Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Foxhound ❯ It's call Evil, kid. ( Chapter 6 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Author: Kraken's Ghost

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything its author owns. I am not making any money off of this. This is a non-profit work of fanfiction.

Story so far: Kakashi leads a team to investigate the source of the chakra wave. They don't find Naruto, but they do find a set of strange seals that Kakashi accidentally sets of resulting in two odd seals being burned into his left hand. They find evidence of Gaara's presence and report their findings to the Hokage. Kakashi takes Ino on as his personal student and takes her on a training mission to learn how to use her Bloodline. The next year on May 1, Tsunade has a strange nightmare and finds an odd character in her office.

Chap 6

“Who the hell are you?” Tsunade demanded as she stared at the odd figure.

“Come on, Baa-chan… Don't you recognize me?” The figure (who had a male's voice) said. She couldn't make out the rest of him, as he was covered in a large cloak. An ANBU cloak, she noted with narrowed eyes.

“No, I don't. I don't know how the hell you got in here without anyone noticing or how you found the Forbidden Scroll, but you sure as hell aren't leaving until I find out.”

“I got in here quite simply. I jumped and I walked and I jumped. Over the wall, through the town, and into your office. Your ANBU suck, by the way. I didn't even try to evade them,” The hooded man said. “And as for the Forbidden Scroll, I found it because I know what it looks like. Clever trick, hiding it amongst all those boring medical scrolls.”

“And how would you know what it looks like?” Tsunade asked, her temper on the rise. This bastard was really asking for it.

“Because I've stolen it before,” The figure said. It couldn't be seen, but the Hokage knew this guy was giving her a shit-eating grin “Come on, Baa-chan. Put it together.”

“…Naruto?” Tsunade slowly asked. He called her Baa-chan, but he didn't seem anything like her little brother. Then again, who else had stolen the Forbidden Scroll before? Sandaime's journals made several mentions of the incident, which was why she had moved the Scroll to her office in the first place.

“Yep,” The figure said as he looked up at her. The Fifth got a glimpse of a carved ANBU mask behind the hood. “Or if I wanted to be dramatic…Yes and no, foolish woman! Muhahahaha!”

Tsunade just stared at him, a sweat-drop on her head. The cloaked figure shrugged and said, “Hey, I'm a demon. I have the urge to indulge in semi-evil every now and then. Kyuubi's instincts are pretty powerful, you know.”

Demon!?

The Hokage lunged forward and made an arcing swing with her arm, fully intending to disable this…Whoever this was. She was greatly surprised when the figure blurred upwards and over her fist.

Tsunade looked up and blinked at the sight of the man crouched upside-down on the ceiling, his body language screaming, `Are you nuts!?'

“Kami, Baa-chan! What's your problem!?” The figure indignantly demanded. “Sheesh, I knew I wasn't going to have a warm welcome, but I never thought you'd try to kill me with that freaky strength of yours!”

“Enough games. Who are you and why are you here? And answer me for real,” The Fifth growled upwards at the ninja.

“Fine, fine,” The man grumbled and jumped off the ceiling to land in the center of the office, several paces behind Tsunade.

As the Hokage watched, the figure undid the clasp for the cloak and allowed it to drop to the floor. A strange garment was revealed underneath. It looked like a full body jumpsuit that was made out of deerskin. It had been dyed a dark blue color, though here and there someone had painted on a few ice-blue spirals. The man's face was covered by the ANBU mask, which was oddly familiar. Where had she seen that design before? Her thoughts fled as the nin reached up and pulled the mask off, unveiling a head totally wrapped in cotton bandages. Where his eyes should've been, two dark lenses were barely exposed. Not an inch of his face was uncovered. The ninja was also wearing an odd forehead protector that had a large icicle engraved on it. So he was from another village.

“Whoa, whoa, I'm from Konoha!” The shinobi yelled as Tsunade started to advance again. “Relax, Baa-chan. I'll show you.”

“You'd better,” Was all the Hokage growled.

The ninja reached up and unzipped the deerskin suit. He shrugged out of it and let it pool on the floor, grumbling something about itchy fur. Tsunade blinked at the outfit that was revealed. The shinobi was wearing a pair of navy-blue pants that had been worn so badly that they were torn off at the knees and converted into shorts. He wore a pair of boot-sandals that had sharpened treads on the bottom for some reason. A black t-shirt, that was also rather ragged, could be seen through an open, dark-orange vest covering his torso. There was nothing else worthy of note aside from the standard side-pouch. Well, that and the fact that every piece of the shinobi's skin was completely wrapped in gauze. As the Fifth watched, the ninja reached up and pulled off the forehead protector, before he began to undo the bandages covering his head. Her eyes slowly widened as the face was revealed.

A face with whisker-marked cheeks.

“Hey,” Naruto said as he pulled up the thick pair of goggles he'd been wearing underneath the bandages. He gave Tsunade a small grin as he shrugged. “Sorry it took me so long to get back.”

“Naruto…” Tsunade whispered as she stared at the boy…no young man that stood before her.

“Half right,” The blonde teen said. As the Hokage watched, one of his eyes slowly darkened into a crimson red color and his pupil extended into a slit. “I'm a little more than just Uzumaki Naruto, I'm afraid.”

“The Kyuubi…” The Godaime muttered as her jaw dropped open. The Yamanaka girl had told her the vision she'd seen, but the Fifth hadn't actually believed it to be true. Or rather, she'd prayed it wasn't true.

“Again, half right,” Naruto replied with a bit of a grin.

…That exposed a sharper than normal canine.

“I…need some sake…” Tsunade mumbled as she felt her knees go a little wobbly. Naruto smoothly and quickly moved towards her and nudged her backwards so she was leaning against her desk.

“You okay, Baa-chan?” The teen asked, worry evident even in his red eye.

“I…So this was your plan?” The Hokage blurted out. Up close, she could see all the little variations in the colors spread throughout the crimson eye that watched her curiously. The eye blinked a bit, then slowly reverted to blue and returned to its normal shape. Tsunade noted that although Naruto's eyes were still blue, they were far darker than before. Each iris was a deep, twilight color. Despite the dark shade, each eye still held the electric intensity of his original bright blue orbs. They were incandescent, yet dark at the same time. It was disorienting to stare at for too long. The effect was made more surreal when she noticed that each pupil had a slight point at the top and bottom. It wasn't enough to really notice at a distance, but when the kid…kitsune was standing less than a foot away, the effect had the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

“Why?” Tsunade managed to ask as she stared down at the boy.

“Naruto would do anything to protect his family. Even becoming me,” The kitsune replied, with a sad but determined look in his eyes.

A different set of eyes, a different emotion, but still the same indomitable determination.

This was still her little brother.

The half-demon made little sound in surprise as Tsunade wrapped him up in a bear-hug. He stiffened a little, before he allowed himself to relax in the Hokage's embrace. The Fifth gently pressed her lips to his mess of wild blonde hair and fought back her tears.

“Idiot.”

***

“Damn, these Sound-nins are just getting annoying. We haven't had a really hard fight for awhile.”

“Be thankful for the time off. I suspect Orochimaru is building new and stronger forces even as we speak. They won't be the ridiculous cannon-fodder we've been running into recently.”

“Yeah, but even their jounin aren't hard to beat!”

“That's just because of our tag-teaming, Ino-chan. They haven't developed counter-tactics for it yet. I wouldn't be surprised if there are Sound-nins being trained specifically to assassinate us. We've certainly killed enough of them to warrant such a measure.”

“Yeah, but how could they know how to counter the Sharin…Oh right, they have Sasuke. Orochimaru can get him to tell him all about it, right?” Ino asked as she looked over at Kakashi's shadow mottled face.

“Unfortunately, yes. According to the information the genin team brought back from the Sound 5, someone with a Level 2 curse seal can't disobey their master in any way,” The copy-ninja replied as he pushed a tree branch away from his face. “In all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised if Orochimaru ordered Sasuke himself to kill us. He's probably grown strong enough by now. Naruto told the Hokage that Sasuke's Sharingan had grown to the mastered form during their fight…The same level as mine. And he has two. The same way a single eye is limited because it doesn't have depth perception, an optical jutsu or ability is limited when it doesn't have two eyes to work with. So his Sharingan is superior to mine now.”

“And he's an Uchiha, so it naturally works better for him. You worried about fighting him?” The blonde genin asked as she pushed through a large bush and stepped out into the open sunlight. They stood at the edge of a deep ravine that was bridged by a fallen tree. The woods around them seemed shadowy, even in midday. She walked halfway out onto the log and turned to face her sensei. “Well?'

Kakashi frowned a bit in thought as he stepped up to the edge of the chasm. He glanced about and took a moment to appreciate the rugged beauty of western Fire Country as he thought out his answer.

Team 7 was on their way back from an information gathering mission in northern Wind Country. The Leaf had been taking many requests from the Kazekage as of late. It seemed the man was worried about being assassinated or something any day now. The Sand leader was paranoid to the point of sending shinobi out for damn near any rumor that came their way. He was overstretching his forces to a degree where they could no longer keep up with their mission volume. As a result, the Kazekage was requesting missions from Konoha at least once a week. Kakashi suspected the only reason Tsunade didn't tell the man to fuck off was because of their treaty. So they had to deal with Sand requests often, despite the low number of active Leaf-nins.

The mission was A Ranked, but it was still a total snap. They'd spent two days spying, one day reporting their info to the Kazekage, and four days taking the trip back to Konoha at a leisurely pace. They'd encountered three Sound chuunin leading five `genin' on the way. The Sound-nins had used the usual tactic of sending the mercenaries into a killing frenzy, only to be dumbfounded when their own troops turned on them. Ino had used a mid-level gen-jutsu on the cannon-fodder to trick them into attacking their commanders. In their frenzied state, fooling them with illusions was pathetically easy. She didn't even need to use her Limit.

After the brief fight, one chuunin was left alive with all his fellow nins and the riffraff dead. Kakashi had easily finished him off. The ease of the fight was the source of Ino's complaining, which had redoubled when they'd found nothing useful on the corpses. Which had led to an on-again off-again debate between the two shinobi that had dragged on for the better part of two days leading up to Ino's present question.

“No, I'm not worried about facing him,” Kakashi finally said after several moments and walked towards Ino. The genin started moving again and both ninjas disappeared into the forest on the other side of the ravine.

“Why? He does have two and a half years training under a Sannin, a Level 2 curse seal, and a mastered Sharingan. He sounds pretty formidable,” Ino asked after several moments of walking in silence.

“Just on paper,” Kakashi answered. The genin didn't stop walking through the green underbrush as she gave the copy-nin a questioning glance. At her look, the jounin explained, “What I mean is, that's the same mistake made by Sandaime, myself, the academy teachers, and everyone else who held Sasuke in high regard. On paper, he's a superb and flawless ninja, with an excellent record and formidable talents. He's the very ideal of everything a shinobi should be. He's a genius, he's powerful, and he keeps his cool in battle. He has a strong Bloodline, a skilled teacher, and a powerful seal that boosts his combat abilities. When you list it like that, anyone would want him in their Village or as their student.”

Kakashi let out a dry, derisive chuckle as he muttered, “I can't believe I fell for such an obvious failure.”

“Failure? What the hell are you talking about?” Ino sharply asked. Her time as Copy-ninja Kakashi's personal student had taught her one major thing: the man may screw-up occasionally, but overall he was good. Kakashi rarely said or did anything unless it was for a reason, even if it seemed ridiculous or lazy. The exceptions were his little habits, but even those he took advantage of. He'd picked up tons of info while reading Icha Icha Paradise and wandering around town just because people assumed he wasn't listening. Kakashi could even be downright manipulative sometimes, though he rarely showed that side to his few close friends (and he didn't bother with Ino because of her Bloodline.) He analyzed failures and flaws both in himself and in his opponents with his powerful mind to a degree that few other geniuses could rival, though he did occasionally make mistakes like with the who Sasuke-Naruto fiasco.

In other words, if Hatake Kakashi said Sasuke was a failure, odds are the Uchiha was a failure. How, Ino didn't know, but she was curious about the jounin's logic on the missing-nin.

“Sasuke is a major failure if you look at things from a practical level,” Kakashi explained. He halted his movements and waited for his student to face him, before he went into detail. “The curse seal, for instance, permanently limits his growth. True it makes him stronger now, but in the long run it will only limit his full potential. By relying on someone else to supply him with power, Sasuke has lowered the glass ceiling on how far he can go. Also, as long as he has the curse seal, he can't get stronger without Orochimaru. And Orochimaru is training and molding Sasuke to become his next vessel. In other words, Sasuke's growing into a mold for Orochimaru; not into a mold for Sasuke. That further limits how far he can go. And even the fully mastered Sharingan has its limits. Everything has a weakness if you look for it. In this case, having a Bloodline that copies jutsu only further encourages Sasuke to not grow on his own.”

The copy-nin shrugged and said, “In the end, he doesn't work to gain power and skill, his growth is stunted or deformed, and he doesn't have the right balance of priorities in life. And while, on many levels Sasuke and I are the same, genius, Sharingan, powerful, yadda-yadda, there's still one major difference between us and it's the reason why I don't fear him.”

“What's that?” Ino asked with a slight smirk, knowing her sensei's response was going to be good.

“Simple,” Kakashi replied. “I'm twenty-nine years old. I've been a ninja on active duty since I was five. Sasuke is fifteen. He's been on active duty since he was twelve. Twenty-four years of experience versus three. End of story. Even if he outclasses me in raw power due to Orochimaru-”

“You can still figure out a way to beat him. Gotcha,” Ino said with a laugh. “It'd be nice to see the look on the traitor's face if you kicked the shit out of him.”

“Or you. You're much better now than he was when he left Konoha. Once your Bloodline is fully mastered, you'll be able to shred him. I think it'd be more insulting to have a slim, blonde girl defeat him than it would be for the `Great Copy-ninja Kakashi',” The copy-nin said, adding a mock blustery, haughty tone to his title. He also puffed himself up a bit, like an announcer for a royal attendant.

Ino's sharp laughter echoed in the forest at her sensei's antics. They started walking again and continued for several minutes in companionable silence.

Kakashi had just turned to ask his student what she wanted for lunch, when a powerful pulse in his hand seals made him let out a sharp gasp.

“What is it? What's wrong?” Ino tensely asked in a low voice, her eyes flickering between her sensei and the surrounding forest.

“It's nothing. Not an enemy at least,” The jounin said as he peeled his glove off his left hand. Jounin and student eyed the red spiral on the back of his hand. Kakashi suddenly felt another power surge in the chakra and they both watched a white glow ripple outwards from the central dot and radiating through the nine lines. It soon faded and though they stared for several more minutes, nothing else happened.

“We're about a day out from Konoha, right?” Kakashi asked as he put his glove back on.

“Yeah, at the rate we're walking anyways,” Ino replied as she watched her sensei. She could sense through her Bloodline that he felt oddly jittery about something, though she couldn't tell what.

“Let's pick up the pace. I want to talk to Tsunade about something,” The jounin ordered, seconds before he leapt up into the trees to move faster.

Ino grumbled something about bipolar copy-nins, then followed moments later.

So much for their time off.

***

“Let me get a good look at you.” Tsunade said as she gently released the teen and held him a couple feet away by her hands on his shoulders.

Naruto's body had definitely changed and though it aggravated her that it was the result of the Kyuubi's meddling, the Hokage had to admit it was a good thing. The blonde had shot up over half a foot in height, which left him standing just as tall as her chin. Tsunade wasn't a short woman by any means, so she estimated his height was about 5'5” or 5'6”. Not impressive, until she considered he was only fifteen. He'd likely be as tall as Jiraiya when he was full grown.

“You've gotten pretty big,” The Hokage remarked as she looked the teen up and down.

“Side-effect of the fusion. Turns out living on ramen for my entire life was like a form of malnutrition and slowed my growth. When Kyuubi and Naruto merged, that long term damage was undone. I've grown out of three or four sets of clothes this last year,” `Naruto' said, with a bit of a sheepish shrug.

“You fused…? So that was the plan…” Tsunade said with a slightly bewildered look on her face

“What did you think my plan was?” The kitsune asked her curiously.

“Letting the Kyuubi have partial control or adding demon properties to your body or something,” The Fifth said. It was her turn to give sheepish shrug.

“Nope. Full merging…Err, kind of. It's pretty complicated,” `Naruto' said with a bit of tired groan. “I probably scared the shit out of most of the continent with the energy unleashed in the ritual.”

“Yes you did. Or at least everyone here in Konoha. So what should I call you? Did you make a new name for yourself or something?” Tsunade asked in a soft tone. The demon part of the teen worried her, but not enough that it banished her overwhelming relief at having Naru…whoever back home.

“I've gone under a couple fake names, but you can call me Naruto if you like. It's as much my name as Kyuubi and it makes sense considering the form I'm in,” The newly rechristened Naruto answered.

“Good, it'll be less confusing. What kind of names did you travel under?” The Hokage asked as she slowly walked a circle around the teen, taking in the changes from all angles.

“Oh a few odd ones, here and there. I went by Hatake Kitsune for awhile after I left Wind Country. Later, I pretended I was Ubi Kyu, from a clan of demon hunters for a while,” The half-demon casually replied.

Tsunade gave a laugh at both names, “Ubi Kyu…Cute word play. And I'm sure Hatake-san will be most honored by your chose in surnames. `Field Fox,' huh?”

“Can't claim I'm not creative,” Naruto said with a bit of a smirk. He blinked when the Hokage nudged him to stand up straight.

“Hold still,” Tsunade ordered. She could see the differences now. Except for his height and eyes, most of the changes were rather subtle. Naruto's hair was longer, though not excessively. It had lost the sea-urchin look, though it remained spiky and untamable. It was a darker shade of blonde as well, with the roots being almost a light auburn color. The look was pretty good on him and was barely noticeable unless she was up close. Curiously, she ran her hand through the thick hair (which felt oddly similar to fur) and accidentally exposed one ear tip. She stared a little closer and noticed it was slightly elongated. Again, it was a barely noticeable difference, as the ear didn't even form a point. Still…

“Say `ah,'” The Fifth ordered in her best doctor's voice. Naruto stared at her in puzzlement for a moment, then shrugged and did so.

Tsunade nodded, her suspicions confirmed as she got a full look at the slightly longer and sharper canines. She bumped the teen's chin with her hand, signaling that he could close his mouth. His face had lost most of its roundness and softness. He had a sharper look to his features and a broader chin than she remembered. He still looked young, but the change a year had brought about was startling. He was growing into a rugged, handsome young man. If Sasuke wasn't careful, he was going to lose all his fan-girls in a few years. Err, the ones he had left anyways.

Frowning a little, Tsunade noticed that the kitsune's cheek marks were different. Each slash was sharper and darker in appearance. They were noticeably longer too, with each running down to just under his jaw-line. It was a pretty obvious change, but the Fifth doubted anyone who didn't personally know Naruto would even notice.

Not that it would matter to the villagers or the Council, the Sannin grimly thought to herself.

All in all, it was still Naruto's body, but she could see Kyuubi underneath in places. Tsunade still wasn't sure if that was a good thing. Perhaps the biggest change of all was the way the teen carried himself. Naruto stood with a confidence he'd never had before. It wasn't the blustery, over-bearing ego of a fool and neither was it the cold, conceited arrogance of a genius. Naruto held the aura of one who had been properly seasoned through experience and was confident in both his strengths and faults. He gave the impression of being prepared by being unprepared. It was remarkably like Shikamaru's self-confidence. Naruto certainly didn't have that before he left, even after Jiraiya's training. He must have picked it up during his travels. Judging from the odd headband he'd been wearing, he had probably hired himself out to another village and performed missions for them. Unfortunately, that wasn't exactly allowed in Konoha, especially considering he was a missing-nin.

Which left one question to be asked.

“Are you a threat to Konoha?” Tsunade asked seriously as she stared into Naruto's incandescent eyes.

“Yes,” The kitsune replied in an equally serious tone, his odd eyes remaining unblinking as he returned the Hokage's firm stare with one of his own. “I am a threat to anyone in this village. Am I an enemy? No.”

Kage and half-demon stared at each other for several long moments. Naruto hid nothing in his eyes. Was he half-demon? Yes. Was he a force to be reckoned with? Absolutely. Was he a threat to Konoha? He was a threat to anyone. Was he the Leaf's enemy? His eyes replied, `Only if they wish me to be.' There was no malice and no pleading in the dark irises. Naruto was allowing the Godaime to see whatever she wanted to see, the good with bad. Her respect for the teen grew. It took a lot of balls and willpower to allow one's self to be read with such brutal honesty, especially after being trained since childhood to be emotionless.

Naruto wasn't lying.

Tsunade let out a sigh of relief and leaned back against her desk.

“Good. No matter how poorly this village has treated you, I'm glad you haven't sunk to their level or lower,” She said as she watched the teen in front of her.

“I'm not a weakling, Baa-chan. Butchering a bunch of simple minded fools would only prove that I'm a weak coward. I have a lot of flaws, but weakness and cowardice aren't on the list,” Naruto replied with a level and serious tone.

“I would have thought it'd be hard to resist, considering you have the Kyuubi's instincts,” The Hokage stated as she watched the teen curiously for his reaction.

The kitsune snorted and said, “The Kyuubi detested weaklings on a level that you can't imagine. Naruto held little sympathy for weaker people, but it never entered his mind to actually harm them just because of that. It evens out to me just ignoring them, unless they try something stupid against me.”

Tsunade calmly replied, “Well, that's part of the reason for the Sandaime's law. It's mostly to protect you, but it's also in place to avoid nasty situations where someone would actually try to go after you.”

“Well, the old coot had a few good ideas in his life,” Naruto said with a cheeky wink, getting a light chuckle from the Fifth. His attitude turned serious as he said, “I suppose you want to hear my story, don't you?”

“You did promise and you always keep your promises, right?” Tsunade said with a slight grin. It faded as she considered something. “You do, right?”

“Kyuubi was a vicious embodiment of fire and rage, but it was still a demon of its word,” The kitsune replied with a firm nod. He grinned a little evilly and said, “It just never gave it and avoided the whole oath-keeping problem entirely.”

The Fifth snorted in amusement. She walked around to the back of her desk and sat down in her chair. Leaning back, she said, “Well, might as well get started.”

“Where do you want me to begin?” Naruto asked as he sat down in one of the chairs in front of the Hokage's desk. His eyes traced over the still open Forbidden Scroll for a moment, before he met Tsunade's gaze again.

“I don't even want to know why you were reading this,” The Godaime grumbled as she rolled the scroll up and tied it closed. She set it on the floor next to her chair and contemplated something for a moment. Curiously, she asked, “How did you ever get the Kyuubi to agree to the merging? I would've thought the demon would try to avoid such a thing at all costs.”

Naruto got a far away look in his dark-blue eyes and stared at the desk in front of him. The silence dragged out for several minutes before he finally focused on Tsunade again. The Fifth was taken aback by the sheer intensity in his eyes. She couldn't even begin to describe the emotion the kitsune was displaying.

“Do you have any idea...any idea what it's like to live for thousands upon thousands of years and to suddenly know you're going to end?” Naruto said in a low and slightly ragged voice. “Not die. End. No heaven; no hell. Just oblivion. That's what the Kyuubi faced. It decided that if the choice was between not existing or becoming part of a new being, it would take the route that at least had a chance.”

“…I don't understand,” Tsunade finally whispered as she stared at the teen (who was not a teenager by any means) in shock.

“I know. Feel glad you don't. I wouldn't wish such a terrible dilemma upon most of my enemies, let alone on you,” The half-demon responded. He leaned back in his chair and let out a sighed as he briefly rubbed his eyes. “I suppose I should explain why the Kyuubi was in such peril.”

“That might be a good start,” Tsunade said, still rather stunned.

“Okay, first I should say that the seal the Yondaime made had an extra function to it,” Naruto continued as he let his hands drop to the armrests. “Long story short, every time I drew chakra from the Kyuubi, the seal tore out a hunk of the fox's essence and destroyed it in my inner coils. Eventually, the Kyuubi would run out of chakra and be destroyed completely. If a demon dies normally, their soul is sent to hell where they reform. In theory, they can escape the underworld and come back to the Earth-plane, though it might take them centuries to pull it off. Yondaime knew that and he added that extra part to the seal to destroy the Kyuubi permanently. There was no escape for the fox, even if I died. Without my spirit to control the chakra, the seal would have free reign to destroy the Kyuubi using the last of my body's chakra.

“The Kyuubi is old. Very old. Oblivion might not bother some people, but to a creature that has seen so many years it's the worst possible punishment. The fox even considered being trapped in my soul as I passed on to the afterlife as a better alternative than simply ending. With that hanging over its head, it didn't take long for it to decide to go with the fusion plan.”

Tsunade stared at the `teen' for several long moments before she asked, “How old is Kyuubi? We never did learn much about it, aside from the fact that records exist that predate the fallen cities. It was one of those ancient catastrophes that plagued the ancients from time to time.”

“Old,” Naruto said firmly. “I can't accurately tell you its age, since the fox didn't really care about years, but I estimate it to be between four and seven hundred thousand years old. It ate mammoths and wooly rhinos for breakfast.”

“I had no idea it was so ancient. Err, manmosu? What the hell is that?” The Fifth asked with a stunned, then puzzled expression.

“An ancient, hairy elephant that went extinct about thirteen thousand years ago. Never mind, it's not important,” Naruto said at the Hokage's disbelieving stare.

“Oookay. Anyways…What was the Kyuubi like? It couldn't have been as blindly savage as it seemed, considering you're not trying to kill everyone,” Tsunade asked. She was more curious about the effects the demon's personality had on Naruto's, than what the beast was actually like. She really didn't want the blonde to start tearing people apart in the street if she could avoid it.

“Surprisingly intellectual,” The kitsune answered. He grinned at Tsunade's strange expression and said, “The Kyuubi enjoyed learning a great deal. It knew thousands of jutsu, just because it was curious and watched humans go about their lives. It didn't just limit its experiences to fighting either. It read through entire libraries all across the world. The few humans it came close to respecting were Shakespeare, Twain, and Poe. It thought Dante was an overblown, self-righteous ass though and leveled several cities in Europe in retaliation. The again, Kyuubi has actually been to Hell, so reading about some idiot human's perception of it probably pissed it off.”

“I have no idea who or what you're talking about,” Tsunade deadpanned. Those names weren't even part of their language, for Kami's sake.

“Long dead authors from other lands far away,” Naruto replied, mimicking the Hokage's expression. He ruined it when he crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out. The Fifth found herself laughing, despite her confusion at the teen's odd words.

“So the Kyuubi was a closet book-fetish. You never can tell with the evil types,” Tsunade drawled in amusement. Her expression turned serious as she asked, “Do you know why it attacked Konoha? In fifteen years, we still have no idea why it came after us. It'd be nice to finally answer that puzzle.”

Naruto got a thoughtful expression as he tapped his chin. He seemed to find the right response and looked back at the Hokage.

“I have no idea.”

Tsunade's face-vault nearly broke her desk in half. After she pulled her head off the desk and peeled a mission report of her cheek, the Fifth glared at the kitsune and demanded, “What the hell do you mean `you don't know', brat?”

“Hey, I'm older than you, hag!” Naruto yelled back indignantly.

“Moron!”

“Witch!

“Dumb-ass!”

“Old lady!”

Tsunade had just leaped over the desk and grabbed Naruto by his collar to clock him over the head, when the door suddenly opened.

“Hokage-sama! Are you alright?! We heard…Uh, what're you doing?” The guard said as he stared at the Fifth.

Tsunade realized she had one hand clenched in mid-air and the other drawn back, ready to punch seemingly nothing. Naruto was nowhere in sight.

“What the hell does it look like?!” The Godaime roared, dropping her hands to her sides. She quickly ushered the man out of the room before he could process her statement. “Now get out until I call for you!”

Slamming the doors closed, Tsunade turned and stared across her office. She slowly walked forward and thought about the best hiding place for the kitsune to run to. She slowly circled her desk and pulled the chair away.

“You've gotten good,” The Fifth stated as she stared at the square space under her desk where her legs usually went.

“Thanks,” Naruto said as he relaxed his arms and legs. He'd been bracing himself against the wood to stay off the floor and out of sight behind the front of the desk. He crawled out and calmly dusted himself off as he stood up to his full height. “I had a lot of practice hiding and figuring out ways to quickly escape this past year.”

“Why?” Tsunade asked curiously. “We weren't hunting you and I don't think Orochimaru was after you either.”

“Akatsuki,” The kitsune grimly replied. The Hokage felt a pang of fear for the teen, before she reminded herself that he was home and safe. Whatever bad situations he'd been in, he'd obviously managed to escape. “I had a few run-ins with them while I was gone. Two times they almost had me.”

“Really...Tell me about them,” The Fifth ordered, looking every bit the Hokage she was as she considered the threat that Akatsuki posed.

“Well, the first time was in northern Wind Country and I was…”

***

Naruto hit the ground and rolled, coming back to his feet immediately and running without any real slow down in his speed. His adrenaline ran high and his breath came rapidly as he raced through the rocky forest., There were old lava flows eroded by the winds and pine trees all over the place this far north in Wind Country. It provided him plenty of cover as he moved (he shuddered to think what would happen had he been further south and in the open desert,) but the rocks cut up his feet as he moved. He had yet to replace his sandals and Gaara hadn't brought a spare pair with him. His healing factor kept it from being a serious problem, but it still slowed him down some.

Behind him, he heard a familiar noise and dove to the ground, skidding along on his stomach as a massive sheet of metal slashed through the air (and trees) just overhead. Dammit, he was not ready for a fight like this yet!

Naruto was up and running down the slope again before the sliced trees had even begun to fall.

Panting, he frantically looked around for a place to hide or at least take cover. Though the ground was littered in rocks, they were large enough to break his toes or cut his heels open as he ran, but not big enough to duck behind. The blonde boy cursed as he accidentally smashed his foot into a section of basalt sticking up out of the ground hard enough to crush the last three toes on his foot. The pain made him stumble and he continued his path down the large ridge in an undignified roll, rather than a run.

Oh well. Whatever worked.

Naruto didn't see the ravine coming until after he rolled right off the edge of it. It wasn't very deep and he bounced off the side and continued his painful trip a couple hundred feet down the slide-like gully. He finally landed on his back with an impact that knocked the breath out of him. For several moments, all he could do was lie there, until the distant rumbling of trees crashing into the ground reminded him of the situation. He struggled to his feet and moved off through the underbrush. Now he could afford to move a little slower as the unexpected rolling trip had put a decent amount of distant between him and the cloaked ninja pursuing him. He suddenly came to a dead stop and dropped behind a fallen log as he heard something odd.

Voices?

Naruto carefully pushed his way through a large scrub bush and peered through. His eyes widened as he saw a four man Sand-nin team walking along a small road that was little more than a beaten path. They looked like decent level ninjas, with at least one jounin and a couple chuunin, but the kitsune knew they'd be no match for an Akatsuki agent, even if they were inclined to help him. So what to do?

A loud cracking sound of a tree falling several dozen yards away caused the Sand-nins to divert their attention back down the road. Naruto took the opportunity to silently move out of the brush, grab the shinobi with the weakest chakra (who was luckily the closest to him), and haul him back into the underbrush without a sound. He quickly knocked out the nin with a well placed blow to the back of the head and stripped the other boy of his outfit. The kitsune quickly donned the gear and focused on the nin's facial features and reddish-brown hair color.

Not a full minute had passed since the Sand-nin had been grabbed when another Sand-nin that looked identical to the first stepped back out and took the original's position.

Naruto fell into line as the Sand jounin motioned for them to continue their trek at a cautious pace. The kitsune wasn't planning on staying with the Wind Country shinobi for long and five minutes later he was already looking of to the sides of the path for a place in the woods to dodge into. He had just found a decent looking side path through the scrub brush, when a large tree collapsed ten feet in front of them, blocking their advance. The Sand-nins immediately leapt backwards into defensive positions. They jerked in surprise when another tree fell to cut the road off from the back. Naruto deliberately acted like a panicking genin, while he was quickly running through his escape options.

His thoughts were broken when his eyes fell on the first tree and the large, cloaked man who stood on it.

Koutetsu Tsurugi, to his credit, didn't posture or gloat. The Cloud missing-nin simply raised his giant sword to the sky and said two words.

“Touken Kouu.”

`Cold-Steel Rain?!' Naruto thought in fear as a mirror of the sword's blade shot out of the first and into the air above them. The blade exploded, with the shards shooting downwards far faster than the kitsune or the Sand-nins could dodge. Knowing he was going to be hit anyways, Naruto brought his arms up to cover his head rather than running. Cold steel slammed into his arms, chest, and stomach with several loud, meaty thuds. He fell over to the sounds of the Sand shinobi's screams as they were cut into pieces. He hit the ground face down and repressed a moan of agony as the slivers were driven further into his body. A body collapsed right next to him, partially obscuring his form from the missing-nin's view. In the silence that followed, Naruto heard the sounds of the large man rolling the first body he came to and whacking it with his fist several times.

“Not this one…” He heard the bald criminal grumble.

Shit, Tsurugi would know immediately he was alive when he got to him. Naruto almost panicked, frantically trying to think of a jutsu or a trick to save his skin. Shit, if only Gaara were here.

Wait… It would work, if he could do it in time. It might also kill him, but he had to take the risk.

A cold shot of adrenaline slicked its way up Naruto's spine when he heard the Akatsuki agent stop two feet away from him. The body in front of him was suddenly kicked over.

`Please don't check me yet, please!' The kitsune pray in his mind. It seemed to pay off, as Tsurugi knelt a couple feet next to him and turned his back to the boy as he checked the dead Sand-nin. Naruto didn't hesitate and as silently as possible, brought his hand together and formed six hands seals. He didn't dare whisper the words, so he mouthed them instead.

“Ese-Zetsumei.”

Tsurugi whirled around as he heard a slight scraping noise behind him. The Sand-nin was laying face down and completely motionless. With a frown, the large missing-nin rolled the body over. Unfamiliar features and red-brown hair indicated that this was not his quarry. The nin was obviously dead, with blank, unfocused eyes reflecting the overcast sky. Tsurugi reached down and checked for a pulse. He held his hand in front of the boy's face and didn't feel the slightest wisp of breath. A slight drizzle had started and as the missing-nin watched, a drop hit the boy's open eye. The Sand-nin didn't even twitch. He was definitely dead.

“Couldn't be the brat. He'd survive this,” The large man muttered as he stared at the corpse. If that was true, why did it feel like he was missing something?

The Akatsuki agent narrowed his eyes and thumped the boy's chest several times with his large fist. He shrugged when the nin's features didn't change. So much for a henge. He stood and walked off into the darkening woods, intent on finding the Kyuubi-vessel's trail.

Two minutes later, Naruto's entire body convulsed slightly as he took in air. Damn, that was weird. He'd been totally aware of his surroundings, but he couldn't react in any way. He'd invented the fake-death skill after Gaara described his false-sleep jutsu in detail. He'd scrounged up a similar skill the Kyuubi had memories of and modified it. He and Gaara had taken turns practicing it, with one ready to resuscitate the other in case they screwed up the jutsu. Fortunately, they hadn't had any close calls and both had mastered the skill quickly. They had thought it a handy ability to have, in case either of them was in a fight that went bad.

Or was attacked by an insane cult.

Naruto stood up, slowly looking around and making sure the missing-nin wasn't planning a surprise ambush. Not sensing anything, the kitsune immediately ran back the way he'd came. He stopped long enough to yank the largest metal splinters out of his chest and to chuck them in some bushes, before he kept running back up the slope. As he ran, his features slowly changed back to their normal appearance, though he kept the Sand outfit on. He cursed as his bare foot hit a stone again, the freshly healed toe bones breaking yet again. He hadn't been able to take the Sand-nin's sandals, as they were several sizes smaller than his.

Good thing Tsurugi missed that little detail.

***

“Wow…” Tsunade said as Naruto finished his story. “You got lucky.”

“I know. If it weren't for the fact that I'm a demon, I'd say I owe a couple deities some favors,” The kitsune said as he sipped some tea that the Hokage had smuggled in halfway through the story. “Anyways, I managed to backtrack and head north a day's travel. I was able to hide my tracks better that night and I got away scot-free for the most part.”

“I can't believe he missed you not wearing any shoes,” Tsunade muttered as she watched the teen.

“Hey, your guard missed the pile of clothes in the middle of your office, so I guess an Akatsuki could slip up over a detail like that,” Naruto replied with a shrug.

“Hmm, good point,” The Fifth muttered as she glared at the door. Shaking her head a little, she looked back at the blonde. “Tell me about that jutsu you used.”

“Ese-Zetsumei, or Fake-Death, uses subtle chakra blocks to halt the heart, stop the lungs, and block any direct control over the body the brain has,” The half-demon promptly replied, not at all concerned about telling the Godaime his jutsu secrets. She was probably the only person he trusted absolutely with them, aside from Jiraiya perhaps. “The mind remains totally aware and the senses still work perfectly, though reacting to anything you see or feel is impossible. After you perform the jutsu, you can either use it immediately or `store' to use with a mental command later. That way you can drop dead without making any hand seals first. You release the jutsu mentally, though if you wait too long…”

“It's all over and you die for real,” Tsunade said, her sharp medical mind doing the proverbial math. “That would be a useful skill for medic-nins to have, considering how often they get overpowered in fights. How long can it be used for safely?”

“Even for a well trained shinobi, no longer than two minutes tops. I'd recommend a minute and fifteen seconds. By two minutes, you're to the point of blacking out so it's really pushing it at that point,” Naruto answered with a bit of a shrug.

“I hate to say it, but it could be a handy suicide tool for captured nins as well. Good thing Orochimaru doesn't know it,” The Hokage thoughtfully replied. Her sharp eyes focused on teen as she asked, “Well trained, huh? How long can you hold it for?”

“Eight minutes,” Naruto casually answered.

Tsunade nearly sputtered as she demanded, “How? Your healing factor gives you an advantage in most areas, but it probably eats up oxygen much faster than normal.”

“It does. That's why I figured out a way to burn ambient chakra in place of oxygen, which helps me extend my supply longer” The kitsune calmly replied. “I go through my reserves at an insane rate though. Eight minutes is how long I can go before I run out of chakra and oxygen.”

“It's that inefficient? Even after absorbing the Kyuubi's chakra?” The Fifth said with a surprised look on her face.

“I didn't absorb all the fox's chakra at once, Baa-chan. That would have overwhelmed and destroyed my body, though thanks for the vote of confidence,” Naruto said with an amused smile.

“How did you pull that off?” Tsunade asked.

Naruto tugged at the loose bandages dangling around his neck. He turned and lifted his hair off his neckline while pulling the gauze down.

“See it? During the ritual, I created a powerful seal to keep the fox's excess chakra in check and stored away,” He said. The Fifth stood up from her desk and walked over to the teen to stare at the marking he'd revealed. She could only see part of it, but from what was exposed it was a seal in the same weird language she and Jiraiya had encountered before.

“What is it?” Tsunade quietly asked as she reached out and traced the black and red markings on the boy's skin. There was no physical difference between his normal skin and the seal covered skin, except the color.

“Tenma Fuu. A demon seal. They're used to do…well, pretty much anything. In this case, it restrains all of the demon chakra I can't handle and keeps it from killing me. I release small amounts of it at a time when my body is ready to handle the power,” Naruto informed. He shivered slightly as the Hokage's cool fingers traced across his bandage warmed skin.

“I see. That explains an awful lot. How many do you have?” Tsunade asked as she stared at the odd marking.

“Six, each doing all sorts of things,” The kitsune answered.

“Six?! …Wait, wait. Grab your stuff. We're going to the hospital. I want to check them all out personally and have a less public place to do it in,” The Fifth said as she pulled the bandages back up. “Can you disguise yourself…Wait, how did you disguise yourself if you weren't using a henge?”

Naruto closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as he concentrated hard. As Tsunade watched, his face slowly changed shape. His hair darkened to black and became shinier. His face grew oval shaped and soft. His height increased several inches until he was slightly taller than the Fifth herself. His angular, male body grew curves and became slimmer. In less than a minute, a perfect replica of…Shizune sat in the chair in front of the Hokage. Err, perfect except for the fact that she was wearing Naruto's odd outfit.

The young `woman' stood and gave a foxy-grin that was unlike any expression the tranquil medic ever used normally. It was more than little unnerving.

“How the hell…? Shape-shifting?” Tsunade muttered as she inspected Naruto head to toe.

“How do you think a several hundred foot demon-fox spied on humans, Baa-chan?” The dark-haired woman said with an amused tone.

“Amazing. You're making a habit of surprising me, aren't you,” The Hokage rhetorically asked as she eyed the kitsune. “How does it work?”

“…does it work?” He was asking the dark-haired, copper-skinned man in front of him. The dusty wind blew the man's black hair and the tassels on his buckskin garments all about.

“Ha ha ha! The great Lord of the East is asking me for help with a simple skill? Hahaha!” The man's wild laughter sounded eerily like howling yips.

“Quit being so foolish. You're a Lord as well, if memory serves. Act your station. Are you a wolf or a hyena?” He asked the strange fellow in front of him.

“Bah! Who wants to be either? As one you're always grouchy and biting at things and as the other you're a creature that takes great delight in rolling around in your own shit! What a wonderful choice you present, Fox! I select the invisible option, the unseen answer, the undiscoverable path! I remain me, myself, my own, the wonderful and great! Hahahaha!” The copper-skinned man loudly declared, his grin baring his shiny white teeth. He turned and spun around in a circle with his arms stretched out.

“Will you stop yelling? My ears aren't just for show you know. We're the only ones out here for miles,” He grumbled and gestured to the empty, rocky desert that surrounded them as far as the eye could see.

“I always wondered about those ears of yours…” The copper-skinned man muttered in reply, scratching his chin in thought. “So how are you in human form if you can't change shape?”

“A complex illusion. It's rather uncomfortable and I can't use it for long before it falls apart. Your ability on the other hand, is nigh permanent from what I can tell and also lets you use the humans' skills,” He said as more dust kicked up between them.

“And what do I get out of this, Nine-tails?” The grinning man asked.

“My assistance in pulling that prank on the Northern Lord that you've been dying to do, Trickster,” He replied with a fox-grin.

“Ohhhh…Oooohhh…! Oooohhhhaaaahahahahahaha!” The man started laughing at the top of his lungs. The strange fellow started dancing around in circles, acting giddy with joy.

“I take it we have a deal, Coyote?” He dryly asked as the other man bounced about.

“Ahem, yes…Definitely. Absolutely. Hee…Hee…Haahahahahahah!” The man howled in laughter as a dark cyclone ripped up around him, completely engulfing the odd person. The twister grew in size till it was fifty feet tall and a pair of angular, amber eyes stared out of it.

“Come Fox! Follow me south to the lands of my humans! There I'll show you the art of Skin Walking!”

With that, Coyote spun off across the desert, loud howling laughter trailing in the youkai's wake.

He didn't hesitate and reverted to his natural, enormous canine form. It bounded across the desert, following its insane friend's laughter the whole way. The bright sun and rugged winds felt nice on its fu-

“Naruto!” Tsunade yelled into his (her?) face as she shook the kitsune's shoulders.

“Wha-What? Baa-chan?” The dark-haired woman asked in confusion. She shook her head and cleared her thoughts. “Oh yeah, I remember now.”

“What was that? You blanked out for a few seconds there,” The Hokage asked, worried at the slightly dazed look in Naruto's eyes.

“Just a little trip down memory lane,” Naruto replied, shaking her head again and causing her dark hair to fly about. Tsunade caught a lock of it in her fingers and marveled at the accuracy of the texture. It felt as silky as the real Shizune's hair did.

“Does it have to with this? This is incredibly accurate,” The Fifth said.

“Yeah, kind of. I'll explain it a little later when you look at my seals,” The kitsune answered.

“Okay. How does this work? You never told me,” Tsunade asked as she stepped back.

“Kyuubi learned it from an old friend some time ago. He couldn't master the highest-level, but no one else could besides its friend. Anyways, it was rather simple skill for the fox to pull off, considering his body was just loose dust and matter held together by chakra,” Naruto said as she brushed the black hair out of her eyes.

“And you? How easy is it for you to do?” The Hokage asked, getting the feeling the boy…girl…whatever… wasn't telling her something.

“It's a lot harder for me to do, since I have a real flesh and blood body. It has a bit of a weakness when it comes to my body,” The half-demon replied with a shrug.

“And that is?” Tsunade prompted.

“It hurts like hell! The chakra forcibly changing my body is excruciating, especially when I do it fast,” Naruto informed. “The faster I do it, the more it hurts. My body also becomes extra-sensitive while I'm in a different shape, so I can't take as much pain as I normally can.”

“I see. I guess everything has a weakness somewhere. Well, this explains all the legends about shape-shifting foxes,” The Godaime muttered to herself. She shrugged it off and said, “Alright, get your stuff together and put on the ANBU uniform. We'll just walk over to the… Naruto?”

“Yeah?” The dark-haired woman replied. She looked up to see Tsunade holding out the ANBU mask to her.

“Where did you get this?” The Fifth asked, with an odd note in her voice.

“Oh…I stole it off some dork I beat up when I was close to the village wall,” Naruto answered with a shrug. She took the wooden mask and slid it on. “Why?”

The painted cat face really didn't do her (him?) justice.

“Oh, no reason.”

***

“Hold up!” Kakashi ordered suddenly. Ino stopped instantly behind him and peered around in the woods, looking for the threat. They were less than half a mile from Konoha, so she didn't really think there'd be much of a threat this close to home. Still, it paid to be careful, even on home turf.

“What is it?” She muttered to him, keeping her voice low.

“I heard something. Over there,” The copy-nin said as he gestured to the bushes on their right. He made a hand sign for the genin to go up and over, while he'd tackle through. He held up two fingers, then dropped one half a second later. Ino tensed and the instant the second finger dropped, she was up and into the branches overhead.

Kakashi smoothly moved through the brush, a kunai already drawn for each hand. He passed through without a sound and caught a glimpse of color on the other side. He lunged, bringing his kunai to bear as he prepared to lay open another ninja's throat.

…And screeched to a halt at the odd spectacle in front to him.

Hmm, it wasn't everyday he saw an ANBU tied up with thirty pounds of rope, hanging upside-down from a tree, and wearing nothing but his underwear.

Ino landed silently on the other side of the man, with her pretty blonde features scrunched up at the bizarre sight. Kakashi made a slight gesture, to which the genin gave slight shake of her head. The copy-ninja relaxed with the knowledge that there were no enemy nins about. He walked towards the man and sheathed one kunai. Casually, he slashed the rope, allowing the nin to drop to the ground.

“Here, let me get that for you,” Kakashi said as he yanked the rope away from the man's mouth.

“I quit! I can't take it anymore! Keep the high pay! It's not worth it!” The ANBU said before he degenerated into senseless sobbing.

“Err…Okay, you do that. Ino-chan?” The Copy-ninja said as he inclined his head towards the man. The genin frowned a bit and her eyes turned teal for several moments.

“I can't make any sense of his thoughts. He's having a mental breakdown or something, but it's not anything dangerous,” Ino replied with a shake of her head after a couple moments.

Both Leaf-nins paused and stared at the man as he mumbled something about `Sandals of Doom' and `Schoolteachers from Hell.'

“Uh…Yeah. We'll leave him tied up till we drop him off at the ER. Maybe they can sedate him or something,” Kakashi calmly said as he stood upright and put his last kunai away. Ino's eyes turned blue again as she leaned down and hauled the ANBU upright.

“You want to take him or should I?” She calmly asked, keeping the hysterical Leaf-nin steady on his feet.

“I'll take him. The hospital is on the way to the Tower anyways and I can ask if Tsunade-sama is about while I'm there. Someone's probably impersonating an ANBU, so she should know about it immediately. You can do whatever you like for tonight. We'll meet up tomorrow for missions or training at the center,” Kakashi said as he reached over and hefted the man up across his shoulder. He gave a two fingered wave and took off through the trees, presumably to the hospital.

Ino stared after her sensei for a moment. Why did this situation feel so odd, yet familiar in a way? It shouldn't be familiar, considering weird shit didn't happened too often around here. Not since Naruto left anyways. She frowned slightly. What was it she had said that one time?

You could always tell when Naruto was in town…

“…Haha. Yeah right. If he was going to come back, then he'd wait till the…Oh shit…” The genin trailed off as she dug out her mission statement and looked at the date. April 21. She quickly tallied up the days that had passed on her fingers. Three days travel, two days spying, one day reporting, and four days return trip. Ten days. Today was the first of May.

He'd promised to come back today.

Where could she find him if he was back? A single B Class missing-nin couldn't just wander about anywhere he damn well pleased in the village. Well, unless he got his status altered and was reinstated. But how would he…The Hokage. He'd have to see Tsunade-sama first. Rumor had it the two were really close. At the very least the Fifth let Naruto get away with crap that even the Third hadn't tolerated. She might let him off the hook. So where would he go after that?

Ino cursed. She had no idea what Naruto liked to do in his free time. All she really knew about him was that he was determined and hyper. And he had an odd obsession with Hokages. Hmm, maybe Iruka-sensei would know. But she shouldn't get the man's hopes up, just in case the fox-boy wasn't back. Those two were close to each other. In fact, when they were in the academy, Naruto was always begging their teacher to take him out for ramen after class.

Wait… Ramen. Naruto was obsessed with ramen, almost as badly as becoming Hokage. Sakura had complained about it several times, now that she thought about it. Ino had no idea why the blonde boy was obsessed with the stuff, but there were certainly weirder habits one could have. The girl mentally shuddered at the thought of Naruto with a blonde bowl-cut and bushy eyebrows.

Some days one could only stop and thank the Kami. Life could have taken a far more terrifying path.

Ino sighed. Well, what the hell should she do now? There were dozens of ramen bars in Konoha and she had no idea where Naruto's favorite was. Hell, she didn't even know where he lived, let alone his usual haunts. Hmm, she could either go searching across the city or find and ask Iruka-sensei. Of course, the chuunin would be suspicious if she asked directly and she didn't want to get her former teacher's hopes up in case Naruto was dea…Was not here. That meant she'd have to go on a wild goose chase across the village. Her Bloodline would help normally, but she's never sensed Naruto's thoughts before and Konoha was a pretty big place.

`Well, no time to get started like the present,' The genin thought in annoyance as she leapt into the trees and headed for the village walls.

Damn. That blonde idiot had better be worth the trouble.

***

“Alright, I locked it so you're safe to change back,” Tsunade said as she secured the latch on the door. Naruto sighed in relief as she pulled off her ANBU outfit.

“Finally. I hate being stuck in a shift,” The kitsune grumbled. She grit her teeth as her flesh rippled and returned to its original state. The now male teen cracked his neck from side to side, making sure all the bones were in place. He shook himself all over, like a canine, and looked over at the Hokage curiously. “Now what?”

“Hop up there,” Tsunade ordered as she walked over to the counters. Naruto glanced at the medical examination table-bed and shrugged. He calmly sat on it, the paper covering making a crinkly sound as he relaxed his weight. He idly glanced about the doctor's room. Though he'd never seen one to know the difference, it was all pretty standard stuff. Weird medical machines, counters and cabinets and jars full of odd stuff, and the ever-constant anatomy posters stuck to the walls. He looked over at the Fifth as she opened a blank medical file and started jotting down some info.

“What're you doing, Baa-chan?” The half-demon asked curiously.

“Starting a doctor's file for you. You've never visited one before and there are only three reports of you ever going to the hospital. It wasn't enough to really document thoroughly, so they never started one for you,” Tsunade replied as she filled out the standard patient information. She paused at next of kin, then shrugged and put herself and Iruka. She hesitated, then grudgingly added Jiraiya. Pervert he may be, but no one looked out for the blonde like he did. She glanced back and asked, “I'm going to be your primary physician with Shizune as the secondary. That alright with you?”

“Uh…Whatever you think is best,” Naruto replied, having no idea what to do as far as doctors went. Obviously, the Kyuubi would be little help either. “Why do you want a file though? Not to whine or anything, but it's not like any doctors would treat me besides you and Shizune-chan anyways.”

“I know. I'm classifying this when I'm done and sealing it in my private records. If anything happens to me, then Shizune will take over as your physician. She'll know what to expect with you after she reads this. It'll also help me keep track of all the changes the Kyuubi made to you,” The Hokage replied as she finished filling the form out. She didn't bother with liabilities or anything. She had more than enough money to pay for any of his medical costs.

“Err, okay, but I doubt I'll ever need a check-up with my healing factor. Besides, healing jutsu doesn't really work on me anyways,” Naruto casually responded.

“What?” Tsunade asked as she turned around and stared the boy. “What are you talking about?”

“I call it `Akuma no Seitou.' The Devil's Due. There's so much demon chakra in my system now after the merging that it interferes with any healing jutsu. The chakra heals me even as it prevents outside healing. Gaara has the same problem when he uses Shukaku's power,” The kitsune explained with a slight shrug.

“That's…very bad. Is there anyway around it?” The Hokage asked as her jaw dropped slightly. Damn, it had never occurred to her that the demon chakra might interfere if it was present in high enough quantities.

“Well, if I exhausted all or most of my demon chakra, then they'd work on me. But really, Baa-chan, don't worry about it. I don't need much medical attention,” Naruto said with a slight half-grin.

“What do you mean? You're healing factor is good, but it's not that good,” Tsunade replied with a skeptical frown.

“Was,” The kitsune said. At the Fifth's look, he pointed at the counter and asked, “Hand me a scalpel, will you?”

Tsunade gave the teen an odd look, then complied. As she handed the tool to Naruto, the blonde grinned and undid the bandages around his left arm.

“Watch,” He said. Then, to the Hokage's surprise, he drove the blade deep into his palm and ran it down his fore-arm to the elbow. A faint wince was his only reaction to the injury. Blood immediately ran out of the wound and onto the bed.

“What the hell are you-” Tsunade began as she started to rush forward. She stopped when the boy held up his unharmed hand.

“I said watch. Trust me, it's fine,” Naruto replied as he held his arm out for inspection. Tsunade didn't understand what she was supposed to be looking for, until she realized that the wound had already stopped bleeding. She watched in amazement as the kitsune ran his fingers along the blood trail, revealing perfectly unbroken skin. He idly flicked his hand, sending the collected blood to the floor with a splat. “See? It takes a lot to even slow me down.”

“Amazing,” The Hokage muttered as she grabbed her clipboard and wrote down what she had seen. “That couldn't have been more than six seconds to heal a wound about half an inch deep and over a foot long.”

“I also clean dishes and chop vegetables at three different speed settings,” The blonde teen said with a wink. At the Fifth's blank stare, he sighed and said, “Well, I suppose I should thank the Kami you haven't experienced the horror of infomercials.”

“What're…Never mind,” Tsunade said with a shake of her head. She turned her attention back to the open file on her lap. “Any other side-effects of the Devil's Due?”

“I can't receive or perform healing jutsu as long as there's as much or more demon chakra than human chakra inside me,” Naruto stated calmly, thought there was a slight hint of annoyance in his tone.

“Really? You can't perform medical jutsu either?” The Fifth asked as she looked up from the notes she was writing down.

“No and it really pisses me considering I finally have the chakra control for it. I did a big favor for a medic-nin I ran into awhile back in exchange for some basic training in healing and it turned out I wasted my time. The strongest medical skill I can use is a low-level diagnostic jutsu. Aside from that, the only other thing I can do is first aid,” The kitsune grumbled, the frustration obvious in his voice.

“Your chakra control is that good?” Tsunade asked in disbelief. Naruto had some plusses as a ninja, but fine control over his energy was not one of them. Quite the opposite, in fact. Kakashi, Jiraiya, and even that weird jounin Ebisu had each commented at one time or another about the boy's terrible control. Kyuubi's presence had downsides, it seemed.

“Yeah, but believe me it took a lot of training. I've worked my ass off the last eight months,” Naruto answered matter-of-factly.

“Hmm, tell me about it later. For right now, I want to see all the seals you have and what they do,” The Hokage said as she finished jotting her notes down on the Devil's Due.

“Alright, but you asked for it,” The half-demon said as he took off his vest and t-shirt. He had apparently bandaged every part of his body, even under his clothes. He found the end of the gauze strips and began the tedious task of unwinding them from his chest and arms. Tsunade watched, her eyes slowly growing wider as more and more of the teen's skin was revealed. When his entire torso was revealed and the cotton hanging loosely from his waist, the Fifth could do little more than stare.

“Well, what do you think?” Naruto asked as Tsunade slowly got up and circled him somewhat to take in all the exposed markings. The boy had a seal on his back, his upper right arm, his inner left forearm, two on each side of his upper chest, and a shattered spiral mark on his abdomen that could only have been part of the original seal the Yondaime used. It didn't escape her notice that all evidence of the attack one year ago was completely gone.

“I think you look like you were kidnapped and vandalized by a mad tattoo artist,” The Hokage dryly remarked as she reached out and traced the seals on the kitsune's upper right arm. The Fifth smiled a little when she noticed her necklace hanging around the boy's neck. He obviously valued it, if he his it underneath his bandages. She sighed and said, “Alright, I'll sketch them and you tell me what they do, okay?”

“If you want,” The blonde teen replied with a shrug. He honestly didn't care much about the issue.

“Let's see…We'll start with the big one on your back, since it looks the most important,” Tsunade said as she stepped behind him and began to draw the seal on her clipboard. It vaguely resembled a compass-star, albeit one that was black with red highlights marked across it. It ran from his neckline to the middle of his back and across each shoulder. It was pretty evil looking and the red colors would occasionally glow slightly. Like the other seals she'd encountered, it seemed to all be made up of tiny little jagged slashes and dots. It was definitely the same language as the others she'd seen.

“That's the master seal. I call it the Jouten Irikuchi. Heaven's Gate. The Kyuubi's chakra is constantly trying to merge completely with mine. This seal restrains it and the fox's memories, letting me absorb them over time rather than all at once,” Naruto said as the Fifth quickly drew a general picture of the seal. “If I didn't block it all, the chakra would burn me alive and the memories would crush the human side of my personality.”

“Interesting. So even with your Bloodline Unlimiter you still can't handle the Kyuubi's chakra,” Tsunade asked as she put the finishing touches on the drawing.

“There's only so much a human body can handle at once, Baa-chan. The Kyuubi was powerful. Very powerful. I've only absorbed a sliver of its full power and even that small portion has made me several times stronger than I used to be,” The blonde teen answered the Hokage. He waited patiently for her to finish scribbling down her notes.

“Not really surprising, in all honesty. Not even Yondaime and Gamabunta could do more than lightly wound the fox and they were the strongest pair this land has seen for close to a century,” The Fifth muttered, mostly to herself as she finished writing. As she was staring at the seal on Naruto's back, she noticed something odd.

“What are these for?” She asked as she traced one of the thin, black and red lines that extended from the large seal and out across his body.

“I called it the master seal not only because it holds all that power, but also because it controls all the other seals,” Naruto commented. “Some of the seals need constant demon chakra and since I have a large reserve I can't use directly, I just connected them all to the Gate of Heaven. The master seal rejects any other seal that touches my skin as well, unless it's carefully customized to match it. It reacts to foreign seals rather…painfully. Maybe even lethally. Heh, old Snake-Freak will get a nasty surprise if he ever tries to give me one of his lame curse seals.”

“And all the other seals are connected to it…” Tsunade said as she wrote the words down. She glanced up and wryly remarked, “We can only hope he tries then. Next seal?”

“Manako no Seishin. The Mind's Eye,” The kitsune answered, while reaching up and parting the hair on the back of his head. Tsunade could barely make out the dark and red line through the thick, blonde fuzz.

“I can't see enough to draw it, so just tell me what it does,” The Hokage ordered as she walked back around and sat on the standard rolling stool that was present in all doctor's offices.

“It let's me search through the Kyuubi's memories like they're one big library,” Naruto responded. “Like I said earlier, my mind can't handle seven hundred thousand years of memory all at once. That's why I don't know the reason for the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha. This seal let's me search through and pick out individual memories. It also merges them with my mind once I'm done re-experiencing them, so I'm slowly absorbing it all over time. It also has a really annoying function that the fox put in.

“To make sure our personalities were balanced, the Kyuubi set up thousands of memories to be absorbed immediately. It also set up hundreds more with little triggers linked to them. If I see or hear something familiar enough to trigger one of those, it immediately sets off the memory and forces me to experience it right then and there. I blank out for a few seconds and can't react to anything. It's annoying and kind of dangerous, `cause it leaves me open to attack.”

“Wait, that's what you did in my office. I said something that set off your memory?” Tsunade said, as she glanced up from the open file.

“Yeah. It was just some weird memory of a crazy spirit Kyuubi used to know,” The kitsune replied, dismissing it with a shrug.

“Oh, I see. Well, if the distractions haven't gotten you killed in a year, then I guess I shouldn't worry too much about it,” The Godaime said. “So tell me about your other seals. What's that weird one on your arm?”

“This? Jigoku no Kagi. Hell's Key,” Naruto said, as he moved his left arm. On the inner forearm, just below the elbow was a large, one-lined spiral seal. Looking closer, Tsunade noticed that it too was made up of small jagged marks. The spiral was entirely made out of red dots, though she soon realized that the three outermost marks were blue-white and the five innermost marks were black.

“Each red dot represents one hundredth the Kyuubi's total chakra,” The half-demon remarked, anticipating the Fifth's question before she voiced it. “The three blue ones show that I've absorbed that part of the fox's chakra. That's basically what this seal does. Activating it releases the lock for one unit of the Kyuubi's chakra, letting it merge with me. This is how I absorb its chakra over time.”

“And the five dark marks?” Tsunade asked, briefly halting her sketching to poke the center of the seal with her finger.

“Remember the effects of the Yondaime's seal?” Naruto asked rhetorically. “Those five marks represent the part of the fox that's been permanently destroyed. That demon chakra is gone for good.”

“Oh, okay,” The Hokage muttered as she jotted down her notes on it. “Next?”

“Err, I guess the Namami Yakedo or the Flesh Burn,” The kitsune said. He pointed at a seal on the outside of his upper right arm. It looked vaguely like three wavy `S' lines connected at their ends.

“Flesh burn?” Tsunade repeated in a sharp tone.

“No, no, relax. It's not as serious as it sounds,” Naruto said, holding his hands up in a placating manner. As the Hokage calmed her medical instincts, he continued, “The cultists…sorry, Akatsuki were tracking me using demon seals. It's normally kind of tricky to track someone using the seals, but if they ever got a sample of my blood they could narrow my location down within a couple meters. There are also other, nastier things that can be done with a part-demon's blood, so I made this seal to destroy any that left my body whenever I get injured. Any blood or body part that separates from my body for more than a few minutes destroys itself with the leftover chakra still inside it.”

Tsunade stared at him for a moment, then glanced down at the floor. Sure enough, the spot where the teen had flicked the blood off his hands earlier held nothing but a black soot mark. Curiously, the Hokage grabbed a paper towel and ran it through the black grit. It wiped away easily, being nothing more than a dark, fine silt. She examined the smear on the towel for a moment, before crumpling it up and pitching it.

“An unsettling, if creative way of avoiding such a threat. So the Akatsuki can use demon seals too?” The Fifth questioned, her brown eyes narrowed.

“Yeah, though I don't know how,” The teen said with a frown.

“Tell me about them,” Tsunade ordered, setting her file aside for the moment.

“Alright,” Naruto responded as he leaned back slightly. “Tenma Fuu are the demonic version of our seals. Ours mold and change the flow of chakra to change the properties of something, either a human or an object. Demon seals on the other hand, work by bending or breaking the laws of reality through the use of chaos. Because of that, they're extremely unstable and dangerous to use, even if they're crafted by a master. Only an extremely old and intelligent demon can make Tenma Fuu safely. Even then it takes them a great deal of time to construct them. On the plus side, by using chaos they can do damn near anything. Of course, on the downside they err…can do damn near anything, which is why they're so dangerous in the hands of an amateur.

“As for how the Akatsuki can use them, the only thing I can guess is that they have help from some demon faction. Kyuubi suspected as much and that was one of the reasons behind the fusion. I don't know how many seals they've given the cloak-freaks, but I definitely say it's a very bad thing that Akatsuki has their help. The only way a human can even use a demon seal is by having demon blood to begin with, signing a blood contract with one, or by harboring one in their bodies. None of those are good things, especially the last two. A contract opens up the human to demonic influence and corruption and I think you can guess the results of another demon-vessel running around.”

“No kidding,” Tsunade replied. She stared at the odd seals on Naruto's chest for a moment, before commenting, “Jiraiya reported a few months ago that he found a cabin in southwestern Fire Country that had strange markings similar to the demon seals we've encountered so far. The seals were everywhere. It looked like some sort of brutal ritual had been performed. Did you have anything to do with it?”

“No. This is the first time I've been in our territory since I left a year ago,” The kitsune said with a firm shake of his head. “I can only guess one of the cloak-freaks were up to something. It was probably Tsurugi. He may have wandered north from Wind Country after I tangled with him. We already know that he can use demons seals, though whether it's through a contract or a lineage I have no idea.”

“Right. And if he was a vessel, they would have used him for whatever plans they have by now,” The Hokage said. Her face grew thoughtful as she asked the teen, “Tell me, is there any chance that it could have been something else? I know it was the same language as a the demon seals, so someone must have been performing them, but could it have been for a benign reason?”

“Not a chance,” Naruto said with a firm shake of his head. “Only a powerful demon lord could make seals advanced enough to be used in a ritual and there's only one demon lord that wouldn't harm Konoha: me. Demons don't pass out their secrets as bait like the Snake-freak does. If there are seals of that caliber being used, then it was for a damn serious reason that probably means something bad for the Leaf. I can't think of a single good reason for a normal person to use demon seals.”

“Good, that just confirms what I've been considering ever since I saw that clone of yours,” Tsunade stated. “I'm making a law that bans all use of demonic seals or attempts to learn them, for any reason whatsoever. From now on, all demon seals are considered S Rank kin-jutsu and illegal. Use of them will result in being immediately declared a missing-nin of appropriate rank and hunter-nins will be dispatched. I won't release the details of the Tenma Fuu to anyone, but bizarre seals will be investigated by Jiraiya, myself, or you…assuming you've returned to become an active Leaf-nin again.”

“If you'll let me, Baa-chan,” Naruto calmly replied.

“I'll have to get it the mess cleared up with Council first, but I have no problem with you returning to duty. You'll be a genin again, but you would still be one anyways had the trip with Jiraiya worked out,” The Godaime said, dismissing the rank issue with a nonchalant shrug. “Anyways, as long as you're an active nin of Konoha, I'll allow you a special exemption from the demon seal ban.”

“Really? You'd trust me that much?” The kitsune said, with a hint of surprise in his incandescent eyes.

“Do I have any reason not to? Besides, it'd be to our advantage to have someone on our side who can safely make and use demon seals. I just don't want power hungry idiots running around doing errands for demon lords,” Tsunade dryly asked. At the teen's hesitant look, she sighed and continued, “I trust you Naruto. Even if you are part demon, you're still the boy I…You're still my little brother. I know you won't misuse the power or privileges granted to you.”

“I…Thank you,” Naruto quietly said, his face falling forward a bit. After a moment, he looked up at the Fifth and said, “I'm not Naruto, Tsunade. Not exactly. Even so, you're still very important to me. I promise I won't betray your trust.”

“That's good enough for me,” Tsunade replied with a small smile. It took on a wicked edge as she said, “But just because you're hundreds of thousands of years old, doesn't mean you aren't an ignorant little upstart that's always getting into trouble.”

“And just because you're the Godaime Hokage doesn't mean you aren't a washed up old wench with a chronic gambling addiction,” Naruto evenly replied with a similar smirk on his face.

“Brat.”

“Hag.”

They gave each other similar smiles for a moment, just happy to be back in each other's presence again. Soon though, the sap grew too much for their naturally tempestuous personalities and they moved on to what they'd been doing earlier.

“So, these two seals are it?” Tsunade asked, as she gestured to the boy's still exposed chest.

“Yep, though they're nothing special,” Naruto replied. He pointed to the one on the right side of his chest (that looked oddly like a gothic wagon wheel of some sort) and said, “Juuryoku Seiryoku. Gravity Force. I use it to make a gravity field across my entire body. Like training with weights, but much more advanced and efficient. Its force level is adjustable and easy to turn off if I need the freedom of movement in a fight, so it's really good for training. I don't even notice I have it on anymore.”

“…Lee-kun would ask for your hand in marriage if you would make that seal for him,” Tsunade deadpanned the first thing that came to her mind.

Naruto didn't respond, aside from shuddering and muttering something about caterpillars.

“Err, right. And the other one?” The Hokage asked, pointing at the seal on the left side of the teen's chest that resembled a streamlined pinwheel.

“Oh, Shinzui Baindo. Spirit Bind,” Naruto answered, shaking himself out of his bushy eyebrow induced daze. “It restrains how much chakra I can use, forcing me to `push' harder every time I use a jutsu. It's kind of like kinking a hose part of the way. It also randomly adds `ripples' in my chakra flow, so I have to constantly adjust to stabilize it. It's great at building chakra control, though the first couple of months with it on are hell. And since I have a gravity seal on, I have to constantly use chakra as a buffer to keep myself from breaking the floor or chairs and stuff. With these two seals I'm always increasing my reserves and practicing my chakra control, even if I'm just wandering around. It's hard, but I need to do it so I can toughen my body and inner coils up enough for the next chunk of demon chakra I absorb.”

“…Huh. I've finally met someone who does rougher training than Gai. Guess I owe Jiraiya that 500 yen,” Tsunade said, staring at the teen with a bit of a disbelieving expression.

“You don't know the half of it…” Naruto muttered, getting a far of look in his eyes.

“What're you talking about?” The Hokage asked, slightly worried she had triggered one of the Kyuubi's memories.

“Oh, nothing much. I've just spent the last seven months being trained by a madman. If Gai knew about this man, he'd defect from Konoha immediately and go start a cult in his honor,” The kitsune grumbled with an indignant look on his face.

“Who're you talking about?” Tsunade asked, both puzzled and alarmed that a man existed with a stronger work ethic than Maito Gai.

“Only the blasted Hyougakage of the Hidden Village of Ice.”

***

Far away, a grizzled looking white-haired man in his early fifties sneezed across some important documents on his desk. He glanced out his frost covered window and scowled slightly.

“Blasted fox-brat. Quit gossiping about me!”

***

“Glacier Shadow? Where the hell is Glacier Country? I've never heard of either and we've never encountered Ice-nins before,” Tsunade stated, with a bit of a puzzled frown.

“Not surprising. They keep to themselves for the most part. The only service they do outside their village is hunting missing-nins. Aside from that, they just hang out in their village, training constantly,” Naruto causally replied. “When I was in Star Country, I heard about them from an antique dealer whose sister married an Ice-nin. He wasn't allowed to visit her because their hidden village really is hidden, but she occasionally came to visit him in the Hidden Night Village. From her, he got the general idea that the Ice Village was way up in a really high mountain valley. Rumor has it that the nins there are so strong from all the training they do that their genin are a match for most other villages' chuunin. I decided to check it out and I managed to find them after a week and a half of rock climbing and hiking across ice shelves.”

“And they just let you in?” The Fifth asked with a raised eyebrow. Ninja villages weren't known for their hospitality towards outsiders.

“Actually, they took me before the Hyougakage right off the bat. Said I was the first outsider to find the village on his own in over a hundred and sixty years. They were pretty impressed that I pulled it off, even when they found out my healing factor was what kept me alive long enough to find them,” The kitsune replied. “I told their Kage I was looking for a good place to train and asked if he'd let me hang out there for awhile. Err, unfortunately they don't trust people from other villages much, so I had to pass a bunch of crazy tests to prove I was worth it. His first one was pitting me against his granddaughter.”

Naruto fixed Tsunade with a sharp look and said in a serious voice, “Do you have any idea what it's like to be kicked in the crotch with a leg covered in a freezing jutsu?”

The Hokage winced and asked, “Ouch. No, but I can imagine it hurt like absolute hell. How's uh…everything down there?”

“Oh,” The teen said, a slight reddish tinge appeared in his whisker-marked cheeks. “Uh, fine actually. It only took about ten seconds or so to heal the bruising and frostbite. I got her back by setting her butt on fire when she was walking away. Man, was she surprised.”

“Ah, young love,” Tsunade said with a vicious smirk.

Naruto snorted and replied, “Hardly. We were at each other's throats most of the time I was there. It got worse when I passed the Hyougakage's tests and he started training me personally. I can't imagine why that girl would be upset at missing out on that man's torture. Shimoyake Maruishi is more sadistic than even that creepy Ibiki guy who was part of the chuunin exams. I know it.”

“What kind of training did he have you do?” The Fifth asked as she settled onto her stool. It was always interesting to hear about other Village's training techniques.

“Well, he started me on snow-walking for awhile. When I mastered that, he moved me up to ice-repulsion. `Course, those were just his tests to see if I was worth his time. He had me doing missions for a few months after that, before he judged I was good enough to learn his advanced stuff,” The teen said, before he scowled darkly. “Or at least that's what he claims. Personally, I think he was just trying to see if I could survive his torture or not.”

“You keep saying `torture.' What could be so bad of a training technique?” Tsunade curiously asked.

Naruto rolled his eyes and grumbled, “One-legged mountain climbing.”

The Hokage stared at him for ten full seconds before she said, “Excuse me?”

“I said, he had me do one-legged mountain climbing,” The kitsune repeated, rubbing one of his temples. He always got a headache whenever he thought about that accursed training technique.

“…And how, pray tell, does one go about climbing a mountain with one leg?” Tsunade asked in the dry tone to end all dry tones.

“One ties one's arms behind one's back. Then one folds a leg and lashes it together at the ankle and upper thigh. Then one uses chakra to jump, stick, and bounce one's way up the mountain until one reaches the peak,” Naruto replied in an equally dry tone. His expression turned a little thoughtful as he shrugged and said, “Or until one runs out of chakra and falls to their death, I suppose.”

“That's the most suicidal thing I've ever heard off,” The Fifth deadpanned.

“That's what the Glacier Council said when they banned it seventy years ago after the death rate got too high. They also said the man who invented it must have been legally insane,” The half-demon replied.

“I have to say, I agree with them,” Tsunade said as she crossed her arms.

“Well, the Hyougakage of the time didn't and when it came time to train Shimoyake, he had him do the same exercises,” Naruto said. He grinned a little proudly and said, “According to him, he and I are the only people alive to have pulled it off successfully.”

“I'll be damned. So what else happened after you mastered it?” The Godaime asked.

“Nothing too much. He just taught me a few jutsu, his personal tai-jutsu style, and uh…” Naruto trailed off a bit, looking a little embarrassed. “He, uh, asked me to succeed him as the Glacier Shadow when he retired. I really impressed him. He probably thinks of me as the grandson he never had.”

“He asked a Leaf-nin to take over his job?!” Tsunade demanded incredulously.

“Well, actually I'm an Ice chuunin, so technically it's alright for him to ask. Though he said I'd have to swear total allegiance to the Ice village and uh…marry his granddaughter,” The kitsune said with a dark blush covering his cheeks.

Tsunade was seriously torn between bopping the teen on his head and laughing her ass off. She decided to take pity on him, seeing as it was his first day back and he looked suitably embarrassed.

“You're an Ice-nin, huh? Well, I guess I should have expected it since you were wearing their protector. Did you have to agree to anything before they allowed you to become one of their ninjas?” She asked is a serious tone. This was one tidbit of info the Council was never to get a hold of.

“Nothing big. I just had to swear I'd never take any hostilities against them or betray their secrets. So you can't go telling people about the training techniques or the old man will yell at me and make me run up a mountain again. Okay?” Naruto said in a slightly pleading tone. Since it wasn't the earsplitting whining he used to employ, it was actually kind of cute.

“Don't worry about it, Naruto. It's not like we have snow, ice, or large mountains around here anyways,” Tsunade replied with a grin. “So, he just let you go, even after trying to name you his successor?”

“I love Glacier Country a lot and the people there treat me a lot better than I ever was here, but it's not my home. Even assuming I'd abandon you, Iruka-sensei, and the ero-sennin, I made a promise to become Hokage. That means a lot to me, even if only a handful of people believe I can pull it off,” The kitsune answered with a bit of a shrug and a tired smile. His expression perked up a bit as he said, “Besides, Yajin-Kage made me promise that if the Hokage thing didn't work out that I'd move back to the Ice Village permanently.”

Tsunade snorted as she repressed her laughter.

“Your nickname for him is `yeti-shadow?'” She asked with a grin. It seemed Naruto had yet to give up on his odd way of referring to people.

“Well he sure as hell looks like one!” Naruto replied with the air of one continuing a long argument. The Fifth just laughed in response.

“I'll take your word for it,” She remarked, reaching out and ruffling the teen's hair. As the medic poked at the squirming half-demon, her eyes happened to glance up at the clock on the wall. She let out a loud curse that made Naruto snicker. “Yuck it up, brat. We're going to have to cut this short. I have a meeting with the ANBU Commander in less than fifteen minutes and somebody made me totally forget about it. I might as well bring up the news that your back when I meet up with him.”

The blonde completely ignored the jibe and replied, “So you want to meet up tomorrow or something? I can come by whenever since I'm not on any missions.”

“That'll be fine. Actually, where are you going to stay? I'm pretty sure your apartment has evicted you by now. I wasn't able to keep up your social check when you went missing,” Tsunade asked as she watched the kitsune rewrap himself in his bandages.

“No worries, Baa-chan. I wasn't planning on going back there anyways. Ero-sennin has all my important stuff anyways, assuming he didn't sell it for booze money,” Naruto dismissed with a wave of his hand. “I have a plan for where I'm going to live, actually. I'll talk to you about it tomorrow whenever we meet up. Could you do me a favor and see if you can find any deeds for empty land plots?”

“Uh, yeah, I think so. You have anything you're looking for in particular?” The Godaime asked, confusion evident in her voice. Then again, Naruto tended to confuse her a lot.

“Anything that's fairly secluded and surrounded by trees. About an acre or two if you can manage it. Aside from that, I don't really care. Price isn't any problem, so whatever you think is best,” The half-demon casually answered while he shrugged his t-shirt and vest on. He left his face unbound and pulled out his goggles (which she now noticed were thick and durable for cold weather and tinted to prevent snow-blindness) from his pocket to hang them around his neck.

“I'll see what I can come up with,” Tsunade said, still with a puzzled tone in her voice.

“Cool. Thanks, Baa-chan,” Naruto said with a bright grin.

“…You know, you shouldn't call me that. I am the Fifth after all,” The Hokage said in an odd tone of voice.

“Err, sure I guess. But calling you Tsunade would be weird and I'm not going to butt-kiss you by calling you Hokage-sama constantly,” The blonde teen replied.

“I know,” Tsunade said after a couple moments of silence. A couple more moments passed before she said, “Call me Nee-chan. It's a definite improvement.”

“…Alright…Nee-chan,” Naruto slowly said, a small smile appearing on his face at how naturally the new nickname came out. “Is there anything else I need to know? Or do you need to ask me something else?”

“Not at the moment. It can all wait until tomor…Actually…Ah, shit, I haven't told you about the…Never mind. I'll deal with it tonight. Why don't you go find a hotel to stay at? If they refuse you service just shape-shift or something,” The Hokage answered with a wave of her hand.

“Okay, I'll find one in a few hours,” The kitsune replied.

“Why not go now? You should take it easy tonight,” Tsunade said, while internally hoping that all the physical changes would make him unrecognizable to the ANBU and his friends.

“Oh, I will Nee-chan, don't worry,” Naruto reassured her. He unconsciously took on a dramatic pose.

“There's just one thing I have to do first.”

***

Old man Ichiraku stared despondently at the empty bar. Business had been terrible for the past couple years. He should have known it was a bad omen when the fox-kid left. The blonde boy had been a huge part of their monthly income and they suffered without it. Worse, after the brat took off, several fancier ramen bars had opened in different areas of Konoha and had drawn customers away. They still had a couple regulars, but even they were becoming scarce. Even that schoolteacher that always hung out with the fox-kid had started coming less and less (though to be honest, he had mostly only come before for the Uzumaki boy.) If this kept up, they were going to go bankrupt in a month or two. They simply couldn't compete.

Ichiraku cursed and tore his apron off.

“Shut `er down, Ayame-chan,” He growled to his pretty daughter, who was adjusting the heat on some of the simmering woks. She glanced up in confusion to her father, who simply gestured at the empty bar. “No one's coming. It's almost 6:00. If people were going to show up for the dinner rush, then they'd have done it by now.”

The waitress sighed and said, “Okay, Tousan.”

The old man forced the depressed expression from his face at his daughter's downcast look.

“Cheer up, Ayame-chan. It'll work out,” Ichiraku said reassuringly, even though they both knew he was lying.

“I guess…” Ayame said as she turned off the stove burners. “It's too bad Naruto-kun left. He was always in here eating all of our stock. Haha, I remember the time he ate over a third of our ramen during the lunch rush and we had to shut down half a day early.”

“The time?” Ichiraku replied with a bit of a grin. “Ayame-chan, the little runt did that every other week! Or at least every time Umino-san got his paycheck.”

“Haha, I know,” The waitress giggled. “I guess he did it so often it all bled into one memory. Still if he was here…”

“But he's not,” Her father firmly replied. He sighed a bit, remembering how badly the boy had looked when they visited him a year ago at the hospital and the shocking announcement of his disappearance. “The kid has enough problems on his plate as it is. He probably has some serious business to take care of and I doubt he'll be back anytime soon.”

“I know, Tousan,” Ayame said with a tired and slightly worried look. Naruto really was a sweet kid, despite what the other villagers said. She didn't like the thought of him wandering off to Kami-knows-where, especially with the Sound on a rampage. “Hmm, he'll probably be disappointed when he comes back and finds out we've gone under.”

“”I suppose he will,” Ichiraku said, leaning his back against the bar. He idly fiddled with a ladle as he continued, “Too bad though. Ichiraku Ramen is going bankrupt and nothing can be done about it.”

“LIKE HELL IT WILL!!”

Both Ichiraku's whirled about to the entrance of the bar and stared dumbfounded at the person standing there.

Uzumaki Naruto stood just inside the flaps hanging from the roof. He looked different than he used to (Ayame noted with a blush), but there was no mistaking the boy…teen that had practically lived at their food stand for years. Naruto had a dramatic stance to his footing and fire blazing in his incandescent eyes. He let out an earsplitting war-cry laced with demonic fury so loud that it cracked the windows of nearby shops and caused all the Inuzuka dogs to start howling over a mile away.

“Behold! I have returned!” He announced as he stepped further inside. “And Ichiraku Ramen goes out of business over my stone cold corpse!”

“Oh, Naruto-kun…” Ayame said with hearts in her eyes (that had previously been reserved only for the times Kakashi dropped by.)

“I've eaten at one hundred and sixty-three ramen bars in the last two years and you know what they all had in common? They sucked ass!” Naruto bellowed as he stepped up to the bar. Old man Ichiraku still had the frozen look on his face, even as the blonde teen continued, “Ichiraku Ramen is the best damn ramen stand on the face of this earth! I'd rather eat stale instant ramen than at any other bar on the planet.”

“Y-you mean…?” Ayame started to ask, seeing as her father was still too shocked to speak.

Naruto reached into his shorts and pulled out a leather folding wallet (with a frog face on it.) He pulled a thick wad of bills out (that didn't even dent the overall amount) and slammed it down on the counter.

“Give me all the ramen you have!” The kitsune roared into Ichiraku's face as he leaned halfway over the counter.

For several moments, there was silence as all three stared at each other. It was suddenly broken by a ladle clanging to the floor as the old man clenched his fist in the air in front of him. Tears ran in rivulets down his face.

“Today the Kami has blessed me,” Ichiraku said in a joy-choked voice. He suddenly whirled and pointed at his daughter. “Ayame-chan! Light all the burners and get all the woks out! Our savior has come!”

Ayame nodded as she rushed about the back, gathering the ingredients and setting the woks to boil. Her father joined her and in a few minutes, he grabbed a bowl to ladle the salty noodles into.

“Screw that! Just give me the entire thing!” Naruto yelled as he waited impatiently at the counter, waving around a gigantic fork he'd pilfered from behind the counter.

Ichiraku didn't hesitate more than a moment before he grabbed the wok along with an oven pad and set both in front of the blonde teen. Naruto paused just long enough to tearfully mouth out `arigato' to the heavens before he dove in.

“Isn't that heart warming?” Ayame sighed happily as she stood next to her father, watching the kitsune devour his meal with the viciousness of…(oh just say it) a demon.

Ichiraku just grinned.

Life was as it should be.

***

“Goddamn, stupid blonde!” Ino growled as she stormed down the twilight streets of Konoha. She completely ignored her own hair color in her tirade. She was very annoyed at her lack of progress. The genin had searched high and low across virtually every ramen bar in the entire village, but had turned up nothing. She hadn't found any trace of Naruto nor had anyone seen him (and her mood wasn't improved when she saw the flinches on people's faces when she described the demon-vessel.)

“Ah, shit!” Ino cursed as she kicked a stone into a bush beside the road. She wandered over to a lamppost and leaned up against as she let out a tired sigh.

Why the hell was she even doing this? Naruto could be miles away or even dead for all she knew. Hell, he could have even eaten and gone home or decided to skip dinner or any number of things. This was ridiculous.

Ino let out a breath of air and started walking down a different side street, that led off towards her home. The market sector was quiet this time of the evening and all the shops were closed or closing. Even the food stands were shut down, which irritated her to no end as she'd somehow managed to forget to eat while she searching ramen stands. Now she was hungry and had to eat leftovers in the fridge when she got to the flower shop.

Uhg, what a cruddy way to spend her evening.

As the genin walked down the dark street, she was surprised to notice that one small food stand was still open. The bright, yellow light from inside it streamed out into the dark street in an inviting way. Feeling her stomach growl, Ino decided to grab something to eat there, whatever the place was. As she walked closer to the place, she suddenly felt something surge through her Bloodline's senses. It was familiar, yet alien at the same time. It felt similar to the odd dreams she still occasionally had. Without really meaning to, the blonde teen silently made her way over to the entrance.

Several voices were chatting inside, though she didn't recognize any of them. One of them erupted into deep, loud laughter struck the genin with that same sense of familiarity, though she still couldn't place it. It wasn't the tone or the volume, just the way the person laughed. It was like he put everything he had into enjoying the moment.

Ino reached a hand out and gently parted one of the flaps to peer inside.

“…umped up and guess what she was doing? Walking away from me! And right after she kneed me in the crotch hard enough for my grandfather to feel it! I'm telling you, I saw red. So did she, come to think of it after what I did to her,” The familiar voice was saying. The genin couldn't really see who it was, as her eyes hadn't adjusted and he had his back to her.

“So what did you do?” A light, feminine voice asked. It was obvious the loud person had her attention riveted.

“Haha, I did a Katon on her backside! She started hollering bloody murder and running around swatting her ass. She finally ran outside and slammed her butt in the snow. She was walking funny for days after that,” The deep voice responded with an unrestrained and smug chuckle.

“That's great, kid. Taught her a lesson. People shouldn't go around hitting other people in jewels during sparring matches. Hell, there was this one time, way back before Yondaime-sama was chosen, when I ran into this wasp of a woman who had the biggest pair of…Hello, miss? Can I help you?” An older voice suddenly asked, startling Ino and bringing the other two speakers' attention on her.

“Uh, kind of,” The genin replied as she stepped through the flaps entirely. “I was just wondering what kind of food you guys…serve…”

Ino trailed off as the person she'd been so curious about turned in his seat to look at her. Sticking her finger in a light socket wouldn't have shocked her as much as the boy sitting in front of her. Different eyes, different hair, slightly different face, and definitely a different build, but she still knew who this was.

“Uzumaki Naruto…`Bout time you came back,” The genin finally said when she noticed three sets of eyes staring at her and waiting for her to say something. Damn, she finally meets him and now she has no real idea what to say to him. Not to mention she was giddy, nervous, and annoyed all at the same time.

“…Ino-san,” Naruto said in recognition after a couple moments of staring at her. She was somewhat surprised that he knew her name, considering they'd never truly spoken. “Yeah, I just got back earlier today. I'd ask you to join me, but unfortunately we've run out of ramen.”

Ichiraku snorted while Ayame hid a giggle behind her hand. Ino's eyes slowly traced over to the large pile of empty woks sitting on the counter next to the blonde teen. She slowly raised an eyebrow and resisted the urge to whistle.

“No kidding. I heard you like ramen, but isn't that a little extreme?” She asked in her usual dry manner. Where the hell did this guy put all those noodles?

“Nothing is too extreme for Ichiraku ramen,” Naruto said in a deadly serious tone. It passed in the next moment as he turned to Ichiraku and said, “Well, I'd better get going Oyaji. I need to find an inn or something to crash at before they all close. I'll see you tomorrow at lunch.”

“Sure, kid. Take care of yourself,” Old man Ichiraku replied as he started gathering up the woks.

“Goodnight Naruto-kun,” Ayame said with a sweet smile. Ino wasn't sure why, but it set her teeth on edge.

“Night Ayame-chan, Oyaji,” Naruto called over his shoulder as he stepped past the genin and out into the night. Ino didn't hesitate to follow him.

“So…” She said as she walked up to him. The dark street was deserted, even though it was only a little after 9:00. They stood in the middle of the road, with only the light from the ramen bar illuminating them. After a couple moments, even that disappeared. Without being able to see his face, she had no idea what he was thinking and was sorely tempted to use the active abilities of her Bloodline on him.

“So…Thanks for the flowers when I was in the hospital,” Naruto said with a small half-grin, shifting his weight on to one foot as he peered at the girl. His night vision was much better now, so the girl's face stuck out sharply even in the dim starlight overhead. “The two I took with me fell apart after a couple weeks, but they were still nice.”

“Oh…No problem. I thought you might like the color,” Ino replied with an offhand shrug, even if she was pleased on the inside.

“Yep. Well, I gotta go find a place to stay. See you around Ino-san,” The taller teen casually said as he turned and started walking down the street.

Ino stood in shock for a moment, watching the other blonde walk away just two minutes after they'd met. The way he carried himself spoke of an inner confidence gained through overcoming life's challenges and, she had to admit, it suited him well. And, of course, it made him all the more interesting. It was so different from Sasuke's arrogance and that just made it all the more appealing. More so, Naruto's self-confidence reminded her strongly of someone else's.

Her own.

She had worked her ass of this last year to prove to herself, her teacher, and everyone else that she was strong, skilled, and formidable. And she was. The only people who didn't respect Ino's abilities were either people who didn't know she existed or arrogant fools. She wasn't insanely powerful like the Sannin or Kakashi, but she got the job done and would likely take any opponent down with her even if she was beaten. But through it all, no matter how many jounin and elite she impressed, there was always one person at the back of her mind. The person who had sparked her powder keg and got her on the path she walked now. The person who had a direct influence on her Bloodline's awakening. The person who she wanted to respect her, more so than even Kakashi and Sakura.

And he was walking away from her.

“Hey, Uzumaki!” Ino yelled as she followed the teen and quickly caught up to him where he stopped in the street. Her mind raced as she came up with a plan in her head. “Did you speak to the Hokage today?”

“Yeah, I did,” Naruto replied with a slightly suspicious look.

“Did she get rid of your missing-nin status?” She asked with a fake innocent voice. Reaching out with her Bloodline, she could tell he was growing more distrustful by the moment.

“No, but she said she'd be taking care of it soon,” The kitsune slowly replied, not really sure what the girl was getting at. So it was common knowledge he was a missing-nin, huh? He'd have to watch his step in the future.

“Oh good,” Ino said with a sunny smile. “That means I can go alert the ANBU to come and hunt you down.”

“…Ooookay,” Naruto slowly replied as he subtly slid into a relaxed fighting stance. Why the hell was this girl threatening him? He didn't really fear ANBU (especially Konoha ANBU, which were a joke even in other Hidden Villages), but no one wants to fight a large crowd of elite shinobi.

Besides, Tsunade would have his ass if he killed or crippled a bunch of her Leaf-nins.

“And why would you do that.” The teen asked, trying to get a feel for this odd blonde girl.

“Oh, I won't, if that's what you're worried about,” Ino replied with a smug grin, sensing the other shinobi's confusion. “At least, I won't as long as you do something for me.”

“…And that would be?” Naruto prompted as he decided to play along if it meant avoiding trouble with Tsunade.

“Fight me. At Training Grounds 23. Right now,” The genin answered in a sharp, no nonsense tone that contrasted with the giddy excitement she was feeling.

Naruto took a long good look at the girl in front of him. Her hair was short and hung stylishly at her neck. Her face was sharper and had lost a lot of its youthful roundness. She had grown a few inches, though she couldn't be called tall yet. From what he could see of her body, she had put on quite a bit of muscle tone while he was gone. Her dress had been shortened till it became a shirt (that left her nicely sculpted midriff exposed) and she had added a pair of shorts to the outfit in addition to her usual bandages. The male part of his brain also gleefully noted other changes that had developed nicely since the last time he'd seen her.

Damn, he owed that clone money.

His first reaction was to say `no,' as she didn't look at all like someone who could stand up to him. He took a second look though, as the Kyuubi knew from experience how appearances could be deceiving. He noticed the loose fighting stance she held herself in, the faint, yet long scar going across her stomach, and a few other faint scar lines on her face and arms. Most of all, it was the look of eagerness in her eyes that made him think twice. It was the look of a skilled fighter hoping to fight another skilled fighter. She was fairly bouncing with energy at the thought of fighting him, though she was demonstrating great restraint over herself.

Alright, if she wanted to tangle with him that badly, then so be it.

“I knew you'd see it my way,” Ino said in a sly voice, not waiting for him to voice it out loud. She grinned at the surprise she felt in Naruto's thoughts.

“…Fine, where-”

“-to?” The genin finished, her smirk growing more vicious at the annoyance she sensed from the kitsune. “Training Grounds 23 is a quarter mile past the southern edge of the wall. Follow me and try to keep up.”

Ino was leaping up and onto a nearby rooftop before she even finished her sentence. She grinned as she took off running, feeling Naruto keeping pace several yards behind her.

Oh she was going to enjoy this.

***

Naruto idly cracked his knuckles as he watched his opponent. Ino stood across the narrow clearing a good hundred feet away from him. Training Ground 23 seemed more like an orchard of some sort than anything else. Thick, old trees were spread out randomly from each other, forming brief empty rows that fighters could take advantage of. There was both cover and open space, making it good for sparring or mock ambushes.

Or for fighting sharp-tongued blondes that apparently had psychic abilities of some sort.

“Ready?” Ino called with a half-grin on her face.

“Whenever,” Naruto lightly replied with a shrug. He took a casual stance from his tai style.

Ino rushed forward at him, drawing a kunai and charging in a straight line. The kitsune was instantly disappointed at the amateurish, straight forward attack. It would be pathetically easy to counter that move. A part of him became suspicious, however. He had seen someone attack like that before, though he couldn't recall who. He performed a low powered roundhouse at the girl's head, fully expecting it to connect.

Naruto was greatly surprised when the girl ducked under the blow like she had seen it coming and lashed him across the stomach with her blade. The kitsune immediately countered with a smooth, stronger punch to her face. Ino was already dodging by the time he had started the swing and stabbed him through the arm even as she ducked aside. Naruto's eye twitched at the pain and he automatically pivoted on one leg as he tried to knee her side. The girl bowed her body around the blow without even looking and lodged her blade in his leg as it passed by. The half-demon cursed in his mind and back-flipped away from Ino using his good leg. In mid-air, he pulled the kunai out from where it was stuck behind his kneecap and landed with the weapon ready in his hand.

Only to barely dodge a handful of shuriken. Ino was on him with another kunai even as he dodged away from her throwing stars and forced him to give ground under a steady assault of slashes and unarmed blows.

Naruto gritted his teeth in annoyance as he took yet another stab wound. His outfit was being ruined and he didn't want to draw attention to the seals on his skin if he could help it. He couldn't do much about it though, as no matter what he did Ino was one step ahead of him. If he dodged, she was already there slashing at him. If he attacked, she was already moving away and countering. It was like she knew his tai style, which was impossible as only three living people on the planet had learnt it. It was worse than the time he fought Sasuke, although his opponent this time was cute at the very least.

For some reason, Ino's assault redoubled as he thought that.

Naruto didn't really understand why, but the more she was winning, the more pissed off she got. Uhg, girls. Alright, if she wanted a fight she was going to get one. Allowing some extra chakra to surge in his legs, the kitsune did a super-jump fifty feet backwards, feeling pretty confident she wouldn't be able to keep up. He landed in a crouch and easily dodged the group of kunai she was already sending at him. He immediately took note that she didn't try to follow up. Naruto slowly stood up to his full height as he watched the girl. Calmly, he reached down to pull a shuriken out of his thigh and tossed the weapon aside. He shook himself a bit to get some of the loose blood off and pondered his next move.

Ino nearly screamed in frustration. She had stabbed Naruto at least forty times and he wasn't even slowing down. It hadn't escaped her notice that he more or less ignored all the injuries he received, no matter how incapacitating they should be. That knee trick should've had him hobbling from the slashed tendons, but he just shrugged it off like it was nothing. All the reports of the Kyuubi's healing factor had been grossly understated. She had burned a chunk of her stamina with that assault and he wasn't even panting. At this rate, she was going to lose the fight simply because he could take this level of punishment all day.

What really ticked her off was that he knew it too and wasn't taking this seriously. He'd even had the gall to compare her to that asshole Sasuke! The genin completely ignored the morality of reading someone else's mind as she worked herself into a rage. Goddammit, she is neither weak nor a traitor and to imply both in such an offhand way made her vision turn red.

“Shrug this one off, jackass!” Ino roared as she formed three familiar hand seals. A blaze of bluish energy crackled into existence around her right hand.

“CHIDORI!!”

Naruto's semi-idle mind cleared and sharpened so fast Ino felt like she'd been doused in a bucket of ice water. She nearly lost control of the jutsu from the sudden gear shift in the kitsune's psyche. The other teen was now analyzing every previous moment of their fight and calculating how best to counter her imminent attack. He was also considering the best way to go about breaking her arm to dispel the Chidori and the methods he was debating using put experienced hunter-nins to shame. He was a completely different fighter than he'd been moments ago. The genin had the feeling she'd just awoken sleeping giant. Oh crap. And she wanted to fight this thing?

Ino shook the thoughts from her head and narrowed her eyes. Yes, she did want to fight him. Hadn't she been the one complaining earlier about the lack of challenging opponents?

With that, the girl mentally prepared a second jutsu and rushed at the other teen.

Naruto had snapped into serious-mode the instant he saw the Chidori crackle to life and heard the familiar chirping sound. That explained everything odd he'd noticed about the fight. Everything about the girl screamed Kakashi's personal training. From the way she held her kunai, to her attack moves bastardized from Lee's tai-jutsu, to the way she anticipated his movements with ease…it all held a link to the jounin. Leave it to Copy-Fucking-Ninja Kakashi to find another prodigy just like him. Having never truly fought Lee or Kakashi, the kitsune didn't know how to counter Ino's style. He quickly thought out a dozen different ways to break her arm, but discarded almost of them as useless. Well, maybe it was time to get serious.

Naruto sunk into a deep stance and prepared to counter Ino's imminent attack. When the girl smirked triumphantly, he instantly knew he'd made a mistake somehow in not trying to avoid it.

Ino grinned and powered her Bloodline up to full at the same time she made several one-handed seals with her left hand. The look on Naruto's face was priceless as several large, spiky vines ripped out of the ground and wrapped themselves around his legs and hands before he could move. He tried to pull free, but found he was held totally immobile. He wasn't too panicked to miss the fact that the vines had no scent for some reason. He glanced up at the genin fast approaching. Without his hands free, he had only one good option to slow the girl until he could break free of her jutsu.

Ino's grin faded as Naruto's blue eyes turned blood-red and grew dark slits. A surge of rage and hatred on a scale she'd never felt before slammed straight into her mind, made worse by her mental connection to the kitsune. She felt her resolve shrinking and her baser instincts being toyed with. Terror grew in her and her pace faltered till she slowly came to a stop ten feet in front of the other blonde teen. The genin tried to run and found her body unable to move. She gritted her teeth as horror and fear swamped her senses, making her feel like she was being choked.

And then it was just passing through her, barely affecting her thoughts.

Ino blinked, a sense of deja-vu hitting her. It was just like when the Kyuubi's Terror Wave hit Konoha a year ago. She was feeling the animal fear and it was swamping through her mind, but she felt strangely detached from it. The terror was there, but it wasn't terrifying anymore. The genin grinned slightly in satisfaction as she eyed Naruto. So he could use the Kyuubi's instinct manipulation, huh? That must be handy in a fight. Crippling an opponent with mortal fear was an excellent way of creating an opportunity to end a fight quickly or to halt an enemy's attack.

Looking down at the Chidori still crackling in her hand, Ino's smile turned grim. Not in this fight, Uzumaki.

Naruto let out a foul curse in the fox's tongue as the girl shook off his terror and rushed at him again. Still, he had bought enough time to put his plan in motion. Summoning up the demon chakra he had gathered in the few seconds Ino had been stunned, he knelt slightly and unleashed it as his jumped straight up. He figured he was caught in some sort of illusion as he couldn't actually smell the vines. That being the case, he could break free by forcing his body enough in one direction. Even if the gen-jutsu wasn't dispelled, but it didn't matter if his mind was tricked or not as long as his body was flying upwards almost eighty feet in the air.

Ino stabbed with her Chidori towards Naruto's right thigh, as she only wanted to cripple, not kill him and he'd probably heal up from it eventually anyways. If he'd survived one to the chest, then he could easily survive one to the leg. She was greatly surprised when he disappeared right before her eyes. She managed to maintain her jutsu, though her unconnected jab made her stumble forward and nearly plow the ground with her chakra-enhanced hand. Quickly, the genin searched for her opponent's mind and found his thoughts coming from straight up. Her jaw dropped at the sheer height he'd managed to achieve in a single jump.

Naruto, for his part, wasn't as pleased with his stunt. Going straight up broke him through the jutsu, but now he'd just come right back down and would probably land on top of that blasted Chidori. He didn't really know any jutsu that was for changing direction while in mid-air, so there was little he could do but improvise. The kitsune grew a wicked fox-grin across his face at that thought.

He was good at improvising.

A series of high pitched pops accompanied the arrival of five kage bunshins in the branches of a nearby tree. One clone held its arms out and the other clones grabbed onto them, with two on each arm. The four bunshins swung backwards for a moment, then launched the clone forward and right into Naruto's path. The kitsune held out his arms and the kage bunshin grabbed his hands with its own. The clone's momentum kept it going forward and they spun in place for a second, before the bunshin timed and released Naruto. The kitsune was propelled a significant distance away. The blonde teen hit the ground in a perfect roll and smoothly rose into a fighting stance, as five high pitched popping sounds announced the clones' disappearance.

Ino's jaw could only drop lower at the seamless acrobatic display.

“So he taught you Chidori, huh?” Naruto calmly commented, his mind analyzing the way Ino had fought up until now. “Kakashi would never have done that unless you had some sort of ability to read an opponent's moves before they make them. I should have guessed that from the start, seeing as how you perfectly evaded my fighting style. Care to enlighten the ignorant?”

Ino regained her composure and said, “I have a Bloodline Limit that gives me psychic abilities. It can do all sorts of things, from allowing me to sense when people are near to sensing lies to feeling people's emotions. By reading an opponent's surface thoughts, I can anticipate their actions in a fight before they even make them.”

“I don't fight through my surface thoughts. I fight almost entirely on instinct,” The Kitsune replied as he narrowed his eyes.

“True, but you're always thinking even if you don't realize it. There are constant signals back and forth throughout the different levels of the brain, even if you're primarily using only one part of it. Surface thoughts `ripple' and `shift' in response to instinctive actions as much as they do to well thought out actions. Hatake and I spent a lot of time training me on how to recognize which signals are which and what they mean. The end result is I know what you're going to do almost before you do,” The blonde girl stated matter-of-factly, her smug face reflecting the blue glow of the Chidori.

“No kidding? Well that makes you rather tricky to beat then,” Naruto said with a slightly impressed look. Mastering such a complex way of reading an opponent's mind on the fly during a fight was no small feat. Ino, it seemed, was far more dangerous than he'd given her credit for. Oh well, people made mistakes for a reason. “So what else does that Bloodline of yours do?”

Ino grinned grew wicked as she said, “I'll give you a free demonstration.”

Naruto tensed and grew ready to spring into motion in any direction. The blonde girl was making one-handed seals again, though they were blatantly different from the previous set. The kitsune's eyes widened as the world went dark around him. The forest, the stars, and, most importantly, Ino all vanished. He couldn't see anything. A jolt of tension hit him as he realized he couldn't hear anything either. The only reliable sense he had left was his sense of touch and the only thing he was going to feel was a whole lot of pain when that Chidori hit him. What the hell was all this anyways? She'd said it was part of her Bloodline, but how she was-

It came aware in total darkness. No sight, no sound. Boiling heat surrounded it on all sides. It held no true form to speak of. It was little more than a ball of energy and thought. It extended a tendril of itself, only to find something solid obstructing its path. It surged outward on all sides, feeling the barrier block its every attempt to break free.

Rage.

Rage and blistering fury filled its thoughts. It wanted free. How dare something hold it back! Heat boiled around it as it seethed and writhed. The barrier softened and it took the opportunity to slam at the weakest point of its prison.

The barrier cracked.

It surged more and more of itself into the weak point, sliding into and through the breach. Countless layers and layers of the strange substance were pushed aside or melted as it forced its way through. It finally broke through into a large chamber full of the molten material. It flowed through the boiling liquid, trying to find a way out. Its movement must have agitated something, because the fluid began the churn and move in one direction, taking it along for the ride. It followed for some time, until it was accidentally swept down a side tunnel. The flow slowed and weakened the further it moved, until finally it had to move on its own power.

It ended up in a small chamber and this one had no exit. It was trapped again.

Freedom.

It wanted out! Its rage reached new heights, causing the barrier around it to crack and crumple under the pressure of the raw energy unleashed. A large breach tore open above it and it surged through without hesitating. Keeping its rage boiling hot, it tore through the barriers with little effort until it finally broke through the last and final layer into clear, dark air.

It tore free from the rock as magma geysered into the air all around it. In the background, a much larger eruption was occurring, blocking the stars out of the sky and making a hellish red glow that highlighted the area. It sagged forward into the red flow pouring down the mountainside, allowing the lava to drag it along. It began to solidify as it was swept along, though it still had no real form to speak of. When the lava flow finally ebbed and congealed, it was able to drag itself up along the banks and onto the scorched land beyond. It felt an urge and reformed its body to match it, even as it leaned back to face the heavens.

Under the red-cast sky, its molten flesh split and formed jaws as it screamed its fury to the worl-

Naruto snapped back into himself, gasping in shock. He realized he was still in Ino's gen-jutsu and he had no idea how much time had passed. These damn memories were going to get him killed someday. Grimly, he noted that it would probably be today if he didn't do something. How was he going to break free of the illusion? He didn't have much time, if any, before he was hit by the girl's attack. Alright, he couldn't see or hear so he was going to have to rely on feel. He closed his eyes in concentration and focused all his senses into the air currents around him. Damn it, this had better work.

There!

Ino hadn't noticed the change in Naruto's expression as she rushed at him. She again chose the teen's leg as her target, seeing no reason to deviate. She was almost on him…almost…Now!

The genin stabbed her chakra-enhanced hand forward, putting all her weight behind it. There was no way Naruto could dodge now. Unfortunately for them both, he did. At the last moment, the kitsune crouched and dodged backwards while bringing his hands up to grab Ino's wrist. The girl nearly had a heart-attack when she realized what her hand was going to hit now.

The sound of a loud, meaty impact and liquid splashing echoed throughout the deserted training grounds.

Ino stared in shock at her hand. Or rather, her forearm. Her hand was buried up to the wrist in Naruto's abdomen, with blood leaking out and running down her arm. She grimaced at the feel of slippery intestines around her fingers. Panic and anger flared in her. What the hell was she going to do now? She'd killed him, there was no way he could live through a gut wound. That idiot! Why'd he dodge right into the Chidori's path? Why the hell had she used the Chidori in the first place!? Oh dammit, this was bad! How could she kill him when she was just trying to impress him!?

A pained grunt broke through her thoughts.

Naruto grimaced, then glanced down at the girl's hand. He would've sighed in relief if it wouldn't have involved loads of agony on his part. He'd managed to catch the girl's arm and kept the blow from penetrating all the way through him. He was not eager to attempt regenerating his spinal column. He'd gotten lucky. There was only one thing for the kitsune to do now. He locked his hands tighter on the genin. This was going to hurt like a bitch.

Ino could only watch in mounting horror as Naruto's hands tensed on her forearm and slowly pulled her hand out of his stomach. Her arm came free with a sick, sucking sound and blood poured from the hole in the other teen. The kitsune let out a shaky breath of pain, before he narrowed his eyes in concentration, though they weren't focusing on anything in particular. As he didn't release his hold on her, Ino had a front row seat for the bizarre sight in front of her.

The wound was closing.

The blood flow stopped, torn intestinal tract bound itself back together, and muscle regrew to cover the whole mess right before her eyes. A sticky pink film developed on the muscle sheet, then thickened and paled into a layer of perfectly healthy skin. No more than thirty seconds had passed and he was perfectly fine.

Un-fucking-believable. Grossly understated indeed.

Naruto slowly cracked his neck and flexed his new abdominal muscles before he let Ino go and stepped back a pace. The genin for her part was more than a little nauseated and awed by the display. To heal a mortal wound in moments was not an ability that could be taken lightly. Hell, it made no difference if she had connected her blow to his leg or not. It wouldn't have crippled him more than a minute. No wonder he wasn't worried about all the injuries he'd taken during their fight. Leaving a lasting injury on Naruto was like trying to punch a hole through a pool of water. Any effect you achieved was gone in moments.

“So…free demonstration, huh?” Naruto casually asked, breaking Ino out of her shock. She belatedly realized she was still staring at the exposed skin through the hole in his shirt. She looked up and met his wary, but amused eyes.

“Uh…Yeah. So…uh, what do you think?” The genin sheepishly asked, not having any real idea what to say in a situation like this. Should she apologize for putting a hole in his stomach?

“Impressive. That would have killed almost anyone else. I take it you and Kakashi have been practicing. How'd you manage the one-handed seals?” The kitsune calmly replied, acting for all the world like he hadn't been impaled moments ago.

“I can pull those off as long as they're a gen-jutsu and I'm using my Bloodline at full power. And practice makes perfect, though that isn't all I've been doing,” Ino replied, allowing a small smirk to crawl up her face now that her leftover panic was fading away. “Including the one I just got back from, I've completed seventeen A Rank missions in the last six months.”

“Not bad. Not bad at all,” Naruto commented thoughtfully as he scratched his chin. That certainly explained the girl's high skill level. Combining Kakashi's training with lots of hard-core battle experience would make or break a shinobi. Ino obviously hadn't broken.

“Not bad? And you've done more?” The genin sharply asked, the feeling that he was looking down on her coming back. What the hell had he been doing as a missing-nin that was better than her list of missions?

“Er, yeah actually,” The blonde answered with a small, proud smile. “Fifty-six A Rank missions and eleven S Rank missions completed in the last seven months. Though it's not exactly fair, seeing as how almost all of them were assassinations and those go by fast, succeed or fail. Glacier Country doesn't like missing-nins very much. Glad they made an exception for me.”

Ino barely restrained the urge to bug her eyes out comically. Good Kami, no wonder he wasn't fighting seriously! That was about two assassinations a week. And where the hell was Glacier Country and why was he working for it?

“H-How…” The genin stuttered. She shook her head and tried a different question. “…So you were holding back?”

“Sort of. But to land a blow on me at all is impressive, Ino-san,” Naruto replied with an odd glint in his eyes. He seemed to size Ino up and even with her Bloodline, she couldn't clearly make out what he was thinking. He finally said, “Very impressive. I haven't been hurt once in the last twenty missions I've been on. I guess I owe that clone some money. It was right about you.”

The kitsune turned and walked away into the darkness with only one last sentence floating through the air to mark his passage.

“You are interesting.”

Ino let him walk away this time, seeing as she couldn't really keep fighting anyways as most of her stamina was gone. While she could win against a normal opponent with only twenty percent of her chakra left, it wouldn't help against Naruto. She stood in the empty training area for some time after he left, sorting through the odd myriad of emotions in her. One finally rose up above the others and she smiled to herself when she felt it.

Pride.

So this was what it felt like to be acknowledged by someone you respect. Though as pleased as she was, she now had a higher goal to work towards. Anyone who thought she'd be satisfied with only Naruto's respect would be sorely disappointed. No, now she had an even loftier goal. The genin grinned a little bit as she leapt off into the night, heading towards her home, already planning on getting up early to bother her sensei. It was time to ask Hatake about taking on an S Rank mission or two.

Yamanaka Ino was not going to be left behind.

***

Author's Notes:

General:

Uhg, I hate to do this but I'm going to have to make a note about reviewers. Many people suggest different ideas for the story and while most are polite about it, some are already taking on a rather…insistent edge in their responses. So, to avoid people bitching me out in the future because I ignored their suggestions, I'm repeating the same warning I gave in Chapter 4 (which some people probably missed so I'll put it here clearly):

Please feel free to make any suggestion or criticism you like. Do not take it personally if I completely ignore either.

I have two reasons for this, aside from the fact that I don't want to be bitched at. One, if I listened to every suggestion and opinion sent to me, then this story would turn into a mess of conflicting ideas. Person A wants a character to be stronger, while Person B thinks that same character should die a horrible death. Etc. I already have the plot and ideas for Foxhound laid out and I'm not going to deviate much from it unless I see an idea that blows my socks off. I also don't want somebody later saying “I gave you that idea!! It was mine!” This also leads into my second reason, which is simple: this is my story and I want it to stay that way. I don't own the Naruto, but I do own the right to make this however I want, as good or as bad as I want. If I write an idea you love, great. If I write one you hate, tough. Write a story better than mine if you hate it so much. While I love the feedback and the responses, in the end I'm writing this story because I love to write. Alright, I'm not going to gripe and waste anymore time. Rant done. Warning given.

Note: I'm not being a dick and saying I don't appreciate the amount of thought many of you put into the suggestions you leave me. I read every review I get and I love to read people's thoughts about this. However, I still need to give fair warning to everyone. Sorry if anyone thinks I'm being shitty about this.

Jutsu: There's a ton for this chapter, so I'll keep the descriptions brief.

Ino's Advanced Bloodline (Unranked) The Yamanaka family recessive advanced Bloodline. No known name for it.

Ino's Bloodline has several passive (which cost no chakra) and active abilities (which all cost chakra.) Her passive abilities include being able to sense whether someone is lying or not, being able to sense hostile intent, being able to sense someone's presence nearby (though not the exact location), and sensing someone's surface emotions.

Active abilities include being able to anticipate an opponent's actions by reading `ripples' in their surface thoughts that reflect action, whether instinctive or thought out (uses small amounts of chakra.) The ability to read someone's mind (chakra use depends on opponent's willpower.) The ability to enhance a gen-jutsu and trap someone in their own mind (uses a large amount of chakra; roughly half a Chidori.) A gen-jutsu trap is almost impossible to break out of unless the victim has some ability to instantly break a gen-jutsu (ie. Sharingan.)

Ino has not fully mastered her Bloodline. Not all the abilities have been discovered and the abilities she has aren't as powerful as they will be. Mental trauma of some sort seems to be the trigger to awakening this Bloodline. The only physical change while using this bloodline is the eyes turn teal and glow faintly.

Ino's Gen-jutsu (Variety of Ranks) The Gen-jutsu Ino employs with her Bloodline Limit. Gen-jutsu. Multitude of one-handed seals.

Ino has a grab bag of various gen-jutsu she's picked up from scrolls and Kakashi over the past year. Not all of them are named and some are skill she and the copy-nin have invented on their own. They usually block one or more senses or immobilize an opponent in some way. When using her Bloodline at full power, Ino can perform these gen-jutsu with one-handed seals (leaving her other hand free for the Chidori.) The Blood Limit acts as both the catalyst and the extra focus needed to support the missing side of the seals. Ino use of one-handed seals is shortcut she and Kakashi developed specifically for her Bloodline; she can't use them in any other way.

The gen-jutsu are far more intense as the Bloodline both weakens and encourages the mind to

Ese-Zetsumei (Fake-Death) (B Rank) A jutsu that fakes death on every level except brain activity. Nin-jutsu. Six seals.

This skill fakes death by using subtle chakra usage to block certain opening point and nerve connections in the body. All body activity halts, voluntary or involuntary except for brain activity. The user can still use all five senses, but is completely paralyzed and cannot react. The body's chakra is also cloak while the jutsu is in place. The jutsu is released by a mental command and only by a mental command (though resuscitation has a chance of working.) If the brain blacks out before the command is given, the user will die. This skill is exceedingly dangerous, as most people don't even realize they're passing out when it happens. This skill can also be performed and `stored' for roughly thirty minutes (depends on chakra control) and can be activated with a mental command.

This jutsu that has roots in Gaara's False Sleep skill, Naruto's Non-Detection Field, and components several other unknown jutsu. Created by Naruto when he was recovering from his ritual with Gaara. Both Naruto and Gaara have learned it and both have learned how to use demon chakra to extend their oxygen supply. Naruto's best is about eight minutes before he passes out. Gaara (not having an extremely high metabolism) can go for about sixteen minutes before he must release the jutsu.

Touken Kouu (Cold-Steel Rain) (Tsurugi's version is B Rank; normal is C Rank) A shower of metal slivers that cover an area of about thirty feet. Nin-jutsu. No seals.

A simple move normally. A piece of steel is launched into the air and shattered, with the fragments raining down over a certain area. The power and speed is not much stronger than thrown senbon. Tsurugi modified this skill and when he performs it, the metal he uses doesn't shatter; it explodes. A simple modification, but it adds a great deal of power to the fragments. The force increase is at least as strong as a thrown kunai. The move is very difficult to completely dodge and even harder to survive.

Akuma no Seitou (Devil's Due) (Unranked) The negative effects demonic chakra has in a human body.

Demon chakra is unique in that it strengthens its source while trying to destroy everything else. Because of that, a human being cannot receive nor perform healing jutsu as long as there's more than a 1:4 ratio of demon chakra versus human chakra in their bodies. Even in low amounts, demon chakra can still interfere with healing jutsu. While this isn't that big a deal to Naruto, it can be serious to Gaara which is one of the reasons why he goes to great lengths to protect his body.

Note: Demon chakra is in no way detrimental to the body's natural healing. It simply screws up outside healing.

Shape-Shifting: Fox Style (Unranked) The shape-shifting ability the Kyuubi used that is inherited by Naruto.

Kyuubi learned how to alter and create real flesh bodies from the Trickster, Coyote. While Coyote's mastery of shape-shifting (or Skin Walking as he calls it) is far greater than Kyuubi's skill ever will be, the fox is still a powerful shape-shifter. When Kyuubi merged with Naruto, the fusion inherited this ability.

Naruto can shape-shift at two levels. He can mimic somebody with the level of a henge if he's only seen them and he can perfectly mimic their body if he's had skin to skin contact with them. He CAN'T learn Bloodlines nor does this give him any of the person's skills. Some skills can become easier to perform in other bodies though. The shape-shift is very painful for Naruto and the faster he does it, the worse it hurts. He becomes more sensitive in his new body and can't take as much pain (though he still heals just as fast.) This ability does use some chakra, but not by a stamina freak's standards. There's no time limit on how long the shift lasts, though it becomes uncomfortable over time.

Terror Effect (Kyuubi S Rank; Naruto B Rank) The terror effect of the Kyuubi that disables humans and panics animals. Similar, but not identical to `Killing Intent (or if you prefer, Killing Intent mastered to a degree that no human can understand.)

Kyuubi exuded an aura that stimulated and manipulated the baser instincts of every living animal around it, including humans. Human's feel like prey staring into the eyes of a far stronger predator and are frozen by the effects. The terror effect is a building reaction, meaning that the longer a person is subjected to it, the more intense it becomes and the harder it is to resist its effects. People will eventually have panic attacks, start hyperventilating, seizures, and even heart attacks and strokes. Fortunately, the latter stages take some time to work up to, but the long term effects are devastating. Only people of exceptional willpower can withstand the full effects of the terror. Most of Konoha's forces were crippled by the Kyuubi's mere aura, leaving the village little more than a large sitting duck (although, even a full ninja army couldn't have stopped the Nine-Tails.) This is different from Killing Intent, as the latter has no building reaction and can't actually harm someone. Killing Intent doesn't directly toy with instincts the way the Terror Effect does, which is why many shinobi can resist it.

Naruto inherited this ability after the fusion. To use it, he changes his eyes to their red, slit-pupil form and concentrates on the demon's rage and hatred. Anyone who looks into his eyes feels the terror effect (about 80 percent the full power) and anyone he makes direct eye contact with feels the full one hundred percent of the terror. One disturbing aspect about this ability is that the person Naruto is making eye contact with can't break the gaze, forcing them to endure the building reaction. Naruto can kill someone in a very painful manner if he holds eye contact with them long enough. Obviously, the full power works only on one person at a time. People who experience the fringe effects (looking into his eyes, but not having a direct eye contact) feel a slower building reaction. They can also break away eventually, though it's painful to do so.

As a note, people who are familiar with Naruto's chakra aura and naturally don't fear it (ie. some of the Rookie 9, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Iruka) can only feel the terror effect at about 30 percent fringe effect and 50 percent with direct eye contact. They suffer an even slower building reaction and can break free with half the difficulty, though the experience is still very powerful. For some reason, Ino has an unusual resistance to the terror. The terror invades her mind like normal, but it doesn't actually effect her thoughts. It's currently unknown why she has this resistance.

Naruto's Demon Seals: Pretty much whatever is mentioned in this chapter. I'll probably add a detailed description them later.