The Evil Without

Chapter 1: Finishing what was Started

Naruto had no idea what was happening. He stood in some dark emptiness and only could see void wherever he looked. It stretched to infinity and consumed everything that he saw. The last thing he remembered was fighting Kaguya in the final push to end the war. Due to Obito's error of judgment among other things, Naruto ended up fighting Kaguya, who seemed to be far stronger than anyone else that was there. Naruto knew better than to completely lose hope and was fighting until the very end. That was why it was strange.

"Where am I?" He asked to no one in particular.

There was no response back.

Naruto started walking in an attempt to find something; Anything that could be of help to his situation.

He kept walking in a single direction and didn't stop. He didn't know why, but there was something about the direction he was walking that he needed to see. He felt it. A tugging of sorts on the soul. He didn't know why, but his feet never stopped moving. He took each step in confidence and traveled his course. What else could he do, but continue on course?

It was then, that he saw a dim light. It was faint, but it was still there. Seeing a light was better than seeing nothing at all. He ran full speed ahead to whatever was left in front of him. As he kept running, he started noticing noises that increased with each step. There was an echo of screaming that seemed to get louder the closer he ran to the destination. Screams of laughter, agony, and despair cried throughout the location and became deafening. Naruto winced as he pushed ahead, never stopping to cover his ears. He knew there was something important in the direction he was going and he couldn't stop. There was an aching in his heart now. Whatever was at the end of his destination was experiencing unending pain. Knowing himself what pain is and understanding it, he could only reciprocate the feelings of sadness.

Naruto ended up coming to an edge. He found a rectangular window where he stood on the edge. He eyes scanned below and saw pipes that lead to anywhere and everywhere. There were puddles of water laced throughout the ground and constant drippings sounds that echoed to infinity.

"Is this Kurama's room? What am I doing here?"

Naruto dropped himself down into the room and saw a giant cage in front of him. The water sloshed against his toes and he could only cringe at the feeling because it didn't feel like only water was on his feet.

"Kurama? Are you in here?" Naruto asked into the cage as he walked up to it. He couldn't see anything in the cage. He only saw darkness and the metal bars that trapped whatever was inside. There was no seal on the cage, which was strange. As he got closer, he heard a breathing echoing in the dismal cage. He didn't know what it was, but he made effort to get closer. He attempted to call out again.

"Hey, furball? Kurama are you really in there? Answer me. Whatever is in there, I feel your pain. I want to let you out."

The breathing inside the cage hitched, as whatever was inside finally aroused from their slumber. Chains rattled and a cacophony of metal and brick resonated in the small sewer like cage. Even while Naruto was standing in this room, he could still hear the laughing and agonizing screams enveloping his surroundings. He didn't know what this place was, but he didn't like it one bit. It was similar to Kurama's cage, but his cage was nowhere near as devastating.

A small patter of steps, followed by chains clinking together brought whatever was in the cage closer to Naruto. His eyes widened in surprise as the person walked closer to the cage. He knew it was a person because the silhouette was human height. The person was a lady that stood taller than himself. She had long silver hair and interesting horn-like thingamajigs sticking out of her head. They almost looked like bunny ears of sorts. Her eyes were as pale as the moon. Her skin was smooth as silk. Her clothes were tattered and pathetic.

Naruto saw her and could only gasp, "Kaguya?"

The woman grasped the bars in between her and the new person that somehow decided to visit her. Her pale eyes looked to him curiously, "How do you know me?"

Naruto didn't know what to say. They were both fighting currently in the real world and he didn't know what to think of this new one that stood before him, "You and I are currently fighting against each other for the survival of the planet. You're trying to destroy all of humanity."

Kaguya glanced to his form and gazed into his eyes in understanding, "I see. So, this other part of me has been causing havoc again."

"What do you mean 'Other Part'?" Naruto asked in confusion.

Kaguya sighed as she leaned her forearms against the bars, "There is an evil part of me that has taken control. Once I ate the fruit of this tree I found, I came to realize that I was fighting a losing battle with a new power that I never experienced before. This other part of me, the evil part, began to take hold. Before long, I was trapped in this cage and left here to rot," She stared at the ground in thought, "There is a certain evil that escaped from that tree. I don't know what it is, but I regret ever eating that fruit from the very beginning."

Her eyes started to tear up as she stood there. She was still composed, but she seemed to struggle with grief and regret that she had a hard time coping with.

Naruto looked to her in thought before a lightbulb idea appeared, "Kaguya, I know you've been trapped in this cage for a long time, but what would you say to the idea of breaking you out of here?"

Kaguya lightly scoffed, "If it were that easy, I would have done it long ago. No one has the power. Not you or I. I've tried for many years to break free from this prison, but I couldn't, no matter how much I tried."

Naruto, not taking no for an answer, illuminated himself into his golden cloak form. The warm flames danced against him as he looked to the woman with a determined smile, "I'm going to get you out of here."

Kaguya looked to Naruto in shock, "Hagoromo?"

Naruto thought before he snapped his fingers in realization, "Oh you mean 'Gramps Sage'? Sorry, but I'm not him. I'm Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki. And I've come here to save you."

"...Naruto... Uzumaki," Kaguya repeated while watching him interestingly.

Naruto cracked his knuckles and got to work. His hands gripped the bars tightly and tried hard to pull the bars apart. Unfortunately, it didn't work. He wasn't going to stop there though. His chakra cloak appeared with two glowing hands. The hands began to grip the bars and pull harder than before. The bars started to slightly pull apart. Just when he started making progress, he dodged out of the way of an impending strike against him. Another Kaguya stood before him, "There's two of you?!"

Kaguya replied rather calmly during this current situation, "That is my evil half born from the tree."

Naruto looked to the enemy Kaguya and frowned. He didn't expect it to be a clone of the real Kaguya. He thought it would look something like the evil black sludge that was attached to the outside Kaguya. He took a defensive stance as the other Kaguya quickly charged forward. Her hand barely missed him as he took a jab to her face. His hand connected to her face, but she didn't budge.

Surprised, he flipped backwards and prepared to counterattack, but the evil Kaguya immediately charged, giving him no time to prepare as she grabbed his throat and threw him against the sewer wall. He gasped out in pain as he reached for his throat to massage it quickly to breathe. His eyes looked up to the Evil Kaguya, and he only smiled as he quickly used a shadow clone and double teamed the Kaguya. One punched her face and the other punched her gut. It sent her flying against the other wall as his chakra cloak arm picked her up. The Evil Kaguya struggled, but couldn't do anything in it's current predicament. Naruto prepared to crush her head with his chakra arm immediately next position. Unknown to Naruto, the Kaguya decomposed into a black sludge that dripped to the floor from his chakra claws. His hands quickly returned to him as he looked at the sludge take on a somewhat human like appearance.

Naruto, disgusted by the goop in question, decided he wanted to end it. He threw a thumbs down, "This will be it for you, you imposter."

Naruto, in his golden form, took on his stance once more, as the goop sloshed towards him in an effort to take his life.

"Naruto, your chakra is pure. The evil won't stand a chance. Your chakra can purify it. It's our only hope!" Kaguya said to the boy. She didn't know him at all, but she was amazed that he could so easily fight this thing one on one and still have the upper hand. She didn't know who this boy was and had no clue if he would win, but this was the first time in her entire life that someone realized that there was something evil inside of her that wasn't a part of her. Someone eventually realized and knew that she could be saved. Even Hagoromo couldn't find the evil part of her that came from the tree. With as smart as Hagoromo was, even he wasn't able to save her. But this Naruto came from nowhere and has no relation to her and yet, she was being saved by him.

Her hands gripped the bars as she thought about it all, "Maybe you can save me after all. I apparently wasn't strong enough to win against this thing. But you..."

Naruto looked onto the sludge as it rushed to attack. Hearing Kaguya's advice on how to defeat the evil entity, Naruto used his final attempt to finish this creature. The creature came into Naruto's range and he smiled in triumph. Both of his chakra hands widened as they enclosed the sludge that fell right into his trap. Naruto began to use his chakra hands to squeeze the evil monster. The monster shrieked in pain as Naruto closed his hands tighter, literally squeezing the life out of the monster that was plaguing Kaguya's mind.

Steam erupted from Naruto's hands as he finished fighting the creature. After the cries from his hands disappeared, he opened them and found a piece of the fruit sitting on the floor. He breathed a sigh of relief as his chakra cloak disappeared. He fell backwards on his butt and laughed, "I did it Kaguya. I finally did it."

Kaguya stood in awe at this strange boy who just saved her. She didn't know what to do. She didn't even know how long she was in there. She was only amazed and speechless. Her lavender eyes scanned the boy's form. She smiled slightly before she broke down into a tearful grin, "Thank you... Naruto Uzumaki. Thank you."

Everything was dark, until his ears started to hiss. He eyes blearily opened and Naruto came to in a room. More specifically, he was in a hospital room. He gripped his forehead and felt a knot that had formed over. Sighing in his current predicament, he sat up and stretched tiredly. His yawn stopped halfway as he looked to his right at a loud clank that echoed in the room. Suddenly, a pink blur ran to his bed. She launched herself onto him in hysterics. Her face pressed against his chest as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"You idiot!" She sobbed as she clenched his hospital gown, "I was afraid you would never wake up."

Naruto, perturbed by this sudden advance from Sakura, lifted her off his torso, "What do you mean Sakura-chan?"

Sakura breathed a slow breath to calm herself down. She looked into his eyes as she contemplated what to say, "Naruto, you've been in a coma for well over 2 weeks. I was beginning to think you were never going to come around. I was scared."

Naruto looked around the room and saw countless flowers that littered his room with many different cards on each one. His eyes scanned to another person that was sitting in the room and seeing the person sitting there, surprised him more than anything else.

"Kaguya?"

Sakura looked up to Naruto as he said that name. She wiped her eyes with her hands and looked over to the woman sitting in the same room as him. Their eyes locked onto each other.

Sakura started to speak softly, "Kaguya-san waited here for you to recover. She wouldn't leave until you came to. She really surprised us initially," Sakura then looked to Naruto again with a smile and damp eyes, "You really saved the world. I couldn't believe it. All you did was headbutt her."

Naruto tried to recollect everything that happened during that time, but was coming up with a blank. He couldn't remember much except Kaguya's name. He looked to her and remembered that he was fighting her, but he couldn't remember much else other than that. How could he forget? He sat there with a scrunched face trying to remember anything of that time. His head pulsed to the point that he had to hold his head to staunch the pain. He could feel the memory on the tip of his tongue.

"Naruto, just take it easy for now, okay?" Sakura said while pushing him back onto his bed, "I'll go get you water and some food. Just rest in the meantime. You've been in a war, you know?"

Sakura walked over to the door and held onto the frame as she opened it, "Besides, you have someone that wants to talk to you."

Naruto glanced to his right, then looked back to Sakura, "Thanks. Also, thanks for taking care of me."

She only smiled as she walked towards the door, "Don't scare me like that again, okay?"

Naruto grinned to her while giving her a thumbs up, "You bet!"

Once Sakura left, the room became silent again as the two people inside sat quietly. Naruto didn't know what to say to her and it didn't seem like she was going to initiate it.

"I waited until you woke up."

Looks like he was wrong.

"I sat here everyday waiting for you to wake up. I didn't know what to do until you came back from your coma. I was patient. I wanted to see my savior wake up and tell me what he was thinking." She looked into his eyes as he stared back in remembrance of everything that happened. It all suddenly came back to him. The time that he saved her from her cage. The moment where everything ended. Then he woke up.

"I remember now," Naruto responded thinking deeply, "You were trapped in that cage and your evil half came to stop me. I destroyed it."

Kaguya smiled softly as she laced her fingers in her lap, "Yes, you did. I can't thank you enough for what you have done. I was trapped for hundreds of years in that prison. Sakura and the others mentioned that I had disappeared long ago, before the villages were founded.

{Flashback}

Naruto plummeted to his demise after his intense headbutt with the enemy Kaguya in front of him. It left her in a daze and everyone could only look in shock as they reached an impasse. Kakashi and Sakura both shouted to Naruto, not understanding the situation and unsure why Kaguya had stopped moving. They couldn't understand Naruto's headbutt attack either, but either way, it worked. With everyone stuck in a different dimension, it was hard to even move for the fear of falling into something they couldn't get out of, so Naruto was on his own against Kaguya. It was then, while Naruto was falling to his death, that the enemy did something unthinkable.

Kaguya immediately shot down to capture the boy that was falling to his demise and wrapped him within her arms. Her gaze was cast down to his unconscious face as she held an unreadable expression. She stopped fighting at least, so that was a good sign. Nonetheless, the others didn't know what she was doing, so they were on guard for whatever could happen.

She came down to Kakashi and Sakura as they both stood in shock, unable to react quickly to the sudden advance. Her eyes studied the boy a little more before she looked to the others that were in front of her, "Do not worry. I will not harm you anymore, for I have been freed from the clutches of the evil that had infiltrated my heart. Your comrade, Naruto Uzumaki, saved me from this evil. This debt will not be forgotten."

Shocked, both Kakashi and Sakura looked over to the woman and Naruto in her arms and could only stand mouth agape.

Sakura was the first to speak up, "Is... Is it over?"

Kaguya's sight never left the boy she held, "Yes, this fight is over."

"Wait, mother! What are you doing!?"

Kaguya's eyes diverted to her left arm in a death stare. She walked over to Kakashi and handed Naruto over to him. The look on her face was one of pure disgust.

"Please watch over him momentarily. I have something that I need to deal with."

Kakashi numbly nodded as Kaguya suddenly disappeared through her portal.

Kakashi and Sakura both sighed content sighs of relief, while they looked at the blonde in Kakashi's arms. They honestly didn't know what happened, but they were glad that Kaguya stopped her tirade. She was the worst threat that they had ever faced and didn't know how to handle her. She was just too powerful. But surprisingly enough, she so easily handed Naruto to them and did a complete 180 degrees on her attitude, 'What did Naruto do?'

Kaguya appeared on the other side of the portal that she made and looked down to her left arm. Her hand gripped the sleeve that seemed to be carrying an intruder. Her nails tore through her sleeve and ripped it off without much effort.

She looked and saw a sludge-like lifeform wrapped around her forearm. The face on the arm showed surprise.

"Mother! What is happening?"

Her eyes stared silently at the object of her discontent. There were many things that were running through her head. She thought about all of the things that this thing did, "So… you were the one planning and scheming everything from the beginning."

"What?" The sludge asked concerned, "I've been around all of this time trying to bring you back! You've been gone for so long and I missed you! It was our plan remember?"

Her eyelids lowered in distaste as she thought momentarily. She didn't know what this thing was, but she assumed that it was all part of that Chakra fruit that she ate, 'That damned fruit. It has come to haunt everyone even in current times.'

"You've caused this world so much pain for your own selfish desires. What a child…"

The black form didn't understand what was going on. Earlier, the Kaguya that he knew was fighting against the shinobi world and ending their lives. The next minute, he finds himself on the receiving end of her hatred, "But mother, we have to eliminate this world. There can only be one source of power. Those heathens shouldn't even receive any bit of what we share! That chakra is ours!"

Her fists clenched tightly as she began to glow. The black sludge recoiled before it jumped off of her arm. It writhed momentarily in pain, but tried to turn and look at her. It saw as the portal opened up behind her and she started to go through.

"Mother! MOTHER! Where are you going?!"

He didn't receive a response as the portal disappeared, leaving the strange lifeform in another plane.

Sakura was concentrating on healing Naruto as her hands glowed green. His body looked relatively okay, but he didn't seem to want to wake up. She could feel that he was in a coma, but couldn't do anything about trying to wake him. She tried to repair whatever things she could find in the meantime to make things easier for his recovery process.

Kakashi looked over to Obito, "Well, Obito, it looks like this one is going into the history books."

Obito thought passively about the interaction that displayed before him earlier. He was honestly surprised that this God-like creature so easily changed from Naruto's simple attack. He didn't know what Naruto did, but he was happy that something happened to finally put an end to this mess. He smiled in melancholy, "I guess Naruto is the savior of the world after all."

Moments later, Kakashi, Sakura, and Obito saw as another portal opened and Kaguya came through calmly. They noticed her sleeve was missing, but didn't say anything about it.

She looked back over to Naruto, almost ignoring the others immediately. Her eyes lingered momentarily, before she spoke, "I believe it's time to return to your world."

Everyone watched as she extended her hands and picked up Naruto again. Her eyes gazed silently onto his face. They were honestly surprised at her insistence on Naruto, but didn't want to bring anything up. She was a god of sorts and they didn't want to get on her bad side in any way.

"Now, grab onto me," Kaguya told them all, "I will take us back to your home world."

They both did what was told and she went through her portal to their dimension. They all landed roughly, minus Kaguya herself, and they all breathed a content sigh.

Kaguya looked around and noticed the large roots that had taken hold of every being on the planet. Her eyes downcast in remorse, she placed Naruto into Kakashi's arms, "I see things here need to be rescinded."

Everyone suddenly freaked out at the sudden appearance of Kaguya in the flesh. Most assumed that the war wasn't over yet, but with Kakashi and Sakura there to quell the hysterics, most of the people calmed down. Some nonetheless, stood on alert anyway. After how much they've been through during this war, why wouldn't they?

"What is she doing here?!" Minato brought up to them. His defensive stance hardened as he watched Kaguya with intense eyes.

Kakashi was the first to begin with his hands raised, "Kaguya is no longer a threat," He looked around to the small Edo Tensei and spiritual crowd as the shock of this sudden news spread throughout, "Naruto somehow defeated the evil that clouded her judgement. Unfortunately, Naruto is unconscious, but the war is over. Thank Naruto for this."

"So, this is Kaguya of the tales of old?" The first Hokage asked to himself more than anyone else, "How is this possible? She's even alive."

"If you remember brother," The second Hokage brought up, "She used Madara's body as a way to revive herself."

The second Hokage looked towards Kaguya and gazed upon Naruto's sleeping figure. 'How did this boy manage to change someone so strong? Naruto Uzumaki is a strange character indeed.'

"I have no words."

Everyone noticed as the Sage of Six Paths came forward. His eyes were curious, but something about them showed a bright light. A warmth that wasn't seen from the Sage in a long time.

"This boy," Hagoromo began as he looked at his mother and then towards the boy in Kakashi's hands, "He found the solution to a problem that I spent my entire life trying to solve," His eyes fixated on the strange reaction that his mother was having to Naruto in Kakashi's arms, "Somehow, he fixed my mother. Not only that, but mother has come back from the dead. Now she has her own free will again and can now think for herself. This is truly an amazing time."

Kaguya glanced over to her son that was levitating in front of her, "Hagoromo," She started while looking into his eyes. Her eyes didn't betray any emotions that she was feeling, "I apologize for everything that I've done to you and your brother both. I wasn't strong enough to subdue the corrupt nature of the Chakra fruit."

Hagoromo raised his hand up to silence her, "Think nothing of it, mother. It was the past. I loved you then and I still love you now."

Kaguya couldn't hold back the emotional tug of her heart strings. Tears began to flow slowly down her cheeks, glistening in the moonlight.

"Thank you, Hagoromo."

The sage only smiled in return as he looked once more at the boy that had become the catalyst to finishing everything that happened. He was extremely impressed with the boy called, "Naruto... Thank you for returning my mother to her true self. I wish you were awake to see this."

Sakura, Kakashi, and the rest of the ninja, all smiled as they looked on to the boy that was currently asleep in Kakashi's arms.

Everyone erupted into a cheer as they looked onto their savior. The war was over.

It was finally over.

A/N: So yeah, this is a thing. LOL. I wanted to make my own spin of a Naruto X Kaguya story. To be honest, it was more of a proof of concept than anything. I've had this on my hard drive since last year, but I just now decided to finish it and fix some of my inconsistencies before I released it. It's obviously a work in progress and it may or may not be finished. I don't know if I will finish it, but it was too good not to post here. I was happy with the way I wrote it. I always try to write my stories with the intent to make it realistic. Honestly, this pairing is not realistic at all, but I will try my best to make it work with what material Kishimoto has given us. I don't know how many chapters this will have. Probably not a lot, but enough to make a decent story. Naruto X Kaguya has always been something that I wanted to write.

Sasuke will be introduced in the next chapter. His opinion will be interesting. Lol. He wasn't forgotten, don't worry.

I also have a second Naruto X Kaguya story plot that I think people would love. It also tries to play on the realistic side, but in a longer sense. The other Naruto X Kaguya fic would be a long fic. Probably as long as The Last One. I don't know how confident I would be on working on that story, but they are good ideas.

Anyway, I do have a new story in the works. I've received word that no one has done a proper Naruto X Ayame story. I made a good plot and outline for that story too. It's going to be good. That will be the next story that I work on. Underused or underutilized pairings are what I strive to write. I'm tired of only seeing smut or harems for pairings that could have the potential to be something truly amazing. So, next story will be Naruto X Ayame. Look forward to that.