Hey! I'm back. Longer chapter here, so enjoy.

I don't own Naruto, I just enjoy the story and am a fan of the series. Support the official release.

Sasuke held up his one uninjured hand. "Okay, wait, you're going a little fast."

Naruto smiled. "I know. There's alot to go through. I guess you can ask me questions, I'll allow that."

Sasuke's confusion switched to slight anger. "You'll allow that? Now you're allowing me things? That's a little arrogant. Like you're above me."

Naruto's eyes grew cold once more, and he stood up, his massive frame dancing with shadow and candlelight. He spoke.

"Yes. I'll allow it. I'm above you. You forget that, while I do wish to help you, you've tried to kill me on multiple occasions. And you've come damn close. I may have saved you, but that doesn't mean I'm not capable of shoving you back into the shithole you created for yourself. If you don't want to change, then I can't and won't waste my time on you, you self-entitled prick."

Sasuke tried to move, but his whole body lit up with pain, and he clenched his teeth and shouted. Killer intent was a mix between power and experience. A jounin like Kakashi could let out terrifying amounts of it, and someone like Orochimaru could make one piss themself from it, but this... it was like Sasuke couldn't breathe. He could see fire and hell and pain and his own death all around him, and... and like that it was gone. He looked back to Naruto, who sighed.

"I want to help you, Sasuke. But you have to help yourself." He began walking off, just as Karin burst through the large wooden doors.

"Sasuke! Are you okay?!" She was breathing frantically, She must've felt it, too. Naruto looked at her.

"He's fine, but needs rest. You should help him and then get some sleep yourself." He walked into the doorway, then paused. "We'll pick up the story tomorrow."

It was a full minute after he left before either one spoke. Karin was the first, but was still looking into the empty doorway.

"It's strange... his chakra is the brightest and warmest I've ever felt, but at the same time, it's sort of... empty. Like it's warm, but he's cold... and there's a second chakra source in him that's hidden... but I can... I can feel a little bit of it... It burns."

Sasuke stared at the door, and said, "He's the Nine-Tails jinchuriki."

Karin gasped, looking at Sasuke with wide eyes. "He... he has-" Sasuke cut her off.

"Yes. He does. And I'm beginning to think he's hiding how much of it he can really use."

Karin waked over to Sasuke and held out her arm, but he held up a hand. "No. Just use medical jutsu." She looked surprised, but reluctantly agreed. "Why do we stay?" she asked.

"Because he could kill us all if he wanted. Because he'd die to protect us. And because... because he may be right."

Karin looked confused. "About what?"

"About me."

Sasuke sighed. I know he's right. I just hate admitting it. He's better than me.

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Naruto walked down the halls of the underground base, looking at the walls. Banners, art, and inscriptions lined the walls. He paused at the armory. It was a long rectangular room, with closed cabinets on the walls. He knew what was in them. Kunai and shiruken of all sizes, wire, explosive tags, sealing equipment, chakra pills, combat apparel.

At the end of the room was a large, doorless cabinet. The back wall had two sixteen inch black guardless tanto, with curved blades, two red hilted, simple katana, and a long bow with two full arrow quivers. The top of the wall had a long string running from either side. Hung on this string were forty kunai, each with a tan handle and a forked blade with three points. In front of the wall was a suit of armor, similair to Madara Uchiha's, but with the left arm highly armored with plates. The right arm had the regular shoulder pad, and a forearm protector. The armor was dark orange, and had many faint scratches and marks. Naruto kept it well repaired, but it was impossible to completely remove every blemish. On the floor of the cabinet, in front of the armor, was a dark, black and gold case with a seal on the front. Naruto had only ever had to use that weapon twice. He hoped he would never have to again, but he knew, in the back of his mind, he would. He continued down the hall, lost in thought about Sasuke, and the Konoha Nine, and... and Hinata.

He missed her so badly. It ached in him worse than any poison or twisting blade, and every day it grew worse. He would dream about waking up, and she would be there, sunlight coming through the window and enveloping her in a heavenly shroud of light. He would sketch her with his pastels, and he kept every drawing in a large brown folder. He wanted to go home, grab her by the shoulders, and sheout, "You are the best of everything in my life! You are the light that guides me in darkness, and I am yours."

But he couldn't. He had other things to do. He had to worry about Akatsuki, and the masked man. He had to-

*grumble* He looked down at his stomach.

He had to make a sandwich.

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The kitchen wasn't as massive as the other rooms, but was still pretty big. It had two stovetop ovens with four burners each, two sinks, a fridge of fairly good size, and cabinets on the ground and coming down from the ceiling. The room was about the size of the Hokage's office. Adjoining the room was a dining are with a twelve seated table, and a lounge. Jiraiya sat in said lounge on a couch, watching TV. He Said, "Hey, kid," without looking back.

"Hey, old man." Naruto snickered. He could practically hear the pervert clench his teeth. He walked to a fridge and pulled out some lunchmeat, then went to a cabinet to get the bread, and... well, long story short, he made a sandwich.

"Hey, Jiraiya?" He asked. Something in his voiced sounded different to the old man. He sounded serious, nervous, like a kid trying to ask his dad about something taboo, but he's old enough to understand it's an uncomfortable subject. Jiraiya turned his head to face him.

"Yeah?"

"Do you... Are you proud of me?" He looked so scared, so vulnerable.

Jiraiya thought to himself, He's so strong and smart, sometimes I forget he's just a fifteen year old kid. He looked Naruto in the eyes.

"Yes, I am. You're the strongest person I've ever trained, and you're the best person I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. I'm proud of you. Your dad would be, too."

Naruto smiled so brightly, Jiraiya was a bit stunned. Naruto's real smiles were so rare, and so genuine, that when one shown, he could make a Kage speechless and any woman blush. Too bad he only likes that little pale girl. I wonder if she filled ou- He ducked left, dodging a spork. Naruto was frowning.

"I recognize your perv face, sensei. You can't slip past me." Jiraiya frowned.

"I stopped writing Icha-Icha, and stopped going researching, what more do you want?!" He asked, pleading now on his knees.

Yes, it was true. Naruto had cleansed the old man of bad habits and got him writing real works again. The first real novel he wrote was still in manuscript form. It was only practice. The second had become an instant, Elemental Nationwide best-seller. Naruto had co-authored it under the pen name, 'Naruto Namikaze'. After all, no one who knew him knew that name was his actual name now, but they probably could guess it was him. Everyone else was clueless.

What most Shinobi didn't realize was that to achieve very benificial training, you need to do three things: train physically to your limits, train mentally to match your physical training, and fight to protect or defend something worth fighting for. Rock Lee would be OVERPOWERED if only he trained mentally to match his physical training. Of course, he burns sixty thousand calories in each training session, so he'd have to read the entire collected works of Sadako Wo, the greatest Shinobi author ever, three times over. He'd be fried. To Naruto, his mental training was reading and writing. He did mathematics and other courses in his spare time, but the writing was done after a hard day's training session. His first novel, 'The Edge of Evil', would be finished by his sixteenth birthday. Jiraiya said it was the best novel he'd ever read, and when it came to appraising works Naruto did, Jiraiya was very critical. Painfully so.

*nomnomnom* Naruto devoured the sandwich with vigor.

"Okay. I'm gonna hit the sack. 'Night." He left the room, walked down a long dark hall, and entered his room. It was twenty feet by twenty feet, and adorned with his artwork. From his place in the doorway, in the middle of one of the walls, the desk, paper, and typewriter was to his direct left. Still to the left, at the farther corner, was a single bed, with a large amount of fuzzy blankets. Naruto was a great warrior, and man, so he was man enough to admit he loooooved him some fuzzy blankets. To his right, in the closest corner, was a large chest with a simple seal lock on it. It contained personal effects. Some were nice and nostalgic. Some were painful. All were important. To his right in the far corner, was a stand with a torso on it for display. On this torso was a white, high collared, short sleeved coat, adorned with red flames on the bottom, the word 'Fourth' on the back, partially lost due to the massive hole in the center of the back. The hole from the Kyubi's claw. The walls of the room were covered in complex seals for display, artworks, and crazy people boards.

A 'crazy-person board' is a corkboard with pictures, maps, and news articles pinned to it, and usually has sections connected by red string. Naruto used orange string. They're called this because you usually see them in movies when a person goes crazy hunting someone or tracking some case. Naruto was quite sane, despite the fact that he had three crazy-people boards.

He sighed, then walked over to his bed, and slept.

So... What'd ya think? Lemme know.

Wanted a lighter chapter, so as to not seem that this series would be too serious. It will be serious, but will have humor, also.