A/N: All of chapter 2 is now up. And yes, I will be working on chapter 3.


Naruto woke up. At least, he thought he did. He couldn't see or smell anything, nor was he in any type of pain. He scratched his head and wondered why he thought he should be in pain. But, either fortunately or unfortunately for him, his immediate past was a blank.

"Hello?" The word echoed back at him in a mocking answer.

"Hey, anybody out there?"

Once again, the only reply were his own words. He sat up and cracked his neck.

"Where am I?" he asked more quietly.

After sitting in complete silence for a moment, he could think of a few possible answers. He might be in his mind with Kurama, but the scenery (if there was any) was unfamiliar and the fox was nowhere to be found. And if he were in his own mind, shouldn't he be able to tell? It had always been blatantly obvious before when he took the journey inward. So... he might have been captured... somehow... and imprisoned in... where? The thought crept slowly into the back of his mind that he might be dead. He'd never quite imagined death, but he knew he thought it was nothing like this.

He lowered his hands to the surface he was sitting on. It was lukewarm and more or less firm and smooth. He couldn't identify it, so he just decided it was rock. He felt around himself further. There weren't any changes in consistency.

Naruto's strong point was not strategy. He sat there for several moments waiting for an idea to come. At least he grown enough to realize that some of his ideas were bad ones.

Ah, I know! Sage mode!

Of course! Sage mode might not help him identify where he was, but it would help him sense if there was any danger. Naruto straightened and posed himself, prepared to enter sage mode in the natural, calm way he had learned. He did this for an unknown amount of time; it may have been seconds or hours, he had no indication. But eventually, he got frustrated and gave up.

Naruto grumbled and crawled around a bit cautiously, so glad that his eyes had adjusted to the dark so that he could see... more dark. Losing caution in favor of action, which he usually did, he ventured around faster. The ground all seemed to be the same. But eventually he found a wall- with his head. He crawled right into it; it was jagged and cold. The moment he ran into it he thought, no one likes you. Naruto fell back on his behind and rubbed his head. Well that was weird. I have lots of friends... Naruto wondered how they were all doing in the middle of battle... That's right, there was a battle! And he had to get back to it.

He stood and immediately felt the sensation that someone was holding him around the middle. In a split second he struck at the air around him and listened carefully, but there really was no one else. Still, the sensation didn't go away. He carefully felt his chest and abdomen. There were no weird bumps, nothing that wasn't usually there. The odd sensation of being wrapped up in... well, he couldn't describe it, someone else's presence he guessed, was unnerving but not completely unpleasant. He sighed and wished again that he had the faintest idea what was going on.

Perhaps the situation would be better if he literally shed a little light on it? Naruto rubbed his hands together eagerly and wondered why he hadn't thought of it before, he'd harness Kurama's chakra and start to glow. Then he could see what was going on and how to get out.

Alright, Kurama, let's go!

He waited and tried, and waited and tried some more but nothing happened.

"Geez! What the heck is going on!" His frustration echoed all around him.

Oh wait... it makes sense that I'm not able to enter tailed beast mode. I've used up a lot of chakra... I guess I don't have much left.

He paced and tried to think, there wasn't any jutsu he knew of specifically for summoning light, then again he wasn't that widely versed in them. Even if he were, he doubted he'd be the type to pull it off. He could think of a few techniques that glowed but none that he knew how to do offhand...

He paused for a second. The rasengan lets off a little light. Not a lot, but it's good enough.

"Alright! Kage-bunshin no jutsu!"

Naruto paused. Nothing had happened. He sighed and concentrated. Still nothing.

Tailed beast mode he could understand not being able to enter. But he couldn't even do a shadow clone? It had been the easiest thing for him to do for a long, long time. He could (and had, with awkward consequences) do it in his sleep, for goodness sakes. There was no way he didn't have enough chakra for at least a couple of clones. So what was going on?

Naruto wasn't sure how many hours it had been when he thrust his hands into his hair and stopped pacing. He might have been in a panicked state by now except that the sensation of someone holding him was somehow keeping him calm.

He slowly walked back to the spot he thought he remembered hitting the wall and reached out his hand until he felt it. The strange sensation of cold returned along with the feeling that he'd never be accepted. He knew he'd felt this way before, but that was in the past and he'd become stronger since then. He tried to banish the memories from his mind, but it was just as impossible as trying to make the rock in front of him warm. Initially when seeking the wall out again he thought he might try to run his hand along in in search of an opening, but for reasons he couldn't understand, he wanted desperately to pull his hand away.

But if I don't do something, I won't be able to get back to the fight... to everyone...

He felt his brow crease in effort and wondered why it was taking so much willpower just to keep his hand on a wall. He was about to pull it away when he thought he felt a slight breeze. It was like a breath of fresh air, and luckily not unpleasant although definitely unfamiliar. It may have been his imagination, but it seemed to carry a voice in it as it wafted down around him.

"I'm here, Naruto. If it matters; I'm here. I won't leave you."

"Who'se there?" he demanded and turned around quickly. He didn't sense a presence or hear anyone else breathing. Surely that had been a voice, but it was faint and echoed around like his own had. He couldn't recognize who it might belong to.

"Answer me!"

He hadn't really expected an answer, so it was a surprise when a tiny light shimmered up above and began to descend. He braced himself but it floated down excrutiatingly slowly and in a rather gentle way, making him wonder exactly how long it had taken the voice to reach him. Eventually curiosity got the best of him and he reached out towards it. The light shot toward him immediately and settled on his fingertips, where it barely provided enough illumination to see at all. He couldn't sense anything from it either positive or negative, but at least it didn't feel dangerous and he was glad for the light however faint it may be.

I don't know what's going on but I can't just sit here, I guess. I mean... somebody must be waiting for me.

He sighed and pressed his hand against the wall once again.