Chapter 14- A veil lifted

"As boys are scared of all things that may lurk

In darkness, we fear sometimes in the light

Those things that in no way should ever fright

Anyone more than what boys in darkness dread,

Imaging some monster lies ahead."

-TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), Book II

This Chapter's Theme Song:

My Chemical Romance - Sleep

Fuzzy images of battle graced Kakashi's mind. He had fallen. His head still throbbed from the the pain of the blow he had taken. The rest of his body was in no better state... Yup, he recognised the distinctive feeling of a soldier pill's after-effects. The feeling never got any better no matter how many times he experienced it. But these sensations meant he was still alive.

A flash of Kamen's back facing him came to mind. On the other side of those shoulders, an onslaught of evil waiting to claim their lives.

The white haired shinobi strained to crack open his non-sharingan eye and regretted it almost instantly. He felt sand blow against his lashes violently. As his senses slowly returned to him he heard the sound cloth flapping against his ears as heavy winds blew by.

He stood facing down certain death without flinching. He could have sworn that in the corner of his eye, he spotted a smirk below his defender's mask. That was madness, no one would be smiling in this situation. Although it was not as mad as what happened next.

Kakashi felt his limbs bounce around numbly with each difficult step Kamen took. He strained to move his fingerless gloved hand, something which required much more effort than he would have liked. He reached up to rub his face, which made him realise that a cloth had been wrapped around his head to protect him from the blowing sands.

Kamen dove both hands forward into the artificial tailed beast's enormous body. At this point Kakashi was fighting tooth and nail against hypnos as the call of his heavy eyelids grew hard to resist. Yet as his vision blurred and he slipped into unconsciousness, he could have sworn that strong back turned toward him was one he recognised. It seemed to glow with a golden aura, dark hair seemed to turn blond and a cloak seemed to flap in the wind. For a split second the fourth hokage was stood as the unflinching shield of his student. A small smile graced Kakashi's lips as his mind slipped into nothingness, reassured that his sensei would protect him.

His carrier stumbled slightly, struggling to deal with having to shift the weight he was carrying at every step. Still he continued onward towards an unknown goal. Kakashi wondered how long Kamen had been walking. The dryness of his own lips hinting that it hadn't been a short time.

A thick sandstorm clouded Kamen's vision. With each step he sunk down to just below half his shin. The golden cloak that he had acquired in the heat of battle was gone. It had been a strange sensation to feel something like that after so long. It hadn't been exactly the same as when he had linked with Kurama during the fourth shinobi war. Neither had it felt like when he had stolen his parasite's chakra and used it as his own. It had been like something in between the two. Either way he was thankful that it had healed him as it had. He doubted that he would have been able to lug his own body around, let alone Kakashi's, had he remained in that broken state he had found himself in. Although that wasn't to say that he felt as though he was at a hundred percent. His chakra reserves were effectively empty and even though the amount of Kurama's chakra he had absorbed was miniscule compared to containing the whole beast, he felt a strange pull within his mind-scape. One he was intent on ignoring.

"K-Kamen?" A slightly gravelier than he was used to Kakashi whispered into his ear, "W-what... What happened?"

Kamen's relentless advance through the land of wind's desert halted for a moment before resuming with more hesitation to his stride than it had seconds before.

"We won." The masked time traveller started calmly, "The artificial tailed beast self-destructed and Ren'ai Fuun was completely destroyed."

Once again Kamen didn't technically lie, he just omitted certain things. Kakashi could tell. In the short week he had known him, the white haired Jonin could always tell when there was something he wasn't telling him.

"Well... I suppose we can forget about getting that B-rank mission pay."

"Yeah." Kamen chuckled dryly. That had been the last thing he had been thinking about, "I'll end up getting kicked out of my apartment if I don't get my hands on some cash soon..."

"Meh, don't worry about it. If push comes to shove you can crash at my place."

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind."

Kakashi was surprised by the man's response. Pleasantly.

"Ne, I think I can walk on my own now."

"Oh. Yeah sure."

Kamen untied the rope that was holding the two together and let his once sensei stand on his own two wobbly legs. The sharingan wielder stumbled, his face heading for the sand, only to be caught by his dark haired friend. Said man wrapped an arm around his shoulder as support and added with a chuckle: "I suppose you thought wrong."

"Harr Harr. Keep walking and I'll follow." After a few seconds of silence, Kakashi continued with a furrowed brow, "Do you even know where we're going?."

"Of course I do. The land of rivers is that way." He pointed in front of them, "Somewhere."

Kakashi chuckled slightly at the nonchalance of the man next to him. His eye went from looking at the distance to Kamen's outstretched finger, then as it returned to it's master's side he looked down at his chest. He realised his comrade was bare chested, sand crashing against his skin. The dots connected and he realised that the torn cloth wrapped around his head must have once been Kamen's padded shirt. Some of his wounds had also been bandaged up with the same material. It was then, with his mind on wounds that he realised the man next to him had none.

This revelation caused Kakashi's brain to momentarily freeze. How was that possible? Kamen had been bruised, battered and shredded beyond what should have been possible for him to be alive. Yet now there was not even a scar on him. The gash across his gut curtsy of Raiga was the most surprising disappearance. After Lisandra had butchered the necrosis off of it, he would have thought it would have taken months to heal.

"Kamen?" Kakashi's confusion couldn't stand it any more, "What happened to your wounds? How did we even survive? The last thing I remember..." A pain resonated in his head as he tried to focus on his memories, trying to sort out the exhausted delusion from reality.

How was he going to explain himself out of this one? He had gotten extremely good at lying... But now... He had an eight trigram seal on his stomach with the Kyuubi's chakra locked inside. There was no way he could explain that away. Was there even a need to any more? He was now certain that he couldn't create a paradox with his actions. Rather he had known all along, but didn't want to accept the reality of his situation... Now... No. Despite the fact that he wanted to tell Kakashi everything, he couldn't. It would sound like the ramblings of a madman.

"Just before you were hit, I figured something out. That artificial bijuu was absorbing nature chakra to grow, but it was only able to stabilise its shape by using the Kyuubi's or rather I presume the sage of the six path's chakra."

A flash of his protector diving his fists into the beast's flesh came back to the forefront of Kakashi's mind.

"You absorbed the nine tail's chakra so that it would unbalance the scales? That's why the beast exploded?"

Kamen nodded. Kakashi couldn't believe it. He stopped, letting go of his human crutch who took two more steps before stopping. Sure it made sense. Except for the fact that taking in any amount of any tailed beast's raw chakra into an ordinary person's network was lethal. But if it hadn't killed him, it would explain why his wounds had healed. He had witnessed first hand the regenerative properties jinchuriki had thanks to their prisoners.

"And how are you not dead?"

The blowing wind was the only response he got. At least at first. The stars seemed to align in his mind. Kamen span around, placing one hand on his stomach.

"You remember how I told you that I learnt my fuinjutsu from an Uzumaki?"

Kakashi nodded, even though he wasn't sure what this had to do with anything. Then he felt his comrade channel the slightest amount of chakra to his fingers before pulling them away to reveal a very familiar sight. The Jonin sensei blinked dumbly for a few seconds. He looked up into ocean blue eyes, then down at the seal and then back again.

"You sealed its chakra in yourself?"

"Yeah... That's just how it turned out."

"But the eight trigrams seal... Doesn't it require the use of the death reaper seal?"

Kamen frowned slightly, he had assumed Kakashi knew more about fuinjutsu than he actually did. It made sense, fuinjutsu wasn't really seen as a viable battlefield skill and most shinobi never cared to learn how to make even a basic explosive or flash tag.

"No. The eight trigram seal is just a container seal like any other. Just like the ones you would use to store tools. A hundred fold more complex, but the same basic principal. The death reaper seal is only required if you're trying to seal a soul or chakra construct like a tailed beast. All I did was seal a part of the nine tail's chakra. One that didn't even have the will of its original owner backing it. It was actually easier to pull off than I thought."

The white haired sensei scratched at the back of his head dumbly as he took in what the man said. It was unbelievable, yet that seemingly unsurmountable foe was defeated and the seal was there before his eyes. Slowly the pair resumed their march as one still tried to assimilate everything that had happened. How the hell was he going to explain this to the third hokage?

"You know Kamen, I don't think I've ever met someone quite like you."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well. You seem to have an answer to everything."

"Maybe..." The war veteran chuckled grimly, "But I'm not so sure that's a good thing. All the knowledge I have was gained off of the backs of my friends and family's corpses..."

Kakashi felt a twang of regret for his words. The darkness that had hung over his newly acquired friend ever since they had met had been less noticeable since he had woken up, but now it seemed to creep back into his being.

"Well I'm certainly glad you were with us for that fight. None of us would have made it out alive otherwise."

Although he was the very reason they had ended up in that fight in the first place. Kamen couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Ren'ai Fuun in his timeline. Perhaps another team had been assigned to the mission. If that were the case they would have likely been killed by the Korosuki family. Raiga would have killed Shale and her Samurai. The information needed to 'perfect' the artificial beast would have never reached Ozymandias. Would that mad-man have persisted either way? Probably. Without the stabilising element to the beast perhaps it would have detonated just as it had when he had removed it from the equation. The result would have been the same had he been here or not...

"Do you..." Kakashi's voice snapped Kamen out of his brooding, "Do you think the others made it out alright?"

"Yeah. I'm sure they did. They had Guy with them so I'm sure they're okay."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow inquisitively at the response. It was so certain. He was always like that. His words seemed to never hold any conviction or faith. And yet the man spoke as though his words were fact.

"You place a lot of faith in someone you barely know."

"Ha." He chuckled at the irony of those words, "I guess he just seems like a dependable type of guy. No pun intended."

"True. I don't think I've ever met someone as dependable as Guy."

"Have you been friends for long? You seem to get along well."

"Since we were kids... Well I suppose I didn't really think of him as a friend back then. But he was."

A wistful smile graced Kakashi's lips beneath his mask. Although before he could reminisce on bittersweet childhood memories his attention was drawn back to Kamen. The man stumbled slightly and at first seemed to resume his march. That didn't last long however as he rapidly crashed down into the sand on one knee. The white haired jonin was swift in joining his friend's side, kneeling down next to him.

"Kamen!" He started, his voice full of worry, "Are you alright?"

The target of his worry seemed to be having trouble breathing as he clutched at his chest with his right hand.

"Something... Something feels strange..." His hand went from his chest to his mouth as he coughed up a splatter of blood. His eyes looked down at the crimson liquid in his hand. He couldn't help but notice that the sand stuck to it in a mesmerising pattern, "Well... That's not right."

And with that Kamen's eyes rolled to the back of his head as he slumped backwards into Kakashi's arms.

"Damn it!" Kakashi carefully laid his patient down. His hands hovered over his body as though they were trying to figure out what to do. Unfortunately Kakashi's fatigued mind could only come up with: "I have no idea what to do!"

Kamen's mind-scape had changed. Sure enough it still resembled a battle-torn forest, but it was slightly less ominous than it once was. There were no longer any eyes staring out from the shade of the tree's canopy. In fact rays of light seemed to pierce the darkness, lighting up the occasional budding sapling.

He found himself completely alone in the clearing. He didn't know what was going on, but his body did. Or at least it seemed to. Independently of his fuzzy mind, his feet carried him off into the forest. After what felt like several minutes of walking something he hadn't been expecting came into sight. A chain-link fence that stretched in either direction as far as the eye could see had been erected. A small red sign that read 'Danger, keep out.' had been tied to it. Just beneath that was a paper tag, the sealing style on its surface was one he would recognise anywhere. His father's signature touches were unmistakable. He rose a hand fondly to stroke the paper surface.

"Already going to set me free?"

Kamen recoiled from the sudden voice as it's owner slammed against the other side of the fence. A pair of black eyes with red glowing pupils stared back at him.

"Aww, I didn't mean to scare ya!"

He would never get used to seeing his own face staring back at him. But this time his alter-ego was different. He was still draped in an orange jumpsuit and the Seventh Hokage's cloak, but the golden aura that had clung to his form was now an unsettling burnt orange.

"What do you want? Aren't you satisfied? I've decided to change things."

"Ahh, yeah, because you finally realised the truth. A paradox isn't possible if you're not actually in the past. But you know what that means doesn't it?"

"I do."

"You're not actually changing anything! Everything that you did... All of that still happened!"

Kamen winced as he remembered his nine tailed friend's final speech. He couldn't say that he really understood how the tailed beasts had done it. However he understood what they had done. They hadn't sent him to the past per-say. Rather they had brought the past to him. They had re-written the present, destroyed everything and rebuilt the past atop it. He was the only relic that remained to prove any of it had actually happened. It explained some of the differences he had noticed, even those that he hadn't. No matter how powerful the tailed beasts had been, they weren't omnipotent. They couldn't recreate the world exactly as it had been. Still, he wasn't going to nitpick. What they had created was still on the level of gods. A question couldn't help but nag at the back of his mind however. If they had sacrificed themselves, then what was in Naruto's and the other Jinchuriki's seals? They couldn't have possible re-created themselves could they have? Yet the chakra he now had in the eight-trigrams seal was surely proof that they were alive? Right?

"Ooh, good question! Wouldn't you like to know. How about you remove that tag and I'll show you!"

The innocent smile that hung from his face seemed out of place. Perhaps because it wasn't reflected in his eyes.

"Bite me."

Kamen's mirror image roared as he quite literally bit into the chain-link fence that separated them with surprisingly elongated teeth.

"I would if I could you bastard!"

"Whatever. Are you the reason I fainted? Just so that I get to hear you whine for hours."

The blonde man suddenly settled down into a less animalistic stance with an ice cold stare.

"You've certainly got more spunk than the last time we spoke. A little realisation did all that did it?"

"I suppose it did."

"But it still won't wash away the blood on your hands." A low guttural growl escaped from his lips, his whiskers growing thicker by the second. A single long clawed finger rose to point accusingly at Kamen, "You might want to, but I can't forget what you did! Okay, our friends died. Then sensei. Then Sakura and Hinata... Even I... Even I can understand giving up in that situation... I can understand breaking the promise to never give... But that wasn't what you did."

The last words were spat out as though he had bit onto a lemon. An icy cold air seemed to shoot up Kamen's spine. No... Don't say it. He couldn't bare to think about it. Ever since he had returned to the past he had buried the memories of the those last three years of war. Garaa had been the only one to survive the end. That had been a good thing. Even now Kamen was convinced Garaa was the only person who could have accepted what he had become.

"Sure, brilliant! Go ahead! Go fix everything. Defeat all the bad guys. Kill them all. That's all you're good for. You don't deserve to stand beside them. Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto and all the rest. They deserve so much better than you!"

"And you think you're that so much better that they deserve? You're me."

"We aren't the same! I'm what you would have been if you hadn't gone fucking insane!"

"How rude. Besides, it's not what I did in the past that counts. It's what I do with the present."

"Ha! You're literally lying to yourself, you get that right? Stop putting on this 'I'm cured' bullshit act. You can't even fool yourself."

"What's the difference between pretending to be cured and actually being cured? What does it matter if I'm crying on the inside if I keep smiling on the outside? It's all the same right?"

Naruto paused for a second. His eyes seemed to fill with pity as he stared at his other-self.

"Idiot. You just don't get it do you."

"No. I don't."

"And that's the difference between us. You can't just pretend those horrible things you did never happened. Kiba was in the spur of the moment... But the others... All the other that you-"

"JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP WOULD YOU!?"

Naruto's eyes widened slightly as he watched Kamen slam a fist through the chain-link fence and grab him by the throat.

"What-"Naruto could barely speak as he felt the air being crushed out of his neck,"What are you-"

"I'm FUCKING sick of you. What? You're supposed to be a metaphor for my conscience? The falls of truth can go suck a lemon! You're waaaay too fucking late. I gutted that shit and buried it a long time ago. So just LET ME GET ON WITH MY FUCKING LIFE, YEAH?"

With every sentence Kamen's grip seemed to tighten around Naruto's neck. Tears welled up in his eyes as tried without success to scratch at the wrist that held him. Just as he felt his eyes start to roll to the back of his head he felt Kamen let go as he tossed him back away from the fence. Finally he was able to gasp in the sweet air that he had been denied. Through each breath and blurred vision he stared up at the man who had almost killed him.

"See." Naruto coughed at the strain it took to talk, "You haven't changed. Put on that plastic smile for the rest of your life if you want. If you keep ignoring what you did... You'll never be me."

"I don't fucking want to be you. You're pathetic." Midnight blue eyes clashed with red, ice and fire, "Don't call me back in here again. Next time I won't let go."

As Kamen turned to walk back towards the clearing he had arrived in, he didn't care to notice the small sapling his steel tipped boot squashed along his way.