Um: ...Happy ending, it's coming. Two chapters left! Har har!

Fate's Garden

Part 4 - Hysteria

Chapter 6 - Everything Can Hurt

"Um…Sasuke," Naruto called, staring up at what had been the sky; now a fathomless grey, dark and heavy like a thick blanket.

"What is it dobe?" Sasuke turned and looked back at him.

"The sky's gone."

"Hah, now you know how I feel."

"No, I mean really, it's…is this what my dad meant?"

"I didn't say that I didn't believe you, I just don't care. I can't see the sky either, now come on, let's get home."

Naruto took Sasuke's outstretched hand, allowing himself to be led by the blind boy with chakra feet. As they were shuffling towards the apartment Naruto wondered if the people around him noticed. He peered at them, and they all seemed happy, or as normal as could be. Everything was a bit fuzzy around the edges, and becoming less clear. Things distorted into notions of what they had been. Naruto wasn't sure he liked it. He knew he didn't like this whole concept of not having a family.

He knew it wasn't Sasuke's fault, it wasn't; he was just the messenger. But why had his father decided this? Why was he to become Fate? Why did the worlds need to be cleansed? What was wrong with them? Naruto didn't understand. One of the things that had kept him going through these lives, and kept him learning his lessons, had been the excitement of having a family to go home to. The thought of that utopia that awaited, filled with cousins and aunts and uncles, and his father, his grandfather…and mate. That's what he wanted, and he wanted it so bad it hurt. Now he didn't get to have it? No rhyme or reason behind it, it had just been snatched from his eager fingers just like that that.

Dad? Naruto thought, Are you listening to me?

There was no reply.

You have to be right? I mean, gods are omnipotent, you know everything there is to know and that includes what I'm thinking right now, Naruto tried to steady his fast beating heart. Sasuke was leading him up the stairs now.

Why? Why is this happening? Why are you leaving me, why is grandpa, and the rest of the family…dying? I know they're becoming something else, but, really, that's what it'll be like. My entire family dying.

Sasuke picked the key out of Naruto's pocket and used it to unlock the apartment door. He pulled Naruto inside and over to the couch for what he guessed was a nap.

There has to be another way. The worlds don't have to be gotten rid of? Right? I mean, if they're unclean, why don't we clean them? We're gods, grandpa's Fate, can't we clean the mess we've made? Isn't throwing it away sort of like…giving up? It's a cop out.

Naruto found himself laid down on the couch, his mate nestled on top of him, head tucked under his chin. He listened to the quiet. A look outside the living room window showed him nothing but gray. There was nothing now. The worlds were ending. Why would they end while they, the new Fate were still in them?

Dad, you have to understand, this is idiotic and senseless. This can't be set in stone, I know it can't.

"You stubborn childe."

Naruto's head turned, and sitting on the coffee table was a large orange fox. It was glaring. Naruto glared back.

"You are still mortal, you do not understand."

"You're right, I don't understand, and I don't think I will, even if I am a god! This is stupid!" Naruto wondered if Sasuke could hear what they were saying. His breathing was even, and he gave off every impression of one who was fast asleep.

"It is not, stupid. The worlds are tainted; a new slate is not an option."

"It is so an option, and a really crappy one!"

"Childe-"

"Shut up, Dad! You're wrong, grandpa's wrong, and you know it!"

"How can Fate be wrong?"

"Really easy!"

The fox lethargically arched a brow at him and Naruto paused, "Well, okay maybe not wrong but lazy! He's not trying to fix what he fucked up he's just throwing it all away!"

"Why don't you tell him this yourself?"

"I'd be-"

Naruto shuddered at the transition, finding himself in the garden, "-glad to."

There was color here, a sky, grass, water, and the air was warm. It was everything the world still should be for the mortals. Instead it had become this sky-less grey monstrosity. It was fading, and Naruto hated it. He glowered at the old man who appeared, sitting on the short red bench on the small island that was so familiar.

Naruto stomped right up to that laid back, calm little old man and grabbed him by the collar, hoisting him off his feet. Half-molded figurines fell from his hands and he stared into Naruto's eyes without fear or question. This lack of reaction only made him angrier.

"What you're planning is wrong!"

"Naruto," his grandfather began gently, "you have become very attached to the idea of your family, haven't you?"

Naruto scoffed, "Of course."

"Would you let the cleansing happen if your family remained?"

"Is that even possible?"

"Fate would die and there would be a new chaos."

"But wouldn't I take your place?"

"No, Fate would cease to exist, and you gods would rule and create and mold at your whim. Create and destroy."

"It is a sense of transference, childe, if I am to absorb these tainted worlds, our energies would cancel out and no more fate, and no more worlds. Each of you would take a part of yourselves and create anew, and from above watch over them."

"You're lying, that's too good to be true."

"Why would I lie?"

"To trick me, to avoid taking responsibility for your mess," Naruto glared.

"Wouldn't my death be accountability?"

"Dying for some self-conceived sense of nobility is not accountable, it is immature and selfish, and I find it funny that Fate could be both."

"What would you have me do?" his grandfather asked him, still held in his clutches, "Destroy the worlds and suffer? I cannot suffer, I see, know, hear, understand everything, I am more than flesh and pain, you cannot hurt me."

Naruto at first felt powerless, holding the old man a good four feet off the ground. This man, more, this entity, this strange being, that was his father's father, was horrible and poisoned. He was lying, the worlds weren't bad, he could feel it. There was nothing wrong with them. Everything could be hurt, even if it wasn't in the true sense of the word. As he glared at his grandfather, it came to him.

"Yes, I think I can."