Naruto gingerly touched his cheek. The blue haired girl had slapped him with all of her emotions and strength. From his incessant questions about her personal life, he was fully aware that it was warranted, which was why he hadn't dodged.

Unlike her deeply wounded heart, his slight injury was insignificant and would heal quickly, even without the fox helping him. The emotional strength of the blow was the brute of it – physically he was fine.

However, Naruto was perplexed. The impact of the girl's emotions shouldn't have affected him as much as they did.

The blond considered the girl's words for a moment. The girl had a point, he couldn't know who her Destined One was, and he really didn't have a right to say anything about the matter, but he couldn't hold back. He couldn't ignore the nagging feeling in his gut that told him to push the matter. For some reason that he couldn't fathom, he knew Kurumu was wrong, not that he'd ever be able to explain that to her.

The path that she set herself on would prove to be nothing but detrimental to her health. Naruto struggled with the knowledge of what would happen to the succubus if she remained as stubborn as she'd proven to be thus far. At this rate, he knew that she would perish sooner or later, but could he save a girl that was so adamant about remaining broken?

Naruto couldn't honestly say that he had felt heart break before. Sure, Sakura had rejected him, but when compared to the succubus' palpable pain, could he really say it hurt to the point where it could be called heart break? Her constant rejections he received when he was younger had really pushed him away. He wasn't stupid – he knew that it was pointless to seriously pursue her. She was too attached to Sasuke to even consider him.

Eventually his daily attempts at asking her out for ramen became so commonplace that it was almost a ritual. Eventually he found that he didn't actually care if Sakura would bluntly refuse his invitation or not. When did he stop caring if Sakura had rejected him or not?

Despite the fact that Sasuke had left years ago, Naruto knew that Sakura still wasn't over him. Her fan girl infatuation was eradicated, but only to be replaced with an obsession. Sakura was determined to kill Sasuke. Naruto speculated that she wanted to be rid of the memories of ever loving him – with her own hands she wanted to remove the man that had held her heart for so long.

As of now, he could say that he was still attracted to her, it was hard not to be, but in love with her? He definitely loved her, but it seemed to have grown into a more familial relationship. His relationship with Sakura was a precious one, even though it wasn't romantic.

He assumed that the abuse and neglect he received from the villagers had pushed him to try to latch onto any love or affection he could receive. Sakura happened to be the girl he latched onto first.

Naruto thought back on the fateful day he met his favorite kunoichi. He remembered it vividly.

He sighed wistfully, looking overtop the park. Sitting under a clear blue sky was nice, but he envied the other village kids that were playing with each other. He longed for the company of a friend – any friend. But every time he got close to another kid, they'd give him a distasteful look.

On the rare occasions that he wasn't met with a look of disgust, his happiness was short lived. One of their parents or another adult would walk up and lead whomever he was talking to away.

The blond let out another sigh. He was sitting alone on top of a tree branch. Last time he tried to join the other kids in a game, they just ignored him. The closest thing he could to do join in on the fun was to watch them.

When he got bored of observing, he casually hopped down the tree and started to head to his favorite ramen stand. He abruptly came to a stop when he heard a girl sobbing.

A small, cute girl with pink hair was crying by the playground. A group of boys surrounded her, pointing and jeering at her. When Naruto first saw the scene before him, his hands clenched in a gesture of pure fury as he watched the group of boys walk away, laughing.

Just before he gathered to courage to start making his way towards the girl to comfort her, he saw a girl with platinum blonde hair confidently approach her. He paused and watched for a moment to make sure the girl wasn't there to bully the pink haired girl as well.

"Hey Sakura, don't cry," was the last thing the blond heard before he turned around and followed the small group of boys.

"So her name is Sakura," Naruto mused. "Well Sakura, I know how that feels, and I'll do whatever it takes to make you happy. After all, that's what a great Hokage would do."

Naruto slowly approached the group from the shadows, making sure to stay close. When the boys walked out of the girls' line of vision, Naruto confronted the boys.

Moments later, a bruised and beaten Naruto stood with a faint smile on his face as he watched the boys retreat, "As long as I know that I've protected her, I'll be happy, even if she never notices or acknowledges my actions. As future Hokage, I will always protect my precious ones."

Naruto held himself back from smiling at his memories. How many times had he protected her from afar after that incident?

Naruto's thoughts came to an abrupt halt when he heard a girl shriek.

"Tsukune is my Destined One!" Kurumu protested. "Don't try to tell me that he's not!"

"Oops," Naruto groaned. "I really shouldn't reminisce when I'm in the middle of arguing with someone."

Naruto resisted the urge to smash his face against the ground. This girl was way too stubborn for her own good. How was he supposed to get her to accept the obvious truth?

After a moment of thought, Naruto planned the best course of action.

"Fine," Naruto smiled, "As future Hokage, I'll protect you from yourself. It's devious and slightly risky, but it's a plan worthy of a ninja."

"If you say so, I'll believe you. I assume you made this illusion that we're in? If you made it, you can get us out, right?" Naruto queried.

Kurumu blinked a moment at Naruto's sudden acceptance and sudden change in topic. "I guess so," she muttered halfheartedly, "I'll give it a shot."

The succubus closed her eyes for a moment. What was she supposed to do? She didn't even know how she brought Naruto here.

"Ugh," she thought. "I can't do this. How am I supposed to reverse something that I created unintentionally? There's no w-"

Her thoughts were interrupted by a soothing voice, "You need to believe in yourself. You have more power and potential than you realize."

She concentrated for a moment, picturing the scene in front of her fading away.

Her eyes opened at Naruto's excited voice, "Ah, I knew you could do it! Call me again if you need me!"

Naruto was hovering in the air, turning his head to look around at his body. Giving a quick nod, as if to affirm everything was still there, he started to fade away. The last thing she saw from the attractive man was a roguish grin and an enthusiastic wave as he vanished.

Kurumu was left dumbfounded as the boy disappeared, realizing that she obviously didn't have a grasp of the extent of her powers.

"Wait… call you?" she queried when his words finally processed, "How am I supposed to do that?"

She gingerly got to her feet, noting that she felt much better than she did prior to her meeting with the boy.

"Humph," she huffed. "Why did he leave me with so many questions and so few answers?"

As she looked around, she realized she was in the same place she had collapsed before her meeting with Naruto in Touhou Fuhai's dimension. She slowly stood up and began walking back to her friends.

The sound of her footsteps on pavement echoed through the empty area. As she walked away, she experienced a strong feeling of loss. Chalking it up to being away from Tsukune for so long, she shrugged and continued her walk, ignoring the pain that had returned.

"That was strange," Kurumu thought aloud. "I didn't know that succubi had the capability of creating their own dream world and bringing another being to it.

I wonder if there's anything else that we can do. I don't recall my mother telling me anything about the power of our species other than the fact that strong succubi are able to create illusions. I'll call my mom and ask her about it later," she finished.


Naruto gracefully landed in the same place he was prior to meeting with Kurumu.

He looked around at the orange sky and the sun that had almost receded behind the bare trees – it was a lot later than he had expected, meaning that time had not paused when he dropped into Kurumu's mindscape, or whatever it was.

The blond started setting up camp – it was too dark to start heading back to the village, and he was already days ahead of his schedule. In normal circumstances he would have rushed back to the village to see Granny Tsunade and the rest of his friends, but his encounter with Kurumu had changed his typical routine.

The blond decided to loiter around for a couple of days and relax to make sure Kurumu was alright. He didn't know if he had to be in the same general vicinity to receive Kurumu's call, and if his prediction of Kurumu's behavior was correct, he didn't want to miss it.

From what he sensed, he knew Kurumu was very powerful. With his enhanced senses, the sage was able to detect a great power, despite its obvious deterioration. From what Naruto had seen from her actions and brief fight, he could safely assume that her potential was an untapped gold mine.

Despite how he spoke to Kurumu earlier, he really had no idea how the girl's powers worked, and when he asked the fox, he received a sharp bark of laughter. When Naruto politely prompted the fox again for an answer, he received a smirk. The small tantrum he may or may not have thrown at the fox's refusal to help probably didn't help him in his quest for a decent answer.

As he set up his tent he mused, "I wonder how long it'll take Kurumu to figure out how to call me. If I read the situation correctly, I'm positive that she'll want to contact me at some point, whether she realizes it or not."

Naruto slid into his sleeping bag and folded his hands behind his head. His journey left him too exhausted to do some late night training like he normally did, so he found himself drifting into a peaceful sleep.

Not too long later, his eyes shot open. They fiercely surveyed their surroundings to find… nothing?

The blond seemed to be in a surprisingly lucid dream. There seemed to be no end, no walls, and no floor. Everything seemed to extend for an infinite amount of feet. Everything was a light shade of gray.

Naruto looked down at his feet. They weren't on solid floor. He took an experimental, hesitant step, to find that he could walk normally.

He slowly paced as he tried to work out where he was. He had never been one to have lucid dreams, and it didn't appear to be a genjutsu.

Strangely, the more he walked, the darker his surroundings got, until – until he found shapes beginning to form and solidify out of nothing.

After some time, Naruto was able to make out a bedroom. The bed was large and framed with oak. As his eyes began to focus and adjust he was able to make out a girl tossing and turning under the pale green sheets.

"Kurumu?" Naruto breathed.

He watched, helpless, as her face contorted into one of pain, and all of the sudden, he found himself being pulled towards her.

Naruto wildly flailed his arms in an attempt to stop from colliding with the sleeping beauty. His eyes widened as he found himself unable to slow himself, causing him to close his eyes and brace himself for impact.

And once again, he found himself falling into nothing. He let out a heavy sigh, when would this stop?

He wearily stood up and looked around. The walls were gray, again, so he waited. Seconds passed before he heard melancholy rain hit the ground that solidified beneath him.

He walked forward to stand behind Kurumu. Except this time, she sitting on the floor with her hands wrapped around her knees, sobbing.

Naruto stood a few feet behind her, almost waiting for a response. He heard her wavering voice, "Tsukune, why didn't you choose to love me? Why did you show me your kindness even when you loved another?"

The blond watched a scene play out before his eyes, presumably one of Kurumu's memories.

Naruto saw Tsukune, he assumed, a man speaking to the back of a girl who was crouched down on the ground.

"Moka," he said, "Ever since I've first met you, I've liked you."

Tsukune continued his heartfelt confession, "I want to stay by your side… Stay by your side forever and ever."

The scene slowly faded away and his attention focused back on Kurumu's form. The succubus continued to cry, and Naruto felt his chest clench at the girl's heartbreak.

She whispered, her voice raspy from crying, "Please, someone just fix my heart. I'm not ready to die. I'm not ready to leave my friends behind."

He approached her and moved to pat her on the shoulder, assuming like last time, he'd pass through nothing again.

To his surprise, and abject horror, his hand made contact with her shoulder and the succubus' head whipped around to look at him.

Her violet eyes swirled in a maelstrom of emotions, "It's you," she whispered. "Why… how are you here?"

Naruto nearly shuddered at the lack of inflection in her cold voice. Not knowing the real reason he had appeared, he made up a response on the spot. Matching her tone of voice, Naruto simply stated, "You called for me."

Changing his tone of voice back to his normal one, "And look, your tears have started to fade already."

To his disappointment, she deadpanned, "Yeah, I guess…"

He tried to flash his trademark grin to alleviate her pain, but he couldn't bring himself to do so. The falling rain and dreary setting made it hard to smile when the girl was obviously in so much pain.

His hand still on her shoulder, he began to think of his happier moments in hope that he could somehow transfer them to her. If she had shared her devastating memories with her, even if it was unintentional, there wasn't any reason he shouldn't be able to do the same.

Naruto recalled his memories where he felt warmth. Where he wasn't on the receiving end of heaps and heaps of abuse from the bitter villages, and the rare moments he could actually connect with someone. He focused on his memories with his friends and his makeshift family: Sakura, Kakashi, Tsunade, and everyone else that had grown to accept him as Naruto, the human being, and not just the fox.

Kurumu almost jumped at the feelings of warmth that began to rush through her. "Is this warmth coming from Naruto?" she wondered. "It almost feels as if I can breathe again."

She looked up at Naruto and murmured, "Thank you…" For a creature of love and emotion, she was surprised that she couldn't put the gratitude she felt for him into words.

Naruto gave a light smile as he watched Kurumu's eyes began to calm and her tears come to a complete halt. "Hey, no need to thank me," he said. "I'm happy to just know that I'm of some assistance to you. As I said, I'll always be there if you need me."

The blue haired girl softly gasped as he seemed to float away. When he faded completely from her vision, she found her eyes opening and staring into her temporary room in Fuhai's dimension.

With a heart that was slightly fuller and skin that was slightly warmer, Kurumu slid out of bed and set out to train for the oncoming battle.