I do not own Naruto

The Nightmare

Naruto opened his eyes to the familiar catacombs of his mind. He knew he had been here many times, but he also knew he was asleep. What's going on? Naruto thought. I have never come here when I was asleep before, I didn't even know I could. Instinctively he began walking down the twisting corridors towards the very reason he had to leave his home and his life behind him-the Kyuubi.

"RELEASE ME BOY!!" A demonic voice echoed in the darkness. "I GROW TIRED OF THIS INFERNAL PRISON. RELEASE ME AND I WILL GRANT YOU ALL MY POWER, THE POWER TO BEND ALL MORTALS TO YOUR WILL." the words reverberated off the walls as Naruto came face to face with the prison door and monstrous being within.

"What do you want you damn fox, I'm trying to sleep." said Naruto defiantly even as waves of fear washed over him.

"THE MORTALS FEAR ME…THEY FEAR YOU AS THEY SHOULD TAKE DOWN THE SEAL AND WE WILL HAVE OUR REVENGE. I FEEL IT WEARING DOWN LITTLE BY LITTLE WITH EACH PASSING DAY. YOU CANNOT STOP IT BOY IF YOU RELEASE ME NOW YOU WILL BECOME A PART OF ME. DEFY ME AND I WILL CUT DOWN ALL THOSE YOU LOVE BEFORE DEVOURING YOUR VERY SOUL!" stated the shadowy form of the fox as he stared down at his host.

"Why the hell should I let you out? You'll just kill us all, besides I don't respond well to threats stupid fox." yelled Naruto as he looked up at the beast.

"MARK MY WORDS HUMAN; WHEN I BREAK FREE I WILL DESTROY YOU. YOUR PITIFUL MIND CANNOT IMAGINE THE POWER YOU ARE SHUNNING…I THINK I WILL SHOW YOU NOW."

The fox began to laugh as a dark red aura silhouetted him and flooded onto Naruto. Wave after wave of chakra and raw power washed over Naruto. He was loosing himself to the power. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he was still asleep but every inch of his body felt like it was on fire, and yet he felt so alive.

"No…it's…too…much, I have to stop it….have to wake up…" Naruto screamed as blackness began to close he bolted up and awake. "Damn…there has to be time, I can't give up." He felt a burning sensation on his abdomen and lifted his shirt. There was the seal that kept the kyuubi in check. It dimly glowed red for a minute before turning back into its usual black color and disappearing.

That's another thing that's never happened before. thought Naruto. He looked up at the sky and decided to get back to sleep. The morning was going to bring enough trouble even if he was fully rested.

Sakura stared up at the sky as she laid just by the fire of team seven's camp. "Why is this happening? Why am I going through this nightmare all over again? Sasuke…Naruto…how could they just leave me behind without a second thought?" she turned over on her mat and thought about everything that had happed the past few hours

Team 7 had raced along the road following Naruto's trail until just after midday. "Wait," called Pakkun. "something is wrong. Naruto's trail suddenly splits here. It seems to be heading in every direction at once. I can't tell which way he actually went." admitted the pug.

Kakashi look around and sighed. "My guess is that he went in all of those directions. He must have known that he would be followed, and he really doesn't want to be found." The silver-haired Jounin looked around His trail originally went South, and then he changed direction and headed northwest. Now his trail splits up and heads in every direction at once. He truly is unpredictable, but he is way too wreakless, and if we don't catch up to him soon it may be too late. thought the Jounin. Suddenly an idea popped into his head.

"Pakkun gather the rest of the pack and split up in the eight main compass directions we may not be able to make a thousand copies of ourselves like Naruto, but I can make eight shadow clones no problem. Most of his scent trails are close enough together to track at the same time between us we should be able to find which ones are fake. I doubt they go very far." said Kakashi.

"Sakura, Yamato, you too wait hear. We will meet back here when we know which trail is the real thing." said Kakashi as he left with his dogs.

"Hai." said the two Ninja in unison. Kakashi and his dogs split off from the group and began covering the directions of as many trails as possible. "Yamato-sensei, what if we don't find him? What if we're too late?" asked Sakura.

"Don't worry everything will be fine. Naruto isn't like Sasuke. He left because he thinks it's the only way to protect us. When we find him…and we will find him, I'm sure we will be able to convince him he was wrong, and get him to come back with us." said Yamato as he smiled at Sakura. I just hope Naruto is still Naruto when we find him Yamato thought to himself.

A few hours passed by before Kakashi returned. "Well, I'm afraid we Underestimated Naruto again those trails go on for miles, and since he used shadow clones, any one could be the real thing." said Kakashi. "On top of that I burned through most of my chakra keeping my clones active for so long."

'We should just make camp here for the night, we'll have to decide what to do in the morning." said Yamato. "Naruto used up a lot of chakra to pull off that little stunt, and from his letter, it seems like he's going after Sasuke so I doubt he will get too far ahead of us."

Sakura sighed again and tried to close her eyes. We'll figure things out tomorrow, we just have to. she thought. Suddenly she heard a noise and looked up.

Yamato had bolted upright from his reclined position against a tree. "Everyone I just sensed the kyuubi's chakra…its quite ways off, it must be extremely intense for me to feel it at this distance. I know where Naruto is…"