Naruto jumped into the clearing a red blur to the inexperienced eye, claws slashing at the weird snake-like genin that twisted unnaturally out of the way. Naruto's feet landed and he pounced forward once again, raking his hands through the air, trying to hook into the snake genin, who once again was able to bend out of the way and leap backwards. Naruto's attack speed didn't let the genin get a attack in, but giving it all he had, he still couldn't hit the son of a bitch.

Naruto changed tactics, and on his next pounce instead of charging hands first, he dived, hands pushing of the ground, legs slamming into the snake genin's stomach. Naruto recovered first and wrapped his legs around the genin, already curling his body upward, striking with his hands into the genin's unprotected face. Only to find that not only was the genins face already out of range, but that he had some how slithered out of Naruto's grip in the half a second his eyes were off his opponent. A kunai slashed at his face and Naruto flung himself backward, his back hit the ground and his hands found a good grip on the ground. Swinging his legs upward, he managed to recover a decent stance, only to find once again he was under attack.

Naruto moved into the wide swept attack, getting to close to the snake genin to use his kunai effectively, while shortening the already small range Naruto's claws had to travel to reach his enemy. Naruto thrusted his claws up and under the genins ribcage, doing as much internal damage as possible. He looked into the genin's eyes only for the face to shift into rock. Naruto cursed as he could of sworn he felt flesh for at least the first inch. The genin was leaning against a tree, looking totally unscathed. "Kukuku" Naruto looked at his fingers and chest, and though he couldn't find any trace of blood anywhere on his person that would leave him to believe he had actually scored a hit, to his enhanced senses, he could detect the faintest hint of blood and burnt flesh, it was very, very, faint, but there.

Sasuke broke his line of thought. "Look, I will give you the scroll, take it and leave us alone." It looked like Sasuke, it even talked like Sasuke, but it certainly didn't act or smell like him. Something was very wrong here.

"Kukuku, you have grasped one of the finer laws of nature, the only way for pray to escape the predator, is to give it a different meal. I accept your deal, give me the scroll, and I'll leave you alone." Naruto could hear the implications in that statement. If you assumed the snake was being truthful, which was far fetched, he didn't necessarily guarantee their safety. He could do whatever he wanted before he left them alone, perhaps they would be alone in death, left to rot, or maybe he would get his jollies off of injuring them, maybe even permanently. And besides that,You could be singular or plural, he might leave Sasuke alone, but Sakura, or at the very least himself, would be a different story.

Sasuke threw the scroll to the genin, the strange chakra left him, leaving his woozy, but even so Naruto knew what he had to do. Naruto leaped and grabbed the scroll, touching down next to Sasuke. Sasuke opened his mouth to say something, but Naruto beat him to the punch. He did that by socking him in the face. "I don't know who you are, but you arn't Sasuke, the Sasuke I know doesn't act or smell like a scared child about to wet himself. So there's no way a coward like you, is my comrade. I may not know exactly how strong this guy is, but what guarantee is there that he will stand by his very vague and ambiguous promise? You are the one too freaked out to understand the situation.

A clapping sound came from behind Naruto, and Naruto spun, kunai at the ready. "Naruto-Kun, you are correct. Why give up my fun, since I could just kill you and take the scroll anyway without any consequences." Naruto nodded, the genin started running through hand-signs, Naruto knew instantly that it was a summoning Jutsu, Naruto darted forward to stop him. Naruto had really layed on the speed and was already right on top of him when the jutsu finished. A giant tail appeared in front of him that Naruto didn't even have time to get his hands up in time to block. It slammed into him, Naruto reinforced his back with chakra and forced some out behind himself to cushion the many branches he ended up smashing through. About fifty feet back he slammed into the trunk of a tree. He had at least four broken ribs and a punctured lung from the tail alone, his spine felt like it had been two more branches away from snapping in half.

He hadn't even rebounded off the tree yet and the snake was already on top of him. Before Naruto lost contact with the tree, he overpowered the chakra sticking jutsu by about a hundred times near his legs, he unleashed it with perfect timing to throw himself in the correct arc to spin through the air, upwards to the genin, who for the first time since the fight had started, face actually showed surprise. Naruto's forward backflip brought the front of his feet into direct contact with the underneath of the genin's chin. The genin went flying as Naruto finished his spin standing on the snakes head. Breathing heavily, he primed all the explosives he had on him, and attached them quickly all around the snakes eyes. He had just finished placing the last one, and primed the explosives, when a very very fast moving hand collided with his stomach, Naruto was sent flying through the air, his lunch leaving a trail behind him.

The snake exploded, leaving parts of the head all over the place. Naruto looked towards the remains only to find a glowing a very, very, pissed off shinobi standing almost exactly where he had been standing. Naruto knew the genin hadn't made it through that blast unscathed, but he couldnt figure out what had happened. Naruto once again hit a tree, rebounding off of it and hitting the floor a few short seconds later. Pain and nausea overwhelmed him, and he knew he had at best only seconds left to remain conscience. He looked back towards the genin, and found his vision blocked by the remains of a very charred and mangled hand. His mind couldn't connect the pieces as his mind spun. A thud landed next to him and a comforting warmth spread from the source of the thud. The shrieks and screams of metal flying through the air and colliding with more metal could be heard. Not that any of that mattered anymore... Darkness had taken Naruto's world.

I see, you have reached the crossroads, have may I be of assistance young one?

Where am I?

Where do you think you could be after suffering such wounds?

Am I dead?

Not currently, Data suggests that none of your injuries are enough to kill you, the fox has already dealt with the near fatal wounds and is working on the more hindering ones.

Then I must be in my mind?

That is one of the possibilities that corresponds with current data.

So why are you here?

To receive data and give information.

Again, why?

Insufficient data, to many possible answers.

What are you?

I am you. The only other possibility is something inside you, or else I could not be in your mind. The fact I am not trying to kill you states I am not something inside you, therefor I am you.

Where are you getting your data from?

I have six sources, each of which help me to interpret data and turn it into useful information.

And they are what?

Sight, Hearing, Smell, Touch, Taste, and Memory.

Why am I here?

Query Insufficient.

Damn it, I mean why am I trapped in my mind?

Damage of mental integrity and critical injuries have lead to a crossroads in the variables that decide how to avert the current crisis

In English?

We do not know who we are, and we are using the time granted by such injuries to sort ourselves out. If we had time, we would do this at a later point in the future, but current events are outside our control, and are in need of our influence.

ENGLISH DAMN IT!

If we do not act, our friends will die. How we act must be determined.

WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN THEY WILL DIE!

Sakura was crouched beside Sasuke and him, she was currently applying a wet compress to Sasuke's forehead, one was already places on his head. The three Sound Shinobi stepped into the clearing. "Up all night? Well it's no longer necessary, wake up Sasuke-Kun, we want to fight him."

Sakura reached for a kunai. "What are you talking about? I know that someone named Orochimaru is pulling the strings from the shadows! WHAT IS HIS PURPOSE? What is this weird mark on Sasuke-Kuns neck? You did this to him, and now you want to fight him?"

The three drew closer. "After hearing that, we can't let you go. I'll kill this girl and the Uchiha boy.

"Wait Zaku... You know, you are not very good. A recently overturned stone, different colored dirt, grass doesn't grow here, and you arn't trying to stall us or getting defensive. There is a booby trap in front of us isn't there?" There was silence "That is what I thought, well since we have no use for the girl, let's kill her." The trio jumped into the air, Sakura let out a sigh of relief as she cut a string. A giant log swung threw the air, in perfect trajectory with the sound trio. The one in the middle swung his arm and blew it up, only for the log splinters to blow up once again, as hidden paper bombs turned the already broken up log into a giant fragment grenade. The second guy brought his arms up, sending as much of the shrapnel away as he could, but all suffered minor wounds and were blown back away from Sakura.

Right back into the original trap, the ground beneath them collapsed and they fell into a spike filled trench. In they had suffered the full explosion, there was no way they would have recovered in time as it was, they managed to prevent getting skewered. Sakura, though exhausted was already on top of them, successfully bringing her fist down onto the opposing Konochi's head. The blow was more than enough to knock the girl out. Sakura tried to get to the other two, but they had already drawn kunai and attacked her from either side. They leapt to kill her, and Naruto feared the worse.

Bringing us back into deep mode, that was a scene of current events based on the data from Hearing, Smell, Touch, and Memory. As you can see, we are running out of time.

What can I do to save her?

As we are now, we can not even bring yourself back into conscience long enough to do anything of substance.

As I am now?

We have reached a certain point where our data center can be vastly improved. The permanent activation of our bloodline. However, in order to make the transition, we must write three pillars into our brain. These pillars will decide how much room we can give to data, deciding our processing and recall abilities. The pillars will protect what is essentially us. The better the pillars describe us, the smaller our self part can be, allowing the data processing to take up the rest.

So I'm sacrificing part of myself to give me the power necessary to save my friends.

The sooner we have the pillars, the sooner our recovery, which is for the best. So now we must think, what describes us, three principles that will forever decide our future. They can be anything, but the weaker the principle, the less room we will have for data processing.

I can give you the first one easily, I am a Guardian, my existence to protect my precious people.

Accepted, first pillar constructed.

LB!

A/N Oh god I want to continue writing so badly, I have been waiting to get to this point for awhile now. Ok so it wasn't intended to start now, it was supposed to come during the finals while fighting Neji, in a attempt to defeat him, but I had the opening, the time and the incredible need to write it.

Also, to further explain, Naruto's injuries, the rush of information, and the power of the fox have combined to fracture Naruto's mental strength, leaving him in a meditative healing state. In this state, his senses have vastly increased, as well as his mental speed. He has subconsciously decided that he needs to be stronger, and his head has created a scenario that would allow him to do so.. He's currently condensing all that he can to increase his capacity to process data. Since his mind was already using almost all available space, the only thing left was the corner of his mind that is essentially him. His mind is essentially going to wipe out part of himself, and leave only the parts that have been defined as necessary to his survival, as if he is not himself, how could he live?

It might be key to note that I picture Naruto as partially insane at this point. Who else but a insane person would kill part of themselves to become stronger? I had originally wanted to give Naruto more time to show his insanity, but circumstances, desire, and a lack of ideas of how to show that insanity have all contributed to this decision.

Let it also be noted that he had achieved the permanent state when the kyuubi gave him chakra, I'm not sure that came across though.

There will be side effects from this event, of course.

Yes, in my story, this has happened to his father.

On a side note not relating to the actual story, Orea-With-Milk is my new beta, and her services are available so long as you pay her with story credit and a good PR in her favor. At least that's my deal with her.

Also, Thank you once again to everyone who reviewed, it means a lot to me!