For those of you who might think the ending to this chapter is a bit TOO perfect, I made it like that on purpose.
If you have any questions, I'll answer them on the next chapter!
~:~
They were five miles outside Konoha when Naruto exploded.
"ALRIGHT!" she bellowed, whirling around. "If one of you damned 'Ne' members so much as brushes my senses without revealing yourselves AGAIN, I will not be responsible for my actions!"
Two people finally appeared, Shina resolutely ignoring them.
Naruto, however, stared at them in bewilderment. One was definitely an Aburame, judging by the glasses, and the other a Yamanaka.
"Huh," Naruto thought out loud before turning away. "I thought they'd be different. Who'd want a Yamanaka and an Aburame on the same team as each other?"
"Don't let Torune touch you if he turns purple." Shina's voice somehow conveyed coldness. "It's lethal poison to all but those who can counter it."
"It would be appreciated if you did not give my powers up," Torune rumbled, his bass voice as expressionless as Shina's.
"It would be appreciated if you had not followed me." Shina continued walking, forcing everyone else to walk or let her go ahead of them.
"You're annoyed?" the Yamanaka asked, appearing right behind Shina with the Aburame.
"No."
"Now?"
"No."
"Now?"
"No."
"Now?"
"No."
"Oh dear Kamis," Asuma muttered. "If this continues, I'm going to have to kill you both."
For a moment, there was blessed silence.
"Now?"
Naruto looked at Shina's face and touched her chakra.
Shina was annoyed.
Naruto held her amusement in check.
"Now?"
~:~
"So I lied." Asuma shrugged at his students' looks as he and the leader of Taki conversed. A young girl was going to Konoha, her face set. Angry. "I told my students that I was taking them just outside Konoha."
"Ah. Nice one." Shibuki looked worried. Really, really worried about the young girl he was, in essence, selling to Konoha. "Fuu -"
"Please don't," Fuu requested. She had no weapons on her. Asuma only knew a little bit of the reason Fuu was coming.
The group started back to Konoha when Asuma finally broached the subject.
"So why do you have a guard with you?"
"A clan of killer spider people from Iwagakure," Shina said flatly.
"They tend to kill Aburame off in droves," the other Aburame supplied. "They devour most of the body, then leave just enough to make their symbol."
"That is nasty," Naruto said, shuddering.
"True. However, I would honestly prefer death than being stuck with guards." Shina's cold words made the Aburame flinch.
"I thought he was your family." The Yamananka's head tilted.
Shina didn't answer him, instead walking faster and ignoring him.
~:~
"Too bad. I was looking forward to more of a challenge," a man with silver hair that was slicked back said with a wide smirk. He was bare-chested, alone, and wearing shinobi pants. He picked out the easiest targets and nodded to himself. "Jashin-sama will be pleased by one sacrifice, anyway. Hahaha!"
Making his chakra minuscule, he leapt up in a tree.
Given that he could tell two among them were sensors, one was an advanced Aburame and one was a clearly angry Aburame, he had to pretend he was going for the Nara.
He wasn't an idiot; rash at times, yes (when he didn't get his daily sacrifice in, or when Kakuzu was around him), but not an idiot to not have a plan.
As a bonus, he could get a jinchuuriki and a bounty. The Fire Guardian possibly had money on his head. Kakuzu wouldn't be pissed if he got him the bounty, right?
He waited... And waited...
And struck, like a viper.
One step, a surprise feint, a quick kill.
The Aburame didn't have a chance to move as he sank the kunai into her chest.
"For Jashin-sama!" he crowed, pulling the kunai out and licking the blood.
The other Aburame took the girl's and dragged her to the side. She was still alive, but barely.
There was one thing he didn't anticipate.
Two pairs of glowing red jinchuuriki eyes flashing in his vision made him run.
An unearthly scream rent the air, and the Kyuubi itself appeared.
~:~
Despite his rage, Shikamaru never expected that this would happen. He could hear and see things in a hyper-aware way, feel the pull of the Kyuubi that made him want to lose control.
But he remained in control, even as Naruto's entire body seemed to change.
The Kyuubi roared as both human and bijuu tore after the member of the Akatsuki who had so brutally sank a kunai into their teammate's chest.
Speaking of -
"Shina, stay with me." The Aburame sounded fearful; the Yamanaka kept a hand on her forehead.
"She'll not survive this," the Yamanaka said, taking the hand off of her forehead. "Danzou-sama will have to wait for another possibility for a jinchuuriki."
Asuma-sensei looked angry. "Danzou was going to force my student to become a jinchuuriki?"
The Aburame sighed, sounding frustrated. "Threats of killing her family were what he used," he said quickly. Shina's choked breath made him swear a little.
The final member of the group stared at Shina and the Aburame, listening to something Shikamaru couldn't hear.
"I must speak with the Kyuubi."
Not even a second later, Naruto bounded into the clearing looking very burned. Her eyes were red, and she got up into Fuu's face.
"What?!" came the angry voice of the Kyuubi. "What do you want?"
Fuu held her fist out.
Kyuubi tapped it.
The Kyuubi's eyes widened.
"I shall do it."
"Whatever it is you're doing, do it fast," the Yamanaka snapped. "She's almost completely gone."
Both Naruto and Fuu approached Shina's body.
Naruto/Kyuubi held out a hand, setting themselves right between the two Ne members. The Kyuubi placed a hand on Shina's body; red chakra surfaced on all three of them, being drawn from Fuu and placed into Shina's body.
Fuu crumpled as soon as the last of her chakra had faded. There was nothing to indicate she was alive; when the Kyuubi stopped, chakra still lingered around Shina.
The Kyuubi moved swiftly, slicing Shina's jacket and flipping up her shirt to show pale skin.
The Kyuubi placed his palm on Shina's stomach, and a black seal appeared.
To Shikamaru's untrained eyes, it looked like Naruto's, with subtle differences.
"She'll live," the Kyuubi said quietly.
~:~
Shina woke up in Naruto's arms.
Berating herself mentally for having been angry, for not sensing the bastard who had stabbed her, Shina opened her mouth to ask Naruto to drop her.
A croak exited her mouth, and everyone crowded around her.
"You're awake!" Naruto looked like she was going to cry. "When he stabbed you I thought -" Naruto bit her lip.
Shina moved, only to stop.
"Yeah, don't move," Naruto winced. "Fuu... Transferred her bijuu to you."
Shina blinked.
"Danzou lied to you," her cousin said in an unexpectedly thick voice. "The girl with you was the jinchuuriki."
Shina did the only rational thing.
She passed out.
~:~
Chomei stared dispassionately at the human, who stared back at her just as dispassionately.
"This is not going to work," the human said.
"No," Fuu's voice said. Her chakra remained in this human, who Fuu had already been going to die for.
It wasn't fair.
But, Chomei did admit this body - while needing a few modifications - would suit her needs better than Fuu did. Fuu had been unable to control bugs with the ease of an Aburame; and this Aburame's chakra coils were already used to jinchuuriki chakra, thanks to the Uzumaki.
"If we work together, then I believe that everything will work out."
Chomei scoffed. "I do not see Kurama and that pestilence working together," she spat, thinking of the bijuu in the blond-haired child.
"If you insult Naruto again, we will never co-exist," the Aburame said with unnerving calm.
Chomei hesitated, thinking again of the blonde brat and Kurama. They had an... Ease with each other that was kind of scary. Kurama did not care about humans, and yet he allowed this one to control him? Inconceivable.
No - not control. Chomei pulled the memory of her interaction through Fuu with Kurama and the blonde brat.
They... Cooperated.
"We will probably never attain the same amount of friendship as they have," the Aburame went on to say.
"What is it you desire?" Chomei asked carefully.
"The ability to be able to protect my family." Chomei heard the notes in her voice carefully; Shina's voice revealed nothing to her that wasn't already known. But her mindscape -
Chomei was in the middle of a brilliantly styled garden. Flowers waved gently in the sands; bright patterns mixed with dark ones. A kaleidoscope-patterned walkway depicted her emotional state; Chomei admired it enough to not want to damage it.
- her mindscape showed she was being honest.
Chomei paused for a moment -
-and the place shifted from the tranquil garden to a sewer.
"Shina!"
The Aburame turned to see the blonde girl run over to her; Chomei found her attention snatched by the open cell, in which Kurama lazed.
"Kurama, what is the meaning of your relationship with the blonde child?"
The Kyuubi cracked open an eye.
"Why?" The Kyuubi asked, gaining the two humans' attention.
Chomei hesitated.
"My human's an idiot," Kurama said unexpectedly. "She's headstrong, impulsive, and one of the most unpredictable, annoying creatures on the planet. There's also your human, who is extremely smart and exceptionally good at being forgettable." Chomei wondered if that was a good human quality... "And then there's the other lazy-ass of a human. He's smart, extremely so. He balances my human's stupid with your human's smart with his smarts and laziness. All three are dedicated. And you ask me what my relationship is with my human, my kit? Because I like my kit. My kits, as a matter of fact."
Chomei shrank inwardly a little.
The blonde child is weeping a little, while the Aburame's face is as hidden as it had been when she'd first appeared in the Aburame's mind.
And with a start, Chomei realized something.
She'd never been bound like she had been in Fuu's mind inside of the Aburame's mind.
"Um... Nanabi-san?" The blonde brat looked at her tentatively. "Please be nice to Shina. She might not be all that approachable and stuff right now, but hurting her won't make any of this go away."
Chomei knew that.
"Chomei," she said at last. "I am Lucky Seven Chomei."
"And I am Kurama, though you already knew that," Kurama said, glaring at Chomei before affection came into his red eyes as he looked at the two humans.
Chomei bent her head. "I will not take over you, or ruin your mindscape. I cannot give you a faster acceleration of healing; using the Uzumaki's chakra you have already gained it to some extent."
The Aburame nodded to her. "Thank you, Chomei-san."
"All my jinchuuriki can fly and use bomb powder," Chomei added. "I would advise making your dress code less strict; you'll need open air to fly."
Shina nodded. "I will do that as soon as the issue of the Supaida Clan is taken care of."
Chomei allowed herself to fall back into her new mindscape.
Even as she did, Fuu appeared before her.
"Mind if I keep you company?" the soul of the girl said with a smile.
Chomei enfolded the spirit in her wings.
"Stay as long as you wish."