This is AM, welcome back to The Uzumaki Tag Company

Don't be worried if this chapter suggests a pairing; there will be many more things to happen and at this moment I'm not really thinking of pairings, to be honest. Maybe in later chapters.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I do want to marry Hinata. And possibly Kurenai. And Anko. And...Samui. And...Temari. Nevermind.

Chapter 2: Aftershock

Darkness peeled away and light shone brightly. Blue eyes squinted upwards towards the white ceiling of a hospital room, glazed with confusion and curiosity. His arms were at his sides; he pressed down gently with his fingertips and felt silk thread weaves and a comfortable mattress. The familiar texture soothed his confusion; the smooth softness invited him deeper into the bed and he obliged, allowing it to envelop him in its warmth. Just as he was about to return to unconsciousness, he heard a whisper.

"Naruto?"

The blond started; the room was not as empty as he had hoped. He turned his head a little and gazed at his visitor, only to begin staring.

"Ino?"

Ino Yamanaka sat before him, her face conflicted and her arms awkwardly crossed. Her usual purple clothing looked as crisp and clean as ever, and her hair was tied back in the usual ponytail. Her eyes showed both annoyance and – much to Naruto's surprise - pity as she gazed upon the blond. Despite the lack of visible injuries, Ino seemed genuinely sorry for Naruto, though she did not know why he had come to be in the hospital. A person with shinobi abilities often had to experience immense pain or mental suffering before it was necessary for them to be hospitalized; she would know, considering that she was apprenticed to her father, the Head of Psychology at Konoha General Inoichi Yamanaka.

"Ino?"

Naruto whispered again, and Ino noticed that he had slowly pulled out his hand from beneath the sheet and was now reaching towards her. Ino, for a moment, believed he expected her to take it, but she was taken aback when the hand landed on her shoulder and gave her a weak shove backwards. Immediately she was on her feet, confused and fuming, her hands tight at her sides.

"Naruto-"

"Please."

Instantly she stopped, once again surprised. Naruto's face was distraught, his arm collapsed over the side of the bed and his shoulders tense. Never before had she seen any expression besides happiness leave the boy's face; in fact, it took her a few moments to realize that she had never seen the boy not smile. The boy she remembered had always sported a cheeky grin, as though he knew something someone else didn't and was bursting at the seams to tell them. The boy before her now, however, was an exact opposite. His eyes looked broken; his whole body looked like that of a cornered animal, tense and frightened. Ino took a step forward.

"Please," Naruto whispered. "I don't want to. I don't want to."

Ino leaned against the bed and brought her face lower, inspecting the dark bags beneath the blond's eyes and the terror racing through his trembling lips.

"Don't want to what?" Ino whispered back, and Naruto's eyes locked onto hers with such intensity that she was frozen in place, unable to do anything but stare into his turbulent soul. Naruto remained silent for a moment before speaking softly.

"I don't want to...hurt...anyone...please...go."

His eyelids slid down over his eyes like blinds and Ino was released from her trance, her heart beating erratically as she gaped down at Naruto.

"Ino? You ready?"

Inoichi walked into the hospital room just as Naruto moaned lightly to himself, shying away from the adult voice. Ino hesitated before answering.

"Why can't you do this?"

Inoichi sighed as they both stared down at Naruto.

"Right now he is not stable. If someone enters his mind, they will need to be someone he trusts; your age and your acquaintance with him should be sufficient to allow you deep enough into his subconscious. He would not take well to a fully grown and strange man meandering through his mind."

Ino sighed, pretending that she wasn't deeply intrigued. This was a new Naruto, she knew; something huge must have happened, and she just had to figure out what it was. Her father nodded at her and took a seat against the wall with a clipboard as Ino placed a hand on Naruto's tanned forehead and closed her eyes. Inoichi pulled out a recorder and pushed a red button on its side.

"We are here to assess the mental condition of Uzumaki Naruto, age 13," he intoned clearly, referring to his clipboard. "Subject has academy training in the ninja arts; he has experienced possible trauma during a stressful and life threatening event. Apprentice Ino Yamanaka will mindwalk, Head of Psychology Inoichi Yamanaka will observe. Ino will now begin."

Ino took the cue and a few hand seals later, she slumped over in her chair. Naruto's body went rigid and the silk sheets slid from the bed onto the floor before his muscles relaxed and he sunk back into the soft mattress.

Ino padded through the dark corridor, her blond hair whipping about as she frantically ran from the noises.

"DEMON!"

The disembodied voice blasted into her face she stumbled to a halt and began to run the other direction, tears streaming down her cheeks and frightened sobs racking her body. The sewer floor was damp, as though there had been a recent deluge, and the surface was slippery and unstable. Everywhere around her screams echoed; they came from great distances away and yet immediately around her, causing her to twist and turn as she desperately fought to escape. Turning a corner, she saw the mutilated, charred corpse of a man slowly limping towards her, his mouth opened in a horrifying scream as fire flickered from his eye sockets. She reversed herself and slid down another passage, hoping to out-race the horrors present within the mindscape.

"This way..."

She heard the faint echo just as she was passing another hallway. Her feet sliding on the floor, she stopped and listened again, wishing the voice belonged to Naruto.

"This way..."

She immediately raced towards the echo, certain that it was Naruto's voice. Whimpers still shook past her lips, and now her body was wracked in panic as she raced towards her objective, hoping that nothing stood in her way besides the screams of disembodied children and men.

She reached a giant set of doors that were ajar; standing in the opening was Naruto, his eyes uncharacteristically serious as he beckoned towards her. She sobbed and nearly bowled him over as she burst through the gap and locked the port behind her, and then she slid to the floor, her hands covering her eyes and salty tears pouring between her fingertips.

"I hurt you..."

Ino looked up and saw Naruto's face locked in conflict.

"I hurt you, Ino," Naruto turned and walked towards the back of the room, which Ino now noticed to contain a huge set of bars with the kanji for "seal" written on the center. "Why did you come in here?"

Ino only stared, tears still leaking down her face. Naruto looked up through the bars and ignored her, as though he had not expected an answer. Closing his eyes, he put his hand on the bar and spoke.

"Kyuubi."

A pair of giant red eyes materialized from the void behind the bars and Ino screamed, horrified at the magnitude of the fox demon.

Naruto didn't even look at her and continued speaking.

"May I have a favor?"

"Name it," the demon spoke, its voice deep and ancient. "Namikaze."

"I wish for you to help Ms. Yamanaka out of this place; it appears that a jutsu is keeping her here for a specified length of time and I cannot break it. I am sure she would prefer not to remain in my mind any longer."

The Kyuubi nodded and red chakra leapt from the bars in the form of nine miniature foxes. Naruto finally turned to Ino and locked eyes with her, once again freezing her in place.

"I'm sorry...for causing you pain..."

Ino could only gape into his distraught eyes as the vulpine creatures leapt past him and into her arms, covering her body with a red cloud as they dispersed on impact. Her surroundings began to darken and she sunk to her knees.

"Please...don't tell anyone..." came a whispered plea, just as Ino's world went pitch black.

Ino knew no more.

Inoichi Yamanaka was stunned.

Ino was waking up a full hour ahead of schedule, looking visibly shaken as she stumbled away from the bedside, her eyes never leaving the blond. The father stood and grabbed her from behind, causing her to jump in fright and slap away his hands. Once she saw who it was however, she threw herself onto him and sunk into his arms, shaking. The man rubbed his daughter's back and frowned at Naruto, who looked to be experiencing pain as winces flashed across his whiskered face.

Inoichi set Ino down on his chair and reclaimed his recorder, pushing the red button once again.

"Subject has shown considerable degeneration of mental faculty; possibility of recovery is very slim," he intoned, glancing at Ino, who seemed to have broken out of her fright and was listening desperately to his words.

Inoichi frowned, searching his daughters eyes, his own calculating ones flashing. He made one last sigh before finishing, completely aware of Ino's presence and ability to hear his final documentation of Naruto's condition.

"The seal is still intact, despite mental degradation. There is little chance of the Nine Tailed Fox escaping."

At these words, Ino slumped into her chair, oblivious to the world, only hearing the echoes of a whisper that entered her mind just as she was blacking out.

"Please...don't tell anyone..."

Short chapter, but I felt it was important to show the effects that killing Mizuki had on him.

Review please!