Authors Note: Rewritten and reposted, hopefully with more to come in the future. Inspired by a story where Kakashi wondered why Naruto didn't have his Moms looks and his Dads personality. Please let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

The man who called himself Madara Uchiha stared down at the man who was arguably the biggest obstacle to his plans. The Nine-Tail's Jinchūrikiglared back. Their staring contest was broken as a hail of senbon passed through Madara's body.

"You should know by now that that won't work" was Madara's only response. Uzumaki said nothing simply launching another attack and closing in. Once again the attack passed through Madara, but Uzumaki was suddenly there in front of him. His form wrapped in crimson chakra, the color of fresh blood.

Uzumaki finally spoke "I know I can't hit you now, but your technique has to end sometime. And when that happens the Kyubi's chakra will destroy you."

Behind his mask Madara frowned. Normally he could simply teleport away, but to do so he would have to come back into phase with reality. If he did that he would be exposed to the nine tails chakra. It might not kill him, but even if it didn't Uzumaki would have an opening. Conveniently he had a way around that; he could project his dimensional teleportation jutsu and absorb Uzumaki with it. Then Uzumaki would be trapped until Madara released him. Unlike the technique that he used on himself, this had a projectile portion as it headed towards the target. The projectile was nearly invisible the only sign of it a faint distortion in the air like shimmering heat on a warm day. However nearly invisible is not the same as invisible, and Uzumaki saw it coming. Unfortunately as close as they were, he saw it too late to do anything. The attack struck, and then there was only darkness.

Madara's feeling of pleasure at seeing Uzumaki vanish was quickly replaced with worry, and then something like panic as he did not feel the tell-tale twinge in his chakra that would tell him Uzumaki was trapped. In fact it seemed that Uzumaki had totally disappeared.

The man who called himself Tobi looked down from his perch on a tree branch at the Konoha ninja gathered bellow him. So far things were going according to plan. He had delayed this rabble from interrupting Sasuke's "revenge", showed off his abilities a bit, and riled up Nine-Tails. Now all he had to do was wait for Zetsu to tell him the Uchiha brother's fight was over and collect Sasuke. All in all an excellent day.

Suddenly a man appeared from nowhere in midair in front of him. He appeared to be unconscious an appearance that was confirmed as he fell limply to the ground impacting with a dull thud. 'Well there's something new' in all his time as a shinobi he had never before seen an unconscious man appear out of thin air before. Tobi's contemplation of this odd event was interrupted by the arrival of Zetsu, coming to inform him that Itachi was dead and he could collect Sasuke. Tobi vanished to do so, utterly dismissing the rather bizarre occurrence.

Uzumaki Naruto woke up. He did so in his usual fashion, his mind coming to full awareness like someone had flipped a switch. He was lying down on what felt like a, somewhat, comfortable bed, his head slightly elevated. Even before his eyes opened he knew where he was. The smell of disinfectant, the sound of the P.A. system gave it away. He was in a hospital. His eyes opened, 'looks like Konoha General'. He was lying in a hospital bed, connected to an I.V., and various monitors.

Now how had he gotten here? This was not the first time he had woken up in a hospital with no memory of how he had gotten there. It was, in fact, the third time. The first two occasions having involved his fight with Gaara and an overly enthusiastic sparing session with Sasuke respectively. The problem was, given who he had been fighting. If he had been beaten badly enough that someone had to haul him home, he should be dead. He spent a minute examining the room more closely. 'Unless the afterlife's interior decorator has weird taste I think I'm alive'. He sat up, and discovered more support for his, I am alive theory. His entire body hurt. Like someone had beaten every inch of him with a stick. 'What happened to me'? He had never been in such pain. Naruto had always healed faster than other people. Given a full night to sleep he should have recovered from anything that hadn't killed him outright. The door opened and he turned his head towards it. 'Hopefully whoever this is has some answers.'

Shizune walked down the hallways hospital reading the file on the patient he was about to see. He had been unconscious since he had been brought in yesterday. Thinking of that she felt a momentary wave of sadness, 'poor Naruto, all these times chasing Sasuke only to come up empty'. She pushed the thought aside, she had work to do. She turned her attention back to the file. Patient was a teenage male, in excellent physical condition. Chakra system was abnormal, as was his chakra itself, almost inhuman. Other than that he was in perfect health, nothing to indicate why he was in a coma. And then there was that whole appearing out of midair thing. Well that wasn't her department. The intelligence unit had his belongings. They should be able to find out where he came from. She just had to find out why he wouldn't wake up. She opened the door to his room.

It took him a second to recognize who was standing in the door way. Normally it wouldn't have taken any time, but she was different than he was used to. His mind took time to match his image of her with the woman standing before him, but it did. It was Shizune, standing there with a file in her hands. Adrenalin flooded his system as his mind switched to combat thinking. First resources, he had none. He was wearing a hospital gown, in a bed, with no weapons. No not true, the I.V. stand by his bed. He grabbed it, ignoring his body's protests, and threw it like a spear. He spat a vicious curse at the pain, from tearing out the needle in his hand and from his battered frame. 'No time to waste move'. He vaulted from the bed and towards the window. 'No bars' he noted, 'stupid of them'. He crashed through the window.

Shizune may have been a medic-nin, but Tsunade had never let her forget that she was a ninja not just a medic. So as the apparently no longer in a coma patient threw his I.V. stand at her, she dodged to the side. The reflex so ingrained she did it without thinking. She didn't quite make it; the thing was coming at her fast. The pole itself missed, but the stand at the bottom caught her on the nose and broke it. Even as blood ran down her face she pulsed her chakra in a particular way, and alarms went off all over the hospital.

Even as he fell Naruto was planning, his body turning through a half summersault so that he landed on his feet. The street bellow was filled with people, mostly civilians but a few shinobi. His feet hit the ground and he was off running. Even if the street had been empty there would be guards on a sensitive location like a hospital. He needed to get some distance. Then he could find some clothes, and hopefully a weapon, and figure out what to do. He ran without stopping, ignoring the pain he was feeling. Darting down alleys, and across roads, for now he needed every foot of space he could put between him and his pursuers. He was being pursued no question He was no chakra sensor, but he could hear them, soft footfalls, closing in.

He dodged into an open door, the backroom of a food stall it looked like. Then out front, two men at the counter, one a blond about his age, the other older, with a scar across his face, both Shinobi. A man in an apron ladle in hand staring. A civilian to close to the fight for him to use chakra. So jump, across the counter between the men sitting there just starting to react. Lashing out with both legs in midair, his heal connecting with the blond's temple, sending him down. The older man faster, blocking his kick. Another midair summersault, landing, hurdling the fallen blond, no time to fight. A hand snake fast, the blond catching his ankle. Tripping him, a hasty shoulder roll to recover, and then into a combat stance. No time to fight, but they wouldn't let him get away. The blond rising to his feet, the older man holding back, drawing a kunai.

Naruto had not been having a good week. His quest to find Sasuke had once again hit a wall. The latest lead ending up with him finding only the wreckage left where Sasuke had fought his brother. He had hoped briefly that since Sasuke had finally killed his brother he would return to Konoha. It didn't look like that was going to happen though. If that wasn't enough now there was a new Uchiha running around working with Akatsuki. It was enough to make even the future Hokage feel depressed. So when Iruka had come by and offered to take him out for ramen, he had jumped at the chance. Not that he would have normally said no, but ramen was just the thing to cheer him up. Now though even his precious ramen had been disrupted. Some jerk had come flying out of the back of Ichiraku's and kicked him in the head. What was worse this guy had spilled his ramen. Oh he was going to pay.

As Naruto got to his feet he evaluated the man. About his age a bit taller than he was, but leaner, he was wearing a hospital gown. Red hair cropped short, pale skin a bit sun burned, and green eyes. The man was standing in a basic hand to hand stance, looking alert. "Who do you think you are?" Naruto demanded, thrusting out an accusing finger. "Bursting in here, and kicking me in the head, and spilling my ramen!" The stranger said nothing. Though he wasn't really a stranger now that he looked at him, he was that guy who appeared out of nowhere when they had been fighting that Tobi guy. Just as he was about to repeat his demand for an explanation Iruka spoke up.

"Take it easy on him, Naruto. I don't think he's well."

The man's gaze suddenly locked on him. "Your name is Naruto?" he asked.

"Yeah what about it" Naruto replied.

"Naruto what?"

"Huh?"

"What is your family name?"

"Uzumaki"

This was a strange position to find himself in. A city that looked like Konoha, populated by people with the names of Konoha's people. Didn't look like who they were supposed to be though. Except that guy behind the man claiming to be Uzumaki Naruto was someone he vaguely remembered. Iruka or something like that, one of his teachers at the academy. And looking over the blonds shoulder he could see the Hokage monument. It looked correct up to the 3rd Hokage and then it went off the rails. The 4th face looked like Namikaze Minato which was strange, but the 5th, that was Tsunade no question. He spent a minute wondering if Tsunade could have constructed this pseudo Konoha for some reason, but dismissed the possibility. 'That would be odd even for her'. Something weird was going on. He needed more information to know what though. So really there was only one choice. He raised his hands. "I surrender".

Naruto had a brief moment of disbelief. Then he broke out in a wide grin. "Hell's yeah I'm so awesome that just my name makes people give up". The stranger gave him a look.

"Not quite"

"Oh yeah then what's the matter, you chicken?"

"There is something strange going on here and just fighting you won't tell me what."

"What do you mean strange?"

"Well, for instance, as far as I know, I am Uzumaki Naruto."