(READ THE AUTHORS NOTE AT THE END.)

Hatake Kakashi was not exactly sure why these memories passed through his mind though, when blood stained the grass and all he could see was the Kubikiribocho being pushed into Naruto's stomach.  

--------------------

Naruto couldn't breathe. He felt like he was being suffocated. His breath came out in short pants, overworked from running. He kept taking quick glances behind him, which made him even more nervous. He held three kunai in one palm and a handful of dirt and sand in the other. He tried to calm down, focusing on the way his sandals clicked on the ground instead of the pounding of his heart. His legs were aching and his lungs hurt.  

'I've felt this before. Somewhere.'

Naruto watched the water drip from the faucet. It was mesmerising. Calming.

The brunette's cold eyes were blank and glazed over in thought. Longs sleeves pushed up to reveal short, agitated, horizontal bleeding red cuts, a stark contrast to his paper-white skin. His bangs fell over his eyes, reaching just beneath his nose. The faucet in front of him was sticking out of the ground and dripping onto the Maelstrom's soaking wet hitai-ate.

The sky was being covered protectively by silver clouds with grey lining. They cast dark shadows over the thirteen-year-old, making his pale and sickly skin stand out. The bags under his eyes made him seem tired and old, and the hitch in his breath every so often just added to the effect.

There were no trees in sight. Grass went as far as the eye could see, making it seem odd that there would just be a random boy sitting in front of a random faucet in the middle of seemingly no-where. The boy, though lost in thought, still stared at the dripping nozzle. As if he was fulfilling something by doing so.

His breath came out short and ragged, and hitched occasionally. The tangy taste of blood clung to his mouth, making him spit whenever he noticed it come back. His heart was beating wildly, and if he didn't have his sweater on, you might have been able to see that there was a large, thick, pink scar that ran from right under his ribs all the way down to his crotch. On top of it was a glowing seal, pulsating with energy and chakra.

Naruto was trying so hard to let that painful and agonisingly hot chakra out that he hadn't even noticed that he was in this strange place, when moments before, he was being impaled by the giant Kubikiribocho.

But he was only there for a moment. When he realised what was happening, he was sitting in a familiar cave and staring into large, menacing red eyes.

-- (Kakashi had his sharingan active when he saw Naruto impaled. How sick do you think I am? *Cackles*)

Kakashi was frozen, eyes widening in horror and with every beat of his heart his despair grew. He let out a shaky breath, and before he could run over and beat the ever living shit out of Zabuza, Naruto exploded in red chakra and everybody was thrown into the air.

He went head-first into a particularly sturdy but slightly up-rooted tree and blacked out.

--

Naruto was covered head-to-toe in blood-red chakra. Tendrils shot out and stitched up his stomach wound, burning it closed and leaving only a thick pink line after it.

He was down on all fours, the whites of his eyes now black. His sharingan flared and spun around a slit pupil, but something was weird about the dojutsu. The cloak bubbled around him, pulsating with chakra.

His hair grew longer, but not by much. Just enough so that his normally pushed-back bangs swept down below his chin and the spikes at the back of his head were now shoulder-length. What was odd though, was that his hitai-ate slipped off his fore-head because the fabric burnt off and dropped to the ground, when the rest of the clothes he wore were only slightly singed at the ends.

He looked up to stare at the missing-nin, who was backing up slightly in fear. He let out a disturbing giggle. His sharingan had stopped spinning, and everybody could see what was off about it.

Where the three tomoe around a slitted pupil usually rested when he used both Kyuubi mode and the Sharingan, were four enlarged tomoe. How was that even possible?!

He smirked at the shocked face of his teammates, and after speeding through a few handsigns, jumped backwards.

"Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu!" he whispered.

A third of the water from the lake shot upwards, making a water dragon much much larger and much more terrifying that it normally was. It was three to fur times the size of a normal water dragon, and currently, the house-sized yellow eyes were glaring upon Zabuza.

Suddenly, a Naruto clone appeared in a puff of smoke and started going through a string of handsigns.

And suddenly, electricity shot from its palms and into the dragon, turning it white with hot electricity. It's normally yellow eyes bled until they were bright red. Zabuza sputtered, before screaming like a little girl.

--

Mindscape

Naruto stared into the Kyuubi's eyes, blinking innocently. "What?"

"Stupid bratty kit. Had you let Kakashi do something, you wouldn't have been impaled."

Naruto smiled softly, making the beast cringe. "But where's the fun in that?"

Kurama, the Kyuubi no Kitsune, let out an undignified and disgruntled snort, making Naruto snicker slightly. Kurama growled, wavering. Naruto felt his eyes narrow.

"Why are you sending chakra into the river?"

The Kyuubi looked down, as if just noticing that two of his tails were sending blood red chakra down the stream dying the water a dark orange colour. He blinked. "How do you think you're still alive?"

Naruto stilled, but was otherwise unfazed. "I might have to ask you to elaborate."

The Kyuubi went back to sending a steady flow of chakra into the river. Naruto waited patiently. "You've already experienced death. I felt it when you fell into unconsciousness, and trust me, it wasn't pleasant. Kind of like having needles pin you in place so you can't move. So please, refrain from doing that often."

"What do you mean? Death? I didn't die. I can't die!"

"You were only there for a minute or so. I started forcefully pushing chakra out of my seal to keep you alive. It's different for different people, death is. I think that your death is what you imagine complete calmness to be, but I'm not sure. The last time me and the Shinigami spoke was about a thousand years ago and even though I'm the great Kyuubi no Kitsune, I don't have a photographic memory."

Naruto blinked, mind drifting back to that weird field with the faucet. Maybe that was it?

"So why are you pushing chakra into the stream?"

"This stream is a direct path to your main chakra system. When I was in that wretched cage, I would just heal you by sending chakra to the ground, but this is slightly easier. Your stomach is almost completely healed now. I'm sending you back."

And just when Naruto was about to retort, his feet sunk into the ground and he started spiralling into the dark abyss below. 

--

Just as the lightning dragon started it's descent upon Zabuza, Naruto's eyes came into focus. Like opening your eyes, but realising they were open the whole time. His hand stopped right in its tracks, and he quickly dismissed the jutsu. The water, since the only thing supporting it was the lightning (that was made of chakra), fell to the ground like rain.

Naruto then stamped his foot. The client and his team were sent into the air with five wooden pillars, stopping twenty feet in the air. He sped through some handsigns at a blinding rate.

And exploded into a storm of lightning.

It was sent through the water in the grass, and suddenly Zabuza started shaking violently before passing out.

Naruto let up the jutsu, but when he looked at the patch Zabuza had been in, he was gone.

--

The Next Day

Kakashi awoke to a pounding head. He was dizzy, even though lying down, and felt the bile in his throat rising. Unable to collect his thoughts, he rolled over and lurched into his mask all over the wooden floor.

Naruto stepped into the room and trotted over to Kakashi. He looked up at the silverette.

"Can I take your mask off?" Naruto asked. Kakashi weakly put his hand up in a one-handed Ram symbol, and his mask poofed. It seems like he put a genjutsu over his face.

Naruto started cleaning up the older teen's face, before Satsuki walked into the room. Kakashi couldn't hear what they were saying, but he groaned at them in a way to ask them to be quiet, and they complied.

"Your head hit the tree," Naruto explained. "We think you got a concussion. but we need to make sure. Can you speak?"

Kakashi averted his glazed-over eyes from Naruto. "Yyy... Yes. I caa... aan speak," he said, even though his speech was slurred. Naruto nodded.

"Headache? Pressure in head? Feeling down? Noise or light bothering you? Seeing stars?"

Kakashi nodded and shook his head to each question respectively. Naruto hummed.

"Now I'm no doctor, but I think that you have a concussion."

Kakashi nodded slightly. Satsuki started cleaning up his mess. Reaching out to the side, he grabbed a paper and pen from the bedside table and scribbled something down.

'Go train chakra control. Three go at a time, the other two watching Tazuna at all times. ' it read when Naruto picked it up. Naruto nodded.

"I'll bring you dinner when we eat."

--

The table was quiet. Everybody ate their dinner silently, but nobody really had enough energy to start up a conversation. So, Inari did.

"Why do you even try?" He muttered, gaining the attention from the other occupants of the room. Naruto's eyes narrowed a fraction, but he stayed silent.

"You're just going to die in the end! Why do you even try? You're all just stupid kids who probably live a life of luxury! Ninja's are all fakers! They just get showered in praise for no damn reason!"

It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts make it stop it hurts please stop it hurts-

Naruto's chop sticks snapped in half under the pressure of his palms. Everyone flinched except for Inari.

"Yeah that's right! You're all mad now that I've revealed your secret eh? Well serves you right! I bet you couldn't even do anything if you tried!"

Stab stab stab please stop stop stop stop stop hurting me it hurts please I'm dying-

"Excuse me, gaki?" Naruto's voice was calm, but his demeanour was scaring the shit out of everyone.

Red red red it's all dyed in red I killed them all they tried to rape my sister it hurts please-

"Do you want me to repeat myself? Boy! You really are pathetic!"

Claws and teeth claws and teeth so much red it all hurts too much too much-

Naruto roughly stood up from the table, knocking it over and sending everyone's food to the ground. His eyes were ablaze, his fist tightening and balling up into fists.

All gone all gone they're all gone my stomach is red oh god they're all gone they'll be back-

He tried to control his breathing, but it did nothing to stop him from walking across the room and harshly turning the handle to the main door.

Eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes so many eyes-

He swung it open, taking satisfaction in the way it rattled and boomed against the wall. He took a step outside, and grabbing the handle that was making its way towards him, he slammed the door shut so hard that splinters shot from the wood and onto the floor.

He's coming. He's almost here.

Boom! I had a lot of work to do sorry. But, taking a break from this was the best decision I made for this story! I was so anxious about this that I decided to add a few quotes from the story in my work here and there ehehe. I have to post this one now since I was just given another project, but chapter sixteen should still come out on monday. Till then, peace!