I crept through the forest in utter silence, naught but a shadow along the ground, hidden in the shadow of trees.

I was not in the expansive forest that surrounded Konoha, I was actually still within the village limits, just taking a stroll through the foliage that surrounded one set of buildings.

I hunted a Heart, one that I'd only felt yesterday but had already memorized, tracking trails of emotion and Chakra, seeking out the bearer.

I'd knew I'd found my target when my sensitive ears picked up a very muffled, very perverted giggle.

I came close and slowly pulled myself out of the ground, my target still unaware of my presence, too focussed on the sight in front of him.

I could feel the slight heat, wafting from across the fence line. If I listened I could make out idle chatter from the occupants of the other side, several women relaxing, holding no idea of their watcher, or of their watcher's hunter.

I pulled out of the ground entirely, still not making a sound, still not leaving a single hint or clue to my presence.

My foot reared back, the preparation for a skewering kick.

When it collided with my prey with enough force to knock him clean through the fence line, I felt nothing but satisfaction of a job well done.

I felt my target's immense surprise, utterly unsuspecting of both me and my attack, not having even a chance to detect me before I had sent him through the fence.

I stayed just long enough to feel the spike of very real fear from Jiraiya, and to hear the simultaneous distinctive growl of one Inuzuka Tsume backed up by half a dozen Kunoichi.

"Everything dies?" Shikaku asked.

'Yes. If I'd come later, the world would have been doomed.'

"How?"

7 at night was the latest time that Shikamaru had stayed awake.

It was 10 right now. Shikamaru was silent, still, and laying on the couch.

He had bags under his eyes, eyes that were a little red, glistening with unshed tears.

"You were gone."

I saw a spike of sadness, something that was quite out of character for the normally unflappable kid.

"Dad came back and you didn't."

I stood up and sat next next to him. There was more than enough room on the couch for both of us, considering I was only a bit over 4 and a half feet tall, and he wasn't much shorter.

I ruffled his hair, ruining the already deplorable untamed bed hair he had.

"Don't do that!" He sleepily shouted, trying, and failing, to let his irritation be known.

Don't leave.

I patted his head, to which he gave a grumpy growl.

If Shikamaru eventually fell asleep on the couch, snuggling into my side and using me as a pillow, well, I didn't say anything.

'You're thinking of a plague, or an conventional attack, but that's not what was going to happen.'

"And what was going to happen?"

'It's not a plague, but the truth is; it's surprisingly close. What was going to happen was that another of my kind was going to spawn.'

"That doesn't seem so bad."

'It doesn't seem bad because you think it would be like me. You couldn't be further from the truth if you tried.'

"Is that about the Kunai?" He asked, muffled by all the bandages wrapped around his body. "I have a feeling that was about the Kunai."

I gave a satisfied glance at Jiraiya, then went back to scribbling all over his vaunted 'research'. It was, exactly as I'd expected of the self-proclaimed super-pervert, full of porn.

"You know, that's quite a cruel thing to do, destroy all of my hard earned work." Jiraiya stated, his voice flat with not even a hint of the amusement I could see in his Heart.

Just for good measure, I bopped him over the head with the Kunai ring, the very same Kunai he'd thrown at my head earlier.

'I am different from the rest of my kind. Abnormal, completely and utterly unlike them in every way other than appearance and ability. You see me and think I'm normal, a baseline, but that isn't correct.'

"To tell the truth, I kind of suspected that already."

'Good. More of us is bad because almost all of my kind is driven by instinct; most of us are not intelligent beings; only a scant few are sapient.'

"And?"

'The instinct is simple; feed.'

"And we're the food?"

'You and every sentient being in existence.'

Yoshino Nara, I'd learned, was sick this week. In the height of Konoha Spring, this wasn't to be unexpected.

Shikaku spent his time alternating between Jounin and taking care of clan matters, but there was apparently something requiring most of his attention as Jonin Commander.

Consequently, this also meant that Ino's and Chōji's mothers visited the Nara compound and kept the woman company.

The three weren't quite as close as their husbands were, but they were all still good friends.

Naturally, that meant that Ino and Chōji were also coming to visit.

Three 8 year olds who got along like a house on fire, whose mothers' were too out of the way to keep them in line, who the Nara didn't bother trying to keep calm, so long as the chaos didn't bother them.

And I was the poor shmuck saddled with the duty taking care of them all.

That Shikamaru actually joined in on playing didn't surprise me. His mind had a tendency to wander when he was standing still, and after recent events, that was the last thing he wanted.

'We feed, and in doing so; propagate, spawning more and more. This wouldn't be a problem except for the simple fact that, like myself, they are incapable of dying.'

"A horde of unkillable, breeding, teleporting, tireless creatures."

'Yes. They'd keep coming, hunting and hunting, trying to feed and devour. Some would spawn whenever they take a life, but our kind begets each other; more begin to spawn naturally, not limited to the amount of kills they take.'

"No matter what happens, we'd be overrun."

Silently, I passed through the hospital, naught but shadow along the ground.

I hadn't been back long, but this was something that I could not put off any longer.

I noted the ANBU guards standing in the shadows, hidden underneath a veil of Chakra, blending in, out of sight. I saw the slight surprise in their Hearts as I approached, but other than, they didn't react.

They didn't react as I slid up to the door they were guarding, aside from a very slight pulse of Chakra being given off as I passed underneath the doors, looking into the occupants of the ward they'd been guarding.

A ward with 21 beds, one for each remaining member of the Uchiha clan.

All of whom were resting.

For a while, I just stared at them, looking at all 21 of them.

Quite a few of the beds were empty, I noted. Not because a lack of bodies to fill them, but because more than a few beds possessed more than one.

One -belonging to a Kuroko Uchiha, according to the sign underneath the bed- contained three, one woman and two much younger twin girls, all of them with tear stains running down their faces.

I wasn't entirely sure when Hiruzen arrived, nor was I sure when I had exited the shadows, but I did notice both when the former's hand came to rest on my shoulder.

"They're alive," He stated, his voice coming across in a soft whisper. "It's only thanks to you that we don't have 20 extra corpses on hand."

'Yes. You see why I am so concerned with it now, yes?'

"I do."