A/N Sorry for such a late update. I've been so caught up with life lately that I haven't gotten the time to write.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 25

After a lot of money spent, Naruto dejectedly walked by Sakura who was holding the purple teddy. The blonde failed miserably at the ring toss stand and it had only taken the pinkette one try to win. She was gloating as they were walking through the town, her chin up and a very un-Sakura smirk ghosting over her face.

Naruto sighed as his teammate dragged him to another game. It was a test your strength. Of course, Sakura easily won.

I thought these were meant to be hard. The cherry blossom thought as she accepted the brown teddy bear from the man who ran the game. He looked frightened of her. I wonder why...The duo played many games throughout the day. Sakura won all of them and Naruto followed sadly behind her while holding all of her prizes. They consisted of many childish toys and food.

"I feel like today has been a successful day." Sakura smiled while shoving a dumpling in her mouth. The blonde sighed once again. "Where to next?" She asked him.

"How about somewhere that's not here...?"

Sakura thought for a moment. The two of them could get away from the town and go to the outskirts to train. Naruto wanted to learn his chakra affinity and the kunoichi had the supplies for him.

Explaining this to her teammate, he suddenly found a bounce in his step and began hurrying over to where they were going to train - dropping a lot of the pinkette's prizes on the way.

"Hey, wait for me!" Sakura cried while running after him.

"It's boring." The blonde groaned, a piece of yellow paper in between his right index and middle finger.

"It'll tell you your affinity." Sakura said, rolling her eyes. His whining was getting on her nerves. It took a while, yes, but no need to complain all the damn time!

"Ah!" Naruto yelped as the paper split into two right down the middle. "What does that mean?" He asked his teammate.

"It means that you have a Wind chakra nature." She replied.

"Does that mean you can teach me how to fight with a fan and make a giant cylone to destroy my enemies?" The boy asked, his eyes shining.

Sakura laughed. "Maybe later. I have to explain somethings to you first." He nodded. The girl went on to explain how he should invision his chakra because of his affinity. "You don't even need to pour chakra into a weapon." Her hand began glowing blue and Naruto was in awe. "It works just like a kunai but it's not, if that makes sense."

"Can I do that?!" Naruto asked - more like yelled.

"Maybe later." She repeated as her hand stopped glowing blue. "How about we focus on you trying to-" She stopped herself. Sakura was able to get this the first time mainly because of her prowess in chakra control. But, Naruto would have a tough time with this particular activity. She remembered how her father learnt Wind Style and decided that it would benefit him more if she taught him like that.

"Go get a leaf." The blonde sprang up and jumped into a nearby bush. "You just had to pick one." The kunoichi laughed at her friend's antics.

I wonder how long it is going to take him to cut a leaf.

This is going to take weeks... Sakura thought as Naruto continued to try and rip the leaf with his chakra. Many hours had passed and he was still going at it - determined as ever.

"Maybe we should take a break?" The pinkette suggested on the sidelines. Her question was met with groans of protest. "Naruto-kun, you need to learn to give things time." She rolled her eyes.

The blonde sighed and let the leaf fall out of his hands. "I guess we should find Ero-sennin..."

"He said he was going to find us, but it's been so long..." Sakura said. "Let's go back into town and try and find him."

I've been working on my sensory skills. Hopefully, I can recognise his chakra.

It wasn't very hard to find the bastard. The sannin was in a bar, with multiple women whom he had bought multiple drinks for, and he had spent all of Naruto's money. It was a sad sight for the jinchuriki to see his deflated frog wallet, which once contained so much of his money.

But, the boy had a saviour. Sakura gave the old man an earful about stealing money and made him feel like a chatisised child. Now, Naruto was going to get all his money back in due time.

Sakura-chan is like a big sister... Or a mum! The Nine-Tails' host thought.

Seeing Sakura going all mother hen on Jiraiya wasn't the only delight Naruto saw that day. On the way to their hotel, a man began giving the sannin a hard time. Naruto wasn't really sure what had instigated the arguement but it resulted in Jiraiya using some sort of technique on the man called a Rasengan.

It was a small blue ball formed in the user's hand. It consisted of small chakra threads spinning in a circular motion frantically and sent the user's opponent spiralling.

The old man had revealed that he was planning on teaching that to Naruto. The blonde then proceeded to hug the man who was like a grandfather to him.

"What are you thinking about, Naruto-kun?" The pink-haired kunoichi asked her teammate. He was laughing to himself on his bed that he had just made. He slept in the same room as her but she was used to it from the Land of the Waves, when they were at Tsunami's house.

It was their second say in Tanzaku Town and they didn't really know what they had to do. Jiraiya had left suddenly and the two jinchuriki were, once again, left on their own.

"Nothing." Naruto laughed again. "Let's get to training!" He cheered and began to sprint for the door.

"Wait!" Sakura stopped him. He paused and looked back at her. "...I want to talk to you." She said it quietly and Naruto had the feeling that he should sit down. They were sitting opposite each other, on their own beds, in silence.

"What is it?" The blonde asked, breaking the silence.

"We never spoke about it." She said. "About Kurama and Kokuo-chan."

He was confused. "Who are they?"

Sakura blinked. "The Nine-Tails and Five-Tails."

"Oh... Oh!" So, she wanted to talk about that. Of course, it was a shock when Naruto learnt that his teammate was like him during the whole Chunin Exams fiasco but it gave him a sense of comfort. It gave him the comfort that he was not alone.

"Um... How long has the fox been... sealed within you?" Sakura asked, a tad awkwardly.

"All my life." The Team Seven boy answered. "You?"

"Just before Chunin Exams. Remember the mission with my dad? The one which resulted with me in the hospital? Some Land of Earth ninja sealed her within me then."

"Really?!" The blonde was shocked. "It hasn't been that long for you. I didn't suspect a thing."

"Not many people were told - some people know but I don't know how - and I've only told Ino-pig and Hinata-chan. ...They know about you. Sorry."

"It's fine!" Naruto said, finding some reason to smile widely.

"Kurama?" Kokuo said from within Sakura, trying to connect with the fox. "Kurama?" There was still no response. "Kurama, you bastard, answer me!"

Sakura inwardly laughed. Kokuo-chan gets her rage on.

Hello? The voice stopped her. That was not her and she heard it in her head. Looking at Naruto, she saw that he mirrored her expression.

...Naruto-kun?

The blonde's eyebrows raised. He was shocked. They were communicating in their heads!

Whoa... The blonde remarked.

Kokuo-chan, are you doing this? Sakura asked.

"Kurama, you always used to ignore me when we were little, back when I only had one horn, so you better not ignore me now that we're older!"

She's too far down the path of rage to listen to anyone. Sakura dryly commented. I'm guessing this is happening because she's connecting to Kurama.

That's what Kokuo sounds like! Naruto screeched, his face scrunching. She's scary...

Well, Sakura began. She was nice when we first met but, I guess, she's taken after me now, in a way.

"Sakura!" The dolphin-horse suddenly shouted. "I need you to touch Naruto!"

I'm gonna need some more context. And don't ever say that again.

"You dumbass! Hold his hand or something so I can see Kurama!"

The pinkette was shocked. "You can-"

"Just do it!"

Sakura jumped and grabbed onto Naruto's hand roughly. Immediately, she found herself - and Naruto - in a all too familiar dark chamber. However, this time there were two cages. One on Sakura's side and the other on Naruto's.

"What?" A rough voice asked, produced from Naruto's side. Sakura assumed it was Kurama. His voice was deep and could strike fear into anyone. However, the Team Seven duo had experienced Kokuo and her rage so he was second on their lists.

The cherry blossom found herself turning around, facing her cage. She could only see darkness from within it.

I've never actually seen her before.

"Kokuo-chan?" Sakura called as she noticed Naruto had run over to her side. He seemed confused and Sakura kind of felt the same.

There was no response from within the cage and Sakura was about to call out again. Only, a knock at their door made the Team Seven duo jolt up. They both shared a look with each other that stated 'we need to do that again'.

The kunoichi stood up and opened the door. Two men were revealed. They both wore black cloaks with red clouds on them. One had a giant sword on his back and the other...

He looks a lot like Sasuke-kun. Sakura thought.

"Good for us. They're together." The one who looked like a shark smiled devilishly - as if he knew that the jinchuriki were going to be togther.

The Five-Tails' host had a bad feeling. These men... This was no normal visit.

"Kisame, no." The one who looked like Sasuke said. The cherry blossom didn't know why.

Sakura hid her hand behind the door and transferred chakra to it to form a scalpel. No doubt, Naruto would notice and get himself ready for anything to happen. She coughed. "May I help you?"

"Come on, Itachi. Let me cut off a leg. Or her head." Kisame said. The one called Itachi didn't respond.

"It's been a long time..." He finally said. Sakura was about to say that she didn't know who he was. But, then she thought that maybe this was Sasuke in disguise. However, what happened next knocked the daylights out of her.

"...Sasuke."

The cherry blossom moved her eyes to the right side of the hall to find her raven-haired teammate. He seemed stunned and angry at the same time - if that was possible.

"Hey... He looks a lot like you." The shark-man said. "Just who is he?"

Sakura was not prepared. Neither was Naruto. Or even Kisame.

"...My little brother."