Hi this is Tatsugashi, this is my new story. I know I havent updated A Need for Change in a while. Reason being Ive fallen out of love with the story, Ive got a ton of ideas for a lot of stories and I just cant keep up. Ill try by all means to finish that first story. Even though Ive written only 3 chapters I feel like my writing has been improving and so I want to use those knew skills to deliver better results. I promise this one will be better. If someone would like to collaborate or adopt A Need for Change feel free to PM me or email me.

Normal Speech

Normal Thoughts

Tailed beast/Summon/Jutsu

Tailed beast/Summon/Jutsu thinking

Naruto: The Next Toad Sage

Chapter 1: The Wakeup Call

Naruto was lying unconscious in a hospital bed with a hole on his chest, surrounded by doctors who were trying by all means to perform a surgery to save his life. Naruto is in this state because of a mission to retrieve Sasuke after he left the village to go to Orochimaru.

Flashback

"SASUKEEEE!!!!!" shouted Naruto at the top of his lungs as he was standing on top of the head of Hashirama's statue at the Valley of The End with Sasuke standing on Madara's statue his back to Naruto. "What do you think you're doing Sasuke, where are you going" asked Naruto enraged. "How many times are you going to ask that question, I told you I'm leaving" replied Sasuke calmly. "But this doesn't make sense, why leave the village. Where are you going" asked Naruto. "I'm leaving the village, only Orochimaru can give me the power I need to exact my revenge"

"But you don't need Orochimaru, you can get stronger in the leaf. Orochimaru only wants to use you, you want to abandon me, Sakura, Kaskashi-sensei and our friends just for power" pleaded Naruto. "You're the only one with friends, I'm an avenger and this is the path I have to walk alone. All you do is hold me back, no more. If I have to give my body to Orochimaru in exchange for power that will kill Itachi then that's fine" said Sasuke as he turns to face Naruto. "You'll never understand the path that I have to take, I'm glad you're here. You're the only person left standing in my way and in order to move forward I have to sever the only tie I have left in the village" said Sasuke as he takes out his leaf headband and ties it on his forehead. "Now I'll fight you as an equal"

Flashback End

The wound on Narutos chest was the result of two of Sasuke's Chidoris piercing his chest in an effort to end Narutos life. The only thing keeping Naruto alive right now was Tsunade's expert medical ninjutsu as well as the nine tails chakra trying its best to save Naruto's life. Naruto was not the only one who was in critical condition, Choji was being treated for severe chakra poisoning from consuming all three of his clans special chakra pills against Jirobo. Neji has a hole in his right shoulder from a spear attack of Kidomaru and Shizune was performing surgery on him. Kiba and Akamaru were severely injured as well but they were stable and were in far better shape than the first three. Shikamaru is the only one who is fine, only suffering from a broken finger that was self-induced just so he could escape a genjutsu from Tayuya. All in all the situation was dire.

Shikamaru was currently in the hospital hallway, we find him sitting on a bench with his face in his hands. Shikamaru was currently beating himself up since he was the one leading the mission and was the only one with minimal injuries. "If only I was stronger, this wouldn't have happened. I'm a joke of a leader" thought the young Nara to himself. As Shikamaru was deep in thought he didn't notice Temari walk up and stod next to him. "So what's on your mind you lazy ass" asked Temari. "Just thinking about all my friends who are injured and me the leader only walked away with a broken finger" answered Shikamaru. "Well it s not your fault that your friends are hurt, each of them were fighting a different opponent and you had no way of knowing or controlling what was going on in the battle field" answered Temari.

"But then if you feel responsible you just have to become stronger and become a better leader so this does not happen again" Temari said with a small smile. "Never took you for the smart type you troublesome woman, but I guess you are right, if I want this to never happen again I have to get better" replied Shikamaru as he stood up and started walking towards the exit. Temari just stood there watching him leave.

A few hours later

After a few hours had passed Naruto, Choji and Neji were out of surgery but were still unconscious. Kiba and Akamaru were recovering as well and they were all going to make it. Some friends and family had come to visit but there wasnt much to do since they were still unconscious.

Inside Narutos mindscape

Naruto was in his mindscape which appeared in the form of a larger sewer with massive tunnels running through it and Naruto was walking aimlessly around the sewer, he walked for a couple of minutes until he found himself in front of what looked like a large cage with huge iron bars that was completely dark inside. "What am I doing in this place" he said in a low voice. "All I remember is me fighting Sasuke then everything went blank." "Thats because you lost you pitiful human, how dare you lose that cursed Uchiha even with my chakra, what a disgrace" said a dark booming voice from behind the bars.

Naruto jumped at this, he looked into the darkness until he saw what looked like two red fiery orbs with black slits in them. These were the eyes of Naruto's resident tenant. The Nine Tailed Fox, strongest of the tailed beast that was sealed within Naruto on the day of his birth by the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze. "You, I remember you. You are the Nine Tails that is currently sealed inside me" said Naruto while trying to put on a brave front. Naruto was many things but he was not that stupid, even though what he knew was not much, he knew that this creature was not to be messed with. "What do you mean I lost to Sasuke even though I used your chakra?"

"Exactly what I said, you lost do that damn human and you almost died too". "You must be crazy, die, me. Not until I become hokage. And besides, Sasuke would never kill me, he is my friend so what you are saying in nonsense" shouted Naruto. One thing about Naruto is that once something happens to him and he doesn't want to believe, he subconsciously pushes back to the back of his mind and then believes what he wants to believe. Naruto always wanted to believe that he was always right and he trusted everyone who basically looked in his direction. This was due to the fact that he grew up alone and isolated and so any piece of affection or attention that was pointed in his direction whether good or bad, positive or negative he welcomed with open arms. This led to him not allowing himself to see the bad in someone he trusted.

"How naive of you, you really think that the Uchiha brat really is above killing you, you are solely mistaken". "Hey take that back, Sasuke may be a bit messed up and all but we are friends and he would never do that" shouted Naruto not wanting to believe the news. "Since you are so in denial then see for yourself". The Nine Tails said this as he replayed the fight to Naruto.

Flashback start

"You are the only tie I have to the village and in order to be completely free from that village I have to kill you" said Sasuke as he took out a headband from his pouch and tied it to his forehead "Now we fight as equals Naruto". "What you're doing is wrong Sasuke and I will not allow it, we're returning together to the village. I'll break every bone in your body and drag you back if I have to" shouted Naruto. They both charged at each other and clashed mid-air. They exchanged blows as they descended and stood on the water. They ran at each other and clashed once more and exchanged blows, it was clear from the exchange that Sasuke was superior. He was faster, his attacks landed more than Naruto's, and he had greater reflexes. And Sasuke's style of fighting was more polished due to the fact that he started training in the Uchiha's Interceptor Fist from a very young age where as Naruto does not have a formal style of fighting, he just throws in whatever combos he felt would work and that was the result of not having a teacher to teach him.

Sasuke was also a fighting genius and you could tell by the way he coordinated his attacks, while Naruto was relying on brute force as well as the numbers that came with his Shadow Clones. Sasuke also had the versatility that came with his range of offensive Fire Style techniques while Naruto was limited to the Shadow Clone and the Rasengan.

Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu shouted Sasuke after a series of hand signs and released a fireball from his mouth, Naruto responded by having a Shadow Clone grab him by the arms and flung him out of the way. After landing he proceeded to run to Sasuke and threw a punch aimed at Sasuke's face, Sasuke blocked the punch and kicked Naruto in the stomach and finishes with a spinning kick to the side of his face. Naruto fell to the ground and quickly recovered. Sasuke proceeded by activating a Chidori on his left hand and pierced Naruto's chest, he was aiming for the heart but Naruto had managed to shift at the last second making Sasuke slightly miss.

Sasuke thought that the fight was over but then Naruto was suddenly enshrouded in a malevolent orange red chakra and he grabbed Sasuke's outstretched arm and punched him in the stomach and he flew back. "What kind of evil chakra is this, Naruto what are you?" thought Sasuke. Somehow this red chakra had increased Naruto's strength and speed, his fangs had grew, his eyes were red with black slits, his whisker marks darker, his nails were sharper and longer resembling claws. What happened next was an onslaught that Sasuke was not prepared for, he was barely keeping up but all that changed when his Sharingan matured mid fight and got the 3rd tomoe. Then he could keep up better, then he called upon the power of the curse mark granted to him by Orochimaru, black flame like markings appeared on his body and the tide of the battle changed.

Naruto's chakra cloak grew a tail and his physical capabilities increased further forcing Sasuke to use the 2nd stage of the curse mark, turning his skin darker and grew arm like wings. They each created their respective jutsu, Rasengan for Naruto and Chidori. Naruto's Rasengan adopted a purplish colour because of the influence of the Nine Tails Chakra and Sasuke's Chidori turned black. The two jutsu clashed.

CHIDORI!!!! RASENGAN!!!! The two jutsu clashed and the created a black ball of chakra and encompassed the two. After the chakra subsided, Sasuke appeared to be standing with his hand in Narutos shoulder and Naruto unconscious. He then left his headband in Naruto's arms and left.

Flashback End

"So I lost and failed to bring Sasuke back" said Naruto in a low tone with his head down. Everything was coming back now. Sasuke had left the village to go to Orochimaru looking for power to exact his revenge on Itachi. He, Neji, Choji, Kiba and Akamaru led by Shikamaru were tasked with retrieving Sasuke where each battled their respective opponents. They were later joined by Rock Lee who backed up Naruto against Kimimaro then Naruto proceeded after Sasuke where they had their fight at the Valley of The End where Naruto lost.

"You are currently in the hospital fighting for your life, if it wasnt for me you'd be dead. You should thank me" said the Kyuubi. "You must be mistaken, Sasuke would never do that, he is my friend. He must have been under the control of the curse mark, yeah that's right" Naruto said but even he was having a hard time believing his own words. "You don't even believe your own words, that Uchiha brat has always been messed up. You may see him as your friend but he does not share the same sentiments. He always saw you as a stepping stone to achieve his goals."

"No you are wrong, our friendship was real. Even though we were always at each others throats but we were friends" tried to reason Naruto. "WAKE UP!!!!!!!! That insolent human never saw you as worth anything. You have friends, real friends who you've cast aside in favour of that thing you call a team that does not even want anything to do with you. That scarecrow who calls himself your teacher has never taught you anything worthwhile in the time you've been on his team, that banshee hits you and shouts at you every chance she gets and that duck butt almost killed you. Is that your definition of friendship?" the Kyuubi was getting agitated and he didn't know why, maybe it was because of the thought of having a host that everyone could walk all over. "If you want to be the hokage that you say you want to be then get serious. You're naive and it's going to get you killed long before you reach your goals, focus on yourself for once and the people who care for you will make themselves known. Your life can't stop just because of some kid who left on his own accord. You are my host and you represent me, you were always shouting that you would become hokage so act like it" the Kyuubi didnt know why he cared so much but there was something in him that couldnt let Naruto stay like this.

Naruto was wide eyed, of all the things in the world he didnt expect a lecture from a giant chakra construct. But one thing was for sure, the Kyuubi was right, his life wasn't going to wait around for people who made their own life choices. If Sasuke wanted to be a criminal then he would treat him like one, as for his team he was done. And he would make right with the friends he grew up with but had unknowingly cast aside in favour of his team. His thoughts went back to the academy days when he would pull pranks with Kiba and Akamaru, or when he would bunk classes and go cloud watching with Shikamaru and sometimes Choji would go with them and share his snacks.

"No more, it ends here. I'll walk my own path with the friends that deserve to walk with me then I will become hokage that's a promise" said Naruto with fire in his eyes never seen before.

The End of the first chapter.

Sorry for the sloppy fight scene, I was kinda in a hurry to finish the first chapter.