note: I do not own Naruto.

The Academy

Naruto and Hinata entered the room of their new class and looked around. The room was already filled with several kids Naruto had seen in the park or on the streets from time to time. Most of them were from civilian families but he also recognized several clan-children by their clan's characteristics. 'A kid with facial markings who brings a little puppy to class? Must be an Inuzuka. A chubby kid who eats potato chips in class? Akimichi. Next to him a dark-haired kid who is sleeping? A Nara. Then the girl with a blonde ponytail who sits next to them must be a Yamanaka.' he reasoned. He also recognized an Aburame. Hinata was a little freaked out about the insects, Naruto didn't particularly care.

"Hey Naruto-kun, you're here as well?" a familiar voice suddenly said behind him. He looked back and saw Itachi Uchiha, one of the ANBU who looked after him from time to time, standing there alongside a smaller version of himself. "You know who this is, brother?" Sasuke asked Itachi.

"Ah yes, let me introduce you two," Itachi said. "Naruto, this is Sasuke, my little brother. Sasuke, meet Naruto, the boy I told you about who lives with the ANBU. And you must be Hinata Hyuga I assume?."

"Yes, I am Hinata, nice to meet you Itachi-san, Sasuke-kun." Hinata replied.

Sasuke however wasn't paying attention to her and instead looked at Naruto. 'So this is the ANBU-kid huh?' he taught. He heard a lot of stories about him: some people like his parents and several civilians said he was trouble and that he should stay away while others like his brother Itachi said he was just a regular kid and even encouraged them to be friends. Seeing him in person he was a little disappointed: by now he expected Naruto to be some sort of mythical figure if all the stories he heard were even remotely true, but it looked like he was a normal kid after all.

"Naruto, Hinata." he nodded politely, he was still an Uchiha after all and he had to hold up the reputation of his clan. Meanwhile Itachi had already left without saying a word, he was a busy ninja after all and he also knew better than to embarrass his baby brother with too much open affection; Uchiha's were a clan of warriors, not a clan that needs someone holding their hand on the first day of school.

"All right everyone!" A voice suddenly shouted. "Pick a seat and sit down." Naruto looked to the front of the class and saw a young man in a Chunin flack-vest and a scar across his face. Next to him was another man with white hair, also with the flack-vest. "I am Iruka" the scarred teacher introduced himself, "and this is my assistant Mizuki. From this day till the day you graduate we will be your teachers. But make no mistake: this is not the civilian school, this is the ninja-academy! All those who are here came here with the sole purpose of becoming a ninja for Konoha". "Some of you will succeed and become the next legends of our village," he continued his speech, "but most of you will either drop out or end up killed within your first year."

Most of the class, especially the kids from civilian origin, gulped at that last statement and looked around nervously. The people from clans however seemed perfectly at ease hearing about getting killed and Naruto, who sat down next to Hinata and Sasuke, didn't flinch either.

"Anyway," Mizuki said next "before we worry about that we shall go outside to the training course to see where everybody stands. Don't worry though: this first session will not count for your report card." he assured them.

"Nonetheless it is a good way to see where you need improvement, so do take it seriously." Iruka looked sternly at Shikamaru who was dozing off in class as he said it.

Once outside everyone stood around the throwing range where Iruka explained the first exercise. It was a simple accuracy test where you threw five kunai and 5 shuriken -dull ones to make sure nobody caused accidents- at a series of targets twenty metres away. You scored points the closer you got to the centre of each for a maximum of 100 points if you landed ten bulls-eyes.

One by one Iruka called each name and that person got forward to throw their weapons at the targets. It was obvious there was already a huge difference between those who had previous experience with throwing weapons and those who didn't: the average civilian scored a low 30 points at best, the kids who came from clans on the other hand did better with an average score of 70. Hinata even scored 90, firmly placing herself as the best female and even in the top 3 in general.

Finally only Sasuke and Naruto remained.

"Sasuke Uchiha" Iruka called amongst a loud murmur when they heard his name. Everyone heard of the legendary Uchiha-clan and now they got to see one of them in action.

Sasuke confidently went forwards and took the weapons, he weighted them in his hands and threw them one by one at the targets like he had done countless times before. "99 points!" Iruka said in disbelief, that was the score you expected on a final exam after months of training, not on the first day of school! Everybody looked at Sasuke in awe and several of the girls started talking very excited amongst themselves while looking at him with little hearts in their eyes.

"Not too bad," Naruto said casually as Sasuke walked back to where he and Hinata were waiting, "but you missed one."

"Hmm, that one kunai must be slightly off-balance then" he remarked. "Naruto Uzumaki, you're up." Iruka said. Naruto casually walked to the range and picked up the kunai and shuriken, as he got ready for the exercise he noticed that nobody was really paying attention to him. Everybody was still hanging around Sasuke. "Good luck Naruto-kun." Hinata, who was the only one looking at Naruto, said. Naruto smiled at her and focused on the exercise. He quickly threw his shuriken and four of his five kunai at the targets. Everyone spun their heads around when they heard nine consecutive thuds and looked in shock at the nine bulls-eyes. Naruto was about to throw his last kunai as well when he stopped at the last second smirked a little and then threw it anyway aiming slightly left of his last target where it impacted the board with a "THUD".

"..." Everyone just looked in shock at what they just saw.

"Well looks like you were right Sasuke-kun," Naruto casually remarked, "that kunai was slightly off-balance. Thanks for the heads-up." He smiled at the young Uchiha.

"No problem," Sasuke recovered himself, "I had to let you win at least one trial right?"

"100 points. Well done Naruto" Iruka managed to say after having recovered from what he just saw. 'Two geniuses in one class? This is going to be interesting.' He taught.

After the targeting exercise they continued towards an obstacle course they had to cross in less than 5 minutes. This time the civilian kids did even worse. Only 6 out of 45 managed to complete it and even then it took them almost 4 minutes on average. The clan-children once again did better and all managed to pass it. Naruto noticed however that the best ones were different kids than in the previous exercise. Shikamaru, who scored an impressive 92 in accuracy, couldn't really be bothered to go all out. He called it "troublesome" and completed the course at a leisurely pace finishing after two minutes and twenty seconds. Kiba on the other hand scored pretty low at targeting, a mere 63, but excelled at the more physical test finishing it in one minute and ten seconds. The rest of them all finished somewhere within that time-frame, even Choji who was pretty "big-boned" as he called it did really well and finished it in two minutes.

Hinata once again scored really high, she demonstrated a high level of agility and never missed a single step. In the end however she missed some of the raw speed and power Kiba had and completed it in only one minute and fifteen seconds. This still placed her safely above Ino's two minutes as the best female however.

Once again only Naruto and Sasuke remained, somehow they suspected Iruka did it on purpose to not discourage the others too much.

"Why don't you go first this time," Sasuke offered with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Thanks!" Naruto smiled.

"No problem." Sasuke smirked a little, "After all a gentleman always lets the ladies go first."

Everyone sniffled at the joke and even Hinata couldn't fully suppress a small smile on her face. Naruto, who could always appreciate a good joke even if he was on the receiving end, had to admit he walked right into that one and focused on the obstacle course instead. There were five obstacles they had to cross: first was a wall of 5 metres with ropes they had to climb over, then a balancing beam suspended over water, a series of ropes they had to swing from, a wooden construct without ropes this time and finally they had to crawl under a series of wires to the finish line without disturbing any of the bells that hang on them.

Naruto was determined to win this round as well and quickly went over, through and under each obstacle at record speed. He wasn't as gracious as Hinata had been and had in fact fallen down once. But in the end he made up for it in raw speed and finished at one minute and three seconds. Sasuke however noticed the part where Naruto had fallen and during his turn made sure to be extra careful when crossing that slippery part of the course, this carefulness paid off since without wasting precious seconds like Naruto had he could go on immediately and finished in 59 seconds.

'Both of them scored really high again, it looks like it's more than a fluke' Iruka taught in disbelief. "very well, let's go to the final test for today" he said while keeping his face straight from the internal shock he was feeling.

The last test was a small taijutsu tournament between everyone, to make things fair and balanced the brackets were divided based on the previous results rather than at random. As such Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata ended up in different brackets and wouldn't meet each other until the semi-final at best. The first few rounds of the tournament were pretty one-sided for our three heroes. Naruto and Sasuke went through the civilian kids like a knife through butter and Hinata, who was physically weaker than most of them, relied on her agility and her superior fighting style to reach the semi-finals as well. Eventually only four people remained: Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata and Choji, who surprised everyone by beating Kiba in the prior round.

"All right everyone," Iruka said to the group, who was now equally divided in fans of Naruto and fans of Sasuke. "The match-ups from here on out will be randomly decided." he declared while running his hand blindly through a box and pulled out a card, "The first contestant is Naruto and his opponent is..." the hand went back in the box and pulled out a second card "Sasuke!"

"This means that Hinata vs Choji will be the other semi-final and the winner of both matches will meet in the final, understood? Okay first match begin!" He shouted the last part.

Sasuke and Naruto where circling each other carefully and waited for the other to make the first move. Finally Naruto was the first to get bored and suddenly rushed ahead to launch the first attack. Sasuke quickly reacted and dodged the first blow by rolling out the way, he then spun around and started counter-attacking. Meanwhile Naruto had steadied himself from his own missed attack and managed to block Sasuke's punch with his forearms. Sasuke kept up the pressure and continued to try and hit him with a flurry of kicks and punches. Naruto managed to block or dodge most of them but some still got through and he soon started sporting some bruises from the impacts. Naruto realized that if this kept up he would have to give up eventually so he decided to start his counter-attack. He waited for an opening and when Sasuke's left side was open after throwing a punch Naruto took his chance and landed a few hard hits on his exposed side. Sasuke jumped back to stop being hit and readied himself for another assault biting through the pain from the hits. Meanwhile Naruto prepared himself as well and both boys ran towards each other at the same time, their fist extended to hit the other with everything they got. They reached each other in the middle and both landed their right fist on the other's face. For a moment everything stood still and the audience, who was cheering them on until now, held their breath. Then the world went dark for them and they both collapsed on the ground.


"..ake ..p" Naruto heard a small voice through his headache.

"...ake up!" The voice became louder.

"Hey wake up you two!" Iruka's voice was clear now and Naruto opened one eye to see the outline of his teacher in his vision. He grunted and opened his other eye as well while looking around the area. Next to him Sasuke slowly got up as well grabbing his head and cursing under his breath.

"What happened?" Naruto asked.

"You and Sasuke were fighting in the tournament and you got knocked out." Iruka casually answered.

"Oh right, the fight." Naruto suddenly remembered, "So who won?"

"I did!" Hinata said with a smile.

"What?" Naruto and Sasuke asked in unison.

"Well," Iruka said, "you both got knocked out at the same time so neither of you could go on. And Hinata won her match so she was the only one left and won the final by default."

"Oh." They both said rather disappointed that their unofficial competition ended in a tie.

"Anyway," Iruka continued, "now that the first test is over we are done for today. You three can go home now and I'll expect you tomorrow at 8h30 in class."


For the next few months Naruto and Sasuke continuously tried to surpass the other and soon became the two best students of their class. Hinata still trained with Naruto and various ANBU and her skills, but mostly her self-confidence, kept increasing at an amazing pace. Soon she found herself as the best kunoichi of her class, not that there was much competition for that title, and even started catching up to Naruto and Sasuke as a close third overall.

Despite their bitter and often merciless rivalry during any sort of test, competition, trial or spar the three of them actually became quite good friends. They often hung out together and helped each other when someone had difficulty with a certain subject. As the end of their first year at the academy approached their rivalry to become the number one student went higher than ever, each with their own reasons why they couldn't lose. Finally the time came when Iruka called out their final scores. Already their class had sunk from an original 60 students to a mere 30. Only the clan-children and the best of the civilian ones remained while the others dropped out and transferred to the regular school because they couldn't handle the demanding schedule the academy demanded.

Sasuke, Naruto and Hinata sat at their usual spots waiting patiently for Iruka and Mizuki to call out their scores.

"Let's start with the girls, shall we" Mizuki said holding the list with all their scores in his hand. "Third place for the girls with 85 points is Ino Yamanaka", everyone applauded politely. "Second place with 89 points is Sakura Haruno." he continued. "And the kunoichi of the year with 96 points is Hinata Hyuga". Everyone applauded the three girls, though no one seemed too surprised at the outcome. Hinata's victory was pretty much assured from the beginning. They were much more interested in Naruto's and Sasuke's competition for first place of the boys.

"Now onto the boys." Iruka said. "On the third place with 93 points is Shino Aburame." Everyone once again applauded politely and then held their breath for the big reveal, who would win: Naruto or Sasuke?

"Second place..." Iruka began while looking at the scores. "Huh, that's weird. Mizuki are these numbers accurate?" he suddenly asked his assistant.

"Yes, all the scores are accurate." Mizuki simply stated.

"I see." Iruka said while looking at the paper in his hand.

"Oh come on!" Kiba suddenly shouted, "Don't keep us in suspense like that. Just tell us who won already, I have a bet to win!"

"Allright then." Iruka said. "The first place goes to Sasuke Uchiha..." Naruto hung his head at this news, this meant he failed: Hinata's father wouldn't allow them to train together any more now that he didn't reach first place. "... and Naruto Uzumaki." Iruka continued. Naruto's head snapped back up at this news wondering if he heard it correctly.

"What?" The entire class shouted, "what does that mean? They can't both be on first place? Can they?"

"Yes," Iruka said, "Both Naruto and Sasuke scored 98 points total. So it's a tie. They both got first place." Naruto smiled at this news. Granted it was very unorthodox, the first time in 16 years Iruka said, but shared or not first place was first place. So he and Hinata would be allowed to continue their training. Sasuke had similar hopes. Being first still counts even if you had to share the position, did it? He just hoped his father would see it like that as well.


Later that night there were several small celebrations in Konoha to congratulate those who passed their first year. Lucky for him Sasuke's father did agree that being first counted even if it was a tie. Well more specifically Sasuke's mother Mikoto said that it still counted and sent a look at her husband that dared him to disagree. He knew better than to argue, so the entire clan was invited to celebrate the success.

On the other side of town the Hyuga's held their own private celebration as well. Naruto and Kakashi were invited to join and both donned their finest kimono for the occasion. Apart from him and Hinata there was a third guest of honour at the party: Hinata's cousin Neji. He also made the top spot in his class and Hiashi insisted, despite some protest from the elders because Neji was a branch-member, that the party was in his honour as well.

Naruto quickly found that he didn't get along well with Neji or most of the Hyuga's for that matter. It seemed that Hinata's kindness and calm nature, which he liked best about her, was not a trait she shared with the rest of her family. Most of the Hyuga's, including Neji, had a serious stick up their ass and an ego the size of the Hokage monument. He always taught Sasuke had a bit of an arrogant streak if he performed really well in a certain task but now he had to reconsider that statement. Sasuke was downright humble compared to some of these guys' claims of "the superiority of the Hyuga clan" and "how lucky he was that he was allowed to train alongside a prodigy of the main house". Even Neji couldn't help but rub in that Naruto had to share his first place position while he was the undisputed best of his class. Luckily Hinata seemed to share his discomfort at the boasting of her family and they even joked about it a few times when the rest of the Hyuga's weren't listening.

Eventually the night came to a close and he and Kakashi returned home. He said they were allowed to rest for the rest of the week and the training sessions would begin again the following week, when they started their second year at the academy. Naruto was a little disappointed when he found out that students at the academy did not get a real vacation like the kids in the regular school. Iruka said that their skills would deteriorate too much if they didn't practice regularly. He explained that missions and enemies didn't stop because it was a holiday so ninjas had to get used to working around the year and they started this philosophy in the academy.


After their week off the students returned to the academy for their second year. Mostly things continued on as usual with Naruto and Sasuke constantly trying to one-up the other in every test, spar or training exercise. Hinata kept improving as well and soon secured her third place and then slowly began catching up until she eventually started winning several of the unofficial competitions as well.

Eventually they also started on their first ninjutsu-lessons. Naruto started fantasizing about breathing fire or summoning lightning and was thoroughly disappointed when Iruka started with a theoretical lesson about chakra theory and how to mould and gather it. He was even more disappointed when he said the only jutsus they would learn in the academy were the transformation jutsu, the substitution jutsu and the clone jutsu. The other jutsus were only available once they actually became Genin, since they didn't want to just let anyone have access to destructive techniques.

He quickly discovered two facts. One he had a lot of chakra, even more than Iruka had apparently. But as a result of this his actual control, which according to Mizuki was more important than just having raw chakra-reserves, was the worst of the class. He compared it to trying to fill a teaspoon with a bathtub of water, he was more likely to wash the entire spoon away than come anywhere close to the impossibly small amount he needed to isolate. Luckily Kakashi foresaw that this might become a problem so he started working Naruto on the leaf-balancing exercise every day until, after a few weeks of improving his control, he managed to isolate enough of his reserves to use the transformation jutsu and the substitution jutsu without too much trouble. The clone jutsu remained difficult though and he could only do it when he was extremely concentrated. Kakashi simply said that he should keep on improving his chakra control until it was good enough.


8 months into their second year:

"Hey, Hinata have you seen Sasuke today?" Naruto asked his friend.

"No, it looks like he didn't show up." Hinata answered.

"You think he is sick?" Naruto asked.

"Maybe, we should visit him after class then."

"Or perhaps it has something to do with all the commotion last night" Naruto said.

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked since she hadn't heard of anything happening last night.

"Well last night there was a general alarm in the ANBU-headquarters," Naruto explained, "they summoned every available ANBU to the mission room. Apparently something really big must have happened. For a minute I taught Konoha was invaded or something."

"Really?" Hinata asked in surprise. She already learnt a few things about how the ANBU worked and a general alarm was only issued for the most important events. "Perhaps we can ask Kakashi-sensei later?"

"I doubt it," Naruto said, "if it's secret ANBU-stuff he won't talk. Not even to us."

"yeah I guess," Hinata said, "Oh look Iruka-sensei is finally here."

Iruka had indeed entered the classroom with a defeated look on his face. The entire class noticed something was up when instead of Mizuki it was the director of the school who entered the classroom alongside Iruka. Even Shikamaru opened his eyes and started paying attention. "Attention everyone," the director started, "classes have been dismissed for the rest of the week. Your parents have been notified and they will come pick you up shortly."

The kids started talking amongst themselves until Sakura raised her hand and asked the question on everyone's lips. "What happened? Why are classes cancelled?"

Iruka looked at the director asking a silent question to which the director gave a short nod. "Last night," Iruka began, "the Uchiha-clan has been massacred inside their compound by an unknown assailant."

The entire classroom exploded at that statement, everyone started talking and bombarded Iruka and the director with several questions until Naruto asked the one they all needed to know. "Is Sasuke okay?"

"Sasuke is alive," the director said to everyone's relief, "but he is in a coma and is now being monitored at the hospital. So far he is the only known survivor." Before the kids could ask other questions the director excused himself and left the room, he was going to have to repeat this talk with the other classes as well and did not look forward to it.

When they left the school Naruto and Hinata were awaited by Ko and Kakashi, who looked like he hadn't slept at all last night. "Since you are his friends the Hokage allowed you to visit Sasuke." Kakashi said. "Follow me."

"Your father has agreed, lady Hinata" Ko said with a sympathetic smile.

The three of them followed Kakashi to the hospital and they walked into a secure ward until they arrived at a door guarded by three ANBU. Inside Sasuke was lying on a bed, his eyes were open but they looked glassy and he didn't respond to anything. The Hokage was standing next to the bed talking to a doctor "As you can see this isn't a regular coma." the doctor said. "physically speaking he is perfectly fine and a Yamanaka confirmed that he does show signs of normal brain activity, something a regular coma-patient doesn't have."

"So what do you think this is then?" The Hokage asked.

"It looks like he is trapped in a genjutsu," the doctor answered, "but we never saw anything this strong. Not even the Kurama-clan has any idea what caused this or how to undo it."

"Any ideas how to get him out of it?"

"no, only someone like lady Tsunade could break through a case like this." The doctor said in defeat.

"So what does that mean exactly? He will be like this forever?" The Third asked worried.

"no," the doctor explained, "the technique, though extremely powerful, is sill limited by its initial chakra supply which is slowly running out. After a while it will start to lose power and he will wake up himself, but that could very well take a few weeks at this point."

meanwhile Naruto and Hinata had entered the room and stood by Sasuke's motionless body. Hinata was softly crying at the sight of their friend in such a state and Naruto put his arm around her shoulder to try and calm her down. In the meantime he subconsciously reached for Sasuke's hand for his own emotional support when he felt a sudden pulse emanating from his stomach before the world went black.

Everyone watched in horror as Naruto suddenly dropped to the floor, his eyes just as glassy as Sasuke's. Hinata lost all self-control and started crying loudly when her other friend collapsed as well. Ko immediately rushed over to calm her down while Kakashi went to Naruto. He lifted his shirt and saw to his horror that the seal on his stomach was fully activated.

"Does that mean what I think it means?" he asked the Hokage who was kneeling besides him studying the seal.

"I'm afraid so, the seal responded to the technique and dragged Naruto inside the genjutsu." the Third said.

"So now what?" Kakashi asked.

"With Naruto in there as well the technique will burn through its reserves a lot faster, especially if it wants to compensate for his..." he looked at Hinata, who was still crying but paid attention nonetheless, "...unusual condition." he finished. "At the very least they aren't alone, they can support each other now." the Third said, "we can only wait and trust them to make it out of their own at this point."


inside the mindscape:

Naruto woke up inside the Uchiha-district at the middle of the night. He started wandering the empty streets until he heard a deafening scream further ahead. He rushed over and saw Itachi Uchiha going through the district killing everyone he met while Sasuke was strapped to a cross being forced to watch the scene replay itself over and over while he was crying and begged his brother to stop.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled at his friend who suddenly looked up at the person who yelled his name.

"Na-Naruto? Is that really you?" he asked with his eyes still red from crying.

"Yes, I'll get yo down from there." Naruto said, "don't move."

Sasuke suddenly started laughing, slowly at first but then he let everything out. "Don't move," he said to no one in particular, "I'm trapped and immobile and he tells me not to move!" Sasuke kept laughing. He knew it was stupid, he knew he shouldn't be laughing right now but he just couldn't help it. His mind was too tired and tormented to make sense any more so he just let out everything without caring about the situation.

Meanwhile Naruto was standing behind him looking at the cross and cursed a little, apparently getting Sasuke free wasn't as easy as he taught it would be. The world he found himself in didn't play by the rules. For one he never saw anything that kept Sasuke trapped in the first place, for all he could see the cross was an illusion itself. Thinking about what they learned in the academy about dispelling genjutsu, because it was a genjutsu that much he could detect, he tried to mould his chakra and let it out in a pulse.

"release!" he shouted. He taught he saw the world flicker for a bit but it ended as soon as it started and he once again looked at the Uchiha-district at night. He tried again but this time the world didn't even flicker when he released his chakra.

"Naruto, what are you doing? Get me down from here already!" Sasuke shouted.

"I'm trying dammit, but I can't seem to break through this illusion. They never let us practice on one this strong at the academy!" Naruto shouted back.

"okay okay, now let's focus. What does the manual say when you can't dispel it yourself?" Sasuke seemed to regain his composure.

"If you find yourself trapped in an illusion you cannot break out of you can dispel it by having an ally enter his chakra in your system, the outside flow will disturb the genjutsu's own flow and dispel it." Naruto droned the lesson he learned from Iruka.

"Let's try that, pour your chakra in my body and it should release me." Sasuke said. Naruto nodded and placed his hand on Sasuke's back, he poured some of his chakra in his friends body and to their relief it seemed to work as the cross he was hung up on suddenly disappeared and Sasuke fell down.

"Allright it worked!" Naruto shouted.

"Not really," Sasuke pointed out "we got rid of the cross but we are still inside this illusion as a whole."

Naruto looked around and noticed that they were indeed still inside the Uchiha-district where Itachi kept going through the motions as if nothing happened. He even stopped to talk at the now empty cross, apparantly not realizing his brother has been freed. "He must have left you with nothing but a pre-recorded message," Naruto reasoned , "without him here to adjust to changes the illusion can't adapt and keeps on playing the same scene again and again."

"But how do we break it?" Sasuke asked.

"Well I tried dispelling it before and it seemed to work for a second." Naruto pondered, "Maybe if we both try at the same time we can break through it."

They both focussed their chakra and released it at the same time. "Release!" The world around them flickered again and for half a second they found themselves in what appeared to be a sewer. They saw a set of eyes looking up at them from behind a giant cage before they were suddenly thrown back into the illusion of the Uchiha-compound.

"What was that?" they both asked at the same time. "Did it work or not? And what was that sewer about?" Suddenly the world around them started shaking as if a giant earthquake hit Konoha. They looked up and saw that the very sky started cracking open and red tendrils made of chakra poured inside the illusion destroying it from the inside out. The world started flickering again, as if the illusion refused to be dispelled but soon the chakra tendrils broke completely through and the world crumbled to pieces under the strain.

Naruto and Sasuke found themselves being thrown inside the sewer again and looked up to see all the chakra tendrils retreat into the cage they came from. They gasped as they saw who their rescuer was. Before them in all its glory stood an enormous fox with nine distinct tails swinging behind him looking down at the two of them.

"And what do we have here?" his booming voice filled the room. "Does my host finally grant me a visit?" he chuckled before looking at Sasuke. "An Uchiha!" the fox suddenly roared, "What is a member of that accursed clan doing here?" he demanded.

"What are you talking about?" Naruto shouted back, "who are you and what are you doing here? Are we still under the genjutsu?"

The giant fox started laughing. "Sure, I'll tell you everything. Now why don't you remove that seal over there," he pointed to a piece of paper on the gate with the kanji for seal on it "so we can talk more freely, huh?"

"Do you think we are stupid?" Sasuke suddenly interrupted, "We aren't going to release you! You're obviously a demon!"

"Hah! At least one of you has a brain!" the Fox said.

"Just answer our questions dammit!" Naruto snapped, "who are you and what are you doing here."

"You mean you really don't know?" the Fox asked incredulous, "Surely your Hokage must have told you who you are? Why do you think you heal so fast? Or why you have such outrageous chakra reserves for a human?"

Sasuke curiosity was peeked now, he did always wonder how Naruto, supposedly a clanless orphan, was so good or had so much chakra.

"Stop playing games and tell us what you know" Naruto demanded again.

"You got guts kid, I like that. Very well then," the Fox said, "I'll humour you once. I am the Kyuubi, the nine-tailed demon Fox and greatest of all the demons!"

"Kyuubi?" Naruto and Sasuke shouted in disbelief, "But that can't be. You're dead!"

"Of course I am the Kyuubi!" the fox roared, displeased that they wouldn't believe him, "How many other giant foxes with nine tails do you know of?"

"But why are you alive? Didn't the Fourth Hokage kill you eight years ago?" Sasuke asked.

"You idiots! You cannot kill a demon for I am immortal! Even if I am defeated I would simply reform myself over time" The Kyuubi said quite proudly.

"Then what are you doing here?" Naruto asked, "and why did you save us?"

"I grow tired of your questions." The Kyuubi said, "ask that leader of yours, he knows the answers. And as for why I saved you two? Let's just say you are useless to me as a brain-dead puppet. Now leave me alone." The fox laid its head down and started to rest.

Naruto and Sasuke seemed unsure of what to do and decided to try and wake up.

Suddenly Naruto started blinking and looked up at the white ceiling of the hospital, he groaned and slowly stood up from the bed and looked around. Next to him Sasuke started waking up as well, but unlike Naruto he seemed to have more difficulty orienting himself.

"You're awake!" the two of them suddenly found themself tightly embraced by a crying Hinata, "I was so worried about you."

"Hinata, stop hugging so tight, I can't breath!" Sasuke said, while his face started colouring purple. Hinata let go of them and merely smiled seeing them move again.

"Naruto, Sasuke, I'm glad to see you two are fine." The voice of the Hokage suddenly interrupted, "would you mind telling us what happened?"

Sasuke started talking about everything that happened the night before, how Itachi killed the clan and had a "weird sharingan I never saw before", and then placed him in an illusion where he had to watch his clan being killed all over again until Naruto suddenly appeared.

Naruto took over and discussed how he managed to free Sasuke. The Hokage listened intently but his face paled when Naruto finally said the one thing he was afraid of: "... and he said he was the Kyuubi, but why was the Kyuubi there and why did he save us? He said you knew the answer."

Kakashi and the Hokage looked at each other not sure what to do while Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata, who heard everything, looked at them with a questioning look. "This isn't the time and place to discuss this." the Hokage finally said, "come to my office tomorrow and I'll explain everything. In the meantime you two should rest..." he pointed at Naruto and Sasuke who were finally beginning to feel how tired their bodies were, "...and you should return to your family, they must be worried as well." he said to Hinata.

The three of them nodded and the Hokage left the room, he had a lot of explaining to do tomorrow and he did not look forward to it.


A/n:

Our nine-tailed friend makes himself known at last. How will they react to this news? WIll Sasuke be okay? Does Kakashi still read porn? all these questions will be answered in the next chapter which as usual will appear on monday two weeks from now.

For those wondering about Sasuke's non-emo attitude: the majority of this chapter takes place prior to the Uchiha-clan massacre so canon says he was still a normal kid at that point in time and since Itachi speaks highly of Naruto it is not far-fetched that they would start hanging out IMHO.

But his emotional problems will be addressed next chapter, though with Naruto as a friend to support him he will not go full emo on us like he did in canon.

Anyway next chapter is the Genin exam and team distributions. You will also see the first real techniques showing up.

please R&R