October 11th 8:41a.m.

Naruto woke up groggily to the strong sharp scent of antiseptics and disinfectants. She pulled her cold feet back up into the thin hospital sheet, tugging it tight around her as she tried to get back to sleep.

Then her throat had chosen that moment to feel parched. Annoyed, she hurled aside the sheet and clambered off the hospital bed grumpily. And that had been such a nice dream. Standing tiptoed to reach the counter, she poured herself a glass of water from the pitcher. She frowned in frustration as she couldn't exactly recall the dream, but she knew it had been nice, orange, fuzzy and warm.

It was almost enough for her to forget about last night.

Her hand trembled and nearly dropped the pitcher. Carefully putting it back into place, she guzzled her glass of water quickly before checking the time. It reads 8:48a.m. Good. There's still at least two hours until visiting hours. She gave herself a once-over. Apart from some mild soreness, she felt normal. Even her hand seemed to be fine. Satisfied, she changed out of the flimsy hospital gown and slipped into a clean set of clothes provided. Time to leave.

She hated it when Jiji visited her in the hospital. He always did without fail. It's not that she wasn't happy or grateful for his company, but rather she hated the fake smile he would put up around her whenever he did. She had long since decided that her hate of bringing pain to the kindly old man far outweighs her own need for his love and attention. Those eyes just don't belong on his faceshe decided resolutely.

She was about to leave when a thought struck her. She didn't want to worry Jiji by leaving so abruptly either. Then she saw the pen and a clipboard with paper at the foot of her bed. Inspiration struck. Picking up the pen and paper, she wrote

Dear Jiji,

Feeling much better. It was boring here so I'll be at home.

Love,

Naruto

She looked over the note. It looks ok right? As an afterthought, she scribbled a bit more and nodded to herself. That should cheer jiji up! Grinning happily, she placed the note under the glass, making sure it's in plain view and slipped out of the ward.


9.00a.m.

The ANBU climbed the stairs up to the Hokage's office. He had just finished up the report on his rounds. It had been an eventful night. He had found and detained a few more stragglers after receiving the change of patrol route from Hiruzen. As he stood outside the Hokage's door, he couldn't help but overhear snippets of an argument.

"…nough. This is unrelated to the girl or her status. I had turned a blind eye when the council demanded for us to step down from policing the Shinobi, but if you're going to be making civilian arrests with the ANBU instead of going through us, then it's clear that the entire Military Police is just a white elephant of the entire Konoha administration!"

The door burst open and out stormed a disgruntled Fugaku. He glared at the blank masked ANBU for a second before grudgingly nodding his head in acknowledgement and left. Unlike his brother-in-arms, he had never bothered to personalise his mask.

Feeling awkward, the ANBU knocked the door despite it being wide open.

Seeing his visitor, Hiruzen smiled and gestured at him to enter.

"I'm terribly sorry that you had to listen to that."

The ANBU simply raised a gloved hand to dismiss the fuss. The tiredness in the Hokage's voice didn't go unnoticed. "I'm here to submit the report of the patrol." He passed the documents to Hiruzen with a slight bow. Hiruzen accepted the documents and slowly began to flip through it.

"There had been three more arrest. I had them brought to Kame."

Hiruzen skimmed through the last page of the report. Satisfied, he nodded. "Very good. You're dismissed for the day. Although, allow me to thank you for bringing to my attention of Young Uzumaki's plight. Again."

The ANBU remained where he was, prompting Hiruzen to raise a questioning eyebrow.

The ANBU cleared his throat. "Well, there's one small detail I left out in the report since it doesn't exactly fall under the parameter of my patrols." He paused to check the Hokage's reaction. Finding none, he took it as a sign to continue. "You said to make sure she was safe, so I thought I paid her a visit earlier at the hospital." He reached into his pocked and pulled out a folded slip of paper, unfolding it. "I found this." He handed the piece of paper to a grim looking Hiruzen, as the older man instantly recognized the layout and importance of the paper and what it might imply.

His expression changed from grim, to surprised, and relief followed by a smile and soft chuckle as he recognizes the clumsy scrawl on the piece of paper. Only Naruto would scribble all over something as important as her own medical report with whiskered smiley and signing off as fishcake.

Hiruzen lit his pipe and took a long draught. "Thanks for bringing this to me. Dismissed."

The ANBU gave a quick affirmative "Hai" before departing swiftly but silently.


9:20a.m.

Naruto arrived back at her apartment safely. She had avoided much of the morning crowds now that the morning rush hour was well over.

She stopped short outside the door as she stared at the peeled off paint and scratches on it, like a demented sticky note to remind her again of the night before. She took a deep breath before turning the doorknob, readying herself to the sight of her destroyed home?

She was stunned to find everything to be in order. The stool she knocked over was back in place, the wood fiberboards on her ceiling were all replaced. Even her walls were repainted, the carpet freshly cleaned and the crack on the kitchen wall was plastered. Then she remembered her door wasn't supposed to be that intact.

Suspiciously, Naruto entered her apartment cautiously and searched it for intruders. Fearing that this was some cruel new ploy by some sick person that wanted to lull her into a false sense of security.

Not that there was much searching to be done in her tiny studio apartment.

Naruto stood numbly in her living-cum-bedroom, uncertain as to what to feel. Part of her was overjoyed at the apparent genuine renewal of her dwelling as she dug her toes into the soft clean carpet. The other half of her however was torn between anger and confusion. Somehow, the absence of evidence of previous night's occurrence seemed mock and cheapened the experiences she had to endure.

It reminded her painfully of all the times in the orphanage when she was bullied. Any scars or bruises seemed to just disappear in a matter of seconds, leaving her accusation towards the offender baseless, leading to her caretakers giving her a harsh beating for lying instead. Although over time, she had come to view her regenerative capabilities to be a good thing, especially for one in her circumstances.

Feeling tired all the sudden, no surprise given her misadventure last night; she got onto bed, ready to sleep.

She found her gama plushy under her sheets. It was ripped in the belly, the arms and legs were torn at the seams and the cotton was spilling out. Before, the eyes of the toad were filled with the fondness and warmth of Jiji. Now, stitched onto a ruined body, the eyes stared blankly back at her, as they projected instead the cruel treatment of the villagers.

Despite that, she held back the tears and hugged her ruined birthday present that didn't even last a day close to her breast before the lack of sleep from the previous night caught up to her.


Naruto shifted uncomfortably at a corner of the ceiling in his cell. Yes. Ceiling.

The reason had been simple. Naruto had been grateful when he found out that wall walking was possible in here, and had since used it to get out of the annoyingly wet floor. Coupled with the fact that he was now a walking giant mass of chakra, he could pretty much stay up there. Forever.

Now, the reason for him being in a corner however, was much less simple. You see, it involved a little girl who was apparently crying her eyes out before the massive gate of his dank cell. For the past 2 hours.

Okay, so maybe it had only just been the past half hour or maybe less. But it was driving him nuts. There were numerous things Uzumaki Naruto disliked, and one of which were tears. He had shed his share of futile tears. Watched others did it over less. And sadly, he was also unable to forget the teary green beasts. He just couldn't stand it. Now faced with a smaller counterpart of himself, crying of all things, it simply just struck too close to home, especially when hers seemed so much more justified.

Naruto was about to claw his own ears off out of sheer exasperation when he blurted out "HEY KID!"


Naruto shot up straight as the deep booming voice resounded through the dank sewer. Her sobs were quenched and instead replaced by fear as she tried to locate the owner of the voice.


Naruto flinched in spite of himself. There goes the "try-to-hide-from-her-for-the-next-7-years" plan. Also his voice had been too intimidating. He sighed. Guess the fox is out of the bag, and shrugged mentally. He would just have to wing it as he goes. I've never been one for carefully thought out plans anyway. That's more of Shikamaru's thing. Toning down his voice, he tried again.

"Hey, Kid."

To his horror, his voice while deep, sounded unmistakably female. Matronly almost. Oh well, it could be a lot worse. It certainly was better than scaring the shit out of his Jinchuriki.


Naruto stared at the gates. She was sure it came from in there this time, although the voice had sounded very different, like a woman's. And it carried with it warmth and gentleness. Almost like Jiji's.

It unsettled her though. Naruto had managed to arrive in this place quite a few times. It was an odd place. While a dank dark sewer wasn't exactly pleasant, she had come to view it as her own personal space. She had peered several times through those strange intricate giant gates, but she had never saw anything. She had long assumed that there was nothing significant behind those bars.

She continued to stare at the gates in trepidation as she waited to see if whatever behind it would speak again. And it did.

"Little one. Why were you crying?"

Naruto was stunned as she considered the words. She's actually concerned about me? She gaped at the gate unintelligently for a few seconds before stammering. "I… I… I'm s…sorry. I didn't realize there was s… somebody back th-there, ttebane."

She took a steadying breath to find her voice. "Did I bother you? I must have. I'm so sorry. It's just I thought there was nobody around here. I thought I was alone in this place, so nobody had to see me cry here."

"And why would you wish to hide that, little one?"

Naruto looked shiftily at her feet. "Well… you see, I hate crying, ttebane. It doesn't make things better, and all it does is upset people around you."

"That's a very noble outlook you have there, little one. Would you care to tell me who was so mean that they would make a kind little one such as yourself cry?"

She felt her cheeks burn at the compliment, never really getting one before. Her face fell however, when she was reminded just why she was there. She stood near the gate and recounted briefly of the events last night.

"The villagers. I don't get why they seem to hate me so much, they like to think of me as a beast. Even Jiji doesn't want to tell me why. He always said he'd tell me when I'm older. I didn't press him because he looked so sad whenever I brought it up. So no. I don't know why I'm crying."

Naruto blushed and looked away in horror. D… did I just ranted to a complete stranger? Her embarrassment however, was fleeting as she retorted indignantly. "A… Anyway, the name's not "Little one"! It's Uzumaki Naruto, and you had better remember it, dattebane!"

She wasn't sure if she should felt insulted, flustered or frightened when a loud booming laughter resounded throughout the sewer.

"I like you kid-err Naruto. You got spunk and your heart is in the right place. I like that. You reminded me so much of myself." She thought she could almost see the grin accompanying those words. "Tell you what, why don't you come back here whenever you feel the need for a friend or simply to ease the pain or when you're hurting. I could use the company."

Naruto was shocked. Did she just receive an offer of friendship? Her stupefied expression slowly changed into a smile before turning into his trademark grin as she registered the meaning of his words. Her heart did a loop-the-loop.

"Really, you would be my friend? Awesome! So what's your name, where are you? Can I see you?"

There was a momentary silence as she waited eagerly for her new friend to reply. As the seconds ticked by, her smile faltered, worried that she had said something wrong or that she had come across as too forceful. Fearing that she had ruined her first chance at friendship, Naruto was about to utter an apology when her mysterious acquaintance finally spoke hesitantly.

"You may not wish to befriend me once you learn of my name or my appearance, Naruto-chan."

She shook her head vehemently. "You're the first person to offer me friendship, ttebane. I don't think there's anything you can do to make me wish otherwise. I promise I'll be your friend no matter what, dattebane!" as an afterthought, she added "But if you're not comfortable with showing yourself, then..."

"No, if we're to be friends, it's only fair you know who I am. Though I am grateful that you would give me this chance."

Naruto pursed her lips together as she waited anxiously for her newfound friend to show herself. She held her breath when she caught sight of some movement from the back of the cage as her mysterious friend stepped into the light and sat in front of the gate.

Before her stood a giant many-tailed fox. And by giant, she meant HUGE! Now she knew why it had been calling her little one. She should have guessed its size given the massive gate. It easily dwarfed the Hokage Mountain. She was surprised though that something this big could move that quietly and gracefully.

It has the shiniest orange coat she had ever seen and a pair of crimson eyes with cat-like pupils that were narrowed to a slit from the light. The eyes themselves were surrounded by black fur band that reaches up to either side of its ear, streaked with a yellow stripe at the centre. Three small but notable symmetric bumps adorning the top of its head like a crown. She noted it also had clawed human-like hand instead of paws There were also those nice fluffy, bushy tails. Simply put, it looked gorgeous.

The giant fox seemed to fidget a little, as if self-conscious of it's own appearance. Naruto had to stifle a giggle. "You know, Jiji always told me that a person shouldn't try and sell themselves short. You look beautiful, why would you think I wouldn't want to be your friend?"

The fox was surprised. "You don't… hate me?"

"Why would I?"

It stared incredulously at Naruto "I don't know, maybe because I'm the terrible Kyubi no Yoko?"

Naruto stared for a moment before she burst out laughing, "That's a good one! You're the Kyubi! Hahahaha! Man, I haven't heard such a good joke for a while!"

"Why, whatever do you mean?"

She snickered, "Well, first off the Kyubi was killed by the Yondaime Hokage, so there was no way you're the fox. Secondly, I've seen many pictures of the Kyubi and you look nothing like it! And finally, I may be five but even I know how to count! You got ten tails. If anything you should be Jubi instead of kyubi!"

"Jubi?" The giant fox huffed, "Are you sure you can count? Last I checked I had ni…Ten-tails?" It blinked in confusion at the 5 pairs of tails that surrounded its sides.


Naruto stared dumbly at his unexpected appendage. What the hell? That wasn't there a moment ago! Upon further inspection, he noted his longest middle two tails weren't completely solid. Despite looking like bushy tails, they appeared slightly translucent. If he brought it close up, he could make out some bubbling chakra in it if he paid close enough attention. He also realised the annoying itch was gone. The slight movement in his peripheral vision forced him to file that thought away for later. There's more pressing matters at hand.

Naruto was staring at him wide-eyed. "Don't tell me…" Here it comes… "…You never learned how to count to ten?" she finished pityingly.

WHAT? Naruto would have face faulted if he wasn't on all fours already.

"OF COURSE I COULD COUNT TO TEN! WHAT DID YOU TAKE ME FOR? A MORON?" he snapped before he could stop himself as his voice thundered menacingly through the sewers. Poor Naruto was cowering from his outburst, whimpering while her eyes shut tightly in fear. He instantly felt bad. "I… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take it out on you. It's just…" Naruto wracked his mind for an explanation but it only made his head hurt.

"You're right I guess… I'm not really the Kyubi. In fact, I don't know what I am anymore. I just woke up here a few weeks ago or was it months now looking like this…"

"Eh? So, what did you looked like before?" the curious girl asked.

Naruto cursed inwardly as he realised he had unintentionally let slip something he really didn't want to and couldn't exactly explain. "Um, you see…" He had been about to come up with some half-baked excuse to brush her off when he remembered how he hated it when his teachers or instructors would do that to him when he was younger, either thinking he was too dumb or just at loss at how to explain it to him.

"I'm telling you this because you don't get it. You think you get it, which is not the same as actually getting it. Get it?" The nostalgic memory came unbidden as he crushed it immediately. Wouldn't do to get homesick now.

Then inspiration struck. He had only been trying to dispel the form before, but he supposed he could probably perform a simple Henge to show her. Provided it doesn't implode on him.

Molding his chakra for the first time in many weeks, he found that he no longer needed hand signs, as they now seem to flow according to his wish. Snapping them into the form required for the Henge, he snapped his eyes shut and concentrated hard on his former form. There was a loud poof and a lot of smoke. Naruto found himself coughing and wheezing as he leaned forward on his thigh. Wait, thigh? It worked!


Naruto stepped back in surprise when the huge fox exploded in a puff of smoke in mid-sentence. As the smoke clears, she found herself looking wide-eyed at a human sized person who had stumbled through the gates, standing right in front of her, awkwardly examining herself. "This is… what… I looked like…" Naruto was too busy taking in her appearance to notice the disappointment in her tone as she said it.

It was a woman of about 18 years of age, 5'6" tall with spiky bright yellow hair. Her eyes were the same as when she was the fox. She wears a long-sleeved cream coloured coat with black and yellow flame markings at the bottom with 10 orange Uzumaki swirl incorporated into the motif of the flames. Beneath the coat was an orange sleeveless turtleneck, a pair of blue pants and sandals. Her most notable physical characteristics however, were 3 pairs of fine delicate whisker marks across her face. So much like her very own thicker stripes.

"That was so AWESOME, Jubi-neechan! You have got to teach me how you did that!"

The newly dubbed Jubi seemed to be startled out of her reverie when she heard her new name. "Ju-Jubi?" Naruto poked her fingers together shyly, reminiscent of a certain Hyuga, "Well, since you called yourself Kyubi earlier and it's apparent that you're not, I thought I could call you Jubi since you got ten tails?" She peeked shyly out from her bangs with a small hopeful pout. The sheer innocence of that look almost made Naruto sympathize with Jiraya when he pulled the sexy jutsu on him.

Naruto pursed his lips in thought. "Just call me Juu. That sounds a lot better. Besides, should you were to accidentally call out Jubi for any reason, it might attract unwanted attention." Naruto grimaced and instantly agreed. When she looked back at Juu, she was stretching herself. "Kya~ that felt good. Though I still doubt I'll be bored of the beast form," she said to herself.

Naruto smiled as he found his younger counterpart continue to study him intently and at the same time her mouth opening and closing like a gold fish as she tried to think of something to say. He decided to spare her the awkwardness as he leaned forward and curled his fingers, making a gentle beckoning motion at her. She blinked and moved in front of her.

Juu held out a pinky in front of her. Naruto blinked again. "Here, this is my promise to you. I'll be by your side through thick and thin. Your burdens are my burden and your joys my joy. I pledge to help you succeed in whatever dreams you mave have, to see you not only as my friend, but also as family, my own flesh and blood. And should I ever intentionally cause you harm or betray you, may the Shinigami take me and my soul be damned. That's a promise of a life time!"

She was almost overwhelmed by tears of joy when she hooked her pinky with Juu. She yelped and jerked back in surprise when a warm pulse shot through her pinky, travelled down her arms and through her spine before she felt a comfortable feeling in the depth of her navel, like a warm breeze on a sunny day.

Naruto found Juu smiling back at her. Before she could ask for an explanation, Juu spoke "There now, you have an anchor to me." Naruto was puzzled "Anchor? Wasn't that a pinky promise?"

"I know you can't always find yourself back here. Now you can return here to find me whenever you want to. Just remember my signature." Juu winked.

She couldn't help it anymore as she burst into tears of happiness for the first time of her life and gave Juu a tackle hug.


Naruto's eyes widened in surprise as he found himself sitting on the wet floor with a sobbing 5 year-old buried in his bosom. He smiled and stroked her hair gently as he does his best to offer her what little comfort he could. Guess they're at least good for something He mused as he sighed contentedly and began unconsciously grooming Naruto with his tongue, eliciting a tickled giggle from the girl before realising in horror a little too late at what he was doing.

Few minutes later, he felt Naruto's breathing even out as the girl fell asleep and her body slowly faded out from his arms. He sighed wistfully before shifting back into a giant fox and strode back into the cell. It just had to happen when I was beginning to enjoy her company.

In the safety of the depths of his cell, Naruto gave a relieved sigh. Feeling glad that he had somehow managed to avoid the tougher questions. The thought also made him grimace. Whatever am I going to tell her when she starts asking? He decided to put them off and hope the situation would resolve itself eventually. He had more pressing matters to attend to anyway.

A sudden rush of memories made him stumble and collapse onto the ground. For the last few hours he had been spacing out, regaining more of the memories. They seemed to be coming faster and in greater volumes. He found himself doing more things he never knew how to do such as marking Naruto with his chakra or that tongue-grooming thing.

He still felt divided over that. Apart of him was appalled at his own action while the other half had felt it was the most natural thing to do.

He frowned deeply with some of his new memories. If he was right, then he might have a theory for his current condition. It would seemed that both he and the Kyubi had died during the fiasco, but because of their merge during that time, the rebirth process had someone melded them together, and with his chakra being lass massive than Kyubi's it had recovered and stabilised faster

Much to his embarrassment, it was unprecedented as far as he could work out from the memories, for a jinchuriki to die while in beast mode other than their chakra store being drained dry by the bijuu. So his was a unique case. Though it still doesn't quite explain the alternate dimension.

Or the extra tail.

He wasn't sure if he liked his own theory or even wanted it to be true.


5:43p.m.

Sarutobi Hiruzen rubbed his temple tiredly as he filed away a folder and took a long draught off his pipe. Exhaling, he looked at the small stack of paperwork before him before selecting another one and began reading its content.

Contrary to popular belief, the Hokage was not always swamped by paperwork. The reason it was a headache and took so much time was the sensitive nature and importance of their contents as the more mundane tasks were usually left to the more experienced and trusted Chunin.

He frowned darkly at the paper. It was the one concerning the mob. It only needed a few signatures here and there and the fates of all 47 instigators involved would be sealed. Such was the responsibilities of a leader. He puffed his pipe unconsciously as he gazed out of the windows at the village and thought carefully on the matter.

It was getting dark out. He supposed he could call it a day and pay the Naruto a visit before calling it a day. Picking up his hat, he looked down on the piece of paper and signed it off before leaving his office.


6:50p.m.

Naruto rubbed off some crusted tears from her eyes as she awoke to the growling and hissing sensation at the pit of her stomach. She noted that it was dusk already. Hadn't really eaten anything since the night before, she got to the kitchen and opened her larder for some ramen.

As she waited for the water to boil, Naruto recalled her dream. Unlike before she could clearly remember this one. Her mood dampened slightly, wishing the dream were real as she poured the boiled water into the cup of ramen. She was alarmed when she felt a familiar warm sensation that was unlike the burning of stomach acid near her navel.

No way! She pulled up her shirt and looked down at her belly. There, she found the layout of the most intricate spiral design. She gingerly traced her finger over it and remembered what Juu said. Focusing on the warmth, she pictured Juu before her.

"Hey there sleepyhead. I see you're finally awake?" came the teasing reply.

To say Naruto was ecstatic would be an understatement.

"Juu-neechan! You're real!"

"I resent that. Of course I'm real. You think that was all a dream? No such luck. No you're stuck with me forever. Ooh, Ramen! I haven't had one of those for a while now. Hurry up and eat up! I'll never forgive you if you let a perfectly warm bowl of ramen go to waste."

Naruto giggled happily, both at Juu's silliness and their shared love of ramen as she quickly wolfed down her dinner.

"Man, you made me wish I can enjoy a bowl of ramen now…" Naruto sweat dropped as she tried to imagine the giant fox eating a bowl of ramen. It must take a really big bowl.

Her curiosity got the better of her as asked after slurping up the last of the salty broth from the cup. "Say, Juu-nee, where are you anyway. Why is it I can hear you but not see you? I mean you can see and hear me right?"

"… Maa, the answer to your question is a little complicated. What I'm about to say to you, you must p-no, I ask of you, to try and keep it to yourself, okay?"

Naruto frowned slightly. Although she was sad that it probably meant she couldn't brag about her newest awesomest friend, she wanted badly to gain her approval. "Hai."

"You could say I was sort of sealed into you."

"Sealed?" Naruto thought she heard a sigh.

"Um, yes. Sealing or rather fuinjutsu a type of Jutsu that seal objects, living beings, chakra along with a wide variety of other things within another object. It's something usually done by Shinobi. And in this case, I was sealed into you."


Sarutobi Hiruzen was just turning Naruto's doorknob when he heard something that made the blood in his veins turn to ice. "…so that's fuinjutsu. Neh, Juu-nee, is that what the markings on my stomach is for?" Wasting not another moment, he shunshin into the aparment, looking to apprehend this Juu-nee.

"Jiji!" exclaimed a surprised Naruto. The girl was about to say something when Hiruzen grabbed her tightly by the shoulders. "Naruto, who were you talking to and where is she, what had she told you?" he demanded hotly.

"W-wh, N-No one. I wasn't talking to anyone."

"Don't lie to me!"

Hiruzen caught himself a little too late when the little girl recoiled from him and he saw beginnings of tears forming at the corner of her eyes. "I'm sorry Naruto. I'm terribly sorry." The old man sighed and rubbed his temples. "Forgive me Naruto. I hadn't slept at all and I was rather jumpy." He felt his stomach clench uncomfortably when Naruto nodded her head without meeting his gaze. He cursed at his lapse in judgment.

She was about to tell me something too he realised in hindsight.

He mentally made a note to ask his Shinobi to look out for intruders or spies. Maybe closer scrutiny on people from Kaminari no Kuni. Juu definitely sounded like a name that came from their region. I'm slipping up. Guess I really am getting too old to be going without sleep.

He slowly sat down beside the shaken girl and placed a hand on her shoulder gently and was glad she did not flinch. He weighed his next words carefully. Since apparently, the cat was out of the bag, he might as well made sure she learns of it from a reputable source.

"Naruto." He began gently and tried to look into her eyes. "You've always asked about why the villagers treated you so badly." That got her full attention. Good.

"There are some things I had kept from you. I won't blame you if you come to hate me." He held up a finger to stop any protest from his sweet little grandchild before continuing. "But I hope you'll understand, what I did, I did it in hopes that it would give you a better life. I hope it's not too late or too early to tell you this, but I need you to listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you."


9.30p.m.

The ANBU sat at his workbench, working on the maintenance of his trusty double-limbed crossbow. He paused a moment when he felt some of his traps being tripped. A second later, seemingly satisfied, he continued his task of changing the bearings.

"You sure set up some very elaborate traps back there." An amused Hiruzen greeted him as he stepped out from the shadows.

Setting down his tools, he turned around to face the Hokage. "It is what I am born to do. I'm glad you find it adequate, although you seemed to have no trouble getting past them. Perhaps I should put in more effort next time."

Hiruzen winced at that. "I hope it wouldn't come to that. Or I would have to lose a limb each time I decided to come to visit." The ANBU chuckled "Well, that's the general idea."

Hiruzen scowled before chuckling. "You're so much like your father in that regards. He had a penchant to take all things Shinobi to its limits"

The comment got the ANBU's full attention. In spite of himself, he had very much wanted to learn about his own lineage. The old man had over the years, occasionally mentioned his father in passing.

He waited for a few minutes before resigning disappointedly to the fact that cryptic statements were all he was ever going to get out of the old man about his father. "So to what do I owe this rare visit?"

"Straight to the point as usual. There's something important I need to discuss with you and it concerns your next assignment."

The ANBU pulled the chair out to offer the Hokage. "It's a permanent assignment." He stiffened at that.

A permanent assignment means that the Shinobi in question will be required to handle the task until retirement or death. Permanent assignments also usually connote one of two things. He was either trust-worthy enough to be given such a task, or he was being sent on a suicide mission. Or both.

"I've picked you because of your excellent record of working independently and your ability to make quick, decisive and sound judgment." Hiruzen passed over a thick recently compiled briefing over to his ANBU and allowed him ample time to read through the contents. He burnt the folder once he was done.

"There's a secondary assignment to this as well."

"And what would that be?"

Hiurzen smiled and handed him a thick stack of folders. "Tell me what you think of them."


9:07p.m.

Naruto lay on her back on the bed, head stacked high against her pillow. Her mind went over what Jiji had told her. It had been a bombshell to finally learn the truth. Everything made much more sense now.

She had felt betrayed that despite being so involved, something of such importance was kept from her and as an S-classed secret no less, but as she lay on her bed thinking about it over and over again, she slowly come to grudgingly accept what he had done for her.

She still wasn't sure what to think about the Yondaime Hokage though. The man had been her idol. On one hand, she was proud that he had picked her to carry such a burden, but at the same time, she felt like screaming at him for the hell his selfless act had put her through.

"Ne, Juu-neechan…" she began tentatively. The fox had been quiet throughout the night. She wasn't sure what to think about the fox either. From what Jiji had told her, it had destroyed countless of lives of the village and was the source of her torment. If anything she should be screaming and cursing at it right now.

It was also her first and newfound friend.

"H..hai, Naruto-chan?" came the timid reply.

Somehow, that made her smile. "Your promise… we're still friends, right?"

"O-of Course! I never go back on my word, Dattebayo!"

She giggled as the warmth spreading from her navel rise up to her cheeks causing her to yawn drowsily.

"Thank you for giving me this chance… Thank you… Thank you!"

"…*Yawn*…You too… uu-nee…" She mumbled as she fell asleep with a content smile on her face for the second time that day.

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*A/N:

Thanks for the reviews. Originally I had intended to make this as a one-shot but it was a rare original idea and I couldn't just leave it as it is. Thanks for the support thus far and I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.