This is the longest chapter of anything I've ever written, by far.

Use Your Illusion II: Vs. the Id!

As the outlines of his vision returned to their normal, un-blurry state, Naruto got up off the ground in the alley where he'd fallen to the genjutsu.

Shaking the proverbial cobwebs out of his head, Naruto regained his bearings and headed off to 1408 Moll Street.

Changing his attire until it was more… upper-class, so to speak, Naruto began using his considerable speed while still on the ground, running until he arrived only a couple of minutes later.

The two Kurama Clan guards asked, "Who are you, and what is your business?"

Pleasantly smiling, Naruto said, "A girl named Yakumo was asking for my help, and told that the password was Gargoyle. May I come in?"

Uncaring because he'd given the correct password, the guards simply let him through.

One of the guards came to escort him to Yakumo's chamber, as they called it.

Looking around, it was a very nice place: a two-story, white manor that looked like it held at least twenty rooms or so. It was almost built in a style reminiscent of a Medieval-era Western castle.

Walking through a Zen garden, he entered the building and, now alone, jumped the staircase in a single bound, without making a single noise.

Letting out a combined pulse of Spider-sense and Symbiote-sense, he detected Yakumo and continued until he was right outside her door.

Knocking, he asked, "It's me, Naruto. Can I come in?"

He heard her say, "Go on ahead."

Opening the door and entering her room, Naruto said, "So I think you were going to explain more of your problem to me?"

"Yes, well, I already told you that my Id is trying to take over my body and mind so it can destroy the village. You also know that if anything happens in my genjutsu, it happens here in the real world, too. The monster you fought last night was one of my Id's lieutenants, and it was fairly strong, too. But you defeated the Grey Gargoyle with almost no trouble at all. You also weakened my Id—not by much, but a little. If you could manage to keep fighting off and killing my Id's monsters, you should be able to take away most of its power. Will you help me?"

Naruto asked, "How exactly would I do that?"

Her face the picture of shame, Yakumo replied, "I'd have to bring you into my mind, and once there, you'd have to kill as many of my Id's monsters as you can, therefore weakening it. You're the only one who can help me—the only person who can stop my Id without taking away my dream of being a ninja. Kurenai-sensei wants me to give up being a ninja, and the Hokage—he wants to seal up my genjutsu!"

By this point, she had gotten worked into hysterics, and was sobbing into Naruto's shoulder. Awkwardly patting her back, Naruto said, "Hey, I killed that Gargoyle-teme, didn't I? I'm going to be Hokage someday, and I've got to help everybody who needs it. You asked for my help, and by Odin, I'll stop your Id no matter what!"

Still crying somewhat, Yakumo looked at him and asked, "But you could die—you can't be any older than I am. Why do you want to risk your life for me? You helped me—I don't want you to die…"

Naruto grinned and said, "Hey, I won't die. Not ever before I can achieve my dream of becoming Hokage. And while I'm at it, I'll do everything I can to help make your dream come true, too."

Feeling a sensation of hope welling up inside, Yakumo wiped away her tears and said, "Okay, let's do this."

Bringing her hands to the sides of Naruto's face, she began an incantation:

"Your mind to my mind, your thoughts to my thoughts. Our minds are one."

Suddenly, they both collapsed.

Looking at the scene around him, Naruto said, "No offense, Yakumo-chan, but the inside of your head is kind of creepy."

He stood in what seemed to be the mixture of a graveyard and a battle arena of some sort.

A man robed all in white with a red mask appeared and asked him, "State thy name, thou wretched cur, so that I may know whom I have slain."

Stepping back, Naruto asked, "Wait, why do you want to kill me?"

Advancing, the white-robed man replied, "Thou shalt not deceive me, thou servant of Idou!"

Realizing what this was about, Naruto asked, "You think I serve the Id? You're wrong—I'm here to help FIGHT the Id! What's your name? Mine's Naruto Uzumaki."

The white-robed man halted in his advance, and stated, "Thou sayest that thy allegiance lay with the Lady Yakumo, and that thou wouldst aid me in combat against the vile Idou? Thy words are those of a silver-tongued devil, and yet have the ring of truth. Very well, Sir Naruto, I shall accept thy aid in battle. As for my title, it is Sir Ian, White Knight of the Heart."

Sir Ian bowed, showing an amount of respect for Naruto, who returned the gesture.

"So tell me, Sir Ian, how do we defeat the Id?"

"Idou is immortal and cannot be destroyed—to do so would cause great harm to the Lady Yakumo, as they are bound inexplicably. Idou can, however, be brought under control. But to do this, we must first put a stop to his foul minions."

With a steadily growing sense of unease, Naruto caused the symbiote to begin covering his body as he asked, "I'm not sure what I should be asking—how many minions does he have, or how we're supposed to kill them."

Before Ian could remark about Naruto suddenly changing his appearance, he said, "Don't worry about it. This… suit I'm wearing makes me stronger and faster, that's all. And I can also make weapons from it… basically, you have your sword, and I have my suit. Let's leave it at that, shall we?"

Nodding, Ian jerked as if he'd had a cold chill, and at the same time, Carnage's Spider-sense detected major threats.

As one, they looked to see an army of a thousand monsters—vampires, demons, zombies, werewolves, copies of Frankenstein's monster, and undefined forms, seemingly led by creatures from the gates of Hell.

Ian drew his sword, revealing a wickedly curved black scimitar, with white lightning patterns engraved upon each side of the blade. "Sir Naruto, or whatever thou wishest to call thyself in thy new form, I propose a contest of sorts. Whosoever may smite down the greatest number of Idou's knaves shall be triumphant. The victor may claim the honor of being known as the greatest of Lady Yakumo's guardians."

"In other words, whichever one of us kills more of those freaks gets bragging rights? You're on—and for future reference, Carnage is my name. And my game's a little something I like to call…"

Leaping forward and lengthening his right arm into a chain-sword, he finished, "SLAUGHTER SPREE!!!!"

The monsters were numerous, but weak; whereas Ian and Carnage numbered only two, but had the strength of two million.

Ripping through the various things, Carnage clawed, punched, and ruthlessly swiped at anything within his considerable reach. They weren't very full of life-energy, as he quickly discovered, but he realized that he was stealing energy from the Id itself—but at the same time, from Yakumo as well.

Unable to kill them in any other manner, however, Carnage tried to accelerate the massacre.

Not far away, Ian was also faring well against his opponents.

Bringing his sword to bear, he channeled yellow energy into it and vertically struck the ground, releasing a shockwave that cleaved a dozen or so of the monsters in pieces. (Think 'Blade Beam')

"Die, thou foul cretins! By Odin, I shall send thee to Niflheim!"

Slashing through another swath of monsters, he began to chant:

"Soul wrought of terra corrupt, quelling impurity, purging the stream to beckon forth an ultimate fate. Behold mighty Chaos, Omega's squire to the lofty heavens!"

Flames began to swirl around Ian, incinerating the various demons and nightmares and hell-spawns before him. Then, he dispersed it in a massive wave of pure emotion, creating a wake of devastation beyond the power of words to describe.

Between Ian's grand massacre and Carnage's slaughter spree, it was a miracle that they'd managed to keep track.

Parrying an attack from a blade-beast, Ian shouted, "I have slain three hundred, eighty-four! How farest thou!?"

Clawing a werewolf to death, Carnage replied, "Counting that one, four hundred and six!"

Smiling behind his mask, Ian declared, "It seems that thou hast greater might than I had thought. Thus, I shall no longer stay my hand—behold the White Knight's power!"

He then surrounded himself with white crescents that evoked thought of the moon, before hurling them around him, tearing the assorted cannon fodder apart.

Carnage, not willing to be outdone, surrounded himself with enemies as he ejected spines from all over his body, skewering over twenty of them.

Grinning maniacally, Carnage cried out, "Five-oh-four, bitch!"

Ian merely sighed as he said, "Had I used my full power from the very beginning of our duel, thy victory wouldst never have come. But even so, yet another battle has been won for the Lady Yakumo!"

Suddenly, absolute darkness enveloped the pair as a voice from beyond the Great Ethereal accosted them. It spoke with two voices: one in the ancient dialect Ian used, and another imitating Carnage's manner of speech.

"Foolish mortals; thou hast brought thy own doom upon thee. Sayeth thy prayers now, whilst thou still hath a chance. Pitiful humans—I will enjoy the symphony of your screams as I rend you limb from limb! Beg for mercy, and I'll give you a quick death!"

Ian summoned a white, luminescent staff and twirled it around, casting light into the area once more.

He and Carnage stepped back involuntarily; for Idou/the Id was truly a monster.

It was hunched over, like a gorilla, but resembled more of a hell-dog. Vicious horns curved over its skull like a ram, and bulging muscles rippled under its skin. Ivory slits flickered back and forth between Carnage and Ian, seemingly trying to decide which to disembowel first. (In this instance, the Id/Idou looks sort of like the boss Ifrit from FFX-2)

Carnage asked, "Hey, you—if you're the Id, or Idou, or whatever the hell you're called, then you're going to leave Yakumo-chan alone, or else. That's your first, last, and only warning, you hear me?"

"Bah! You, warning me?! Child, I shall laugh as I watch Yakumo beg me not to kill you! Thou foolish child, thy words are mere boasting—thy power is meaningless before my own. Thou, however, White Knight—if thou wouldst join me, I shall endeavor to spare thee from grim demise. What sayest thou?"

Gripping his staff in one hand and his blade in the other, Ian declared, "I say to thee: take thy lies to a simple-minded knave who wouldst believe thee, wretched cur!"

Giving his battle cry, Ian and Carnage leaped at the Id, Ian with his sword and staff; Carnage with bladed tendril-whips sprouting from his arms.

Leaping out of the way to avoid them, Idou spat forth a burst of flame, attempting to incinerate Ian—the only one he considered a threat, since Carnage/Naruto was not of Yakumo's mind. In short, Idou had just underestimated not just Naruto Uzumaki, but Carnage—and almost no one had EVER underestimated Carnage and lived.

Using a moon-like shield, Ian blocked the stream of fire before retaliating with a lightning-slash from his scimitar. Trying to evade it, Idou lost track of Carnage, who struck from above, screaming, "In the immortal words of the Thing—IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!!!"

He landed on the back of the neck, and anchored by the symbiote, grabbed Idou's head by the snout and yanked back—an action that would have easily snapped any other creature's neck.

"All right, you nightmarish bag of scum, listen and listen well: you're going to let Yakumo be in peace from now on, or else we're going to kick your subconscious ass again and again until you back off! As we sit here, I'm eating away at you, making you weaker just by touching you. All I have to do is sit here until you give up and cooperate, or else until you're too weak to argue. What's it going to be?"

Snarling at his humiliation, Idou's pride of his strength overcame his embarrassment as he said, "Very well—I acknowledge thy might, Sir Ian, White Knight of the Heart, and Naruto Uzumaki of the Hidden Leaf, also known as Carnage. I hereby swear fealty unto the Lady Yakumo, so that she gayest call upon my aid if it ever be necessary. You two are stronger than I am—I give up! If Yakumo-same ever needs my help, she can just ask for it, okay? Now let me go!"

Ian declared, "Then by my will, Idou, thou art now given into the service of the Lady Yakumo. Sir Carnage, or Sir Naruto, or whatever name thou wishest to use, thou hast my gratitude, and the Lady Yakumo's favor. 'Till next our paths cross, fare thee well, friend."

From Carnage's point of view, everything seemed to blur, and he realized that Yakumo was bringing him back to Earth. Absentmindedly, he contemplated how very true that was.

Awakening 'out' of the suit, so to speak, Naruto opened his eyes to find that he was in the Hokage's office. There were a number of ANBU in the room; he also noted that Yakumo seemed to be arguing with the Hokage and a semi-attractive woman with black hair and crimson eyes.

"Yakumo, your Id must be sealed to protect the Village—"

Yakumo interrupted, "No, it doesn't—not anymore, at least, because Naruto-kun helped me stop it! Why won't you listen to me?!"

One of the ANBU, specifically one wearing a tuna mask, said, "The Uzumaki brat? Get real. He may be a good kid and all that, but Naruto couldn't fight his way out of a cardboard box, let alone go toe-to-toe with your dark side."

With a hand signal, the various ANBU began advancing on Yakumo, only to be intercepted by what seemed to be a thin wall of blood. At its center was Naruto, standing between Yakumo and the Hokage in a defensive posture. The 'blood' swirled through the air a bit, before condensing on his body and disappearing.

His voice hard, Naruto said, "Old man, I really did help put a stop to her Id. But Yakumo-chan dreams of being a ninja—and my dream is to become Hokage; and part of that job is helping other people achieve their own dreams, or at least that's how I see it. I'm only going to say this once: if you, or anyone else try to seal up Yakumo's genjutsu, you'll crush her dream. And if you do that…"

Here, the symbiote spread over his body, covering his legs, most of his torso, his right arm, and only the right half of his face.

"If you do that, then I promise you this: things are gonna get real bloody, real fast, you hear?"

Not hearing a response, Naruto/Carnage demanded, "DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded and said, "Naruto, I trust you, so I suppose that Yakumo may retain her genjutsu. But if her Id should ever become a threat again, I will not hesitate to intervene."

As the symbiote began to disappear, Naruto smirked and said, "And I'll beat you to it, old man."

Waving off the casual remark, the Hokage said, "Okay then, everyone here is dismissed. Naruto, Yakumo, I want you two to give me complete report on EXACTLY what happened tomorrow morning. Until then, you are free to go. Is that fair enough?"

Yakumo bowed and said, "Yes, Hokage-sama" while Naruto just shrugged and replied, "Sure thing, gramps!"

As the two children left the building, Yakumo said, "Naruto-kun, I can't thank you enough for helping me. If there's anything I can ever do for you…"

Naruto just waved it off and said, "Ah, don't worry about it. If you need my help again, just call—and if I need your help with something, I'll call you, got it?"

Smiling, Yakumo agreed, and just before she left for home, she gave Naruto a small kiss on the cheek.

Stunned, Naruto brought his hand up to touch the spot where she'd kissed him, before turning into Carnage and leaping onto the rooftops, screaming something about Cloud 9.

This chapter is dedicated to Iron Reprieve, SchizophrenicInsomniac (I pray I spelled that right), and Dirty Reid, who is currently on a trip to Mexico.

The poll regarding Yakumo is still active, and I'm adding more:

Tenten: Bullseye, Hawkeye, Elektra, or a combination of the three (Youko-Taichou was rather... adamant that Elektra made the most sense, but what do I know--I'm a guy...)

Choji: Luke Cage or Mr. Fantastic

And I repeat, the choices of the Yakumo poll are as follows: Mysterio, or Doctor Strange.

The Yakumo poll will close when I post the next chapter. All other polls will be open for voting until St. Patrick's Day, unless I say otherwise in the meanwhile.

Read, Review, and stay tuned for the next chapter of 'Fox-Carnage'!