Author's Note

Well, hey there! It's been months since I believe I have actually updated anything. Senior year was a rough ride. Betcha thought I quit, dintcha? Well, NO no I have NOT. Let the story continue. I try to keep my chapters longer, if you prefer them shorter and a little less spaced out, just read and review. Let me KNOW what you love, what you hate, etc.

P.S. Need a beta. I SUCK.

Warnings: cartoon violence X3, crazy old women, creepy deus ex machina streakers, and MOSQUITOS.

Not for the faint of heart (orly?) X3. Enjoy.

Sheets of rain poured down even harder, drumming on the hood of the car, and splashing onto the windshield. Little rives moved diagonally across the whistling window.

Naruto rested his head on his palm, scrunching up his face. "Blaaaaaah! Bored!" Klonking his head against the window, Naruto absentmindedly began to play with the window scroll. Up a little down a little up a little down a little. Never enough for the rain to get in, but enough to make the glass move on his face. Should anyone have driven by, without flying off the road because of the storm, they would have flown off anyway after seeing his face smashed on the window.

Naruto looked out into the gale, it had gotten much darker, and it was hard to see anything anymore. He looked at the road ahead instead, at least that had high beams focused on it. The ground had changed, becoming sandier, less mud caking the road through and through. How lovely. Sand would mean better traction, less likely they'd die. (Well, less likely BEFORE meeting Gramma anyway) It was so dark now that a little increase in traction wasn't really a big help. To top everything off, along with the darkness, the rain came down even heavier.

Almost as if to say, 'hey there, bet it's pretty hard to drive in this shitstorm, amirite? I know! I bet darkness makes it even harder, so let's add a few additional buckets of rain. How does ovar 9000 sound? Good? NO? GREAT! Enjoy!'

"Geezus, this is getting ridiculous!" Iruka tapped the break a little, but immediately had to stop. With so much water on the road, just a small tap led to a hydroplaning adventure.

The screeching water and tires was nearly deafening. "Ah shiiiiiiit" Iruka struggled against the water, trying to keep the wheel in place. The car began to fishtail slightly. The jerk made Naruto smack his face on the passenger side window.

"IRUKA!!! What the HELL?!?" Smacking his head on the glass was not pleasant.

"Not now Naruto!" Iruka didn't even shout. In fact he hissed those words. He was light headed with adrenaline and fear, and had to place every bit on concentration on guiding the car until they came to a stop.

Finally realizing the dire situation, Naruto felt his own adrenaline begin to pump as fear placed its icy grip over his heart. Naruto reached over and rapid fire did something that he hadn't done in years. He grabbed his seat belt and snapped it into the belt slot. "Oh godohgodohgodohgod!!!" He fumbled wildly with the clasp, in a panic. Finally clicking it in place he looked up. "WHOAOHSHIT!" The car was nearly sideways. Naruto's mind began to whirl 'we are going to flip, or run off the road and roll till we are both dead! It'll be like those gators that death roll people and rip limbs off or drown them, only gators are green and the car is grey, and OhgodohgodgodgodwearegonnadiewhyamIthinkingaboutfuckinggatorsatatimelikeTHIIIIISSSSSS!!!!'

With a gurgle of wet soil the car began to slide into the median. At 30 miles per hour. The friction of the soil caught the front left tire first and dragged it back fast, jerking the whole car and making it fishtail rapidly to the right. The passengers side of the vehicle flew forward, meaning Naruto was now staring into the rapidly passing oblivion that was the median. His cerulean eyes were wide with terror, his heart was racing. He looked out the passenger side window that he had just been fiddling with, into the darkness, fearing the worst. The road no longer had the high beams of the sedan lighting it, making the storm impenetrable to his eyes, the exception being when lighting lit the highway.

It was then that he saw it. The only thing illuminating the road was lightning, and just as a bolt of lightning sliced through the blackness for a second, he saw the outline of a figure running thirty feet down the road. "Look OUT!" he shouted, not that it mattered. What felt like a millisecond later, the whole car rammed into a solid object, and stopped completely on contact. Naruto got one moment of horror when he saw what they hit before everything lit up for a milisecond, like a firecracker, and then, just as quickly, went black.

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Sonia Uzumaki sat in a rocking chair. At Eighty-nine, she felt that the rheumatism in her joints was just another barrier every time a large storm came roaring her way. She sighed and adjusted her shawl. She stretched a little, easing her sore limbs. The storm outside had just started, seemed like a pretty bad one. The cat would have to stay inside tonight.

A banging on the window reminded her that the shutters would need to be closed.

"Close the shutters, rain gets in, soil the wood, might kill the cat." She mumbled to herself quite often, but, unlike a few years before, she didn't care anymore. At first when she had caught herself, she had been distressed, and gone to Dr. Gordon in a kind of panic. Later, she realized with a morbid satisfaction that she liked talking to herself. She found that the listener always agreed with whatever she said. However, what she didn't realize was that over time, her mumbling had become incoherent and untranslatable to most. She didn't realize her sanity was leaving her. Grabbing her walker next to the chair, she shakily rose to her knobbly feet and padded into the various rooms of her cabin styled house. Every time she reached a window, she grabbed the wood panel shutters and reined them in routinely, hooking the metal clasp that held them in place. None of the windows had glass, she had seen to that. There would be no glass. "No glass. Cut the cat. Cut yourself, no no no…better without I always say." She shambled about muttering about rain, glass and such.

When she reached the last window, her old eyes peered into the bayou. This was the only window on the west side of her house, in the smallest room, her guest room. The one that directly looked into the deepest area of the bayou. She gave it a scan through the rising wind and rain searching for even the tiniest flicker of movement or life. This was just a xeric type of activity for her. She had to do it every time she approached the window. It could be watching.

Her eyes caught it just before it dashed higher up a tree. It had been sitting there clinging to the tree, red eyes staring at her. Watching her. Spying on her. When she'd spotted it, only then did it quickly climb higher into the tree, much like a lizard, slithering up the trunk.

"Always watching always waiting…" She mumbled. She grabbed the shutters and with one more glance, harshly latched them shut.

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Naruto opened his eyes. But somehow…he didn't. Glancing around himself he found that he wasn't in the wreck at all. It wasn't raining. It wasn't even night time; it must have been around noon. The heat was oppressive, and he felt like he could cut the air with a knife, it was so humid. However, for some odd reason, none of this struck him as alarming or even worth caring about. It felt right. The sun shown brilliantly overhead obscured by leaves, turning their undersides a surreal, glowing, green. He looked around him. He was in the middle of a thick forest, on a narrow trail. Through the trees he could see a body of sluggish water, dotted with tress. Bugs flew about, illuminated by the sun, he could hear birds chirping above. It was beautiful. At least for the moment.

A sudden sting made him look at his shoulder in annoyance. A large mosquito was doing her work. "Aw GROSS!" Naruto swatted the mosquito angrily, leaving a squished bug and a few droplets of blood in the smack's wake. "Damn bugs are so annoying." He wished they would leave him alone, it got very aggravating when the bites started to itch incessantly as mosquito bites often do. He really should start wearing shirts, they would protect him from bugs and sunburn; but, in his opinion, it was to hot and muggy for such an unnecessary article of clothing. He didn't care that the adults thought it was indecent. His friends didn't mind, and they were who really counted.

His friends! How could he have forgotten? Naruto took to a quicker pace down the trail, graduating into a lope. The trees began to run together in a green mirage. They were still waiting! He broke into a run. They wanted to….fish…

"Naruto…"

…wanted to wade…shallows…

"…Naruto…"

…crawdads…nets…summer…

"Naruto!"

Naruto felt his eyes flutter open. Everything was rotating a little. Cold rain fell on his face. "Ugh" He turned on his side. The grass he was laying on was whipped about fiercely by the wind and rain." Throw…up…" He felt his whole body convulse, his began coughing and gagging weakly. His throat clenched and expelled the contents of his stomach. He just lay there like a boned fish, retching and sputtering. A bright flash made him shut his eyes, and like an explosion, the thunder that followed roared in his ears.

"Naruto!"

Naruto looked up and there was Iruka, reaching down.

"You get it all out, bud?"

Naruto couldn't answer with words. He settled with a "Bleeeeeh…" He hated that term 'bud', 'buddy', etc. Iruka only used it when he was pathetic looking. Which meant he most likely looked like shit. 'What the hell happened?' He thought. The last thing he remembered was Iruka hydroplaning…everything else…"Urrrrck…" Thinking made his head spin.

"Naruto, does anything feel broken?" Iruka had to half shout to be heard over the storm.

Naruto slowly moved a foot, the other, his hand, other hand, leg, leg, arm, arm, back, neck, everything seemed alright. He slowly shook his head, feeling the mud caked hair slide from side to side on his skull. He instantly regretted the decision however, it made the world spin, and he vomited again. "…ugh." He sputtered and coughed.

"Ok, we need to get you to your grandmother's, ASAP." Iruka waited for a moment, made sure Naruto could nod, and then picked up the soaking wet, and sandy mop. He glanced at the passengers side, and decided that it would be better to put him in the back. Stomping through the sandy mud, he squinted around and eventually found the handle when lightning struck in the nearby woods; it sent a quick shimmering reflection of the metal switch. It was hard to see with Naruto and the rain both blocking his vision, so the lightning was a blessing.

After fumbling with the door and nearly dropping the semi-conscious teen twice, Iruka finally succeeded in opening it and hauled Naruto into the car. Following that, he slumped a little for a quick rest against the side of the sedan. Naruto was heavy, at 6'2, he was considerably tall, and not the easiest to just throw around. Iruka was only 6 feet tall, but hell, Naruto was still his son, well, foster son. He would do his best to care for him.

Glancing at the car, he decided it would be best to check and see if anything was ruptured to badly. He then moved around to look at the damage. It wasn't too bad. He supposed they hit a deer, a buck most likely, the dent was fairly big. It looked as if the passenger door wouldn't shut properly. The strangest thing was, however, that whatever they hit, wasn't there anymore. It was as if it just got up and walked away. He had heard of deer doing that, but, that was a very hard hit. It was enough to stop a car. That thing should be road kill soup.

The thing's blood was clotting into the dent so badly that even the driving rain wasn't enough to rinse it off. Iruka looked closely at the dent. Bits of flesh were scattered across the warped surface, bits of bloody fur were caked on in random places.

"Ah…man.." He hadn't realized that the passengers side window was broken. Water dribbled in, wetting the matting and probably ruining the interior. A hole the size of an apple lay a little off center, and the resulting cracks made a dangerous web all across the glass pane. The hole itself was covered in blood. He momentarily panicked at that realization.

"Naruto!" He scurried over the hood feet sliding on the rain covered metal, getting elongated muddy foot prints all over it. Landing on the other side, his feet slid a little in the sludge and wet grass, but grabbing the handle kept him upright. He leapt into the car. The dome light flickered on, bathing the inside of the car in a pale yellow glow. Shutting the driver's side door rapidly. He looked back at Naruto's forehead.

Nothing. Not a scratch on it. The puncture hole in the glass wasn't from Naruto at all. Thinking back, he remembered that after the hit, Naruto lay slumped in his seat. The first thing Iruka had done was check the teen's head. No cuts, no welts, only a bump. A nasty one on the side of his head. This in itself was odd, he could have sworn Naruto was facing the window when they'd hit the deer. But he didn't have time to think about it. Naruto wouldn't wake up. Iruka had to lay him outside the car, in the grass and just as he was about to panic, Naruto had woken up. Barely. Enough that he could barf up his kidneys anyway, a sure sign of a concussion. The dome light clicked off. The interior of the car was plunged into darkness.

Iruka fumbled with his keys for a moment and then slid the proper one into the ignition. Holding his breath, he turned it. The car started just like always. With the farmilier blast that came out of the tail pipe, the backfire blended with another rumble of thunder perfectly. He tried the gas and found that it worked, the car lurched foreward.

"Alright, you." Iruka turned back at Naruto who was semi-conscious at best. "You are NOT aloud to fall asleep…Naruto!" He yelled the last word

Naruto's eyes opened a little wider for a moment, though still they were unfocused.

"I would never forgive myself if you fell into a coma."

"k…I'mawake…"

Carfully, sliding in the sand, Iruka eased the car back onto the interstate. The alignment was screwed. He had to hard left just to keep the car going strait. "Well, shit." Rain leaked in through the hole in the window, mixing with the gore and leaving pink stains on the interior. The wind howled. Iruka looked into his rear-view mirror, making sure Naruto was alright.

A bright flash of lightning illuminating the teen was his only guide. "Hang in there." Iruka was careful, he kept their speed at a grand total of 25 miles per hour. Couldn't afford for anything else to go wrong.

: 3

To be continued…

Author's Note continued

Yes. Short. I know. This one was just shorter.

Yeah, I'll most likely update this summer, once or twice. The reason I was able to post this was because I am on a trip with my family to Kentucky. 8. Hours. In a car. With my folks. Who still think I am eight years old. Ten years behind, Mary Poppins, I'm about to go to college.

Lol. Anyway, YEAH!!! UPDATE!!!!! THANKYOU LONDON!!!! GOODNIGHT!!!!

SASUNARU corner

Sasuke:*cough*

Naruto:….O3O sucks to your assmar.

Sasuke:…uh huh…I'm guessing a literary pun reference from a gruesome survival novel about young boys who turn feral? Seems morbid for you.

Naruto: Haven't you read Lord of the Flies?

Sasuke: Yes, yes I have, clearly, you have NOT.

Naruto: Spark notes is READING!

Sasuke:….*cough*