Through the vast city of Tokyo the great and terrible Kyuubi roared in sheer delight. The air was sweet with the delicious and mouthwatering scent of human terror. It mixed well with the smoke and ash that also filled the air. His tails slashed out leveling entire city blocks. His mouth split open and fire pour out engulfing the glass and steel skyscrapers. He delighted in seeing them twist and melt like pieces of wax tossed into a blaze. After so long being a prisoner he was freed again for the second time and giving free reign to the too long suppressed urge to destroy.

Throughout the city there was confusion and panic. Many of them could not accept what they were seeing. Many saw it as a sign that the apocalypse had come. Many did not try or want to understand, focusing only on their desperate attempt at flight. Terror was the only thing real now.

Both the Kyuubi and he human beings doing all they could to escape failed to notice as three portals of light appeared above them in the sky. Three figures rode on the backs of impossible flying creatures; a giant winged cat, a griffin, and a golden dragon. The beings riding their mounts were the three Hades Lords, the most powerful masters of arcane magic and seals. Each of them began creating part of a magical spell of last resort; the eximius mutatio animadverto.

Around each one of them runes and supernatural symbols came into being. Drawn in bright pure light they formed and began to fill the sky above Tokyo.

XXX

The Kyuubi felt it, the immense power being drawn about him. Too late he looked up and saw what was being written there. He howled in impotent fury. He could see that he was about to be trapped once again.

XXX

When the last symbol was in place the three Hades Lords drew together.

"Are you truly willing to do this?" The Elder Vampire Lord Akashiya asked from the back of his griffin.

"There is no choice," the Chairman said calmly. "The rupture is too great to be repaired any other way."

Dongfang Bubai, founder of the Wong crime family and most knowledgeable among them in seals stood upon the back of his dragon. He was slowly shaking his head. "You understand the cost of doing this?"

"I do," the Chairman replied. He was resigned to it. "I have always believed that coexistence is the only path that offers any hope for the future. We must guard the peace between human and monster no matter what the price."

"You will be avenged," Lord Akashiya promised. "The one responsible will be executed I promise you."

"No," the Chairman said. "I do not know how this happened but I ask that Naruto be spared."

"Spared?" Bubai replied startled. "You must know that is impossible! Even if we wished to be merciful it is out of the question!"

Akashiya nodded his agreement. "Regardless of the circumstances we cannot risk allowing this to happen again."

"There is a way," the Chairman stated. "Confine him to the realm of Hades."

"Ah! Now I see," Bubai nodded his approval. "This is no act of mercy, you want to punish him. To make him suffer for as long as possible."

"No, I honestly hope that there will be some way to exonerate the boy." The Chairman said. "So long as he lives there is at least a chance of that."

"If you wish him imprisoned in that realm rather than killed we will accede to that desire," Lord Akashiya said. "However you know that no one returns from that place. It is impossible."

The Chairman had a faint smile. "When my friend Jiraiya sent him to me he warned me that Naruto had a habit of making eh impossible happen. Perhaps he will find a way, perhaps some evidence will exonerate him. In any case I owe it to Jiraiya to grant him at least that much of a chance."

"As you wish," Akashiya said. Bubai nodded his assent.

"Thank you, now you should get clear as I cast the spell."

The other two departed as the Chairman began his chanting. As he spoke the final trigger words to the eximius mutatio animadverto he felt the energies all around d him start to fill his body to bursting. All around the glowing incantation a vast circle began to form and twelve lines of energy drew towards the exact center where he was. Novices always liked to imagine wielding such incredible power. They never understood the hidden price such power always demanded. This was quite literally that power of a god; it would alter reality, erase memories, change the world and do it permanently. He dearly wished it were possible to bring back all the innocents that had been killed. Alas that would have required a real god. This at least would repair the worst of the damage and keep alive his dreams for a peaceful world. He hoped Jiraiya would understand that he had no choice and that what he'd done was the only way to keep his apprentice alive.

As he spoke the final word of the spell the circle was completed and the twelve lines converged. His body filled with energy and he cried out as he was consumed by it. The price for using this ultimate power was the spell caster's life.

The sky tore open revealing only the spell as it blazed brighter than the sun and enveloped the Kyuubi, the city, and all below.

XXX

A harried Japanese reporter was giving commentary to the shaky images coming in from a helicopter above Tokyo. "As you can see much of Tokyo is in ruins following the devastating and unexpected earthquake. Seismologists report it was a recorded as an 8.8 on the Rictor scale, the most violent earthquake to ever strike Japan. Early estimates place the death toll as high as 100,000, though that number is likely to increase. Over five million are expected to be left homeless. The Japanese government has declared a state of emergency. Other nations have already begun to pledge aid including…"

The voice and image cut off as the TV was shut off.

"Well at least that was successful," Lord Akashiya said.

"Such a pointless waste," Dongfang Bubai said. "He was a great man."

Lord Akashiya agreed with him, the death of the Chairman was a huge tragedy.

Neither Hades Lord gave the dead humans a thought. They would not realize monsters really did exist and would not begin seeking them out. That was as far as either of them worried about the humans.

"The school will have to be shut down for a time," Lord Akashiya said. "At least until we can find a suitable replacement."

"That will certainly be difficult," Bubai said. "Tell me something, do you think he was serious about hoping the boy would eventually be freed? Or do you feel he just wanted him to suffer as much as possible?"

"If he wanted him to suffer he could have just said so, it's not as if either of us would have objected."

"True."

"In any case it hardly matters, no one ever leaves Hades once they are sent there. For all intents and purposes he may as well be dead."

"Tell me," Bubai asked curiously. "Would you consent to freeing him if he were somehow proven innocent?"

"Possibly," Akashiya answered. "If his power could be safely controlled."

"It would likely require the powers of a Hades Lord to free someone from that place."

"If it were even possible."

XXX

Eleven o'clock came and went without Naruto showing up as they'd agreed. Kurumu waited a whole half hour before going to his apartment to look for him. When she saw his door open she had a very bad feeling.

"Naruto? Naruto are you in here?" She stepped inside and looked about. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Certainly there was no sign of a fight or a break in.

There was also no mirror lying anywhere on the floor.

XXX

When Naruto finally came to he was lying on his back. His head was filled with hazy half remembered images of a city with glass and metal and moving machines. He also recalled finding that mirror and losing control of himself.

Opening his eyes he looked up into a blood red sky. As he slowly got to his feet he saw he was in the middle of a desolate and lifeless landscape. The earth here was blackened for miles around. He appeared to be in the middle of a vast wasteland.

The only sign that anyone else might be here was an obelisk near where he'd woken. It was about twenty feet tall and had a message carved into all four sides.

'Give up all hope ye who enter this place.'