A quiet evening was suddenly disrupted by an intense chakra spike just outside the village. The Hokage had been on his way home when he felt it. Immediately, the Hokage turned towards where the chakra spike had been and started running. The chakra spike had been so clear but didn't even last for a second. Worry seeped into him for the safety of the village. Such an immense amound chakra was almost impossible to comprehend and it was so close to the village. The Hokage couln't even imagine the damage it could cause if it were to attack. Still, there was something familiair about the chakra.

While running towards the chakra spike, several ANBU fell in line with him, reacting as though an enemy has made himself clear and all available ANBU moved towards the thread, though they all somehow knew that it was not a thread. At least not from outside the village. The Hokage felt dread building up in him. Whatever had occurred, it wasn't good. The chakra signature had been so familiar but at the same time unlike anything he had ever felt. It was also too short to really link it to someone. There was a lot of hatred and despair in the chakra, more then he had ever felt before from anyone else. It had been unbelievably strong as well, almost rivalling his own. The chakra had felt like it was lined with a pure form of innocence, quickly torn asunder by the hatred that was so strong from within it, indicating that someone innocent and pure was no longer so. But now, now there was nothing. Only the lingering feeling of the direction the chakra had flared at.

Within minutes they arrived at the edge of a clearing not far outside the village. The lush green forest outside the village was as alive and vivid as it has always been. Animals calling out to each other, the wind rustling through the branches and leaves and flowers adding impossible colours to the green and peaceful scenery. This was quickly replaced with a vision of red and brown, a feeling of stillness and an impossible silence when they passed through a tree line to the egde of a clearing that had obscured their vision before.

Surrounding the clearing, right at the edge of the redness, there seemed to be a barrier of glistening dust with a purple hue, sizzling here and there with red and blue chakra that ran through it like lightning running through water. Where the red and blue chakra touched, purple sparks formed to became the dust that the barrier was made out of. The ANBU and the Hokage were standing not a meter away from it. The barrier seemed to supress sound and wind, leaving them standing in a zone of complete stillness and silence. It left the scene in front of them blurry and unclear except for the colours. The grass, trees and bushes, everything in the clearing was painted red. Much of the ground was too, leaving just a few patches of brown earth visible.

All of them stood in awe, staring at the barrier in fascination. No one dared to move, afraid to disrupt the beauty of the barrier and almost forgetting about the scene that laid behind it. The barrier held an appealing beauty that could lure one into touching it. At the same time, the idea of touching the barrier terrified the onlookers beyond measure. The fear of disturbing and loosing this beautiful sight was heavy on their minds but so was the need to touch the barrier, leaving them standing conflicted and unable to act.

Minutes passed before Cat moved. He slowly edged forward in complete silence. His curiosity was getting the best of him. All the others paid no attention to him and kept staring at the barrier. He slowly edged closer to the barrier. With every step he seemed to rethink his decision, making his progress tediously slow. Slowly he raised his hand and swiped it across the barrier without touching it. Sizzles of red and blue chakra followed his movement, the red angry and aggressive, the blue calm and protective. The purple sparks where the red and blue touched seemed to desperately stretch out towards the hand that was just out of reach. Cat was overcome by a feeling of regret for making the sparks reach out to him while he was still doubting whether or not to actually touch is. He swiped his hand the other way. The purple sparks seemed annoyed by the sudden turn of direction, falling over themselves in an attempt to keep up with the hand. Cat sucked in a shuttered breath at the display of despair and annoyance he could so clearly see and feel running through the barrier.

Another ANBU walked up next to Cat. Having seen the reaction that Cat got from the barrier, Dog could no longer hold herself back and wanted to interact with the barrier as her partner had done. She swiped her hand in the same way he had done. The purple sparks gave a similar reaction to her as to him, but seemed to be playful and enthusiastic towards her. The lack of despair or annoyance towards Dog made Cat scowl at her in jealousy. Wanting to be a step ahead of Dog, Cat gathered his courage and moved his hand closer to the barrier. As he extended his hand, the purple sparks stretched out towards him even more desperate than before, but the barrier itself pulled away from him, not allowing the purple sparks to touch Cat. Another scowl formed on Cat's face. He stepped closer to the barrier, pushing his hand and arm through it completely. Still the barrier evaded him. He stepped back, pulling himself away from the barrier. There was a hole was left in the barrier.

After a couple of seconds, the dust started to fall down from the top of the hole like the sand in an hourglass, but it didn't gather in the bottom of the hole. Instead, the dust seemed to trickle down to the floor on both sides of the barrier, pooling on the floor before it was quickly pulled towards the center of the clearing. The more the dust fell, the bigger the hole seemed to become and the faster the dust started falling. In despair, Cat tried to stop the falling dust by catching it with his hands, but just like before, the barrier evaded him, not allowing him to touch it in any way. Dog stepped back with her hands pressed against her mouth, silent tears forming in her eyes as she shot accusing glares at Cat.

Once the hole reached the top of the barrier it came crashing down all around at once. The dust, the sizzling chakra and the purple sparks were sucked towards the center within seconds after hitting the ground. The stillness and silence was gone, replaced with strained breathing from the group, sobs from Dog and desperate mumbling of regret from Cat. Guild was overwhelming him. The Hokage walked to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, giving him a reassuring nod. Immediately, the guild seemed to lift off his shoulders and realisation hit him that the barrier was not supposed to be there in the first place and they still needed to find out what had caused it. He looked at the clearing and the rest followed his example.

Goosebumps crawled up their spine as the scene before them started to become clear to them. Everything. Every single thing was covered in an oozy red layer. The original colours of the forest were shining through vaguely making the red vary from blood red to dark red. The red layer seemed liquid but viscous and lumpy. Further into the clearing sharp white twig-like shapes were sticking out of the ground. The wind that had been absent picked up again, carrying the sickening metallic scent of blood and the putrid smell of gore. Nausea swept through the group. Everyone pressed their hands over their mouth and nose and tried not to gag at the sudden intense assault on their sense of smell.

After a couple of seconds, most of them had regained their composure and tied rags over their mouth for at least some protection against the smell. The Hokage made a few quick hand signs to indicate that they were moving into the clearing, first clearing the edges before moving onto the middle. Carefully, the group set out to search the area for any sign of the cause of all this.

When the Hokage got closer to the sharp white objects, he started to recognise them as adult human bones. There were so many in the clearing, shattered all over the place. Clear signs of just how many people must have died here not long ago was evident in the number of skulls and pelvic bones in between the rest of the bones. Being large and unique bones in the human physique, they were quickly able to count at least 35 different pelvic bones scattered around the clearing. All the flesh, sinew and tissue seemed to have been removed clean of the bones without leaving any marks of tools being used, resulting in clean white bones littering the clearing.

Moving further to the middle of the circle, they saw the only moving thing in the entire clearing curled up into a ball laying on the ground. The only indication that is was alive was the steady rising and falling of breathing. But it was as red as the rest of the surroundings, making it almost impossible to differentiate from the surroundings. At the sign from the Hokage, the ANBU stopped at a short distance away from the little bundle on the floor. The Hokage moved closer, wary that this might be the cause of the death and gore around him.

At the sound of the Hokage's footsteps, the bundle grew still for a moment before sitting up slowly, revealing itself as a young boy that had previously been on hands and knees trying to make himself as small as possible. Sitting up, his back was turned to the Hokage.

Faint recognition dawned on the Hokage. The hair was red and soaking wet, but the haircut and the colour that shined underneath the red left little doubt that this was the blond boy he was so fond of. "Naruto?" The Hokage asked in a soft voice. The small body of the boy tensed before relaxing again. With a playful hop Naruto got to his feet and turned around almost in a little dance. A big closed-eyed smile showed off perfect white teeth, contracting with the blood covered face in the same matter as the bones sticking out of the gore around them. "Jiji!" Naruto exclaimed cheerfully.

The smile dropped so suddenly and fast from Naruto's face and his eyes opened so fast, the Hokage almost took a startled step back. When Naruto had opened his eyes, he had revealed one eye to be the familiar happy blue, though it looked less vibrant and cheerful then normal. His other eye was red, slithed and filled with anger. The colours of the eyes reminded the Hokage strongly of the red and blue chakra that had sizzled through the barrier. "I did a very bad thing..." Naruto said in a soft voice, averting his eyes from the Hokage like a child readying himself to get scolded. Suddenly Naruto looked back at the Hokage with the same smile as before, eyes firmly set in the man's face. "And it was so much fun!"

Crouching down in front of Naruto, the Hokage frowned. "What happened here, Naruto?" He asked in a voice that sounded calm and collected, but the sudden changes in behaviour that Naruto had shown in the short interaction they have had, had worried him greatly, not to mention the confession that Naruto was the cause of the nightmarish scene they were standing in.

Naruto raised a hand to his head like it was hurting, shaking it lightly and taking a small step back, supporting himself on his leg. For a second his eyes seemed out of focus, but they quickly came back. In a distracted voice and staring at a particular large blob of red material slowly gliding down a femur not far from them, Naruto started speaking in a pained voice.

"They hurt me, again
They chased me, I ran

They caught me, I screamed
They cut me, the bade gleamed

They hit me, I cried
They broke me, I abide

They'll die now, I thought
They'll regret now, I fought

They are apart, I caused
They are together, I paused"

After speaking, Naruto started chanting "I'm so sorry" over and over again as he sat down, ignoring the confused stare the Hokage gave him. Silent tears ran down Naruto's face, drawing lines in the mask of red gore. Naruto pressed his hand into the red soil before him, before lifting his hand slightly and dragging his fingers through it, mixing the gore with the dirt. He looked distraught at what he had done.

"What do you mean?" The Hokage asked.

The distraught boy changed quickly into a gleeful mess, giggling and smiling and running his hands through the mess in front of him like a child in a sandbox. "They always hurt me, they chase me. Even if I run as fast as I can, they always catch me. Even if I scream, they cut me. What scares me the most is the gleam of the blade, because pain will follow, I know that. No matter how hard I cry, they keep hitting and hurting me. They broke me and I let them this time. I made them die. I made them regret hurting me. I tore flesh from bone in a second, I caused their deaths. Now they can no longer be alone, but always be together because they all got mixed up and they became the red. And then I paused everything." Naruto explained again, this time in a childish voice filled with glee. "It was so much fun!" He adds, again with a big smile. Naruto's face dropped to an emotionless expression, letting his eyes slide over to Cat. "Why did Cat unpause it? Everything will disappear now..." Naruto mumbles to himself, voice filled with disappointment and unhappiness.

Standing up again, Naruto started skipping away from the Hokage. He bent down to pick something up. Clenching it close to his chest, Naruto skipped his way back to the Hokage. "I have a present for you..." He said with a little mischief in his voice. A bit reluctant, the Hokage extended his hand for the boy. Naruto giggled as he brought his hands forward, one hand on top as if to hide the present. Something warm, wet and sticky fell on the palm of the Hokage's hand. He struggled not to pull back his hand in disgust. He didn't want to upset Naruto by reacting the wrong way.

As soon as Naruto had released his present into the Hokage's hands, Naruto pushed the Hokage's hands down with the hand on top of the present, stood up tiptoed and leaned towards the Hokage. Cupping his other hand around his mouth to whisper, he motioned the Hokage to lean in closer with his head. The Hokage leaned in obligingly. "Sorry, it's not wrapped! This is the last whole piece you will find except for the bones. The rest was disintegrated." Naruto whispered, before an excited giggle escaped him making him clasp his hands over his mouth like he didn't want to giggle. He ran away a short distance and stopped abruptly near a shiny pool of blood. He sank down on his knees next to is and stared at the reflective surface.

The Hokage looked down at his hand. He was holding a still warm heart. Blood was still dripping out slowly and the Hokage felt a quiver run through it, like a final attemt to survive.

The Hokage stared at it before looking over to Naruto. Naruto was still staring into the blood pool, one hand gripping his hair and another hugging himself, he sat slightly swaying back and forth and mumbling. Tears were running down his face again. "Naruto..." The Hokage sighed silently. The boy stopped moving and looked at the Hokage with a puzzled expression. "Why do you call me that?" He asked.

"That is your name." The Hokage answered back. The boy shook his head as he started swaying again. "It's not?" The hokage tried again.

"Maybe it was, but it isn't now." Naruto answered distractedly while staring into the blood pool once again, this time with a pained and serious expression.

"It isn't? Why not?" Curiosity crept into the Hokage's voice.

Snapping out of his staring contest with his reflection, Naruto looked up at the Hokage. Childlike happiness spread across his face. Like he only just realised the Hokage was there, Naruto jumped up from his crouched position and happily ran towards the Hokage and stood before him. "Jiji! Hey, Jiji, do you know why everything is so red here?" His blue eye sparkled with enthusiasm while the red one seemed to be a bit unfocused and faded.

"I don't know, Naruto, why do you think everything is red?" The Hokage took on a gentle tone of voice, wondering how shattered the mind of the young boy must be to go from gleeful over the killing spree, to distraught over the deaths around him, to not seeming to know what had happened. The happiness on Naruto's face faltered like that of a child that was asked a difficult question. "I don't know... I don't really like it here anymore. It smells weird. Can we leave?" He answered in a small voice.

"Yes, I think we should leave here. I would like you to come with me to Yamanaka-san after we clean you up. Can you do that for me?" Naruto gave a small nod and a timid smile. Naruto extended his arms towards the Hokage, looking at him with big eyes. The Hokage moved to pick up the boy, hugging him close to his chest. Naruto relaxed into the embrace and snuggled into the man's chest. "I'd never hurt you. I like you. I don't want to hurt you." The boy said softly. He looked up at the Hokage with a puzzled look, trying to figure out something. "You'll just have to die without feeling anything." Naruto concluded with a nod, sending shivers through the spines of everyone who was close enough to hear him.

When the Hokage started walking, a snicker escaped Naruto. "So many people died here..." Naruto whispered into the Hokage's ear, before leaning sideways away from the Hokage, looking around in wonder while squirming and laughing at the top of his lungs as though nothing could amuse him more than the sight of the disintegrated remains around him.

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