CHAPTER 3

Sasuke let one of his rarely seen true smiles when he saw his family. "Sasuke-Kun!" Mikoto shouted as she ran to Sasuke and embraced him. Sasuke let a huge wave of relief out at the fact that his mom still loved him. When Sasuke noticed his mother was tearing up he asked her what was wrong and she just smiled at him.

"I'm just glad your finally home Sasuke-Kun." Mikotos gaze went behind Sasuke and she froze. Mikoto couldn't believe what she was seeing. Standing there was her long dead friend Minato. She let out three faint words "this isn't possible." As reasonable thought came back to her, she realized that this must be Minato and Kushinas son.

"Hello you must be Naruto-Kun" Mikoto said. "Uh hai, how did you know that?" Naruto inquired. "Your parents were very good friends of mine Naruto-Kun. It was a sad day when they died, but at least you're here carry on their legacy." "Hai, that's why I want to be the greatest hokage ever, so that my parents would be proud of me". Mikoto started to giggle at Narutos words.

"What's so funny Mikoto-San?" Naruto asked. "The fact that you think your parents wouldn't proud of you. As a parent, I can tell you that they would be very proud of you and everything else you will do in your life."

"Uh, wow. Thanks Mikoto-San. I never thought about it like that before." "No problem Naruto-Kun". Naruto then looked over to Sasuke "I will leave the address to my house so that you can stop by tomorrow and we can go to the academy" Naruto said. Sasuke just nodded at him. Naruto took off to go home feeling he was ruining this moment for Sasuke.

When Naruto first got to his home he realized that to get in he would have to get past the blood seal on the gate. Naruto bit his thumb to draw blood so that he could put some on the seal. When Naruto smeared his blood on the seal, he noticed that nothing happened.

Naruto looked closer at the seal on the gate and realized why it didn't work before. Hidden behind the blood seal was also a chakra identifier. This time Naruto re-bit his thumb and put the blood on the gate but also channeled some chakra until he heard a click.

Success the gate had opened. Now all he had to do was explore where his parents lived and where he would now be living. When Naruto pushed open the door, he looked inside and saw there was one large house with a lot of spare room all around it.

Naruto slowly walked towards his house growing more nervous as he got closer and closer to the door. 'This must be what Sasuke felt' Naruto thought. "You know your parents were good people so why are you so nervous to see where they lived" Kurama replied to Naruto.

"Hey Kurama, I thought you were still asleep."

"No, I was not interested in your reunion so I slept through it."

"Oh ok. Well to answer your question, I'm nervous because all I have had before were pictures and stories from Ba-Chan and Ero-Jiji. No actual things like a house or headband or gear or anything from them. It was all left in konoha and ba-chan didn't want to come here until now" Naruto said.

"True, but now you do, so go find some stuff"

"Ya you're right. Thanks Kurama."

"Sure no problem. Now go kid."

With his discussion over with Kurama, Naruto was about to go inside when he chuckled remembering how he met and befriended Kurama.

-FLASHBACK-

Naruto was only five years old when someone tried to assassinate him the first time. That day Naruto learned many things. The least important being that Iwa tried to assassinate him. Not because they knew his lineage, but only because he was with Jiraiya and Tsunade. Iwa feared they would create a second yellow flash.

Naruto and everyone were sleeping when the assassin slowly came into the camp. The assassin silently made his way to Naruto where he proceeded to stab Naruto once in the gut.

The second time the assassin stabbed Naruto he screamed. The assassin had immediately died after Jiraiya used a rasengan to crush his skull then Tsunade had punched a hole through his chest were his heart was, while Shizune went to Naruto to check on him.

Tsunade and Shizune had quickly stopped Naruto from bleeding and healed his wound with Kyuubis help but Naruto still was nonresponsive. All they could do was wait. What they didn't know was that right then Naruto was currently meeting Kyuubi.

When the assassin had stabbed Naruto, he was in shock, he didn't know what was going on and the pain was so great he blacked out. When he woke up he noticed he was in a weird looking place, but also felt himself almost being pulled to go one way.

As Naruto kept going in the direction that he was being pulled, he noticed there was water coming up to his ankles. It started to get colder, or was it warmer? He couldn't really tell.

Getting closer to wherever he was going, he also noticed the hallway was getting smaller. When the hallway got almost too small to walk through, it opened up to a huge room with a giant cage in it that looked to be like a jail cell with a piece of paper keeping it closed with the kanji for seal on it.

Naruto started to get closer to the cage when he stopped dead in his tracks. What he saw in front of him was something that had scared him still. In front of Naruto was a giant foxes head with its fangs bared for Naruto to see while the rest of the body was hidden in shadow.

"Y-y-yo-you're the K-K-Kyuubi " Naruto managed to stutter out, as if to confirm this, the fox stepped forward into the light to reveal the rest of its body and the nine flowing tails behind it.

"Yes kit I am but you don't have to fear me and I will explain why if you are willing to lend an ear to me."

"Uh ya sure I can do that"Naruto said.

Over the next two hours the Kyuubi explained to Naruto how it had been sealed before willing only to be used by Madara Uchiha. Before his first container Mito could seal him in herself and how after that he was sealed in kushina who was the first to talk to him. Kyuubi had finished talking about its previous containers when it then went into detail for Naruto about how he had been released from Kushina, and then how he got into Naruto.

"That is all I had to tell you that I could to prove I don't hate you kit."

"Ok well I have a few questions" Naruto said.

"How did I get here?"

"Where is here?"

"Can anything be done so you don't have to live in this sewer like place?"

To say Naruto shocked Kyuubi by his insight would be an understatement. "Well in that order, the shock from getting stabbed sent you here and here is your mindscape. I am sealed in you, this is your mind and this place is where I am stuck so I call it a mindscape. For the last one, as I said, this is your mind so if you can imagine it you can create it in here" Kyuubi said.

Naruto nodded to Kyuubis answer then sat down and closed his eyes. Kyuubi would have said something else but noticed Naruto was concentrating very hard. Kyuubi looked around and noticed the environment was rapidly changing. Instead of the dark sewer became a large lush forest with a waterfall and lots of wildlife all around and the bars disappeared.

Naruto then opened his eyes and got up. "Did I do a good job Kyuubi-San?" Naruto asked. Kyuubi was amazed. This kid had just come in here and not only did he hate him for what he was forced to do but even made his living space better. "Its-its amazing kit thank you." "No problem Kyuubi, but I do have one last question. How do I leave and come back here if I want to?" Naruto asked. "Well to leave, just meditate and imagine leaving. To come back do the same thing, but if you want, I can establish a mental link between us so we can talk without you having to come in here if you want."

"That would be nice Kyuubi-San. You will be my first friend" Naruto said. Again Kyuubi was shocked by Naruto.

"Kurama."

"What?" Naruto asked.

"That's my real name Naruto. You are the first human I have ever told, so I expect you to use it right" Kurama said with a grin. "Arigato Kurama-San." Naruto then sat down to meditate so he could leave.

When Naruto left his mindscape he opened his eyes only to be met with the worried ones of his ba-chan Tsunade, his ero-Jiji and his nee-chan Shizune. "Hi guys are you ok?" Before Naruto could say more, his family crushed him into a huge hug.

After they had all stopped squeezing Naruto to death he explained to them what he had learned and everything Kurama had told him. Naruto's grandparents were shocked, to say the least. To learn that the Kyuubi actually was sorry and that it wanted Naruto to know that his true name was Kurama was a very big thing.

-END FLASHBACK-

"Huh the good old days" Naruto said to himself.