AN: I just wanted to say thanks for all the positive reviews, and that I do have plans. I have no idea when the next chapter will come out, so please be patient. Thanks again!

Naruto woke to the sun shining on his face. Groaning, he moved a hand to cover his eyes. After a moment, he noticed that there was a strange, warm weight on his chest. Groaning once more, he cracked open an eyelid to see what it was. What he found was a pair of blue eyes with slit pupils staring back at him.

After staring into the eyes for several moments, Naruto blinked once and closed his eyes before rubbing them to clear them. Opening his eyes again, Naruto saw the same eyes again, only this time, they were surrounded by an orange, white, and black foxy face. He just continued to stare, trying to clear the sleep from his mind. Just as he brought last night to the front of his mind and realized that he was looking at the small fox kit he saved, she tilted her head to the side cutely and squeaked out, "What is it?"

At this, Naruto blinked several times before mumbling, "You talked."

The kit, hearing this, tilted her head the other way, before confusedly inquiring, "What?"

Naruto now grinned excitedly. "You just said something, and I understood you!"

The kit's jaw dropped, before she grinned. "Really?" She sat up.

Naruto nodded with excitement. "Yeah!"

Both their grins grew until it split their faces. "That is so cool!" they exclaimed in unison. The kit jumped off of her perch and onto the bed, allowing Naruto to sit up. He hopped to his feet and opened his arms wide, into which the kit jumped. She climbed up his arm to perch on his shoulder. Once she got settled, Naruto almost skipped to his kitchen, so happy was he that he now had a friend to talk to.

Entering the kitchen the two of them were greeted by the third occupant of the apartment. The darker fox kit was sitting on the table, seemingly waiting for them, and grumbling lowly. Both of the others were able to make it out, however. "Finally… I've been waiting here forever."

"Well, geez," Naruto said in response. "I'm sorry you're such an early riser."

The darker kit snorted. "Oh, ha ha, very…" He trailed off for a moment, before looking back at Naruto with a tilted head and confusion in his eyes. "Wait… You can understand me?"

Naruto chuckled and was about to respond when he was beaten to the punch. "Yeah!" exclaimed the smaller kit. "Isn't that so cool?" She jumped down onto the table next to the still confused fox kit. "I can't wait to tell mom that I made a friend!"

At this, the other kit seemed to almost deflate. Turning to Naruto, he asked, with a considerably darker tone, "How did you find us?"

Naruto, not sensing the change in mood, looked off in thought. "Well, I was being chased and a fox jumped in to save me. It then led me off into the woods and to you two."

The larger kit nodded. "And what happened to that fox?"

"Well, I didn't actually see. After I found you, it just… wasn't there anymore."

The larger kit nodded and sighed. "Little one," he started, finally drawing the smaller kit's attention. "I don't think your mother is coming back."

This drew two confused "What!?"s from the other two occupants of the room. The smaller kit looked on the edge of tears, and Naruto began to protest. "What? But tha-"

"He's right, kit," he was interrupted by the voice of Kurama in his head. "You didn't notice it, but when she saved you, she took that ninja's kunai to the chest. It's custom with foxes to go off by oneself when the time has come to travel to the Pure World."

Naruto was about to respond when the teary voice of the smaller kit drew him out of his thoughts. "Friend?" she asked, looking at the other kit. "What are we going to do now?"

In response, he looked at Naruto. "Well, little one, your mother led the tall one to us. I'd guess that means that she wants him to take care of us."

This gave Naruto pause. 'I don't know anything about taking care of foxes!'

"Don't worry, kit," Kurama's voice responded. "I'll help you."

The younger kit looked up at him, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. "Well, brother Naruto? Can we stay here with you?"

"Naruto?" the other kit questioned.

Naruto drew himself up. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki!" he exclaimed. "And I'm gonna be the next Hokage! Believe it!"

"Interesting," Kurama mused from inside Naruto's head. "It seems the Joining has allowed her to instinctively know what she should call you."

Naruto's face contorted in confusion. 'What?'

"It seems that there was an effect of the Joining that I did not predict. You never told them your name, but the little vixen knew what to call you," Kurama elaborated. "Look at her and try to come up with a name. See if it works the other way around."

Naruto nodded and looked at the teary eyed vixen staring back at him in concern and muttered the first thing that came to mind. "Tsumi." The newly named Tsumi perked up slightly, instinctively reacting to the name and relieved that Naruto was alright. "Of course you two can stay here. You two are family now; I would never make you leave."

Tsumi immediately brightened up, although there were still tears in her eyes, and jumped into Naruto's arms and snuggled into his chest. Naruto smiled at that and hugged her closer, and the other kit watched the two bond with a smile. Even Kurama smiled at this heartwarming scene.

After several moments of smiling and hugging and snuggling, the mood was ruined by the gurgling of Naruto's stomach. "Put Tsumi on the table and sit down, kit. You need to tell them about me." Naruto nodded and as he was following his instructions, Kurama continued. "After that, we'll see about breakfast and then training."

Naruto looked at his two new houseguests for a moment before beginning. "Before we get to breakfast, I need to tell you something." Seeing that he still had their attention, Naruto continued. "There's a giant fox in my head. His name is Kurama and he's going to be telling me how to take care of you and how to train myself." He paused for a moment. "And probably you, too. We can talk to each other without actually talking, so if I look like I'm thinking hard, then we're probably talking."

When the two kits looked like they understood and accepted, Kurama spoke up. "Now that that's out of the way, let's move to food. I've looked into your memories and noticed that about the only thing you eat is ramen, and most of that is this instant junk that has very little nutritional value." At this, Naruto was getting excited at the thought of ramen, but the last part of that sentence confused him. "I'm going to be helping you eat better. And before you ask how anything can be better than ramen, I mean better for you, not better tasting." Naruto closed his mouth from the beginnings of his protest and nodded, if slightly reluctantly. "Now, make yourself a cup of ramen now to tide you over until later."

Naruto nodded again, this time more enthusiastically, and set off to begin fixing his ramen, leaving the kits with a "Stay here, be right back."

"Alright, I'm at the forest, what do I do now?" Naruto was indeed standing at the edge of a rather large and out of the way patch of woodland close to the edge of the village, one kit on his shoulder and one kit at his feet.

"Now," Kurama replied. "You hunt. For right now, you only need enough for breakfast for the three of you, so a rabbit or two will do. After you catch them, I'll teach you to skin, dress, and cook it. After breakfast, we'll start the basics of your training." Naruto nodded and, after relaying Kurama's instructions to the kits, took off into the woods after breakfast.

Naruto was now sitting at his kitchen table, finishing off his plate of roasted rabbit, with two fox kits sitting on the table staring at him. He was also listening to Kurama explain the plan for the rest of the day. "Now that you three have eaten, and you have enough for lunch in the refrigerator, it's time to start training. We'll work on accessing your chakra here in your apartment until lunch, eat, then go to the same area as before and work on the main technique that you gained from the Joining."

Naruto nodded as he swallowed his last bite and stood up to put the dishes in his sink. 'What do you want me to do, Kurama-sensei?'

"Tell the other kit that, because he can't mold chakra, he should start exercising by running thirty laps around the room." Naruto nodded and relayed the instructions, sending the kit into motion. "Now, you and Tsumi are going to sit on your bed in a relaxing position. You are going to be doing something akin to meditation." Naruto nodded and, dragging Tsumi along, walked over to his bed, sitting cross legged with his palms on his knees. Tsumi lied down onto her stomach with her head on her front paws. "Good, now, I'm going to give you some advice and I want you to pass it on to Tsumi." At Naruto's nod, Kurama continued. "You're going to be drawing on your chakra. You need to reach into yourself, and when you do, you will feel a warmth. You need to pull that warmth back out with you. Now don't worry if it takes a little while; once you do it this time, you'll know the feeling and be able to do it much more easily, but the first time is always the hardest." Naruto nodded and repeated that to Tsumi, and the two of them began the exercise.

After roughly a minute of little to no activity, the room became bathed in a blue glow, radiating from the stunned forms of Naruto and Tsumi. 'Kurama-sensei? I thought you said this would take a while.'

"I did, kit," Kurama muttered, also slightly stunned. "It might have not taken as long because I channeled your chakra for you last night and your bodies already knew the feeling, or it might be because you have rather large chakra reserves." Naruto made a noise of understanding, even though he barely did, and relayed the discussion to Tsumi, who had much the same reaction. "Well," Kurama continued. "I was planning on this taking most of the hour left until lunch, but I guess we can move on. Next, chakra control, training your bodies to use smaller amounts of chakra. You wouldn't happen to have any leaves lying around your apartment, would you?"

Naruto shook his head. 'I don't think so, no.'

Kurama sighed. "How about scraps of paper?" Another negative. "What about old instant ramen wrappers?" This time, Naruto responded in the affirmative, somewhat sheepishly. "Go find two and I'll get started explaining the exercise." Once Naruto started moving, Kurama continued. "You and Tsumi are each going to have one, and you are going to practice keeping them stuck to your body using chakra. The theory is pretty simple, the chakra will react to your will as this is one of the most basic applications of chakra. The practice, however, can be a little more trying, especially with your untrained reserves. You will try to keep the wrapper on your forehead using nothing but chakra, Tsumi is going to lay on her side on her wrapper and then stand up with it stuck to her, also using only chakra." Naruto gave Tsumi a wrapper, repeated the explanation, and began working. "You'll work on this until noon, and this time, you shouldn't be able to complete it."

"Alright," Kurama began. "Now that you've unlocked your chakra and eaten lunch, we'll start working on your first technique." Naruto nodded and glanced around the wooded area he had hunted in that morning. "This technique will enhance your senses to the equivalent of a fox's. It will also give you claws on both your fingers and toes, and give you the ability to use all four limbs equally. This technique will be the basis of your fighting style. While I teach you how to activate this technique, tell the kits to get warmed up. Laps, stretches, and things." Naruto nodded and relayed the instructions, and the kits moved to follow them. "Now, focus your chakra towards the back of your mind; not the physical back of your head, but the more instinctual parts of your mind."

Naruto nodded and began to focus his chakra. After a minute or so with no results, Kurama gave one more piece of advice. "It can be easier to channel chakra if you use the Tiger hand sign. Put your thumbs, index, and middle fingers together pointing straight up, with your remaining fingers meshed together." Naruto followed his instructions and almost immediately noticed a difference in his chakra flow. After several minutes of standing there, chakra flaring slightly, Naruto began to notice a difference. The noises in the background began to become louder, and the scents of the forest and the foxes exercising jumped out at him. He felt a tingling sensation in his fingers, toes, and mouth, his mouth feeling fuller than it was a moment before. Finally, he began to feel uncomfortable standing like he was and began leaning forward, getting closer to comfort.

"Kit," Kurama's voice echoed in his mind. "You're there, kit. Drop the hand sign and get onto all fours." Nodding and grunting, Naruto did as he was told, landing on both palms and rising up to the balls of his feet.

"Kurama-sensei?" Naruto's voice was now little more than a growl. "Did I do it right?" he asked, confused, as he inspected his newly clawed hand. His question gained the attention of the two kits who were stretching, and they walked up to Naruto, intrigued.

Kurama chuckled. "Yes, kit, you did it right. Tell the kits to spar with each other for a while, while we go over the katas for your new taijutsu style."

"Now that it's sundown, kit" Kurama began, interrupting Naruto's light spar against both kits, earning him a tackle to the gut from the larger one.

After landing with an oomph, Naruto sighed and grumbled, "Thanks for the distraction, Kurama-sensei," earning chuckles from all three foxes.

"You're welcome, kit," Kurama replied after getting his laughter under control. "Now that it's sundown, it's time to go hunting. Use your Feral Jutsu - I still really like that name, by the way - and catch as much as you can." Naruto nodded and relayed the instructions to the kits before focusing chakra towards his instincts and dropping onto all fours. He glanced behind him at the kits and, seeing they were ready, dashed off into the woods.

"Not a bad haul, kit," Kurama said. Naruto and the kits were leaving the woods dragging a small deer and three rabbits. "Especially for your first hunt with claws."

Naruto smiled at the praise. 'Thanks, Kurama-sensei!'

Kurama smirked. "No problem, kit. Just don't let it go to your head." He chuckled as Naruto let out an indignant huff. "Alright, when you get back to the apartment, you'll skin and dress these and then cook tonight's supper. After that we'll do some mental exercises."

Naruto stepped out of the bathroom, the steam from his recently finished shower billowing out behind him. He had just finished preparing to go to sleep, having changed into his pajamas. He turned his gaze towards the bed, where the kits had retired an hour or so earlier and likely fallen asleep very shortly thereafter. He hadn't noticed; he was meditating at the time. He made his way over, exhausted from his first day of training, and crawled into bed to not disturb the kits. He flopped down and was asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

Tsumi, still asleep, rolled over and curled into the warmth that was Naruto's side. Almost dreamily, she began to make a noise that sounded vaguely like a purr.

The other kit curled up against Naruto's calf and sighed contentedly.

Naruto instinctively brought an arm up and rested his hand on Tsumi's back, smiling in his sleep.

Kurama smiled at the heartwarming scene, before he too curled up to sleep for the night in Naruto's mindscape.