Yay! I now have a beta!!!!! Thank you 'Eternal Thief'! ... Wow, this chapter is out unusually early... for me... Anyways, if you guys haven't read Naruto chp. 440, you sooo do NOT know what you are missing!!!!!!!!!!!!! Read it NOW!

"Speach"

'Thoughts'

"Demonic/Higher power speaking"

Flashback

Vibrations: Chapter 9

Dreaming in the Night

Naruto began to dream.

The void of sleep was darker then the void of night, and it filled Naruto with dread. The fog of darkness from his eyes shifted, and once again, the blond found himself in the training ground he had come across the other day. But there was a slight difference, each tree, each blade of grass, each cloud, looked brighter, sharper in color, and yet more blurred. The sky mixed with the trees, and the trees with the ground. The only thing that seemed to be unaffected by this, was Naruto, standing in the field. His image was sharper and clearer than that of the scenery. Wondering if he was the only one there, Naruto began to look for some sign of people.

He wandered the training grounds, traveling along the borders of the grassy fields. Just when he was about to give up, a rustle was heard in the bushes.

As the blond turned towards the noise, a figure came out of the bushes. He was clothed in a black ANBU outfit, his coal black eyes intimidating Naruto. It was Itachi.

"Hello, Naruto." Itachi said, "Are you ready to train?"

Naruto was confused, "I never said anything about training…"

Itachi ignored him, "Let's begin now."

Itachi reached inside his cloak, and pulled out eight kunai. An evil light glittered in his eye, "We'll start with dodging." His voice betrayed no emotion, nor did his face. He wore a plain, stoic expression.

Eight kunai simultaneously flew at Naruto, and the boy began to run. Itachi appeared at his side, looking as calm as he had always appeared, "Not fast enough."

A kunai pelted him in the stomach. Naruto fell, grabbing at his side; his mind becoming numb with pain. Naruto looked up to see Itachi slowly walking towards him, and in his eyes, a black pinwheel on red. Red chakra began to surround the red eyed Itachi, cloaking him from harm. Naruto whimpered at the sight.

Itachi, seeing Narutos reaction, smirked, "Aw, the little boy is in trouble." His face twisted into a demented snarl, "Lesson one: those who are weak will always be weak! They are doomed to die by the hands of those stronger!" With those words, Itachi pulled out a single kunai, twirling it in his hands, before setting into a comfortable grasp. With his arm raised, he charged towards the blond.

Naruto watched as death came upon him; and as he watched, he could not believe what was coming towards him. He had been near death many times before, but he had always managed to escape. But as that cold and reflecting metal came towards him, he finally realized something that, although it should have been obvious to him, applied to all life, including his. That he would surely die, that was what he recognized; if not today, then tomorrow, or maybe years after that. Death was inevitable. Whenever you die, it would always be the right time. You couldn't stop it from happening just as you can't stop the earth from dieing every night, nor its rebirth in the morning. If he would die today, it would be the day for his death, the right date; no other would do.

Naruto smiled, finally coming to terms with his death, and closed his eyes in peace. To be gone, if that was what death was, a trip, them Naruto would gladly welcome it to take him away from this place.

With his eyes closed, he failed to notice the shadow attached to Itachi change, and become a shadow of a fox with nine tails.

He also failed to register the shadow that came from behind him, in the form of a tall man with messy hair.

He did, however, hear an angry growl. Startled, the boy looked up.

A hand was gripping the kunai, holding it away from him. Naruto could not help but remember his other dreams, when a kind stranger had hugged him from behind; a kind, and yet known stranger. How had he forgotten such dreams? And when had those dreams stopped? These questions now rang in the boy's head as he watched Itachi morph in front of him. Naruto focused again, 'Itachi was morphing?'

It had only started happening when he had thought it, and so nothing was missed. Itachi's nose grew out longer, and his mouth grew out with his nose, becoming a muzzle. The skin around his nose turned black and damp, and fur sprouted from the edges of his lips that covered the canines. The fur traveled along down his body, encasing it in a rich orange cover. His ears slid up to the top of his head, becoming pointy and curved. As the fur reached his tailbone, the base of his spine split into three parts, and those three into three more, becoming nine bony tails. Itachi started to fall on all fours, as muscles quickly rippled their way up the front legs, placing the bones into a different position. This ripple of muscle followed down his back, to his legs, rearranging those bones as well. The tails grew muscle, and flesh and fur traveled and connected at the tails tip. The final change was his eyes, the black slowly lightening to a crimson red, the color of blood, and the eyes turned to slits, betraying the animal inside the beast. In front of Naruto, fully transformed at twelve feet in height, was the Nine Tails Fox Demon.

Naruto looked onward in fright. Was this the monster that was haunting him? The blond could not move, his fear was so great, but the great Fox did not have eyes for him, rather, it was for the man behind the blond that the Fox was interested in.

"Human." The fox demon growled.

"Kyuubi." Was the only reply the man gave.

Without a second thought, the Fox rushed at the man behind Naruto, and the Fox began to grow. Naruto, acting in self-defense, raised his arms to block his face. The Fox rose higher and higher, becoming at tall as the trees themselves, before bringing the paw downwards. A blue barrier formed around the blond child, blocking the clawed paw that was the Kyuubi's defiance. Kyuubi spat at this new information.

"Disgusting human." Growled the Fox. But without the ability to do anymore, the Fox decided to continue on his rampage of words, "You pitiful excuse of a meat bag. Only that child has the power to protect you, and without him, you will be left to me." That idea seemed to bring a crazed look to the Foxes face, and he smiled. A crazed, demented, evil smile that promised pain to whomever –or whatever- was on the receiving side of it.

"You will not get me, fox." The man growled out between his clenched teeth. The boy whose soul they inhabited seemingly forgotten.

"Do not bet on it. The seal protects him, not you." The Fox growled a gurgling laughter from deep inside his belly, showing, more than anything else, his loss of sanity and humanity.

As Naruto heard that laughter, a new definition of fear entered his heart, and he whimpered, a painful noise that seemed to come from the depth of his soul. Both man and beast turned to look at him.

"Pathetic." The Kyuubi spat out at the boy.

The man ignored the Kyuubi's comment, and knelt so he was level with the boy. His arms wrapped around the blond from behind, as he placed the boy on his lap, rocking him back and forth. He placed his head near Narutos ear, humming an old tune passed down from his mother.

A few tears fell from Narutos eyes, and he let out a half-choked sob, finally enabling the man to comfort him. The boy's tears turned into full out crying, his fear and troubles being washed by the wind.

The Kyuubi, sickened by this sight, brought down his head, thinking that additional force would be all that was required to break the barrier. He opened his mouth to crush the blue globe; his hideous breath reeked of decaying and rotted corpses, its pungent odor overpowering all other smells.

Naruto knew what was coming before he even looked up. He sobbed even harder, if that was possible. The man behind him hugged him tighter, promising silently to never let go. His song all but done, the man began to whisper, over and over, "It'll be okay, Naruto, I'm here. It'll be okay. I'm here."

Naruto felt the air being sucked out of his lungs as the fox took a breath inwards. He felt the space around him slowly becoming limited, shrinking with the deadly speared walls beginning to enclose them. The man's rocking seemed to grow faster, and his words louder as the breath of the Kyuubi blew on them full force, specks of burning hot saliva pelting the two.

Naruto started his own chant of words, "This is only a dream. This is only a dream. This is only a dream!"

Naruto woke up screaming.

Hot beads of sweat formed on his body, dampening the covers. The night darkness encased everything, fighting against the light of the moon. Tears in his eyes spilled out onto the cheeks of the blue-eyed boy. The objects in his room had become less noticeable, the darkness working in such a way that it blended sharp edges together to form an unstable line. As he sat there, he turned his head, viewing the room, which seemed to change from dark to light with no visible pattern.

Naruto stayed sitting upright, until his breathing had become normal again. As he opened up his senses, he welcomed the silence for once. Anything was better than hearing that insane laughter. At the thought of it, Naruto tightened his hold on the covers, trying to keep himself from quaking in fear. Whatever that Fox had been, it wasn't Itachi, that much Naruto could figure out. And the dream seemed far too real to be just that, a dream. He could still feel the pain in his stomach where Itachi's kunai had pierced him. But it wasn't Itachi, was it? It was Kyuubi; whoever that was. Even as Naruto racked his brain for history lessons, he could still not place the name. But then the other figure came to mind, one that he did not see, but touch. His name had not been given. Naruto did not dwindle on it; he doubted that he could come up with an answer so late into the night.

By this time, Naruto had regained all control of his body. The boy got up in the dark, and headed towards the kitchen, without turning on the light. Pulling out a stool from the tableside –which the boy placed next to the countertops- Naruto climbed until he could reach his cabinets above. He opened one, and pulled out a glass. Going to the sink, he filled the glass with tap water, and drank it, refreshing himself. After several minutes of mulling around in the kitchen, Naruto headed back to bed.

The boy pulled the covers over him as he climbed onto his sleeping place. He grabbed the stuffed dragon that was placed by his bedside, left there and forgotten for the past few weeks. As Naruto lay there holding the stuffed dragon onto his chest, he tried to bring back the feeling of safety that had been fleeing his grasp ever since he had been given his own apartment. He tried to convince himself that the ANBU outside were still there, protecting him. He had a brief recollection of a night much like this…

Flashback:

Naruto sat up, shivering from the cold seeping through the poorly insulated house. The boy gripped his sheets tighter, wondering what it was that had woken him up. He felt something that was strong enough to be felt through the mattress and floor. Then he felt it again; vibrations.

Without thinking, the boy shot up from where he lay, and took shelter under the bed, arranging the sheets in such a way that no one could view him when standing in the room.

He felt the vibrations again, this time, a harder and deeper roar. But it ended just as suddenly as it began. The boy felt vibrations growing stronger, or coming closer. Cautiously, he looked a little ways out of the bed, and only barely managed to hold his mouth shut from the scream that was coming up from his throat.

There were men in his room.

There were two men; each carried what seemed to be torches, lit aflame. The torches' glow made the men's faces a deep haunting color, and their eyes seemed to stand out against their sockets. Both men were covered in sweat, and their clothes appeared to be damp from it. Each man had a beer-belly, sticking out farther from the waist then the pants could go. The shirt tried to do its job by covering their belly, but the shirts had no such luck, instead, it seemed to cling to the body that wore it, and only managed to cover their bellybutton. Grease was splattered all over their bodies, and a demented smile littered their face. Their shirts were white, and Naruto could view multiple stains on them. The only thing that tore them apart was a short mustache that rested above one of the men's lip, bits of food and grease flecked into the coarse hairs, small singular droplets of some liquid still clinging to them. The man with the mustache had been the first to enter.

Naruto looked to the man without the mustache, seeing that he was opening his lips to speak, "Aw man!" The fat man yelled, "The demon isn't here!"

A hand collided with his face, sent by the other man, "Quiet, you! Do you want everyone to know that we are here?"

"But no one would care!" Argued the other.

"There is a small chance that someone might!" Whispered back the one with the mustache, "Did you see that member tonight? The one who suggested that we stop our plans?"

"Yes, but she's old! Besides, she lives in these apartments!" the other said, "She must not want her home to be burned down."

Narutos eyes widened. They wanted to burn the apartments? But this was his only home!

"You idiot!" cried the other, "We never spoke of burning the apartments down in the meeting."

"Oh."

"Yes… Oh." The mustache man replied mockingly, "While I'm trying to do the best I can to get this plan to work without us being caught, you're off yelling your joy to everyone, putting everyone's eyes on us! I can't believe I'm related to you, much less your twin."

"Fine, if that's the way you think of me, then I quit." Replied the man, crossing his arms over his potbelly. The man trudged his feet, and Naruto felt the vibrations getting fainter as he left his apartment.

"Stupid-" The man cut off what he was trying to say, as he heard something.

Naruto felt the vibrations in the air, but without his ears, he could not interpret what they were trying to tell him.

"Shit." The man with the mustache ran out of his bedroom, dropping the torch on the floor.

Narutos problem was no longer the men, for they were so far away by now that he couldn't even feel the vibrations made from them anymore. His problem lay five feet in front of his face. Something that was slowly crawling its way over to him, to encase him within its embrace. Its warm and flickering embrace of heat and light. The embrace that promised only death. Naruto watched in horror as the fire slowly, lazily almost, crept its way across the floor, closer and closer to him.

Naruto, in an instant, got up and ran towards his window, trying to pull it up.

The reason he could not use the door, was because the flames had already climbed up onto the sides of the doorway, blocking him from exiting. It had seemed that the grease that was on the men was actually lamp oil, and highly flammable. It had seemed that they had already greased the doorways with the oil as they passed through the door, maybe on accident, maybe on purpose.

Naruto realized something as he tugged at the window. He had not been able to afford the oil to grease the windows and fix them up, and so they had been left how they were. That had been a month ago. By now, the windows must have been so rusted, that it had sealed them shut. The window would not open for him, or for anyone else.

He was trapped, without any hope or any ideas of escape.

"Help!" The boy yelled, desperate to get out. Smoke began to filter into his lungs, as the fire began to quicken and spread, its heat becoming more intense with every passing second.

Then, from the outside, he viewed a metal object hurling through the wind. Naruto ducked. He felt shards of glass cover his body from the window. The sun kissed blond shook himself, before standing. The window had been obliterated.

A white weasel mask was floating on a branch on the other side of the street. The ANBU that had thrown the kunai jumped through the window, and landed behind Naruto.

Naruto turned around, "ANBU-san?" He questioned. Of all the people he had known, he most respected the ANBU, after the Hokage, of course. They had saved his life many more times then he could remember, and he owed them so much.

The ANBU didn't speak as he faced Naruto, they never did. The ANBU only grabbed Naruto, and put him on his shoulders like you would a sack of potatoes. With Naruto, the ANBU jumped outside the window, landing on the rooftop next to the apartments. As the ANBU left the scene with Naruto to go to the Hokage's office, Naruto could view one other ANBU staying behind. He saw that ANBU make seals, forming a water dragon, and putting out the flames.

It had turned out that the old lady the two men had spoken of went to go see the Hokage that night, and Sarutobi dispatched his ANBU just in time for them to capture the culprits –who seemed to be leaders of a group against Naruto- and save Naruto from the fire.

Naruto turned his body to the side, so he could face the window. He looked out, trying to spot even just a shimmer of a mask to comfort him. But he knew that the ninjas who were protecting him were very strong, and they most likely wouldn't let themselves be caught. After a full minute of looking, he sighed and began to turn away from the light of the moon, but a brief view stopped him. There was a mask, hovering above the same branch the other ANBU had stood on so long ago. Upon closer inspection, Naruto could tell it was a weasel mask.

Naruto smiled outwardly, showing the ANBU that he had seen him, and was giving thanks. The ANBU mask disappeared after that, and Naruto closed his eyes with the sense of protection. "Thank you, ANBU-san." He whispered to the animal spirit, before falling asleep.

By the morning, his dream would have been all but forgotten about.

Thank you all for reading, review if you want too! ;P The next chapter will be longer, since this chapter is so short, and also because the next chapter will be the tenth one!!!!!!!!!!!! Signing out :D