, ironing her resolve.

With the same care, Dog slowly put the separated muscle together, reconstituting strings of cells, reattaching fibres of myosin and actin on a molecular level, weaving the small blood vessels around, re-implanting nerves where they belonged. Sweat was dripping from her forehead, making her balaclava a damp mess, but she paid it no mind.

Lastly came the skin. Dog had to remove what blood had already dried or worse, coagulated, and reattach the two sides layer by layer. Who knew that skin was such a complicated organ?

With a sigh of satisfied exhaustion, Dog fell on her behind, propped against her elbows, the green glow on her hands dispersing. La whined and inclined his head gratefully.

"You're welcome buddy," answered the ANBU with a chuckle before a groan escaped her lips, the urgency of the entire situation coming back to her and needling her in the side. "Shit. Now let's go. La, stay, I'm no Tsunade."

The teenage girl rolled on her belly before she pushed firmly on both her hands and feet, jumping to a standing position and breathing in deeply. With a swift movement, she took her special whistle and blew a specific code, eliciting an annoyed groan from La.

"Don't move from here!" She repeated her superior's order to the gaggle of men and women standing behind her.

Locking her hand in the ram seal, Dog gathered the chakra to flicker away.

It was then that the world exploded.

Tiger was making good speed, intellectually, he knew it. Yet he felt as slow as a freshly graduated genin. The rear guard had been compromised, two of his teammates were under attack, and the fact one of the Haimura brothers was injured meant the opponents were numerous and powerful enough to keep both Cat and Maru busy.

While Maru was still a work in progress, Cat was nothing to scoff at, be it up close or from afar. Given that the Inuzuka dogs were easily as fast as jonin when it mattered, it signified one thing: the attackers meant business.

Tiger meant business too, he just had to arrive on time. He could not abandon a member of the family and someone on his way to become part of it. That would be a frustrating waste of an investment, considering how the young boy was shaping up. Maru would make at the very least an excellent ninja and that was without considering what he contained. He was an asset Konoha could not afford to lose.

The shrubberies and undergrowth offered little resistance as the ANBU sped through, careful not to disturb his environment too much. If they were to get out of here, there was no use leaving an easy trail.

His chakra surging powerfully yet under a tight leash, Tiger flickered again, converting raw chakra into nearly pure momentum, adding to his speed by artificially increasing his kinetic energy and waiting for the world to correct the imbalance in the equation by adjusting his velocity.

The trick was not allowing the world to rectify the apparent impossibility by adding mass. That was definitely a recipe for a horrible accident.

Despite his vision tunnelling and the wind rushing like a torrent past his ears, Tiger could see the place where the battle had taken place; still out of his reach but closing insanely fast. The ANBU relaxed his chakra and allowed it to pulse outward, this time syphoning his momentum in a wave of rapidly dispersing heat and slowing him to a stop.

The ANBU felt his heart hastening his pace when his eyes took in the sight of a downed Cat tied down by some kind of anthropomorphic monster. His heart stopped for a second altogether when he spotted a young-looking woman sitting near the lifeless body of his youngest subordinate.

Ruthlessly, Tiger squashed the maelstrom of emotion that was welling inside him and sped through hand signs.

It was then that the world exploded.

The blond boy awoke washed ashore on hard, uncomfortable ground. Opening his eyes slowly, he took in his immediate environment in a calculative gaze, as he had been taught so long ago. He was in a gigantic room of decaying concrete, so large and high he could not make out the end of it. There was no window in sight nor any source of light, yet the place was illuminated barely by a sickly orange glow. It reminded the boy of sepia pictures he had seen somewhere.

Groggily, the blond slowly stood and looked around him. He had no idea where he was, but he did not like it. His mind was foggy and his memories unclear. Had he been captured? Was he in some kind of dungeon? If so, the owner certainly had a peculiar conception of what a cell had to be like.

For that matter, who was he? What was he doing here? Did he have any business being taken prisoner in the first place?

The blond massaged his eyes for a few seconds, desperately trying to gather himself. He felt weak, weaker than he had ever felt. If he was honest, a gust of wind could have knocked him over. He felt fickle, wobbly, unreal. As if his body was lacking consistency. The boy shuddered and took a step forward.

He had glanced around and behind him was nothing but darkness. In front of him was an even less reassuring sight: towering pillars of black steel that apparently formed a prison. The blond did not really want to go anywhere near the cage, but he had literally no other alternatives. Swallowing his hesitation, the boy marched forth, trudging against the shallow water that seemed to stagnate everywhere in the room.

Maybe he would meet someone, anyone, to tell him where he was.

The boy quickly lost all notion of time. The light was unchanging, he did not tire more than he already was, yet the cage did not seem to want to get closer to him. After what felt like hours but could have been minutes, the blond eventually made out a change in the monotony of the colossal iron bars. Two were joined as if to mimic a monstrous door. The only lock the boy could discern was a tiny, ridiculous piece of paper marked with the word "seal".

The blond fell when a thunderous gust of wind knocked him off his feet. He curved his body in a foetal position as the sound of two rocks grinding against each other hurt his ears and his skin burned under the heat of the storm. As suddenly as it had begun, the wind ceased. The blond carefully, silently, stood, freezing at the barest sound he could hear. Only to be knocked forward this time, as the wind rushed past him once again from behind. This time however, the blond could feel the air being sucked toward the cage.

His cerulean eyes widened and his breath quickened as the boy desperately tried to drag himself backwards, to escape whatever horror was waiting for him inside the cage. His feeble arms betrayed him and the blond crumbled on his back in the water. Immediately propping himself on his elbow, the boy stilled, squashing his ragged breathing as blood mixed with adrenaline started to drum furiously in his ears, and peered at the darkness within the cage.

The darkness chose to stare back.

One eye, one orb of raging flames cut in its middle by a black slit of void, opened and pierced through the blond, laying him bare. And Naruto remembered.

He had been here already. He had seen the Eye. The Eye had already seen through him. And the Eye had sent him back after a greeting. The Eye had acknowledged Naruto's presence and chased him away after it had seen what it had to see.

The blond could not breathe anymore, nor could he will his body to move. Entranced, captive of the Eye, he would not do anything if it was not at its bidding. He simply could not. So, Naruto waited for the Eye to send him away like it had done last time.

"Salutations, Son of Man."

The Voice blasted against the boy's psyche, crumbling the makeshift defences of his self and echoing in the centre of his very being. Memories surged in the barren field of desolation that was Naruto's mind currently.

He was Naruto Uzumaki. Cat was captured. He was a ninja from Konoha. He liked his Jijie and ramen. He was in ANBU. He had failed his examination. Dragon believed in him. Tiger was the best teacher ever. Konohamaru had entered the Academy. He was the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi.

He was dead.

"Not yet. I can save you." The Voice whispered, allowing Naruto to form coherent thoughts without obliterating them.

"Who?" The blond croaked, his throat dry and his lips more so, hoping against what he knew that the Voice was a lie and the Eye an illusion. "Who are you?"

"Why lie to yourself, Son of Man? You know full well who I am."

Of course, the Voice knew. The Eye could see through his lies, could lay bare his very soul, read him. "No… Please, let me go…" Naruto pleaded deliriously. It was not possible. It could not be. The implications were too terrible to envision it.

"Only your imminent demise forced you here and it shall be the prison of your last moments if you do not take the offer I have for you." The Voice whispered sweetly, chilling Naruto to his bones.

"No…" Something welled inside the boy, a bright, passionate wind that made him stand a bit straighter before he crushed ruthlessly. Naruto wanted to refuse the Voice, he wanted to not listen to it. He knew only bad things would come out of it if he listened. But it was too powerful, imposing itself in the centre of his head. From the cage, beyond his notice, dark blood seeped between the bars.

"Do you not wish to belong? Do you not wish acknowledgement?" The Voice asked in a honeyed murmur. "Do you not wish for a family? You who suffered so much alone, do you not long for others?" It questioned soothingly as if understanding Naruto's plight full well. "What kind of brother allows his sister a fate worse than the death you seem so accepting of? What kind of coward?" The Voice pleaded sadly.

"Stop…" The blond nodded without realizing it before he curved himself into a ball, his ears covered to no avail. He could not listen, could not heed the call of temptation. He could not allow himself this weakness. Who knew what would happen if he did? The blood-red liquid bubbled and crawled toward the oblivious boy, willed forth by a sinister purpose.

"Weakness? Is it so wrong to protect those precious to you? Is it so wrong to want the power to do so? Think!" The Voice urged suddenly. "What will they think of you when they realize you abandoned yourself to the Shinigami when you could have saved her? Oh, you shall be so reviled, and this time, it will be entirely justified."

The boy choked. "Why?" Naruto asked in return, tears streaming down his ghostly pale face, not seeing the bubbling, scalding hot liquid defying gravity and whirling slowly around him in a blood tornado of black and red.

"Is it not sufficient that I offer it to you, Son of Man? Why would my motive matter right now? Your sister is in mortal danger. Take the offered power and save her! Save her before her fate become sealed! Save your family!"

Like the jaw of a predator, the liquid swallowed the boy, eliciting a cry of either pain or ecstasy as his body was dissolved into the sea of nothing. A bout of roaring laughter that could have shaken the earth exploded in the empty hall.

As Tiger exited the cover of the trees, the world suddenly spasmed around the corpse of his initiate before it exploded in a thundering conflagration. In an instant, water was vaporized into mist, while the rice of the paddies was incinerated into fine dust, the suddenly exposed earth was dried only to be cooked into glass.

The shockwave immediately dispersed the cloud of vapour and sent the kneeling woman careening away, forcing the monster to anchor himself to the ground with chakra as he clutched his neck, and interrupted Tiger's ninjutsu by disrupting his chakra flow as the ANBU ducked back under the cover of the grove he had just exited. Inhumanly potent chakra filled the battlefield and Tiger could feel his breathing itch in his throat.

Tiger could not keep a curse from escaping his lips as he fought to regain both his cool and control over his lungs. He knew what was happening. He had to get Cat out of here before it turned into a slaughter zone. Without further hesitation, the ANBU prepared to dash toward the fat, vaguely human looking, reddish mutant that was holding his soldier prisoner.

His screaming instincts stayed his plan and Tiger glanced at where Naruto's corpse had been laying.

On all fours, covered in a layer of bubbling, burning, smoking chakra so thick he was barely visible underneath it, was Naruto. His eyes were turned red, like those of a beast, his visage deformed into a snarl. With a flex of chakra so powerful it once again disrupted Tiger's own flow, the jinchuriki body slammed into the slowly standing kunoichi, sending her body flying dozens of meters away.

Tiger could not contain a minute wince. Even from a distance, he could hear the bones splintering into powder, the lungs caving in, the spleen being turned into a paste. If the blow had not killed the kunoichi on the spot, the ANBU knew for a fact that she did not have long to live anymore.

The ANBU did not think further about the fate of his enemy. Hastening the moulding of his chakra with a ram seal, he breathed in for a flicker. A third burst of chakra threw him slightly off balance and messed up the moulding of his inner energy. With a frown, Tiger righted himself instantly. These constant interruptions were getting old!

The man leapt backwards immediately after when the flaming body of his initiate was sent away by a monstrous blow. Turning his head right, Tiger saw the kunoichi standing, her fist extended.

She had the bleak skin tone of someone already dead, one of her eyes was not seeing, and a copious amount of blood was dripping from her mouth. Tiger was quite certain that the ninjutsu she had just activated that was giving her visible wings akin to those of a butterfly, was a sacrificial one, burning through her chakra faster than fire burnt through oil. She had maybe a minute, probably less.

Enraged, the jinchuriki boy snarled low and pulsed his chakra. The ground where the kunoichi had been standing exploded in a shower of boiling water, upturned earth, and burnt rice plants. Under his mask, Tiger felt his eyes widen. Maru had been fast, incredibly so, but the enemy ninja had been even faster. In fact, if the man was not so certain it was nearly impossible, he could have sworn she had teleported.

Swallowing hard, the ANBU tore his focus away from a fight that was not his and reported his attention where it was needed. Only to curse out loud when his eyes tracked his target escaping. The other Oto-nin had apparently no qualm leaving his comrade fight alone. For another second, Tiger felt hesitation grip at his insides.

Could he afford to let an enraged jinchuriki go wild here?

How much did he trust Maru -Naruto- to assert his control back over his body?

Steel hardened his eyes and straightened his spine. With a flex of his chakra, the ANBU flickered after his target. Naruto would do fine. It was Cat who needed him the most right now.

He felt good. After being dead, he supposed he could only feel better but he had not expected coming back to life would feel this good. There were a few hitches here and there of course. His breathing was laboured, his lungs felt obstructed, and he was pretty certain that he lacked a good amount of blood but the chakra coursing through his tenketsu made all those discomforts forgettable before the sheer power at his disposal.

When the dark red chakra of the Fox pulsed through him, he could suddenly feel the world like he had never before. He could trace each of the droplets of water he had vaporized. He could hear the rice under him mature in an instant only to burst into flame under the heat. He could feel the soil melt only to cool into glass when fresh air was sucked back by the depression.

For a second, he allowed nature to brush each of his senses. Above him, he could taste the shimmering of the stars. Around him, he could hear the plants breath. Fleeing him, he could feel the animals running in a frenzied panic. Below, he could see the earth move and spin. For a second, he was the master of the world. There was so much he could accomplish with this might within his hands.

He instantly recognized two familiar chakra signatures next to him, along with two he did not know. Did not like. Did not want. The boy's eyes snapped open, each a furnace of smouldering flames, and narrowed when they lay on a frail looking woman with blue hair. That was it. The one who had hurt him. The one who had killed him.

The one who would hurt Cat. The one who needed to die. Anger welled from within him and flooded his reason, turning into a burning rage first, to raging hatred then.

The jinchuriki bodied the kunoichi into oblivion, sensing her body fail under his furious charge.

He was slightly surprised when he took a punch in return before it fuelled his fury. She. Needed. To. Die!

Snarling, he eyed his enemy. She was broken already, on her last leg. He could feel each of the bones he had snapped. He could sense the blood gushing from ruptured organs and vessels. He could taste her chakra petering out, gathered in one last technique. In a few breaths, she would drop dead.

The jinchuriki snarled. He would tear her apart first. She would die by his hands.

In a flash of chakra, he was right next to her, ready to slice her into ribbons. His left claw met nothing but air when the woman teleported. For an instant so short it could have been nothing but an illusion, she had exited his senses only to enter them again, someplace else.

The boy whirled and leapt. Fast as lightning, he tore through nothing. Mounting frustration fueled the roaring fire of the jinchuriki's uncontrolled rage and the blond jumped again, only to miss in a repeat of his two other attempts.

In a haze of fury, the jinchuriki roared a challenge, the animalistic shout broken by his lacerated throat, flexing a massive amount of chakra.

Whether by intent or not, the wave of almost solid energy disrupted the kunoichi's wings and when the bubbling claw of the man-monster reached her, death was instantaneous, messy, and scattered.

Burnt flesh and boiled blood fell in a macabre rain, feeding the ground a red tribute, covering the jinchuriki in a shower of gore. The hunter lost no time to hurl his victory at the heavens. He whirled around as a new presence invaded his senses.

Focusing his attention on the new arrival, he recognized the chakra. She was a female, young, smelled like dog, fought like one. He sensed fear, controlled, leashed, but it could not escape him. She would be so easy to hunt, so pleasant to hurt, so satisfying to kill.

Why not? Why not take advantage of it? When he had all this power. When he was obviously so superior to her. When he was obviously a predator whereas she was nothing but prey. She needed a lesson and he would be the one to teach.

She had been mean to him. Disrespectful. Uninterested. She had refused to grace him with a look.

Eye narrowed and fangs bared in a snarl, the jinchuriki stalked on all fours toward the pathetic human.

"Hey Maru, it's me… Dog." The ANBU greeted in a hesitant voice.

She barely rolled out of the way of the sweeping blow aimed at her, her cloak cut into ribbons by the razor sharp claw.

"Naruto!" Dog cried in alarm.

Tiger exited his body flicker and ducked under a punch that should have taken him just below the chin. In less than a second, his eyes seized his opponent.

The man was tall and large, overly so, his skin was red and covered with warts, his hair was cascading onto his shoulders and neck, leaving his forehead naked. Small, beady eyes, their sclera dark grey and their pupils yellow, were riveted on him. The ninja was breathing hard and the ANBU noticed without problem the bloody stain under his left arm.

Cat had wounded him there but not enough apparently.

Another punch was hurled at him, a punch Tiger immediately slapped away, in a carefully dosed mix of a block and a deflection. The ANBU frowned slightly. His opponent was packing a lot of steam if nothing else. It would be needlessly dangerous to take him head-on.

Swaying around an attempt to grapple him, Tiger punished the man with a powerful slap on his ear and one elbow below the chin before he jumped away, already speeding through hand signs.

Fighting was not a priority objective. Cat, slumped on the Oto-nin's shoulder, was.

A clone erupted from the earth, closing in on the colossus with a leap as Tiger started circling around him.

The Oto-nin lost no time and manhandled his hostage down his arm, threatening her with a kunai.

"Fuck off and she lives!" The reddish man growled.

Tiger silently swore. He expected the situation to turn like that and it was not something he had time to solve.

"Leave her here and I won't give chase." The ANBU offered in return in a drawl.

"I'm not the one with a monster to put down," snarled the man. "My conditions, take or leave."

"Leaving you with a hostage is unacceptable." Tiger retorted in his monotone.

"Too bad for you, sucker."

It was at this moment a deafening roar took both men by surprise, Tiger's earth clone crumbling under the wave or chakra, the red man hollering in pain. The ANBU lost no time though and sped again through his hand seals, thanking his lucky stars and his initiate. Chakra moulded, focus crystallized, Tiger hit the ground with an open palm.

Two clones grew from the soil again, this time close enough to the red man that they immediately grappled his arms, forcing them in a lock, one of the clones slapping the kunai away while the other stabbed at the wound on the opponent's left side.

With a chakra enhanced leap, Tiger appeared in front of the Oto-nin only to jump back with Cat just as, in a show of strength he hadn't expected, his opponent broke the hold of the two clones.

With a whispered apology, Tiger threw Cat away and once again flared his chakra through hand signs. From his already crumbling clones, thorny vines the size of his leg grew to anchor themselves in the ground as they snaked around the man, holding him in place firmly.

Whirling toward Cat, the ANBU withdrew a kunai and severed the binds. Before he could remove the piece of cloth fastened around her mouth, her eyes shone with a pattern and Tiger hauled her in a last-second flicker, avoiding a punch.

The two ANBU crashed into the water of a paddy, Tiger losing no time to free Cat completely. With a muttered "thanks", the woman leapt on her feet.

The red man, cut and bleeding, hollered in rage at the sight of the two enemies facing him and whirled around and away in a body flicker of his own.

Just as they were ready to give chase, a desperate cry halted the two ANBU in their tracks.

Naruto did not know where he was. All around him, it was only a vast expense of nothing, coloured a blood red by the ground where he was standing. He was not particularly worried about it though. There could be nothing fundamentally wrong with the place he was in. He was not sure why it was so either. Maybe it was the feeling of floating on clouds made of the fluffiest cotton? He was warm, he was relaxed, he was comfortable.

He could feel the world existing just there, around him but also right in his palm. Naruto giggled; he had to be careful not to crush the world. He had so much power pulsing and coursing his veins now, a twitch would be enough. A twitch and the world would end.

Why not?

Naruto giggled. No, he had to keep the world existing. What would Jijie, Konohamaru, and the rest say if he were to end the Earth?

The boy laughed heartily. Jijie would certainly become red-faced in anger. Like the time he had transformed into a naked woman to steal his hat. Yeah. Naruto did not really want to face that again.

Why not though? He had so much power, his Jijie would not be able to protest if he decided to do it.

Just a twitch of his hand. A snap of his fingers.

Suddenly, his peace was disturbed. In front of him, a blue-haired woman had appeared. Naruto could not see her well, as if a veil had fallen over his eyes. She looked half dead, yet she had the gall to glare at him, that he could see perfectly well. Naruto frowned before he pointed at her, discontent painted all over his face.

"Hey! You killed me!" The blond boy exclaimed, his voice a mix of anger and indignation.

How could she? She had killed him and then she invaded his place, glaring at him? He hated to be glared at. How dare she? How dare they? He had enough power to rule over their life and they dared show disrespect?

Naruto snarled. He was going to show them. He was going to show every last one of them the cost of their disdain! Starting with her!

All it took was a twitch of his finger and the world shook. From the sea of blood he was standing upon, beyond the veil, a dark, bubbling, burning shape emerged, and stalked forward, slowly taking the form of a monstrous, bizarre fox.

Naruto observed as the fox hunted the blue-haired woman, missing her thrice only to rip her into shred after its fourth attempt. With a satisfied smile, Naruto readied himself to enjoy listening to the world existing under his fingers when a new figure shimmered into view. Huffing in annoyance, the boy turned around and found himself looking at a masked individual, wearing a mask vaguely resembling a dog.

The boy groaned in annoyance. Today was not "open door" day! This place was his and his alone to enjoy. She was so pathetic, trembling like a leaf. The fox would take care of her.

Her appearance vaguely reminded Naruto of something he should know but before he could think further into it, the fox slowly marched forth, heeding Naruto's silent desire, growling menacingly and visibly enjoying the fear rolling off the woman. The boy could see the fox fed on it as much as it fed on flesh.

The masked girl muttered something Naruto could not understand and watched, vaguely interested, as the fox neared her, still trying to determine why he knew this person.

It was then the cry tore the veil and reached his ears.

"Naruto!"

"Cat!"

There was no need for the officer to spell out his order. The kunoichi ran, harder, faster, better than she ever had, grabbed Dog -who was standing in front of a strangely unmoving, yet clearly enraged jinchuriki- by the shoulder, focused her chakra through half a ram seal, and as soon as her foot found purchase, flickered in a random direction.

Tiger sighed minutely in relief as he cut his thumb before he sped through enough hand signs to make an Uchiha dizzy, intently focusing on his chakra, drudging every last bit of the special energy he had been "gifted" so long ago and crystallizing it in one single jutsu. Holding a half tiger mudra, Tiger willed the spilling blood to form the kanji for "sit" in his open palm.

"Mokuton: The sage enters society with bliss-bringing hands; fuin!" The ANBU roared as he gripped the forehead of the berserk jinchuriki.

Pillars of woods erupted from the earth, like as many lances tearing through the ground, missing the jinchuriki by a hair's breadth, rapidly enclosing him, leaving him no way to move. The bubbling cloak receded but did not disappear and Tiger could feel the strain on his chakra reserves.

He had always prided himself with having a sizeable pool of energy but right now, it felt like fighting against an ocean

"Naruto! Hear my voice and come back to me!"

As soon as he had heard the cry, Naruto had jumped. Tackling the fox with all his might, he had wrestled the beast away from Dog. Away from his teammate. Away from his family.

The fox had shaken him off like he had been nothing.

Naruto snarled. This stupid fox. This idiotic, stupid fox. What the hell was it doing? If it thought it was okay to hunt his teammates, Naruto was going to show to it who was boss around here. It was certainly not allowed to attack them, to hurt them, to kill them.

The blond leapt and hollered a war cry as he bodied the fox once again, wrapping all his available limbs around his jaw and neck, strangling it mercilessly, bringing it down in the muddy ground.

Out of nowhere, Naruto felt his head jerk backwards, as he had been hit by a palm strike to the forehead. A burning sensation drilled his skull and the boy cried but did not release his hold on the fox.

A fox that felt considerably weaker under his grip. Under tears of pain, Naruto looked at his enemy and nearly released it out of shock.

The fox had been hit in its forehead too, the kanji for "sit" etched on it by fire. The bubbling, wild, burning power was started to crumble and slip away from it like some sort of rotting layer of flesh and dead blood, revealing the beast underneath.

And Naruto could not refrain a gasp from escaping his mouth when he saw he was strangling himself.

"Naruto! Hear my voice and come back to me!"

The unmistakable voice of Tiger rang in Naruto's ears.

The Other-Naruto snarled, glaring hatefully at Naruto with his black and red eyes. "He wants to control us! Stop fighting me and I can give us freedom!" The boy hissed, his voice carrying nothing but rage.

"That's an order soldier! And I'll deck you again if you don't obey right now!" The unusually stern voice, with maybe a hint of worry mixed in, of his superior officer reached the boys' ears once again.

Naruto smiled. That was Tiger, no doubt. The blond pouted for a second; there was no doubt either that the man would punch him anyway. Maybe he could negotiate some sort of commutation?

With as much strength as he was capable of, Naruto snapped the neck of Other-Naruto, eliciting a bellowing roar of pain and anger. Taking advantage of the debilitated state of his darker twin, Naruto pushed him deep in the red goo they were fighting in.

Only for the entire world to lurch around like a drunkard and throw him off in the air when Other-Naruto decked him through the viscous tar he was drowning in.

Naruto snarled. There was no way a stupid doppelganger was coming out on top, 'ttebayo!

"We don't have to fight!" Other-Naruto screamed angrily. "We are one and the same! We want the same thing!"

Naruto landed with a roll and fell in a stance. "The same thing? You nearly murdered my teammate!"

Yami tsk'd and growled. "What a teammate she is! She refused to teach us!"

"She got her head out of her ass! She taught me a lot!" The original blond retorted hotly, bursting forth and engaging his twin in a furious exchange of fist.

Other-Naruto, a snarl of his own etched on his face, kept hurling his anger, his moves sloppier than Naruto's own, telegraphing each of his punches. "She hates us! They all hate us! They want to control-"

A straight punch to the mouth silenced Yami, who reeled. Naruto did not allow it. Grabbing his reflection by the shoulder, his right struck like a snake, impacting Other-Naruto on both ears, before jabbing him in the throat.

"Your anger makes you sloppy," Naruto remarked before coiling around a desperate strike and locking the offending arm in a bind, sending Yami sprawling in the goo, shoulder and elbow broken.

"You cannot win! I'm you! I'm all you don't want to acknowledge! All your hatred! All your resentment!" Yami hurled, his arm already healed.

"Tiger's second lesson." The original blond answered coldly.

"Huh?"

Growling an animalistic "kiai", Naruto sent Yami careening away with a solid kick to the face, snapping the reflection's neck, cracking his skull, and shattering his jaw.

"A ninja controls his emotions in battle. And Naruto Uzumaki is a ninja, 'ttebayo!"

Flexing his chakra, Naruto leapt toward Yami, who was still gathering himself, and chained vicious blows after underhanded strikes.

"I lost my cool and I nearly killed Dog. I'm not listening to the Fox anytime soon. And you! Stay! Down!" Punctuating his order with a particularly powerful punch at each word, Naruto stopped his assault to see Yami drowning in the goo.

Breathing hard, Naruto waited for a minute for his doppelganger to resurface but nothing came.

"That's right me! Stay the fuck down, 'ttebayo!"

Closing his eyes, the blond inhaled deeply. Only for the world to spin again. With a groan, the boy opened his blue peepers but smiled at the sight.

In front of him, unmasked and worry clear to see in his eyes, stood Tiger.

Naruto could hear himself trying to gurgle something and felt his body fall like a dead rock.

"Dog! Medic here!"

AN: I hope you enjoyed. I'm out of witty things to say so I'll just ask to share your thoughts in a review (or a PM). Feedback feeds me.

P.S: I received some questions about pairings. There will be some romance because I do believe it can make for some interesting character development but not yet. First, let Naruto get used to killing. I'll announce the likely pairing at the beginning of Shippuden.