Naruto smiled, confused, Hinata still on his back. Right in front of him were a large group of people, all in white coats, talking to each other. He let Hinata get off and walked up to said people, leaving Sasuke and Hinata behind. One turned and looked at him, and Naruto fell to the ground.
He looked up to see a young man walking towards him, and for some reason, Naruto felt as though he knew him.
Naruto's vision blurred. He felt like he was going to vomit, and opened his mouth to tell the man so, but before he could, Kyuubi's charka (which he had felt gathering, but ignored) burst out and flew through him. This was not a bit of charka, a touch of Kyuubi's power. It was all of it.
Naruto didn't know if he screamed or not. At first he felt Kyubi's anger, after that, nothing other than pain.
For a second, Naruto tried to fight, but just as quickly he knew his control was slipping. And, for some reason, he didn't want to fight. So Kyuubi was going to kill everybody? So what? Why did he care? He didn't love any of them.
That was the last thought Naruto had for a while.
The first thing Naruto felt when he opened his eyes was anger. Kyuubi's, not his. Not that he cared. The entire world was so much brighter, and clearer, and so much sharper. It captivated him.
"THEY USED ME! ME, THE GREATEST OF ALL DEMONS!"
Naruto flinched, and put a hand to his head.
"Shut up." He muttered.
"You don't know, do you?"
"Know what?" asked Naruto, who had switched from annoyed to scared. What had the Kyuubi done?
"Do you think I'll tell you? This is just too funny."
"Hey, furball, tell me what's going on." Demanded Naruto.
After waiting a few seconds for a response, and getting none, Naruto sighed, and tried to sit up. Normally, he would have kept on demanding answers, but right now, he was just too tired.
He succeeded in sitting up, though it took a while, he was just so tired.
But then two things got through his dazed mind.
One, he was naked.
Two, his fingernails looked more like claws than fingernails.
Narutoís first reaction was a curse, and his second reaction was to wonder what the Kyuubi did.
After that though, Naruto decided he needed some clothes. Which led to him looking around.
"What..what did I do?" he asked, his voice shaky.
The entire area around him was demolished. Nothing was left standing. To make matters worse, there was blood everywhere. Well, maybe not everywhere, but close enough.
This time Naruto really did vomit.
Afterwards, he wiped his mouth on his hand, and managed to stand up, just barely.
"Hinata." he said softly. What if she had died?
But before he could really consider that, he realized something. There were shattered bits of stone around him, and natrally, some wood too. But the building he had been in was made completely of wood. Everything in Konoha was.
And if he wasn't in Konoha, where was he?
For a few seconds Naruto pondered this, but then he decided he didn't care. He was just so tired...
Naruto shook his head. He couldn't just fall asleep, not now. He had to make a list of priorities.
Finding clothes was on the top of the list. Unfortunately the only clothes around were on dead bodies.
Naruto took a deep breath, and moved towards the closest body. It was cut into pieces, and burned beyond recognition. Naruto resisted the urge to vomit again, and wondered if all the people were like this.
Eventually he shrugged.
"Not like I'll find anything hanging around here." he said under his breath.
Naruto started walking around, pausing once in a while to catch his breath. He was still tired, and even though moving around had helped, he still couldn't walk far without a rest.
As Naruto moved farther and farther out, he became even more certain this was not in Konoha. Konoha didn't have buildings this large. They just didn't exist.
He didn't have any luck with finding clothes until he found someoneís body, relatively intact.
The person was male, and his neck was snapped. Since he also wasn't affected by the fire, he was perfect. Well, except for the fact there was some blood on him.
Naruto didn't let that stop him. He felt bad about taking his clothes, but in the end, was too impatient to bother looking for someone else. Besides, he was dead, what did he care?
After he was dressed ( in a white shirt one size too big, and navy blue pants that were just a little too long) Naruto walked away from the remains of the building.
He looked up at the forest, and stood in the same spot for a minute or two. Logically, he knew that he should leave. But he knew he didn't have enough energy to get far.
As a compromise, Naruto walked a little ways into the forest, and then used charka to jump to a tree branch.
He barely made it, stumbling and almost falling when he hit the branch.
Dizzy and feeling faint, Naruto managed to get to the place where branch and tree joined out of sheer will power. After that, he fell asleep instantly.
Naruto opened his eyes again, and then threw a hand over them. The sunlight wasn't shining directly into his eyes, but it still annoyed him.
After a few seconds Naruto stood up and stretched, feeling stiff. He ignored the voice in his head that was telling to just go back to sleep. The voice sounded a bit like Kakashi, when he thought about it.
Strangely enough, he was more thirsty than hungry.
Naruto knew it wasn't the best idea, but he decided to just keep on walking until he found food, water, or civilization.
He did find a river about, say, ten minutes after he started walking, which was really very lucky for him.
After all, rivers leaded you to towns, not that Naruto knew, or cared.
He leaned down and used his hands as a makeshift cup, slurping up the water as though he thought it would disappear in the next few seconds.
After doing this, he stopped, wiped his mouth, looked down at the water, and froze.
No, it wasn't because his hair was a bright, wild orange instead of yellow. Nor was it because his eyes were now purple and not a clear cerulean blue.
Naruto noticed all of that, yes, but the reason he was so shocked was simple: his headband wasn't there.
Narutoís headband had signified a lot of things in his life, and he had only taken it off to go to bed. So, finding it missing was, to say the least, horrifying to him.
After getting over the first shock, Naruto started to notice other things that were different about him.
His hair, which had always stuck straight up still did so, but it also went out to the sides, making him look rather like an orange porcupine.
His whisker marks were thicker, bolder, and somehow more ragged, as though he got them from a large claw scratching his face.
His eyes were less round and more oval.
His teeth were sharper, and he even had little fangs, though they couldn't be seen unless he opened his mouth.
Naruto felt almost faint. He had felt strange when he woke up, but he had thought it was just because his clothes were too long for him. And before, he had been too tired to notice anything.
"Kyuubi?" he called quietly, trying to be respectful. He knew instinctively that Kyuubi was not someone he could be friends with, but who liked some respect. He wasn't sure why the Kyuubi had seemed so likeable and helpful the last time he met him, but he was certain he would not be that lucky again. Little helpful demon foxes? Must have been a dream...
Kyuubi didn't answer.
Naruto gave a frustrated sigh, and then a sharp nod.
If Kyuubi didn't tell him what was going on, he'd find out himself.
And with that thought in his mind, Naruto stood up and walked away from the river.
He was glad to have a goal again.
I've probably shocked you all into heart attacks...one because I updated (and will continue to do so) and two because I completely destroyed most of the sotry as you know it. Well, wouldn't you know, I'm evil. Feel free to ask questions...
Note: All the other chapters will be under slight revision for a while, so don't take them completely seriously.
Note #2: I need a beta. A good one, that corrects more than just grammer. Though I'd settle for one who just corrects grammer...any takers?
