Disclaimer: I barely own this computer, there is no way in hell that I own Naruto

Thanks to my psychotic friend for beta reading

Chapter 2: Storm on the Horizon

Naruto lay on his back, panting. A sheen of sweat covered his face and exposed torso. It had been a year since he'd first come to Uzushiogakure. The place still looked mostly the same as it had when Naruto had first arrived. Rubble was littered across the ground all over the hidden village. Only the training ground, which Naruto currently lay in, was pristine like it had been long ago.

From his position on the ground Naruto noticed that the sun had begun to set below the city walls. "Well then, that's all for today." The blonde forced himself into a sitting position. "My chakra is almost all gone and my muscles feel like shit. I still need to catch dinner too. It would be a shame if I went hungry tonight because I trained too hard." He spoke to nobody, and of course, nobody replied.

The 15 year old stood up and made for the village gates as he had every few days since he'd arrived. His footsteps echoed on the stone pathways that spread throughout the mass of fallen buildings, devoid of life other than him. Walking through the expanse of empty buildings, Naruto thought back to his time in Konoha as he had countless times before. He couldn't help but compare these empty streets to those ones, constantly filled with life. The streets of his past were always crammed with people who each had their own lives to cater to. Even if all of them scorned him, he couldn't help but think; at least they were there to scorn him in the first place. Naruto missed them. He missed the friends he had just made. He missed Kakashi sensei and Sakura and Sasuke. He even missed the civilians who did nothing but talk behind his back and treat him like some kind of demon.

However these thoughts of his changed nothing. The streets stayed empty and the only noises he heard were the clacking of his sandals against stone and now the creaking of the opening wooden gates.

Naruto sighed. Was all of this even worth anything. He was becoming strong, sure. He'd made leaps and bounds since first coming to Uzu. The Uzumaki clan certainly was living on through him, at least as far as he was concerned. But there was nobody left to fight for. Nobody left to acknowledge him. If Naruto became truly strong then what? His village had expelled him. Uzu had no population to speak of beyond Naruto himself either. Even if he made a name for himself as an Uzumaki, Even if he became the strongest ninja in the world, what was the point if nobody was there to stand beside him. If nobody was there to talk to him and offer him advice, or help him out when he couldn't do something on his own. Not for the first time, Naruto wondered if it was even worth living with a life like that wai-

The Uzumaki heir was brought out of his stupor by a spike of pain in his arm. Stopping on a tree branch, he looked down at the offending limb to see a scratch running across it. He looked at it for a moment, perturbed that he had been so distracted as to allow such a large, if shallow, cut to be carved into his arm by a mere tree. Naruto sighed, and went back to the hunt, resolving to stay focused this time and not be so careless as to let a stray branch draw his blood.

An hour later Naruto sat by the fire he'd made in the middle of the training grounds, happily eating the venison he'd been able to procure. He'd be able to make the deer last a few meals before he needed to go for the hunt again. That was good, tomorrow he could train until his body was barely able to move. Naruto preferred to train himself to exhaustion like that. In a way it was relaxing. He didn't have to think about anything if he could barely think, after all.

As he bit into the piece of meat He'd been munching on Naruto absentmindedly peered down at his arm. The scratch was gone, as he expected. Not even a scar remained. The Kyūbi certainly did good work. "The Kyūbi huh... I Haven't talked to the old fox in a while. Not since the Chūnin exams if I remember correctly...Or maybe it was that time me and pervy sage went to find Tsunade..."

Naruto paused, moments away from taking another bite of the Venison in his hands. "The Kyūbi..." He had forgotten all about the embodiment of hatred that many respectfully referred to as the nine tailed fox. He wasn't entirely alone. Sure there weren't any other people in Uzu but there was another intelligent being. To hear a voice besides his own. That was all he wanted...

Thus, after Naruto finished his meal he sat down cross legged by the fire and, against his better judgement, he meditated. He closed his eyes and focused solely on the visage of pure anger, hate, and fear that he remembered from his last encounter with the great fox. He remembered it's deep voice, filled with malice, it's claws that were easily each the size of a human being, and most of all the eyes that seemed to beckon him closer, trying to devour him whole.

Naruto opened his eyes again to find himself back in that place. In front of him stood a wall of steel bars. In the middle of which there was a single piece of paper with the word seal on it. He himself stood on what appeared to be a shallow layer of water. And of course, glaring at him was the being which he had just envisioned.

"I see you've returned, brat. What is it that you want?"

Naruto looked up at the Kyūbi, a being that was renowned for being so strong that it could level a mountain with a swing of it's tails. He gave the beast a big dopey grin. "I came to talk to you."

The beast stared at him for a moment, trying to decide if he had some motive behind saying such a thing or if he was simply stupid. Then he gave the blonde a truly menacing glare. "If it weren't for this damned seal I would kill and eat you for your insolence. I have nothing to say to you, leave."

Naruto feigned a thoughtful look before reaffirming his previous smile. "But doesn't it get lonely in that cage all day? I'm sure you wouldn't really mind a conversation every once in awhile."

"I will not be made a fool of. BEGONE!" The annoyed beast roared at him to the best of its ability.

The next thing Naruto knew he was back in his meditative stance by the fire. Despite himself, he grinned. The first voice he had heard since coming to Uzu may have been dark and filled with malice. But he still preferred it to the silence that had preceded it.

Near a river in Hi no Kuni's forests

Naruto awoke to the sound of forest birds chirping. He remained still for a moment, stretching his senses out across the forest. Only when he was certain that nobody was near enough to bother him did Naruto allow a small smile to cross his face. Last night's dream had been pleasant, certainly better than the prior day had been. After laying in bed for another minute the blonde finally forced himself to get up. As he stood a chill crawled across the teen's skin, reminding him that his clothes were still strung up by ninja wire on a nearby tree.

Naruto had chosen to camp in a small clearing next to a river. His sleeping bag was in the center of said clearing, the river was on one side and his clothes were strung up opposite it. Near his now dry clothes were the remains of the campfire he had made dinner at the night before. Right next to the sleeping bag was his sword, a few kunai, and scrolls containing every weapon he owned.

Naruto sighed as he walked over to his nearly dry clothes. The campfire from the night before had assisted in drying them off, but he hadn't wanted to keep it going long. Along the same line of reasoning Naruto hadn't wanted to use fire chakra to dry the clothes the night before either. Having to deal with someone coming across him as he slept would have been annoying. It was no longer night though, and he was no longer tired nor averse to such an encounter. Thus the teen covered his hand in a thin layer of fire chakra and began drying off his clothes.

Once he was ready, Naruto sealed his sleeping bag and holstered all his gear. He took one last look around to make sure nothing had been forgotten. Satisfied, the teen leapt into the trees and began making his way through the forest.

'Naruto, what are we going to do now?' Kurama's voice resonated throughout the shinobi's head.

Naruto nearly misjudged his jump and slammed into the branch he was jumping to. Recovering, a sheepish grin fell onto the Shinobi's features. 'That's... a good question Kurama. I suppose I shouldn't walk around the elemental nations without a plan when apparently everyone and their mother wants to know where I am...'

The fox snorted at the blonde's lack of response. 'You didn't even think about it huh, why am I not surprised? What were you planning to do, get attacked whenever you entered a new town?'

'I mean, that wouldn't be such a big deal... They wouldn't be able to touch me anyway...'

'We both know that if that happened you would be at your wits end. You'd probably do something stupid eventually, like wipe an entire town off the map.'

'I'm not that bad!'

'Just a month ago you blew up around 2 kilometers of forest because you left your sword somewhere and you wanted to find it quickly. You're lucky the damn thing was built to withstand basically anything.'

Naruto sighed in defeat. 'Anyway...you asked what I was going to do now? I suppose that that question has a pretty simple answer. I'll do what I've always done and protect what's important to me. If anyone tries to stop me from doing that then they'll pay for it with their lives, just like the Akatsuki will.' A manic smile graced the whiskered man's features as he continued to talk to the chakra beast. 'The villages think they need to defend me? That I need to be put under lock and key so nobody can hurt me or capture you? If anyone wants to try anything like that then they might as well keel over and die right now!'

A similar grin to Naruto's crossed Kurama's face as Naruto spoke, making him look just like the monster people made him out to be. 'I knew there was a reason I liked you brat.'

'What'd I say about calling me that.' The blonde pouted for a moment before finishing his previous train of thought. 'Anyway I'll just try to stay under the villages radar for now, it would be annoying if they decided to attempt a show of force in order to drag me back. The jinchūriki are usually a well guarded secret within a village which means these Akatsuki will probably find me somehow anyway, and when they do I'll be waiting. I'll make them regret ever trying to take you from me. And who knows, maybe after I take em down the five great nations will stay out of my way in the future. That'd be nice.'

As he and Kurama finished up their mental conversation Naruto exited the tree tops and arrived at his destination. A civilian road. A quick glance showed that it stretched on for miles in either direction and was easily wide enough for a noble and their entourage to travel down. It was most likely one of the major roads in Hi no Kuni that connected the larger cities.

Satisfied, the jinchūriki of the Kyūbi turned and began to walk casually down the road he had come across. The next village was a ways off, and while he could get there the same way he'd gotten to the road in the first place Naruto figured it would be cathartic to take a nice leisurely stroll to his next destination.

Later that day; The Hokage Tower in Konohagakure no Sato

Shikamaru stood stock still. His hands which were usually in his pockets were flattened against his sides. His eyes, filled with sadness, and a sliver of fear, were transfixed directly in front of him. Of course the object of that stare was none other than Tsunade Senju.

The Godaime Hokage glared at the poor man. "Report Shikamaru!" Her voice radiated authority tinged with something else, maybe anger, Shikamaru couldn't tell.

"Lady Tsunade I made sure anything of importance was written in the mission report that I sent you by messenger hawk. There isn't anything I can tell you that you don't alr-" Shikamaru was stopped short when the woman in front of him slammed her hand down onto her desk, sending loose papers flying everywhere.

"I Want to hear it from you Shikamaru." The Hokage ground out every word. She was evidently doing her best not to raise her voice.

A dejected sigh escaped from the jōnin's lips, there was no getting out of this apparently. "Of course lady Tsunade... My standing mission was to be posted in a town on the coast of Hi no Kuni called Mori-cho. With me I had two Anbu that went by Taka and Risu." Shikamaru looked down, suddenly extremely interested in the wooden floor of the office. "They...are now both deceased. We had been stationed in the town for seven days when we sensed the Kyūbi's chakra. There wasn't much of it but it was there. We investigated and found Naruto in the town. He seemed to notice us and left the stand to confront us elsewhere.

Shikamaru's face only grew more grim as he kept speaking and Tsunade's expression mirrored this, both knowing what he was going to say next. "Naruto seemed the same at first... He asked how Sakura and Sasuke were doing at the very least. However his demeanor seemed to change when I mentioned Konoha. Naruto adamantly refused to come back. He wouldn't listen to reason, deciding to stay out of Konoha, even if it could endanger the world. We were left with no choice so the anbu and I attempted to immobilize him" Shikamaru grimaced as he remembered what came next. "Naruto broke my Kagemane like it was nothing... he killed my team in cold blood. He killed them both before I could move to stop him. Then he left, apologizing as if it couldn't have been avoided."

Shikamaru looked his superior directly in the eyes as he spoke his next words. Shikamaru didn't like the words that were about to come out of his mouth, not by any means. Naruto had always been such a nice guy. Sure he was an idiot that seemed to always find himself in some sort of trouble or another, but he was a genuinely good person. He'd always seemed to light up any room that he would walk into. And when he said things, people felt inclined to believe them, to believe in him. It was unfortunate, but Shikamaru had to come to terms with the facts, so did his Hokage, that the Naruto they knew seemed to be gone.

"Naruto is clearly not an ally to Konoha. If we are going to stop the akatsuki from achieving their goal, whatever it is, than we need to treat Naruto as if he is hostile and capture him in the same manner." Tsunade seemed to freeze up as the words left his mouth. She glared at him and he saw it in her eyes. Denial. Anger. Anguish. They were all there.

She rose from the desk, and Shikamaru's every instinct told him that it was in his best interest to run. His saving grace came in the form of Shizune, the Hokage's aid that was always present in the office, like the Hokage's shadow. He'd forgotten she was there, but damn was he glad that she was as he saw her put a hand on Tsunade's shoulder. A whole conversation seemed to pass between the two as their eyes met and after a tense moment Tsunade slumped back into her chair. Shikamaru visibly sighed in relief.

After a moment of silence Tsunade mumbled something barely coherent. "You're dismissed, Nara." That was all that Shikamaru needed to hear, he turned on his heels and exited the office as fast as he could while still keeping a semblance of composure.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Back inside the office Tsunade was still sitting at her desk, Shizune once again had her hand placed on the woman's shoulder.

Tsunade wasn't sure what to feel. Naruto was alive. He was alive and she had already thanked every god she knew of the moment that Shikamaru's mission report had arrived via hawk. After he was exiled Tsunade would hear things every so often about a blonde shinobi who was traveling around collecting bounties. But those reports had stopped coming in 3 years ago. Tsunade had feared the worst and a part of her felt that the widespread search going on across the nations was pointless. But he was alive. When she read that she almost burst into tears out of joy, until she read the rest of the report that is

Naruto had killed two Konoha anbu. He did it like they were nothing, minor distractions at most. She simply couldn't fathom it. The mission report must have been altered, one of the villages betrayed them and wanted to capture Naruto for personal gain. She called Shikamaru in so he could verify that the mission report was tampered with. She'd all but made plans to accuse Kiri of breaking the alliance. But the Nara only parroted what she'd read hours earlier. That couldn't be possible. Shikamaru had to be lying to her. He had to be under a genjutsu or something. Naruto wouldn't do something like that. Naruto was a nice kid who she was forced to cast out against her will. As long as she had known him he had never done anything close to what Shikamaru was telling her he did.

Tsunade was brought out of her thoughts as she felt a strong sharp pain. She looked at it to see that she'd been gripping the shards of the broken hokage's necklace and that they were cutting into her palm. The one she'd given him. The one he'd left behind all those years ago.

She couldn't take it anymore. tears began to stream down the Godaime's face. She'd done this. Whether or not she was forced to that didn't change the fact that she had done this. There was no way around it. Shikamaru wouldn't lie over something like this. The proof was there, and no matter how much she wanted to deny it the truth wouldn't change.

The Godaime Hokage wept openly. By her side stood Shizune who silently watched over her lady. Both mourned as their last hopes of ever returning things to how they had once been went up in smoke.

AN: Hey everyone, I'm back again. Now I know what you're thinking. I uploaded 2 chapters in a day then took a month-ish to upload another one. My response is that I said I would upload whenever I felt like it because I write whenever I feel like it. On that note I want to apologize. I rushed old friends out in excitement because this was my first story. That cost the chapter a lot of quality. I may get around to rewriting parts of it at some point because of that, but if I do I'll let you know. Anyway, starting with this chapter I'll be spending a lot of time with each chapter to make sure their up to my standards. Thus the waits will probably be this long minimum and who knows how long maximum. Probably. Unless I get really bored and spend a week doing nothing but writing and rewriting a chapter until it's up to par.

On to my concerns with the story and whatnot. So first of all, how was the chapter? Did you like it or hate it? I really don't know if this is going to be good or bad but I suppose I'll find out when people start reading it. On that note I want to say 2 things. 1st of all I'm not sure if you can tell, but I'm not the best at writing dialogue. It just doesn't come naturally to me. SO I want to apologize if that's dragging the story down. 2nd of all I have a question for anyone reading this. I know I'm not the best writer in the world, or in America, or probably in my town, so I'd really like a second opinion on these chapters before I get them published. On that note, because I don't know where else to ask, I was wondering if anyone wanted to volunteer to beta this story. I just need a second opinion. I think that the story is suffering because I'm the only one looking at it before each chapter get's released. For now I'm having my fried help me but he hasn't watched shippuden and isn't big on Naruto lore, so he can really only help with story pacing and spelling.

Also I have a predicament I want to put out there, so if anyone feels like offering advice then feel free to. I want to get Naruto a summoning contract. That way he'd have sage mode and what not. But at the same time I feel like it would interfere with the whole "Naruto was lonely on Uzu and his only friend was Kurama" thing I have going

1 final note before I give my goodbye spiel. After I upload this I'm going to reupload the first 2 chapters of this story to fix some minor spelling mistakes that I didn't notice the first time around. Also I changed one of Shikamaru's lines slightly in chapter 2 so he says that people are searching all over all 5 nations, not just Hi no Kuni.

Now that I've got that out of the way I want to say thank you guys for reading this. It feels good to know that people like the slabs of text that I'm putting onto the internet. As always feel free to review, tell me if you like it, if you hate it, flame me because you can. I appreciate your opinion regardless. Have a nice day.