Well now. It look's like I'm back.

Also everything involving the foxes release will be answered soon. So stop asking, because I aint gonna tell ya. It is a very important point of the story so to tell you now would be rather pointless.

Also NO you are not allowed to vote twice. Sango now has around thirty two votes. Midoriko has around twenty eight followed by Kagura with twenty two and Kagome with twenty one. Kikyo has fifteen and that's how the polls are going right now.

Also Naruto is around seventeen years old and is at Sarutobi's level when he was still young.

Enjoy.

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Kagome stared at the blue eyes that appeared to be smiling at her. She opened her mouth to speak but as soon as she did a wave of nausea hit her like a ton of bricks and she lurched forward, emptying her stomach contents on the forest floor along with Shippo.

"Ahh, Kawarimi." She faintly heard the masked man speak. "Don't feel too bad it happens to all of us the first few times." He said and began to rub circles along her back to help calm her down.

Kagura whipped her head to the side as she heard them and felt her eyes go wide with shock as she stared at Kagome more than twenty yards away from where she had been. 'What the-? There's no way a human can move that fast.'

She turned her head back to where her blades hit but only found the remains of a broken log. 'Whatever it was, I bet he can't do it again.' She opened her fan again and with a cry her wind blades flew with even more power than before.

Naruto stopped rubbing Kagome's back as he sensed the attack. He turned around and saw the blades coming at him. As they approached he raised his hand in the air and spoke. "Daikamaitachi no jutsu" a gust of wind picked up from nowhere and blades formed within the wind.

Temari had taught him this. Over the years she had become something of a sister figure to the blond leaf nin and when he told her that he was of the wind element she had begun to tach him some of her ninjutsu. Either because of his training, or because of the fox within him he had mastered her jutsu to such an extent he did not even need the fan she always used.

He chuckled slightly as he remembered her face the first time he had done that without the fan. Her jaw had reached below sea level and she had been slightly put out by it. The fact that she, a woman who had spent decades dedicating herself to her wind based techniques had been surpassed by someone who had barely studied it for a year (Of course he had used shadow clones. But she didn't know that) really pissed her off.

But soon his mind fell back into a somber state. Those days were gone now, and no mater how much he wanted it differently. It would never happen again.

With a sigh he looked back to the battle.

Kagura's blades met Naruto's and soon both attacks cancelled each other out.

Kagura stared with wide eyes at what had just happened. But as the dust from the two attacks settled the blond was nowhere to be seen. 'Where did he-?' Her thoughts were cut off as said blond appeared directly infront of her with a ball of swirling energy in his hand.

Kagura could practically feel the raw power that his attack possessed and she knew that she would never survive it. But…at the very least, Naraku would not be the one to kill her. She closed her eyes and resigned herself to her fate.

As Naruto watched the emotions flicker across the wind demons face, from shock to realization to satisfaction and finally to resignation, he knew that she did not do this by her own free will.

Still, it was foolish to allow her to live. He really didn't think she was just gonna have a change of heart any time soon so leaving her alive was far too risky 'Sorry lady'

But as the Rasengan neared her chest a snake demon that he had missed came in and with a vicious bite to his forearm managed to divert his attack hitting Kagura's feather and sending him straight down to earth. Naruto cursed, pulled out a kunai and stabbed the snake demon right between the eyes.

Immediately the snakes grip slackened and Naruto was able to release himself from its grip.

He flipped in mid air and landed on his feet. He straightened and looked at the injury on his arm. It was already healing. Kyuubi may have left but his body already had the knowledge of how to mold the chakra to heal his injuries subconsciously. He shrugged. At least the fox had left him something of decent value.

He looked back up to Kagura's slightly damaged feather and threw a shuriken.

Kagura looked at him like he was crazy. One shuriken? It was insulting.

Naruto smirked as he saw her expression. "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" He whispered and in seconds, one shuriken became one hundred and Kagura was once again caught by surprise.

She moved to swing her fan but before she could the shuriken were already there biting into flesh, piercing skin, slicing tendons. Her fan was cut to ribbons and her clothes, normally immaculate and very elegant were now no more than tattered rags.

Kagura gasped in pain as the shuriken hit her. She tried to move but everything hurt badly. She let out a strangled groan and coughed up blood.

'Damnit' She mentally cursed. Naraku would probably torture her for hours on end because of this failure.

Still, this just meant that the group would live to fight another day and might very well defeat Naraku if they survived long enough. She spared a glance at the masked man standing below her with a casual laziness about him. She narrowed her eyes. Maybe even he would prove useful against Naraku.

With that thought, the wind sorceress commanded her fan and rose into the skies.

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Naruto watched the demoness leave with an inquisitive glance before turning around in time to see the ret of the Inu group finish off what remained of the Yokai and rushing to Kagome and Sippou's side.

'Well, now things are going to get interesting.' He thought with a mild shrug.

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Naraku watched from Kanna's mirror as Kagura was forced to retreat by the strange masked human that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He narrowed his eyes at the image of the young blond. He seemed vaguely familiar for some reason that he could not explain.

If there was one thing that Naraku hated it was not knowing something, especially if that something might be a threat and this blond was definitely a threat. Few demons, let alone human's could handle Kagura as easily as he did. It was as if he was always in complete control of the situation.

Before he could ponder anymore on what the blond boy was, or why he was so powerful Naruto turned and tossed another shuriken at the bug that Kanna was using to project the image with.

Naraku snarled and stood from his position. He needed some stress relief, maybe giving Kagura a fitting 'punishment' for her failure would help him cool off.

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As one, the Inu group huddled around Kagome and Shippo letting out questions of 'Are you all right?' and 'What happened?' all at once.

Kagome took deep breaths as the nausea finally passed and her stomach settled down. When she was finally able to move again she took Shippo, who still hadn't recovered yet from the after effects of the Kawarimi, into her arms. "I'm fine." She croaked out, but then, winced in pain as her bleeding thigh came back to the forefront of her mind.

When her mind finally caught up with her she looked around for the masked man that had saved her. But she couldn't find him anywhere.

"You know……if you don't bandage that up you're gonna bleed to death." Came a voice right next to her ear, making her, and everybody else jump up twenty feet and look at the person who spoke.

And there stood the masked visage of Uzumaki Naruto. Grinning like a complete idiot behind his face mask. His eyes were the exact same upside down U's that Kakashi had. It was kinda creepy actually.

Immediately, Inuyasha stood in front of Kagome, with his sword in a ready stance and even though Miroku and Sango refrained from showing open hostility, like Inuyasha did one could tell, by the slight tensing of their muscles, that they were ready to fight at a moments notice.

"Who are you and, what do you want?" Came Inuyasha's voice with hostility.

Naruto leaned forward. "Hmmm, well I suppose I am a Ninja. And I have been hired to do a certain job…"

Everyone tensed. Ninja's were assasins and if he was here that meant that they were most likely his targets.

"And what job would that be?" Miroku asked as he began removing the beads from his hand.

Naruto eyed the monks hand warily. He did take the time to choose his next words carefully. "Let's just say……a mutual friend sent me to help you."

Everyone stopped for a moment each thinking about what he had said. After several seconds Inuyasha decided to be the voice of the group. "Huh?"

Naruto refrained from making fun of the Hanyou. "Like I said. I'm here to help you."

"Why?" This time it was Kagome's voice.

"How do you even know about the jewel?" Miroku

"Who's this friend of yours?" Sango.

"My tummy hurts." Shippou

"Feh, last thing we need is another human joining us." Predictably Inuyasha.

Naruto simply held up a hand to silence them all. "As much as I'd love to answer your questions I wont."

"Then I am afraid you cannot come with us." Came Miroku's solemn voice.

Naruto sighed. "I thought you'd say that" He muttered before perking up again. "That's why I got these!"

He lifted his fist and opened it, revealing…

"My jewel shards!!!" Kagome gasped.

Naruto smiled happily before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.