(A/N: Okay, I know I said I would have Kakashi in this chapter, but I just wanted to get it out. It took a great deal of forcing myself to write it, since my motivation is seriously lacking. and I need motivation to keep this story up!

The invasion is next chapter, and if I can handle it, the start of Kakashi's 'women' problems.

This chapter is dedicated to icedragon967 and Kokuou no Shin'en. Thanks for the ideas!

And finally, the long awaited chapter of 'Lonely')

Chapter 21

Sakura was pretty happy with how things turned out with her new sensei. She was going to learn a lot more medical jutsu's, Tsunade's monstrous strength, and the human anatomy, along with using senbon later on. And now that her training regime has been set, she was on her way to Ichiraku's to eat.

Now, she had to admit that she was now addicted to the stuff and she was slowly gaining weight. No, she wasn't getting fat, but she was getting to a healthy weight. Naruto once told her that he liked girls who didn't care how they looked. It was their personality and how they acted is how he judged people. Sakura was ecstatic, and confused at this. How can he not care about how you look? He's like a walking sex God, and he didn't really care how a girl looks?

She sat down at Ichiraku's and ordered a bowl of shrimp ramen. Teuchi smiled warmly at her before setting to work on her order. Sakura returned the smile, and hummed happily to herself. After a couple of minutes, Teuchi turned around to give Sakura her bowl. Once it was set before her, he looked up and dropped his ladle, stuttering out, "Y-Yond-daime-sama?"

Sakura saw his amazed face, and followed his gaze to Naruto, who looked differently, and sexier than before. She couldn't help but drool. She sensed Ayame coming out in front and heard the breaking of glass.

"I don't look that different, do I?" Naruto laughed at their obvious surprise, and sat down next to Sakura. That seemed to snap Ayame and Teuchi out of their stupors. Ayame gasped, and kneeled down to pick up the glass shards, while Teuchi bent down painfully to retrieve his ladle that he dropped.

Naruto noticed his stiffness and said, "Hey jiji, you should retire soon. It doesn't look like you're in your prime anymore."

Teuchi just laughed and retreated into the back room. Ayame soon followed suit. Naruto suddenly got tense, looking extremely nervous.

"Umm, Sakura-chan… I want to ask you something."

Sakura paused from her eating and faced him with a puzzled expression on her face. Naruto breathed in uneasily, and tried to settle his nerves. How did guys find this so damn easy? Who ever tells him that asking girls out for dates he is going to murder them and then burned their bodies with a well place Phoenix Fire Flower Jutsu.

"Uhhh, well… Ummm, will you…" He sighed, steeled his nerves and blurted out. "Willyougooutwithmetomorrownight?"

By the perplexed look on her faces, Naruto sighed again and repeated, much slower this time, "Will you go out with me tomorrow night?"

"What in seven hells are you doing you worthless worm! What did I say about that pink haired banshee! Why are you-"

"I would love to Naruto-kun!" Sakura cut into Kyuubi's rant with ease, which shocked Naruto so bad, he resembled a gaping fish right then.

"R-Really? You will? Great! How does seven sound?" Naruto was inwardly whooping for joy. She nodded enthusiastically, paid for her ramen, and said a quick goodbye before running downtown.

"What did I say flesh-bag? Are you trying to make me mad, or are you trying to piss me off, because it's working! What the hell were you thinking!"

Naruto's mood suddenly mellowed. "No, Kyuubi-sama, I was only trying something out. I… I think I love her.

That certainly caught Kyuubi's attention. This couldn't be happening! He needed to speed up the process just in case his container decided to do something stupid, like mate. He shuddered at the thought. Damn it! He needed to get his container under control again! The only way he could think of was to get him to leave, but by examining the memories he's gotten while being here, there ain't one chance of leaving. Especially when… That's it! That pink haired idiot will help him, but how?

"What did I tell you about her? I had forbidden you from seeing her! Are you undermining my authority?"

That hit Naruto hard, but also made him think… All the times he ever disobeyed Kyuubi, which was so rare, you would have better luck finding a needle in a haystack, all Kyuubi did was rant his mind 'til it was numb. From what he knew of Kyuubi, he always kept his promises, so why hasn't he killed Naruto many times over? Heck, why is Kyuubi so frightened of Naruto being happy without him? Naruto also knew that Kyuubi was a big control freak, which would explain the Kyuubi attack years ago. He probably wanted to have complete power over it. But why?

Now that Naruto really thought about it, why is Kyuubi pushing him this hard? Why did he become his friend in the first place? Why does he listen to Kyuubi? Has Kyuubi ever fulfilled his promise of taking away his power? No, all he has done is threaten, threaten, threaten, and… Oh yeah, threaten. Was Kyuubi really going to keep giving him power to destroy his enemies, and in return have his, Naruto's, body?

Naruto had a sneaky suspicion that Kyuubi wasn't what he said he was, and was going to keep his side of the bargain. If Naruto did get the Kyuubi sealed inside him, he wouldn't have been shunned, hated, ignored, beaten, and glared at by the villagers. He would probably be loved, like all the children in Konoha were. He would probably have a loving adoptive family, who taught him the shinobi ways, bought him ice-cream, tucked him in at night, told him that they 'loved him' and would hug him.

"Well? What do you have to say for yourself, flesh-bag?" Kyuubi growled, knowing that Naruto would submit to him once again.

Imagine his surprise when he is suddenly thrown into the back of his cage, tied down, and a nuzzle put on his face. Naruto appeared in front of him, head down, his face cast into shadows, rendering Kyuubi unable to tell what is going on in his head at the moment. He growled animalistically, something he doesn't do these days, and bared his teeth the slightest in warning.

"What the hell are you doing? Let me go worm!" Kyuubi screamed so loud, the metal walls surrounding him shook with his rage. Naruto didn't even flinch, unmoving, like a statue. His fists were clenched tightly with barely suppressed rage, and confusion.

"Answer me!!" Kyuubi bellowed, squirming like there was no tomorrow.

After several minutes, Naruto raised his head, and stared at Kyuubi with a glare that Kyuubi never knew he had.

"Guess what Kyuubi-sama? I'm taking back control. I'm not taking orders anymore! I will be with whomever I want to be! And you! You will sit down, shut up, and leave me alone! I am YOUR jailor, and YOU will LISTEN to ME! And since you will die when I do, you will NOT keep me from using your chakra, got that, fur ball?" Oh god, that felt so good. Naruto didn't think that he had it in him to stand up to the one thing that gave him a future, but now, he felt that he had no choice. This… Entity… Continues to try to control his future. Well, not anymore!

Kyuubi was so shocked, all he did was nod dumbly before Naruto disappeared from his sight. It took a while for Kyuubi to recover, but when he did; he chuckled lightly, which soon turned into a full blown laugh. The water in the room vibrated with the sheer force of the laugh.

"We shall see kit. We shall see."

Naruto felt like a million ryou. No, more like a billion! He was free, free from any restraint that he felt, kept him from feeling happy. It was a weird emotion, happiness, for he was filled with the urge to kill, courtesy of the Kyuubi and his influence. He decided at once, that he liked it. A lot.

Headed towards the apartment he still shared with Sasuke, his head filled with ideas for what to do for the date. When he finally did get to the apartment, he already had the whole date planned out. How he could wait for tomorrow, Naruto had no idea, but he decided that it was late enough, so to bed it was.

His dreams were full of different scenarios of him and Sakura enjoying themselves.

The next day, 5:00 pm

Another day full of training. He almost got the Rasengan down, since he already knew the version Kyuubi taught him, all he needed to do was use his chakra, and not the Kyuubi's, which was hard since he used it most of his life. Jiraiya had also gotten him to practice his taijutsu, which wasn't bad, but needs improvement. Practice makes perfect.

He set to work on the food portion of the date, taking time and care to get it right. Once it was all done, he grabbed a blanket from the linen closet and set the food on top of it. He wrapped it up and put it aside for later.

Stretching a bit, he walked into the bathroom for a shower.

After the shower, he quickly dried himself off and dressed in a blue hakama and yukata that had a red dragon on the back. He tied a red obi around his waist, and tied his hitai-ate around his neck. Instead of brushing his hair, he shook it a bit and it fell into place on its own accord. The ears that he had a sneaky suspicion about were showing over the top of his head. They would be completely grown in another day or so. They twitched occasionally.

Deeming that his appearance was okay enough, he left his room and grabbed the food he packed. He left via window and ran all the way to a special place he had found a while ago.

Once he got there, he set the blanket out and the food on top. Deeming that everything was set, he ran as fast as he could to Sakura's house.

He jumped down from the roof of a nearby house and in front of hers. He rung the doorbell and waited.

A middle aged man with emerald green eyes and black hair answered the door with a slight scowl. He had stubble on his face, but that didn't seem to bother him. He looked down to Naruto, and asked gruffly, "I assume you are Naruto?"

Naruto bowed and answered, "Yes sir is Sakura-chan ready?"

He studied Naruto for several minutes before moving aside and calling in, "Sakura! Your date is here!"

Naruto waited patiently, not wanting to start up a conversation in the slightest. He heard a call from within and minutes later, Sakura appeared in the doorway. She gave her father a hug and grabbed Naruto's arm.

Naruto couldn't really take his eyes off of her. She had a cherry red kimono on that had sakura blossoms all over, giving the effect of them blowing in the wind. She had an emerald green obi around her waist, tied in the back in a big bow. Her hair was tied up in a bun with senbon holding it there. Her bangs hung down the sides of her face, framing it.

"Like what you see, Naruto-kun?" Sakura asked, giggling at the cute blushed that adorned his face.

"Yes, very much Sakura-chan. You look awesome!" Naruto managed not to stutter, which led to Sakura blushing. The color complimented her hair.

"Thank you. So, where are we going, Naruto-kun?" Sakura asked, hoping to go someplace romantic.

"That is a surprise. You're just going to have to wait."

She suddenly pouted, "Just one little hint?"

He laughed and replied, "Okay, okay. We're going to a special place I found a while ago."

Her eyes sparkled as she nodded. They walked for about twenty minutes, talking about random things, until they finally got to the place Naruto set the stuff out.

When Sakura laid her eyes upon the location, it took her breath away.

It was a relatively small clearing that had a small stream nearby. The reds, oranges, and yellows that came from the setting sun reflected off the waters surface, giving the clearing a radiant glow. The grass was soft, there were a few stones placed near the rivers edge, and farther up the stream was a small waterfall. Right beside the river was a blanket with a box of food in the middle. All in all, the location was as romantic as Sakura could ever have imagined.

"Naruto-kun, this place, it's so beautiful!"

Naruto scratched the back of his head bashfully, "Yeah, I found it a while ago. It's kinda my quiet place, for me to come to, to relax. Watch."

Naruto whistled briefly and waited, looking to a spot just to the left of the waterfall. Sakura followed his line of sight and uttered a small squeal when three baby foxes appeared, apparently not shy for they bounced right up to Naruto like he was their mother.

"They come to visit me every time I come up here. I named all three of them," He pointed to the first, which was a rusty red color. "He is Yougan." He then pointed to an orange one with a red tipped tail. "He is Taiyou. And finally," He pointed to a white one. "She is Rikka."

They all looked up at her, curious. She carefully knelt down and scratched them all behind the ears. They all licked her hand in appreciation.

"They are so cute!" She giggled, standing up again. Naruto smiled and nodded. He then gestured to the awaiting food and they dug in. Through it all, they had a conversation on how she was doing with Tsunade as her teacher, how her lessons were going, and other such stuff.

Time passes quickly, and soon, the moon was peaking over the treetops. The three young foxes were asleep, Rikka and Yougan were curled up on Sakura's lap and Taiyou was on Naruto's.

Naruto carefully set the sleeping Kitsune on his lap, to the ground beside him in favor of moving closer to Sakura. She blushed lightly from the close contact.

"Ne, Sakura-chan… I have something to tell you…" Naruto became nervous again. "I understand if you don't want to talk to me anymore, but I need to tell you."

"What is it, Naruto-kun?" Sakura was puzzled now. What could be so bad that she wouldn't want to talk to him anymore?

"Well, over a decade ago, the Kyuubi no Youkai attacked the village. The only way to defeat the great demon was to not defeat it in battle, but to seal it away in a new born child, a child whose chakra system was not developed yet. It needed to be a new born because then, the demon's chakra and the child's chakra would mingle and mix to become one. That child that the Yondaime gave his life to seal the Kyuubi away into was… me. I am the vessel of the Kyuubi…" Naruto finished, closing his eyes shut tight, ready for the disgust that he was certain was to follow.

A few minutes past before he heard rustling, and tears began to form behind his tightly closed eyelids. His eyes snapped open when he felt Sakura embrace him from behind and whisper into his ear with an understanding tone, "Contrary to popular belief, you are not the Kyuubi. You may have some qualities, but you are not the fox. I still like you for who you are Naruto-kun, don't forget that."

Tears of joy spilled from his eyes as he jumped up and hugged Sakura tightly saying, "Thank you, Sakura-chan. You don't know how much this means to me…"

Sakura hugged him back, rubbing his back soothingly.

He pulled back a bit and stared into her gorgeous green eyes. She stared back. Slowly, ever so slowly, their faces got closer, closer. Right when he was about to kiss her, a ground shaking explosion cut through the silence and they sprang apart, eyes alert for danger.

"What was that?" Sakura asked loudly.

"I don't know, but you need to go home as fast as you can to change. Their might be an attack on the village, and you can't fight in that." Naruto replied. She nodded and they both fled the area, wondering what was happening.

(A/N: Okay, I'm not sure about when I will be able to get the next chapter out. It will all depend on how much motivation I get from now until then. The reviews certainly do boost my motivation, but we will see.

The reason I haven't updated for a while was that I was busy, I went to the Exhibition a while after I got back and stayed with a friend for about a week, and I just didn't feel like writing, at all. Sorry to you all who were waiting for me, but it's kinda hard to write something you just don't have the passion for anymore.

The three foxes names are as translated: Rikka is Snow, Taiyou is Sun, and Yougan is Lava.

If you have any suggestions for the invasion, they would be nice. Who ever has the best idea will have the next chapter, and the chapter after that dedicated to them.

See ya for now!

And please review!!)