A/N: *EDIT* This is a different Naruto, one we haven't seen yet, and may never see.

Think of him as an Alternate!Berserker summoned in Fate Stay Night.

Let me know if you want this to be a thing.

This was...well.

I wrote this for a reason.

To honor a fallen relative who passed.

This was the only way I could think to do it.

So...here. I'm sorry, but I need to be alone right now...

I'll try to update something tomorrow. Maybe. I just don't know...

"We'll meet again someday."

~?

A Most Unlikely Snow

Naruto laid the flowers on Illya's grave.

It was a simple action, yet his hand still trembled traitorously in the doing, fingers threatening to drop the drying bouquet prematurely lest his legs finally fail and buckle beneath him. Grimacing against the cold as much as his injuries, the whiskered warrior willed himself to straighten and wipe a thick layer of snow from his master's tombstone. The snow continued to fall around him in the faint morning light, yet he nevertheless tended to this task with quiet dispatch, boots crunching against the drifts as he worked to clear the way. Warm breath fogged through the air while he worked, and when he was done, he found he could stand no longer.

He collapsed before her grave, falling humbly to his knees with a long-suffering sigh.

"So, that's it, huh?" a rusty chuckle escaped him. "I'm finally at my limit?"

Only silent snow answered him, much to his chagrin.

...I don't suppose you can hear me, huh."

Was it weakness on his part?

Or was it sorrow?

Who knew?

He still hadn't recovered from the final battle, and now he suspected that he never would. There was no mana left from him to receive; even if there was, he was dying a slow death from heartbreak. There was no one left to mourn with him; either the survivors had gone their separate ways, or they simply couldn't bear to be here. Who could blame him? He'd done terrible things. Horrible things. Of course he had. He hadn't been in his right mind until the end; even then he'd still carried through with her wishes. Damnit. Damn Sakura. Damn her. Shirou would never forgive him. Just as well, that. He didn't want to be forgiven.

They'd won.

So why?

Why?

It had seemed so unlikely from the beginning. At first, he'd scoffed at the idea of fighting in a war, only later embracing it when she'd begged for his help. At the time, it hadn't made any sense. He couldn't be compressed into a Servant container, and yet through some manner of madness, he was. So he fought for her. Bled for her. And at the end, he'd made a horrible choice. He killed a young girl to prevent her from becoming a monster, killed her over and over again until she no longer could revive. He'd stained his fists red with her blood. What did it matter? Illya still died in the end. She was good and kind, and that MAN killed her anyway.

He couldn't save her.

"Mongrel. Know the price for your insolence!"

Gilgamesh's caustic laughter still resounded in the back of his mind.

It was too late now; he couldn't find him, no longer had the strength to even fight him.

The last of his energy had been spent just to bring his battered body here, to his final resting place.

"Jeez, this really isn't fair, you know?" the words tumbled out of him in a rush, and another fit of failed laughter seized him as he reached up to the clouds. "I don't want to go."

He had no say in the matter, of course.

Without a physical body, he was destined to return to the throne.

Frankly, it was something of a miracle that he'd managed to last this long at all.

Was that why this victory felt so hollow? Because he wasn't the last Servant standing. All the others had fallen, save them. And yet at the end, the King of Heroes still walked the earth. It just wasn't fair. Although the Holy Grail War had ended, though the grail itself had been shattered, he still remained. Servants would no longer be summoned to this mortal coil...for now. Until someone picked up the pieces and reforge that horrid thing into something even more ghastly. Someone would. Horrible men did horrible things all the time. Some were even worse than Zouken.

Damnit.

He wanted a second chance.

Another opportunity to fix all this.

Naruto bit back a sigh and stole one last furtive glimpse into the clouds as the sun broke through. Perhaps that was naive in him. In this world, it was kill or be killed. Heroes didn't always win the day. Sometimes the good guys lost. Worse, was dying with the knowledge that he'd failed. It left a bitter taste in his mouth. At most, he'd bought this world time. Who knew how long that would be? With no one to stop him, Gilgamesh might well burn the earth. The mages of this era would have to fend for themselves. This world no longer had heroes. If only there was another way. A chance to go back. Reset. Fix it all. Even as his mind scrabbled for a solution, he knew it was too late.

But maybe, if there was another world, another throne, another chance, maybe this wouldn't be in vain.

A growl built in his throat, and he tried to stand, only to topple backward as his body finally betrayed him at long last.

Independent Action had held him in this world for long enough, but no longer. Already he could feel himself beginning to flicker. Particles of blue light welled up from his skin, peeling away out of his battered jacket as all that remained of his body came apart at the seams. His arm, still stretched toward the sun, reaching, grasping, now crumbled away into dust. He laughed at it. Laughed, as the rest of him fell apart like a broken puppet, rejected by the earth, deprived of mana, of strength, of will, but not his voice. Never his voice. He wouldn't die with tears in his eyes.

Still laughing, Naruto sagged and bowed his head low, stubbornly clinging on in his last moments.

"Well. I'm going to Ichiraku." He chortled softly. "You want anything...Illya?"

For a moment, just a moment, he thought he heard a reply.

Surely he was imagining things. Wasn't he?

He faded soon thereafter.

A/N: No long author's note this time.

Just a memento of sorts for someone that's no longer...here.

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

So In the Immortal Words of Atlas...Review Would You Kindly? Every word helps. Even a single word like "nice" means the world to me.

So here. Have a preview of...something.

(Preview)

"You've served your purpose, monster. Now be reunited with your family."

Beast gurgled wordlessly up at him.

"Yes, that's it. Just fall asleep...

~Nz.