Dialogue is in single quotes (') whereas thoughts are in double quotes ('')

Chapter 1

The sudden burst of inspiration had started from … nowhere.

And that was how strange his condition was. When he mulled upon that, at times he thought he felt something strange. No wonder he didn't know what to consider.

He shrugged dismissively, not even wanting to go any further. He was blissfully cheerful, enlightened with one of his best moods, the breeze was wafting through the air, and a warm, readymade cup of his favorite recipe nestled against his thighs.

Ah. And he was alive again. Respiring, moving. He didn't feel as dreadfully helpless as he'd felt a couple of hours ago. Ironical. And as to why…

The soiled form of his entire figure, with the inclusion of his orange jacket was a little too much even for someone of his tastes. He blatantly ignored the muck seeping through his dark T-Shirt inside.

…he never thought that he'd be dying of chakra overload, of all things. There were only a few things-and quite a few things, mind- that were capable of disintegrating him.

'Sasuke teme was a'right for the mission.' He mused, absently cocooning the chopsticks in his balled up fingers. 'Kakashi Sensei, not bad.'

With that he drifted into his subconscious, all the time keeping his lids shut. He casually took post by the sheer enormity that was the bars of his caged mind, wading through the figment of his mindscape that was the sewers. The bars instantly shriveled into a vast expanse of nothingness, and the great, rumbling giant that resided behind the formerly present structure flicked a tail at him.

He chuckled lightly, tugging on the ends of his forehead protector to steady it. Kurama observed him for a moment, with silent regard. Cerulean eyes, mirthful and mischievous, dimly glanced up at him.

'Don't play fool with me, brat.' The fox muttered, choosing to rest on its paws.

'Drained, it seems. Isn't it so, Kurama?' The blond said softly, shifting into a position to cross his ankles after he'd been seated.

'I warned you before we left, about the repercussions of my actions. What is left to discuss now? Now keep quiet.'

'As if.' The other occupant snorted derisively, lacking ill humor. 'You were the one who'd landed me in the midst of the entire thing in the first place.'

'And I recall a cowardly human acquiescing with me. I should've known this would be the case sooner or later.' The kyūbi exhaled curtly. 'Now let me get my well deserved rest, brat.'

'Whiny fuzz ball' He cursed under his breath, a tad dazedly as he was thoughtlessly being tossed out of his mind. He gave a feral grin, separating his chopsticks with a snap in the living world.

As he inhaled his noodles with utmost reverence, he idly thought about how he'd missed a lot of things-things stuffed into crevices and nooks, the small, trivial things in life that he'd taken for granted.

''I could get used to this.''

No one noticed hid introspective tirade, the small preteen bundle that he was, on top of the sculptured glory of the Yondaime.

When he got back to his little dilapidated shack, Naruto decided that a cold, if not warm shower was in order. Showering was one of those things which he had avoided like the plague. Obstinate was one word he could use, sure. A strong need for personal hygiene only bothered him when he had hot water nearby.

But it also gave way to introspection. One had a lot of privacy to just stop and think.

'You have to understand Naruto,' Sakura had warned repeatedly in the weeks that they had spent together, poring over a dusty tome buried in her lap. 'No second chances.'

He had simply glanced back at her with a sunny smile.

'Why,' the query resonated in the cobweb cornered room, 'no trust in me, Saku chan? I am sad, really.'

The pinkette had simply huffed in displeasure. He guessed vaguely that she was thinking somewhere along the lines of what her late mentor must have thought, scanning the useless makeshift band aid wrapped forcibly around his head.

'Let me do it again for you.' She had pulled him gently by the turtleneck of his flak jacket. 'Wow, trust you to ignore things like wrapping up injuries nicely.'

He retaliated with a defiant gulp of his tea, placing it back on the low window sill with a clatter which rang mercilessly in his head. Huh, not as much as recuperation as he would have liked.

Resilience warred with the instinctive urge to give in.

He had been doing a lot of that mid-war. It was like his persona had decided to betray him when the time had come. He barked out a short, phlegm filled laugh at the bittersweet irony.

''I bet you must be having a fine time within me, Yami Naruto.''

Kurama's snarl ricocheted off the walls of the dank sewers of his mindscape. He was immediately brought back to Sakura and her clammy hands.

'Kami, are you alright? You had just spazzed out for a second.'

She pulled her hands back, hesitation taut in her countenance.

'Alright then, so you have no Gaara to help you out in Suna.' Her face was a study in stress and frustration, veins outlined on her sweat slicked temple.

'It is simple.' He shrugged. 'Get into the hokage tower, steal the scroll and run for Suna.'

'You get free pass with that scroll.' Sakura merely hummed in resignation. 'Well, I don't like it, but I can't really predict the timeline with which you are going to have to roll. But you'll live, I am sure. '

'Che, you should have a little faith in my unique abilities, Sakura chan.'

She smiled sadly, her eyes crinkling reluctantly at his falsified humor.

'You have no idea.'

Naruto didn't know if she was thinking about the bad decisions that had chosen to make, starting with her placement of the burden that was Sasuke's retrieval on his shoulders.

He smiled and reminisced how he had trampled over the alarm which had risen up tumultuously under Sakura's watchful gaze, thinking why the heck he was placing his blame on Sakura.

Had he really lost control then, at that precise moment, in front of Sakura?

He couldn't give rat's ass then, thinking about his past like a loner. Sasuke wasn't his mistake, nor was he Sakura's. It had taken him a long time to figure that out, being oblivious and headstrong as he was. As the water slid down the hard planes of his torso like a cool, rippling stream, Naruto placed his palms against the smooth marble of wall, bracketing the rusty water tap.

The reason why he was getting worked up over the pinkette's words which had been in a constant loop in his mind was the humorous incident which had happened almost a month ago.

Well, humorous since he knew that her self-destructive tendencies would force her hand in making a decision she had undertaken that day.

He still remembered the foreign taste of Sakura's blood.

It was a morbid scene; him lying on a bed wearing nothing but his faithful overalls with her leaning over his limp figure with a goddamned kunai plunged in her abdomen. The grisly sight was admittedly not all that scary, but he was fairly sure that it would more than put a dampener on one's mood to see his lifelong team mate- the first eleven years didn't count- bending over him with the hilt of his favored kunai buried deeply in her stomach.

Her bloody hand had shaken, even when they were busy slapping a seal that had become familiar as his hands in the days before her surprising death.

The bloody time seal which she had casually inspected over a few days ago... It was a mistake just letting her to his apartment, he knew.

'Kyuubi.' She had gasped brazenly, heaving her stomach above him as she directed the steady dribble of her bloody to the rice paper seal.

He had been immobilized. Anger and convoluted emotions had him at the edge of a figurative cliff.

'I'll take it from here, brat.' Kurama had grunted, just as he had faded from the real world with his last vision being Sakura's sickly smile and hearing her parting words.

'I've failed y-you and Sasuke so many goddamned times. B-believe in yourself Naruto…'

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Thanks a lot. Hoped you like this chapter.

-SMS