Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Foxhound ❯ I'm T-N-T... I'm Dyn-oh-mite! ( Chapter 8 )

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: Naruto relaxes in a training ground after his fight with Ino and thinks about the places he's been to the last year (specifically Gaara and the Hidden Village of Night.) He joins up with Tsunade later and buys a large hunk of land, that he almost immediately begins construction of his house on. He summons the same Blood Clone he used to escape the hospital a year ago to take over the kage bunshin construction crew while he goes off and trains in the village. He has some trouble with his gravity seal settings and is carried home by one of clones as a bloodied mess.

 

Chap. 8

 

“Where is he?”

 

“So the seals haven't found the brat yet?”

 

“Would I ask if they had?”

 

“Guess not. I haven't seen the Kyuubi since the last time we tangled in Wind Country. Hell, I haven't even found a trace of him except for a couple dead Sound-nins here and there, which doesn't really mean much. In all honesty, anyone could be going after them. Orochimaru hasn't been making any friends recently.”

 

“…This is very displeasing.”

 

“No shit. I barely got to test my sword.”

 

“I wasn't talking about that. The Kyuubi must be located. All our goals rest on the strongest of demons.”

 

“Yeah, you're right.”

 

“What about Shukaku and its vessel?”

 

“I dunno…The Sand-brat has been acting weird for awhile. I heard he turned down a promotion to Kazekage a few months ago.”

 

“Really? Interesting…Who's the next choice?”

 

“They're keeping the same Kage for now. Probably hoping Gaara'll come around sooner or later.”

 

“They want a psychopath as their leader so badly?”

 

“Ha! I've seen their Kazekage. Anyone is better than him. He's always acting twitchy and looking over his shoulder like Orochimaru is gonna kill him any second. Besides, he's barely stronger than a jounin anyways. The Sand needs someone with power and the black-eyed runt has that in spades. Who wants a weakling for a leader during a time of war?”

 

“True…Tell me, did you find out where he disappeared to a year ago?”

 

“No, but I'm pretty sure he was with the Kyuubi-brat. Gaara showed up at the Sand Village not two days after I ran into Naruto. I'd bet my blade they were together, though I got no idea what they were doing.”

 

“…That's bad.”

 

“What?”

 

“Kyuubi and Shukaku together. That's very bad for our cause.”

 

“…I don't get it.”

 

“United they stand; alone they fall. Tell me Tsurugi-kun, how powerful is the Kyuubi-vessel?”

 

“Kid's good, especially for his age. Even without the demon, he may be a match for one of us in a few years.”

 

“And Gaara?”

 

“…Even I don't want to fight him if I can avoid it. I could win, but I'd probably lose an arm or a leg in the fight. He's good and he's powerful. He's also young and still learning, so who knows how powerful he'll get in the long run.”

 

“Now what do you think of fighting the two of them together? If they were allies? Even at their current skill and power level.”

 

“…”

 

“Now imagine two or three years from now. Both of them highly trained, used to working as partners, and with the powers of demons at their beck and call. Imagine fighting them then.”

 

“…Half of us would get killed bringing them down.”

 

“If we won. There would be a strong chance we couldn't emerge victorious. Not even Itachi-kun could beat them. If Uzumaki Naruto and Gaara of the Sand stand together, all our work will be for nothing.”

 

“Alright, so what do we do?”

 

“Remove one of the links in the chain. We don't know where the Kyuubi-vessel is so…”

 

“Take out Gaara. Got it. I'll get started immediately.”

 

“Don't be hasty in this. We cannot afford to fail. The Kyuubi-vessel isn't in the Sand Village, so we don't need to attack immediately. We need to act quickly, but not rashly. Scout him. Analyze his movements and his skills. Plan for every contingency. Then move in. Take him alive if possible, but kill him if necessary. The Nine-Tails is the real prize.”

 

“Okay, I'll get on it immediately. We'll know every detail about him down to how loud he farts by the time we're ready to attack. If the Kyuubi-brat shows up while we're scouting, then we can nab them both.”

 

“Do it and take two others with you.”

 

“Three Akatsuki agents? You are taking this seriously.”

 

“I am. There is no room for failure, Tsurugi-kun. None.”

 

“…Got it.”

 

***

 

“Master, you need to move. You're in the way of the clones.”

 

Naruto slowly opened his eyes and stared at the bright blue morning sky. A shadowy form leaned into his vision, obscuring the sun's rays. When his eyes adjusted, the kitsune noticed it was his own face looking down at him.

 

“Naru-kun…wha' th' hell?” The teen growled, still in a sleepy haze.

 

“I said, you need to move. The kage bunshins are ready to build the bathing room and you're sleeping in the spot it's going to go,” The blood clone said with an amused smile. “Or do you want us to totally alter your blue prints?”

 

“No, no…I'm up, dammit…” Naruto grumbled and sat up. He felt the brittle headache building up behind his eyes that meant his mind wasn't reacting well to waking up even earlier than usual. Worse, he'd accidentally triggered several large memories of the Kyuubi the day before, adding even more to the undigested information in his brain. Damn, he needed to mediate or he'd be a shaky mess.

 

A light cough caused him to look up at Naru-kun, who inclined his head to the side. Glancing over, Naruto noticed a crowd of fifteen clones standing impatiently, each holding boards and other assorted items. He forced himself to his feet and shrugged at the lot of them before walking off. His blood clone trailed behind him as the kitsune moved towards the entrance seal.

 

“Are you alright, Master? You didn't even rest a full four hours,” Naru-kun asked, his concern for his creator obvious.

 

“I'll live. Don't worry about it, Naru-kun. I'm going jogging through the village. You have enough chakra for about seven or eight hours?” Naruto asked as he dismissed his clone's worries.

 

“Yes, plenty actually,” The blood bunshin immediately replied, though the way he shifted his feet a little made his lie rather apparent.

 

“Bullshit. Come here,” Naruto firmly ordered, pointing at the ground in front of him.

 

“But Master, you need to conserve your reserves. You've been burning through a lot these last fe-” Naru-kun's protest was cut off when his creator pushed up his Ice forehead protector.

 

“I haven't given you any since I first made you and you must be running low. I'm not going to have you fall apart. The clones would disappear, we'd get farther behind, and I might accidentally summon Kyu when I tried to recreate you. And Kami knows that would be a nightmare. Now hold still,” The kitsune ordered as he bit his thumb. He quickly streaked a line of blood across Naru-kun's forehead and held his palm to it. The huge surge of demon chakra completely took the blood clone off guard and he wasn't able to keep control of it. A searing aura of fire erupted across his entire body.

 

“M-Master, how much did you give me?” Naru-kun stammered as he felt more chakra flow through his system than he ever had in his existence. He looked at his flaming hands for several moments. The fire was burning from inside his body right through splits in his flesh, though no actual damage was being done to him overall. What was this? Naruto's demon aura never acted like this when he called it up. Was it because he was a clone? Why did the fire seem to…draw him in? The flames felt so natural it was disturbing.

 

With a supreme effort of will, Naru-kun forced the fire back inside him and exerted his chakra coils to contain the huge volume of energy. After a few seconds, the rips in his flesh sealed as if they'd never been.

 

“I gave you about two-thirds of my demon chakra. You should last at least a couple days, even with the kage bunshins draining you,” Naruto replied, raising an eyebrow at the strange reaction his clone had to the chakra but choosing not to comment on it. Odd. He'd never set his clone on fire before. Then again, he hadn't given it such a huge jolt all at once before either.

 

“I…What about you? Don't you need it to heal?” Naru-kun asked, a worried look on his face.

 

“Nah. It doesn't take much to heal cuts or broken bones. It's organs and missing body parts that take a huge toll on me and I don't think I'll get wounded that badly just from training. Anyways, I'll see you later. Keep working on the house,” The kitsune said as he walked off and opened the entrance seal.

 

“Y-Yes Master! Don't worry, I'll take care of it!” The blood clone called, almost too late for Naruto to hear. Naru-kun was still more than a little shocked by the volume of energy he'd gotten. As the entrance closed, the clone stared down at his hands which seemed to pulse with a faint red glow. “…Weird.”

 

Naruto stepped out onto the dirt road and immediately began to jog towards town. He grimaced a little as his headache painfully reminded him of its presence. Maybe he could stop at a drug store and get something for it…No, that wouldn't work. His body would just break the medicine down long before it ever reached his brain. His metabolism and healing factor were an innate defense against poisons and infectious matter, but the price was only the absolute strongest drugs had any effect on him. Even the ones that could affect him didn't last longer than a couple minutes, making medicine almost useless on him. Granted, medicine was usually a moot point anyways in his case, but there had been rare occasions when he'd totally burned his demon chakra out and would have welcomed a good painkiller.

 

Uhg, another annoying factor of the Devil's Due.

 

The kitsune jogged in silence the whole way. It had been three days since he'd started his training and he was already feeling some boosts in his strength. 3Gs was nothing to sneeze at. It was unlikely he'd totally get used to the weight before June, but that didn't bother him. 4Gs could wait for awhile. His chakra control could barely handle his weight as it is. He still occasionally busted through the ground, though that was usually only when he did a jump or something acrobatic. That damn gravity acceleration constant always caught him off guard when he least expected it. Light movements were fine, but anything that involved more than a foot drop usually wound up with him lying in a crater and half-knocked out.

 

Naruto smiled a little as he left the cherry orchard and got into the outskirts of the village. It wasn't yet noon, so he might be able to finish jogging fast enough to beat the lunch crowds and eat at Ichiraku unimpeded (he refused to believe that business was going slow for them.)

 

The half-demon managed about three circuits of his chosen route before he ran out of breath and stopped to lean up against a power pole to pant. He groaned a little and rolled his shoulder to work out a couple kinks. He couldn't wait till his bedroom was built and he could have a decent place to sleep. The ground in the hollow was nice and soft but he still wanted a real bed to sleep in. Or something of the sort. Maybe a well placed set of seals could make a very comfortable-

 

A loud growl startled him and he turned to look into a baleful canine eye.

 

Naruto glanced up and noticed that the alley he was standing in ran directly behind a large building that had a series of kennels built into the back. A high chain link fence made the place look almost prison like, but the lack of razor wire helped to negate that impression. And the building itself was rather friendly looking, so it didn't seem like too nasty of a place. A small sign above the door said `Inuzuka Veterinary Clinic.' There was probably a larger one out front.

 

The growl had originated from a large, wolf-like dog that wore an eye patch of all things. It stood just inside the chain link fence and was giving him a series of snarls that occasionally exposed its teeth. Several other large and imposing dogs were gathering behind the leader. They too seemed to dislike him and several started growling louder. The leader seemed to give the impression that it would've already attacked the kitsune had the fence not been there.

 

Dogs. Naruto's eyes narrowed. He did not like dogs.

 

The teen walked casually up to the fence and looked down at the lead do-…mutt. The one-eyed dog tensed and growled even more viciously, with the other canines following its lead. Naruto leaned down till he was almost eye level with the fleabag and met its gaze evenly. He didn't activate his terror effect. He didn't yell or otherwise make a huge amount of noise. Hell, he didn't even lay a finger on the canine.

 

What he did do was carefully bare one sharp canine and let out a low, brassy rumble that seemed to crawl menacingly through the air. It reverberated through the eardrums of the gathered mutts and echoed for an unnatural time after the kitsune closed his mouth.

 

Every single dog immediately backed up and whimpered at the sound. The lead dog backed away the slowest, though it was more to keep from turning its back on a very dangerous creature rather than out of bravery. Its nerves finally broke and it ran to the back door of the vet clinic, pawing and whining to get the attention of whoever was inside. The rest of the pack followed and they had a loud clamor built up in only a few moments.

 

“Bah,” Naruto grumbled and turned to walk away. He only got a few feet when a voice called out for him to stop. Glancing back, he noticed an attractive woman in her early twenties standing in the yard and moving towards him. The pack followed, but made sure to keep her in between them.

 

“What the hell did you do to our dogs?” The woman demanded, glaring at him and exposing unusually long canines. Her facial features, her hair color, and her attitude seemed familiar to the kitsune, though he had the damnedest time placing it. It was the sight of strange red tattoos on her cheeks clicked it in his head.

 

Kiba. This chick looked like Kiba. Too young to be his mother though. She was probably his sister or a cousin. The wind shifted a little and carried her scent towards the half-demon.

 

Uhg, she looked like Kiba and smelled like dog. Any attractive qualities she had (like her sizable assets) were immediately lost to Naruto as he instinctively put his hand to his nose and backed up a step. She smelled far better than her relative, but then again Akamaru smelled better than Kiba. His sense of smell had greatly improved after the fusion and he was easily able to pick out different odors from a distance like they were right next to him. It was probably just the scent of the mutts around her that had rubbed off when they pawed all over the woman, but it was still enough to raise the kitsune's hackles.

 

“I didn't do shit to them. They growled at me and I growled back. Not my problem if I'm better at it,” Naruto snapped in annoyance.

 

“They wouldn't threaten anyone unless they had a damn good reason,” The Inuzuka woman sharply replied as she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Who are you?”

 

“None of your business,” The kitsune immediately answered, his features turning menacing.

 

“It certainly is,” The woman said as she jumped to the top of the fence and flipped into the alley. She took a very casual stance that would have fooled any inexperienced ninja with how natural it looked. “My name is Inuzuka Hana and I'm a chuunin of this village. Identify yourself or I'll take you in to the Tower. The Hokage would be pleased to have a captured intruder.”

 

To her surprise, Naruto busted out laughing.

 

“Gonna play it like that, huh? Fine then,” The kitsune said after a couple moments of chuckling. “I doubt the Hokage gives a crap what I'm up to. My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I'm either a genin or a missing-nin, depending on how far along Tsunade-nee-chan is with the Fire Council.”

 

“Uzumaki? Who…No…” Hana whispered, her eyes widening in fear. The Kyuubi-vessel! She'd been six when the beast had attacked and technically she wasn't supposed to know about it. Her father had died fighting it and during the mourning period her mother had let slip some sensitive information that one of the dogs had overheard. While Hana had comforted the canine later, the dog had repeated everything it had heard. When she asked her mother about it, they'd gotten into a huge argument. Eventually, Sandaime was informed and he'd impressed on the young girl the need for utmost secrecy regarding Naruto. She'd trusted the old man and hadn't spoken a word to anyone, even after her brother had been defeated by the blonde boy during a chuunin exam a couple years back.

 

It had been rather nerve wracking, the thought of her father's killer trapped inside such an innocent boy who walked around in the open constantly. Sandaime had said that the demon was sealed and couldn't break free, but that was little consolation when a family member fought its vessel. Inuzukas didn't seem to have much luck where the Kyuubi and its container were concerned.

 

And here he was, the demon-vessel himself standing in front of her and scaring the shit out of the family dogs for some reason.

 

“I see my reputation is already known. Aren't you kind of young to have survived the fox?” Naruto dryly asked. Having spent a lifetime on the receiving end of either hateful or terrified stares, it wasn't hard for him to identify why the woman took an involuntary step back and tightened her stance. As casually as possible, he loosened the bandages covering his chest. He'd gotten in the habit of leaving his shirt at the hollow and only wearing his orange vest while training, since the days were warm for early May. Fortunately, that made it easier to get to his gravity seal. The kitsune didn't want to fight, but he would if he had to. He and Kiba didn't get along much, but he did respect the boy's fighting ability and if his relative was anything like him then she was a powerful fighter as well.

 

“I…Well, yes, I do know about it, though I wasn't there. And did you say Tsunade-nee-chan­?” Hana asked incredulously. This guy was a demon-vessel and the brother to the Fifth?

 

“Yeah, I did. Nee-chan lost her little brother a long time ago and as for me…Well, I've never had anyone, so it all works out,” The kitsune said, while casually pulling away another bandage. He didn't trust himself in a fight yet with such a high gravity field. As an older ninja, she was probably faster Kiba. If that was the case, then she could run circles around him before he could so much as raise a fist.

 

“Oh…” The vet said with a bemused expression. Somehow it had never occurred to her that the demon-vessel had a family…or didn't, as the case may be. “Fitting. I should've expected you to know about family loss.”

 

“…Let me guess, I killed your father or mother or aunt or uncle or fourth cousin six times removed through your hermaphrodite grandparent and you hate my guts for it. Ring a bell?” Naruto calmly asked. He felt himself relax as he managed to expose part of his right chest and the gravity seal. Hoping it looked natural, he crossed his arms to keep one hand close to the marking. A quick drop of blood and he'd be good to go.

 

“Father, actually. And you beat the living crap out of my brother right before the Sound invasion,” Hana said, her confusion fading as her anger returned.

 

“Really? Well, for what it's worth, I'm sorry about your father. Believe me, I know what it's like to grow up without one. As for your brother…He had it coming,” Naruto said, his face genuinely sympathetic about the Kyuubi killing her parent, though it shifted into a wicked grin at the memory of his clone combo beating down Kiba. So this woman was his sister…The family resemblance was quite strong, though he had to say she definitely got the better genetics as far as looks (and odor) went.

 

Hana wasn't sure exactly how to respond to the first statement and she had to admit the second statement had some truth in it (she loved her brother, but his ego was as large Akamaru was short.) Instead, she chose to go with her original question, “So are you going to tell me why you're hanging around here or am I going to have to put you under arrest?”

 

“I was just passing by and, like I said, your…animals started making noises at me. I made better noises back. They chickened out. End of story,” The kitsune evenly replied. He felt a nasty little comment take shape in his head and he carefully cut his finger to deactivate the gravity seal. He couldn't resist making a crack and he would need the lightened load to escape. “The one-eyed mutt seemed to be the one that had the real beef with me. Just out of curiosity, is it a bitch?”

 

“Yeah, why?” The veterinarian said with narrowed eyes.

 

“Well, some people say pets are like their owners. I see it's true in this case,” Naruto said with a wicked fox-grin. He pressed his finger to the seal and for a moment he felt like he was floating his body became so light.

 

The gears in Hana's head visibly turned as she made the connection and figured out the teen's barb. Her eyes gleamed in fury as she leapt towards the kitsune, drawing a kunai.

 

“You piece of sh-” Her blade swept at the teen, moving with incredible speed. “-it?”

 

Naruto simply wasn't there any more. Hana's sensitive ears picked up the barest rustle of cloth and she instantly focused on it. Her jaw dropped a little when she realized she was looking at the top of the large power-line pole that was just outside her family's yard…That was almost twenty feet tall. The kitsune was crouched at the very top of it, watching her with a raised eyebrow.

 

“I see it runs in the family,” He said with a light smirk.

 

“…Who the hell are you? No genin moves that fast, not even a demon-vessel,” The veterinarian demanded, though the intimidation factor was lost with the stunned look on her face.

 

“You don't know many demon-vessels then. I told you, I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I…Hang on just a sec,” Naruto said. He turned to face the yard where the dogs were barking at the top of their lungs and scrabbling to get at him, even though there was a fence and a couple dozen feet of air in between them. The kitsune concentrated and shifted his eyes. A split second later, the dogs were howling in terror rather than fury and trying to get away as fast as possible. Naruto held his eye effect for only a second before he released it. He wasn't some monster that got his kicks from torturing animals, but at the same time he wanted to be able to speak without being interrupted by a bunch of filthy dogs.

 

“As I was saying, I am Naruto and the Hokage is already aware of my presence. I haven't taken any hostile action that wasn't taken first, so you don't really have a case to arrest me,” The kitsune said. He flexed his legs and leapt well over the Inuzuka woman's head to land in a seamless crouch a ways down the alley from her. He calmly stood and faced her, again raising an eyebrow. “So, you want to fight or what? I was thinking about eating, if it's alright with you. I'd rather not get into a scrap that'll spoil my appetite.”

 

“What was that thing you did?” Hana asked, her fear and awe fading when she thought about the canines who were cowering in their kennels even as she spoke. When Naruto gave her an semi-innocent look, she exploded, “To the dogs! What the hell did you do to our dogs? If you hurt them, I swear by Kami-sama's name I'll make you pay.”

 

“I didn't harm them in the slightest. That was just a trick I learned awhile back. They'll be fine in a day or two…unfortunately. If you ask me the filthy little mongrels deserve worse,” The kitsune said, hatred darkening his features for an instant and causing Hana to step back.

 

“W-What the hell is your problem? They're just dogs,” The veterinarian asked, a lifetime of caring for the canines making her unable to understand anyone who hated them.

 

“Exactly,” Naruto growled, though it was mostly to himself. He may have settled things with their Lord, but that didn't mean he had to like the mutts in the slightest.

 

“Huh? What do you mean?” Hana asked, tensing slightly when the teen fixed her with a baleful glare.

 

“I. Don't. Like. Dogs,” Naruto snarled. The word `dogs' came out as a hateful hiss, with a dark undertone that made the hairs rise on the back of the Inuzuka woman's neck. The look of stark fear on her face made the kitsune realize he was leaking killer intent onto her. It was far less potent than the terror effect, but a demon's hatred was nothing to scoff at under any circumstances. He forced himself to relax and calm his tempestuous aura.

 

“I'm sorry for disturbing you, Inuzuka-san. Please excuse me,” The teen said with a formal bow. He disappeared down the alley too fast for Hana to react, though pursuing the Kyuubi-vessel was the last thing she wanted to do right now. When she was sure he was gone, the veterinarian allowed her legs to slump out from underneath her and sat down heavily on the grungy concrete, though she barely noticed the impact.

 

So that was the infamous Naruto that her brother alternately slandered and praised. She was probably lucky, all things considered. She had no desire to see what someone with that powerful of a killing intent was capable of.

 

“Kiba, I'm never going to make fun of you again for losing to your class' dead last,” Hana muttered to herself as she got up to tend her terrified dogs.

 

***

 

`Well that was unpleasant. Nice one, demon-boy. You gonna kick one of her puppies for your next trick?' Naruto scathingly thought to himself as he stealthily ran along the alleyways. Wonderful impression he was making today. Terrified a bunch of do-…mongrels and a woman who was trying to protect them. Uhg, just because Kyuubi had hated the things and their Lord was no reason for him to.

 

The problem was, the Kyuubi hated dogs with a cold fury, unlike its normal fiery rage at most things. It was a far more intense malice than normal, so when they merged Naruto's disposition wasn't able to fully level the emotion out. It was made worse because the original boy had no real love for canines either and even had a couple unpleasant memories involving Kiba and Akamaru. When Naruto and Kyuubi felt strongly in opposite directions about a subject, they almost always compromised about halfway between their two emotions. However, when one felt strongly about something and the other didn't care much, the compromise was much less and the new Naruto tended to lean towards the stronger opinion in his views.

 

So he hated dogs. No logical explanation for it, or at least not one that Naruto had discovered yet from the demon's memories, and apparently that put him at odds with the entire Inuzuka clan.

 

Wonderful.

 

The sudden return of his headache caused the boy to grab his head and grit his teeth. He had momentarily forgotten about it in the adrenaline rush of his confrontation with Hana, but now that he was experiencing the let down it was returning with a vengeance. He needed to meditate badly, even if it meant cutting his exercises short for now. His head felt like it was going to split open. Maybe he could blame some of his actions on his tension…No, he shouldn't have acted that way. No excuses.

 

Even if the whole area reeked of dog! …Arrgh, dammit!

 

Naruto picked up his pace and dashed along, hurrying to get back to the woods or the orchard. He needed a place of total peace or he was going to go nuts. The last thing he needed was for his demon side to get all weird and cause him to flip out and gut someone. Tsunade would beat his brains in if that happened and his head was hurting enough as it is! He was running so fast that he didn't pay any attention to where he was going as he crossed a main street area.

 

Predictably, he slammed right into someone. Surprisingly enough (or unsurprisingly considering he still had his gravity seal turned off), it was the other person who was knocked to the ground from the impact. Naruto stared dumbly for a moment at the familiar face, trying to place it in his foggy head.

 

“Hey! Watch where you're going you assho-Naruto?” The man said. His face had a scar running across his upper cheeks and the bridge of his nose.

 

“Iruka-sensei?” The kitsune said in puzzlement. Damn, his head hurt!

 

“Naruto! You're back! Where the hell have you been, you idiot? Why did you take off lik-” Umino Iruka began to yell, both relieved and angry with the blonde teen. He was cut off by the half-demon, who put his hand over the man's mouth and dragged him unceremoniously back into the alleyway he'd just ran out of. He did not want a crowd drawn and Iruka was very good at getting people's attention.

 

Naruto carefully propped his ex-teacher up against the side of a building and stepped away from him. The chuunin stared at him for a long moment, stunned by both the kitsune's actions and the ease with which he did them. The large changes in the teen's body and attitude didn't escape his notice. The teen had yet to demand ramen from him, which was something so unusual that it raised alarm bells in the schoolteacher's head.

 

After several moments of uncomfortable silence, Naruto finally shifted and said, “You mind if we do the reunion thing back at your apartment? My head feels like it's going to split in two.”

 

“…Sure,” Iruka said after a moment. It hadn't been often, but he and Naruto had occasionally had dinner at his place before the boy left with Jiraiya to go on their training mission. Still, this didn't feel exactly like the Naruto he knew. Something was different and it prickled his senses with an uncomfortable familiarity.

 

The chuunin shrugged it off and gestured for the teen to follow. What was he thinking? This was Naruto. He wouldn't harm anyone who didn't attack him first and he certainly wouldn't dream of attacking `Iruka-sensei.'

 

The trip went by in silence and in less than ten minutes, Iruka was unlocking the door to his apartment and motioning Naruto inside. He pointed to the couch as he walked by his living room.

 

“Make yourself comfortable. You want anything to drink?” He asked as he moved into his small kitchen. He rustled around for a couple minutes, using hospitality as an excuse to get his thoughts together. When he realized the teen had yet to reply, he poked his head back into the living room. “Naruto?”

 

The kitsune wasn't sitting on the couch. Rather, he was sitting on the floor in front of it in a cross-legged position. He had his hands in a strange hand-clasp in front of him, which looked similar but not identical to some standard shinobi hand-seals. The teen's eyes were closed and he had an intense look of concentration on his features.

 

He hadn't even twitched at Iruka's voice.

 

“Naruto? Are you alright?” The chuunin asked, deliberately raising his voice a bit. The kitsune still gave no response. Iruka felt a little uncomfortable, almost like he was intruding on something that he shouldn't.

 

The schoolteacher snorted. How could he be intruding in his own home?

 

Still…Naruto looked like he was in some sort of trance. One of the things that Iruka had learned over the years from the grab bag of shinobi tricks he'd picked up was that it was almost always a bad idea to disturb someone in a deep mental state. Unless the person's life was being threatened, the forceful awakening did more harm then good. So he shouldn't bother the blonde, no matter how much he wanted to talk to him. Alright then, he'd leave Naruto alone and make sure he was undisturbed till he broke out of his trance.

 

Then he could whack the idiot for worrying him so much.

 

***

 

“…You are an incarnate of fury…A very bad idea to lose your temper…How can you possibly beat…Get up, off your ass and move…Own lord. I won't apologize to any soul on this plane or the next for getting stronger.I bow my head to no…Get out, Fox…They challenge us, then we'll crush them. We're the masters. We won't kowtow to anyone, not even the Gods…Killed, every last one. The Gates have been broken down…If you think you are strong, then stand before me…I don't lose. Ever…

 

***

 

When Naruto opened his eyes again, the sun was setting over the western forest. The small apartment he sat in was bathed in the fiery red-orange glow. The color reminded him of some of the visions he'd seen during his meditation. The Kyuubi hadn't fought nearly as much as the villagers thought, but it had still seen more battle than all of human history. Images of fires, screams, and blood had dominated his mind while he was in his trance. Usually he saw very little, but occasionally the Kyuubi's memories took advantage of the situation and some flowed into his thoughts. Fortunately they weren't a huge addition to his already strained mind and they'd been neatly packed away in his brain along with everything else.

 

Naruto stood and cracked his stiff back. His headache was gone and his mind was sharp for the first time in a couple days. Hopefully when the clones finished building the house he could sleep undisturbed and would have time in the mornings to let his thoughts wander while he relaxed.

 

“You're up! About time. I was almost ready to get Tsunade-sama.”

 

The kitsune turned and saw Iruka standing in the entry of the hall that led to his bedroom. The scarred chuunin gave him a long stare filled with a strange mixture of emotions.

 

“You alright?” He finally asked in a concerned tone.

 

“…Yeah, I am,” Naruto said after a moment. He gave a hesitant smile to the man he thought of as his older brother, which widened when it was returned. For an instant, he felt a sickening wrench of guilt in his guts.

 

He'd killed this man's parents. He now was the demon to blame. Iruka would be perfectly justified to hate his guts.

 

“You want some dinner?” The schoolteacher asked, nodding towards the kitchen.

 

“Sure. That'd be great,” The teen replied in a quiet voice. If the older ninja noticed, he made no mention of it.

 

The sun had finally sunk over the horizon by the time Iruka was done cooking and the table was set. He'd done a little extra this time, cooking some stir-fry in addition to the usual ramen. The chuunin's earlier concerns grew when he noticed the way Naruto was eating. The teen finished everything on his plate, true, but he hadn't spoken a single word throughout the whole meal except for a brief `thanks.'

 

The silence finally got too oppressive and as Iruka pushed his empty plate away, he spoke up.

 

“So how've you been? You haven't told me about all your exploits this past year. Actually, you didn't even get a chance to tell me about all the stunts you and Jiraiya were up to the year before that,” The schoolteacher asked.

 

Naruto was quiet for a long couple moments before he said, “Not much to say. I went missing-nin, pulled off a freaky ritual with the fox, and wandered from country to country while I recovered. Not much else to say.”

 

“That's it?” Iruka asked, a bit surprised. Not so much from the lack of info, but more along the lines of how little bragging the teen was doing. He'd been expecting him to talk his ear of for the rest of the night. This quiet attitude bothered him. He gently prompted, “You must've done something interesting, right?”

 

“I became good friends with a psychopath, was the assistant to a half-gnome from another dimension, and was a Kage's personal assassin and student. That count?” The kitsune dryly asked. He had yet to look up from the broth in his bowl that he was slowly swirling with his chopsticks.

 

“…Personal assassin?” The scarred chuunin asked in a slightly choked tone. Good Kami! Who was the Kage? For that matter…”How…How good an assassin were you?”

 

Naruto set his chopsticks down and finally met Iruka's gaze with a level stare as he said, “In the past year I've killed over a hundred and fifty people. Some were Sound-nins attacking me, but most were contracts to hunt down missing-nins.”

 

“…Oh,” Iruka said in a stunned voice. Well, so he was a very good assassin. Imagine that. No wonder the boy felt so different than before. As far as he knew, Naruto had never made a kill before he left with Jiraiya. Hopefully, it hadn't bothered him too mu-

 

Naruto slammed his chopsticks down and gripped the side of his head in anger, totally interrupting

 

“Naruto?” The schoolteacher asked with raised eyebrows.

 

“I'm not going to avoid this…I've done your family a great dishonor, Iruka-sensei,” The kitsune said in a dead serious tone.

 

“Uh, and what would that be?” Iruka hesitantly asked. Why did he have a very bad feeling about this?

 

“I killed your parents,” Naruto stated in a flat tone.

 

“Don't be ridiculous, Naruto, it wasn't you. It was the Kyuu…bi…” The schoolteacher's voice trailed off at sight of a pair of red eyes staring at him. He'd seen eyes very much like those, almost fifteen years ago when his parents had been butchered and he'd been dragged screaming and bleeding off the battlefield.

 

“Exactly. The Kyuubi did,” The kitsune said. He allowed his eyes to return to normal as he told the chuunin his story.

 

The entire story, starting from when he woke up in the hospital to when he broke into Tsunade's office. Throughout it all, Iruka could only be grateful he was already sitting down as he was sure he'd have fallen over otherwise. When Naruto's voice finally trailed off, he couldn't think of a single thing to say. Hell, he had no idea what he was even feeling.

 

“As I said, Iruka-sensei, I've done your family a huge dishonor and I-”

 

“Don't! Just…shut up,” Iruka managed to get out. His mind was racing and sluggish at the same time. Hot-cold; giddy-queasy. Dammit, how the hell should he react to this? He finally got his young friend back only to learn that he'd merged with his parents' murderer. What the hell was he supposed to think?

 

“I'm sorry, Iruka-sensei,” Naruto quietly said, the guilt at causing his first friend pain evident in his voice.

 

The scarred chuunin stared at him for a several long moments before getting up so fast that he knocked his chair over and several plates off the table. Even with the gravity seal off, Naruto had no time to react before he was grabbed in a bone crunching hug that almost put Tsunade's to shame.

 

Iruka's thoughts finally settled on one theme: It was still Naruto. Even if there was a demon in his head, it was still Naruto. Only Naruto called him `Iruka-sensei' like that. A demon wouldn't feel guilty. Naruto would and did. It was still Naruto.

 

For some time, everything was quiet in the apartment.

 

***

 

When Naruto finally returned to the hollow after a thirty hour absence, Naru-kun just about took his head off for worrying him so badly. Naruto had laughed it off and relayed the events during his venture into the village. The clone had calmed down after learning that his creator had met Iruka again, but it still scowled at the kitsune every now and then for worrying him. Naru-kun was more than a little protective of Naruto and it was likely only because of the half-demon's direct order to remain in the hidden glade and continue building the house that kept the blood bunshin from hunting him down across Konoha.

 

Naruto had spent the night and most of the next day at Iruka's apartment. After the initial awkwardness, they had slowly fallen back into their old habits. The schoolteacher had insisted that he tell him everything in detail, so the kitsune had spent many hours giving him the same story he'd told Tsunade. Iruka had been more than a little disturbed at both the thought of the ritual and Naruto's new friendship with Gaara, but he'd managed to hide that to some degree. In the end, the chuunin had tried to digest it all, but since it would obviously take some time for it all to soak in, the kitsune had left and said he'd meet up with Iruka later. The schoolteacher agreed, but not before he made Naruto swear to not unlock the next unit of demon chakra unless he was there. The half-demon had been reluctant, but relented in the end.

 

Lovely. One more person to stare at him while he set himself on fire.

 

A couple days passed and, like Naruto anticipated, his house was finished very quickly. The kitsune himself had been walking along the dirt road after another day's training session (and decimation of Ichiraku's ramen supply), when he noticed Naru-kun waiting for him outside the entrance seal. He had whooped when the clone said it was all done and the two had set about decorating and adding furniture to the place.

 

And now, here he was a full six days after he'd begun construction, waiting for his blood clone to get back from fetching Tsunade. Hopefully the Fifth wouldn't mind the fact that he'd made a hunk of her village disappear off the face of the earth. The kitsune shrugged as best as he could while doing pushups. It didn't really matter. If Tsunade yelled at him, then he'd just say he couldn't undo it and leave it at that.

 

He was a bit of a sneak at heart, after all.

 

Naruto carefully did a handstand and started doing pushups that way. It was hard, yet surprisingly easy when he figured out how to use his skeleton as a support structure for his magnified weight. Without the gravity seal on, he could do these for hours before he had to quit. With the seal active though, he could only go for ten minutes at a time before his muscles exhausted themselves and he had to go back to regular pushups. For now though, he was doing them on his hands and was thoroughly engrossed in his task.

 

“Fifty-seven…fifty-eight…fifty-nine…sixt- ”

 

“Working hard?”

 

“-tyaaaghh!”

 

A resounding boom echoed throughout the forest, startling several flocks of birds into flight and causing some shinobi in the training grounds to look up in confusion.

 

Naruto groaned as he tried to shift himself out of the crater he lay in. He'd been so focused on his exercises that he hadn't noticed anyone sneaking up on him. What good were enhanced senses if he couldn't detect someone wandering up to him? A shadowy face leaned over him as he struggled to sit up.

 

“I never knew ramen could make someone gain so much weight so fast. Huh. I'll have to add it to our medical logs,” Tsunade said with a wicked smile.

 

“Ha ha…” Naruto dryly said as he sat up…Err, tried to sit up. He wasn't having much success in doing anything other than pulling several muscles in his back. He finally gave up and sagged back as he asked, “A little help?”

 

Tsunade grinned and reached down to haul the teen up. As she grasped his hand, she was surprised at just how heavy he really was. Exerting some of her formidable strength, the Sannin easily lifted the kitsune out of the hole. Unfortunately, she let go a bit too soon and he lost his balance again. She had a brief glimpse of Naruto's panicked arms pin-wheeling in the air before another boom echoed through the surrounding woods.

 

“Ow…” Came the kitsune's voice, though it was heavily muffled by the dirt his face was currently embedded in. He struggled to push himself upright, but found the dirt too yielding and wound up sprawled on the ground again.

 

Tsunade couldn't help but roar in laughter at Naruto's predicament. She knew she shouldn't, as he was training so hard to get strong to protect himself and all his friends, but it was too hilarious to pass up. When the teen managed to pull his grungy face out of the dirt to glare up at her, the Hokage's laughter grew even louder. To the half-demon's dismay, he found that not only did all his attempts at intimidation fail, but every time he tried to drag himself up and attack his big sister he would inevitably wind up in a worse position and cause Tsunade to laugh harder. It was Naru-kun who finally ended the situation, having decided that he'd watched from the sidelines long enough. He still couldn't resist a chuckle at his master's plight.

 

Naruto really was the most entertaining person he'd ever met in his (admittedly short) existence.

 

A crack echoed as several kage bunshins materialized around the floundering teen and they quickly hauled him to his feet. Letting the clones support his weight, Naruto quickly yanked down the bandages on his chest and smeared some blood from his scraped hand on the seal adorning the right side of his chest. A spoke in the middle of his evil wagon-wheel seal rippled and changed from vertical to horizontal. Almost immediately, he stood up taller.

 

“Fucking gravity constant…” Naruto muttered as the clones popped out of existence around him. He cracked his neck a bit as his body repaired the damage from the impacts and glared at the Hokage, who wasn't trying very hard to muffle her guffaws. “Thanks for the help, by the way.”

 

“Oh you're welcome, sweetie-pie!” Tsunade mock-cooed as she reached out and pinched one of the teen's cheeks. The kitsune's look darkened and a violent tension seemed to radiate in the air.

 

“Master, is there anything else you require of me?” Naru-kun quickly asked, hoping to distract them and stave off unnecessary bloodshed. He really didn't want to know what the amount of property damage a fight between Tsunade and Naruto would result in.

 

“Huh? Oh, uh…Nothing I can think of, Naru-kun,” The kitsune in question replied after a second of scrunching his face up in thought. He gave a dismissing nod towards his clone and said, “Feel free to sign off.”

 

“Alright. Summon me again if you need anything, Master,” Naru-kun replied. He paused for a second and said, “And Master? Please don't trash the house. We just got finished building it and I'd hate to have to fix it because you two were bickering like children…A most unbecoming attitude, by the way, of a woman of your station Tsunade-sama.”

 

“Childish! Why you little…” Tsunade growled as she stormed towards the clone. Naru-kun just gave an amused wink at her before he melted into a mass of liquid fire that quickly vanished. The Fifth huffed and crossed her arms before turning on Naruto. “I assume you're responsible for his attitude?”

 

“…Don't remind me,” The kitsune grumbled. He walked over to the where his land used to be and cut his finger open to smear a drop of blood on the bark of a tree. Looking closer, Tsunade noticed that the bark took the faint shape of a wobbly circle with a couple odd lines hanging off of it. She glanced back at the teen and blinked her eyes as they protested what they were seeing.

 

The air in front of Naruto shimmered and bent in an eye straining manner. As the Fifth watched, the forest seemed to open up and form a path leading deep into it. What really hurt her head was that there was no physical evidence of its presence up until that moment, yet she somehow knew it had been there the whole time. She grimaced and rubbed her eyes.

 

“What the hell is that and why is it here?” Tsunade asked with a raised eyebrow.

 

“Just follow me and I'll show you,” Naruto replied as he walked through the green tunnel. The Hokage followed suspiciously, though nothing out of the ordinary happened in the twilight undergrowth.

 

“Alright, what is it you wanted to…” Tsunade started to ask as she stepped into the hollow, but quickly trailed off at the sight in front of her. “Oh…That.”

 

A three story house stood in the middle of the clearing that ran along the southern edge of the glade. How Naruto managed to build a three story house in less than a week, she had no idea, but there it was.

 

Yet another bizarre, yet impressive accomplishment to add to the kitsune's record.

 

The house was of an odd design. It was neither a traditional home like one would find in the clan sectors, nor was it the conglomerate metal-wood design of most Konoha buildings. It was something else, though there was some familiarity to it. The outside was made of wood and reinforced with metal at strategic points. The siding was a deep, reddish-brown color and it held a pleasant odor even at a distant. That would probably fade over time, seeing as the wood was still freshly cut. It seemed almost like a cabin, yet not quite. It certainly didn't clash with the forest like a normal building would have. The windows were unusually large, especially on the second floor. They were almost door sized, which struck Tsunade as odd considering how paranoid most shinobi were about defense.

 

The over all shape of the building was square, for the central part anyways. The first two floors seemed to have been shaped to be box like, then other sections of the house had been added on. To the right from the Hokage's perspective, the first floor was extended outwards from the side of the house. It had been extended almost as far as the house was wide, giving it an odd `L' shape. The third floor didn't seem to be one full floor. Rather, there were several odd extensions built onto it. They seemed to be rooms made independently of each other, each accessible only by the second floor. They were bizarrely shaped, with one made to look like a block with a pyramid on it, another a large dome that took up most of the roof, and yet another seemed to be a…bell tower? Yes, it look like the top part of a bell tower seen on some old churches. Or perhaps it was a lookout roost of some sort. Regardless, it was higher than any other part of the building including the dome, which was about fifteen feet shorter than it.

 

All in all, the house looked to be about a hundred feet wide and roughly fifty feet tall (including the tower.) It was odd and chaotic looking, yet it had an air of quality and sturdiness that implied it had been built with care. Though it was large, it didn't take up much room in the glade nor did it detract from the natural beauty of the place.

 

“Well, what do you think?” Naruto asked from beside her. His voice was both proud and uneasy, as though he'd just finished a long painting and was waiting for a critic to give an opinion.

 

“It's…strange. Not bad; you built it really well. But it's still strange,” Tsunade said after a long moment. The kitsune scrunched his face up at her a bit, then accepted her comment at face value.

 

“Well, come inside and I'll give you a tour,” Naruto said as he strolled through the field and up to his front door. It was elegantly designed and built of solid, dark brown wood that the Hokage couldn't identify (then again, she had never bothered to learn the different trees used for construction during her travels.) It unlatched with a soft click and slid open silently on well oiled hinges.

 

The landing wasn't what she'd expected. It was a small square room that lacked any real defining features…Except for the massive spiral staircase rising out of the middle of the polished wood floor. The metal stairs rose up to the second floor and made the room seem taller than it actually was (though it was pretty damn tall.) Looking through the stairs, Tsunade noticed a large decoration on the wall between the second floor landing and the first floor door in front of them. Sidestepping, she got a good look at the marking.

 

A spiral. A large, metal spiral about four feet in diameter had been embedded in the wall. Though it was obviously metal, Naruto had somehow managed to alter the steel so that it was a light-orange color. The polished metal seemed brighter than it actually was, bringing attention to the symbol yet without seeming tacky. Tsunade's mind hovered on the multiple symbolisms the spiral represented for a moment before the kitsune distracted her from her thoughts.

 

“Kick off your shoes and follow me,” He calmly said. If he noticed the Fifth's distraction, he gave no sign of it. Tsunade quickly shucked her sandals off and slid into a pair of house slippers that had been resting on a small shelf at the side of the room. Naruto led her through the door to the right (she noticed there was a door for all four walls to the landing.)

 

The room they entered was a decent sized living room. At least that's what the teen called it. It seemed more like a den or a lounge, as it was dark and warm looking with beat up armchairs and a couple couches taking up most of the space. It looked like a comfortable place to simply lie about and do nothing. A couple modest paintings decorated the walls, but aside from that there wasn't much else to it.

 

“I'm not used to having guests, so I have no real idea how to decorate this room,” Naruto said with a sheepish shrug. Tsunade just nodded at the statement and motioned for the kitsune to lead on.

 

Rather than taking her back to the landing, the half-demon walked across the living room and opened a side door. This room was the extension the Hokage had noticed from the outside and its obvious purpose explained a lot.

 

Naruto had built a modest sized dojo along the side of his house. Though it wasn't very large, it was enough for him to practice katas and weapon skills indoors. The dojo was mostly unremarkable, except for a couple things. The first was that the walls were the same dark wood as the rest of the house, rather than the traditional paper. The second thing of notice was the weapons lining the walls. The sheer volume was staggering. Somewhere along the line, Naruto must have become a weapons collector. There were the usual katanas, nodachis, assorted shorts swords and kunai, but there were also swords of a very foreign looking design. Axes, spears, bows, shields, a couple sets of what looked like steel molds for a human body (it took her a second to realize it was extremely thick armor), and many unidentifiable weapons were all set up all along the edges of the room.

 

Tsunade walked up to one rack and lifted an odd weapon that looked like a thick stick with a spiky ball hanging off the end of it. Though it would probably be too heavy for most people to lift with two hands, she easily hefted it with her off hand and took a couple mock swings.

 

“Heh, I should've known you'd pick up a morningstar. It's definitely you,” Naruto dryly commented behind her.

 

“`Morningstar', huh?” The Fifth said, slowly pronouncing the foreign word to make sure she got it right. She took another couple swings and examined the weapon closely before setting it back on its stand. Glancing about at all the other war tools, the Hokage's sharp mind took note of one common factor they all had.

 

“These are all very old.”

 

“Yep, the youngest weapon I have is one of the katanas hanging on the wall over there. It was made about fifteen years before you were born,” Naruto replied casually as he strolled around the place. Tsunade watched him as he stopped in front of a dummy wearing a strange armor that said `S.W.A.T.' on the chest. The kitsune carefully adjusted the helmet and brushed some lint off before he turned back the Fifth and asked, “Not bad, huh? I never risk using any of them in real combat, but I like having them around. And it's not that hard to maintain them when you can make an instant restoration army.”

 

“…Do I even want to know how you got all these?” Tsunade asked in a suspicious tone. Naruto wasn't a dishonest person (necessarily), but he had a museum worthy collection of antique weaponry in his house after only a year long absence. Hopefully he hadn't `borrowed' them from some wealthy collector or noble.

 

“Scavenged most of them. I've visited the fallen cities a few times this past year with a friend of mine from the Hidden Night. On one of our trips I found an old museum and looted it, which is where most of the foreign stuff you see here came from. Some of the local weapons I took as booty from assassinations of rich missing-nins. You know some of them set themselves up as minor lords as a cover for their operations?” Naruto replied as walked over to breath on a mirror-like shield and polish a smudge off with a clean spot on his vest.

 

“No I didn't. I'll be sure to ask our spying teams why they haven't found that out yet,” Tsunade replied with a frown. Her eyes narrowed as she said, “So that's how you've been funding yourself.”

 

The kitsune stuck his tongue out at her sheepishly and said, “Yep. Yajin-kage said I could keep anything of value that I found while on missions as long as I gave about forty percent to the Ice Village. Even with a commission fee that high, I still brought home a lot of treasure. I probably won't have to work for half a decade if I don't want to.”

 

“Hmm…I see,” The Fifth muttered to herself. After a couple seconds she glanced up and said, “So show me to the next room.”

 

“Alright,” Naruto said cheerfully as he led her back through the living room and into the landing. This time he opened the door across from the entrance. A narrow, but comfortable hall was on the other side. It was short and ended in a funny zigzag that led straight into a medium sized kitchen. It was pretty much what one would expect of a kitchen. It had all the standard appliances (fridge, sink, dishwasher, etc.) and the wooden walls had been painted a cheery light-blue. Naruto had gotten his hands on a small, comfortable table and had set a few chairs around it. Including the open doorway into the hall, there were a total of five entrances into the kitchen.

 

“Uh, what are all the rooms for these?” Tsunade asked as she gestured her hand about.

 

“That leads back into the living room,” Naruto said pointing at the eastern door. He pointed at the northern door and said, “That leads outside onto the deck. The open doorway over there leads to the dining room and this…”

 

The half-demon walked up the western door and opened it up. The Hokage briefly glanced in the open doorway on her left and nodded in approval of the spartan, yet well furnished dining room. There was a large, polished table that could easily fit eight or ten people if there was a need. There was little else of interest in there, so she walked past and through the door Naruto had disappeared through.

 

“Nice, huh? I figure if I'm going to relax in a bath, then I'd rather do it with a nice view,” The blonde teen said when Tsunade stepped inside. Her jaw dropped a little and she gave an appreciative whistle at the room he'd built.

 

The bathing room was large. Almost as large as the dojo, which was probably forty-five feet squared. The floor was highly polished wood that was completely unmarred. The only piece of furniture or the like was a large, clawed bathtub that rested in the center of the room. It was deep enough and long enough to fit two people, though they'd be getting in an awfully suggestive position if they tried. The tub was a masterpiece, if one could apply such a status to a bathtub. It had been artistically sculpted and had been carefully molded to fit someone's body almost perfectly. And from the position it was set up in, the bather had a spectacular view of the hollow outside.

 

The walls were all made of sliding glass panels that went from floor to ceiling. The north, west, and south walls were all composed of them, making the room almost totally exposed to the surrounding glade. The only exception to this was the eastern wall leading into the kitchen and about a quarter of the southern wall, where a small shower and a rack of bathing supplies had been set up. The wooden section of the southern wall also had a small partition extending from it to give the shower some extra privacy. Apparently Naruto like to bath with a view, but shower without anyone peeping. There wasn't much else to the room.

 

“It's…strange. Good, but still pretty strange,” Tsunade said after a couple minutes of looking about.

 

“Heh, can't please everyone,” Naruto replied with a slight grin. He turned and walked back to the kitchen. “Coming?”

 

Tsunade followed and they walked back the way they came, through the kitchen and hall into the landing. Naruto led her through the only door they hadn't been through yet, which was the one on the left as one entered the house.

 

“I lived with a tinker for awhile and I learned how useful it was to have a workshop. It's nice to be able to repair my own equipment and make the tools I need,” The kitsune explained as he gestured around the large room. They stood in a large room that was filled with about every tool imaginable and some that weren't. It was over a third the size of the dojo, though it was rectangular rather than square. To the left of the door, several large and heavy-duty tables had been set up and they already had several assorted objects resting on them. The only one that Tsunade could identify was a gutted clock that laid in several pieces with its shiny cogs resting on soft cloths around it. The walls on that side of the room had been lined with benches just underneath the windows and they too were covered in unidentifiable tools. This seemed to be where Naruto worked on his weapons, judging from the assorted kunai and a katana blade missing its hilt lying on one of the wooden platforms.

 

To the right of the door, two long and clean tables had been set up. Seeing as she could run a hospital in her sleep, Tsunade was easily able to identify the assorted collection of medical equipment spread across them. Naruto had somehow gotten a hold of two high quality microscopes, several hot plates and alcohol-fueled burners, and even an electric centrifuge (Konoha Hospital only had four, while the rest were all hand operated.) High shelves lined the walls of that part of the room from floor to ceiling, allowing no windows for extra light on this side. Vials, jars, and other containers of strange materials were messily scattered about each shelf. If Naruto had a system to organize such chaos, the Fifth had no clue what it was. She did note, however, that only a quarter of the space on the shelves had been used. Either he wasn't finished unpacking or he had yet to stock up.

 

Understandably more interested in the medical side of the workshop, Tsunade strolled over and took a look at a project Naruto had begun. A battered scroll lay open on the nearest table next to a simmering glass of thick, tan liquid. The cloudy, syrup-like goo gave off a strong smell of chemicals and herbs. It was vaguely familiar to the medic's sharp nose, but she couldn't place it. She got her answer when she glanced at the scroll.

 

“You're making your own soldier pills?” Tsunade asked, a note of curious disbelief in her voice as she glanced up at Naruto. “Why would someone with unnaturally high stamina like you need chakra supplements?”

 

“I don't use them for the chakra. After that little incident a year ago when my muscles were destroyed, I decided I needed something for whenever my healing factor goes overtime. The raw nutrients in soldier pills give my body something else to devour when it heals itself,” The kitsune replied with a shrug. He walked over and pointed his finger at a line of kanji on the scroll, then said, “Besides, I'm using a slightly different type. This recipe focuses more on the raw chemical energy then rebuilding spent chakra. If a normal person ate them, they could probably go six days without eating rather than the normal three. The Ice Village uses them for long missions since they're a hundred times as efficient as packing food. Most Ice-nins still call them soldier pills, though Yajin-kage and I call them ration pills.”

 

“Huh. Why make them though? You could just buy the normal kind,” Tsunade questioned without looking up. Her eyes rapidly traced and memorized the chemical formulas and instructions on the scroll's surface. This would be a handy addition to the standard soldier pills and blood-stopping pills Leaf-nins took into the field.

 

“For one, the Leaf doesn't make them,” Naruto answered, leaning back a bit. “Two, the homemade version usually tastes a bit better and has a little extra juice. And hell, they're cheap and easy to make. The only real resource they use up is time and even that's not bad.”

 

“Hmm, you have a copy I could take with me?” The Hokage asked.

 

“Sure, but it's upstairs,” The half-demon said as he walked back to the middle of the workshop. Tsunade reluctantly followed and started to head to the door. Naruto's voice gave her pause when he said, “Hold up. We don't need the stairs.”

 

“Oh?” The Fifth said with a raised eyebrow.

 

“Yep, come over here,” The kitsune replied as he walked to the wall directly across from the door. He stepped onto a weird sheet of metal lying on the floor and gestured for the medic to join him.

 

Tsunade did so and eyed the shorter ninja suspiciously when he casually reached his hand out and pressed a red button set into bar that rose out of the plate they stood on. The Fifth jumped slightly when the metal sheet rose into the air with a mechanical whir. She looked up and noticed a hole in the ceiling above them that was the exact shape of the platform they stood on. The contraption lifted them into the second floor room in a matter of seconds, leaving the Hokage to stare incredulously at the teen next to her.

 

“Exactly why did you build an elevator in your house?” She asked. Kami…and she thought Naruto was weird before the fusion.

 

“More like a maintenance lift,” Naruto casually said as he stepped off the platform and into the room. “I thought it would be a good idea to have my library and my workshop directly connected so I can grab references or tools quickly. Hell, I'll probably wind up leaving the lift on the first floor and jumping up and down through the hole. Still, it is pretty neat and it's handy to get furniture upstairs. So…What do you think of my study?”

 

Tsunade took a good look around the room they'd risen into. The size and shape was identical to the workshop below. The walls and floor were made out of a dark red wood, making the place seem more intimate than most of the rest of the house. Though there were several lamps scattered about, none of them were on and the only light that came in was through the tall windows that adorned the eastern side of the room, The windows were in a trapezoid type position, making a small extension off the house. Into the space, a cushioned bench had been built allowing someone to recline next to the windows and look outside. A couple armchairs and a small coffee table were set up in that side of the room as well, presumably for playing Shogi or Go with company.

 

The west side of the room was dominated by a very large desk. The walls surrounding it were lined with large book and scroll shelves. The bookshelves were mostly empty, but the scroll shelves were almost full. Naruto calmly walked over one of them and slid a small scroll out. He moved to plop down in the high-backed, rolling chair and casually tossed the bamboo tube onto the desk in front of him.

 

“There you go. Recipe, ingredients, and chemical formulas should all be in that. I'm glad Yajin-kage made me make a couple spares just in case,” The kitsune said as he leaned back and propped his feet up on his desk. Tsunade snorted a little when she realized how similar he was mimicking her usual pose at the office. She grabbed the scroll case and popped it open, to pull the rolled up text out. She gave it a quick scan to make sure it was identical to the one downstairs before nodding and sealing it back up again.

 

“So why a library? You've never had much interest in…Oh, right. The Kyuubi was a book freak,” The Fifth said, answering her own question.

 

“Yep. I have to say I inherited that trait in spades, though only for books I find interesting. The fox would read anything and everything just in case it had some use to him. There's too much boring crap out there for me to deal with, so I just read the good stuff,” Naruto said. He swiveled a little and gestured at the nearly empty bookshelves. “I don't have much of a collection yet. Books are rare enough in this country to begin with. Considering the age we live in and how everyone prefers scrolls nowadays, I'm going to have a hell of a time filling up my library.”

 

“Hmm, there are a couple general text shops in town, though like you said they probably carry only scrolls. I think Hatake-san mentioned something about how his Yamanaka student liked to visit one of them a lot. It's supposed to be down the street from her shop, though I have no idea where exactly,” Tsunade said as she tucked the medical scroll away into her kimono.

 

“I'll ask her the next time I see her,” Naruto replied thoughtfully. So Ino like to read up from time to time…That was a little odd for a ninja. That's not to say most shinobi were dumb, but they were like soldiers. Few invested a decent amount of their time into reading. Ino didn't seem at all nerdish like Sakura was when they were at the academy, so when did she develop this interest?

 

“`Next time?' You've run into Ino-san already?” The Hokage asked suspiciously.

 

“Uh, did I say that? I mean, if I run into her I'll ask. I haven't seen Ino at all. Nope, not me,” The kitsune said with a blatantly fake innocent look and voice.

 

“I'm sure you haven't…Brat,” Tsunade drawled in a tone that indicated that she absolutely sure he had. For some reason, she let it go. “Come on, show me the rest of the house.”

 

Naruto eyed the Hokage with a bit of counter suspicion, then shrugged and hopped out of his chair. As he opened the door, he said, “There's not a whole hell of a lot left to the house. Most of the interesting stuff is downstairs. I haven't finished the third story rooms yet and I haven't even touched the basement.”

 

The study door led out into a hall that was only marginally wider than the one on the first floor. To the right, the hall ended in the spiral staircase and the landing. In front of them was a plain looking door and a little further down was another plain door built into the wall. The hall ended to their left in a large door that had a nine-lined spiral carved into it with a kunai. Tsunade could tell it had been carved with a kunai because the knife in question was still stuck in the door.

 

“Alright, I'll save this one for last,” Naruto said as briefly gestured to the first door as he moved off down the hall. He paused at the second and casually flung it open. “Behold, the throne of the Demon Lord!”

 

Tsunade's eye twitched as the cheesy pun when she saw the toilet sitting at the end of the small room. A loud whack and an “Ow, dammit!” followed. The Fifth ignored the kitsune's cursing as she walked past him. It seemed not even a demon could totally get rid of Jiraiya's influence on the brat.

 

“What's in here?” She asked as she stopped in front of the carved door.

 

“Go on in,” Naruto muttered as he rubbed the swelling on his head. Who cares if it was already fading? That hurt!

 

Tsunade stepped into a room that was almost half the size of the dojo. It was actually kind of plain. It took her a couple of moments to realize what it was.

 

“Your bedroom?” She questioned while turning to the teen as he stepped up next to her.

 

“Yeah. Nice isn't it?” Naruto replied, taking a deep breath of the fresh air as it blew in through the windows.

 

The room was wide and open, with tall windows on the north, west, and south walls. The glass had been raised so a cross-breeze was gently blowing through the room. The walls, ceiling, and even the floor were all a sky-blue color. White wisps covered most of the blue, making it seem like the entire room was in a cirrus cloud. The wind and bright windows reinforced the illusion A single dresser and side table had been set up in the nearest corner to the left. They too had been painted similarly to the walls, making them all but unnoticeable and keeping the room feeling open and airy. The only other piece of furniture (if one could call it that) was a very large sheet on the far side of the room that had small cords tying all four corners to the floor. While that was weird, it wasn't what got the Fifth's attention.

 

The sheet was stretched taunt upwards like a hot air balloon, as though some invisible force was pushing it from the underside. In fact, it looked as though the only thing keeping the sheet from rising away were the cords holding it down. The thing hovered about four and a half feet in the air; five if the domed part was included. Tsunade ducked a little to look underneath and confirmed that there was nothing visible holding it up.

 

“What. Is. That?” She asked, enunciating each word carefully to emphasize her question. Naruto's dirty vest hitting the floor was her answer. Wearing only body bindings and a pair of shorts, the kitsune gave her a cheeky and delighted grin.

 

“My bed,” He said, then took a running jump and flip to land in the middle of the floating sheet. To Tsunade's surprised, while the sheet lowered a bit to accommodate his weight, it didn't collapse. In fact, it seemed to settle into a rough rectangular shape as though it were resting on an invisible mattress. Wavy ripples moved outwards from the teen's impact point.

 

Naruto sighed and relaxed as he said, “I could lay here all day.”

 

Tsunade walked up the sheet and eyed it suspiciously. She raised her hand and pushed into the cotton cloth. It was unlike anything she'd felt before. It was firmer than air or water, yet softer and less consistent than jelly. It felt exactly like she imagined a cloud would if one could be made solid enough to support someone's weight. It was probably dreamlike to lay on.

 

“You gonna stand there or are you going to try it out?” Naruto asked in an uncharacteristically lazy voice. The Fifth started to climb up, only to find that it was a bit trickier than she expected it to be. Her arms kept sliding off before she could brace her weight. The kitsune rolled his head to look at her and said, “Nah-uh. You gotta take a running jump to get on. House rule: the first time anyone gets on Uzumaki Naruto's Wind Cushion, they have to run and dive-bomb it. It's fun and besides…I, uh, haven't really figured out a different way to get on it yet.”

 

“Wind Cushion, huh?” Tsunade wryly said as she stepped back several paces. She shucked off her outer jacket and set it on the dresser before lining up a spot and running. It wasn't hard to avoid landing on Naruto, as the sheet was large enough for five people the size of Jiraiya to comfortably lie side by side without touching each other. The Fifth landed facedown, as opposed to the kitsune who'd done a flip, and immediately thought she'd hit nirvana.

 

It was like sinking into a substance so comfortable it had to be stolen from the gods. There was no real impact like with a normal bed or even a water or air mattress. It was just…bliss. There was just enough firmness to feel as though her body was being supported and not uncomfortably weightless (after all, who'd want to sleep feeling like they were falling?) There was no other real sensation, aside from feeling like she was hitching a ride on a cloud, or maybe even as though she were a cloud herself. Tsunade felt herself realizing so naturally that it was almost against her will. Many of the usual aches and pains that came from decades of using extremely powerful medical jutsu faded now that there was no pressure on her worn body. She let out a delighted sigh and let her spine go limp as a cooked noodle.

 

“You're making me one of these,” Tsunade said without opening her eyes.

 

“You got it,” Naruto replied with an amused chuckle. He was currently doing his best impersonation of a dead man and hadn't moved an inch since he landed.

 

“How did you make this?” The Hokage asked as she rolled over. Damn, lying on her back was even more comfortable. “I don't particularly care if it's the result of a demon seal or a human sacrifice, as long as you as you can do it again.”

 

“Actually, I didn't need a demon seal for this. I just used a bunch of normal seals and painted over them after they went active,” The half-demon lazily replied. “The Kyuubi knew tons about seals, though I've only gotten a little bit of that knowledge. Between it and Ero-sennin, I've picked up quite a few things. At least enough to make this bed and one or two other tricky items.”

 

“Huh...So…How soon can you set one up for my house?” Tsunade asked in a not so casual voice.

 

Naruto laughed at the totally unsubtle hint and said, “I'll set it up as soon as I'm done showing you the rest of the house.”

 

Tsunade paused at that thought. The sooner they got the tour done, the sooner she could have one of these wonderful wind thingies to sleep on. But that would mean moving…

 

“Uh, any way we can finish it from here?” The Fifth asked with a slight note of pleading in her voice.

 

The kitsune busted out laughing at the question and said, “I never knew you could be so lazy, Nee-chan. Come on, it wont take too long to finish. I only have two more spots to show you.”

 

Tsunade sighed and said in a resigned tone, “Fine…If we have to…Uh, Naruto?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“…How do we get off this thing?”

 

It turned out, getting off was even harder than getting on. Naruto finally managed with a writhing-hopping movement that made him look like an epileptic inchworm. It wasn't the safest means to get off the cushion as the kitsune discovered when he slid off the edge and hit the floor with a loud thud. Tsunade had it easy as the teen just reached over and grabbed her hand to pull her off.

 

“Hmm, I need to put some system in so people can get off it easier…” Naruto muttered thoughtfully as he eyed his bed.

 

“So, why the wind bed thingy, the paint design, and the huge windows?” Tsunade asked as she gestured around the room and pulled her jacket on at the same time. “It's like being in a windy cirrus cloud…especially when you're on the bed.”

 

“Exactly. I thought it would be fitting for a Wind Element,” The kitsune said. At the Fifth's questioning look, he continued, “Every living creature has a certain Element that they react to, be it Water, Fire, Earth, etc. Naruto's spirit was a powerful Wind Element. This room is dedicated to that part of him. His half of me finds this more comfortable than anything else in the world. So much of his life has been dictated by or is devoted to the Kyuubi that I wanted to have my most private sanctuary with something that perfectly resonates with the part of me that's always a laughing child running along and waving his arms in the wind.”

 

Tsunade had no idea how to reply to that, so she just settled for an eloquent, “Oh.”

 

Naruto grinned and said, “Don't worry about it, Nee-chan. It's not like I'm dead or anything. It's just…that part of me gets shunted aside for the Kyuubi a lot by almost everyone in my life; myself included. I wanted the place where I rest and think in private to always be a reminder that that's not all I am.”

 

“I see,” The Hokage said quietly with a small smile. She changed her tone as she asked, “So! What's next?”

 

“The spare room,” Naruto replied as he walked past her and down the hall. He entered the room he'd ignored earlier and motioned for Tsunade to follow.

 

The spare room was just that: spare. There were assorted odds and ends stacked in there, either leftovers from the rest of or stuff that had yet to go in the proper rooms. The walls were the same exposed wood that was prevalent throughout most of the house. The wood here looked unfinished though and not in an artistically deliberate way. Tsunade eyed a half-complete table which had several covered paintings resting on it. All in all, it was pretty disappointing compared to the other rooms, even if it did have a nice view of the stream and waterfall out its window.

 

“You wanted to show me this?” The Fifth dryly asked.

 

“Kind of. I'll probably wind up making this into a spare bedroom or something. The real thing I wanted to show you is up here,” Naruto answer as he twisted a small metal handle built into the far wall. A soft `clunk' echoed overhead and drew Tsunade's attention upwards to the northeastern corner of the room. A collapsing, metal ladder lowered itself section by section from the ceiling. It made almost no sound as it dropped (a testament to the kitsune's construction abilities.) When the ladder was down all the way in the, Naruto walked over and started climbing up it. When he reached the top, he spun a metal wheel built into the ceiling and popped open the circle of metal (why he had a hatch in his room, the Fifth didn't really want to know) and climbed through.

 

“Come on up! The view is great!” Naruto called down after a minute.

 

Tsunade followed and climbed up the surprisingly sturdy ladder. When she passed through the hatch, she was surprised to note that it didn't open straight onto the roof. She was in a what seemed to be a large wooden chimney that continued upwards for what looked like thirty feet or so. She climbed up in and rested her feet on either side of the hole. In the dim light, a second ladder was barely visible. She grabbed it and quickly climbed upwards to the square of light above.

 

“See? Nice, huh?” Naruto said as Tsunade stepped off the ladder and onto the wide bench surrounding it. The Hokage's eyes widened a little when she saw that they were a little ways over the tree-line surrounding the hollow. Naruto had a nice view of the surrounding forest, the village wall, and even the Hokage Monument. Granted, the Tower offered a much better view but for a house this was a luxury…Err, except for the whole thirty foot plus climb. They were standing in the odd bell tower like structure she'd noticed when she had first seen the house. They were in a large, square crow's nest at the top of the watch tower. There was a foot wide ledge surrounding the hole so someone could walk around the edges comfortably. The whole nest was walled in and there was a narrow bench running the inside of those same walls, allowing a lookout to sit in reasonably comfort. A small roof had been built over the whole thing, presumably to keep rain out of the shaft and for aesthetic appearance.

 

“It is a really good view,” Tsunade said as she leaned against the rail of the southern part of the crow's nest. As her eyes traced over the roof, she confirmed her earlier thoughts from the ground. The third floor was really just three odd structures and the roof. There was the watch tower, that strange box with a pyramid on it just in front of her, and taking up most of the western side of the roof was the large dome. She gave a nod towards them and asked, “What are those two rooms? Are you going to give me the tour for them?”

 

“Nah, I'm far from done on those two,” Naruto said as he reclined next to the Fifth and turned his face towards the breeze. It wasn't exactly evening yet, but it was getting late enough that the wind was getting cooler. “In all honesty, I haven't even started on them yet. It'll probably take me a month to finish them, once I actually sit down and start working on each one. I don't know…Now that the house is finished, I'll probably work on them at night after my training for the day is done.”

 

“I see. So are you going to tell me how you built a house in the middle of the woods in less than a week?” The Hokage asked as she idly watched the shifting expanse of green around them.

 

Naruto got a comfortable before telling Tsunade all about how he'd met a strange gnome in his travels and lived with him for a couple months. How he'd also worked with a ninja construction crew and learned everything he ever needed to about building a house. He explained about the power plant, space, and entrance seals and their functions. He told her how a kage bunshin army easily became the perfect construction crew as they were exactly synchronized to each other, they never needed to take breaks, and they could work round the clock on a task. He also mentioned to her how he used a blood clone to replace himself and oversee the construction while he went off and trained. The Hokage interrupted at one point to ask how the watch tower was held up and Naruto explained how the house's frame was reinforced steel that everything else had been built on. He had figured it'd be a good idea to have an extremely strong house if he was going to be walking around with a gravity seal on all the time.

 

He finally feel silent, leaving Tsunade to mull over what she'd learned. She got a thoughtful look on her face and asked, “And the furniture? Your weapons, tools, scrolls, the bathtub…how did you pack all that here?”

 

“Storage seal that I used on a bag I keep in my side-pouch. It can compress and carry several thousand pounds of objects,” Naruto calmly replied as he patted the leather holster strapped to his thigh.

 

“Another demon seal?” The Fifth questioned, looking at the side-pouch suspiciously.

 

“Nope, normal seals. Learned it from Ero-sennin, believe it or not,” The kitsune answered with a bit of a grin. At Tsunade's surprised look, he said, “What? He knows more about seals than any human on this continent, including you and the snake-freak. How do you think he carried around all those dirty books, telescopes, and scrolls?”

 

“I guess that's why I've never been able to catch him with any evidence,” Tsunade grumbled with a frown marring her pretty features.

 

“Speaking of Ero-sennin, have you heard from him?” Naruto suddenly asked.

 

“Yes, I have. He's picked up a lead on the Akatsuki that he can't ignore. It might expose some of the holes in his spy network, so he has to look into it. His letter said it won't take more than couple weeks and then he'll head straight back as fast as he can. He should be here before you absorb the next part of the Kyuubi's power,” The Godaime answered in a brisk tone. She gave the teen a curious look and asked, “By the way, how far along are you?”

 

Naruto paused and critically analyzed his progress over the last week. He'd improved, but not as much as he'd wanted to. That's not to say he was growing slowly, but it wasn't enough to keep up with his self imposed schedule. Between all the distractions and reunions, he hadn't been able to train uninterrupted. Well, with the house done and Jiraiya out of town, he should be able to make his planned date if he worked his ass off. He could double his training during the last week when his body was tough enough to handle the extra work.

 

“I'm doing alright. Good, but not as much as I want. I'm going to have to work hard if I want to meet my own schedule,” He finally replied. He gave a helpless shrug and said, “What can I say? I've been a popular guy the last few days. Seems like everyone who's ever even glanced at me is coming out of the woodwork. Hell, I've run into a couple people I haven't even officially met before.”

 

“Hmm, I kind of expected that. Honestly, I'm surprised there haven't been any serious encounters yet. That'll probably change once word gets out you're back in town. We'll avoid letting it leak that you're truly the Kyuubi now…Though if that actually changes people's opinions of you, then it just proves they been nothing but cowardly hypocrites for deliberately using a child as their scapegoat this whole time,” Tsunade's voice turned dark at the last part of her statement. She was very displeased with the way the villagers had acted since the Kyuubi attack. She was even more upset with the elder ninjas and the Sandaime for allowing it to happen at all. She was definitely going to do something about that.

 

“Well, it doesn't matter too much now. I won't hide, but I'm not going to advertise my changes either. Besides, you and Iruka-sensei are the only ones who know the whole story anyways, unless you told Ero-sennin,” Naruto calmly answered as he held his hand up and slowly gathered a few faints wisps of blue chakra in his hand. He formed them into little pinpricks of light and allowed them to float away on the breeze.

 

“No, I didn't. You probably don't know this, but his spy network was breeched by the Akatsuki. We aren't trusting any messages relating to you or the Kyuubi to ninjas or carrier eagles. I just told him to come back as fast as he can,” The Hokage said while watching the willow wisps of light meander about in the air and slowly fade away. She gave the kitsune a sharp look and said, “You swore Umino-san to secrecy right? I don't doubt for a minute that news of your change will get out to the public eventually somehow, but I still don't want it being leaked by one of us.”

 

“He won't say a word. His parents were killed by the Kyuu…by me,” Naruto said with a slightly downcast expression. “It's not a topic he likes to discuss with anyone. Ever. The Third was the only exception. He and I had a talk a couple days ago and in three hours we talked more about the fox than we have the three years since I found out about it.”

 

Tsunade gave him a long and penetrating look before nodding. She seemed to think about something for a moment and said, “You know, blaming yourself for the Kyuubi's actions is absurd. So is blaming yourself for anything bad Naruto ever did. Or taking credit for any good they did. You're a new person. Whatever sins your two `parents' committed aren't reflected on you, at least as far as I'm concerned. I don't doubt that if you were the Kyuubi alone you would try to finish the job you started almost fifteen years ago. If you were only Naruto, you'd want to protect this place with your life, regardless of the villagers hatred or your friends' belief that you're nothing but an idiot with a lot of stamina. As both of them combined, you're starting in a very neutral position.

 

“What happened during the lives of Uzumaki Naruto and the Kyuubi no Kitsune is very important and should never be forgotten by you or anyone else. However, their pasts can't be allowed to control your future. You are who you are and you should make the decisions of your life as you see, not how Naruto or the Kyuubi would see it. Take their memories; keep them and learn from them, but don't let them chain you down. And don't let the rest of the world hate you for something you aren't anymore. Life is too short to worry about the past.”

 

Naruto stared at Tsunade for over a full minute before he managed to say, “Have I ever told how smart you are? No wonder you're the Godaime, Nee-chan.”

 

A pinkish tinge appeared on the Fifth's cheeks at the awe in the teen's voice. She had no idea where her little speech came from, but now that she'd said it she could see the truth in her words. Her blush faded as she considered the meaning behind her last sentence.

 

“Yeah, I'm pretty smart, but I'm not smart enough to learn my own lesson,” Tsunade muttered, mostly to herself. At Naruto's look, she shrugged it off and said, “Nothing. Forget about it. So…Now that the tour's over…You gonna make a wind bed for me or not?”

 

Naruto snorted at the pleading tone and grinned.

 

***

 

Time flies when you're having fun. Well, for the whole month of May, Naruto wasn't exactly having what he'd call fun. So it came as great surprise when the first of June rolled around far quicker than he'd expected.

 

Training had been rough. Word had gotten out about the `demon-brat' returning to Konoha, so he took to sticking around the hollow to avoid any unpleasant confrontations (Tsunade would be very annoyed if he lost his temper and splattered some idiot's brains all over the ground.) He only came to the inner village during the evening, either to eat dinner with Tsunade and Shizune or to visit Iruka.

 

And to raid Ichiraku every other day (the old man had never been happier.)

 

Every day he got off his comfy Wind Cushion and went to the dojo to do his normal exercises. Then he went jogging through the dirt paths that wandered through the back woods and orchards for a couple hours. With his warm-up finished, he got serious and ran through the forests, using them as natural obstacle courses. Running, leaping, flipping, dodging through and over countless boulders and logs at top speed with 3Gs of gravity pressing on him for several hours a day was almost as brutal as the Yajin-kage's training. The results were what Naruto had hoped for. His body was harder, denser, and considerably stronger than it had been when he first started his exercises. Add in some old fashioned water walking (which was very hard at 3Gs) to further hone his chakra control and he was good to go.

 

…He hoped.

 

Naruto was currently pacing a bit in nervousness in his kitchen. He had taken off his bandages for the day, and was wearing only his shorts and his (still torn) t-shirt. Seeing as his left arm was now mostly exposed, every time he managed to calm down he'd glance at the spiral shaped key seal on his inner forearm and start to get nervous all over again. Just because he'd unlocked three parts of the Kyuubi's chakra already didn't mean the prospect of doing it again didn't scare the living crap out of him.

 

He really had no idea how strong he needed to be to handle the next unit of demon chakra. He was almost totally in the dark about how much strain his body could handle. The first unit he'd unlocked was easy for him to handle. His body had been far more than strong enough for it. The second unit started to push it, but it was still manageable. The third time he unlocked a unit was what had him scared now.

 

It was only because Maruishi was as good a trainer of ninjas as he was the Hyougakage that Naruto was alive.

 

Naruto had underestimated his body's strength when he unsealed the third portion of the Kyuubi's chakra. As a result, it started to burn him alive. He'd had no idea what to do as the chakra was burning out of control and seemingly without end. Maruishi had been present (thank Kami) and immediately took charge. The Hyougakage had the kitsune perform the strongest kage bunshin possible and to pour as much of the demon chakra into the jutsu as possible. The logic was that a user's chakra was divided evenly amongst shadow clones and the teen could cut down how much demon chakra was in his body. When the smoke settled, even the grizzled old man couldn't hide his shock at the sight of over four thousand Narutos standing about with dazed expressions on their faces.

 

The Yajin-kage had given Naruto a crash course in a jutsu that was basically the freezing version of Katon: Goukakyuu. He'd then made the kitsune perform it repeatedly until all of his chakra was exhausted. Naruto's tongue and lips had been frostbitten by the time he ran out of chakra, but he had lived. That had been the start of his training under the Hyougakage. Maruishi kept him exhausted and dead on his feet for weeks, not giving his body time to build up dangerously high levels of chakra. Naruto himself had little memory of that time, as he'd been a living zombie from only being allowed to sleep for a couple hours at a time. In time, his chakra control and body grew powerful enough to handle the extra load, but those first few weeks were a waking nightmare.

 

Still, he managed to impress the hell out of Maruishi and piss off Tsurara at the same time, so it worked out okay in the end.

 

That didn't mean Naruto was eager to have a repeat performance. It had been five months since he unlocked the third unit of demon chakra. Between the Yajin-kage's training and his own workouts, the kitsune's strength had grown tremendously. He was pretty sure he was ready for the next chakra infusion, but he'd thought he was ready the last time too.

 

Naruto stood up straight and forced himself to calm down. He wasn't a chicken-shit by any means and if he did overload himself, he'd ask Tsunade or Jiraiya to do the exact same thing for him that Maruishi did. He'd work his ass off till he was strong enough to handle it and they could keep him going when he started to slip up.

 

His sharp ears picked up a dignified knock at his front door, which effectively distracted him from the last of his thoughts. The kitsune walked thorough the house to the landing and took a moment to compose himself before opening it.

 

“NARUTOOO!!”

 

“GYAAHH!!”

 

SLAM!

 

Naruto held his hand over his pounding heart and leaned against his door. That had been the LAST thing he expected to see. He'd learned to recognize Tsunade's knock as she occasionally dropped by (he'd adapted the entrance seal to let her in), but that face had been one hundred percent perverted old guy with attention issues. Hmm…He'd slammed the door on Jiraiya's face pretty hard. Maybe he should see if he killed him.

 

He resisted the urge to cross his fingers as he opened the door and stepped outside.

 

Tsunade was standing next to a twitching pile of modern art (…err, Sannin) with an annoyed look on her face. Iruka stood nearby, but his attention was focused solely on the size and design of the house. The schoolteacher's jaw had been hanging in the air ever since the Hokage casually mentioned that it took Naruto only six days to build it. He gave a vague wave to the kitsune as he walked up to them, but kept his attention riveted on the building.

 

“Is it dead?” Naruto casually asked as he gave the pile of outlandish robes a firm kick.

 

“We can only hope…” Tsunade dryly replied as she glared at the pathetic mass on the ground.

 

There was a blur of movement as, in a split second, Jiraiya went from a catatonic mess to towering over Naruto and roaring, “What the hell was that for, brat!”

 

“I saw your ugly face and panicked!” The teen yelled back. “If I had a weaker heart, I could've been killed!”

 

“That can be arranged runt!”

 

“Try it geezer!”

 

“Ungrateful little ass!”

 

“Perverted old fart!”

 

“Idiot!”

 

“Loser!”

 

“Twerp!”

 

“Ugly!”

 

Tsunade sighed and walked over next to Iruka as the name calling degenerated into a brawl when her old teammate tackled his student. She rolled her eyes as Naruto screamed at her to get the `drooling old guy' off him while Jiraiya yelled obscenities about the `mutinous little bastard' being the worst student he'd ever trained (completely ignoring the fact that he'd only trained a grand total of two people in his entire life.)

 

“Did this happen often at the Academy?” She asked Iruka while plugging one ear at a sudden loud squalling in the background. Jiraiya stopped the god-awful noise just long enough to roar that biting was cheating before returning to the fight…and ignoring his own rule when the opportunity presented itself a couple seconds later.

 

“Huh? Did you say something Hokage-sama?” Iruka said in a distracted manner, still in awe of the weird house that Naruto built. The schoolteacher was apparently oblivious to the fight going on right next to him. Years of being around loudmouth wannabe-ninjas had honed a formidable selective hearing ability in him.

 

Tsunade let out another sigh and said, “Never mind.”

 

The Fifth decided to take matters into her own hands…literally. Three paces over and two hard yanks had both combatants off the ground and in midair. Naruto hung easily by the scruff of his t-shirt, though Jiraiya was a bit worse off as Tsunade had to yank him up by his pants to lift him off the ground.

 

“Ack, dammit Nee-chan!”

 

“Kami, woman! You're cutting off the circulation to some very important parts!”

 

“Both of you idiots shut up,” Tsunade ordered before dropping them both unceremoniously on the ground. “Now, we're here to make sure nothing goes wrong with the demon infusion, right? Jiraiya, you could pretend to miss your student a bit more and Naruto…No one's going to elect a Kage who mutinied against his teacher, got it?”

 

The two shinobi grumbled something.

 

“Got it?” The Godaime growled, doing a very good imitation of a demon herself.

 

“Got it!” Student and master immediately replied as cold shivers went up their spines.

 

“Alright, Naruto, where do you want to do this?” Tsunade asked when she was convinced the two shinobi weren't going to attack each other again.

 

“Err, I guess near the pool would be okay,” Naruto replied with a shrug. As he turned to walk towards the creek, the others could here him mutter darkly, “Safest place, considering I'm about to torch myself.”

 

Tsunade grabbed the still awed Iruka and hauled him after Jiraiya and Naruto. The kitsune stopped at the stone edge of the rocky pool in the northeast section of his property. A recent rainstorm had swelled the water reservoir higher than normal and had also increased the strength of the waterfall enough that it was pounding down the face of the short cliff. A fine mist was rising from the pool and it gently spread across the teen's face. He motioned for the others to stay back a good ten feet or so.

 

“Alright, this is going to get hot so don't get too close. If it looks like I'm burning out of control, hit me with a jutsu to throw me into the pool, okay? Don't knock me out…That just makes things worse. I'll try to make as many kage bunshins as I can when I'm in the water and we'll deal with the rest afterwards,” Naruto said as he stretched his arms a bit to work off some nervous energy.

 

Tsunade and Jiraiya immediately caught onto the wisdom behind using the shadow clones to cut excessive chakra levels. Iruka, not knowing anything about kage bunshins beyond the obvious, resolved to follow the Hokage's lead. He really hoped this wasn't going to be as bad as Naruto was making it sound. He was about to see the Kyuubi's power first hand for the first time since he was a kid and it was going to be coming out of his closest friend.

 

Understandably, the chuunin still wasn't sure what his exact feelings were on this whole mess.

 

“Now I'm going to scream and yell and holler like I'm being…well, burned alive but don't do anything unless you actually see me being damaged. If my clothes and hair start burning off and my skin starts melting, then do something. Until then, just let me deal with it. Everyone understand?” Naruto asked, his voice taking on a slightly authoritative tone. The gathered shinobi nodded, though the two Sannin didn't bother to hide their smirks at the kitsune's little leadership display.

 

Naruto let out a deep breath and lifted his left arm in front of him.

 

“Here it goes.”

 

With a practiced gesture, he smoothly grew his thumbnail sharp and pricked the tip of his index finger open. He let a drop of blood gather, then carefully pressed the digit down on the red dot closest to the blue on his seal (he wasn't sure if it was possible, but he definitely didn't want to unlock two units at a time.) There was a sensation like an electric shock at the tip of his finger, letting him know the chakra was connected through the blood. One thing left to do.

 

“Unseal,” Naruto commanded in a low voice.

 

A sound like bubbling hiss came from his arm as the small drops of blood began to boil. The black line that ran up his arm and connected to the master seal on his back turned red and glowed like fire. Naruto could actually the chakra as it moved up his skin and across his shoulder. It touched the Heaven's Gate and for an instant a cool sensation spread across his back; the same feeling one gets when they've been burned but the pain hasn't hit yet.

 

Then fire exploded out of his chest and engulfed him.

 

It coiled and writhed all about his body like living red-orange serpents. He remained frozen with his hand on his arm as every muscle in his body went into spasms, then locked up tight. Naruto couldn't see much through the flames covering his face, though he could see a vague black outline of his arms. The fire flowed all about him for several moments before it finally stabilized into an aura. He gritted his teeth.

 

`Here comes the rough part.'

 

Raw chakra emptied out of his back and into the fire aura. The flames channeled all that power instantly right back into him through his opening points. It felt like burning acid was flowing through his veins as the demonic chakra traveled a reverse path into his chakra coils. When the first burst of it hit his inner system, Naruto couldn't help but through back his head and scream in agony. The chakra swelled in him, filling every part of his body to the bursting point. Every cell and fiber was bathed in fire.

 

Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Iruka could only stare at the sight of the living bonfire in front of them.

 

Naruto hadn't been kidding when he'd warned them stay back. Everything within five feet of him was engulfed in the inferno of his aura. He himself was only a black-red silhouette that could barely be seen through the flames. His roaring screams echoed unnaturally throughout his hollow as a deeper, darker voice joined his. The chakra itself was powerful, but it didn't dominate the senses like they'd been half expecting.

 

Naruto's chakra grew to its natural peak and continued to grow as more and more of the demon chakra entered him. Over the course of three agonizing minutes, his inner coils were put into overdrive as power was hammered through them. It was almost too much for him to handle. But his heavy conditioning and his Unlimiter pulled through for him.

 

Each of those cells and fibers that were being bombarded with chakra opened themselves up to it and drew the power in. The strained and battered Demonic Gates and inner coils adapted and shifted to channel the energy properly. Where a normal person or even someone with a Bloodline Limit would find their body crumpling, barely able to control its own power, Naruto found his welcoming it and growing from its presence.

 

Almost as quickly as it started, the fire aura faded away as the last of the demon chakra coursed through it. Naruto's last screams of pain faded as well. By the time his aura gave one last burst and blew away on the wind in flaming wisps, he was back in control of himself. An uncomfortable silence reigned for several moments as the gathered ninja watched their friend remain frozen like a statue.

 

The spell ended when Naruto let out a shuddering breath and let his arms flop to his sides. He glanced down just long enough to see the fourth dot ripple and turn blue-white, then looked up to his family.

 

“Not bad, huh?”

 

His air of awe was unfortunately broken when he toppled forward and smacked into the ground face first.

 

***

 

It wasn't a serious faint. Naruto didn't fully pass out, he just lost most of his senses for several minutes. Tsunade easily assessed his status and carried him inside. The next thing he was aware of was a glass of cold water being pushed under his face.

 

“Drink it all. I'm sure that little stunt dehydrated the hell out of you,” Came the Fifth's stern voice.

 

The kitsune obeyed and he found the cold liquid refreshed him enough to return to his senses. He was sitting slouched over at his kitchen table with Tsunade standing in front of him and Iruka next to him holding him up. As the dizziness faded, the teen waved off the overprotective chuunin and leaned back in his chair. The schoolteacher refused to go far and chose to sit down next to his young friend.

 

“So…Not bad, huh?” Naruto asked, belatedly realizing he was panting as though he'd just been through a serious workout. He focused his senses inwards and noted that the extra chakra was perfectly stable in his system and his maximum demon chakra had been increased. He'd judged his body's prowess at just the right level. Hopefully the next time would be just as successful.

 

Tsunade snorted and took a seat across from the half-demon.

 

“You scared the living hell out of us, you brat. What the hell did you mean when you said to watch if you were burning alive or not? We couldn't see anything through that fire aura of yours,” She grumbled at him.

 

“Eh…Sorry about that. That light show was a bit higher than I remembered it being,” Naruto said while sheepishly scratching the back of his head.

 

“You don't so that often do you?” Iruka asked in a worried voice.

 

“About once every six months. Four or five if I've been training my ass off,” The kitsune shrugged. “If I'm absolutely die hard about it, maybe three though that's seriously pushing it. I wouldn't try that unless it was an emergency.”

 

“Hmm, at the rate you're going it'll be decades before you unlock all of the Kyuubi's chakra,” Tsunade commented as she did the simple math in her head.

 

“Maybe…I think after the first ten notches or so things might start to pick up.. With the Unlimiter, my body should adapt over time to the repeated stress and come to handle it easier. I'd say ten or fifteen years, but who knows for sure?” Naruto replied.

 

“What's the Unlimiter?” Iruka asked with a blank look on his face. To his surprise, it was Tsunade rather than Naruto who answered him.

 

“The Bloodline Unlimiter is an old and near perfect Advanced Bloodline,” The Fifth stated, her pretty features frowning in thought. “I don't know a lot about it, but it's supposed to take off all the body's maximum limits for physical, mental, and chakra adaptations. Basically unlimited growth, hence the name. A person bearing the Unlimiter will never stop growing in strength and knowledge till the day they die. One of the major benefits of having the Bloodline is that the body and mind can handle almost any stresses applied to it, even to the point of adapting to take advantage of them.”

 

“…Stresses? But what would those…Oh, right. The Kyuubi,” The schoolteacher answered himself. He looked to Naruto and asked, “So, your body has adapted to the demon…err, to you. I mean…You know what I mean.”

 

“Yep. My healing factor, my unnatural stamina, my whisker-marks, the fact that I didn't die when the demon was put in me or go insane…That was all the Unlimiter's work,” The kitsune said. He gave a sharp look towards Tsunade and commented, “You seem to know a lot about the Unlimiter. You must know my real family name then.”

 

“Your real surname?” Iruka said with a puzzled look.

 

“The Unlimiter was a clan Bloodline, similar to the Hyuugas and the Byakugan,” Naruto said in a firm voice. “I know for a fact that no one else currently has or has ever borne the name Uzumaki in this Village. Logically then, my name was given to me by Sandaime, either to protect me or my clan. I honestly don't care what reason he had. I would like to know the name of the clan I belong to.”

 

“The Kyuubi didn't know?” The chuunin questioned.

 

“It knew about the Unlimiter, but it never mentioned the actual name of the clan. I haven't absorbed any memories referring to my family. Every time I've tried to find some, I always get some oddball memory about something else. I have no idea whether or not the fox actually knew my clan name,” the kitsune explained. To the Hokage, he asked, “Well, do you know it or not?”

 

Tsunade had remained silent through their entire exchange and remained quiet for several long moments, deliberating about what to say. Naruto would not be pleased when she told him this.

 

“I have my suspicions and I'm pretty sure I know the clan name, but I can't tell you right now,” She finally said. Her face was firm, but tired looking.

 

“…Why?” Naruto asked after a long moment. His lack of an explosive reaction disconcerted Iruka, though Tsunade had come to expect such changes in his behavior. His voice, though, was laced with restrained fury and his incandescent eyes seemed to burn more intensely.

 

“Because the records around the time of the Kyuubi are terrible and I'm not totally sure. Because if word leaked out, you would have some very powerful enemies both abroad and here in Konoha. Because they're all dead anyways and they wouldn't want you endangered just over something as silly as a clan name. Because it could be a disaster if word got to the Council. Because it would be your strongest trump card if played against the Council at just the right time. Because I have no idea how you'd react,” Tsunade rattled off in a clinical tone. Her eyes were steely through most of her dialogue, but they softened as she spoke her next words. “Because I care about you a great deal and I don't want to give you false hope just in case I'm wrong. I don't want you to be dealt a blow like that.”

 

Naruto held her eyes for several long moments before he relented. Tsunade had her reasons and she was the Hokage after all. He was still her subordinate, regardless of their personal relationship. If she was holding back information this important to him, then it was likely for the safety of Konoha though he was damned if he could see how.

 

“Alright, I'll trust you on this…for now. I do want to know soon though, Nee-chan,” The kitsune finally said, effectively ending the tense air that had settled on the table.

 

“Thank you for trusting me, Naruto. I promise you I'm not doing this because I want to,” Tsunade replied. She hid a smile at the confused look on Iruka's face as he glanced back and forth between them. Undoubtedly he was confused by the out of character reaction from Naruto. Well, she had something to distract their thoughts. “I have something that'll cheer you up though. I got the news a couple days ago and I've been saving it for tonight. Jiraiya and I also have a couple gifts to mark the occasion.”

 

“Wait…Where the hell is that pervert?” Naruto said with a dawning look of horror as he realized his sensei hadn't been there for any of the conversation. If Jiraiya had been absent this whole time, that'd mean…

 

“Hey, did someone say my name?” The Toad-Hermit in question said as he strode into the kitchen from the hall. He gave Naruto a glance and said, “Nice bachelor pad you have here. Your girly mag collection is low though.”

 

“I don't have any porno crap in my house!” Naruto yelled at his old teacher.

 

“You do now, hee hee,” Jiraiya replied with a depraved grin.

 

“Whoa! Settle!” Tsunade yelled as she grabbed onto Naruto as he dove across the table at his teacher. She shoved the kitsune back into his chair and said, “You are in no condition to fight and you” -Towards her old teammate- “Had better clean any of your smut out of this house before we leave.”

 

Iruka just shook his head and rubbed his temples as the arguing escalated around him. Why, oh why, did he choose to befriend Naruto all those years ago? Granted, the kitsune was fun to be around, but he had also been a never ending source of migraines for the schoolteacher. As if he didn't have enough to deal with while trying to get Konohamaru to pass his genin exams.

 

Several minutes and lots of shouting later, Tsunade had managed to restore order in the kitchen, though Jiraiya and Naruto kept exchanging glares.

 

“Alright, as everyone knows I have a bit of good news for you Naruto,” The Fifth said to the kitsune. She paused, then gave him a warm smile as she said, “Or should I say, genin.”

 

Naruto blinked for a couple seconds, as a slow growing grin appeared on his face. He said, “So you managed to get me reinstated, huh?”

 

“Yep, something I'm a bit proud. It wasn't easy to talk them down from executing you to granting you a position in our forces, but I managed,” Tsunade replied with a smug look. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she gave Naruto a once over. “You aren't going on active duty looking like that are you?”

 

The kitsune glanced down at his ragged clothes and gave a sheepish shrug.

 

“I haven't gotten around to getting a new outfit yet. I wore coveralls the whole time I was in Glacier Country, so I didn't really notice how bad they were getting,” Naruto said as he picked at a tear in his sleeve.

 

“What happened to the outfit you always wear?” Iruka asked curiously.

 

“That outfit…didn't exactly survive Wind Country,” The blonde teen answered with a dark expression. At the chuunin's look he flatly said, “Gaara burned my jacket. Said it was hurting his eyes. I think the only reason he didn't burn my pants too was because he had no desire to see me in my underwear. Didn't really matter anyways, considering I tore them to shreds running from the Akatsuki.”

 

“Well, lucky for you that's part of what our gifts are,” Tsunade interjected. She pulled out a rectangular box from seemingly nowhere and slid it across the table to the kitsune. “Welcome back to Konoha, Naruto.”

 

Naruto curiously looked from the box to the faces of the gathered shinobi. Not even Iruka gave any indication that they knew what was inside, but all of them seemed eager for him to open it. He reached out and pulled the gift towards himself, realizing it was made out some thick tag paper as he did so. There wasn't any wrapping or tape on it, so he just lifted the lid right off. Some sort of odd bundle lay covered in tissue paper, which he quickly brushed away. His eyes narrowed in confusion until he lifted the object out.

 

It was a long-sleeve, semi-casual shirt…an orange long-sleeve, semi-casual shirt.

 

Orange.

 

Naruto nearly broke out giggling at the coolness of the color. It wasn't a dark color, nor was it extremely gaudy like his old jumpsuit outfit was. In fact, it was a similar color to his light orange spiral in his landing, though this didn't have a chrome sheen to it. Still, it looked awesome. When he turned it around, he blinked at the sight of a black spiral that took up the entire back. It looked good, but he was still surprised at the sight. Without thinking, he tore his black t-shirt off and pulled on his new one right in front of his guests (who stared at him in amusement.)

 

Damn, it felt good too. Like water made into cloth.

 

“What's this made out of?” He asked as he fiddled with the buttons.

 

“Silk,” Tsunade replied casually, though she wasn't trying very hard to hide her smile. At Naruto's shocked look, she explained, “Believe it or not, silk can stop arrows and thrown weapons to some degree. The material ties up around it as it enters the body and makes pulling out the arrow head or blade much easier. I'm considering that an investment to keep you alive, so you better not get yourself killed on any missions…Got it?”

 

Naruto nodded as he shifted the collar around. Tsunade must have gotten this design on purpose. The long sleeves would hide the seal marks on his arms and the buttons in the front would make getting to his gravity and spirit bind seals much easier. He reached into the box and pulled out the next article of clothing.

 

“Shizune had to rail at the tailor for an hour to get him to put those designs in right, so you'd better thank her the next time you see her,” The Fifth stated, though there was no real command in her voice. The kitsune nodded in agreement and ducked into the living room briefly to put it on.

 

When he came back, Naruto was wearing a black pair of pants that seemed to be made out of a light weight denim on some sort. They felt pretty comfortable and they didn't hinder his movement at all. The designs Tsunade spoke of were two identical spirals that rested on the outside of his hips just underneath his pockets. While he was sure it hadn't been dyed in, each spiral was the same color of orange as his shirt. He didn't see or feel any patches or sewn on grafts or anything like that, so he assumed some sort of tailoring jutsu had been used on it. The pants looked great with the spirals on and it made his whole outfit look cool, with its inverted color scheme.

 

“You still have something else in there,” Iruka said as he gestured to the box. He gave a stage whisper as he said, “I had this one made.”

 

Naruto lifted the last article of clothing out and let out a whistle. He held up the vest and said, “Damn, this a nice piece of gear.”

 

The vest was very nice. It was the same black as his pants, though it seemed even darker from the strange material it was made of. The outside was plain and smooth, but on the inside were all sorts of hidden pockets. The front was flexible to some degree, but the upper back was pretty stiff. Naruto squeezed both parts and rubbed it between his fingers.

 

“Body armor?” He asked Iruka as he felt the hidden plates. The schoolteacher nodded.

 

“Yep. Hokage-sama isn't the only one who wants you to stay alive. The man who made that said it's some sort of material based of stuff dug out of the ruined cities. It's nowhere near as good as the original armors, but it'll stop or deflect light blows and weapons. Just don't depend on it to block any high powered jutsu, okay?” The dark-haired chuunin said, reverting into a similar tone he used when lecturing his students.

 

Naruto nodded and spun the vest around to look at the back. He almost dropped it in shock at what he saw.

 

A spiral. A red spiral. A red, nine-lined spiral. The symbol of Kyuubi.

 

He looked over and met Iruka's eyes. The chuunin stared at him with an unreadable, yet intense expression for several long moments before giving the teen a nod. Naruto understood what he meant. By branding an object that would be used to protect Naruto's life with the demon's symbol was Iruka's way of saying he accepted who and what Naruto had become. Undoubtedly he wasn't pleased, but he still accepted it. Considering how close the man was to the memory of his parents, this must have been a very hard gesture for him to make. The human part of Naruto wanted to cry while the demon part respected the mental sacrifice the chuunin must of made to give him this gift.

 

Naruto nodded in return, his eyes giving a message of relief and acceptance.

 

The mood broke when Jiraiya coughed uncomfortably. Sappy shit had never gone down well with the Toad-Hermit.

 

“Put on your vest and stop making goo-goo eyes at each other. It's time for my present!” The Sannin declared in his usual loud tone.

 

Naruto shrugged his vest on and slid the zipper up, before asking, “What could you possibly have that I'd need, Ero-sennin? Unless, of course, you have my frog wallet and all my cash in it.”

 

Jiraiya shrugged a little nervously at the mention of the frog wallet before changing the subject by declaring, “Behold! I present you with the symbol of the Leaf!”

 

The kitsune's hand blurred as he caught the object tossed to him. He glanced at it for a moment before letting it dangle by its cloth in front of him.

 

A forehead protector. More accurately, his forehead protector. It was the same one Iruka had given him the night he had stolen the Forbidden Scroll almost three years ago. The black cloth was in some serious need of repair or perhaps even a total replacement. He had put some heavy wear and tear on it even before he left to train with the ero-sennin. A year and a half traveling and training had turned the material into a ragged mess. Here and there though, he could see the tears and nicks that had been on it when he first received it. Iruka hadn't gone on many missions, but he had still managed to wear it down.

 

“Sorry about the cloth. I ran out of cash on my way back and I couldn't get it replaced,” Jiraiya said with an apologetic tone.

 

“You mean my cash,” Naruto casually replied as he stared at the dinged and lightly scratched metal. He gave his former sensei a look and said, “Forget about it, Ero-sennin. It's fine the way it is. Thank you, all of you, for the presents.”

 

The gathered shinobi made sounds of acceptance (though it was obvious they were pleased) as the Kitsune tucked the small piece of armor into his pocket. He looked up at his teacher and said, “Actually, if you want to give me something else…Would you mind letting me borrow the Toad contract for a minute? The back door is right there, if you need to summon the frog that's holding it.”

 

Jiraiya gave him a confused look before he shrugged and stepped out the back. While he was busy calling up the frog, Naruto was pulling his vest off and unbuttoning the top half of his shirt. He peeled it back and swiped a bloody finger along the flesh burn seal. A muffled boom echoed outside at the Toad Hermit completed his summon.

 

“Here you go, brat. What's it for?” Jiraiya said, tossing the large scroll to Naruto as he came back inside.

 

“Thanks,” The kitsune said as he opened it and spread it out on his table. He located his name and cut open his finger again. As he traced his name, he explained, “I lost the ability to summon the toads after the fusion. I'm kind of like a totally new person, so any contracts Naruto or Kyuubi signed have to be done over again. Most cases it's simply a matter of resigning them like this.”

 

He paused twice as he traced his name to reopen his cut. When Naruto finished, he swiped the flesh burn seal again and cleaned all the blood of him before doing his shirt up.

 

“I never thought of that. Makes sense though. Blood contracts aren't automatically passed from parent to child, so why would you be any different?” Jiraiya said mostly to himself. Tsunade had repeated what she'd learned from Naruto when he'd gotten back to town. Honestly, he didn't see what the big deal was. It wasn't like the stubborn brat would let the demon side take over, so there wasn't any real problem in his book. In fact, he now had bragging rights as the sensei to someone who was likely going to be the strongest person on the continent within a couple years.

 

`Beat that, Orochi-chan,' The white-haired man thought smugly. In his head a chibi version of himself taunted his old rival saying, `My student's stronger than yoooours, nya-nya-nyah!'

 

“Here you go,” Naruto said as he rolled the scroll up and passed it back to the Sannin. Fortunately, blood dried quick on contract scrolls. “There were a couple of times this last year when I would have killed to have been able to summon Gamabunta. I managed to get another summoning contract, but not much beats the Boss Toad when it comes to fighting.”

 

“Another one? What animal?” Tsunade asked curiously.

 

Naruto shrugged and cut his finger open again. He smeared it along the inside of his first two fingers and pressed them into the middle of his table.

 

“Kuchiyose no jutsu,” The kitsune calmly said. There was a puff of smoke and a large, black bird appeared. It cawed a couple times and eyed Naruto. He waved his hand and said, “It's nothing. I was just showing you off. You can go if you want.”

 

The raven gave a polite bow and disappeared in a cloud of ninja smoke.

 

“Ravens?” Jiraiya muttered thoughtfully.

 

“Carrion birds in general,” Naruto corrected. “Ravens, crows, buzzards, vultures, and one big ass bird from a land across the eastern ocean that's called a condor. The size of the birds isn't enhanced by the summoning so they're not fighters by any means. Still, they make excellent spies and messengers. The Hidden Ice has almost all of their Hunter-nins sign a minor contract so they can at least use the crows and ravens to carry messages around while they're deep in other countries. Yajin-kage and a couple of the higher ups use the full summoning contract and he had me sign it while I trained under him.”

 

“Well, I can see why you'd use them…They're not as flashy or as well known as carrier eagles and…” Tsunade started to say before trailing off and wrinkling her nose in disgust.

 

“Yeah, even if you suspect them of carrying a message, who'd want to catch a bird that smells like rotten meat?” Naruto replied. He wiped his hand off with a dish towel and sat down at the table. “So…you mentioned a team awhile back. Who's on it?”

 

Tsunade let a small smirk creep up on her face.

 

“Actually, I think you might be familiar with them.”

 

***

 

“Well, did the Hokage-sama say who it was?” Ino asked with a slightly tense voice. She rhythmically tapped her kunai against the side of the wooden post she sat on, slowly working a notch into it.

 

“No, she didn't. She did say we'd know him though,” Kakashi replied as he idly flipped through a worn copy of Icha Icha. He'd already read it twenty-five times over the last six months and was desperate to find out what would happen next. Unfortunately, Jiraiya-sama had taken the disruption of his spy network as a personal insult and had been too busy the past year purging and rebuilding it to spend any time on his dirty novels. The latest volume would likely be delayed for months or maybe even a full year.

 

For that reason alone, Kakashi seriously considered hunting down the Akatsuki. Or at the very least mailing them some sort of bomb jutsu.

 

“Um, Hatake?” Ino's voice interrupted his thoughts.

 

“Yes, Ino-chan?”

 

“This guy apparently knows you, right?”

 

“…Yes.”

 

“So he probably knows about you tardy habits, right?”

 

“…Yeaaaah. And your point?”

 

“So, do you think he doesn't know you've been personally threatened by the Hokage to show up on time to your appointments and is probably expecting you to show up three or four hours after you say you will?”

 

Kakashi stared at his student for several long moments as came to the logical conclusion.

 

“Shit. We're going to be here for awhile.”

 

Ino snorted and hopped off her pole. She stretched a little and said, “I'm going to go do some tree walking. I'll be back in an hour or two.”

 

Kakashi sighed and said, “And I'll probably just wait around here while you go and have fun.”

 

Ino laughed and walked off, leaving her sensei to his semi-boredom.

 

…Unfortunately for her, she was back sitting next to him less than an hour later. Training got boring surprisingly quickly when one was used to live combat and real missions. At least that's how it was for her. The adrenaline edge just wasn't the same when working out by herself. Sparring with Kakashi was fine, but not doing some dull exercises over and over again. If this new guy would just show up, maybe she could get some excitement by beating the crap out of him.

 

Ino was just about to entertain herself by poking her sensei till he reacted, when she sensed a foreign mind entering the training field. A foreign, but familiar mind.

 

“Hey Hatake, here he comes,” The genin said as she stood up and stretched. Beside her, the jounin put away his dirty novel and stood as well.

 

“Well, who is he? I've been wondering about…Oh, I see,” Kakashi said, his eye widening as their new teammate came into view on the path as it exited the trees. So the rumors were true. He had come back. “Tsunade-sama has a sense of humor.”

 

Naruto cracked his neck a little as he wandered into the memorial training grounds. He'd slept like a rock the night before, managing almost seven hours before he had to get up. Unlocking a new unit of demon chakra increased his maximum reserves, but it drained him of almost all his current chakra, both normal and demon. He was feeling refreshed today though and much more energized than usual. Hopefully there weren't going to be any odd side effects as he unlocked more power in the years to come.

 

He really didn't want to grow something weird like horns or fur.

 

As he moved through a clump of trees, the kitsune spotted both of his new (and old) teammates standing by the wooden posts near the memorial slab. He grimaced a little at the thought of working on Team 7 again.

 

Tsunade sure as hell had a sense of humor.

 

He shifted his forehead protector from where it was hanging around his neck and walked across the field to meet them. He noticed that Sakura wasn't there, though why she wasn't working as part of Team 7 he had no idea. Maybe she was continuing her training under Tsunade or something. Ino's presence wasn't much of a surprise as she'd already mentioned she was training under Kakashi. It was a bit odd that she was part of his team and not Asuma's. Oh well, it wasn't like it made any huge difference.

 

…Well, except for the fact that he was on a team with two people who could anticipate his every move.

 

Naruto almost paused in his walk as a thought occurred to him. It seemed he had an opportunity to practice that one jutsu again. He deliberately forced himself to not think any further along those lines, just in case Ino was already reading his thoughts. He'd have to come up with a way of countering that too. An idea had occurred to him a couple weeks ago during a meditation session, but he hadn't come across an opportunity to try it yet. Looks like he might get one today.

 

“You're back. I heard the rumors, but I didn't think it would be you who Tsunade-sama put on our team,” Kakashi said as Naruto came up near them. The jounin didn't seem that surprised to see that the kitsune was back, which seemed a little odd. Then again, it usually took something big to throw Kakashi for a loop. “Of course, Team 7 is still your team even if you left, so I should've expected it. How've you been?”

 

Naruto just shrugged and simply said, “Alive.”

 

“You got reinstated as a Leaf-nin?” Ino asked in a distracted tone as she looked the other teen up and down. That new outfit of his looked good on him. He looked like a stylish embodiment of Halloween with the orange and black colors. She briefly wondered where he got it and if they had a purple, feminine version of that vest.

 

“Yep. Tsunade-nee-chan must've threatened to flay them alive if they didn't let me back in,” The confirmed genin replied. “I suppose I shouldn't be surprised either that she put me back on Team 7. Where's our other member?”

 

“It's just us. Sakura hasn't shown too much interest in rejoining our team ever since I took on Ino. I haven't bothered to take on anyone else since we work well as partners,” Kakashi calmly stated. He seemed to think something over for a minute before he slowly walked over to the middle of the clearing and faced Naruto. “Actually, that brings up a good point. I guess the Hokage's OK can be considered equal to passing the academy exam. That still leaves one thing though.”

 

“And that is?” Naruto asked, his eyes narrowing. He wouldn't. That blasted copy-nin couldn't possibly…

 

“Well, I really should test you to be fair, shouldn't I? I did it with the first Team 7 and I did it with Ino when I took her on,” The Copy-ninja stated as he gave the kitsune an assessing eye. He reached into his side pouch and pulled two bells out, then tied them to his waist. “I'll be fair though, considering you don't have two other nins to back you up. Grab at least one of these bells by…oh, let's say sunset and you'll be an official member of our team again.”

 

“I don't fucking believe this,” Naruto muttered to himself, though only Ino was close enough to hear. She winced a little in sympathy: it was a pretty stupid test. Her face didn't reveal her thoughts, though she was interested in seeing what the other genin could do. She hopped up onto one of the posts to watch intently.

 

The two male shinobi stared at each other for several long moments. Naruto suddenly broke into action as he smoothly grabbed a kunai from his holster. He raised it up and prepared to throw it, only to have a strong hand grab his and forced the point of the blade to the back of his head.

 

“Wait, I didn't say `go' yet,” Kakashi calmly said as he restrained the kitsune. As he couldn't see the teen's eyes, he didn't notice the dark look cross them. Ino did however, but her yelled warning wasn't anywhere near fast enough as Naruto's eye twitched.

 

An explosion of ninja smoke erupted around Kakashi. He started to jump away, only to freeze as he felt the point of a blade on his throat.

 

Or, to be more accurate, six blades.

 

Six Narutos stood in a circle around him, each holding a kunai to a different, though equally vital spot on the jounin's neck. The two in front of him were each using a single hand to hold their blades while their empty hands firmly gripped the copy-nin's wrist, preventing him from continuing his attack on the kitsune. What grabbed the man's attention, was not only had the clones appeared in perfect positions but Naruto hadn't made so much as a half-seal to create them.

 

“You've…improved,” Kakashi said as he glanced at the unyielding faces of the kage bunshins. He released his hold on Naruto's hand and concentrated his chakra. In a flash, he body switched with a clone and did a smooth back flip away, cracked the heads of two clones with his feet. “Not enough though.”

 

“Perhaps…” Naruto replied with an indifferent shrug. He put his kunai away while the clones exploded into smoke. He walked out into the center of the field and faced his former sensei. “Are you ready now, Hatake-san?”

 

“Yes…You can attack at any time,” Kakashi replied with a narrowed eye. Naruto's attitude was very different from what he'd expected. The jounin slid into a loose stance, though it wasn't a serious form as he didn't expect the teen to know any highly advanced tai-jutsu. Jiraiya was more of a nin-jutsu type of sensei.

 

To his total surprise, rather than diving for cover or even attacking head on, Naruto simply crossed his arms and watched him with neutral eyes.

 

`Where have I seen that before? It looks identical to…Gaara,' Kakashi thought to himself, his visible eye widening. Naruto's stance was exactly like Gaara's. That probably meant he had an absolute defense of some sort. Or at least, he thought he had one.

 

For almost two minutes they stared at each other, neither moving in the slightest. The Copy-ninja kept expecting Naruto to explode and attack at any second as the tension mounted. It soon became obvious that the kitsune wasn't going to attack first.

 

“Alright, if you won't attack, I will,” The jounin said and disappeared into a blur of movement.

 

As he didn't have the Sharingan open, he didn't risk attacking from the front. Instead, he dashed off to one side and came in at Naruto's right flank. As he didn't want to kill the teen, he held back some and went into a moderately powered round-house kick. He blinked when he felt it impact a totally different part of the body than the kitsune's upper back like he'd intended.

 

A clone stood next to Naruto, holding its arms up in a crisscross pattern. Kakashi's foot rested in the crook of the `X'. Naruto himself hadn't moved or even looked at the jounin during the attack.

 

“So kage bunshins are your defense. Not a bad idea, but there are many flaws with that plan,” Kakashi said as he twisted his body and slammed the clone in the side with his other foot. Or that's what he tried.

 

Another clone had appeared and had cupped his hands to catch the jounin's foot, totally blocking and protecting the first kage bunshin.

 

“I suppose so, Hatake-san,” Naruto replied in his neutral tone. He gave a slight smirk at Ino who was paling at the thoughts she was reading from his mind.

 

Kakashi couldn't see the exchange and again back flipped away from the clones. They made no move to follow him and disappeared immediately. The copy-nin frowned at the lack of effort.

 

“You're going to wear out a lot sooner than I will making shadow clones as a shield. Get serious or you'll never pass,” The jounin ordered, finally becoming annoyed with the kitsune's attitude.

 

“Alright,” Naruto replied with a shrug. He gave a sharp look at Ino who was just about to warn her sensei. She hesitated, then remained silent. This was between Naruto and Kakashi and it wasn't her place to interfere if neither of them were actually seriously injuring each other.

 

The jounin in question began to nod in satisfaction at Naruto's response, only to widen his eyes and dive forward to avoid a blow to his head. He rolled into a crouch and turned to face the clone, then jumped over a leg sweep as another kage bunshin appeared next to him. He grabbed a couple shuriken and whipped them through the air into the heads of each clone. As he landed on the ground, he back flipped again to avoid a clone as it appeared in front of him.

 

To Kakashi's surprise, as he upside down in his flip, he saw another clone appear standing in front of his path and rear its fist back. The blow to his abdomen hurt worse than it should, as his momentum propelled him onto the fist. The jounin didn't allow himself to slow down and used his now reversed momentum to roll away from the clone. He came up in a low defensive stance, ready for the next attack.

 

Kakashi twitched when he noticed that Naruto still hadn't moved from his original position. He was creating kage bunshins without making hand seals and controlling them with a master level of finesse. He was instantly making disposable, moving shields that could attack as quickly as they defend. How was the copy-nin going to combat such a tactic?

 

The jounin had no time to plan a counter strategy as the air exploded around him. He leapt straight up to avoid the grasping hands and swinging kicks that were coming his way. His jump carried him straight up almost twenty feet. He was preparing some hand seals when a popping sound next to him drew the silver-haired man's attention.

 

The clone had been in mid move when it appeared and its haymaker came out of the ninja smoke too fast for Kakashi to dodge. A loud crack echoed through the training grounds as the kage bunshin belted the jounin across the face. The copy-nin briefly wondered when the hell Naruto had learned to hit so damn hard, before refocusing on the situation.

 

Said situation being the mob of over a hundred clones waiting for him on the ground.

 

Several hand seals and some full powered chakra later and a water blast shaped like a dragon ripped downwards to blast apart bunshin and ground alike. Ino raised her arm to cover her face as muddy water rained across the training field and briefly blotted out the sun. Her worry over the situation grew when she noticed that Naruto hadn't twitched in the slightest, even when the dirty water spattered across his face and into his eyes. He was acting like a damn machine.

 

Kakashi carefully landed on the surface of the brown pool that had been formed in the wide crater left behind from his attack. He panted slightly as he gathered his chakra for his next move. That was a weaker version of the water dragon attack he and Zabusa had used on each other. As there was no large source of water around to supply it with, he'd been forced to extract what he needed from the natural vapor in the air. That was a lot harder than it sounded, leaving his move considerably weaker than it should have been. Fortunately, it was more than enough to take out a group of shadow clones. And speaking of clones…

 

Kakashi made a hand seal and said, “Kage bunshin no jutsu.”

 

A loud crack echoed as over two hundred shadow clones appeared in a line on each side of him. There, that should even the playing field a bit. The Jounin lightly cracked his knuckles and got ready to attack. His clones tensed as well, ready to follow their creator.

 

A louder crack resounded through the grounds. Kakashi's clones had barely registered the sound when they were all struck in the exact same spot between their shoulders. The jounin stared as his line of kage bunshins disappeared revealing a larger line of Narutos right behind each one. A couple of them gave him a cheeky wink before the whole row exploded into smoke, leaving him standing alone on the muddy water.

 

…Shit.

 

It would seem Naruto had mastered kage bunshin far beyond anyone else, including Kakashi himself. Granted, it was merely another jutsu to the jounin and Naruto always had an unnatural talent for the maneuver, but this was still an extremely high level of skill being displayed. The kitsune didn't seem the least bit winded either, where as the silver-haired man was starting to breath harder from running around and using high level jutsu. Naruto held the definite advantage in a war of attrition and the rate he was going, he'd win without lifting a hand to attack.

 

The Copy-ninja narrowed his eyes and dashed forward, moving as fast as he could in a random zig-zag pattern. A clone appeared at almost every step, doing its best to trip him up. Kakashi dodged each one, though he took a couple glancing blows here and there. Now that he knew what to expect, he was handling the situation better. If he could engage Naruto directly, the teen would lose his concentration and be forced to fight one on one. At less than ten feet from his target, the copy-nin feinted that he was about to leap and immediately cancelled the action into a spinning round house kick that went right under the clones that had appeared to counter his first attack.

 

The force of the blow would have knocked Naruto flying, had it connected. Kakashi was again surprised when a clone materialized in midair and caught his foot, as another clone appeared behind it facing away and bracing the first's back with its shoulders. Two more appeared behind the second, each with their hands pushing on its chest and shoulders to further reinforce their position. The energy behind Kakashi's attack was completely absorbed by such an efficient block.

 

Kakashi's sharp mind immediately realized that Naruto had deliberately held back with the other clones, allowing the jounin to get close enough to bait him into a trap.

 

The first clone didn't release the jounin's foot, preventing him from recovering from his attack. Kakashi hit the ground in an undignified flop and immediately raised himself up on his hands to shove himself back upwards. His jaw dropped behind his mask as hands ripped up out of the ground around him to grab onto his arms and legs. There was a weighty impact on the copy-nin's back, then another and another. Kakashi lost count somewhere around fifteen as clones appeared and dog-piled on him. He was totally immobilized at the bottom of a dark pile, with five or six hands sticking out of the earth to grab onto each arm and leg. This was not good. If Naruto had learned some sort of clone bomb jutsu, he was totally screwed.

 

Kakashi grimaced and forced chakra down into his right hand.

 

Naruto didn't blink or change expression when the clones in the dog-pile exploded with several flashing motions of electrical chakra. Kakashi took the opportunity to get out of the breach and used his left hand to stabilize the Chidori completely. He backed way a couple dozen feet, while making quick work of the kage bunshins surrounding him. When he saw a real opening this time, he broke through the line to rush at the kitsune. Any clone that appeared was instantly cut down with his lightning jutsu. The jounin had no intention of actually using the Chidori on Naruto, but he was definitely going to keep it active to cut through any bunshins.

 

A clone appeared directly in front of him and Kakashi held his arm straight out to impale it, the lines of crackling energy trailing off it as he ran. A second clone materialized and the copy-nin instantly knew he'd made a mistake.

 

The second clone had appeared doing a handstand on his outstretched arm, gripping his wrist just behind the destructive chakra of the Chidori.

 

The kage bunshin swung its body downwards and maintained its grip the whole way. Its momentum forced Kakashi's arm to twist with it or risk a break. The jounin stumbled in his run and the clone completed its movement and braced its feet against the ground while doing on rolling throw. Kakashi's body was lifted clear off the ground and his own momentum combined with the clone's strength hurled him through the air dozens of feet in a scene that was oddly reminiscent of the hospital fight he'd interrupted years ago. The ground exploded underneath him as clone after clone tore up through the earth into the air to nail him with blow after blow. Even as he was fending them off with his right hand, the copy-nin was reaching up with his left to raise his forehead protector up. As he neared the ground, he held his chakra enhanced hand out to destroy the stream of clones appearing in front of him.

 

The jounin's Chidori enhanced arm plowed into the ground and tore a deep, long furrow through the earth. The soil gave way like tissue paper under the jutsu's power and it took several seconds for enough friction to build up to bring him to a halt. Kakashi allowed the Chidori to crackle out of existence as he whirled around and took a fighting stance, the Sharingan fully exposed and focused on Naruto.

 

The genin showed his first real sign of emotion by raising his eyebrow at the sight of the active Bloodline Limit.

 

“I don't think that's necessary, Hatake-san,” Naruto calmly said. He relaxed his arms to his sides.

 

“…I'll admit you're too much for me without the Sharingan, Naruto, but I seriously doubt you can beat me with it open,” Kakashi replied in a tense voice. He didn't relax from his stance, nor did he take his spinning red eye off the teen.

 

“But I'm not supposed to beat you, remember? I was only supposed to grab the bell, right?” Naruto said with a slightly amused half-smile. He raised his hand and displayed the dangling bells hanging from it. “I think somebody forgot his own test.”

 

“He's got you there, Hatake,” Ino chimed in from the sidelines. She was swinging between awe and fury at the prowess her fellow genin had displayed. Awe at how skilled he'd become and fury because this confirmed her suspicions that he'd been holding back during their fight a month ago. The fact that clones were a major weak point for her skills only rubbed salt in the wound. He could have beaten her easily if he had though to use this strange jutsu on her.

 

Kakashi flinched at the sight of the bells and glanced at his beltline to make sure they were gone. Well, shit… He really had forgotten all about the test during the fight. He looked back to the blonde teen and asked, “When did you grab them? During the dog-pile?”

 

“When you first teleported behind me. The second clone on your right took them when you couldn't move your head because of the kunais,” Naruto replied. He tossed the bells through the air and they landed ground in front of Kakashi. “It took me two minutes to get them when you thought it might take me six or seven hours. I assume I pass then?”

 

“I…Yes, you pass,” The Copy-ninja said as he relaxed out of his stance and slid his protector back down over his eye. He couldn't believe he had missed the teen pilfering the bells, especially so early in the match when it had still felt like a real test and not the full fight it had devolved into.

 

“I see…Hatake-san?” Naruto said in a suddenly cold voice. His incandescent eyes seemed to burn with an inner fury. “We need to talk.”

 

Kakashi raised a silver eyebrow at the comment. He had learned at least one thing from the many, many volumes of Icha Icha Paradise he had read over the years.

 

Nothing good ever followed that sentence.

 

***

 

Authors Notes:

 

General: It's finally up. Sorry I overshot my expected day by over a week. Hope everyone enjoys chapter 8.

 

Nothing too much of note this time around. Most of my rants are now confined to my LJ rather than taking up room here. Virtually all reviewers have respected my request to restrict their comments to the story rather than me personally and for that, thanks. As I said before, compliments and criticism are welcome, though please do both intelligently or at the, very least, politely. I doubt it'll become a problem, but better safe then sorry right?

 

As for Foxhound, it's starting to pick up a bit finally. I expected to be at this point four or five chapters ago, but for some reason I always wind up writing in new scenes that I'd never thought of before. Hmm, strange. I have three other Naruto fanfictions in the works right now, though only one is well thought out. I may post the first chapter to one of them in a month or so. Maybe. I don't want to lose focus on Foxhound before it's actually done.

 

Kiba's sister…Well, I ran a search on her and found out that she's one of those unnamed characters as far as anyone knows. I did however get a bit of info on her from a forum that's devoted to translating the guide book (which looks almost useless from the pictures I saw.) According to the info there, her first name is Hana and she's a chuunin. (If I made a huge mistake, email me and let me know, k? A minor mistake can be written off as artistic license, hehe.) The rest of it I inferred as best as I could. We never see her and Kiba's father (unless that is one FEMININE man shown during the Sound invasion) and since she's an Inuzuka and older, I figure she probably fights the same way as Kiba, only better. That scene was originally going to be the dogs picking up Naruto's unnatural scent and him just growling and walking off, but then I decided to make it into something else that was (hopefully) more entertaining.

 

Oh, and the reason the Kyuubi hates dogs will fully explained in the future, but lets just say it had a bad relationship with their Lord.

 

And for people curious about how strong Naruto is, he's still not quite as powerful Kakashi (at least Kakashi using the Sharingan.) It's tricky to fully know someone's true power in this series (unlike, say DBZ) since so many things (skill, techniques, chakra, stamina, experience etc) are taken into consideration. Naruto's stamina/chakra is as high as Jiraiya's, but his skill/experience are only mid-chuunin range (since he only has a few techniques he's really good at, as opposed to a range of techniques like a Sannin or Kakashi would have.) Overall, he's a few notches lower than Kakashi. That's my final word and I'm sticking to it, haha.

 

The Elements will be explained either in the story or whenever I sit down and fully think it out.

 

And as one final note, I went back and edited all of my older chapters a few days ago. It was just a couple touchups, but the big thing I did was split up some of those enormous paragraphs (especially from the third and fourth chapter.) Hopefully it'll make it an easier read. I also finally got around to replacing `chunin' with `chuunin'. I've been meaning to do that for a month now. Anyways, hopefully the chapters will read a bit smoother now.

 

Jutsu: I got a few this time. I have a full list of all jutsu and related notes on my LJ for anyone who hates switching back and forth between chapters.

 

Storage Seal (B Rank) A series of normal seals that alter a container of some sort, enabling it to contain a massive volume of objects. (Created by Jiraiya.)

 

The storage seal is a complicated series of seals that alter the physical laws of how much a container can contain. This is actually a very complicate technique to use and pushes the boundaries of what human seals can pull of. Basically, it changes X into something else, where X equals the square volume of matter a container can hold. It also `folds' the objects once they're inside, making them seem weightless and momentum less (actually it just shrinks the weight and momentum down to an unnoticeable level, roughly equivalent to a grain of sand.) To have the container hold something larger than itself, a second series of seal must be used on its opening so that it can stretch and shift to engulf whatever its target is. The seals draw the chakra in to keep themselves active from the surrounding environment and its user.

 

To make the container release its store, the user places their hand on the bag and channels a subtle amount of chakra into it. They then picture the object in their head and say, “Release” or a similar command. The object is then regurgitated out of the container.

 

The storage seal can be used on almost any container (bag, scroll case, box, jar and lid, etc.) and there is no known time limit for how long the items can be contained, nor is there any known degradation to them resulting from their storage. Furthermore, objects seem to be fully protected as the long at the container isn't damaged. If the container is damaged to the point where the seals break…watch out.

 

Wind Cushion (Unranked; seal complexity is roughly equal B) A cushion of air that is strong enough to support several tons of matter generated by a series of standard seals. (Created by Naruto.)

 

The Wind Cushion is a jutsu created by Naruto solely for his personal comfort (and to go with the Wind theme of his room.) The seals `harden' the air while making it slowly flow at the same time. As a safety feature, the air is breathable (just in case someone rolls over and mashes half their head into it) and feels like normal air to someone breathing it. While the air itself is perfectly capable of holding a person up, Naruto usually places straps a sheet around it to make it feel somewhat like a bed. When a person actually lays on the Cushion, the air alters and matches their body perfectly and provides a comfortable level of support (just enough to not feel weightless) while applying almost no pressure to the skin. Because the user doesn't get pins and needle from it, they almost never shift while sleeping.

 

The one downside to the Wind Cushion is the difficulty in getting on and off it. Because there's almost no pressure feed back, it's almost impossible to brace against it to push away. Basically, the same trouble in getting off a water bed times thirty. Naruto altered the seals somewhat to take care of that when he made Tsunade's Cushion. A simple half-seal firms the bed up enough that the person can get enough traction to get off. A simple full seal alters the shape so it's like a slide (for exceptionally lazy people.)

 

Naruto's Wind Cushion runs off the energy from the power plant seal, while Tsunade's has to be recharged manually by a person every couple weeks (it's a pretty efficient seal setup.)

 

Ration Pills (Unranked) A modification of soldier pills.

 

Nothing much to ration pills, except that they sacrifice most of their chakra replenishing properties for chemical energy. The standard mixture has about double the chemical energy and a third the chakra restoration ability. This recipe can be modified and altered somewhat. Naruto's has it at three times chemical energy (not necessarily how long the person can go without food) and a quarter chakra restoration. The chakra restoration is also more long term than the instant nature of soldier pills. Ration pills restore chakra over the course of a several hours, which is actually less straining on the body but not so useful in a fight. It's a pretty even trade off over all.

 

Summoning Contract: Carrion Birds (B Level Contract) A summoning contract that can call forth a multitude of various carrion birds including ravens, crows, vultures, buzzards, and the condor (Boss Summon.)

 

This summoning contract was created centuries ago by an assassin order for assistance in spying. After the order broke up, it was passed around to various clans and villages. Understandably, few were eager to make a contract with grisly animals like vultures, so it was passed off to others as quickly as possible. It finally came to a clan that eventually joined the Hidden Ice when it first formed, where it was eventually traded to the Shimoyake clan. When Maruishi (the Hyougakage) took control of the village, he saw the potential of using unusual birds as messengers rather than the commonly expected carrier eagles. They may not be as fast, but it's hard to catch a buzzard riding a thermal over a mile in the air. Maruishi has minor contracts derived from the original to hand out to the Ice hunter-nins so they can report back from a long distance. He himself, along with every member of his clan (and Naruto) signed the full contract, which allows for multiple summons and of larger birds.

 

Depending on the chakra put into the move and the control of the user, a single bird of any type to a full murder can be summoned. The birds have a couple handy abilities. The buzzards and vultures have incredible senses of smell (though it's mostly geared towards bodily fluids, like blood) and sharp eyes that they can use to spy on things from a very long distance. The crows and ravens have a shadow-blend ability that lets them go invisible if they remain motionless in a shadow (which crows and ravens can do for hours.) Their beaks and talons also contain venoms and infectious matter that will quickly turn to gangrene if the injury is left untreated for more than a day. Each bird has a psychic link to the other birds that lets them communicate from any distance. However, that's only limited to birds of their species (ravens can only link with ravens; buzzards to buzzards, etc.) Some birds speak human language and some don't, with no real organization to it. They can all understand any human language, fortunately, so usually several are summoned and the ones that can't speak are sent off to spy/carry a message while the ones that can remain behind with the summoner to keep him/her informed through the link.

 

Condor is the Boss Summon and has a full link to all the other birds and can speak human language. It has enhanced smell and sight like the vultures and also has an chakra attack that lets it spew out a beam-like spray of rotten gas and liquid. The gas is a powerful toxin and the liquid contains more infectious bacteria than there is known to man. If it hits a target with open wounds, then they will almost certainly die of blood poisoning and gangrene within a day or two. The beam doesn't have a huge range, but it is powerful enough to knock a man off his feet if the distance from the target is less than sixty feet (Condor can also bomb attack from above to increase its range.)

 

The birds' primary weakness is that none of them are fighters. A single blow will dispel almost any of them, except for the largest buzzards and Condor and even they can't take more than two or three. They also have an unpleasant habit of riding on their summoner's shoulders (Naruto usually stuffs his nose with shredded cloth to block the smell) and defecating wherever they please (although pranksters occasionally summon them solely for that last habit alone.) They are loyal, however, and will gladly obey any task their summoner sets down for them if it's within their ability. (Some think that latter part might be to show up the more sought after eagle and hawk summons.)

 

There are two requirements to having this contract: the summoner can't have or sign a contract with any eagle or hawk type bird and the summoner has to occasionally call all the birds out so they can feast on some dead animal (or ninja.)

 

Kage Bunshin: Shield and Sword (Forbidden Jutsu) Naruto's personal version of kage bunshin that involves an extreme level of control over the clones in their creation. Nin-jutsu/Tai-jutsu. No seals used.

 

Since he lived in the Hidden Night, Naruto has occasionally practiced and developed his own personal spin on the kage bunshin. After the high levels of training he went through in the Ice, his high level of chakra control netted him the ability to create kage bunshins without using seals (though it took a lot of practice.) Over time, he also figured out how to generate them at any location within a spherical range of himself. Over time, the result was the Shield and Sword.

 

Shield and Sword is a jutsu where the user generates a clone in any position within a radius of roughly eighty to a hundred feet. It should be noted that the radius means any direction, including in the air or underground (it takes extra chakra to force a clone to displace earth, but after that the clone can dig through the ground on its own.) Naruto also developed the ability to add a certain level of momentum onto his clones, enabling them to be created in the middle of a move. They can't be created all the way in a move (like appearing with their fist planted in someone's face) but they can be created up to halfway through a move (like a punch already on course to a target.) It's very hard to adapt to this style of fighting and most opponents are caught totally off guard by the perfect synchronization of the kage bunshins. Naruto practiced heavily in the perfect timing in switching back and forth between using them as instant shields or as quick attacks.

 

Naruto only recently mastered this jutsu during his month of training in the Leaf. All of his Blood Clones can use this ability as well.