30

Chapter 30: The Deal

The next day found Naruto getting himself ready to start training early in the morning. As he finished putting on all of his clothing and equipment a knock came at the door. Walking over to the door he opened it to find Shizune standing there.

"Shizune-san?" He blinked a few times as he wondered why she was here, "Is there something I can help you with?"

Shizune walked into his room when Naruto moved out of the way, placing her hands behind her back in a nervous gesture, "I just wanted to talk to you about Tsunade-sama and this bet you made with her."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "What is there to talk about?"

"I don't think you truly know what this bet means. That necklace isn't some random piece of jewelry, it once belonged to the Shodai Hokage."

A grin came onto Naruto's face, "Well if it once belonged to the Shodai then that means I really have to win this bet." Shizune looked startled when Naruto said that. "After all, if it's something that belonged to a Hokage, it's only fitting it finds its way to the future Hokage."

Shizune actually had to smile a bit at the boys confidence and determination, however it soon went back into a frown, "That necklace isn't something anyone can wear Naruto-san. It's a cursed necklace, only Tsunade-sama can wear it. Because when other people wear it, they die."

Naruto blinked a minute before he opened his mouth and started to laugh, much to the shock of Shizune. He wiped an errant tear from his eyes as he spoke, "A cursed necklace huh? That's certainly a new one, but you can't honestly expect me to believe something like that can you?"

"But it's true!" Shizune looked at him imploringly, "Tsunade-sama already tried giving that necklace away to two people. Her younger brother, and her old lover, my uncle. Both of them died the day after it was given to them."

Naruto frowned for a moment before sighing and moving over to the bed. He gestured for Shizune to sit down, which after a little hesitation she did. "Go ahead, I get the feeling you need to get this off your chest so I'll listen. Just don't expect it to change my opinion about this bet."

Shizune frowned a bit before going back to a neutral expression as she began her tale, "You see when Tsunade-sama was younger she had a little brother named Nawaki. It was actually his dream to be Hokage, and in order to help him reach his goal she gave him the very necklace you made that bet on. However, the day after she gave it to him Nawaki's team was killed by a band of Iwa ninja. It was so bad that the only way they were even able to identify the body was because of the necklace they found on it."

"After that she had wanted to create a medical program to help keep casualty rates down. But since we were in the middle of the Second Shinobi War the Sandaime had opposed its creation, stating that Konoha did not have the resources necessary to create such a program. My uncle Dan however, agreed with her. Out of all the people who heard of the program he was the only one. Eventually the two started dating and Dan told Tsunade-sama how it was his dream to become Hokage. Because of that Tsunade-sama decided to place her faith in him, and she gave him the necklace. However, a day later the two of them had gone on a mission and Dan was…"

"I see," Naruto said as he saw Shizune wipe a stray tear from her eye. They stayed silent for a while after that until Shizune spoke again.

"That's why you have to call off this bet Naruto-san. That necklace is cursed; it will only let Tsunade-sama wear it."

Naruto looked at her for a moment before snorting, "If that necklace is cursed then I guess I'll just have to break the curse, won't I?"

Shizune looked up at him in shock, "What?"

"There's no way I'm letting something like this go. I'm not going back on this bet, especially now that you've told me this." Naruto stood up as he looked at Shizune, "I'm going to win that bet, she's going to give me that necklace, and she will come back to Konoha, even if I have to drag her sorry ass back kicking and screaming. Your master has lived in the past for far too long; it's time she faced up to reality and move on. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a bet to win."

Shizune watched as Naruto left. When the door close an odd smile came to her face, "Maybe he can do it."

"You're later than I expected you to be gaki."

Naruto grunted as he came upon the clearing where Jiraiya was, "Shizune-san wanted to talk to me about backing down from this bet. Now let's get started."

Jiraiya nodded, "Alright then, show me how far you've come on the Rasengan."

Naruto held up his hand and Jiraiya watched as a purple ball of chakra formed in it. Honestly it was a most curious sight to him, he had never seen purple chakra before and he had to wonder why Naruto's was like that. His thoughts were taken from him when he watched the ball explode and had to hold in a wince when he saw the burn marks on Naruto's hand.

"As you can see I can only hold the shape for about three seconds, after that my power simply fluctuates and the jutsu loses its form." Naruto sighed as he clenched his hand for a few moments until his healing factor kicked in. "I don't even know what the problem is, it can't be my chakra control, while it's not the best, it's far better than most. But I don't know what else it could be. This is seriously one of the most frustrating jutsus I've ever had to try and make. It's like some kind of road block is on me for this one part, like I'm trying to look left and right at the same time. It's seriously beginning to piss me off!"

Jiraiya looked at Naruto for a few seconds before speaking, "You know, technically it is possible for you to look left and right at the same time."

"Huh? How the hell would I do that? It's not like I've got two heads on my shoulders, or that my eyes have the ability to look in opposite directions."

"Idiot," Jiraiya rolled his eyes as he made a Kage Bunshin then looked left while his clone looked right. "See, I'm looking left, while my clone looks right."

Naruto blinked for a few seconds as he looked at Jiraiya after his clone dispelled. After a moment or two a large grin came to his face, "Ero-sennin you're a genius!"

"Well of course I am, I am the great Jiraiya-sama after all! Hahahaha…" He trailed of for after a while before scratching the back of his head, "So um…why am I a genius?"

He did not get an answer as Naruto created a Kage Bunshin and held out his hand. He began to channel his youki through his hand, creating a spinning ball of energy. However, Naruto only dealt with the rotation and power aspect of the jutsu. Meanwhile Naruto's clone began applying the shape, making sure that the sphere that held all of the destructive energy was stable.

Jiraiya watched in a mixture of amusement and shock as Naruto created a perfect Rasengan in his hand, Unbelievable! This kid found his own way to create the jutsu from just what I said.

"Not bad at all gaki, I can't believe you actually mastered the Rasengan like that."

Naruto frowned as he looked at Jiraiya, "What do you mean mastered? This jutsu is practically useless as it is now. I not only have to make a clone just to create it, but it also takes several seconds to form. If I was fighting anyone above Chunin-level they would slaughter me before I could form the jutsu."

Naruto created another clone and sat down, holding out his hand as they began forming the Rasengan again. "This jutsu isn't mastered until I can create it with one hand and in less than one second. Until I can do that, I won't even consider this jutsu as being a viable option for combat, much less something to show that old hag so I can win that bet."

(Back in Konoha)

"Are you alright Tenten-san?"

Tenten looked over at her teammate Neji as they walked towards their respective homes. They had both just finished visiting Lee in the hospital, a surprising turn of events considering Neji had never liked Lee in the first place. Though she had to admit that her Hyuuga teammate had been a lot different since his battle and complete beat down at the hands of one Uzumaki Naruto.

"Yeah I'm fine. Why do you ask?" It was actually kind of odd, having her teammate, who had always been a prick to everyone being nice to her for a change.

"Because you look distracted," Neji shrugged indifferently. "And you're a terrible liar; I can tell something is bothering you."

Tenten frowned for a moment before sighing, "I haven't been able to find Naruto ever since the Sandaime's funeral service. It's like he dropped off the map. I tried looking for him a little while ago, and apparently he left with Jiraiya of the Sannin to go on some kind of mission."

Neji looked at Tenten for a moment as he digested the information she gave him, "And you're upset that he did not come to find you and tell you he would be leaving, correct?"

"Well…yes," Tenten admitted. Actually she had been downright furious, as the training field she and her team used could attest to, when she had found out that he had left without telling her. Ever since she had seen how lost and vulnerable he had looked at the Sandaime's funeral she had been worried for the blond. That he would just up and leave without even letting her know was frustrating, reminded her much of the time he came back from his first C-rank.

"I would not be too upset Tenten. If he was with Jiraiya-sama then it must have been a mission of great importance."

Tenten glared at the white eyed prodigy, "I know that! But he still could have given me the common courtesy of at least saying goodbye! He's always doing this! Being completely inconsiderate of the feelings of others, especially when they're worried about him!"

Neji decided not to say anything more on the subject. He knew that when his teammate got on about something very little, if anything at all, could ever get her to change her opinion.

"Perhaps, but there might have been extenuating circumstances," Neji changed direction towards the Hyuuga compound, "I would not be too harsh until I received all of the facts Tenten."

(Tanzaku Gai)

Naruto dispelled his Kage Bunshin and sorted through the information in his head. Holding out his hand he tried to make the Rasengan one handed, only to fail. The jutsu was getting increasingly frustrating, especially since he had been at this for two days and nothing he tried seemed to let him master it. Though, he was pleased to see he no longer burnt his hand when the jutsu dispelled.

Of course it did not help that he refused to use his Kage Bunshin anymore than he already was on the jutsu. For whatever reason he felt it was imperative that he get this down on his own, otherwise it would be like he had cheated on the bet.

That was not to say that he did not have Kage Bunshin working on other things while he did this. Currently Naruto had about three hundred clones doing their normal routine. Since he had mastered many jutsu as well as the highest form of chakra control he knew, he had taken to splitting them off into other tasks.

One was to start working on his own jutsu, he already knew the functions of hand signs so they were trying to brainstorm for new ideas. He was actually having them try to find a way to make a jutsu similar to Kakashi's Chidori except with wind. Since while Jiraiya said that the Rasengan made the Chidori look like child's play, they were also two very different jutsu, with the Chidori being a piercing attack and the Rasengan being a grinding attack.

The others were simply continuing with his wind manipulation. Trying to find different ways of utilizing wind for combat, as well as working on mastering his wind jutsu to the point where he could do them without hand seals.

Sighing Naruto created another Kage Bunshin and held out his hand, creating another Rasengan before dispersing it and making it again.

A little ways away Tsunade stood hiding behind a boulder as she watched him train.

The next morning Naruto awoke with a groan, opening his eyes he blinked a few times and frowned when he found himself on his bed.

"How did I get here?" He wondered as he did not remember walking back from the training ground. In fact the last thing he remembered was experimenting with the Rasengan when…

"Son of a bitch…" Naruto muttered as he sat up in his bed. "Note to self, do not try and make a big as spinning ball of youki without adult supervision."

Naruto stood up from his bed and was about to go to the bathroom when he ended up tripping over a lump in the room. He was about to curse again when he heard the lump groan. Looking over he found Shizune lying on the floor, making it obvious that it was she he had tripped over.

He went up to Shizune and gently shook her awake, "Shizune-san? Shizune-san?"

Shizune let loose another groan as she blinked her eyes open, "Naruto-san?…" Her eyes promptly widened as she shot to her feet, scaring the shit out of Naruto and knocking him on his ass. "You're awake! What day is it?"

Naruto blinked for a moment as he rubbed his soar backside, "It's Saturday Shizune-san. Why? Is there something wrong?"

"Saturday?" Shizune looked at Naruto in surprise, "But…that means you've only been out for a few hours! Tsunade-sama said it would take at least two days for you to wake up from the damage you did to your body!"

"Damage?" Naruto asked before remembering that his experiment with the Rasengan had sent him flying through a boulder and smacking him around something fierce. He shrugged the knowledge off, "Well considering what I contain you shouldn't honestly be too surprised…" He trailed off for a moment as he looked at her, "You do know I contain the Kyuubi right?"

"Of course, but what does that have to do with…" she trailed off as she realized what he was saying. It was then she remembered what had happened last night, "Tsunade-sama! We've got to stop Tsunade-sama!"

"Woah! Slow down," Naruto placed a hand on her shoulder, keeping her from leaving. "You're saying the hag did this to you?"

Shizune nodded, "That's right, and we have to catch up to her before it's too late!"

"I take it she's meeting with the Hebi-douche Orochimaru today then?"

Shizune looked at him in surprise, "Yes, but how did you know?"

Naruto shrugged as he let go of her shoulder, "When we got here I smelled snakes at the destroyed castle. Only two people I know of have that smell and one of them is in Konoha."

Shizune nodded at that as she started making her way to the window, "We have to find Tsunade-sama before it's too late to stop her!"

However, as Shizune left to go out the window a kunai implanted itself right next to her head. Naruto and Shizune turned to see Jiraiya hunched over and slightly pale.

"Where's Tsunade?" His voice was raspy as he slinked over to the pair.

Naruto looked at the man for a moment, "Damn Ero-sennin! What the hell happened to you?"

"Tsunade slipped me a micky," Jiraiya grunted. "I should have known better when she asked me to drink with her last night. She's never asked me to do that with her in all the time we've known each other."

"And thus you make my point about becoming putty for whatever chick who so much as bats her eyelashes at you Ero-sennin," Naruto grinned as Jiraiya gave him a mild glare.

Meanwhile Shizune had gone back inside to get some pills which she proceeded to crush in a glass of water and give to the white haired sage, "Here you go Jiraiya-sama. I'm afraid it's not much of a cure, but it should at least help you out."

"Thanks Shizune," Jiraiya rasped out as he downed the glass.

"This is just great," Naruto groaned, "So what exactly does the Hebi-Douche want with baa-chan?"

"Orochimaru wants Tsunade-sama to heal his arms for him. He offered to return Tsunade-sama's most precious people to her by bringing them back from the dead. Today is the day they're supposed to meet."

Naruto grimaced, "I hadn't realized such a thing was possible. How you feeling Ero-sennin?"

Jiraiya crushed the glass in his hands, "My chakra is still completely out of whack but it will have to do. Shizune-san is there any way to find Tsunade?"

Shizune nodded as she grabbed Tonton and jumped down to the ground with the two Konoha ninja following her after that, "Tonton we need you to find Tsunade-sama, think you can help us out?"

The small pampered pig oinked in what sounded like a yes before it wiggled its way out of Shizune's grip. It sniffed the air a couple of times before turning to Shizune and oinking at her, right before it started running off. Shizune turned to look at the other two, "Tonton has her scent, let's get going!"

The pair followed Tonton back to the old destroyed castle, only to find it was even more of a wreck then when they first saw it. They noted that the destruction was much newer then before, and Naruto noted something else when he took several sniffs of the air. "The scent of snakes is much heavier than last time, I can also smell sake and antiseptic which means the old bat was here too. And judging from the mass amounts of new destruction I would hazard a guess that she turned him down."

"That might not be so good for her," Jiraiya grimaced. "The hebi-teme always has a backup plan of some kind, so we need to find her before things get too hot for her to handle."

The trio plus one pig were off once again, following the scent of snakes and alcohol when they reached a clearing. Within that clearing they found Tsunade with blood caking her face and being beaten on by the person Naruto recognized as Kabuto, the Genin from the Chunin exams.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune shouted as she ran over to her mistress.

Naruto did not quite know what was going on, but he already figured out enough to know what he had to do. Reacting on instinct the blond pointed his gauntlet at Kabuto and fired off several dozen senbon that had a powerful poison on them, courtesy of Anko, at the white haired traitor. He forced Kabuto to jump back and allow Shizune to go up to her master and start wiping away the blood.

"I have to admit I'm surprised to see you here Kabuto, though from your headband it's not hard to figure out what's going on eh, traitor?" Naruto walked in front of Shizune and the currently unresponsive Tsunade.

"Hello Naruto-kun, I'm not surprised you were able to guess this, Orochimaru-sama spoke highly of your intelligence," Kabuto pushed his glasses up his nose.

Naruto narrowed his eyes dangerously as he looked from Kabuto to his master. Now that he was up close the blond could see that Orochimaru's arms were blackened and oozing blood, "Well it looks like Hokage-Ojisan really did a number on you didn't he Pedo-teme?"

"Kukuku, you are quite amusing Naruto-kun," Orochimaru chortled as he looked at the boy. "I must say you really are quite an impressive specimen."

"Coming from you I'm not really sure if that's a compliment or not," Naruto shot back. He turned his head to look at Tsunade who was still completely out of it. "Ero-sennin what's wrong with baa-chan? Is it some sort of weird genjutsu or something?"

Jiraiya shook his head, "Tsunade has hemophobia, she's afraid of blood, and even the mere sight of it messes her up. She'll be unresponsive for at least a few hours."

"You're kidding," Naruto looked shocked. "You're telling me the greatest medic and healer in the elemental nations is afraid of blood! What kind of medic-nin is afraid of blood!"

Jiraiya sighed, "It's a long story and right now we don't really have time to talk about it, in case you haven't realized."

Naruto looked a bit embarrassed by that and turned his attention back to the two ninja before them, "Right…"

"Kukuku I would ask what you two are doing here, but it seems painfully obvious," Orochimaru chuckled.

Jiraiya held a hand out in front of Naruto, "Kid, this fight is going to be in a level beyond you. Protect Tsunade while Shizune and I deal with Orochimaru and his glasses wearing partner."

Naruto looked at Jiraiya for a second before sighing, "Fine, but if things get hairy don't expect me to just sit on my ass."

"That's fine, Shizune will handle whitey over there while I take care of Orochimaru," Jiraiya looked over at Shizune who gave him a nod and switched places with Naruto.

Orochimaru looked amused by their conversation, "You think you can take me on Jiraiya. We all know that you have always been the weakest of the three of us. And it's a good thing you're not sending Naruto-kun over to me; after all, he can't do anything if I don't want him to."

"If you're talking about that little hickey you tried to give me then you're shit out of luck pedo-teme," Naruto said as he pulled away his cloak and shirt over his neck, revealing unblemished tanned skin. "That cursed seal might have taken hold on someone who's drowning in his own darkness and delusions of grandeur like Sasuke-teme, but I don't have such a problem."

Unless you count my deranged other half. Naruto did not mention that out loud and just grinned as he saw Orochimaru look at him in shock, and then anger.

"It matters not. You were merely a pawn that I was hoping to use. All that truly matters in the end is that I get Sasuke-kun."

"Well that's good I suppose, I really didn't want to be your ass muppet anyways, I prefer members of the opposite gender," Naruto shot back.

Orochimaru scowled. "I see he picked up Jiraiya's 'wit'. I'm getting rather tired of this, do it now Kabuto!"

Kabuto pulled off the bandages on one of Orochimaru's arm and the Sannin's blood down the summoning tattoo that was found on it, "Kuchiyose No Jutsu!"

Kabuto and Orochimaru could now be found on top of a giant three headed snake that was quickly heading for the group of Konoha ninja.

Jiraiya went through his own hand seals as he tried to summon, only for there to be a small puff of smoke and Gamakichi to pop out, "Huh? Oh, hey there! How ya doin?"

Naruto sweat dropped, "Are you serious Ero-sennin? I can do better than that! You need to get in the game!"

"Give me some room gaki!" Jiraiya scowled as he went through a set of hand seals and slammed his hands on the ground, "Doton: Yomi Numa (Earth Release: Swamp of The Underworld)!"

The ground in front of him liquefied and turned into a murky and muddy looking substance, disabling there movement. Jiraiya cursed, "Damn it! It wasn't deep enough to drown them! Looks like Tsunade's drug hasn't worn off."

"Fuuton: Kamikaze No Tatsumaki!" Jiraiya looked over to see a tornado erupt from Naruto's fist and smash right into the snake, shredding its head to small pieces.

"Not bad gaki!" Naruto grinned at the compliment before jumping back towards Tsunade, taking Gamakichi with him, as Shizune rushed towards Kabuto.

Naruto watched as the two fights kicked off, with Jiraiya and Orochimaru moving further away as they battled. He turned his main attention towards the fight between Shizune and Kabuto, watching as the pair of medic-nin fought in their own styles. Shizune was more of a distance fighter, using a senbon launcher similar to his own and poison type jutsus, not to say she was a slouch at taijutsu, but when Kabuto used his chakra scalpels in close Naruto knew who was better there.

He made sure to watch the fight and analyze the white haired traitors fighting style in case he needed to jump in. Which the opportunity soon came when Kabuto managed to use Doton: Mogurakure No Jutsu (Earth Release: Hiding Mole Jutsu) to move underground, after Shizune had released a cloud of poison gas, and had managed to get behind the woman and severe the tendons of her Achilles heel.

Naruto made two quick clones to keep Tsunade safe while he made his move.

Kabuto was just about to land a finishing blow on Shizune with his chakra scalpels. However, before he could a foot suddenly implanted itself into the side of his head, sending him flying back with a great deal of force. He managed to right himself so that he landed on his feet, even still he was forced to use chakra as he skidded across the ground, creating two small trenches with his feet.

Naruto kneeled down next to Shizune who was trying to heal her wounded heals, "You alright Shizune-san?"

"I'm fine, thank you Naruto-kun," Shizune said, grimacing a bit as her wound refused to heal quickly enough.

Naruto noticed this and created a Kage Bunshin who, much to the woman's protest lifted her up in a bridal carry, "Take a load off while I deal with this guy Shizune-chan." The blond cracked his neck a bit as he prepared for a fight.

Shizune did not get a chance to respond as the clone Naruto ran off with her, heading towards Tsunade as Kabuto came closer. "That was very admirable of you Naruto-kun; getting yourself involved in a battle you have no chance of winning."

Naruto scoffed, "I wouldn't make the same mistake of underestimating me that everyone else seems to enjoy doing these days."

Kabuto smirked as he pushed his glasses up, "Oh I'm not. I know very well what you're capable of from Orochimaru-sama and your little display during the Chunin Exams. However, I'm on par with Hatake Kakashi, while you are still a Genin, a talented one but still just a Genin."

"Well then, let's see if I can't get you to sing a different tune after I break off my foot in your ass," Naruto flicked wrists and summoned a pair of kunai into them, not that Kabuto could see with his large cloak covering his form.

"Very well then, why don't you show me how you intend to do this. I'm in need of some new entertainment after all," Kabuto activated his chakra scalpels.

"Gladly!" Naruto threw both kunai and went into a set of hand seals. "Kunai Kage Bushin No Jutsu!"

Two kunai became twenty as they headed for Kabuto who began to dodge them with relative ease. When they all passed he just scoffed.

"I hope you can do better than that!" Kabuto ran at Naruto, not catching the small smirk on the blonde's face.

Thanks to the fact that Naruto's hands could not be seen under his cloak, Kabuto had no clue that Naruto was manipulating his kunai to come back with chakra strings. It was only years of training that saved Kabuto from being impaled from behind. He swerved out of the way of the kunai, rolling to the left and coming back up on his feet.

Unfortunately for him, Naruto knew better than to play around with someone who Orochimaru trusted enough to help in his missions, and was already right in the traitor's face. Naruto launched a knee at Kabuto that the older teen was simply too slow to block. It hit him in the face, and there was a sickening crunch as the cartilage of Kabuto's nose broke, and then he was sent reeling backwards.

Not wanting to let up and allow Kabuto any time to actually get his act together, Naruto linked his fists together and thrust them out, "Fuuton: Kamikaze Seiken!"

There was a ripple of air that flew at high speeds towards Kabuto, smacking him and sending him flying backwards where he skidded along the ground. Naruto watched as Kabuto got up with a small trickle of blood running down his mouth, "That was a pretty good hit Naruto-kun. Orochimaru-sama was right about your skills. It's only too bad that mark didn't stick or I would have been able to let you live."

Naruto rolled his eyes as he watched Kabuto heal himself, "So you say, but I have yet to see you land a hit on me. From what I can tell you're a medic-nin and close combat specialist who uses chakra scalpels to defeat your opponents. Whereas I on the other hand, would be considered a mid-to-close range taijutsu and ninjutsu specialist, though I have a fair few long range attacks; all I need to do is not let you get close enough to utilize those scalpels of yours and I'm good."

"You say that like it's going to be easy. Do not forget that I happen to be a Jonin-level shinobi Naruto-kun," Kabuto stood up all the way as he finished healing, he knew now that he could not afford to take Naruto lightly.

"Could you stop calling me '-kun', seriously it's creepy enough when Gai and Lee call me that, but at least I know they're straight…" Naruto paused. "Well Lee's straight seeing as he has a crush on Sakura. Anyway, the last thing I need is for someone who likes to be used as an ass muppet for some pedophilic snake with a fetish for little boys to call me that."

Kabuto scowled, "Don't talk about Orochimaru-sama like that! You can't even hope to understand his greatness and power!"

Naruto grinned, "You know from the way you're defending him it seems like I've struck home. Perhaps there is more to what I said than I thought, seeing as how you never denied my accusation."

Kabuto rushed Naruto, moving surprisingly fast. The blond was more than glad he had trained with Jiraiya who was far faster. Reacting before Kabuto could get too close, Naruto sent several kunai at him, already beginning two sets of hand seals using one handed seals for each hand.

"Kunai Kage Bushin No Jutsu! Raiton: Kaminari Shuriken!" The kunai quickly multiplied into several dozen right before they all burst with lightning that rained down at Kabuto as they passed.

The medic-nin was forced to do his best to dodge the attacks, allowing Naruto enough time to make several clones that he sent out to engage Kabuto.

Shizune looked at her master and sighed. She had managed to clean all of the blood off of her master, but Tsunade was still not responding to any outside stimuli. She looked at her Achilles tendons which were now healed if a bit swollen. Despite her proficiency as a medic-nin she was not as good at healing muscle groups as she was other areas.

She looked back over towards the battle, worried about whether or not Naruto would need her help. She was pleasantly surprised to find that he seemed to be holding his own against Orochimaru's right hand man. She watched as Kabuto was sent sailing backwards and rolling along the ground. Shizune was sure that if Kabuto were not a skilled medic-nin, he would have fallen by now.

Tsunade had likewise taken to watching the battle, not that she could do much else. With her being completely incapable of actually moving any muscle in her body, and having already been facing the area of the battle since the beginning, she was naturally subjected to watching the fight play out. When she had first met the blond she had been utterly enraged by his attitude and the disrespect that he showed her. However, when they had their first battle, she had been completely caught off guard when he showed that he was more than he looked. It also did not help that in that first battle, he had reminded her so much of both her younger brother and her dead lover that it almost hurt.

She had then watched him train after the bet and was once again shocked by his method, using Kage Bunshin to speed up the process of his training, as well as how he had created a Rasengan using a Kage Bunshin to help his control. Tsunade had been even more impressed when he did not use that same method of mass Kage Bunshin training to actually use the Yondaime's prized jutsu one handed, but rather attempted to accomplish it the honorable way.

"Man look at that! Naruto-nii is kicking some serious ass!"Gamakichi watched with a grin on his face.

This boy reminded her so much of the two people she had cherished the most that she could practically see them standing behind the blond; from their dreams to become Hokage, to their determination. Tsunade clutched the necklace around her neck, Just one more time. Let me believe just one more time.

As soon as Kabuto had defeated all of the clones Naruto came back into the picture, launching a kick into his opponents gut. It was to Naruto's shock that Kabuto turned into a pile of mud, Damn it!

Naruto twisted to the side as Kabuto came up behind him using the Mogurakure No Jutsu. He managed to dodge a potentially fatal blow, but was still hit in the arm. He hissed a bit as he jumped back, letting his left arm dangle limply.

"You see now don't you?" Kabuto asked in a mild tone, "You're no match for me, you may be able to compete with some of the Jonin out there, but not one of my level."

"Keep talking buddy. It will only make the look on your face that much more priceless when I wipe it off," Naruto tried to stall for time as his impressive healing factor worked his magic.

"I suppose I'll just have to beat you even more to prove my point," Kabuto activated his scalpels again and moved to engage Naruto.

The blond soon found himself on the defensive as he did his best to keep out of reach of Kabuto's scalpels. Using a modified version of the Hebiken that Anko used. He was fortunate it was different enough from Orochimaru's standard style that Kabuto could not use the Snake Sannin's taijutsu as a basis or Naruto would have been hit by now. As it was Naruto was able to dodge all of the incoming attacks while his arm finished healing.

Ready to fight back Naruto made a Kage Bunshin and Kawarimi'd with it, giving him a small amount of breathing room. As Kabuto charged towards him Naruto came up with a plan to beat the medic-nin.

Reaching into his pouch Naruto pulled out a smoke bomb and threw it in front of himself, letting the smoke overtake his position. Kabuto ceased his charge knowing it would be foolish to just head right into the smoke screen as it was probably what the blond wanted. Instead he stayed on guard, waiting to see what Naruto's next move would be.

It came in the form of several shuriken being tossed at Kabuto, forcing him to jump away and to the left. After that, six Kage Bunshins shot out of the smoke screen, engaging Kabuto in a fierce taijutsu battle. The battle was a lot tougher than Kabuto had expected. While a Kage Bunshin would always go up with just one hit, they also had almost all of their originator's abilities with somewhere around half of their physical prowess being reduced thanks to that same one hit kill factors. It also did not help that their teamwork was impeccable.

Kabuto managed to duck under a strike from one of the clones on the left, when he suddenly found the knee of another clone right in his face, sending him stumbling back. He channeled medical chakra to his nose as two more clones came at him from the left and right. He tilted his body back as he let the attack from the clone on the left fly past his head. Then swerved to the left as the other Kage Bunshin attacked with a kick.

By this point the white haired medic had gotten used to the way the clones would attack. There would always be at least two of them coming in from the left and right, they would attack at the same time and when Kabuto managed to dodge them, another clone would be waiting in the wing, either behind him, or right in his face and already attacking. This would normally leave no time for Kabuto to attack. However, this time he prepared himself, and has he dodged the swing from a clone on the right, a left, right combination from the clone on the left; Kabuto spun around and swatted away the attack from the clone behind him. Because he was using chakra scalpels the block effectively killed the clone, making it go up in a puff of smoke.

After that he managed to defeat the other clones with little effort. However, it was right after he beat the last Kage Bunshin that two pairs of hands shot up from the ground and grabbed him, "What the-!"

Two more Kage Bunshin appeared behind him and latched onto his hands, forcing them away so that he could not use them for attack.

Finally he saw Naruto in front of him, just several feet away with a grin on his face. Kabuto grimaced a bit but kept his smile up, "So it looks like I underestimated you more than I thought."

He tried to activate his chakra scalpels and frowned when he found himself incapable of directing chakra to his hands.

Naruto's grin widened, "Damn right you did and now it's too late for you to do anything. I'm sure by now you've noticed that you can't use those blasted chakra scalpels of yours." The grin widened a bit when he saw Kabuto's eyes widen, "That's right, my clones placed a pair of Chakra disruption sealson your hands. I would have just had them disrupt your whole system but they don't have the chakra necessary for that. Not like it matters anyway, I just need you to stand still and be my guinea pig for this new jutsu I learned. I've never used it on a human before so you'll have to tell me what it feels like, if you survive."

With that said Naruto held out a hand and began charging his youki into it. Kabuto's eyes widened as he recognized the famed jutsu that the blond had just created and began to struggle even more, not that it did any good, while he may have been a tad faster, Naruto was a lot stronger as were his clones. Naruto began a slow pace towards Kabuto, picking it up into a light jog before it turned into a full on sprint. When Naruto got close he thrust his hand out, "Rasengan!"

Naruto ignored the gore that splattered across his face as the jutsu tore into Kabuto's skin and muscles. The medic-nin was eventually sent flying straight into a nearby boulder that shattered upon impact. Giving off a toothy grin Naruto turned around and walked towards Tsunade with a purpose. He held out both hands, one of them empty except for some of the blood that Kabuto had got all over him, and the other holding a perfectly spinning sphere of purple youki.

He stopped right in front of a stunned Tsunade who was staring up at him in shock, "Well baa-chan it looks like your title of Legendary Sucker holds true. I believe that necklace is now mine so pay up."

"Huh, would you look at that," Jiraiya grinned as he saw Kabuto get sent flying from Naruto's attack. "It looks like the gaki is even better than I thought he would be. What do you think teme?"

Orochimaru looked from Naruto to Jiraiya and then back again. He gritted his teeth, "Such power does not belong in the hands of one I cannot control. He must die before he becomes a hindrance to my plans!"

Orochimaru flew towards Naruto with Jiraiya following close behind in an effort to stop him. Unfortunately for Jiraiya, Tsunade's drug had yet to ward off. Therefore, he was unable to dodge Orochimaru when the Snake Sannin latched a tongue around his ankle, pulling the Toad Sannin towards the ground where he landed with a crash. Orohimaru continued on unimpeded as his sword stuck out of his mouth, hoping to catch Naruto while the boy's back was turned.

Naruto's grin dropped as his senses went off, which was fortunate as it allowed Naruto to dodge the incoming attack. What was unfortunate was that Naruto despite being fast was no match for a Sannin. He managed to dodge any grievous injuries, but the blade still managed to impale him, going right through his collar bone.

All eyes widened as the Kusanagi blade was found going straight through Naruto. Naruto himself held back a yelp of pain and looked down to see the sword sticking through his shoulder. His eyes flashed red for a moment and Naruto let out a roar that sounded more demon than human as he whirled himself around, forcing the blade out of him. Gripping his shoulder Naruto dropped to his knees as he felt his healing factor fighting against the poison.

'Naruto-kun!'

'K-Kyuubi?' Naruto was surprised to hear the vixen's voice after several days.

'I'm right here! Hang on one second, I'm flushing the poison!' The red heads voice sounded more frantic then he had ever heard it as she began actively channeling her youki into the wound to flush the poison faster.

'How long will that take?'

'About five minutes to flush the poison, the wound will take longer to heal though because this type of poison causes necrosis.'

Naruto gave a mental nod and sent his thanks to Kyuubi when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked at the hand to see it glowing green with medical chakra. Following the hand he saw that it belonged to Tsunade who was looking at him with concentration and worry.

"Baa-chan?"

Tsunade grunted, "You okay gaki?"

Despite the stinging Naruto gave her a grin, "Hah! It will take more than a little poison to keep me down!"

Tsunade actually found herself smiling at the brave face Naruto put on, not quite realizing that what he said was true, even if Kyuubi had refused to heal him his own natural healing would keep him from dying, it would just take longer.

As Tsunade continued her work, Naruto saw Orochimaru coming at them from behind Tsunade with the Kusanagi still sticking in his mouth. Not really thinking about what he was doing Naruto pushed Tsunade out of the way. This move while brave and managed to save Tsunade from fatal injury, it could not save Naruto from getting wounded. The Kusanagi blade managed to pierce Naruto on the right side of his chest, nearly nicking his heart.

Naruto heard both Tsunade's scream on the outside and Kyuubi's scream inside of his mind. However, it was too hazy to actually make out what they were saying out. Instead he looked up from the sword that was piercing him to see the smug face of Orochimaru. It was then that something inside of him snapped.

With a loud roar that was anything but human, Naruto pulled back his fist and launched it at the now shocked face of Orochimaru. The attack hit dead on and everyone could hear the squelch as the pale skinned man's face caved in. The man had let go of the Kusanagi as he was sent rocketing away, skidding along the ground and creating a trench.

Naruto looked down at the sword, grabbing onto it and yanking it out before he threw it in the dirt. When he looked back up his eyes were not the blue that most people saw, nor even the red that signified Kyuubi's youki being used. They were purple with black slits running down the middle.

His transformation soon became more than just his eyes as his whisker marks began to thicken, becoming jagged lines much like when he was using Kyuubi's youki. His ears became pointed at the tips, making them look akin to elf ears. His nails grew thicker, longer and sharper along with his canines. However, it was his hair that had the most drastic change, going from its golden blond to deep blood red and lengthening. It swept back over his forehead and then began to move down, segmenting into ten separate spikes that looked reminiscent of tails.

Everyone there was too shocked by this transformation to do anything more than gape. None of them had ever seen this kind of thing happen before, it was similar to the transformation that the Inuzuka went through. But they could easily tell it was much different. They would have chalked it up to using Kyuubi's youki, however it did not give off the same feel as Kyuubi's power. It still held bloodlust, but it was much more manageable and was not quite as powerful either. Still it was enough that everyone in the clearing were in awe of the amount of pure energy the boy radiated.

However, Naruto noticed none of this, and as he looked at Orochimaru and reared his fist back. With a quick thrust his fist came forward, before launching out a large purple claw made purely from youki. It ran straight for Orochimaru who after watching the spiky haired blonde's transformation in shock managed to pull himself together and attempted to dodge the claw. However when he moved said appendage followed and the Sannin was far slower than he normally was thanks to the pain in his arms and his battle with Jiraiya, allowing the youki appendage to latch onto him and pull the man towards the now redheaded Genin.

Naruto's left hand flashed out in a spear tip and managed to slice straight through Orochimaru like butter. It was only thanks to the Snake Sannin opening his mouth and regurgitating himself like a snake shedding skin at the last second that he did not get speared through the heart.

Everyone watched as Naruto turned to Orochimaru, waiting to see what he would do next. Said blond turned to look at the pale skinned man, and took a step forward only to fall flat on his face as he passed out, his body going back to normal.

The action seemed to snap everybody out of their stupor and caused Orochimaru to rush Naruto in the hopes of killing him. However, he was intercepted by both Jiraiya and Tsunade, with the latter smashing a fist into his face and the former standing in front of Naruto in a guard position.

Orochimaru stood up where he was and glared at Tsunade, "Why are you protecting that gaki Tsunade? You owe him nothing!"

"Why am I protecting him?" said woman looked at the unconscious, now blond again, Genin who was being attended to by Shizune and her eyes softened. They hardened an instant later as she turned back to Orochimaru, "I'm protecting him because I'm Senju Tsunade, granddaughter of the Shodai Hokage, grandniece of the Nidaime Hokage, and as of today I am the Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure No Sato!"

With a small groan Naruto opened his eyes. The first thing he realized was that he was in the seal, as evidenced by the walls with the seals all over them meaning he was in Kyuubi's house. He sat up and looked around for all of five seconds before he spotted said vixen standing at the foot of the bed with a blank expression on her face and her arms crossed.

"Kyuubi," Naruto said as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up, glad that he could not feel the pain of what ever had happened to him. "Did you bring me here?" When the woman did not answer him but just continued to stare he sighed, "I suppose you're still upset, though that does beg the question of why I'm here."

"You're here because I brought you here," Kyuubi finally said, "Because I had to heal your sorry ass for doing something so foolish as to get in front of a sword without defending yourself!"

"Huh, so that's why I'm unconscious," Naruto said, rubbing his chest as he remembered the sword that pierced him. "I suppose I owe you my thanks, though from the look on your face I doubt you really care what I say so I'll save my breath."

Kyuubi bared her teeth at him, "Do not give me any lip you damn brat! You are so lucky that I'm inside of you right now! Without me you would be dead!"

However Naruto had no intention of letting this woman walk all over him, "Without you I might not even be in this situation now would I?"

Naruto once again found himself pressed to wall as Kyuubi glared at him, "Shut up! I'll admit that maybe some of this was my fault! Maybe had I found some way to counter that man's…" she stopped herself before moving onto a different venue, "Had I not been forced to attack Konoha none of this would have happened. But it did happen, and it's not as if I wanted to attack your pathetic excuse for a village, or be sealed inside of you! But I did attack Konoha, and I am sealed inside of you!"

Her glared intensified as she saw Naruto looking at her with an uninterested look, "The past does not change the fact that your damn recklessness nearly got us killed! And if you do not stop this foolish act I am going to make you regret it!"

"You can't threaten me Kyuubi," Naruto stated, "we both know that your power here is not what it would be outside thanks to the seals…don't try and…ack!"

He was cut off as Kyuubi used her impressive strength to slam him into the wall, causing the entire room to shake. Now that her youki had managed to fully restore itself Kyuubi let it loose and Naruto paled, realizing that her power was now far beyond what he had felt before. The amount of power she was releasing was enough that Naruto did not even think of how he might be able to contain it.

"You ungrateful little monkey!" Kyuubi roared as she reared a back a fist covered in red youki.

Naruto closed his eyes as he waited for the strike to hit him, had he not been frightened out of his wits he might have realized that she could not do much to him for fear of killing herself. However right now none of that was on his mind as he waited for Kyuubi's fist to pulverize him…

Thus, when several minutes had passed and his head was not a bloody smear on the wall, he became curious and opened his eyes. The half demon blinked in surprise a few times as he saw Kyuubi's fist still reared back, her other hand still around his throat. However his greatest surprise was when his eyes landed on Kyuubi's face. Tears of frustration were trailing out of them, falling down her cheeks and she seemed to be having some kind of great internal struggle with herself.

After several more minutes she dropped Naruto, letting him fall on his ass. Looking up the blond saw Kyuubi take several steps back before she too sank to the ground and her body began to shake uncontrollably.

After several seconds Naruto began to tentatively move towards the redhead, wondering what was going on with her. As he closed the distance he was surprised to see teardrops falling onto the floor, and heard the small chocked sobs that were coming from the woman.

"Kyuubi?" he asked, only to gape when Kyuubi looked up and he saw her eyes, now getting slightly puffy. They were not the same eyes he had usually seen on the vindictive and arrogant woman, eyes that spoke of great arrogance and had a teasing, sadistic and vicious quality all mixed up in one. No these eyes were confused, depressed and made her look incredibly vulnerable.

He opened his mouth to speak but Kyuubi beat him to it, "Why can't I hate you?"

"…What?" asked Naruto in confusion.

"I should hate you. Everything you stand for is my anti-thesis; that damned selflessness of yours. You're the person I was sealed into and that damned kindness of yours almost got me killed," Kyuubi looked at him and her face was twisted in a look of anger, sadness and frustration. "I should hate you for being me container, for being who you are."

The red headed woman bit back a chocked sob as she closed her eyes and look back down at the ground, "So why? Why can't I hate you? Why do I feel this way! What is it about you that makes me feel this way!"

Naruto listened to the woman in growing confusion. He did not understand what she was talking about, her words were jumbled and it seemed obvious to Naruto that she did not even know what she was feeling. But there were two things he got from her.

The first was that she did not hate him; he was both surprised and not so surprised. True they had not started on the best of terms, but during the one month period before the Chunin Exams they had gotten along decently, well enough that Naruto was no longer bothered by her teasing and snide remarks; and had even began to tease back with the fledgling flirting skills he possessed, something he would never do if he had hated her. However even with all of that, Kyuubi had been fairly adamant in letting him know he was beneath her.

The second thing was that she had some kind of feelings for him. What those feelings were Naruto could not say, he would readily admit that he did not know much about women in general and Kyuubi was by far the most confusing woman he had ever met. Not only that but it was also blatantly obvious that Kyuubi herself did not know what she was feeling, though he could understand that.

Kyuubi had always been selfish, she may not be evil in the sense that others had often thought of her as, but she had always been selfish. She used others to achieve her goals; that being to live a life of luxury befitting what she thought was her status, essentially how she thought Kami should be treated were he/she on earth. She never cared about others, she never liked others and the closest thing she had ever come to being nice was when she was ordering people around like slaves, at least if her words about her life before being sealed were to be believed.

He continued to look at the vixen who by now had wrapped her arms around herself in an effort to control her shaking. Crawling over to her he gently placed his arms around her form, ignoring how she stiffened in his grip.

"Wh-what are you doing!" the shock in her voice was so profound that Naruto would have laughed were the situation not so damn confusing. Truth be told, he was not even sure what he was doing.

"I'm hugging you, what does it look like?" he brought Kyuubi closer to him and placed her head under his chin, "Don't bother asking me why cuz I don't know…and don't bother telling me not to, because I'm not going to listen. Just shut up and accept it."

He waited for several long moments to see what Kyuubi would do, expecting either some kind of attack or at the very least some verbal comment about him being beneath her. It was something of a relief when she did none of those, instead he felt a pair of arms wrapping around him.

"Don't think that just because I'm letting you get this close means anything," Kyuubi sniffed as she relaxed into the blond. "And don't tell anyone about this or I will cause you untold amounts of suffering."

Naruto chuckled a bit, "Who would I tell? I can just imagine that going over well with the people of Konoha. Oh yeah Kyuubi, well she's really one big softy. You'd be surprised how sensitive she is, no really she actually the nicest, fluffiest person you would ever meet."

Kyuubi snorted as she tried to find a comfortable position and ended up sitting in the blonde's lap, her head resting on his shoulders. She took a small moment to analyze the novel experience. She would freely admit that she had never been in this position before, the few humans who had tried to touch her usually ended up losing a limb and most were to enthralled to do anything more than drool. However it wasn't a terrible experience, Naruto was a hanyou and therefore a cut above any human. Plus he was radiating this incredible warmth that was actually beckoning to Kyuubi; it gave her an odd comfort that she had never experienced. A part of her wondered if she could find some way to retain this feeling.

They stayed that way for a little while until Kyuubi decided to bring something up again, "Do you remember what happened during this last battle Naruto-kun?"

Naruto cracked open the eyes that he had subconsciously closed and frowned, "What about the last battle?"

"I mean do you remember the transformation you went through after that man stabbed you?"

Naruto gave a slight shake of his head, "No…all I remember was that teme puncturing me with his sword. After that my mind went blank and then I woke up here. Why? What kind of transformation did I do?"

Kyuubi frowned as she lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him for a moment. After a while she tried to explain what she could, "Truthfully, I don't know. It looked similar to my own transformations. I have three different states of transformation. The one I am in now I like to call my Hanyou state. While in this state you can see my tails and ears, most of my power is also released in this state, except I can't cause natural disasters with a flick of my tail. The other two states I have are my human state and my kitsune state, both of which should be self-explanatory."

Naruto nodded, "And you're saying I have something like that?"

Kyuubi shrugged as her head went back on Naruto's shoulder, "As I said, I don't really know. It was similar to mine but also different. It could be one of your abilities that you gained when you became a hanyou, but I don't really know. The tomes I read said nothing about the abilities that a hanyou may have. And for all we know this could be something unique to you."

"I see…" Narutp paused, "We'll worry about that later. Until we figure out what's going on with my body, there's not much we can do."

"I suppose you're right."

Silence prevailed again for a few minutes until Naruto spoke up in soft voice, "Are you still mad at me?"

Kyuubi closed her eyes and sighed, "I was never mad at you. I was just…" she paused for as she tried to sort out her feelings in the jumble of emotions she had, "worried I guess. You blocked me out so completely that I could not even tell what you were feeling."

Naruto raised an eyebrow that went unseen by Kyuubi, "You were worried about me?"

Realizing what she said Kyuubi's eyes snapped open and she looked up at Naruto. She opened her mouth to make some kind of excuse when she saw the look in his eyes. Snapping it shut she tried to think of something to say before sighing, "…Yes, I was worried. Tell anyone I said that and not even Kami will save you from my wrath…" she paused for a moment before continuing, "I had always been able to tell what you were feeling, it's a side effect of the seal. However when you cut me off I could not feel anything, it was like the other times when I had been sealed…"

"You were sealed inside of more people than just me?" asked Naruto in curiosity.

Kyuubi swore as she realized she was giving him more information than she had ever intended, she briefly wondered if his was because of their close proximity or that damned annoying feeling of comfort the blond exuded. She resisted the urge to growl as she spoke again, "Yes, but I would prefer not to speak about it. Maybe someday, I'll tell you, but not today."

Naruto looked at her for a moment before nodding, "I guess I can live with that and…I'm sorry for ignoring you; I won't do it again…I promise."

The red haired vixen could not contain her smile. If there was one thing she learned about Naruto it was that if he promised something, you'd better believe he would do it.

"Don't worry about it…" A small gleam entered her eye as she spoke again as she realized he had given her an opening to get some kind of compensation for his stupidity. "However, I do think you owe me some compensation for worrying me so much. Especially after this last stunt you pulled."

Naruto blinked for a few seconds before shrugging, he supposed it was fair since he had almost gotten her killed through his actions, "What do you want from me?"

Kyuubi paused for a few seconds as she thought about what she wanted. It had to be something feasible, she couldn't ask for her freedom seeing as how even if he was willing to she was not sure he could give her freedom. She also knew he would not accept being her slave, not only did her charms not work like they normally did but he was far too strong willed. And she was sealed so it would not really matter anyways.

As she thought a little more an idea came to her, "Okay, what I want you to do is quite simple." When she was sure she had Naruto's attention she continued, "I want you to spend more time with me. When you go to sleep your mind doesn't need to rest in the same way your body does, since most of it stays active anyways. From now on I want you to come into the seal whenever you sleep and spend your nights with me."

"N-Nights with you?" Naruto squeaked as his face did a Hinata and turned so red one might think he popped a blood vessel. A small trickle of blood also escaped his nose as his mind went straight down the gutter. Never let it be said that Naruto was not a hot blooded male.

"Not like that Naruto-kun," Kyuubi sighed in exasperation, though a part of her was not…unreceptive to the thought of intimacy with the blond. The thought had actually passed through her head once or twice, loath as she was to admit it. He was intelligent, he was strong and would only get stronger as time passed; he had that odd warmth that she could still feel as he held her. And most importantly of all, he was not human. If she ever wanted a relationship or intimacy with anyone, Naruto was the only person that she could feasibly be with. The thought left an odd resonance in her mind, she may have joked about sex a few times but she had never truly desired it. It something humans did and there had never been anyone who she would consider worthy of such an honor.

She shook her head of the thoughts and focused on the now, "I just want you in the seal with me so I have someone to talk to. It gets awfully…" she paused before finally admitting another issue she had, "lonely here in your mind." She did not mention there was actually another voice in his mind. Kyuubi did not like talking to her anyways.

"I didn't think you felt lonely," Naruto commented.

Kyuubi frowned before deciding that since she was being honest, she might as well explain herself. "I am the only one of my kind Naruto-kun. Yes, there are other Bijuu but they are mindless beasts compared to me. They are creatures of instinct, even humans have a more complex thought process then they do. The other Bijuu are terribly stupid and the only thing they can do is cause mass amounts of pointless destruction, the few that I have seen actually tried to attack me. They cannot hold an intelligent conversation, and from what I understand they only gain a form of intelligence after they have been subdued by whoever they are sealed into and by that point…"

"I see…" Naruto frowned as he thought about her request for a moment, and though surprised decided to agree. Not like he had any better way to spend his nights, "I can do that."

"That's good," Kyuubi smiled a bit before frowning. "Now I'm afraid you need to wake so the people who are with you stop worrying about you so much."

Naruto nodded as he looked at Kyuubi, "I'll come back later tonight okay?" He received a nod before fading out of his mindscape.

Kyuubi sighed as she picked herself off the ground, she felt so undignified by the events that had transpired just now. But at the same time she was almost glad for what happened.

With nothing left to do she crawled in her bed and relaxed as best as she could with the thoughts that were in her mind.

Naruto stifled a groan as he woke up in the real world. Opening his eye the blond was greeted with a very interesting sight, "You know Baa-chan, as lovely a way as this is to wake up I don't think you want me to see this."

Tsunade who had been leaning over him and running tests looked down at Naruto in confusion. At least she did at first. Her eyes promptly widened and a blush actually came to her face when she saw that her leaning had inadvertently caused her extremely large bust to fall into Naruto's face. Giving him a show that Jiraiya would kill for.

She hurriedly leaned back and glared at him, "Gaki, you are so lucky you're injured right now, or I would pound your face in for being such a pervert."

"I'm not a pervert," Naruto frowned as he denied the accusation. "I'm a growing boy whose hormones are beginning to get out of control due to my teenage body growing and puberty, nothing perverted about that, it's completely natural."

Tsunade rolled her eyes, "Nice medical dissertation, but it doesn't make a difference, you're still a pervert."

"And I guess this is because all men are perverts?" Naruto questioned in a sarcastic tone.

"Of course."

Naruto rolled his eyes as he attempted to sit up, only to wince a bit as his chest stung, "Damn…I'm still tender there."

"You shouldn't move yet brat. That sword did quite a bit of damage to you. Not only the stab wounds themselves, but the poison had been causing the cells of your muscles, bones and tissue to die. In fact by all rights you shouldn't even be alive." Tsunade tried to push him back down, however Naruto held firm until she relented and let him sit up.

"Don't worry, while I won't deny my ass was lucky, I'm feeling better now. Just a bit tender is all," Naruto rubbed the spot where he was stabbed and was surprised to find a scar. "Huh…I guess the wound was so bad it couldn't heal."

"That would be due to the poison," Tsunade said. "Kyuubi's healing factor simply wasn't enough to regenerate the wound in time to completely heal it so there's going to be a scar."

"Well that's fine with me, that means I get a cool story to tell about how I got this scar," Naruto grinned, causing Tsunade to sweatdrop.

"Right well, now that you're awake there is something you, me, Jiraiya and Shizune need to discuss," Naruto watched as Tsunade stood up and walked outside.

I wonder what she wants to talk about? a thoughtful frown marred the blonde's features before the two Sannin and Shizune came in with Tonton in her arms.

They all gather around him with Tsunade sitting back on the chair she had been in when he woke up, Jiraiya leaned against the wall at the end, while Shizune sat down on the bed next to him.

"How do you feel Naruto-kun?" Shizune asked with a smile.

"I feel fine Shizune-chan, thanks for asking," Naruto grinned back at her.

"I'm glad to see you're feeling better gaki. However, now that you're awake there's something we need to discuss," Jiraiya crossed his arms and held a serious expression on his face.

"What do you want to talk about Ero-sennin?" Naruto tilted his head to the side with an air of confusion.

KAWAII! The two females in the room nearly squealed at how cute they thought the look made Naruto, and both had to suppress the urge to glomp the boy.

"That transformation you did, I need to know what that was. I know for a fact that it wasn't the Kyuubi," Jiraiya fixed the boy with a mild glare.

Naruto bit his lip for a moment, "Honestly, I'm not sure what it was…"

"But you have an idea," Jiraiya narrowed his eyes at the boy.

"Well…"

'It's alright Naruto-kun.'

'Kyuu-chan?'

'Go ahead and tell them, I think you can trust them with this. They may be human but they seem to be somewhat trustworthy…and if you don't tell them, they may assume I'm able to take control of you.'

Naruto squirmed a bit before sighing, "Well, um, Kyuu-chan and I think it has something to do with my Hanyou abilities."

"Hanyou abilities?" Jiraiya wondered out loud.

"Kyuu-chan!" Tsunade interrupted anything Jiraiya might have said. "Are you telling me that the Kyuubi No Kitsune, the greatest tailed beast is a girl!"

"Um…yes?" Naruto eyed the blond wearily. It turned into a sweatdrop when Tsunade stood up and uncharacteristically pumped a fist in the air.

"Yes! This proves that women are superior to men in every way! Hah! The strongest demon is a female; that has completely made my day!"

'You know, I think I like her, for a human she isn't bad,' Kyuubi chuckled in his mind.

'Erm…right.'

Jiraiya coughed to get everyone back on track, "You were saying something about Hanyou abilities?"

Naruto grimaced a bit, "Yes. Because of Orochimaru trying to place his gay ass hickey on me in The Forest of Death, Kyuubi was forced to divert at least four maybe five tails worth of her youki into my body. However the human body is not made to handle that amount when it's actually flooding your body."

Tsunade frowned, "What do you mean by that?"

"Well as you know when a human has a demon sealed inside of them they are able to utilize said demon's youki. However, when they use it the youki is doing nothing more than moving around them, it's not actually inside of their bodies when they use it, hence the shroud you see when a Jinchuuriki uses their bijuu's youki."

"I thought it had to travel through the chakra coils when you were using it," Jiraiya commented with a thoughtful frown.

"Yes, but there is more than just the chakra coils within the human body isn't there? Kyuu-chan said that when the cursed seal tried to infect me that it tried to latch onto more than just my chakra coils, but also my muscles and organs in order to gain control over me."

Naruto shrugged, "I don't really know what it was trying to do or why it would do that, all I know is that Kyuu-chan had to divert her youki into my body to stop it from spreading so I could defeat it. However the seal mutated and something happened within my body, fundamentally changing my DNA to match that of a demon's."

Tsunade blinked as she tried to process what Naruto just said, "So, you're not human? What about you're human DNA?"

Naruto flinched when she said not human but still answered her questions as Kyuubi did her best to explain, "I'm half human, half demon, hence a Hanyou. I still have all of my human DNA within me, and from what Kyuu-chan said it's the dominant gene that would get passed down if I ever decide to have kids. However my demonic DNA was added onto me because of the overflow of Kyuu-chan's youki in my body."

"And how long have you known this?" Jiraiya asked in a disgruntled voice.

'Since I woke up in the Forest of Death," Naruto said in a soft voice.

"Then why didn't you tell Sarutobi-sensei or me?"

"Because I was afraid," Naruto turned away when he spoke, not wanting to look Jiraiya or the others in the eyes. "I was afraid that if you, Ojisan or anyone else found out I was no longer human that you would hate me."

Jiraiya's eyes softened at that as he realized Naruto had only done what anybody in his position probably would have done. It was bad enough when the boy held the Kyuubi inside of him, but now he was a demon, well, half demon anyway. And if the general populace of Konoha ever found out it would easily make his life hell.

Shizune who was sitting right next to him did not really understand much other than that Naruto was at least half demon; however she knew that the boy before her was not evil in anyway. She scooted closer to him and wrapped an arm around the blond, startling him into looking at her.

"I don't think it matters Naruto-kun," She gave him a smile. "Even if you're not fully human you're still one of the kindest people I know."

Naruto looked at her for a moment before smiling. Closing his eyes he leaned into the black haired woman, "Thanks Shizune-nee-chan. That means a lot to hear someone say that."

The other two smiled at the scene before Tsunade spoke up, "I've never heard of a half demon before."

"Nor will you," Naruto said, cracking an eye open as he stayed within the comforting embrace Shizune was giving him. "According to Kyuu-chan the last Hanyou to exist in this world lived around several thousand years before she was born."

Everyone looked surprised by that information, but filed it away and decided to get back to the task at hand.

"Well since you woke up pretty late in the evening we won't be leaving until tomorrow," Jiraiya got off the wall. "I suggest you get some more sleep gaki."

"Leaving?" Naruto asked.

"That's right," Tsunade said as she stood up. "Tomorrow we'll be going back to Konoha." She favored him with a smile, "After all you won our bet."

Naruto blinked in confusion for a second before he felt something cold on his chest. Looking down he saw the Shodai's necklace sitting next to the one Haku had given him. "Huh, I guess I did, didn't I?"

"That right's, so get some rest. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning," Tsunade, Jiraiya and Shizune left with pig in tow, closing the door and leaving Naruto alone.

Well not really alone, Naruto reminded himself as he lay back down, closed his eyes and entered his mindscape. One last thought passed through his mind before he entered he found himself in the forests of his mind. It's nice to know come people still accept me for who I am, rather than what I am.

As his mind went into the mindscape, he never noticed the two necklaces on his neck glowing with a light resonance for several seconds before they stopped.

Here you are, this chapter is something of a turning point for Kyuubi. No, she does not love Naruto, she still doesn't even really like Naruto, but she does not hate him and considering who we're talking about that's a huge step.