When he woke up again he was in the middle of a large garden filled with many trees and large flowers. It was beautiful, but all the big things seemed to make him feel small and weak. He felt almost insignificant in the large garden.
"Where are we?" asked Irena to his right as she rubbed her wrists.
"We are in your mind," said Naruto. He almost felt jealous that this woman had such a beautiful inner mind when he had a maze of blank hallways leading to painful and lovely memories all the same.
"That is amazing," she said, "You could use this jutsu on the guards so that he can let us out."
"I can only use this jutsu on other Jinchuuriki," said Naruto, "I'm sorry."
"Oh." She seemed to deflate as she said this word. Naruto couldn't really blame her. If he remember correctly she had been in the cell for many years before they would kill her so that they could take her spirit. "What did you mean when you said that I should meet the spirit."
"Well first we have to find it," answered Naruto, "which should be relatively easy since these trees line our path." He pointed the only path of grass that didn't have some sort of plant in the way of the trail.
"Are you sure this will be alright?"
"Of course," said Naruto. "Trust me."
As they walked the path the top of a large tree could be seen in front of them. The closer they got to the tree the bigger it became until they reached it's base and could no longer see the sky above them. The tree formed an opening much like a cage that was three time their size.
"You have to call on it," said Naruto.
"What do I say?" she asked.
"Just say its name."
"What is its name?"
"How many tails does it have?"
"3"
"Call it Sanbi then."
Irena called out the spirits name quietly. Then after a moment of timid silence and Naruto urging her to call it again she said the name a little louder. It reverberated inside of the hollow tree. Echoing that single word ominously within its darkness. There was a sound of beating wings as the spirit descended from the top of the tree. It was a white bird like creature that had three tails and pale blue eyes. "May I help you with something Irena?" it asked with it's soothing voice.
Irena was unable to say anything so Naruto said, "Miss Irena wanted to meet you."
"I'm glad that you wanted to meet me," said Sanbi.
"I know that voice," said Irena suddenly, "You're the one who sang me to sleep when I was a child."
"Of course. You had such a hard time falling to sleep at that time that I thought you might just need a lullaby."
"Why would you do that for me?"
"I have come to think of you as my child."
"But why?"
"Even though you two have never met you are still very close to eachother. Sanbi feels every feeling that you do. Every pain. Every happiness. She has come to think of you as her child because you are so close to eachother."
"I see."
"Kyuubi-sama," said Sanbi, "it is an honor to meet you as well, but I must ask what happened to your predecessor?"
"She died," said Naruto.
"Kyuubi-sama?" asked Irena.
"I have taken the name of Kyuubi when the Kyuubi before me died just as you will do when Sanbi dies."
"So you're one of the de- I mean spirits now?"
Naruto nodded. "Why don't you let Sanbi out of this cage? I'm sure she would like to spread her wings."
"Of course," gasped Irena, "but how do I do that?"
"This is your mind. If you do not want the cell to be there then it will disappear."
Irena nodded and closed her eyes. For a moment the cage wavered until it was no longer there. Sanbi squeeked in delight as she took flight and flew around there heads. She landed again for a moment to thank Irena gratefully before it took off again.
"I think that we should go and meet Kyusuke and his spirit now," said Naruto
"Do we have to go?" asked Irena.
Naruto laughed making her blush. "You can come back here whenever you want. It is your mind."
Irena blushed even more. She couldn't believe that she had been so stupid. "Alright let's go."
Naruto made the hand seal again and performed the jutsu once more. From a distance he could feel his body get shocked again, but he didn't much care. After that time in snow country and in the flying city things that tried to stop him from using his chakra and things that tried to suck out his chakra didn't seem to matter because he knew that he could beat them.
This time when they awoke they were in a bright yellow bedroom. It felt comfortable with it's childish dressers and small bed. There were several small toys on the floor. "Well it seems like this child has yet to see too much that will spoil his innocence," said Naruto with a serene smile.
Suddenly there was a loud thumping sound as someone came rushing to the room. The door slammed open to reveal a muscular man with blue hair and yellow eyes. He was much taller than both Irena, who was a full grown woman taller than Naruto was at 13.
"That can't be Kyusuke," Naruto muttered. Irena only shook her head.
"Who the heck are you and why are you inside of Kyusuke's mind?" growled the man.
"You must be a spirit," said Naruto, "You're the only one that I know of that still knows what he looks like in human form."
"Answer my question." he growled again.
"Miss Irena," gasped a little boy standing behind the man. He had brown hair and emerald eyes. He reminded Naruto of Konohamaru back at home. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm looking for you," she said, "Who is this?"
"This is my dad," answered Kyusuke as he stepped between them so that he could introduce them to eachother. "Dad this is Miss Irena."
"And this is Naruto," said Irena pointing to Naruto.
Naruto leaned down to shake the small boys hand then stood back up to look at the man. "It is nice to meet you both," he said with a smile.
"It is an honor to meet you Kyuubi-sama," the dad bowed slightly to Naruto as Sanbi had done.
"Dad," said Kyusuke, "his name isn't Kyuubi-sama. It's Naruto."
"And you as well Yonbi," said Naruto.
"May I ask why you are here?" asked Yonbi.
"Originally I came on a mission to get a scroll from the Akatsuki," said Naruto truthfully, "but now my plans have changed to include getting you guys out of here."
"What do you mean?" asked Yonbi.
"I mean that we're going to escape from the Akatsuki before they kill Irena and Kyusuke."
"I agree with that," Yonbi nodded.
"But I'm going to need your help."
"How can I help."
"I highly doubt that Kyusuke can fight his way out of here and I can't do everything for him. I need you to take over long enough to get him out of here with Irena."
"Anything I can do to help."
"Alright," said Naruto, "I'm going to undo this jutsu and I need you both to be ready to go at any moment because I'm waiting for a word from my friends as to when I should break out."
"Yes sir," said Yonbi. He bowed once more as Naruto undid the jutsu.
Naruto woke up to feel one of the Akatsuki underlings prodding at him with his foot. "Wake up kid," he said. "The boss told me to come and get you. It looks like you are going to be the first one that we are going to experiment on." He leaned forward and took Naruto's cuffed hands off the wall. While he did this Naruto could see that there were two more underlings waiting outside the cell.
"Please tell me that you guys are in position," he said to his teammates while the underling forced him to stand up.
"We're almost there Naruto," answered Sakura.
"Why?" asked Sasuke.
"Because they are going to try and force Kyuubi out of me," answered Naruto, "and that hurt when the Kyuubi was alive. I don't want to have to endure it now that I am the Kyuubi."
"We're here Naruto," said Sakura.
"Good," said Naruto out loud.
"What?" said one of the underlings.
Instead of answering Naruto head butted the underling that was holding him and tripped another one who tried to rush him. He thrust his fists into the third man's stomach making him fall down gasping for breath. Naruto pulled his arms apart with a little bit of chakra so that the chain linking his hands together broke just as an alarm began to go off. Naruto assumed that the alarm was from his teammates breaking in, but he couldn't take the chance of any delay. He blocked a punch to his face and took a kunai that was aimed for his stomach only to force it into the third underling's shoulder. Without letting them attack again Naruto moved forward, and using their pressure points, paralyzed them in their place. Searching through their pockets, Naruto found the key to the cages that held his new friends
He turned quickly to the metal bars that led to Kyusuke. He could see yellow eyes staring at him while he undid the lock that held the cage closed. "It's good that you decided to help us out," he said as he unlocked the handcuffs, "but I do want to remind you that Kyusuke is much smaller than you and if you do the stuff that you would normally do it could perminately damage him."
"I would never hurt him," said Yonbi.
"Good." They both quickly moved across the hall to let Irena out only to find that she was also controlled by her spirit.
As soon as they left their cell Naruto sensed several people coming towards them so he turned to Yonbi and said, "Go that way." He pointed to their right. "My team will meet you there. When you see them say that Namikaze sent you and they'll know that it's me."
"What about you?" asked Sanbi.
"We need a distraction," said Naruto, "and I'm really good at being a distraction."
"I'll stay with you," said Yonbi.
"I already told you not to stress Kyusuke's body," said Naruto, "and you need to stay with Sanbi. Both of your bodies are weak from being stuck here for however long you've been stuck here." He could tell they were about to protest so he said, "That is an order."
They gave one last look at him before turning away just as the large group of Akatsuki turned the corner. Naruto crouch down and reached for the kunai that he took only to realize that he left it in one of the paralyzed men's shoulder. The only weapon he had at the moment was the key since he left his sword with Sasuke. He just shrugged as the men came running towards him. Using the key he jabbed the first man in the throat so that he couldn't breathe. Then he pulled another man forward and elbowed him in the back of the neck so he was knocked out. He continued doing this with 30 men until a kunai that he hadn't seen through the many bodies hit him in the chest just below the heart. Even with the injury he kept fighting until another kunai hit him on his shoulder. Then another kunai hit his thigh. The next thing he knew he was on the ground with several Akatsuki holding him down.
He struggled even as his wounds kept bleeding, but the more he struggled the more people would hold him down. He was quickly getting dizzy and his only hope now was for his teammates to come and save him.
another cliff hanger. woohoo