A/N: *EDIT*

And so the flames continue.

I am so...unbelievably done with this.

I think I'm starting to break down. There. I said it.

Look at them if you don't believe me. They're all over this story.

That...that really starts to get to you after awhile you know? It hurts. Alot.

*EDIT* EDIT* No, I can't simply disable anonymous reviews. That option doesn't exist in any of my tabs. The best I can do is moderate them and even then I can't get them all. Some appear while I'm at work, some arrive late, and others slip under the radar. I work. Double. Shifts. I tend to be gone for twelve hours a day at the very least. Its impossible for me to ferret out every one of them, no matter how much I wish I could.

Well, I'm off to work now, so I look forward to chatting with you all later.

Though...if I could beg a favor?

If...if folks could drown those flames with reviews...? I know, you shouldn't have to...but it would make me happy.

Well.

Here we are at last.

We're in the endgame now.

Events have been coming to a head in this story.

And now...prepared or not...events have been set in motion.

Who will live? Who will die? The answers might surprise you, dear reader.

As ever, reviews, even constructive criticism will be happily welcomed and I look forward to it every day~!

"Consider this...an intervention. Nothing personal, kid. Orders are orders."

~?

Purity Thy Name Is Folly

The light burned.

Yet the darkness soothed.

Both struck her body in a single instant.

In that moment, Saber Alter's body certainly ceased to exist. As the overwhelming light of the Tailed Beast Bomb crashed into the blast from her Excalibur, as the resulting shockwave sent both slamming into her soul, she found herself thrown back and swallowed up by light and dark alike. That searing luminescence flooded her soul and core, sending them spinning back to the throne in a wash of burning heat. All her memories. Her experiences, the last words thrown down at her in a challenge, and her final, miserable thoughts, all were recorded in the throne.

And yet.

AND YET...?

-nOtlIkEtHiSnOtLiKeThis...

The entity known as Saber did not truly die. Not wholly. Not completely. A broken fragment lingered in the ashes of the attack, a tiny spark of kindling, an infinitesimal mote of dust that could barely be called a Servant. A fractured piece of the original, it clung desperately on like a terrified child, holding on for dear life. There was no anger. No hate. Only mind-numbing terror. It...she... didn't feel good. She had tasted the terror of the void and felt a piece of herself get pulled in.

She didn't want to go.

She wanted to survive this.

She needed to endure this, somehow.

Filled with fear as she was, though every second of existence was pain, she still wanted to live. So she dare not move. Dare not speak, or even move, for fear of provoking another attack. In her weakened state, anything short of a stiff breeze could kill her. She had to run. To flee. To recover. But she couldn't move. Her knees remained locked on the ground as she clenched inward, body writhing in pain.

Thus, it continued.

The stoic silence that followed brought with it such an utter absence of light that Naruto-Caster!-couldn't help but wonder if he'd missed, somehow. Lungs burning, skull aching, he didn't lower his guard for a moment. For to do so would surely invite his demise. That was his belief. Though his chest heaved and his brow ran slick with sweat, still he kept his defenses up and arms raised. If anything so much as twitched in that cloud, it there was even a glimmer of killing intent he was fully prepared to blast it into oblivion.

"Naruto...?"

"Stay back!" he didn't dare look away from the burning crater when Rin called out to him. How many blasts did he have left in him? One? Two? He'd been pulling hard from his reserves and the environment around him to keep going-to avoid drawing from her-but he was nearly at his limit. If she had survived that...well. He was going to have a bad time. Still, he was fully prepared to deliver an express blast of napalm straight to Saber's face if she attacked again.

"Brynhildr," the words tasted dry on his tongue. "Go get Illya. Now."

Lancer hesitated. "But your wounds...

"I SAID GO!"

She got.

So the standoff persisted, that thick black smoke not abating in the least. Rin made no move to approach when a figure resolved itself against the smoke. Naruto clenched his fingers into claws, a thin line of blood running down his left eye. Hurriedly, he thumbed it away and returned his attention to the smoke. Even the night itself seemed stained red, as though someone had torn open a hole in the sky. Surely that was just his imagination, right? He didn't even want to consider what the other Servants might be up to while his attention was focused down here. Nevermind the fact that most of them-save Rider and Berserker-were actively against him...

All at once, the haze cleared.

And they saw Saber.

...what have you done to me?"

Rin's jaw popped open in tandem with Naruto's.

It was not the voice of a king that answered them; t'was the high, reedy voice of a little girl, not a battle hardened warrior.

One might have called her battle-dress white as snow, save for eerie veins of deep purple staining half of the fabric. That once heavy armor had changed as well, lessened so much like her body, now resembling little more than the light plate etched with eerie symbols. Though she still lay on her knees her gaze was a thing to behold; for while her right eye was still the color of poisoned honey, the other had softened to a teal aqua. Even that stern face had been changed, as though time itself had come unwound in a matter of moments, rendering a cold king into a young girl. She even bore a black ribbon in her hair that most assuredly hadn't been there at the outset of their battle.

But most of all:

She was utterly furious with him.

A lone finger stabbed at him. "You shrunk me!"

Naruto's right eye began to twitch. "I...wouldn't say that."

"What?" Mismatching eyes blinked at his response, narrowed, and looked downward.

Her shout proved positively bloodcurdling by comparison. "This is even worse! Why am I stuck in this form?! Where has my strength gone?!"

As Master and Servant alike looked on, the altered, well, Alter, bolted to her feet and hastily palmed her face. Her apoplectic expression went from forlorn to thunderous in a heartbeat. Much to his surprise, she didn't draw her sword-which looked to be a different blade altogether now that he got a closer look at it-though she did storm up to him. Wow. She was right. She was even shorter than before. No surprise, given her younger body. A strange urge to pat her head welled up in him as she beat against his armored chest with mailed fists.

"Monster! Lech! Fiend! You did this to me!"

"I didn't do anything!"

...heh."

Rin couldn't help herself any longer; with that, she began to giggle. Softly at first, but with ever rising intensity as she watched the young Alter flail ineffectually at Caster. This...this was just too much. Perhaps it was the stress of so many battles finally catching up to her. Perhaps it was guilt on her part. Perhaps it was simply the sight of Naruto holding Saber back with one hand against her forehead. No, it was definitely that. Such an abrupt and utter reversal was more than she could bear, and she didn't care if both Servants saw her.

"I can't...oh this is just too much!" she cried! "All of her stats have dropped by at least a rank or more! She's as harmless as a kitten!"

Saber snarled.

"I WILL END YOU, TOHSAKA!"

Naruto sighed "Y'know, somehow, I just don't feel like fighting anymore-

A dagger burst out of his chest.

And the world.

Just.

Stopped.

"Eh...?"

There had been no warning. No time to prepare. Not even a hint of his attacker's presence or killing intent before they struck. Just a knife in his back; a cruel and jagged dagger that punctured a lung before erupting out of his upper torso like a grisly creature giving birth. It wasn't Saber. Artoria looked just as horrified as he felt, and her hands were empty as she jerked away from him. And the attack had come from behind, while Rin was off to his side and well in his view. He could see her ashen face now, distantly hear her screaming as he coughed up blood. Shock paralyzed him, leaving his body all but reeling even as an armored hand settled against his shoulder.

Wait.

Hadn't he seen that?

That hand...somewhere before?

"Nothing personal, kid." a familiar voice hissed in his ear. "But orders are orders. And I can't afford to wait around any longer while you screw around."

With that, the knife tore free from his body and sent him stumbling forward.

Naruto struck blindly, but his fist found empty air. Mild laughter greeted him as he spun, searching for his attacker, only to find empty air. He could see Saber reeling, bleeding from a gut wound, but he barely paid her any mind. This was Assassin. It had to be. No one else could conceal themselves so well. Which meant...Rin! Instinct compelled him to act, to move, and he threw himself between Rin and the attack that he knew was coming, would be coming any second now-

"Rin! Run!"

And the knife found him once more.

Pain blazed through his shoulder but he fought it down and lashed out again.

"Whoa, there!" anew, that eerily calm laugh mocked him. "Almost got me that time."

This time, his knuckles brushed skin, but the knife slid under his elbow in recompense for his temerity.

Stop! He willed himself to focus. You're alright. This won't kill you. Not immediately. Stop. Think. Why can't I think? Why do I feel numb?

Blinking through blurry eyes, Naruto forced himself to stand once more and breathe with his ruined lungs. To think. Move. When he created a trio of clones they were immediately cut down, but it bought him time. Three seconds. When that damn shadowy knife came for him again he caught it this time; and both his attackers wrists with it. Though his vision still swam like a raft in a storm-tossed sea, the blond managed a brief, lucid moment of coherency. Then he headbutted them with every bit of strength he had left in him. Their cry of pain was poignantly familiar, but worse was their visage. He saw it.

No.

Naruto immediately wished he hadn't.

Yes.

Because in that moment he'd seen their face just before impact.

No.

He saw them now as they stumbled away, clutching at their bloodied nose, heard them swear and curse like a sailor.

Yes.

"Well, aren't you just...Determined." Assassin spat the last word as though it were a curse. "You actually managed to hit me like that."

NO!

He watched them straighten up, pull a shaggy mane of white hair out of their face, and stand. Their blank, glassy expression hurt him more than the words that followed.

"I don't know whether I should be impressed...or annoyed."

This was his teacher, his mentor, his friend, one of the few people he'd actively looked up to and respected before the end. He'd been his godfather, a surrogate parent to him during those three years. The man who had taught him so much, only to die at the hands of a former student without so much as a goodbye. And now...he was here. Attacking him. Trying to kill him. He couldn't speak. Couldn't think. Couldn't even begin to breathe, such as the fervor of his mind. Some small part of him wanted nothing more than to offer mercy, even as that knife slammed into his gut, and yet...and yet...?!

"Jiraiya...?!"

Assassin sighed.

"Well, you got me."

Groaning, he picked himself up.

"I don't have time to explain, you shitty brat. Just hold still-OOMPH?!"

Clenched knuckles barreled into his solar plexus bearing all the force of a high powered rasengan and sent him reeling. Before he could he could even hope to get a word in edgewise he heard an all too-familiar roar as his face found itself dragged into a screaming knee. A spinning kick shattered his nose again, flowing into a vicious uppercut that left a decidedly Jiraiya-shaped impression against the nearest tree.

He looked up just in time to find himself face-to-face with a teeming mass of light.

"When the hell did you learn how to-

For Rin, it was like watching a nightmare; even as she watched Caster blast Assassin away into the woods, so too did she see her Servant stagger. His body was failing him, his reserves little more than fumes. Frantically, she attempted to direct more magical energy to him in the vain attempt to kickstart his regeneration. He only straightened with a soft wheeze. No. It didn't make any sense. He should be healing. Why wasn't he healing?! If this kept up, if things continued as they were...he was going to... he would...

Naruto stepped forward, heedless of his wounds...

"Huh?"

...and his legs betrayed him, buckling beneath him like rotten driftwood to leave him sprawled out in the dirt.

"Ah. Finally feeling it now, are you?" Jiraiya's smile seemed almost miserable by comparison as he emerged unharmed from the loamy soil, the words muffled as though he were speaking through a heavy cloth. "Took long enough, I suppose. I had to coat a nasty brew on that kunai just to slow you down. Took forever to make, but looks like it was...worth it!"

A harsh kick hammered home into his chin, catapulting him backward through a tree. Not a heartbeat later the ruined remnants of that same tree sailed right back at him at breakneck speed. Assassin didn't even deign to dodge; there was no need. He simply slapped the tumbling trunk away with the back of his hand, vaulted the next, and drove a heel into his stomach.

"Stubborn, eh?" he growled. "Fine. Looks like I'll have to cripple you a little."

A hand slammed into his gut and this time there was pain.

"Five-pronged seal."

When had he last felt agony like this? It was as if someone had slammed a door on his last, faltering reserves, locking them behind an impregnable barrier. Try as he might, he couldn't pull any energy to himself, couldn't even muster the strength to stand. He glimpsed the dagger as it flew at his face, followed by a blur of tattered white and purple. He couldn't bring himself to get up and help her, the taint had claimed his arms too now; it was all he could do to drag himself himself forward after them.

"YOU!" Saber swore as she slammed into Assassin, "You lied to me! You used me!"

He backhanded her with ease, sending her sprawling into the dirt.

"I'm a shinobi, sweetheart. Its kinda my shtick these days."

Then his gaze turned towards a backpedaling Tohsaka.

"I don't understand...who are...why would you...

"I could never beat the two of them in a fair fight," a small, lopsided laugh leaked into the air. "Me? As an Assassin? Don't be ridiculous. I planned this from the start. Now that your precious allies have worn one another down, I rather like my odds this time around. And now, then...game over, kiddo."

Rin tried to dodge; to flee, to do as she'd been told. She really, truly did.

But he was just. So. Damned. Fast.

She scarcely felt his fist thunder into her stomach before her eyes rolled back in her head. It wasn't a cruel blow, or even a killing one. He simply knocked her out. Even as her eyes rolled back in her head and she pitched forward, Jiraiya was there to catch her. In one smooth movement he slung her over his shoulder, while the other grasped a knife.

"Anyone else want to interfere?"

A distant roar from the trees answered him.

"Oh, shit." he swore softly. "That's Berserker. Time to dash."

With his captive in hand, he turned to flee.

And someone stopped him.

Until this moment Shirou had been silent, resigned to lurk in the background as everyone duked it out. He had looked on with horror as events spiraled helplessly out of control, unable to do anything more than watch. He was out of his league here. He knew that. He didn't hold any animosity toward Tohsaka, hell, he barely even knew her. But when Caster and Saber fell to a vicious sneak attack, he knew what had to be done. He did not hesitate. He did his duty. Though he didn't know how to fight, not in the traditional sense of the word, he still acted. Still held true to his cherished ideals, the odd belief that had sustained his existence until this very moment.

No, all told, Shirou Emiya couldn't do much.

But he could grab Assassin.

It was little more than an act of desperation on his part; a pitiful attempt to stall for time until help arrived. His heart was in the right place.

Assassin frowned.

"Let go, kid."

The boy shook his head and the Servant clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"It pains me to do this, brat. It really does. But you're in the way. Last chance. Move or I make you."

"No! I won't back down-

A growl greeted his ears. "Fine. Then you're coming with her."

Shirou opened his mouth to reply; only to grunt as a clenched fist sheathed itself in his stomach with blinding speed. It would've been easy to turn that arm into a point. To pierce his stomach. Yet he didn't. Instead breath burst from the boys lungs and he bent double in an explosive gasp. Twin palms clapped over his ears, deafening him. Even as he turned to face the enigmatic servant, another hand blitzed into the side of his head at cruel speed, rendering his world black.

Reeling, eyes rolling in his head, he collapsed.

The last he heard was a bitter growl.

Rather, he saw his lips move:

"Sweet dreams, hero."

Naruto saw it all, helpless to do anything other than twitch.

"Ji...rai...YA!"

That familiar face turned back to him.

"Yes, that's it. That's the look I wanted to see. Come after me, kid. Come to the mountain. Lets put an end to this."

Naruto reached for him, to no avail. He couldn't find the strength.

And then he tumbled into the black.

(...0o0o0...)

He didn't expect to wake up.

Yet he did all the same, and immediately wished he hadn't.

It began as a dull ache in his chest, one that swiftly warped into blazing agony as someone forced him awake. He moaned. A small, cool hand settle against his forehead. Another pressed a tall, cold glass of something to his cracked lips. He accepted it in stoic silence but didn't drink, not yet. His mind was too blurred, his body too broken, his wounds too great. It was all he could do just to hold his body together and will himself to heal. It had been a close thing. He'd nearly died, but someone had dragged him back, somehow.

"Where...?" he rasped out the question.

His savior only pressed the drink to his lips all the more.

"Drink." it was as much a request as a command, and he abided by it.

A wash of cool water ran down his parched throat, bringing with it a vague sense of relief.

Sleep-gummed eyes creaked open to find a pair of mismatched eyes gazing back at him, her fair face framed by the light of the rising sun. Had he really been out that long? Belatedly, he realized his head was resting in her lap. Though her brow was fraught with tension, she made no move to dislodge his head nor did she attempt to shake him off.

"Hey, Saber." the words emerged as a rusty chuckle and earned him a flick on the forehead, one he ignored. "How long...?"

"You were out for much of the night." came the stoic response. "We brought you to a leyline to heal."

Wait.

A flash of recognition hit.

"RIN!"

With a yelp the blond tried to jolt upright, only to find his head forced back down a heartbeat later.

"Gone." came the stoic reply. "Assassin took both of our Masters and left us to die. Illya and Berserker are out looking for them. Brynhildr and I have been tasked with watching you." she turned her face aside and for a moment, he thought he glimpsed a flush in her rosy cheeks. "Seeing you like this...distressed her, so she elected to watch the perimeter."

"I need to-

"You will do no such thing." her voice cracked like a whip, halting him. "If you face Assassin-or any Servant-as you are now, you will perish."

Her words brought a frown to his face. "Yet he didn't kill us. Or them. We'd know if he did. So...why?"

Artoria flicked his forehead again, but lightly this time. "What are you implying?"

"Don't know yet." Naruto grumbled back. "Gotta get this seal off, first."

...you may have some of my energy, then." she relented.

"Eh?" he blinked. "I don't really need it, though...

Another flick.

"Just shut up and accept my generosity."

An expert in seals Naruto most assuredly was not, but he didn't need to be in this. He could feel the hasty-how unlike Jiraiya-and shoddy work done to him. It had been a rush job, something done in a hurry. When his mind threatened to spiral back into depression again, he stubbornly took hold of it and focused all his remaining energy on the task at hand. Something like this, he could break. He was terribly good at breaking things when he was angry, and right now he was absolutely FURIOUS. Working in tandem, they had the cumbersome seal popped in less than a minute.

The poison...was another matter.

No amount of energy could force his system to flush it out any faster than he already had; not with so many wounds and a recently healed lung. No, the taint was already in his bloodstream; for better or worse, he'd just have to let it run its course. Which meant more waiting. He loathed waiting. He felt sleepy, sluggish even, but his emotions still burned white-hot with confusion and anxiety.

He was missing something here, but what?

Jiraiya wasn't an idiot. He may play a fool when it suited him, but he was lethal in a fight. Downright dangerous, really. So why were they alive? He'd dealt them horrible wounds and paralyzed them both. They'd been at his mercy. So why

When Saber tried to rise, he snatched at her wrist.

...if you are concerned for me, do not be. I formed a contract with the Einzbern girl." she confessed, idly rubbing at his hand. "It was necessary. I was on the verge of disappearing...although why she insists on calling me "baeber", I know not...

"No, that's not it." he muttered. "That guy...Jiraiya...he's smart."

"You're not making any sense-

"Just listen!" Naruto barked at Artoria when she tried to interrupt him. "If the old pervert wanted us dead, we would BE dead. I think something's up here, but I can't figure it out."

Those odd eyes narrowed. "You believe he spared us deliberately, then?"

"I don't know...maybe?" the former shinobi shrugged hopelessly. "Probably? He must have."

"Naruto, that's naive at best, foolish as worst." her rebuke was as sharp as it was instant. "I don't know who Assassin is to you, but this-

"Aha!" He flashed a bleary smile at her. "You finally said my name. Without trying to kill me, at that. I knew you were a good person, Artoria."

Her pale cheeks turned rosy again.

"Idiot."

Naruto let the half-hearted insult roll off his back, but inwardly, his mind was racing.

A good person.

Jiraiya was a good person.

One who'd spared them. Deliberately.

And the way he'd acted, as if he'd been in pain...

"I think he wants to die." the words tumbled out of him before he could think to hold them back. "That's the only explanation I can think of that makes a lick of sense. Why else would he turn us against each other, if only to spare us? Even weakened, we nearly got the better of him. Which meant he wanted to get our attention. And all that was without Berserker and Bryn. Whom we'll be taking with us when we raid wherever he decided to hole himself up. Who does that leave for him to ally himself with, then?"

An almost pleasant smile greeted him as Artoria came to the same conclusion. "Archer, Lancer, and Rider."

"I think...Rider's probably on our side. Just trust me on this one, alright?" Naruto demurred at her baffled look. "Its complicated. I have a feeling."

"It doesn't change the fact that he's up to something." Saber shot back. "You might be wrong."

"True, I might be." he countered." Which is why we need to be prepared."

Saber held her tongue for a long moment, her expression tense as she absently patted his head. Of course, he had no way of knowing her thoughts; no way of seeing the internal conflict that had only now come to a close in the shadowy corridors of her mind. Caster-Naruto, she reminded herself-refused to give up. He'd sworn to beat several foolish notions out of her head and so he had. But just now he'd helped to crystallize her resolve in a rather unexpected way; one no one could have predicted.

...why goes this far for Assassin?" she sighed. "What is he to you?"

He beamed back at her. "He's my teacher. My friend."

She pulled his hair. "Naruto, he tried to kill you."

"Still my friend, Saber."

Artoria dithered for another long moment, considering the smiling face sprawled out in her lap with mild concern. She hadn't stopped stroking his hair, she realized. Even then her hand-traitor!-continued to thread through those flaxen tresses seemingly of its own accord. How long had it been since she'd had that kind of a resolve? The will, to make a former friend-turned-enemy, back into a friend again? Too long. If only she'd had that kind of conviction from the start. How much better would her life have been? Instead she'd pushed others way and lived-ruled-alone until the very moment of her first death. And yet here it was, that same burning sense of raw hope that left her senses in disarray. Really, it only left one thing to say:

"You act as a true king should. I'm sorry to have doubted you."

Her companion blinked. "Well, that's unexpected, but thanks I guess-MMNPH?!"

In a blur, she unbent enough to lower her head and press her mouth fully against his.

Naruto croaked out a low laugh of his own as she pulled way. "Pretty sure what you just did was illegal."

This time, when Artoria flicked his forehead, there could be no mistaking her small, stubborn smile. "Oh, shut up!"

A/N: As ever, I own no quotes or references to any sort of media. Yes, those were references to Fate Stay Night Abridged.

Saber Alter Lily.

Haven't seen anyone do that!

And now at last Assassin plays his hand.

As I said, we're in the endgame for this story now.

We had a lot play out in this chapter, with more to come.

To those who guessed it, you were correct. Zouken summoned Jiraiya; who is a right wily bastard let me tell you. Of all the enemies he could face, he alone is perhaps one of the most dangerous counters for Naruto out there. He knows his every move, aside from some of the newer cloaks and given rasengan variants. He knows how he thinks.

Worse, he knows just how vulnerable a Good!Naruto is in a fair fight.

Ironically, Assassin!Jiraiya would have a hard time with the less pure incarnations.

So he waits for two of the strongest Servants to wear one another down, and then he strikes. He's certainly up to something, but what might that be? I'll leave it to you to find out, dear readers. Only a few chapters left now!

Plot-armor doesn't exist in these stories of mine. Everyone is vulnerable. Especially the main characters. ESPECIALLY the ones we like.

Now I'm off-limping-to work. Looking forward to your reviews/comments/concerns when I get back tonight~!

Reviews are love. Reviews are life. Reviews keep me alive.

And sane, despite the trolls trying to break me.

So In the Immortal Words of Atlas...

...Review, Would You Kindly?

NO. MORE. PREVIEWS.

Not in this story.

Who will win?

R&R~!

=D