Chapter 7
The Demon Within

As he let loose a guttural roar, Naruto's vision blurred with the streets around him dissolving into a haze. His eyes fought against unconsciousness, still managing to see his own body moving in frantic, wild attacks towards the Uchiha. He lost the battle of consciousness as his vision faded to black, all he was left with was the thundering of his heart that deafened his ears.

It felt like seconds had gone by as he lost his sight, but he was somehow forgetting why he was in this situation. What was going on? Where was he? What was he doing? Who was he?

He could feel himself straining his own mind to search for answers and a whisper reached out to him in the madness.

"Is that all the container of the Nine Tails has to offer?"

His eyes snapped open, his body moving in a panic only for him to land on his rear in a pool of water. He swung his head around taking in his new surroundings and found himself in a dimly lit sewage area. He calmed his breathing and realised the searing pain he felt before was gone, the furious rage had simmered slightly as he stood up, out of the water.

Looking down at the water, he was unable to see his reflection clearly as the murkiness of the water was being combined with an unknown force that began to push the pack of his calves' forwards, forcing his body to trudge through the knee-deep waters.

"…container of the Nine Tails…," Itachi's words echoed throughout the hallways, the sound itself seemed to push him forwards more into the dark ahead of him. Every step he took was heavy as he trudged deeper into the unknown. Lefts became rights and rights became lefts as the labyrinth of pipes and flowing water continued.

A part of him thought it was the rogue shinobi's doing. He had caught him in another genjutsu and was just toying with his mind, using him for amusement. He wanted to kick and yell out at the Uchiha but the words that kept echoing prevented that. He knew, deep down, that the answer he had been looking for all this time awaited him at the end of this endless maze. It caused a barrel of fear and uncertainty to creep into his mind, the encounter would test his resolve as the person he had made himself to be.

As he took another turn, he came across a new sight, one that set his senses on edge. Infront of him was nothing but darkness. The water underneath him began to move him forwards with more force than before, as if sensing his own fear and hesitation. His hand found one of the pipes on the wall, but it did nothing in the end as the current swept him out and over the edge into the pit of black.

What felt like an eternity ended in an instant as his back slammed into the water, the impact sending him surging back to the surface before he landed hard on his knees, the rippling water swirling beneath him.

The black pit had transformed into an enormous, darkened chamber, and there towering above him was a colossal sized red cage. The bars seemed to stretch on forever, disappearing into the darkness above. A large paper tag, inscribed with the kanji for "seal," sat neatly in the centre of the cage.

His throat tightened. The Uchiha spoke no lie; he wasn't just imagining this, and he knew that this felt too real to be a trick of the mind – this was something far worse than he could ever have imagined it to be.

"Welcome, boy." A deep, resonant voice echoed from the darkness behind the bars, dripping with malice and distain.

His legs turned to jelly as a wave of chakra accompanied the voice, his eyes widening as two gigantic menacing eyes appeared in the darkness. They glowed crimson with sinister intent. Its slitted pupils bore down onto him, as if moving would promise his death.

It rose up and stepped forwards, the water rippled violently, revealing the towering form of the Nine Tailed Fox.

Without warning a massive claw shot forwards, squeezing between the gaps of the cage with a deafening crash. Naruto scrambled back, falling on his rear, his eyes wide with terror. The beast's snarl turned into a bellowing roar that rattled the space around them.

"You're nothing but a pathetic monkey," it sneered, its voice dripping with disdain. "To think that a worthless brat like you is the only thing standing between me and my freedom." It bared its fangs, and Naruto could feel the sheer murderous intent suffocating the air. "It disgusts me."

Despite all the years of loneliness—before meeting Ayame and Teuchi, back when he lashed out at the world, wondering endlessly why his life was the way it was—he had always known, deep down, that if he wanted answers, he'd have to find them himself.

Now though, as the truth stared him in the face, he still couldn't help but choke out the simple question that had continued to gnaw at him for all these years.

"W-Why me? Why are you…. sealed in of me?"

Its snarl twisted into one of mockery, "Do not think of yourself as special. You are nothing but a vessel. A cage. Your bastard Hokage sealed me within you- locking me away, treating me like some trinket to be used when needed. I was on the brink of freedom only to be caged once more, all because your kind only knows of violence and war!"

Naruto's mind reeled; flashes of the lessons they were taught at the academy rushed back to him. They had been taught about the legendary battle between the Yondaime Hokage and the Nine-Tails. However, when they spoke about how he successfully saved the village by defeating the monster and sacrificing his own life in the process he never would have thought this is what they meant by "defeated."

"So, this is what they meant by "defeated"," he muttered, his small voice echoing across the chamber despite being barely above a whisper. "You were sealed, not killed."

Laughter erupted, filling the chamber with a deep, rumbling sound that shook its very walls. It resonated with both mockery and pride. "Killed? Do not make me laugh, boy. No human could ever hope to kill me. Many have tried but ultimately, the greed of your kind won out and they sought to steal my power for their own selfish needs."

It felt as though there was no cage between them in that moment as the fox's head loomed closer, its eyes boring into hm even more, its lips curling exposing its maw full of razor-sharp teeth.

"Your Hokage may have locked me away once more, but I tore through him and his wife like the pathetic worms they were, and I laughed as I did so, knowing that killed their chance of raising a family – raising their newborn son," the fox's head was bubbling through the gate at this point, its form shifting to get closer to Naruto's body "-the very son they sealed me inside of."

The head of the fox popped and reformed back behind the cage as its final words echoed across the space. Naruto didn't pay its appearance any mind however as it felt as though his world had blown up in his face. His body felt as though he had the wind kicked out of him, his throat clogged full of raw emotion, so much so that it began to leak out in desperate gasps for air.

The Yondaime was his father?

He had sealed the fox within him. His own parents gave their own lives so that he would have to live like this. The people who were supposed to love and care for their child had left him alone, to grow up hated and ignored. To be treated as a pariah all because he was forced to hold this thing in him. He was now only just finding out because of a freak occurrence with some rogue ninja from the very village that had shunned him for holding this demon.

What was the point of it all?

The Fox's thoughts slithered past the bars and honeyed with his own, "They brought you into this world, only to treat you like a tool." It said, "You haven't been treated fairly all these years, whilst the man who did this is treated as a hero."

A raw, bitter anger swelled within Naruto, the same feeling he felt seeing Itachi moments ago. Only this time it agreed with his mind's thoughts and his body.

The cackle from the Nine Tails felt like velvet on his ears, a warm bubbly feeling comforted his body as his anger continued to build, "Yes that's it. Feel it. Feel the anger, the hatred! You've been left in the dark, your own feelings tossed aside just as a tool should be. Now let it out."

The visage of the fox faded away as Naruto's sight turned red. The comfort he felt moments ago shifted as he began to transform, his body was being covered in the menacing chakra that leaked from behind the bars. The burning sensation was too much for his mind to comprehend leaving him to do the only thing he could manage in that moment.

"AAAAGH!"

xXx

Outside the seal the transformation happened too fast for even Itachi himself to understand what could have gone wrong.

Moments earlier he had the jinchuriki on the floor of a shop under a genjutsu. Then the boy began using a small amount of the fox's chakra and while it was a surprise to see it in person, happening in real time through his sharingan, he was disappointed in the way the power turned the boy into a mindless rage.

After a small bout of the jinchuriki trying to claw his eyes out and Itachi kicking him back repeatedly. There was a single pause in the fight as the blonde boy was booted down the cobblestone street, a trench being created as the boy's body skated across the pebbled path.

That's where Itachi now found himself, feeling the extent of what a truly untrained jinchuriki was capable of doing as the oppressive, hateful chakra smothered the area in an instant. The surrounding area around the boy burst with chakra, its effect causing the nearest walls to crack, the store windows shattered and even Itachi himself took a step back as he looked on at the transformation the boy undertook.

"AAAAGH!"

His body twisted and contorted. His skin bubbled and peeled as volatile chakra mixed giving way to a red and black fox-like form. Itachi's eyes narrowed; the crimson appendages that formed behind him gave Itachi the knowledge to guess just how strong the transformed jinchuriki was going to be.

"Four tails," he muttered to himself in his usual stoic tone, despite him feeling slightly tense at the rising situation. He watched the tails lash out at the land around him, carving through the stone paths like a hot knife through butter. The tails shot under the ground causing it to crack, creating a trench that kept pushing towards Itachi.

Itachi focused chakra to his legs and pounced up onto a stable section of the crumbled wall, watching on as where he once stood sunk in on itself and continued to do so down the rest of the street.

Any semblance of damage control he thought he could achieve was quickly forgotten as the supports of nearby buildings collapsed under the shifting ground. Itachi sighed, already dreading the repercussions of his failure to contain the situation. If he had reined Orochimaru in from the start, this disaster might have been avoided, but he knew all too well that Orochimaru was not someone to be controlled.

He focused back on the rampaging jinchuriki, his sharingan taking in the large gathering of chakra around the boy's form, the beginnings of a fifth tail began to flutter into existence and Itachi knew immediately he had to act fast.

His eyes transformed. To onlookers his eyes spun in a mesmerising way, the three tomoe pattern shifting towards the centre of his eyes creating a new spiralling curved pattern, both eyes now sporting a curved shuriken design.

The Mangekyo Sharingan.

"Enough," he whispered, and the beasts gaze landed on his, as if sensing the immediate danger, it focused all its tails on him. Most in his position would have been torn apart and turned into red mist but his eyes allowed him to see the trajectory of the chakra tails and move to dodge them, finding the single path to not get pierced by them.

The white eerie eyes had turned away from him, the knowledge of the sharingan's power not forgotten despite the beast's behaviour but Itachi spun in between two of the tails, kicking off the ground and vaulting using his hand to avoid another tail attempting to pierce his back.

He threw his hands into a quick seal, a shadow clone appearing to his left just as he landed onto his feet. Both taking different sides to attack. The clone charged left, throwing the most powerful fire jutsu it could towards the jinchuriki line of sight, allowing the real Itachi to use it as cover.

However, the boy was unbothered and let out a howl that sent forth a powerful gust of wind that split the jutsu apart, catching Itachi trying to get behind him. His clone's foot was damaged causing it to dispel into smoke, the chakra and memories returning to him as it did so.

The slight memory feedback caused him a near miss with one of the tails, the chakra was so powerful that it gave off a heat. Immediately he back pedalled, this time fleeing up into what used to be an apartment. The decision to do so worked perfectly as Itachi was now the one being pressed instead and he knew that the boy, or thing, would slip up in his enraged state.

He found himself sprinting down a narrow corridor, the sunlight shining down on him lighting his way from a hole in the roof. Turning into a bathroom he found a situation to exploit. Inside the bathroom was a couple holding onto each other for dear life, as his eyes found them, they let out a scream thinking he was going to finish them off. Instead, Itachi positioned himself in the corner opposite them, knowing he had seconds to pull his idea off.

Unlike himself, the jinchuriki burst through the wall of the bathroom, sending shards of tiles everywhere and electing louder screams from the couple across from him. He paid the mess no mind as the jinchuriki stalled momentarily at the new sight, its tails uncaring and flickering towards the couple.

However, it froze immediately. The small space going silent as Itachi stared into its blinding white eyes, using the mirror that was barely hanging onto the wall opposite of where they entered from, catching the jinchuriki off guard.

The silence was broken with the whisper of "Tsukuyomi."

Its effects were immediate.

The chakra cloak around Naruto's bod began to recede into itself. As the transformation dissipated, it revealed the heavily burned form of the boy beneath, his clothing gone leaving his blistered, red body to fall unceremoniously onto the messy floor beneath him. As the effects of the Tsukuyomi flooded his mind, Itachi held no sympathy for him if he were to wake up, as the agony that would greet him would teach him a lesson.

Itachi's hadn't managed to get out of the situation unharmed as the blinding aftereffects that unleashed behind his eyes caused him to wince and adjust his breathing momentarily. The mirror he used to catch the boy off guard allowed him to see the tears of blood that leaked from his eyes, the power of the Mangekyo put immense strain on the body but he couldn't let it show, especially now of all times.

He quickly rubbed away the blood from his cheeks and moved forwards, stepping over the corpses of the people that had allowed him to catch the jinchuriki off guard, and grabbed the boy by the hair, leaping out of the hole in the wall and landing back in the destroyed street below. As he tossed the boy in the trench, created by his own destruction, a soft applause broke out behind him, drawing Itachi's gaze towards its source.

Orochimaru emerged from the alleyway across the road from the apartment he had just came from, his expression one of twisted delight as he looked on at the situation. His purple haired student was unconscious at his feet also, no doubt the man wanted to conduct some more experiments on the woman.

"To think that the legends were true," Orochimaru said with glee, his eyes trailing from the unconscious jinchuriki to his sharingan. "To subdue a crazed jinchuriki with just a glance. Very remarkable."

Itachi's eyes narrowed at the sannin's words. "We wouldn't be in this situation if you had held your tongue, Orochimaru." He glanced around at the surrounding area, "Pain will not be pleased with the attention we have attracted. Especially since we were explicitly told to lay low and continue to bringing in funds and information to the meetings."

Orochimaru's demeanour shifted slightly, his eyes narrowing at the mention of Pain, "Well we managed to capture one of the jinchuriki years in advance," his tongue flicked out licking his lips, "I believe that if I study the jinchuriki I can create a counter to his seal allowing us to keep him and his kind in storage until we are ready to go through with Pain's end goal."

Taking the jinchuriki here and now would only cause Konoha to send out a manhunt for the boy, the village wouldn't stop until they regained the Nine Tails and caught the people responsible for it. Something they knew all to well.

Itachi steeled himself for where this situation was going, "We were laying low for a reason Orochimaru," as if to assist his argument, shouts of the small shinobi force that still occupied Yugakure began calling out to each other near their location, "Pain didn't want the Akatsuki on the map just yet, something you've gone and managed to ruin in under an hour. As I said, Pain will not be pleased."

The snake found amusement in the young Uchiha's words. The deep unnerving laugh filled the silence of the street, "If that's the case, then I believe its time for me to forge my own path once again," he said his laughter fading to a dangerous tone. The build-up of the chakra in the sannin's body was as clear as day to Itachi's eyes.

He didn't know if Orochimaru thought he was above him in skills or he had simply let his emotions guide his actions, but the Uchiha didn't let the man follow through on his plan as he quickly pinned him in a genjutsu and drew his tanto, aiming directly for the sannin's neck.

But Orochimaru, ever the slippery adversary, managed to evade the attack at the last moment, breaking out of the genjutsu. Itachi's Mangekyo tracked the movement with precision, the snake was fast enough to get his arm up, using the limb as a shield against the incoming attack.

A grunt of pain escape Orochimaru as he created space between them, his eyes immediately moving away from the red eyes. "You little brat…" Orochimaru spat, a mixture of anger and pain in his voice.

Itachi kept his gaze steadily focused on the man, not allowing him to attempt anything if he could prevent it. "Not only have you made a mess of the Akatsuki's original plans, but you've now turned your back on the organization itself, Orochimaru. Hopefully, Pain will forgive my failure here if I bring him your head."

The pained look vanished from the sannin's face as his body turned a shade of brown and melted into the ground. Itachi's eyes already pinning the alleyway he appeared from in the beginning, a mocking laughter echoing out into the open.

"I'd like to see you try, Itachi-kun."

xXx

The chittering cold winds swept through the small narrow streets of the snow-covered town, the only people out on the street were those far to inebriated to feel the effects of the cold and Shizune herself, who was currently clutching her cloak to her chest not wanting the heat to escape. Her breath escaped in a frosty cloud as she darted down the street, her eyes scanning every bar along the way.

She and her master had been staying in this small little trading town in on the outskirts of Shimogakure for the past week and a half after her master's gambling debts had caught up to her once again. So, after managing to board a ship from the eastern coast of the Land of Fire they managed to find themselves two countries away from the debtors.

'I wish they stopped at Yugakure, their hot springs would be leaps better than this', she thought as she stopped at the last bar on the street, letting out a sigh of relief as she spotted the woman she was looking for, sitting in the corner of the dimly lit bar. With a glass of sake in one hand and her other occupied the lever of a slot machine.

"There you are, Tsunade-sama," Shizune called out, entering the bar, and relishing in the warmth of the building. Tsunade barely moved, a grunt in her direction was her way of a greeting. She made her way across the room, the smell of the bar invaded her nostrils, a mix of smoke and stale liquor made her teeth tighten slightly at the harshness of it. No matter how many times they found themselves in these places she never did get used to it.

As she moved across the room, the handful of men who sat scattered across the tables paid her a glance and then focused back onto their own games at their table. Her master's glass was almost empty as well as the few bottles that were piling up on the side table next to the slot machine.

"Tsunade-sama," she said again, quieter this time as she approached the bar trying to get her masters full attention, but the older woman's eyes were glued to the machine watching the slots spin rapidly, the flashing lights lighting her face and reflecting in her honey brown eyes.

A small shake of her shoulder got her to turn to her student, her eyes rapidly blinking away the dry eye, "Shizune, is it morning already?"

Shizune couldn't help but sigh at the question, "No, but you should come back to the hotel now you've been at it for hours."

Their hotel room wasn't far, but she knew that the next bar they passed she would attempt to go in despite having already spent most of their money that was supposed to last them for a while. She also didn't want to leave Tonton in the room alone any longer than she needed. Her piglet was well behaved on most occasions but if their accommodation found out they had snuck a pig into their room they would probably have to pay a fee and get kicked out resulting in more money being lost.

"Fine," she said standing up and finishing what was left in her cup as well as pulling down on the lever of the machine for a final spin. Another thing she would never get used to was the amount of ryo her master would use on a single spin on these machines, her face paling slightly as she realised, she just spun the cost for two nights in a nice hotel.

Her face switched up as the sudden dinging noise that came from the slot machine was accompanied by the rattling of ryo. The earlier uninterested patrons turned their gaze over to their spot, Shizune's eyes widened more as her mind calculated the prize multiplier her master had just won.

Tsunade herself frowned at the money spilling out of the machine, her lips pressing into a thin line. "Great," he muttered the sarcastic edge in her voice unmistakable. Despite the hefty payout, there was no excitement, no joy, only a sense of foreboding.

Shizune blinked, torn between relief at the new wealth her master had just accumulated for them – the exact opposite of what she's known for – and anxiety at the shift in her demeanour. "Tsunade-sama… are you okay? Isn't this a good thing?"

Tsunade didn't answer immediately, instead, she turned to scan the rest of the room, her experienced eyes flickering over everyone I the bar. She had learned that good things are often accompanied by worse things, and she wasn't in the mood for what was bound to follow her good luck. As her gaze lingered on the patrons, her hand moved to her liver, glowing a bright green. In an instant her body had burned off the alcohol in her system, the effects leaving her and returning her to her normal state.

Shizune saw the shift in her master's demenaour, it wasn't one she saw very often, only having ever seen it a handful of times since going on the road with her. When it appeared it usually meant that they were about to end up in some bother, either Tsunade herself starting it or the trouble finding them.

"We're leaving. Now." She said, her chair scraping against the wooden floor as she snatched up her green haori from the back of the seat and wrapped it tightly around her shoulders. The other patrons at this point were getting uncomfortable by the blonde lady's gaze upon them and chose to look away.

Shizune was still shocked by the sudden turn of the events, "L-Leaving? But Tonton and our things are still at the hotel- "

Tsunade was already moving to the door, the jackpot money left behind as she went. "Go back to the hotel and pack. We're not staying in this town a second longer."

Shizune wasn't one to argue with her master, knowing it would fall on deaf ears anyways – especially when Tsunade got like this. The strange "curse" of misfortune that she preached that followed her had not proved itself to be false over the years, despite Shizune wanting it to be proven so.

It did hurt however as she looked down at the pile of coins still spilling out onto the floor, the machines chime punctuating it even further. She grabbed a pouch and quickly filled it with as much as she could from the winnings before setting off after her master into the bitter cold.

xXx

The hospital was shrouded in its usual atmosphere of dread and sorrow. Its halls had very few moments of happiness and joy, and Hiruzen's very own presence as he entered through the sliding doors was far from lifting the mood, only seeming to deepen the tension as the rhythmic tapping of his cane echoes through the sterile hallways.

He had no need to check in as he strode purposefully through the reception and through the double doors that were being guarded by two chunin, who gave him a bow as he passed. As the doors swung behind him, he felt his appearance fall, a slight tiredness showing on his old face as he continued forward.

The past week had been one of the most hectic weeks he's had since he took back the seat of Hokage thirteen years ago. The incident in Yugakure involving his shinobi, both current and rogue, had kept him in his office for most of the week as he had to deal with the fallout of the incident. An out-of-control jinchuriki and two rogue shinobi destroying a tourist area in a demilitarized zone was a difficult situation he had to dig himself out of. All he aimed to do was make sure that the Yugakure officials came to a peaceful and fair agreement and try mop up the mess that was made.

Thankfully, the negotiations were going as smooth as they could be, allowing him a moment away from his office so he could visit the hospital, leaving his old teammates to finalise the agreement in his stead.

However, it seemed as the world refused to give him a moment of respite as a second tapping of a cane accompanied his own, causing him to let out a sigh at the person who was in his shadow. This was just the man he could count on showing his face when he really didn't want to deal with him.

"Somtheing to say, Danzo?" he asked, not even breaking his stride nor offering a glance behind at the one-eyed man.

"There is no point in me wasting my breath as you clearly know what I am here to say." Danzo replied, his voice a low rasp.

Hiruzen gave a small humourless chuckle, his eyes fixed ahead as he turned a corner, "If that's the case then my answer is still the same one that I gave you all those years ago." he turned a single eye to glance at the bandaged man, "You are not training the boy."

Danzo moved slightly faster to fall in line with the Hokage, his cane tapping alongside Hiruzen's as if they were in an argument of their own, "The boy is our jinchuriki. After the fox broke out of its previous jinchuriki, I would have thought you would have seen reason. You should have ensured that the next jinchuriki was trained as they are supposed to be – as a weapon for the village."

"Konoha has never needed to rely on the strength of our jinchuriki, and you know that," his tone firm and annoyed at having this conversation various times throughout the year, "I made sure that Minato and Kushina's sacrifice wasn't repaid by turning their own child into a weapon."

They turned once again, and at the far end of the hallway stood the door to Naruto's hospital room.

"Correct," Danzo said, the edge in his voice becoming more pronounced, "We have never needed the strength of our jinchuriki, but times are changing Hiruzen. This attack – accidental or not – proves it. We're lucky that the jinchuriki came back to us alive."

Danzo turned his eye to the side of Hiruzen's head, as if to bore a hole through him "And we are wasting the sacrifice of the Yondaime and his wife by not using the weapon they left us."

Danzo's statement caused Hiruzen to stop and flick his cane out in front of him, blocking him from moving closer to the door – the gesture was small, but he knew that it would irritate Danzo slightly making it a slight win in his book.

His eyes looked through the small window on the door allowing him to see that the Ichiraku's were currently occupying the room. The young girl sat at Naruto's bedside, her hand on his arm whilst her father stood with his back to the door, looking down at the boy's bed.

Hiruzen turned to Danzo, a glare fixated on the man's lone eye and his voice coming out in a harsh whisper, "Enough. I am not an idiot Danzo. An idealistic fool, maybe, but not an idiot." His eyes turned back to the window, "You are correct about the times changing. This incident will already have found its way into the ears of the other Kage, and they will no doubt attempt to meddle in the aftermath of the situation."

"But once Naruto wakes up and is fit enough, I will make sure that I fix my mistakes and have the boy ready to stand up against whatever may come. However," Hiruzen's voice grew more serious, "If I find out that you're attempting to make this incident even harder for me, whether that's your taking steps to undermine my authority or going against me completely then I will make sure I fix another one of my errors."

Danzo's lips curled into a thin scowl, his single visible eye narrowing in frustration as they stood there for a long moment. Hiruzen continued, "I know you put the interests of the village above everything else. Now is the time for that more than ever and I would prefer you to do so by standing with me and not against me. So do I make myself clear?"

Hiruzen watched the stoic man's emotions bubble to the surface as if he was fighting with himself in weighing the value of continuing the conversation, but ultimately his head dipped slightly, a nod of agreement, before he turned and walked back down the corridor, his cane tapping more furiously as he went.

Hiruzen watched him go, knowing that this wasn't the last time they would have this conversation despite his threat, but for now, the conversation was in the past. He turned back once more to the window, his eyes falling on the unconscious Naruto. The boy lay still on his bed, his whole body covered from head to toe in bandages. An IV drip was delivering fluids and a cocktail of medicine to stabilise his body after the strain it had been put through.

The wires that were taped to his head were connected to machines monitoring his brain activity. Screens beside the bed showed erratic, jumpy waves – the boy was suffering from whatever genjutsu Itachi had trapped him in.

Ayame leaned forwards, her lips moving near his ears as she spoke to him. Her father placed a hand on his shoulder. For a fleeting moment Hiruzen's eyes played tricks on him, the image of Ayame and Teuchi blurred causing him to see the boys' parents standing over him. If they were still alive, they would no doubt be chewing him out for the state of their son. If they were alive this would never have happened to begin with.

If there was one promise that he could make as he looked on at the scene play out in front of him, it was that he would not mess up again. If it made him out to be more of a bad guy in the eyes of the blonde then he would bare it, just so the boy could continue to cherish the future with the people he had found family with.

As he turned and walked away, heading back to make sure the Yugakure settlement was agreed upon, he missed the eyes of Teuchi that followed his retreating form. The man's face settling to a frown as the Hokage turned the corner.

Ayame's soft voice caused him to turn to his daughter, "Is everything going to be okay, Dad?"

Teuchi let out a deep sigh, his gaze lingering on Naruto for a long moment before he finally responded, his words tasting sour as he spoke them. "I really don't know, Ayame."

xXx

The crunch of the snowy branches under their feet was drowned out by the sound of the wind whipping past their ears as Shizune, with Tonton strapped to her chest, and Tsunade bounded across the snowy landscape. The chill was beginning to die down slightly as they had been traveling towards the border between the Land of Snow and the Land of Lightning.

The temperature warming up slightly didn't ease the chill that was going down both women's spines as they grew closer to the border. "Tsunade-sama, are you sure this is a good idea?" Shizune asked, glancing over at her mentor as they cleared a line of snowy pines and began to reach a stretch of open, rocky terrain.

The snow was beginning to thin out, giving way to jagged rocks that jutted out the earth like crooked teeth, the horizon ahead was full of stoney hills and rocky mountains and she knew from her missions as a Konoha shinobi that if they continued on the path they were on they would come across Kumogakure sooner than later.

Tsunade's face was set in its usual frown, "We can't afford to get too close to Kumogakure, their shinobi are too uptight and patrol their border with an iron fist. Theres a port town not to far south of here that we are going to and if we manage to outrun the Kumo-nin that will no doubt sense us, then we won't have any issues getting there."

Shizune nodded but couldn't suppress the nagging feeling that they were still being followed. She was glad to be out of that snowy hamlet but the barren landscape ahead didn't offer her much comfort either.

"What will we do if we run into Kumo-nin?" she asked, making sure she was ready to follow Tsunade's orders.

"If they do catch us, we'll let them make the first move. If they are hostile then we disable them and just keep moving, I don't want any of this getting back to Konoha and putting me in their crosshair's as well so target their legs and move."

As they approached the final tree, before the barren landscape, they pushed extra chakra to their limbs and gained as much momentum as they could in the air before their feet contacted the ground once more. Tsunade slowed down and came to a stop at a rock, her eyes closing and her hands flowing through seals causing Shizune to do the same.

As she opened her eyes once again, she was met with the visage of a smaller and younger Tsunade, the effect of the transformation jutsu being successful. Shizune couldn't see herself, but she knew by the few locks that draped past her ears that her hair had changed to a slightly dark lilac and her skin going a shade lighter than she was normally.

"Matching eyes?" her master asked, a small smile on her face despite the situation they found themselves in. Shizune reddened with slight embarrassment but nodded nonetheless "Right, let's move."

Tsunade didn't want to be out in the open for as long as she could help it so with the help of her precise chakra control, she focused on making her presence as low as possible whilst pushing all she could to her legs. Shizune, like the perfect student she was, copied Tsunade with ease and they both sprang forwards across the uneven ground. Their trajectory changed slightly after they spotted a Kumo squad on patrol, but it didn't deter their journey as they pressed southwards towards the port town.

xXx

Stepping out of his apartment and locking it behind him, Naruto greeted the morning sun with a smile as he vaulted over the apartment balcony and used chakra to soften his fall. He stretched as he looked down his street, finding it unusually busy for it just going on to six in the morning.

There was a large crowd of traffic heading in both directions he noticed, meaning that whatever was going on was probably a festival of some kind. If he had paid any attention to those things then he would know for sure, but he didn't, so with a shrug of his shoulders he stepped out onto the path himself and made his way to Ichiraku's, intending on helping open up shop for the day.

As he strolled down the street a small child suddenly barreled into his legs, tripping and falling to the ground. Naruto looked down at the boy who was nursing a scraped knee, he went to offer a hand but before he could a feminine voice called out next to him in the crowd.

"I'm so sorry!" turning he noticed in was a woman holding a handful of bags in her arms, her eyes looking between him and the child. As her eyes landed on him, he expected the usual realisation then fear or disdain, but he was surprised when the mother instead helped her child up with a free hand and spoke to him.

"Apologise to the young man, Yuta."

The boy looked up wide eyed, his face clearly ready to cry be that from the sore knee, the embarrassment, or both Naruto didn't know but he managed to choke out a quick mumble, "Sorry, mister."

Naruto himself was caught for a moment, staring at the situation, his eyes or ears not believing it for a moment. Realising he was being rude to those that were apologising he gave a small sheepish smile, "It's fine, you're all good little guy." The mother gave him a nod of appreciation before they scuttled back into the crowd, the boys hand now firmly grasped in his mothers.

Naruto stood there for a moment, watching the two figures disappear completely into the crowd. Something about the small meaningless encounter gnawed at him. It was a simple thing, a small mistake of a child that most people would forget by the end of the day but for him it wasn't. A person in the village had spoken to him with kindness for once.

A moment of uneasiness hit him, a slight fuzziness at the back of his mind only continued to fuel it until he shook his head of the feeling.

He would remember the moment, not knowing when he would get to experience the small things again. Not wanting to put a downer on things he brought up a hand seal and pushed chakra through his body. Moments later he was speeding across the rooftops of Konoha, using the body flicker to get him to his destination quicker.

He dropped in front of Ichiraku's in no time, realising that the bustling streets from earlier had gone quiet. Oddly quiet. He made to step into the ramen stand but he gave a momentary pause. The waning flapped lightly in the breeze and Naruto found that nobody was behind the counter.

"Oi Teuchi! Ayame!" he called out, receiving no response. He stepped inside, realising that the aprons were still hung up on the wall. Further into the back, he noticed that the space where the Ichiraku's would toss their jackets for the day was also empty.

"Is anyone here?" he called out once again, frowning as he stepped back into the front of the stand. The uneasiness from before creeping back into his gut. This time the fuzziness in his mind was at full blast.

Usually Ayame would be bustling about, humming a tune whilst Teuchi prepped the stock for the day and when he would show up, he would be put to work cutting vegetables or preparing noodles for day. But there was nothing – just an unsettling silence that was making his skin crawl.

The awning flapped once more, this time the wind more powerful than before. The parting fabric opened and let him see two figures standing outside. He vaulted over the countertop and rushed outside realising the backs of the figures.

"Hey, Ayame Teuchi, what are you guys doing?" silence met his question, his hand reached out to Teuchi's shoulder to get his attention. Forcing the older man to turn, Naruto jumped back at his appearance.

His heart raced as he stumbled back, his breath catching in his throat. Teuchi's eyes, the deep brown that he shared with his daughter were now inky black, soulless orbs. They stared straight through him, unblinking and hollow. The expression he wors was slack and devoid of the warmth that Naruto had always known him for.

Ayame turned, as if her father turning triggered her to do so.

Ayame, the girl he had come to call his best friend and the person he would do anything for looked nothing like the girl. Her smile that had always been so kind now looked like a lifeless doll as she stared at him like a clone of her father.

"G-Guys?" his voice cracked as he took a step back. His hands grasped the air in front of him as an attempt to do something – anything. His mind wished he could undo whatever nightmare this was.

Their heads broke the silence of the street as they both jerked back unnaturally. Bone pierced through their neck and inky black liquid began rolling down their bodies, staining the white clothing they wore. Their bodies stepped towards him, the movement stiff and mechanical, as though something else was pulling their strings.

Naruto's breath quickened. 'This isn't real. It can't be real."

"Do you think this is funny!" he screamed out into the silent street. His mind trying to piece together what was going on. A loud caw echoed down the streets and as if his mind where a lightbulb, everything clicked and fell into place.

The bodies that were made out to be Ayame and Teuchi exploded into a flock of crows, fear impaled his chest as he realised what was still going on. He attempted to cut the flow of chakra to his body and found that he couldn't even feel it to begin with.

The world around him shifted as the crows surrounded him. The morning sky bled, shifting into a crimson hue, black clouds swirling unnaturally above. The buildings themselves seemed to fold in on themselves, their shadows stretching and growing over them like a second skin, causing them to look like silhouettes.

"Come out you bastard!" he yelled to the sky, the white sun above him grew smaller and smaller as he stared up at it.

The ground beneath his feat cracked open, tendrils of darkness shot out and up from the earth like it was its own being. They wrapped around his ankles before he could react, working their way up his entire body and raising him up into the air. He tried to toss and turn, an attempt to rebel against the forces but it was of no use.

He was trapped.

Out from the silhouettes, a figure morphed from the shadows. Two eyes stared into his very soul as he came face to face with Itachi's Sharingan once again.

"It's pointless to fight back," Itachi's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere all at once, his lips never moving once. "You are in my reality now and here I will teach you what it means to live in a world of ignorance."

A tanto was brandished into the man's hand, each step he took caused his adrenaline to spike further. Faster than he could track, the blade was drove deep in between his ribcage, twisting it slowly. Naruto let out a howl of pain, his eyes blurry with unshed tears.

"For the next seventy-two hours," Itachi's voice whispered into his ear, "you will live in my reality, under my rules. Each second will feel like an eternity. I will make you beg for your life to end but it will not come."

Another blade pierced his back, another howl escaping him as he turned his head and spotted another figure of Itachi staring back at him. For what felt like forever, Itachi continued to stab, slash, gut and pierce his body. Every time was worse than the last.

"A single second has passed," Naruto recoiled at the information, his lungs coughing up the black ink from before, "You have seventy-one hours, fifty-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds to go."

Naruto screamed; the sound lost in the blood red sky above.

xXx

Safe to say that Naruto has had better days.

This chapter was supposed to be finished by July, life got in the way as it does so I won't be promising when chapters are releasing from here on out. Other than that issue, I'm happy with how my writing is progressing with each chapter as well as the story. I sometimes think I've moved a little bit too fast in introducing characters and conflict and it seems…rushed? I think ill have future chapters that actually take time to delve more into Hana, Shiho and Anko as I wrote this fic with that in mind – try to give background characters a bit of the spotlight – so expect more from them.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are doing well, until next time :)