Two days later Gai, Lee, and Neji were sitting in Naruto's room, looking for any sign of consciousness from the young genin. Little did they know that inside Naruto's mind, he was about to face his demon for the first time.
Naruto woke up in a sewer. His body hurt all over, and the hatred of the villagers was still fresh on his mind. He managed to get up and start walking down the hall. He noticed several doors along the walls and, curious as to what they were, walked over to one and opened it.
"Stay away, demon!" Instantly Naruto slammed the door shut. So, these were his memories. Not the most pleasant things in the world to be sure. He remembered they weren't here when he had visited last time, and concluded that that guy with the weird Sharingan had drug his memories closer to the surface. "If I ever get my hands on that guy, I'll shove Black Lightning up his ass." While he was inventing numerous slow and painful ways to torture the guy, he failed to really watch where he was going. He was dragged out of his thoughts when he realized he had walked up to a large cage. A pair of great, glowing red eyes appeared and Naruto immediately understood what that meant and hurled himself away from the cage just as several giant claws came hurtling out at him in-between the bars of the cage.
"I want to eat you, but this damn seal always stops me."
"So you're the great Kyuubi, hmm. You don't look like much."
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Why don't you come close to the seal and we'll test that bravado.
"No need. I mean, how scary can a stuffed animal be?" With that the cage turned into a babies playpen, with Kyuubi being in the pen with several other cute animal toys. To top it all off, everything was pink. The change only lasted a second, but when it ended, Kyuubi was shivering. Naruto smirked at Kyuubi's obvious terror, and as the great demon began to regain composure it spoke in a voice that could freeze hell over "DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!"
"What will you give me?
"ARE YOU THREATENING ME?" Kyuubi roared.
Naruto calmly replied "If I am, what are going to do about it."
"OUT, OUT, OUT, OUT, OUT, OUT, OOUUTT! Kyuubi screamed as he shoved Naruto's mind out into the real world.
Naruto woke up laughing his ass off. Gai, Lee, and Neji were all shocked to say the least. Here was a kid who had been subjected to the ultimate torture of the Mangekyo Sharingan, and he wakes up laughing. Gai was afraid that the Tsukiyomi had somehow permanently damaged Naruto's mind. Lee's and Neji's thoughts were running in the same direction. After calming down Naruto told Neji about the Kyuubi and explained what had happened. They all shared a good laugh at the demons misfortune before Neji went off to find a doctor.
When the Hokage heard that Naruto had woke up, he rushed to the hospital to find Naruto explaining what had happened to Gai.
"…then I looked up, and you, the Hokage, Kakashi, and some other guy I've never seen before drop down in front of me. Then that guy turned his eyes into something weird and I'm tied to a post while he stabs me."
The Hokage cleared his throat and as Naruto and Gai's attention focused on him he began to speak. "Naruto, I would like you to tell me everything from when you found the man near Zabuza's grave until you just woke up." Naruto nodded and began his story.
"So you now have a sword that is the equal of almost any sword in the world, and you need a good instructor to help you learn more swordsmanship?" Naruto nodded. No matter how good your instructor, there's only so much you can learn in two weeks. The Hokage leaned back in the chair he was sitting in and sighed thoughtfully. "We don't have many swordsmen in Konoha, never have really. We're not like the Mist with their huge sword tradition. We used to have a fairly good swordsman named Hayate, but he was killed shortly before the Sand and Sound Invasion. I believe the Mitare's have a weapons shop and their daughter Tenten is a weapon specialist. She may be able to help you out."
Naruto nodded, he had seen the girl fight in the Chuunin Exam Preliminaries, and while she preferred thrown weapons, she was supposed to be no slouch with melee weapons either. Naruto made to get off the bed, but was quickly made to lie back down by the Hokage, who ordered a day of rest and observation to make sure there were no lingering effects from the Tsukiyomi. Naruto protested, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.
The next day Naruto was released and went straight to the Mitare's weapon shop. After receiving the usual cold glare he was asked what he wanted. When he replied he wanted to see Tenten he was told she was training with Neji. Naruto thanked them and left, their glares boring holes in his back.
"Tenten and Neji still training together, huh. Their not on the same team anymore but whatever works for them."
When Naruto got to the training grounds Neji and Tenten frequented he saw Tenten throwing weapons at Neji who was blocking them using the Heavenly Spin. He called out to them and they turned to see him running towards them. He came up to them panting and asked "Tenten, I got a sword, and was wondering if you could teach me some moves in using it. I'm already fairly good at it but I need to learn more." Tenten was reluctant to help him for what he had done to Neji in the exams, but he finally got her to agree by promising to only buy his weapons and ninja gear from her family's store. Neji left saying it was getting late anyway, not wanting to stay around an awake Naruto for any longer than necessary. He may have forgiven Naruto for the stunt he pulled in the finals, but he certainly hadn't forgotten.
Naruto and Tenten went back to the shop where Tenten grabbed a sword of her own to spar with. Out in the training area in the back of the shop, Naruto took Black Lightning off his back and got into a ready position. "Let me see what you can already do so I know what to teach you" came Tenten's voice. Naruto nodded, dropped into his stance, and showed her several of the stances and moves he used. "Basic but fundamentally sound and fairly effective" Tenten analyzed. Then she looked more closely at Naruto's sword. "I've never seen a sword quite like that one" she said. Naruto smirked "You have no idea."
Naruto flowed his chakra through the blade, and the lightning sparked and crackled to life. Tenten was amazed. Here was a sword that could be turned into a lightning bolt! She looked at it and the first thing out of her mouth was "How much do you want for it?"
"Huh" came Naruto's response.
"Your sword, how much do you want for it."
"Sorry, I'm not willing to sell it, and even if I was, it wouldn't matter." Naruto then placed the sword on the ground and invited Tenten to pick it up. She didn't need to be told twice. She pounced on the sword like a starving man on a buffet. As her hand closed around the handle, a blast of electricity ran through her arm, causing her to jerk away in surprise and look at Naruto questioningly. "The sword has a defense mechanism that only allows me to touch it. Even if I did sell it to you, you wouldn't be able to use it."
Tenten looked away as Naruto laughed at the peeved expression on her face. She rounded on him with her sword and Naruto blocked laughing all the while. Tenten's attack kept increasing in speed and ferocity and pretty soon Naruto was using every trick he knew to stop her from taking his head off. After around five minutes of this Naruto got annoyed and activated the lightning. Seeing the blade crackle with electricity made Tenten pause for a split second and in that moment Naruto sliced her sword in half. Tenten jumped on him as soon as the blade reverted to normal and pinned him to the ground. "Careful now, we wouldn't want your parents to get the wrong idea." Tenten blushed, realizing what he was implying, and got off of him. "Fine, get out of here! Come back here tomorrow at 1 p.m. and make sure to bring money for the sword you broke!" Tenten screamed at him. Naruto walked out of the training area laughing at her temper tantrum. Tenten swore and went back into the building wondering why she agreed to teach him.