'Hello'Kyuubi/ Inner Inner Hollow speaking in mind

'Hello' Kyuubi/ Inner Inner Hollow private thoughts

'Hello' thoughts/ Naruto speaking in mind

"Hello" Every one speaking

"Hello" Kyuubi/Inner Hollow speaking

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"Just come back, Sasuke! You don't need Orochimaru's power! You don't have to do this alone!" Naruto shouted. They were at the Valley of the End, the fighting ground of two great Shinobi. Best friends turned on eachother by different goals. One, Uchiha Madara, the other the First Hokage.

Today, two best friends fight here again. One, Uchiha Sasuke, the other with dreams of becoming Hokage.

"You have friends who care for you! We can help! Why won't you let us!?" He yelled.

"You don't know what it's like to lose everything!" Sasuke yelled back. "You've never had any parents so you don't know what it's like to lose anyone! The pain of it!" Sasuke was crying tears of frustration. He knew that his friends could help. He knew he didn't have to go to Orochimaru. But his pride wouldn't let him admit he was wrong. So he decided to attack.

Seeing Sasuke drop into an offensive position, Naruto knew that he was going to use Chidori as his last chance. They were both badly injured and running out of power. Naruto created a shadow clone and began powering up a Rasengan. Charging towards eachother, their attacks found their targets.

Sasuke got thrown back from the power of the Rasengan and hit the floor near the Hokage statue's head, alive but not moving. Naruto on the otherhand wasn't so lucky. The chidori managed to pierce his heart. He was also thrown back by the force of his own jutsu, but didn't hit the floor. He fell down the waterfall, the crushing force refusing to allow him to come up to the surface.

'Kit! Wake up! We're dying!' the Kyuubi yelled. Naruto was stood infront of Kyuubi's cage. It was getting dark, and soon Naruto wasn't able to see much, bar the glowing red of the Kyuubi's eyes.

'I can't wake up. I'm trapped under the waterfall. I'm sorry.' Naruto said. 'Before we go, I was wondering.'

'What is it, Kit?'

'What's your name?'

The Kyuubi was surprised. No one bothered to ask his name. Not since the tailed beasts were first inprisoned.

'The names Kuruma, Kit. It was alright knowing ya.'He grinned, before all went black.

~O-o-O~

Kakashi ran after Pakkun who was following Naruto and Sasuke's scent.

'I hope I'm not too late.'

Leaving the forest, Kakashi came upon a scene of devestation. There were holes in the ground, a crater of what looked like cooling lava, and much more. In one crater, near the head of the First Hokage, he saw Sasuke with bad wounds. Scanning the area and not seeing any sign of Naruto, Kakashi decided to take Sasuke back to the village, leaving the Kyuubi to heal his wounds.

'Naruto will show up back at the village soon, but I have to get Sasuke to hospital.' Kakashi thought, running back to the village with Sasuke on his back.

Little did he know, that Naruto wouldn't be back for a long while.

~O-o-O~

When Naruto opened his eyes his was confused.

"I could've sworn I died." He said out loud.

"We did, Kit." Kuruma said with a sigh.

Naruto turned to look at the kyuubi. He was expecting to see the fox, but what he saw made him pause. Next to him stood a man who looked in his twenties, with red hair and blood red eyes.

"Kuruma?" Naruto asked, head cocked to one side, confused.

"Remembered my name then?" He smirked.

Naruto huffed, getting to his feet. "Where are we then, if we died?"

Just before Kuruma could answer they were greeted by two people. Naruto froze upon recognising who it was in front of him. The Fourth Hokage. Next to him stood a beautiful woman with long red hair. Both wore, what Naruto recognised as a Shihakusho, but the Hokage wore a white Haori on top.

"We've waited a long time to see you, but we've met too soon." The woman said, crying.

They explained everything, and Naruto was entered into the Shinigami Academy. He was a considered a genius here and graduated in 1 year, rising up the ranks and becoming the vice-Captain of the third squad, along with Kuruma. As they had died together, their souls were bound, so both worked much better together than they did apart.

~O-o-O~

Naruto wasn't looking forward to this mission. Him and Kuruma were assinged to gather information on a group called Akatsuki. After Naruto had informed the Sou-Taichou about Akatsuki's plans to kidnap him and extract Kuruma from his soul, they were ordered to be the ones to gather information on the groups whereabouts, in order to slay them to protect the Bijuus and their host's solus.

They pulled their hoods up, causing their faces to be concealed in shadow, as they came into view of the gate. Entering the village, the first thing Naruto noticed was Tsunade's face carved into the Hokage mountain. They walked to the guard post where the regular guards sat, as Naruto remembered it.

"Passes." The one Naruto remembered as being called Izumo, said.

Kuruma handed the passes over, where they were inspected. Naruto tensed when he felt the reiatsu of two familiar people.

'Shit! I really don't want to see them.' Naruto tugged at Kuruma's sleeve.

"Otou-san, I'm hungry! Are we done yet?" Naruto whined.

The other guard, Kotetsu, laughed. "Yeah, all's good."

"Thank you." They walked away before the presences arrived.

"Was there a reason that we had to leave?" Kuruma smirked. They had decided on their cover being that Kuruma was a merchant and Naruto was his son.

"Kakashi and Sasuke were coming. They could break our cover." Naruto said. "And I didn't want to see them. Sasuke did kill me after all." Kuruma's smirk soften into a smile, and he patted Naruto's head.

Meanwhile, Kakashi and Sasuke were returning from a mission, both sullen.

"Hey Kotetsu, Izumo! Anything new?" Kakashi asked, waving to his friends.

"Just a merchant and his son." Kotetsu replied.

"The son wanted to get out of here fast though." Izumo said, brow furrowed.

"He was hungry." Kotetsu waved it off.

"I don't know. Something didn't feel right."

"Well, I'll tell Hokage-sama, just in case." Kakashi said. "We're on our way there now." Kakashi waved goodbye, and left with Sasuke to give their mission report. Both were quiet on their walk back.

They knocked three times on the Hokage's office door before entering. Tsunade sat behind her desk, Shizune on her left, and Sakura on her right. They looked up when the duo came in.

"Well?" Tsunade asked.

"We arrived at Orochimaru's lab, but it was abandoned. They moved some time before we got there. There was also no sign of Naruto." Kakashi said.

Sakura looked down, shoulders slumped. She blamed herself for Naruto going missing. If she had never asked Naruto to go he wouldn't be gone.

Tsunade sighed, "Anything else to report?"

"Nothing major, but Izumo was slightly suspicious of a merchant that came into the village not long ago today."

"Very well, we'll keep an eye out for him. You can go rest." She dismissed them.

~O-o-O~

It had been four days since they left Soul Society and they had found nothing. Naruto wrote his fourth one line report into his Soul Phone, and sighed. He looked out of the window. Kuruma was out looking for clues in the forest in his fox form at the moment. Naruto stood up, raised his hood and left the hotel room.

'Two could find out information a lot faster.' He reasoned, wandering though Konoha. He started to think about his old friends. Did they miss him? Or were the villagers glad the Demon Boy was dead? Before he knew where he was going he found himself in the old team 7 training grounds. Smiling he walked to the memorial stone, looking at the names there. He saw his father's, Obito's and many Uchiha's names on the stone. His mother's weren't on there though, and neither was his. He was angry that his mother's name wasn't on there. She gave her life to protect the village and she wasn't remembered for it. He stood up, but froze when he heard someone speak.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" A voice, belonging to Sasuke, asked.

'Shit!' Naruto turned around, tugging his hood more over his face. "I was walking around and got lost. I saw the stone and wandered what was on it."

"Lost? You've walking around the village as if you know it for days. Don't deny it, we've followed you." Shikamaru said, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

'Shit! They've been following me and I haven't noticed it. Shinobi are good at hiding their presence but not to the extent I couldn't feel it.' Naruto thought. He started to edge back, planning to escape into the forest. Surprisingly it was Hinata who drew her kuinai first.

"You m-must be a s-spy sent. T-there's no other way you would know t-the village so well and refuse t-to sh-show your face."

In his shock, Naruto stepped back too quickly and pulled his hood further down his face. However, this action only caused the shinobi to believe that her really was a spy. Hinata jumped forward, intending to attack him. In his gigai, Naruto didn't have access to his zanpaktou and only had one kuinai on him. He could use kidou, but he didn't want to hurt anyone.

Before Hinata's attack could connect, a fox jumped on her from the forest, attacking her.

"NO!" Naruto yelled at Kuruma, but before he could get them away from danger, he was captured by Shikamaru, using his shadow jutsu, and Kuruma was restrained by Ten-Ten.

"Now, to find out who you are." Sasuke sneered, reaching Nauto's hood and yanking it down. Only to cause everyone to gasp.

"Naruto!"