Chapter Nine: Didn't Know Her Name...

"I didn't know what her name was

so we just called her Fred" -Rodney Carrington

The thick steel doors leading into the manor slowly opened, and the travelers had to shield there eyes for a second because of the intensity of the lights within. A woman with short black hair, dressed in an elegant red kimono smiled at the four before speaking to Houka, "It is good to see you again, my sword brother. And it is also good to see you as well, Kumogakure shinobis. Please, you all are welcome into my home."

Houka nodded his head, "Greetings, sword sister, it has been far too long since I have had the pleasure of your company. Is your husband doing well?" He then began to follow Rai as she led them down one of the many halls of the manor. "Ah yes, I heard that you gave birth to a daughter, so I'm assuming congratulations are in order."

Rai smiled sadly, "Yes, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl a little over two years ago. I have to admit, it has been a strange yet wonderful thing to be called 'Kaa-chan' by my little Denkou. You have to see her, Houka, she is just the cutest little girl on the planet. And it's not just me, Raito thinks so as well."

Houka snorted with laughter, "Well, that's to be expected, I think, with him being the father and all."

"You got that right, Houka." said a smirking Raito.

Houka walked up to Raito and shook the man's hand, "It's good to see you again, Raito. Although if you wanted to get in touch with me you didn't need to send your wife along with a bunch of bandits to do so."

Rai's expression grew comically surprised, and Raito chuckled before replying, "I thought you might want to clean away some of the left over debris from over three years ago. I just managed to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak."

"I see," said Houka, "and so then can you tell me why my last remaining sword brothers and sisters are so set against each other? What is the big deal?"

Rai spoke up, "Our daughter, Denkou, was struck down by a demonic fever about a year ago, and although we managed to get rid of the original toxin, she..."

Houka finished for her, "She's going to die soon unless she gets a certain type of chakra added into her system. Hence, Yami is trying to stop you from obtaining this chakra, considering the harmful nature of said chakra. What are the two possible bijuu that you need chakra from?"

Raito spoke up, "We need chakra either from the Nibi or the Kyuubi. Unfortunately, we do not know where to find either the bijuu themselves or the jinchuuriki that contain them. For should we get the chakra voluntarily, no harm would come to the person donating the chakra."

Yugito stepped forward, "I am the jinchuuriki of the Nibi, and if it means I can put a stop to this war, I will do whatever I can to do so."

Houka stared at her and said underneath his breath so no one would hear, "Yugito...so that's why you gave up so quickly. You didn't want me to know, just like how I didn't want you to know about the real me."

Rai began to cry tears of relief, "O thank you so much, Kumo-san. Please, let's go over to this room over here so I might extract a small snippet of your chakra."

"Please, call me Yugito."

Raito and Houka stood next to the crib, with the white haired man holding a small container holding some of the Nibi's chakra. Slowly, he poured the diluted mixture of both the Nibi's chakra and other spiritual materials over his daughter.

They both noticed immediately that little Denkou's face became more healthy, and Raito almost gave a sigh of relief, before he noticed that the effects were only temporary. "Damn it all to hell!" he said in a forced whisper. "It seems that we're going to have to hunt down the Kyuubi as well in order for it to work!"

He then began to pace the room, his fists shaking in anger. "And where the hell am I supposed to get a sample of the Kyuubi's chakra?" He then spun around and punched the wall of the room hard enough to leave a small indentation.

"Calm yourself, Raito."

Raito spun on his companion, "And how in Kami's name am I supposed to remain calm when my daughter doesn't even have a week to live?"

"You said you needed some of the Kyuubi's chakra as well?" At this Raito nodded, "Then do not worry, for I am the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune." Raito's eyes widened, before he grabbed his friend and rushed over to where his wife and Yugito were at.

"Rai, could you get a little bit more of the Nibi's chakra? It looks like we're going to have to mix it with the Kyuubi's chakra as well."

Rai cursed and began to grow misty eyed, "Dammit, how are we supposed to get the Kyuubi's chakra as well in time to save her?"

"I can help with that," said Houka, "for I am its jailer." He then sat in the chair next to Yugito's, allowing Raito to hook him up to similar machinery that was hooked up to the blond kunoichi.

Yugito stared wide eyed at the man sitting beside her, "You're, the Kyuubi's jailer?"

"That is correct, Yugito."

It was then that Yugito finally placed the man's voice, for it had been driving her nuts how familiar it had sounded, "Naruto! Is that you!"

Houka removed his mask and hood, to reveal that he truly was Namikaze Naruto, crown prince of Fire Country and the man that Yugito had started to take a liking to. He smiled at her, "You look as beautiful as ever, Yugito."

All was silent for several moments before she spoke up, "I guess I can't dig into you about secrets since I've been keeping secrets myself." She paused to collect her thoughts before she set her shoulders and said, "So here I go, I am the Nibi jinchuuriki and was hired by Yami to convince you to not take part in the conflict or kill you if you did."

Naruto nodded in understanding, "I am the jinchuuriki for the Kyuubi no Kitsune, son of the Yondaime Hokage and grandson of the Fire Lord, as well as Houka of the Eight Fangs of the Snake."

Yugito smiled, "Well then, now that everything is cleared up, and definitely more interesting, I believe you owe me another date, Naruto."

Naruto smirked, before leaning in and giving the blond woman a electrifying kiss on the lips. Her eyes widened in shock before she deepened the kiss and leaned in closer to him.

The next morning, both Raito and Rai were overjoyed as they played with their now fully recovered daughter. Denkou was still a little weak, as she had been sick for so long, but there were plenty of signs pointing out the fact that someday soon she would be a vibrant and energetic little girl once again.

"I can't thank you enough, both of you, I just can't," said Raito as he watched his wife and daughter try to solve a cloud shaped puzzle.

"Don't mention it," said Naruto. "She's a cute kid, and you two are friends, so I have no problem with a little chakra loss. Especially considering it's not even my chakra."

Yugito smiled, "He does have a point. And I just couldn't stand by and let a little girl just die when I could do something to save her."

"But nevertheless, we thank you two from the bottom of our hearts. And I hope everything works out for you two." said Rai with a smile. Her daughter had fallen asleep in her lap, and Rai's expression was tender as she stroked her child's hair.

Raito nodded, "I do as well. And remember, please don't be strangers, invite us to the wedding."

Both of the blonds immediately began to blush and Naruto stuttered out, "We're not engaged yet!"

"Aha!" said Raito triumphantly, "I do believe 'yet' is the key word in that sentence, my dear friend!"

"Shut up," said Yugito quietly as her face grew redder.

The other two Cloud shinobi laughed at their friends' expense for days.

"Before we head back to the capital, would you three mind accompanying me to where Yami currently resides? I'd like to talk with him."

Yugito and her teammates looked at each other. Mukanshin sighed, "Very well, I have no problem with it, so long as it doesn't take longer than three weeks. We were only given a month for our current mission, and it's already been a week since we were assigned it."

Kimiko spoke up, "He does have a point, you know. We don't want sensei getting all worried about us, you know how overprotective he is and all."

Yugito groaned, "And they call me the mother hen of Kumogakure...sheesh, he's worse than I could ever hope to be."

Naruto looked at her, "They call you the mother hen of Kumogakure?"

Yami gently shut the study door behind him, glad that he had somehow managed to grab some alone time with his wife that day.

"It's been a long time, Yami." said a deep masculine voice behind him.

Yami whirled around to come face to face with an unmasked Houka. He smiled thinly, "Houka, it has truly been too long indeed."

Naruto smiled thinly, "Why exactly have you been engaging in a petty war with Raito over the method of his child's recovery?" Yami glanced over to his right, noting that a group of three Kumo shinobi were talking with his wife.

Yami took a step forward, a scowl forming on his face, "You know as well as I do what happens to those who have their bijuus even partially extracted. And I didn't think Raito would bother to ask permission to take some of the chakra to heal his daughter. All I want him to do is ask the jinchuuriki before he takes the chakra, that way no one has to die. However...none of my appeals have seemed to have made it through to him."

Naruto smiled, "You don't have to worry anymore, Yami. Both myself and the blond woman standing by your wife, her name is Yugito by the way, have given the demonic chakra that was needed to cure his daughter."

Tsuchi joined in on their conversation, "Thank goodness, I was beginning to worry about them. I hope they aren't upset about what we did though..." Her eyes then grew downcast as she said the last part.

Naruto smirked, "Don't worry about it too much, Tsuchi. I've talked to both Raito and Rai, and from what I gather they would have done the same thing in your place, probably because they know that you would do the exact same thing they did if you were in their's."

Tsuchi shivered, and her husband wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "I pray to Kami that that never happens."

"I'm fairly sure it won't," said Mukanshin. "The disease she was struck down with only attacks one person every century, and it usually skips a century if the diseased is cured."

Yami sighed in relief, but Tsuchi began to stare at Mukanshin. Pretty soon, her eyes suddenly widened. "You!" she gasped.

Mukanshin crossed his arms and stared at Tsuchi, "You've got some explaining to do, dear sister. Do you know how much trouble I got into when you went missing thirteen years ago?"

TBC

AN: Hooray! Now both Naruto and Yugito know about each other's demons. I hope ya'll haven't minded my OC's all that much. I've tried to keep them fairly unimportant, but they kind of popped up frequently these past few chapters.

And Naruto's skills as Houka don't use Chakra, so the time limit isn't put into effect if he uses the skills of a highly skilled swordsman.