Alright, I'm back. Yes, I know that it's been a long time, a little under a year at this point I believe, but I did say that I wouldn't abandon this story and I intend to keep my word. Ok, onwards!

Naruto didn't know why he was running, but he knew that it had to do with whatever it was that was following him. See, shortly after he'd fallen asleep with Fang he'd woken up in what seemed to be an old ruin from a time long since forgotten. Looking around a bit he'd noticed that all of the walls were inscribed with odd symbols, some new and some very old. From what he could tell they seemed to be telling a story. Of what, he don't know, but some of the newer images were of people fighting a vague black figure while the oldest seemed to be a large amount of the black figures surrounding a single, pure white being, seemingly trying to snuff out the light it gave off. Naruto had leaned forward to get a closer look at the black spots that surrounded the white figure when every single black spot moved, and from them opened hundreds of near pitch black eyes and starred directly into his eyes. Naruto had starred for a few moments before he turned tail and ran. He couldn't quite place what he felt when they starred back at him but to sum it up. it felt like someone had taken all the hope he had within him and ripped it out, leaving behind an empty, numb feeling behind.

Naruto dove into the first room he found. Taking a few deep breaths, he calmed his erratic heartbeat and placed his ear against the door, trying to listen for any sounds. After a few tense moments, he breaths a sigh of relief.

'What the hell were those eyes?'

Naruto turned away from the door and stepped further into the room. As he observed the room he felt as though he was being watched, and turning to the center of the dimly lit room he found out why. Sitting on what seemed to be an alter made of live human flesh was the same eye that he'd seen in the corridor.

As soon as Naruto's eyes fell on the being he collapsed into a heap on the floor, screaming in agony. In his mind flashed memories of the distant past, of wars that had been fought before the beginning of time, of the time the void had risen up and attempted to wipe out Kami, and the most recent event, when the void had risen and wiped out all of humanity. All of them.

Then came the words.

"devol dna detaerc sah imaK desrucca that gnihtyreve yortsed dna erom ecno esir lliw ew semoc emit ehT"

Naruto could barely understand what it was saying. It felt as though it was speaking backwards, and after a few moment of mentally struggling to form coherent thought, he realized that it was in fact speaking backwards. Naruto struggled to raise is eyes to the being, eventually finding that he couldn't.

"Wh-What d-do you want from me?!" Naruto nearly screamed as he began to shake violently, the images increasing in speed to the point that he could no longer make out any details.

Then, as though time had froze, the images stopped and focused on one. It was as though Naruto was looking through a second pair of eyes, seeing himself lying on the floor violently shaking with something red- 'Is that blood?'- flowing down his face from behind his closed eyes.

The small relief from the pain of having thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of years forced into his mind was not to last. As though the being had just taken notice of him, it began to attack his mind, tearing it apart.

"!UOY YROTSED LLIW EW ,NIAGA SU POTS TON LLIW UOY"

Naruto screamed as his mind began to come undone at the seams, his memories beginning to be torn from him, everything that made him who he was began to come undone. His screams hit a higher octave when his memories of Jiji began to be pulled. He yanked back, playing a game of mental tug of war with the being. He clung to his memories with everything he had, but it was no use, it began to slip, and he felt it slip from his grip. He opened his mouth and-

'WAKE UP KIT'

Naruto's eyes snapped open, a strangled gasp escaping him. Felling a weight on his chest he began to struggle blindly. He immediately noticed that he couldn't see, and began to thrash with more vigor. He managed to get one of hands free of their prison and immediately reached for a kunai.

'Kit stop struggling!' Naruto froze, his mind still reeling from the mental beating he'd just received.

"Fang?" Naruto called out in confusion, "Where are we?"

Naruto could almost taste the confusion that seemed to roll of her.

'Kit, were in our home, we never left. About five hours after you fell asleep you began to struggle underneath me. I moved a bit to give you some breathing space when you began to scream. I tried to wake you up, but you didn't respond to anything I did. When you started bleeding from your eyes I knew that something was wrong so I tried to wake you up with my mental powers, but as soon as I entered your mind I was forcibly pushed out, which should be impossible. No one can outright deny me from their minds, they can block me, but when I was pushed out of your mind it felt as though your mind was no longer there. Y-you felt like someone who had died. Naruto, what happened?'

Naruto paused, reaching up and wiping away the blood that had dried over his eyes, stopping him from opening him. Naruto opened his eyes and looked at Fang, seeing her looking at him with worry written all over her face. He contemplated telling her that it was just a nightmare and there was nothing to worry about. Opening his mouth, he began to speak only to be cut off nearly instantly.

'Don't you dare try and tell me that there is nothing to worry about, the fact that your thinking about telling me that there is nothing to worry about tells me everything that I need to know. Now, tell me what really happed really happened; unless you want me to force my way into your mind and take the information directly from your memories.'

Naruto cursed. How had he forgotten that she can read his mind? Naruto looked back at her, knowing that there was no way out of it.

"Fine, I'll tell you what happened, but promise me that you won't freak out and stop me from leaving again. The last time I told you what I'd dreamed about you wouldn't let me let me leave, and when you did you would follow me everywhere." The last time Naruto had had a nightmare he'd woken up crying, and when he'd told her that it was about the villagers beating him she wouldn't let him leave her side. Hell, she hadn't even let him use the bathroom without her literally standing next to him. Do you know how embarrassing it is to have someone watch you take a leak? No? The answer is very!

Fang paused, contemplating agreeing with him. 'Fine, but only if I feel that your going to be ok.'

"Well shit." Was all that came from Naruto's mouth. He knew now that there was no way in hell he was getting out of this one, and he knew for a fact that she was going to be stuck to his side for a long time once he told her what he'd seen.

With a sigh of resignation, he began his story.

One short retelling of the dream later

Fang was silent, and that scared Naruto. Whenever Fang was silent, it meant that she was thinking about something, and often times that something was how to make sure he didn't get into trouble.

'remind me what you think it said again?'

"It said something like 'The time comes when we will rise and destroy everything that accursed Kami loves', whatever that means."

'Kit, Kami loves everything. the universe was her creation, and she's watched over it since the beginning of time. If what you saw is any indication it means that something is coming, something that hasn't been seen before in our time.'

"You say our time like there was something before." Naruto spoke, wondering if there was something before... well, before time.

'Of course there was something. you think that this universe came from nothing?'

"Well, yeah. In class we were taught that there was something called a Big Bang, which was the size of a-"

'Yes, yes, I know of that, and technically speaking it is true. However, that Big Bang originated from Kami herself. She gifted it with all the elements needed for life to begin and thrive.'

Naruto paused, not having thought about that. "So are you going to be clinging to me like you did before?"

Fang shook her head no.

"Thank Kami, I thought I was going to have to deal with you following me around everywhere." Naruto smiled.

'I never said I wasn't going to be with you.'

Naruto looked at her in confusion, "What?"

Fang grinned, 'I'm going to be you 'summon' that never leaves you.'

Fang laughed at the look of disbelief that flashed onto Naruto's face, however Naruto's expression quickly changed to surprise as he felt his arm tingle, signaling that the Hokage was summoning him.

"Fang, we can discuss this later, Jiji is summoning me."

'Ok, lets go.' Fang spoke with a straight face, not seeing the problem of going through the village and appearing in front of the leader of said village. The village that hated foxes, that would kill them simply for being foxes

Naruto was quick to point out the rather obvious issue, trying to use it as an excuse to get away from her. Sure, he would do anything for her and loved her company, but he needed some time alone, where he could be by himself and not worry about a certain someone reading his mind.

Fang snorted with no small amount of amusement. 'Do you think I'm so weak that some lowly ningens can harm me?"

"Hey, I'm one of those so called 'lowly ningens'." Naruto cried out with a bit of mischief shining in his eyes.

'Ah, but see I think of you as a kit, not a kid.'

Naruto shut up at that, knowing that whatever he followed with would just be rubbing salt on his loss in this verbal battle pf theirs. With a sigh Naruto decided to let her come with him. Not that she would've taken no for an answer.

Fang got off him, stretching somewhat like a cat, giving a soft yawn and stop up with Naruto following in suit. Placing his hand on her he shunshined away.

Sarutobi sighed as he gazed at the disaster that'd appeared in front of him. When Naruto had appeared a giant silver fox had appeared with him, except about two feet above him. Said fox proceeded to follow the laws of physics and fell onto Naruto. This resulted in Naruto letting out a rather indignant yell. After the fox had hopped off him, he'd started accusing the fox of doing it on purpose, resulting in a rather interesting argument between a child and a giant fox that looked like it could swallow him whole. Things like this seemed to happen every time he summoned Naruto. The last time he'd summoned him Naruto had appeared with a rather confused looking Tsume who had fallen on top of Naruto when he'd appeared. After she'd sat up, unintentionally straddling him, she'd realized where she was and in her rush to show proper respect to the Hokage, she fell and engulfed Naruto's head in her bosom. Naruto had alerted her to his lack of air by simply biting her... Sarutobi chuckled quietly.

Sarutobi quickly stopped the two from destroying his office bye clearing his throat, making them both stop and stand at attention, or in the foxes case, sit.

"I'm not even going to ask," Sarutobi, began "But I can see that you trust this fox so I'm going to believe that she isn't going to go on a killing spree."

"No Jiji, she won't." Naruto spoke, "So why'd you summon me?"

Naruto ignored the disgruntled noise that came from the ceiling when he said Jiji.

"I've summoned you to tell you that your mission has changed."

This caught Naruto off guard. Normally when your mission is changed your told via a hawk messenger, or from another Shinobi when you go report at the tower. For the Hokage to call someone to tell them personally that their mission has changed means one of two things. One, you fucked up and your about to be sent on a suicide mission or two, there can be no paper trail. For Naruto specifically, there was no official paperwork that would put him in the ANBU, only stating that he was put into the training program. This was to avoid the civilian council from whining that the 'demon' was gaining power to get it's revenge. However, Naruto still got his mission changes from another shinobi.

"Don't worry, its nothing to serious." Sarutobi assured Naruto, seeing him trying to figure out hat was going on, "Your previous mission was to become a jonin and be the sensei for a certain Uchiha, however in light of new events we have decided that Hatake Kakashi will become the sensei. Your new mission is to be go to the academy and become the Uchiha's teammate. You are to help him overcome his hatred and insure that he will remain loyal to our village, You are to ignite the will of fire within him!"

Naruto stood straight, determination shining in his eyes.

"Do you accept?" Sarutobi finished strongly, knowing already what his answer was going to be.

"Hai Hokage-sama!"

Funnily enough, the fox had said the same thing at the same time. Sarutobi hid his smile as he finally figured out who the fox was.

'So this is the fox that saved you and caught your interest? She seems to really care for him.' Sarutobi mussed as he waved a hand, signaling that they were dismissed.

After they left the aged and once retired Hokage turned to face the faces that watched over the village he'd protected and loved his entire life with one thought crossing his mind as he gazed at his deceased successor.

'Am I doing the right thing Minato?'

And that's a wrap. Sorry for the long wait! As for some people being unsatisfied with how I used the Kage bunshins to explain Narutos mental age heres a brief explanation how it works. First, there's two clones of you, they experience different things, they disperse, you gain the memories, and you mind ages appropriately to adjust to the intake of information and experience. Your neurological pathways are altered by the influx of information, signaling your mind that you have lived twice as long today than you actually have. This is why people don't use the Kage Bunshin the same way Naruto does. They don't have a massive demon in them that heals the damage done to the mind from a sudden and abrupt change. alright, Later!