I Don't Own Naruto.

AN1: I am very busy so I won't Usually have time to respond to reviews. Sorry.

AN2: I am changeing the way the elements weakneses and strengths work

Fire is fanned by Wind, Wind destroys Earth, Earth absorbs Lightning, Lightning electrifies Water, and Water puts out Fire.

Ronin

Beginning of a new future

Tsunade could feel a headache coming on.

Team 7 had just returned from their A turned S rank mission to the country formerly known as Snow country .

Koyuki had came with them claiming that she had something to speak with the Hokage about and that she had to do it herself.

Because of their extra member, it took a week to arrive back in Konoha and the first thing they did was report to the Hokage tower and had just finished their report three hours after arriving.

" Are there any injuries to report, Kakashi?"

Kakashi looked up from his book with his patented lazy look plastered on his face.

"No Hokage-sama, the most injured any of us ever were was a few deep scratches here and there, nothing major to report."

She sighed in relief until she saw Naruto flinch and Koyuki look at Kakashi in decently veiled disgust.

She pushed a few dark thoughts out of her head.

She would just give Naruto a physical and check over his health sometime next week.

"Team 7, you are dismissed. Kakashi, I expect a report on my desk first thing after the two day standard recovery time."

Kakashi nodded before using shunshin to leave while Sakura and Sasuke left the conventional way, the former following the latter like a lost puppy.

Tsunade turned her gaze on Naruto who had not been meeting her eyes anytime during the debriefing and had failed to leave with his team.

"That included you too Naruto. I need to speak with Koyuki-hime in private."

As he opened him mouth to respond, he was cut off by said princess.

"Actually Hokage-sama, my main reason for coming to talk to you involves Naruto, so I believe it would be prudent for him to be in attendance."

Tsunade let out another sigh, she could already tell that this meeting was going to be, for lack of a more appropriate word, troublesome.

"If that's the case Koyuki -hime, please, let us begin with this discussion.

"We have, after all, all had a long morning and I'm sure we all want to get out of this stuffy office and relax for the rest of the day."

Koyuki took this as a sign to start and she took a moment to collect all her stray thoughts.

"As you know from Kakashi-san's report, I have refused to take up the position of Daimyo for the new country of Spring.

"Instead I relinquished that right to one of my father's most trusted advisors, which returned when he heard the news of my corrupt uncle's downfall.

"And while I want to help my home country, too much has happened for me to stay there for any extended periods of time.

"As such, I have enacted my clan head status of the Kazahana clan and received the right to travel anywhere I please under diplomatic immunity, granted that I do not abuse these powers.

"As such, I will be acting as a 'go-between' for Spring and her new allies while I travel the world like I did before being tricked back to my home country.

"But because of my new status, I will need a bodyguard and for that I am humbly asking for you to void Uzumaki Naruto's affiliation with the village of Konoha with the promise of him never revealing any of her secrets and allow him to become my guardian."

Tsunade sat back getting a contemplative look on her face. There was one question that was on the top of her mind and from the way Naruto did not seem surprised in the least verified that her assumption was most likely right.

"Am I to assume that you have talked to Naruto about this."

Instead of letting Koyuki answer this time, Naruto spoke up.

"During the mission, Koyuki and I… talked about some parts of our less than fortunate pasts.

" I told her about Kyuubi and some other things that had been weighing on my mind for quite some time."

Tsunade gained wide eyes as she heard this. From the little she actually knew about the blond before she arrived was that the subject of the Kyuubi was something he tried to avoid if possible, even around the Sandaime who was like his grandfather.

In order for him to have talked about this subject something big must have happened during the mission.

But as far as she could tell from Kakashi's report nothing unreasonably major for overthrowing a leader of a country had happened on the mission.

If his report proved to be faulty, she did not know quite what she would do to him… yet.

She did not have time to ponder her thoughts any longer as he continued his part of the story.

"After our heart to heart I fell asleep in her room from extreme mental exhaustion and apparently, while I was asleep, Koyuki came up with several possibilities to help my problems."

He looked out her window to the Hokage Mountain in the distance, looking over the faces of the previous leaders his eyes landing mostly on the third Hokage.

"As it is, the Sandaime Hokage is the only reason I stayed and became a shinobi instead of leaving the village at a young age and, since his death, I have been feeling the effects of all the hatred I receive ten times harder.

"And when Koyuki offered me this position I jumped at the chance to live a life without scorn and accepted her offer."

Tsunade leveled a calculative gaze on the young woman in the room before leaning forward and resting her chin on her fists.

"Why, if I may be so bold as to ask, do you want me to give up one of my most promising shinobi?

"As you no doubt know, because of my foolish teammate's ambition, Konoha has recently lost many of our shinobi and we need every one we can spare at the moment."

It did not take Koyuki any time to respond to the Godaime's question.

In truth she was expecting it and had already thought of an explanation beforehand.

"There are several reasons that I would like for Naruto-kun to become my bodyguard.

"The most important being that he is the only person I have felt comfortable around in ages not to mention the fact that it would do him good to be out of Konoha and 'live a life without glares' as Naruto put it.

"And there is one more thing…"

She seemed to hesitate slightly before Naruto put his hand on her shoulder as an obvious sign that she was doing great.

She flashed him a small, grateful, smile before continuing her reasoning of why Naruto should be her bodyguard.

"For all that Naruto did for me personally, I decided to reward Naruto in my own special way and the way I chose involved a family heirloom.

" The Kazahana clan is an old clan from back when the samurai were the only form of warrior and chakra had not even been discovered yet.

"During that time, our patriarch received six mystical armors blessed by the gods themselves.

"The armors were stored inside six different stones and each heir has carried a stone up until my father.

"The armor chooses who gets to wear it and I decided that to help further Naruto's abilities and such that seeing if one of the armors would react would make a great reward for him.

"I had him observe the stones and he found one that reacted to him."

Tsunade saw Naruto reach into his pocket and pulled out a smooth silver stone and show her as proof that Koyuki was not lying.

"I gave this to him as a way to repay him for what he did for me and I did it with no strings attached.

"As this armor is one of the Kazahana clan's greatest secrets and strengths, I could would have easily been justified in making Naruto a member of the Kazahana clan and then you could not have refused to release him from duty without cutting all diplomatic ties with Spring country."

Tsunade let the full implications of what Koyuki was over her.

The princess had her backed into a corner with seemingly no other option but to let Naruto go or have Koyuki declare him a part of the Kazahana clan and be taken like that.

Tsunade had to admit it was a decent plan and one with no glaring weak points to exploit on her end but lots of loopholes for Koyuki to use against her.

Had this been any other time she would praise the young woman for trapping her so marvelously.

But with Akatsuki out there and several other enemies that could go after him, she would not be complimenting Koyuki's political tact any time soon because if she agreed right now she might just be sending him to his death without the protection a village offered.

The only way for her to agree with this decision was if she knew for a fact that the blond she had come to see as a little brother was strong enough to survive with his enemies after his tail.

And she had just the way to make sure Naruto was strong enough for her to be able to sleep easy at night.

"How about we negotiate Koyuki-hime, in a month Jiraiya had planned on taking Naruto on a training trip.

"What I propose happens is that you go with them and at the end of the training trip we will test Naruto and, should he prove strong enough, Naruto will be released from his duties as an unbound ninja with emotional ties to Konoha."

Koyuki glanced at Naruto and saw him give a small nod indicating that he understood what had to be done and that he accepted the Hokage's terms.

She also gave a nod towards the Hokage.

If Naruto was happy with the deal then so was she.

"That would be acceptable Hokage-sama, though I do request that Naruto be my guide during my month long stay in Konoha."

Tsunade nodded that was a reasonable request for Koyuki to make and she turned her attention to the blond that was able to look her in the eye again..

"Uzumaki Naruto for the next month you will be on an A-rank mission to escort Koyuki-hime around Konoha.

"Once this month is up you will then escort her while being trained by Jiraiya, the Gama-sennin.

"After your training is complete, if you can hold your own in a fight against me for ten minutes I will allow you to become Koyuki-hime's guard indefinitely and release you from all responsibilities to Konoha.

"Do you accept these conditions?"

He gave her a rare true smile before replying.

"Hai Tsunade-ba-er Hokage-sama, I accept all the conditions of this agreement."

Tsunade smiled a sad smile.

She had purposefully set his goal high so he could have something to try and achieve.

After the fiasco with her losing her bet with him in regards to the Rasengan, she had pieced together that if you give him an almost impossible goal, he will achieve it and then some in the allotted time.

"Dismissed. If I need you for anything I will send you a message."

Naruto nodded before turning and holding the door for Koyuki as they exited the office.

As soon as they left the room Tsunade let a small smile grace her face.

The way they acted around each other reminded her of how Dan and her had acted when he was still alive and what made it even more amusing was the fact that they did not seem to notice that they acted like a couple.

She pushed that thought out of her head before she started filling out the surprisingly small amount of paperwork there was today.

-0-0-0-0-

It was already noon before Koyuki and Naruto were finally able to leave the tower.

"Hey Koyuki-chan, Do you want to get something to eat now?"

She got a sly smile on her face before replying.

"Are you asking me on a date Naruto-kun? If so than I accept.

"Just please anywhere but a Ramen stand for lunch."

He grinned sheepishly at that comment before his brain caught up with the first part of her sentence and he blushed brightly.

"S-s-sure Koyuki-chan, I just found this great dango restaurant the day before we left for the mission."

She gave him a small smile and grabbed his hand before telling him to lead the way.

While they walked in a comfortable silence she let her mind wonder to different subjects.

She let out a soft sigh and let herself lean even more into him as they passed the many shops in the market district.

One day she would have to ask someone about the feelings she got around Naruto but for now she was content to get lost in the feeling that was like a warm blanket on a cold day.

She would have kept leaning on his shoulder but they had arrived at the dango restaurant.

They ordered a set of dango each before taking a seat to wait for their food.

While they waited Koyuki had a question that she had wanted to ask him earlier but had not found a good opportunity to do so.

"Naruto-kun can I ask you a question"

"What is it Koyuki-chan?

She fidgeted a little before seeming to regain her nerve and pressing forward.

"Do you think you could teach me how to use my chakra?"

His expression turned sad before he answered her.

"Koyuki-chan, I wish I could but you have to train your chakra from an early age to expand your chakra coils making it impossible for someone past the age of ten to start learning how to manipulate chakra."

He really wanted to help her but that was something that even he could not do.

He got a curious look when Koyuki grabbed a chopstick and put it on her hand before her face scrunched up in slight concentration as it began to spin in the center of her hand.

Naruto just stared wide eyed for a few minutes trying to snap out of his shock at what she had just done.

She had just manipulated chakra to spin the chopstick in a similar fashion to what he initially tried when he started learning the Rasengan

He could not help the surprise that crept into his voice when he responded to her actions.

"Where did you learn that, Koyuki-chan?"

She gave a sad smile and looked to be lost in the past.

Naruto was about to apologize for bringing up bad memories when she snapped out of her reverie and spoke up.

"My father taught me, just like he was taught by his father."

Naruto nodded his head in understanding.

It was common for parents to pass on some if not all their knowledge of a particular subject so their legend can continue on.

Or some bullshit like that, he never really cared as he had no family that he knew of.

"After we eat I'll help you draw out more of your chakra."

She smiled brightly and that smile remained the remainder of their time in the dango stand.

-0-0-0-0-

They arrived at his favorite training ground twenty or so minutes after leaving the dango stand.

He turned to face Koyuki as he spoke

"Alright Koyuki-chan, I want you to put your hands in this seal and try and draw forth your chakra."

After helping her get her fingers in the right position for the ram seal, she started to slowly bring out chakra and it eventually leveled off slightly above Sakura's level.

He always knew the pink haired bimbo had a low amount of chakra, but for a person who had very little knowledge of chakra to have even more than her was disgraceful.

"That's good Koyuki-chan. Do you need to rest before moving on?"

While she might have asked him to help her, he was not going to play the role of slave driver… yet.

He saw Koyuki shake her head in the negative and he saw that she had not even broken a sweat yet.

"I'm going to start you on the same thing Kakashi started us on…"

She leaned forward in anticipation.

Asshole he may be, but Kakashi was not the legendary copy ninja for just any reason.

"You are going to climb trees, without your hands."

She gave him a look that he understood to mean show me or you are going to be in pain soon.

Not wanting to anger her and bring forth the extra strength women tend to have when they get angry, Naruto wisely went to a tree and started to climb it… without using his hands.

Once he got all the way up, he back flipped off the tree and landed right next to Koyuki.

"The trick is to not put too much chakra into your feet or you will blow off, but if you don't put enough… you fall down.

"The way I understand it is like his, think of your chakra like a suction cup not enough suction and you fall off, but I would suggest trying it with a foot to get a feel for the amount of chakra needed to stick to the tree before you attempt to climb it.

"Once you have an idea of the amount of chakra needed, it is actually best to get a running start.

She nodded and walked over to a tree and placed her foot on it and put her hands in the newly learned ram seal.

She seemed to go into a state of semi-consciousness as she tried to draw out the precise amount needed for the exercise.

After a minute of concentration, she slowly lifted her other foot off the ground and put on the tree seeing how to regulate the flow with two feet attached at the same time.

She snapped her eyes open and stepped off the tree before retreating to a decent distance from the said tree.

She put her hands into the seal again and began to concentrate on drawing the correct amount of chakra necessary for her to climb the vertical surface.

Once she felt she had the correct amount she ran towards the tree and when she got there she did not even break stride as she began her ascent into the tree tops.

Once she was at the same height as Naruto she turned around and ran back down the tree.

Once she was back on the ground she sat underneath the tree, panting slightly.

She gave Naruto a tired smile before passing out.

He shook his head in disbelief but he understood why she passed out.

She had, in the space of a day, brought out a large amount, for her, of chakra then used a decent amount getting a feel for the exercise before running up and down the tree with ease.

She had done better than he thought she would and he might have to teach her water walking tomorrow.

He bent down and gingerly picked her up and started to make his way back to his apartment.

When he arrived, he set Koyuki on the bed and tried to get her to let go so he could sleep on the couch.

When he finally gave up after ten minutes of trying to get her hold to relinquish, he crawled into bed next to her and prayed to god she did not kill him when she woke up.

-0-0-0-0-

The next morning had actually been quite calm and Koyuki did not seem to mind him sleeping with her at all.

While she was taking her shower, Naruto prepared a small breakfast of toast and an egg.

When Koyuki came out of the shower, he went to the bathroom to take his shower as well.

After their showers and breakfast, Naruto lead Koyuki towards the area where Jiraiya had taught him the water walking exercise.

Normally he would not have tried to rush her but the sooner she had her reserves built up the faster they could move on to more fascinating subjects.

Arriving at the stream he decided now was as good a time as ever.

"Your next exercise will be to walk on the surface of this stream.

"It is the same concept as the tree walking but it requires more chakra, about double I think.

"This will also increase your reserves faster but the water is cold so try not to fall in."

He looked at her only to see a small blush adorning her face but he could not think of why she would be blushing.

He walked over to the bank and sat down intending to be close in case she needed help.

He watched her concentrate and slowly stepped onto the stream... only to fall right in after her first step.

As he was about to go see if she needed help, he saw her arm grab onto the bank and pulled her soaking wet body out of the stream.

Now Naruto knew why she had the blush earlier.

She had worn white today.

He passed out from an explosive nosebleed as he got an inadvertent view at her barley contained chest in the soaked, skin tight, top.

He did not awaken until a few hours later Koyuki threw him into the middle of the stream while she stood on top of the water.

This time it was Koyuki who passed out because the cold water had shrunk his pants giving her a rough estimate of his size while not aroused.

-0-0-0-0-

The rest of the month passed in a similar fashion and a week before Jiraya was scheduled to arrive, Koyuki had asked to just have a day off to relax from training.

He had initially refused but, when Koyuki looked at him with her 'puppy-pout' face as he dubbed it, he could not resist and agreed with her request.

Over the month they had gone on many 'dates' and Naruto was really wondering why he seemed so at ease with Koyuki.

Koyuki liked to joke around and also understood what it is like to grow up without knowing the love of a parent for most if not all of your life.

From what he heard from Sakura about her crush on Sasuke was that she always felt nervous or anxious that she was not up to his expectations.

He did not feel that way around Koyuki but he also did not quite know exactly what he felt for Koyuki.

He had tried to ask her about what he was to her but each time he lost his nerve and changed his question mid-sentence.

Koyuki had also become addicted to the dango stall he had taken her to the first day and all their dates had taken place at the stand.

Today was no exception and the chatted amicably as they munched on their dango.

After lunch, Naruto agreed to go shopping with her.

Had he known that he was the one being shopped for he might have suggested something else but he had to admit having Koyuki ogle him for hours on end had felt rather nice for some reason.

Once they were done they made a quick stop by the grocery store to pickup something for dinner.

Naruto was pretty distracted so he did not see Koyuki slipping a bottle of Sake in with what they needed.

When they got back to his apartment, Koyuki insisted that she be the one to cook supper while he went and cleaned up

After his shower he was treated to some of Koyuki's heavenly cooking and after dinner was done Koyuki had brought out some saucers and the bottle of sake.

Naruto had originally weary of the drink but he decided what the hell and downed his saucer in one go.

He nearly choked as the sake burned its way down his throat leaving his throat tingly in its wake.

They eventually drained the small jug she had picked and once they were done with it, they were both fairly intoxicated.

As they sat on the couch, Naruto listened as intently as drunken mind could to her stories.

One of the stories must have hit a sore spot because soon after that story was over she was crying her eyes out onto his shoulder.

He could make sense of a little bit of her sobbing story and pieced together that she still had not fully gotten over her father's death all those years ago.

Remembering what she had done for him not to long ago, He just held her and rubbed her back as her rambling slowed down and she passed out from mental exhaustion.

He wobbly carried her to his bed before laying her down and turning to leave only to have his hand grabbed by Koyuki.

She had then pulled him down so that he was laying next to herself as she snuggled up to him before going to sleep with a content smile on her face.

Naruto followed soon after and instinctively pulled her even closer as to shelter her from her problems.

-0-0-0-0-

Naruto was floating in what looked to be a sewer.

It had been two days since Koyuki's drunken Rambling.

The day after they had sat down and talked most of the day about different things but there was an somber undertone to most of their conversations and they usually ended up back in a comfortable silence.

All throughout the day Koyuki had said that she felt something bad was going to happen soon and he had waved it off until Shikamaru came by and informed him that his avenger teammate had left the village.

After reassuring Koyuki that he would be fine on the mission to retrieve him, Shikamaru and he were off gathering the rest of the needed people to complete the mission.

In the end Kiba and Akamaru, Neji, and Choji as well as he were put under the command of Shikamaru to retrieve Sasuke.

His mind turned to dark thoughts when his other 'teamate' came to mind.

The bitch had requested ,in front of all the people about to be sent out, for him to retrieve her 'precious, misguided Sasuke-Kun'.

Had they been alone, he would have refused her request in a heartbeat but, in front of others there was no possible way for him to do it without coming off as a heartless bastard.

And since then everything had gone wrong on the mission.

First Choji had to stay behind and fight someone even bigger and probably stronger in pure strength than the Akamichi, after they had almost all there chakra drained from their bodies.

Then Neji had volunteered to stay and fight the spider-ish person as he was the only person suitable to fight him because of the Jyuken leaving Kiba, Shikamaru, and himself to continue the chase.

A few miles from where they left Neji, Kiba and Akamaru had gotten separated from Shikamaru and him when they accidentally set off a trap, leaving Shikamaru to hold off the redhead while he chased after the pale shinobi who had shown up to take Sasuke the rest of the way to Oto and Orochimaru.

Naruto eventually caught up to the boy in a large clearing and proceeded to try and defeat the light skinned shinobi.

Naruto was lucky that he had practiced his taijutsu so much or he might not have been able to hold him off until Lee had arrived.

The enemy shinobi that had been sent to finish escorting Sasuke was able to use his bones as weapons and was taking out clones left and right until Lee came and evened out the battle field.

But they wasted too much time and Sasuke had broken out of the barrel he had been placed in and took off towards the border of Fire and Rice country.

At Lee's urging he left the spandex clad youth to fight the bone manipulator and eventually he ended up in the Valley of the End where Sasuke was waiting for him.

They had talked a few minutes before mutually deciding that words were not going to solve the situation and had started to fight.

The fight that ensued was a fairly even and they even went as far as clashing Rasegan and Chidori in a duel of high powered jutsu which resulted in them blowing each other back about the same distance

It was not until Sasuke had begun using the cursed seal given to him by Orochimaru did he start to gain the upper hand.

One thing led to another and the last thing Naruto remembered before arriving in the sewer was getting pile driven into the ground from twenty or thirty feet in the air.

He heard the unmistakable sinister voice of the Kyuubi coming from his right side.

"Pathetic human, you are nothing without my power."

Naruto let his eyes travel over to the angry kitsune but did not speak.

"Fine don't beg for my help. Here is some chakra. Just don't embarrass us anymore than you already have been by losing to a lowly Uchiha."

A wave of red chakra came from behind the seal and began to rush towards Naruto.

As it was about to come into contact with Naruto, an orange barrier surrounded Naruto and began healing him faster than the Kyuubi did and forced the vile chakra back into the cage.

Naruto felt the energy rush through him.

It felt the same as the Kyuubi's did only instead of a vile feeling he felt oddly at peace.

And instead of the constant burning he felt when using the Kyuubi's chakra, he felt as if he was made of stone and that anything the Kyuubi could try to do would not harm him in the slightest.

If anyone could see his forehead right now they would see the kanji for 'Justice' flashing rapidly.

The faster it flashed the greater the power became until it reached its peak and the Kanji solidified on his forehead.

He looked inside the cage, any of the small amount of fear he had for the beast was now gone, and spoke for the first time since arriving.

"I do not need your power kitsune. I will carve my own path using my own power.

"I will use my power to bring my own justice to the world.

"Just remember, one day you will have to face justice for all your wrong doings."

He felt the power surge and he, by instinct, raised his hand and the ground slowly rose covering the cage in a layer of four foot thick earth and stone muffling the great beasts angry roaring.

Naruo paid no head to the kitsune's futile yelling and kept using his new found power to forever divide himself from the great beast.

As soon as the cage was covered he felt the semi-familiar feeling of vertigo and realized he was leaving his mind.

When he fully recovered from the feeling of vertigo, he noticed that he was under water before he felt the same power surge as earlier and he was engulfed in a pure orange light.