I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters. Finally got around to this, sorry I got sidetracked.

Rift

"Where is he?" Tsunade questioned.

"We don't know," Minato replied, voice tired from many, many nights up, comforting his wife as she wept. "Like the others he's just gone."

Tsunade nodded looking out the window and sighed.

We need you Naruto, Tsunade thought.

It had been more than a year since the Suzu Key and Seal had been unleashed and the dark force within set on the world. More than a year since Naruto had died stopping the force. Kushina still spent every night weeping for her lost son and several others, both from the Hidden Leaf and from the allies Naruto had brought it, were hard pressed to go a single day without thinking of their fallen hero. The worst of all, however, was Hinata. She spent every day in her room, silent and deaf to the world, little more than a hollow shell. But the battle had been far from the end of the Shinobi world's trouble.

A month had passed in peace and mourning following the battle and Naruto's death. Then, rifts between this dimension and another began to open, each one coming along with a fog bank about a fourth the size of Konoha. The rifts always opened somewhere near a shinobi village, great or otherwise, and always attracted several shinobi to investigate. Each time, the rift would close and leave almost no sign of the shinobi that had gone into the fog.

"Who's missing?" Tsunade sighed. "Anyone we know?"

"Temujin and Shizuka are both missing," Minato began holding up a list. "Lady Shion has gone missing, Lady Ryuzetsu is missing-"

"Lady Ryuzetsu?" Tsunade questioned.

"Oh right," Minato smirked. "I forgot to tell you about that. Remember how Kusagakure was made into a Great Shinobi Village as thanks for helping during the war? Well Ryuzetsu was named the first Kusakage."

"I see," Tsunade nodded. "Anyone else?"

"Karin Uzumaki and Ameyuri Ringo," Minato finished. "Along with them is a very long list of others but those are the ones we would recognize most easily, thanks to Naruto."

"How're the defenses?" Tsunade sighed.

"The Uchiha have finally finished forming the new Konoha Special Forces," Minato stated. "Shisui Uchiha commands it. Itachi has finished reforming Root and has also rejoined ANBU, mostly. Kurama still guards our outer borders and Fu is waiting for orders. The last I heard, the rest of the Jinchuriki all returned to their villages."

Tsunade nodded just as the door opened. Both Hokage turned to looked and their eyes widened. Temujin and Shizuka both stepped through and closed the door.

"Minato, please go get Hinata, she needs to hear what we have to say," Temujin stated.

Minato nodded, standing and teleporting away, returning a moment later with startled Hinata.

"I'm sorry but I think you should hear this," Minato apologized.

Hinata looked around then sighed and sat down in one of the chairs, staring at the floor.

"Welcome back Temujin," Hinata said almost mechanically. "Welcome back Shizuka."

"Thank you," Temujin said, eyes betraying the sympathy he felt.

"So, where have you been?" Minato questioned.

"I have no idea," Temujin admitted. "I remember that when the fog appeared, we both thought we felt that thing's chakra. So we went to investigate. But, the fog was thick. You could barely se five feet, just barely enough room to fight. The rift was this massive jagged opening, kind of shaped like a box but not quite with nothing but darkness inside. And there were these...things, coming through."

"What kinds of things?" Minato questioned reaching for a scroll containing over a dozen reports about creatures in the fog.

"We're not really sure," Temujin shrugged. "Shizuka saw spiders standing about level with my chest and I saw Master Haidos. A lot of him."

"Haido?" Tsunade questioned.

"Our best guess is that they take the form of whatever the viewer fears the most," Temujin explained.

"That would explain these reports," Minato stated. "There are at least a dozen here and each one talks about creatures in the fog. The thing is, they're all different. This one's about scorpions, this one's living corpses, this one is over a dozen giant praying mantises. They all get stranger with every one. The weirdest thing is, the damage that is left from the fights is stated to match a fight with something the viewer fought in a couple of them."

"Sounds about right," Temujin nodded. "Anyway, we started out fighting the things, and did pretty well at it. They were strong but not overly so. Anyway, their main advantage was that there were hundreds. Just as we started to be overwhelmed, we got help."

"Who?" Minato questioned.

"We couldn't be sure," Temujin stated. "We only caught a glimpse before he drew the creatures into the fog and away from us. From what we saw, it was...a shinobi with spiky blond hair and black clothing wielding kunai with prongs on the base."

Hinata's head nearly disconnected from her spine in its rush to stare at Temujin.

"Like I said," Temujin winced. "We only caught a glimpse and couldn't be sure. After the creatures finally stopped, the rift sucked all three of us in and when me and Shizuka woke up again, we were in the forest about two miles East of here. Finding the Hidden Leaf was a coincidence.

"I see," Minato nodded. "The others may have wound up somewhere else as well."

"Lord Hokages!" Itachi shouted sprinting into the room. "Rift!"

Everyone in the room sprinted out of the building and followed Itachi to the site of the rift where a thick fog was situated. The wind did nothing to remove the fog and was nearly nonexistent inside the fog. Hinata pulled ahead of the others, even passing Itachi in her haste. When they slid to a stop, the rift was wide open and the fog was spreading from inside. Minato walked to the front of the group, standing beside Itachi as they watched it in silence.

"Oh God," Hinata gasped holding a hand over her mouth as Temujin and Shizuka both paled.

"What?" Minato questioned.

"It's...Naruto," Hinata breathed, tears streaming down her face. "He's...he's dead!"

"What?" Minato questioned.

"She sees undead Narutos," Itachi guessed. "It makes sense."

"Where?" Minato questioned. "I don't see anything."

"Look out!" Itachi shouted just as Hinata stepped past them, grabbing a kunai from Itachi and blocking what she saw as a slash from an undead Naruto's kunai.

"There's nothing there," Minato stated.

"Throw a punch one foot in front of me," Hinata instructed.

Minato complied and clamped his mouth shut as his fist connected with something hard enough to nearly break his bones. He staggered away, holding his hand and looked around. Itachi, Tsunade, Temujin, and Shizuka, were all fighting but he saw nothing.

"Pick something to be afraid of!" Itachi shouted.

A moment later, Minato was seeing a sea of man-sized Kuramas.

"Oh my God!" Minato gaped. "That's a lot of Nine-tails!"

"Oh that's not a good idea," Itachi sighed. "The damage is the same as the viewed combatants, remember?"

Minato cursed and thought for a moment before the Kuramas turned into a mixture of Orochimarus and Madaras. Just as it happened, Hinata's kunai was slashed away from her by the creature she was facing. She stumbled back and tripped, landing hard on her back and sitting up as the creature raised its weapon, whatever it actually was.

"Naruto!" Hinata screamed instinctively, squeezing her eyes shut.

And then, the blade came down.

Read and review.