Review Questions Answered:

Twilight Canel

Que: what happened to Naruto's whisker marks?

Ans: He still has them, but he can't really do anything about them, genjutsu is too risky. Also worth noting is that they fit his new image better than his eyes do. (To demonstrate this, imagine Zabuza in his coolest pose, and then imagine he suddenly has bright innocent blue eyes)

Que: wouldn't the seal alert people(most certainly Hidden Leaf nins) that they were fighting somebody who had something sealed within them?

Ans: If one looks at the series, very few of the people who have seals actually have something sealed in them, I think Naruto is the only one, in fact. Most seals found on shinobi are there to give them some crazy power. It should also be noted that very few people in Konoha have ever seen Naruto's seal, most probably couldn't tell it from a curse seal.

Anonymous

Que: Why hasn't there been any mention of Kyuubi yet?

Ans: Because Kyuubi hasn't had a reason to be in the story yet, that changes in this chapter

Que: is Naruto going to join the Akatsuki?

Ans: No

Blazer-6

Que: Also, you do realize that Naruto's only twelve right?

Ans: Naruto's age has been somewhat of a conundrum for me. As far as I know, the series never mentions many details on how much time passes, and he was somwhere in his 12th year at the start of the series, so when he tries to retrieve Sasuke he could be anywhere from 12 to 14. Either way, for the sake of this story, assume he's now 14.

Virgil

Que: You mention the Kirigakure no Jutsu and that Naruto practices it...it's not possible since it's a village specific jutsu and you'd have to be from Mist Village to know it, which Naruto obviously isn't.

Ans: I apologize for being unclear; the scroll the old barber hid in Naruto's pocket (see end of chap 3) contained Mist stealth jutsus, one of which was Kirigakure no jutsu

Azereath

Que: naruto seems a bit to sure that everyone would forget about him, i mean what about iruka

Ans: Naruto doesn't think Iruka will forget him, but isn't willing to put up with the village just for the sake of the few people who tolerate him.

Translation notes:

Shikifuujin Kai - Dead Demon Imprisonment Release

Kirigakure no Jutsu – Hidden Mist Technique

Kubikiri Houcho - Head Chopping Cleaver

Authors Note: I hope that answers any questions anyone had. This chapter is short and mainly getting things out of the way to set the stage for the next chapter, where we finally see some action. And yes, the notes are at the top today just to make you wonder about the first translation note.

The next morning, Naruto woke up at 3:00 am, he carefully and quietly packed his few possessions into a small duffle bag Tazuna had given him to keep his clothes in. He zipped it up and crept downstairs. He left his note sitting on the kitchen table, where Tazuna would undoubtedly find it when he came down for his morning tea.

Saying a silent goodbye to the house and the people who lived there, he walked out of the house, closing the door behind him. Kubikiri Houcho was, as always, exactly where Naruto had left it on the roof. Naruto had started to feel more comfortable with the sword nearby and felt nervous when it wasn't within his range of perception.

Naruto stood atop the house and looked around at his surroundings. He imagined all the sleeping citizens of wave country, completely oblivious to the one who would be leaving them tonight. Naruto jumped down from the roof and started to run. He ran out of the city into the forest much as he had run from another city but a short month ago. But there was a difference. As he had fled Konoha, he had been plagued by memories of the past.

But this time, as he left the still sleeping port city behind him, his thoughts were on the future.

As the morning plodded on, Naruto continued to run through the forest. He was now in Fire Country, and probably would be for quite some time. It was the only direct land route from Wave to Sound and Naruto wasn't good with ships.

Going the most direct way would take him within 40 miles of Konoha, but Naruto wasn't prepared to be that cocky yet, so he had planned a slightly out of the way route that would keep him a safe distance away.

As the sun rose towards the peak of its path and noon approached, Naruto realized he'd been stalling long enough. After all, it had been hours since he had seen any signs of human life.

Steeling his resolve, he set down his bag and sword on he ground near a particularly tall tree and ran another minute through the forest. Sweaty and out of breath, but by no means out of stamina, Naruto sought to calm himself. He was about to attempt an experimental jutsu, and wanted to at least be calm so he didn't make any mistakes.

He closed his eyes and calmed his spirit.

His eyes shot open and in one fluid motion, he bit his thumb and streaked a line of blood down the seal on his belly. He moved his hands faster than the normal human eye could track. There were 37 hand seals.

He finished on the dragon seal, and called out to the empty forest:

"Shikifuujin KAI!"

He found himself in the familiar landscape of his cave-like mind. He had been expecting this, but it unnerved him nonetheless, particularly considering what he was expecting at the end of the tunnel. He walked into the large room the held the Kyuubi's cage. The jutsu had worked and he had used enough chakra.

The evidence of this was that is was flying around the room, forming a swirling vortex of blue energy, and as he watched, the seal holding Kyuubi in his cage started to glow and stretch and the great iron doors started to open.

"What are you doing, brat!" Kyuubi's voice called, sounding as confused as Naruto had ever heard Kyuubi sound.

The seal stretched more and more and the gates opened wider and wider, the demon figured he had to be suffering some kind of mental breakdown, but wasn't willing to let opportunity escape. As soon as the gates were open enough, Kyuubi stuck a paw through the gap and sent it hurling towards Naruto, hoping to crush his mind and take over the body.

Naruto saw the huge clawed appendage coming towards him and it took every ounce of his will power to wait as long as he did. As the claw was fractions of a second away from making his body into a demon puppet, Naruto released the jutsu.

The blue chakra in the room immediately vanished. The seal lost its glow and the gates slammed shut, cleanly severing the front right leg of the Kyuubi, which quickly disintegrated into a wave of red chakra that washed over him. Naruto was sucked from his mind world with the screams of the demon following him.

Naruto awoke in the real world to discover a new meaning for the word 'pain'. It felt like every muscle and bone in his body was both expanding and contracting at the same time as a hurricane of red chakra tore apart the surrounding area of forest

After about a minute, the chakra vanished until Naruto was just left lying on the grass, staring at clouds. He slowly drifted off to sleep thinking, "For a demon thousands of years old, that fox is pretty stupid"

Naruto awoke to find the sun rising, and realized he had slept for 18 hours. He eagerly examined his body, and was disappointed when he saw that the changes had been minor. He had gained a bit of muscle mass, and grown maybe 3 inches. He also molded some chakra and found that he had gained some extra reserves of that as well.

Naruto maintained his slightly depressed state all the way to the location of his stash, because it as then that he saw his reflection in Kubikiri's blade. His eyes were slightly slitted and had become a bit more angular. They had lost their innocent blue shade and had turned to the red normally reserved for when he went into one of his insane rages.

Naruto had figured some time ago that channeling insane amounts of Kyuubi's chakra might enhance his body, but he had needed a way to get that much. It was then that he had come upon the idea of the shikifuujin kai. It had stood to reason, that since jutsus like the shadow bind could be broken with raw chakra, it would also be possible to, if temporarily, bend the seal, and trick the Kyuubi exactly as he had done.

Many months of research later, Naruto had ditched the idea; he had realized that taking power from the Kyuubi might very well give the villagers the excuse they needed to kill him. In retrospect, he had been right to ditch the jutsu then, but he was glad he had done the research.

All in all, his experimental jutsu was a success. He was sure Kyuubi would never fall for the same trick again, but his eye change alone was worth it. Eye color was mostly impossible to change without genjutsu, so he might even be able to bluff his way out of a situation where he had already been recognized.

Satisfied and refreshed from his long nap, Naruto checked his map and compass before bounding off through the forest.

(Meanwhile, in Konoha)

The fifth hokage lay on her desk, with her eyes staring blankly off into empty space. Her face was soaked with tears, as was the letter she clutched desperately in her right hand. She had sent a squad of Anbu to the sand the day before, despite the protest of the whole council, and had spent every moment since dreading their report.

She refused to believe that Naruto was dead by his own hand, he had always had such an unbreakable spiritBut as the days passed, Tsunade started to remember things. Images of him being jeered at by shopkepers. Hit by children throwing rotten fruit. Screamed at by parents for asking to play with their child. All these things had also been part of Naruto's past. And Tsunade herself wasn't sure if she could handle that kind of treatment for 13 years.

She had ben crying for 2 days, but with these thoughts and memories haunting her, she started to convert her sadness to anger. However she looked at it, this whole mess was Orochimaru's fault. He had been the one to steal Sasuke from the village and shatter Naruto's frail trust.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. Until she decided that if those Anbu came back confirming the death of her third precious person, she would burn the sound to the ground if she had to do it with her oen 2 hands.

Far away, a green necklace lay forgotten in the bottom of Naruto's duffle bag.