Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Sakura panted as she made her way through the thick forests. Her photographic memory leads her all the way to the Akatsuki hideout where once the One-tailed Tanuki was sealed. Hurry! I must get there before the sealing starts!
She didn't know that several meters away, another figure was also heading towards the same destination.
***Naruto***
Naruto regained consciousness, but did not open his eyes, and found his hands tied up behind his back. His memory had come back but he had no idea how he got here. The last thing he remembered was his encounter with Madara as Naoko. Then suddenly he sort of absorbed him and Naruto found himself in a strange place with uneven floorings. Before he knew it, Madara came to knock him out. He knew who I am. He thought.
He desperately wanted to know where he is. So he took the risk and opened his eyes by a millimeter. However, he wondered if his eyes were still closed.
The surrounding was pitch dark. He still have no idea what was going on. The kyuubi host supposed that this is the sealing chamber. Fortunately laying still was everything he needed to gather Sage chakra.
***Sakura***
Sakura gasped in surprise. The hideout was exactly where she remembered. But instead of a seal on a giant rock, the entrance was surrounded by Amaterasu. The kunoichi sighed at her stupidness. She should have found a way to defeat the flames before she set off. Now she had gone too far to turn back.
However, help came at the right time.
A raven-haired ninja appeared behind Sakura.
"Sakura?"
The pink-haired kunoichi nearly screamed. Luckily, a strong hand covered her mouth just in time. She turned around and found herself looking straight into a pair of sharingans.
"Sasuke!"
***Naruto***
Suddenly, a green, circular light at the furthermost right bearing the kanji 玉 (gyoku) illuminated the surroundings. Naruto nearly gasped at what he saw. A stone statue, trice as tall as Gamabunta, was seen at the back of the cave. It has nine eyes, all was open except the largest one in the middle. A figure was standing on the rightmost finger. Naruto realized what that meant.
Before he could react, nine dragons poured out of the statue's mouth. They surrounded him and Naruto felt pain like he never felt before, even worse than when Sasuke punctured a hole in his lung. Every cell in his body was on fire, he wanted to scream but no voice came, instead light flowed from his mouth and eyes towards the statue.
The kyuubi host writhed in agony before he passed out.
******
The nine-tailed fox which was brooding behind the bars felt peculiar. Its body part seemed to melt and flow away from it, out of the cage and disappeared into nothingness.
Am I going to leave this place for good? It wondered.
***Sakura***
The man standing right in front of her wasn't exactly as she remembered. Although he wore clothes similar to when she last saw him, his appearance reminded her of death. The scrawny ninja has hollowed cheeks and everything, and the most of all, his skin was heavily scorched.
"Why are you here?" His voice wasn't very healthy either.
"Naruto was caught," Sakura whispered back urgently. Sasuke is back. She didn't know whether to be happy or not.
"Madara?" Sasuke's voice shook with anger.
"Do you mean Tobi by that?" Sasuke is back. She was so glad, but Naruto was in danger.
"Yes, stand back, I can put out the Amaterasu."
***Naruto***
He found himself in a white, empty space after the darkness when he fainted. Two familiar figures stood not far away from him, beckoning him towards them. Not another near death experience? thought Naruto. Nevertheless, he followed their beckoning.
Naruto nearly yelped in surprise. Standing right in front of him is the Fourth Hokage. The man with blond hair and blue eyes beamed at him. His hands were placed around the second figure's shoulder. Naruto turned his attention to the figure.
She was a woman he never seen before, yet it felt so familiar. He wondered if he was looking into a mirror as Naoko. With flaming red hair, similar almond shaped eyes, the woman had a loving expression on her face. "Oh, Naruto, look how much you have grown!" she wrapped her arms around the startled ninja.
"Mother?" Naruto wondered aloud. It must be. He thought. The hug carries a motherly love he never received, that he craved so much when he was shunned by the villagers many years ago. Naruto hugged her back. Now he knew why he chose red hair when Gaara asked him to transform.
"Let's go home, Kushina," said Minato. The woman released herself from the reunion hug and walked alongside his husband towards a faint light, with her hands clutching her son's.
***Sasuke***
The worn-out Uchiha felt blood pouring from his eyes as he strained to put out the black flames. He ignored the look of terror on Sakura's face, and immersed himself in hatred once again…
Five years ago, a teenage ninja was struggling to escape from the sweeping currents of a whirlpool that popped up out of nowhere in a forest. The water was boiling hot, and he had tried everything to pull himself from the dangerous waters in vain.
A shriek was heard. "Karin!" He saw the kunoichi screaming her head off at the opposite side of the whirlpool.
"Madara, pull me out!" He yelled. But what he got is a glare from his ancestor who was standing on dry land.
"If you can't even escape this jutsu, then you have failed your clan. I am so disappointed of you," He disappeared.
"No!" But he was gone.
Sasuke found himself being pulled towards the centre of the whirlpool. He had to act. Fast. He summoned a giant shuriken attached with wires from a scroll with some difficulty, and hurtled it towards a tree nearby. He pulled himself away from the centre where the current was the strongest, and when he reached the edge of the whirlpool, his legs found terra firma and gave a push. A hawk was summoned and carried him away.
"Karin!" he yelled. But the girl was nowhere to be seen.
Some distance away, a ninja in orange disappeared too, thinking that Madara will save Sasuke and assume that the kyuubi host is dead. But he didn't expect everything to go the opposite way with Sasuke ending up as a wanderer for the next five years.