A/N: Ugh. you people kill me. Only two reviews last chapter? that hurts, it truly does.

Well, not actually all that much, but I'm a being who craves that recognition.

Anyway, new chapter and stuff. had some stuff I was gonna say earlier in here, but now I've forgotten. Meh, whatever. I'll tell you guys if I remember.

Now on with the story!

Itachi groaned as he came to, his head was throbbing like there was no tomorrow.

'What happened?' Itachi questioned himself. The last thing he remembered was waking up in the middle of the night to the sounds of sirens. When Itachi ran to his window he had been greeted with Naruto jumping in through it with a backpack on him. The next thing he remembered was black. 'But why?' Itachi thought as he slowly picked himself up from his floor.

He couldn't help but think he was missing something though. His friend never did anything without a reason, but why knock him out? It didn't make sense unless Naruto thought he would get in the way. But then get in the way of what?

As questions and reasons raced through Itachi's brain he got up and began his morning ritual. 'Meh, I'll find him later and ask him. Not much I can do right now.' He thought as he finished getting ready and walked out of his room to get breakfast.

Walking out of the door he noticed something odd. There was a piece of paper on the side facing into his room. At first he was disturbed because it took him so long to notice, but he summed it up to his distracted mind. He quickly ripped it off however and gasped almost as soon as he started to read it.

'I have to tell Akira.' Was Itachi's only thought before he took off, forgetting about breakfast completely. As he rushed out he ended up leaving the note on the floor inside his room, forgotten.

Earlier with Naruto back in his mindscape

He groaned as he came to. How'd he hurt his head? Oh yeah, he fainted. He frowned. How does one faint in their mind? Naruto shrugged. Did it really matter?

Something else came to the forefront of his mind though, why was he still alive? Or maybe this wasn't his mindscape at all and was really just the pit of the fox's stomach. He chuckled a little at that. The irony of it just seemed so strangely funny to him. Him, the jailer, let the prisoner get control of the prison.

Naruto opened his eyes and gave a quick look over and then felt slight disappointment. He was, he guessed, in the demon's stomach. The disappointment came from the fact that is was just as pitch black as it was outside of the Kyuubi. The ground he was on also felt about the same. Weird. But he shrugged it off, who was he to say what was weird and not weird about a biju's stomach.

Then he heard the breathing. 'Wait, breathing?' Naruto thought. "Hello?" He called out a little nervously. All of a sudden the area was lit-up, making it look much like the area he had been in before he was eaten.

He gave a quick look around before he gasped. He wasn't in the fox's stomach. He, Naruto guessed, was still in the same pocket of light earlier; the only real difference was the giant orange fox with nine tails that encircled the area of light. Naruto gave a sigh of relief at not being eaten before he realized that the fox was right in front of and could very well eat him at any time.

Before he could find a way out of the situation however, the fox spoke. "So," the Kyuubi said, it's voice booming out in a show of power, "My warden visits me. I must say I'm surprised. I didn't expect you to come back here. Unless, have you come here to take more of my power? To, as you said, take what is rightfully yours?"

Naruto shivered at the look the Kyuubi sent him after the last thing was pointed out.

"Look, I didn't -"

Naruto was interrupted by the fox standing up and slamming a paw down onto the ground, causing a small earthquake to rock the area.

"Quiet human!" The Kyuubi shouted. "I don't care what you have come here for, how you have come here, or about you in general. But now, you have wandered into my cage and as such are now subject to my power."

Naruto blanched as he heard those words and tried to stabilize himself from the last of the shock waves from the Biju's stomp. "B-but wait. I-I didn't mean to come here!" He started to shout desperately to try and reason with the beast.

"And why should I be concerned with that?"

"W-well," he started nervously, desperately searching for an answer, "b-because why not?" He tried.

The fox looked at him for a minute before it huffed and started to walk away. Naruto didn't know what was happening as he watched the fox leave the area, but he wasn't so stupid as to look a gift horse in the mouth and as such started to make his way toward the other direction of the fox.

Without warning the demon stopped. "I don't have time for you to be running around my cage, so follow me. Or," it said turning around with an expression of utmost seriousness on its face, "or I could kill you right now and be done with it."

Naruto shivered at the fox's expression. Well, that and the crushing feeling of the Biju's presence. That didn't stop him from thinking of a way to get out of his position. 'Should I keep going and risk the Kyuubi's wrath, or should I follow him?' He started to debate with himself. 'Should I go with him? He says he will kill me if I don't, but he didn't say what would happen if I followed him. What if he still ends up killing me? Is it really worth losing my one opportunity to escape just because the Kyuubi might not kill me? And all that begs the question is this truly my only escape route?'

He sighed and gave up on reasoning to instead just follow the Kyuubi. I mean, it can't be all the bad, right?

Present time Naruto (from beginning of last chapter)

He woke up with a start. He had heard something. 'An ANBU patrol?' He thought. 'No. They would've spread out from here when searching for me. At least, I hope they would.' He looked around trying to find the source of the noise before he gave up with a groan. 'Probably just an animal.' He reasoned. 'Stupid fucking forest and it's stupid fucking animals.'

He groaned again as he realized he had to get up. That would not feel good, a tree after all does not act well as a bed. When he finally managed to get up, he realized it was still night. 'Or,' he thought, 'is it the next day?' Shrugging because he didn't care all that much, he left his hiding spot and started running again.

Where was he running? Simple. Anywhere but Konoha. Not after what they had done to him. Oh no, they didn't want or deserve him. They didn't truly care what happened to him. That hurt him a little, but he quickly got over once he remembered that they don't mean anything to him either.

Naruto sighed, what right did they have to decide that he would be lied to like that? That he didn't deserve to know the truth? And then, they go and completely disregard him for his sacrifice! What a bunch of fucking assholes!

As he was thinking along those lines, he started to emit higher and higher levels of chakra through his feet. This not only made him go faster, but also made him easier to detect. Which is exactly what happened a minute later when two ninjas all of a sudden appeared in front of him. Because of that he was quickly brought out of his thoughts, but not his anger.

"Get out of my way!" He yelled as he ran at them, ready to bunch the one on the right with a wild hook, "I'm not going back and you can't make me!"

"Naruto," the stranger on the right said in a stoic voice, "why are you leaving?"

That stopped Naruto in his tracks and lower his fist. "I gave my goodbyes. You two don't need to be here."

"Gave your goodbyes? Please, all you did was leave a note for Itachi to find that said you were leaving the village and not to worry. That's not saying your goodbyes!" Akira, the figure on the left, yelled.

Naruto cringed as she yelled. "Shhh." He said as he looked around hastily. "I don't need the ANBU to find me."

"Who is to say we won't take you back?" Itachi asked calmly.

"Because you guys actually care about me. And because of that you guys will let me do what I need to do."

"And what could you possibly need to do that involves leaving Konoha, your home?" Akira asked, not yelling this time.

"I need to find myself. Who am I, what am I, and why am I? I need to answer those questions." Was his simple response.

"Naruto, that doesn't explain why you need to leave." Itachi pointed out because it seemed like it was his turn to respond.

"Well that's because I can't tell you why I'm leaving. I won't put you two into that position."

"What position? Did you do something that is getting you kicked out?" Akira gasped, "A-are you a spy?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, it's nothing I did."

"Then who did it? You can't get blamed for something you didn't do." She asked, starting to get annoyed by his evasive answering.

"The Hokage's, but look. I don't have time for this, I'm going." He said as he turned and jumped away.

"Wait, Naruto!" She yelled after him. "Damn it, come on Itachi. We gotta go find him again."

"No." He said.

"Yeah, I knew you'd a- wait what? Don't you care about Naruto? We can't just let him go!"

"This isn't about whether I care about Naruto, it's about if I trust him. And I do. So I believe he will do what is right." He stated calmly, seemingly not fazed by the anger Akira had been outputting a minute ago.

"Well screw you! I'm going after our friend!" She shouted at him. Itachi just closed his eyes and nodded.

"Then I wish you the best of luck." He said as he started to walk back toward Konoha. She flipped him off before she hurriedly went the way Naruto had gone.

'Screw him! I'll get our friend back and nothing will stop me!' She thought determinedly.

Back in time to Naruto in his mindscape

Naruto was getting tired of following the fox. It had to have been hours, and yet it hadn't felt like they had moved at all. The circle of light kept following them too so that added to the illusion they hadn't moved. He wanted to ask the fox how much longer, but didn't think that the hospitality of it extended so far.

He sighed and was just about to test the Kyuubi's willingness to share information when it spoke up.

"We're here." It stated

"Where is here exactly? This looks just like what we've been walking through for the past couple...of...hours...oh." He trailed off as the fox moved out of his line of sight and revealed the bars to the cage. He turned inquisitive quickly though. "But why?" He asked.

"Do not mistake this for kindness boy, I am merely doing what is best given the situation."

Naruto was confused. "The situation? What situation? There is no situation."

The fox harrumphed. "If that is what you believe warden then so be it."

Naruto just nodded as he walked forward to the bars before he was stopped just in front of them.

"Boy," the Kyuubi called as it began to move away from Naruto and the bars, "it would be in our best interests for you to leave Konoha and become strong soon."

Naruto just watched the fox move away before he huffed and walked through the cage with only one thing on his mind.

'Crazy fucking fox.'