This is my first fanfiction, so I'm sorry if there are some things that don't make any sense. Anyway, I don't own any of the characters or the anime that will be featured in this fanfic.

Prologue:

The dream

A boy with spiky golden hair takes a few steps through a dark room. The thirteen year old boy looks for a way out, but is unsuccessful.

"Where am I?" he asks to himself. "Kyuubi! This isn't funny!"

"Welcome, Naruto Uzumaki," a voice calls out of nowhere. The voice startles the boy.

"W-Who's there!?"

He reaches for a kunai, but discovers that he doesn't have his weapon pouch.

"You not need to fear me, Naruto. I am the light within your heart,"

"Really, the light within my heart?"

"That is correct. I have come to test you, Naruto. I have come to test you to see if you are strong enough to face the darkness," says the voice.

"Test? What kind of test? And what are you talking about when you say 'the darkness'?" Naruto is completely clueless on the subject right now.

"The darkness in you heart, Naruto,"

"Huh?"

He takes one step forward, and doves appear under his feet and take flight. A second later, he's standing on a platform. In the middle of the platform, there is a portrait of him giving a thumbs up, and smiling his goofy grin. Around him are smaller portraits of his friends.

Naruto inspects them closely. There are Choji, Shikamaru, Ino, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Sakura, and Sasuke. Then, Naruto notices something odd. He looks at Sakura then Hinata's portrait. Around Sakura, there is a simple circle. Around Hinata, there is a heart. Why is there a heart around Hinata, and not Sakura?

"What's going on?"

"This is your pillar of light, Naruto,"

"Well, that's good to know but that's not what I meant. I mean, why is there a heart around Hinata and not around Sakura?"

There is a silence. Naruto is starting to get annoyed. "Hey, answer me!"

"I'm afraid I cannot tell you, Naruto. You have to discover the answer you seek on your own,"

That response just annoys Naruto even more. He is in deep thought, trying to find out then and there. His thoughts are interrupted by a light at the edge of the pillar.

"Please step forward,"

Naruto does so, both out of curiosity and he thought it was best not to argue. Once he reaches the edge, something triggers him to turn around. Three weapons appear from sparks of light. There is a Mage's Staff, a Sword, and a Shield.

"Choose a weapon that will set your path,"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Naruto says as soon as he grabs the sword.

"Good, your path is set, now the test can begin,"

The pillar begins to shake, and fall into pieces. Naruto is now falling into the darkness…until another platform appears out of nowhere, and he lands peacefully on his feet. He then notices a door.

"A door? I wonder where it leads," Naruto says to himself. He walks up to the door and opens it. He is greeted by a blinding light.

Naruto finds himself on a new platform again. He senses danger, and then black little bug-like creatures appear out of nowhere. There are six in total.

"What are those things?"

"Those are creatures that seek your heart, Naruto. The Heartless will stop at nothing until they successfully capture your heart,"

"Really?! You've got to be kidding me!"

Naruto pulls out the sword he equipped to himself, and gets ready for battle. The creatures leap into the air to tackle Naruto, but he dodges by rolling out of the way. When the creatures land in the spot where he once was, Naruto runs up and slices three of the creatures and they disappear from the contact of the sword.

The remaining ones retreat, and disappear.

Naruto looks to his right, and sees an odd looking set of stairs. It seems they lead to another pillar. Naruto runs up the stairs, and is greeted by more light in the middle of the new pillar.

"The further you venture towards the light, the greater your shadow becomes,"

Naruto turns around, and notices his shadow is longer than it should be. What really disturbs him next, is that his shadow comes to life by lifting itself up to its feet. Then it starts transforming. Behind it nine large tails appear, its feet and hands form paws and claws, its head becomes that of a fox with razor sharp teeth, and yellow eyes. The transformation is complete, and Naruto's shadow is now an exact replica of the Nine-tailed Fox Demon, Kyuubi.

Naruto is scared out of his mind, and runs in the opposite direction of the shadow. He almost runs right off the pillar. He turns around, seeing there's no way out.

"Ok you stupid fox, come and get it!"

One of the tails flew straight for Naruto. He dodges, and the tail misses with a crash. The shadow retracts its tail and tries the same attempt with a second tail. Naruto dodges again, but once tail misses he slashes downwards on the tail, and the shadow roars in pain.

Naruto charges at the shadow's head with his sword ready to end its life, but the shadow smacks Naruto back with one of its tails. Then the shadow brought its claw up, and brought it down over Naruto. Naruto rolls out of the way of being crushed by the giant claw.

Naruto quickly rose to his feet, and rushes up to the shadow's claw and slashes its wrist. The shadow cries in agony.

"Ha! How'd you like that?"

Naruto's gloat was cut short by the shadow firing a fire ball from its open jaws. Naruto doesn't think, and tries to block the ball of flames. On contact with the sword the fire ball explodes, sending Naruto flying over the edge of the pillar.

Naruto quickly grabs the edge before it was too late. He quickly pulls himself up and takes a deep breath. Then, he's grabbed by the shadow's claw. The shadow draws him in close and snarls, showing its razor sharp teeth.

"Aw man, two words," Naruto struggles and gets his arm free; sword in hand, "breath-mints!" and slashes the shadow's wrist. The shadow roars in agony; dropping Naruto. He takes this chance, and jumps into the air.

The shadow notices, but can't react. Naruto is too quick and stabs his sword into the shadow's skull in between the eyes.

"Ha! Got ya!"

The shadow sways sideways; the sword still stuck in its skull. The shadow bursts into a black mist, and consumes Naruto.

"AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!"

"Don't be afraid,"

Little by little, every part of Naruto is disappearing.

"You hold the mightiest weapon of all. And don't forget,"

Naruto fully vanishes into the darkness.

"You are the one, who will open the door,"

Prologue End…