A Fox in a Cage

Disclaimer: Is this really necessary? … (Sweats a man in a black suit presses a gun to the back of his head) I don't own Naruto… (looks at the suited man…) Or anything related to it… (Man remains) I'm a pathetic struggling author with no life and no money so don't sue me! (The suite man smiles and puts gun away)

Author Notes: I have revised and Rewritten this story to better follow the original progress and development i had intended. Past readers are encouraged to reread from the beginning as to avoid confusion.

-Prologue –

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end – Seneca

'Sasuke…'

'Naruto'

Bathed in a light of destruction eyes that dulled with resignation to fate met each other one last time. They stared into one another reliving their pasts that felt so far and so distant from the mute silence that rang in their ears. Their where no words that had to be spoke this was goodbye. Sadness filled their eyes as the light consumed all bleaching out the final act, a hand outstretched leaving a memory carved into steal, the other's hand deep within the heart of their closest friend.

'Goodbye... It was fun… while it lasted…'

'Yea… it was the best…'

'So long… friend…'

'So long…'

The only witness to the final goodbyes began to weep, weep a rain of tears that washed away the blood that had been spilt and the regrets that might have remained. Alone a boy slept an un-breathing sleep upon the rivers bank while another looked on with a gaze towards the sky. His lips that trembled and fought to frown only to turn upwards in a tortured smile that revealed the sadness hidden within.

"Naruto... You where my closest friend… I will never forget you… or the gift you have given me…" Uchiha Sasuke spoke in a whisper that was drowned out by the roaring rain.. With a deep breath Sasuke looked down into the turbulent waters of the river his eyes sharp and focused as he admired the gift that death of bonds had given him. The wind blew and the river saw Sasuke and his blood red eyes no more.

Though death visited the body of the peaceful boy along the river bank, within him slept a spark that burned and screamed, a flame of life that refused fate with every fiber if it's evil being and called out crying a name.

"Naruto!" The voice echoed through the once flooded halls that where Naruto's chakra veins. The water since having drained away into a vacuum of darkness which the intense and fearful eyes of the demon Kyuubi watched approach slowly. The torches along the waterway flickering out one after another dimming existence.

"No I am the Kyuubi I will not die here. Naruto wake!" Despite the demands Naruto slept on and the Kyuubi roared with rage.

"I will not die here. I will not die!" Releasing its limitless chakra the Kyuubi sought to battle the approaching darkness flooding the dry waterway with a tsunami of blinding boiling red. However the darkness was strong, death a foe that none had yet to defeat. Despite this fact the Kyuubi fought on burning away at the encroaching death, flooding Naruto's lifeless body with chakra that he would never and could never command again.

"Naruto!" The Kyuubi begged, its proud standing and arrogance slipping away. "Naruto do not let us end here, do not let this be the end of our destines. This world has yet to know your name, your mark upon the world has yet to be placed. Naruto!"

The pleas went unanswered as death beat back the chakra with unforgiving strength. The darkness drawing nearer and nearer the cage in which the Kyuubi now coward with its nine tails raised and its eyes blazing as it tearful rage. Its chakra pored from its body with the intensity of a star. The might of the Kyuubi laughable before the darkness as its immortal chakra was effortlessly pushed back, the darkness finally battering the gate. Prepared to roar its last and final roar the Kyuubi's eyes filled with tears of fire, a rage of injustice that would never be witnessed… that was until the darkness pierced the gate and time came to a halt.

Had it been that simple all along? Had this been the truth that stared it in the face since the very moment it was sealed? The Kyuubi shook suspended in a reality of nothing, but a reality of nothing with no seal and no gate. The darkness in its desire to take the last spark of life within the boy had unwittingly destroyed the only thing that contained it. This truth, this realization stunned and shocked the Kyuubi to its core but this was no time to focus on truths. Time had slowed but it had not truly stopped. The darkness sloshed closer at a crawl and there was only one chance left to insure survival.

"Naruto! I will not let this world be done with us I will never let it forget our names!" The red blazing star that was the Kyuubi screamed a high-pitched scream that shook existence and its chakra exploded with renewed strength of a star that became supernova beating back the dark. The raw truly unsealed power of the Kyuubi exploding into Naruto's chakra veins with such force that it tore from the sleeping body like a bonfire. The flames grew higher and thicker as Naruto's body burned in pure liquid chakra which ate away at the flesh melting and turning it to ash.

Naruto's broken body could never contain the true power of the Kyuubi and the Kyuubi knew this however this did not mean a new one could not be made with it… It was not possible to escape a body that was filled with death; it required a spark of life to bridge the inner realm with the outer one. The Kyuubi cried out in victory as the last traces of Naruto's body vaporized and absorbed into the cloud of chakra. Like a catalyst to a bomb the dust swirled with the chakra and in one blinded flash the cloud collapsed and exploded with a force that shattered the ground all around.

Where Naruto's body once lay, another now collapsed naked and limp, however its nudity was soon concealed by the river which flowed into the crater that the event had caused and with gentle hands pulled it along carrying with it down stream into the unknown.

It was not long after that a jonin stood upon the bank of the river…a distant resignation in his one visible eye. In his hand a partly melted forehead protector with the name Naruto roughly scratched into the back. The jonin's eyes closed as his hand held tightly to the forehead protector shaking with the strain as blood began to drip from a forming wound. Today a leaf lost his life to another… and with the jutso he had taught. The guilt that filled the jonin's heart was crippling however he had learned long ago to control such feelings. Without a word he turned to his guide dog and nodded, both turned and vanished. There was nothing more to be found here.

- End Prologue -