Part 7: The Bonds that Tie.

Even with Ryoko and Ryo-ohki's teleportation, the blond's considerable speed allowed him to get a sizable lead.

Naruto ran.

He ran away from Ryoko, Ryo-ohki, and Iruka.

He ran away from his village.

He ran blindly into the deepest, thickest part of the forest not caring where he ended up.

Tears streamed down his face, and one thought went though his head over and over again. I'm a monster. He finally understood why the village's adults stared at him with cold eyes as they muttered obscenities in hate-filled tones. He understood why he was a favorite target of bullying teens who took a little too much pleasure in picking fights with him. He understood it all, and he was certain it was just a matter of time before Master Iruka and Ryoko would realize what a mistake it was to involve themselves with him.

He wished he hadn't eavesdropped on the two adults' conversation. If he had done what he was told in the first place, he wouldn't be running headlong into the forest, his heart and mind filled with anguish and despair. Instead they would have been sitting around a warm fire enjoying lunch. But he was afraid they were going to hurt each other, and he wanted to be nearby to prevent it.

Now, he was paying the price for his disobedience. All those strong emotions caused by the trauma of finding out who he truly was, wasn't enough to completely break the seal. But it was enough for a pinprick crack to appear in it. Which was all the Kyuubi needed to make its presence known to his host's conscious mind.

The nine-tails was the embodiment of pure hatred and the epitome of destruction. The pictures,

memories gleamed mostly from past hosts, flashed through the boy's mind gave testament to this. The bodies of hundreds, possibly thousands, of men, women, and children lay shewn across blood encrusted battle fields like the broken toys of a malignant god. Empty eyes of the dead seemed to stare through time and space at Naruto, chilling him to the marrow, to his very DNA.

Over and over again, the nine-tails bombarded the boy with images both grotesque and heartrending. The Kyuubi reasoned, if a small emotional trauma caused a crack in the seal, then hundreds of images showing his true destructive power aught to completely shatter it. Then he would be free to carry out his revenge against the Hidden Leaf Village.

It was difficult for the boy to run with those images dominating his mind's eye, and pay attention to where he was going. He knew/felt that he was running through small shrubs, as he felt the sting of branches whip his arm and torso. Rocks and twigs dug into the bottom of the blond's bare feet causing them to cut and bleed.

But still he ran. He ran until he tripped and fell in a heap at the base of a tree.

Seconds later, the females, having left Iruka far behind, crashed through some bushes. They stopped short upon seeing the boy's prone body. A choked sob of anguish escaped Ryoko's mouth as she dropped to her knees and scooped Naruto into her arms, not caring about ruining her yukata.

"Ryo-ohki, what the hell happened?" the ex-space pirate asked, fear and worry lacing her voice. With wide eyes, she scanned the forest and sky looking for whoever could have done this to the blond boy. "Did someone attack him?"

After scanning him, Ryo-ohki shook her head and explained what happened via their link.

"Oh Naruto," she sobbed. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for you to find out like this. I swear." Tears of anger fell as she realized it was her stupid carelessness that caused him to be like in this state. "Can you help him, little sister?"

Ryo-ohki nodded again, and the red gem on her forehead glowed brightly. After nearly a minute, the seal was closed, and the images stopped.

The portion of his psyche where the Kyuubi resided was pretty much an open book to anyone with training in the sealing arts. The rest of his of his psyche, Naruto's conscious and subconscious, should have been completely inaccessible to the cabbit.

But they weren't.

Ryo-ohki took advantage of this, she took the worst of the memories/images implanted by the Kyuubi and had them transmitted to her ship's hard-drive. It wasn't enough to leave gaping holes in his memory, (the holes in Ryoko's memory were completely unavoidable, and totally necessary) but it would be enough to allow for him to sleep and function normally. She realized, but didn't dwell on the fact that she shouldn't be able to do this. Not only for the moral implications, but because the cabbit and the blond had no telepathic link. And as far as she knew, he had no biological link to either her or Ryoko which would have facilitated such a link.

The cabbit shook herself mentally, that was a mystery for another time. With the seal closed, her gem died down, leaving Naruto writhing weakly in Ryoko's grasp. (Inside his cage, unheard and unseen, the Kyuubi roared in rage at being thwarted.)

"Naruto?" Ryoko said gently. There was fear in her voice. "Naruto? Can you hear me?"

His eyes fluttered open, and he stared up at the ex-space pirate with such a profane sadness that it broke Ryoko's heart. What an idiot she had been to not have made sure he was back at the camp before allowing her emotions to get the better of her. If she had shown even an iota of forethought, he would not be suffering like this.

"Ryoko?" came the shaky response. His voice sounded hoarse, like he had been screaming for hours."Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me, and Ryo-ohki's here as well. We were worried about you."

She felt small hands grasp the front of her yukata and use it as leverage to pull himself so that he could wrap his arms around her neck in an embrace that smacked of desperation. Naruto rested his head against the ex-space pirate's shoulder, his whole body was shaking. "But why? I heard what you and Master Iruka said. I'm a monster."

"You're no monster to me," Ryoko responded in a gentle voice. "I knew what you were almost from the moment I set eyes on you. It didn't matter to me then, anymore then it matters now, or even in the future. I made a promise to you, and I intend to keep it."

"I killed Master Iruka's parents," Naruto said in a small voice. "The villagers, they all hate me. They blame me for everything."

Ryoko pulled him closer into her embrace. Her voice became low enough that only the two of them could hear. "Do you remember what I said at the Hokage tower? I told you that I was a demon, and that I had a lot of blood on my hands."

Naruto nodded, not knowing where this was going.

The ex-space pirate paused, carefully trying to pick out the magical combination of words that would fix everything. In that instant, Ryoko wished she were smarter, more articulate. She wanted to help him, to show him that he wasn't alone; she didn't want to scare him or confuse him anymore than he probably was.

"When I was younger than you are now, I was kidnapped from my mother and forced to do horrendous things for my master. I was nothing more than a living doll covered in the blood of countless innocent people. Millions and millions of people died at my hands." Ryoko paused from her truncated PG version of her life to let her words sink in. When he didn't pull away or respond, she continued. "There's nothing I can do about the past, no matter how hard I wish for it, just as there's nothing you can do about what the Kyuubi did. And we can't change who we are. We are demons, me by birth, and you by artificial means. But that doesn't mean we have to be monsters. Our fates are not preordained, we can still have dreams and goals, and choose our own path in life. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"A little bit," Naruto said. "But it could happen, couldn't it? I could become a monster?"

She hugged him tighter so that they were cheek-to-cheek. The boy feebly fought against her restraining her arms, but was no match for the ex-space pirate's strength. "I won't lie to you Naruto. It could happen, but I'm going to do my best to train you so that your the one who's in control."

With a mental command, Ryo-ohki disappeared and then reappeared barely a minute later with a bucket of water and a sponge. Freeing an arm, she wrung excess water out and then started to gently wipe away blood and dirt away. Even with Kyuubi locked away safely, there was evidence of his influence from the way his cuts were already healing. In some cases they were already completely gone, leaving dried blood as the only evidence there was anything there.

"Don't listen to the villagers," Ryoko said after several minutes of silence. "You have to choose to be a monster. You have to choose to give in to darkness and embrace hatred."

"I know what you said, but I still can't stop thinking about all those people, the village . . ."

"You didn't do it Naruto," a breathless voice from behind said, catching the tail-end of the conversation. Iruka had finally caught up to the three, but it wasn't easy, all of them seemed to be able move with the quickness of thought. And by the look on their faces, something big must have happened during his absence. He knelt by the boy, taking note of the anguish in his face.

"I have never blamed you for my parents' death. I only blame the fox demon," Iruka said in gentle voice. He spared a look to Ryoko, and then quickly turned his attention back to the blond. There was something about the ex-space pirate mere presence that made his blood boil and his temper shorten (for a brief moment he wondered if he was jealous). No matter the reason though, there was no excuse for his behavior. He should have been more careful with his words.

"Really?"

"Yes. As far as I'm concerned you and the nine-tails are two separate beings."

Ryoko turned her head to the side, so that no one could see her frown. No they're not,she thought. Not anymore.

"Then why are you always so mean to me? You call me a knucklehead all the time, and get angry at me."

"Well, to be perfectly blunt, that's because you drive me crazy, Naruto. You skip classes, you don't pay attention when you do attend. And don't even get me started on your pranks."

"I just wanted someone to pay attention to me," the boy said with a hangdog expression.

Iruka placed a gentle hand on his student's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"I know Naruto. Believe me, I understand what it's like to be an orphan watching from the outside, wanting desperately to be on the inside. And doing whatever it took to get even an drop of attention, any kind of attention. We're two of a kind, you and I." The academy instructor paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. "I know you think I'm harsh on you, and I apologize for that. But you have to know, that you are very important to me, not only as a student, but for simply being you, Uzumaki Naruto. My favorite knuckle-headed student."

Again tears sprang from Naruto's eyes, but these were happy ones. Ryoko released the boy and he dived into his teacher's arms. Not that this meant she trusted the academy instructor, or liked him in the least bit, but Naruto needed as many people on his side as possible. She just wished it hadn't taken a near breakdown on the blond's part for Iruka to come to his senses.

Ryoko turned her head so as not to intrude on their private moment. She hugged her little sister tightly to her chest. "I guess we're going back to the village, eh Ryo-ohki?"

I just pray we don't have to deal with the Kyuubi anytime soon.