Esparia: So, I forgot about this...

Chapter Two

Naruto had blindly dragged the body of Obito out of the cave of mirrors. The stench of decaying flesh was overpowering, and the young blonde willed himself not to retch when the dim lights of the connected tunnel system revealed the carcass. Naruto pulled out a sealing scroll with shaking fingers and sealed the body away to be buried properly at a later time. The flow of chakra through his system left him curled up in pain; even for a simple sealing, it let him know that having Kurama ripped away from him would take a much longer time to heal than anticipated.

After catching his breath and hesitantly straitening, he pulled himself up to get out of the hole Madara dragged him in. He walked down the twisting halls of whatever labyrinth-like tunneling system Madara decided would be a good home for his doomsday device. It took the injured adolescent a few hours of stumbling to find the exit.

When he finally got outside he had to blink away the pain of suddenly adjusting to midday light. He couldn't find a trace of the insane old man, but didn't doubt that he would be making his way to the army. Naruto could guess that the army was a good five leagues to the east, he would be able to make it their by nightfall if he used his chakra. Though words that Tsunade had told him about straining chakra coils after exerting too much chakra was highly damaging and could kill him if he over did it if not scar him completely.

The amount of scarring that could happen after having a biju sucked out of you and continuing to use chakra afterward until plausible chakra exhaustion could render him unable to use chakra like Lee. He didn't want to give up his ninja career just yet, and he doubted he would ever be able to catch up to Lee's strength in his lifetime. He would have to tree hop or civilian walk his way to the army ground, and considering how hard it was to stumble out of that hole in the ground, it was going to take him a long time to get there.

Civilian walking it was.

Naruto stumbled through the woodland's underbrush. Tripping over roots and his own feet for five hours before passing our in a bramble bush. He slept there through the rest of his day and into the night, until the moon was high in the cloudy sky's expanse.

Blinking his bleary eyes open he was met with a face full of pokey thorns. Grumbling, he yanked and pulled himself to freedom, eventually flinging himself free of the bush's grasp and into the waiting arms of the clump of thistles.

"AAAAAAHHHH!"

(Note: Thistles have prickly stems covered in nettles (which are fine plant hair tipped in acid that make the scratches irritated and sting...like kitty scratches); thistles are also edible, and quite good in stew...when stripped of outer layer. (Don't eat the nettles))

"Ergh..." Naruto grumbled in pain as he extracted himself from the thorny hold of that evil plant. Angry red scratches crisscrossed his face and palms, coupled with the bloody scratches that the thorns left behind. A slight whimper escaped his throat when he tried to close his hands. Naruto decided that the day couldn't get any worse, it would all get better from there.

With his resolve intact, he continued his march to the grounds where he knew his allies stayed. He hoped that they were okay.

The sun was setting by the time he reached the camp area.

"Hello?" Naruto called, "is anyone out there?"

His voice crossed the great battle opening, unhindered by the presence of humans.

Naruto looked around in confusion, where was everyone? Moving forward into what was once the camp, he scanned the bare ground for any signs of where they might have gone. The holes for what held the pitched tents were still there, marks of where a cot or a sleeping bag sat where scattered in clumps, the burnt ground of what were campfires were cold, and the footprints of the many ninja were all crisscrossing. Finding nothing in the inner parts of the camp outside of a few abandoned supplies (which he put in his pouches and a bag he salvaged), Naruto decided to circle the outskirts of the camp.

Eventually he found what he was looking for, three main trails that had hundreds of people leaving towards the villages.

"Why do you think they all left, Kurama?" Naruto asked and then froze, half hoping for an answer from the big fox. When he received no reply, he sighed and decided to follow the tracks that led towards Konoha.

Naruto followed the trail until he saw a small spiral of smoke in the distance. Quickening his steps, Naruto found his way to a small campsite within the hour.

He quietly observed the small site, there was a single man sitting beside the fire turning a stick over the fire as if he were roasting a fish or small animal. He turned suddenly in Naruto's direction and laughed loudly.

Startled, Naruto fell on his rump. He blinked a couple times before standing and greeting, "uh, sorry for the intrusion, uh...do you know where everyone is?"

The ninja didn't look at the blonde and continued chuckling under his breath.

Slightly disturbed, Naruto shifted his weight.

"You know, it happened so fast, everyone suddenly leaving," the man suddenly said, "you should sit and relax, those injuries aren't going to disappear overnight."

"Er, okay then," Naruto said, sitting down beside the man, "my name is Naruto, who are you."

"Hm, I wonder that sometimes too," the man replied.

"Ah," Naruto nodded slightly, Naruto concluded that the man was a bit...unbalanced.

"It's a good thing that brat escaped, though," the man commented, "else we'd all be goners."

"Oh," Naruto commented, watching with growing unease as the man ate his imaginary meat and pulled a canteen to drink.

"I'm headed toward Kumo, you?" the man asked.

"Konoha," Naruto replied.

"Gets hot there right? Not many trees," The Kumo ninja said, tilting his head as he looked into the space a little beyond Naruto's shoulder.

"Er, not really. Konoha is surrounded by trees...like the name suggests," Naruto said.

"Hm, I should visit sometime," the Kumo-nin said with a smiled, "sounds nice."

"Yeah," Naruto muttered.

"Well, I'm hitting the sack," the ninja said and stretched, "goodnight."

"Good night," Naruto said, watching as the ninja plunked down into his bedroll before turning over and falling asleep.

Naruto stared at the man with worry, that was by far one of the strangest conversations he's had. The ninja didn't seem to be completely coherent...but then again, most weren't by the time they made it to jounin.

Giving himself a good stretch, Naruto too fell asleep near the fire. Even though the man was crazy, a comrade was a comrade.

By the time Naruto woke up, the sun was passed its pre-dawn light. Blinking blurrily, he found his companion gone along with the man's things.

Frowning to himself, he dismissed the man's departure. He knew the man was probably eager to return to his family and home, but it did worry him that the man didn't seem to be fully there. Naruto hoped the shinobi would find a group of Kumo ninja, then travel with them. Though the man seemed to be able to take care of himself, really Naruto was in no condition to be tracking wandering madmen so there wasn't much he could do.

Getting up from the ground, he inspected his wounds. They were a bit red, though nothing to horrible, so that antibacterial cream he found at the abandoned camp was going to be helpful. Now that Kurama was gone, he knew that he would have to watch for infection much like how his friends had. It wasn't something he really had to worry about previously, the big fox tended to burn through just about everything.

Naruto picked up his discarded pouches and pack, readying himself for his journey to Konoha.

Walking along the ground and through the underbrush was a slow process, never had he been so appreciative of all the times he could use the tree branches above. With that option taken away, being his balance still seemed a bit off and his chakra use absent, he knew he would simply have to tough it out.

Kiba was smiling to himself, very pleased with the outcome of the strange turn of events. It was very pleasing to him that he was promoted so soon after the war. He got a wide range of recognition from not only the other shinobi of the village and friend group, but from Hinata.

Oh, he knew that she had shown a great amount of interest in Naruto, whom he could acknowledge as a powerful individual and a great leader, and that Hinata hadn't truly looked Kiba's way with a romantic outlook because of that.

It had disappointed and frustrated him that he wasn't even given a chance to prove himself to her, Hinata-hime, the kindest and prettiest girl in the village. It annoyed him that no matter how hard he tried, she viewed him nothing more than a friend, a teammate. He didn't blame Naruto for her lack of attention to him, not totally at least... Hana said that a girl's heart was to difficult for him to grasp. Insulting to an extent, but none the less true.

What really irked him was the lack of acknowledgement Naruto showed Hinata's affections in return. Ignoring her like she didn't openly display her affections on any given basis. Everyone in the village knew who Hinata liked, even he knew, yet Naruto had the guts to not show anything in return. That was what annoyed him the most. If he was Naruto and he saw Hinata even showing a slight interest, he would have instantly pursued her.

But no, that was all different now, because now she was looking at him and not Naruto. Hinata had asked him, after the promotion ceremony, to go with her on a date with her. He, Inuzuka Kiba, was going on a date with her, Hyuuga Hinata.

Laughing slightly to himself, Kiba turned to his dog companion, Akamaru, "well, Akamaru, looks like hero really does get the girl. Heh, at this rate, I'll even become hokage. Maybe I could finally make a national dog day. Oh, and make it a law for everyone to have a dog. There would be no more strays, wouldn't that be great?"

Akamaru, standing a few paces behind the direction of Kiba's gaze, whined piteously. His human companion, Kiba, was sick. He didn't know what happened, exactly, to make all the humans act so strange. All he knew, and any other animal he has talked to thus far, have said the same thing. That the humans became sick right after the Day of Strange Light.

Nobody seemed to know what the light was, other than it hurt to look at and that when it shone, none of the humans moved.

Akamaru stayed by Kiba's side throughout that entire day, nudging or nipping his fingers to try and get his response. When that had failed to work, he tried getting the attention of the other humans, but they were as responsive as his human. When the light faded away, and Akamaru nudged Kiba, Kiba had responded.

At first it seemed like nothing was wrong, other than a bit of disorientation. It even seemed that Kiba would talk to him, but it quickly shown that Kiba was not, in fact, responding to Akamaru's actions at all. Kiba would have entire conversations with an invisible "Akamaru", talking with and petting him. Kiba couldn't see Akamaru at all. He didn't hear Akamaru's worried whimpers, or even notice that Akamaru had a presence.

Akamaru had looked for help, from other Inuzuka pack members, but they were all the same, everyone said the same thing happened to their humans. That they wouldn't respond, that nothing seemed to be right in their minds. Some of the older dogs suggested genjutsu, but nobody was able to break whatever made their humans sick. They even tried breaking the some other non-pack members out of the mind sickness, but it seemed to fail.

Then the humans started breaking up into smaller packs and heading out of the camp, packing away equipment and other things. When the others heard that the humans planned on returning to the villages, it was agreed that they would follow their mind sick humans to make sure that they were safe. Traveling like they were was dangerous, and nobody wanted to part from their humans. They would make a plan when they got back to their humans' homes.

Traveling with them was scary, unnerving, like being in the same room with a dog that had the foaming mouth sickness or with an older relative that was so old they thought they were a cat.

By the time they got to Konoha, the human village, the other dogs, along with himself, were worried. Their humans couldn't even tell if there was food in their hands as they ate or if what they ate was spoiled. One of the nearby humans even tried eating a sickness-plant. The sick human would have eaten it if Byamimi hadn't stopped him. The human didn't have anyone to take care of him so Byamimi herded the human together with her own human, which she took to protecting. When the other dogs heard about this, they began watching out and removing dangerous plants from around the village.

The other dogs were worried about leaving their humans by themselves, as with their mind sickness, they wouldn't be able to care for themselves. From what the other dogs in his clan had gathered, the other animals of the village reported the same things. Even the stupid cats were worried and proposed a temporary truce/alliance to figure out what was wrong with the humans.

Nobody could detect anything wrong with the humans other than that their perceptions were completely wrong. However, with a problem this large, it was definitely concerning. The messenger hawks agreed to check with further away villages, to see if the disease was wide spread. Finding a translator for the Aburame insects took time, but eventually they found an old turtle that knew the language and told them that the insects couldn't communicate with their people and that their humans' minds were in a sort of dream state. That they were all dreaming and experiencing things that didn't match reality.

Most of the dogs in the clan were watching over the humans, others were scouting the village with other animals to make sure there was nothing that a human could eat that would hurt it. The cats even proposed to a search for unaffected humans or to get in contact with a summoning, as they were more advanced with chakra control and might be able to break the mind sickness.

Akamaru was being sent back along with the Hatake ninkin, Urushi, to find the source of the strange light. Maybe then they could figure out why their humans had this mind sickness.

Akamaru was really only still there to say good bye to Kiba, even if the boy couldn't hear him. He silently promised himself that he would do everything he could to help his boy.

With a sad sigh, he left Kiba in the care of his family. Glancing back once to his boy's form, laughing happily and patting "Akamaru" on the head.

An hour later Naruto's growling stomach made it known that a human needed food to survive and that one ration bar he found in the abandoned camp he ate yesterday was not going to cut it.

Huffing, he looked around the surrounding trees. He could set up traps, his speed at this point was faster than when he first set out. However he could probably not maneuver well enough to actually catch anything worth his energy, considering how many scratches and bruises he accumulated over his trip through the forest.

Stashing his things in the hollow of a decaying tree, Naruto pulled out his ninja wire, gathered some sticks, and a few kunai. With his things in hand, he walked into the forest and set up his traps.

He set up snares, using his wire to make a loop that would tighten when triggered to release or when an animal passed through.

Four hours later, he had a rabbit and a chicken. The rabbit he was expecting, he even half expected a squirrel or a rodent of some sort. The chicken, though, was not something he expected. Why there was a chicken wandering though the forest with not a farm within an hour's worth of civilian walking distance was beyond him. Naruto wasn't one to look a gift chicken in the beak...or however that saying went, and simply accepted that he had enough luck to get a chicken in the first place.

He made quick work of the chicken and rabbit. Plucking the chicken and hanging it to bleed out before skinning the rabbit and doing like wise. Removing the innards, which he would bury further from his camp, and cooking them over a fire he had set up.

Naruto had decided that he would camp where he was, he wasn't so far from Konoha now. If he was lucky, he would run into some friendly ninja that could help him home or heal his coils. Though he didn't think he was that lucky.

Naruto lay by himself, staring up at the darkening sky. Wondering what his friends were doing, what they thought had happened to him, where the entire military force of the elemental nations had disappeared, why they left in the first place, and most prominently on his mind was the absence of Kurama.

Naruto could delude himself, make believe that Kurama wasn't actually gone, pretend that his new friend wasn't...dead. It hardly felt real, Kurama's absence, to begin with. He could so easily pretend that the fox was still there, sleeping in his mind or simply ignoring him for being "a foolish, moronic piece of living biomatter that is about as aware of his surroundings as a worm was about a rainbow".

Except, when he stopped thinking about walking, when he took his mind off of the constant need to get to Konoha, when he stopped distracting himself with the gory chores of hunting and cleaning his food, when he finished thinking about how much better the food would have been if he had cooked it in an oven, Naruto would know. He would think about what happened in the cave, that hall of mirrors, what happened to him and Kurama. He would think and think and think with no one to take his mind off of the knowledge, the impossible notion, that Kurama the Nine-Tailed Chakra Fox of Mass Destruction was gone. Gone like all the other tailed beasts. Gone and never to return.

-(3262)-