DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NAARUTO, THIS IS WRITTEN FOR FUN AND ENTERTAINMENT NOT PROFIT.

Hello! So here we are again. The response to the test chapter was enough for me so I put up this chapter. This story is now in its trial period and will remain there till chapter four or five. Let's see if I can keep you interested in the story that long.

To Dazza- 96: Yep, it does, doesn't it? I really liked the movie. And the theory behind my plot is messed up and a little confusing but I hope it becomes much clearer in time.

WARNING: NOTE THAT ANY AND ALL EXPLANATION GIVEN DURING THE STORY SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN TO BE FACTUAL. Also note the way I specifically explain about the chips with a great regard to colour if you don't get the whole colour thing then this chapter is lost. For the chips, they actually refer to small squares or computer chips- which ever you prefer.

I AM WALKING FROM THE POINT OF VIEW THAT NARUTO STARTED TWO YEARS AHEAD OF THE REST OF HIS CLASSMATES. THEY START AT SEVEN, HE STARTS AT FIVE. This means that he is currently the youngest in his class, a year above Neji and two years above the Rookie 9.


The morning was still dark and cold. A silver device was stood up on a table. It greatly resembled a medium sized digital picture frame with the difference being that instead of pictures there were months and dates displayed. The illuminated orange month was June, some eight months since Naruto Uzumaki had been visited by the sandman, Avatea, and been put under the tutelage of the dream- weaver, Leah.

In eight months he had learned two of the three foundations of his power: Lucid dreaming and switching consciousness.

Lucid dreaming is normally a skill which takes time, patience and a good deal of mental focus. Luckily for Naruto Uzumaki time was not really a factor considering how long others took to learn it. He had mastered it in four months. One of the things done to learn lucid dreaming was to perform continuous reality checks. This meant Naruto had continuously keep an eye on his surroundings documenting the way things worked and the way people acted and his physical irregularities- this ranged from the way the weather worked or the clouds moved and the way the sky looked to the number of fingers or lines on his hands and his ability to breathe through a blocked nose. The second was to repeatedly remind himself of the fact that he was not at sleep. As such throughout the day he repeated the line 'I am awake. I am not asleep.' to himself, making sure that it did not just become an aimless exercise but something he was always aware of. Because of these two tasks anyone who had ever taken the time to watch Naruto noticed that the rambunctious little boy seemed to have become much quieter and absorbed. Another exercise he had performed in those months was the keeping of a dream journal. At first that doesn't sound like much but to Naruto it made quite the difference because he had to wake up at one hour intervals and immediately snap to alertness, the reason being that waking up at those times allowed him to remember whatever dreams he was having at that time so he could write them down and in a way also helped him to learn to quickly and immediately differentiate between the dream world and the real world.

The second stage was switching his consciousness. This involved him learning to easily switch between the various stages of sleep as well as further retreating into his consciousness than others could (deeper than the first stage of REM sleep).

Naruto had also had to learn other things. These involved memory building exercises- including his ability to perfectly remember, recreate and customise pictures and scenes he had seen either in real life or in movies and books he had been forced to read; physical exercises- to tire him out so he fell asleep quicker without need of prompting; and Home Economic lessons- including nutrition and sewing- because he had no idea how to survive on his own. The result was a quieter, more absorbed boy who was often seen either napping in the classroom during lunch (in an attempt to faster master his lessons) or studiously looking at one picture book or another.

The image on the screen suddenly changed to that of an alarm clock with the words 5:55am across it before a loud and annoying 'BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP' pierced the morning air.

A small hand reached out from under the coverlet and lifted it before pressing the small stop button located under the alarm clock. This device had been what Leah had gotten him as a late birthday gift- it was extremely useful for waking him up early or in the middle of the night and it was also virtually indestructible.

Naruto got up and rubbed his eyes tiredly before climbing out of bed and proceeding into the bathroom. Less than five minutes later he emerged dressed in a black jumpsuit with two blue stripes each running down the length of the arms and legs.

"Alright! My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to be hokage someday!" he proclaimed to no one.

With that he dashed out the door into the cold still air to begin his morning routine.

000000000000000000000 (time skip)

"Nonoka?"

"Present."

"Kohorin?"

"Kohorin?"

"He's not here."

The lady sighed aloud before moving to the next name on the register.

"Naruto?"

"Huh? Naruto."

"Will someone please wake up Naruto."

"He's not here either."

"Well that's strange." She murmured, if nothing else the quiet blond was always early to class even if he used those last minutes before the lesson to sleep. He was never absent. "Alright class today-"

The door to the room suddenly slammed open to reveal two boys. The older one had black hair and the younger had a mop of untidy blond hair and was wearing a black tracksuit with two orange lines each running down the length of the arms and legs.

"Kohorin, Naruto, you are both late, I assume you have a good reason." she said directing a calm and threatening stare at the two of them.

"Um. Sorry Kaya sensei." Naruto began, his eyes trained on the ground and his whole body oozing slight discomfort under her gaze. "I ran into a little… distraction this morning."

Kaya didn't fail to notice the small shudder he let out as he pronounced the word 'distraction'.

"Very well then Naruto, as long as you don't do it again."

"Thank you sensei." He said before quickly moving to his seat albeit a bit more slowly and deliberately than normal.

She should talk to him about that later. She then turned to the second offender who still stood in front of her. His eyes were down and his shoulders stiff in a pose that seemed to be an almost perfect imitation of Naruto's.

"Sorry Kaya sensei. Something happened on my way here so I was late."

Kaya had to hold in her groan. Honestly, how stupid did this eight year old think she was.

"Is that so?"

"Well then, you have detention this afternoon."

"What? Why? You just let Naruto go!"

"Well Kohorin, I did promise you that if you were late one more time you would get a detention."

"But-"

"Tell you what. IF you actually attempted your home work today I'll let you off."

The boy looked down and muttered under his breath but did nothing else.

"I'll take that as a 'I don't have it' gesture. Look here Kohorin-" she began with a sigh- she had given this lecture so many times that she could always customise it to meet her needs. "I have nothing against you but you really should try a little harder. The reason I am not punishing Uzumaki is because this is his first time coming late and he always hands in his assignments. Apart from your tardiness there is also your constant failure to complete any and all assignments given in class; your sleeping through, disrupting or just plain missing classes; and the fact that you put in way too little effort and expect your father's money to make you a ninja. Your obnoxious cockiness when addressing your teachers and betters is also starting to get on my nerves. If you want to make an apology next time, then please try to make it sincere or less of a mockery at least. Copying someone else's pose won't be enough to get you off punishment. Now quickly move to your sit so that I can finish the registration."

Kaya Kitahama, female in her early twenties. Petite but tough. She is a brutally honest person who is very involved in her hobby: psychology. She is a no nonsense person with mid- chuunin level skills and a gift for spotting lies by looking at a person or even just analysing their tone. She does not really like field work and prefers her job as a teacher. Her love for little children, fairness and calm- sometimes bordering on cold- demeanour make her perfect for her position. Unfortunately her fairness and judgement can be clouded by certain circumstances, like the death of a very loved and admired older sister during the attack of a certain tailed beast. She knew it was illogical to keep up such a grudge against a young child who more than anyone else had a right to be cleared of all blame but she found it hard not to. Of course unlike some of the teachers who right out discriminated against the boy she actually did her job; but no more than her job. Considering he was the youngest in the class and an orphan who lived all on his own, she ought to help him a little more right? But she never did that. His constant prank pulling also added to her dislike for him and his refusal to turn in his assignments did not sit well with her. He was only five but still… If he could not cope with it then the hokage should pull him out. That had been her view during his first year here. When he had returned in the second year she had been worried. He had become an almost overly quiet kid who spent all his free time sleeping and never played any more pranks or laughed during her classes. Sure he had begun to hand in his homework more regularly but many times he had come in looking tired and he still stayed awake during lectures. Her worry was now accompanied by guilt: he always handed in neat scripts of assignments which even the older students found difficult to deal with. Today she decided to talk to him. His slight discomfort when he reported for class this morning was not lost on her and now that it was time for lunch she was going to ensure that he was okay.

"Hello Naruto."

"Ah. Good morning sensei." He greeted with a cheerful smile as he turned his attention from his picture book to her.

It was so adorable that she had to smile back.

"I can see that you are enjoying your book very much."

"Mhm."

"May I see?"

He handed her the book. Kaya went through the entire thing. It was a book filled with pictures of flowers.

"I see. You like flowers."

"Uh huh. A lot."

"…And… Why is that?"

"Huh?"

"Why do you like flowers?"

"I dunno, I just like them. I guess I don't have a reason."

"Yes you do." At his puzzled look she continued "Everyone has a reason for doing something- some better than others but all still existing. When someone does a kind deed they often say 'do I need a reason to help others?' of course they don't need one but they still have one. They helped the other person because they felt that the person needed it and they felt it was the right thing to do. They may not dwell on it at the moment but in all fairness it really is a reason. Do you understand?"

Naruto looked contemplative for a few seconds before he finally replied, "Ya, I s'pose. Then I guess the reason I like flowers is because they are pretty and cheerful. They always make me feel better when I look at their bright colours so I always want to make sure that they remain bright. They also smell real nice and I feel happy when I'm around them." With the last line he turned up his face and smiled at her brightly.

"I like the flowers bright colours as well." She said as she chucked. His answer was so naively simple it would have put an overly paranoid person on guard but something in the way he smiled at her made her relax completely. "So Naruto, what was that little distraction you ran into earlier this morning that made you late?"

The small boy shivered as the picture of thick eyebrows and an overly loud man in a… disturbing green spandex suit assaulted his memory.

"I ran into a man during my morning run and I was delayed in getting back home."

Kaya was immediately on her guard. "What kind of man? What did he look like?" If there was some creep going around harassing little boys then she wanted to know who it was.

"Well he wore a green spandex suit, and had these really bushy eyebrows." Here he waved his hands about for emphasis, "Plus he said things like 'POWER OF YOUTH!' and made funny poses."

Ah. She sighed to herself. It was Gai that had delayed Naruto. Now that he mentioned it, he said he was out exercising. For someone like Gai, finding someone as young as Naruto being so enthusiastic about his future is the kind of thing that would set him off on one of his rants. She just hoped Naruto was alright and not scarred for life, Gai was a good man but sometimes he was just….

"Hey Naruto, what did you think of the man?"

"He was really nice but weird." The small boy nodded his head. How had Gai left that impression on the young boy? Quite simply He had gotten into a discussion with Naruto and at the end of it all had given Naruto a free set of training weights and a lot of loud advice. For someone who hardly ever received any kindness from the villagers that was enough. However, that spandex suit was something that he could not easily overlook.

"Is that so than? Well, then that is okay. Are you hurt or anything?"

"No."

"That's good."

With that she made a move to live the room. As she reached the door she turned around to face him "They are having a flower exhibition in the Sakura centre this weekend and I've got tickets. Would you like to come?"

"Yes, thank you Kaya sensei!" he replied with shining eyes.

She smiled at him. He seemed like a nice kid so maybe she could help him out a little more.


"Hey kiddo." Leah greeted, popping in in her full form not what she called her 'energy saving' form- a miniature adult. Not a small adult but a miniature adult.

Leah was Naruto's dream- weaver tutor. She spent a lot of time with him trying to teach him any and everything pertaining to his daily life, especially the mastery of his new ability. She was a fun loving female who was both very patient and impatient at the same time. Not to mention that her ability to tell stories was amazing. She normally appeared in her 'energy saving' form when in the real world and in her full form when in the dream world.

"Hello. Um, where are we?" Naruto asked as he looked around. This was actually his first time entering his subconscious mind and he was fairly sure he had gotten it right.

The place was white with different sizes of transparent chips and boxes: deep blue, white and a few deep red and dark green. Plus some solid green, solid blue and solid red chips were also floating around. Naruto and Leah stood on a set of transparent square blue boxes that were arranged to make a small patch of solid ground. All around them- up down and sideways- were different boxes arranged in the same manner except that some of them were red, dark green, deep blue or white or a mixture of two different colours and some were solid. These different patches of ground were separated. Though the place was not crowded or full or empty, it just was. There were also miniature Narutos handling boxes or chips. In the distance Naruto could faintly see what looked like a tree house and around him, at different grounds, he could spot some metallic doors.

"We're in our subconscious." Someone who looked exactly like Naruto, not a miniature, save for his attire of a white short sleeved shirt worn with black pants and a long sleeveless black jacket, holding a clip board- Naruto wore a set of ramen pyjamas.

"Eh?" Naruto looked at the new comer with a great deal of interest; it was just like looking in a mirror. This had never happened before.

"I am you. Just so we are clear about that. Well they are all you if you know what I mean." His other self said as he gestured too all the miniature Narutos around. The all looked up and grinned, giving a v sign before returning to their work. "Just so there are no confusions you may call me NS1."

"Okay? So what is all this, this place looks pretty empty." Naruto said.

"And boring?" NS1 asked.

"Well not really."

"Let me give you a basic rundown of this place. These-" he said as he said as he touched one of the chips "are what you call memory chips. There are some copies of these in your conscious mindscape but most of them are down here. Those who seem to be able to access more of these chips than others in their conscious mind are what people call geniuses. These chips hold everything you have ever learned- from moving to sleeping to dancing to schoolwork."

"The solid green chips are a set of new memories that have just arrived, things that you are learning for the very first time. These are captured by the minis and processed before sorting. Some green chips are harder to process than others but yeah. The red chips are the most basic and important memories. They contain things like how to walk, talk, eat, move, the movement of the chakra in your chakra paths and all your survival instincts. The solid red chips are solidified fundamentals that are absolutely needed and are perfectly understood while the transparent red chips are the ones that are harder to access. Sometimes if you do something enough times it turns into a solidified red chip. Remember when that merchant from long ago gave us a lollipop?"

"Not really." Naruto replied.

NS1 shook his head before waving his hand in a funny manner. A transparent white chip appeared in his hand. He placed it in front of Naruto and then it grew till it was body length before a few figures appeared in it and begun to move- like a movie. They could see from first person point of view as a small hand reached out to collect a beautifully wrapped lollipop from a smiling fat man. The person then began to move then once out of sight of the old man the lollipop was unwrapped and flung into a bin.

"Oh, I remember!" Naruto said.

NS1 nodded and then the chip returned to its normal size but this time they were now two and both were blue not white. Naruto wanted to ask about it but refrained from doing that.

"Do you know why you threw away the lollipop?" Naruto shook his head "That smile was matched against a transparent red memory chip. An instinct. Because you cannot fully access a transparent red chip, you are unable to fully understand why that smile triggered such a reaction. These red chips can be partly solidified by study and observation when conscious; but when in this part of your mind they can be more easily accessed and analysed, allowing you to fully solidify them, if you wish."

Naruto nodded again as NS1 stopped for breath.

"The transparent deep blue chips are the most numerous of chips, fully processed and ready for action. Everything you learn is stored as a deep blue chip. When you study for exams or read a book. Most deep blue chips are easy to access but they fade away quickly. Then the white chips are faded chips; they are the hardest to access even while you are here; memories that are forgotten. If a deep blue memory chip is left alone long enough then it becomes lighter until it eventually turns into a white chip. The lighter a chip, the harder it is to access. From your conscious you can get only fragments of a white chip, luckily for you, from here you can get the whole memory. Green chips are unable to fade till they have been categorised either under blue or red. Solidified red chips never fade unless something goes wrong, like an accident, even then they may only fade slightly. Transparent red chips never ever fade. You follow?"

"Yup." Naruto replied. "The green chips are brand new memories so I cannot lose those until they have been sorted. The blue chips are normal memories so I can lose them, like that memory of the old man or something I was taught in class can be forgotten. The solidified red chips are things like walking and talking and are basic functions which will be difficult to lose under normal circumstances. The light red chips are inborn instincts which I never learned so I will never lose."

NS1 smiled at Naruto, he was so proud.

"Next up is memory cloning. You noticed that after viewing that white chip with the old man it turned blue again and then doubled." NS1 said.

"Yes." Naruto nodded.

"When you study something over and over again, the colour of the chip is renewed again and again, the more times it is renewed, the slower it fades. Eventually if you study that particular subject enough times, it may turn into either a solid red chip or a transparent green chip. The latter are the easiest types of chips to access and they fade really, really slowly. The deeper the green, the slower they fade. Your deepest ingrained memories are the greens, the things you will never forget."

"Now then, moving on. The reason that blue chip doubled was because you viewed it in your subconscious. When you do that then you almost always create another memory chip which is exactly. Sometimes that does not happen and sometimes it does; sometimes it takes a longer time to happen and sometimes it takes a shorter amount of time, it depends on a lot of factors which include the sizes of the chips and stuff like that. The more memory chips you have of a particular topic, then the easier it is to remember that topic. But no matter what happens when you view a memory chip while here, the colour is always renewed so studying down here is much better than studying in your conscious mind."

"Not to mention the ultimate cheat code." Leah spoke for the second time since they arrived here. "What he did with that chip about that old man. You remember right Naruto?"

Naruto nodded as he and NS1 directed their full attention to the girl.

"Well you can do that with almost any chip. You can listen to a lecture over and over again if you to. Or after you finish practising your work, you can view it while here in your mind. You can slow it down or speed it up to fully analyse it in any way you wish. Or you could use the memory recount ability. Right NS1?"

"I was coming to that." NS1 said as he smiled.

"What?" Naruto was confused.

"Memory Recount Ability- MRA: The act of re- living through a particular memory. We could have done two things with the memory of earlier: one, we could view the events like we did; two, you could have re- lived the events, participated in them, not just watch them happen. This is actually best if you are trying to get hold of a certain emotion or if you are trying to build muscle memory. Right now in class you are learning the transformation technique, right?" NS1 said.

"Yes." Naruto nodded

"Now watch." NS1 waved his hand again and a blue memory chip appeared in it. "Put your hand on this and empty your mind of all thoughts."

Naruto did as instructed then suddenly he found himself back at the school training ground going through the hand signs needed for the transformation jutsu. Once he had done that he disappeared and reappeared back with NS1 and Leah.

"You feel any different?" Leah asked.

"Not really." Naruto replied.

"That is the MRA." NS1 said, he held the two blue chips in their hand and then merged them together. "If you do that every once in a while then you will start to notice differences, like how the memory chip will merge into one then eventually turn green, as that happens you perform the hand signs for that jutsu over and over again. Those green memory chips will then quickly merge to form red memory chips and at that point you will find that you don't need hand signs to focus your chakra. Things like that. You will be able to learn things like that much quicker."

Naruto simply nodded, he still felt weird after re- living that memory.

"Of course you might need to learn how to stay in that memory longer or how to enter the memories, note that some memories are easier to enter than others."

"Okay."

"I think I've covered almost everything about memory chips." NS1 put his hand on his chin and assumed a thinking pose. "The only two chips left are the black ones and the solid blue ones. The black ones are deleted memories. Those memories that have been completely erased from your mind, I thought that it was impossible but it's not apparently. Only the person who deleted the memory can bring it back, we've tried all we could. One of the deleted memories is the memories of our parents. We know because we tried to retrieve it but to no avail. You could try again once you have mastered this aspect of the ability but somehow I don't think it's possible…. I have absolutely no idea what the other deleted memories are."

"Do you know anyone who could have done it?" Naruto asked, almost in despair.

"No, sorry, but no matter how you look at it I'm you, so if you don't have any candidates to that then neither do I. Whoever did it though was extra ordinary because it is almost impossible to delete a memory. You can make it fade but not delete it."

Leah watched as the two boys stood there, one trying to comfort the other. Avatea had been right. To delete a memory, she had never yet seen a human who could do it, they could cause the memory to fade but not delete it. That was why humans may be able to see flashes of the past even after their memories were 'deleted'. Naruto may learn how to eventually, because of his ability, but that was highly unlikely, it was more probable that he would learn how to put up really tough mind barriers or how to regain a deleted memory but that was it. Even then, because those memories had been blocked by Avatea herself, he would never be able to regain them on his own.

"Leah, you look really worried, is everything okay?" NS1 asked.

This snapped her out of her trance and she smiled down at them. "Yeah, don't worry about it."

"Okay." NS1 said before continuing. "I don't know anything about the solid blue chips. They appeared around the time Leah did. Do you know what they do?" he turned to the silent weaver.

She nodded before she began to speak, "The solid blue chips represent solid memories. Anything stored in those chips can be brought to the real world with enough concentration and chakra. For instance if you were to bring a kunai into this plain of thought, then you were to store that kunai in one of these chips, then it would be easier and safer for you to make it appear in the real world."

"Really? Does that mean that if the image is not stored on one of the chip then it can't be made?" Naruto asked. He remembered someone mentioning that he would be able to do that but he was not sure where or when.

"No, it just means that working out all the details here and storing them on that chip before you bring them out is not only safer but it's also quicker. But we have quite a way to go before I can even begin discussing that with you so don't worry about it."

"Okay. So NS1, what are all these doors?" Naruto asked, staring at one of the metallic doors close by.

"These are special memories and portals to different parts of your subconscious. You will learn about them in time, don't worry about it."

"What of that tree house?" Naruto pointed at the tree house from earlier which was surrounded by memory chips.

"That's the processing centre of your mind. If you are trying to figure out how two things connect then that is where the information is processed. That is also the part of your mind that receives information about your body and how it is functioning and then it processes memories according to how important they seem. You know the routine."

"Does my whole subconscious look like this?"

"Nope. This part does but you can change the way other parts look. You can change the way the tree house looks, make it look like a hut or a cave. You can change how your memory chips look. You can even change the way the minis and I look. It all depends on you."

"If I want to train in here, can I?"

"Yup. All you have to do is choose your landscape."

"I don't know how to do that." Naruto pouted.

"Just concentrate Naruto. Just like when you want to change what you are dreaming about, just envision it." Leah said in a soft voice that slowly faded away.

Naruto closed his eyes as he tried to think of a place. He had read countless picture books because Leah had said that it would help him when changing his dreamscape. As he tried to think up the surrounding one picture kept coming to mind: his day at the Sakura Centre with Kaya- sensei.

There had been several international merchants who had come. Not only had there been several flower arrangements on display, there had been several things on sale: flowers; potted plants; seeds; soil; manure; posters; pastries and snacks and munchies; books about gardening and histories of plants and even on recipes; gardening tools; mini classes in which the owners of the stalls had talked about flowers, gardening, climates, pests and even poultry: and even small stalls where you could just sit and try to draw the flowers on display or from your memory or imagination. Naruto had won a small potted plant for his drawing of a particular bouquet on display. To Naruto it was a wonderful day. He had laughed and smiled and been happy. He had gotten to do something he wanted without feeling completely left out and the shop owners had been really nice. Kaya- sensei had paid for a lot of the mini classes which they attended together; she had even bought him snacks and the like. Naruto had come away from the exhibition with a lot of things, fruit, flowers and vegetables he could grow in his home; ways he could get rid of pests and well just about a bit of everything they had on sale- recipe books included. He could actually afford that much because of the fact that he hated shopping in Konoha and so he saved a lot. He had also gotten strawberries, these fruit were rare and extremely expensive in Konoha but he liked them so he had bought seeds which he could grow at home. Another item he had gotten from that place was a poster which he had really liked. It showed the sky at sunset, beautifully golden and partly obscured by silver lined clouds so that the light from heaven fell like stage lights on certain parts of the fields. In that field, carpeted with lush green grass and dotted with red polka dotted mushrooms, there were several fruit trees at different intervals and in the middle of it all was a strawberry tree with extremely large strawberries.

The chips under the feet of the three began to swirl round them forming and reforming into several shapes before it finally formed the picture in Naruto's head. The small boy opened his eyes to the sound of wind and a small waterfall that was nearby. He smiled as he surveyed his handy work and breathed in the air. Creating such a place was something that he could thanks to a little more than eight months of practice and he was happy as he immediately made a beeline for the only strawberry tree in the field with NS1 at his heels.

Leah smiled at them or him; that was confusing. The theory for this stage was also confusing but in practice it was really simple. She was glad. This was the third foundation of his ability. Once he had gotten down the basics of this stage she could begin to teach him other things. She looked around at the landscape he had chosen. Step one complete, time to proceed.


Extra: Naruto meets the Kyuubi (because in the end I couldn't put this anywhere in this chapter)

Naruto opened his eyes and was shocked, he was two months and a few weeks into his training to learn down the second fundamental level of his ability: switching consciousness. So far he had been able to reach the first three levels of sleep as he wished but he was having trouble switching to the fourth at his will and it was really annoying. If he couldn't reach the fourth then he wouldn't be able to reach the fifth and that meant he would not be able to reach the third level of his training.

He was a very lost right now, where was he? Was this the fourth level? It could be, he would have believed it if it was anywhere but this extremely ominous sewer. Where was Leah?

His train of thoughts was caught off by the sound of growling.

"Who's there? What do you want?" If this was a dream then somehow it was more scary than most of his other nightmares.

The noise continued, making him feel worse every time he heard it. So he moved. It was better to find out what was there than to wait for whatever it was to approach him (well he thought so anyway).

He followed the winding pipes in the tunnel wall, slowly moving and as he moved the presence became stronger. He knew he was moving in the right direction but for some reason that thought was not comforting.

Finally he reached a space larger than the narrow tunnels and in front of him was the largest cage he had ever seen. It was probably the largest cage in existence. Across the lock there was a small strip of paper with the word seal across it.

Suddenly two eyes opened then fangs and in the next moment the small boy was paralysed with a larger amount of killing intent than all the killing intent he had ever felt' combined. He was paralysed, dropping to his knees in sheer agony as he looked at the cage with wide terror filled eyes.

The mouth of whatever it was widened in a vicious grin and a large paw shot out intent on crushing him to a pulp but he couldn't move. Suddenly he was enveloped in warm arms and carried out of dangers way.

"What do you think you are doing?" the voice demanded but Naruto knew it was not talking to him. Never the less he recognised the voice, so familiar and soothing to his ears. Leah had arrived.

"Smashing the mortal to a pulp obviously you pesky weaver."

"Watch your tone Kyuubi. You have no right to smash the child not while he is unprotected and much less when he is under my protection."

Kyuubi! As in the monster that had smashed through Konoha six years ago. That thing was in his mind- yes it was definitely his mind that much he knew. But what was that doing here.

"I will smash him whenever I want to." The voice held a tint of anger in it but the rest was well supressed.

"That you missed this chance means that you will never get another. Next time he comes here you know that your trying to overwhelm him with your malice won't work, he will be too used to it to be become helpless. Whatever you troublesome fur ball I'm out."

"Come back here you pesky weaver and I will destroy you."

"You really think you could face me in an all-out match." Her voice was mocking and cold "You better watch your mouth brat, you lack both the power and the experience to even think about beating me. You're lucky that the laws forbid me from doing anything because I would honestly like to get rid of such an annoying trouble maker." With that she disappeared holding Naruto tightly in her arms; while the fox was left to sulk in the darkness.

Leah sighed as she and Naruto returned to consciousness. The small blond boy looked at her with wide eyes filled to the brim with unshed tears and she winced. This night was going to be a long night. She just hoped that Naruto would come out of it okay.


Hi! This chapter took me forever and a half and it still did not come out the way I wanted. How was it? Confusing? I hope not. If you want an idea as to how the landscape Naruto chose looks then you should check out my profile picture. Yes I know strawberries do not grow on trees but did you know that they could be grown indoors in terracotta pots?