"Naruto, what was that?"
Naruto glanced back at Sasuke, and could see he seemed confused. He decided to play stupid. There was no sense telling Sasuke anymore than he had to.
"You mean the chakra?"
Sasuke glared at him, wondering why Naruto made everything he tried to learn about him hard.
"No. The…voice."
Naruto grinned at him. Sasuke didn't see the feral part of it, as he was used to ignoring he teammate.
"That's my dark side. He's like an evil spirit. And the chakra comes from him, since we're like different people, we have different chakra sources. Or at least that's what he said. Sometimes he takes over my body too."
Sasuke was satisfied. He now knew why Naruto was strong, and why he was acting differently. But he wanted to know something else.
"How do you get a 'dark side'?"
Naruto sighed. He knew Sasuke would ask that question, even though it was pointless. Sasuke would never be as strong as him. No one was as strong as Kyuubi.
"I don't know. He just showed up one day."
Sasuke was annoyed, but he didn't say anything more. He decided to ask Naruto's 'dark side' when he next came out.
Naruto sat down in a small 'tree cave' as he called it.
"Hey, Sasuke, can you watch Hinata-hime for me?"
Hinata was still asleep, but she had mumbled a few words. Nothing else had changed, except for Naruto realizing that the symbol on her cheek was actually his last name.
Sasuke snorted.
"Why should I? What are you going to do?"
Naruto blinked, acting as though Sasuke was stupid.
"I'm going to set traps. We can't leave until Hinata-hime's better, and we need an earth scroll."
Sasuke scowled.
"Why shouldn't I set the traps? Knowing you, you'd just make a mess of it, and get yourself hurt."
Naruto smirked.
Sasuke raised his eyebrow. He wasn't used to seeing the blond gennin smirk. Smile, grin, yes, but he never smirked.
"Sasuke, I admit I'm not good at the things you are good at. But I am a prankster. We are the best at setting traps. Haven't you noticed that I was never actually caught 'in the act', and that I just admitted to doing whatever it was?"
Sasuke huffed, and sat down.
"You'd better be right."
Naruto laughed lightly as he walked away.
After setting a lot of traps, some deadly, some just amusing, used to kill, and to make a team fight with each other, Naruto sat down about three feet away from Sasuke.
Sasuke didn't notice, and Naruto smiled, pleased with his genjutsu. Everyone thought he couldn't do genjutsu to save his life, when he was a master at it, and had created at least twenty different genjutsus himself.
Naruto though, was talking to Kyuubi.
"When will she wake up?"
Kyuubi glared at him, and then sighed.
"You humans are so stupid. She'll wake up depending on how strong her mind is. Her chakra won't come back for a month though."
Naruto was not going to give up.
"Well, she said something in her sleep. Does that help?"
Kyuubi cursed.
"That isn't normal."
Naruto was shaken, but it didn't show on his face.
"Do you know what will happen?"
Kyuubi shook his head.
"No. But I have a guess. I think…she's going to be able to use my chakra aswell. And maybe hear me. I'm not sure on that."
"So what was supposed to happen?"
"She was simply supposed to be healed. But I forgot something."
Naruto resisted the urge to hit the fox demon.
"And what is that?"
Kyuubi grinned.
"Her bloodline limit…was given to her clan by the two tailed cat demon. She has a touch of demon chakra in her already, and her demon chakra has absorbed it, and formed a link to me."
Seeing Naruto's confused face, Kyuubi explained further.
"Demons can form links with one another, and trade chakra through them. Normally, only demons who were close friends did this."
Naruto was now a bit curious.
"Did you have any close friends that you formed a link with?"
It was the first time he saw Kyuubi's eyes lose their glow. He seemed less like an evil demon, and more like someone who had loss everyone close to them.
"Yes. Sorayuri, Aka, and Reisama. The one tailed raccoon-dog, the two tailed cat, and the five tailed wolf."
Naruto blinked.
"Will you tell me about them?"
"Aka was a one tailed demon, but he made up for it with his ninjutsus. No one knew more than he did, and he always used them to make traps. He was my best friend, or my brother, I was never sure. Reisama is the master of genjutsu. She was a lot like an older sister, always watching out for me, but also embarrassing me. Sorayuri was the two tailed cat demon. She always said she 'had no special talent' but she knew more about seals than anyone else…….I loved her."
Naruto smiled slowly, beginning to feel sad for the demon, and now finding a way to cheer him up.
"You mentioned everything about them in past tense, but I know that they're not dead. None of the demons are, or everyone would have known."
"Maybe you aren't so bad, kit."
Naruto had a feeling similar to when he released his kage bushins as he was sent out. He knew a lot of things he hadn't known a moment before.
Kyuubi left him with a few words.
"The vixen will wake up within ten hours."
Naruto relaxed, and went through the new information. He now knew two lightning jutsus, three water jutsus, one fire jutsu, one ice jutsu, one earth jutsu, and ten wind jutsus.
He also knew the basics on how to use every weapon.
Naruto also noticed his senses had increased, including his sixth sense.
Naruto decided he'd have to help Kyuubi more often.
Naruto walked back into the tree cave, moving slowly to get used to his new senses. He sat down heavily beside Sasuke and Hinata, and brought out a kunai.
Sasuke looked on as Naruto pulled out a thick piece of wood from his coat pocket, and began to slice pieces off of it.
Within an hour, Naruto had carved a small fox, which looked very lifelike.
Sasuke was not pleased to know that Naruto had some skill at anything. He was even more annoyed when Naruto commented about it.
"This is pretty bad. I should try again. Sasuke, you don't mind staying here, right?"
Sasuke didn't reply, but he did speak as Naruto was leaving.
"If you don't succeed as a ninja, you can always be a wood carver."
He was surprised when Naruto just smiled at him.
"Yeah, I guess I can."
Naruto left before Sasuke could say anything more.
He had a theory, and wanted to test it.
He went near a puddle, and then thought about everyone who made him mad, who had hurt him.
When he saw his eyes turn reddish, he stopped and turned around. He remembered that that meant he was using Kyuubi's chakra, from his mission with Tazuna.
There were foxes all around him. One even had three tails.
Naruto had two choices: Act like an idiot, or leave. He chose the first one.
"Um, hi? Can you talk?"
The three tailed waved its tails around, and all of them except for three left.
"Yes, I can speak. I wish to know if you are Uzumaki Naruto."
Naruto sat down.
"OOOkay….well that is my name."
The three tailed fox nodded.
"I am pleased to meet you, Naruto-sama. You may simply call me Kitsune."
Naruto shrugged, and montioned to the three foxes still there.
"Okay. Why are those foxes here?"
Kitsune seemed confused.
"You do not know?"
After a few seconds he laughed.
"I see. You wanted us to come, yet you knew nothing of us. A clever trick, kit. I will explain. These foxes will do whatever you ask of them. I am sure they will tell you their names. As I am no longer needed, I will leave. They cannot speak yet, however if you use that chakra again and let them absorb it, it will allow them to. Good-bye, Naruto-sama."
Kitsune left, disappearing within seconds.
Naruto sighed, and began pulling out Kyuubi's chakra again. The foxes rubbed up against his hands for a few seconds before they two fiery tails grew which turned into normal fox tails, except for the fact that they were strangely colored.
The first one had one pure black tail. He bowed to Naruto.
"What do you wish for me to do, Naruto-sama?"
Naruto smiled.
"First, stop calling me Naruto-sama. You can call me whatever you like. Second, I want you to go find someone called Arashi aka the Yondaime and tell him that there is someone much stronger than a gennin in this forest, and that he smells like snakes. And tell me your name."
The fox seemed surprised, but quickly answered.
"My name is Yami. I will deliver this message to Arashi only, correct, Naruto-san?"
Naruto nodded, and Yami ran away.
Another fox came up, with one pure silver tail.
"My name's Keiko. Nice to meet you, Naruto."
Naruto relaxed a bit. She seemed less formal than Yami.
"You'll watch and take care of Hinata-hime, my teammate. She's inside a tree trunk close to here. Try to make sure Sasuke doesn't see you. You don't mind, right?"
Keiko grinned.
"No, don't worry; I'll take good care of your girlfriend, Naruto."
She ran off before Naruto could reply. He frowned, and then spoke to the last fox, which had one golden tail.
"I need to know your name."
He rolled his eyes, but answered anyway.
"The name's Isamu. Those were my siblings."
Naruto didn't seem to care.
"You're staying with me. Consider yourself an accomplice in everything I do, good or bad. Now, we're going back to camp."
Naruto forgot about the piece of wood, but that was the smallest of his problems. He saw three sound ninjas approaching his traps.
Naruto grinned, and spoke quietly to Isamu.
"This is going to be fun. Watch."
Isamu looked up to see sunlight glinting off Naruto's pointed teeth.
