God damn it!

I reached upward, claws hooking around the handle of the Kunai and none too gently pulling it out.

It took a second before my eyes started functioning again, allowing me to see the son of a bitch that had flung a Kunai at my face.

Long, white and spiky hair, two red lines trailing down his face from under his eyes, a horned forhead protector with 'Oil' written on it.

I didn't need to see the rest of him before I knew exactly who this was.

Jiraiya.

He blinks, a small amount of surprise in his face.

"Oh, you're the Nara Clan Mascot!" He declares, as if speaking some great truth of the universe.

Mascot?

I can see amusement in his Heart, though it wasn't apparent anywhere else.

I am nobodies mascot!

I flipped the Kunai in my hand, grabbing it by the blade and threw it at him, ring first.

He could have dodged -the aerodynamics of a Kunai were all wrong to throw it backwards with any sort of speed-, but even knowing that, it was still surprisingly satisfying when it collided with his nose with a meaty thwack.

I both felt and saw a pulse of Chakra as it collided, temporarily reinforcing his skin and preventing any real damage from occurring, but I took satisfaction nonetheless.

"Ooh, feisty."

I felt his amusement spike, a grin now appearing on his face.

I glared.

Then, I caught sight of the ground; covered in seals that stretched across and around the room, all pointing surrounding a large, black sphere in the middle of the room.

How the fuck did I miss that?

I turned to it, a perfectly black spot that sat, immobile and utterly still in the room.

"The result of Danzo's sealing technique," Jiraiya elaborated, seeing my interest. "Though I have a feeling that he didn't intend for it to be like this."

I heard the words, but didn't really acknowledge them.

A piece of black, Pure Darkness from the Depths.

I'd felt Darkness like this before; Darkness out in the Sea of the Skies.

This was no Darkness native to this world, this was from outside.

I didn't consciously register the moment when I'd placed my hand on the sphere, or the moment when I'd stopped paying attention to the rest of the World.

What I did register when I touched it was bad.

The sphere was Darkness, pure and complete, enough of it that I only just eclipsed it, still and waiting.

I could feel the inside churning, swirling blackness condensing together and-

hunger

- intention coming into existence, birthed from the nature of Darkness itself.

I had a single second to realise what was going on and

I

tore.

Darkness ripped away, a primal non-existence prevented by the barest of threads, half of a non-being taken away before it could truly come into non-life.

Darkness flowed, from an incomplete Heartless, to myself.

I shoved it through my body, trying to assimilate it as fast as I could, pure desperation overriding my normal care for absorbing Darkness.

I could deal with it later, when the threat of another Heartless coming into existence is over.

The metaphysical 'taste' flooded my senses, just as it had so long ago when I had taken my first bite. Like then, I was tempted to eat more, to call upon it faster and faster, to devour more and consume, consume consume consume

It almost hurt ignoring that, forcing myself to continue my actions through the desire, my will backed up by desperation and fear.

There could not be another Heartless.

I would not let there be another Heartless.

I tore apart the Darkness, introducing chaos to prevent formation, all the while absorbing it; the only surefire way I knew that would prevent it from happening.

If I failed, apocalypse. It was as simple as that; another Heartless would go, spread, consume, multiply. The coming of the Heartless would end up consuming countless Worlds, ruining countless lives, a plague upon existence.

Even if I could not prevent it forever, the Heartless will not be coming today.

I pulled harder, forcing the last of the Darkness inside of myself, adding it to my own existence. I felt myself grow as the amount of Darkness that composed me almost doubled in size, but it was a change in density rather than size, concentrating more of myself into the same amount of space, growing that much tougher, harder and stronger, less bound by normal physics.

I gave a mental sigh of relief.

Apocalypse narrowly averted.

Then, as of to ruin the moment, I felt another Kunai sink into the back of my head.

"Oi! Pay attention to me!"

The end of one of my antennae came up, looping through the ring on the end of the Kunai, before yanking it out.

The Kunai dropped into my hand, and this time, I threw the sharp end at him.

He caught it without missing a beat, stowing it away in a pouch.

"Did you have to do that? I spent hours working on this array," He grouched, a small amount of irritation coming up to hide a considerable amount of concern. "And you just rendered it useless."

I nodded at him, both answering his question and giving a hint of satisfaction for ruining his seal array.

Jerk deserved it for throwing Kunai at my head.

I noted that the sphere was now gone, vanished as it had never been. Good.

I also noticed that Danzo's corpse was at the bottom of the carved sphere in the ground, and I honestly just had to stop and still for a second to comprehend that.

"So that's where his corpse was..."

Pointedly, I didn't jump as Jiraiya suddenly made himself known right next to me; that had happened more than enough with Shikaku that I was no longer surprised by it.

"Oi, Inu! Go get Sarutobi-sensei and Shikaku, they need to see this." Jiraiya called, reaching through his clothes at the same time.

One hand produced a notepad, and the other produce a small pencil, offering both to me.

I took them, wondering why he just happened to be carrying a notepad and pencil with him.

Oh, right. 'Research'.

"But seriously, you seemed pretty panicked when you noticed it." Jiraiya stated, instantly shifting into perfect seriousness, an underlying hint of worry that was unlike the man's goofy nature.

'For good reason. If I'd arrived much later it could have been very bad.'

I handed him the paper, watching as concern lit up in his Heart, alongside other emotions.

I should have come back earlier, that way I could have nipped this in the bud. I don't even have an excuse, because I saw Darkness enter this World, yet I had decided to go to another, different one. Because it was closer.

Ugh.

"How bad?"

''Everything died' bad'.'

"That's pretty bad." Jiraiya agreed.

You don't say?

Simultaneous puffs of smoke announced the entrance of Shikaku and Hiruzen. Inu worked fast, it seemed.

I waved in greeting, looking at both of them. Hiruzen nodded, before noticing Danzo's corpse.

Shikaku, on the other hand, walked up to me and looked me over, Relief colouring his Heart. I saw surprise -no doubt at my appearance- and happiness too.

"Welcome back." He nodded.

'Good to be back.'