Chapter 20:

The Final Stretch to the Tower

Jinra was uncharacteristically flushed at the moment, and for more than one reason. The first reason he was like this was because it had taken he and Naruto the better part of an hour to move their injured comrades away from the battlefield and into a shadowed cave they found, and even longer to properly fortify said location with traps, since the two of them were in no condition to take on any opposing genin teams at the moment. Though with Naruto's experience in setting traps for his various pranks, the last part wasn't particularly difficult. The second reason Jinra was in his current state however, had to do with something he had just discovered about an hour after Naruto had left to gather some food and supplies for their base.

When Naruto left Jinra was still fatigued and a little out of breath from the battle with Orochimaru and setting up the base, and now he was currently alone in a cave with two unconscious shinobi. So, having nothing else to do, he decided that he would check them for any serious injuries. After all, they had all taken quite a beating.

Sasuke was inspected first. From what Jinra could tell the only real injury on the Uchiha were the fang marks on his neck. However it was the symbol on the skin right next to the marks that was worrisome. It looked like some sort of bizarre tattoo that was burned onto his skin, and it was having a negative effect on his body. The raven-haired boy was wracked with a blistering fever and he wasn't moving aside from the occasional twitch. Jinra's limited medical knowledge suggested Sasuke was poisoned, but there was no discoloration around the bite marks to support that theory. His body was reacting violently to something, but Jinra didn't know what it was. There was nothing he could do.

And that left Haku. He had no visible injuries, but that was probably because the clothes the ninja wore covered everything but his hands, neck and face. For all Jinra knew Haku was a giant bruise under there. Jinra knew that the only way he could assess Haku's injuries was to get a good look underneath. Now, if this were a member of the opposite sex there would be a problem with such an action, but as far as Jinra knew, Haku was a guy. He couldn't imagine the great demon of the mist having a girl as his apprentice. It just wouldn't make sense.

Taking care to be as gentle as possible, lest he make some injury worse, Jinra set about removing Haku's top layers of clothing, which consisted of a loose, white rimmed, blue haori and a green, long-sleeved turtle neck sweater, only to freeze at what he found beneath. In place of a normal male chest, Haku's chest had two lumps of flesh covered by several layers of bindings to hold them in place. It took a second but Jinra gingerly put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Haku had breasts…

Guys didn't have breasts, at least not guys as skinny as Haku…

So that could only mean…

'Holy shit! Haku's a girl!!!!'

His body reacted immediately to the revelation and shoved Jinra backward while his hand threw the sweater over Haku's form, covering her near nakedness. He then quickly scrambled around so that he was facing away before bringing his knees to his chest and taking several deep breaths, his cheeks burning all the while.

That was the state in which Naruto found Jinra when he returned with the promised provisions. To say the blonde was curious about his friends state was an understatement. In all the years they had known each other, he had never once seen Jinra so flustered. It was almost funny.

Taking a few steps closer, Naruto took a squat right in front of the silver-haired boy and gave him an inquisitive look. "What's wrong, Jinra?"

Silver eyes locked with blue at the question. "Haku's a…I mean I went to check for injuries and…I…he-she…had chest bindings."

Naruto blinked and was silent for a moment before finally smiling. "It took you this long to figure it out?"

Jinra's eyes quickly became the size of dinner plates as he looked back at the blonde. "You knew?! How?!"

Naruto couldn't help but laugh at his friend's expression. It was priceless. "How could I not know? I mean come on; the voice, the face, the nail polish, and aside from all of that her body language makes it so obvious."

Jinra remained for a silent for a moment, his mouth forming a silent 'oh.' "I just thought that Haku was gay."

Naruto let out a small chuckle as he sat down next to his friend. They remained like that for a few minutes before Naruto spoke up again.

"How's your arm?"

Jinra glanced at the bandaged appendage, flexing it experimentally. "It stings a little. It'll probably be fine in about a week, less than that if we can get a medic-nin to look at it. How about you? Any injuries?"

"Nope. I'm a pretty quick healer."

"Oh."

Another short silence passed between the two of them before Naruto spoke again.

"You've obviously checked on Haku. Did you check to see how Sasuke was doing?"

Jinra nodded his head slightly. "No real serious injury, but that weird mark on his neck is having an adverse effect on his body. As near as I can tell Orochimaru put something in him that's acting like a toxin and his body temperature is increasing dramatically in an effort to burn it out."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"No. If we try and lower his fever we risk letting the toxin take hold. As hard as it is to accept, it's all up to Sasuke now."

"What if we took him to the tower? We already have both scrolls, and they're sure to have some medics there."

Jinra let out a deep sigh. As clever as Naruto could be, sometimes he was a little slow on the uptake. "We can't do that Naruto, at least not yet. We have two injured people on our hands and a forest full of potential enemies. And the odds are good that most of those enemies are waiting for us at the tower. With a handicap like ours, we'd never make it. Maybe if Haku or Sasuke woke up we'd have enough man power, but not now."

Naruto thought about what Jinra said for a moment before realizing he was probably right. Even if Naruto made enough shadow clones to carry Haku and Sasuke, they would still be at a distinct disadvantage if any other team decided to attack. In the shape they were in they couldn't afford to make any mistakes, not after that encounter with Orochimaru.

Naruto internally grimaced. Just thinking about that snake bastard made him remember what he had hinted about Naruto's family.

Flashback

"Pathetic. Though I guess it should be expected. After all, the son often does take after the father."

"What? Didn't they ever tell you who your father was, Naruto-kun? I'm not surprised. Who want to associate the shame of the village with its greatest hero anyway?"

End Flashback

The hint made it all too clear who Orochimaru was referring to. Everyone knew that the greatest hero of Konoha was the man that had saved them from the Kyuubi, and that man was the Fourth Hokage. Did that mean the Fourth was his dad? Naruto didn't want it to be true, because not only would that mean that his father was dead, but also that it had been his own flesh and blood that had cursed him with the burden of being a demon carrier.

Who else knew about this? Orochimaru used to be one of the three legendary ninjas of Konoha, second only to the Hokage in power and authority, so did that mean that Old Man Hokage knew as well?

Naruto was distracted from his thoughts by a faint mumbling coming from Jinra. Looking to his side he saw that the boy in question seemed to be fighting a losing battle against fatigue and chakra exhaustion.

"Jinra."

"What?"

"I'll take the first watch. I'll wake you up later."

Jinra nodded before getting up from his position and heading towards one of the more hidden parts of their "base" to take a nap. He was awake for less than three seconds before much needed sleep overtook him. Unfortunately while his body rested, his mind was free to wander.

Inside Jinra's Mind:

The hollow sound of footsteps walking on cold marble floors echoed throughout the landscape that was Jinra's mind. Jinra wasn't sure what most minds were supposed to look like, but his seemed to be mostly blank. No doors, no windows, no distinguishing features of any kind; just a seemingly endless hallway with black marble floors and pearl white walls.

Not knowing what else to do, the heir of Fenrir walked aimlessly through the corridors as he pondered what he was doing here. Was he dreaming? It didn't feel like it, which meant that this really was what the inside of his mind looked like.

Staring at the blank ceilings and walls Jinra wondered why they were so empty. If this was really his mind, then where were all the memories? "Where did they go?" he thought aloud.

"That is a question for another time, Child."

Jinra flinched involuntarily as a familiar set of large steel doors appeared in front of him. "Open the doors. We need to talk."

The tone the voice used left no room for argument, so Jinra did as he was told and pulled one of the doors open. What he found on the other side of the door was a large room filled with a single occupant. Said occupant was a gargantuan obsidian wolf with large amber eyes and glowing red runes trailing along most of its body. Glowing chains bound its head, neck and legs, and a large ornate sword was imbedded into its ribcage, forcing the once mighty creature to the ground. And although the sword was massive, larger than the Hokage's tower, the creature dwarfed it in comparison. This was the great lord Fenrir, and they didn't get much bigger than him.

Jinra gave a small formal bow to show his respect. "Greetings, Lord Fenrir."

"Greetings, my heir. We have much to discuss."

Jinra looked up and gave the demigod a questioning look. "Like what?"

"I created this link between your mind and mine to monitor your progress, and I have found it lacking. Your loss to a mere human being is unacceptable," Fenrir said calmly, though a flicker of irritation appeared in those massive eyes.

For a moment Jinra forgot himself. "A mere human?! Orochimaru was a sannin! One of the three most powerful ninja to ever exist in Konoha! I'm lucky to be alive!"

Fenrir let out a menacing growl in response. "He is still human! And as my heir you should have never been so weak as to lose to him!" The force of Fenrir's voice knocked Jinra back a few feet, causing him to collapse onto a nearby section of floor. Seeing this, the giant wolf was forced to calm himself, and continued in a much softer tone. "It's clear to me that the adjustments I made to your seal the last time we met are not progressing as swiftly as I had hoped, so I'm afraid I'll be forced to speed up the process."

Jinra's eyes widened to an impossible degree and his body started to shake. "No…please don't…"

An imperceptible trace of pity flashed across the wolf's face before it disappeared. "I have to. Remember, Child, what I do now is for the benefit of many."

Before Jinra had a chance to respond, a silver wave of chakra rose forth from the wolf's form and surged straight into Jinra's chest. The boy's screams shook the corridors of his mind, unknowingly causing a few doors to appear on the once blank walls.

In the outside world…

The only warning Naruto received was a surge of chakra coming behind him before something silver bolted past him, disappearing into the forest. The blonde blinked as he watched the bushes move back to their original position while he wondered, 'What the hell was that?'

Suddenly getting a bad feeling he couldn't explain, Naruto turned around and searched the cave for what he somehow knew was no longer there. Blue eyes eventually rested on the small patch of earth that he had seen Jinra lay down on not even a half hour ago.

It was empty.

Already a few hundred yards away from team ten's campsite, a large silver creature moved through the forest with surprising speed and stealth. Branches, rocks, trees; nothing seemed to slow it down. It was searching for something, something that had insulted its honor. That thing had to die, and nothing was going to keep the creature from finding it.

The creature came to a halt when a familiar scent hit its sensitive nostrils. The odor was foul and wreaked of dead skin and toxins. Following the smell the creature inclined its head in a slightly northward direction, towards the center of the forest. Changing direction so fast that it almost seemed as if it had teleported away, the creature continued on. It was close, the creature was sure of it.

Less than a mile away the gray haired man known as Kabuto stopped in his tracks. His two teammates Yoroi and Misumi noticed this from behind him and stopped as well.

"Kabuto, what's wrong?" Misumi asked.

Kabuto stared off into the distance for the moment as if he were searching for something invisible to the naked eye. "Something's coming."

Kabuto's tone was filled with a seriousness that was rare for the genin, and it caused his teammates to become increasingly tense. It was Yoroi that eventually spoke the question that was on both of their minds. "What's coming, Kabuto?"

Kabuto never had a chance to answer because at that moment a massive silver blur shot out from the bushes and tackled Misumi to the ground. The genin didn't have the chance to defend himself or even scream before the creature clasped his throat in its jaws and with a sickening crunching sound ripped out his jugular; Misumi died less than a second later.

Yoroi and Kabuto stood frozen in shock and the blood erupted around the pair, coating their former teammate and his attacker in the life giving liquid. They continued to watch as the creature lifted its head up and looked at them with cold amber eyes, allowing them to finally see what it was.

Standing before them was the largest wolf either of them had ever seen. It stood about half the size of a grizzly bear and was distinguished by its now soiled silver fur and sparse blue markings that covered it from head to toe. The claws on the pads of its feet were unnaturally sharp and its teeth looked like they could bite through steel. And the worst part of it all was that this creature was glaring at them with an almost human like hatred.

Kabuto was the first to recover from the shock as he crouched down in a loose fighting stance, his hands immediately being covered by a thin veil of chakra. Yoroi quickly followed suit, though his insecurities shown clearly through his body language.

"Kabuto, I can't fight this thing," Yoroi said in a loud whisper, trying his hardest not to provoke the beast that now stood less than a dozen feet away from them. "My family technique to drain chakra is useless on animals."

"Stay calm. Creatures like this will only attack if you give them a reason," Kabuto whispered back.

"Give them a reason! That thing just slaughtered Misumi! What reason did it have for that!?"

A loud growl exited the wolf's throat, effectively killing their conversation. The growl didn't stop though. It gradually grew deeper and as the wolf opened it's mouth the sound transformed into one gnarled word. "Orrrroooocchhiimmmaaaruuuu."

The creature than leapt in Yoroi's direction. Unlike his teammate, Yoroi was able to let loose a startled scream as the wolf aggressively tore off his limbs before silencing him with a massive bite to the neck, almost severing his head in the process. It then turned its attention to Kabuto and struck as fast as it could. Unfortunately for the creature, the gray haired ninja was ready and was able to land a solid hit to the creature's side, allowing the chakra in his hands to reach past the wolf's skin and sever the muscle underneath.

With a pained yelp the wolf broke off its attack and landed a few feet away, now favoring its wounded side, before limping back away through the bushes at as fast a pace as its wounded body would allow.

Kabuto watched the creature go and released a breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding. If he had struck just an instant later he would have died just like the others. Kabuto started to walk back towards the tower when he suddenly felt a blinding pain at his side. Looking down in surprise, Kabuto took notice of a large bleeding wound.

'It wounded me? How? When?' Ignoring his own questions, Kabuto focused a large amount of chakra to his side and watched as the substantial damage was slowly repaired. Once the damage was gone, he quickly checked himself for any other wounds before continuing his trek to the tower where he was assigned to meet that man that he had spent so many years spying for.

'That wolf clearly wasn't normal. I have to report this to Orochimaru-sama. Such a creature might be useful to his plans.'

With Team Ten:

Sasuke was now kneeling on the ground, gasping for breath as a series of black markings retreated from his skin back to the strange tattoo that Orochimaru had left on his neck. As Naruto watched from a distance, he couldn't help but feel a growing sense of concern for his teammate's well being.

Only minutes before a trio of sound-nins intent on killing the Uchiha had attacked them. The remnants of Team Ten had won, and the sound-nins had escaped with their lives, but the power Sasuke had displayed while fighting them had been more than a little disturbing. Sasuke had woken up about halfway through the fight with strange glowing marks covering over half of his body. The marks seemed to imbue Sasuke with a strange purple chakra that came off him in waves. Less than a minute after waking up Sasuke had broken the arms of one of the sound-nin, knocked the second one unconscious, and scared the third witless. They had retreated soon afterward, leaving Sasuke to collapse onto the ground, grasping his neck in pain as the purple chakra dissipated.

Naruto had been disturbed by how that strange chakra had felt. It reminded him almost of the way the Kyuubi's chakra had been, but at the same time it felt different. The Kyuubi's chakra was volatile and laced with centuries of pent of hatred and bloodlust, but this purple chakra, while feeling no less malevolent, had a more tainted feel. It was almost as if it had come from the darkness of Sasuke's soul; all of his hatred, loneliness, and suffering given form.

The blonde shinobi walked over to where Sasuke was kneeling an offered his hand to help his teammate up. "Need any help?"

Sasuke stared at the offered hand. The scene was so similar to the one that had occurred several days before that it was frightening. He was tempted to refuse the help, but then Jinra's words from a less than a week ago ran through his mind.

Flashback

"The only thing that makes you different from us is that you refuse to let anyone help you. You think that it makes you stronger but all it will do is cause your own downfall."

End Flashback

Sasuke grimaced at the memory. He hated depending on others, especially when the other person was weaker than him. But was Naruto one of those people?

'Naruto fought every bit as hard as I did in the fight against Orochimaru, maybe even harder. He didn't give up when I was ready to. He's…he's stronger than I am.'

Sasuke gave a mental growl as he grasped Naruto's hand and allowed his teammate to haul him to his feet. He would accept Naruto's help, but the next time he was going to be stronger…no matter what the cost.

Sasuke came out of his thoughts only to realize that Naruto had just said something that he hadn't heard. "What did you say Naruto?"

"I said we have to get out of here. Our traps are gone and we don't have the supplies to make more. The best thing for us to do is take Haku and head towards the tower. If we're lucky we'll find Jinra there too."

Sasuke paused as he thought about what Naruto had just said. It sounded smart-- smarter than anything he had ever heard Naruto say before. Naruto wasn't supposed to sound smart.

"Hey, Dobe, you're acting differently than usual."

Naruto, who had just finished the process of maneuvering Haku onto his back for transport, turned around and shot his teammate a confused look. "What do you mean?"

Sasuke fixed Naruto with one of his patented scowls before responding. "You know what I mean. You didn't act like this in the academy. You're acting…" Sasuke found himself at a loss for the appropriate word to describe the blonde's new behavior.

"Smart? Competent? Like I'm not a dead last?" Naruto offered seriously.

"Well, yeah," Sasuke said, mentally slapping himself for not having something more elegant to say.

Naruto just gave him one of his cheesy grins. "Don't be so surprised, Sasuke. The art of deception is a ninja's greatest tool. Believe it or not, I've always been this way."

"Why?"

"It's complicated," Naruto said with a slightly uneasy voice. Sasuke waited a few moments for him to elaborate, but when nothing came he realized that Naruto was done talking about it, which frustrated him more than he was willing to admit. Nevertheless he decided to drop it for now, knowing he would beat it out of Naruto later of he had to.

A few minutes passed with the two of them (three if you included the unconscious Haku) walking in companionable silence, at least until something resurfaced in Sasuke's mind from the battle with Orochimaru. Turning his head back towards the blonde shinobi, he asked a simple question, "Hey, Naruto, why did you call Haku 'her' when we were fighting with Orochimaru?"

Naruto chuckled to himself. He knew he was going to have a lot of fun with this.

Back to Jinra:

Jinra stumbled into a clearing, clutching his side in pain. He was experiencing several different emotions at the moment. Confusion was the most prominent, because he had no idea where he was or how he had come to be here. One minute he was laying down to sleep while Naruto stood guard, the next he was in the woods somewhere, covered in blood and with a mysterious injury that he had no recollection of receiving. The next emotion was anger at his ancestor, because above all else he was sure that this strange development was his doing. And the final one was fear; fear for what he might have done in between when he fell asleep and when he "awoke," and fear for what he might become as a result of whatever changes Fenrir had invoked within him.

Seeing a stream nearby, he took a few more shaky steps closer before collapsing at the water's edge, barely managing to avoid falling on his throbbing side.

'What happened to me? This pain, it feels like someone reached past my skin and tore my muscles apart,' he grimaced as he crawled closer to the stream. 'I have to ignore the pain. I have to see what Fenrir did to me.'

With one final heave he was able to see his reflection, and he wasn't pleased with what he saw. His face was still basically the same, for that he was grateful, but his silver eyes that had for so long been his trademark were missing and in their place were a piercing pair of amber orbs much like his fathers'. He also noticed that his ears were slightly pointed now, and his teeth were sharper than he remembered, especially his canines.

Jinra's eyes saddened when he saw this. 'He did change me. I don't look human anymore, not really. The only thing I can do is cover it up with a henge and hope no one notices.'

Leaning so that his back was braced against a nearby stone, he brought his hands in front of him to form the transformation seal, when he noticed one other change he had missed. His fingernails had lengthed and sharpened considerably, and now resembled a set of slightly humanoid claws.

'Great,' he thought sarcastically. 'Now all I need is red facial tattoos and a furry partner and everyone will think I'm related to Kiba.' Mentally adding normal hands to the list of things he wanted disguised he put his hands into the transformation seal and muttered, "Henge." A cloud of ninja smoke engulfed him only to disperse a moment later, revealing the same Jinra everyone else knew. He even took the precaution of covering up the blood. He didn't want people to know what had happened to him if even he hadn't figured it all out yet.

'All right,' he thought. 'Now that that is taken care of, I have to find some way to reaching the others. Even if I knew where I was in this crazy forest, I doubt I'd be able to make it very far with my injury. My only option is to summon something, but with the amount of chakra I have left I doubt I could manage anything large enough to carry me. No, I need to summon a creature skilled enough to track the others down, and fast enough to get them here before some other team finds me. And there's only one summon I know of that fits that description. I just hope she's in a good mood.'

Gathering most of his remaining chakra into his hand, he slipped his hand back into his shirt and slammed it onto the seal on his chest. Less than a second later an explosion of smoke formed next to the silver haired summoner; announcing the arrival of some much needed help. When the smoke cleared, a female wolf half the size of Oberon was sitting in front him giving him a curious look. Her fur was pristine white with small silver and blue highlights, which complimented her almost human looking ocean blue eyes. "Jinra-sama?"

Her tone held hints of surprise, concern, and a small underlying hint of annoyance, at least until she noticed the fact that her master was covered almost from head to toe with dark crimson liquid. "Jinra-sama! You're hurt!"

Jinra was surprised for a moment, but then he remembered that all summons had the ability all the children of Fenrir possessed, which was the ability to see through illusions.

Before Jinra could utter an answer the huntress was all over him, searching his body for open wounds and sniffing around for any sign of infection. Her concern was touching, but Jinra knew he had to tell her the truth. "The blood isn't mine, Luna. You don't have to fuss over me like this."

Luna looked up from her inspection and gave Jinra a stern glare. "I know that the blood isn't yours, you idiot. I can smell the difference. But that doesn't mean you're not hurt. Someone's severed the muscles in your left side, or didn't you notice?"

Jinra gave a small sort in response. "Yeah, I noticed, but I didn't call you here to examine my injuries. I need you to find my teammates and bring them to me. We're in the middle of a survival test and we got separated."

Her glare softened somewhat as she understood why she had been summoned. "What do they smell like? I can't track them if I don't know what to look for."

Jinra considered this for a moment. "Sasuke smells a little like charcoal, probably because of all of his fire jutsus, and Naruto's scent slightly resembles a fox. Is that specific enough?"

Luna just lightly shrugged. "The scent of a fox is pretty unique, especially on a human, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. With any luck I'll have them here in a few hours."

A small grin formed on the boy's face. He knew he could depend on Luna. "Thanks, Luna."

"Don't mention it. Just don't die while I'm gone." She turned around and was about to head off when she stopped and turned her head back towards her summoner. "Oh, and one more thing, when I get back you're going to explain to me why your disguising your appearance." And then with a flash of movement she was gone, leaving a smiling Jinra in her wake.

'I guess now all I can do is wait,' Jinra thought to himself.

He had been sitting there for almost half an hour when he came to an odd realization, his arm, which had been injured before the fight with Orochimaru, didn't hurt anymore. In fact, it wasn't even sore. The same could be said for the injury to his side.

The logical side of his mind knew that this shouldn't be possible. Luna wasn't a medic, but he believed her when she said that those muscles were severed. Severed muscles didn't take less than an hour to mend; they took months at the least. Flexing his once injured side, he pondered this strange turn of events.

'I guess Fenrir's changes weren't just cosmetic.'

He was brought out of his musings less than a second later when he heard someone coming into the clearing. Knowing it had not been enough time for it to be Luna returning with his teammates, he quickly took cover behind some large rocks and withdrew a kunai in case he needed to defend himself.

A minute later a lone figure entered the clearing, one that was familiar to Jinra's eyes. It was a blonde kunoichi wearing a light purple two-piece battle garment and a giant collapsed fan strapped across her back. Her golden blonde hair was tied up in four short ponytails on her head and an annoyed expression adorned her delicate face.

'Temari?'

At the thought of that name Jinra felt that same sensation he had felt around her the first time they met. It was a sense of familiarity, like he had forgotten something that was important to him, except this time it was stronger than before. Whatever it was he knew that it was closer to the surface of his mind now, yet still just out of reach. It was frustrating.

He continued to watch as the young kunoichi from the sand knelt down by the stream he himself had sat by only minutes before and began to fill her canteen with water. With his acute hearing he could detect the sound to faint grumbles about 'impatient jackass puppeteers' and 'psycho redheads'. Jinra assumed that she was talking about her two siblings, though what she meant by referring to one of them as a puppeteer was a mystery to him.

Quickly finishing her task, Temari stood up from the stream and walked out of the clearing, probably to meet back up with her teammates. Jinra felt a powerful urge to stop her; to talk to her, but he suppressed it. Whatever this feeling meant, he had to sort it out before confronting her.

It was about an hour later that Luna showed up, his two teammates and Haku in tow. He was grateful to see that both Sasuke and Haku were awake and seemed to be in good health.

"Hey guys," Jinra said casually as he helped himself off the ground.

The action got a small smile from Haku and a smirk from Sasuke, but all Naruto did was frown. "Where did you go, Jinra? One second you were with us and the next you were gone."

Jinra frowned in return. Had he really disappeared that fast? "I don't know, Naruto. I only remember as much as you do. All I can recall is going to sleep, and the next thing I know I'm near this clearing." 'Covered in blood and looking more animal than man,' he added mentally.

"Do you still have the scrolls?" Sasuke asked in a tone more appropriate for addressing a child.

Jinra reached into his hip pouch and pulled out two cylinders bearing the 'heaven' and 'earth' symbols. "Of course I do. Did you really think I would lose them?"

Sasuke didn't answer the question, instead choosing to turn and start heading in what Jinra assumed was the direction of the tower. "Come on. The sooner we get to the tower the more rest we'll be able to get before the next stage of the exam."

Jinra turned to Naruto who just shrugged before following Sasuke. Haku lingered behind and walked up to Jinra before surprising him with a hug, which Jinra awkwardly returned to the best of his abilities. When she let go she whispered, "I'm glad your safe," before running to catch up with the others. As he watched her go ahead of him, Jinra blushed while silently thanking god that he knew Haku was a girl, otherwise that would have been way more awkward than it was.

He was brought back to reality when he felt a small nip at his heel and looked down to see a slightly angry looking Luna staring up at him. Silently wondering what she was so peeved about, he assumed she was waiting for him to dismiss her. "Thanks for the help, Luna. You can go back home now."

If it was possible the scowl she was giving him got even darker before she shook her head violently. "No way. This test is obviously dangerous and you don't have enough chakra left to summon help again. I'm staying with you."

Jinra opened his mouth to argue, but she cut him off before he could even utter a syllable. "I'm not changing my mind."

Jinra let out a small sigh. It was for reasons like this that he was hesitant to summon Luna in the first place. She could be very stubborn at the worst of times. "Fine, but try and be inconspicuous. It's not normal for a summon to stick around too long after its task is finished."

Luna gave him a small nod before they heard Naruto give a shout back to them, "Jinra, hurry up!"

Jinra chuckled to himself as he and Luna ran to catch up with the others.

They arrived at tower not long afterwards, chakra almost depleted after a small run in with a group of mist-nins using a wide area genjutsu to try and get them lost.

Once they got in they ripped open both scrolls and were surprised to find that they were filled with summoning seals. After a shout from Jinra about what it was they were holding, the scrolls were tossed to the ground a second before they exploded into a cloud of smoke eventually revealing a very worried looking Hokage. Apparently he knew of their encounter with Orochimaru and had come there personally to make sure they were all right.

After a brief explanation of what happened and who Haku was, the Hokage congratulated them on a impressive battle before leading them to four small rooms where they could rest, telling them that breakfast would be served late the next morning.

Jinra and Luna walked into one room while Sasuke and Haku took two others. Naruto walked up to his room and placed his hand on the doorknob, but paused for a moment as his eyes locked onto the back of the retreating Hokage.

"Old man," Naruto said sternly, causing Sarutobi to turn his head in curiosity.

"What is it, Naruto?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he met the Hokage's wizened gaze. "Tomorrow you and I have something important to talk about." There was an edge in the blonde's tone that alerted Sarutobi that whatever Naruto wanted to talk about wasn't going to be pleasant. Nevertheless, the old man gave Naruto a small nod before turning back around and walking away.

Naruto then opened the door to his room and stepped inside. He fell asleep before his head even hit the pillow.

That night Naruto tossed and turned in his small bed, haunting visions filling his dreams. That was why he didn't notice when a thin veil of crimson chakra started covering his body like a second skin, starting from his stomach and spreading outward until it reached his head and appendages.

Kyuubi smiled from behind the seal on Naruto's stomach. 'Stage one complete. Now, on to stage two.'

Manipulating the chakra around her vessel's arms, she commanded his hands to meet in front of his body in a familiar seal as Kyuubi's voice escaped from between the blonde's lips, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." (Shadow Clone Technique)

And then in a small burst of crimson smoke, a beautiful red haired woman stood kneeling at the blonde boy's bedside, a gentle smile adorning her face. Slowly reaching her hand towards Naruto's sleeping face, she ran her palm over his whispered cheek before running her delicate fingers through his unruly blonde hair. Her smile only grew when Naruto subconsciously nuzzled towards her touch, his sleeping mind reaching for the contact that had been denied him for so long in his waking life.

"Naruto-kun," she whispered softly, being careful not to wake him up. "This may be the closest I'll ever get to having my own body again, but I guess it will have to do," she said as she continued to caress his scalp with her nails. "I just wanted to say that I'm proud of you. You fought against a ruthless opponent that you had no chance of defeating, and not only did you do it bravely and without my help, you survived where most would have died." At these words her smile turned slightly sad, but it was a smile nonetheless. "I wish you would let me help you. I wish you would let me be closer to you, but I guess that might be asking too much right now. All I can hope for is that you'll be able to ask for my help when you really need it."

The Kyuubi stared at him in silence for a few moments before letting out a small sigh. "Being inside of you is really starting to affect me. I'm growing too soft for my own good." She then leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on Naruto's lips, wondering if it was his first. She wasn't aware of every moment of his life. Then, with a small smile she dismissed her temporary form and returned to her living prison.

Noticing the loss of contact, Naruto stirred a little in his sleep before pulling the covers up further onto his body and settling back down, a content smile present on his face.

Author's Note: This might just be my longest chapter ever. I hope you enjoyed it. I would have had it out a little sooner, but it took a while for my editor to get this back to me.

Also, I'm proud to announce that I now have a translator for the ninja techniques in my story. His pen name is Leon Darksword and he is doing an awesome job so far. And due to his suggestion, I'm actually going to go back and add the translated versions of the jutsus I've used so far (with the english version in parenthesis).

And finally, it is time for me to finally decide who to use as Sasuke's pairing...with a poll! This is probably going to be the only poll I'll ever do for this story so I'm hoping to get a good response, and whatever the majority goes for will be the winner. Right now the choices are:

Tayuya (the current favorite according to my reviewers)

Tenten (one of the few serious kunoichi that are around Sasuke's age)

Haku (kudos to those who guessed it)

Kin (She might be hard, but if you guys want her I'll find a way to keep her in the story)

So, as always, send me a review and tell me what you think. I look forward to your questions, comments, and opinions.