Sorry about taking so long for this chapter, since my last few chapters (from both stories) were kinda crapy, I decided to take extra time and write this chapter carefully. This chapter is a little somber and a bit sad, so bring a tissue if you have one.

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Shikamaru stared at the sky in fascination. One minute, he remembered being mortally wounded, then he had woken up. "Tch, How troublesome." Shikamaru said, wondering if it all had been a dream. It seemed too real for it to not have been a dream, but here he was, perfectly unscathed. He let out a sigh and that's when he noticed something. He felt someone pull at him, beckoning him to move. He dismissed it as an overly hyper imagination, but when that feeling came back with intensity he decided that he couldn't ignore it. Reluctantly, he pulled himself up. As he got up, he noticed that his clothing seemed to have been war-torn, which sent flashes of Konoha's destruction rampaging through his mind. He silently gasped at the horrid images that had flashed before him, especially one in particular. It was imbued in his mind's eye, taunting him, agonizingly relentless. It was his death. Though burned in his mind's eye, the image was fleeting and only lasted half a second before something terribly frightening appeared. At first all he could see was an eye, a red-slitted eye—which emanated an unholy amount of killer intent and rage and seemed to be staring back at him. His eyes widened and he clutched his ears when he heard a piercing roar resound within his mind. He lost focus and the only thing he could hear for a few seconds was that same roar, which seemed all too familiar to Shikamaru. Abruptly, the roaring stopped and all the memories had vanished from his mind, leaving residual effects, but not the memories themselves. He tried to recall them, almost desperately. If there was one thing that irked Shikamaru, it was knowing something and not being able to recall it.

He pulled his hands away from their place and placed them in their corresponding pockets. Momentarily dismissing why his clothes were so torn up, he opted to focus on why he was feeling such dread and anguish. Anguish, he was experiencing it, but it seemed to not have been coming from him but from another presence residing in him. He scoffed at the idea, unless someone had sealed a demon inside of him, there's no way something else could reside in him. Suddenly, the word demon echoed in his mind, and that's when the destruction of Konoha was made real in his mind's eye. Images of red waves of red chakra destroying everything. Then these wisps of light that were soft and gentle, until archs started shooting out of them and scorching anything they touched. The next image caused him to pale to a deathly white, the image was of Naruto in his Kyuubi form, releasing chakra into the sky in a seemingly endless stream. Again, the memories stopped abruptly and the force that was pulling him pulled harder. He finally got his legs to move again, but they didn't seem to correspond to his will—almost like a puppeteer controlling his puppets; his footsteps weren't coordinated.

As he was walking, he noticed that a lot of the trees were bent, cut up, or just plain uprooted. Almost like an after effect, he suddenly felt a chill run up his spine. He could sense blood lust even though there was not a single soul in site. "Not a single soul... could it be? No. It couldn't be... could it?" Shikamaru shook his head at thinking something so preposterous, so crazy, so far-fetched... so possible.

His footsteps stopped, but his body didn't and he almost toppled over the cliff. His body was leaning over the cliff and was on the verge of falling. He noticed that at the bottom of the cliff were some uprooted trees, rubble, and destroyed buildings. "Buildings?" Shikamaru thought distraughtly. He looked up quickly, almost breaking his neck at the speed at which he did it. His eyes widened at what he was seeing. What was he seeing? Absolutely nothing. THAT'S what frightened him. Where he thought Konoha should be was nothing but a smoldering crater of charred earth and glass. His body suddenly wouldn't respond and became frozen. He was having a hard time accepting that his home was destroyed. Being a man of logic, this was quite the irony for him but this was no time to laugh. He remained there, staring somberly. Nothing was there, not a single thing. It was a vast crater of emptiness. His heart suddenly dropped and he felt weak at the knees, but he did not topple for that would mean his death. His mouth opened, almost as if to scream but not a single sound came out. His strength was slowly draining away to the point where he almost couldn't stand up anymore. So he did the next best thing and fell backwards on his rear end which caused a jolt of pain to reverberate in his spine. That welcome pain momentarily distracted him from his sight-seeing and brought him back to reality. "Did no one survive?!" He thought fearfully. The Nara was starting to sweat profusely as the thought kept rushing through his mind in an endless torrent—almost like it was trying to break the dam that was his mind.

A hand grabbed his shoulder and he reflexively grabbed the hand and tried to snap it, but stopped when a soft voice spoke out, "It's hard seeing your home destroyed."

Shikamaru turned his head and looked to see Hinata staring at the crater. The slight wind blew her head to the side, emphasizing her natural beauty and grace—but this was not something that Shikamaru paid heed to, but the words she had just said. It was almost as if she was referring to a person and not Konoha. He suddenly remembered Naruto in his demonic form and wondered what exactly had happened after he died, but he also remembered that it wasn't Naruto in control.

He squeezed her hand lightly, trying to think logically again and not with emotions clouding his judgment. His shoulder suddenly felt wet and he looked up to see Hinata crying. "Oh Naruto..." She whispered with the utmost care, almost afraid of disturbing his image if she spoke his name too loudly. The drips of water that were coming down her cheeks now came down as small trickles of tears. She had a look of turmoil and anguish written all over her face, showing what her voice was hiding. "Naruto..." She spoke his name once again, now showing the sorrow that was only made known from the look on her face. Shikamaru felt a wave of sympathy at the pained look on her face so he stood up, though not really knowing what to do. "Women are so troublesome..." He mentally sighed and did the only thing he could do—he hugged her.

Hinata welcomed the comfort and returned it, laying her face on the front of his shoulder and staining his torn shirt with tears. All she could think of was of Naruto and those images that he been flashing through her mind earlier. Is that what had happened? She didn't know and she didn't want to believe it until she saw the crater. The crater shattered all her hope of him surviving as she remembered him being sucked into the collapsing sphere of chakra. "Naruto..." She kept repeating over in her mind, almost as if saying it would bring him back to life.

Almost as if Kami had heard her wish, they both heard a voice. It was deep, it was pained, it was comforting... it was Naruto's voice, "Hey Shikamaru, don't think that you can steal my girl away from me!" Both people turned to locate his voice as relief washed over them, especially Hinata. When they they saw him coming from behind a tree, their sudden relief vanished. Though he had a grin on his face, his eyes look pained. The culprit was obvious, it had been the Kyuubi's chakra. It had burned away parts of his skin leaving only muscle, if that. His left elbow lacked skin and muscle and was showing the bone. Multiple scars criss-crossed paths against his chest and what frightened Hinata the most were gaping holes in his body that revealed some of his organs. One hole in particular revealed half of his heart and part of his left lung. Shikamaru stared in morbid fascination at how Naruto was still alive while Hinata's panic level was rising with each second that passed by. The level of panic increased four-fold as she saw that his heart was slowing down as was his breathing. The grin on Naruto's face disappeared as his lips formed a thin line indicating the intense pain he was suffering. Hinata was now fearing for his life and she had every right to when he suddenly collapsed on the ground. Looks like Kami had a twisted sense of humor.

Despair, sorrow, pain, anguish—these were the emotions that were ravaging Hinata's already damaged mind. The despair choked her while the fear froze her from moving. The sorrow weakened her body while anguish helped. She refused to give up hope however and in a single moment, she regained control of her body and sprinted towards Naruto with Shikamaru in tow. Hinata reached him first and after she sat on her knees she flipped him over. She couldn't help but feel a little bit of relief when she noticed that his heart was still pumping and his breathing still kept going. She failed to notice that the gaping holes were slightly smaller than before she had arrived. A moment later, Shikamaru stumbled next to Hinata and kneeled. He looked at Naruto and noticed that he had lost consciousness, but that didn't stop him from having an anguished look on his face. His body would spasm, sometimes a mere flinch, sometimes and uncontrollable jerk. He saw Hinata pull Naruto onto her lap very gently and she started stroking his hair while whispering his name. That seemed to reverse some of the pain etched onto his face. The look of pure agony was now just a pained look. Shikamaru let out a silent gasp as he felt something tug his heart, almost physically. It tugged even harder and he was almost thrown forwards by the unseen force. Suddenly, Shikamaru started glowing a light, ethereal glow that encompassed his being. The light pulsed and from the tips of his fingers, it jumped onto Naruto. As the glow started surrounding Naruto it drained itself from Shikamaru.

Hinata could only look on in wonder and confusion as to what was going on. Seeing no negative side effects, she assumed that it was beneficial for Naruto. After the transfer had completed, a moment of silence presented itself upon the group. Both stared at Naruto expectantly, wanting to know what had happened, why it had happened, and if it helped Naruto. Hinata was the first to notice movement behind Naruto's eyelids, causing her heart to nearly skip a beat out of joy. She failed to noticed that the wounds were completely closed and his elbow was starting to regrow muscle—Shikamaru did notice though, but stayed silent. All Hinata could focus on was Naruto's face, hoping to catch a glimpse of his deep, endless blue eyes. Her heart skipped another beat when he opened his eyes half ways. They stayed like that for a moment, puzzling Hinata. She squeaked lightly when she heard Naruto's sudden voice, "Looks like that bastard fox had more of a heart than I gave him credit for." He chuckled humorlessly, recalling the fact that the Kyuubi had stayed in the other realm.

Flashback

As the walls of the sphere were closing around him, he felt as if he was being pulled apart. He howled/screamed in pain as the youki burned holes in his body. Those holes released unearthly amounts of youki and they formed in front of Naruto. It was there that, through the pain he was experiencing, noticed that it wasn't youki, but Kyuubi's soul! As the soul completed its separation, Naruto fell to his knees and the youki around him disappeared, easing a lot of the pain. He gasped for some air and struggled to maintain consciousness. A fleeting image of Hinata raced across his weary mind, but that alone kept him going. The walls stopped momentarily and after Kyuubi's soul had formed a fox visage, Kyuubi turned and spoke to Naruto, "Kit, right now we're not in Konoha, or even this planet, but a different dimension."

"Well... we're definitely... not in Konoha anymore..." He managed between gasps.

"Glad to see that I haven't damaged your spirits kit." He saw Naruto cough up some blood and noticed that he had almost no skin left, even most of his muscle was gone now. Naruto fought to stay conscious, though, and seemed to be succeeding. "You definitely have a will of fire kit and for that I'm going to repay you for all that suffering you've been through," Naruto's gaze was upon the Kyuubi now and there was a slight glimmer of hope in his eyes, "I'm going to send you back to your normal dimension. Usually it would require ones soul after death for me to allow this, but since there are an abundance of souls already here, I think I'll let that rule slip by."

Naruto managed a smile on his face, however pained it was. Kyuubi then decided to lend some of his chakra to Naruto to heal some of the wounds, though he couldn't heal all since he was low on chakra from the trans-dimensional warp. Kyuubi remembered the orbs, which were floating in the sky and keeping the walls of the youki at bay. He suddenly had an idea, but kept it to himself knowing that Naruto would be grateful later. "Looks like it's time to say good-bye kit" Kyuubi said as he opened a dark red portal which pulled Naruto closer to it. Naruto felt like he had to say something to the fox before he left and so he did, "Thanks Kyuubi, looks like you weren't such a bastard fox after all. So long fluffy!" and before Kyuubi could reply, Naruto was sucked into the portal with a loud explosion following after it. Kyuubi chuckled a bit and then sent one of the blue chakra spheres into another portal. As that sphere vanished, the other spheres started destabilizing and continued their envelopment of the area. Kyuubi looked at the people who were in absolute fear of the Kyuub, who had just been released. They had every right to fear when he let out a sinister chuckle...

Naruto was leaning with his back against a tree in the real world, happy to be... not at home per se but happy to be alive nonetheless. His ears perked up when he thought he heard someone whisper his name. A moment later, he heard that same voice call his name, but it was laced with sorrow. He recognized it as Hinata's voice and decided to come out of hiding...

End Flashback

Hinata saw a bit of sadness in his eyes though his faced remained neutral. Even though she didn't like the fact that he had a demon sealed within him, she assumed that they had formed some sort of friendship or else Naruto wouldn't have been sad. Hinata leaned forward, her breasts slightly pressing at the top of his head, and kissed his forehead. After she had pulled away, he looked deeply into Naruto's eyes. They seemed to be glowing and basking in her attention. Naruto reached over himself and cupped Hinata's face gently and caressed her cheek with his thumb. She in return grabbed his hand and pulled it closer to her face, hoping that nothing like this would ever happen again, hoping that they could just stay like that forever. With their gazes locked onto each other, they felt their heart strings pull at them, urging them to kiss. They happily complied as Hinata leaned forward and pressed her soft lips against Naruto's in a tender and passionate kiss. Hinata's heart fluttered and felt like she was about to explode with all the happiness that was overwhelming her. Naruto was the same and he felt like he could stay like this forever, in Hinata's care, and no one to bother them. The pulled away after a while and just continued looking at each other with ever loving gazes. Just then, they heard sobbing and they both turned their heads towards the source. The source was Lee who was crying his eyes out and was sniffling. "THE... THE F-FIRES OF YOUTH B-B-BURN WITHIN Y-YOU!" He said between sobs, then blew his nose with his shirt, staining it with snot—not that one could tell since they were both green.

Naruto and Hinata smiled, not annoyed for once at Lee's antics. They realized that there was some truth in those words that seemed like nonsense to everyone. They faced each other once more, smiled, and kissed once again. After a moment of silence, Naruto said in a hushed whisper, "Tomorrow, we rebuild Konoha in our image!" Hinata giggled as a sudden thought crossed her mind, then she replied, "Yes Hokage!" This earned a huge grin from Naruto and another kiss from Naruto. What lay ahead four our couple? Only Kami knew.

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So... what did you think? Should I continue this, or make a different story completely? Tell me what you thought about this! I hoped I did well on this! Please review!