28

He blinked himself awake and immediately brought a hand to his neck. Sighing in relief at the absence of pain, Naruto sat up, padded across the cool floor, and lit the large candle that illuminated most of his room. The stone walls were awash with a dull, brownish-orange that he'd long since gotten used to.

Naruto stood, arms loosely held at his sides, staring at nothing.

He had three days. "Three fucking days," he muttered. It's not fair! his mind shouted. His fingernails bit into the flesh of his palms hard enough to break the skin. Blue eyes squeezed shut as impotent rage seared through him, and he bit his tongue to keep from screaming at the utter injustice of it all.

He let himself hate.

Naruto lost himself in the maelstrom that was his mind for a few moments, the whirring of his chakra sending unnoticed hairline fractures into the floor beneath his feet. The thin blankets on his cot rustled, the scrolls on his shelves clattered. A moment later, inhaling a ragged breath, he wrested control of his life's essence, calming the storm his mind created even if its epicenter still whirled out of control.

His life hadn't been fair since very nearly the moment of his birth. Denied his parents, denied his birthright, denied respect and dignity for so long he barely knew what they felt like. A childhood spent dodging the sneers of civilians, clamoring for scraps of their affection, only to be rebuffed time and again. All of which could have been ended with a word, all of it in the name of safety when he had never been safe at all.

The black and red cloaks swam in his mind's eye, Itachi's warning ringing in his ears like it was yesterday. "They will hunt you, Uzumaki Naruto." His father's 'gift,' as Orochimaru was fond of calling it. The power he'd been cursed with that, for all its malice and the fear it inspired, somehow still wasn't enough to save his life.

None of it was fair. Not Akatsuki, not Orochimaru and his gods damned ambition, not the strip of paper pinned to his wall of Konoha's condemnation.

I should be used to it by now. The thought pierced the haze of his torment like the edge of a knife. "Get ahold of yourself," Naruto said aloud. Give him what he wants, get what you need. The mantra that had kept him going the past six months rang like a siren in his mind. The blond inhaled, drawing a too-deep breath into his lungs and holding it. He clenched his calves before moving up to his quads, his core, his chest, up and up until his entire body was tight with tension, and held it. His mind turned entirely to the feeling of breath in his lungs, quieting the thoughts that had plagued him moments before.

When finally his chest began to burn at the exertion of holding the air in, he blew it out slowly, gently, from his lips, letting his tensed muscles relax at last.

"Focus, Naruto." Nothing had ever been accomplished by wallowing. Kimimaro wouldn't drop dead out of spite, Kabuto and Orochimaru wouldn't blink out of existence merely because he wished it, and Akatsuki wouldn't stop hunting him simply because he deserved to live as much as anyone else.

His life wasn't fair and never had been, and there was no going back.

Opening his eyes finally, Naruto ran a calloused hand through his hair. There was work to be done.

The blond discarded his sleepwear in a blink. He donned his usual training gear, black pants and white, loose fitting gi held up by a thick band at his waist.

No matter how he sliced it, three days was too short a time for any meaningful chakra control training. Becoming 'precise enough to dam the sea itself,' as Orochimaru had said, was laughable. His own chakra was hard enough to control, let alone the Kyuubi's.

Kage Bunshin it was.

He slipped out of the underground base through one of the half dozen trap doors he knew of, entering the bright, sunlit world behind a small outcropping of rocks. Grass country was balmy this time of year, thankfully milder than the steamy fire country climate he was used to. He breathed in the fresh air greedily, letting the sun warm his face for a few moments before he got to work.

A few dozen blades of long grass were picked in short order, and the blond ventured back underground. He padded through the long, cool hallway, doing his best to ignore the sound of his own footsteps. There were no indicators of what was what below ground – each door looked exactly the same as the last, whether they led to a room like his own, one of Orochimaru's laboratories, or the cavernous halls that he dueled Kimimaro in.

Long hours wandering had taught him the way and, in short order, Naruto stood in one of the training halls surrounded by himself. Three dozen sets of blue eyes regarded him with varying degrees of interest.

"You guys know the drill. The fox's chakra only. And if one of you dispels, for the love of god, wait a few minutes before dispelling yourself. We've got enough headaches as it is," he ordered.

His clones, normally independently expressive, said nothing as they spread out through the room. Naruto watched for a moment as his thirty-six doppelgangers sat, stood, or leaned against one of the training poles Orochimaru had installed, staring down at the grass in their hands. The sudden sensation of creeping malevolence tweaked the back of his head; apparently a few clones had simply jumped right into it.

The original dropped where he stood, crossing his legs under him, and closed his eyes. Thirty-six clones meant one-hundred and eight days as opposed to the three Orochimaru had given him. And provided they did as instructed and didn't leave him with a debilitating migraine, most of those days would be useful.

Big 'if' right there, he mused uncharitably. His clones were about as good at taking direction as he himself was, which was to say they hated it – even from themselves. But the odds were far better with over three months of work. He knew to be thankful for that much at least; three dozen clones was the upper limit of what he could conceivably focus on while still maintaining some level of attention outside of the training.

Taking a deep breath and inhaling, Naruto cast his mind along the connection that he shared with all of his clones. By now, twenty were already diving into the nine tails' chakra and his mind recoiled reflexively at the malice they radiated. The remaining sixteen were each re-familiarizing themselves with the exercise with their own chakra, the blades of grass sticking to their foreheads with ease.

The blond pulled himself out a few moments later and rubbed at his temples. "Fucking focus feedback loops," he muttered, eyes shut against the discomfort of trying to split his attention thirty-six different ways.

His internal clock chimed a warning and he rose as a bead of sweat rolled down his neck. Keep at it, he sent silently to his clones. Stepping out of the training hall, Naruto cracked his neck but failed to reduce the creeping pressure that had suddenly appeared. Time had little meaning below ground; which meant one either had to constantly peek into the outside world to have any concept of it, or develop a routine so airtight that one simply knew what time it was.

"Just get it over with," he told himself, forcing his feet to move.

He padded lightly down the hallway, footsteps ringing in his ears as he worked to calm his heartrate. Just breathe. It'll be done soon. His nails tasted blood as they dug into the skin of his palms.

Halting outside another unmarked door, Naruto closed his eyes for a moment and centered himself. Don't give him anything. No fear. Exhaling hard, he pushed the door open.

The echoes of fluids dripping from one container to another met his ears first, as it always did. The smell came next, the stink of rot mixed with the acidic bite of whatever cocktails Kabuto had cooked up very nearly burning Naruto's nose hair. He opened his mouth to let air in so he wouldn't have to use his nose, but knew it was too late – some smells simply lingered. The air was cold as the blond stepped into the laboratory, raising the hairs on his arms beneath his sleeves. He kept his eyes forward as he strode purposefully toward the laboratory's end, not needing an update on which specific corpses had decayed beyond salvage upon the walls.

The low, orange light indicative of flickering candles led him to the back of the long room. He emerged from the darkness to see Sasuke leaned back in a treatment chair, an intravenous tube sticking out of each of his arms. His white gi was bunched around his waist, held up only by the purple ropes he wore every day. The blue of his veins was clearly visible against the backdrop of the pale skin of his chest, whatever substance he was being pumped full of revealing them in stark contrast. Onyx eyes beheld him lazily in the silence.

"Dobe," his friend greeted, nonplussed.

"Bastard." Naruto's eyes flickered around the dimly lit space and, not seeing or sensing Kabuto, let himself relax a touch. "The hell's all this for?"

Sasuke quirked a mocking brow. "Thought you were the only one getting treatment, hn?"

"Wouldn't call it 'treatment,'" the blond murmured. "And I think my regimen is slightly different than yours." It was a safe bet, considering Sasuke wasn't screaming his lungs out. "You didn't answer the question."

"Why it's chakra therapy, of course." Kabuto's voice was like oil being poured in Naruto's ears as he appeared from the laboratory's shadows. He fought a shudder as the bespectacled man slipped past him. "Sasuke-kun isn't blessed with your vitality and simply requires a little…assistance."

The young man carefully withdrew the intravenous needles from Sasuke's arms, smirking all the while. Naruto kept from rolling his eyes at the obvious dig at his friend, his blue gaze cutting to Sasuke's. The Uchiha glowered at him, and the blond fought a quirked brow. Really? You're gonna let him get to you like that?

"All done," Kabuto declared, tilting Sasuke's chair back to normal. "Limit your chakra intensive training for the next forty-eight hours while the compound takes hold. You'll return here in seventy-two so I can document your experiences."

"Hn." The Uchiha slipped his gi back on as he rose, veins still bulging beneath his skin. Naruto turned sideways to give him room to pass, which he did without another word. Blue eyes watched him walk through the long laboratory and disappear back into the hallway, a creeping unease that was rapidly becoming familiar tickling the back of his neck.

"He's always so quiet," Kabuto groused, tone affected. Naruto's gaze cut back to him, tense once more. "Not like you."

The blond withheld a sneer. Don't give him anything, he repeated. "What does it do? The compound," he asked around gritted teeth.

"A host of things you'd never understand." Naruto felt his teeth begin to grind. "In short, it will work to increase the potency of his chakra in conjunction with other, experimental therapies." Kabuto's eyes gleamed beneath his glasses as he finally glanced up at the blond. "You're early today, Naruto-kun. Eager to get started?"

Don't give him anything. The blond said nothing; he didn't trust himself enough. He simply shrugged out of his gi and bent down to roll up his pant legs above his knees. Infusing his steps with purpose, he crossed the room and sat down with what he hoped was a facsimile of confidence.

Kabuto chuckled low in his throat. "Eager, indeed." The scientist rubbed an alcohol pad along the insides of Naruto's arms before sticking him with needles hooked up to intravenous tubes. He did the same to the back of the blonde's knees without a word.

Naruto steadied his breathing as Kabuto attached black, metal plates to the chair he sat in. He listened as wiring was clicked into them, then into boxes that he knew were power converters in the corners of the room. Exhaling shakily – show no fear! – he waited anxiously as Kabuto paced around the room leisurely. He felt sweat begin to bead at the nape of his neck and withheld a shiver. Get it over with, you sadistic fuck.

After what felt like a small eternity, Kabuto's preparations were complete. Naruto watched from the corner of his eye as the older man slunk over to the treatment chair with his lips turned up in a simpering smile. "You may feel a little extra discomfort today," Kabuto said. "I haven't observed enough of an uptick in your structural development, so the electromagnetic stimulation will be a bit more…aggressive."

The blond didn't need to see the glimmer in the man's eyes to know just how much he was looking forward to it.

"Now," Kabuto continued, folding the metal plates down so that they covered the entirety of Naruto's arms. He moved to the plates hovering over his legs, saying, "I will, of course, be observing, so try not to squirm too much. And, as always, if the discomfort becomes too much, please let me know." The older man rose, the plates in place, and stared down into Naruto's eyes from behind his glasses.

Unable to avoid the gaze, Naruto stared balefully into beady, onyx eyes that were magnified by the corrective lenses. Kabuto was as gifted a liar as the blond had ever met; the naked anticipation in his stare was as honest as he ever got.

He nodded once, curtly, and Kabuto mercifully broke the staring contest with a smile. "First, the growth hormone," he said aloud, as if Naruto wasn't all-too familiar with exactly what was about to happen.

Don't give him anything, the blond repeated, the words screaming through his mind as he braced himself. He heard a switch flip and felt the familiar pressure of a solution being forcibly pumped into his veins. It felt like sludge was crawling up and down the lengths of his arms and legs from the inside, and he gritted his teeth. Breathe, Naruto, he told himself, fighting a wince as enough hormone was injected into his to fully suffuse his system. His limbs, though he couldn't move them, felt like leaden weights. His breathing shallowed as the sludge made its way into the veins of his chest, compressing his lungs.

Sweat dripped down his forehead as Naruto heard the switch flipped back. Five seconds…

"And now to stimulate those tissue fibers," Kabuto said, voice clinically detached in spite of the excitement the blond knew was roiling beneath the surface.

Don't scream.

His vision immediately whited out as the hum of electricity met his ears, and for one, blissful moment, he felt nothing at all. Agony slammed into him a second later as every nerve ending he could conceive of was set ablaze by the current coursing through him. He was submerged in magma, engulfed in fire hotter than any jutsu. His brain was melting as nails drove into his skull to give it space to ooze out into a puddle.

Lean in.

The thought pierced the haze of white hot knives writhing beneath his skin. Naruto was suddenly aware of the feeling of his teeth grinding upon each other hard enough to fracture his jaw.

Focus.

Twitching wildly, he managed a shaky breath through his nose, shut tight as his mouth was. His lungs barely expanded for all his effort, and the air escaped in a short, shuddering puff. Undeterred, he inhaled once more, sheer determination keeping his mouth shut to hold back the scream trying to tear its way out of his throat.

Through self-control comes strength.

In the corner of his eye, through his hazy vision, he saw Kabuto pacing around him, hands clasped behind his back, content to observe the twitching jinchuuriki, and knew he couldn't – wouldn't – give in. His mind turned back toward the liquid fire thrashing across every inch of his body, and felt himself give in to rage.

Master it, it's yours.

Naruto felt his muscles squirming beneath his skin, his bones groan, and every ligament and tendon stretched to their maximum, and he breathed into it. His breath came slower, deeper, and he felt his chest expand gratefully against the pressure. His pain was his own, and Kabuto – the sadistic cunt – would get nothing from him.

You're gonna kill him.

His mind shifted away from the pain momentarily as he entertained visions of all the ways he'd pick his torturer apart. Satisfying as it'd be, simply tearing his heart out was too good for Kabuto – too quick. Thinking briefly of Kimimaro, he contemplated the merits of ripping the man's spine out by his neck, but discarded it as too difficult. A Rasengan was similarly too simple – detonation will kill too fast – but paused. Holding off the explosion and grinding away at Kabuto's organs as the man desperately tried to heal himself held some merit.

Remember that –

Two of his teeth shattered in his mouth.

The shock of new pain tore a gasp from his now white lips, and the scream that had been lodged somewhere between his throat and lungs was ripped from him at last. Uncaged, Naruto couldn't stop himself from howling as his focus shattered into a thousand useless pieces and the inescapable agony crashed back into him.

His throat was raw seconds later from the force of his scream. Tears blurred his vision and streamed down his cheeks. Through the haze, he heard low chuckle before his beleaguered mind gave in and the world went black.

/~/

Naruto came to in a sewer and was momentarily confused before the cloying malevolence of his tenant washed over his senses. Reflexively, he patted himself down. Everything was where it was supposed to be, and yet:

"No pain," he breathed.

"You are a fool."

He jumped at the sudden voice and brought his gaze upward to the crimson eyes of the Kyuubi. Defiance rose in him on reflex, but he kept his mouth shut through some greater sense of self-preservation. He had enough problems.

"Have you forgotten our agreement?" the fox asked him, tails swirling behind it.

"Hardly," Naruto bit out. His deal with the devil in his gut was seared into his memory.

"And yet you fail to honor it." Nine tails slammed into the bars of the great cage and the blond took an involuntary step back. "You have my limitless chakra at your disposal, but you don't use it. You let these paltry humans break you down day after day and do nothing."

Naruto sneered. "What do you care? Do you feel disrespected?"

A wave of decaying rage blew him back another step. "Do not assign such useless human emotions to me, boy. I care not for your relationship with your jailors. I care only for our goals."

"Then get to the point, Kyuubi."

"The snake has set you an impossible task. You will never have any control of my chakra so long as you seek to draw it from this seal every time. It is too much for you."

Blue eyes narrowed. He remembered the rush of malevolence his clones experienced in the training hall – even drawn in tiny doses, it was almost as if the fox's chakra had a mind of its own.

"You have a solution."

"Simply do not relinquish my chakra back into the seal. Hold it. Use it, and your body will begin to acclimate," the fox declared. "You have no hope of controlling it otherwise."

It made a twisted sort of sense. He had always treated the beast's chakra like it was an extension of his own, never mind the Kyuubi was far from human. Why would their chakra be similar?

"What do you gain from this?" Even beleaguered as his mind was from his pain, he wouldn't take the fox at its word.

"I have told you already," the Kyuubi snapped. "I care only for our goals. You will become strong enough to wipe Uchiha Madara's presence from the mortal plane at last. All else is meaningless to me."

Naruto highly doubted that, but didn't dare vocalize it. His mind spun as he performed the calculus: the Kyuubi would never act in any other way than its own self-interest, and he had little way of knowing what that was beyond what the fox told him. He'd be a fool to trust it.

And yet, as with everything else in his miserable existence, his choice wasn't much of a choice at all.

"Our old agreement still holds. You will not overwhelm my mind," Naruto stated, summoning whatever was left of his composure.

"I will not. Now begone!"

/~/

His eyes snapped open to the sound of creaking metal. Kabuto was folding the conducting plates up from his limbs.

"I'm afraid we were too far into the procedure to abort when you screamed, Naruto-kun. You have to let me know about your discomfort earlier if you want me to make any adjustments," the older man soothed.

The blond ignored the insincerities, too busy marveling at the lack of debilitating pain in his body. His limbs felt as if they hadn't just undergone minutes of electric overstimulation. They were light, lighter even than they were when he'd entered the laboratory. The persistent, characteristic ache he expected was there if he chose to focus on it, but it sat at the back of his mind, easily ignored.

Bastard fox came through, he realized. His two snapped teeth were a distant memory, even as the rest of them felt slightly too big for his mouth. Flexing a hand, he felt sharpened nails bite into the flesh of his palm.

"Are you listening to me?" Kabuto's voice cut through his contemplations, an edge of irritation hiding beneath the pleasant tone.

A sudden urge to tear the man's throat out had to be carefully suppressed. "I'm always listening," Naruto said, voice coming out in a near growl. His eyes cut to Kabuto who stood with his arms hanging loosely at his sides. The older man started visibly at Naruto's gaze, eyes widening slightly.

Satisfaction wrapped about him like a blanket. Good. Naruto rose languidly. Standing was no issue. His legs were tired, but they held – the fox's chakra undoubtedly keeping him upright when his whole body ought to have been a gelatinous mess.

He shrugged his gi back on and rolled his pant legs down, ignoring the sticky sweat that clung to him. Glancing to Kabuto once more, he saw his tormentor warily assessing him. Gone was the smug, simpering countenance, replaced with caution.

"Be seeing ya," he said, turning on his heel and striding easily from the room. The hanging corpses were ignored easily, thrilled as he was simply by the ability to walk unhindered.

Naruto pushed himself into the hallway with an almost manic energy, and tore off in the direction of his room. Casting his mind down the link he had with his clones, he found them all in similar states. Focus, he barked at them, good as they felt, they still faced Kimimaro in three days.

Satisfied that they were getting back to business, their jobs hopefully made easier by the fox's concession, he entered his room. Naruto stepped into the tiny washroom and immediately bent down to splash water on his still sweaty face. The cold was a welcome shock to his system, which he realized belatedly was running hot. His entire body was warmed, not in the violent way he was used to with the Kyuubi's chakra or with Kabuto's 'treatment.'

It wasn't comfortable, not yet, but it wasn't painful either. He'd deal with it like he would everything else.

Raising his head, Naruto stared at his reflection in the mirror. Violet eyes stared back at him.

/~/

Three days – or one-hundred and eight, depending on your perspective – passed in a blur. Naruto pushed the knife edge of a Kage Bunshin headache to the back of his mind as he waited in the dueling hall. He'd learned quickly that while the Kyuubi's chakra made ignoring pain easy, it didn't remove it. The moment he released the chakra, all the aches asserted themselves violently – it even exacerbated his training headaches.

The blond balanced on the palms of his clawed hands, legs hovering six inches off the ground and extended parallel to the floor behind him. He held his core tight, relishing the minor exertion as it distracted him from the impending clash. He felt no nerves, only anticipation.

He'd come closer to killing Kimimaro than he ever had before. There would be no testing the waters today.

He'll have the seal activated. First form if he wants to use the transformation shockwave as an attack. Second if he's looking to end this fast. Naruto bared his teeth, incisors lengthened into fangs. You'll kill him either way.

Orochimaru would be watching as always. Give him what he wants. Get what you need.

Displaced air warned him a split second before the oily, polluted chakra of the cursed seal slammed into his senses. Naruto pushed hard off his fingers, torqueing his body into a tight, horizontal spin away from Kimimaro's strike. The blond landed lightly, surveying the muddy brown skin and tightly coiled bone lance coned around the older teen's forearm that was halfway buried in the stone.

Trying to end this fast, then.

Violet eyes locked with black and yellow and Naruto bared his teeth as a rippling wave of anticipation coursed through him. He bounded forward, a snarl on his lips, toward the still crouched Kimimaro. Claws extended to eviscerate the older teen, Naruto dove for the throat.

He barely had time to brace himself as two feet met his stomach and he was vaulted up and over his nemesis. Naruto spun tightly, landed softly, and strafed away from the bone projectile follow up.

Use your head, idiot! he chastened himself. He couldn't even blame the Kyuubi for the lack of tactical thinking. The fox was true to its word and wasn't messing with his inhibitions – at least not any more than the foreign chakra always did. Don't get careless.

Kimimaro sprinted at him, his cursed seal propelling him faster than Naruto's eyes could track. The blond shifted right on reflex, to the older teen's left and away from the bone lance. The claws of his left hand carved through Kimimaro's tunic and skin, but scratched impotently at the bone armor beneath.

The older teen rotated and brought his lance around with a grunt. Naruto kicked it wide as it arced for his chest, then used the same foot to plant a straight kick in Kimimaro's chest. The teen slid barely slid back a step, and the lance shattered into a thousand shards. Kimimaro's right hand, now holding a bone knife, made for the blonde's throat.

Naruto ducked under the slash and swiped out with his right claw at the Kaguya's leg. He drew blood but nothing more, gritting his teeth at the sensation of his nails dragging against bone. Not gonna work.

He kicked out to make space, only to have his left foot caught. Violet eyes widening, he drew his leg back with all the strength he could muster, leapt off his right leg, and torqued into a cartwheel that nearly ripped his core to shreds. Kimimaro sailed over Naruto's head as the blond landed, first on his hands and then in a sprinter's crouch.

The Kaguya righted himself as Naruto got his bearings. Metacarpals cut through the air a second later that the blond hopped only feet away from. He sneered, refusing to be led, as the older teen grimaced.

Naruto quelled a thrill of elation at the sight by seizing the initiative. Tiles splintered and were crushed to dust as he burst forward. Clawed hands met the ground halfway between him and Kimimaro, animalistic instincts propelling him like a missile. He plowed into the Kaguya's chest in a graceless tackle. He ignored the slicing of his skin as Kimimaro's rib cage emerged to take the worst of the blow. Naruto rolled with his nemesis, his smaller form gifting him leverage, and dug his claws into the brown teen's stomach.

No bone there, he thought triumphantly. Naruto roared, used the momentum of his tackle to roll to his feet, and slam the Kaguya to the stone floor. The older teen cratered with a grunt, and the blond drove his claws down to eviscerate him.

They met Kimimaro's forearm and crashed against the bone impotently. Naruto braced himself as two feet caught him in the chest again, this time with enough power to rocket him to the ceiling. He crashed into it and ignored the pain in his back as dust rained down. Chakra stuck him to the place he'd impacted, and he took a moment to survey his nemesis.

Kimimaro's speed advantage was all but gone, but was still too durable for his claws to do much damage. Steam hissed from the cuts on his shoulders and chest where the Kaguya's ribs had bit into him. Hit him heavy. Claws clenched into fists, drawing blood that the blond ignored.

He dropped from the ceiling and landed heavily, the Kyuubi's chakra cushioning him as the floor splintered with hairline fractures. He ducked under a whip made from the older teen's spine – so that's what did it last time – and leapt forward.

Ducking the reverse slash, Naruto slashed out at Kimimaro's ankles. The Kaguya hopped over it, and the blond planted a hand, anchored himself with chakra, and spun his body into a vertical straight kick. His sandal crashed into Kimimaro's ribs, shooting the older teen upward in a bastardized Front Lotus.

Quelling the urge to call a jutsu to his lips, Naruto reached down. He tore a splintered tile from the floor and hurled it skyward. It spun like a shuriken until it was crushed to dust against Kimimaro's crossed forearms. Naruto hurled a second, then a third, forcing the older teen to strafe across the ceiling to avoid getting pummeled.

The Kaguya powered himself back to the ground and blurred toward the blond. Naruto threw himself to the right, the cursed seal baffling his eyes but not his reflexes. Bone blades sprouted from each of the older teen's joints, joining the ones already jutting from his ribs.

Naruto grimaced, dodging away from a dropping heel before ducking a punch. Two hands slammed into Kimimaro's thigh, halting a rising knee that would have taken him through the chest. The exposed bone still managed to pick the skin of his solar plexus.

Desperately making space, the blond shoved himself back. He slipped his arms out of his loose shirt as it got caught on one of the Kaguya's blades and furiously channeled chakra to his legs. He felt his skin slice open as he blasted away but shoved it aside.

His legs carried him into one, two, three body flickers away from Kimimaro's breakneck offensive. Blood seeped into his eyes from a cut across his forehead from an elbow. He gritted his teeth as another blade bit into the meat of his thigh. He tasted copper as his cheek was sliced open from the edge of his lip.

He blurred a fourth time and reappeared a moment before the Kaguya. The chakra reinforced claws of his right hand drove into Kimimaro's left shoulder. His breath was stolen a moment later as the older teen shoved a blade through his upper chest in retaliation, beneath his clavicle and out his back. Naruto's vision whited out for a moment as a gasp was torn from his chest.

Rage sharpened the world into clarity a split second later. His left claw clamped down Kimimaro's arm like a vice, refusing to let him draw the blade back. He ripped his claws from the Kaguya's left shoulder, clenched them into a fist, and slammed it into the older teen's face. Fury blinded him to the pain of the blade driving deeper into his chest as he channeled chakra to his fist and hit Kimimaro hard enough to tear the teen from his grip.

Tearing the bone blade from his chest, Naruto palmed it and sprinted after his nemesis. He caught up to the Kaguya before he'd managed to right himself and crashed a straight kick into his ribs. Kimimaro hit the wall of the dueling hall and momentum kept him suspended long enough for Naruto to shove the bone blade through his stomach.

A choked cry left Kimimaro's lips as Naruto pinned him in place. The blond savagely punched his right claw at the older teen's ribs, only to meet a beleaguered forearm that was still as strong as steel. The elongated nails dug in balefully, the Kyuubi's chakra strengthening them enough to carve into the Kaguya's ulna.

Yellow eyes met enraged violet weakly for a moment before Kimimaro slammed his forehead into Naruto's face. The blond yelped, reflexively pulling back, and the older teen somehow leveraged a foot upward and into his chest to shove him away.

Naruto rushed forward but had to halt as bone fragments were blasted at his chest. He blurred away with a furious growl as Kimimaro wrenched the blade from his stomach and pushed off from the wall. His arms hung limply at his sides, his chest heaved, and he met Naruto's gaze with nothing but abject hatred. His shoulders straightened and his breathing evened after a moment, and the blond realized his nemesis was still standing by force of will alone.

End him.

Bringing the Kyuubi's malevolence to bear, Naruto cast his chakra out. A millennia of hatred suffused the killing intent and struck Kimimaro like a physical blow. He rocked back on his heels, mouth falling open, and Naruto exploded forward.

The world blurred to tunnel vision for the blond as the Kaguya righted himself a split second later and made to leap away.

Too slow!

Naruto roared as his chakra enhanced claw punched through Kimimaro's razor sharp rib cage and out his back with a spray of blood. The older teen stumbled a step, body still attempting to flee, then sagged. An audible sigh escaped Kimimaro's lips as he tipped forward onto Naruto's arm. Empty black and yellow eyes stared outward at nothing, vacant.

The blonde's chest heaved as he stared down at the limp, dead Kaguya on his arm. He half expected Kimimaro to spring to life and run him through, but the seconds ticked on. The sound of blood dripping to the floor snapped him out of the momentary reverie and he yanked his arm back violently. Kimimaro's corpse fell bonelessly to the tiled floor with a thump that sounded too soft to Naruto's ears. The teen's head lolled to the side with its mouth open. Blood poured out of the gaping hole in the corpse's chest and began to pool around the jinchuuriki's feet.

Wrenching his gaze from the older teen's carcass, still brown in death, Naruto stared down at the heart still clenched tightly in his right fist. It should've been bigger. This should feel different, he thought distantly over the sound of his heart pounding in his head.

Maybe it was the Kyuubi's essence tainting his feelings, but he'd expected…something. Something that fit with finally, finally ending Kimimaro's miserable existence. All he felt was tired.

Deep down, he knew the real fight hadn't even started.

The thought rattling through his brain, Naruto tossed the useless organ away with a flick of his wrist, idly wiping the rivulets of blood from his hand on his pant leg.

"Well done, my friend," Orochimaru hissed from behind him.

The blond spun and fell to a knee, quelling the urge to lash out at the Sannin by banishing the Kyuubi's chakra back to the seal. He caught himself with a fist to the tiled floor as his body slumped with exhaustion, the lack of inhuman chakra leaving him momentarily breathless. He inhaled sharply and forced himself rigid.

"Thank you, Orochimaru-sama."

"Rise." He did so gratefully, even as his muscles screamed in protest. "I admit I had hoped you'd throw off the shackles of fear sooner, however…" The word hung suspended and Naruto knew better than to interrupt. He turned to find poisonous yellow eyes raking over him. "…I should know not to question progress, regardless of speed," Orochimaru finished.

The blond held his silence, averting now blue eyes away from his jailor's gaze and struggling to stay upright. Get to the point…

The Sannin made a half ram seal that had Naruto inadvertently tensing, but nothing happened. A moment later, four shinobi appeared behind his jailor, each kneeling in supplication. "Orochimaru-sama!" they chorused.

"Rise," Orochimaru commanded, and they did. Three boys and a girl, all who looked slightly older than Naruto, stood arrayed. Each wore the purple ropes indicative of Orochimaru's elite. One was dark skinned with shaggy hair pulled back into a ponytail; his six arms caused Naruto to blink, but didn't otherwise faze the jinchuuriki. Another had three tufts of orange hair and would give any Akimichi in Konoha a run for their money in sheer girth. The girl was slim and had pink hair so dark it was nearly red that fell about her face; she scowled heavily, the only show of emotion visible among the four. The final boy had pale, blue-ish grey hair that hung limply around his face; another set of eyes peered around the right side of his face, and Naruto fought a flinch as he beheld a second head that seemed to sprout from the boy's back.

"Naruto-kun, meet your subordinates. They are the Sound Four; my elite bodyguards." Blue eyes raked over them as each straightened at the words, and Naruto didn't bother pondering the idea that a shinobi of Orochimaru's caliber needed bodyguards. They undoubtedly had their purpose. "They will assist you in your missions against Akatsuki."

Belatedly, he recognized them as the four who had been present when he'd been kidnapped, and kept his face studiously blank. "Thank you, Orochimaru-sama," he demurred, returning his gaze to his jailor. "When do we start?"

The Sannin chuckled low in his throat. "Eager as always, apprentice." The blond bit the inside of his cheek to keep from snarling at the moniker. You haven't taught me shit. "Soon. Kimimaro's death shows you're ready for more responsibility, but I'd be a poor sensei indeed if I sent you off in search of Akatsuki as you are now."

Each of the Sound Four had turned, wide eyed, to regard the Kaguya's corpse some steps away, and Orochimaru addressed them, "You are dismissed." The four dropped to a knee once more before disappearing in smoke.

"You and I will leave in two days' time, Naruto-kun." Orochimaru raised his chin, staring down at the blond seriously. "Pack provisions for thirty days."

Naruto blinked, thrown, and only got his bearings as the silence stretched awkwardly. "Yes, Orochimaru-sama."

"Good. You are dismissed. Rest up, my friend," the Sannin said, already turning away.

The blond didn't hesitate, beleaguered legs carrying him from the room with as much speed as he could manage. His mind whirled as he stumbled his way to his room, thoughts jumbled as he tried to process everything that had happened.

As he reached the unmarked door he knew by memory was his, the only thought that echoed was 'Finally.'

He thought no more as he shut the door behind him and succumbed to his exhaustion.

/~/