Naruto looked down at the hole in his chest. He was dying. His first thought upon realizing this was of his friends. They had had so much faith in him. They had encouraged and taught him. They had acknowledged him. And he let them all down. A wave of sadness washed over him and he closed his eyes. When he opened them he was in front of the seal that held Kurama.

"What are you doing here brat? You're dying; I thought you'd use what time you have left to say something that would somehow turn the bad guy good. You're good at that you know." The Great Bijuu rumbled.

"Ha, I would but I think he's a little beyond that now. Besides, I wanted to talk to you." Naruto replied

"Hn?" Kurama could feel his container growing weaker by the second.

"I wanted to thank you for everything you've done for me. You've saved my life more times than I can count. You've helped me protect my precious people. And... you've been my friend." Naruto paused for a while. "I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you like you've always protected me." He lowered his head to hide the tears of shame that had begun to fall.

Kurama looked down at the young man who had become his closest friend. He was silent for a moment before shifting his whole body upright.

"Tch, looks like I have to save your ass again." He stated.

"Huh?" Naruto looked up.

"I going send you back. You're going to get another try, and you'd better be damn sure you do a better job this time." Kurama growled out.

"I don't understand. You're going to start the fight over?" Naruto asked. It was getting harder to concentrate.

"Tch, I'm not going to waste this on a couple of hours; this will be a lot bigger." He watched as Naruto closed his eyes as he fought to stay awake. "Things will be harder this time around, but I believe in you." He started molding a massive amount of chakra and channeling it into his container.

"Mmhmm..." Naruto nodded seemingly unaware of what was going on anymore.

"...It was nice getting to know you... Naruto." And with that Kurama completed his jutsu.

Naruto opened his eyes slowly. Was this death? He hadn't thought he would feel this... tired. No that wasn't it. He felt weak, almost as if he hadn't exercised in months. He moved to push himself up and that was when he realized something was odd. He was small. Really small. Like little kid small. The room he was in was very dark, but he could still make out the tiny hand he brought up in front of his face. What had happened? He quickly thought back to the last thing he remembered. There was a hole in his chest, he was dying , he said goodbye to Kurama, then... Kurama had said something about saving him.

'He said he was going to send be back.' Naruto quickly entered his mindscape to check with Kurama that this was really happening. He found himself in front of the seal but was greeted by someone unexpected.

"Mom... Dad..." Naruto stared at the two people standing standing in front of him.

"Hello Naruto." Kushina said with a warm smile.

"How are you here?" Naruto asked.

"I sealed what was left of our chakra in you while I was sealing the Kyuubi. We were only supposed to be released if you ever had trouble with it's chakra. I don't know why we were released now, it seems likely that it is because the Kyuubi is not in the seal." Minato replied.

"What?" Naruto's eyes flew wide and he rushed past his parents to look into the empty cage. "Kurama! Are you there?" Silence was his only reply. Minato and Kushina watched their son slowly sink to the ground as realization started to set in. He replayed Kurama's last words in his head over and over.

"Things will be harder this time... It was nice getting to know you..." Kurama was gone.

"How can I do it without you?" Naruto whispered. He could still hear Kurama's final words.

"I believe in you... Naruto."

I listened to a sad song that reminded me of sad things and made me think of a sad start to YATTF. I just wrote this at about 3:30ish am so I wouldn't be surprised if there are some words missing or the dialog sucks. I didn't reread it because I'm tired and didn't want to. Feel free to point out everything wrong with it. I won't be offended. I'll even try to fix anything you point out.