Tempting fate?

As Kei continued brutalizing Naruto, his thought spun inside his mind.

An open palm connected with Naruto's chest as shock spread through his ribs and Kei could hear them strain and creak.

'Weak…'

With a rather wide step forward, Kei's closed fist descended diagonally and met Naruto's face as he couldn't even make sense of his directions anymore, the force behind the fist pushing his body and his face meeting the ground once again, creating a small crater as earth cracked.

'Brittle, pathetic, useless… it's too easy.' – Kei's thought spun as he could see his evolution slowing with the lack of smarter or more powerful prey in the future.

His fist closed once again as numerous thoughts about finishing Naruto here and now revolved around his head.

'Patience… it won't be long now, I just need to wait for and then I will have a worthy prey to hunt.'

Naruto felt his arm being grabbed, as he gained some clarity, face swollen all over and muscles aching, he could only flail his arm in defiance as he tried desperately to do something… and soon he felt power creeping into him, his aching and sore body being reenergized, and he reached deep to grab more.

Kei saw the wounds on Naruto's body heal at a rapid pace as red chakra started to surface on his body.

"The fox, mere stagnant beast dares to try its hand against me. Hahaha… you, I will enjoy crushing in the future, but not now, this has gone for too long as it is." – The Hokage declared as his eyes glowed blood red as if alive, seething with fury at what he considered a waste of energy, a waste of a life.

"I know you can hear me, beast. A constant variable in an everchanging equation, something I do not have to worry about, that is all you and your family are… but I suppose its not your fault, once you are all together, then something more worthy of my time can be achieved from your worthless, deathless existence." – Words seethed out of his mouth as chains poured from his arm, making the flaring chakra quiet down and go back inside Naruto, while still dragging him next to Sakura.

As a tired and beaten Naruto was thrown next to Sakura, they both felt cold steel brush their necks as they looked at the eyes of the Godaime Hokage.

"I entertained you long enough, fought as you would, and countered you like you would an enemy… for the most part. No, I will show you how a shinobi fights."

As Naruto heard him talk, something felt wrong, his vision slowly drifting away from Kei as it fell towards his legs, made a 360 and he could now see his own and Sakura's headless bodies. Realization hit him like a truck as Naruto froze, his mind numb and a freezing coldness emanated in his mind.

'It's different, unlike Zabuza or Haku, unlike Sasuke. Unlike Orochimaru or any of them before.' – Naruto's thoughts flashed with incredible speed.

'Two years… all became useless in but just a moment. My whole life became meaningless in just a moment.'

Unlike before, Naruto had not felt death at the door. It had no indication like with the others, it just was there all of a sudden, his life simply ended, his existence becoming something of the past, his dreams, hopes, and even some of his promises, all cutaway with a swing of the blade.

Perseverance? Tenacity? In front of the Hokage, they weren't worth a damn, not without real power backing it up. That mysterious power that helped him against Sasuke… was worthless against the Hokage.

As his head touched the ground, his vision went black.

-------------------

Naruto's eyes opened wide as he found himself breathing rapidly, sweat rolling in waves as he once again found himself next to Sakura. Her eyes were still hazy, what she was going through unknown to him.

As his eyes widened slightly, Naruto's hands immediately darted to his neck, relief washing over him as he found that not only did his arms move, they also found his neck connected to his head, but once he had gotten a good affirmation of his own safety… he saw a pair of legs that his brain had chosen to ignore so far in front of him, the origin of the shadow hanging over his head, as his 'dream' replayed in his head, the same position, the same wear that that person had.

Trepidation filling him, Naruto raised his head to look in front of him only for his breath to almost stop as his eyes constricted, fear apparent as the day in them, as Naruto's blue eyes connected with the blood-red and black Mangekyou Sharingan of the Hokage.

To Naruto, all the fear, the helplessness, and the weakness during his death were all coming from him… but how much was genuine and how much was simply incited through him by Kei, it was something only one of them knew.

'He is stronger now… but also weaker.' – Kei thought to himself, he knew how the human mind worked even better than Orochimaru at this point… and Naruto had already undergone an experiment.

'Fear is much like pain, it can be endured if you train… Once you see and fear the power of a dragon, you are not fazed by the power of a snake, you do not fear it, or at least not nearly as much. You can say you have seen and been through worse… but at the same time, the fear that you have towards the dragon will grip your heart, a constant reminder. But this will only become less effective as the person is exposed to that fear, meaning once sufficiently faced with it, a person will face, resist or overcome it.'

Should the Hokage come to need it, it would become an edge against Naruto, necessary or not would depend on how things went, but it would be an option nonetheless, one among many.

'Though from fear many things are born, I wonder will he only fear me, or will he actively seek me on his own, just like Sasuke did Orochimaru. I wonder if my little brother would get jealous in that case, it would prove very entertaining to see how they interacted then, how my twisting of the thread would change and tempt fate.