Crystal Snow

Chapter 9 - The Meeting with the Fox

I do not own Naruto in any way


Sorry for the shorter chapter. I kinda need to think more about the direction on this story and didn't want to go too far into the story without planning it out.


Opening my eyes I saw a armored toad blocking the massive sword. "Never fear the great Jiraiya is here!" Another poof of smoke showed the old man standing in between Naruto and who I was guessing was Itachi. I paused for a second. That name sounded familiar from somewhere. I set this in the back of my mind as I saw Jiraiya start to go through hand signs. "Summoning: Toad Mouth Binding!" I saw the walls start to change and turn from there gray to a red-ish color. "Naruto, Kurai, don't move." I looked over at Jiraiya, it felt weird having to listen to him but from the sound of the jutsu it didn't sound like a good idea to not obey his orders. I saw the two Akatsuki members make a dash away from the battle. As they did I saw tentacles start to chase after them. I opted to ignore the battle now and surveyed the people around. I saw Naruto and Jiraiya, both of which were uninjured. Then I took notice of the new comer or more of the fact of the lack of him. Looking around I couldn't see where he could have gone. Suddenly a large blast ringed in my ears. I wanted to move but thought better of that, however, Naruto decided not to and move toward the explosion. Seeing nothing bad happen to him I decided I should go after him and get him out of the way of a S ranked battle. Getting the corner of the hallway, I turned and saw a large hole in the wall. I saw Jiraiya rolling up a scroll and talking to Naruto about something. Figuring it was over I let the tension in my body go and actually took a good look around at the damage now that the toad whatever was gone.

"Sasuke!" I saw Naruto dash right past me and kneel down next to the black cladded kid. I was going to say something but I saw a small glint.

"Dynamic Entry!" I saw a figure blur right at Jiraiya and kick him in the face. This caused Jiraiya to be lodged into a wall, and from the looks of it unconscious. I prepared a ice jutsu to attack the new offender. He was wearing a dark green bodysuit and a terrible hair cut. I scanned him over and knew that I couldn't let the man close, he had just launched a sanin of all people in a wall, even with his ridiculous outfit. I saw that he had a leaf head band tied around his waist but ignored it, anyone could find one of those.

"Who are you?" I saw the man look over to me and knew that if he were to want to attack me I couldn't do much against him.

"My name is Might Guy!" I looked over to Naruto but noticed that he was more interested in the now dubbed Sasuke. Seeing that Naruto was more or less useless right now and Jiraiya was out cold I knew that if there was a fight that I was the only defence. I was about to speak but heard Jiraiya groan. I had no idea how he was just launched into a wall and was fine, sanin or not.

"Kurai, stand down. He's with the Leaf." I glanced over at the white hair man. Although Jiraiya was a dirty pervert, he was still serious when in situations like this. "Guy, why are you here?" I saw the green giant face that once had a huge smile on it suddenly grow serious, it was honestly a little creepy.

"Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki was seen coming this way. I was sent to support you three and retrieve Sasuke." The name Itachi suddenly made sense to me. It was the murder of the entire Uchiha clan that the Third Hokage told Hanabi and me about. I looked over to Sasuke and noticed that it was the kid that I copied the fire jutsu from. I saw Jiraiya and Guy walk slightly off to the side and whisper. Knowing when people needed their secrets, I went over to Naruto who was staring at Sasuke, it was honestly a little odd that Naruto was just staring at him. I put my hand on Naruto's shoulder and felt him jump slightly.

"You okay?" I saw Naruto start to give one of his megawatt smiles. However, I sent him a glare that hopefully told him not to lie to me. I saw his smile fade into a frown before he looked back to Sasuke's limp form.

"It's just… Why? Why do people want to kill family?" I sighed. That was a question that neither of us could answer. Neither of us knew what pain Sasuke had gone through from his brother killing his clan. The only viewpoints we could give were ones of being completely hated. Sure I could understand the hating of someone, even wanting to kill them, but to actually try. Geez, saying something was one thing but actually doing it was a completely different world. The silence between us was starting to get very depressed. I looked back to see both older men coming over to us. Guy walked past us and picked up Sasuke. I saw Naruto about to say something but Jiraiya stopped him.

"Guy is taking Sasuke back to the Leaf." I saw Jiraiya raise his hand to stop Naruto from interrupting him. "They will be able to help Sasuke more than us." I saw Naruto hesitant but then nod. I was glad Naruto would listen in and after high tense situations, made him slightly more manageable in a battle. "Naruto, I need you to listen to me. Those people, they were Akatsuki, a group of S ranked criminal ninja. They want to capture the tail beasts to use for something." I saw Naruto grab his stomach. It must have been a terrible feeling, knowing that you were being chased down by a group of nearly unkillable ninja, then again who said that I was safe. I saw Naruto grow dim. I saw the hate that he felt in his childhood start to bubble to the surface. I put a hand on his shoulder to kick him out of memory lane.

"And that is why we are going to give him an insane amount of training, right Jiraiya?" I gave Jiraiya a heavy glare. If Jiraiya was going to be the bearer of bad news then he was going to help Naruto out. Plus it helped that Jiraiya was Naruto's godfather, so deserved this training.

"Right, but first we have to pay for the damages." I looked back and saw the chaos the battle left. Walls were torn apart and water was dripping from random spots. I turned to the white haired man.

"We?" Jiraiya glared at me, almost like he expected for Naruto and me to pay.

"Yea, that water damage was from you was it not?" I put a finger under my chin. Of course the water was from me, that much was obvious. I gave Jiraiya a deadpan look, grabbed Naruto by the shoulder, flipped off the white hair man, and then shushined out of the room.

I watched happily as Naruto emptied his stomach. I guess that he never traveled by shushin before, something I was slightly surprised at. After Naruto finished showing me what he had for lunch he looked at me with a odd look. I couldn't tell if he wanted to thank me or hit me. A fist speeding toward me was the answer. I easily blocked the punch. I jumped away from Naruto as he stared me down. I gave a quick glare around the area to see if anyone was inside the dense forest around us. Noting that the area was clear I started to let my chakra flow into my hands so I could use Ice Fist. Naruto kept giving punches and kicks with whatever form he used and I kept blocking slowly adding ice chakra to his limbs. Soon Naruto was too exhausted to keep fighting and he ended up laying in the now torn up grass. I strolled up to him and sat next to him and looked at the crimson sky. Neither of us really needed to say anything. I knew that Naruto wasn't really anger with me but more so the entire situation and I was the one person he felt like he could let his true feelings out. We both sat there in silence, happy that we were free from the hate that strangled our lives since the day we were born. I felt a large chakra source coming toward us. I put it in the back of my mind when I felt that it was a familiar person. A heavy thud from the tree above us, which made Naruto jump, told us the person had arrived. "You know, you brats are very annoying." I lazily looked up and smiled at the old man.

"And you're any different how?" My smile only grew as I saw Jiraiya sigh and mutter something under his breath.

"Anyway, let's go, we need to go make up lost time." I looked up over to Naruto who was getting up. I groaned as I stood up. I looked at the leader of our little group. Honestly, I had to give Jiraya some respect. He was able to make to S class ninja back off just because of his presence. Because of this I was willing to give him a little leeway in his… special matters. I jumped up into the tree next to Jiraiya and the three of us started to make our way to what I guess was the direction of the next town.


I glared at the back of white haired man. Screw him saving our lives. He just left us in a new town to do some of his 'research', right after the Akatsuki attacked us in the last town four days ago! I shook my head. It was no use to rant about how he was a pervert. I looked over to Naruto and saw him staring off aimlessly. He had been like this ever since he saw Sasuke in such bad condition. I couldn't fully understand Naruto's relationship to Sasuke. Whenever I saw them those two seemed to butt heads as much as possible. I thought Naruto would be, well not happy, but something other than gloomy. I smiled as I realized that I had Naruto all to myself and the pervert was likely not to come around and find us for a few days. "Hey Naruto." I saw Naruto turn and start his megawatt smile until he realized that it was me and went back to normal. "Look I know this entire Sasuke thing has gotten you down but mopping about it isn't going to help. I say we find a hotel get a room and then go train." I saw a little bit of the old Naruto come through when I mentioned training. Seeing him nod we started to make our way through the streets.

"Hey Kurai?" I turned my head and looked at Naruto, making sure to watch out for people at the same time. "What are we going to train in?" I thought for a second. Knowing Jiraiya I pegged him down as one to teach Naruto ninjutsu so I could take kenjutsu, which Naruto didn't have a sword, so that wasn't a viable option. That left taijutsu and getting Naruto having a actual form instead of his brawler style of fighting.

"Taijutsu." I could see Naruto deflate a little. I knew he wanted big flashy jutsu but mine were more about control than power meaning that Naruto couldn't use them. "And after that we'll see about getting you and the fox to work together a bit." I saw Naruto's face darken a little. He hated the idea of using the fox's power but I showed him early on what could happen when the beast sealed inside and the host work together. We had agreed that day that he would only use the fox's power in dire situations or until they started to work together. I stopped when I saw a decent looking hotel. "How about here?" Naruto quickly nodded his head.

Entering the hotel, I saw that it was a common hotel area. Nothing fancy at all. We walked upto the counter and rang the bell for someone to come. Soon a man stepped out from the back of the counter. "May I.. help you." I noticed the man's tone getting more hostile and saw that he was looking directly at Naruto. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Someone almost ten days away from the leaf knew that Naruto held the fox. I felt a small pile of rage start to form in my stomach. I quickly smothered it and looked the man dead in the eyes.

"We would like a room. You wouldn't have a problem with that would you?" I was begging for the man to say something smart mouthed back to me so I could hurt him. However he reached under the counter and handed me a set of keys.

"Here. Just make sure the room is clean when you leave." I nodded and give him the required money for the room for three days.

"Thank you. Come on Naruto let's unpack."


I walked along the flat plain of grass with a smile. It was time for a little spar with Naruto and I was excited. He was the only person my age that had an insane amount of stamina so I rarely got tired without fighting older people. "I think this is good." I turned and saw Naruto grinning. Something was off about the grin to; it wasn't one of his happy ones, more like a devious one. I shifted into my Ice Fist stance. I saw Naruto standing with his hands crossed and still grinning. Something was off about this entire thing but I ignored it. "Ready?" Seeing Naruto nod I chakra dashed right at him and connected a punch to his stomach. As I planted my foot for the next hit Naruto popped. I couldn't stop my momentum and flew right into a fist. "Ah hell." I looked around and saw there was hundreds of Narutos around the once green field. I got back into my stance and smiled. "So this was your plan?" The only answer I got was hundreds of grins. Without a word the clones charged me. I dodged and hit a Naruto when I could but the mass started to overwhelm me. Knowing if I didn't do something quickly I would lose, I jumped into the air. In mid jump I started to form hand signs. I felt chakra leave me at every point of my body. "Crystal Ice Style: Crystal Rain!" I felt the chakra start to form into tiny shards above me. I commanded the shards to the ground and saw them shred the Narutos. With a large poof of smoke, I landed on the ground. A gentle breeze pulled the smoke away from our battlefield, something I was glad for. When the smoke cleared I took a look around the field. I noticed that Naruto was no where to be seen. Knowing that he was waiting and hiding for once I let him think that I couldn't find him. I closed my eyes and focused on the chakra around the area. I kept finding only my sources from the Crystal shard still in the ground. I stopped for a second. Naruto didn't just try to hide from me, he actually did! I didn't let this stay in my mind for long as Naruto and I were still were sparring and we had a few hours to go before either of us got tired. Suddenly the ground under me erupted and a fist impacted my face, launching me slightly in the air. As I was preparing to land I suddenly I felt four feet kick me back up.

"Nar - ru - to." I spun around as I felt Naruto's chakra above me only to see a foot plant itself right in my face. "Uzumaki Barrage!" I felt the ground crack from my landing. I stay still for a second. That move he used hurt a lot! Not that I was going to show it. I stood up and saw Naruto smiling at me, however that not what I noticed, what I saw was that Naruto was out of breath somehow.

"Hey Naruto, you okay?" I saw Naruto take a deep breath and nod. I knew he was lying, he was exhausted from only using a few hundred clones and one jutsu. Something was very off here, he was able to do twice as much a few months ago without even breaking a sweat. I hadn't even broken a sweat but I didn't want Naruto's condition to get any worse. "Hey Naruto, let's call the off training for today." I saw Naruto instantly try to hide how tired.

"What do.. You mean.. I could go for.. six more… hours." I gave Naruto a deadpan look. Did he really expect me to buy such a lame excuse. I shook my head at the burnt orange jinjuriki. How did he expect to last six more hours when we had been fighting for a little less than fifteen minutes. This however made me think that we should get to Jiraiya immediately. If something was messing with Naruto's chakra or body is some form we needed to cure it as soon as possible. The effects of something like a chakra degrading poison could make Naruto too weak to hold back the Nine Tail Fox from flooding him with it's chakra.

"Naruto we need to talk to Jiraiya about this. When did you start getting weaker?" I saw Naruto's head fall. I knew that he hated being called weak but there was no other way to put it.

"After the Forest of Death. Something happened that I can't quite remember but I know that we meet some weird girl in the forest with a really long tongue." I stopped for a second. That seemed like a key feature to identify this odd ninja.

"Anything else?" I saw Naruto squeeze his eyes shut.

"Um…. We started to fight but we were losing… bad. Then something happened and everything gets really blurry." I nodded. I had a theory on what happened.

"Do you remember any surges of power?" I saw Naruto nod. That confirmed my fear. "Naruto in the forest the fox's power came out." I could feel Naruto start to panic. "No need to worry. We can have Jiraiya check the seal when he returns." I saw Naruto relax a little bit. "Okay let's just get back to the hotel room and get some rest." I went to walk away but I saw Naruto fidget a small amount.

"Kurai?" I turned to my head to look at my friend. "Do you think that we can try talking to the fox?" I stopped all other thought process. Naruto wanted to actually talk to the fox!?

"Naruto, you do know that the fox can be dangerous, right?" I saw Naruto nod his head. I looked directly into his eyes to test if he really wanted this. Him not looking away from me told me all I needed to know. He wanted this, for what reason I did not know but I knew Naruto and he would not abuse the fox's powers if he received any. "Alright, well talk to the fox when after we get some rest at the hotel." I saw Naruto give a nod. I started off toward the hotel knowing Naruto would follow right behind me.


I snapped open my eyes as I heard a sound fill the room. I hated how light of a sleeper I was. Something that plagued me since I was on my own. Now that I had people always around me I constantly keep waking up. Oddly enough it was only when someone was inside the room I was staying in. I lazily turned my body over to look at the source of the sound. One Naruto Uzumaki. I learned the hard way on how loud the kid sleeps. I thought about making a block of ice fall of Naruto but sighed. Naruto would probably start to hug the ice cube to death. "Hey, Naruto?" I only heard another deep snore in response. I threw off the covers and walked up the sleeping boy. "Naruto wake up." Naruto turned in his bed and threw his arm limply in my direction. I caught his swing and sent a spike of ice chakra into his arm. This sent Naruto flying out of his bed and made me chuckle at the him. "Good to see you're awake." I only smiled as Naruto glared at me.

"I wonder why." The tone in his voice made me chuckle a little more.

"Get dressed." I saw Naruto get serious. He knew why I told him this. We were going to give his inner demon a little visit. I sat against the wall as Naruto put on his burnt orange jumpsuit. I started to wonder if I could get Naruto into a black jumpsuit version of his suit. I shook off the idea when Naruto finished getting dressed. "Alright, you ready to visit the Nine Tails?" I saw Naruto give me a nod. "Okay, start to meditate and focus on the area where the fox is located." I saw Naruto get slightly nervous.

"How are you going to get into my mind?" I gave a small smirk at Naruto. What he didn't know is that I had actually visited the mind's of other jinjuriki. My most memorable visit was the one of the seven tailed beast. I put those memories in the back of my mind as I refocused on my task. "I have an idea on what to do. Just meditate and I'll do the rest." I knew that Naruto was still nervous but I was glad to see that he started to do as I told him. I sat in front of me and formed a small cube of ice in my palms. I gently placed the ice on Naruto's forehead and watched the room around me changed.

I saw the walls darken. I red tint started to glow off the newly formed bricks. However, what caught my attention was the giant golden gate on the far side of the room. Inside the gate was the strongest demon in the world, the Nine Tailed Fox. I saw the Naruto standing in front of the cage staring at the blood red demon. I walked up to Naruto and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey Naruto." I saw the fox host smile at me but then turn and frown at the fox. "Say what you wanted Naruto." I saw the fox give us a devilish grin.

"Yes little human. Tell me what you want to say." I glared at the fox. I had no idea that a demon working against the host had this bad of a mental strain on the host. I gently squeezed Naruto's shoulder to help calm him down. I heard Naruto take a deep breath and stay quiet for a few seconds.

"Fox!" The volume of Naruto's voice surprised me a little. "I want us to work together." I saw the fox's hair stiffen slightly, something that I never thought I saw, for some reason the fox had negative connotations with working together. Naturally I thought that it was the idea of working with a human but shook the idea off. I knew from Koori that supernatural beasts were okay with working with humans as long as the beast got something out of it. Koori got to be able to be out of the seal for a limited time. I tried to think of something that the fox could want.

"Pathetic human, why would I even think about helping you? Get out of here welp and take your other baffoun friend to." I just looked at the fox lazily. I had dealt with enough beasts to know that the fox was testing Naruto. For what I did not know but I did know that if I interfered that the fox would never help Naruto ever again. I saw Naruto look at me with a questioning look. Knowing what I did I shrugged, I knew that Naruto had to figure this out of his own. I saw Naruto turn back to the fox.

"You want to know something fox? I'm Naruto Uzumaki and I will be Hokage one day! And if you don't want to help then screw you! And if you ever, ever, insult my friends, especially Kurai, I'll kick your ass!" I smiled Naruto. Only he could swear at the a tailed beast and smile like he just won a fortune.

"You pathetic human! You dare talk to me, the great Nine Tailed Fox, like that!" I shook my head at the two. Somehow those two seemed to fit together to well. However, I knew a lot of time had passed in the real world and I want to wrap this up.

"Naruto, Fox." I saw the two turn and look at me. "I'm getting a little bored here, so, let's wrap things up here. Fox, you done with this?" A saw both beast and host give me a odd look, albit with different reasons.

"How did you know?" I pointed to my stomach.

"I hold the fury of ice, Koori, the grand ice dragon." I knew I overglorified the title of Koori and if she was in any shape to talk she would be yelling my ear off but right now I needed power over the fox and hopefully this would do it. I saw the fox shift in it's cell notifying me that that the fox had a idea who Koori was and what power she had. "Now what is your decision?" I saw the fox glare at me but shut it's eyes.

"Normally I would have to say no, but if he has the host of ice to help him then it would be only beneficial to me to help." I saw Naruto was going to cheer but I put a hand over his mouth. "However, as you must know host of ice that you must give me me something in return." I nodded. Whatever it wanted was probably doable, especially if it was willing to help. "I want whatever you gave to the ice dragon." I smiled. That was so much more doable that what I was think that was going to be needed. Plus the fact that Jiraiya was around meant that we could modify the seal much easier than having to do the research ourselves.

"That would be agreeable to me. However it is not up to me. It is up to Naruto." I turned to Naruto. "So do you agree with allowing the fox to take a small body form outside of the if you are unconscious?" I saw Naruto about to disagree but I put a hand up to silence him. "You can add stipulations to this." I thought Naruto would start to ramble off things but he gave me a odd look.

"Um, Kurai. what does stipulations mean?" I nearly facepalmed at Naruto's lack of language. I quickly shook off the shock.

"It means you can add term that the fox has to follow, of course the fox can add them to." I saw Naruto get a very serious look on his face. I however went to the back of the room. This was now between Naruto and the fox. After a few minutes I started to get bored and disconnected from Naruto's mind.

I opened my eyes and looked around our hotel room. Hearing a snore I looked over to the bed Naruto was in earlier and saw Jiraiya sleeping in the bed, a bottle of sake in his hand. I stood up and stretched, letting my stiff body get back into shape. I walked upto the drunken man and grabbed his arm. This was a mistake as I was quickly wrapped in his arms. "Oh baaaaby youuu came bac…" I had to hold my breath as I smelt the alcohol on his breath. I felt something poke me and I was done with the situation. I quickly let out a large amount of ice chakra into his body. I was happy that he quickly jumped as far away from me. "Wha.. the hellll?" I glared at the white haired man. I wanted to yell at him but I knew that was going to get me no where. I took a deep breath and looked at Naruto who still had his eyes closed. I didn't know how long he was going to be in there but I put another job in front of me. To convince Jiraiya to loosen the seal to the Nine Tail Fox on his godson. However, I had to wait until he sobered up. I layed down on the newly open bed and closed my eyes and started to think about ways to get Jiraiya to change the seal.


Kunai's Stats

Taijutsu - Chunin (Genin without Ice Fist)

Ninjutsu - Elite Jonin (Low Chunin without Crystal Ice Style)

Genjutsu - Low Genin (Only able to break genjutsu, not cast it)

Fuuinjutsu - Chunin

Kenjutsu - Elite Chunin

Chakra Control - Elite Chunin

Chaka Capacity - Kage

Unique abilities - Crystal Ice Style, Advance healing, Full sync, First form, Summoning Jutsu: Ice dragons

Average ability - Elite Chunin (Low Chunin without Ice Styles)