Note: Again, a new fic. I'll be writing this next to 'The Hokitty', so it may take some time to update. I do have more time because school has just ended for me, and I have actually written quite a lot lately. I haven't decided on pairings yet, or even if they're going to appear, so suggestions are welcome.

Title: United We Shatter
Author: Red Hill
Rating: PG-13/T
Genre: Action/Adventure (/Romance/Humor)
Disclaimer: I do not and will never own Naruto & other characters, and am not making money for writing this.

United We Shatter

Prologue

Once, I wrote a story about this little boy, who had no family, no friends and no one that would acknowledge his existence. He was left behind as a baby, with parents that did not want him and tried to get rid of him as soon as possible. Even though it was not his fault that everyone despised him. It were not his actions, nor his words, that made people fear and hate him. After all, he was just a small child, who, to his knowledge, had done nothing more than play some silly pranks.

But he felt alone, nonetheless, without anyone to play with, and no one to take care of him. Because all he wanted was a friend, someone to be nice to him. That was all he longed for, until…

Once, I wrote a letter to a comrade of mine, asking him to give the kid a friend. Because I no longer wanted to see him suffer, and my comrade was just the one person that would make his wish come true…

''Hokage-sama!'' Two elite jounin came barging into the office of the supposed-to-be strongest ninja of Konoha, who had just settled for a nap on his desk. Really, the Hokage needs some time off, too. (Even though all he does is signing papers, give out missions and going to important meetings. And being cool, of course.) The Hokage sat back in his chair and nodded to the two ninja to explain why they had so suddenly decided to give him a visit.

''It is the Kyuubi-boy, Hokage-sama!'' the taller shinobi quickly explained. ''He disappeared.''

''Yeah,'' his companion agreed, ''one moment we were just watching him, and the other one he was suddenly gone.'' He thought for a moment. ''It's almost like he disappeared off the face of the earth.''

The Hokage nodded slowly. ''Have you tried looking for him in a five kilometre radius? He couldn't have went that far, he's only five.''

''We already tried that, Hokage-sama,'' the first jounin said, ''and it's even worse than that. His chakra also isn't traceable from the spot where he disappeared.''

''It's like he went 'Poof' and disappeared to never be seen again,'' the second nin added.

The further the two jounin got with their explanation, the bigger the frown on the Hokage's face got. When they finally finished, he ordered them to get one of their best ANBU squads to find the boy. If the villagers found out about Naruto.. They wouldn't be pleased to hear their demon had escaped from Konoha's grasp. He shook his head lightly and wondered if there ever would be time to retire.

About ten minutes later, half of the population of Konoha was looking for the demon-child. ''We should lock him up when we find him,'' a few of them said. ''No,'' replied other people, ''we should immediately kill him. He's a danger t o our village.'' And the Hokage could do nothing more then watching the scene with growing fear and anger.

Naruto himself wasn't aware of the fact everyone was making a fuss about his disappearance. In fact, he didn't even know that he wasn't in Konoha anymore.

''Ano, where is everyone?'' he wonder out loud, looking out of his apartment window. He had to climb on the windowsill to look outside, but there wasn't that much to look at. You could look at the street at the front, but there weren't any people. Then there was the Hokage monument, but there wasn't anything interesting there to look at either.

It was then that he noticed the cloaked figure that sat on a roof on the other side of the street. He was studying the building in front of him, it seemed. But to Naruto it felt like the stranger was directly looking at him.

He frowned and jumped back to the floor, turned around and- saw the stranger sitting on the only available chair.

With eyes and mouth wide open, the little child could gape and stare and who knows what else? The stranger chuckled to himself when he saw Naruto's expression, and then suddenly started coughing. Naruto, forgetting this man could also be an enemy, rushed to his side, but the man raised a hand motioning it would be fine.

''Sorry for that,'' he finally said when the fit stopped, ''that's what you get when you're my age.'' He seemed to be smiling, but Naruto couldn't clearly see and leaned closer. He was smiling. Naruto blinked and stared up, expecting to be glared at any minute.

The man chuckled again. ''No worries. I have no intention of harming you.''

''Oh. Okay.'' No one had ever said something like that to him. Of course, they didn't tell him right into his face that they hated him, but he could hear them. Exactly why that was, he didn't know, but he had just dropped the subject after a few weeks. It wasn't like the voice in his head was telling him anything useful, anyway. All that he talked about was power, female foxes (he didn't really get that one) and other useless things. But now the voice was telling him to trust this man. That it was fine. Naruto had to admit the voice had never been so nice before.

Patiently the man waited, or so it seemed. He had all the time of the world. Curiously the blond peeked at him, trying to find out what the man was thinking. After about ten seconds or so, he decided it didn't matter.

''Well,'' the man said, ''time to go.'' He stood up and walked to the door, only to turn around and ask, ''Do you want to come?''

Happily Naruto nodded, glad that the stranger had asked him. He followed him outside, and together they walked through the empty Leaf Village.

Still, there was no trace of Uzumaki Naruto. He had been gone for three weeks. No one that had seen him ever since that moment. However, no one seemed to be bothered by that, in fact everyone was glad that he was gone. Everyone except the Third Hokage.

Reviews are very welcome, including constructive criticism. I have absolutely no idea when the next chapter will be finished, but I will probably post it only after I started chapter two, so it might take some time.