It's not gonna be alright.
It's not gonna be okay.

'Dreaming in Dog Years' by the Red Chord

Neji deactivated the Byakugan, moving back into the branches of the oak as Kakashi left the house, book held before his face. 'Good. Now to deal with Gaara.' He motioned to Shino, who nodded, removing the large vial of ink from his jacket. A moth fluttered down from the street lamp outside, took the uncorked vial, and flew away to trace a circle of blood around the house.

Hinata gave him a thumbs-up, allowing him to signal Sasuke. The last Uchiha closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and descended the tree to stand illuminated in the pool of warm light cast by the street lamp.

His shadow seemed to stretch for miles. Points of blue chakra flamed from Sasuke's gloved fingers as he knelt, finishing the last hand seal, and slammed his hands onto the circle of blood, activating the Ninjutsu seal.

"Go," Neji whispered, watching Sasuke and Sakura melt from the darkness and take the stairs to the front door.

Gaara stiffened as the sand of his gourd collapsed in on itself, showering the carpet in brown. 'Shit.' He crossed the room and drew the curtain back an inch, looking out at the blue circle of light surrounding the safe house. He ran a few preliminary seals for a Henge, and cursed aloud when nothing happened, leaning forward as a few people moved towards the house, easily seen.

'Wait. Naruto's friends are doing this?' He tried to control his rage, feeling the blood throbbing in his head. He wiped sweaty palms on his pants, the coppery stench of fear thick in his nose.

"Naruto." His voice shook. "Your friends have sealed the house against Ninjutsu. I can only assume they've found out about the Kyuubi somehow, and are going to try to break the contract. That cannot be allowed to happen."

Naruto closed his eyes, and he looked so exhausted, so resigned, the blue shadows of his eyes veiled.

"Yeah. The end of the world isn't something I want to have on my shoulders."

Gaara stepped away from the window, swallowing as he saw the front door cave inward. "Head for the woods. I'll hold off the rest of them for as long as I can. Can you run with your pelvis broken?" His mouth was dry. Naruto shrugged. 'He'll do what he needs to.'

"Gaara?" Naruto's voice was terribly small.

"Yes?" Naruto opened his eyes and lifted one side of his torn mouth in a sad parody of a grin.

"The fox is laughing." Gaara crossed the room to him, snarled, "Go!" and rushed towards the front door. As if from a great distance, he heard Naruto leave the house. He turned back to the door in time to see it crash to the floor. 'This… is a battle I can't win.' He firmed his resolve, slid into a basic stance, and waited.

"Gaara." Sasuke stepped forward, his booted feet crunching on the splinters of the door. Neji, Sakura, and Shino were behind him.

"Uchiha," Gaara acknowledged. Sasuke stopped, seeing a kunai gleam in Gaara's left hand. The fear of this boy, that had never really left him, slithered up into his chest.

"Where is Naruto?"

Gaara smirked, and in the lamplight, his eyes- like a demon's- were as yellow as fear.

"He's not here."

"Please," Sakura stepped forward, freezing as the pale, baleful gaze swung to her- like a rat before a snake, Sasuke thought distractedly- "we only want to help him. You're his friend- help us!"

"You can't help him," Gaara bit out, "by meddling in things you don't understand. Just go back to your lives and leave him in peace. He deserves that much consideration, at least."

"Will you move aside?"

Gaara's gaze flickered to Shino. He smiled, lips peeling back from teeth and exposing a fanged, gaping grin.

"No."

Sasuke launched himself towards the smiling Sand-nin, dodging the clumsy swing of his kunai, and threw him to the ground, coiling a hand in red hair and jerking his head up, ready to bash that grimly smiling face into the ground, the face of this man who called himself Naruto's 'friend.'

Gaara twisted under him, snarling in a voice that held the echoes of Shukaku, stilling only as Sasuke removed his tanto from its sheath and held it to the pale throat.

"You are going," he didn't recognize his own voice, "to tell me where Naruto is, and so help me God if you don't I have no reservations about killing you right now." Gaara went limp under him, his head falling forward. There was a sort of sad triumph in his voice,

"It doesn't matter. My life means nothing." Neji stepped forward and crouched beside them, sliding a hand under Gaara's chin and lifting his head.

"Then it's a good thing we have Shikamaru, Chouji, and the rest in the woods, isn't it?"

Gaara laughed hoarsely.

"You are such fucking idiots. You would condemn the world to-" he went slack, blood running from the rapidly growing bruise on the back of his skull. Sasuke flipped his tanto around and slid it back into the sheath.

"We don't have time for him. We need to get to Naruto."

Neji nodded, rose from his crouch, and offered a hand to Sasuke. The four shinobi hurried through the house, leaving Gaara lying in the wreckage of the doorway.

"God damn it, get off me!" Naruto bucked under Kiba's weight, jerking against Shikamaru's shadows holding him fast to the ground and ignoring Hinata's gentling hand. Neji paused.

"We can't do that," Hinata was nearly crying. Naruto threw his head back, slamming it against the earth, and howled to the night sky above them, his spine bent in a straining bow.

He caught sight of them and fell back to the ground, his eyes wide and betrayed. "Sasuke? Sakura? You guys, too?"

Sakura's smile was watery as she crossed the clearing and knelt beside him, placing a soothing hand on his cheek.

"We're here to help you, don't worry." Naruto's voice cracked. "'Help… me?' No, let me go, because it's coming and-" his eyes were blue fires in the darkness, tears flowing, "and if it doesn't get me then it'll summon the eight demons and it'll be the end, don't you see? Don't you understand!?"

"You didn't need to do this for us, Naruto," Sasuke's voice was quiet, as if he was talking to a delusional child. "We would have loved you just the same." Naruto stared at them, and then he threw back his head and screamed. The sound tore from his throat, a rising shriek of pain and betrayal and denial and agony so terrible that Neji wanted to weep-

A red light was glowing beneath Naruto's shirt. 'Oh no.'

"Everyone, get back!" Neji roared, but his voice was lost in the mounting windstorm of noise. The sound was like that of a sheet of paper as large as the universe ripping, like the cry of a thousand damned souls, like glass fracturing and splintering and rubbing against each other, and all the while the light was growing bigger and bigger, and Neji was ready to scream- the pressure of the mistake he had made inside his head was too great-

And then there was silence. Neji looked up into molten amber eyes that held Hell in their depths.

Nine great tails of burning chakra twined through the air, and Neji could feel his skin blister. The Kyuubi's skin was as pale as alabaster, its hair as red as blood in sunlight. Neji scrambled backward, unable to look away from this creature in front of him, feeling chakra as wide and deep as the universe yawn in front of him, waiting to swallow the world.

And then the beast… spoke.

"So these are the ones I have to thank for allowing me to end their world? Rather scrawny group." It stepped off Naruto's limp body and onto the forest floor, gliding towards the center of the clearing. The grass died wherever it touched. Neji jerked around to look at the rest, who all stared at the Kyuubi with mouths agape. More than one of them had tears shimmering on their cheeks.

Neji vomited. The Kyuubi stopped in the center of the clearing and cast a scornful glance back at them, fangs gleaming in the darkness.

"Were this world to survive, all humanity would curse your names as the harbingers of their destruction." It flung its arms wide, casting the shadow of a cross across the clearing, tilted its head back, and roared to the sky,

"Tailed beasts! I, who have been sealed in the belly of a child, summon you once more. Heed my call and answer me.

Shukaku, incarnation of desert and insanity, heed my call in Akatsuki's prison and come to me.

Nibi-neko, incarnation of fire and hate, heed my call in Akatsuki's prison and come to me.

Sanbi, incarnation of water and sorrow, heed my call in Akatsuki's prison and come to me.

Yonbi, incarnation of poison and rage, heed my call from your human prison and come to me.

Gobi, incarnation of wood and deception, heed my call from your human prison and come to me.

Rokubi, incarnation of lightning and terror, heed my call from your human prison and come to me.

Shichibi, incarnation of night and sin, heed my call from your human prison and come to me.

Hachibi, incarnation of twilight and death, heed my call from your human prison and come to me."

Neji's throat worked, but he could say nothing, could do nothing to stop the end of their world from approaching them, could do nothing to erase the knowledge that this was their fault. The Kyuubi roared one last time,

"Come to me, and we shall engulf the world!" And then the demon was gone.

Kiba screamed. Neji turned from the darkness in front of him, to see Kiba's face, pale as the moon, upturned, his finger pointed, trembling sickly, at the sky. He looked and nearly vomited again.

Far above them, softly, silently, the stars were blinking out, one by one.

Kakashi jerked as he came around the corner, his eyes narrowing at the smashed state of the door. 'Akatsuki? No. They wouldn't leave a calling card.' He reached up, shifted his headband, and opened the Sharingan.

'Sasuke's chakra is in the seal, but it- ah, now it's gone. Naruto's friends must have-' he froze. 'No.' He sprang into action, sprinting towards the doorway, heart hammering in his chest.

Gaara lay on the floor, his pale face stained with blood, dull green eyes staring out at nothing. Kakashi crossed the room in one long stride and knelt by him, checking his pulse. It thudded, slow but strong, under his fingers. 'At least he's alive.' Carefully, he channeled chakra into Gaara's head, probing delicately for the source of the contusion. 'No internal bleeding, good. Now just turn it like… so-' Gaara jerked in his grip, coughing wetly.

"Kakashi!" Never had he seen him so close to panic. "They went after Naruto and-" Kakashi slid his arms under Gaara and lifted him, using his free hand to perform the seals for teleportation.

With a soft pop they were gone. They came back to earth at the edge of the clearing, and Kakashi felt himself go very still.

Naruto lay in the center of the clearing, unmoving, his eyes closed and hands outflung. His chest barely rose and fell at all. Kakashi raised his head to stare at the gathered Rookie Nine. They flinched and quailed away under his gaze. Even Sasuke, bold Sasuke, unrepentant and arrogant, looked away, tears shining in the darkness.

"What have you done?" he whispered. Neji opened his mouth, but he cut him off, "My god, what have you done?!" He let Gaara go, distantly aware of Gaara's going to Naruto, but the fury inside him was so great that the world seemed awash in blood. He found himself across the clearing without any knowledge of how he had gotten there, hands curled in Sasuke's shirt as he shook him back and forth, heedless of Sakura's calming hand, snarling with hatred, hatred for the end of their world,

"I'll kill you! I'll rip you to fucking pieces, you arrogant little bastard!"

"We only meant it for the best," Sasuke whispered. Kakashi stopped, and set Sasuke back on the ground, old, old pain welling inside him.

"Yeah. Yeah, everyone always means it for the best. But-" he closed his eyes and struggled for control, fingers curling into trembling fists, "didn't he tell you what would happen?" They all looked away. He laughed, the sound harsh and deadened.

"And you didn't listen, did you? For once in your lives, you didn't fucking listen, and because of that Konoha's going to be wiped off the face of the earth. I-" he turned away, hunching his shoulders.

"Did you not trust me?" His voice was flat. "Didn't you know that we would have stopped the rapes if we could? If I didn't do anything, if the Hokage didn't do anything, couldn't you have figured out that there was a reason? You're a genius, Nara. Why didn't you use your brains? If you didn't trust me, you should have trusted Naruto. Or did you not trust him either?"

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said, her voice trembling, "the sky." He looked up at the vast expanse of darkness above them, fighting against the vertigo behind his eyes. "Naruto said that would happen. It's the first of many omens, but no worries-" he felt his lips stretch into a pained sneer, "we won't be around to see the rest of them." Gaara stood, holding Naruto's limp body close to him, and walked towards them, the grass crumbling to ash beneath his feet.

"Go home," Kakashi said heavily, "the Hokage will want to speak to you all in the morning. Go home." As if from a great distance, he heard them disappear with little pops. He turned, slowly, and put his arms out to accept Naruto's warm weight, gazing down at the still face.

"It was all for nothing, in the end," he said, turning away and beginning to walk towards the house. Gaara's hand stole out and captured his own.

"No." The former vessel's voice was firm. "Naruto did it for something. He did it for us, so we could be happy."

"Is there even happiness anymore?" Gaara stepped in front of him, freed his hand, and reached up, cupping his face as he stretched onto his toes. Dry lips brushed across his own.

"We can find that out for ourselves. But I am happy with you." He smiled weakly in reply. "Thanks."

Naruto opened his eyes and stared at the blank whiteness of the ceiling. 'Ug-ly! Jeez, we could have painted it anything other then white.' Without thought, his hand drifted down to rest on the seal on his belly, feeling the strange warmth burn through the thin cotton of his shirt.

'Don't think about-' his hand curled into a fist, 'Don't. It didn't happen. I just went to bed last night and that was it, really.' Tears burned in his eyes. 'Nothing happened, nothing-'

He took a shuddering breath. It did happen. He remembered it.

"I should hate them," he said aloud to the silence.

"But you don't," Kakashi said from the doorway. Naruto rolled his head to stare at the tall man, at the drawn lines of his face and the dark shadows under his visible eye. "I want to hate them," he whispered. Kakashi crossed the room, took a graceless seat on the side of the bed, and took his hand, a restless thumb tracing the veins on the back of his hand.

"They only meant it for the best." Naruto closed his eyes, feeling a sob stick in the back of his throat, terrible and unfocused. "That's all… anyone ever means it for." Kakashi's hand left.

"I'd like to be alone for a while," he said. Kakashi's weight left the bed, a warm hand stroking his forehead for a solitary moment. "Okay, then." A heartbeat of silence. "Okay, then."

The door clicked shut. He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling again. 'I guess… this is it.' Slowly, he raised his thumb to his mouth and bit into the pad, feeling blood spring across his tongue. A few seals later, he lay back down.

A weight sprang into being on his chest. He looked down and grinned weakly at the orange frog on his chest, raising a heavy hand to scratch Gamakichi's eye ridges. "How you doing?" Gamakichi blinked, tilting his head.

"Fine. What happened to you?"

"Kyuubi."

"Ah." Naruto sighed, stilling his hand and letting it rest on Gamakichi's vest for a long moment.

"You remember when we discussed the Last Summon Clause?"

"What, that the last wish of a summoner has to be carried out? Yeah, you mentioned that there was going to be a time that was going to come in handy."

Naruto closed his eyes, breathing,

"It's time."

Gamakichi rested a flipper on Naruto's cheek, his voice uncharacteristically grave. "What is your wish, summoner?"

"Go into Akatsuki's lair. There's a scroll there that's marked 'Demonic Power Harnessing Jutsu'. It harnesses the power of a demon inside a person and transforms them into that demon for a little while, giving them control of all the chakra. The leader wanted to use it on himself. Bring it to me, and I'll release you from your contract."

The flipper left, and he opened his eyes to stare into yellow ones.

"This is your wish?"

He smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, that's it."

Gamakichi nodded. "I'll have that scroll for you by tomorrow evening." The summon paused awkwardly. "I've enjoyed working with you."

"Me too. Now get going!"

Gamakichi disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and Naruto sat up.

"Well, now I've just got to convince the old hag of my plan. Why do I feel a sense of impending doom?"