In The Leaves | A 'Naruto' fan story | SasuNaru

An emotional storm

Naruto looked up at the calendar that hung from the island's shop.

October 8th

Two days before his birthday.

He had been traveling with Sasuke on foot for months, and not one Land of fire shinobi or ally shinobi has found him.

Of course Sasuke and him did not stick to the cave for long, it was only a matter of time until the hounds picked up his scent.

They ended up traveling to an island across the ocean to take shelter, and surprisingly-not a ninja or bird has pinpointed his location yet in months.

Sasuke kept Naruto's head covered for precaution, and Naruto used his jutsu to transform himself into a random person just in case anyone recognized him.

The place they took shelter was an abandoned shack that was small, but they had no other choice-so they made that shack into their temporary home.

Sasuke and Naruto trained constantly at night to lessen the chance of being caught, and did it on top of the ocean's surface to not damage anything.

Naruto and Kurama managed to balance their chakra, and found a new transformation-Nine-Tails Chakra Mode.

Naruto's body was coated in yellow chakra, and the cloak gave Naruto a protective barrier from Sasuke's attacks. His speed was increased, his scent and chakra signature has changed also.

After Naruto controlled the chakra perfectly, he met his mother, whose name was Kushina, the last Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails. He couldn't believe his eyes or his ears. He was meeting his mom for the first time.

His mom told him how proud she was for befriending the Nine-Tails, and doing what she couldn't.

But it didn't take Kurama overnight or a week to simply agree to give Naruto his chakra, no, it took some time to even get Kurama to bat an eye in his direction when the word 'help' was mentioned.

After a few months, Kurama came around to help Naruto, saying quote;

"I can admit you stayed by your promise, and showed me more promise than any other human i've dealt with in the past. I'll lend you my chakra, and if you continue to stand by your word-i'll willingly share my chakra when you need it."

Naruto remembered the scroll the old toad showed him that his father made for him. To have the option to unlock or lock his Seal Mark.

He wanted to give Kurama the option to escape his body to fight beside him in battle, but they were still connected in some way. If Kurama dies, so does Naruto. And the risk Naruto will take of releasing his Tailed Beast is high.

But he trusted Kurama enough to someday unlock that cage he was in, and give him the advantage to fight in battle again.

Sasuke met Kurama during one of their training fights, and Kurama said Sasuke reminds him of Madara-but was glad that Sasuke didn't go down the same path as him.

Sasuke told Kurama he didn't know of a 'Madara', and Kurama replied to him saying that he doesn't need to know. He is irrelevant and dead.

'He's something else.' Sasuke said to Naruto one day, he wore a grin on his face.

It took Sasuke some time to get used to smiling, and get comfortable with closeness. His hand chose to stay put when Naruto held it, and his body stayed close when Naruto wrapped his arms around it. Their growth was getting better, it was a bit slow, but it was getting there.

Naruto and Sasuke walked back to the shack with the new stuff they bought, and Naruto looked up at the rain clouds that was threatening a storm soon.