1. Losing My Grip

Huff Huff Huff Huff panted Naruto as he jumped from tree to tree trying to get back to his village.

"Oh crap, ph crap" muttered Naruto to himself, "I'm late, ugh their going to kick my butt."

Surely enough Naruto was late to meet the rest of Team 7 to go on their special mossion today. He jumped from tree to tree always hoping to see the clearance.

" Why did I have to go all out working on Rasengan, why couldn't I have stayed at the village until it was time to go!"

Narute hopped like a mad person all around the forest muttering to himself "where's the way out, where's the way out?" He went to the tippy top of a tree and looked about like a person on a boat. He looked to the north and only saw trees, he looked to the south and only saw trees, the same for the east and the west. Naruto hung his head in dissapointment. He jumped down the tree and started walking, and walking. He then stopped and screamed, "I NEED TO GET OUTAH HERE!" He heard the forest echo back saying to him "here, here, here, here." It sounded really creepy and that's when he started to run. He ran not in all directions but straight forward. He didn't care where he ended up now but as long as it was outside the forest. He ran smack dab into something big and bulky.

" Ow ow ow ow ow ow" cryed Naruto in pain, rubbing his nose. He then looked up and saw the wall to his village. For a moment he stared at it in aw with sparkles in his eyes... then he hugged the wall.

"Thank you God, thank you" he cried. He then realized he was hugging a wall and quickly stepped a few paces back. He brushed off the dirt from his orange ninja suit then bounded over the great wall. He landed on a tiled roof top and started running, ignoring the many curse words the villagers were spewing.

"Where did they tell me to meet them again... hmmm"

His panting came to a halt as he sat down thinking really hard of where he was supposed to meet his teammates.

"Maybe if I think of all the places we met before, I could remember." He thougt aloud, "We met at my house, we met infront of the academy, we met at the border wall.." He stopped at the word as it started to echo in his head: wall wall wall wall wall.

" Oh crap" he screamed, "I was supposed to meet them at the border wall."

He jumped up and raced, retracing his steps back to the border wall. He saw the wall insight and raced faster towards it. He jumped down infront of it just in tome to recieve a punch right in the gut. Naruto staggered back leaning over a bit. He heard a familiar voice screaming at him:

" Naruto you stupid, dumb, idiot! Why are you so late? Don't you know what our mission was? We all planned to wake up really late in the night to get going early and you set us back about 45 minutes."

He looked up to see the angry face of his teammate Sakura, also Kakashi's disapointed face and Sasuke's glaring one.

"Sakura I'm really sorry I-"

" Naruto" came the exasperated voice of Kakashi, "what are we going to do with you? If you keep acting this way I'm sending you straight back to the academy."

At that news Naruto gulped. "Hey loser", Naruto looked into the piercing eyes of Sasuke.

"I saw you hugging that wall over there. Pssh you really are an idiot, I can't even stand to look at you."

At that Sasuke turned his head in the other direction, Naruto just (again) hung his head in shame.

" But you guys don't you understand, I was practicing my Rasengan for the mission!" Naruto cryed out, " You guys should just cut me come slack and let's get on with the mission."

He started to walk but was knocked to the ground. He looked up and saw the angry face of Kakashi.

" Naruto I had enough of your bull, you are suspended until I saw otherwise." Kakashi then glared at Naruto with all intensity until Naruto got up.

" Fine then, forget you all, go off but you'll be sorry for not having me there. I'm used to being alone so it's no problem to me!"

Naruto took off running, just running and running, venting out his anger. When he was tired he plopped down on top of a roof. He panted a little from running from his anger. When he realized where he was he was wuite surprised. The very spot was where he and Mizuki were discussing Iruka. He looked and saw the glowing sunrise which he gazed at and leaned back to relax.

He leaned up from his relaxing position and stretched.

" Who needs to go on a mission today anyway. This sunrise is much more interesting." He tried to convince himself but couldn't and just eneded up looking about. He then saw something flash by from a close roof top. He looked and saw it flash by again. When he looked more closesly he found that it was a little fox. This wasn't no ordinary fox... this fox had nine tails but it was bunched up to look like a fluff ball. Not only that but the fox was glowing a strange blend of light orange, yellow, and red fur that gleamed justl ike the sun.

" What in the world is that?" muttered Naruto as he got up to take a better look.

The fox turned around and stared straight into Naruto's eyes while swishing it's tail. It then stepped back and lept away.

" Hey wait come back" cried Naruto. He followed the little fox up and down and all around the village. It was as if Naruto was mesmerized by the little, strange creature. The creature then started to climb the Hokage Monument and stopped at the fourth Hokage's statue, waiting for Naruto.

Naruto gazed up at the little fox exclaiming "Hey what are you doing up there?" He started climbing but never leaving his gaze off the fox. He climbed, climbed, climbed until he was in hand reach of the fox.

" Gotcha!" cried Naruto as he made an unsucessful grab at the fox. The little fox jumped... straight into the nose of the Fourth Hokage's statue.

" Hey come back here you might get stuck."

Naruto also climbed up into the nose and found that it led to a path like a cave but only big enough for him to crawl through. He crawled a few steps looking for the faintest sign of the fox. Suddenly there was no ground beneath him anymore and he started to fall. He saw the light to the outside world slowly fade away. The last visual he saw was his arm outstretched trying to grasp what was left of his vision that was being engulfed rapidly by the darkenss.