Well, first story, hope you like it. I'm a little rusty, its been like, a year since I've written for the hell of it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I did file a message asking Kishimoto if I could have him. I got his reply letter, but there was only a rotten fish in it. Oh well.

Dinner.

A perfect time for socializing, eating, and having a good time. For Uzumaki Naruto however, this wasn't the case. At least not this time.

"Naruto, you okay?" Kiba nudged his fox friend.

"Yeah." The blonde replied, looking at his bowl of untouched soup. Sakura stared at him, baffled. Naruto... Not eating?

"I need some air." Naruto mumbled, breaking the recent intense silence. Usually, Naruto loved the grouped dinners that regularly got initiated by the Rookie 9. It was, of course, a great way to meet up and remember the Genin days. Abruptly, the Uzumaki rose, and left the restaurant, leaving his friends concerned.

The golden blonde stuffed his fidgety hands down his pockets. He made quick, stiff strides down the empty streets. What was wrong? Well, that's actually what was most annoying. Naruto didn't know. After what seemed like an eternity of walking, Naruto was snapped out of his thoughts by a rumbling sound. Whipping his head around, the shinobi frowned. A crash was made from the alleyway, making the blonde jump. Curiosity getting the best of him, Naruto ran towards the alley.

Big mistake.

"Hello?" The curious ninja crept slowly through the dark alley, not seeing anything suspicious. The alleyway was filled with boxes, leading Naruto to believe someone around this area was moving. All of a sudden, a box fell from behind him. Ninja reflexes kicking in, the blonde whipped around, and smashed the poor pox into pieces. "Oops…" He nervously laughed. "False alarm…" The shinobi moved the remaining pieces of the box aside, and started investigating the other boxes. The blonde picked up a crate, examined it, and threw it elsewhere.

While Naruto was busy, a sticky, black and red substance emerged out of the crate. Its slithered around a bit, before identifying Naruto. It then lunged towards its new blonde prey.

"Well, nothing weird here-" The Uzumaki's sentence was cut off by a painful stinging on his face. "Ah!" Naruto fell to the ground, rolling around, trying to pry off whatever was on his face. The red and black mass grew, making it impossible for him to see at all. His vision suddenly cleared up, as the substance began to go away. Or at least, that's was Naruto thought it was doing.

The gory mass seeped into the blonde's mouth, nose, and eyes. Naruto clutched his face in agony. "Damnit!" He shouted out, barley able to move his mouth. Trying to stand up, the ninja stumbled out of the alley, holding his face. Finally, the pain subsided. He removed his hands, not seeing anything at first. He blinked several times, but found that his vision was anything but normal. Everything was blue. Well, accept him. When Naruto looked down at his hands, he saw that they were a glowing red colour. His mind went foggy, leaving his only objective to be home. Naruto stumbled down the empty streets, vision blurred, and confused to no end.

Pain, pain, and more pain. That was the basic recipe for Naruto's morning.

Peeling his eyes open, the blonde shuddered in pain. His whole body ached. He slowly pulled himself out of bed, and headed to the bathroom. Whoa. The Uzumaki's eyes doubled size, staring at his reflection.

"Did I… grow?" He said aloud, pinching himself. "Weird…" What happened last night? Was it just a dream? His mind raced across those thoughts while he was brushing his teeth. Bending down to spit, a weird feeling of water trickling down his back, making Naruto jump. "What the hell?" He scrunched up his face. Walking out of the bathroom, the blonde stopped dead in his tracks.

The bed was… covered in blood. Drenched, in fact. Horror struck his face. Rushing to the bathroom, Naruto took a good look at his back.

Gross.

His back had a deep gash running through it. A pulsing black matter was hanging out of the cut. "OH GROSS!" Naruto flipped out, but then winced in pain. "Hospital…" He concluded, barraging out of his apartment.

It was quite the sight, really. Seeing a guy in his boxers running through the streets. Appearance was the least of Naruto's worry however. He ran through the streets as best he could, due to his back restraining him. Unfortunately, his gruesome back left a trail of bright red blood.

"Don't look little Timmy(Author note: LOLZ. I had to use this name... forgive me.)." A horrified mother covered her son's eyes as Naruto sped through the dirt road.

Later at the hospital, Naruto's back was confusing the living daylights out of the medics.

"What is this?" The head doctor exclaimed. The poor medic team were trying to pick off the black mass protruding out of Naruto's back.

But it was stuck in there pretty good.

Feeling his mind slipping away, Naruto simply allowed himself to become unconscious.

"What the-…" Kyuubi growled from within Naruto's body. "Why can't I heal the runt?" The fox said. Naruto's condition was worsening, so Kyuubi had started to feel pain too. The nine-tails detected movement in the far side of the cage. There's the source of the problem. "Who are you?" He demanded. "What are you?" The fox bellowed. A black and red matter rose from the murky water, and spiraled into a female form. She had sharp features, and had moss covering her face and neck. Her yellow eyes bore into Kyuubi's red ones. Her body was covered in the writhing black mass.

"What am I?" Her voice cackled. "You'll have to find out, fox." With that, she gave a sinister grin, before melting into the water.

Sakura continued to scribble down notes on Naruto's condition. The medics hadn't been able to do much for him, but all of the blood had been mopped up. Over the hours, Sakura had been observing her teammate, watching the wound close up slowly. The black and red matter had gone inside his back, leaving no trace of its existence. Just what had happened a few nights ago? The Uzumaki had been knocked out for a couple days now. Looking at Naruto's peaceful face, she saddened. Why does someone so innocent have to go through so much pain? The rosette heaved out a sigh, running a hand through her silky hair.

Naruto's eyes cracked open, adjusting to the white ceiling. 'Where am I?' He thought. Giving a light cough, the blonde sat up, taking in his surroundings. Sakura's eyes widened drastically.

"Naruto!" She flung her arms around him, crushing him in a hug.

"W-what the hell!" Naruto choked.

"Oh, sorry…" The rosette blushed, and let go of the struggling blonde. Realization hit her. She just… hugged Naruto. Naruto, the village goof. Ew. But it was just an urge. An impulse. Right?

"Damn you're strong…" Naruto muttered, stretching his arms out. Sakura scrunched up her eyebrows.

"Well you should know that by now…" Sakura said.

"By now?"

"Well, yeah! We're teammates, idiot!" Sakura smacked Naruto flat on his head.

"Ouch! What the hell! I barely know you!" The blonde shouted, rubbing his sore noggin.

Sakura froze. "Stop joking around, Naruto. It's not funny."

"Are you kidding me? Who are you anyways?" Naruto asked.

No response.

"Helloooo?" Naruto waved his hand in front of Sakura's unresponsive face. "Where am I?"

"You're kidding, right?" The rosette frowned.

"Kidding about what? Damn, you're crazy…" Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Oh crap…"

BOO! Timmy says hi.

Hope you liked my feeble attempt at writing again. Review. Or else. I'll do something. You won't like. Something very bad. If you've read this far, I've just wasted 10 seconds of your life. Bye now. Its awkward.

The Blacklight Shapeshifter