This story's gonna be dark. But you probably already knew that. *smiles*

I don't own Naruto, thank god.

It was in the dead of night, and the silence was eeriness at its highest caliber.

The moon was full, a bloody red sphere that illuminated the clouds drifting across the darkened sky. One child walked through the forests, oblivious to the ominous atmosphere of the night. She had spent much too long in the training grounds, trying and failing again and again to produce a fruitful bunshin after she made herself a laughingstock earlier that day in class. She had tired herself out so much that she'd passed out, only to wake several hours after dark and rush home.

Jiji had warned her that it was dangerous for a little seven year old to be wandering around after dark. She tried to keep herself calm, as it certainly hadn't been the first time that she'd stayed out late, being the plotting prankster that she was.

Reaching the ends of the training grounds, she stopped in her tracks, giving a short and startled shriek when someone fell from the trees above, the hooded black cloak they wore barely disturbed as they descended.

"W-who are you!?" She stuttered, voice shrill with fear.

The cloaked figure was tall, looming over her cowering form. This cloaked person was nothing like the robed Anbu that Jiji sometimes sent to retrieve her after a particularly insolent prank. No… there was something absolutely chilling about this person's presence.

"What's this?" The figure intoned, voice revealing them as male. "This chakra… hidden and locked away so tightly beneath the skin you wear."

The girl took a step back, growing more and more uncomfortable with each passing moment.

"One would think that the Anbu would insure the child with the Kyuubi sealed within them is safely tucked away on such a day."

Blonde brows furrowed in question. She had no idea what he was talking about. Who was this man? Why was he talking about the demon that the Yondaime had defeated on her birthday?

"I was simply observing." The man continued in his emotionless tones. "The Uchiha clan fell today, and I could not help but step in and collect a few stray subjects for my own objectives."

Again the girl stepped back, muscles strung taught.

"I was simply about to leave, and take my newly collected subjects with me. But since I have stumbled upon such an interesting specimen, I see no reason to let you escape."

Needing no further prompting, she turned finally to run, ignoring the growing fear that had nearly paralyzed her moments before.

She slammed into the identically cloaked form that had been waiting behind her, tripping over and falling on her bottom.

"H-hey!" She yelled. "Back off man!"

"Do not resist child." He spoke with the same voice as the other man. "This will only take a moment."

"No!" She scrambled backwards, tripping over her feet as she got up to flee, but four more cloaked figures rained down from the surrounding trees, one of them swiftly catching her arm.

She yanked back to no avail, punching and kicking at him with all her might.

"Let go of me!" She screamed, her eyes stinging as they welled with tears. "Let go I said!"

Another moved up behind her, a senbon twinkling under the moonlight as he pulled it from somewhere within his robes.

The figure holding her grabbed her other arm so that she would stop assaulting him, but that just made her kick and scream harder.

"Stop resisting." Another figure grabbed her hair and wrenched her head back, making her cry out in pain.

The hand with a vice grip in her tufts of sunshine hair held her still, forcing her to stare helplessly up into the trees surrounded by night.

Before she could begin screaming again, the one with the senbon stepped closer, his arm blurring as he sent the small weapon flying with frightening precision.

The girl felt a prick in the side of her neck, and despite her vehement protests, her body sagged, drool trickling out of the corner of her mouth as her muscles completely fell from under her control.

The one holding her arms released her as she fell slack, the other with his fist in her hair following his example, leaving her to crumble to the grassy ground.

She couldn't feel anything. She was completely awake, but it was like her body was asleep, even if her mind was not. As she lied there crumpled on the ground, numb to all sensation, tears leaked out of her wide unblinking eyes, like the corpse of a person whose mind had yet to die.

Her fear fluttering heartbeat slowly lulled down to a calm that she didn't feel, and her consciousness faded to something between sleep and wakefulness.

"Your orders Master?" One of the figures inquired.

"Summon a coffin and seal her within it." Came the reply. "She is in a death like state, yes?"

"Hai, Master."

"Good, the coffin should have recuperating seals on it like the rest of the coffins for the subjects I have collected today. It will allow her to recover more quickly. The seals will only break when she is restored to full health."

"Hai Master."

One of the identical cloaked figures stepped forward, completing a series of handseals much too fast to track before stooping low and smacking his hands against the earth. He stepped back as smoke erupted from the grass, clearing to reveal a barrel-like coffin made of pale wooden planks, a thick white rope wrapped around its circumference. There were blood red insignias scrawled down the pale wood of the coffin all around it, and they glowed slightly in the surrounding darkness.

The very same figure that had held her arms scooped her up and walked over, depositing her into the coffin after pulling the needle from her neck, fastening on an equally wooden lid. The little girl closed her eyes, not wanting to stare into the inclosed darkness of her coffin.

Outside, the summoner of the barrel wove through the handseals snake and tiger before clapping his hands together, causing the symbols on the coffin to glow brighter and then turn black, signifying that the coffin was locked.

"Let us go." The leader intoned, stepping forward, before he leapt up, leaving behind a black blur that faded like a ghost in the night.

His followers leapt up as well, one lagging slightly to pick up the coffin that held the little girl sealed tightly within it. The figure holding the coffin wrapped his arms around it and vaulted himself up into the night.

That was the last day that Konoha would see Naruto Uzumaki for many moons.

"Every ending is a beginning. We just don't know it at the time."

-Mitch Albom

Here we go you guys. You ready for this? I'm excited to share this one with you.