82 Chapter 82

'Did these two men actually pool their entire lives' savings to get this place?' Not what I was expecting one bit. Kakashi looked to be enjoying my astonished look, and actually stood there waiting for me to come out of it by myself, which I quickly did.

We made our way inside and what I saw was…space. Aside from a table to eat at, and two or three couches, all that was left was space. Lots and lots of space. *Sigh* "What else should I have expected?" A bunch of guys living in a really large house in an old era; No TV or computer, or even a modern set of gym equipment.

I felt I had mentally sucker punched myself. I did not know why but I had expectations, which, now that I thought about again, was absolutely unnecessary. The place did look like someone had tried though. A vase with flowers here, a few paintings there. Looking in the room, I was right. There stood the person responsible, seemingly berating her other overly energetic team member. The only female of Team Guy. Tenten.

Not much had been known about her. Aside from her desire to have been like Tsunade, not much had been said about her. Her weapons, however, and the way she wielded them was always impressive for me. Maybe if she had concentrated on one or two, she might have gone far.

It seemed like she knew too many weapons, without mastering a single one of them. After she was done, she and Rock Lee were about to head out.

"What happened?" Kakashi asked, seeing Tenten's slight urgency.

"Welcome back Kakashi-Sensei. I just came to get Lee. We are on our way to visit Neji at the hospital." She responded to Kakashi with a smile. She looked at me with curiosity, to which I smiled and waved to her. Tenten had never seen me, but she already had a guess about who I was.

"Neji is at the hospital? What happened?" We were both surprised. Myself even more. There was nothing like this in the main canon. Although I knew I shouldn't, with the slight changes in the characters, there were obviously going to be certain minor changes in the canon. But I was not expecting something like this.

Tenten sighed before explaining. "He was beat up by Hinata."

"What? Why?" This time I was the one that asked. I was shocked. First, to think Hinata had gotten even more powerful in just these few months I had been away. And second, to beat up the genius Neji to the extent of hospitalization; She was getting more and more like the Hinata from Road to Ninja.

"According to Hinata, she did not like the condescending look Neji was giving her. So, she decided to put him in his place" A stifled laugh escaped me before turning into a full-blown laugh. I had tried not to laugh out of respect; He was her teammate after all, but I could not help myself. I had forgotten that was exactly Neji's character; Looking down on others and talking about fate and whatnot constantly. He might not have heard about the new and improved Hyuga Hinata. Or maybe he did, but decided to ignore or not believe it, continuing to believe himself stronger.

"I apologize. But you have to admit, he had that coming. Even I know not to mess with Hinata now." Kakashi and Lee nodded at the side, with Tenten sighing. I was tempted to go see the poor fella but decided against it; I was not close to their team anyways. I did not know how it would affect the upcoming chunin exams though.

The both of them bid farewell before making their way to the hospital. Naruto showed up topless with a towel around his neck, using one end to wipe his hair. Clearly, he had just finished taking a bath. He playfully covered his chest with his hand when he saw me, which I rolled my eyes at. It was interesting that the twelve-year-old Naruto of now could make jokes like that now.

"I will fix something soon. Sakura, will you be joining us for dinner? I make a mean fish dinner." Kakashi asked, walking into one of the rooms.

"No thanks. I'm alright." I yelled back. Naruto put on a shirt and walked to me with a bottle of drink in each hand before tossing one to me.

"I heard your girlfriend beat up her cousin." I teased just as Naruto crashed into the couch beside me. He laughed goofily, receiving the non-compliment as a compliment. I laughed along him, infected by his laugh. It was safe to say, Naruto had a lot of trust in his little girlfriend; When he returned to the news of her beating up her cousin, his only response was 'okay.'. Not even bothering to find out the reason why.

I wondered if Neji would still be Neji if he came out of the hospital, or would he also get a character shift and become the Neji of Road to Ninja? I laughed again as I imagined the shocked expression on Neji's face when his formerly timid cousin suddenly beat the shit out of him.

After talking and laughing about it for a while, we finally got to business. I entered Naruto's consciousness. Surprisingly, the place was much less depressing than it was before. I walked to the large cage and was once again before the huge monstrosity that was the Nine-tailed fox. I could tease him on the outside all I wanted, but that did not change the fox shaped horror and bundle of killing intent that stood before me.

For some reason however, different from the first time, I felt my blood begin to boil. I closed my eyes and forcibly calmed myself down. It happened the last time I was here as well, but this time it felt even stronger. I looked up to see the Kyubi fully standing, looking down at me with amusement. After a brief moment, he finally lay back down.

"How do you know my name? And what do you know about my old man?" He asked. It seemed this time he was willing to hear me out. Who knew the reason why this time? Maybe he had somehow sensed his chakra? I was not particularly worried though; What was he going to do to me, yell at me to death?

"I told you the last time I was here. I know a lot of things about a lot of things. Your name is merely one of them. Not just you, all your other siblings as well." I stared at the fox who suddenly had a glint in his eyes. I could almost tell what he was thinking which mad me chuckle. "No, I am not the one your old man talked about." A sudden glint appeared in the eyes of the fox. The person before him even knew what their old man said to them.

"Who are you?" It narrowed its eyes as a dangerous aura slowly but surely began to emanate from him. It made me chuckle again, which seemed to irritate him even more.

"I am…an anomaly. One thing is certain; I am not an enemy. In fact, I am more of an ally than anyone. Especially since I know what is truly coming." Kurama stayed silent for a while, staring at me without saying a word. I was actually surprised. I thought the hot-headed fox would just yell and rage. He was surprisingly calm and rational.

"And what is it that is truly coming?" His dangerous aura receding but continued to stare at me. I remained silent, only smiling at him, refusing to answer his question. I could not exactly reveal all my information now, could I? He knew that as well and chuckle

"What do you want?" He finally asked what I wanted to hear. My smile grew even wider.

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