Chapter 11: A discussion in Snow

Her hand shook and the kunai fell to the ground. With a jerk, she was up again and started to take slow steps back, never taking her eyes from the face of the man, as he got up.

"Naruto?"

Naruto got back to his feet and looked at her, saying: "Hiya, Sakura-chan!"

The eyes of Sakura searched every inch of Naruto's face, looking like they wanted to take in every detail. Finally, she put her hand in front of her mouth and her head hung down. There were some muffled noises which the young man didn't understand. Then, slowly, Sakura reached for her pouch and took out a rather odd pair of gloves.

Each of the gloves had reinforced fingers, with articulated metal, undoubtedly so that the attacks delivered from them would be much more powerful. Naruto wondered why she hadn't taken them out sooner but, at the same time, tensed because whatever was coming from that point on wouldn't be very pleasant, if his memories of the girl before him were worth anything.

"You... You really are Naruto?" Sakura asked. Her voice was slightly different: more forceful and, to some point, menacing too.

"Yeah..." Naruto answered cautiously.

"Well... only one way to know, RIGHT?" Sakura's head lifted up to reveal a huge grin that only made Naruto feel more uneasy. The expression the pink haired ninja was sporting was one slightly demented, as if she wasn't exactly in control of her full mental capabilities.

Without a warning, she disappeared from his sight.

'She's coming from the right!' Kyuubi warned him suddenly.

'I know!' he sent the answer through the mental link they shared since the contract ritual. Naruto dodged the incoming blow. Whatever was happening to Sakura, it made her a much more dangerous fighter, 'she's much faster than before; I had almost as much troubling predicting the attack as I use to have with you!' he commented.

Naruto avoided a new swarm of punches and jumped away from the woman. Sakura stopped and cracked her gloves against each other. It was then Naruto noted that her face seemed slightly different. The eyes were half-closed and seemed somewhat odd: light didn't get reflected on them. The smirk was still there, a confident smirk that seemed almost evil, although in an angered, revengeful way. And in her forehead was what seemed almost like a kanji. Naruto observed closer. It said: "Inner"

Most of times, Naruto would just accept the beating from his team-mate and get the issue over with. But after dodging a punch that almost broke the port in two different structures, he decided to start taking the problem more seriously. Sakura could hurt someone... or herself. And he would be damned if he let it get to that.

By mutual agreement, of both Naruto and the Vixen Goddess, the foxy, silvery mask adjusted itself once again on the young shinobi's face with an almost metallic clunk. At the same time, the hood slipped up his head, as the cloak arranged around Naruto's body to form a long trench coat, protecting as much of his body as it could, without hindering his movements. With no sign of the earlier amusement, his face seriously concentrated, Naruto prepared himself for what was to come.

When Sakura propelled herself in order to deliver another crushing punch, Naruto lifted his left leg, bent himself forward, forming a square angle with his right leg and his spine. The girl's hand passed above his head and she gasped, as Naruto delivered an attack of his own, on her stomach.

Sakura spun and brought one of her legs up, no doubt trying to catch him with a downward trust of the said member. Naruto brought his right hand down and did a flip, ending behind his former team-mate, and delivered a full blow with both hands against her back. Sakura flew a few meters but managed to land upright. The fight progressed on this fashion for some time, with Naruto avoiding as much damage as he could, although some times he would get caught by her. Kyuubi would absorb much of the impact but even with her help the attacks still did their job. For his part, he tried to deliver as many incapacitating blows as he could.

'Something is off about her movements...' he heard Kyuubi comment.

'What do you mean?'

'Look closely: she has a dangerous look but just before she attacks I see great anguish on her eyes, and she hesitates before delivering the blow!' she explained.

Naruto observed as instructed and answered: 'I cannot see that anguish you're talking about, but I believe you might be right about the hesitation part.'

'How can you not see the anguish, it's pretty obvious if you ask me...'

'I'm afraid I'm not very good when it comes to emotions. Specially other people's emotions. I've got enough problems interpreting my own, let alone a foreign one.' The long period of time on the Order's library had had a pretty good effect on Naruto's vocabulary, Kyuubi couldn't help but notice.

'That kanji on Sakura-chan's forehead... Do you know anything about it?' Naruto asked Kyuubi.

'I wouldn't know...' she answered, 'Although, if I had to guess, I'd say the kanji stands for some alternate personality or something. A sort of bloodline, maybe contracted from Ichibi...'

'What? The raccoon Gaara had inside him?' Naruto asked in awe.

'Yeah! Trust me, when it comes to messed up minds, that's with Shukaku.'

'So what can I do?' he inquired.

'Well, the main problem seems to be her accepting your identity, so if you could do something that would, somehow convince, or make her want to believe you're really you, it would surely be enough... You might want to notice that the slight hesitation is undoubtedly a sign that the Primary mind is already very reluctant to engage you.' Kyuubi pointed out.

After a particularly vicious attack from Naruto's part, Sakura started to find increasingly difficult to maintain a proper chain of movements and would sometimes loose balance when moving away or trying to recover from an attack.

Naruto saw his opportunity: at his request, Kyuubi extended part of the coat and grabbed one of her feet, rendering Sakura unbalanced. The girl seemed to struggle for a while, before starting to fall down, exhausted. 'She's probably depleted from using the bloodline. I'd wager she's not used to it, or can't control it very well, so I'd use this to our advantage now...' Kyuubi observed, 'put her unconscious or something.'

Without answering, Naruto dashed forward and caught the exhausted Sakura before she it the floor. The pink haired ninja looked at him while he took the mask and hood of.

"I won!" he told her, smiling.

"Tch... guess I lost!" she answered in a rasp voice, before adding: "I'm glad you're still alive." She seemed like she wanted to say something more but the kanji suddenly disappeared. Sakura paled considerably and fell asleep, on his arms.

'Well... I guess you're method worked just as well...' Kyuubi growled.

Naruto watched the sun rise from the window he was sitting next to, while keeping watch on the sleeping Sakura. She had been unconscious for almost three days. Naruto would have started worrying a lot more than he already was if it hadn't been for Shikamaru's explanation of how Sakura hadn't been sleeping too well for the past months. Although why she hadn't been sleeping was something he didn't say.

"That's something I have no right to tell." he had said, "You ask her when she wakes up. If she wants you to know, she'll tell you for sure."

Shikamaru had been a little hard to convince he wasn't an enemy and Naruto had to submit himself to all type of dispelling Jutsu for the lazy ninja to be at least partially convinced he wasn't some other person in disguise. When inquired, Naruto promised he would explain everything as soon as Sakura was up for the listening.

"It's something she, as my close friend and team-mate, as the right to know. If not before everyone, then at least at the same time you do." he answered. The heartfelt comment seemed to convince Shikamaru's of his good intentions, and now Naruto was alone with Sakura, while he lead his team on another much dreaded (for the students and teacher alike) D-ranked mission.

Naruto heard a shifting sound and turned, just in time to see Sakura waking up, looking at him, and gingerly asking, in a faint voice: "Am I still dreaming? All my other dreams have been horrible..."

"Sakura-chan!..." Naruto said just as softly, kneeling beside her bed.

"Naruto. How? I'm sure I saw you die! I saw your body disappear. A-At first I thought it was a Jutsu from the Fox to save you, b-but Jiraya-sama... Jiraya-sama... h-he said you had entered something called the Lifestream, a-and that you w-were definitely d-d-dead and... and..." During her ranting, Sakura's lower lip had become increasingly unstable, trembling, and she finally found herself unable to continue as the hiccups took her over, and she started crying.

Naruto hold her as she cried hard against his shoulder, her arms around his back like claws, as if to ensure he wouldn't disappear or go away.

"A lot happened since that day, Sakura-chan." Naruto started, after her crying calmed down, and she got silent, "It's an amazing tale and I'll be sure to tell you all about it. But first..." he said as he broke the embrace and got up, "You got to fortify yourself. It's time to eat! I would suggest ramen, but Princess Fuun seems to abhor it at breakfast, so I suppose I'll fetch something else." And with that tirade Naruto left the room.

Walking along the corridors that seemed to proliferate on Snow Castle, Naruto couldn't help but remember how he had re-encountered Princess Fuun after so much time. She was obviously older but, nevertheless, the ageing didn't seem to make her less beautiful. If anything, it only served to exacerbate her air of fairness and nobility.

Of course she had to keep cool in front of the ministers but, as soon as they left, her behaviour assumed a much more relaxed pattern and she fell into the sister-like treatment she always seemed to use whenever he was concerned.

They had traded some greetings and made a few small talk, in order to get the conversation moving. Princess Fuun seemed to be unsure whether she was authorized to ask about where he had been so she seemed to settle on remarking how changed he was. But it wasn't until one particular comment that Naruto realised how much of what she was saying was true.

"You have definitely got much more manly than I remembered you!" Fuun observed, "Why, you even have beard now!"

Naruto blinked, "Beard?" he asked passing a hand along his face. It was true. He didn't know how he hadn't notice it before but there it was indeed.

The Princess seemed to find the fact that he hadn't notice it before a very amusing thing.

Of course, even worse was to ask Shikamaru for advice on the topic of shaving. Still, after the other boy succeeded in stopping looking at him goggle eyed, he agreed on helping him. What followed was a sort of field battle between Naruto and the Razor, along with a lot of initial awkwardness.

"Let the razor follow the lines of your jaw, and make sure you stretch the skin, or else you're gonna get cut very frequently. It's a pain in the ass, really, since cuts on the face seem to take a ridiculously long amount of time to stop bleeding..." Shikamaru said.

"Ouch!"

"See; I TOLD you to be careful!" the other ninja remarked, "Now you'll have to put a paper on the wound to stop the blood."

"Nope! Don't need it, already stopped!"

"What?"

Of course Shikamaru didn't know of Kyuubi or her ability to heal his wounds.

Being shaved only made even more obvious how much of a change he had suffered. The line of his jaw no longer had rounded curves and instead was drawn in sharp lines, any trace of baby fat gone, probably due to all the exercise he had made to get back home. And Princess Fuun never missed an opportunity to tease him.

And then the time came when Sakura got strong enough to walk around without bumping against the walls from exhaustion. She was not recovered, as months of sleep deprivation couldn't be compensated by just a few days of rest. However, she was well enough to do her shores as a ninja; much better, in fact, than she had been for a good while.

And then came the time Naruto had been dreading, even though he wouldn't really admit it.

"Naruto, we were wondering if you could tell us how you managed to... to come back..." Sakura started, tentatively.

Naruto released a deep sigh and felt Kyuubi mutter some words of encouragement to him. 'Don't be so carefree, Kyuu-chan: You're being introduced too, you know.' he told her mentally, effectively succeeding in getting a new team-mate on the mission of fretting.

"I suppose you guys deserve some kind of explanation, don't you?" he asked rhetorically, rising is head to meet their eyes.

He got up from the ground, where he had been meditating, and asked: "Do you guys know some place we can go and be absolutely certain not to be overheard?"

Sakura was about to answer when the voice of Princess Fuun interrupted her: "Well, wherever you choose to go don't choose the castle. Anyone can hear a conversation here and you guys will never know it. If I can suggest a spot," she continued, appearing at their room's door, "I would choose the Solar Panels Reactor's plane. You know," she continued winking at Naruto and Sakura, "the one where you saved me and the country. Nobody goes up there without my express authorization. It's difficult for a civilian but you ninja shouldn't have a problem..."

No one could think of a better spot, not even Shikamaru so, after thanking Fuun and making sure Shikamaru's students were occupied for the following hours, they set for their destination.

Naruto was silent during all the way, thinking about how to explain what happened to his friends. Sakura and Shikamaru made no comment either as they jumped from tree to tree and, when the small forest ended, from rock to rock, up the cliffs, until the Solar Panel's platform.

There they settled down next to the cliffs. They had a pretty good vision of the whole city from there, and Snow Castle was shinning brightly on the afternoon's sun. Originally a land covered in Snow every day of the year, Snow Country now had two main season's a year: one in which the panels were activated, resulting in something like a six months long spring time, and another in which the panels were offline, thus allowing the Land's original weather to return.

Naruto looked to the city for a while, feeling the soft whispering of the wind on his hair.

"Soo..." Sakura started.

Naruto nodded, taking himself out of his reverie and looked at the two of them.

"Right! This story of mine will need some flashback, so we better get started. I ask you not to interrupt me until I've finished. Then you can kill myself with questions if you want." he smiled at the disturbed face Sakura made.

"There once appeared a Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. One swing of one of its mighty tails would bring down mountains and cause tsunami." He felt, more than he saw, Sakura's shift, when she realised what he was getting at. Shikamaru remained quiet, with his eyes closed to avoid distractions from the story, "To fight the Demon, people assembled the Shinobi. One brave shinobi was able to kill the demon, but lost his life. The name of that shinobi was The Fourth Hokage."

"and this is where my story begins, after the Fourth performed the Jutsu that would latter be famed as the destroyer of Kyuubi no Kitsune... Except it didn't kill the Demon." He paused, "What I am about to tell you, Shikamaru, is considered a SS-ranked secret of the Leaf village, and if anyone talks about it besides myself, that someone is condemned to execution."

Shikamaru's eyebrows frowned and he opened his eyes, but restrained himself from asking questions.

"The Jutsu the Yondaime performed couldn't destroy a being as powerful as the Kyuubi so, instead he sealed it into a newborn infant. That's right!" he confirmed, answering to Shikamaru's unasked inquiry, "I was the jailer of the Nine Tails. I had to tell you this so that you understand what comes next: we now make a jump in time, fourteen years forward, and into my fight against Sasuke, on Orochimaru's lair. There, I allowed him to rip my heart from my chest, under the promise of him returning to Konoha and for him to gain the Mangekyou Sharingan. Judging for your reactions, he didn't keep the promise." Sakura shook her head, confirming his suspicions, "NOW comes the beginning of my great journey!"

And for the next hours he recounted everything that had happened, without omitting a single fact to them. He could see surprise in their eyes, even, to his confusion, admiration. When he finished, Sakura's eyes were watery, and Shikamaru had assumed his thinking pose. Naruto knew he was processing all the information he had just received.

"Ok! I'm opened to questions!" he said, stoically.

"Man... that story about the Uchiha being responsible for the downfall of the Goddess and the Birth of the Demon gives me the creeps." Shikamaru commented, "Every clan knows about the connection between the Avatars and Bloodlines, but that is not information to be waved around in front of others faces." he said in response to Naruto's surprised face, "Otherwise, everyone would know how to create a bloodline, and we would loose the advantages our clans have."

"But you said the Goddess recovered her tails, right Naruto?" Sakura asked. The concept of Bloodlines was still knew to her, and she hadn't tried to get information on the topic since her fight with her mother. "and you performed a contract with her, which gave you a bloodline yourself! What is that?" she asked curious.

Naruto gave her the broadest smile he could manage.

For a few moments nothing happened. But then she realised how small Shikamaru and Naruto seemed to be getting. She looked down and let out a gasp of surprise, realising she was now floating mid air.

"My bloodline opens a door to a new power surrounding us, that no one else can grasp." Naruto explained, putting her down, "I call it The Flow. It seems some sort of energy field, as far as me and Kyuubi could understand, and seems to be created by all living things. It responds to emotions and thoughts, we could say it's the very mind of living beings incarnate!... Hmm," he made, "that sounded quite profound. I can control it to some extend to aid me on some shores. I can't tell you exactly what it can do because, honestly, I don't know yet!"

Shikamaru nodded, thinking. "What about the Goddess? What happened to her? Is she free once again?"

Naruto just got up and extended his left arm. Nothing happened. Then Sakura and Shikamaru heard him say amusedly: "Oh, come on! Don't come with that embarrassed talk or shyness excuse. Out with you!"

The Cloak he always wore liquefied and the mask metamorphosed into a girls face, roughly their age. The body formed just behind Naruto's hand. And then, In Front of their impressed faces, Kyuubi materialised as Naruto said, with a theatrical demeanour: "Ladies and Gentleman, the Vixen Goddess Kyuu-chan!"

Shikamaru blinked.

"T-The cloak was the Goddess?" he asked.

"Yeah, It's an exclusive technique, from what I understood of her explanation. Only the two of us can make it, right Kyuu-chan?"

"That's right..."

Her voice was nothing like Shikamaru and Sakura were expecting. It was the voice of a normal human, no overwhelming power, no menacing feelings.

"I'm Kyuubi, nice to meet ya!..." she said waving her tails.

Sakura was the first to recover.

"Is your name really Kyuubi?"

"Well, of course not, but my real name would be far too complicated to express on your language." she answered, "Which is why I told Naruto to keep calling me Kyuubi."

"I would have never thought Kyuubi was a girl..." Shikamaru commented, distracted.

"Careful, Shikamaru." Naruto advised, "Last time I brought up the topic of genders I had to listen to her rating about how females were much better than males and how we boys are incomplete and unbalanced and the like..."

As he had been expecting, Kyuubi immediately jumped to the fight.

"Of course you are! We just have to focus on the fact that when I became incomplete I became male! I think that's enough of a proof. Besides, everyone knows that guys just don't work right until we knock some sense into them!"

"I got to admit, I agree with her..." Sakura said.

"Troublesome..." Shikamaru said.

Naruto just laughed and sat down. Then he said: "Good. Now that the ice is broken, perhaps we can return to our discussions, hm?"

"Actually, I have a question regarding Kyuubi..." Sakura started.

Kyuubi turned her head to her and lifted her ears, which caused Naruto to smirk slightly.

"Why did you transform into a cloak every time you get into villages? Why not use Genjutsu to modify your appearance? I'm sure that, for one with as much chakra as you, the illusion wouldn't be hard to maintain, and you could even perform one strong enough to resist all but the most powerful dispelling techniques..." Sakura said.

Both of them stayed silent for a little while before Naruto answered: "Well, you see Sakura-chan... I'm not very good with Genjutsu..."

"What about you?" she asked Kyuubi.

The vixen girl hesitated a little before explaining: "I'm pretty much incapable of doing any kind of Genjutsu. You could say it is my primary weakness."

Sakura huffed a little, before stating: "That won't do! You guys can't go around like that all the time. It will be suspicious, using what obviously is a technique all the time, especially in Ninja villages."

"Sakura's right." Shikamaru agreed, "If you keep doing it, people will start to find you suspicious, and being who you are and whit your history I think that's the last thing you need on Konoha, Naruto."

Naruto fell silent, troubled.

"I know!" Sakura exclaimed, "What if I give Kyuubi some advice on Genjutsu? I can even develop one and then she just has to maintain it!"

"Is that even possible?" Shikamaru asked.

"It would be just like casting a Genjutsu on her. But we'll have to work out a way for her to maintain it on herself. Maybe I can alter it so that the power supply actually comes from the one it is cast upon..." she mumbled.

"Really? That's great Sakura-chan! Thank you so much!" Naruto said. Kyuubi didn't say anything, but looked surprised at the other girl, "Well, if everything alright between us, perhaps we can head back now?"

"Actually, there are a few thing you need to know, Naruto..." Shikamaru started, eyeing him carefully.

"What is it?"

"Not everything is right, back home. There is some sort of power struggle going on and Tsunade-sama as lost all the power in decision making. I think it is best you take that in consideration when you report yourself back..." Shikamaru said.

"What do you mean, lost power?"

"Most of decisions are now made by the council and some spec ops organization which they call 'Root'. And you know the villagers don't see you with very good eyes..."

"Actually..." Sakura interrupted, "That may not be so true."

"What do you mean, Sakura?" Shikamaru asked, frowning.

"A lot of villagers had been changing their attitude towards Naruto, back then." She said. Naruto figured she was talking about the time before the disastrous rescue attempt on Sasuke, "That change got even more accentuated after his trip with Jiraya-sama. Some people were actually gossiping on how good and reliable ninja he was becoming. Besides... I think you're forgetting most of the heads of the clans on the council are now the guys who graduated with us. If we can get their support, Naruto will have no problem. No civilian will be able to break a clan agreement!"

"Yeah, the problem will be convincing them. Particularly the Hyuuga." Shikamaru said, "You know how Hinata is towards you, Sakura. If you or your mother voice agreement..."

"What do you mean?" Naruto said suddenly.

"It's nothing." Sakura said smiling nervously, "Just a small misunderstanding."

Naruto settled for quieting, remembering Shikamaru's words about Sakura's troubles. Maybe this had something to do with them. He would have to ask her about it in private.

Sakura and Shikamaru were still discussing some points about making Naruto's return believable, when the blonde suddenly looked towards the cliff. He squinted his eyes and, immediately, his hand extended to the side. Kyuubi returned quickly to her cloak form.

"What is it?" Shikamaru asked quietly, getting into position.

"We're being tracked..." Naruto answered.

"How do you know that?" Sakura asked, shifting subtly into a more action-ready pose.

"My bloodline. The flow, remember? It answers to sentient movement." Naruto answered.

"You think is some companion of the ninja you two caught some days ago?" Shikamaru asked, reaching for the pouch.

Naruto laughed softly: "Actually, I think it's your students, Shikamaru... They're climbing the cliff, and being very careful about not being found."

"This is Jiro's doing, I'm just sure of it." Shikamaru sighed.

"You have to keep more control in them, Shikamaru!" Sakura scolded.

Sakura got up and quickly made her way to the edge of the cliff. Once there, she laid down and waited for the head of Jiro to appear.

"And what, pray tell me, are you kids doing here? Spying?" she asked menacingly, when the boy's head became visible from the ground line.

"Wha!" the boy let out a surprised scream and lost balance. Sakura quickly grabbed his belt to keep him from falling. A good measure, if the belt was to hold. The boy's team-mate's screamed as he passed by them, on the opposite direction they were going, falling towards the distant ground.

"JIRO!" Came the scream of both Shikamaru and Sakura.

"Kagema-" started Shikamaru, only to stop when Naruto came into his field of view and did the most idiotic thing he could have done: Launched himself running and jumped of the cliff, like a professional diver, reading himself to enter the water bellow. Except there was no water. Sakura watched in horror as her team-mate fell in the direction of the other boy, her mind refusing to accept that, just a few days of having him back, she was going to loose him again.

Naruto gained more speed, approaching the kid. Once he got near him he took a hold of the boy. Jiro seemed to register he was there, because he turned to him, grabbed him frantically and said: "WE'RE GONNA DIE!"

"YES!" Naruto answered with an overjoyed voice and a crazy smile on his face.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHH!" the boy screamed.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Naruto accompanied him, until his scream broke into laughter and he made an U-turn, inversing the fall. With an impulse from the Flow, Naruto soared to the sky above, before making a somersault and landing on the platform he had been standing moments before.

Naruto put Jiro down and the boy promptly fell to his knees, before being submersed in a hug by his female companions. At least until Shikamaru managed to regain control of his body and grabbed him by the shirt, screaming angrily: "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?" he asked, shaking the boy, "Are you crazy? You could have died! Not to mention you put the lives of your team-mates in danger! AND you disrespected a direct order, when you came here despite I forbidding you to do so! You will get a report for this, and will not be a good one. And consider yourself lucky I don't expel you from the team! I should make you return to the academy... It's obvious you're still too immature to understand what being a ninja means."

"Shikamaru..." Naruto said, sweat-dropping, "Maybe you shouldn't have told them we were coming here, in the first place. Besides, it is not as we were mature back then – I mean, look at me!"

"Naruto, you're hardly a good example on the grounds of proper behaviour." Shikamaru observed, more calmly.

Naruto just scratched the back of hi head, awkwardly.

"All right, team, let's get back. You'll have some punishment tomorrow for this." Shikamaru said, leading them back to the village.

Naruto turned to Sakura, who was getting up from the place she had fallen to.

"Let's go Sakura-ch-OOOF" his sentence was cut short by a punch in the stomach from Sakura. Then she grabbed him and told him: "Never! Never scare me like that again, do you hear?"