Chapter 13- A lost speech returns

"And on the pedestal these words appear:

'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;

Look on my work, ye mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away."

-P.B. SHELLY, Ozymandias

This Chapter's Theme Song:

YAS- Empty crown

Kakashi shifted the weight in his arms into a more comfortable position as he dodged around rocks and boulders that had once been a part of the ceiling above him. The ex-anbu had long since lifted up his headband to reveal his shimmering sharingan eye, something which he had decided was necessary if he wanted to get out of the collapsing underground of the ruby palace. With his right eye clasped shut and the left darting around to scan his surroundings, everything seemed to move in slow motion for the Jonin sensei. Although at first Kakashi had worried about the other members of his group, said worries had been swiftly dismissed as he had witnessed both Guy and Lee smash through a boulder thrice the size of their bodies put together.

Just as the white haired shinobi was beginning to grow frustrated with his group's lack of progress through the labyrinthian underground complex, a familiar pulse of chakra washed over them, though it seemed only Kakashi had noticed it. Within a matter of seconds after that, the group of five had burst their way into a corridor. The son of the white fang smiled under his mask as he spotted a figure running towards him, small blonde child held firmly against his back, "Kamen!"

Said man's dark blue eyes latched onto the figures before him, scanning them head to toe for injuries. Sakura and Sasuke who were being carried, one more reluctantly than the other, both looked roughed up, but neither seemed to be fighting for their life, something which Kamen was more grateful for than he himself could have possibly imagined, "Kakashi! Follow me!"

Without stopping to say more, Kamen sped past the quintet of shinobi, who followed suit without question. Kakashi would ask the dark haired veteran about the jutsu he was using later, now was not the time. Still it felt strangely similar to a certain academy teacher's echolocation jutsu. After a couple of minutes fraught with near death experiences and far more falling rocks than anyone should be comfortable with, the group burst out of the seemingly unending corridors into the very recognisable throne room. Before the group of shinobi stood two very recognisable figures, accompanied by one of the huge hulking armoured golems, "YOU! What have you done? Where is Ozymandias-sama?"

Before them was Lisandra and Shale, the former seeming almost unfazed by the crumbling palace around her, the latter still looking as hollow as she had when team seven had been drugged. Kakashi swore slightly under his breath as his sharingan eye glanced towards the path to their freedom as it slowly cracked and crumbled, "We don't have time for this..."

"Lee, come here and take Naruto."

The young bowl cut boy did as he was told, prying the orange clad genin off of Kamen's back and shifting the younger boy's weight onto his own. Kakashi threw a questioning gaze towards Kamen, at last getting a good look at his ally. The war veteran looked as though he was on his last leg and it wouldn't have been an exaggeration to say that he really was.

The deep wound on Kamen's belly had long since reopened and had poured out a large amount of blood that had visibly stained his black shirt. His fingers were either cracked or broken from having used his tonbokiri jutsu, as were his ribs curtsey of being slammed through a pair of reinforced steel doors. Shallow cuts laced his arms, legs and sides, either from rock shrapnel, Sasaki's blades or the artificial bijuu's tentacles. His left bicep had also been brutally sliced open. Perhaps it was a small mercy then that some of the cuts on his arms had been seared shut by chakra burns from having placed his seal on Naruto. Though unfortunately the same could not be said for his legs, the left one of which having been speared by the artificial bijuu. Not to mention the fact that Kamen's chakra reserves were now almost completely empty, his Uzumaki blood being the only factor keeping him standing.

Despite this the man slid into a subtle offensive stance, ready to launch into action at a moment's notice

Lisandra's eyes flashed over Kamen as he took a step towards her, the elderly woman scoffed at the heavy and irregular breathing that barely escaped from the shinobi-to-be's lips. But he ignored the scornful look of disdain, opting to answer it with only three words: "Ozymandias is dead."

The room fell silent, the announcement shocking all those who surrounded Kamen, his allies included. Was he really dead? How had he died? Had Kamen killed him? For a moment Lisandra doubted his words, but she was wizened by age and Kamen's unflinching gaze was all she needed to know that his words were true.

The elderly aid's face contorted and went red with anger as she prepared to scream out an order to the golem which stood beside her. But just had Kamen's words had an effect on her, so too had they an affect on the child stood a few feet behind her. The child had gone through the same emotion as her aid. She had doubted the words she had heard. But a desperate part of her soul had clung to them. Her newly opened eyes, a tiny ember smouldering within them, spotted a piece of metal that had been knocked to the floor by one of the numerous earthquakes. Her trembling fingers tentatively reached down and picked the object up. A small sad yet maddened smile graced Shale's lips.

Before Lisandra could even lob the first syllable of bile filled hate that she had prepared for Kamen, the wind was knocked out of her lungs by a sharp pain in her lower back. The furious woman glanced backwards, her bloodshot eyes searched for the source of her sudden pain expecting anything except what she found; Shale. The young mistress whom her duty was to protect still had her little delicate arms outstretched, a steak knife in her blood-stained hands.

Gone was the hollow shell of a girl that had sat on her father's lap unable to do a thing to help the people she wanted to. The news of her father- No, her torture's death had flipped a switch in her mind.

Sasuke, from his awkward position gawked at the child. The eyes that he saw staring down at the effects of her actions were not cold and calculating ones, neither were these the eyes he had seen as the calm and composed heiress had negotiated with his sensei. No these eyes, raw and exposed, were those of someone who had lived through pain and abuse, the eyes of someone who had thought everything lost and been given the faintest hope. They were eyes Sasuke recognised well. Eyes he saw every morning in the mirror.

Lisandra was now fully turned towards her assailant, hesitation gone from her stance. The older woman shakily drew a curved blade from underneath her robes. Trembling wrinkled and bloated fingers raised the weapon up high, holding it in a reverse grip to better strike at the child below her, "HOW DARE YOU-"

The old woman was slow. Something she would regret for the rest of her life. However many seconds of it she had left.

Before Lisandra could finish what she had started, the slightly bent steak knife was driven upwards into the hunched over elder's jugular. There was a momentary stunned silence in the throne room of the Ruby Palace. It seemed even the monster that was clawing its way up from below paused for such a momentous occasion. Finally sound returned when Lisandra's curved blade fell from her loosening grip. It clattered to the ground as she reached up to clutch at the offending object sticking out of her throat. Incomprehensible gurgled noises pushed their way out of her mouth as she tried to speak. No one would ever know whether she was pleading for her life or cursing out the people around her. All that came out of her mouth was phlegm filled blood. Finally, having staggered around pointlessly for a few seconds, she threw a glance at the soulless face of the porcelain golem, as though the idea that it could save her had just come to her mind, "Kill her."

The ice cold words that Lisandra wished she could have spoken instead came from Shale's lips. They seemed to be aimed at no one in particular, her eyes staring passively at the woman dying before her. But to the slight shock of everyone in the room, the golem, which had stood still this whole time, at last took a step forwards. Its arm lifted up into the air, casting a long shadow over Lisandra's frail body. Ignorant of the elderly woman's gargled pleas, the stone giant mercilessly slammed its enormous porcelain fist into her head. She impacted with the ground with a pathetic wet thud. The steak knife slammed into the ground with her. It was forced through sinew, bone and spinal column. With a satisfying pop, the tip of the jagged blade stuck out from the opposite side of where it had been buried in its target's throat. The handle was barely visible as the life bled out of her beaten eyes.

The group of shinobi stood shocked. The brutality of such a young child's actions scarred the two conscious genin more than they would like to admit. The moment of shock didn't last long however, as a mass of black tentacles burst from the corridor which Kamen and the others had emerged from. The throne room shook violently, pieces of the ceiling fell down, smashing into the dining table, knocking over statues and crushing the throne itself. The Ruby Palace was falling apart. Without a moment more of hesitation all those present within the palace, as they were surely the only survivors, ran as fast as they could towards the exit.

As the group passed through the entrance, the heiress of Ren'ai Fuun stumbled slightly before being seamlessly scooped up into a fireman hold by Kamen. She didn't protest, not even when her stomach churned from the long leaps he took down the enormous stairs that lead up to the Ruby palace. Luckily everyone, even the surprisingly agile golem, had made it out.

The group came to a halt at the bottom of the steps, unprepared for the horrors that greeted them. Soul shattering echoes of despair rose up from every corner of the city like an orchestra conducted by the death beast below. Each twist of the monster's necrotic wrist shook the earth, collapsed a building or took a life. Some gambled on their speed, others on their strength, fight or flight they died either way. Flittering tendrils shattered the earth below as they emerged, spearing and slicing through the cadavers they made with a sickening satisfaction. The convulsing appendages seemed to have no specific target, but they also held no restraint. Like death itself, be they woman, man or child, the grim beast sent them to the next world.

Recovering from the familiar dread which welled up from the pit of his stomach, Kamen snapped the group out of its daze with a shouted, "We need to move!"

Looters were smashing through shops and heads alike, preachers were on their knees waiting for rapture, children prodded the unmoving bodies of their parents, soldiers stabbed at the beast with their steely swords and spears, the wealthy tried to buy their way to paradise and among all this the battered shinobi fled.

It took a long sweat filled sprint to reach the gates leading out of Ren'ai Fuun. Guy, the most physically robust and with an unbeatable stamina, was the only one of the group who showed no signs of the ordeals he had been through. Kakashi, even having covered his borrowed eye as soon as Lisandra had been killed, was looking much worse for wear than his rival. Even Lee seemed in better shape than the white haired jonin sensei, though his stance betrayed the wounds he had suffered even if his energetic disposition didn't. Despite the differences, all those in the group had a major similarity: when they felt the earth shake and heard the air itself shatter out a cry, they all turned to its source.

They gazed up in awe at the distant ruby palace. Although, unlike when they had first arrived, it was not because of its beauty. Black convulsing appendages stuck out of the edifice like maggots wriggling out of a wound. The massive wondrous spires of the palace had collapsed, having lost their foundations.

Guy managed to tear his eyes away from the macabre display. He turned to Kamen, who was putting Shale back down on the ground with uncomfortable difficulty. Then, the green clad man asked a question that had been bouncing around the heads of the group, at least those of which were conscious, "Kamen-kun, just what is that?"

Said man winced from both the question and the effort he had to put into straightening himself back up, "It's an artificial tailed beast, created under the orders of Ozymandias and formed from the nine tailed beast's chakra that they extracted from Naruto."

Though the hardened jonin didn't outwardly show any reaction to the words, his mind groundd as it processed the information and his black eyes sharpened as it did so. He focused back on the massive body of the beast which seemed to flow over the town like a putrid tsunami. Without turning back his monotone voice asked another question, one he wasn't sure he wanted the answer to, "How powerful do you think it is?"

There was an eery silence from Kamen as he seemed deep in thought, truth be told he didn't know exactly how strong such a being could be, but even then he knew how to answer the green clad sensei's question, "Too powerful. It's composed entirely of raw chakra, so physical attacks will have no effect. Even if any of us could muster up a jutsu powerful enough to deal any damage to it, it's sucking up enough nature energy to rebuild itself and keep growing ten times over. And just for added difficulty it has total omnidirectional attacks that are almost impossible to dodge."

A silence that seemed to muffle the sounds of screaming civilians and falling debris settled over the group, the mass of abominable chakra pulsing and growing with every second that painfully ticked by. The adults of the group all wordlessly exchanged glances, it was obvious from the state of things that no one here save Guy had a chance of running and making it out alive. Perhaps he could escape with two of the children, maybe even three at a stretch, but the tendrils of the artificial beast that stuck out of the ground had already started encircling the town, preventing passage.

It was strange, Kamen thought to himself, despite the helpless situation, despite his rapidly deteriorating condition and almost certain death facing him down, he felt... Excited.

Sure enough his well-trained heartbeat was slow and steady, though a bit louder than usual, but his spirit? It was restless. A part of him wished he was at full strength to truly be able to go all out against the creature, though even had he not been injured, that was impossible in this world.

Both Guy and Kakashi looked on in slight shock as they saw a smile slowly tug at Kamen's lips under his mask, "Shinobi's handbook, tactic 5b?"

It was only as the two jonin processed their comrade's words that that they understood what was going on. A swift nod from the pair was the only answer Kamen got. Without another second's delay Guy and Kakashi started moving as though they were on auto pilot, both giving out orders to their pupils, "Lee, place Naruto down by Shale then come stand by me."

"Sasuke, Sakura, stand at the ready and guard Naruto and Shale."

"Shale get that golem ready to carry all of you!"

Every one of them followed their orders to the letter despite being exhausted, knowing full well that their lives and those of their comrades were on the line. It was only when the group grew still that Sakura finally felt it was the right moment to speak up, "Kakashi-sensei, what is 'tactic 5b'?"

Said white haired scarecrow glanced back at his student with a slightly bittersweet eye-smile, "It's not something they teach in the academy during peace times... Shinobi's handbook, tactic 5b, also known as 'the suicidal last stand tactic'."

Sakura's eyes widened, the name already clueing her in on the madness that was about to unfold. To Kamen, all this felt sickeningly nostalgic, having been forced to use this tactic or rather be witness to it many times before.

It was a simple setup, when surrounded by an insurmountable number of enemies, or in this case a singular insurmountable enemy, a perimeter is formed around those that cannot fight. Those who can fight are categorised into three separate groups, 'The spear, the bait and the cart'. The spear's job is assigned to the least fatigued fighters, in this case Guy and Lee, their sole objective is to create and maintain an evacuation corridor out of the conflict zone. The bait's objective, as the name suggests, is to draw the attention away from the side where the spears are, this role is usually filled by those who are the closest to death but can still fight, in this case Kakashi and Kamen. Finally there's the cart, a simple job; transport those who cannot fight through the evacuation corridor.

It became known as the 'suicidal last stand tactic' because the 'bait', in order to draw the enemy's attention usually had to be composed of a majority of a group's fighting force and in almost every recorded large scale use of the tactic, lead to the deaths of every single person categorised as 'bait'.

Of course Kakashi wasn't going to tell Sakura all of this and not only because they didn't have the time but also because he didn't want her to worry, perhaps a useless sentiment in the heat of battle but one that the white haired shinobi stuck by none the less.

Instead of wasting words, the white haired copy-nin reached into his pouch and turned towards his older comrades, presenting a trio of black pills. Both Guy and Kamen plucked one each out of his hand.

A wave of nostalgia washed over the ex-blonde as he stared down at the military ration pill, remembering the ones Sakura had once made for him. Swallowing the pill and the bittersweet memories, he felt a burst of energy rise up from within him so rapidly that it almost made his head spin. It had been a very long time since he had needed such a thing, his chakra reserves having once felt like an endless ocean. Yet even now, as they had been sufficiently replenished, they barely felt like a drop of water in comparison.

Military ration pills. Though they were said to give enough energy to fight for three days and three nights, which might have been true for a genin, they only just gave someone with large chakra reserves a slight pep back into their step. Not to mention the after effects which were on par if not worse than simple chakra exhaustion. Having never truly experienced it himself but having heard it described many times, Kamen was hardly looking forwards to every single organ, muscle and bone in his body feeling as though they had never ending cramp.

The azure eyed man watched as his two jonin allies downed their pills too, their resolves hardening as they prepared for the worst, "When these run out I reckon I'm going to at least need a full week in the hot springs."

Despite the attempt at humour to relieve the situation, no one reacted, saved for Kakashi who raised an eyebrow at the man's strange attitude in the face of almost certain death.

A part of the deathly still group awaited their moment, the other awaited their orders. The distant sound of screams and crashing rubble slowly started to die down in time with the ever growing waves of black tendrils that slowly massed together into huge lumps of sickening chakra. The artificial beast's multitude of appendages and tumours that had already been surrounding the group were now but a breath away as they continued to close in and sprout out of the ground.

Everything started within a matter of seconds, as soon as Kamen and Kakashi pushed off of the ground and lunged at the mass of bijuu energy, everyone else got to work.

The huge white golem picked up all of the genin save Lee, resting them on its arms, while Shale sat atop its head, ready to give it the order to follow Guy. The green clad duo meanwhile were scanning what now might as well have been the artificial beast's body, for any sign of weakness.

Kamen slashed away at the tendrils around him with a very shakily formed vacuum blade, its edges shimmering unsteadily. Despite the fact that he was severely weakened, the time traveller's ferocity was still well on par with that of Kakashi. Said man had once again revealed his sharingan eye and was slashing through the mass of tendrils with a chakra reinforced kunai in each hand.

After a few minutes of the spear and cart group staying put, there was but a split second where the surrounding mass shifted towards the bait, and that split second was all Guy and Lee needed. Both charged forwards, their immense strength and blinding speed making short work of splitting the titanic mass of artificial bijuu. As quickly as it could, the golem acting as the cart, followed in the destructive path of the green clad duo. Barely had they escaped the encirclement did they find themselves in another, cut off from Kakashi and Kamen. Still they moved forwards, inching closer to freedom with every step and punch.

The bait pair suddenly felt a weight lift from their shoulders as they watched their quarries flee. Both the jonin and once hokage started to fight much more recklessly, caring little for the black spears that drove themselves into their legs and arms. After all if they were to die here, they would make their unseen deaths memorable, even if it was only to each other. Suddenly it seemed as though the two men were no longer shinobi born in shadow, but instead warriors bound to this world by honour alone.

It was only after what felt like hours of pointless fighting that Kamen's mind took note of a seemingly unimportant detail: Each time a tendril or chunk of the artificial bijuu was chopped off it would wriggle around on the floor before melting into a puddle and evaporating into the air, of course it was then almost instantly replaced.

This was something which should have made the entire situation seem completely helpless. Instead it caused a huge grin to paint itself across Kamen's mask, reflecting his lips underneath. When Kakashi, out the corner of his sharingan eye, caught sight of the dark haired man's deranged smirk, he thought his comrade had finally gone insane, "You hanging in there Kamen?!"

Kakashi's voice, slightly muffled by the loud and repetitive sound of blades digging into fleshy chakra, reached said man's ears and the words simply widened his smirk.

There was hope, more than that there was most certainly a way to defeat the seemingly invincible creature. Kamen had noticed that in order to grow, the artificial bijuu had been eating up nature chakra like there was no tomorrow, and had it been anything near human, would have turned to stone a hundred thousand times over by now. But it was managing to maintain its form thanks to the Nine tails' chakra it had stolen from Naruto's seal.

What Kamen hadn't noticed was that each time it grew, the nine tails' chakra was spread that much thinner, having to be present in the entirety of the artificial beast's mass in order to be stable. Given enough time the beast would grow so large that the nine tails' chakra would be stretched too thinly and the entire beast would destabilize and turn to stone. Of course it was impossible to tell how long that would take, it might expand to other villages before then.

But that was why Kamen was smiling. Each time the pair hacked away at the beast and part of it evaporated off into the air, so too did a part of the nine tails' chakra. So if they managed to destroy enough of the artificial beast, it didn't matter if it grew back instantly, because what it couldn't grow back was the Kyuubi's stabilising chakra. The more they cut away the faster the beast would turn to stone.

Kamen turned to look at his once sensei, the hopeful news wanting to burst forth from his lips. Fortune had another thing on its mind instead.

Kakashi had never been a stamina fighter like Naruto, his fighting style had always been quick and efficient. This was out of necessity more than anything else. The white haired ex-anbu had run out of steam, his movements had already been sluggish for a while, but now he didn't even have enough energy to dodge or block the black tendril that was diving straight for the middle of his eyes. There was only one thing he could do, something which required perfect timing and a sharp mind, two things he knew he hadn't had even at the start of this fight.

Kakashi slackened his entire body, trying to get the timing just right so that the tendril would pass harmlessly over his head. Unfortunately he had been correct, right now he was in no shape to pull off such a move. However, something that Kakashi did have in that moment, something that he very often had in fact, was luck.

Kamen watched as a black tendril dove into Kakashi's forehead, causing a loud metallic clang to ring out, "KAKASHI!"

The ex-jinchuriki dove to his friend's side as he collapsed to the ground. Much to Kamen's surprise, the only visible damage to Kakashi's head were a few cuts and bruises, along with a dent in his forehead protector.

The relief that his comrade had simply been knocked unconscious by the blow, rather than killed by it, was swiftly put aside. It had only been seconds since the pair had ceased their attack on the beast encircling them, and yet that was all it took for the little progress they had made to disappear.

With spears of the void tentatively sneaking in on its prey from all sides, a thousand and one thoughts rushed through Kamen's head at a dizzy speed. However much chakra the soldier pill he had bitten into had restored was gone. His head was spinning, not just from his thoughts but from blood loss as well. His limbs were heavy and numbing at the end, wanting nothing more than to emancipate themselves from the body which was causing them such pain. And to add to all this, Kakashi was on the ground, his only defence: the very same half-dead time traveller crouching over him. Kamen's options were running out. The side-effects of the soldier pill would kick in soon enough and when they did the pair would die.

A deep pulsing throbbed from within Kamen's empty eight trigram seal. The Nine tail's chakra trapped within the artificial bijuu rattled against its cage to the same tune.

It didn't matter if Kamen died. He didn't belong here, not in Ren'ai Fuun, not on this continent and certainly not in this time. "Naruto," But Kakashi? "you are going to save the world!" What if he died? "But not this one." Would there be a paradox? "This world is already dead." Would the white haired jonin's death have enough of an impact on time itself that the universe would rip itself apart? "And not just to you." If so then how come it hadn't burst at the seams when Naruto had been sent back? "Nature has a delicate balance." Why hadn't it imploded when he had carelessly stood before the sand siblings out of a sheer despair at the loss of his greatest friend? "Chakra has a delicate balance." Or when he met his younger self? "In all life there is chakra," Or when he imparted upon team seven knowledge that they shouldn't have had? "and in all death there is chakra." Or when he had drank with Kakashi, under a dead man's eyes full of scrutiny? "Life and death are a cycle." When he had agreed to take that hellish step out of his apartment? "But only when life gives way to death," When he had sparred with himself? "and death gives way to new life." Surely that should have only been possible with shadow clones? "For nine years the dead who could not die reigned." And when he had stood before the third Hokage? "They devoured chakra, but never returned it." The man who had raised him? "Madara broke the cycle of death," Shaped him into the ninja he had become, not only through his life, but also through his death at the hands of Orochimaru. "but he did not stop there." Perhaps the universe was not that feeble. "In his killing spree, he also broke the cycle of life." It seemed to not even quiver when he had severed the thread of Raiga's life. "In this world there shall never again be enough." Shouldn't it have? "Not enough life," What about when he had discreetly sealed away the man's swords? "not enough chakra." The Kiba had certainly had an impact on the fourth great shinobi war. "Not unless, we the nine tailed beasts, beings of pure chakra, die." Hadn't it? "We shall die to give new life." Had the lives it had taken meant nothing? "But we shan't die alone." Was the universe truly that callous? "This whole world shall burn," Did time actually care about who died? "with you at the centre, as the spark." If it didn't, then wouldn't that mean it didn't care who lived either? "We shall send you back." What if it didn't actually care what happened, so long as something happened? "Although perhaps those aren't the right words." If that was true… "You can never go back Naruto." Then his actions could never cause a paradox. "The past is nothing but dust and memories now." A paradox wouldn't exist. "The future holds everything you need." If time and the universe were simply things that existed parallel to humans, so immense in their existence that even a hundred trillion lives were but a speck to them… "You may not understand this yet." In that case, no matter how strong he was, no matter how many people he saved, nothing would happen. "You may not even want to accept it." Just as when Madara had unleashed 'peace' on the world, the two brothers, time and the universe, had stood by uncaring. "But you will save the world." It felt too good to be true. "You must." But did it matter? "Farwell…" He had to try.

Barely a heartbeat had gone by. Yet a man who had none of the defeated air about him that he had seconds before stood tall. Kamen had a mad spark in his eyes and a foolish idea in his mind. Spinning on himself, his back now to Kakashi, the time traveller drove his injured hands into the black disgusting mass that encroached on the pair. A squelching and popping echoed out as his hands were crushed seconds after having pierced the surface of the Artificial tailed beast. But Kamen's objective wasn't to inflict physical damage. His madness went beyond that.

The dark haired man didn't flinch as spears drove themselves into his body, again and again. He simply closed his eyes and slowly breathed in. Behind his eyelids Kamen felt everything. The pain, the death, the destruction and that dark sickening chakra that lusted after the end of anything that crossed its path. But within it there was a small red ember. That was what the ex-jinchuriki was reaching for. He had done it before. Taken the chakra of a tailed beast by force and made it his own. But this was different. It should have been harder. He should have been fighting against the artificial bijuu's chakra while trying to pull on Kurama's. If that had been the case, it would have been impossible. With what little chakra Kamen had left, he would have perished long before even pulling a speck of the beast's chakra into his empty seal. Instead, it was easy. Kamen barely had to restrain the avalanche of pestilent black chakra for a second before he sensed Kurama's chakra willingly dive into his eight trigram seal. It was a strange sensation. One he had sorely missed.

Sky blue and blood red merged into a bright sunny yellow. As golden flames lapped at Kamen's shoulders, the black spears that had been trying to kill him retreated from the wounds they had created as though they had been burned.

Steam sizzled from where the now golden haired man's blood had been leaking. Flesh knitted itself back together. Bones set themselves back into place with horrid popping sounds. Muscles and tendons reconnected with gruesome crackling. His whole body healed itself. Kamen had never felt more at peace with himself than in that instant. But that didn't mean he let himself get distracted.

The artificial bijuu was trying to escape as far away as it could from this new threat, but its foe wouldn't let it. The human had latched onto it with mind and body and was only going to let go when every last drop of the nine tails' chakra was in his belly.

As Kamen grew stronger and stronger, he thought that the black mess that surrounded him would grow weaker. Instead it simply grew more unstable. It bubbled and writhed and stretched and slopped about, striking out at everything in an imitation of rage. It had just been born and it felt itself dying, a feeling it was sure it didn't like.

Kamen pulled one of his hands out of the artificial beast and with one handed hand signs hastily brought a golden shimmering vacuum blade up to block any and all attacks that were aimed at him or his white haired comrade.

The more unstable the beast Ozymandias had created grew, the more condensed it became. The shroud of darkness which had invaded Ren'ai Fuun retreated to face Kamen head on, leaving in its wake devastated streets and piles of corpses. The smaller the beast shrank, the more its shape started to become human-like.

Its features twisted and seemed to scream out in agony as it shrunk down to the size of a human. The shinobi-hopeful now recognised the lifeless doll which had been laid out on the steel operating table in Rikata's laboratory. Though its colours had changed and features appeared almost monstrous. The ground beneath its feet cracked as though it still held the weight of the enormous beast it had once seemed to be. It was at this moment that Kamen decided he was satisfied that not a drop of the nine tails' chakra remained in his foe, and a good thing too as the multitude of attacks that came down upon him and Kakashi would have been impossible to block. So instead, in a single movement, Kamen dove backwards, scooped Kakashi up under his arm and dodged out the way of the attacks. The flaming golden human moved so fast, he didn't even kick up the sand beneath his feet. He had moved so fast the artificial beast would have been forgiven for thinking Kamen had always been standing in the very spot he was now.

A low guttural growl echoed from somewhere deep within the artificial beast, and then something wholly unexpected happened, "You damn human." The beast spat out, much to Kamen's visible surprise, "How dare you!" Its arm morphed into a whip as he lashed out towards his target, sand scattering beneath it, but not blood, "I've waited too long."

The whip-arm hardened from its loose state, jagged teeth growing from it as it curved into an enormous scythe. The appendage slashed about blindly as though the beast was trying to swat a fly, "They promised me rebirth! They promised me revenge!" Bubbling along with its rage, white pustules formed on the beast's skin before being suppressed almost as quickly. "Instead you steal away my power!" Kamen could sense how unstable the beast had become now it no longer had the stabilising influence of Kurama's chakra, yet he was in awe at the fact that it was still managing to hold itself together out of pure will and spite, "You want to take away my soul? Send me back to the abyss? EAT SHIT!" The beast's unoccupied arm formed into a slingshot that pulled back on itself and fired a piece of its body at the once honorary Hokage. Despite his speed, Kamen barely dodged out of the thing's line of fire thanks to a collapsed part of Ren'ai Fuun's immense outer wall. And it was a good thing he had dodged because as soon as the small slingshot-fired lump of flesh splattered against the wall it exploded with an earth shattering boom. The already ruined sandstone wall vanished under the flash of light and a titan-sized hole replaced it.

The small artificial beast snapped its head around the ruined streets, searching for its prey even as it felt itself crumbling apart, "You can't escape! Nothing will escape from me! They promised me I'd destroy everything! SO I WILL!"

Kamen felt what happened before he was it, the beast split into several distorted copies of itself which charged off from the main body in random directions. Seconds after these clones had been created they violently exploded with a hefty dose of panache, unable to maintain the same stability as the original. A major part of the city and its defensive walls were levelled and reduced to dust, yet Kamen was nowhere to be seen, "Did it die from that? It died from that? It couldn't have died from that? Too strong? TOO WEAK!"

Kamen had taken the opportunity of being out of the creature's sight lines to shift Kakashi's weight onto his back and hastily tie him in place with some scroll summoned rope. Luckily the ex-jinchuriki's arm and leg guards, though severely damaged, had still done their job at holding and protecting his sealing scrolls. Though the setup looked ridiculous, with Kakashi hanging limply from Kamen's back, his legs swaying loosely with every movement the masked man took, at the very least it was functional.

"KNEW IT~!" A black spear drove itself into the back of Kamen's leg, but was just as swiftly severed by his vacuum blade. The gaping hole sealed itself back up almost as fast as the young man span around to face his opponent. Both hands now firmly holding his jutsu in place, he leapt towards the artificial beast, blade swinging and blocking every desperate strike aimed at his life. He didn't even need to get within range of the creature's body. He took a massive swing at seemingly thin air, a burst of chakra shooting out in its wake. The creature didn't even notice the massive split that appeared in its body, its soulless sunken eyes only focusing on one thing, "ENOUGH!" A white pustule appeared on its forehead, but didn't disappear this time. "ENOUGH, ENOUGH, ENOUGH!" More pustules popped up, oozing rotten chakra. "DIE!" The creature's body swelled and bloated disgustingly as its voice grew more and more guttural. "BURN! BREAK!" Kamen had already started running. He had passed the gates of Ren'ai Fuun and was now sprinting out into the wilderness.

"DISAPPEAR!"

A distant flash. That was all Guy and the rest of the team that had escaped saw. They were all conscious now and as far away as they could get, standing on the sandy cliff from which they had first seen Ren'ai Fuun and the ruby palace. That blinding flash was followed by a massive mushroom cloud that puffed up into the air. The silence was deafening as they watched a sandstorm charge its way towards them at a blinding pace. It hit them. As it did the ground shook and the sky wept a brutal bone shattering cry. They tried to use chakra to hold themselves to the ground. The children failed, getting knocked flat on the ground by the shockwave. It felt as though the a giant had fallen upon them. Finally The pressure let up and the dust settled. All that was left behind was silence.

The nine tailed beasts' final speech to Naruto without the interludes of Kamen's thoughts:

"Naruto, you are going to save the world! But not this one. This world is already dead. And not just to you. Nature has a delicate balance. Chakra has a delicate balance. In all life there is chakra, and in all death there is chakra. Life and death are a cycle. But only when life gives way to death, and death gives way to new life. For nine years the dead who could not die reigned. They devoured chakra, but never returned it. Madara broke the cycle of death, but he did not stop there. In his killing spree, he also broke the cycle of life. In this world there shall never again be enough. Not enough life, not enough chakra. Not unless, we the nine tailed beasts, beings of pure charka, die. We shall die to give new life. But we shan't die alone. This whole world shall burn, with you at the centre, as the spark. We shall send you back. Although perhaps those aren't the right words. You can never go back Naruto. The past is nothing but dust and memories now. The future holds everything you need. You may not understand this yet. You may not even want to accept it, but you will save the world. You must. Farwell…"