Hey guys! It's been a while, but I finally got some free time to start writing again. Make sure you leave a review after reading and let me know what you guys thought! Thoughts, ideas, concerns? Leave a review or PM me and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Hope you enjoy!

~Howl's Curse

Naruto's eyes opened slowly. He felt a bit better than the day before, even if his body still ached. Ayame had already woken up and was sitting at the edge of the bed. "Sleep well?" She asked.

"Yeah." Naruto said as he sat up abruptly. 'Hopefully we weren't followed last night' He thought to himself as he gave out a yawn. Ayame grabbed some small provisions from a scroll on her belt and handed some to Naruto who perked up at the food.

After eating, the two got ready to move. "If I had to bet, the people following us aren't too far behind us by now, we'll try to lose them in the desert."

"Are you sure Naruto? People don't usually come back from there alive. Kaze no Kuni is considered the most dangerous place on the continent right now." Ayame said skeptically.

"We'll be fine, just believe in me." Naruto said with a smile.

Meanwhile at the western edge of the town

Jiraiya stood in a tree side by side with Satsuki and Konan on either side of him. They had spent most of last night trying to catch up to Naruto, and had finally followed his trail into this village. "I can't sense the Kyubi's chakra here, but maybe he left something behind. Let's split up and look for clues." Jiraiya said softly. The three headed off into different parts of town.

With Naruto and Ayame

Naruto had picked up on the proximity of the people tracking him, Konan's was the faintest due to it being spread across all of her paper, but certainly the most recognizable to the young man.

Naruto mentally scoffed, 'Konan…you're out here too?' He thought to himself. "Ayame, they're here we need to move now." He said quietly as he ushered Ayame into the forest. "Hopefully they don't-" Naruto stopped himself from continuing and threw one of the few kunai he had left at an origami butterfly watching them from the trees. It landed dead center and pinned the paper to a tree. "Shit." Was all Ayame muttered as the pair began darting through the forest full speed.

With Konan

Konan frowned, as she picked up Naruto's location. 'Chasing him like this feels wrong, but he needs help. I can help give that to him now but he won't accept it, but why? Naruto and Izumi seemed as close as could be back in Akatsuki. Which only further pushes the point that the Kyubi was making him run from this.' Then her thoughts shifted to Ayame, 'The girl was smart, just blinded by emotion. Hopefully she'll figure out that Naruto needs help and convince him to come back'.

She sent a message to Jiraiya and Satsuki. The three gave chase to Naruto and Ayame.

Kusagakure no Sato

With Izumi

Izumi had healed from her fight with the Kyubi controlled Naruto. She had a few visible scars and others that had haunted her the past few nights in a row. Due to Oriko's apprehension and a conversation with Tsunade, she had hope that the world could be saved, along with Naruto. But all that hope was riding on Naruto's capture. Right now, she was busy studying the sealing scroll that Hikari had on her. It was difficult for her to understand at first, but she had been making decent progress on perfecting it, especially with the lack of sleep.

There was still going to be some problems with Jiraiya and some of her other allies when it comes to Naruto, but she already had a plan…

With Hikari

She had spent the last few weeks attempting to break out of her cell. She didn't rely on chakra, so the suppression seals didn't really affect her, but the cell itself was too sturdy for her to break out of with just her bare hands. She was starting to give up hope of escape when she heard a guard hit the ground outside her cell.

White Zetsu jangled the keys in his hands playfully, while Black Zetsu attempted to reduce the amount of noise created by speaking instead of letting white Zetsu speak. "Hello, Hikari… We have a deal for you."

Hikari smirked madly.

Back with Izumi

A guard walked into Izumi's office panting. "Ma'am Hikari has escaped the village!" He gasped. This caused Izumi's sealing brush to veer of course. "What?!" Izumi seethed. She had been focused on Tsunade and Oriko that most of her security was away from Hikari. She should've seen this coming.

With Naruto

Naruto moved out of the way of several kunai flung by Satsuki. Several explosions toppled the tree naruto was in, knocking him to the ground. "Naruto!" Ayame yelled before she was engaged by Satsuki.

Naruto recovered quickly and leapt from the ground after hearing Jiraiya shout, "Doton: Yomi Numa!" (Earth style: Dark Swamp). Naruto was panting as he landed on the ground. 'This is not good' He thought to himself.

"Naruto, just come back to Kusa with us. Izumi and I can help you." Konan pleaded with Naruto. Even hearing Izumi's name was painful for Naruto to hear, but he grit his teeth. "I can handle it on my own with Ayame! Just leave us alone!" Naruto shouted angrily as he got into a taijutsu stance.

"We can't do that Naruto," Jiraiya said in a low tone as he also prepared to fight. Konan hesitated for a moment before dispersing into a storm of paper surrounding Naruto and Jiraiya.

The fight was fast paced, but Jiraiya had a small advantage even just on his own. This Naruto seemed very different from the Naruto he and Izumi had fought before.

Jiraiya threw a punch at his godson, only for Naruto to sidestep and go to counter, but his attack was interrupted by Konan who had appeared behind him and grabbed his arm. Jiraiya used this opening to trip Naruto, who fell to the forest floor. Konan twisted his arm behind his back and pinned him to the ground. Naruto struggled against Konan for a few seconds before he pleaded, "Konan let me go!" Konan's resolve flickered for a moment as she responded, "I'm doing this to help you Naruto." Naruto's struggling only became more fierce when Jiraiya went to put a seal on him. "Let me go!" He shouted as black chains sprouted from the ground around him and would've impaled Konan had she not turned to paper as the attack hit. The chains slammed into Jiraiya's chest, though and sent him flying into a tree unconscious, with a burn across the area he'd been hit.

With Ayame and Satsuki

Ayame was struggling to keep up with Satsuki. She was defending herself well, but was being pushed back towards Konan and Jiraiya's fight with Naruto. She saw an opening, Satsuki had overextended and Ayame used the opportunity to slam a chakra empowered fist into the Uchiha's side, sending her flying across the forest floor. "Why are you even chasing after Naruto! Just leave him alone!" She shouted.

"Because he killed many of my comrades and… I need answers" Ayame was stunned for a moment while Satsuki stood back up.

'Naruto did what?' Ayame thought to herself. 'It must've been the damn fox!' She thought to herself. She steeled her resolve and gathered her chakra.

Satsuki sighed. This was going to be more difficult than she'd expected. She activated her Sharingan and started going through hand seals, "Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu". A ball of fire was thrown at Ayame, who dodged gracefully, and began to charge the Uchiha. Satsuki went for another ninjutsu, "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu". She shouted as several smaller fireballs were launched at the approaching kunoichi, who once again managed to dodge them all.

Ayame threw a punch at Satsuki, who saw the attack coming dodged. She followed up with an elbow to Ayame's abdomen that sent her skidding back, then drew her katana and went to slash Ayame who slightly panicked and used Seiki's signature jutsu. "Ninpo: Chakra no Kenju!" (Ninja art: Chakra gauntlets) She said as she grabbed the sword before it hit its mark. She pulled the sword towards her, taking an off guard satsuki with it and slammed her other chakra gauntlet into Satsuki's face sending her flying once again through the forest.

Ayame snapped her katana in half and threw the pieces of the sword on the ground near her. "Is that all you got, bitch?! If you can't take me what makes you think you could even touch Naruto-kun!" She taunted and got ready for Satsuki once more, but wasn't expecting Satsuki to swap with the hilt of the sword and kick her into the air.

Flashback

Six year old Satsuki was chasing after a young blonde-haired boy through the streets of Konoha and had lost him on the streets. She was fuming. Unbeknownst to her Naruto came up behind her and bopped her on the back of the head and ran off into an alleyway, she made her way through the crowd and into the alleyway.

Flashback end

Satsuki was pissed, 'I'm ending this now, I don't care if she's important to Naruto anymore, I can't waste any more time.' The chirping of birds could be heard throughout the forest.