AN. I've gone through tons of different stories of Naruto, and they are for the most part good, however, I think there lacks an amount of Naruto and Hana Inuzuka in the community. They're my favorite pairing at this moment and I think they deserve more attention. I've written stories before, deleted them, done Wattpad, etc. But reviews and messages will most definitely keep me making more chapters. This story is AU like nearly all others, the main points being that Hana Inuzuka is the same age as Naruto, and Jiraiya being a bit late to bring Naruto on the trip. The story begins when Kakashi is taking Naruto back to Konoha after the Sasuke retrieval arc end fight. EP. 134.
"Naruto... I'm so sorry I wasn't here earlier" Kakashi muttered as he assessed Naruto's wounds and pulled him onto his own back. "I'll get you back home, just hold on." Kakashi knew it would be a chance for Naruto to survive but he could only hope that Naruto would be able to survive and the Kyuubi would heal him enough to survive. Once Naruto was secured onto his back he summoned one of his dogs to alert Tsunade before he got there himself to get ready for doing surgery on Naruto. After he dismissed his summon he started racing towards Konoha. While Kakashi was hopping through the trees, racing towards Konoha, even at his full speed he still was getting thoughts on how Team 7 turned out. Sasuke defecting from Konoha, Sakura being a fangirl blindly following Sasuke, and Naruto, the one he disregarded and the one who was almost killed by the student with his own jutsu. His conscience kept nagging him, not able to forget what he did and how much he wanted to change it. The thoughts kept his mind busy while he made it to Konoha.
Tsunade was worried about her godson after getting the news from Kakashi's summon and quickly got an operating room ready preparing for the worst. She told a group of ANBU to be on the lookout for Kakashi and Naruto and to immediately bring them to the hospital. She was in her office, not even doing her paperwork just sitting there worried madly about Naruto. As she was thinking about the worst and what to do, the ANBU crow appeared in her office with news.
"Hokage-sama, Kakashi has been spotted and brought Naruto to the hospital" She reported, waiting for further instructions.
"Thank you, dismissed," Tsunade said, getting ready to rush to the hospital to help Naruto in every way she could.
Arriving at the room Naruto was, she quickly went inside and discussed the situation with the other medic-nin about Naruto's situation. She and 2 other medic-nin worked on Naruto for hours from the extent that Sasuke did to him. Punching a hole into his left lung by using the Chidori jutsu Kakashi taught him. After Naruto was stabilized Tsunade walked out of the room to breathe and relax, but not after having one medic-nin stay and tell her if anything about Naruto's status changes. She walked towards the waiting room and was surprised about Kakashi being there, sitting in a chair brooding about what led up to what happened that day. Tsunade felt anger because she knew Sasuke was put with Kakashi due to sharing the Sharingan but neglecting the others, was bothering her. But it didn't take someone skilled in working on and with people to know that Kakashi was already tearing himself down and she didn't need to add to it. She sat down next to him, not saying anything for a moment, relaxing, and to see if he would say anything.
"Are you mad at me?" Kakashi finally spoke after a few minutes, leaning back with a pained look on his face. He wasn't sure what would happen and how things would turn out after today.
"Honestly? Yes, focusing on that Uchiha kid and leaving the others to learn themselves, not the best thing to do. But you probably know that? Don't you?" Tsunade asked. It wasn't a rhetorical question, she wanted to hear him say it and verbally accept it. She wasn't going to try and degrade him or punish him any more than he was doing to himself, she wanted to show him his mistake and have him improve himself on it.
"Yes, I know what I did, hell, Naruto nearly died from the jutsu that I made and taught to Sauske. I don't know if the kid will ever forgive me, or even look at me." Kakashi was so shaken up by the situation and was seriously disheartened about it. He knew his mistake and just wished he could make it up to Naruto.
"Naruto will forgive you, and don't be that hard on yourself, make it up to him if you really feel bad about it" Tsunade knew that she couldn't make Kakashi do anything, but she knew he would try and make it up to Naruto. She got up slowly, stretching after working so hard on Naruto and then sitting for a while, feeling a bit tired after the whole day. "I'm heading out now, good night Kakashi." She made a stop by Naruto and made sure everything was okay, along with specific instructions of if anything changes that she would be alerted immediately. After getting to the Hokage manor, she got ready to sleep and as soon as she hit the bed, she was out. Kakashi stayed a bit longer at the hospital, relieved that Naruto survived, but still in a very down mood. He stopped by Naruto's room and checked on his student. Covered in bandages and blood still staining some, he walked out of the room and headed to his home, falling asleep much like Tsunade.
"Wake up kit." The Kyuubi spoke to Naruto in his subconscious, stirring the child up inside the mindscape. He didn't really hit it off with the fox, but there was no outward hatred or contempt for either one. The fox however made sure to still speak to Naruto much like he was a child, sometimes being outwardly nice even to the young boy.
"Yea, yea" Naruto yawned in the middle of speaking, sitting up in the open field with trees surrounding the clearing with one big tree that the fox usually napped under. "I'm getting up" Slowly the boy stood up and stretched, looking at the fox wondering why he was brought here. He made the mindscape a lot nicer for the fox after asking the Kyuubi if he could make the place look less dank. They found out Naruto could shape the area to a nice area that suited the fox nicely, and instead of bars, the fox wore a sort of necklace/collar that they both liked. Naruto thought it looked kind of cute of the huge fox like he was some sort of pet dog, and the Kyuubi thought it just looked nice on him. They both would never say it to the other for their own reasons.
"You do know what happened right? The whole incident with that Uchiha runt and nearly dying? I sure do because I had to make sure you didn't die." The fox was sitting with his head looking down at the boy who looked back up at him. He wanted to help the boy become stronger because he honestly was taking a liking to him. Naruto was for the most part nice and respectful of the Kyuubi, even the Kyuubi was thinking of telling Naruto his name but decided against it just yet.
"Yes I remember, I'll have to when I wake up and feel how sore and how much pain I'll be in" Naruto relaxed and sat down while still looking up towards the fox, deciding to get more comfortable.
"Good, then that will be your first lesson in a way, we have to get stronger, so things like this don't happen again. I don't really want to have to wait to be reborn, and I doubt you want to have your life ended. But, once you wake up and get better, we will train, I can teach you a few things along with you learning things from your sensei and the library." Naruto groaned after hearing that he'd be having to go to the library but the Kyuubi wouldn't tell him he had to unless it'd be worth it. He wanted to get stronger, to protect his village, to protect his friends.
"Alright alright, I'll make sure to do as you say... Will there be cool jutsu that you can teach me?" Naruto perked up when he thought about learning new cool moves from the Kyuubi no Kitsune.
"Yes, there will be, but don't think that's all I'll teach you, or even start at. If anything I'll have to work on your taijutsu style, or lack thereof," the fox said as he laid down to get more comfortable as the mindscape started to go into the night with a soft light from the moon. They talked about what would happen for a half hour, the Kyuubi and Naruto were both happy with the understanding of each other and the future.
AN. It's pretty short, I know. But I like it, it's the beginning of a story and I always love seeing what stuff like this becomes. I'll be introducing Hana in either the next chapter or the one after the next so they can get a bit more acquainted with one another, I have a good amount of ideas for how they will be together, and how the trip with Jiriya will work, if there is one, dunno.