Apple Thief of Everfree

~X~

He strolled through the Deeper Depths. The force of the magic intensity around him being a familiar reminder of the locale he was use to. HE steady himself, as he walked over a large Tree root that bridge over a running river. He crouched down, looking into the water depths. He watched as slight glows flashed at random positions in the water running past the branch.

A moment later, an errant flash happened in front of him before a small animal hopped in and out of the water.

It was a fish. Not just any fish though, but a Dimeon. Named after a special sort of attribute these fishes held.

He watched as it jumped twice more before on some odd jump a small portal opened in front of it, the fish going in and the portal closing. Watching for a little longer as a flash later, farther down the stream the fish appeared.

Watching as the fish swam off, he looked down into his reflection in the water. The reflection of the man in front of him made faces in the water. He ran through numerous expressions, before settling on a smile. The corners of his lips dipped, as his smile turned into a frown. His stare into the water, let his mind wander down a dark memory.

6 Years Ago...

The 15-year old blond looked up from the river, snapping out of his gaze. He looked farther down the beaten path, seeing his teacher waiting for him. He got up from his position over the waters, blue and orange jumpsuit slightly baggy on his frame, before going over to Yahiko.

"So explain to me again. You said those fishes, the..." He fumbled.

"The Dimeon." Yahiko provided.

"Right, them. You said they can use dimension portals. So why haven't we, or even you, tried to use them to get home?" The blond made sure to hop over a slightly upturned root in the ground, before focusing back on his master.

"I've stated before to you about how attributes work yes?"

"Yeah. Some attributes are stronger than others in specific creatures. In most there's a main central attribute they specialize in, that can decide what "rank" of it will be. Usually the main attribute is an special quality that the material/creature carried throughout its life."

"And that the mastery of said concept throughout its life helps determine the quality of the concept to be harnessed. For example, Dragons. From birth, dragons are born with a high concept of "Flame". As well, I also remember telling you that some creatures have the capacity to have other attributes. Rarely do they have secondary attributes that match up to, or even come close to their main attributes." Yahiko continued to explain, as his gaze went to his wayward ward. The blond in question, had taken up a thinking expression, before it took on a disgusted expression.

Naruto couldn't help but pinch his nose, as the smell of acrid flesh penetrated his senses.

'Ugh! What kind of Primal makes a smell like that?! Oh Kami, please tell me there aren't stinkbug like Primals!' He thought, his eyes moving every which way to try and locate the source of the smell. The farther they walked, the stronger the smell got. It was as they were breaking through a patch of low hanging foliage that they came across a carcass.

"...Holy shit..." The blond whispered, as the both master and student stopped and took in the sight of what had to be the largest Beast they'd laid eyes on.

The half-eaten carcass lay on its side, innards visible to the world. The corpse had to be at least over four stories tall, with fur that looked like the night sky turning to day. The blue to orange-red hues of the fur lay matted down against the dead animal by its own blood. It was missing one of its ears and eyeballs. Though that wasn't saying much with half of its skull caved in. Naruto had been expecting to see gray matter, but strangely enough the skull looked excavated. As if something had made sure to clean out the skull in full measures.

The biggest thing about this thing was the sight of the edges. Each "edge" that he could find on this thing, which looked kind of like a bear, was smeared over by a reddish tint. Not unlike blood, but different. If anything it looked like the "edges" were being eaten away at. His eyes widening at the word that popped into his mind.

Corrosive.

"What the hell did this?" Asked the blond as he walked around the carcass. He took notice of what looked like a large chunk of flesh missing from the neck area, with the same kind of hints of corrosivity. He wasn't sure whether that had been done before or after the Beast faced it's untimely death, but it was twisted in such a way that caused the blond to rub a hand across his own throat.

Whatever did this was beyond him. Maybe his teacher would know whatever did this, and what this animal was. He turned back to Yahiko, question on his lips before it died at the stare of the older gentlemen. The man's eyes traced over the corpse for a moment, before he turned his gaze to the surrounding forest. His eyes moved every which way, before they changed color. From their original color, to a light green coloration.

Naruto watched as Yahiko's eyes moved from the corpse before gliding across the clearing. The movement of the teacher's eyes leaving small traces of light in their motions.

"Naruto, come here." The words were spoken calmly, in a whisper, but he heard them all the same. The rabbit ears on his head flattened involuntarily, as he turned to his master.

"Wh-" He tried to speak, but his teacher held up his hand gesturing a shushing motion.

"Shhh..." He moved his hand in a "come hither" gesture this time. The blond was succinctly freaked out, but followed Yahiko's orders. Whether it was by his own doings, or not, he applied the softening characteristics of his feet's paw pads. The softened blows of his feet on the forest floor reduced to what amount to small displacements of air.

"Slowly..." The orange haired man whispered, as he began to move forward at the same pace of his student. His eyes still moving about the clearing. They inched forward until they stood in front of one another. Naruto went still, as the orange haired man stood in front of him. Yahiko checked the clearing and once more, before bringing his eyes to his student's still form. Locking eyes with him, he spoke in near deathly silent whispers. The octaves picked up by the boy's rabbit ears easily.

"Do not move, and do not overreact." He stated simply, eyes coming to his student's. The apparent curiosity and slight fear was betrayed by the boy's eyes. Yahiko blinked his eyes several times in front of the Unique male, before Naruto got the message. The blond's upper right forehead slower lit up, before his eyes changed to the green color not unlike his teacher's were currently. From here Yahiko's eyes flickered to the corpse, leading the blond's to follow.

His eyes moving, but his head tilted only at the slightest degree, he gazed upon the carcass. His eyes noticing that the red "edges" glowed with a sort of energy. That energy seemed to trail up from it, before moving haphazardly across the clearing.

His eyes moved to follow every trail, yet it was once it moved to the bushes and disappeared as they moved behind him. The blond's thoughts were running a mile a minute, as he tried to understand what that meant.

The trail disappeared from his sight as soon as it began to move behind him. He wouldn't be able to keep looking at it, unless he turned around to look behin-!

His eyes went wide, his pupils dilated as his ears began to pick up...something. He felt a pressure on one of his toes, and saw it was his teacher's foot pressed on the digit. He looked up and caught his teacher's gaze. The intensity was there still, as the orange haired man removed his foot. The message was clear.

Stay focused. Do not panic, and THINK.

Whatever did this, wasn't just strong enough to kill whatever that corpse was, but it had some sort of corrosive liquid/acid/saliva/whatever...

And it was currently in the clearing with them, behind him.

The sudden snap of a twig, damn near set him off. The snap had come from behind him, so yes whatever was here, was in that general direction.

The reaffirmation of this fact did a number on his nerves again. He could hear the "ba-dumps" of his heart pounding against his chest, as his breathing picked up. His sense of smell was compromised by the carcass, and he was within visual sight of some sort of predator. The thing was silent enough that had it not been for Yahiko-sensei, he'd have been none the wiser.

That fact alone pushed him to the edge. This wasn't like back in the Elemental Nations, where he'd had the Kyuubi's healing, some which he had taken for granted. Speaking of said Bijuu, he had to wonder why his stomach was starting flare up at that moment. It was a strange pulling sensation, as the blond kept from turning around and alerting whatever was behind him to his knowledge of its existence.

When he'd first come here, he hadn't truly thought of what the lost of the seal on his stomach had meant. It was maybe a year down the line that he'd question Yahiko about it. The orange haired man had theorized that the blond's travel here had probably ripped it from his being in exchange for the cost of movement to this dimension. It had been strange at the time, but not something he'd thought was bad.

That is until he'd gotten into his first scrap with the forest's Primals and decided he was more than a little dependent on Kyuubi at the time. That had rattled him when he was younger, seeing as it meant most of his head-on tactics had FAR more outreaching risks than ever before. It was only thanks to Yahiko-sensei that he was as well developed as he was now. Yahiko-sensei who was currently gesturing for him to pay attention right now.

Knocked out of his introspection, the blond watched as the man locked his gaze with him, before looking down. The blonde following his gaze watched as the area around the man's ankle's began to glow. it was a dim light, but it was enough to catch the blond's attention. He moved his gaze up to see his teacher's eyes moving up and down, to which the blond's own followed. He felt the power of the energy coursing through him move itself from his core to spread to his legs. Not brought to the surface, but it was set in preparation.

The sound of something breathing, fast unpaced breaths. Sounds the blond was sure he hadn't heard before due to be not reinforced, but there was something else. Dripping and hisses. Not being able to use his eyes left the blond feeling more than a little nervous. His eyes caught the movement of yahiko's hand, as it made a gesture towards himself. He flicked his eyes to the side, before his hand started ticking down from five fingers.

Five

The sounds of breathing intensified, small clicks of something clacking together.

Four

The magical energy swirled in their bodies, ready and waiting for imminent use.

Three

The earth felt like it had trembled slightly. His eyes widened, at the implication of such a detail.

Whatever they were dealing with was big

Two

There was a creak. The sound of something that rattled against the forest floor.

One

A large form burst it way out from the trees behind Naruto, just as both the Unique and his caretaker removed themselves from the clearing.

The clearing came to life, as two sounds not unlike bullets, erupted from the center. Following after these was the sound of roars, erupting ground and screeching.

Two moving blurs shot their way across the passing treelines, as the sound of moving destruction followed behind them. They zoomed past the low running brook from before, bodies flying across the water followed by a large shadow. Yahiko turned his gaze from in front of them to his side, watching as his student's body moved with arms angled backwards.

They needed to lose whatever was behind them, and fast, but it seemed hell bent on making such a goal impossible. Yahiko found this beyond strange. This anomaly had to be a Primal of the Deeper Depths. He'd mapped these woods in the year he'd been here and, barring a certain dragon from a cave down below near Rambling Rock ridge and a few creatures that lived in the Depth Chasm who never left their territory, there shouldn't have been anything powerful enough to bring down an Ursa so easily.

Then there was the Ursa itself. They didn't even EXIST this far in to begin with, yet there it was. Also, a male URsa that was in the development stages of becoming a Major...The very idea of such a thing was terrifying. The strongest thing in the Deeper depths was a Ghoul Skeleton, but those things didn't have any sort of acidic mutation. Much less they didn't "eat", but sucked the magic out of other Primals for feasting. Something about this didn't add up and they were running out of options.

They were near the Ridge when they had started, but after 10 mins worth of running they were already nearing the divide between Everfree's Intensity Divide (Naruto's naming, not his own). They were going to end up leading this thing to Ponyville at this rate, and he wasn't fond of the idea of destroying the livelihood of small town, so with a jerking motion of his head he and his protege pivoted.

The second their feet met the ground and twisted to their left, they were gone in a flicker of magic and static by Student and teacher, respectively.

Naruto could hear the large crash as the monster behind failed to catch purchase in the ground as quickly as they could, but the roaring and immediate shaking stomps of limbs against the floor told him it wasn't deterred for long. Feeling the magic/chakra burning through his limbs was ignored for thinking of a plan. He was happy for his teacher changing directions, Naruto didn't want Applejack brought into this, AT ALL.

There was still the problem of figuring what was following them. The fact that his mind was kind of in panic mode wasn't helping. Damn animal parts, helpful for the qualities they carried, but the instincts that meld together made it terribly hard to focus when they were all screaming, "get the fuck outta here" at him.

They were currently on the path to Ghastly Gorge. They would be able to at least get some room to figure out how to deal with this thing once they were in open space.

It was more than a few minutes later that they found themselves at the beginning of the canyon, when things took a turn for the worse. The sounds of destruction behind them had all, but fallen silent, and foolishly in hindsight they stopped. This alone was alarming, but then the instinct telling him to run hadn't stopped, and with each passing second it was growing.

The main reason for that was that it was getting weirdly darker where they were stood, and yet it was only midday. Yahiko's shout of "Move!" was all that it took to have them both jump to the side to avoid the meteoric fall of a large shadow. The ground beneath it gave way and spread out past where they both stood, and the cracks seemed enlarge the their way to the beginning of the canyon.

All was silent as the two of them froze in place. Eyes locked on the large eruption of dust in the center between them. A moment later Naruto saw what could only be a pair of glowing red stars, before he had to dodge out of the way of something extending out the cloud in his direction. Jumping over the protrusion from the cloud, he got a first look at what they could possibly be dealing with.

It looked like a hand. Four fingers, including thumb, but it's form was covered in sinewy muscle and misplaced fur of various ranges of Red and orange. That along with the fact that the arm retracted itself back into the cover of the cloud of dust was disturbing. There wasn't anything supposed to even be remotely human in Everfree, save for the Ghoul Skeleton. Yet...

"Naruto, prepare! We may not have the luxury of getting out of this without a fight!" The orange haired man said, before his hands began to hum. Many bouts of electricity teasing the tips of his fingers, as 3 rings of light circled his wrists and ankles. The blond followed through on his own battle preparations, as his lines drew down the left side of his face. The shining shapes running down his arms and legs, and even his tails where the glowing lines coalesced at the tips.

They didn't have to wait long to get a look at their attacker, because just as they got ready they had to jump skyward to avoid a horizontal sweeping limb that extended beyond into the canopy. From their place up above they saw dust cloud disperse and got a first time look at their attacker.

"...!"

Yahiko looked over to his protege to see the blond's eyes widen in terror, as his eyes fell on the monstrous being down below. Moving his own hazel orbs towards the being below, his mind grasping the structure of the beast below.

Monstrous was a good term to use here, seeing as there was no better word for it. It was big, easily just as big as the Ursa Magna from before, if not slightly smaller, at possibly three-four stories tall. The creature bore up to 6 limbs in total. Two of them being the legs, reminiscent of a fox's. The arms was where this being's monstrous nature started to kick in, because of the make-up of the limbs themselves. The two front ones were human like with four digits, but were covered in corded pink muscle and speckled in flickering red-orange fur. The second set of limbs emerged from the beast's back, skeleton in nature, two times as large as the front paw/hands and they were attached via what could only be tendons emerging from the monster's back.

The form of the body is what drew his eyes. The head was a mockery of a mix between a human's and fox's. Made all the more horrifying by the fact that it was missing a decidedly large amount of flesh around the jaw and upper left side of it's face. More muscle than skin adored it's frame, with large amounts of what could only be Ursa quality fur flickering in red and orange hues. At the sides of it's main body the chest portion seemed to expand outward with each breath it took. The second to last thing he noticed were its tails.

Four large wavy tails. Massive, relative to two of them, moving spires of fur and flesh. They were the same color of it's body, and they seemed to be the most covered by fur, with only the barest tips of each being uncovered by fur showing flesh.

That strangely didn't seem to take up precedence to its eyes. Eyes of crimson, that spoke little of any sort of true intelligence. Eyes of a beast. Eyes of a monster that were focused solely on the form of his, currently terrified, student.

Said blond was doing all he could to try and not run away from the monstrosity before him. He couldn't help but shiver once he saw it's eyes land on him and stay there, an eerie chill creeping down his spine in response. This shouldn't be possible, but there it was staring him in the face. Regardless of the amount of tails it currently had showing, he'd never forget the years of neglect he suffered because of the beast before him.

"Kyuubi..." The words left his lips before he registered them, and he wished he could have. At the very moment the whisper left him, the eyes of the beast focused in on him. The head tilting at an angle, before a sick grin bore on it's jaw, only made more scary by the disfigurement.

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The very air shook, as the world resonated with the roar of a beast borne to bring calamity. The sound was enough to make the blond's ears pop. He held his head as the ringing brought upon his sensitive organs nearly caused him to collapse, were it not for his hand steadying him. He did his best through the noise to stay stable, luckily his ears weren't bleeding.

The beast stopped roaring, just to lunge forward towards the duo. The two jumped above the lunging fox ghoul, before bounding off the wall to their ba

"Keep from getting hit, I don't trust whether or not the corrosive ability is passive or active!" Yahiko said, before he launched himself at the monstrosity. His hands glowing blue, flickering with electricity before he released several small torrents towards the beast's direction. The bolts of discharge crashed into and around the raging beast, though it seemed to do little as it move through and then around the shots before charging at them.

Naruto seeing this, let out a small shudder before he moved forward, dragging the beast's eyes to him. Gritting his teeth the blond got as close as two meters from the large beast before he darted to the side at the last second. His form covered in glowing lines arced around the right forearm before he let loose a kick to the wrist, before deflecting off the wrist to the side. His attack doing little to disturb the thing's footing. Thouogh he made sure to jump away before the right arm on the back of thing lashed out to grab him.

Turning to it's left the kyuubi's incarnate released a roar that shot out a shockwave, nailing the blond on his left, sending him rolling into a random tree. Yet before it could continue its assault it was made aware of the presence of the other one. Yahiko rounding on the ghoulish fox's right bound forward in a flash of electricity. His right arm's rings clumped together before he let loose punch in the monster's direction. The rings burst apart towards the forearm before a list sphere of electricity was produced.

The sphere itself was as tall as the man it came from and 3 meters in circumference. the moving ball of electricity found home in the fox's right side, pushing it off-kilter, before the ball exploded. The monster let out a roar in pain as it's flesh burned, small arcs of electricity running down the left forearm. Taking the opening provided by his attack the orange haired man continued to pelt the fox in spheres of varying size from the both of his arms. The rings pumping in tandem to give the beast no quarter.

During this barrage against the fox, the master's student was crouching a distance away. His eyes focused, as a yellow ball of light as large as his hand formed. He pushed it further as it began turn dark red, the form rumbling fiercely before he created several more one for each appendage, bar his feet. With these in tow, he plunged all four into the ground.

The effect was instantaneous as the ground ruptured under the Yonbi no Yoko. The earth depressing viciously into a sinkhole with the fox being pulled in. Yahiko continuing his barrage on the beast followed through as he let his barrage die, only to pull his hands back. Energy flickered between the rings before they clamped together. The rings merged together into singular large ones, before he brought his arms together forward towards the hole.

The two rings merged into one before multiplying into three over his extended limbs. There was a flash of light before the man shouted.

"Burst Flare!"

Dark blue energy burst outward and engulfed the hole in heat and destruction. The cone of energy extending outward, blasted out towards the Gorge ahead, as it tore apart the ground. Yahiko allowed the blast to die, as he separated his arms. Naruto jogging up to the older man, before looking down towards the hole, which now was smoldering as the ground lay melted. His blue eyes flickering to and fro in search of any form of movement within the hole. Ears pressed flat against his head, as he approached the hole.

The blond looked over toward Yahiko, before he asked the man in question.

"Do you think that's it?" Kami, he hoped it was. The young man held a deep rooted fear of the Kyuubi, and seeing any form of it after so long was a frightening thing to think about. Yahiko regarded the young man, before he looked into the hole. He searched with his eyes, before they turned light green once more before he judged them useless. The hole was saturated by his own energy, but that was the weird part. Even if the "Kyuubi" were dead, there should have been some form of its energy down there. His eyes narrowed, before widening as he grab the collar of his student's jumpsuit before jumping into the air.

Not a moment too soon either, for at that exact moment a large pair of skeletal arms ripped themselves out of the ground clasping anything in between them together. The airborne two watched as if in slow motion, as the beast breached the ground floor. The attack from before having done some damage as the coating of fur that had littered the upper portion of the body was gone and in place of it was a myriad of burnt patches of flesh. Yet, that seemed to be the worse of it, seeing as the thing came out of it no more worse for wear.

~Play: Naruto Shippuden OST: The God Awakened~

The next moment things changed, as the breaching foxed screeched in their direction, throwing them farther skyward. Naruto had a hard time seeing the demon fox, as the rushing air made it hard to see, but once he could he found nothing.

The ground where the fox-ghoul once stood was missing the body fo the very creature, which didn't bode well for either of them. So it came as a shocking revelation when the two felt the presence of a body hovering just above them. The very idea of it being that fast was ludicrous. It shouldn't have been possible for something that big, but they were proven wrong once more as beast proved itself more than just an impossible scenario as it brought both pairs of hands down on the Unique and the orange haired man.

They shot down in large pillars of dust, as the beast landed, crushing the ground underneath. The creature started radiating a crimson aura, before it began to do something which filled the blond with dread. The two skeletal hands tha came from it's back came together in a gesture. A gesture that was too familiar. The hands brought together with the pointer fingers on the four digits held together out of the firm grip the hands had on each other.

A Hand-sign.

His eyes widen, as scant energies and magic began to move from around the surrounding area to gather around the bijuu incarnate. A moment later the bright energies circled it's form before clinging to its body. The magical energy form and molded itself to the shape of the bijuu before stabilizing. It was by this point that they stood in front of what could only be considered the devil incarnate.

Its form now lay covered by thick, opaque, swirling energy. The features of uncovered flesh hidden from sight, and leaving flickering wisps of red aura in its place. The skeletal hands looked more like energy arms than anything by this point, the whole monster looking like one colored being.

"What the fuck? How? How does it know handsigns?! That doesn't make sense!" The blond crowed as he stumbled backwards. Yahiko took a single step back, as they beheld the beast in it's new form. The energy the beast was outputting trumped anything the blond had ever felt before. This felt like more than a few levels above what he had used at the Valley of the End. What he'd used at the VotE was but a drop in the ocean of energy this beast was outputting.

The bright red stars from before were distinguishable from the red magic/chakra body as white stars. flickering within the depths of the light of its eyes was a slit pupil.

Just as it finished, it's attack began. Its form left barely a blur behind as it appeared in front of them both. Even to his Reinforced perception, the kyuubi was too faster. He barely felt the blow before he was sent careening off into and then through the last vestiges of forest before finding himself floating over the Ghastly Gorge. The sense of no gravity didn't last long as he felt the pull towards ground soon after.

Hitting the river did little to alleviate the pain emanating from his back and tailbone, especially since he bounced off the surface to crater the ground next to it. He lay flat against it floor, as his bruised and sore form refused to stand. He heard the whistling of something flying through the air, before he was treated to the sight of Yahiko-sensei hitting the hard ground to the right of the stream. Watching the humanoid struggle to get up only highlighted how messed up things were. Seeing the drips of green fluid leaking from the man's forehead and arms, through the torn clothes, showed how much damage the man had taken. The rings of light from before had flickered out, leaving behind the marred skin of his mentor and the gashes along his arms. The blond doubted he looked any better than the person in front of him.

He saw the man tug out the <> of his creators before the two of them were surrounded in soft gold. Wounds were slowly being knit together, but not fast enough as far as they both were concerned. There was little doubt that the kyuubi would be upon them soon.

Naruto groaned before he stumbled to his feet. Knocked out of his reinforced state long since he fell down here. They couldn't do this. The very idea that the thing was stronger was laughably insane and that was mostly because they could barely register how strong it was before its transformation.

Yahiko looked to his stalwart disciple with sadness. This wasn't how things were to suppose to go. This situation was outside of any parameters to consider and went beyond anything even remotely possible. The darkening sky was doing little wonders for his vision, so he altered his his to "Night mode", before the Sun lowered any further down below. His gaze lowered, as he looked out to the chasm they now lay in. His gaze trailing along the walls, before he found himself focusing on the horizon in the Gorge.

They needed something, anything! They didn't have options, and Yahiko was sure that even going Full Conduit may not be enough to handle this. His eyes traveled the walls of the chasm, before he felt something beating him in the back of the head. He was forgetting something. This area...this place...!

It may just work...No! It would work, but they needed to get further down into the Gorge. He looked towards Naruto, before he leaped to his student's side of the stream.

"We must run!" He was curt, and simple. The blond gave him but a single look before nodding, and they took off down the gorge. They powered up in their respective ways as they ran. Their forms glinting in the night as they traveled lower and lower. It was as they were running that they looked back and saw something.

A light at the beginning of the Gorge. The light flickered, and flickered. They weren't sure what it was until they looked further behind it. The aura was unmistakeable. The crimson that seemed to float skyward, and it's bulky form left little to the imagination of what was at the mouth of the Gorge.

"Get out of the way!" The Unique shouted before the light erupted into a beam of solid destruction that cut its way down into the Gorge and beyond it. The beam itself was hot enough to dry up the stream that was running between them, and leave magma in it's wake. They didn't allow themselves to stay around and gawk, as they continued down toward the lower end of the Gorge. The Kyuubi took several pot shots at them before it shot forward into the chasm.

The two made sure to dodge around the miniature blasts of lethal energy. They moved up and about the high rising walls, doing their utmost best to dodge the balls of doom. The sounds of something tearing across the expanse of the Gorge told them they needed to high-tail it out of there.

They finally came to the section they had been hoping for. In front of them lay a deep drop in altitude, made clear by the huge loss of running ground at the same position they were. It would have been a waterfall, but the Kyuubi made sure there wouldn't be any running water coming this way any time soon. Many didn't know that the falls had this sort of drop, and it was for the best that it stay that way. You wouldn't see it from the train that passed over near the beginning portions of Ghastly Gorge. Down below where the falling waters gathered were a series of caves. Caves that contained creatures that Equestria was lucky the creatures were strangely content to stay where they were. It would take an unnaturally large amount of energy to attract one of these things.

Which was exactly what Yahiko was hoping for. He was more surprised by the fact that the Gorge hadn't been crawling with the damn things with how much magical energy the Kyuubi had been releasing all over.

They turned away from the sight of the drop to the sight of the incoming Yonbi no Yoko. The form shooting down the Gorge, straight at them.

Perfect.

They stood still as the night winds blew their clothes in the breeze, watching as the beast of carnage came closer and closer. It's back arms extending into the Gorge walls slingshot-ing it forward with added speed. Naruto's eyes gazed at the oncoming, before turning them to his teacher. He wasn't sure what the man had in mind for this plan of his. At most it would save them a couple seconds at best, but he'd trust his mentor and got prepared.

He summoned a clone, and began setting out to begin creating his ultimate technique. The clone dragged the space above the blond's palm as energy gathered. The potent magical chakra in his systems brought out into the orb of multi-directional energy strings.

The Rasengan created in hand, he and the clone continued to shape and mold it as it increased in size. It was as they finished, that the Kyuubi was upon them. Well it would have been with one more slingshot, yet as the fox's back two arms shot into the walls of the Gorge, they were simultaneously dislodged by a pair of clones wielding a set of glowing orbs.

"Rasendarendan!" Cried the copies before the slammed their respective orbs into the Kyuubi's outstretched legs. The beast twisted forward into a uncontrolled roll. The duo jumped away from the crashing monster. The Kyuubi made one last bid for purchase into the flooring before the drop, only to be besieged upon by a jumping blond and carrot-top.

"Odama Rasengan!"

"Arc Burst!"

Getting slammed by a falling electric axe kick was one thing, but it being supported by the large rotating ball in the blond's hand was enough to not only dislodge the Yonbi no Yoko from the edge, but it launched the demon fox down into the lower levels into the large lake below, as Naruto and Yahiko landed back on the overlooking edge.

They looked down to watch as the fox broke the surface. The water steamed as it fell past the energy covering the vu;pine menace. It looked around before launching itself out of the watery depths. It's form lit up the dark beyond that was down below, along with the glowing blue waters.

Naruto took a step back as the fox turned its gaze upward at them. Just as the blond was about to turn, he felt the hand of his teacher land on his shoulder in a calming motion. Eyes shooting to Yahiko, he was surprised to see the man not looking at him but down below with the Kyuubi. The blond followed his gaze, not knowing what he would find. The few seconds he looked, he noticed something.

Caves. A large number of caves. The entrances littered walls of the area down there, with one exceeptionally large one in the back wall, and the blond was filled with a sort of curiosity. He was even more curious, though in a morbid kind of way, when the fox's ears perked. It's expression flattening as it turned its head to peer over the large network of concavity in the walls.

What could gain the fox's attention enough to rip it away from them? It was then that he started to hear it.

What started as singular sound akin to scuttling, began to fill the Gorge, as they two up above watched. Naruto in shocked horror, while Yahiko watched in expectancy. Tens and hundreds of moving animalistic skeletons started to move out into the open on their perches in the walls. They decorated the area in gleaming white, as the skeletons varied in size and type of animal but they were similar in several regards.

-They bore a skeletal appearance, with the rib cage surrounding a sphere-like core of pulsating energy.

-The smallest was the size of a large dog, with the average height being somewhere around the size of a house.

• None walked on less than all fours, not counting those that held more than four appendages.

-They all had their gazes locked on the Kyuubi.

When they all stopped coming and just sat there looking at the bijuu, the blond was left wondering what was next.

He got his answer in the form of a large skeleton exiting the depths of the cavern. Easily larger than every other one down there, this one stood at almost the same height as the Kyuubi itself, towering at 3 stories. It's back was adorned with a crown of bone, with the orb of energy on its being being a myriad of colors, and that it held a human like skull with four red eyes. It walked on four appendages and bore a skeletal tail, and large fangs not unlike the rest of the things in the cavern.

Its gaze turned towards the Kyuubi in curiosity, before it's very being began to flicker with the arcs of the same color as the orb that was its core. Within seconds the entire cavern was a cacophony of growls, howls and screeches. The Kyuubi roared its way back in challenge, before it was set upon by a flood of whatever those creatures were.

The two up top just watched, as the horde attacked the Yonbi no Yoko with fervor. Their multiple forms swarming the glowing red mass of energy that was the monster that chased them.

The blond couldn't believe what he was seeing. Whatever these things were, numbered in the hundreds and moved like a army of angry red fire ants. The question of what they were was on the tip of his tongue, but was answered by none other than his teacher a second before he could vocalize it.

"Ghoul Skeletons. That's what you're currently looking at." Yahiko stated simply, his expression while still focused relaxed slightly so he could smile at his student, whose eyes widened in shock and amazement.

"You knew they were here. That's why you had us run down the Gorge, because you knew there was a nest here." To this Yahiko shook his head, much to the blond's confusion.

"Yes I knew they were here, but that's just it. There is no "a nest", they ONLY exist here, thankfully. They feed off the nearest high intensity of magical energy they can find. The only thing that keeps these set of creatures from rampaging all over Equestria is the sole fact that they can't survive outside of a magic intensive environment for too long." Yahiko explained, as they watch the Kyuubi do battle with the horde below. The monster fox thrashed as any of the Ghoul Skeletons came near.

Sweeps of its tails slammed numerous ones into the walls, and some into the waters. Yet, the creatures proved durable as they renewed their attack on the beast. Fangs of every one glowing purple as they tried to latch onto the source of magic that was the Kyuubi. WIth every one destroyed the fox would find several taking their place. The beast rammed itself bodily into the walls, upsetting large chunks of rock that came crashing down into the groups of ghouls. Its form began to flicker as the others drained what they could of its energy before they met their demise.

It came as no surprise that the largest one entered the fray as soon as the fox squashed a decent squadron of the skeletal mini-monsters. The two titans of flesh and bone met, as the largest of the ghouls tackled the fox into the floor. The large fangs glowing a sick purple before it latched onto the fox's neck region. The monstrous vulpine was roaring/wailing in pain, as the red energy that was recently bound to its form began to drain away into the fangs of the large Primal. The moment of roaring pain didn't last however as the fox had had enough of the leech on its body. With a fist to the face of the ghoul the fox freed itself of the PRimal but the damage was done.

The fox's original form was revealed to the world once more, save for the medium amount of red energy entangled around its back arms. Its eyes flickered to and fro around the cavern, before it screeched out a shockwave that knocked back the horde of Ghoul Skeletons. The fox leaped from its position on the ground to the area above it. Maybe around half the distance from the rock edge, to the cavern floor, it began to gather energy into its maw. The blue and red orbs gathering faster in its rage before it unleashed the ball of destruction upon those below.

~X~

The sound of the explosion made the blond Unique turn his head backwards in the direction of the Gorge. The bright red explosive energy that burst outward from the deep end, made the blond gulp audibly, before he continued on running. They had made the trip back to the back way of Everfree Forest before they stopped to rest. Naruto sat against the trunk of a tree, as his teacher sat on an upturned rock. They allowed their racing hearts to slow, as they took what downtime they had.

The soft glow of gold washed over the blond as he closed his eyes. the scrapes and bruising he may have had leftover began to slowly heal and soon enough disappeared. He let out a sigh of relief, as he watched his teacher's wounds disappear just the same. They allowed themselves this time of rest.

"I can't believe that we did it. Hehe, We did it! HAHAHAH!" The blond let loose a howl of laughter, as he felt the relief kick in. He let a few chuckles, before releasing an explosive breath of air.

Over. It was finally over. Oh man, Jackie was not going to believe this!

Yet, during his merrimaking the blond slowly began to notice that Yahiko-sensei was rummaging around in his pockets. The man clutched something from his pants pocket before bringing it out and adjusting it to his right hand. The glove stained maroon in color, bore a triplet of symbols that ran across the knuckles of the back of his hand in yellow.

The blond's eyes widened as he took notice of the equipment. He wondered why his teacher saw it as necessary to adorn the glove he now wore. The blond saw the grim expression on his face, and felt his heart sink. No, no, no, no no! Dammit! Kami fucking dammit!

Yahiko turned to see the expression of anger on his student's face, before he quirked a sad smile.

"So you understand what this means? We're not done, yet." He stated, before the blond jumped to his feet angrily.

"WHY?! We just fed that thing to the essential dogs, and we're still not done?!" He exclaimed, as he slammed his fist into the tree.

"Naruto once the fighting starts, I want you to run." The words barely left his lips before the blond turned on him with startled outrage.

"You want me to WHAT?!" The blond couldn't believe his ears! This had to be some sort of mistake, otherwise he'd call his teacher outright insane and drag his ass away to see a Psychologist. Secrecy be damned, the man needed help if he thought the blond would abandon him here with the Kyuubi on the loose! He saw his teacher frown at him in disapproval.

"Naruto this isn't up for debate! The Kyuubi is after YOU!" The man exclaimed to the shock of the blond. He stopped as his mind caught up.

'W-What?' Seeing the blond's expression turn shocked, Yahiko allowed his expression to soften.

"Naruto..." He started but received no response. The reason he didn't call out once more was the flicking of the blond's rabbit ears.

"I know you may not like this, but it's the way things have to be. The Kyuubi will stop at nothing to find you, and I honestly can't risk you being caught much less what might happen should the Kyuubi actually catch you."

The blond looked down when this point came up. He let out a sarcastic chuckle, as he felt that weight appear again. Once again. Once again, he was the cause of misery for others, and he couldn't do a damn thing about. He'd thought things had changed since he'd accepted living here, and leaving the Elemental Nations. He mentally snorted at the foolish, naive thoughts. Nothing had changed here. Only difference was that here the damage would be far more wide-spread before anyone could do something about it.

It was during his moment of self-depreciation that he felt a set of arms rest themselves on his shoulders, before he was pulled into a hug by the taller man.

Yahiko looked down at the blond mop of hair before he slowly ran his hands in between the ears. He kept up his ministrations until he felt the blond relax. He held the blond out at arms length.

"You make me proud Naruto. I never thought I'd truly ever see the days where I would ever get to feel this way. I'd lost one light in this world, and you gave it back to me. So let me reiterate once." He let out the most sincere smile

"Naruto I'm so proud of you."

The words shook the blond to the very core. The words rebound within his very soul, and it brought to mind one very special moment in the blond's life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Congratulations on passing, Naruto!" The now headband-less stated.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The very dredge of memory overlaid itself over this moment, and the blond couldn't help the tears that fell at his teacher's statement. He did his best to rub away the tears.

'Iruka-sensei.'

Yahiko simply watched on as the blond did his best to hide the tears. It was at this moment that they both heard the sounds of encroaching destruction. The howls and roars full of nothing but rage and malice did little to entertain the thought that it was anything but the Kyuubi. Yahiko quickly turned back to the blond, and ordered.

"Run."

"Wait!" The order caused the blond to stop for a moment before turning back to his teacher, who wore a contemplative look. He looked up determined at the blond before speaking.

"I need you to leave me two clones."

~X~

The blond shot off at a speed that made Yahiko proud. The light of the teen's Reinforcement darted through he trees at a rate that he was already gone from sight in a matter seconds. Yahiko let out a breath before he'd turn in the direction of the incoming Yonbi no Yoko. His eyes closed, as he held up his gloved right hand. The three symbols that lay upon it began to glow a shining white.

He looked to the two clones left behind by the blond, and pulled something from his pocket and gave one to each of them. He nodded his head to each of them as they leaped off into the forest. He watched them go, before he turned back to the direction of the Kyuubi. Time to make himself known, no?

"Full Conduit - Battery Outbreak"

~X~

The Kyuubi could feel nothing more than desperation and rage as it wreaked havoc across the terrain. It needed the boy NOW. Too weak, too much energy loss. The loss of one of it's back arms and tails were reminders of what had been lost in its eradication of all those obstacles down below. It made sure not one would see the light of day ever again.

By the time it had made it out night had fallen, and world had taken on a purple hue. This did little to deter it. It would have the boy, and be whole. The Obstacle would be destroyed for its insolence. That's what had led it rampaging towards the forest, when it saw a flash of light. It's mind set on going after it, it never registered the blow that slammed into the side of its jaw before it was sent flying off into another section of the forest. Crashing into and through multiple canopies of trees, and the like it made a stop once it hit the wall of a mountain. The destruction its sudden flight caused, made a clear path from where it once stood to the mountain wall.

Its head rang, and it shook it to regain some of its scattered senses.

What had hit it? At this unbidden question it heard the sounds of footsteps, before it felt its skull rattle against the mountain wall once again. The stone behind it cracked as the body of the Yonbi no Yoko slammed against it for the nth time. The fox having enough of this, had swept its arm out in front of it to batter whatever was attacking its frame, but found itself hitting nothing.

~Play: Naruto Shippuden OST: Kokuten~

"Not so fun, when you're on the end of a beating, is it?" A voice rang out. The best had the fortune of being able to see the form of its aggressor, before it found its head summarily crashing into the rock face of a mountain wall again.

Hair that seem to bleed light and elongated towards the floor. Eyes that contained no pupils stared in its direction, as the entire form glowed white. Two long lines connected to the bottom of the being's eye ran down its cheeks to its chin, along with two lines that went from the tips of its mouth to the chin as well. Said glowing lines of yellow made it look like a mockery of a puppet. On it's right hand it bore what looked like a glow with three yellow marks on it.

Watching as the being lifted an arm up towards it, before the Kyuubi found itself blasted by what could only be described as white lightning. arcs of intense bioelectric energy ran up and down his form, as Yahiko allowed his arm to fall. He watched the fallen form of the Kyuubi stagger to its feet, before the arm on the back shot out towards him.

His perception of the move made it seem like the arm was coming at relatively normal, if not slightly slower, speeds. It spoke of the beast's very capability in its agility.

Yet, all the same, he was still faster.

He ducked under the blow meant to take his head off, and shot forward with a haymaker to the thing's snout.

Curious, was it wrong of him to enjoy the feeling of his fist caving in the face of this creature?

...More experimentation is required. So with that thought, he disappeared in a bolt of lightning to appear behind the Kyuubi's still flying form and brought himself down on it's spine, bringing the fox's horizontal force to a vertical end. They crashed into the forest floor in a cloud of dust. The form of Yahiko appeared outside the cloud before he held up his hand. Electric traveled up and down the limb before he clenched it. The dust cloud was illuminated by sparks for a moment before an explosion took its place.

The rushing hot winds did little to even cause the humanoid conduit of lightning to even close his eyes, as energy reverberating around his form did little to allow any particles into his eyes. He watched as the smoking form of the Yonbi no Yoko lunged out of the smoke at him.

It was just a little bit away before it found itself held up in the air by what could only be a wave of dark sand. the dark grains rover its body before tossing the vulpine through several trees. Yahiko watched in silence as the fox regained its bearings, as the iron sand retreated to back around his person. He sent a quick look to the glove on his right hand, and saw one of the symbols fade out.

'3 minutes left' He'd known that this wouldn't last long. The Rune Reactor Glove wasn't necessarily meant to be. It wasn't meant to be used for long periods of time, and he was fine with that. All he needed was to deal with the Kyuubi. What that entailed wasn't necessarily synonymous with destroying it though. His sharp eyes watched as the beast rose from its place on the forest floor. pupil-less eyes taking the smallest of details, and he saw it.

The flesh that was charred and peeled away on its stomach revealed an orb. An orb not unlike that of the Ghoul Skeletons. Even more so he saw to the smallest speck of it's flesh that the ends were small specks of flaking magic particles. It had proven his hypothesis right. The both of them.

The "Kyuubi" wasn't truly a being of its own flesh. It was an energy construct that simulated flesh. The main reason its skin was so difficult to pierce was because of the animals and Primals it had eaten since coming here. It picked and chose what would be the best qualities of the creatures it ate and incorporated them.

Second hypothesis was that it had somehow melded its way onto the body of a Ghoul Skeleton. The base was the Primal itself, and Kyuubi had overridden the psyche, but kept the traits.

So it wasn't possible to "kill" it. The only thing that would do is release it from its current form, and Yahiko wasn't sure whether that'd be for the better. Who knew what it could possibly do should it not be limited to a living breathing body? It wasn't a risk he could take. So the only option was to seal it for now.

He had no illusions about being able to seal it away forever. Not without something fully capable of being the container. He'd never damn his blond student to that fate, but he himself couldn't house it. He had not the capacity for that much energy to roam free in his frame.

The best bet was to seal it away temporarily, and come back with another angle of attack. And seal it as far away as possible from any living thing.

With that in mind, he needed to get the Kyuubi into position before his timer ran out. So with renewed determination, he continued his assault on the monster fox.

He lifted his hand and iron sand began to flow and form around the appendage. A second later the vulpine monstrosity found its face being beat in with a barrage of punches from a iron covered fist moving at a speed beyond its comprehension. The fists moved with great velocity, enough such speed that they began to ignite the air between its face and the metal. On the final fist, lightning gathered before being unleashed in an explosion of liquid flame and lightning, sending the two and a half story fox sailing over the canopy before finding itself floating over the expanse of the Ghastly Gorge.

The beast fell the great distance until it hit flooring. Cratering the valley and probably making the beginning sections a little bit deeper than Equestrian cartographers originally mapped it as being.

Is form was a shamble of what it use to be. The last arm on i's back had broken upon contact with the ground, the flesh on its face may very well have disintegrated, revealing the skull and a bit of grey matter. It's eyelids gone, it turned its gaze towards a sound of static, as the Obstacle made himself known again. He looked down on the fox with an expression compared to pity.

Yahiko took one last look at the foxes before he saw that he was on the last sigil of his glove. He'd looked up a the fox, as it weakly got to its paws. The lumbering form of the fox decidedly brought him no happiness, so he set into motion the last bit of his plan. Naruto was going to hate him for this.

With a quick step he was gone in a burst of lightning. Around the fox, flickers of movement were made as Yahiko moved, and within next second Yahiko appeared in front of the monster and began to pummel it into the rock walls.

Every single fist coated with lightning pushed the fox deeper and deeper into the rock face of Gorge walls. Each bringing its own portion of agony to the vulpine abomination. Once Yahiko had forced the monster at least 4 of its body lengths into the wall, he moved out. He let out large breaths as the white around his form dissipated, he began to bring his hands together as if in prayer. Symbols, runes and markings came life around the cave and began to circle the opening of the fox's current place of being.

The next moment Yahiko coughed up blue liquid as his body shuddered. A large extended bony fore arms skewered the man, form within the cave. The fox's lone red eye glaring out of the darkness in unyielding rage, as it slowly but surely crawled the length of cave towards the bloodied man. Yahiko's eyes turned tired, as he felt the life fluid leaking from his being. His eyes met the fox's lone one as its form finally reached the sunlight.

So it was to its surprised that once it finally reached the light of its escape, that Yahiko's form flashed back to what it was but a moment ago. His arm coming up slowly to the face of the fox, as Iron sand harden around it into several thick tendrils that formed a cylinder around his sparking arm. The cylinder began to rotate, as electricity jumped between each of the moving tendrils. The speed picking up as the spark jumped from each side, before it multiplied more and more before the inside began to look like nothing but white light.

"Rail...."

The Kyuubi found its face engulfed in burning light.

"...gun"

The head followed by the body was engulfed in the large release of energy. Electricity and Heat washed over the inside of the cave , washing everything away in it's light, before erupting and spewing out immense heat. Yahiko who had been dislodge from the Kyuubi's forearm moments before, just watched as the rebounding flames came back towards him before he found himself move by two bodies.

He lifted his head up and looked from where he lay on the upper walls, as a gold glow washed over him. Watching as his student's clones held their hands over the <> as their hands were stricken with glowing lines. Their eyes had been full of desperation as they tried to patch the hole in his stomach, and once the hole in his abdomen had started to heal up, they breathed twin sighs of relief.

The last sight Yahiko had seen before blacking out was a large hole in the wall surrounded by glowing symbols, with three new additions. Two large vein rocks that pulsated with every other moment . The last addition being a bright blue symbol at the very top of the Kyuubi's new cage.

Present

After bringing him back to home base, the blond had hoped things would go back to the way they were.

Obviously things had changed. Several things in fact:

1. The Kyuubi had been sealed, but only temporarily. 10 years was the time limit Yahiko-sensei had given him. 10 years to set up counter-measures and a plan to deal with the Kyuubi before it gained back it's fourth tail, and broke out.

2. That same day, a couple years later the Equestrian Mappers Committee had an upheaval over a discussion about the change in landscape. With the Gorge being expanded unknowingly, to them, the rail system had to be altered to accommodate for longer travel time to Appleloosa.

3. Finally, and most importantly, Yahiko was slowly being eaten from the inside out.

None of the two before number three was something Naruto truly cared about. At the time, they had been content to go back to their lives, even with the overarching threat of the Kyuubi returning. It was 2 months later that Yahiko had started to feel the aftereffects of the Kyuubi's "corrosive". Or that's what they thought at the time. It wasn't a "corrosive" aspect that the Kyuubi had, but a "corruptive" one.

The false cells that made up Yahiko's body had been revolting against those that remained unturned. As tiem passed, red veiny lines would gradually begin to spread over his body starting from his navel outward.

By 2 months, his control of his inner energies had began to decline. By the third, he'd been more lethargic than usual. Enough so that he stopped visiting with Naruto whenever the blond went to the Apple farm.

Come the mid-year mark, the humanoid had been becoming more aggressive. Small things had started setting him off. A chick of metal against metal, sweeping and even rushing water could lead the man's body to shuddering uncontrollably to rein in his temper. Before long things had come to such a point that he retained himself to his own room.

It was during a long stint of Yahiko remaining restricted to his room for a whole month, with Naruto being kept in the dark that the blond had finally been called in to see him, that Yahiko had told him about his deteriorating condition in complete rundown.

The Kyuubi's Corruption had been trying to turn him. Here the man had revealed his upper body to the blond and to Naruto's horror, the skin that had been there had been eaten away and replace by what could only be red aura. The blond could see the inner workings of his teacher's body through the translucent energy.

When asked why he only told him of this now, Yahiko had admitted to the fact that he thought could fight the infection. He'd spent his time studying it, and experimenting whenever he was able, but couldn't find a way around it. Well that wasn't entirely true, he'd told the blond. It was Naruto's blood which had helped him survive as long as he had. He'd stated how at one point the infection had been worse about halfway in, and only the accidental breaking of a beaker had saved him.

A beaker containing the blond's blood from when he'd first come here to Equestria. When Naruto had offered his blood again, they had tried and it came with...mixed results.

When coming in contact with the Unique's blond Yahiko's body had almost entirely shutdown and became temporarily paralyzed. When he had recovered, they discovered that the blond's blood didn't so much stop the infection, so much as contain it. That said, with how much it the Corruption had spread across Yahiko's body, it was more detrimental than anything.

So with options exhausted, Yahiko made a final call.

Conceptualize him.

The blond had been horrified to the point of almost just running away, but the man had stopped him with these words.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I know what I've said may, horrify you. It may make you want to just deny everything, but you can't Naruto! This is life! This is reality! You're someone who requires an honest, heavy hand, so here it is. I am basically DYING! I don't have any much time left."

"So please, while I can retain whatever qualities of humanity I have left, do this for me. Do this for a man who doesn't want to hurt you. Allow me to help pave a way for your future by letting it continue. There were many things I don't think I'll ever understand. Things of great mystery that I wish I would have had the time to learn of. *Sigh* but it didn't work out that way. Even still I've gained many things. My most precious being my student who regardless of how thick headed he is, he's got a good heart and mind. He will learn, he will grow, he will fall in love and one day have a family. Possibly with a farmer, hehe."

"So as a man whose still wants to hold onto these memories, please."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One thing with Naruto was that no matter how much anger had gathered in his being on those passing days, he'd knew that he could never turn to revenge as the answer. He'd seen first hand what a revenge-filled life could lead a person to. So he shut it aware, and over the years that anger turned to shame, as no matter what he did, he felt like he would never be strong enough to live up to his mentor's expectations.

He'd remembered, spending a few last days with the man just talking about their life up to that point. They joked, debated and had an overall good time. It was in those last few days that Yahiko had given the blond the Potential Burst and the spear he now owned. The spear he'd named Bringer Of Lasting Thunder, or BOLT for short, after the "passing" of his teacher.

He allowed a few scant tears to fall, as he looked into the water.

"I am forever grateful for the time we've spent together. I love you my student, Uzumaki Naruto."

He wiped away the tears and continued on his path. There was still many things for him to do before the Kyuubi ever showed up again. Yet, none of that matter at the moment, because in the present he had to focus on one thing.

'Applejack.'