Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Vixens and Kitsune ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, fighting back a monstrous headache. “You love making work for me, don't you?” Kyuubi growled, helping her host to his feet.

“What happened?” the boy mumbled, swaying unsteadily.

“You decided it would be a good idea to reabsorb several hundred kage bunshin at once,” The fox girl said wryly, eyeing the prankster as he wobbled unsteadily. “If you were anyone else, that stunt would have left your brains leaking out your ears, and maybe a few other strategic places! Don't you think before you act?”

“Sorry,” Naruto grumbled, shaking his head to stave off the throbbing pain. “I had this nightmare last night…” He trailed off in time to see Kyuubi duck her head guiltily. “That was you?” he gaped.

“Naruto….”

“Damn it! I trusted you!” the shinobi ranted.

“It's not what you think,” the redhead tried desperately to explain.

“You gave me your word!” Naruto stumbled as he took an infuriated swing at the older girl who easily wrestled him to the ground.

“Damn it, brat! Will you listen?” The demoness held her host captive until his thrashing slowed. “I hurt you. I admit it and I hate it. But I'm not without my reasons.”

“What reasons could you possibly have for scaring the crap out of me and my teammates?” The youth asked with tears of betrayal streaming down his face.

“Someone had to put you three on the right track,” Kyuubi explained. “You wanted power for power's sake, putting you on the road to tyranny. Hinata was infatuated with an image of you that led to blind obedience. And Ino's dislike of you would have tainted her actions to the point of obstinacy. So, I showed you all your failings and fears and hopefully, you're better for it.”

“I hope you don't just expect me to roll over and forgive you. But your heart was in the right place so… thanks, I guess,” Naruto grunted. “What about that thing we said, that calling?”

“I'm not sure,” Kyuubi admitted, running her fingers through his shining blonde hair. “Spoken words are some of the oldest, most powerful magic around, but the spoken language has made it the most common. So you could have done something…or nothing at all.”

The pair sat quietly as Naruto brooded on that answer. “So, did you manage to make me tick any better?”

“Actually, I did! And I found a couple of odd things.” The vixen scrambled to her feet, pulling her charge quickly with her. “One isn't so much a thing as a person.”

“What the hell? I shouldn't have a third person in here. Heck, most normal people don't have two.” Naruto seemed confused as Kyuubi led him through the maze of corridors to an elegant double door.

“She's in here, most likely,” Kyuubi said, swinging the doors open to reveal a massive library. “Once I got her out from under all those chains, she started setting up this place.”

“Who exactly is `she'?” Naruto demanded.

“My name is Libris.” A third voice interjected. “Simply put, you could say I'm your intellect, or your `smart side,' if you had one.”

“Damn it, even in my head I get no respect! That's it! I'm outta here!” Naruto proceeded to look for an exit that didn't exist in his mind.

“If you were smart, you would know that you can't leave yet… -because you're still unconscious,” the unseen being taunted in a sing-song voice.

“Why don't you show yourself, damn it!?”

“You used that particular bit of profanity already, but since you asked so nicely….” Libris' voice dripped with sarcasm as she chuckled, “I suppose I can indulge you.”

Naruto blinked in shock as a young, blonde girl, about nine years old, stepped out from behind a desk. She pushed her large, horned-rimmed glasses back up her nose as her azure eyes twinkled with a mix of arrogance and mischief. All in all, Naruto likened the disconcerting feeling to looking in a mirror. “Okay, you're gonna have to explain some things, then.”

“Let's see-- why am I here, why am I a girl, and why am I so small, correct?” Naruto nodded as Kyuubi lifted the chibi up and set her atop the table. She tipped her head to one side and tapped her lips thoughtfully. “Hmm let's see, how to explain in simple terms,” the little girl mused. “I do need to make sure you understand this, after all.”

“Why are you such a smartass?” Naruto snapped.

“Why are you such a dumbass?” his opponent returned without hesitation.

“Naruto, what did I tell you about antagonizing people?” Kyuubi admonished.

“She started it,” he replied sullenly.

“Which one of you is a recognized adult?” Kyuubi met his eyes firmly.

Naruto grimaced. Part of him knew Kyuubi was trying to be mature about the whole thing, but part of him still felt like he was being double teamed in his own head.

“And you!” The fox girl reached over and whacked Libris sharply on the back of her head.

“What the blazes was that for?” the pint-sized personification yelped as she simultaneously attempted to recover her balance and her glasses, looking quite awkward in the process.

All of Naruto felt better at that moment.

“I don't see why you favor that thickheaded clod.” the smaller girl grumbled.

“I'm not favoring either of you, but someone has to keep order in here. As the oldest, that falls to me,” Kyuubi replied tartly. “Now contrary to what you may think, we have a limited amount of time, so read his mind and answer the questions.”

“Not like there's a lot to read,” Libris muttered. Unfortunately for her, Kyuubi heard her clearly and slammed her hand hard onto the table, glaring at the younger girl with flames in her eyes. “All right!” Libris yelped shuffling backwards in fear. “All right.”

“No more smart-ass remarks?” Kyuubi growled, burning crimson eyes reminding all present that a benevolent demon is still a demon.

“No more remarks.” Libris promised, turning her attention to Naruto. “Close your mouth. Open your ears. Listen. Grow wise.” Naruto nodded mutely at each of Libris' demands, then waited patiently as the little girl closed her eyes for a moment. “As I said, my name is Libris, and I represent the intellectual part of you- you might say the book smarts. I'm the reason you've been making those logical progressions, sort of like putting a puzzle together. I've been the one showing you how to make the picture.”

“Does that mean I'm not as smart as Kurenai-sensei and Ino-chan think I am?” Naruto asked.

“And that's a bit of a rusty kunai, there. You and I are one and the same, and yet at the same time we're very different. I guess the best analogy would be the Inuzukas and their dogs. As the human, you have more freedom and ability. As much as it pains me to say this, I'd be your Nin dog, capable of limited feats on my own, but a great asset when we work together. Understand?” She looked up, half expecting to see the boy laughing at their roles in the master/dog analogy, but Naruto just nodded and motioned for her to continue. “As for my gender, I'm a girl because, subconsciously, you think that girls are smarter than boys.”

“No way!” Naruto exclaimed.

“I can't believe I'm saying this but, yes way,” Libris deadpanned. “Think, Naruto! All the smartest people in your life, the ones with the best grades at the academy? All of them are women, yes?”

“Well, yeah… but what about the Hokage? He's the smartest person in the village, and he's a guy, too!”

“You mean the same man who was defeated by an oiroke no jutsu?” The younger girl replied with a grin. “Face it, deep down you think girls are smarter. Hence me. As for my size, I hate to say it like this, but I'm small because you're stupid.”

Naruto growled in his throat, but resisted the desire to explode. “Please explain.” he managed through tightly gritted teeth.

“I'm your book smarts,” Libris explained. “Normally I would have grown during your time at the academy, but because you ditched class so much, I'm not as mature as I would normally be.”

“Of course there is more to that,” Kyuubi chimed in. “Do you recall that I mentioned finding Libris bound in chains?” The young shinobi nodded. “Those chains were representative of a ninja technique used on dangerous prisoners and violent hospital patients.”

“It restricts part of the mind?” Naruto frowned. “But who would want to do that to me? And why?”

“Simple. By reducing the mind to simple functions, it makes the prisoner easier to handle because he are she is less capable of complex planning,” Libris explained. “Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing who did this to you since it's a common technique for any shinobi traveling outside the village. Carrying on, I grow as you learn things.”

“But I just read a huge bunch of books! You should be a giant!”

“Not quite,” Libris said. “This is another one of those odd things. You did read a lot. Your clones did take in a lot of information. Can you remember, clearly, any knowledge you acquired last night- or the proper way to apply that knowledge?” Naruto scrunched his face up in thought, then shook his head. “See now, you know a lot, but you haven't learned much.”

“So… as I learn to apply what I know, you'll grow. That makes sense. But what's the deal with the library?”

“Bound or not, I've always been around collecting information. This library is the result of that collection. I guess you could say it represents what we all know, you, me and Kyuubi.” Libris held up her hand to forestall Naruto's next question. “But there's a problem that came from my binding; only bits and pieces of these books make any sense. That's part of my job as your intellect, making sense of all this.”

“Am I always going to have you in my head?” Naruto asked, half hopefully.

“No, not always. In time I'll mature enough to catch up with you, and then…” the young girl flushed a brilliant crimson. “We'll merge.”

“Just how-” Libris cut off the question abruptly.

“What has Kyuubi showed to you?” Libris blurted. Naruto pondered that information .“Yes, you can do that here. Eventually, you'll merge the two of us into one being. I have no idea what will happen with Kyuubi. I don't recommend trying it without additional information. If you do it prematurely, we'll still merge but your mind won't be at its fullest. Now can we please stop talking about this?” The smaller girl pleaded.

“We will have to continue this another time,” Kyuubi murmured. “I still want to show Naruto the other oddity I found.”

“Would you like me to come with you?” Libris asked, arching an eyebrow.

“If you wish, though we will be making haste,” the redhead said in warning.

“Curse these short legs of mine,” the younger girl mumbled.

“Get on.” Naruto crouched down with his back to Libris.

“W-what?” The little personification gaped in shock.

“I'll carry you piggy back,” Naruto said. “I wanna see this thing, you wanna see it, and we're burning time we don't have. Hop on.” Libris blinked in surprise as she slipped her arms loosely around Naruto's neck. Quickly the shinobi hooked his arms under her knees at the elbow, lacing his fingers together over his stomach. “Kyuubi, lead the way!”

Kyuubi smiled and led the way out of the library as Naruto bobbed along at a gently rolling gait. Maybe his wisdom lies not in his head, but in his heart. the little girl thought with a smile as Kyuubi led them down a long flight of metal stairs. “Sorry about this, Naruto. I haven't gotten around to installing the elevator yet,” Kyuubi joked. “Although I do have some good news for you. By meditating on the seal, I was able to tap into the shinigami's power and talk to him, and I got myself reinstated as the boss summon for the fox contract, for which you are the current holder. I also called in a favor from an old friend and she's coming to see if either of your teammates are worthy of summoning her.”

“But we don't know how to summon!” Naruto protested. “That's a jonin-level skill.”

“So is your kage bunshin,” Libris replied. “As far as summoning goes, theoretically it's very simple, once you've signed a contract. You present a small offering of blood- usually a bite mark is sufficient- and make the proper hand seals to channel your chakra. Unfortunately, none of us know what those seals are.”

“Not even you, Kyuubi?” Naruto asked.

The redhead shook her head. “I always had other ways of calling for help when I needed it. But the fox contract is special, as it allows you to summon mundane foxes, demonic foxes, and kitsune, or fox spirits. You'll have to practice with the summoning to see which results you get, a sort of trial and error. Although summoning demon foxes will be easier if you use my `chakra', I suspect.”

“What do you mean by your chakra?” Naruto murmured.

“Come this way and I can show you,” the vixen stated, leading the way onto a long metal catwalk overlooking a series of twelve large storage tanks. “These represent your chakra reserves, and the piping leading into and out from them represent your chakra coils. Most people only have access to a single store, so their reserves look something like a lake. Now, ten of these are for my chakra- the largest one for my body and the nine smaller ones for my tails. The other two tanks are yours, but the contents of all the tanks are drastically different.” Kyuubi looked around before leading the way to a secondary catwalk over one of her tail tanks. “Dip your hand in there.”

Naruto looked warily at the liquid in the tank. “Is it safe?”

“Of course it is, Naruto. My chakra is a part of you now.” Kyuubi smiled sadly. “That is one of the benefits of being my jinchuuriki.” Seeing her container's perplexed look, she continued her explanation. “That's what they call those like you who hold a demon within their bodies, jinchuuriki.”

“The literal definition is `power of a human sacrifice',” Libris explained, “On account that you are no longer simply a human being, but also a living prison.”

“So the villagers are right?” Naruto asked sadly. “I'm just a demon?”

“Hardly,” Kyuubi scoffed. “Those foolish humans are mistaking the container for the contents. You aren't a demon until you start to produce sufficient quantities of your own youki, or `demonic chakra.' which should be impossible for a human, even with my presence. But that is an explanation for another time, something we are sorely lacking.” With that, she gestured back to the tank before them, and the blonde obligingly dipped his hand in.

“It feels weird, like jelly,” he commented rubbing the viscous fluid through his fingers. “Can I do ninjutsu with your chakra?”

“Youki,” Kyuubi corrected absently. “And yes, you can, but the jutsu may react oddly. Youki is very powerful so you get, as you humans say, more bang for your ryo. It will also make the jutsu inherently unstable, so tread with caution. Over here is your human chakra.” Kyuubi said, leading the way to another tank filled with a deep blue fluid.

“These tanks are huge.” Naruto observed wryly.

“Of course. You constantly train to exhaustion, and that is the best way to expand your reserves. Of course, I did help a little. You can't honestly expect to squeeze something as powerful as me into something as small as you and not expect it to swell at the sides. Your chakra coils and reserves literally grew around me,” the fox girl preened.

“Aren't we modest?” Libris quipped, as Naruto crouched over the railing and trailed his hand through the mysterious fluid. “What do you think?”

“It's still thick, but much thinner than youki.” The blonde youth stood careful not to dislodge his small passenger.” The consistency is reminds me of oil. But if you have ten tanks, and I have this one… what is that one?” He pointed to the last vat.

“That,” Kyuubi smiled as she led the way to the end of the catwalk where a ladder descended to the base of the tanks, “is the mystery. This is the fastest way down and I don't know how much time we have left until you wake up, so move fast,” She added as she descended the ladder.

Naruto watched until his tenant had climbed three quarters of the way down before swinging over the side and bracing his feet against the ladder's rails. “Libris, hang on tight, okay?” Libris nodded grimly, tightening her grip on her mount's neck and locking her feet firmly about his middle. Satisfied, the blonde boy shifted his hands from rung to rail and began to slide, picking up speed as the pair descended.

Kyuubi, sensing Naruto's intent, hurried down a few more rungs and then dropped to the ground. Scant moments after she landed, she stepped back and caught the other two as they landed.

“Good hustle,” Kyuubi said, leading Naruto over to the base of the tanks. “This is the weird thing we've all been dying to understand,” she said, pointing to a large mechanism sitting between the tank of Naruto's chakra and his mysterious tenth tank. A length of pipe coming out of either side connected the two as the device hummed merrily along. “I can't tell what it is because you're the first human I've been sealed in, but I think it may represent some kind of bloodline ability.”

“I have a bloodline?”

“Maybe,” Kyuubi said. “If so, I have no idea what it's supposed to do. I just managed to get it running last night, aside from a brief turnover the night we met.”

“Wait a second,” Naruto murmured, narrowing his eyes. “The morning after we met, I found an ANBU kunoichi in bed with me.”

“Well, that is odd,” Kyuubi replied, tapping her chin in thought. “The two might be related, somehow. Anyway, as near as I can tell, all this thing does is…to make more chakra.” Seeing her host's confused look, she elaborated, “It doesn't actually make chakra, but it transforms your normal chakra into something different.”

“So I have two different types of chakra,” Naruto mused, already looking for an edge. “Can I use them both for my ninjutsu?”

“You can,” Kyuubi said carefully, “But I don't see why you'd want to. The second chakra is much thinner than normal and, I can only presume, weaker than the original.”

“How do you know that?”

“Well, there's a little valve on this side here, I guess a pressure release or something. Crack it open a bit, and see for yourself.” Kyuubi gestured to the mechanism in question and Naruto obligingly twisted the handle, letting a dime-sized drop fall into his palm.

“Well, it is lighter.” Naruto murmured, rubbing the watery fluid with the thumb of his opposite hand. Suddenly a shiver ran down his spine. “Oh my.”

“Are you all right, Naruto?” Libris asked.

“Um, yeah,” he said shakily, looking down at the faded speck of silver. “I think so, but… it's time for me to wake up.” Naruto blinked as he faded out of his mindscape.

“So, did you see it?” Kyuubi asked.

“His mind is open to me, as it is mine as well,” Libris said, a slightly perverted grin crossing her face as the fox swung her onto her shoulders and started back up the ladder. “Fascinating that it can affect him here, same as us. So overall, what do you think?”

“With all the women in his life, it's going to be very interesting,” Kyuubi said with a lusty smile and a faraway look.

AN: Here's the next chapter. I release on Friday's, so if the weekend starts and a new chapter isn't up, it's not ready yet, and telling me to hurry up and post won't get it out any faster.

To those asking why this is listed as Naruto/Kyuubi, that's because those choices don't indicate a pairing. It indicates a primary (Naruto) and secondary character (Kyuubi) and since the first chapter was those two talking, it was Naruto & Kyuubi, and quite frankly I've been too busy writing to bother to update it. Likewise for the M rating. Just because “nothing M rated is happening” doesn't mean it won't. It's a harem fic. It's not about flowers and chocolates, or all you perverts wouldn't be reading. And by the way, Kyuubi-Titan, what do you call allusions to rape and murder, bloody clan massacres, and descriptions of small children being ripped to pieces slowly while still alive? Seems pretty M rated to me.

To those of you who didn't like last chapter, it was for changing character development. I for one like an explanation of why a character is acting a certain way in a fic, and “Just because” isn't a reason.

Still thinking about summons, so dazzle me, people. Give me a good reason to change from what is currently working in my mind.