I'm pleased to know people enjoyed the first chapter and even more pleased to present you all with another. Hopefully this one will answer some of your questions and give you a better perspective on some of the actors who find themselves on my stage.

I received two reviews on the OC, one for and one against, so now I'd really like to hear everyone's opinion on her. She was pretty spur of the moment, and I only recently decided what will happen with her, but I'd like to see what my readers think first. Please include your thoughts with any review you might write or send me a PM containing it.

With nothing left to be said, enjoy the show.

The sweet relief that flooded his soul was indescribable, a peace so delicious that he couldn't help but release a short laugh.

'Not tonight, thank the gods, not tonight.'

For two weeks his dreams had been plagued by a sky of two suns, glaring down on him as he sunk deep into an ocean of oblivion but this, this was different. It was by no means pleasant, but he would take what he could get. He had, for this night alone, escaped the emerald and blue eyes, hair like sunset and hair like noon, skin as soft and pale as clouds, he had been hidden from their visage in this new sanctuary, and for that he was grateful.

Cold, murky water of unsanitary grey splashed around his stationary feet, gently urging him further into this world. With a soft, sad smile, he followed it through the rooms of this flooded basement, along walls of crumbling yellow and under the occasional flickering light or hole to the surface, through which came the occasional scattered sunbeam.

'It shields me from them, but, undeniably, they are still there.'

Even that cursory thought was enough to drag up memories he'd rather not deal with and in response the piercing sunlight increased in intensity, burning his flesh almost as soon as he passed each ray of light. With a hiss he dropped, splashing the icy water onto reddened flesh to help dull the pain. The smell of decay his him hard, but it was drowned out by the quickly receding pain, leaving him gasping in the filth, clutching one arm, half melted, to his chest.

'Kaa-san, Imouto, why do thoughts of you hurt so much?'

It had been two weeks since their departure and yet his heart still ached painfully in his chest. During the day it wasn't too bad, a million distractions and other worries serving as a buffer to reduce it to a dull throbbing more easily ignored. At night, however, there was no escape under that watchful stare of the moon, or within the bittersweet arms of Hypnos. His dreams were plagued with them, his two suns, his two angels, and even the sweetest smiles that graced their faces left his soul screaming in sorrowful agony, a wretched song of misery and despair, pain and loss, and, worst of all, an empty hopelessness that gnawed on his heart a little more each day.

That was to say nothing for the nights in which their smiles would disappear, replaced by cruel smirks or scowls of disgust. Those looks would only remind him of the questions that still lingered, unanswered. Why did they leave? Why didn't they tell me? Why was I locked out of the house? Will they come back? Do they love me?

Do they really hate me?

He couldn't hold it in any longer as he released a wail that shook the foundations of this strange, memory-inducing world, before he was reduced to choking sobs that wracked his tiny body. As he lay trembling in the freezing water, he couldn't help but think it would have been better for him had the Kyuubi's chakra ended him on that night.

Another shudder wracked her body, sorrow touching her in ways that, while unsettling, were not completely unpleasant. There was a bitter sweet quality to his suffering, his pain, and with every second her disgust with herself grew just a bit more. A sigh passed through soft ruby lips, her head rested lazily against the cold bars of her prison.

Her delicate fingers gripped the iron rods more tightly as another sob reached her pointed ears, her lips moving into a frown.

For years she had resided within this new seal, growing use to the unique discomfort it provided. Unlike the previous two, where she was painfully bound in her released form, now she was kept from releasing, trapped in this sewer-like basement in her default, human, form, when she- and quite possibly the seal- knew it would be much more bearable within her fox form.

Once more, a sob made its way into her chamber, telling her that the boy had yet to move, and she found her mind drifting to thoughts of him.

She had known of him, of course, she was there when he had been conceived, had been with him as he grew from egg to tiny human, and she had been there when he- and his sister- had been brought into world. Should she be honest with herself, she didn't much like that part. She had gotten used to feeling those two, and there was a certain camaraderie with the three of them being trapped within her current jailer, but then they had left. There was an emptiness that followed their departure, followed quickly by bitter jealousy.

And then, like them, she was once again brought into the world-

She had felt guilt for being so angered at the tiny, hairless apes that she had spent nine months with. Two red eyes had turned that guilt into new anger, and that anger into rage. Before she knew it she had slaughtered thousands and wrecked a good portion of the village that had kept her imprisoned for the past decades. She had been quite pleased.

And then she was, once again, sealed into an Uzumaki woman.

There was more to that, of course, for the man who sealed her was not Uzumaki and was exhausted from his efforts to defend his beloved village. As such, he would not have been able to seal her entirely within the Eight Trigram seal, even with aid from the being known as the Shinigami, there just wasn't enough room.

'Well, there was enough room, just not enough for him to be able to seal me within.'

Indeed, she had fit perfectly within the space, so perfectly that the 'gate' to the seal would not have been able to move into place, left dangling before her within the seal. It'd have been child's play for her to get free.

Namikaze Minato had been more clever than she had given him credit for.

He had not attempted to use the seal to keep her locked away, but rather he had used it purely as a container to keep her in, the real lock had been placed around the entirety of the Eight Trigram seal, to the point that should she somehow accomplish the miraculous feat of breaking through the first, she'd still be contained with the actual lock- a lock that was not left unguarded.

She was present when he completed that part, watched as he had the Shinigami brand his son on the left side of the boy's chest, bore witness as a second seal was applied. Minato had actually gazed up into her eyes, pinned as she was by the Great Toad Boss, and acknowledged her sentience as he smiled- smiled!- and proudly proclaimed. "A gift, you see, from father to son. I pass on to him my greatest legacy, my final masterpiece." Even as the cold dread has settled within her stomach, she had understood.

She knew exactly what that was. To think he had actually managed to finish it had been stupefying, such a thing shouldn't have even been possible- it had no right to exist, even within the hollow dreams of mankind.

It was something that encroached upon the realm of the gods themselves; something only confirmed when the Shinigami bristled at the sight of such a seal, as small as it was to begin, being placed upon the child's right forearm.

"Look upon him, Great Kitsune," Minato had begun. "And bear witness unto he who shall be your warden. Feast your eyes on this fragile innocence and realize that with every simple breath he draws, he defies the very realms of heaven."

To this day, she still couldn't decide if he was mocking her or simply speaking as a proud father.

But she knew, regardless, that he had spoken the truth. So much so that she had not even attempted to break free from this place, it was beyond hopeless. That's what brought her here now, trapped within a cage beneath whatever this building was supposed to represent, sealed within a young girl, and listening to that girl's brother as he emptied the pain of his heart into her prison.

'I suppose that means there are now two of us who suffer in here.'

Suffering brought her mind back to the past years she had spent in here. Yes, she had suffered, but it had been more her pride than anything else. Here was a boy whose pain filled the seal and, if she didn't know better, she'd say the seal itself was enjoying it.

Another feeling filled her, one of warmth and happiness, a carefree breeze under the summer sun. Indeed, it was a sun, one of the suns that the very thought of had driven her warden to this state. Quickly, his own pain drove that feeling from her, and just as quickly it returned. To think that he was here, wishing her chakra could have just ended his life while his sister was of gallivanting across the elemental nations with their mother was just sad.

Now that she thought of it, however, the Kyuubi had never really felt any sorrow or pain over these years until she had found herself connected to her warden. Just as he described her, his sister was like a small sun, always warm and happy. Even now, knowing they had left her brother behind, she was as cheerful as the spring. So, for eight years she had felt nothing but the joy of her container. It had always sickened her to know her jailer was so carefree while she was trapped down here in the darkness.

And then he had crashed into the seal, struck by some of the chakra that had been siphoned off of her for years. She had called out for him, in both surprise and alarm, as her senses were flooded by what it must have been like to be burned alive by her own chakra.

She was more surprised when the connection remained, his own part of the seal using her chakra as a medium to bind the two together through space and time. His feelings had proceeded to flow through the connection; confusion, fear, sadness, and worry. She felt his adrenaline spike as he fought for his life in that snatch and run gone wrong, felt his relief and weariness when he had ended it, and had even felt the small spark of hope and happiness when he made acquaintances with the prostitute.

Sadness, however, was the most prominent of feelings, nearly drowning her, and even though she was focusing only on his feelings lately, the occasional spike of happiness from his sister would manage to come through. The strange mix of gladness and sorrow was tantalizing to her, a little guilty pleasure she would never admit. She had come to enjoy his sadness both for that and for the change in her otherwise stagnant environment, but she did not take any pleasure in the fact that he was sad, suffering alone when he had spent the entirety of his life in the company of those he loved far more than himself.

'Kushina, if only you could see the pain you bring your son.'

She had killed millions in her time, and yet she gave a snort as she thought 'I could probably be a better mother to him than you.' She froze at the thought. The very notion was ridiculous, unfeasible, incomprehensible, but, maybe, just maybe, it might work.

To not just befriend her warden, but to gain his complete trust by replacing his two suns with herself, to become the guide he so desperately needed at this moment, to become the mother of this human child.

'Well, we'll just have to see where this goes now, won't we?'

Crimson eyes flashed eerily as a chilling grin parted her ruby lips.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was not pleased, but he could not fault them, no matter how much he wanted to. Uzumaki Naruto was a civilian, despite his clan, and thusly the hospital had no duty to inform him of the boy's release a fortnight ago. The Kyuubi's chakra mixed with his Uzumaki healing factor had left him in the clear. With no reason to hold him any longer, they let him go-

Without informing the Hokage.

The Hokage that thought the boy had spent the past two weeks under the care of the hospital while he had been busy both trying to figure out what the Yondaime Hokage had applied to his son and get in contact with his mother Uzumaki Kushina.

It had been a failure on both accounts.

Kushina had just left the fire capital and started on her way towards her ancestral home of Uzu. There was no one to send a message to in Uzu, and that meant he had to send it to a future destination and hope that they went there next. He had certainly been given a list of where they were to be going, but he knew Kushina well enough to know how easily distracted she got, especially when excited. Chances are she'd skip back and forth between places on his list at a whim, later claiming that she never specified in which order she'd visit things on the list.

In this case, such a thing was not in her best interests. She'd have plenty of time to regret her travel methods later, however, as there were certainly more pressing matters to attend to- like her son.

He still thought it had been a foolish notion, to leave while her son was attending his first academy day none the wiser, especially after promising to pick him up afterwards. If there were two things that Uzumaki took very seriously they were family and promises. In one fell swoop, Kushina had broken both.

He knew her reasons, of course, and understood them, but he knew without a doubt that there had to be a better way to set about doing it. Leaving him to figure out what had happened on his own was rather thoughtless and cruel.

The thought of him alone brought up the other reason he found himself displeased at the moment. She had left the boy with someone, but it was indirectly. Kushina had expected the boy to go straight to her old student, Yuuhi Kurenai, whom the Uzumaki woman saw as another daughter. She did not tell the boy to go to her, she did not have Kurenai pick him up at the academy, and from what he had gathered during his talk with Kurenai, she had not been in any way instructed to find the boy, only to take care of him when he came to stay with her.

The boy had not been at Kurenai's, and it was not hard to understand why when the woman would shift uncomfortably at the mere mention of his name. There was no doubt that the boy had picked up on such discomfort and as such he would never think to visit the woman for help. Kushina was either oblivious or ignorant- oblivious to the two's discomfort around one another, or ignorant in thinking her son would approach the Genjutsu mistress despite it.

No matter the reason, he had not gone and Kurenai had not searched for him, even after the news of his violent rejection from the clan compound had circled through Konohagakure.

"Monkey" he called for his own personal ANBU "Locate and retrieve Uzumaki Naruto. If he will not come, trail him and report back to me his current place of residence so that I may speak with him."

The monkey-faced man gave a quick bow and vanished to complete his assigned task.

Rubbing his face tiredly, Hiruzen lit his pipe and took a single deep drag, exhaling to hide his weary sigh. He needed to make sure the boy was alright, especially considering how quickly winter was coming and the fact that he had never been in his own before. The last thing the old Sarutobi wanted was for his successor's young son to freeze to death because his mother had completely sealed the house.

She hadn't mentioned that part in the plan, in fact, from what he could remember the ex-Jinchuriki had been expecting her son to stay there and go to her student whenever he needed help with something. Something must have changed in the last minute, or perhaps the seal had just malfunctioned, but Naruto suffered regardless.

He could only imagine how Naruto must have been feeling; left by his family without so much as a goodbye, knowing there was no one he could really turn to. 'Well,' Mused Hiruzen 'He could have come to me, though I suppose going to the Hokage because you find yourself homeless and alone sounds rather odd. He was always a bright child, he would think better than to bring something he thought of as unimportant to the rest of the village's wellbeing before me. We were never close enough for him to think of me as anything more than the Sandaime Hokage.'

It was a sad truth for the man. He had always been close to the boy's mother and had become akin to a surrogate grandfather to the young Naruko, but there was always a distance between himself and young Naruto. It may have stemmed from treating the boy in the same manner as his sister- like a child of his age- instead of like the mature young man he was, it may have been because the boy really didn't reach out beyond his family- not needing anything else in life, but Hiruzen suspected the distance may have been caused because the boy did not see him as 'Sarutobi-Jiji' like his mother and sister, but rather as his future commander.

In his presence, Naruto would never meet his eyes, always kept them focused to the floor or, when addressed, the wall behind the Hokage's head, staring straight forward. The young boy bowed every time they met and saluted every time his name was called. The boy had an almost unsettling air of professionalism when within the presence of his Kage and while Hiruzen may have wished for more of that from his shinobi, it left a bad taste in his mouth for one so young to do so.

Especially considering how close he considered himself to the child's family.

He drove such thoughts from his mind with another deep inhalation of smoke. 'It's not the time to focus on that right now, all that matters is that he's safe and, if possible, happy. The boy wasn't much of a child before they left, probably trying to be the man of the house, but with them gone, I fear his childhood will be quick to follow.'

Hiruzen didn't want that, not in the slightest. He wanted all the children of his village to enjoy a happy upbringing, or at least one in which they could be the children they were.

'Eight years old would be far too young for a child to die, and is much too soon for a man to be born.'

Hiruzen prayed that some of the boy's already fading innocence might still be saved before a boy was lost and a man emerged. He did not have much faith in his prayers.

'He was never a child, just sheltered; perhaps it would not be entirely a bad thing.'

With that thought in mind he leaned back in his chair, unsure if the creaking was from the furniture or his old bones, and waited patiently for his ANBU to return. How hard could it be to locate one young boy, even if the sun had hidden itself beneath the horizon? He gave a slight chuckle, it might actually prove a challenge for his ANBU, and one they may or might not appreciate.

'No matter,' He thought, staring out his office window at the nightscape of his beautiful village 'If they can't find him tonight, they'll certainly find him at the academy in the morrow. Iruka hasn't raised any hell about a missing student, so I can only assume he's been attending.'

That actually brought a frown to his face and he had to wonder if the young Chuunin even knew Naruto had been released. He'd have to look into it soon, especially if his ANBU somehow failed to locate the boy. He knew, however, that Monkey would recruit every registered shinobi and possibly even a large handful of civilians in his search for the boy before even considering reporting back empty handed.

It's why he chose him, after all.

Awful couldn't even begin to describe how she felt as she sat in her kitchen, her cold dinner untouched before her and the only illumination provided by a small, dim lamp that she had been meaning to replace for months now.

'Miserable falls short, too.' She mused, crimson eyes gazing out her window. The Hokage had visited her late in the afternoon, looking to the boy that had been expected to be with her. He left disappointed. She knew the boy was supposed to come to her when he couldn't locate his family, she was the one who was supposed to break the news to him and take care of him in their absence. He was a good kid, but a helpless momma's boy. He wouldn't know how to take care of himself with her gone.

'And yet he didn't come straight to me. I must have made quite an impression.'

She was honestly a little disappointed when the boy didn't show up. Surely she was better than nothing? Learning he was in the hospital had put that fear to rest. Hearing that he had been released and yet not having him come to her brought it back. Had she truly alienated the child so?

She should have visited him in the hospital, should have taken him in, but she was scarred, no, terrified to do so. Despite what many thought, it wasn't' that she couldn't stand the presence of the boy, not that it made her uncomfortable, but rather that she felt too relaxed and too comfortable in his presence. It was that sense of ease that put her on guard.

She had only felt a similar comfort around the Yondaime Hokage, who had been her father figure, but it was nowhere on this level. The sheer contentment she felt in his presence was almost enough to lull her to sleep all on its own and powerful Jounin Kunoichi or not, he was an adorable child. She could think of nothing better than using him as a teddy bear for afternoon naps after he returned from the academy each day.

She couldn't stand it.

She was supposed to be one of Konoha's most powerful Kunoichi, a rare Genjutsu user unparalleled within the village of the leaf and yet here she was helpless as a kitten when it came to the son of her sensei. Helpless to the boy she called brother.

His warm chakra was a perfect blend of Minato's and Kushina's, as were his looks. He possessed his father's mind and his mother's love, a little ball of sunshine that tried to support everyone he held dear.

She was not one of them.

That dagger pierced deeply into her heart. There was little more she wanted than to be his big sister, or his aunt, or his second mother, anything really. She just wanted to be able to help him, to be one of his precious people. And yet she could not bring herself to relax in his presence, unable to fight down her traitorous shinobi instincts that screamed "Anything that can bring your guard down so easily is a danger, a threat, something to be eliminated."

She could not count the many times she had been forced to restrain her reflex to attack him- did not know how often she would be forced to put back the kunai she had found herself about to throw and completely remove all weapons on her person just to remain in the same room as him. But he probably did. He was not a fool, he knew she did not like being in his presence, though he probably didn't know her reasons, and he was also perceptive far beyond his years. She knew he had seen her barely stop herself from lashing out on more than one occasion.

Hell, he had probably seen them all.

But he also was a child, perhaps not so much in mind, but in body and in experience. He couldn't know he had such an effect on her, or even why, he didn't have any shinobi instincts of his own yet. He would only see a woman who could not stand his presence to the point that she would have to physically restrain herself lest she kill him within his home.

The thought alone brought her to tears.

'Why can't you see that I don't want to hurt you, that I don't hate you? I just want to be there for you, I want to help you, why won't you let me?'

She knew it wasn't him, he wasn't keeping her away, and she was. Always giving him disdainful looks and giving him the cold shoulder in hopes of driving him away so she wouldn't have to deal with the issue had worked perhaps too well. She didn't want to do it in the first place.

'If I had just spent more time with him, became close to him, gave him the guidance and support he would have needed from an older sibling, I'd probably be used to his presence by now-

I could probably be holding him'

Tears began streaming down her cheeks, but were quickly stopped as she clamped down on her emotions.

'I have no right to sit here pitying myself for not having him if I still can't bring myself to go get him. I don't even know how he's been living lately.' The image of Naruto lying in a box in some dark alleyway, shivering in the cold Konoha night made her chest tighten painfully. Her resolve to go find him grew as she stood up, ready to be what she needed to be for the boy, but another stray thought crossed her mind, leaving her to freeze before she could take her first step.

She approached the box, looking in to see his pale skin and signature red hair, but as she reached in he flinched back, pressing himself as tightly as he could to the back wall. "No, please, don't hurt me!" The boy cried. Biting back a gasp, she shook her head. "I'm not going to hurt you, I'm here to take care of you."

"Lies!" He shouted. "I know you hate me, you want to kill me, I've seen you go for your kunai whenever you see me!" The boy whimpered, tears streaming down his cheeks and soaking his cardboard home. "Please, I won't go near you again, I'll stay away from Kaa-san and Naruko-chan, I know you all hate me, just let me live and I'll never be a bother to any of you ever again!"

'What!?'

She chocked back a lump in her throat, her hands trembling and her chest tightening as if the Shinigami himself was grabbing hold of her soul. "I promise, I won't hurt you, just come with me, please." When he made no move aside from frightened shivers and whimpers she grabbed for him, gripping tightly his ripped shirt.

"No! No! Please, let me go!" She found herself getting frustrated as he squirmed and writhed in terror, desperate to get away. Couldn't he see she just wanted to help him? Why wouldn't he let her help him? Frustration grew to anger and her rage spilled over as he finally managed to escape her grasp.

"Fine!" She shouted. "If you want to stay away it just makes it easier on me!" She turned and began walking away with a huff before she heard him speak up softly. The low, gentle tone was almost solemn and instantly banished any anger within her. She turned and froze.

"So, If I was gone, it would be easier on people? Kaa-san and Naruko-chan didn't want me, it'd probably be better if they didn't have to worry about running into me.

'No.'

She must have dropped a kunai in the struggle to remove him from his box and it cheerfully reflected the pale light of the moon as he held it to his neck.

'No.'

He gave her a small smile, filled with such bittersweet sorrow she couldn't believe it was an eight year old boy standing before her. "At least I'll be able to make you happy. I'm glad you'll be the last thing I see."

'No!'

"Goodbye." It went in fast and hard, no hesitance as he jammed the tip through his neck and up into his head, his smile never leaving his face. It was not the smile that caught her eyes, however, as his amethyst gaze had completely captured her own ruby stare. She was unable to look away as those bright purple orbs grew dim and cold, all traces of light and life vanishing into the night.

His body hit the ground with a thud.

Cold horror took hold of her heart and soul, a feeling of such anguish that for a moment she forgot that she was standing in her apartment and staring into space. Gracelessly she fell back into her chair, placing her head in her hands as she quietly wept.

She needed to help him, to reach out to him. Her imagination was betraying her, that wasn't about to happen, she knew it wouldn't, her instincts knew it wouldn't, the god's themselves knew it wouldn't, but her heart still feared it might. Try as she might, she couldn't banish the image of his lifeless face from her mind, his eyes empty and his smile just as sorrowful as it had been before the Kunai.

It was a hard realization that hit her- her own cowardice, and she couldn't seem to overcome the horrors of her heart and mind born from fear of losing someone she had never had. The painful truth took hold, bringing with them even more salty tears.

'I can't do it.'

That will conclude act II. I hope to see you in my theater again for chapter three.