Drip…drip…drip
"Hello…Naruto."
"What am I doing here Kurama? Seriously, I don't have time right now. I need to get back to help fight Kaguya."
Naruto Uzumaki was standing in front his partner Kurama, the Nine Tailed Fox, looking up at him in confusion. Naruto looked rather worse for ware, his usual orange and black jumpsuit was ripped and torn from hours of constant battle with the sleeves shredded up to the forearms, and the zipper destroyed forcing the jacket open showing his mesh shirt underneath. Kurama was a massive sized fox with burnt orange fur. His arms and legs, while folded underneath him as he lay down, were rather human like in appearance with his ears longer than usual as well, looking more like rabbit ears than anything. His slit crimson eyes looked at Naruto with a mix of sternness and pity.
Sitting behind a row of thick dark red bars that represented his seal, Kurama sighed, "You are unconscious boy. That tends to happen after falling several thousand feet."
Naruto's eyes widened in shock, "What?!"
"That Uchiha brat used some kind of jutsu on you when the Old Man's mother tried to kill you."
Like a crashing wave it all started coming back to him. He and Sasuke had been in the middle of their fight with Kaguya Otsutsuki when the Mother of Chakra tried to kill him with her instant kill technique, All Killing Ash Bone. He remembered Sasuke trying to use his Amenotejikara teleportation technique to get him out of the way of getting skewered, only instead for him to be sucked into what looked like a purple version of Obito's Kamui. The next thing he knows, he's free falling towards the ground, his chakra shroud gone and unable to use his chakra, just about to crash land hard into a grassy mountainous area. The rest is a blank until he found himself in his mindscape.
The blond rubbed his hands in his hair frantically, "I-I need to get back! Without me they can't seal Kaguya away like the Old Man said!" Naruto shouted desperately.
"I'm sorry Naruto." Kurama said, "But I have no idea how to return to your world. The only thing I can think of is the Uchiha boy using that same technique to come get you, but it's been five days since your arrival here. If he was going to get you, he'd have done it by now and I'd have felt his arrival. Say what you want, but the brat's got a monstrous amount of chakra…for an Uchiha." While blunt, Kurama knew that being blunt was the only way to get through his partner's thick skull.
Naruto felt as though his entire world had shattered. Every one he knew, everyone he loved…was gone. The blonde collapsed to his knees, making a loud splash as he held himself up with his hands, "Five days…I've been stuck here for that long?"
Kurama didn't say a word, not really knowing what to say in a situation like this. Finally, he grumbled, "I'm sorry Naruto. I truly am."
Naruto just looked down at the ankle deep water below him, staring into his reflection as ripples slowing moved along the pool. As he noticed how ragged he looked, his mind slowly began to drift, remembering why he looked so terrible to begin with. From his arrival to the battlefield, to his fight with the revived Nagato and Fourth Raikage, the shocking reveal that Tobi was in fact Obito Uchiha, then the seemingly climactic showdown with Madara, and finally the arrival of Kaguya. He began to think about Sasuke, and how they were just beginning to get along again. He thought of Sakura and the promise he made to her, picturing her crying face three years ago. He thought of Iruka, Kakashi, Tsunade, Hinata, Shikamaru, Gaara, Killer B…everybody that he considered his precious people. Suddenly, a realization came to him.
"I can't give up."
"What?" Kurama asked.
Naruto looked up, a massive grin on his face, his eyes squinted shut, "I can't just give up! I have so much unfinished business. I have to seal away Kaguya, I have to make sure Sasuke comes back to Konoha, I have to get Sakura to go on a date with me, and I have to become Hokage! I don't care if I'm in some strange new world, I'm gonna find a way back…BELIEVE IT!"
"You just had to ruin it…didn't you." Kurama said, a sweat drop sliding across his temple, "You had a good thing going there, and you ruined it."
Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, sorry about that. Couldn't resist."
Kurama was about to say something when he suddenly looked up. Taking a moment, Kurama finally looked back down at Naruto, "We'll have to save this for another time Naruto. It seems you're about to wake up."
"Wha-"