Disclaimer: We do not own Naruto

Arch: 'This chapter was the pure creation of Etheral-23. I was merely the beta for it.'

Etheral: Look at this shorter chapter as a sort of 'interlude'… and interlude that's actually very important and shows how much we want to follow the canon. Don't like, don't read.

Fate Broken

XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX

In and out. He breathed.

He stood alone on an endless land, with the ground an immaterial pool of gold, mountains levitating along the eternal horizon, and ever shifting skies the color of twilight.

In and out. He repeated, like he had done for hundreds of years.

There was no time in this realm. Only everlasting stillness and eternal change. As fluctuating and harmonious as the very nature of chakra.

In and out. He meditated, ever seeking the great truth.

How long he had done this, he wasn't sure.

But it was how Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki passed the time.

The Sage of the Six Paths waited in the spiritual realms of the world, alone and undisturbed, he had been waiting for many, many centuries, for the arrival of the future.

A future in which the world would be threatened once again, and so he would come to assist in their darkest hour. The reincarnations of his sons would need him, for when the return of the dreaded Shinju was imminent.

He watched through the eras, his divine eyes allowing him to pierce beyond the veil of death. Hagoromo witnessed with a heavy heart as his teachings were twisted into that perverted art. Ninshu was meant to be a tool for unity, but instead it had been turned into a weapon of war.

Was he disappointed? He could not deny that he was. But he wouldn't do what his mother did, flaunt his power like a deity and force others to obey his commands.

He would not let that stand; Hagoromo would stop the past from repeating itself. The legacy of his mother would not threaten the planet ever again.

Until then… he waited.

In and out.

…

…

…

But then something strange happened, for the first time ever since his spirit took residence in this realm.

He had company.

The air itself shattered like glass, breaking through the walls of reality, and then creatures emerged.

They came in many shapes and sizes, snarling like savage beasts. Bloodthirsty eyes looked upon him like a predator does to its prey. And lunged themselves at him.

Hagoromo sighed.

In his hand he manifested his staff, and shifted out of his meditative position. His ringed eyes watched as the creatures approached.

A serpentine being with the upper body of a humanoid and the tail of a snake attacked with multiple claws and arms. Each slash was met with a successful parry from his staff. A giant with too many heads stomped upon his form, yet a shield formed from his Ying-Yang energies protected him. They came at him from so many different angles, but he drove them back with ease.

They attacked from a distance as well; conjuring powers that were oddly similar to jutsu yet at the same time were something different, blasts of elemental power, pure concepts that became physical energy.

Against a common human, these beings would have spelled doom.

But he was the Sage of the Six Paths.

The battle was swift and decisive; he showed them mercy and spared them, merely sending them away with a burst of his mighty chakra.

The creatures fell back and regrouped, allowing Hagoromo to take a better look at them. There was… something strange about them. An energy, his Rinnegan saw. He wanted to call it chakra, for it was a mixture of spiritual and physical power to be sure, but not quite the very same thing…

Were these beings the demons Gamamaru had taught him about so long ago? Malicious manifestations of the planet.

Regardless, he wanted answers. "You intrude upon my meditation. By what right do you barge in this realm?"

The beings did not answer him, they just snarled at him with rage filled growls and cries.

Hagoromo narrowed his eyes. "How did you enter this realm?"

"For those who know how instead of brute forcing their way in" A distinctively female voice answered. "It is quite simple"

The demons made way, bowing in respect before the newcomer. Though she was the size of a woman in her teens in height, her body was shapely and prodigious, far more than any woman in their prime.

She wore dark plates of metal on her arms and legs. Long dark gloves with white furred ends at the bicep and the same kind of furred stockings staring from the thigh.

Long legs and a narrow waist protected with the same dark metal, an endowed bust, and a dark material that showed so much skin any woman of his era would be mortified to even consider wearing such a thing. Her skin was pale like the snow; though his own wasn't much better he couldn't call such a tone natural. For a human at least.

Her hair was equally pale, long wavy locks cascaded all the way down to her ankles; at the front of her head was a sort of head adornment, sleek and sharp. But her eyes… they were the most distinguished trait.

Red of the fiercest kind, eyes that radiated with so much… hunger and hate. They matched the bloodthirsty smile upon those seductive lips.

His Rinnegan did not lie him. As Hagoromo observed the woman he could see that she wasn't human… she wasn't even alive. She was some sort of animated entity that walked between life and death.

Her power radiated like a dark star, and endless hungry black flames that sought to consume everything in its path.

"What are you?"

The woman titled her head, mockingly. "So rude. Would you not even ask a lady her name first?" Her voice was like silk upon the skin, so soft and tantalizing. And yet commanding and domineering.

He had seen a great tree drain the world of its lifeforce. Animals that could speak and built civilizations far older than mankind. And a monster that formed from the unholy union of his mother and that accursed parasitic tree.

Yet Hagoromo had never met a being like this one.

"I ask again. What are you?"

Why did he feel so… unnerved by her presence?

The woman rolled her red eyes, crossing her arms under her large bust and sighing in an exasperated manner. "What I am is of no importance. And since you can't be bothered to ask a simple 'Who are you?' I shall introduce myself." She did a courtesy that was not practiced among the Elemental Nations. "You may call me… Carmilla"

Such an odd name. Hagoromo's eyes narrowed further. "Why do you come to this realm? On what grounds do you attack me without purpose?"

"Why else? We are here to kill you" She proclaimed boldly.

"Kill me?" He found the notion a bit humorous. It had been so long since anything could threaten him.

She paced around in front of her minions. "You see, there is a plan. A grand scheme that has taken us a very long time to see realized and you" She directed an amused look at him. "You and your ilk are a variable we cannot tolerate"

"You seek to bring harm to the world and its people" He quickly deduced.

"Hmm, we like to think it as us 'reshaping the world'… But yes, a lot of people are going to die horribly" She added with cruel laugh.

Hagoromo stared upon Carmilla with contempt. "Hmph, I do not know the full intentions of your group, or what it is that you plan to do. But as a sworn protector of this planet, I will stop you"

Ten Truth-Seeking Balls manifested upon his back, and with his arm outstretched he fired a blast of pure concentrated chakra. The beam split the golden ethereal ground on its path, like the waves of a sea making way, direct at this 'Carmilla'.

The demons moved away, but the blast met Carmilla head on. It spilled around in stray rays, destroying some of the floating rocks.

As his attacked subsided, Hagoromo witness with bewilderment as the woman stood completely unharmed with a dark blade that had been drawn, somehow having shielded herself from his attack with that weapon.

Red eyes narrowed predatory at him. "'Protector of this world'? …What makes you think this world even wants you?"

She leapt at him with tremendous speed, her movement alone creating a shock-wave. Her blade clashed against his staff, sparks of pure energy were generated by the clash of their weapons.

The Sage grunted as he felt himself being pushed back by the woman's sheer physical strength. The maniacal smile on her face told him she was enjoying this.

He pushed her back with a thrust of his staff, the weapon spun on his hands as he brought it down upon her, she merely parried it away as she slashed with her sword at him. Hagoromo brought various Truth-Seeking Balls in front of him to shield himself and attack.

Carmilla slashed at them with outstanding speed, the movement of her blade a mere blur to regular eyes. But before Hagoromo's eyes he could see every detail. But he did not understand, the Ying-Yang chakra should destroy anything, her sword should not be able to remain intact, the only way to block it was with senjutsu and yet this woman most definitely did not…

There was something else coursing through her blade. A dark energy he had no names for. Black flames, almost like those of the Amaterasu technique. Her blade was alit with those flames, the same power radiated throughout her entire body.

Those… unholy flames shattered the Truth-Seeking Balls like pebbles.

"Hah!" With a cry she swung her sword in an arc, sending a barrage of fire at him.

Hagoromo took to the skies, flying away from the wave of flames that seemed to consume even the ethereal ground beneath their feet, blackening it, corrupting it…

The Sage wasted no time; he summoned the five primordial elementals forces. Water, Earth, Air, Fire, Lightning, they all gathered around him as he fired them in a constant bombardment upon her. The explosions shock the realm.

But she emerged from the blast, flying upon dark skeletal wings made out of a dark smoke-like substance. With thrust of her blade, she fired a continuous blast of flames at her opponent.

Rather than dodge it, Hagoromo decided to absorb it. Through the Preta Path he could absorb all forms of energy and techniques… Or so he thought.

As the attack met the invisible absorption barrier around his person, he screamed in pain. The flames… they burned, burned at his very soul. They were filled with so much rage...

He couldn't… He couldn't take this!

Shinra Tensei!

The almighty push made the flames disperse. And he could breathe again.

'What… What is that fire?' Not even the flames of Amaterasu burned with such intensity.

He didn't have time to ponder for she descended upon him once more, and their weapons clashed again.

"You may be a wise scholar" She taunted; "But you are no warrior!"

Hagoromo knew she was right; her martial skills were superior to his own, her strength and speed were formidable, as their confrontation in arms always rose to her favor. But that was not where his true strength laid.

Asura Path!

He summoned chains made of the strongest adamantine, with the command of his chakra he placed them around her limbs and torso. With a swift movement of his hand he conjured lightning rods that pierced her arms and legs. She grunted in pain as the blood flowed. She was helpless.

The Sage raised his hand at her. "This is the end. Shinra Tensei!" He fired a gravitational blast that could sunder mountains, the chains held on but the prisoner in them… vanished?

As soon his attack met her, she had turned into mist instead of turning into bloody chunks of flesh.

His Rinnegan saw as the mist flowed with energy through the air, reforming somewhere else. His instincts warned him too late as he turned around, only for a fist to collide against his jaw with all the speed of a lightning technique.

Hagoromo was sent flying through the air where he crashed against a floating boulder, reducing it to pieces with the impact.

"You think you are special?" Carmilla mocked him; there were no wounds on her figure. "That your eyes set you apart from others. Tch" She clicked her tongue in disgust. "I come from an age where the world trembled beneath the footsteps of giants. Where feats of magic and might would put this current pathetic age to shame. And even before that, when the power of the gods was still strong there were mere mortals who reached the level of the divine. And they were far wiser and mightier than you believe yourself to be"

Hagoromo painfully rose through the rocky rubble.

"You are nothing more than the spawn of a parasite. An alien. Wielding power stolen from this world. The planet rejects your existence"

"Be silent, dark one" The great sage said strongly. "All I've done, I've done to protect this world. To ensure that power never falls into the wrong hands, for all it does is corrupt"

"Oh?" She quirked an eyebrow at him, intrigued. "Does that include you? I mean why keep it at all if you freely admit it corrupts others?"

He drew in a sharp breath.

"Was it perhaps that you thought you alone could safely wield it? That all others would squander it?"

"No!" He shook his head fiercely. "I would never-"

"Then how about when you went along with teaching humans your beloved 'ninshu'? You obstinate fool, did you never bother to research the history the animal clans protect so dearly? You were just rediscovering an old tool for war. Ninjutsu existed long before your ninshu"

"That's… That's not true"

Gamamaru once tried to tell him of this world's history didn't he? But he had been too focused on stopping his mother. And once he acquired the power of the Ten-Tails he stopped visiting the toads, seeking instead his own path… The animals were far older than humanity, and wielded jutsu long before them. Why had he not come to them for aid when devising his philosophy?

…Hagoromo knew the answer to his own question. Because he had been too arrogant to consider his way could be flawed. The power… it had gotten to his head as well, not to the extent it did to his mother, but he had become unable to see the fault in his own choices.

"You did not create a path of virtue, you merely rediscovered a weapon. The art of ninjutsu, a branch of a much older mystic system devised by sages far older and wiser than you"

No, he had to believe it all had meant something. Hagoromo refused to think it was for naught. He still had a role to play, the same as the reincarnations of his children.

"Your vile words will not sway me, wicked one" He spoke with determination. "I am the great Sage of the Six Paths!"

With a burst of chakra, he sent the rubble away, and called forth the ethereal body of an armored giant. A titan that once contended against the Ten-Tails itself.

His Susanoo came forth.

With a swing of his ethereal blade, a shock-wave split the floating mountains, and descended upon Carmilla. The dark woman swiftly flied away, avoiding his strike which cleaved the golden ground, sending ripples through the spirit realm.

She channeled black flames through her blade and fired mighty slashes of unholy power which collided against the Susanoo. These did little more than to stagger it momentarily. She dove forward, burying her blade against the center of the constructs head, but Hagoromo was still too far away from her reach.

The constructed swatted her away before delivering a punch directly at the smaller opponent. Carmilla smirked, shrouding her fist in dark energy, both fists clashed in a mighty shock-wave.

Hagoromo narrowed his eyes; her physical capabilities were something no human could have. But then again, he suspected this woman was not human at all.

Channeling his own power through the Susanoo, the great titan's fist flared with a surge of chakra. Sending the dark woman flying away. He commanded his Susanoo to prepare another sword strike, when suddenly small black figures seemed to come out of her very body. His perfect sight recognized them as bats. They appeared in a horde so large it casted a shadow. The creatures swarmed his giant construct, his Susanoo flailed it limbs in vain in an attempt to swat them away, but there were just too many and too small.

The Sage concentrated and let out a mighty cry. "Shinra Tensei!"

The shock-wave was released from the entirety of the Susanoo's body in a perfectly spherical blast, obliterating the vermin on its path. But Carmilla was nowhere in sight.

He felt a sudden surge of energy behind him, and the back of his Susanoo was being frozen. Carmilla had stabbed the titanic construct through the back and was channeling ice energies over its body. The back was frozen solid, and a swift punch made it crumbles away, allowing her to enter inside.

Hagoromo raised a black shield to defend himself, and her blade clashed against it in a surge of dark flames. He poured more and more of his chakra into the shield and pushed. Their powers kept escalating; more and more the inside of the Susanoo was being filled with black flames.

Then it exploded in a haze of unholy fire.

As the blast settled, Hagoromo's shield crumbled away. He panted, feeling his body searing with pain he had not felt in so many, many years. The fact that his spiritual body could feel pain was an unwelcome surprise.

Carmilla looked in no better shape, the blast had ravaged her body, and she was missing a leg and a chunk of her stomach. But she looked at her injuries as an annoyance.

She snapped her fingers, and one of her demonic minions was at her side, a being that could pass as human if not for the horns on his forehead, he twisted his head to better expose his neck.

Hagoromo's eyes narrowed in confusion. What was she-?

She opened her mouth, showing sharp fangs, before burying them into her minion's flesh, tearing it away and splashing blood everywhere.

His ringed eyes widened in horror as she drunk his blood, the demonic minion's body was becoming thinner, almost like it was getting… dry. His skin became wrinkly, his eyes sunk into his head. His very lifeforce was being drained.

All while Carmilla greedily drank his blood with immense thirst. Her wounds closed, and her limbs regenerated, dark shadows formed the growing skin, muscle and bone as it restored her attire.

The minion fell down through the ethereal realm, dead.

Carmilla's mouth was stained with blood still, dripping down her throat. She had a lustful look in her eyes, and she let out shuddering breaths as though she were experiencing the highest throes of pleasure.

"Ahhhhh…" She moaned in delight, cleaning away the blood from her lips. "So refreshing…"

"…You're a monster"

She merely smiled wicked at him.

They clashed once again, swing of her blade created swathes of black fire as Hagoromo fought back with his Yin-Yang techniques, calling forth malleable spheres of dark energy. He twisted them into long spikes and launched them at great velocity.

Carmilla spun through the air, dodging every spike that came her way; they pierced through the floating rubble of the broken mountains instead. With a swipe of his hand, Hagoromo commanded the spikes to move according to his will.

They surrounded Carmilla, and an array formed, connecting each of the spikes. Lightning charged through them, and fired from every direction. The dark woman growled as she saw she had nowhere to run, instead she raised a wall of dark flames all around her.

The resulting explosion sent blast of winds everywhere.

But the victory was short-lived. Hagoromo's eyes widened as from the smoke emerged at horribly burnt Carmilla, her skin blacked and her flesh exposed. She clashed against him with such force she crashed him into the rubble, where sword and staff struggled yet again.

He saw as her skin regenerated right before his eyes, the exposed fleshed healed and closed, once more showing the woman's dark beauty in its prime.

"Isn't this fun?!" She exclaimed with maniacal cheer. Black flames erupted all around her, and with a burst of energy Hagoromo was sent through the floating piece of earth, breaking apart.

The moment he emerged back from the other side, Carmilla rose her hand called forth dozens upon dozens of fiery dark blades; they descended upon him like a hail of death.

The Sage acted quickly and with swing of his staff he called forth a tidal wave of epic proportions, the water held on, but just barely. A few of the blades managed to pierce through, creating large holes in the wave, but died off soon after. Hagoromo reckoned that if not for his mastery of senjutsu for his water technique, and his powerful chakra, the water would have been completely vaporized.

His Rinnegan saw a large amount of energy being gathered, Carmilla's sword was held high as she channeled unholy power. He responded in kind, his Truth-Seeking Balls spinning on his back, channeling raw concentrated chakra.

They thrust their weapons and fired off beams of pure energy, they collided in a magnificent display of light which kept on expanding.

In that moment, with their energies clashing directly in such a pure form, Hagoromo was able to feel her emotions, what lay inside her soul, through his Ninshu.

And what he felt was hate… hate, anger and pain. Any kind of joy in her life was derived from bringing pain unto others and twisting their minds to hatred and rage.

He couldn't get a clear view into her memories though to resistance on her part. She was able to keep them safe. But he still managed to catch glimpses of them.

Individuals of power so great they made the earth tremble.

Mystic powers of the like he had never seen before.

Monsters of unimaginable horror that could challenge the Ten-Tails itself.

A happy home, a homeland at war…

Then all he could see were flames.

Their clash resulted in a titanic explosion and the connection broke.

Carmilla soared at great speed, a rage-filled snarl on her visage. "My mind…" She seethed. "Is not yours to trifle with!"

And with a single swing she shattered his staff, sending him flying away.

The Sage of Six Paths regained balance and stared at her with open shock. He had met all kinds of people, sinners and virtuous folk both, witnessed all the good and bad thing mankind was capable of doing… But he had never met someone with such powerful hate inside them.

Carmilla was a being who lived on hate. It was her real lifeblood, a fire fueled by pain.

And her power… it had so long since he had seen anything like this. He wondered how much of her words were true, about an age filled with many individuals capable of challenging him. The thought was terrifying.

They may have been a sliver of hope inside her soul, but at this point Hagoromo didn't know if he imagined it or not. The hearts of people were always so hard to understand, a reason why he created Ninshu. For everyone to link, feel each other's emotions and live in harmony.

…But had he known there were beings like her out there, whose darkness could be so… corrosive to other people. He would have never created it out of fear of inviting that hate into their souls.

He only touched her spirit for a moment, and he nearly drowned in her darkness.

The great Sage was tired of how this woman made him question everything he had fought for. He would not let this stand. He would smite down this scourge upon the world to protect it, so he could one day see the reincarnation of his children fulfill their destiny.

Flying further up over the realm, he joined his hands together as if in prayer. A gigantic array of kanji formed around him, almost akin to a spider web, on each symbol he channeled all the powers of every element he could conjure into the central symbols of each circle.

Carmilla smiled at the challenge and stabbed her blade into the ethereal golden ground, spreading an ocean of corrupting black flames; they rose as though they were consuming an entire forest.

Hagoromo's summoned kanji glowed with power. The elements took form in them. "Sage Style; Heavenly Punishment!"

As if Mother Nature let loose her wrath from above, a storm of every conceivable element fell down upon her in a rain of light.

Carmilla spread her arms wide, and the flames roared with all the might of her hate. "Le Grondement de La Haine!"

And torrents of black flames erupted with the fury of hundred volcanoes, meeting the elemental bombardment in continuous struggle that lit the realm with light.

The resulting blast could have made the Heavens themselves tremble.

Even as the dust settled, there was still no victor.

Hagoromo's ringed eyes glared down at the smirking Carmilla.

"I grow tired of this charade. You are threat to the world, and I will not let this go on any further" In his hand he summoned his mightiest weapon. A large double-helix like blade manifested, the Sword of Nunoboko, a weapon as strong as the user's own resolve. "It is time we end this"

She mockingly placed a finger to her chin, pretending to be in deep thought. "You know what? I think you're right" She looked at him with malicious cheer, and snapped her fingers.

It was then that Hagoromo realized something had gone very, very wrong…

Her minions were surrounding them, far away so the battle would not harm them, but they stood in strategic positions, conjuring those strange powers of them. An array with symbols and letters he had no names for formed, connecting with each of the demons keeping it active, capturing both him and the dark woman in a gigantic sphere.

The sage looked around widely, what was the meaning of-?

The world flashed with light.

XxX ~ xx ~ XxX

They no longer were in the realm he had spent so many centuries in wait. The gold fields of ethereal light, the floating mountains, and the ever shift skies of twilight had been replaced by a dull grey ground of scattered rocks, and an endless starry sky.

At the center of this barren place were pillars of white marble, along with magnificent white throne.

Hagoromo's gaze shifted from one side to another, his Rinnegan took in every detail of their location. This was another realm as well, a spiritual pocket dimensions underneath the layers of the world.

Carmilla's minions… while he and the dark women fought they have been preparing a transportation technique to quickly take them, take him, to this other realm for some reason.

Their fight had been a diversion.

He heard the bloodsucker sigh and roll her neck. "You know, as much of a fool you are, I will admit you at least have power to back up your reputation. Nothing I haven't seen before, but at least not bad by the old world's standards. We could spend all eternity fighting…" She clicked her tongue and placed her hands on her hips. "But… I really don't care for that. I have places to go, things to do. Got a full lot on my plate right now"

Her lips once more turned into a malicious smile, and she slowly lifted a hand.

For the first time he noticed a gold ring on her right middle finger.

"So why don't we call it a night, shall we?"

Then, the ring flared with light and energy.

A great array, of symbols as strange as they were wondrous, appeared far above him in the starry sky. Letters of a foreign tongue, they carried a power that just felt… holy, designed with divine authority.

At the center of the great array was an eye-like figure, it shined upon him.

'Otherworldly entity detected. Traces of stolen planetary lifeforce found. Verifying'

Hagoromo didn't know which tongue that was, but his prodigious mind could already translate the words.

The eye shined red and suddenly he was paralyzed.

'Stolen Authority detected. Enoch protocol activated. Beginning purification ritual'

"Grk!" His body had seized completely, and his great dark blade crumbled in his grasp. He could not move even a finger.

Light began to rain down from the array like crystalline rain. Various rods of pure energy collided against his body.

Hagoromo tried to scream, but he found his strength quickly waning.

And he just couldn't move, he couldn't even access the power of his Rinnegan, he couldn't call upon his chakra.

He was trapped in this cage of light.

Somehow this power exerted some form control his entire being.

This… ritual was siphoning his chakra, his energy, all of himself.

No… No, no, no, no, no, no… This couldn't be happening; this shouldn't be happening. He had so much to do still. He had… He had to act when the world faced the threat of the Ten-Tails once again; he had to help the reincarnations of his sons.

He needed to… he needed to make things right.

'By the Law of King Solomon, let none profane the divine.'

His chakra left him first; he was drained out of every last drop.

'By the Authority of Yahweh may judgment be rendered with all the Might of Heaven'

The Rinnegan deactivated, permanently.

'In the name of the Gods'

The Sage was broken.

'Amen'

Hagoromo screamed.

…

…

…

…

…

…

Then… it was over.

He who had hailed as a god, fell to ground as a man.

No power, no divine eyes.

Just… a man.

He gasped for breath, struggling to push himself off the ground. His spiritual body somehow felt heavy, he had no strength left in his limbs.

The sound of footsteps assaulted his ears, and he slowly looked up to see the smiling Carmilla looming over him.

"What… What did you do?" He demanded.

She cocked her head. "Used a ritual designed by someone far, far smarter than you long ago to deal with… entities, shall we say, such as yourself. Lifeforms foreign to the planet that have stolen its energy and hijacked divine Authority, the power of the gods, and return it to the planet where it belongs"

He managed to push himself to his knees, and glared at her with all the intensity of the sun.

"You, the half-breed spawn of one such entity. With the power stolen from the planet flowing through you, which resulted in those eyes of yours which held power of counterfeited Authority. Filled all the parameters"

She leaned down until she was face to face with horned man, and slowly drew out; "The ritual had absolute control over you as a result, the only kind of entity it could work on"

"Damn you…!"

"Awwww, don't worry" She placed her hand on his shoulder in mocking comfort. "You won't live to see what happens next… A shame, we are going to do wonders with this world. We have working on this for so long, long before that accursed tree ever fell upon this planet. You would not believe the setbacks we hit, all the centuries it slowed us down. All the waiting and planning" The smile grew. "No more waiting, no more little games of mortals pretending they are gods… now it is our hour"

"This…" He coughed. "This wasn't the fate… I had foreseen"

Carmilla leaned in just a small bit closer, her red eyes shined with mirth and satisfaction. "Times change"

And she drove her sword through his heart.

Hagoromo gasped.

She buried it until the hilt touched his chest, and then black flames spread.

The Sage of the Six Paths breathed his last as the unholy fires consumed him completely. His soul joining the great flow. This time, forever… there was no return.

As his spiritual form became blackened embers, Carmilla stood. Her shoulders shook as she slowly chuckled. The chuckle evolved into laughter and the laughter into a cackle.

One line of fate, one path the world could have taken had been utterly destroyed.

What came next was unknown, even to the Gods.

XxX ~ xx ~XxX ~ xx ~ XxX

Arch: This makes the milestone of where the main cannon of Naruto officially no longer apply to our story. With Hagoromo gone, this is where the story Etheral and I want to make. A new path begins, and just who is Carmilla and her group?

Etheral-23: A lot of people are gonna whine about this being impossible, that Hagoromo shouldn't be defeated, especially by an OC, etc., etc. We don't care; we are doing what we want.

Just as a reminder, Naruto won't be the strongest character in the series. The more people rage that Naruto should be, the more we want to write it like we want to.

I'd directly tell you where to look for Carmilla's design, but that should be obvious. It's from Type-Moon's Fate series. And just by what was written in this chapter should give you a clear idea of some stuff we're hinting at.