“You backstabbing bitch!” I shouted. “What are you doing?”
“He’ll be fine,” she reassured me. “It was only the governor stage I broke. He’ll absorb the Kyuubi’s mind and dominate it in a few minutes, and then the rest of its chakra will be his in less than an hour. Have faith, Sakura!”
“Faith my ass! What if you’re wrong? How could you risk Naruto like that?”
“I’ve done this before,” she insisted. “At thirteen he’s not strong enough, but by twenty he can do it. I’ve tested it twice, and I know the real Naruto is far stronger than the ones who don’t loop. Leave him be for a few minutes and you’ll see for yourself!”
I stalked around the pillar of glaring red chakra with my fists clenched cursing myself for not waking Naruto up when I’d had the chance. But there was nothing I could do about it at this point.
“If it’s such a great idea, why didn’t you just wake him up at tell him about it?” I demanded angrily.
“He’s always too worried about the Kyuubi to risk it,” she explained serenely. “Everyone has told him so many stories about how terrible it is that he won’t believe me. This is the only way.”
I stopped, struck by the similarities between her planning and Sasuke’s. They were each convinced that they were the only one who could solve the problems they faced, and had some elaborate rationalization for why there was no point in talking to Naruto about it. For that matter, Nagato had been the same…
“Hinata, you idiot!” I growled. “This isn’t some confused genin, it’s the real Naruto! He knows more about the Kyuubi than both of us put together, and I’d bet my soul he’s studied every detail of that seal. But you’re telling me you that you distrust his judgment so much that you had to go behind his back and force him to do things your way? That isn’t the Hinata I know.”
She flinched, but I wasn’t done.
“You say you’ve studied all the hidden lore you could find? Well here’s a revelation for you. The blessing of hope is gone, the curse of despair is destroying our world, and Naruto holds the mandate of heaven! You just let yourself get conned into doing gods know what to the only man who can save us all.”
“W-what?” She suddenly looked uncertain. “No, that’s impossible! I’m not some weak-minded fool who listens to the whispers of darkness, Sakura.”
Naruto chuckled, and sat up slowly as the red chakra died away.
“You always were the smart one of the bunch, Sakura,” he said. But his voice was deeper than normal, with a gravely undertone that send chills up my spine.
It was the Kyuubi.
“Naruto-sama!” Hinata exclaimed in relief. “Please, tell Sakura you’re alright.”
“Yes, I’m just fine little dragon. You played your part perfectly.”
His body changed as he spoke, growing fur and sprouting tails, shifting to the humanoid fox form he’d worn the last time I spoke to him. An invisible aura of power sprang up around him, engulfing us both, and for an instant I felt the same helpless attraction as I had the last time I encountered him in a physical body. But it was no worse than what Naturo often did when we sparred, and I knew how to turn off my reactions.
Hinata obviously didn’t. She stared at him like a mouse before a snake, and when his hand cupped her cheek she began to tremble.
“You… you’re not…” She stumbled over her worlds.
“I’m not Naruto?” He asked sarcastically. “Of course not, silly girl. No mortal will can overcome mine for long, though it was thoughtful of you to arrange for the brat’s mind to be paralyzed when you freed me. Now I don’t have to worry about some trite little dominance struggle, and I can eat his soul at my leisure. I’ll do it so gradually the wishgiver system will never notice, and in the end I’ll be the one in control of the time loop. Hells, I might even be able to take the mandate of heaven while I’m at it. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
“But… this is impossible,” Hinata babbled. “I tested this. Naruto always defeats you…”
The Kyuubi laughed. “You still don’t get it? My awareness spans all worlds where I exist, and as long as Naruto loops I do too. I’ve been feeding you hints for all these years, leading your gullible little mind where I wanted it to go. Those times you tested your stupid theory? That wasn’t the brat who held you and fucked you and made you worship him. It was me.”
“No!” She backed away slowly, shaking her head in horrified realization.
“Oh, yes,” he said maliciously. “Your misguided experiments have destroyed the man you love half a dozen times now, and this time it’s going to stick. But look on the bright side. You make such a cute bedwarmer I might put my collar on you this time around too.”
“You have to know I’m not going to just stand around and let you do that,” I said firmly. “What’s your angle?”
“Oh, so you’ve found a little self-control?” He asked me. “That’s fine, Sakura. You might actually be strong enough to make playing with you fun now. But as for my angle…”
Red chakra erupted from every part of his body, forming a dense four-tailed shroud much like his other copies had used against Naruto. But this time it kept on growing, becoming more fox-shaped and sprouting more tails, until a nine-tailed fox of chakra thirty feet tall stood before me. One of his tails picked up Sasuke’s unconscious form and deposited it on the ground between his mighty forepaws.
“Who in the nine thousand hells do you think I am, little girl?” he growled. “I am malice incarnate, and I don’t make stupid mistakes. I’ve been planning this ever since I addled the brat’s brain to screw up his wish. The brat won’t wake up unless I let him, and neither of you has the power to so much as scratch me in this form. My body is impervious to your feeble techniques, my mind is immune to your petty genjutsu, and the last Sharingan wielder who could have opposed me has already fallen. Oh, and if you were hoping to use these copies against me…”
His tails gathered up the still-frozen forms of Sasuke’s three blonde minions, and tossed them into his gaping maw one by one. The chakra that composed his body surged and boiled furiously, and I could see him devouring the paralyzed souls of his alternate-universe doubles. Two more tails sprouted from the creature’s body as he assimilated their power.
“You see?” He laughed. “I was already as strong as all the bijuu in the world combined. But this fool conveniently brought more of me here. Do you have any concept of how strong an eleven-tailed beast is? There is nothing in your world that can stand against me, Sakura. But please, fight me if you can. If you’re entertaining enough I might even let you enjoy the things I’m going to do to you.”
Hinata collapsed to her knees with tears in her eyes. “Naruto,” she sobbed. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Oh, gods, what have I done?”
My mind flashed through a thousand options in the space of a heartbeat, but there was really only one choice. For all his bluster I wasn’t afraid of the Kyuubi. I could step into my mindscape whenever I wanted, and from there I could reach any world that contained a version of me. The Kyuubi obviously didn’t have that power or he’d have done something like this on his own, so there would be no way for him to follow me.
But he had both my loves prisoner in his mind, and if he ate their souls I was pretty sure the loop wouldn’t re-create them. I wasn’t going to abandon them to that, no matter what it cost me.
“I guess it’s up to me, then,” I said heavily. “Hang on a sec.”
I made another real body, a few years younger than the one I currently wore, and nudged the alternate-universe copy of myself that I’d rescued from Sasuke into it. She blinked, and looked around nervously.