Red Moon's Cry

Originally Written by: Kitsune Shinigami

Taking Over Writing: Eternal Thief

Note: I actually am Kitsune Shinigami, just taking over under a new Penname.

Music I am writing under: This chapter I am writing under Minutes to Midnight by Linkin Park and Move Along by the All American Rejects

Chapter 1: A Wolf in Wave

The forest was quiet. No creature stirred to disturb the coagulating peacefulness that had gathered there under a bright full moon. A single figure could be heard by the slight crunch of old leaves underfoot. As the figure approached one could see the bright glaringly orange outfit he wore, along with the hitai-ate he wore around his forehead, emblazoned with a symbol resembling a leaf. This was the boy known as Uzumaki Naruto.

Naruto slowly walked through the forest thinking of the events that had just transpired several hours ago on the unfinished bridge of Wave. He was thinking of hose useless he had been. His clones had done nothing to help him against an opponent of precision and speed such as Haku. His tact had been all but non-existent since he could have stayed outside the mirrors and attacked from there, but no, he had to rush in to help Sasuke. What a fool he had been. He had only defeated Haku because of the Kyuubi's immense rage and power. It was these facts that made Naruto realize how worthless he truly was. Sakura was no better than him though. She only knew chakra control and text book knowledge, but that's more than could be said for him. And then there was the bane of his existence, Sasuke Uchiha. The genius. He took every chance to flaunt that in front of him. He had everything, popularity, knowledge, power, skill, and most of all, respect. Naruto leaned his back against a tree and closed his eyes. He thought of ending it all. He pulled a kunai out of his pouch, and examined it. He pulled out another kunai and compared the two.

One kunai was as sharp as could be. Perfectly sharpened and shaped. The other kunai was twisted, dented, and blunt. Absolutely worthless. He compared these two as him and Sasuke. He saw the sharpened kunai as worth something. Able to accomplish things, slay an enemy, protect one's self, and defend others. The blunted kunai had no value. It could do none of those things. Naruto sighed and moved to put both kunai back in his pouch before a growling sound attracted his attention.

---Scene Break---

Kakashi laid on the futon in his room staring blankly at the ceiling with his uncovered eye. 'What happened back there on the bridge…? The seal might have…No, Sensei was smarter than that. He wouldn't let that happen. But, I can't help but feel somewhat responsible. If I had trained Naruto more, maybe, Nah. We haven't trained much so far. I couldn't have done more for the boy.' With those thoughts Kakashi closed his eyes and drifted into calm and peaceful slumber, unaware of the danger the subject of his thoughts was in at this very moment, and also blissfully unaware of how much difference even training Naruto for 1 day would have been. If only he had known…

---Scene Break---

Naruto began to tremble. He had never felt a force quite like this one. Sure, he had felt something similar from that Zabuza guy, but this, this, was so much more, primal. It felt like the same thing only, with nothing keeping it in check, or holding it back. It was uncontrolled and bestial, and it made him want to run and hide. But the thing was, when he was staring into the face of some sort of creature with a snout full of razor sharp teeth, staring back at him snarling, the saliva dripping in globs from its maw, Naruto had nowhere to go, and nowhere to hide.

Taking the sharpened kunai still in his hand, Naruto slammed it as hard as he could into the snout of the creature. It howled in pain and reared back. The kunai, for all its worth, had only been able to pierce the creature's skin. The kunai was merely flung out from the shaking of its head. It was mostly uninjured except for a small bleeding wound on its snout. But even after only such a short time, Naruto had been able to escape from the beast's immediate attentions. It bent its head smelling the ground, and taking off in pursuit of the prey it had found.

Naruto ran away from the thing as fast as he could. Even though he was a ninja, in the face of this danger he panicked and ran. He was a ninja, but still an untrained one, and so he ran with no technique, wasting more energy than was needed. And instead of ignoring obstacles he merely barreled through them. He continued like this for several minutes before bending over panting.

"Whew. For a minute there I thought I was-" Naruto never got to finish as the beast latched itself onto his back. Naruto let loose a scream of horrific proportions and intensity as the beast tore into the soft flesh of his shoulder.

---Scene Break---

(A/N- I'm trying to get a bit of all the characters' perspectives on Naruto in here as he's attacked)

Sakura shot up in bed panting. Her body was covered in a cold sweat. She clutched the sheets remembering the horrid nightmare she had just had. She had had a dream in which Sasuke was being torn to shreds by a strange beast. It somewhat resembled a wolf but she couldn't really tell. It had begun by tearing into his shoulder. After ripping the flesh from there it began to claw at his ribcage, breaking several of his ribs, and nearly goring his lung. From there…

---Scene Break---

Naruto continued to scream, but with less intensity. His partially exposed lung screamed in agony as it pressed against several of his shattered ribs. It made it nearly impossible for him to breathe. He just wished he could pass out to rid himself of the pain for a while at least. He screamed with renewed vigor as the beast bit into his stomach and ripped out a section of his small intestine. 'Ok, maybe dieing would be better…' The pain was so intense Naruto thought he was going to die. The pain was worse than any beating the villages had ever given him. Raising his uninjured arm, in a last ditch attempt to rid himself of the beast, he slammed the blunt kunai in his hand into the beast's eye. Surprising how it did more than the sharp kunai. The beast roared in worse agony than it had before. It swung its paw catching Naruto in the face completely shredding his left eye, and damaging his right beyond repair. Naruto screamed with all his might even as his lung pressed sharply into his ribs. The beast reared its head back and howled in victory.

--- Scene Break---

Sasuke sat on the roof of Tsunami's house thinking back to the rest of the mission. He closed his eyes remembering what Naruto had done for him against Haku.

'The dobe didn't do it for any particular reason. Probably thought he could make himself look good by jumping in there. Although his bunshins were some help in distracting that boy…' Sasuke shook those thoughts out of his head. It wasn't true. But a voice in the back of his head kept gnawing at it. It kept saying, 'What if he DOES care? What if you don't have to be alone? What if you could have… a friend?' Sasuke dismissed the voice as well. He was an avenger, and he needed no one. With these thoughts firmly in mind, Sasuke turned to go back inside when a scream reached his ears coupled with a disturbing howl. 'That sounded like…' "Oh Kami…"

--- Scene Break ---

Kakashi had been asleep for scarcely ten minutes when his door was blown open by someone. Kakashi groaned expecting it to be Naruto, but was surprised to see Sasuke standing there.

"Sasuke, what do you want? If it's about the mission it can wait till-"

"It's Naruto." At this he had Kakashi's full attention.

"What about him?"

"I just heard a scream from the woods. It wasn't really something Naruto would make. It was more like someone was being… torn apart…" Sasuke swallowed not being able to fully convey the emotion and feeling contained in that scream.

"And how does this relate to Naruto? I'm sure he's asleep in his own room perfectly fine." Kakashi spoke, trying to reassure Sasuke as his eye form an upside-down U.

"He's not. I checked." When Kakashi heard this, his face lost all hints of reassurance.

"Sasuke. Wake Sakura. And whatever you do, do not leave this house. Whatever it is out there may have already deserted whatever it was it was attacking and may be coming for something, or someone, else. If I don't come back by morning, try and get back to Konoha and explain what happened." Sasuke just merely nodded. If this… thing, whatever it was, could kill Kakashi-sensei, then, what chance did him and Sakura stand against it? But in spite of that Sasuke just nodded and headed to wake up Sakura.

--- Scene Break ---

Kakashi leaped through the trees looking for any hint of a battle, or any sort of tracks. He was unable to find anything. No one could cover their tracks this well. And the only tracks he found were those of a… wild… beast… Kakashi mentally beat himself over the head. The thing that Sasuke heard WAS a wild animal. Kakashi followed the oath with renewed vigor.

When Kakashi came to a small clearing he noticed a large wolf like creature standing over something. Taking no chances Kakashi raised his hitai-ate and formed hand seals.

"Raikiri!" Kakashi slammed the ball of electricity into the body of the creature. The smell of burning hair and flesh filled the air as the creature howled in pain before its heart bust and its lungs were fried by the volts of electricity. Kakashi looked down at what was under the beast and when he saw, his eyes widened and he nearly lost what he ate for dinner. The boy's body was horribly maimed. His intestines were spilling on the ground in a grotesque manner and his chest was all but gone. His ribs were shattered and pieces could be seen scattered in the area. His lung was punctured by a shattered rib, and his eyes were almost gone. His left eye was entirely missing except for a few scraps left where it once was, and his right eye had a large gouge across the middle of it, revealing a small amount of pooling blood inside of it. Even to a seasoned ninja, such beastly carnage was disheartening. Kakashi fell to his knees and began to weep. That was until he heard a faint wheezing coming from Naruto.

"He…He's still alive?" Kakashi asked himself tears staining his mask. He crawled over to Naruto's body and pushed the bloodied organs back into place as best he could. Some pieces were missing and he figured they would do him no good now. He wept as he did the bloody task. He didn't want to lose someone else close to him. Even if he had only known him for a few short weeks.

--- Scene Break ---

Naruto waded through waist high water. The water was being fueled by a slow dripping from the pipes that were overhead. If he had paid attention, he would have noticed the pipes were punctured and crushed like they had been in the maw of some large beast. But despite this, Naruto continued on his way thorough the water. He trudged through the sludge for what seemed like hours before coming to a large set of bars in his face. By this time the water was approaching armpit level. Naruto looked up and was suddenly face to face with a set of large red eyes.

"Boy. What are you doing here? Haven't you already caused me enough misery with this dreaded water?" Naruto blinked at the sound of the loud voice.

"Who the hell are you!?" Was the only response that Naruto could come up with at this point.

"I am the Great Kyuubi no Kitsune! And don't you ever forget it, flesh sack." The voice told him.

"One, what's with the water, and two, why the hell are you here?"

Kyuubi sighed. "I'm here because I'm sealed into your body, remember boy? And this water shows your mind is falling apart and is attempting to null the effects by, drowning itself. Or in actuality, overload itself. If you were conscious you would instantly fall unconscious due to pain."

"What do you mean my mind is drowning itself? Why it do something as stupid as that!?" Naruto yelled at the large figure in the dark.

"To put it more simply, you are dieing boy."

"WHAT THE HELL! Well, can't you do something about it?"

"Foolish brat. Due to the circumstances you arrived here under, there is nothing I can do until you make piece with your alter ego."

"My alter ego?"

"Yes boy, your alter ego. He formed from the events that transpired during your arrival. Until you cease to be separate beings then your mind will attempt to kill itself due to the stress of having three souls occupy it."

"Ok, good enough. Where's my alter ego? Somewhere in this dump right?"

"That is correct boy."

"Well, you live here, tell me where he is! I mean, I don't have long before my mind drowns itself, right?"

"That is the problem boy, you WILL die if you cannot find your alter ego, and as to where he is. I do not know. He is somewhere within this labyrinth." Naruto just gaped at the Kyuubi. He was gonna die and the Kyuubi had no idea what to do? Naruto had three words that summed up this situation quite well.

"Well, I'm fucked."

--- End Chapter---

2375 words. Not bad for a first chapter. It certainly outdoes my first version of this story. This version will also contain more violence, more gore, it will make more sense, and I will put in better explanations. Ya happy yah damn muse! I'm re-writing it! So get that fucking evil plot bunny out of my face! So, I'll get the newest chapter up as soon as I can. And as an added bonus to you guys, I'm posting the music I listen to as I right! It's an obsession of mine to listen to music no matter what. So, the music somewhat helps set the tone. Anyways, Ja Ne! Enki Shumasu Tsugi Kikan! To anyone who can guess what that is, CORRECTLY guess it, I will write a OneShot on any topic you ask for! Also, you must be the FIRST person to guess it correctly!