Having properly celebrated their success with copious amounts of ramen, Naru and Stitch were walking home from Ichiraku Ramen. Their forehead protectors were displayed proudly, Naru's hanging loosely from her neck, and Stitch's plate attached to an orange bandanna tied around his neck.

Naru giggled as Stitch recreated the shocked looks that had been present upon the revealing of her chakra blasters. The secret practicing had really paid off. "I can't wait to find out who's going to be on our team, can you?"

Before he could answer, however, Stitch was forced to shove Naru out of the way of a green ball of energy. Unable to dodge, Stitch took the ball of plasma bigger than he was to the face. The ensuing blast knocked Stitch out and sent Naru flying to collide back first with one of the mighty trees that made up the forests surrounding Konoha, stunning her.

As the explosion died down, several smaller trees fell to reveal the leviathan figure of Captain Gantu. He casually stomped to the center of the clearing. "Aw, I'm sorry, did that hurt?" He picked up the unconscious Stitch and dropped him into a large, clear containment vessel. "Good. Serves you right after what you did to my finger and career." Ignoring the ningen girl on the ground, Gantu clamped the containment vessel to his back and strode off through the trees, his giant gait rapidly covering ground.

Naru regained consciousness to see a giant land-shark walking away from her. As her vision stopped swimming though, she saw her first friend ever unconscious at the bottom of the glass container on the land shark's back. She reached out weakly as she tried to stand. "Stitch!"

The land shark vanished into the trees, taking Stitch with it. Naru collapsed to her hands and knees as tears began to stream down her face. "No. No no no. No nono nononononono. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! RAAAAAGH!"

Naru reared back onto her knees as a transformation overtook her. Her clear blue eyes turned crimson and slit and her dainty whisker marks thickened into black bars. Her teeth sharpened into long fangs and her nails thickened into tough black claws. Slowly, a veil of red energy enveloped the girl, forming a glowing, long-eared fox with four tails. As the demonic red fox opened its white, glowing eyes, it stood on its hind legs. Stretching its glowing white maw open, it threw its head back and let loose with a bowel loosening howl.

For the first time in thirteen years, the Village Hidden in the Leaves once again knew true fear.


Iruka gasped for air as he fought his traitorous former ally. Not even an hour ago, it was discovered that his assistant Mizuki had mortally wounded a guard and stolen the forbidden scroll of seals from the Hokage tower. Iruka, being a powerful sensor, had been the first to find him. While he had managed to get the large scroll away from the traitor, Iruka was out of shape. Dodging a large demon windmill shuriken, Iruka silently cursed. 'Shit shit shit! I really let myself go! If I live through this, I'll go to Maito Gai and ask for help!'

With a curse, Iruka stepped in a gopher hole and went down hard. With his foot trapped and his ankle broken, the academy instructor was at the mercy of Mizuki. He closed his eyes and waited for the end as Mizuki pulled his last demon shuriken off his back.

"Say goodbye, Iruka! Now d—urmph!"

Iruka opened his eyes, blinking bemusedly when he saw a giant grey foot step away, leaving a flattened Mizuki twitching in its footprint. Before Iruka could breathe a sigh of relief though, a wave of death passed over him.

Iruka knew this feeling. "Kyuubi!" As he struggled to free himself, Iruka froze as a red blur with four tails passed him by, trampling a recovering Mizuki back into unconsciousness as it went. Finally freeing himself, Iruka crawled over to the convulsing and foaming at the mouth Mizuki. There, on his back, was a single burnt blonde hair. He whispered a name as ANBU finally arrived. "—Naru?"


Hiruzen Sarutobi stood watching his village, waiting on news of the search for the traitor who had taken the forbidden scroll. Just as the report that the traitor had been apprehended came in though, an invisible, yet tangible wall of death seemed to pass over him. Recognizing the evil feeling of that energy, Hiruzen braced his suddenly weak knees against the railing of the Hokage tower. "Naru."

Straightening up, the Third Hokage once again became the 'God of Shinobi,' summoning his ANBU and personal guards. "Listen up! All ANBU and available personnel are to converge on the Kyuubi's chakra! Subdue if necessary, but do NOT engage otherwise! GO!"

Not bothering to acknowledge the orders, the ANBU and shinobi present dashed out of the tower across the vast village.


Gantu strode confidently into the clearing he had parked his personal ship. Taking the containment vessel off his back, he clamped it onto the back of the ship. Sneering, Gantu tapped on the transparent steel. "Well, I do hope you enjoy the flight. Unfortunately, I'm afraid there will be no in-flight entertainment or snacks." Laughing cruelly, Gantu entered the cockpit.

Starting up the automated take-off sequence, Gantu contacted Galactic Control. "This is Captain Gantu, get me hyperspace clearance and a line to the Grand Councilwoman."

The comm. crackled as the ship lifted up off the ground. "Gantu, what is it?"

Smirking, Gantu reclined in his pilot's chair. "I thought you'd like to know that the little trog is—augh!"

Gantu was cut off as his ship suddenly lurched.

"Gantu? What's going on?"

Before Gantu could answer, a demonic creature with four tails latched onto the windshield. Shrieking in surprise, Gantu wrenched the controls over. "Monster!"

Panicked, Gantu tried everything he could to dislodge the terrifiying creature on his ship, but to no avail. No matter what he did, the monster stayed in place, clawing and scratching rabidly at the cockpit. Finally, the creature smashed through the stronger-than-steel windscreen and thrust a suddenly larger claw through the hole. Grabbing Gantu by the front of his shirt, the creature pulled the Shaelik through the shattered windshield with a roar, letting the Captain of the Galactic Armada fall.

Fortunately for the battered and terrified Captain, he hadn't been too far up, and ended up merely bouncing a few times. Groaning, Gantu let himself fall into blissful unconsciousness.

With the land shark out of the way, the fox jumped into the ship and began to tear it apart until it found the containment cell. Smashing into and through the containment vessel's walls, the fox monster grabbed the still unconscious Stitch. Curling itself up around the dog, the monster and Stitch fell to Earth.


Stitch slowly regained consciousness. As he looked around the crater he found himself in, Stitch froze when he saw his first and best friend in the world. Naru was in horrible condition. Covered in third-degree burns and shredded clothes, Naru lay broken on the crater floor. Stitch carefully picked up Naru and held her tight.

After an indeterminate amount of time, Stitch was snapped to alertness by the sound of a breaking branch. Pulling out Naru's still somehow functioning chakra blasters with his second pair of arms, Stitch growled at the white-armored aliens that had him surrounded.

"Put the weapons down and put your hands up!"

Snarling at the security officers around him, Stitch defiantly turned off the blasters' safties, their soft whine filling the tensely silent clearing. There was no way he'd ever leave his first and only friend, his family, especially not in the condition she was in. Turning his head, Stitch saw the Grand Councilwoman herself come down the ramp of her ship (when did that get there?) and stand behind the head security agent, dressed in her own elegant yet effective body armor.

The Grand Councilwoman regarded Stitch, either not noticing the horrendously injured girl in his arms or assuming the injuries to be his fault. "One way or another, 626, you will be coming with us."

"I'm afraid not."

The Grand Councilwoman and the security agents spun around to see an elderly ningen in black body armor and wielding a staff standing on the ramp to their ship. Suddenly, the security agents found themselves surrounded on all sides by angry looking and heavily armed ningen, several of whom had tied up and dragged a slowly recovering and recently field interrogated Captain Gantu along behind them.

"I'm afraid that your Captain Gantu has attacked a member of the Land of Fire military without provocation or warning in an attempt to kidnap a military asset. Unless you leave now and take him with you, I'm afraid the law is quite clear. He will be executed."

The Grand Councilwoman, recognizing a leader when she saw one, was nonetheless unbending. "And I am afraid that our laws are just as clear. 626 is a fugitive from justice and must be taken in for trial and sentencing."

"N-no."

All attention was suddenly on the broken girl in Stitch's arms as she struggled to speak. "Y-you're no-not tak-taking Stitch. Yo-you're not taki-ng my f-fam-family…from me…" Panicking, Stitch checked Naru's vitals as the girl passed out, sighing in relief as her vitals were still relatively strong.

The Grand Councilwoman sighed as she considered the girl's little speech. She began to speak carefully. "In light of recent events, I suppose that enacting 626—eherm, Stitch's original sentence of exile to be carried out here is not outside of the bounds of my powers. Therefore, I hereby declare Stitch to be exiled here on Earth for however long is considered necessary." She looked at the elderly leader on her ship's ramp. "Will that be acceptable, Mr….?"

"Hiruzen Sarutobi. And yes that will be acceptable."

"Excellent." The Grand Councilwoman looked over to Stitch and Naru. "I'd get that girl medical assistance if I were you."

Not bothering to reply, Hiruzen simply gestured at Naru and Stitch. Two animal-masked shinobi jumped down and disappeared with the two in swirls of leaves. Another gesture and the remaining shinobi all vanished, save for two of the Third Hokage's personal guard.

HIruzen watched with the Grand Councilwoman as the security agents vanished into the ship, dragging a still groggy Gantu along with them. As the last of the security agents vanished, the Grand Councilwoman sighed. "We will be keeping in touch." The Grand Councilwoman entered her ship, her mutterings to herself as she went clearly audible to the shinobi watching. "The paperwork for this…I am not looking forward to it. Sometimes I wish I could clone myself and let the clone do it…"

As the ship took off into the sky, the two ANBU guards watched in bemusement as their Hokage walked over to a random tree and began to bash his head repeatedly against the trunk. "Stupid, stupid, stupid…!"


Naru groaned as she opened her eyes. Seeing the white ceiling, she realized that she was in the hospital. Wincing, she turned her head to the side to see her surrogate grandfather. "Gramps! Where's Stitch! Is he—?"

Hiruzen held up a hand. "Easy, Stitch is fine. In fact, he's right here." Naru smiled tiredly as Stitch climbed up onto the hospital bed to snuggle with her.

A frown crossed Naru's face. "Gramps, when Stitch was hurt and taken by that land-shark I got so angry and everything turned red. The next thing I can remember, I hurt all over and I couldn't move and the grey lady wanted to take Stitch away. What happened?"

The elderly Sarutobi sighed. "I was going to tell you after your genin teamwork test, but I suppose now is as good as any. Naru, thirteen years ago, when the Kyuubi attacked, the Forth Hokage couldn't kill the Kyuubi like all the history books say. Instead, he was forced to seal it into a little girl. In order to protect that girl, I made a law that forbid anyone from talking about the Kyuubi's true fate. Unfortunately, people still found out about the girl."

Naru swallowed dryly. "That girl...it was me, wasn't it?"

Hiruzen nodded. "Yes. When you saw Stitch get hurt, the emotional distress caused the seal to weaken severely enough to allow the Kyuubi to partially take over. However, such was your need to save Stitch that I suspect that it forced the Kyuubi to focus on Gantu. The Kyuubi was forced to relinquish its hold on you when that level of its chakra became too much for your body."

Naru shook. "So, will that happen whenever I get angry or upset?"

"No. The seal had degraded over time due to the village's treatment of you, which compounded when coupled with your extreme emotional angst when Stitch was hurt. Though I am no seals master, I do know enough that I was able to mostly fix the seal. Should something similar happen again, it should only be a trickle of chakra that gets through. Not enough for you to succumb to the Kyuubi's control."

Naru nodded as much as the heavy amount of bandages covering her allowed. "Thanks gramps…"

"Naru." Naru looked blearily at her grandfather-figure as she started to drift to sleep. "I have a present for you." He pulled out a small scroll. "This scroll has a chakra intensive technique that is perfect for you. Also, it was your mother's favorite. I think she'd like you to have it." His piece said, the Third Hokage left Naru to her rest.

As the black of sleep began to creep into her vision, Naru read the label on the scroll. "Shadow clone…technique…"


AN: I am a little disappointed that no one has noticed my bilingual bonuses yet. Oh well.

LordGhostStriker: My own idea, actually. Though it's been done before, I figured that the powercells or whatnot the Galactic Fed plasma cannons use wouldn't be available or feasible with the ningen's level of tech, so I made a chakra version.

Suntan140: Yep. And I was thinking the dance of the Swirling Leaf.

Gamelover14592: wait and see…

This chapter is dedicated to the memory of Robin Williams. Though he is no longer with us, may he continue to bring us laughter for generations to come.