Hello! Hello! welcome to the first chapter of A Cracked Cage: Two Bound Souls I hope you all enjoy this, cause I think ill enjoy writing it, this story will detail kyuubi and Naruto's journy in search for a cure for the disease that plagues Naruto. Now if you go into this story having read other story a cracked cage then you obviously know what happens, however I will still try to make this adventure enjoyable, so lets hope for the best as I swing for the fences with this one so without further ado

"worry does not empty tomorrow of it's sorrow, it empties today of it's strength"- Corrie Ten Boom

Konoha's graveyard was completely silent nothing truly stood out about this night. There was an abnormal chill in the air, however other than that nothing other than that stood out it was a completely normal night. however for the grave of one Naruto Uzumaki this could not be farther from the truth. While a body was In the coffin however a red glow was emanating from Naruto as he lay there, seemingly dead, however when he slowly opened his eyes this proved to be false.

Now while many would panic at being caught in this situation "Naruto" merely smirked at his situation rolling his shoulder and popping his neck slowly to add drama- mainly for himself- he began to gather chakra to blow the lid and the ground above it away however before he could finish his "plan" a voice interrupting him

"what in the hell do you think your doing?" an outraged Naruto yelled from inside his own head- a strange thought- "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm getting us the hell out of here!" Kyuubi growled back

"how? by alerting half of the village that you're the kyuubi! think about it, if you use your chakra, ANBU get alerted and we both get detained and whoop de doop we or should I say I will die!" he said and while kyuubi wanted nothing more than to refuse, even he had to admit he the kit had logic in what he was saying... He sighed lightly while his eyes began to glow red, his whisker marks deepened and his hands grew into claws, he was going to have to do this the hard way... Damn smart Jinchuriki, why couldn't he have been saddled with an idiot that would le him do what he wanted. With a final sigh he began to claw his way out of the wooden coffin.

It took about an hour if clawing, swearing, and more than a few threats of bodily arm should they ever meet face to face without the bars and chains in his way. However after that hour it seemed like a scene straight out of pop fiction as Naruto's clawed hand burst from the dirt, and curled lightly to check if there was anymore dirt to dig through however once satisfied with only air another hand burst from the ground, both of them clawed at the dirt trying to get Kyuubi out of it finally the before mentioned charka beast in human form dragged itself out from the dirt panting lightly, god damn human body, he didn't even have to breath in his human form however now, while he could hold his breath for at least an hour, he still breath... God damn humans having to breath and crap couldn't they just evolve past that already.

"sorry that we have to breath to live, oh so great kyuubi-sama, I'm sure it's near impossible to deal with" came a voice to his left causing Kyuubi to turn and seeing a ghostly Naruto floating next to him, he had no legs instead they were a single wiggly line that went into he spine. He stared at Naruto blankly

"how in the hell did you already learn how to manifest?" he asked angrily getting a shrug from Naruto "it's not that difficult, it's actually instinctual, still it's awesine" suddenly his eyes opened wide, sparkling with joy, literaly there were stars in his eyes at this point "now we can tell Naruko I'm not dead c'mon Kyuubi we have to go" he said while trying to float off however the line that connected them prevented it

"sorry kit no can do, you see... I'm not sure that we will find a cure to this, so I don't think that's a good idea" he said causing Naruto to look at him wide eyed "but Naruko will want to know that I'm alive, she needs to know" he said gritting his teeth lightly getting a shake of his head from Kyuubi

"think about it kit... What if we fail? Are you going to put your precious Naruko through that again?" the Kyuubi questioned getting Naruto to glare at the floor,

however after a while he sighed before nodding his head "alright Kyuubi your right... so what now?" Kyuubi to grunt while walking towards the exit to the graveyard "well first we need to establish we're we are going to go first, can't start at nothing after so we're going to have to find a reliable source of information" he said getting a nod from ghost Naruto "that makes sense however how are we going to get there, you cant necessarily walk around in my body after all"

however the kyuubi merely smirked a red haze surrounded covering his features from Naruto's view, when it was over "Naruto" looked completely different firstly he as tall, he looked to be around sixteen in this form also his once golden hair was pitch black, and longer to at such an angle that his bangs went down the side of his cheeks, and the back spiked outwards. his whisker marks no longer looked tame they looked downright feral. His Ocean blue eyes were much more dim now. He wore a long coat over his body with fur around he neck for some reason. His arms had black gloves on them with red straps going around it. His boots taking in much of the same look, and to finish the look there was a mask strapped to his waist.

Naruto hummed at this "pretty specific is this a from you've been in before?" he asked a light tease in his tone, however kyuubi merely smirked

"sorry kit however in this form I am not the kyuubi my name is Menma... Now all we have to do is find the library and then we will be able to find out more about where we have to go" he said however Naruto looked at him weird

"wait a second aren't you the kyuubi, the immortal Biju that's lived for thousands of years? how do you not know where we should start" he asked however he was alarmed when the kyuubi glared at him his eyes flashing red

"do not presume to get friendly with me ningen, I care not for you humans so I know very little about the various nations that is why we are going to find out" he growled causing Naruto to raise his hands in surrender, accepting his surrender the kyuubi huffed and continued to walk towards the library. however something was bugging Naruto if it was the fact that kyuubi didn't care, then why did he react so violently? Something was not right here however he hoped it would sort itself out.

A/N and end that's it the beginning of Cracked Cage: Bound Souls and yes im using menma from naruto road to ninja, why? cause I love that look and to me menma and whatever alt. sasuke's name is, and most of the cast (for the most part) represent what heppens when you take away their most defining cast, Tsunade lost some of her will and independence, shizune lost of her submissiveness, Hinata lost her shyness, sasuke lost his anger, and naruto? Naruto is the biggest one. Naruto lost his ability to forgive others for wronging him, he didn't lose his goodness, he lost his ability to forgive, (I know he had his parents and more than OUR naruto however he was still the kyuubi jinchuriki and by the looks of the movie he only recently left, or had a double life he somehow hid from two kage level shinobi) so that's why I am using him, I like how he looks and what he symbolizes so without much else TTFN ta ta for now