*thirteen years ago*

Satsuki was walking through a park in the light of the full moon with a pack with all of the worldly possessions that she wanted to bring with her strapped to her back. As she was about to cross one of the park benches she felt a few taps on her shoulder. Being alerted to the person behind her she quickly rocketed forward two meters before turning around and dropping down into a fighting stance while producing a kunai in the process. She activated her three tomoe sharingan surprised at the sight of a thirteen-year-old Naruto with his hands up in surrender in what looked like pjs. Satsuki deactivated her Sharingan when she was sure it was Naruto and relaxed straightening up. "Naruto, what are you doing here?" She asked annoyed at his appearance.

Her answer was Naruto's goofy grin as he pulled out a board for the game Go from a sealing scroll. "The hospital can get pretty boring if you have nothing to do. I wanted to know if you want to hang out to pass the time."

"No, I meant why did you follow me here dope?" She snarled out, not too happy with his answer.

Naruto pointed at where his neck and shoulder met on his body to make a point to mirror hers before speaking. "My seal takes some time to get rid of the snake pervert's curse mark so I put some of the kyuubi's chakra mix with mine so I can be there if something happens."

The girl looked offended at the boy's answer before she became completely upset. "You put a tracker on me?" Satsuki asked Naruto, her face with no emotion.

Naruto, getting the seriousness of the situation, backed up and raised his hands again. "Woah, woah, woah. No... At least not really." He moved closer trying not to make any sudden moves, she still had her kunai out after all. "I am a sensory type remember, it's more like I know your general direction, and with the Kyuubi's chakra powering the seal you are like a giant beacon for me considering you are the only other person with that much in your system around." He said underselling Gaara and Shukaku.

"And you weren't going to tell me, Naruto? It has been over a month." Satsuki questioned, clearly angry.

"It was all going to fade in a couple of days anyway, and you were in the hospital for most of that time so I didn't think it was important."

"Naruto..." She voiced taking a step towards him before sighing and letting it go. "You did not answer my question, why are you here?"

Naruto shrugged pointing at her in response. "I came to see you. But it looks like you are not going back to the hospital." He said looking at the bag on her back.

A small sense of guilt entered her mind before she buried it as far into the back of her mind as it would go. She was hoping to avoid this conversation, Naruto was at the very top of the short list of people that she cared about who were still in the village. "I am leaving Naru... Naruto." She changes her stance in a motion to put her bag behind her looking as if protecting it from him. "I am not like you Naruto, not like the others. Seeing my brother again..." She paused looking at the ground. 'And fighting you.' She thought. "It had reminded me how weak I was, and staying here is not going to help me get stronger... No offense to Kakashi-sensei, Kiba, and Hinata, you and team eight proved that I was weak and I could not catch up to you." She continued to speak, thinking about a dream that she had not been able to catch up to Naruto on a path with a blinding light ahead of them, and the fact that no matter what she did she could not catch up to him or her brother who was in front of both of them.

Naruto grimaced at her words before speaking. "Can't you do that here? I can help you train." There was a hint of desperation that hurt Satsuki to hear. "Name the time and place and I will be there."

Satsuki shook her head and turned away from Naruto, beginning to walk. She was stopped by quickly paced footsteps and a quick hand capturing her wrist, she didn't even look back as she stopped to know who it was. "Naruto let go..." She spoke with her Sharingan, activating on instinct.

"No." The word came out as an almost growl surprising Satsuki. Naruto's grip only tightened as the pair continued their confrontation. "Tell me why you have to leave. Why can't you get stronger here?"

She let out a sharp breath as she forced her arm away from him, not moving any further. "Because I need to be much, much stronger to achieve my goals as a kunoichi. And nothing in this village will help me achieve it." Her response was solemn.

Regardless of what she was going through, Naruto pressed on. "Why is that? Why can't you?"

"Because I can't... I will find my own way... I can't..." Her voice trailed off as she kept the rest to herself. 'Kill you Naruto.'

"Then I will come with you." His tone was flat when she looked at him with surprise on her face, her Sharingan still active.

"What?"

"I am going to need some time. Can you wait a day? I am going to need to talk with my mom and get ready, so we can come back when the time comes."

Satsuki searched his eyes with hers, now being their usual black. "You don't know why I want to become stronger, why would you want to come with me?"

"It has something to do with your brother right?" Her stunned reaction was all he needed to continue. "I was right wasn't I?" He got a nod in confirmation. "Then all the more reason to." Naruto confirmed.

"This has nothing to do with you, Naruto."

Naruto grabbed her and pulled her into an embrace, she tried to push away but was overpowered at every turn. "You shouldn't do this all alone, Satsuki." He let go to look her in the eye. "You want revenge right, let me help you."

Not seeing her way out of it, Satsuki resigned herself to it all, though she wanted one more thing from Naruto before he ventured on this path of revenge with her. On second thought she stopped herself short before opening her mouth. "Why?"

"Because I like you, and you are my friend." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head in mild embarrassment.

Her thoughts wandered to the accidental kiss the two shared when they first became shinobi before blushing a storm herself. Grabbing at the sleeve of his shirt she looks into his eyes and brings a resolve to kill two birds with one stone. "After it's all said and done you will help me rebuild my clan." She paused as her cheeks were a deeper red, looking away as she spoke again. "As its Patriarch."

"Done." Naruto instantly answered to the surprise of Satsuki.

"Are you sure?" She asked, making sure that he understood. "You know that means sometime in the future you are going to have to marr-"

"I know what you meant, Satsuki." He interrupted her with a blush of his own. "Our goals as shinobi are going to have us taking the same path anyway I figured... I don't know." He said scratching his cheek while chuckling. "We should take this path together, you know, help each other out when we need it."

Satsuki looked at him wide-eyed as the fun-loving goof just insinuated that there was someone out there he wanted to kill, and he looked pretty serious about it. She thought about it and remembered how he had reacted to seeing the curse mark on her, the anger behind it. "Don't tell me you..." Naruto sighed giving her one last solemn look, she could tell that whatever got him on this path of revenge had to do with the curse mark and Orochimaru, how else would he have known how to counteract it? She knew that Naruto hid a lot of things in their time in the academy so this was no surprise, but now she feels bad about making herself believe that they were somehow different. "One day right?"

"What?"

"I will wait one day for you." She paused to poke his chest with a finger. "If you are not here at this spot tomorrow night you can just forget it. I will leave without you." A pain arose from deep down but she needed to make sure that Naruto understood that she was not going to change her mind.

"I will do you one better, Satsuki." He said with a massive grin. "I will treat you to dinner."

"Like a date?" Satsuki asked, skeptical about his intentions.

Naruto laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah you could say that, I don't know if we are ever going to have the chance to have one in Konoha so why not have our first one here before we do leave."

Satsuki was pretty sure that Naruto had an ulterior motive for this date but she agreed to it all the same. They were effectively committing treason in all rights, it is more serious for Naruto as the Jinchūriki of the Kyuubi. "Fine whatever, but I am serious about leaving Naruto." She sighed as she saw him bouncing on his feet. A thought came to her and she groaned. "What am I going to tell those four sound nin." She said out loud thinking of the four Otogakure shinobi that were supposed to escort her to Orochimaru.

Naruto smiled at her perplexed face before speaking, offering her a solution. "We should go together and 'kindly' ask them to wait for a single day." The pretext of a pending fight in the tone of voice.

Satsuki could tell that when it came to the snake Senin he only trusted her and she got the feeling that she would have to do the same. "Fine, follow me."