The fox was officially in the henhouse, eating all the eggs, and murdering the nice little chicks while the chickens shrieked in horror. Oh YES, yes he was. And was enjoying it very much. For too long had Kyuubi been tied to humanity, too long had he been forced to share his powers with weak puny little two-legged featherless chickens, and he was PISSED. He had been trilled, in a weird, perverse way, however, when that damn Uchiha failed to bring him to heel. Being stuck in yet ANOTHER human was better then playing pet to that rat-bastard.

The fact that both his old host and her mate died in sealing him within their child was hilariously funny, of course. He thought at the time it would be so easy to convert the boy, he'd done it before. Turn a host evil, reek havoc, and in the end? The only one who really paid was the host. Imagine his surprise when the blond child refused to give into the hateful feelings lurking within. How he fought without relying on Kyuubi's powers, striving to be the kind of man his father was, not that the brat knew that. Kyuubi had to admit, he felt a weird, pride though that wasn't really the word for it, that the kit had done so for a long time without even KNOWING about the fox. Yes, proud, like the parent of a babe who just barfed all over your rivals cloths. On the one hand, your rival was covered in baby-goo, but on the other, there was baby-goo to deal with.

Eventually, Kyuubi knew, Naruto would die, and he wouldn't have to worry about these soft stupid human thoughts he had about the boy. So for years, Kyuubi watched Naruto grow into a fine ninja. Sometimes, he'd help the kit, and often times, he'd hinder him. If the fox had been human, one could say he had a love/hate complex with Naruto. All that changed the night Itachi grabbed them.

The great nine-tailed monster, a being who reveled in destruction and death, had been very, very afraid that he was going to die with his host. Worse, despite all his skills, and all his hate, he was powerless to stop it. So he asked for help. Help from the one person who he hated/cared for the most. All would have been fine if their joint struggle had ended in naught. Or better still, if Naruto had died freeing the fox. Kyuubi would have remembered the event much more fondly.

But No.

Naruto, in that way that the fox hated to be proud of, pulled off the impossible and got them free. The kit might think differently, but it was all Naruto, and not much Kyuubi that saved them. Kyuubi was humiliated, enraged, shamed, proud, furious, and well, basically really pissed off. Never mind that Naruto thought it was the Kyuubi that saved him, Kyuubi knew the truth, and for that, Naruto had to pay. Yet, the fox could not bring himself to kill the child, or simply allow someone else to do so.

So the fox came up with a plan, a brilliantly amazing plan taking advantage of their new….arrangement. With his new greater freedom, he started to eat away at Naruto's mind. Not poisoning it with hate and rage, as he would have done to any other host, oh no, never that. He just, well, altered some memories, tainted the things they boy held dear. Removed others, only to bring them back later. Showed him all sorts of intrusting fun things.

Of course, he made sure Naruto KNEW what he was doing, if not the why. All the while, he forcefully merged their chakra. This merging further weakened Kyuubi's cage, and had the added benefit of weakening Naruto's mind as well. All the better for the fox.

Soon, there would be nothing left in the henhouse except for a very happy, fat fox.

Of course, he had expected those horrid Ninja to figure out his game eventually. He knew they'd try and stop him, even if he had not been quite sure what method they'd use. He had to admit, tying Naruto down to a bed and running lots of loud, invasive tests was not something he was expecting.

And here I was thinking if I got the kit to kill his master things would get so much more interesting. Who knew him FAILING to do so would be so amusing? Kyubi struggled lightly against the straps holding him into the bed. Without opening Naruto's eyes, he could only tell that they were somewhere in the hospital, far away from everyone else. The room he found them in smelled faintly of bleach, and mostly of fear. It sounded to him as if there were, three, no, four people in the room with him, though none were watching the blond at the moment. Let's have some fun, shall we?

"mmmmuugh," he tried out Naruto's voice, "Where am I? Wha…what happened?" He heard someone approach the bed, and kept his eyes closed.

"Naruto-kun, how are you feeling?"

"My head hurts Baa-chan….Why am I tied down? What happened?" He hitched his voice, "Oh no! Is ero-sennin all right?"

Tsunade placed a cool hand on his forehead, "He's fine, everything will be all right Naruto, I promise will fix this."

"That's right, Naruto!" Jiraiya added, coming over to the bed. He moved slowly, even though his student's eyes were closed, he didn't want him to see him walking a little stiffly. "Tsunade will have this figured out in a jiff, so we just need you to hang in there for just a bit longer."

"You can't fix this!" Wailed the fox, pretending to be Naruto, "I almost killed you!"

"But you didn't."

"I thought I had!" silence answered this.

"Naruto. I've seen your room." Tsunade began, "Why didn't you tell me that the fox had gotten so bad? Or Jiraiya? You didn't have to keep it from us." In truth the room bad been worse then she had expected after talking with Sakura and Karin. If the fox was in that much control when Naruto was sleeping, it was a good thing they had tied him down. "Maybe I could have help you."

Naruto smiled, and Tsunade felt a chill go down her spine. "Maybe I didn't want you to know." With that the fox threw himself at her, only to be jerked short before he could even sit up by the restraints. "Pathetic. You think these will stop me?" He turned his head and grinned at Jiraiya, red eyes glowing slightly, "How does it feel to almost die by your student's hand? You couldn't stop me then, what makes you think you can now?" Kyuubi laughed before turning his hate-filled eyes to where Sakura stood with Shizune. "Oh good, you brought me lunch. I love raw pork." He pulled hard on the restraints, and the ones holding his arms gave. Before he could capitalize on this, however, Jiraiya threw himself on to of Naruto/Kyuubi trying to force him back down.

Tsunade ran over to the counter, "Someone go find Yamato NOW! Shizune, help me get him sedated!"

The door slammed open and Kakashi, and Hellboy swarmed into the room as Sakura dodged around them to find Yamato. The two men took one look at Naruto's red eyes and leapt into action. Hellboy grabbed his legs just as they broke free of the restraints as Kakashi worked with Jiraiya on pinning the boy. All the while, the fox laughed.

Wake up, my little kit, greet the day with that stupid smile of yours now.Kyuubi growled in Naruto's mind. Outwardly, he thrashed at his captors and snarled at Tsunade.

The air stank of fear. Fear and pain. Something, no someone was holding him, and he couldn't get away…no no NO no NO NOT AGAIN! Naruto awoke to find himself being, from his perspective, attacked. It was too much like his hazy memories of what had happened with the Akaski. He panicked, and thrashed harder, but the harder he fought the harder the others held him down. He didn't know who these people were….why they were doing this to him….

"AAAAHHHAA! LET ME GO LET ME GO!"

"Shizune, where's that sedative?" Tsunade snapped, frightened for her young friend, "You listen to me you demonic bastard, you hurt him and so help me…." she growled into the thrashing youth's ear.

"LET ME GO! Why are you doing this to me? I don't know what you're talking about, lady, I swear it!"

A sudden stillness came over the room, Kakashi, Jiraiya and Hellboy all loosened their grip on the blond, who immediately pulled free and threw himself as far away as he could get. "Naruto?" Tsunade asked, looking into his eyes. She reached forward to hug him, "It is you! I was so worried….!"

The fox-boy flinched away from her, "Don't touch me!"

Jiraiya frowned, "Hey now, she was worried about you, kid. We all were, especially when…."

"Liar!"

"Naruto!"

"How do you know my name?" glared the boy, ears flat against his skull. "Where am I?" Shizune gasped, dropping the sedative.

"Naruto, look at me." Jiraiya commanded, when Naruto complied, he spoke slowly, "I am your teacher. The fox inside you is doing something to you. We're trying to fix it. I need you to trust us."

Naruto snarled at him, "I don't believe you! What fox? How stupid do you think I am? You just want to find out about…" he looked confused for a second, putting a hand up to his head, "…like them, you just wanna use the…the…fox?" The blond shook his head, his brain felt like it was on fire, "ERAH, My head…What did you do…?….The fox….? I don't remember a….." Yamato chose that moment to come bursting into the room, Sakura hot on his heals, with the rest of team seven not far behind. Naruto's head snapped around, a snarl on his lips that vanished as his ears came back up, "Huh? Why do you look so worried Sakura-chan? What's Yamato doing here?" He looked around, "Why is everyone looking at me like that? Jiraiya! Are you ok? I'm sorry! The fox…I couldn't stop him!"

"I'm fine, lad. More importantly, how are you feeling?"

"Huh? Fine. My head hurts a little but other then that I'm great."

Tsunade shared a look with Yamato, one that promised that she would explain later before looking into Naruto's eyes, "I need you to tell me everything that you remember about the attack to now."

"Why?"

"Naruto, that's an order. You should have told me something was wrong long before this. Hiding anything now will only hurt you, you've got to know that."

"I…" He pouted a moment before he started, "I was getting the sake, and one moment I talking to ero-sennin, and the next he was covered in blood, dead at my feet. There was so much blood….." he shuddered, "it was all over me, the smell, the feel of it. It was horrible. But then suddenly everything was fine again. It just, the vision was so real this time… I hid in his bathroom, 'cause I needed to calm down. His mirror was covered in soap, so I wiped it off. But, the Kyuubi was the one looking back at me. It's kinda hazy after that. I remember Jiraiya talking to me, and trying to kill him, but it wasn't me moving my body, and I couldn't stop it. I swear it wasn't me. I remember getting hurt…..and then nothing until Yamato came in with Sakura-chan." Silence reigned for a while before Naruto gulped nervously, "Why, what did I miss?"

Tsunade sighed, looking around at all the worried faces, "Naruto...I think we have a problem."

Author's Note: Kitsune here! Sorry for the long wait, I've got no real good excuse, other then I've kinda run myself into a corner with this. I wanna end the story soon, and I know some stuff that's got to happen...but the story is just NOT co-operating with me! I tell it to go left...and it goes right...so. While I argue with the story on how we're going to end, there's going to be a bit of a break. Anyway. Thank you all who've read and reviewed this! It really makes me happy when I see Review alerts in my inbox, as well as watch alerts. I feel sooo loved! I'm off to go wrestle the next chunk of this story down.