An Intertwined Spiral

Chapter 3

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Naruto groan and shifted, sleepily wondering why his bed was so uncomfortable. He mentally frowned as the sound of sloshing water met his ears. He slowly opened his eyes, and found himself to be staring at a stone ceiling. It had rusty old pipes running down it with water dripping.

He sat up, flinching as a drop of water landed on his nose. He climbed to his feet, looking around. He wrinkled his nose in distaste. He was in some weird old tunnel. Looking both ways all he could see was darkness. Sighing he climbed to his feet and decided to go left.

He kept one hand on the wall, trying to ignore the slime on the stones. He tripped a few times; his feet had long gone numb from the water sloshing around his ankles. 'Some one should really consider getting some lights in here. Or at least fix the plumbing…' He thought bitterly.

After walking for what seemed hours, he saw a doorway. Finally! He could get out of here, and find out where here was anyway.

He tried to hurry towards it, tripping again. He cursed as he picked himself up. He looked up and was shocked to see that he was in the doorway of a large cavern. On the far side of the room was a huge cage that stood open. Floating on the water was a piece of ripped paper with black markings. It looked familiar to him, though he didn't know why.

A low growl caught his attention. A medium sized fox with blood red fur stepped out of the shadows. Kyuubi walked toward Naruto, stopping halfway.

"Oi fox. What the hell is going on?" Naruto yelled crossing his arms. Wait, why was he yelling at a fox like it could talk? And why was it down here, wherever here was… That was it, he was going crazy.

The fox grinned smirked. "About time you showed up."

Naruto stared at in shock. "Y-you can talk!" The fox seemed to sigh and sat down.

"You still don't remember, do you?" The fox asked irritably.

"Remember what?" Naruto was getting more confused by the minute. The fox growled and walked right up to him, staring him directly in the eye. Naruto noticed with a shudder that the fox had blood red eyes.

"Your past life."

Naruto stared at it dumbly. "What do you mean? What past life?"

"You'll understand that later. You are going to need to know some things before you wake up."

"Wait! What are you talking about? Where's everyone else? What is this place? And who are you?" Naruto asked frantically, he was getting a really bad feeling from this. The fox growled at him, narrowing his eyes.

"If you would shut up, I'll explain. I'm the demon Kyuubi; I was sealed into you when you were born in your last life. When you and the Uchiha brat died, I used my chakra to force both of your souls into this dimension. You were reborn in to this life."

Naruto fell to his knees, not caring that water soaked his clothes. "I died?" He whispered. "Who's the 'Uchiha brat'?" He asked suddenly looked back up to Kyuubi.

Kyuubi smirked. "You already know him in this life. You were sitting right next to him after all. You've been having dreams about him right?"

Naruto's face flamed up at that question, it sounded so wrong. Kyuubi scowled at him.

"I meant you've been gaining small pieces of your memories since you've gotten here!" He growled out.

"I've been gaining them? Wait a second; the Sorting Hat said that there was a part in my mind that had been sealed." Naruto looked thoughtful. "That was your doing, right?"

Kyuubi nodded. "Yes. When you brats died, I sealed your memories away and then I sealed myself into that statue you saw earlier. When you got to the school, you were getting close to me again and some of the memories slipped through. I'm sure that the other brat was going through the same thing."

He gave a smug smirk before he continued. "But now, since you died I'm not sealed in you anymore." Naruto mentally winced. He didn't think that a demon running around would turn out well.

"You don't have to worry; I'm not going to go on a killing rampage. But there will be side affect from all of this. I'm not sealed in you like before but I am connected to you again, and to the other brat too."

Naruto looked at him suspiciously, "What do you mean, 'connected'?"

Kyuubi rolled his eyes. "I meant just that. I'll have a mind link to the both of you, among other things."

"You don't have to worry so much. I barely have any chakra left as it took a lot out of me to unlock your memories. Now, if you don't mind I'm going to sleep." Kyuubi got up and started to disappear into the shadows.

"H-hey! What do you mean by all that?" Naruto stumbled to his feet, panicking. The fox paused. "Just wake up. By then your memories will have been completely unlocked and you'll understand."

Then he disappeared into the shadows again. Naruto stood there, not knowing what to do. "Damn it. Why me?" He asked the air. He turned to leave the room when his vision swam and he fell into nothingness.

xXxXx

Scenes flashed by. People, places and names sped by his eyes. He knew them, he had lived them. He saw Sasuke's face flash by twisted up in pain and anger. Sakura smiling and waving at him. All his friends, his family. Naruto grinned, a feeling of completion filling a hole in his heart that he didn't even realize exist until that moment.

"-arto. Oi. Wake up dope!" Naruto felt something light and soft hit him. He growled and sat up throwing the pillow back at the annoyed boy on a bed beside him.

"Don't call me that!" He growled. Naruto groaned as his head started pounding.

"Hurts doesn't it?" Sasuke said smugly before throwing a piece of chocolate at him. "You're supposed to eat that. Dumbledore is going to come here soon. When the statue broke, they saw Kyuubi's charka go into us. Dumbledore wants to make sure we're okay." He rolled his eyes.

Naruto took a large bite. "You remember it, then?"

Sasuke nodded slowly. "You too?"

"Yeah. I talked with Kyuubi while we were unconscious. He's not sealed in me anymore and can take a form now." Sasuke looked at him in alarm. "Even though he's not sealed, he's still connected to me and now you too." Naruto said quickly, though he still wasn't big on the fact that a demon was able to wander around freely.

"What do you mean 'connected?" Sasuke asked slowly. Naruto snorted, "That's what I said. Anyway, he wasn't really clear. He just said that we'll have a mind link, 'among other things. Whatever that means."

"Why did he do it?" Sasuke twisted one of his pillows in his hands, staring at his sheets intently. "Why did he go to all this trouble of helping us? Didn't he want to kill us?"

"My guess is that he didn't want to die. Not to mention we owe him or something. Stupid fur ball…" Naruto trailed off.

"Um, Sasuke?"

"What?"

"What are we going to tell everyone? I mean we're supposed to be enemies, won't it look weird if we're suddenly friends?" Naruto asked wincing as he thought of his family's reaction.

Sasuke paled. Naruto could imagine what Sasuke's father would do if he found out that they were friends. Ugh, and not to mention the gossip around the school. The blonde paused before he spoke.

"Maybe… maybe we should tell our families. I mean, why should we keep it a secret? We don't have anything to hide anyway." He paused for a moment. "Well… most of our past."

Sasuke sighed. "What about the Kyuubi? Most people won't take that very well. It's not like back then when demons were a common occurrence." He leaned back staring at the ceiling with Naruto watching him. "But, if you think that this is a right choice, then we should do it."

"What will your parents do? To be friends with a blood traitor?"

Sasuke's face darkened. "I don't necessarily agree with everything my parents believe in. But they won't do anything to me, since all they tend to care about is their reputation." He said bitterly.

After a while of silence Naruto heard Sasuke murmur "I'm glad Kyuubi did what he did."

Naruto turned his head slightly; Sasuke was determinedly staring at the ceiling. Naruto smiled softly. "Me too."

They fell silent as they heard footsteps approaching. Dumbledore strode into the room. He looked pale and tired but had a small smile on his face. "Good to see you boys awake."

He stopped at the foot of their beds. "Now, I'm sorry to ask so soon after you've awaken but I would like to know what happened in Professor Lockhart's lesson yesterday."

Sasuke glanced over at Naruto with a 'told you so' smirk. The blonde rolled his eyes at him. "Actually sir, we would like to have our families present when we explain." He said. "There are some things that they should know."

If Dumbledore was surprised at this request, he hid it well. "Very well. You two should get some sleep. I have a feeling that tomorrow will be a tiring day. Good night Mr. Weasley, Mr. Malfoy." He swept away.

"No, really?" Naruto muttered to himself as Madame Pomfrey appeared out of nowhere. She moved around pouring something into two cups. "Here you go dears; it's a dreamless sleeping potion."

Naruto took it and made a face at the smell. He plugged his nose and drank it. He immediately felt tired as fell against his pillows.

"Didn't know you could be so polite dope."

"Shut up teme." Naruto said as he fell asleep.

xXxXx

"I'm so not ready for this."

"Hn."

Naruto glared the dark haired boy. "I'm serious! What if they don't believe us?"

"Just calm down. Even if they don't believe us, at least they know." Sasuke told him. Naruto had been like this for the past ten minutes. A note had been sent to them, saying that both families had been called and were waiting.

Madame Pomfrey had released them from her care with a small amount of fuss this morning, so Naruto and Sasuke were on their way to Dumbledore's office.

'Can't he show that he's nervous? Even if it's a little!' Naruto grumbled to himself as they reached the gargoyle that guarded the entrance to Dumbledore's office.

"Acid pops." Sasuke said neither of them were surprised when it jumped aside, revealing a large spiral staircase. It starting moving upward as they stepped on, jerking to a stop as a large wooden door stood in front of them.

'Well, here goes nothing.' Naruto reached out and knocked twice. It echoed for a moment before a voice called them in. Sasuke touched Naruto's shoulder briefly, his expressing conveying that they were in this together. Naruto was surprised but gave him a soft smile as they opened the door.

'At least he's opening up again.'

Naruto's mother and father stood by Dumbledore's desk, with all of Naruto's siblings around them. They looked confused and worried. He was surprised to see his oldest brothers Bill and Charlie there. Bill was supposed to be in Egypt and Charlie in Romania.

Taking his eyes off of his family, he spotted what must be Sasuke's parents standing a ways off from the others. Draco was there as well, looking quite bored, while his parent's expressions clearly said that they weren't there by choice.

Dumbledore himself was sitting at his desk, resting his chin on his linked fingers. "Naruto and Sasuke, I have told both of your families of your collapses. Would you kindly explain?"

Naruto and Sasuke glanced at each other. The blonde sighed, "You all may want to sit down. This is going to be a long explanation. And everything you're about to hear is completely true."

xXxXx