Kyuubi was furious with him and if the fox had a physical impact on Naruto he was quite certain his stomach would be ripped in half from the inside. Gaara was a good ways away now; Tsunade had set him and his siblings up with rooms at Konoha's only inn.
Kyuubi wanted to be near Sukaku's power, and Naruto had no intention of letting the two demons spend more time together than needed.
He quickly found himself in front of Sasuke's door and, even though Sasuke's living room window was open he decided to knock. Naruto stood on the doorstep for a few moments, listening for any sound that would indicate that Sasuke was even home. He knocked again, louder this time.
Footsteps sounded from inside the house and Naruto waited patiently as they became louder.
The door was pulled open and Sasuke stared at him for several moments. He seemed surprised, but covered it with his usual cold indifference.
"Can I come in?" Naruto finally said.
Sasuke didn't answer, but he opened the door wider and stepped aside, allowing Naruto to enter. "What are you doing here?" he asked.
There weren't any lights on, and the deep red of the setting sun through the open window was all that illuminated Sasuke's living room. Sasuke closed the door and waited for Naruto to speak.
Naruto looked at him in surprise. "Well, I was discharged at the hospital and I just assumed—" he broke off his sentence. "Sorry, that was stupid of me," he said with a smile. "I'll go get Tsunade-baba to get me a room with Gaara and them." Naruto had already been wondering if seeing Sasuke again was a good idea. Obviously he was right in thinking it wasn't.
A sudden memory flashed into Naruto's mind. With a frown he shook his head, wondering why he was suddenly thinking about practicing chakra control by climbing trees. It was completely random.
It took Sasuke a minute to realize Naruto had come for a place to stay. "No, you can stay," he said quickly. "I just figured you'd be leaving."
"I'll be heading out tomorrow with the sand siblings," Naruto told him, looking almost sad.
For some reason that information angered Sasuke. They were allowed to go with Naruto but he wasn't?
Still, Naruto was so at ease with Gaara. If Gaara made Naruto happy then Naruto should spend time with him. God knows Naruto needed some happiness in his life. Sasuke moved further into the room, taking a seat on his couch and looking at the floor.
"Are you okay?" Naruto asked, looking down at him in concern, ignoring the sudden memory of defacing Hokage mountain when he was twelve. Why were his thoughts wandering?
"You looked really happy today," Sasuke said.
Naruto frowned at the odd statement. "I was," he said. "Does that bother you?"
"Of course not," Sasuke said, looking up quickly.
Naruto gazed down at him curiously.
Sasuke continued. "It just makes me think that I can't make you feel at ease. I guess you can't trust me anymore."
"What?" Naruto asked, not understanding. He closed his eyes for a moment, steadying himself from a sudden wave of vertigo.
"You seem like you're able to relax around Gaara. With me you always have your guard up."
"Sasuke," Naruto said with a laugh. "Of course I'm more relaxed around Gaara. If I loose control of Kyuubi around him he would be able to fend me off. With you I worry about what would happen. One slip and you'd be dead."
Sasuke studied his face. So this wasn't about his betrayal? This had nothing to do with Naruto's trust of him? Naruto was just worried.
"Let me come with you. Don't leave me alone here, Naruto."
Naruto looked away and after a moment he met Sasuke's gaze again. "The fox will kill you, Sasuke," he said. "I would never be able to forgive myself."
"I would rather die with you than stay here by myself," Sasuke said. "I hate it here. Everyone in this village sees me as nothing but the last Uchiha. I'm surrounded by people but I have never felt more alone. I only stayed here for you. Because you loved this village and your dream was to be able to protect it. So I stayed here to do it for you."
Naruto wanted to respond, but the dizziness from before came back and suddenly he found himself on his knees, using the edge of the couch to support his upper body as memories began to surface unbidden in his head. He clenched his eyes shut, trying to block out the images from his past, but they remained clear in his mind.
"Naruto?" Sasuke asked in concern when his friend fell to his knees. He placed a hand on the other man's arm and felt the skin under his hand begin to grow warm. Naruto didn't respond and his eyes were shut firmly. Tendrils of red chakra began weaving around Naruto's body and Sasuke quickly started to shake him by the shoulders, ignoring the feverish temperature of his skin. "Naruto!"
The red chakra flared up and Sasuke pulled his hands back with a hiss as Naruto's skin became so hot that it burned him.
"Naruto!" Sasuke said loudly, not daring to touch him again. "What's going on?"
Naruto's eyes snapped open and Sasuke almost felt relived. Then the blood red eyes fixed on him. Sasuke stood from the couch, taking several steps back as Kyuubi stood up slowly, sharp fangs gleaming at him as he grinned.
"You should have listened to the brat," he said, advancing on Sasuke. "He told you I would kill you."
He leapt at Sasuke, a clawed hand outstretched to slash at him.
Wishing he had some type of weapon to defend himself with, Sasuke dove out of the way, barely missing the razor sharp nails. Kyuubi's clawed hand met instead with Sasuke's living room wall slashing straight through the wood. He lunged at Sasuke again, who managed to dodge once more. Red chakra swelled even more around Naruto's body, making him look as if he was surrounded by flames. Naruto's fingers began forming seals and Sasuke's eyes widened, looking around the living room. If Kyuubi used that jutsu there was only one way he could dodge.
"Katon: Ryuuka no jutsu," was heard seconds after Sasuke dove out his thankfully open window, rolling as he hit the ground of his backyard.
He turned to face his house, which he saw, with a certain degree of sadness, was now full of flames. Kyuubi followed him outside, walking slowly through the fire that had already eaten away at the walls of Sasuke's living room.
"Naruto!" Sasuke called, summoning the Sharingan. "Wake up!"
"Not this time, Uchiha," Kyuubi called, walking towards him.
Then, in a flash of speed that even the Sharingan couldn't completely follow, Kyuubi was before him, claws raised.
Sasuke tried to dodge but as he moved the claws still managed to catch him, creating four deep gashes along his left shoulder. He stumbled away, attempting to cover his viciously bleeding shoulder with his right hand. Sasuke's adrenaline was rushing so he saw more than he felt the wound; however, when he tried to move his left arm, sharp searing pain caused his vision to swim and he fought to keep himself from blacking out.
Without the use of his left arm seals were impossible, as well as Chidori. He was defenseless and Kyuubi lunged at him again, ready to finish him off.
Sasuke blinked at the sudden wall of sand in front of him. He heard Kyuubi's claws bounce harmlessly off it. Looking to his right he saw Gaara standing impassively at the edge of his yard. Menacing shadows splayed across the red haired man's face from the light of Sasuke's blazing house.
"Sukaku," he heard Kyuubi say.
The wall of sand disappeared as Kyuubi moved over to Gaara, Sasuke completely forgotten.
"Uchiha, are you alright?" Kankurou asked, jumping down from a nearby tree. He looked over Sasuke's heavily bleeding wounds and Temari leapt from another tree, standing next to her brother with her fan at the ready.
Sasuke began to feel dizzy and was surprised to feel Kankurou catch him when his knees gave way, easing him to sit on the ground. Kankurou ripped off some of his own shirt, pressing it against Sasuke's shoulder, in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
Gaara watched warily as Kyuubi stood in front of him. Shukaku could feel the power Kyuubi was radiating and he was going crazy within Gaara, but the sand nin ignored the demon as best he could.
Before he could even react Kyuubi was reaching out to grab him. Gaara's loyal sand flew up and blocked Kyuubi from his aim. With a snarl Kyuubi used his true speed, his hand flying through the defense of sand and latching around Gaara's throat. He lifted sand user a few feet from the ground but Gaara somehow managed to look as impassive as ever. He could not feel the hand tightening around his neck because of his armor of sand.
"Sukaku," Kyuubi said gruffly as Naruto's face moved only inches from Gaara's. "I trapped my brat."
"What?" Gaara said, not sure if Kyuubi knew whether or not he was talking to Sukaku's carrier rather than Sukaku.
"He's stuck in his memories," Kyuubi elaborated, and the demon seemed gleeful. "You should try. Imagine the damage we could do."
Gaara discreetly stretched out an arm.
"Personally, I don't think either one of you is very powerful," Gaara said. "You're both stuck in two humans and are unable to escape." Goading the demons wasn't exactly the smartest of ideas, but Gaara needed to buy some time for his siblings to do what he needed of them.
The sand siblings and Sasuke looked up in surprise as one of Gaara's sand clones suddenly appeared next to them.
"He has Naruto trapped in his memories," the clone said to them. "I can't wake him up."
"What do we do?" Temari asked.
"That blonde girl," the clone said. "The one who can enter minds. Get her. Quickly."
"Uchiha, where does she live?" Kankurou asked.
Sasuke turned to him with slightly glazed eyes. His vision was blurring and he could barely hear what Kankurou was asking him.
"Uchiha?"
Sasuke felt like the voice was underwater and he closed his eyes as everything went black.
"Sasuke!" Kankurou said, shaking him carefully, avoiding his injury. "Temari, I think he's going into shock from the blood loss."
"We need a medical nin," she said, kneeling down and helping Kankurou lay the Uchiha flat.
"Stay here," Kankurou said. "I'll find help."
Kakashi had never been one for sleep. Sure, he got enough to remain alert and aware but he certainly didn't sleep the way Naruto had when he was his student, nor did he find himself nodding off like Tsunade occasionally did in her office.
Late into the night or early in the morning he could usually be found at the small black monument near the training grounds, usually sitting calmly and tracing all the names with his eyes before meditating.
He sometimes lost track of the hours spent there, which was the reason he was so often late to, well, everything.
Tonight his eyes were on one name. Normally he divided his attention between four of them; Rin, and Obito were never far from his mind, and of course there was his sensei, the great Fourth Hokage, the man who gave his life to protect Konoha from Kyuubi. But tonight he couldn't help but pay more attention to the name that shouldn't be there. Uzumaki Naruto.
Kakashi still had no answers to explain Naruto's reasons for pretending to be dead. It seemed as though it had something to do with Kyuubi, but no one was willing to enlighten him.
Kakashi's head snapped up when he felt the distinct surge of Kyuubi's malicious chakra. Standing, he quickly headed towards the source, somehow not surprised that he was running in the direction of Sasuke's house.
He skidded to a stop when he saw Kankurou moving quickly from the direction Kakashi was headed. "Kankurou, what's going on?" he asked the puppet master, taking in his torn shirt and flustered appearance.
"I need a medical nin and that girl who can go into minds," Kankurou told him.
"What's happened?"
"The longer we stand here talking about it the less time Uchiha has," Kankurou said.
Realizing this was more serious than he had anticipated Kakashi wasted no more time. "Ino lives a few streets from here and Sakura is her neighbor. Come on," he said, leading the way.
The two girls were more than confused when Kakashi and Kankurou drug them from their doorsteps without explanation. As they ran back to the Uchiha estate Kankurou filled them in, and worry for both Naruto and Sasuke overtook them.
"Naruto has Kyuubi in him?" Ino asked in amazement.
"I can't believe I didn't figure it out before," Sakura said. "That must have been what you saw in his mind, Ino."
They were still a slight ways away from Sasuke's house when the flaming building entered their vision.
Temari breathed a sigh of relief when she saw her bother accompanied by three Konoha ninjas. She had been unable to stop Sasuke's bleeding and she feared that the man would bleed to death if he didn't get proper medical help soon.
Sakura rushed to the injured man's side immediately, judging the damage. She placed her hands on the deep gashes and set to work trying to heal him.
Ino and Kakashi were looking wide-eyed at the scene in the yard. Naruto was glowing with red chakra, making him look as if he were lit aflame. They watched as he tossed Gaara across the yard like a rag doll. Gaara's sand suddenly appeared catching him right before he slammed into a tree and set him back to his feet.
Ino jumped when a voice behind her spoke. "You need to guide Naruto out of his memories."
She turned to see a calm Gaara standing behind her, quite similar to the one currently facing Kyuubi. Ino really didn't want to go back into Naruto's head. The last time was an experience she didn't particularly want to repeat.
Gaara's clone spoke. "Stick to Naruto's memories and you won't meet with Kyuubi."
Ino nodded and swallowed, then raised her hands and performed the seals.
It was dark in Naruto's mind, just as it had been the first time. Naruto's memories streamed by her, blurring together into streams of color. How was she supposed to find him? This could take forever.
With a deep breath she stepped into the stream of memories, which immediately stopped moving and focused into a scene.
Ino recognized her surroundings instantly. She was near the ninja academy, although not too close. There was a crowd of parents and children and happy chatter filled the air. Suddenly catching sight of her twelve year old self excitedly showing of her new hitai-ate to her father, Ino realized exactly what day this was.
Graduation day.
She looked around the memory for Naruto and paused when she turned and finally spotted him. It was the twelve-year-old Naruto, not the adult one she was looking for. He was sitting by himself on a swing in the playground across from the school quietly watching the crowd. There were goggles on his forehead and for a moment Ino wondered why, but then she remembered that Naruto had not graduated.
A conversation caught her attention and from the look on the young Naruto's face she could tell he could hear it too.
"That's the kid. He's the only one who failed."
"Well, that's good."
"We can't have him becoming a shinobi since he is—"
"Hey, we can't talk about that."
Ino watched sadly as Naruto slid from the swing and ran off.
Suddenly the scene changed and she found herself in the center of the village. She watched a little Naruto stumble from Konoha's sweet shop, backing away quickly. Naruto was younger in this memory than in the last, maybe eight or nine this time.
"Don't come back here you little monster!" the old woman who owned the shop said, brandishing a broom.
Ino looked on in amazement. The little old lady had always seemed so kind when she and Sakura used to visit the shop when they were younger.
"I won't have you stealing from me!"
Well, that made sense, Ino thought, watching as she tried to smack Naruto in the head with the broom. He nimbly avoided it, taking off. As he ran by Ino, though, she noticed the money clenched tightly in his fist.
The scene blurred again and Ino was surprised to see an older Naruto. This memory was obviously sometime after he had left Konoha. His blonde hair was tied up under his hitai-ate and he was now in darker colors instead of the trademark orange jumpsuit. Ino figured he was probably sixteen or seventeen.
It was night and, with a bit of surprise, she saw that he was sitting next to Gaara. They were near the edge of a river and Ino didn't recognize the surroundings at all so she assumed they weren't anywhere near Konoha.
The two lumps in sleeping bags not far from the boys must have been Gaara's siblings she realized.
"How have you done this for so long?" she heard Naruto ask, punctuating his question with a loud yawn.
Gaara shrugged.
Naruto's eyes began to droop and suddenly a small ball of sand flew up from the ground, smacking him in the head.
"Ow!" Naruto hissed, rubbing the spot he'd been hit.
"Stay awake," was all Gaara said.
"It would be easier if you were better company," Naruto growled. "Talking to you is about as interesting as talking to a wall." He crossed his arms and looked away from the sand nin with a humph.
"Do you ever think about just letting go?" Gaara suddenly asked,
Naruto turned back to him, obviously confused. "What?"
"The demon. Do you ever wonder how much easier things would be if you just went to sleep and let him take over?"
"No," Naruto said. "It might be easier for us, but think of all the death and destruction we would cause."
Gaara looked at him with a raised eyebrow and Ino realized that the red haired man had never really seemed to care about innocent lives.
"Okay, fine," Naruto said, catching the meaning behind Gaara's look. "How about this then. Letting him take over is proving that you don't have the power to fight him. To let him take over is to show you're weak."
There was a pause where Gaara considered his words.
"I'm not weak," Gaara finally said.
"Neither am I," Naruto said.
The area blurred again and the scene shifted several times, so quickly that Ino could only hear what was being said.
"Naruto, you're annoying."
"Baka!"
"Stupid."
"You are such an idiot."
"What a moron."
Ino recognized several of the voices, one of which had been her own. The last voice though she definitely recognized.
"Dobe."
The scene finally cleared and Ino could once again see her surroundings. She stood on a cliff over looking a large river that turned into a high waterfall. Looking across the river she saw a huge statue that stood over the waterfall like a guard, then she noticed that there was one on the side she was on as well. Ino had never seen this place before and she wondered if it was somewhere that Naruto had come across after leaving Konoha, until she finally saw Naruto standing on the index finger of the statue on her side of the river. He was still clad in the bright orange from his youth, blonde hair hanging heavily around his face. He was soaked.
"Did that wake you up?" he yelled.
Ino couldn't see who he was talking to, but he was staring at the face of the statue as if someone was clinging there.
A voice she recognized answered him and slowly Ino began to realize what she must be seeing. The infamous fight between Sasuke and Naruto at the Valley of the End. The fight that everyone speculated over but no one knew the details to. Neither Naruto nor Sasuke had ever spoken of it.
Sasuke suddenly appeared in her line of vision as he lunged at Naruto, punching him fiercely and knocking him from the statue down to the water below.
They exchanged words that Ino couldn't hear and then they went at it, Naruto rushing the statue, while Sasuke ran vertically down. They met with punches and after a moment Naruto ended up back on the water, using his chakra to stand on it, and Sasuke hung from the statue.
Ino's eyes widened when Sasuke's left hand began to glow blue with chakra. He was going to use Chidori on Naruto?
Sasuke was actually trying to kill Naruto, she realized in shock.
Naruto had never told them what had happened when he went after Sasuke, but she never would have believed that Sasuke had actually attempted to kill him.
"You know, of all my memories, I always seem to come back to this one as my worst," a deep voice said, causing Ino to jump in surprise. She turned quickly to her right to see Naruto, the real Naruto, sitting on the edge of the cliff watching as his younger self powered up Rasengan.
The two powerful jutsu's met and the adults watched as the boys were tossed backwards from one another. They quickly began to fight again and Sasuke managed to grab a hold of Naruto's collar, picking him up and holding him a few inches from the ground. Ino looked on in horror as Chidori formed once again in Sasuke's hand, and was shoved through Naruto's chest.
"Why didn't you ever tell us?" she said softly.
Naruto shrugged. "I didn't want it hanging over Sasuke when he came back."
"How did you know he would even be back?" Ino asked. "He betrayed Konoha. He nearly killed you!"
Naruto smiled, standing up. "I just knew."
Ino suddenly remembered why she was there in the first place. "Naruto, Kyuubi's taken over. You need to wake up."
"I've been trying, but I can't get out of here," he said with a deep frown. "Kyuubi somehow trapped me in my memories."
For the first time since Ino had known him Naruto looked helpless.
"Well, you have to figure out something," she said. "Kyuubi seriously hurt Sasuke and he's attacking Gaara."
Naruto's eyes narrowed. He seemed to be deep in thought. Finally he spoke. "I need you to go back and tell Gaara to do it."
"To do what?" Ino asked.
"He'll know what I mean. It's the only way to wake me up," Naruto said. "Go tell him."
Ino looked around, eyes lingering on the boys still fighting below, surprised to see Naruto's form surrounded by red chakra that was beginning to take the shape of Kyuubi. "I don't know how to get out of here, Naruto. I don't have the use of your hands."
Naruto began to glow blue as he focused his chakra. "Go!" he said, and Ino felt herself being pulled from his body and slamming back into hers. She opened her eyes with a gasp and looked up at Kakashi, who had caught her when she fell limp.
"It didn't work?" he asked her worriedly. She had only just preformed the jutsu moments before and it looked as if Kyuubi hadn't let her into Naruto's mind.
Her eyes immediately searched out Gaara's clone. "He said to do it," she said to him, hoping that Naruto was correct and Gaara would understand what he meant.
"He what?" Temari said, moving next to her.
"Kyuubi has him trapped in his memories," Ino told them as Kakashi helped her stand upright. "He said it's the only way to wake him up."
"That is what he said?" Gaara asked.
Ino nodded.
"Gaara," Temari said. "If you do it while Naruto's consciousness is trapped you could permanently switch them!"
"It's what Naruto wants me to do, Temari," Gaara's clone said before it turned into a pile of sand, effectively ending the conversation.
Temari sighed.
"What does Naruto want him to do?" Kakashi asked.
"Goguoufuuin," she said.
"The five part seal?" Kakashi said in astonishment. "That's a forbidden technique."
"They both learned it," Kankurou said, coming to stand next to his sister. "In case they needed to seal each other."
"But by doing it with Kyuubi in control they run the risk of simply sealing away Naruto's chakra and leaving Kyuubi in control."
"But if you can seal Kyuubi's chakra why didn't they just perform the seal when Naruto had control?" Ino asked.
"The five point seal also makes it difficult for Naruto to control his own chakra. Instead of the two chakras mixing they start to become at odds with one another. Leaving it on for too long weakens him significantly," Temari explained.
Kyuubi rushed at Gaara, using Naruto's hand to once again grab Gaara by his neck. Gaara made no attempt to even move away, simply allowing Kyuubi to hold him by the throat.
Naruto's mouth broke into a fanged grin until Kyuubi realized his legs were bound tightly by sand. He lifted his free hand to slash at Gaara but he snarled in frustration when he saw that that too was restrained by sand. Gaara's raised his right hand and performed a one handed seal. Five tiny blue flames of chakra appeared on each one of his fingertips. With his left hand he lifted Naruto's shirt, revealing the black curse seal on his stomach. Reeling his arm back he slammed his fingers into Naruto's stomach.
There was a howl of pain and suddenly the flare of red chakra that had surrounded Naruto's body died out.
Gaara did not remove the sand restraints until blue eyes blinked at him, and the hand around his neck was quickly released.
"I'm sorry Gaara," Naruto said softly as he took in the other man's ruffled appearance.
"Now we're even for our first fight," Gaara said with a shrug.
Naruto looked around Sasuke's backyard, sadly watching as Sasuke's house continued to burn. His eyes then fell on the still Anbu Sakura was leaning over and he rushed over to him, ignoring the wave of dizziness caused by the seal.
"Is he alright?" he asked Sakura fearfully.
"He'll be okay," she assured him. The gashes along his shoulder had been healed but the angry red scars on Sasuke's pale skin showed Naruto exactly what had been done.
No one spoke as he sat still for several moments.
"I'm sorry," he finally said, but they didn't know if he was speaking to them or to Sasuke.
He then stood, not meeting anyone's eyes and took off, leaving everyone staring after him as he disappeared into the night.