Naruto's chest heaved with every breath he struggled to take. Blood dripped from his wounds to add to the pool he already lay in. His skin was scorched, slashed, and caked with a mixture of dirt and dried/drying blood. His clothes were ruined, unrecognizable as anything but bloody rags.

If he could have, he'd have laughed when he realized that he was mourning his beloved haori more than he was his own flesh. Tsunade had given it to him on his 18th birthday. He remembered slinging it onto his back, delighted by the orange flame designs that decorated the bottom of the black haori. "Namikaze and Uzumaki" had been emblazoned on the back in bright red kanji. Now, his beloved jacket was a ruin, his family names having been burnt clean off when Sasuke had struck him with a fireball.

There was a soft cackling that played over the battlefield, like an eerie music track. He forced himself to look up. Tobi was walking towards him, almost skipping with glee while making the aforementioned cackling. Fucking weirdo, Naruto thought. I mean, let's be honest, how else could you describe that guy?

His eye lolled to the side. He saw Sasuke's lifeless eyes staring back at him, Sharingan faded. Naruto remembered his best friend's final moment; they'd been rushing at each other, screaming bloody murder. Naruto had taken the Chidori Katana through the chest in order to land a Sage Mode-enhanced crushing right hook to the Uchiha's jaw. Sasuke's neck had broken with a wet snap.

Before Sasuke it had been a shit-ton of Zetsu clones, then Black Zetsu, then the resurrected jinchuuriki, and then Kabuto Yakushi. All dead by his hands. Sasuke'd been the one to really do him in, though. That final thrust had fucked up one of his lungs, and his left arm had been rendered dead by a Chidori through the shoulder. That didn't count the tons of little cuts and burns that spanned his body.

He dragged his right arm under him, and tried to force his unresponsive body back up, to die on his feet like a man, not face-down in the dirt. He made it one…two inches, then fell. When he came back down, a mixture of blood and bile exploded from his mouth, forming a puddle of murky sick next to his face.

Fuck, that's gross…Kurama? You dead?

Imbecile. If I was dead, you'd be as well.

I'm as good as. You don't even have the chakra to heal me anymore.

Who used up my chakra fighting eight other jinchuuriki at once, like a complete and utter fool?

…Bob?

Don't fuck around, kit. Let me make this very clear to you…

I'm waiting, fuzz-butt.

You are insufferable…alright, I will not stand for this!

Gonna have to be more articulate, Kurama. God…it was bad enough when you spoke in riddles half the time…

Do you want to die like a broken child, despoiled and robbed of everything, as you once were? Do you want to leave this world as the hell it is? Do you want to die like a bitch?

…What?

I've existed for centuries, Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze. There have only been two things capable of rendering me powerless in all that time. The Uchiha and their cursed eyes, and a jinchuuriki's seal. Your great-grandmother Mito, your mother Kushina, and now you. You…you always confused me. First, I thought you but another fleshy, weak container. After that, you were an amusing container. Then…then you began to rub off on me. The Sage of Six Paths himself would laugh in my face if he saw how much I've softened over these years…

What are you trying to say?

I have resigned myself to die with you, Naruto. You are at least a worthy partner, and the first human a the Kyuubi no Kitsune has accepted as their friend.

Tobi was now standing right above Naruto's motionless, but still very conscious form. He laughed again, and the sound was so repulsive that Naruto felt his eardrums grating. "I win, Naruto. Even if I am the only one left, I win." The man dragged a gloved finger across the back of Naruto's scalp. "You lose," he breathed.

I am evil, kit. The Tailed Beasts were all pieces of the power that made up the Ten-Tails. I was it's chaos, the thing meant to destroy order, ruin peace, and tear the world down. This man…he is far too much like me to let live.

We're going already, might as well take this sick fuck with us, huh? As he thought, Naruto was stockpiling, converting what life energy he had left into chakra.

Exactly. There was the usual wicked grin in the Kyuubi's thoughts as the Tailed beast mimicked his host's actions, gathering what little energy he could.

What are we talking here, Kurama?

Best guess is a demonic energy explosion. Be glad you're really the last one, kit.

"Hey," Naruto croaked out, barely louder than the faintest whisper, "Tobi?"

He swore he could hear the smug smile in the man's response. "Last words, Hokage-sama?"

He thought of his friends that had died. He thought of Tsunade and Shizune, his teachers, his classmates, the other nations. So many dead. As the power he'd gathered began to flow through him, desperately seeking release, he felt satisfaction. He would not let this man hurt anyone again.

"Yeah," Naruto wheezed painfully. A beatific smile bloomed upon his once-handsome but now burned and bloodied face. For the last time, the Sixth Hokage's eyes flashed red. "Goodbye."

Kurama, it's been a hell of a ride. Try not to be too violent when you re-form in a few centuries. I'll miss ya.

Likewise, kit.

Just as Tobi backed off in disbelief, a sphere of red light consumed the area, marking the end of a Hokage, the end to a war, and the end of an era.

But…it marked the beginning of so much more.