Author Note: Disclaimer, no contents of Naruto have been thought up or invented by me. This is purely a work of fan fiction and is not meant for promotional or finical endeavors. This is meant to be made in respect and admiration for Massashi Kishimoto's series and all the content of Naruto are property of Massashi Kishimoto. Please respect the fans, and fandom of the series by remaining polite and open minded while reading.

The sun shined. The heat of its wonderful rays held at bay by a pleasant northwestern breeze.

Birds sang and flew about the cloudless sky – their mirth and energy seemingly endless as the surrounding trees.

Naruto was sitting on hard packed dirt with the three members of the Haimaru Brothers casually cozying up far closer to him than he felt was necessary – even if the nin-dogs were technically his guards right now.

Taking a moment to glare at the animals surrounding him the former-blond was a bit offended that they didn't seem to take their job serious enough to not sit around relaxed as can be with their tongues lolling out of their mouths.

Ignoring the Inuzaka's hounds despite their disrespect Naruto looked down the road he was currently sitting on and at the tall but familiar walls of Konohagakure. He had been switching between staring at the walls with the utmost wistfulness to ignoring them all together for over an hour now.

Which, as the young shinobi felt his eye begin to twitch in frustration once again, was precisely the problem.

Taking his eyes off the walls once more he looked around at the escort that had hurried him away from the Land of Waves and set a harsh, breakneck pace all the way to their current location – barely three-hundred yards away from the gates to his long time home.

The leader of the group – the Inuzuka that Naruto was pretty sure was Kiba's sister – had posted herself a few arm lengths away against a large tree and hadn't said a word since ordering everyone to stop. Instead she seemed to be completely happy just watching the small amount of foot traffic that was making its way to the city pass them by.

The Hyuuga had only responded to the order to stop in a clipped tone and a single word of affirmation and then found a nicely shaded tree situated behind Naruto. He had been meditating completely silently ever since.

Scars-for-eyebrows on the other hand -

"Oi. Buzzcut." The swordswoman's voice cracked out as she rocked back and forth on her heels from where she squatted in front of Naruto.

The short haired, former-blond knew his eye was twitching now and it only made things worse as the Haimaru Brothers all looked at him at once and he absolutely was convinced they were silently laughing at him.

"Buzzcut. Hey." The katana wielding chuunin clapped her hands together lightly as a smirk crossed her face. Naruto looked up and could see the woman going to open her mouth again and only sighed in response.

"You dye your hair with blood or somethin' or is it naturally red?" The swordswoman asked her question as smoothly as she could draw her blade – which she had already done sometime ago and had been intermittently tapping the broadside against her thigh.

Naruto for his fault almost managed to face fault in response to the question despite the fact that he was already sitting down. He opened and closed his mouth a few times with a confused look on his face.

"Don't say anything." Inuzuka Hana's voice cut out across the conversation. The tone was level and there was no question that it had been a command and not advice.

Naruto sighed again as the nin-dogs once more silently enjoyed his frustration.

"That ain't no fun." Scar-face mumbled to herself with another rock followed by a thwack as the blade came down lightly against her leg.

Naruto's hands squeezed around his knees as he bottled his frustration from this odd waiting game up inside of himself. The woman across from him certainly wasn't helping things and the fact that she kept calling him "Buzzcut" despite his hair not being that short was certainly annoying.

Then the swordswoman sighed similar to the manner her captive had been doing earlier and stood up. She arced her back and stretched and somewhere during that motion her weapon managed to be sheathed in its scabbard slung across her back.

"Oi. Hideaki." The woman shouted towards the Hyuuga meditating behind Naruto. When he didn't respond she sighed and shook her head. "Hideaki – your wig staying on back there or are yah looking lopsided again?"

A gasping, spluttering sound came from behind the former-blond and to his right Hana sighed.

The sword-wielding chuunin just smiled triumphantly to herself and squatted back down. "You burnt off more than just his eyebrows when we fought by-the-by."

Naruto blinked. He had noticed that Captain Bland – or Hyuuga Hideaki he guessed – had been missing his eyebrows but he had just imagined it was some odd fashion choice on the man's own side. The idea of the stiff Hyuuga without any hair though with his head shining in the sun... the former-blond couldn't help but laugh.

As soon as the short chuckle rolled out of his mouth the sound of mirth stopped just as suddenly. A frown spread across his face as the low but almost musical tones of his voice – the voice that he had, but wasn't his – rang out and reminded him of how lost he was.

It wasn't even that he had somehow ended up on the wrong side of fifty-percent of the human population. That wouldn't have stopped him – not as long as he had continued to be himself. Instead it was that he was something else... someone that didn't exist and had no place to exist.

All this time spent sitting outside what had been his own home waiting on something completely unknown when every other time in his life -

Every other time before he had died he had never even considered there to be an option other than being able to just walk right into his home.

Naruto realized that he was sniffing softly and that he could feel tears building up behind his eyes. He shifted his body and brought his legs up defensively in front of his chest. The fifteen year old ninja folded his arms and rest them across his knees. His head hid itself behind the small fortress he had made of himself.

Inuzuka Hana, Hyuuga Hideaki, Kita Akira, and even the Haimaru Brothers all looked away as the red-headed shinobi they had 'captured' quietly cried.

Even after all the tears he had had had flown Naruto kept his head down and buried in his arms. He didn't care how much time had passed and he didn't care to look at anything anymore – he had done plenty of that already since everything had begun.

He just wanted to fold in on himself and take comfort in the fact that despite everything he was there and knew who he was.

It was therefore a big surprise when he felt a hand land on his shoulder and shake him gently. Startled Naruto looked up to find himself looking directly into the sharp face of a Konoha-nin that hadn't been part of the group with him earlier.

The man had a strong jaw and sharp cheek bones. His hair was flaxen blond and held back away from his face in a high tail. The green eyes looking direcly into Naruto's own seemed to perfectly match the smile that was on the older man's face.

Despite his friendly appearance Naruto stilled pulled back from the man and glanced around seeing that his escort had not only been joined by just this one newcomer but also a cell of four cloaked and masked ANBU.

"You alright sweetheart?" The man in front of Naruto spoke and squeezed his shoulder in a gesture of comfort. The actions made Naruto shuffle uncomfortably but also brought his attention squarely back to the blond shinobi. "They told me you've been like this for over an hour now."

Naruto didn't respond, but instead concentrated on the rest of the man's appearance. While he had on the standard flak-jacket and head protector he also had a sleeveless, deep red haori layered over the top of the standard issue green vest.

The man simply continued to smile and waited as the red-haired nin scanned his features and wardrobe.

The whole ensemble pulled together with his facial features kept tickling at the back of Naruto's mind and he knew he had to know who this person was.

Yamanaka Inoichi.

Naruto froze as Sakura's voice provided the answer for who was before him. He knew the shock was showing on his face, but didn't care as his mind raced forward to all the things that would happen if Ino's father got inside of his head and saw what things were really like inside of him.

It wouldn't be good – it couldn't be good.

"You're here to look inside my head." Naruto bit out and frowned as he was unable to keep the nervousness outside of his voice.

The smile dropped off Inoichi's face and he nodded as he pulled his hand away from the young ninja's shoulder. "I'm afraid so."

The red-headed shinobi's frown deepened. "I'm not a danger." Naruto spoke and projected as much confidence as he could.

Inoichi laughed and the smile was back on his face. He brought one hand out before him with the fingers extended fully towards the sky. "I'm afraid that's not something you can just decide for yourself sweetheart – otherwise I wouldn't have a job and none of us would have a village."

Naruto tried to think of something to say but then Inoichi's free hand was back on his shoulder and the fingers on the hand he had brought before him bent into a simple sign.

Darkness surged from all around his vision and the last thing Naruto felt was his body falling backwards.

Naruto's mind was fuzzy – not literally, but in the sense that he couldn't think. He was disoriented. He could hear two people talking and even through all the layers of cotton that seemed to be taking up rent in his skull he thought that both of the speakers had to be rather close.

They both sounded very familiar too.

Sense started to come back to his body and Naruto shivered as he found his right arm to be trailing in shallow, but cold water. His whole body seemed to be resting on cool, hard stone.

"Looks like I'm getting up finally." One voice spoke, it was by far the more familiar of the two.

The other voiced chuckled in response. The laugh managed to be both strong and gentle at the same time – for some reason the sound of it alone was comforting. "Then you'll let me have a proper conversation I assume?"

Throwing off the lethargy that kept trying to reclaim his body Naruto snapped his eyes open and sat up at the same moment. His eyes widened as he found himself in the very familiar space of the sewer that had represented the Nine-Tails's seal within himself.

Although most of it was familiar at first glance Naruto couldn't help that think that something was out of place – besides the lack of a giant demon fox that was. Looking down at the ground closest to him as he shook the cold water off his arm the red-headed shinobi was surprised to see that everything looked to be... cleaner.

Gone was the grime and rust that had covered almost everything in the space and in its place was instead odd patches and streaks of soot as if the entire place had just survived being pelted with grand fireball after grand fireball.

Shaking the introspection off his rapidly awaking mind by closing his eyes and actually shaking his head Naruto concentrated on what was important – the voice.

Opening his eyes back up he looked to see Inoichi quietly waiting with an amused smile on his face and... an uncloaked ANBU standing in front of him and seemingly making sure he didn't get too close to where Naruto was sitting.

An ANBU with short, vivid pink hair.

Sakura

At his thought the ANBU turned around – revealing a white and red mask stylized to look like a tiger – and jerked her glove covered thumb at the blond Konoha Jonin.

"Get over here idiot – or do you want us to spend the rest of our life on the side of road buried under a dog pile?" Sakura called out.

Naruto felt an entire gamut of emotions well up inside of him and the water in the sewer shivered at the force of his thoughts. Licking his lips and calming himself the red-head pushed himself up to his feet and walked over to the pair.

The ANBU Sakura nodded her head once as Naruto stopped next to her and then turned her head back to Inoichi. "Alright, I'm all here now so you can start the game geezer."

The blond shinobi lifted one eyebrow in response. "I'm pretty sure the game started quite a bit ago for me ANBU-san."

"Yeah, yeah think what you want on your own time – this is our brain that's gonna get picked right now." Sakura cut out impatiently.

Inoichi nodded and then turned his eyes onto Naruto. The man rubbed his chin and let out a "Hmmm." before turning around and pointing. "So, why exactly did you not mention this to anyone?"

Looking where Inoichi was pointing Naruto's heart almost stopped as he saw the blond-haired man was pointed at the alcove where The Kyuubi had formerly rested. The bars that had once covered the entrance seemed as if they had been half disintegrated – only a few badly bent nubs along the ceiling and the floor remaining of the once mighty gate.

"You are an Uzumaki are you not?" Inoichi's question was quiet but seemed to take up all of Naruto's world as his heart started once again. Looking into the space once more and squinting the red-headed ninja noticed that the back wall that had once been enveloped in endless darkness was now visible and had a massive spiral carved into it.

Naruto's heart felt as if it jumped up into his throat and when he turned his head away from the former-prison he found Inoichi was watching him with an expectant look on his face.

"Ye-yes, I'm an Uzumaki." Naruto responded weakly.

Inoichi nodded, the expression on his face seeming as if he had already known what the answer to the question had been. "Do you know who your parents were?"

Naruto looked down and watched as the thin layer of water in the sewer quaked again at the Jonin's new question.

"Why didn't you tell anyone you are of the Uzumaki Clan? According to Jiraiya-dono's report you seemed incapable of giving any name at all to him when questioned."

Naruto looked up and was met by Inoichi standing there still looking expectant. His face was passive and he had seemingly gone fully into whatever interrogation mode he had for these kinds of sessions. Before the young ninja could think of a response a strong arm grabbed him around the neck and pulled him close.

The ANBU Sakura had grabbed him and seeing as how they were both the same height they now stood shoulder to shoulder.

"We've been through some deep shit and have more trust issues than an out of work ANBU." Sakura responded brashly. The aggressive and confident posture that Naruto's teammate was taking reminding him nostalgically of himself in the old days and helped him to refind his own feet.

Inoichi nodded despite the response not coming from Naruto himself. "So then, since you both have taken a share of the questions, what exactly are you to each other?"

Naruto could feel Sakure shifting to respond beside him but nudged her gently and looked Inoichi directly in the eyes. "We're one person, but a team inside of our own mind."

The Elder Yamanaka frowned slightly at that but quickly went back to his neutral state. The questioning after that changed to more mundane things but came quicker and quicker. They ranged from things such as "What is your favourite food?" - which when Naruto shouted out "Ramen" automatically Sakura just sighed – to questions on how many missions had they taken as ninja if any and what rank had they been when completed.

It seemed to take hours and when Inoichi finally didn't crack out a new question as soon as the previous was answered Naruto and the ANBU Sakura were standing a bit further apart and both seemed tired but were projecting confidence.

Inoichi's face became more and more serious as the pause continued and then he nodded to himself.

"When someone lies inside their own mind certain stimuli can occur within the mindscape – especially if they are being forced to do so by a hidden seal." The Yamanaka Clan Head explained in a very no nonsense tone. "So far you have not lied to me and that speaks very well of you, but my next questions are going to be what decides if you are going to be executed on the spot or not once I release you. You would not feel pain and it would be over before you even regained consciousness."

Naruto gulped and his mouth was suddenly dry as he nodded. Next to him the ANBU-clad Sakura stiffened as she folded her arms across her chest.

"First, are you capable of using the technique known as chidori?"

Naruto nodded. "Yes."

"Did you learn it – as far as you know – from one Jonin Hatake Kakashi?"

Naruto gulped – it hadn't been him that had learned it from Kakashi so he wasn't sure how to answer the question. He opened his mouth once then twice and then finally settled on his answer as he closed his eyes. "Yes."

He didn't think anything had changed so opened his eyes again. Inoichi was simply standing there waiting and then nodded.

"You mentioned earlier completing missions as part of a genin team – what happened to your team?"

Naruto's breath caught in his throat and the entire mind space around all of them flickered and then dimmed permanently – the walls around them seemed to start to drip thin rivulets of moisture.

Sakura reached out and placed her hand on the redhead's shoulder.

"They died." Naruto croaked out.

"What happened to the village that you were apart of? Why did they not assign you a new team?"

Sakura hissed and stumbled backwards with a hand pressed to her head. She hit the stone wall behind her and slumpt down without a sound.

Then the laughter started up. Quiet it echoed throughout the entire space and started again and again until the gentle, insane giggles of Kabuto overlapped one and another in a maddening chorus.

Naruto steeled himself and squeezed his eyes shut. He could feel blood dripping down out from one of his nostrils but he didn't care. Getting through this was too important.

"They died. They all died and the village burned along side them."

"How did you survive all of that?" Inoichi's voice cut across all the chaos – an anchor in storming waters for Naruto's mind to cling to.

The redhead opened his eyes despite the fact that they had started to burn. His vision was blurry and he could barely make out his surroundings but he knew for a fact that he had started to shed tears of blood.

"I didn't. I was capture and tortured. Again and again for longer than I can remember. Flame, blade, broken bones, and broken dreams." Naruto's voice came out cold and calm. The emotions wracking his mind and soul devoid from the words he spoke.

"How did you end up in the Land of Waves?"

Naruto growled. The water in the sewer shivered one last time and then darkened until the water had been replaced by a shallow flow of blood.

"I killed." Naruto's face twisted, half a snarl of torment, half a frown of regret. "I killed everything in order to escape."

"Who killed your team?"

The walls ran red.

"Who destroyed your village?"

Every block of stone let out a horrible creak.

"Who did you escape from?"

Everything turned white in a flash as a monstrous roar – a roar worthy of heralding the end of the world – crashed across the entire mindscape. Heat, pain – everything and anything was pushed aside by the power of the noise.

Then it stopped.

Naruto was kneeling on the ground. Sakura craddled in his arms and propped up against his body. The young ANBU disguised ninja was shallow breathing in and out and showed no sign of consciousness. Naruto carefully brushed a few strands of hair away from the mask she hid her identity with.

Naruto looked up and found Inoichi standing exactly where he had been when everything had started. While the man had not moved even a single inch he face was dour and his eyes carried the heavy weight of concern.

"Orochimaru." The redhead said simply, voice as normal as if he had been discussing the weather. The young shinobi broke eye contact with Inoichi and smiled sadly as he looked down at Sakura. "I think it is time for you to wake us both up."

The Elder Yamanaka didn't say a word, but then everything turned to black.

That's chapter 10 people. The first chapter posted since I broke ten-thousand views. You guys support has been amazing and I knew I had to do this right so it took quite a bit more time than most of the other stuff.

I really hope you enjoy. It was special to me.