It only took a moment for the walls to be fortified once Naruto held the Sage of the Six Paths' chakra in his hands.

"Okay, guys, are you ready?" Naruto said out loud, eyes narrowed at the wall as it crumbled underneath the pressure of the water and Kisame's repeated attacks. As he said it, the shark-nin struck again, and the north section of the levy burst like a balloon, water spraying inwards at an alarming rate.

"Do it, brat," his resident tailed beast called from within his mind, and he nodded.

When he reached inside of himself this time, he found nine strands of foreign chakra dancing about within his body. He reached forward with a single hand and gathered them together like a bushel of straw, pulling them all to the surface with one mighty tug.

Instantly, he felt his senses expand outward in all directions. The world sharpened around him, as if he had taken off the blinders of everyday life, and everything became more understandable... more focused.

He watched as the south side of the wall began to crumble to dust as well, and knew he had to act - and quickly.

Using his lone hand, Naruto gathered every chakra type he could get his metaphorical hands on into a tight orb, the power manifesting itself in small ball of multiple colors as it swirled through the air, condensing into a perfectly round, impossibly black sphere.

He did this four more times, each time the mental energy required to complete the Truth-Seeking ball growing more and more taxing as his concentration began to waver.

He still had too much chakra. But at least now he could manage it better.

Three clones appeared behind him at mental summons, and each clone took a sphere and headed for the edges of the village. Naruto himself moved forward towards the north - he could sense that was where Kisame was returning to, if the streak of chakra was anything to go by. He leapt from building to building, hovering slightly from time to time to adjust his course, before landing gently beside a large willow tree, the ocean's rapidly rising water lapping at the roots like a cancer.

Naruto looked up at the wall - it stretched at least fifteen stories tall, if he had any sense of scale whatsoever - and frowned at the pockmarks that lined the exterior.

With a snap of his fingers, the Truth-Seeking ball that had taken up residence just over his shoulder shot forward, expanding outwards into a small disk, growing thinner and thinner and wider and wider every centimeter it travelled. When it connected with the levy, it began to stretch across the surface, layering the barrier in a solid-black coating, the holes disappearing one by one.

He could see his clones mirroring his actions across the village from him, black painting the interior of the village wall, the water finally stopping its relentless barrage.

Kisame was suddenly there again, his chakra-infused blade lashing out at the now nearly impenetrable barrier. Naruto flinched at first, worried that it wouldn't hold - it couldn't have been more than a millimeter thick at its heaviest - but the material refused to budge, much to his relief.

Kisame snarled as Samehada bounced off of the Truth-Seeking ball harmlessly, and he attempted to correct himself midair before landing awkwardly across a battered road (that looked more like a river now) from Naruto. They both turned to stare at one another, the sky still black and imposing above them, the quiet hiss of water lapping at the buildings below them barely audible over the dying roar of the winds.

"Why?" Naruto said, eyes shocked... sad. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because..." Kisame panted, heaving in lungfuls of air, "Because Lord Madara promised me power. Influence. A way to make my mark on the world."

"But do you have to destroy the Mist village to accomplish that? Can't you grow and become who you want to be on your own?"

Kisame grinned. "Oh, sure. But Madara's way is easier. And faster."

His eyes flashed an unnatural silver for a moment, the light catching them ever so slightly. "And fun, of course. Let's not forget that."

Naruto sighed, shaking his head. "Kisame... you could have been so much more. You were a genius... a once in a lifetime swordsman, and the only person just short of the Second Hokage I'd call a master of the water element." He blinked in reminiscence, looking at Kisame's (shaking) feet. "You... you have morals. Respect for those you fight. Respect for yourself, and for those that are above you... as few in number as they are."

He took a step forward, his chakra 'cloak' glowing an unnatural white.

"You can still become the person you want to be. Just not this way."

He extended his arm, offering a handshake. Naruto's eyes looked up into Kisame's and dug themselves in, their fierce gaze holding him captive.

Kisame blinked, looking down at the blond's hand, before back in his face.

Resilience. Rugged determination.

Hope.

Kisame saw it all in Naruto's eyes. He saw himself, a younger Kisame, sitting in the ninja academy at the tender age of ten, watching the jounin spar in the fields below from high up in his window seat. He saw himself, standing before the Mizukage, the day he graduated, a brand new katana held shakily in his arms. He saw the way the man looked him in the eye with a smile - that trusting, disarming smile ...

The same smile. Naruto had the same one.

"You're a Kage, aren't you?" Kisame wheezed, gripping at his chest, eyes wide in realization. "Yes... you have to be. No other man I have ever met has had quite the same... look as the Third Mizukage." He blinked. "You... you're Minato Namikaze."

"No," Naruto said, a small grin growing on his face. "Although I appreciate the compliment. My father was one of the greatest Kage ever to walk the Earth."

Kisame raised a hairless eyebrow, whispering Naruto's words back to him. "Your father?" He blinked. "'Was'?"

Naruto gave a sad smile. "Kisame, you are a good person. Maybe clouded by the world you were born into, but I truly believe that." He sighed, eyes glazing over. "I truly believe we could have been comrades had our lives been just a bit different."

Kisame frowned at him - the first time Naruto had ever seen the man do so. "You realize that can never happen, right? I've already accepted who and what I am." He looked up, taking a step back - away from Naruto's still outstretched hand. "You should probably do the same."

The jinchuuriki watched as Kisame stumbled away from him, before realization struck him across the face. "You're... you're dying."

"Hmph," Kisame grunted, his telltale smile surfacing across his face once again. "Figured that out... all on your own?"

"That tsunami jutsu..." Naruto turned to look at the walls surrounding the village, amazed at just how much chakra Kisame had most likely used to create a threat as threatening and mind-numbingly powerful as he had. He looked at Kisame's side, at the once mighty shark-toothed blade that rested there between the man's trembling fingers. It was barely thicker than a broadsword now, the scales looking frail and brittle even from as far away as Naruto stood.

"You know... were we anywhere else, that jutsu wouldn't've worked," Kisame smirked, eyes glassy and unfocused. "And were I fighting anyone but a jinchuuriki..." He coughed, the sound wet and sickening. "I got a bit carried away. Lord Madara wanted the village gone, and I wanted to... to try it... I was certain it would... work..."

Naruto blinked. "Why? Why did Tobi want to destroy the Mist?"

Kisame's shoulders slouched forwards, blood gurgling up from his throat and dribbling down his front, his smile still unmoved. "Yagura... Yagura dead... village crumbling anyways... worthless excuse..."

The man's eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell forwards onto the rough concrete of the rooftop below them in a crumpled heap.

For a moment, Naruto just looked down at the man's body with wide eyes, lingering shock running through his veins like a thick slurry.

Kisame. The man who was barely seventeen, dead from his own hubris.

His mind screamed at him... raged from behind his stupefied surprise, chastising him. This was a major change. All of this was a major change. The village being destroyed, the Tailed Beasts being separated from their rightful places in the timeline... Yagura's death.

He hadn't meant to, but the entire time he had been travelling to the Hidden Mist, Boruto by his side, his mind had been compiling a wish list of sorts - things he wanted to go back and change from his past... from his world's past.

Prevent casualties. Save lives, and reduce the bloodshed.

But with each crushing bout of sudden realization, Naruto could feel as each one was crossed off, either by fault of his own actions since arriving, or simply due to the fact that he knew he shouldn't... couldn't.

Meddling with the past was not an option.

Kisame may have died, but it hadn't been in vain after all.

He made up his mind, just as Kisame's body erupted in a brilliant blue flame, the fire licking desperately at the sky. It roared into a seemingly uncontrollable inferno, the force pushing Naruto back on his feet, his lone arm rising up to block the light from his eyes.

Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, it whispering away - leaving nothing behind but a charred husk and the shards of Samehada that had somehow survived the intense heat.

Naruto's eyes steeled. He watched raindrops hiss as they landed on the rooftop, their numbers increasing by the second until the entire village was suddenly doused in even more water - natural water this time, but water nonetheless. He could feel the imposing wave around the village begin to dissipate back into the ocean, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, he heard a whisper from across the village - a battle.

His heart nearly stopped when he remembered the others.

He took the sky, feeling for the warm blur of chakra that could only have been his son's.

They still had a plan to follow.