Summary:

Naruto's gone missing, Sasuke and Sakura worry, the Hokage is acting weird,

Two of the leaf academy teachers are dead, and a mysterious voice whispers in Naruto's head.

Freedom is something weird.

Multiple forests were scattered in Konoha's

Walls, and were mostly used for training, except the eastern part of the village. A certain spot in this forest, where the tree branches and leaves are too thick and cover the sun leaving the shade, had a spot where the trio Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke used to meet up, if Naruto wasn't doing mischief in the village. The day prior, Sakura had beaten the two in a race and was ready to boast about even more once Naruto arrived. For now, only Sasuke was there with her in their little meet and greet spot.

Sasuke leaned up against a tree with his arms crossed, the same tree had a large tree branch attached to it about 4 meters/12 feet above the ground where Sakura was seated on, moving her dangling legs back and forth as the two waited for Naruto. She opened her mouth to say something but before that, she sighed,

"I know Naruto is usually late sometimes but," Sakura stopped to frown. "He's never this late."

Sasuke nodded silently in agreement without looking at her. Something felt off however. The wind was different, the vibe was different, the aura was all dark. Naturally, this scared Sakura as she jumped off the branch she was seated on and smiled nervously at Sasuke, turning her head around but kept her back facing him.

"He's probably still asleep. I'll go wake him up" with that said, Sakura dashed off in a hurry.

Unbeknownst to her however, Sasuke had followed.

'What the hell is that loser on?' Thought Sasuke as he ran through the woods.

The Night Before

His first instinct was to run. So he did. As soon as he saw the third Hokage look upon him and the dead body of Iruka, as well as the fragment pieces of Mizuki's body, he made a run for it.

He ran like he could have never dreamed off past his limits. Faster than his race with Sasuke and Sakura…

'Sasuke, Sakura!' Thought Naruto as his thoughts reached the mention of the two. He immediately began to run faster.

What if they figured about him? What if they would become like the other kids and stay away from him and begin calling him a monster?

What if he hurt them though? Naruto didn't want to hurt them. His mind set up to the smiles Sakura gave him while sitting on the tree branch at their little spot in the eastern forest. He remembered all the fights and squabbles he'd lost to Sasuke and his feeling of shame when Sakura began to praise Sasuke.

He didn't want any of that to end. He didn't want to be alone again, he didn't want to stop seeing her smiles and losing his fights. But what if he'd hurt them, or even worse, kill them?

Naruto's vision came to a blur when his eyes began to pour out water. His tears scattered in the wind from his constant running. These thoughts of ending the fun he's had with Sasuke and Sakura made him sad.

But what made him more sad was that Mizuki and the villagers were right about him. He was a monster.

As he continued to zoom further and further away from the Hokage, he saw beige approaching. The village's wall. He came to stop as he saw the tall wall in his way. He was trapped. He immediately began to panic, his years rapidly flowing down even more. He collapsed as he fell to his knees, set his body down in a curled up position, and once again gripped his head tightly with his hands.

'N-No...I can't be trapped. I can't. Please...please. Let me out of here. I...I-I..I want to be freed.' Thought Naruto, out of order as his mind was all over the place.

"I WANT TO BE FREE" yelled out Naruto in agony as he lifted his head and body back up, looking at the sky. He saw the birds happily fly by in the sky, while he was stuck on earth in misery.

"I'm afraid that's impossible" said an old voice from behind. "I'm this world, we can never truly be free, and are stuck slaves of our own lives"

Naruto shakingly turned his head around. The third Hokage had caught up to him. Despite his old age, he was much superior than he could ever be. Yet.

Naruto tried making another run for it but all of a sudden, he felt a jolt of pain in his head. He fell down again, fading to black, and the last thing he heard before being knocked unconscious was,

'I'm sorry'.

The first thing she saw while entering the village's streets again, was a swarm of ANBU and Jounin, followed by KSD members escorting some villagers out of the way of whatever was going on. They were all surrounding the ninja academy she goes to and was immediately reminded of the sudden interactions between Naruto and the teachers. But could Naruto's absence really be connected to this.

"Have you heard of what happened yesterday night?"

She turned around and overheard some lady talking to another lady while watching the jounin inspect the academy.

"Apparently that Demon had took the life of two teachers from that academy"

"I knew the Hokage should have disposed of him sooner, the more that demon kid is around, the more pain and death he'll cause"

Two of the teachers dead? Demon kid? She was confused.

"Ladies, please let me escort you out of here, it isn't safe here" A KSD member had walked up to the two ladies and after a few seconds, began to walk away from the scene.

That's when it hit her. The demon kid was Naruto. She recalled her parents telling her to stay away from him a few years ago and adults around her telling their kids as well to 'stay away from the demon'. Of course she had never listened to them and instead befriended him, but to think that Naruto killed two of the teachers. It didn't seem right.

"Naruto wouldn't have done that. You know that as much as I do, Sakura"

She heard a voice next to her and turned to see Sasuke right next to her, staring straight ahead at the multiple classes of shinobi, around the academy.

"What are two kids such as you two doing here. Can't you see something serious is going on"

Sasuke and Sakura both turned and saw the Hokage looking at them with a serious and deadly stare. He began to walk to the scene as the two separated so the Hokage could walk between them, and so he did. But after a few inches, Sakura began to call out to the Hokage.

"W-Wait! Do you…" Sakura stumbled to say as she thought this was disrespectful to the Hokage as she asked without his consent. "Do you know where Naruto is?"

Sasuke looked at Sakura with a somewhat shocked expression, but hid it away quickly.

'What the hell are you trying to pull off?' thought Sasuke as he thought the Hokage wouldn't have known and wouldn't answer. But to his surprise, the Hokage answered without staring back at the two, he just paused his walk.

"His location is none of your concern, now let the KSD escort you out of here." He said harshly and resumed his walk right as two KSD members walked up Sakura and Sasuke.

'What?! None of our concern!' Both of the two young ninja thought. Of course it's their concern. After all, he was their friend.

The two tried to ask something else before they were stopped by the members and grabbed a hold off.

"C'mon kids, let's get out of here before you two cause more trouble to the Hokage than you already have" said a member who was holding on to Sasuke who just scoffed and afterwards gritted his teeth in resistance.

The members walked them out, however the two still looked back at the scene and wondered the same thing again.

'They've done something to Naruto.'

'It's cold and damp'

Naruto laid in water, he was in a dark space between a corridor that only had a barely lit torch as the only source of light.

Naruto groaned as he began to awaken in this unfamiliar place. He sat up slightly crouched, as he put his hand to his head. He felt a massive pain there but since it wasn't a cut or scar, there was nothing to do about it. He also couldn't recall what happened prior to this.

"Where am I?" said Naruto to himself.

He began to get up from the dark and cold water. The splashes echoing in the confined space he was in. Naruto had taken note of his location in the hallway. The question was, where was this hallway in. A prison? A mansion? A chamber? He then heard a breath. It was weird but he was sure that it was a breath, as the large gust of warm wind came his way. But why was it so large? Why was he here? He couldn't remember anything, so he felt his only choice was to walk down the hall. His loud footsteps in the water annoyed him, his sandals were now all wet and a bit of his orange baggy pants were too. It didn't take long before he reached the end, but the end was something he didn't expect to find.

At the end, was an enormous room with even huger bars in his view that he could only see one bar pole at a time. Somewhere in the middle however, a large paper read 'Seal'. He began to shake at this and felt a dark aura crawl up his spine. It didn't seem safe or comfortable staying so he tried to turn around to leave. As soon as he turned however…

"I've been waiting for you brat…"

Naruto jumped up in fear. The voice was deep, raspy, and creepy. However, a strange feeling tugged at his voice and against his own thoughts to leave, he turned around to see a huge red eye with a slit in between, staring down at him. Naruto stepped back a bit, wanting to turn back again, but no matter how hard he tried to order his body to turn around, it wouldn't listen. Instead he stood there gazing at the eye that was gazing at him back.

"What's wrong, are you scared? Ha!"

The laughter of whatever was staring down at Naruto echoed loudly which was a bit too sensitive for Naruto's ears, so he closed them.

"N-no! I'm not scared. Just confused." Naruto answered back hesitantly.

'What the hell? Why did I answer that voice? Am I not in control of my own body or am I really doing this?' Naruto thought as he began to be more confused when he had answered back when he didn't want to.

"Hm. Brat, didn't you say you wanted to be free?"

Naruto's confusion arose even more. But for a slight second he felt that jolt of pain again in his head. He yelped the pain out for a second before falling to his knees again. He gripped his head intensely tight as the pain in his head continued. However as he tightened his grip, his memories began to return. But not the ones he expected. The memories of all the hateful words the villagers gave him, the isolation he felt, his pain, the constant bullying, only those memories came back.

"To be free of this pain. This utterly despicable village"

Naruto's eyes began to turn into the same shade as the eye staring at him. He let the hatred of those memories consume him, and as soon as the slit formed in his own eyes, the pain in head stopped.

"I-I want to be freed. I want to be free from this miserable village." The voice and Naruto both said in unison.

"If you want to be freed. Rip this seal off of me, and allow us to escape."

Naruto listened to this voice right away and began to walk to the paper seal, limping on his way. Naruto's consciousness was gone and had replaced it with his hatred of the memories that seemed to correspond with whatever the eye belonged to. As he reached the bars, the water he was still in, had formed into a ball below him and began to push him upwards to the seal. Once the water had reached a high enough point for Naruto, it stopped.

The water stopping was a signal for Naruto to begin to rip off the seal. Naruto looked at the corner of the seal with a seemingly dead-like expression as he pushed his fingers to the corner, ready to pull.

However, just a tiny pull and something had stopped Naruto. As he was about to pull even more, he stopped to look at the dent he made in the paper. Coincidentally, it looked just like the scratch on Sakura's elbow he had noticed after his race with her and another kid...

….

Sakura?

….

"Sakura!" Naruto yelled out.

He began to remember again and the rest of his memories, which was a large proportion, came back to him. He let go of the seal he was about to rip off and fell off the water he was on as it was deformed. A few seconds go by and he splashes into the water and the floor of the area he was in.

"What? Why did you stop? Don't you want to be freed?"

It took Naruto a few seconds to take in everything before realizing what the eye really is. It was the demon everyone said he was.

"You...YOU'RE THE DEMON I'M BLAMED FOR! YOU'RE THE ONE MAKING MY LIFE A HELL"

"Tch"

As soon as Naruto made the realization, he then saw the outline of the demon. The nine tailed fox. The shadows prevented him from truly seeing his looks, but knew that the color of the demon he had jailed for his life was orange.

"If anything I want to be freed from you!" Naruto shot back as he continued his realization.

"And how will you do that? You're just some weak brat"

Naruto clenched his fingers together, forming his fists as he answered the fox, this time he was in control normally again of his own thoughts and body.

"If you're trapped here too, you must be as weak as me." Naruto fired at the fox.

"Ha! I'm stronger than you imagine. Don't you remember the power I gave you against that devil of a leaf shinobi teacher."

Naruto shivered. He remembered that too. The power he felt was surreal, it took Mizuki's life in an instant. He remembered now what happened when the demon's chakra took over. He began to shake at that recollection. The feeling of pulling out his organs and stabbing through him, the blood of his sin was pouring down on him. However, an instinct in him had liked that dreadful feeling, but Naruto's horror of that memory had overlooked it.

"Didn't that power feel good? It satisfies you right?"

Naruto felt the red blazing chakra crawl up to him, trying to convince him that it was right. He enjoyed that power and it satisfied seeing that traitor die. Somewhere in him, he couldn't deny that, that's how he felt. He truly wanted to feel that strength again and didn't want to be outcasted in power. However, using that power would mean giving in to the name of 'demon' and giving in to the demon itself.

"N-No! That power isn't and never will be used by me ever again! I don't need your power, I don't want to be a demon like you" Naruto responded passionately to the fox who stared down at Naruto in disappointment.

"Fine then. Suit yourself. But heed my words, Naruto Uzumaki, you will come to me again for that power, and when that day comes…"

The fox stopped its sentence to laugh at Naruto who stared at him with no more fear, but with determination.

"Prepare yourself"

Those were the last words Naruto heard before feeling yet again that jolt of pain in his head and blacked out.

Naruto opened his eyes, first with a blink, and then fully opened. He was sitting down, so he tried to get up as he wanted to explore the place he was in. But, he was immediately pulled back down by something heaving. He grunted as he fell back and stared down at his wrists.

Chains.

He was handcuffed to chains. He followed the path of the chain he was attached to and ultimately ended up to see that the end of the chain was attached to the wall. He hadn't realized it but then he saw that he was in a room, more specifically, a prison cell. Nearby, was a rusty and dirty bed in front of him and next to that bed was a bucket with water leaking out as the roof had a leak and was ending up splashing into the bucket that was full of that leaking water of the messed up roof. Besides him was a mirror. Nothing special except for the smallest crack on the floor.

Naruto turned around to look at himself in the mirror. He had taken note of his dark eye holes underneath his returned blue eyes. Along with that, his hair was spikier and uneven, his orange and white hoodie was more crumbly and dirty, and lastly there was a big deep stain of a maroon red color at the bottom right of his hoodie.

He had stared at his reflection for a while but then for an instance, he saw himself as the demon he feared. His eyes a blood red color with a slit, his teeth turned into fangs that hung out of his mouth, his nails now shown as claws, and lastly that multiple blood splashes poured over.

He jumped at this, frightfully, and hurt himself again from the chains he forgot were wrapped around him. He also heard the laughter of the demon in him as he was aware of his situation and was the one behind the hallucination reflection.

"Shut up. Shut up. SHUT UP!"

All of a sudden, he heard a door open within distance, with the creak of the door opening being familiar to him as he opened his lonely apartment door frequently, as to why he knew why it was a door opening. He then heard footsteps approaching as the echo just got louder the closer it got to the cell Naruto was in. After a few seconds, there was a distinctive figure in front of him. The third Hokage.

He had his hands behind his back and glared at the horrified Naruto.

"I'm sorry Naruto that it had to come down to this.." the old man said.

Naruto could feel anger rising in him. He had trusted the old man, as he was the one that got Naruto into the academy and at least a home with enough money to get through his childhood, and now he was here locked up by him in this horrendous cell that reminded him of the demon.

"Just please, please let me out of here. I-I promise I'll keep the demon in me out of harm's way!" Naruto pleaded, grabbing onto the bars of the cell he was in. "Please I just want to be freed from here...please."

"I'm afraid you'll never be let out of this village. I'm sorry but, that's just how things are for you"

He couldn't stand it. No matter how many times the old man said 'I'm sorry', he'll never forgive him. Naruto saw him as a treacherous man now. It was his fault he was stuck in here. It's his stupid rule that he couldn't be let out. Naruto began gritting his teeth and holding onto the bars tighter.

"You'll be in this cell for a day, but even then, you'll be under house arrest with the only times you'll be allowed to leave is when you have to go to the academy." The old man continued to explain to Naruto.

Naruto was still angry however, and mostly angry at the demon he held within him. If it weren't for that demon, he could be free, watching those birds soar in the sky freely, he could be one of those.

"You want to protect them right?" Naruto shot up when the old man spoke out again. "Those kids, Sakura and Sasuke. They were worried about your disappearance, I can only assume you were friends with them as the others wouldn't dare to get near you"

Naruto slammed his face to the bars in fear.

"D-Do they know?! Will you tell them or do they already know? Please they can't know...they can't…" Naruto said with his body shaking and his voice desperate.

Naruto was happy by the fact they had noticed he was gone but quickly overcome by fear when he realized that if they did find him, they wouldn't let him live another day without answers. Even if he was able to hide the fact he was a, or rather, had a demon in him, sooner or later, he would expose that power to them and could even hurt them.

Sakura and Sasuke were the first who ever accepted him despite the adults telling them to stay their distance. They had many fun moments together, and he was truly happy for the first time. He wasn't in isolation anymore and could play out with them.

"Hey Sakura! Watch this" Naruto shouted out to grab her attention.

He made a hand sign with his hands and a clone of him appeared by his side in a puff smoke. He made a huge grin when seeing Sakura's shocked smile and stood proudly. However after a few seconds, that clone had begun to melt down, quickly dissolving into another puff of smoke. Naruto began to panic as his plan to finally impress Sakura was going down the drain again.

"Gee loser. Still can't make a single clone. You'll never make it out of the academy." Sasuke teased Naruto behind him who had watched it all without Naruto realizing.

"O-Oh well could you do any better Mr. I'm better than you at everything" Naruto insulted back while pointing at him accusingly.

"Could I? I believe you meant..." Sasuke stopped as he made multiple hand signs in the span of 2 seconds. A huge blast of fire came attacking Naruto's head as the flames engulfed it. When the fire cleared, Naruto's burnt black head showed out with his roasted hair sticking out. Sakura began to laugh at this trick which made Naruto quiver in anger. "Can I"

Sakura was left laughing, Naruto was left roasted, and Sasuke was left smirking. All though you would think having fun would be something completely different than this, this was their source of entertainment. Their fun relied on this.

How much Naruto wanted to be doing this again, but he was stuck behind bars. He would do anything to protect those two, even if it meant going back to his isolation.

"Don't worry, I simply sent them off, as for if they know, no they do not about the nine tailed fox sealed within you and I'll make sure they'll never get to know." The old man reassured Naruto who was still freaking out. "You only have a few more hours until you are let out of here, but remember, you will still be under house arrest. Not only is it for the greater good of this village, but for your friends too, remember that as well"

With that being said, the old man began to walk out again, leaving a helpless Naruto. However, he all of a sudden heard banging and stopped walking to look back.

He saw Naruto beginning to scream in agony and misery as he tried to get the chains off of him, his head and shoulder banging the rusty cells. His screaming began to shift into blood curdling screaming as his voice of misery shrieked throughout the echoes of the hall, followed by his banging against the bars. Naruto also dropped his tears, his crying mixed in his screams. His head began to leak out blood from the constant banging and his voice began to die out.

"It's no use Naruto…just be patient" the old man said hiding his disgust and guilt from seeing Naruto begging to be let out. But Naruto didn't stop and continued. Naruto kept continuing until his friend, a jolt of pain in his head, came by to visit and finally knocked him unconscious, laying on the cold ground of the cell. However, him being unconscious didn't stop him from crying, which he kept doing.

"Naruto couldn't have killed them! Go tell the Hokage that his accusations are bullshit!" yelled out Sasuke to one of the members of KSD as they dragged him to an isolated part of the village, away from the scene at the academy.

"Look kid—"

"Don't call me kid, you wannabe adult!" Shot Sasuke at the member.

Sasuke wanted to know what the Hokage meant by 'his location is none of your concern'. What does he know that he doesn't. But now his shot at asking him was foiled by being taken away by the KSD along with Sakura who didn't make a single attempt to escape like him, and instead just looked at the floor the whole time, peacefully.

"Look kid, i dunno what your relation is with that demon but the Hokage himself saw what he did last night, so have a fun time trying to convince his eyes" the member said while letting go of Sasuke and the other member beside him let go of Sakura.

"Stay here and if you get near the scene again, the ANBU will have to escort you somewhere else worse" said the second member as he let go of Sakura.

Sasuke was about to go for an attack when he thought he saw an opening, but the two members disappeared in an instant as they had finished their task. Although Sasuke wasn't gonna let this slip by and tried making another run towards the scene while gritting his teeth, expressing his anger. But when he took that step to start running, his hand was grabbed by and stopped by Sakura.

"You heard the member, we can't go back or else we'll be sent to possibly a confinement zone" Sakura said empty.

"But Naruto is being accused of something he couldn't possibly have done! Not only that but the Hokage might be keeping Naruto somewhere for this! Don't you care about him too" Sasuke explained to Sakura who just grabbed him tighter throughout the explanation.

"I do care about him, but instead of focusing on that, we should focus on trying to search for him on our own!" Sakura told Sasuke who had widened his eyes at the realization that Sakura did have a point.

Sasuke then calmed and stood still, looking away from Sakura as she let go of his wrist.

"Well then, where do you suggest we look for him?" said Sasuke.

"I believe we should split up and meet back here again after our search, we ran through the eastern forest and village already so he couldn't be there, so I'll look West and Northwest, and you'll look South and if you can't find him there try Northeast." Sakura told her plan.

Even though she was just a girl looking at the sky and only focusing on him for some reason, he had to give her credit where credit was due.

"All right then, cya soon then" Sasuke said as he immediately dashed off to head south while Sakura nodded back and began heading west.

Another old man walked through the hallways of the cell Naruto was confined in, however he didn't enter through the door or the exit. He stopped walking as he reached Naruto's cell.

The old man could feel the boy's pain and his tears created a puddle that the white, long, spiky hair that the old man had could barely touch.

"Poor boy…" he whispered, smirking.

Naruto reminded the old man of a student he once had that had died the same day Naruto had been born. The old man tried to reach out to Naruto, but when he reached the bars of the cell, it jolted him with a spark of lightning ninjutsu.

"So the old guy knew I'd be coming for him and tried to stop me eh?" The old man laughed thinking about his teacher that he had betrayed.

He looked down at Naruto again and saw the scar on the side of his face that seemed brand new, and his eyes still wanting to drip out tears.

"Don't worry Naruto, I'll free you from this hell another day. Until then, don't die on me"

The old man then disappeared.

Next Chapter/ A feeling of solitude

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