Partnership

Still don't own it….

Five hours later…

The Hokage tower…

The clone walks in to see the new Hokage passed out on her desk. She was drooling on the paperwork she was working on when she passed out, probably due to intoxication, if the few empty sake bottles scattered around the desk was any indication. The clone shook his head and let out a cough to alert the Hokage that he was there.

When she woke she saw Naruto standing there with a stern look on his face that just seemed unnatural on him. Still groggy from a hangover she was in no mood for whatever had him looking so troubled. "Ohh, it's you brat. What is it you want, and be quite about it, I have a massive headache so talk quietly?" She said while rubbing her temples with her mystic palm jutsu to help try to relieve some of the pain in her head.

The clone sat down in a chair in front of the desk, which confused Tsūnade a little as Naruto never sat in here, unless it was on the floor while he was pouting about something. "Hey baa-chan, I need to talk to you about something, but could you send for Iruka-sensei too as I need to say this too him as well. It's important or I wouldn't disturb you both this late in the evening. "He said in a hushed tone as not to get hit by Tsūnade, just for him to dispel.

Tsunade looked at naruto for a second and nodded her head. She pushed a button on the desk and an Anbu walked out the shadows "Yes Hokage-sama!" he said with a salute. Tsunade looked to the white masked Anbu "I want you to find and retrieve Iruka at once." And the Anbu disappeared in a puff of smoke and leaves.

A few minutes later there was another puff of smoke to reveal the Chūnin school teacher Iruka. "Here as ordered Hokage-sama." It was then that he saw that the Hokage wasn't alone in the room. In front of her was Naruto looking very sad for some reason. He then sat in a chair next to the blond Genin.

The Hokage looked to Naruto "Ok Naruto he is here. Now, what is this all about?"

The clone took a deep breath and stood back up and took out the headband off his forehead and handed it to a confused Iruka. Naruto then took off the necklace and then handed it to an equally confused Hokage. "What's going on Naruto, why are you handing me this? I told you I am in no mood for games!"

Naruto let a tear form in the corner of his eye and took in a deep breath "I am officially resigning as a leaf shinobi, and I am leaving the leaf baa-chan. I am sick of the way this village has treated me and I have had enough. I want a chance at true happiness, which is something I can never achieve here and you know I am right, and I dare you to tell me any different. Cense I will no longer be a leaf ninja I thought I would return this to the two of you. The two of you have been like the parents I never had and I will never forget that. Thank you both, I love you … and goodbye." and puffed out reveling that this had been a clone all along leaving a shocked Tsūnade and Iruka.

The Hokage sat there in shock for a minute and pressed the button again to revel another Anbu "Yes, lord Hokage?" The Hokage stands; slams her palm on her desk hard enough to crack the top, and yells at the Anbu "I want a search party formed to locate Naruto Uzumaki who has left the village at once." And the Anbu disappeared and Iruka looked back to the Hokage who had sat back down holding the necklace she had given him and started to cry uncontrollably. Iruka walks over to Tsūnade and she grabs ahold of his waist and proceeds to bawl into his abdomen. Iruka could no longer hold his own emotions and began to weep along with the Hokage, just like two parents who just lost their own child.

Back with Naruto…

Naruto had been running about for hours when he came to a clearing in the forest and decided to take a small break. Upon further inspection Naruto saw that most of the trees had been blown over in the same direction somehow. He walks to one of the few remaining standing trees to use the bathroom and relives himself. When he was done he walks over to a down tree and sits on the trunk. He takes out a ration bar to snack on until he could safely stop to make camp to fix dinner.

While he sat there eating he saw something flash in the corner of his eye in amiss of the down trees. He puts away his bar and pulls out a kunai. He slowly walks over to where he saw the flash to see a piece of metal under a fallen tree. Upon further inspection he sees a hand holding onto the metal. He walks around the tree to see a female unconscious pinned under the tree. He slowly walks over to her with his kunai at ready to check her pulse. He turns her head to see her face and jumps back. He recognized this woman, it was one of Orochimaru's sound four, Tayuya, he thought her name was.

'Hmm. This must have been where Shika and Tamari fought her. I wonder if she is still alive." and carefully walks back to her. He gets down on one knee and checks her pulse to find a very weak heartbeat, and very shallow breathing. Being who he was couldn't just leave her here like this, no matter who it was.

Naruto created a few clones to help lift the trunk, and removed the tree trunk off of her. He then picked her up bridle style and started to run again to find a place to make camp for the night. After a few moments he found a cave along a cliff face that would give a good vantage point to look out for any persuaders. He got inside the cave and lay down the sound Kunoichi carefully. He then walked back to the entrance to the cave and made about twenty clones. "I want all of you but two to go on roving patrol; I want the other two of you to find the two of us some dinner, firewood, and water for later." All the clones gave a salute and went off to do their jobs while the real Naruto went back to check on the girl.

When he got there he found her rolling around in pain while unconsciously grabbing her neck and started to scream in pain. He walked over to her to see black marks all over her face and neck just like Sasuke had done at the valley of the end. It was that damn curse mark again. Kami how he hated that thing.

All of a sudden the markings went back into the seal and the seal started to glow a deep red like it was on fire. The light went out and the girl slumped back down on the ground not moving anymore. Naruto walked back to her and felt her pulse again to find there wasn't any. He then looked to were the mark was to find it fading away, leaving behind a burn scar on her neck.

He reached to touch the spot where the mark was when all of a sudden red chakra started to flow out of his hand into the girl's neck only for Naruto's world to suddenly go black and passes out himself.

He regains conscious again, but he seemed to be somewhere else. He appeared to be in a tunnel with water covering the floor. He knew this place as he had been here before. This was his mindscape or more to the point, inside the seal. It seems that bastered fox wanted to have a few words with him. Great, just what he needed. He picks himself up and walked down the tunnel to the chamber where the sealed fox lived. We walked up to the cage keeping a distance from the fox's claws learning his lesson from past visits.

He saw the fox sitting down behind the cage with all nine tails waving behind it staring at its container with a smile on its face. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the kit come to see lil' ol me. Hahahaha!"

Naruto got a little irritated with the fox "What is it you want you over grown hairball, and don't start on breaking the seal, because that is never going to happen."

The fox slammed its paw though the bars and tried to hit Naruto who was well out of the way. "How dare you insult me you hairless ape. You would be best to respect me boy. And here I went and saved that girl for you, and this is the thanks I get for saving your new mate. Hahahaha!"

Naruto was taken aback by that remark. "What the hell are you babbling about now, you baka fox?"

The fox narrowed its eyes at the name calling, but decided to continue on "Well, to start off, the seal that was on the girl was just about to kill her and destroy her body along with it. It seems the owner of the seal just activated a self-destruct protocol. Of you hadn't touched the spot where it was just at that moment, I couldn't have saved her. What I did was let her die just long enough to purge her of the soul that was powering the seal, then I put some of my yoki into it to… well, how can I say this were your simpleton primate mind will understand, I turned the original seal into a life boat, if you will. She now has a seal that you can influence, with my help of course. I will not have any container of mine seem weak, and with this you will have a very powerful ally bound to you for the rest of her life, in more ways than one. In cense she has become your vassal. Conceder this gift for the trouble I have caused you when you were younger. Now, I grow tired, and I need to take a nap. That transfer took a lot out of me, now go check on your new mate, and be gone."

And with that Naruto's world became black again. He awoke with his clone shaking his shoulder "Boss, are you OK?" Naruto shook his head to clear the cobwebs 'Baka pervy-fox.' He thought. He then saw that he was laying on top Tayuya with his hand still on her neck. When he removed his hand he could see that were the original seal was to see a new seal the shape of a spiral. He then saw her move her head and grown to slowly open her eyes.

When her eyes landed on Naruto she froze in place when and stared at him for a few minutes before speaking with a rough and scratchy voice. "What the fuck are you looking at shithead? What are you waiting for, go ahead and finish me off will ya you fucking tree hugger." Who recognized who Naruto was.

Naruto stood up quickly and started to wave his hands in front of him. "No, no, no. I'm not trying to kill you, just the opposite in fact. I just saved your life. I promise you I will not do anything to harm you unless you give me a reason too."

"Whatever shithead, it doesn't matter anyway, as soon as that fucking pedophile of a snake finds out that I have failed him will kill me anyway with the curse mark." She said rubbing the spot on the neck were the mark was.

Naruto sat down next to her and she just glared at him as he took a deep breath. "Well, about the curse mark, I sorta, kinda, destroyed it and replaced it with another seal. When we got here you started to scream in pain and the mark started to self-destruct and you sort of…..well, you died. I went to check your pulse, and you had none. I went to touch where the seal was when something interfered, and sort of redesigned the seal, with some help from the…. Well, before I say who helped: Let me ask you a question? Do you know who and what I am?"

Tayuya looked at Naruto face and saw the whisker marks on his cheek. She remembered Orochimaru telling her team about a boy with blond hair, blue eyes, and whisker marks on his cheeks….. The Kyūbi's Jinchūriki. "Yea your fucking Uzumaki; the damn baby who the fourth Hokage sealed the damned Kyūbi into, wait, you're not telling me that that fucking furball was the one that help you." She said while she tried to will her body to move to no avail.

Naruto saw this and just sighed, and nodded his head. "Yes, when I went to check your pulse I felt that there was none. I saw that the mark was fading so I touched the spot where it was when the fox started to send its yoki into the seal to stop the self-destruct, and replace the peace of that soul snake face left in it to keep you alive. In doing so apparently bonded the two of us together for life. According to the fox, you would become something called a vassal to me. What that entails, well, I have no idea, but yea." As he put his hands behind his head giving a guiltily laugh.

She just stared at him and tears started to roll down her cheeks. She then started to bawl. She started to cry so hard she started to shake. Naruto looked at her and felt his heart ache. He had just hurt this girl, all be it via the fox, but it was his fault none the less. He was about to say something to her when he heard her cries turn to a small laugh, but the laugh steadily grew into a full out hysterical fit of laughter. "I don't care if I am to be your vassal if it means that I am no longer tied to that fucking snake. Hahaha Hahahaha." She started to laugh again until she laughed herself back to sleep.

Naruto just sat there for moment thinking about what she had just said. He was worried that he had caused the girl harm when in fact she was happy about what had happened. Looking to her saw her asleep again, so he decided to fix dinner and get a little bit of shut eye himself when he all of a sudden got the memory's from the clone he had left to see the Hokage. 'How did I see all of that, it was like I was there myself.' He thought. 'Is this another ability of the shadow clone jutsu? I will have to look into this later.' and went to his bed roll to fall asleep.

After about four hours Naruto woke when he received another memory from another clone. This one was a clone about ten miles away who had spotted a patrol of leaf ninja heading back toward Konoha. It had dispelled its self to prevent it from being spotted.

Naruto looked over to Tayuya and saw her waking up herself and got up and walked up to her. "Good morning sunshine, how are you felling?"

She opened her eyes and soon regretted it due to the sun light. "Ahh fuck, that was stupid Tayuya. Ohh my head. How the fuck do you think I'm doing, shithead. I hurt from head to toe. However, I think I can move about in a bit though. Why, what the fuck is up?"

Naruto shook his head at the colorful language the former sound kunoichi was using "There is a leaf patrol about ten miles out heading toward Konoha so I want to leave and get pass the fire border to evade any further patrols."

Tayuya tried to stand and fell back down on her side. Naruto saw this and created a few clones. One went to Tayuya and placed her on his back. The other started to pack up there stuff to head out. When everything was ready Naruto walked up the clone holding Tayuya. "You can ride on the clone till you get your strength back to move yourself. I want to be out of fire country by night fall. Then we can set up camp till the both of us are at full strength."

Tayuya nodded her head and both Naruto and the clone jumped out the cave, and headed to the border of fire and earth.

After about five more hours, and slipping past the border patrols quietly slipped into the border of rock country. The real Naruto and the clone stop at the edge of a river bank. Naruto looked to the passenger riding on the clones back "Ok, this should be far enough into earth to set up camp for a few days till we get ready to head to snow. I will send clones out for century duty, and to set up camp."

The clone holding Tayuya let her down and helped her sit on a large rock to rest. She looked to Naruto who had just created about thirty clones and told them what to do. He them walked back to Tayuya and sat next to her. She was still a bit confused about a few things, and needed some clarifying. "So shithead, why snow country? Also, why the fuck are you running away from the tree huggers anyway?"

Naruto sweat dropped at her language "Why must you call me that, I have a name you know. As for why I am leaving Konoha, well, to tell to the truth, I left Konoha because all of my life I've had to keep a constant eye on my surroundings because a lot of the villagers saw me as the Kyūbi, and not as its jailer. I was, on a regular basis mind you, ganged up by mobs and beaten to the very edge of my life more times than I would like to count. It was even worse on my birthday. I spent a many of my birthdays in the hospital fighting for my life due to being mobbed. While I was at the hospital, the abuse didn't stop there either. There was a lot of the hospital staff who tried to kill me while I was out due to an attack earlier. Also, my living conditions weren't any better ether. When I was six, I was thrown out of the orphanage onto the streets to fend for myself. I ate out of the trash, and slept in alley ways. I stayed on the streets for about six months before the Hokage realized were I was, and had set me up an apartment to stay at. The place was a derelict hotel converted to and apartment building. I never had hot water, and a lot of times the water wouldn't work for weeks at a time; the same with the electric, and gas. The only reason why I was able to have any sort of utilities was that the Hokage had set up a stipend to pay all of my bills for me. To top it all off, The stores there would charge me three times the price than any other person would be charged, and the stuff I bought was usually rotten, broken, or just unusable. That is if the store didn't just out right kick me out as soon as I walked in. There were only a few places that treated me like a normal person, like the people at the Raman stand, but I didn't go there as much as I wanted to because by me being there would hurt their business. So I would only stop by there on occasion. My breaking point was just after I had a fight with one of my teammates while I was in the hospital from recovering the teme Sasuke. I had always had a huge crush on her, but she told me she wished that Sasuke would have finished me off, just because I hurt Sasuke defending myself. She slapped me, and I slapped her back. I told her she was dead to me, and left the hospital back to my apartment. When I got there, I found my place had been fire bombed, and spray painted 'Go back to hell demon' all over the place. I decided then to leave the leaf behind and head to snow to have a shot at happiness because I would never be happy back at Konoha. The reason I am going to snow was because last year, me and my team had a mission there. I helped liberate the country from a tyrant, and helped the new ruler win back her chance to rule her country. Her name is Koyuki Kazahana, but she was also the actress that played princess gale in the movies. When the final battle was over I was in there hospital unconscious when she took this." As he pulled out the photo that princess Koyuki had given him and handed it to her.

She took it and read the back of the photo and finally understood everything. While Naruto was in the middle of explaining why and were he was leaving had made a decision of her own. "Well shithead, I don't know how you kept from killing everyone in that shithole of a village, but I'm glad you left because I wouldn't be here now. As for you going to snow…. Well I want to go with you. I can't go back to the sound, so I have nowhere else to fucking go. You saved my life when you could have just as easily left me there to fucking dye, and for that I am forever in you debt. I say we partner up with each other, and we become a team of our own, and become equal partners. So, what do you say, shithead?"

Naruto was taken aback by this. Here was someone willing to become his teammate and partner. He had never had someone who he could rely on like this, and it kinda of over whelmed him and started to tear up a bit. "You really mean that Tayuya. Of course we can become partners. From this day forth we will be the most bad ass team that has ever been, partner." and held out his hand to Tayuya.

She took his hand and gave it a shake "Now, first thing we need to do is find some new clothes, and I will need to find another flute as that damn sand flee broke mine with her damn summoning jutsu."

Naruto nodded, and then looked to see several clones returning with the supplies need to make camp, and went to help the clones when he stopped and turned around and looked back to Tayuya "Ohh, before I forget, could you remind me later to tell you how I found out a way to help with our training that, if I am right, will make us both into powerhouses before you know it. All thanks to my favorite jutsu, the shadow clone jutsu." And turned and left a once again confused Tayuya behind who thought back to herself. 'This might not be so bad after all.' And got up to help a clone set up camp and cook dinner for her and her new partner.