For some reason, Naruto no longer felt any pain. It was strange; the last thing he remembered was being bitten by that snake creep and his entire body exploding with pain. It felt as if someone injected molten lava into his chakra network. He didn't even know how long he was writhing in the most excruciating pain of his life before darkness took him, and now he felt… fine? No, that wasn't accurate. He didn't feel much of anything, actually. He barely even registered the ankle-high water he was standing in.

Why was he standing in water in the first place? Where even was he? A quick look around found him in a dark, concrete corridor with pipes lining the walls. Some of the pipes were thin and had a faint, blue glow to them, whereas the others were much larger, were glowing red, and were audibly humming like they were fit to burst. The pipes led down the dark expanse toward the light at the end of the tunnel where he could hear rumbling emanating from. Following the pipes toward the light only made the rumbling clearer; it was a voice, and it was as distressed as it was booming. As he drew closer, he was able to make out the anger, confusion, and worry laced within the shouting, and he could only wonder as to what was generating so much discontent.

Then, he heard the second voice, and his question was answered. The new voice was simply shouting distorted gibberish back at the first one, but it unsettled Naruto to his core. The sound hitting his ears was nestled so deep within the uncanny valley while simultaneously being so viciously alien. It was like a facsimile of a person barking the most eldritch signals at him from the far reaches of his very soul. He so desperately did NOT want to continue his trek, but he knew that he wouldn't get any answers if he didn't. Gulping his fear, he reluctantly pressed on. As he finally reached the end of the corridor and stepped into the light of the room, the scene shocked him beyond understanding.

"BEGONE FROM MY DOMAIN YOU UNHOLY MONSTER!" a frazzled Kyubi howled from behind a gargantuan set of bars at a smaller, sickly grey creature with ten tentacles bound to the floor by tattooed white snakes.

-

M̷͉̰̼̫͉͑̄͆͆̕ê̶͍̪̰̱̺̏̾̇͊̕ ̷̻̭̝͍̾̏̈́͊̕ͅh̴̡̡̝͔̗͂͗̾̐̀ð̸̴̨̧̦̖͙̤̻̙͇͍̉͊͒̓͊̿̅̾̊̚ ̷̛̖͇͈̹͐̄̄͜͝m̷̼̜̼̹̆̈́̈͋͘ͅï̸̧͉̻̱̘̉̅̋̆̈́ñ̴͕̳̤̺̦́̀̔̕͝ð̴̶͓̼͖͚̘̜̭̫̭͚̐͒̇͊̏̎̽͑͝͠

-

The Kyubi's head snapped in the direction of Naruto, and he collapsed to the ground under the monumental creature's sudden scrutiny.

"HUMAN!" The Kyubi bellowed at Naruto. "GET RID OF THIS THING!"

After taking a moment to regain his bearings and to assure himself that his pants were only wet because of the water he had fallen in, Naruto quickly moved past the fact that this was his very first meeting with the Kyubi of legend, the very same creature that had indirectly been the cause of his life being the way that it was. He could wrap his head around that later. Instead, he looked at the creature in question and tried to make sense of it… to no avail.

"…What is that?" Naruto finally found his voice to respond to the fox, pointing to the wriggling mass of… he wasn't even sure what the hell it was even made of. Was that flesh? Wood? What even was that??

"IT'S AN ABOMINATION!" The Kyubi snarled. "GET IT OUT OF HERE!"

.

Ð̶͎̩̱̩͉̿̍͂͘͠ð̴̶̡̜̙͚͚̩̖̬̤̐͊̈́̏̉̐́̈́̚͝ͅð̷̛̭̫̭̞̭͛̋́͌ȩ̷̷̦͙̞̳̗̖̟͖̱̂͆͊̌͂̑̉͘͠͠͠µ̴͈̜͉̬̪̓̇͌̚͘ŗ̷͔̳̰͖͗͌͛͠͠w̷̼̯̫̝̟̏͆̇͘͠ð̸͇͚͚̞̥̈́͊͒͆͠r̸̢͓̦̖̲̓̏̐̀́m̶̛̫̝̣̮͖̾̀͌͘į̵̗̟̺̫̈̿̽̓͠͝ñ̷̨̳̟̦̳̃̆̌̇͗ ̸̜̗͉̪̞͆̀̒̕͠ê̸̡̬̞̩̟̂͌͑̕͝µ̶̡̘̰̹͚̄̃͆̇͝å̷̶̧͉͕͍͎̲͚̱̖̟̉̀̅͌̒̊̉̐̍̈å̶͙͍̣̳̞͂̈̓̅͠å̷̧̫̯͉͉͐̑̓̑̀h̶̨̥̣̘̲͋͗̀͒̚h̸̢̫̱̜̙̀͊̇̍͝Ð̷̢͖̰̪͕̀̒͌͐͗ï̷͙̣͖̯̗̅̉̔̏̍m̴̳̞̞̦̖̅́̃͗̋ï̶͈̥̝͓̏̉̉̍͜͝ñ̵̛͇̰͉̳̖͒́̄͘ï̸̱̣̦͙̻͊͐̆͑̒g̷̖̟̝̭̫͒͛̂̆͠ḩ̶̪̭̪̄̈́̍̈͝ͅ ̸̸̡̨͙̤̭̮̩͎͎̱̌́̋̉̆̌̓́͌͠å̴̧̦̞̾̓̈́̎̕ͅͅ ̴̷̨̡̘͉͓̺͈̮̮̘̿͆͛͆̈́̋͑̋̕͝ḁ̵͕̪̝̥̊̇̊̅͊̈́ ̶̵̛̩͙͈̥̣̮͈̳̥̙̎́̍̏̽̉̑̕͝å̸̠̩̫̪̖̉̉̿͘͘

.

"Can someone explain what the hell is going on here?!" Naruto shouted as his fear and confusion finally bled into frustration.

"Oh my fucking shit, brat," the Kyubi angrily grumbled with one of his paws clutching the top of his snout. "You used my power to fight the snake summoner, and then you disgraced my glorious name by losing to a lowly flesh bag and getting our connection cut with a Five Element Seal. I don't know what happened after that until this…"

He turned his hateful gaze to the ten-tailed creature writhing about just outside of the bars. "…this thing showed up and broke the Five Element Seal entirely. After that, it devoured a white snake that tried to assert its will over it."

"I remember that snake freak biting me," Naruto mused, wracking his brain for anything else from before he blacked out.

"That explains the seals on its bindings," the Kyubi quietly mused, but quietly for him would have been loud enough for several nations to hear, so Naruto heard him clearly. "A cursed seal. Of course."

"What's a cursed seal?" Naruto questioned, scratching his noggin in confusion before pointing at the other creature once again. "And what the hell even is that thing?"

The Kyubi stared down at him in a prolonged silence. To Naruto, it looked like the walking calamity was thinking hard about something. Whether it was if he should answer Naruto's question or just eat him, he didn't know.

"What do you know of the Biju?" the Kyubi finally spoke up, his tone far less aggressive but just as serious.

Naruto squinted at the Kyubi. "Wait, you're not the only one?"

The long-suffering sigh that escaped the massive biju spoke only of the purest exhaustion.


There weren't a lot of things in this world that Sakura hated. It wasn't a healthy emotion to hold. That didn't mean that she didn't dislike things, however. She disliked spicy foods, for one. She had a weird relationship with Ino; they were once best friends, and now they were bitter love rivals constantly vying for Sasuke's attention and taking scathing shots at each other along the way, so Sakura supposed that she wasn't too fond of her… honestly, it was kind of stupid the more she thought about it.

She really didn't like the way that people around the village looked at Naruto like he was the lowest of scum. It especially irked her what some clients during D-ranks would whisper about him when they thought he couldn't hear them (and even when they knew he could). What the hell gave them the right to treat someone that way?

This spiky-haired fuckhead above her and his bastard teammates, though? She hated them with every fiber of her being. She hated the arrogance dripping off of them. She hated the callousness they held not just for their enemies, but for each other, as well. She hated them for daring to threaten her teammates while laughing her off like some kind of non-threatening puppy.

If they wanted to kill Sasuke so badly, they were going to have to go through her corpse to do it.

Granted, that's exactly what they were well on their way to accomplishing given that they had beaten not only her, but also Rock Lee and Team 10 in short order. Shamefully, all she could do was bite down on the hand of the one she hated the most of the trio while he battered her face in his efforts to get her off.

At least, that was until an explosion of vile chakra radiated from the hollow which Sasuke and Naruto were stashed in. Everybody's attention was yanked to the form of Sasuke stepping out of the tree, the left side of his body blanketed with black markings and wisps of visible, purple chakra sparking off of him.

"Sasuke," Sakura said, relief washing over her until whatever she planned to say next caught in her throat. Sasuke was radiating the third most malicious aura she had felt since they first encountered Zabuza, and his expression was as dark as the forest surrounding them. She was seeing whatever Orochimaru had done to them manifest for the first time.

"Sasuke…" she hesitantly called out to him, and his two blazing Sharingan shifted to look her over, taking in her battered and bruised appearance.

"Sakura, who did this to you?" Sasuke asked in a voice that chilled her to the bone.

"It was me," the spiky-haired one, Zaku, boastfully declared. "What are you gonna do about it, pussy? You gonna cry? Gonna cry like your little, pink teammate? You look like a bitch."

Yeah, Sakura definitely hated that one the most.

"Zaku, don't-" the bandaged one began to say before Zaku cut him off.

"Don't worry about it, Dosu," he said, raising his palms directly at them for a jutsu that she was way too familiar with by now. "I'll blow them away in one fell swoop!"

That's what he then attempted to do, and he might have even succeeded if she hadn't felt Sasuke yoink her out of the way before depositing her and Naruto out of harm's way faster than she could blink. Before she knew it, Sasuke was relentlessly beating Zaku down while his two teammates looked on in shock. Why they weren't stepping in to help, Sakura wasn't entirely sure, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She grabbed a now jittering Naruto and inconspicuously dragged him towards more cover just as Sasuke locked Zaku's arms in his grasp and placed his foot onto his back.

"You seem to be very proud of these arms of yours," Sasuke mused in a chilling tone as Sakura made it to a nearby tree. "You must be very attached to them."

"H-hey, hold o-on a sec-" was all Zaku managed before his arms were wrenched from their sockets, and his screams echoed through the forest enough to be heard by several teams miles away.

Sakura did her best to ignore the sounds of anguish while she was nestling Naruto behind a thick tree trunk. His shaking worried her, so when she placed a hand on his forehead, she expected to feel him burning up from a fever. She certainly wasn't expecting to be literally blown away and sent tumbling into another tree by an even stronger burst of vile power.

The second burst captured everyone's attention, even Sasuke's as he stopped his approach toward a frightened Dosu with a scroll in his hand. The chakra that enveloped the area was suffocating; everyone present could practically taste the dark, ancient abyss that had just opened up in front of them. Even Lee, whose eardrums were still shot to hell, had been shaken awake by the otherworldly terror that had suddenly crept up on them.

Sakura could only watch in mute horror as Naruto slowly rose to his feet, jagged, thorny swirls cascading over his body and glowing red-hot before his skin began to lose pigmentation entirely. Soon, the lightly tanned skin that she was so familiar with had become deathly pale and marred with scales and feathers. He was hunched over, but a clawed hand digging into the damaged tree trunk brought him to his full height as he faced the rest of the assembled genin.

Sakura could only see the back of him, but the same wasn't true for the others in the clearing. Naruto's whisker marks had boldened into straight, black blocks on his white cheeks, and his normally vibrant gaze was dull and unfocused as if he was barely even present mentally and equally unaware of anyone else there.

That wasn't the case, however. A faint, practically unnoticeable shiver from Dosu at the monstrous power Naruto was radiating was his undoing, as Naruto's head quite literally snapped in his direction, and his eyes were no longer unfocused. Dosu swore the ghosts of two crimson pools filled with tomoe sat over the cerulean gaze currently stabbing right through his soul, but those were all the thoughts he was able to have before his world went black. Naruto appeared before Dosu faster than most of the clearing could even fathom and leveled a punch so vicious that not only was the squelching of Dosu's chest caving in heard by everyone present, but Dosu was also blasted backward and sent careening through dozens of trees on his path to oblivion. The only traces of Dosu left behind in the spot he once occupied were small spatters of blood and the scroll he was holding.

The strangled yelp from Kin captured his attention next, and Kin, bless her heart, shakily brandished a few senbon to defend herself with. They were promptly smacked out of her hand by her barely human attacker who was suddenly in front of her before she was backhanded and sent on a collision course with the nearest tree. Unfortunately, a fistful of her long hair yanked her back and kept her from going too far, leaving her to the mercy of the creature who was supposed to be a loudmouthed brat of little importance. Instead, she was trapped in place beneath the horrifyingly blank gaze staring into her like two portals to the worst hell imaginable.

"P-please," she whimpered, wholly unconcerned with how pitiful she sounded in lieu of simply wanting to stay alive.

Her attacker simply tilted its head and looked toward the nearest tree. It stared for a brief moment before looking back at Kin with a thoughtful gleam in those evil eyes.

Kin did not like that gleam one bit.


"And that is how we Biju came to be," the Kyubi finished his cliff notes explanation of Kaguya, the Jubi, and the Sage of Six Paths for the fleshy simpleton in front of him.

"Woah…" Naruto marveled, still wrapping his mind around the fantastical nature of the tale while nearly suffering from information overload. Then, he pointed to the strangely silent mini-Jubi. "You all came from that thing?"

"A far, far, far more powerful and destructive version of that, but yes," the Kyubi affirmed.

Naruto slowly nodded, finally reckoning with the magnitude of everything he had been told. Let it never be said that Naruto was stupid. An idiot, sure, but not stupid. He briefly gazed at the creature, then he looked back at the bars holding the Kyubi back, and then he took on a thoughtful expression.

"So, as long as it's locked up inside of me, it can't do any harm, right?" Naruto asked his tenant.

"NO!" The Kyubi furiously snarled at him, knocking him on his ass from the sheer force of his bellowing. "The snake summoner was playing with forces far beyond his understanding. That thing should not exist. Every second it does, there's the inevitability that it will break its shackles and escape. When that happens, my existence will be in danger!"

"And the rest of the world!" Naruto cried in horror.

The Kyubi blinked. "…Yeah, sure, them too I guess."

He fixed Naruto with a serious glare. "More importantly, it's an unstable mass of chakra right now, so it will use the cursed seal and your vessel as a means of maintaining itself. If that mockery of the Jubi were to take you over, it would absorb me, and then it would do the same to every other biju until it restores its full power. Nothing in this world would be able to stop it once that happens. I don't even want to imagine what would occur if it manages to reach the husk of the original… I will grant you as much of my chakra as you need as long as we expunge this abomination from existence!"

Naruto nodded his understanding, and then a small smile crept onto his face. "You're nothing like the stories say, y'know? I thought you'd be mean, angry, and scary all the time, not helpful."

"There's a world-ending catastrophe not 20 feet from me," the Kyubi scoffed. "Make no mistake, I hate you and all of your kind, but even being chained to you for the foreseeable future is preferable to the fate that awaits me should we not dispose of this monstrosity before it grows any stronger."

"Can't you just, I don't know, burn it with your chakra or something?" Naruto spitballed. "You're like 100 times its size right now. Even if it's wicked strong, it can't be as strong as you, right?"

The Kyubi shook his head. "Even so, it's far too powerful for me to simply consume or assimilate it as I am right now. I'll need my other half. With my full power restored, I could destroy it with minimal issue."

Naruto blinked. "Your other half?"

"Your blasted Yondaime only sealed half of me into you," he growled. "He took my other half with him to the Shinigami."

"Is there a way to get it back?"

The Kyubi was about to shake his head, but he paused when a memory of his time within Mito Uzumaki came back to him. He silently mused the idea for a few seconds longer before setting his sights back on Naruto. "Theoretically. It's not impossible, though it is currently improbable. You'll need to do some digging to find the location of the Uzumaki Temple."

"Wait, Uzumaki Temple??" Naruto exclaimed. "There are others??"

Upon seeing the Kyubi's exasperated sigh, Naruto shook his head with a frown that was on the path to becoming smoldering. "No, you're right, we'll deal with that after I wake up. There are a lot of things I need to figure out when I wake up."

"You're already awake."

Naruto paused his darkening train of thought and stared back at the fox in confusion. "What?"

"The Jubi has been piloting you. You need to reassert control if you want to leave the mindscape. Were you not aware?"

"No!" Naruto shouted. "How would I even know that, and why didn't you say anything?!"

"What, am I your prisoner and your babysitter?" the Kyubi scoffed.

Naruto nearly pulled his hair out. "Ugh, just tell me how to take back control of my body!"

"You're far too weak to overpower the Jubi on your own," the Kyubi informed. "However, perhaps a flood of my chakra could disturb the connection enough to allow you to wrench control away from it."

Naruto sighed, but his expression was one of determination. "It's worth a shot."


"Mi hoy minoy! Mi yoy minoyehomomoy!"

Sakura was experiencing many things at that moment: horror at the gruesome scene ahead of them, worry for both of her teammates, and confusion at the gibberish Naruto was hollering as he repeatedly slammed Kin's face (or what remained of it) into a tree trunk.

Speaking of Kin, the bloody imprint of her face would have been left in the tree trunk if said trunk wasn't bending and cracking upon the constant impacts of a head being slammed into it. She had been dead for a while at that point, but no one in the clearing moved a muscle for fear that Naruto's attention would fall upon them next. As far as Team 10 was concerned, so long as Naruto's attention was firmly planted on Kin's corpse, they were still alive.

The same couldn't be said for Sakura, though. She wasn't going to let her team slip into whatever darkness Orochimaru was trying to plunge them into, and that brought her to her feet and rushing forward.

"Naruto!" she desperately called out to him before an arm shot out to stop her approach.

"Stay back, Sakura," Sasuke instructed, the cursed seal still active as he stared Naruto down with his Sharingan. "Whatever's inside of Naruto is still in control."

True to his word, Naruto's unsettling gaze was now on his team, and the tension in the clearing was reaching a fever pitch. Even with the cursed seal addling his mind, Sasuke knew that he was no match for whatever the hell had gotten into his teammate. Not even the boost from the cursed seal compared to the power that he could practically taste emanating from Naruto. He could gather that Orochimaru had done something similar to Naruto that he did to him, but it must have been exponentially more horrific to create… this.

Sasuke didn't move and prevented Sakura from moving while his piercing Sharingan glare scanned Naruto over for any possible weakness to exploit if it came to a fight, and he could sense the Hyuga in the trees doing the same on the other side. However, just as Naruto took a single step and Sasuke readied for action, Naruto keeled over and grunted, and a thick, red miasma suddenly overtook him. The dark, all-consuming malice radiating from the noxious chakra was the final straw for Team 10, and they vacated the scene without looking back.

Elsewhere, however, someone else was having very different thoughts. While Tenten was still rooted in place, Neji felt the most anxious he had since the last instance of his uncle activating his caged bird seal. What he had seen when activating his Byakugan on Naruto when he attacked the Oto-nin would stay with him for the rest of his life. Such an unfathomable quantity of chakra cascading over an indescribably evil powder keg lurking in the abyss. To make matters worse, the abyss itself felt alive… conscious, even. When he peered at it with his Byakugan, it stared right back at him, and he felt as if he had just made himself a target to be devoured in the future.

Not only was that boy dangerous, but he also appeared entirely uninhibited in battle and didn't make any indications of familiarity when looking at his own teammates for that brief moment of respite. Neji knew how much he outclassed the rest of his genin peers, but even he knew that should he be on the opposite side of the battlefield with Naruto in these exams, he would die.

So, Naruto Uzumaki would simply have to die first before that could even occur. A Gentle Fist strike to the brainstem while he was currently vulnerable would be sufficient.

What he did not account for when he leaped to strike, however, was Sasuke Uchiha intercepting his charge and clutching his wrist in a death grip.

"One more step, and I will end you, Hyuga," Sasuke growled dangerously at him, standing protectively over a writhing Naruto while Sakura hurried over to Naruto's side.

Furious Sharingan met stone-cold Byakugan in a fierce battle of wills. The black markings dressing Sasuke did not deter Neji, and neither did the bulging veins of the Byakugan dissuade Sasuke. Neither were going to back down of their own volition, and as the seconds ticked on, it appeared certain that a battle to the death would take place there and then.

"Neji, come on, let's go," Tenten worriedly spoke up, placing a hand on Neji's shoulder with Lee standing wobbly on the other side supported by her other arm.

Her pleading gaze and the unsteady Lee to her side were just enough to get him to relent, and he sneered at Sasuke before stepping back. He shot Team 7 another dirty look before leaving with his team, and Sasuke simply sighed after he was gone. A groan from Naruto that wasn't incoherent gibberish brought his attention back to his teammates in time to see Sakura fretting over Naruto. The red chakra had disappeared, and his skin and hair had returned to normal.

"Oh man," Naruto muttered as Sakura helped him back to his feet. "That wasn't pleasant."

"Naruto?" Sakura hazarded, glad that he seemed to be back in his right mind but completely unsure of what to make of what had happened. "Are you okay?"

Upon seeing the genuine concern pouring out of Sakura, Naruto's first instinct was to put up a bright smile and assuage her worries with some kind of empty platitude. However, Naruto simply did not have the energy, compulsion, or even the desire to put on a front.

"No," Naruto plainly answered, surprising both Sakura and Sasuke with the dullness of his voice. "But… I'll be okay. Can't afford to not be. I have things to do and questions I need answered."

That was a level of introspection that neither knew Naruto to be capable of. Sasuke analyzed his words and actually found himself slightly reevaluating his blonde comrade; he, dare he say, actually empathized with him on something other than the pain of loneliness. Sakura, on the other hand, found herself growing even more concerned with the response.

"…Is it about your parents?" she quietly asked, and she immediately wished she hadn't and chastised herself for so stupidly touching that nerve after Orochimaru had practically dragged it along concrete. Even Sasuke was now paying far more attention, clearly having missed something between being bitten by Orochimaru and waking up.

Naruto fought back an instinctual wince, and then he sighed, the smile he offered Sakura looking far more genuine than the megawatt beam he usually sported. "Like I said, I'll be okay."

"No," Sakura declared, catching Naruto and Sasuke off guard by pulling the both of them into a hug. "We'll be okay. We're Team 7, and Team 7 sticks together. Through everything."

Now, it was Naruto's turn to be taken aback alongside Sasuke. He wasn't used to this level of physical intimacy from, well, anyone, least of all the girl he seemed to do nothing but annoy with his advances. Sasuke wasn't fairing much better, having not received a hug since he walked in on his freshly cutdown parents laying in a pool of their blood at the feet of his brother.

For both, it was an odd, painfully unfamiliar sensation, but it wasn't particularly unwelcome, so it was very unfortunate when a white snake slithered out of the ether and rudely interrupted the moment by accosting Sakura and biting her on the neck. The sudden shock of the attack swiftly gave way to an explosion of pain that immediately lanced through her body, bringing her to her knees in an agonized screaming fit.

"Sakura!" Naruto cried, but his worried shouts were drowned out by her pained wailing.

Sasuke tried to catch the white snake before it could slither away, but it was much too quick and vanished into the undergrowth like a thief in the night. Cursing, he turned back around and joined Naruto in huddling over Sakura as she convulsed on the forest floor with absolutely no idea what to do to help her. The appearance of three black, curved marks sitting in a ripple pattern near the spot where she was bitten only made their hearts plummet like rocks to the pits of their stomachs.


Orochimaru was proud of himself. While that wasn't an uncommon occurrence, this time he had so much reason to feel like the impeccable genius he was. He could feel the awakening of Sasuke's Cursed Seal of Heaven, meaning he had survived its application and was one step closer to joining him at his side. Even so, while that was all well and good, it wasn't what tickled Orochimaru the most. No, that honor was bestowed to the collective chill that had run up the spines of everyone within the walls of Konoha.

The Cursed Seal of Hell was a rousing success.

It wasn't an overwhelming wave of chakra akin to a biju's appearance that settled over the village. It was far more subdued like a silent, otherworldly dread settling into the core of anyone within range. It was a positively delicious sensation that gave even him momentary pause. He hadn't expected the conglomeration of every biju's chakra to feel that unnerving, and he could only imagine what it may have felt like at ground zero. It had his former sensei out of his office and observing the Forest of Death like a hawk, though that was likely in part due to Anko no doubt having already reported her encounter with him earlier on. Still, even with the ANBU and jonin on high alert, keeping out of sight was no trouble at all. The only person in the village he had to worry about detecting him was the old fool anyway.

If that old monkey knew what was good for him, he would neither cancel the exams nor pull Naruto and Sasuke out of them. Orochimaru wanted a front-row seat for the fruits of his labor. He wanted to see the potential he witnessed in action and uninhibited by the baggage they carried every second of their miserable lives. He wanted to see his future vessel and his newest project showcase the power of Orochimaru before the very village that would be destroyed no sooner afterward.

Until then, he did sniff out another Uzumaki wandering around with a Kusa headband. Perhaps he could procure some added incentive for Naruto should he choose to be as stubborn as his mother was…


The first thing Sakura was met with when she opened her eyes was further darkness. Surrounding her was a black void that stretched as far as she could see in all directions. She didn't know where she was or why she was even there except…

"It's about time you showed up."

Sakura jumped at the sudden voice, but the fact that it was her own voice she heard unsettled her even more. Turning around, she was faced with… herself? Or rather, a jagged, white outline of herself that felt void of any warmth to speak of. If that wasn't unsettling enough, the white snake wrapped snuggly around her neck, and the almost contemptuous gleam in her eyes put Sakura on edge.

"…Who are you?" Sakura eventually worked up the nerve to ask.

"You can call me Inner," the other Sakura responded curtly. "I'm all of the thoughts and feelings that you compartmentalize to make your existence less uncomfortable."

On top of not really knowing how to unpack that revelation, there was a noticeable bite to Inner's tone that Sakura didn't know what to make of. Inner cut her off before she could voice any of those concerns, though.

"I'm all of your insecurities and all of your fears," she continued, her tone growing more sardonic with each word. "I'm every uncouth comment, every intrusive thought, and every compulsion you've ever had to follow the call of the void. Hell, I'm even all of the giggles you strangled when you heard about Naruto's pranks to avoid a hit from our father."

Sakura winced. "I don't understand…"

"There's no need to lie," Inner chuckled in a mixture of mirth and derision. "I can see it in your eyes. You understand perfectly, you just refuse to accept it."

"There's nothing to accept!" Sakura snapped, momentarily surprising even herself before her face hardened when she dropped all pretenses, and she motioned to Inner. "I can't be this. I can't be you."

"I am you," Inner dully replied.

"No, you're not!" she furiously shot back. "You're everything that's wrong with me!"

Inner's already unimpressed expression soured into a sneer. "According to who? The family we hate?"

"I don't hate them!" Sakura refuted.

"I thought I said there was no need to lie?" Inner chastised, her unimpressed sneer remaining. "'Hatred is such an ugly emotion,' Mom always said before cursing the fox that ended Dad's shinobi career. Right before leveling another scathing remark about our intelligence or our figure. Right before Dad blows up about something totally innocuous. Some family, huh? No wonder we found ourselves a new the first chance we got."

No matter how hard Sakura wracked her brain for any sort of response to that, none came. She couldn't dispute Inner's words in any way, and it stung worse than any pointed barb or any lingering handprint. All of the turmoil that she so diligently evaded for so long was finally beginning to sneak up on her regardless of how far into the recesses of her mind she stuffed it. Still, she needed to respond with something.

"…How do you know all of this?" she lowly asked. It was a stupid question, and Sakura knew it.

However, Inner merely snorted with a small smile before stepping closer to Sakura. "I am who you truly hate the most in this world, and I'm also the only one who's always going to be there for you no matter what."

"Sasuke and Naruto won't abandon me!" she found the nerve to shout back once again.

"You can't rely on them forever," Inner shrugged. "Sooner or later, you'll have to stand on your own two feet, or else they'll leave you in the dust. That'll never happen so long as we remain separate."

"Remain… separate?" she questioned, finally noticing the white snake wrapped around Inner's neck eying her curiously.

"You will never be able to stand alongside your better family if you continue to run from who you really are," Inner reiterated, extending her hand as an unsettling smile developed on the outline that was her face. "Orochimaru granted us an opportunity to reach our full potential, and we'll never reach it separately. You have to let go and finally embrace who you are."

Sakura warily eyed the offered hand, and then she locked eyes with the jagged outline of herself that was somehow still a solid entity. "How do I know that you're really who you say you are? How do I know that this isn't just a fabrication from Orochimaru?"

"You don't," Inner grinned. "Does it really matter at this point?"

Sakura didn't respond to that. She continued staring at Inner while a storm raged within her brain. Sasuke, Naruto, and even Kakashi-sensei were front and center in her mind's eye. Every morning, she'd leave her home as quickly as possible, doing her best to brush off the insidious thoughts that she was lower than dirt, only to step into the training ground and become awash with a warmth that she so desperately wanted to feel for years. Naruto's exuberance, Sasuke's aloofness, and Kakashi-sensei's indecipherable quirkiness were all that she had to cherish for the last few months, and cherish she did. Despite their bickering, despite their sensei's habits, and despite how seemingly nonsensical their grouping felt at times, they all cared about each other and always protected each other when it mattered. Team 7 was like a family.

They were her better family.

Sakura took Inner's hand in her own, and the two stepped forward and embraced each other. Little by little, the jagged outline of Inner softened into a fine sketch until she vanished within Sakura entirely. The snake soon followed suit, finding itself wrapped around Sakura's neck before melting into her, as well. In its place, chains of contorting, parallel lines began spreading across her body, and a flood of chakra surged through her.


Naruto and Sasuke were hesitant to allow the enigmatic Kabuto to look over Sakura. Not only had he revealed himself to have information on many other people in the exam (some of which he logically should not have had), but he had admitted to having failed the exam six times before. In both of their minds, there was nothing a guy like that could offer them, and they wanted to dismiss him outright as a result, but neither could deny the practical experience that came with years on the job.

So, that was how they begrudgingly found themselves watching intently from the sidelines as the older teen ran a diagnostic on Sakura with medical ninjutsu. Kabuto's glowing palms scanned over her unconscious body while he hummed in appraisal. What exactly he was appraising, neither Naruto nor Sasuke knew, and it was beginning to irritate them.

"I did what I could for the prior injuries, but beyond that, she seems mostly fine," Kabuto informed the two as his palms scanned over her collarbone, and then he paused. "That's odd."

"What? What's wrong?" Naruto demanded, scuttling over to them with Sasuke not too far behind.

"There seems to be a buildup of chakra in the general area of her collarbone," Kabuto innocuously mused. "I'm not entirely sure what it's for, and since I'm not a sensor, I can't determine the nature of-"

Kabuto was cut off when Sakura's foot planted itself in his crotch. He didn't even get a chance to yelp before her foot impacted him three more times in rapid succession, and her eyes shot open as the Cursed Seal of Earth spread across her skin. She quickly scooted backward, meanwhile, Kabuto fell to the forest floor in a fetal position as high-pitched sputtering choked out of his throat.

"Sakura!" Naruto shouted before appearing at her side. "You're okay! We were so worried that the stupid white snake did something horrible to you! Sasuke was especially worried. He wouldn't even let Kabuto get within ten feet of you at firs-"

"Shut up, idiot," Sasuke gritted out after bonking Naruto in the head. "Give her some space, she just came to."

Naruto shot Sasuke a dirty look before grimacing and sending Sakura a sheepish smile. "Oh, sorry, Sakura."

Standing up, Naruto and Sasuke took in Sakura's appearance. Kabuto had said that she was mostly fine beyond a buildup of chakra, and now it was plain to see just what that was. Both boys subconsciously rubbed the marks that Orochimaru had bestowed upon them as they and Sakura analyzed the markings of her cursed seal.

"Sakura," Sasuke broke the silence, and he couldn't help but think back to the violent rush he felt when his mark activated for the first time. "How do you feel?"

Sakura remained silent for a few moments, marveling at her skin and at the unfamiliar unity she felt within both her core and her brain, all the while pointedly ignoring the mousy squeals of agony coming from Kabuto a few feet away. Clenching her fist, she turned to her two teammates with a genuine smile.

"Better than ever."


Someone please make me stop working through issues via writing because this shit was supposed to be funny

On a lighter note, I took some liberties with Sakura's character. I don't know if that's a lighter note at all given the content of those liberties. I also don't quite know the specific differences between Cosmic, Eldritch, and Lovecraftian Horror, so I don't know what to call the Jubi bits beyond an exploration of one or more of those three.

I will not apologize for the Jubi being Doodlebob.

Thanks for reading.