This is for my contest, which you can learn about on my Profile page. Enjoy and Review

It rained heavily at the place known as the Valley of the End. It was if the heavens themselves were crying at what had transpired there, an epic dual between friends. Lying on the ground near the water were two people: Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki. Both were out cold and were motionless. However unknown to them, several hooded people watched the whole battle from afar. Only when neither of the fighters was moving did the four figures come out of the forest. Slowly they walked up to the two Genin, and one of them, a woman judging by her figure, bent down and checked their pulses.

"Well?" One of the other's asked, a male by his voice. The woman looked up, revealing her blue eyes.

"They're alive, and have minimal wounds. It should be easy to move Naruto-kun. What about the Uchiha?" She asked.

"Leave him." The man said. "It doesn't matter if Konoha get's him or Orochimau, we will have our revenge against Konoha and the rest of the five Great Countries." And with that he picked up Naruto, making sure not to harm him anymore then he already is and all four of them headed off.

An hour or so later Kakashi along with Pakkun arrived to the Valley. When they got there all they found was an unconscious Sasuke…but no Naruto. Kakashi began to worry. What happened to him? He couldn't have fled could he? No, that wasn't like Naruto. "Pakkun can you get his scent?" Kakashi asked the nin-dog.

Pakkun took a couple of sniffs and shook his head sadly. "No the rain is washing away any scent. I do however smell a lot of Chakra having being released so I have to say that the Kyuubi must have come out."

Kakashi nodded, a sad look in his eye as he picked up Sasuke and hefted him onto his back. With one last look at the statue of the First Hokage, the two headed off.

The news of Naruto's disappearance became top priority amongst the Council of Konoha. Those who despised the Kyuubi Container merely put in that he was dead, which earned them a cold look from Tsunade. The idea that the boy might have fled was out of the question, Naruto was to damn loyal to the village to turn traitor. Tsunade wanted to send out a search party to find him but the Elders rebuffed her plans. If the other villages knew that they were missing their jinchuriiki then they would waste no time in taking it to their advantage. Also they had the Uchiha boy back and that was all that matter. So, against Tsunade's wishes and a few others, Naruto was declared KIA/missing-nin.

To say the people of Konoha were upset would be an understatement. On that night there wasn't a single bar or restaurant that wasn't celebrating the death of the demon boy and the return of the Uchiha prodigy. A few had even tried to ransack his home, only to be brutally beaten down personally by Tsunade and the remains of the Rookie 12. The Hokage decided that the apartment would be banned to the public, as a way of honoring Naruto.

There were some people who mourn over the loss of the Uzumaki boy. Old man Teuchi and his daughter Ayame were very upset of the loss of their favorite customer. So upset that they even closed their restaurant for about a week. Iruka would be at his apartment, staring at a photo of himself and Naruto on the day after the boy became a Genin. 'You would've been a great Hokage.' Iruka would think to himself every now and then. Kakashi stood at the memorial stone of the fallen for hours, reading the names of his teammates and Sensei. 'Forgive me Rin, Obito, Sensei, Kushina-san. I couldn't keep my promise.' He thought.

Kankuro and Temari would sit on a bench, watching their little brother stare up at the sky. Those two had much to thank Naruto for, for saving their little brother from himself, and now they could never repay him. Gaara thought about the words Naruto said to him in the aftermath of their battle. 'Naruto, thank you.' He thought to himself. 'To honor you, I shall become Kazekage and prove to the village I am not a monster, just like you said.'

The Rookie 12 took Naruto's apparent demise very hard, especially the rescue squad. Shikamaru would pace around in his family's backyard, trying to constantly go over his strategy, trying to figure out where he went wrong. This earned the concern of his mother Yoshino. Choji barely ate anything for a week, even after being released from the hospital. Neji didn't say a word after he got back to the compound, to upset about what happened, even if the mission was a success. Kiba just stayed home during his healing, silently looking out the window. Rock Lee didn't even do any training for a day, the grief too much for him to bear.

Though they didn't know Naruto very well, Ino, Tenten and Shino also mourned for the loss of the blonde hair boy, Ino even bought a large assortment of flowers for the tombstone that was made for him. Sakura remained by Sasuke's side in the hospital, both grateful and angry of the situation. 'I got one person who I cared about back. But I lost another one.' Sakura thought sadly. 'Why does Kami have to be so cruel?'

But the one who took the loss hard out of all of them was none other then Hinata Hyuga. For the rest of the month she either was in her room, at the training grounds or at Naruto's grave, cleaning it or placing flowers on it. She barely ate anything and servants would have to bring her food to her room. Her only regret was that she never told Naruto her feelings for him. She wondered what would've happened if she told him sooner, instead of keeping her feelings to herself. Not being so shy around him either. Even if he rejected her at least she wouldn't feel such pain. Sooner or later she snapped out of her depression, the only reason was because Naruto wouldn't want her to feel down. 'I'll become stronger.' She thought to herself with newfound confidence. 'For Naruto-kun'

Elsewhere on a boat heading towards a large land area to the West, the hooded figures could be seen on it again. The leader, the man who carried Naruto away from the valley was staring at the land that was his home. "We're finally home nephew." He said to the resting form of Naruto. "Back to the Whirlpool Country."