Naruko, when she reached the TSAB ship, was immediately carried to the infirmary. Her condition was critical.
Kakashi, Zafira and Vita all went with her to the room, and stayed out of the way. Signum had allowed it under the same conditions the Hokage had, mostly because if the book wasn't completed soon Naruko could likely die.
The Book of Darkness (Tome of the Night Sky) was being examined while the doctors tried to alleviate even a small bit of Naruko's condition. Signum was currently talking to Chrono during this time.
"What's her condition?" asked Kakashi once the scan was over.
"The book appears to have bound over fifty percent of her body. It's a miracle she's lasted this long."
"I think you all should come see this," said Mary, who had just finished her scan of the Book of Darkness.
"The Book of Darkness, formerly the Tome of the Night Sky, is dangerously broken. The Defense and Reincarnation programs appear to have infected most of the book, resulting in the dangerous levels of draining from the master. If it had been completed in this state, it would have killed her within hours of finishing it."
"WHAT?! But completing it should have saved her!" said Vita.
"I'm afraid not. There's also the issue of three Knights having been added within the last year. If it had been completed, then they would have been erased by the next master."
"Three Knights? But there have always been four!" said Vita in shock.
"They were added during the initial awakening. According to this, their spells were added alongside the limited amount given to each master," said Mary.
"What can we do to fix the book?" asked Kakashi.
"We need Naruko-san awake long enough to activate Administer Rights so we can replace the corrupt programs. Then, once the book is filled the damage should reverse itself fairly quickly."
"The only problem is that Naruko hasn't been awake for over a day because of pain," said Kakashi.
Naruko did finally awake three days later, when the pain had subsided to reasonable levels (for her).
"What... what do I...need...to do?" she gasped.
"We need you to stay awake long enough to activate Administer Rights. Once the programs are replaced, the pain will stop," explained Lindy.
"Take me...to...the book," said Naruko. She wanted this over with!
"Activate...Administer Rights..." said Naruko. She was trying to hold back tears from the pain of sitting up.
(Administer Rights Active.)
"Replace...Defense and...Reincarnation...programs...with new...systems."
(Replacing programs with new systems. Replacement complete.)
"Register new...name."
(Name Registry now open.)
"Blessed...Wind...Reinforce,"said Naruko, before passing out.
(Blessed Wind Reinforce, now registered name. Please call me that from now on.)
The book stopped floating on it's own and fell back into the cradle Mary had it in.
Naruko was rushed back to the infirmary, where she stayed for two days before she could wake up. When she replaced the reincarnation program, she also halted the corrupt file that had been slowly killing her.
"How many pages are left?" asked Signum later.
"Only fifty," said Chrono.
"What of the two that stole Testarossa's linker core?" asked Signum. She was still furious about that, because she hadn't wanted it that way.
"We have a lead on those two. If you help us, we can arrest them and put an end to this."
"We'll help. Those two had no right to butt into our fights," said Signum with a growl.
A week later (the binding on Naruko had started to reverse faster than most would have guessed, aside from Kakashi) Signum and the others were laying a trap for the two men who had interfered on the desert planet.
Naruko was nearby, because she didn't want to be left out again. The pain had subsided enough for her to sit up in a wheelchair now.
She wanted to see this through to the end.
She was about to wheel closer to the fence when she sensed someone behind her.
"So you are the little Master of the book," said a male voice.
The hairs on the back of her neck went up.
"I wonder how the Knights will react with you hostage?" asked another.
"No! Let me go!" cried Naruko, as the first one pulled her out of the chair.
"NARUKO!" screamed Vita.
(Master. I can load the other Knights, if you like.) came the telepathic voice of Reinforce.
"LOAD KNIGHT PROGRAM! RELEASE!"
(Knight Program Release initiated. Now Awakening Knights.)
The twin men who held her hostage were in shock. They had thought that all the Knights were released already...then again Zafira had never actually shown up in any of the battles. Not directly anyway.
The magical circle of Reinforce formed under Naruko. It became a bloody red color as three figures formed around her.
"We are the Wolkenritter who serve the master of the Tome of the Night Sky," said the female who had bright red hair down to her backside. She had two hair pins on each side of her face that framed her features. Her outfit looked remarkably like an ANBU uniform, only her mask was a fox.
"We shall protect and serve the master of the Tome, even if it costs us our life," said the male. His hair was the same shade as Naruko's, only it was spiky and he had side burns. On his back was a long cloak with flames along the bottom. He had a mask as well, only his was a toad.
"Our life is bound to our Master, and our souls shall leave with hers,"said the third figure, who appeared to be a Guardian Beast like Zafira, only he had fox features rather than a wolf. He had no mask, but he did have nine long red tails like flame.
"We are the Guardian Knights of our Master, Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruko!" the three intoned as one.
"Impossible! There are only supposed to be four Knights!" said the first man.
"Where did they come from?!" said the other.
"Are you hurt, Naruko-chan?" asked the woman.
"Who...who are you? You seem really familiar..." asked Naruko. The woman helped her back into the wheelchair while the other two Knights looked at the 'men' with a glare.
"We'll explain that once this is over with. Right now we have to deal with these fools," said the woman gently.
"Who are you three?" asked Signum. The fact they had saved Naruko and had the same energy as them was the only reason that she hadn't attacked them on sight.
"We are like you, only we were absorbed the same time Naruko awakened as master," said the woman.
"We couldn't come out until the defense program was fixed and Naruko released the Knight program," said the blonde man.
"Where did you come from?" asked Shamal. The new Guardian beast was keeping the fakes very busy.
"We came from the seal that is on Naruko's stomach. It had a rather...interesting reaction to a safety feature than had been left on it. As a result, all three of us were given a second chance...including fuzzy over there," said the blonde man.
"CALL ME FUZZY AGAIN AND I SWEAR TO KAMI-SAMA I AM EATING YOU!" snarled the fox familiar.
"And risk being stuck in that seal again for who knows how long?" laughed the man.
The fox growled at him, clearly ticked off about something.
Eventually Chrono caught them, putting an end to the fox's fun. Still, the other knights didn't know what to think of the newest additions to their forces.
Kakashi's heart nearly skipped several beats when he saw the Toad and Fox masks. Their forms were far too familiar for it to be coincidence.
"Now, who are you three?" said Chrono.
Kakashi watched with baited breath as they removed their masks. The Guardian Beast beside them switched to his animal form, which nearly gave Kakashi a heart attack.
"Sensei...!" said Kakashi in shock.
"Sensei?" said Naruko.
"My name...is Minato Namikaze," said the blonde man. His eyes and hair were hauntingly familiar...because they were the same as Naruko's.
"I am Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze," said the woman. Her face was similar in many ways to Naruko.
"And you can call me the Kyuubi no Youko," said the fox. He looked like a smaller version of his full sized self.
"Where did you come from, exactly?" asked Signum.
"We came from the seal on Naruko's stomach. Originally we left chakra ghosts of ourselves in case Naruko ever released Fuzzy over here past eight-tails, but when the book absorbed her linker core when she awoke, it also absorbed us into the Knight Program."
"You do realize if I hadn't allowed it to happen in the first place, we would all be stuck in that damn seal," said the fox.
"Yes, but by doing so you allowed that blasted ailment to progress farther than it could have!" growled Kushina.
"Wait! You're the reason why Naruko suffered for months?!" growled Vita.
"Considering the other option was to fight it and lose any chance for her to have her parents back? Which do you think she would have chosen?" said Kyuubi snarkily.
Kakashi had long since falled to his knees at this point. He knew this would be hell to write in a report...
Naruko was in so much shock that her parents were now her Knights that she passed out.
"So if I want to access the full power of the book then I have to complete it?" asked Naruko.
"There are several options. One is to use the moon of your world, which according to Kyuubi-san has some sort of demon sealed away in it. Another is to reseal the original four knights, which was how several previous owners completed it. Or you could continue hunting down criminals in your world which Signum has been doing," said Chrono.
"It surprised me that her village leader had such a simple solution no one could really complain about," said Signum.
It had surprised the TSAB as well. Aside from a few cases like Nanoha, Fate and a few other agents, the Knights had actually left the mages alone for the most part. That meant the number of crimes against them wasn't as large as it could have been.
"You could always go after S-ranked shinobi," said Minato.
When Signum managed to take Itachi's chakra, she had filled over twenty pages in a single hit.
"Or the kekkei genkai users, but that would be a little mean," said Kushina.
"Well there is a third option. The book was originally made to catalog things, right?" said Naruko.
"Yes. The original function was to catalog and preserve magic, before one of the previous masters altered the programs, which resulted in this mess."
"Well then can't I continue training to be a shinobi and catalog it later?"
"Your magic power will be drastically reduced, and you'll only be able to use a fraction of the spells at a time until it's complete. But you can begin mage training without finishing it," said Mary.
"Well, it's not like there's any real rush to complete it," admitted Signum.
Now that the program that had been harming Naruko was gone, there was no reason to rush it's completion.
"Welcome ba...Naruko! You're awake!" said Kotetsu.
"Hey, Kotetsu, Izumo!" said Naruko. Signum was pushing her wheelchair this time.
For the moment, the three Knights Minato, Kushina and Kyuubi were in the Arthra getting used to magic rather than chakra.
"Welcome back Naruko, Signum."
"The situation has been resolved, Hokage-sama. Naruko will be on the path to recovery and will be able to rejoin the Academy withing a month or two," said Shamal.
The look of relief on the Hokage's face was obvious.
"Ne, Jiji, how come you never told me I had the Nine-Tails in me?" pouted Naruko.
Sarutobi choked on his drink.
"Naruko, who told you?" he asked in return.
"Fuzzy did," said Naruko bluntly.
"Fuzzy?" said Sarutobi wincing.
"OW! Shut up already! Fine, he said his name is Riku-something and that he's got a few things he would like to say the councils...specifically whatever idiots keep insisting I'm him," said Naruko, wincing at the volume level.
"You can talk to him now?" said the Hokage blankly. This was a bit early...
"According to the three new Knights that I had to unseal, the 'seal had a rather odd reaction to the books power, resulting in a faster than normal draining rate'," she said.
"Can I get someone in here to explain, please?" he asked with a whine.
"I'll get the new guy to tell you...let's just say his appearance will both answer a lot of questions as much as raise them," said Signum. This was going to be fun.
In the meantime, Naruko was taken home for the first time in nearly three months. It had been a long time since she could lay in her own bed. She grabbed her favorite pillow (shaped like a fishcake, which was a joke gift from the Ichiraku's for her birthday seeing as how her name was one letter away from being called 'Naruto'.) and immediately fell sound asleep.
And landed right inside her seal. Because of the book, the two had met up much earlier than expected.
Which meant she planned to get some training done.
"Dammit brat, what have I said about calling me Fuzzy?!"
Naruko stuck her tongue out at the Fox. Most of his power was still bound behind the seal, but he could at least walk around now without setting it off.
Both of her parents were set free thanks to the Knight system, which meant the bars were much weaker.
However, in order to get any real power from his true self, the Nine-Tails had to work with Naruko, seeing as she was the one who could regulate the power in his 'familiar' form.
"Gaki, if you have to call me something, call me Rikudo Kurama," growled the fox.
"That's too long! Can't I just call you Riku? That way people won't know your real name!"
"I can live with Riku. But if you call me Fuzzy one more time..."
Naruko giggled.
"So how do I change this place again? No offense, but sewers aren't really nice to be in," said Naruko.
As Riku walked her through the steps, her mindscape slowly started to change.
First the pipes vanished and became giant streams of water. Then the bars changed to become a collar and armor around the Fox's neck. Soon the change became much faster as the walls became trees and flowers, her memories became stars in the sky, her emotions the sky itself, and her core the sun.
Riku sat down in the field of flowers with a sigh of bliss.
"Much better. At least now I can stretch around here," he said with a grin.
Naruko was tired from the work, so she curled up beside the giant fox and fell asleep. He covered her with one of his tails and took a nap himself.
