Chapter 21: Kyuubi's Misadventures

Kyuubi had finally managed to scourge through all of Naruto's memories, even though getting into them had been hard enough, he had to live through this kids life in fast forward just to find where his stupid house was. It also took him a bit of time to figure out how to act around people. It really was quite annoying, acting like a complete idiot all the time.

He had founded all these discoveries and more on top of the Hokage Monument. He had learned that a simple genjutsu was more than enough to mask his presence. He couldn't let much of his own chakra leak out, but Naruto's was currently absent, which made it that much more difficult. After nearly fifteen minutes, he could mask himself with a genjutsu to give the appearance of Naruto, but if he ran into anybody that knew Naruto too well, then it probably wouldn't have worked. So, he closed his eyes and entered the familiar sewer of Naruto's mind.

Kyuubi had explored it several times on his own, letting his chakra slip through the bars, but never actually enough to affect Naruto. Instead, he had let the chakra explore that various hallways that were part of Naruto's mind, etching it into his own. So, when he found himself staring at the bars, it was no surprise. He had located Naruto's memories before, but they were scattered in various locations. Some he wanted to forget; those were in dark, damp corners. The ones that he loved stuck out obviously in the dark corridors of his mind. Others glowed faintly, and even more glowed with a dark aura. Kyuubi had never bothered actually going through and experiencing them before, but it had been quite the experience.

The first memory was an odd one, to say the least. It was from before Naruto had become a genin, before he even knew the Kyuubi existed within him. Kyuubi, after letting a frivolous amount of chakra slip into the memory, opened his eyes to see what Naruto had seen. He knew that the certain memory he chose would be of no importance, so he tried to brainstorm a way out. The memory, one of sitting alone on the favored swing of the jinchuuriki, ended quickly. Kyuubi had the art down to a science after a few more memories.

He had figured out how to enter several memories at once, string them together, do just about anything he wanted. Except, of course, change the reality of the memory. That was impossible. The entire process only took about an hour before Kyuubi knew everything he wanted to know. By the time he finally made it back to Naruto's apartment, opened the door, and plopped himself down on the couch, another twenty minutes had passed. That's when Kyuubi heard a loud, guttering noise.

Sitting up, he glanced around, trying to sense anything nearby. Nope, nothing. He leaned back into the couch, making a disgusted face when he noticed a month old empty ramen cup in front of him. The noise came back, and it made his stomach lurch. Kyuubi glanced down, realizing the sound was coming from his own stomach. He glared down at it. It'd been too long since he actually had a body to feed; he had forgotten what sound a stomach made when it was hungry. He laughed lightly, in spite of himself, before rummaging through the kitchen for some decent food.

To his utter dismay, there was no food besides ramen within the household. Kyuubi craved to sink his teeth into meat. Something juicy and a little chewy. Not noodles that had to cook for three minutes. He growled, shutting all the doors. Now, to decide how to get that juicy meat. Should he hunt it down himself? Probably not. He still wasn't used to Naruto's flimsy, human body, so he doubted that he'd be able to catch anything too soon. He'd have to either go out and buy it—not an option. Naruto didn't have any money at the moment—or somehow get it from a restaurant. Well, that probably wouldn't work either, but he needed meat.

Kyuubi stretched out on the couch, letting a leg hang over the side. After a few minutes, he had devised a plan. That pink hair girl was a teammate of Naruto, so maybe she'd feed him. If not, that other girl without pupils, a Hyuuga, would feed him no doubt. He sat up and stretched again, suppressing a yawn. After that, he bounced up and walked out the door, vaguely thinking how odd it was to open a door. Thumbs were nice.

Hands shoved in his pockets, Kyuubi had a pretty thorough idea of where he could find his prey. Maybe that wasn't the best way to word it, but that's what Kyuubi felt they were. With his foxy sense of smell, he could sniff out both of them, plus he was hunting them down. Essentially, they were his prey. The first one he saw was the pink-haired girl. Perfect, he thought secretly, stalking up behind her silently. Kyuubi's past time as a small fox had been to scare his prey before greedily attacking it. A mischievous grin plastered itself on his face.

"Heeeey! Sakura-chaaaan!" he yelled once he was only a few inches behind her. He could tell from her scent that she was frightened from his sudden outburst. Of course, he had been sure to use Naruto's most annoying voice. That is, his normal voice. How Kyuubi hated it.

"Naruto?" she asked incredulously, turning around to stare at him with big eyes.

"I'm out of money right now," Kyuubi sulked, pulling out his frog-shaped wallet and shaking it, "so would you buy me some meat?" he faked the 'puppy-dog-look' in hopes of getting meat. Sakura just kept staring at him, making motions with her mouth but not speaking.

"I… but… you…" she stuttered, swiveling to look over at the hospital, then back at Naruto. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Hungry," Kyuubi stated. That was the only thing wrong with him.

"You are aware you were in a coma not two hours ago, right?" Sakura asked, finally able to form a sentence.

Kyuubi pretended to think for a moment. Naruto was all too easy to predict. "Nope!" he declared, smiling. Now he just had to see if Sakura would buy his act.

"Well, I guess I can buy you some meat. But then you're going right back to the hospital, get it?" she demanded sternly. Kyuubi nodded obediently. Sakura stared at him for another moment, her instincts slightly abuzz. She shrugged it off and turned around, setting a brisk pace to the nearest restaurant. Kyuubi followed closely, grinning.

After eating, Sakura glared at Naruto. He had ended up wanting more and more meat. She thought it was odd that he had always asked for the meat extremely rare, he still wanted it pink almost all over. As a medical ninja, it disgusted her. She glared at the meat, imagining all of the single-celled parasites and bacteria that could be eating the flesh of the dead animal. She almost checked it before Naruto ate it, but she didn't want to interrupt his meal.

"Aaah," Kyuubi sighed contently, "thanks, Sakura-chan!" He flashed a smile, hoping his teeth had returned to normal after he ate the meal. He had changed his canines to help him bite the meat. It had worked, and Sakura had been too busy looking at his food to notice. Sakura nodded, paying for his meal.

"Alright then, back to the hospital with you," she said, grabbing his wrist.

"W-wait! I don't need to go back! I'm fine!" Kyuubi tried to maneuver his wrist out of Sakura's grasp, but he couldn't.

"You got your meal. We're going back to the hospital." Kyuubi reluctantly gave up. The only way he would get away is if he used his own chakra, but then Sakura would get suspicious, which is something he didn't need.

Even after having rowed for what must have been a few hours, Minato wasn't tired and the shore was still nowhere within sight.

"I have another question for you," Naruto stated after a small period of silence. Minato rather liked the silence; it let him concentrate on rowing the boat.

"What is it this time?" Naruto, Minato assumed, loved to talk, loved the sound of his own voice, or suffered from sedatephobia. Naruto had recently taken to asking the most ridiculous questions that Minato could think of in their current situation. He wasn't sure, but he thought that Naruto was always going to ask him a serious question but changed his mind at the last minute.

"Um…" Naruto fell off into silence. Minato, although he wasn't facing Naruto, raised an eyebrow in question. "What's your favorite food?"

"Ramen," Minato answered with a sigh. There he went again. Another odd question.

Naruto suddenly became lively, bursting out sentences without hesitation. "Really?! Mine too! My favorite's miso! Ichiraku makes the best ramen around! The only thing I don't like it having to wait three minutes for the ramen to cook," he pouted. Minato glanced back at his son, who was still muttering o himself about ramen.

"Naruto, I know it's good, but what you have is called an obsession," he stated blankly.

"It's not an obsession! I just love ramen!" Naruto protested, obviously not too sure of what being obsessed meant. Minato opened his mouth to respond, but Naruto intervened before he could say anything. "Oh! Another question!"

"What now?" Minato sighed.

"Why—" Naruto caught himself before he asked the question that had been bugging him, "—did you decide to become Hokage?" Nice recovery, he told himself.

Minato thought for a moment before answering. "You know, I never really knew. They decided I should be the next Hokage and I agreed. Guess I didn't do as well as they wanted me to, huh?" he added under his breath.

"What'd you say?" Naruto asked, having heard only a glimpse of the last bit.

"Nothing, nothing. Any other questions?" Minato asked, expecting a loud 'yes!' from behind him. To his surprise, Naruto stayed quiet for a few moments until he answered with a quick no. Minato knew that eventually Naruto would ask about the Kyuubi, just as Naruto knew that he wouldn't be able to bear not knowing about the situation his own father had been in.

An awkward silence set in beside the noise of the water splashing the boat, making Naruto skin crawl in anticipation. He really did hate silence.

A few moments later, Minato cleared his throat loudly, drawing Naruto's attention. "Look, Naruto, I, uhm, I'm sorry about not being there for you as a dad…" Minato said sheepishly, taking one hand off of an oar long enough to scratch his cheek lightly. He quickly grabbed a hold of the oar again before turning around to look at Naruto.

"Um… Well, you know, I turned out okay, so there's not much to apologize for," Naruto replied, unknowingly copying Minato by scratching his own cheek—or, more definitely, whisker mark—lightly. Minato resisted the urge to chuckle; this was supposed to be a serious moment. "I—" Naruto cut himself off. "No, never mind."

"Feel free to share," Minato urged, finally feeling a small tug of resistance in his muscles.

"It wasn't important," Naruto said, staring off the side of the boat. Minato turned to look at him, surprised to find him about to fall out of the small dingy.

"Hey!" Minato yelled, grabbing Naruto attention before he fell out.

Naruto looked over at him, eyes wide. "Land!" he yelled, exasperated. Minato looked in the direction that Naruto was pointing toward, and nearly jumped out of the boat. They both worked to turn the boat that direction and rowed with more enthusiasm than before, Naruto pitching in to help.

AN: Phew. I finally update, don't I? I hope you liked it, since it took me so long. I won't promise you any sort of date for the next chapter, but I promise I'll try to have it up in less than a few weeks. I never know how much homework I'll have or anything. By the way, this update hasn't been spell checked by one of my betas yet, so if you see a typo it should be fixed tomorrow or the next day.

Regardless, thank you guys so much for being so patient with me! I didn't get a single complaint, but if it's starting to worry/bug or something else you, please tell me! I write for you guys, not me. If you wanna talk to me, feel free to PM me or anything else. ^_^

Anyway, R&R please!

~Elizabet639