Author's notes: Any original Naruto characters or Naruto places, events or objects belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

This is set after Ch. 295. Each chapter contains a story of Naruto and Kakashi and what happens to them at the same day. Naruto leaves Konoha because he feels it is dangerous to keep Kyuubi near the village.

It was a dreary rainy night. A blonde spiky young boy clad only in a black shirt and white shorts awakes to find himself in a hospital bed. He tries to remember what happened, but all he could remember was tapping into the destructive powers of the Kyuubi, while fighting with Orochimaru. Getting himself out of bed, Naruto adjusts his eyes to the dark and makes his way to the glimmering light of the slightly opened door. He walks through the hallways of the hospital, wincing in pain with each step. Only now can he visibly see the bandages wrapped around his limbs and he lifts his shirt to see his torso wrapped up as well. After wandering around aimlessly, he stops as he reaches the open doors of room 6. There, lying unconsciously in bed was Sakura and her left arm bound in a cast.

"Naruto-kun?"

Naruto turns around to find the Godaime's attendant in the hall looking with concern. He enters Sakura's room and Shizune follows from behind.

"Did I do this?" The boy asks.

Placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder Shizune replies, "No. Orochimaru did this. If it wasn't for him—"

"Nee-chan." Naruto interrupts. "I chose to use Kyuubi and I lost control."

"You and your group would've died if you didn't. Orochimaru is a very powerful ninja. Even a whole village can have a lot of trouble defeating him."

"D-did, Captain Yamato tell you what happened?" Naruto gloomily questions.

"Yes"

"Is he hurt?"

Shizune kindly replies, "He's fine. All he has is a slightly burnt arm."

Naruto approaches Sakura and sadly observes her steady breathing.

"I can't be a Hokage." Shizune was about to respond before being cut off by Naruto. "A Hokage is respected because he's the strongest and that strength is used to protect the village." Naruto places a hand on Sakura arm. "I'm a threat to this village."

"Naruto-kun that's not true," the attendant exclaims.

Then they were silent. Naruto removes his hand from Sakura's arm and turns to go back to his room. Shizune looks on with deep concern before leaving the room herself.

At almost 3 am, Naruto sneaks out of the hospital, which wasn't hard to do since there were hardly any people, and heads to his apartment. It his been 3 hours since his encounter with Shizune in Sakura's room. A few minutes later he reaches his home and begins packing his clothes and plenty of ramen into his bag pack. Making sure he has everything he needs, Naruto flees into the rainy night and departs from the village that has been his home.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kakashi leans against the wall of the Hokage's office, watching the white haired frog hermit--Jiraiya, the fifth Hokage—Tsunade, and Shizune, listen to Yamato's report.

"After Naruto was stabbed by Orochimaru's sword, he quickly recovered and grabbed Orochimaru with his hand of chakra. He was squeezing the life out him but that snake was able to break off into smaller snakes and he retreated with Kabuto. Although Orochimaru escaped, he was clearly injured. He was massively burned—not only by the chakra hand but also by some black ball. When I tried to control the jinchuriki, he was forming another ball and tried to hit me with it. I was almost able to dodge it but it grazed my arm." Yamato shows them the long burn mark on his arm.

"Looks like it boiled your skin," Kakashi observed.

Yamato continues, "As soon as that black ball hit the ground, it created a powerful explosion that just blew everyone back."

"What about Sasuke?" Jiraiya inquires.

"He was not present. It was all a bluff to get Naruto riled up." Yamato takes a deep breath. "If it wasn't for Sakura helping, I wouldn't have been able to control the boy."

"Did Sai give you an insight for trying to kill Naruto," Kakashi ponders.

"Just that he was a threat."

"I'm betting Danzou told him that and gave him the order," Tsunade explains.

"He left right after Naruto got back to normal," Yamato adds.

"In any case, it's almost midnight. We'll continue this conversation tomorrow afternoon, but for now I want you to go with Shizune to treat that wound of yours and get some rest," the Hokage orders.

Shizune and Yamato bow, then they leave for the hospital.

"How long did it take for Naruto to recover from when you experienced the 4th tail?" Kakashi asks.

"He woke up in a few hours but his body was still…" Jiraiya cringes at the memory. "His body took at least a week to recover from the wounds and bruises it sustained from Kyuubi."

"I think I'll go see him now-"

"Kakashi. Wait till' morning. Let him rest for now," Tsunade states.

"Yeah, he's probably still asleep," agrees Jiraiya.