"He should be…"

Everyone turned to the owner of the voice and saw a boy at least a year or two younger, maybe 15-16 than them sitting on the window sill accompanied by a black wolf on his.

The boy had forest green hair that could be mistaken for black if you had been far away; the boy also had claming deep green eyes that seemed to glow when the light hit it in every angle. He had a slim figure and was quite tall. He was wearing a sleeveless navy blue fitting turtle neck shirt that showed his well muscled arms and toned figure. He wore black pants that had a silver chain dangling on the side with matching black boots. On his back was a white hood-cape that could cover the boy completely along with a long hood that could cast a shadow over the users face so that only his lips could be seen.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked and everyone stood on guard until the wolf made it way to Naruto. The black furred wolf, upon closer inspection, was the same one that accompanied the other two wolves during the first attack on the village, the one who handed him the letter!

"It's you! You're the one who gave me the letter!" Naruto exclaimed and the wolf lowered its head as if nodding. But everyone turned their attention to the boy as he spoke in a soft velvet voice.

"It's time to give us your decision. At sunset today meet us in the place you once touched the moon…the gate has been opened for your arrival…you'll find your way to the moon once again, Naruto Uzumaki …"

With this message the boy and the wolf disappeared in another strong gust of wind leaving the gang to stare at the closed window that looked untouched.

"That was…" Chouji started thinking of the right word to say

"Quick…"Tenten offered and Chouji nodded.

"Who was that?" Kankuro asked

"I believe Gaara knows him." Kurenai declared and Gai nodded in agreement

"I think that the person Gaara spoke to was that boy as well." Sai declared and everyone stared at Gaara.

"He did have the same aura to the person that talked to me." Affirmed Gaara and he stared back at the gang.

"What time is it?" Naruto asked as he stared at the closed window where their visitor sat just minutes ago.

"It's 3 in the afternoon, and about 3 more hours before sunset." Shino answered and Naruto nodded before facing his friends.

"Be ready. Meet me at the monument an hour before sunset." With that said, Naruto's friends went back to Yondaime's house to pack the thing they needed. In Naruto's request the gang brought their mission equipment to Naruto's house. The gang spent the next 3 hours saying goodbye's and take care's to their loved ones before entering stores to buy supplied they think they needed. With all that done the gang met each other on the way to the monument, each carrying a crammed looking back pack that was fit for a few days travel.

Naruto arrived after 15 minutes carrying a similar back pack. Gathering around Naruto, the gang noticed that at least 10 ANBU guards were standing behind him.

"Why'd you bring 10 guards Naruto?" Chouji asked for once not eating

"You think they're only 10! There are 25 ANBU's tailing me for the whole trip! The council practically forced me to bring a whole team of ANBU! I told them that 5 ANBU's were enough since you guys are coming along! But NO~! They told me to bring a whole squad of 50 ANBU's because there are 2 Kage's on this trip! Good thing Kouta was on my side! We managed to bring the number of ANBU's down to 25! But then~" Naruto would have kept on ranting complains if Gaara hadn't spoken up.

"Uzumaki, it's nearly sunset. We need to move now." Gaara said and Naruto nodded

"Where is the meeting place?" Lee asked causing Tenten to hit him on the head for his stupidity.

"Didn't you listen this morning?" Tenten asked annoyed

"He said that we'll meet them at the place Naruto 'once touched the moon'." Neji said quoting what the boy told them earlier this morning.

"Where exactly is it anyway? There's no way Naruto would have really touched the moon…right?" Kiba asked before looking at Naruto incredulously seeing as Naruto did impossible things almost like miracles.

"I know where that place is. It's not that far from here if we hurry. Come on, follow me!" And with that the gang and ANBU trailed behind Naruto. Somehow on the way Gaara and Naruto ended up surrounded by their friends and by the ANBU.

"So Naruto…how exactly did 'you touch the moon? What happened before then?" Shikamaru asked being the curious person he is.

"Well I didn't literally touch it if that's what your wondering." Naruto answered and got glares from his friends.

"We know that so spill." Everyone, except for the ANBU's, exclaimed annoyed causing Naruto to grin before it slowly disappeared from his face.

"It happened about 9 years ago before a year before entered the academy…" Naruto began his usual cheery voice replaced by a cold and harsh undertone. A voice that sent chills down their spine, a voice that they never thought they would have heard from their optimistic blonde. And as Naruto began his story everyone regretted asking, even the ANBU that didn't ask felt regret, him to tell the tale that caused them to pale and shake in blood boiling anger as word per word came out of Naruto's lips.

FLASHBACK

It was sunset and a little boy with scared cheeks, clothe with dirtied, and ragged clothing's ran from road to road trying to lose whatever it was that was following him. The boy had bright blonde hair with crystal clear blue eyes that would have surpass the color of the sky and sun. A small 7 year old Naruto, so small that he looked to be 4 or 5 years old, dashed from street to street trying to loose his angry pursuers.

"Get him!" a voice yelled from behind him. Too scared to look back Naruto increased his speed trying to place more distance from him to the angry villagers that were now running after him persistently.

"Come back here you demon!"

"Don't let that brat escape!"

Naruto ran, his eyes clouding with tears. Dashing to an alley he came to face a wall…a dead end. Looking behind him Naruto saw the angry villagers nearing him with hate filled eyes. Fear slowly began to build in the pit of his stomach as the neared him, the stench of alcohol lingering in the air.

Closing his eyes as he saw a fist coming his way, the pain barely registering into his brain because of fear as a punch was landed to his stomach hurling him to the wall. Naruto thought he heard something crack when his back made contact with the wall before falling on the ground. The drunken villagers sneered and grinned, joy in their eyes as they saw the Kyuubi vessel in pain as their comrade beat the crap out of the 10 year old Naruto before joining themselves.

"We should have killed you when we had the chance!" kick

"You better be grateful that we're even allowing you to live in this village!" punch

"You killed out families! You killed Yondaime!" hit

"You're a murderer!" crack

"A monster!" smash

A demon brat!" thrust

Naruto stopped his tears from falling for he refused to show that their words were hurting him deeply. Throughout the beating Naruto refused to make a sound which only pissed the drunken villagers going so far as to used beer bottles, woods, knives, bats and kunais.. Doubling their efforts the villagers continued beat Naruto sneering and laughing at him when he refused to fight back. Finally to Naruto's relief the villagers lost interesting beating him when the Konoha's sky has been sheath in the darkness of the night.

Naruto lied on the floor that looked like a bloody heap from far away, cuts and bruises littered his body, his clothes more torn and ruined than before. Naruto attempting to stand but failed miserably when he fell to the cold floor of alley. Naruto sighed when he realized that his right leg was broken along with his left arm. Now leaning on the wall he waited until Kyuubi healed him of his major injuries.

Naruto stared at the sky and saw the stars that littered the heavens. It was as if someone threw a load of twinkling gems across it. The more he stared at it the more he thought.

"Maybe it's for people like me…maybe someone placed it up there for us to look up to. To show that no matter how dark life becomes there is always something in that darkness that will lead you out..."

Everyone would have found it unusual that a child so small like Naruto would think of such a thing, but they simply never cared. In their eyes Naruto was a monstrous demon, a reincarnation of the 9 tailed fox, in fact only selected few chose to care for the child while others simply ignored him. After a few hours when the moon was in it highest peak Naruto stood up to find that his broken leg had been partially healed but is arm was still broken. The major cuts and bruises were healed but the minor ones still decorated his physique.

Naruto stood up and walked to the Hokage monument, his sanctuary. For some odd reason he felt safe and content when he stare at the 4th Hokage's face. Naruto looked up and stared at the large moon that stood out beautifully behind the mountain. He climbed the Hokage Mountain staring at the moon, a single thought running through his head.

"I want to touch it."

Making his way through the dark forest just staring at the moon as it seemed to move towards him. After what seemed like days which was only a few hours he reached a clearing on the very edge of the forest.

Staring at the beautiful scenery, Naruto surveyed his surrounding. A small koi pond was in the clearing a small waterfall was on its side. Naruto followed the waters flow and realized that the water was coming from a curtain like waterfall that he past a few hours ago, a few miles from where he came from. The clearing was surrounded by a circle of beautiful flowers of all kind making a but the flowers that stood out the most was I the middle of the clearing. A white flower that had the same shade of the moon.

At that moment the cloud that was hiding the moon passed. Naruto gasped at the sight he saw; the moonlight lighted the clearing, fireflies came out of the forest and flew around unafraid, and the flowers looked beautiful. But the thing that made Naruto's eyes widen in awe was the white flower that immediately but slowly bloomed when the moonlight descended upon the clearing.

"The moon flower…" Naruto thought as he made his was to the center of the clearing where the moon flowers laid.

"Kirei…" Naruto thought when he stared at the flower. A sudden gust of wind suddenly came and blew some petal away which took Naruto attention to the moon. That's when Naruto noticed cliff that shot out towards the moon that was so big and seemingly near.

As if in a daze Naruto walked on the cliff nearing the moon simultaneously reaching out a hand as is to touch it. Reaching the very end of the cliff Naruto stared at the bright full moon that was so near yet so far away from his reach.

A gust of wind blew once again ruffling Naruto hair causing him to close his eyes. When he opened them a single moon flower was spinning in mid air in front of him. Reaching out Naruto allowed the flower to rest in his hands as it fell, but once he touched it a blinding light shot out of the moon in front of him, blinding his eyes momentarily.

END OF FLASHBACK

"-when I woke up I was back in Konoha fit and healthy with not a single scratch while holding a moon flower. The old man Sandaime sent out search teams for me, he was really worried sick at that time. That was the first time I met him so I was really confused and scared, thinking he would hurt me like the others. But he took me to the hospital to have me checked up instead. My clothes were still in the same condition as I left and he almost had a heart attack when he though I was hurt, took me a lot of convincing before he stopped ordering nurses for me. After that he brought me to me current apartment. But the villagers attacked my home every night so he had to place an ANBU there to guard me. After a while I met Iruka-sensei and he enrolled me to the academy, and now you know the rest." Naruto explained his usual cheery voice coming back as he finished telling them what happened.

When Naruto heard nothing but silence looked around his and that everyone had gloomy atmosphere around them.

"Oi!...OI!" Naruto screamed snapping everyone back to reality.

"You guys ok? You spaced out!" Naruto asked with concern.

"Y-yeah…we're fine Naruto." Sakura answered shakily for everyone. While Naruto began telling them his past the optimistic smile that he always carried disappeared from his face leaving a dark and sinister look to over come his features, a look that made everyone shudder in fear.

"You sure?" Naruto asked again and this time everyone answered him in their own way and Naruto nodded in acceptance.

"So…Naruto, did you go back there after that happened?" Shikamaru asked trying to break the eerie silence when they resumed running through the forest.

"Yeah, I did. Every night in fact. But for some reason no matter how far I go I never found that place again so I gave up after a few months." Naruto replied smiling again

"Why'd you go there every night?" Yamato asked

"The villagers always tried to hurt me when nobody was around so I always tried to find that place, hoping to get the same peaceful feeling I got when I was there." Naruto replied impassively

"If you haven't been able to find it since then, how can you be so sure that you'll find it again?" Neji asked

"I…uh…I'm following my…guts." Naruto said uncertainly making his companions lose balance or sweat drop momentarily.

"We're putting you in the lead because you said you knew the way and now you're telling us that you're only following YOUR GUTS!" Kankuro screeched a frown on his face. Naruto grinned in reply while the other sighed.

"The boy said that Naruto will find his own way there. I think we should follow Naruto…for now at least." Kurenai reminded and everyone nodded following Naruto.

"Hey! I think I here a waterfall up ahead!" Shikamaru said and the others listened.

"You're right I can hear it too." Tenten agreed

"Naruto didn't you pass by a water fall before arriving at the clearing?" Sai asked and was puzzled when he heard no reply from the boisterous blonde.

"Naruto?" Sai called and received no reply once again. The gang stared and Naruto and cursed when they saw Naruto's blue eyes turn red then back. They were about to make a grab for the blonde when he double his speed heading toward the waterfall.

"Naruto! Come back!" Kakashi screamed and everyone made a dash to catch up to the Kyuubi vessel.

When they burst through the forest what they saw scared them. Naruto was releasing red chakra that was taking form of a nine tailed fox. The fox was small it barely reached Naruto's waist but it was enough to scare the gang. The 25 ANBU's surrounded Naruto while Yamato did the hand seals needed to tame the Kyuubi and bring it back to its cage.

"Stop!"

The group looked up and saw the same boy they saw earlier this morning jumping down from the back of the black wolf that accompanied him.

"Leave them be. Kyuubi will not attempt to escape." He said before addressing the red chakra formed fox.

At this order Naruto doubled over before letting out a feral growl. To the relief of the group Naruto's eyes went back to its normal blue color but the red chakra didn't dissipate like it used to when Naruto got his consciousness.

"Naruto!"

The group rushed beside Naruto when he collapsed while Gaara reached him first and supported him. They stared at the fully formed nine tailed fox in front of them. The fox regarded them with weary eyes before looking at the young man behind them.

"What are you doing out here…Kyuu-niisan?" Naruto asked as if in a trance

"Niisan!"