Hey, how are all of you?

So, just to let you know, my hours at work moved up and I have a ton of homework in my classes, so updates might be a bit infrequent until I can learn to manage it all.

This chapter is mostly action. I'm not very good at writing it. Have fun reading.

You know the disclaimer.

Chapter 5

Tsunade rubbed her temples as she stared at the blond boy lying in bed. She'd done every test in every book she could find, called in experts from anywhere Konoha had allies and still, they could find no physical reason for his coma. Kakashi and Yamato had looked over the seal and found nothing wrong with that, either. There was only one other option she could think of, and the experts on that would be here in any second.

She looked over Jiraiya's chart as she waited. He had been improving by inches for several days. The surgery to reconstruct his intestines had gone well and he needed two less units of blood per day since it. The damage to his kidney was slowly healing, and she predicted that the tubes could be removed from his lung in several weeks. The largest obstacle would be his arm. There was no way to reattach it, since the rest of his arm was somewhere in Rain, and the wound had been left for too long to give him a replacement of any kind.

Tsunade closed her eyes. Jiraiya would never be a ninja again. His body would never fully recover, which ruled out extensive taijutsu. He had lost an arm and the only jutsu he could conceivably use was Rasengan. He could no longer summon his toads and he was never that good at genjutsu. At least he can still write, she thought, trying to be positive.

All of this is presuming he won't be a vegetable when he is fully healed, a realistic little voice inside her head muttered.

Shut up, the rest of her hissed as the door opened. Tsunade stood up, but didn't smile in welcome. "Inoichi, Ino, I'm glad you could make it."

Naruto grimaced as the tentacles began to reach upward, toward him and Kyuubi.

"You just had to open your big mouth, didn't you, Naruto?" Kyuubi growled. They were falling back down, quickly approaching the writhing appendages. There was no way the two would reach the ground without encountering them. Naruto whipped out his kunai, one in each hand, and prepared to fight.

A large, slimy tentacle reached for him, slithering through the air. Naruto brought a kunai down, slicing it down the center. Thick blood spilled out of it and coated Naruto's arms. The creature screeched and withdrew it, driving another, bigger tentacle at the blond in retaliation. Naruto chopped the end off of that one as well.

"Behind you!" Kyuubi shouted. Naruto spun around, took out a third tentacle. A second later, one wrapped around his ankle. Naruto bent to hack it off, but found his arm encased in another of Slimy's appendages. The blond tried to tug his arm out, but the feeler tightened and dragged him down, in the direction of what Naruto thought was its mouth. He started to gather a Rasengan.

With a flash of sharpened claws, Kyuubi cut through the two arms wrapped around Naruto. "Push off the tentacles and get on the ground, kit!" he snapped. "Don't use any jutsus!" The demon shoved off the tentacles that he had cut and twisted through the air.

Naruto did a flip, jamming in his kunai in another tentacle. He tried to pull them out, but the handles had become too slippery with blood. They slipped out of his hands and he started again to plummet.

"So you see," Tsunade said. "Why I need your talents."

Inoichi and Ino nodded in sync. "Of course we will help in any way, Lady Hokage," Inoichi agreed. "Can we see him now?"

The Hokage nodded. "He's this way," she said, leading them through the halls of the hospital. "Be careful when you enter his mind because of . . ." She cast a glance at Ino.

The younger Yamanaka frowned. "Because of what? Lady Hokage? Father?"

She's one of Naruto's friends. Tsunade thought, debating whether to tell Ino about Naruto's 'house guest.'

"Will someone tell me what secret you two are keeping?" Ino snapped, glaring at her father and leader.

Inoichi met Tsunade's eyes. "It will be on a need-to-know basis," Inoichi said. Tsunade gave him the tiniest nod, then turned her head forward. "If we decide on a course of action that requires you to know, we will tell you."

Ino rolled her eyes as they stepped into Naruto's room.

Damn! Naruto thought. A hundred slimy, angry, ugly tentacles were speeding towards him. He yanked out another three kunai and spun in circles, slashing, tearing and cutting. Finally, one wrapped around his middle and yanked.

Pain shot up his side as at least two of his ribs cracked. He gasped, then growled and tried to twist out of the thing's grasp anyway. "Argh!"The tentacles tightened again and cut off his breath.

Machines started beeping. Tsunade, who had been talking with Inoichi about Naruto's condition, snapped her head back to the knucklehead in question. Her eyes widened as the monitors went into overdrive again.

"Oh, no," Tsunade breathed. "Get in here!" she screamed to the nurses.

Inoichi and Ino moved out of the way as nurses rushed in. Naruto didn't thrash on the bed, but his heartbeat was skyrocketing and his breath was shallow. Though she couldn't see it, Tsunade knew that adrenaline would be pumping through Naruto's body, followed swiftly by endorphins.

It was as though he was fighting a battle that just reached fever pitch. She rushed forward, grabbing a few needles with sedatives.

"Naruto!" Kyuubi bellowed. He tried to cut his way to the boy, but more arms came out of the ground, blocking his path and keeping him back.

The Chuunin hissed as more tentacles whipped around him, sliding over his legs and face. He shoved them out of the way. The thing continued to pull him down. With a jolt, he stopped, and his ribs screamed in protest. Naruto turned his head so that he was staring straight into the multitude of black, beady eyes the creature possessed.

Slimy opened its mouth and bared its teeth to Naruto. He returned the favor, snarling in its face. A long, spiked tongue came out of the rows of fangs.

"Oh, you wanna eat me?" Naruto sneered. He held his right hand up, ignoring his burning ribs, and formed a Rasengan in it. "Fine. Eat this!"

Naruto roared as he threw himself forward, his ribs and bruised abdomen screaming, his Rasengan howling in his hand. The thing screeched as the pure chakra tore into it, sending eyes, bones and brains flying. The multitude of tentacles writhed and thrashed as Naruto's powerful Rasengan ripped the main body to shreds.

With a final shriek, the thing surrendered to death. Naruto grinned in triumph before all the tentacles collapsed on top of him.

Ino watched anxiously as the nurses and Tsunade rushed about the room. Naruto looked like he was sleeping. His body wasn't thrashing about, he wasn't bleeding or in pain. If the machines weren't going crazy, she would never know that there was something wrong with him.

She bit her lip as Tsunade called for more sedatives. Naruto, well, he used to be the most annoying thing on the planet. He still was loud, and obnoxious, but she'd realized in the battle with Kakuzu that he wasn't as completely useless as he used to be. Ino had also seen how much he meant to people. He managed to work his way into the hearts of people that knew him: Sakura, Tsunade, Kakashi, Iruka, Sai, and so many others.

Please be okay, Naruto.

Naruto was buried under a mountain of slimy flesh. He hacked at the many tentacles with his kunais, getting quickly drenched in thick blood.

"Damn idiot kit!" Kyuubi snarled, clawing through the piles of tentacles. "I told you not to use jutsus! And that, that was the worst one you could have possibly used!"

He threw the last appendage aside to reveal a human covered in dark blue blood. Naruto grinned up at Kyuubi, who snarled down at him. He grabbed the boy by the arm and pulled him up.

"Ooow! Hey, I've got some broken ribs here!" Naruto snapped, holding his injured side in pain.

"You'll have a lot worse than that in a minute, you imbecile!" Kyuubi bit back, dragging him across the remains of Slimy.

Naruto grimaced, trying to get his feet under him. "Hey! I killed that thing, you bastard! Where were you?"

"You think that was a problem?" Kyuubi spat. "That was nothing compared to what's coming next. Nothing!"

The blond sat down on a rock as they reached the ground again. "Oh, really? How do you know what's coming next?"

Once again, the ground began to shake, but this time, Naruto couldn't keep his feet beneath him, even sitting down. He tumbled to the ground, jarring his abused torso. Something went crack and pain stabbed at his side.

"Ah!" Oh, that's definitely a broken rib.

"No time, kit," Kyuubi snarled. "Unless you wanna be Big Mama's next snack!"

Naruto frowned up at him. "Eh?"

The demon grabbed Naruto and threw him high into the air. "Kyuubi, you damn fur . . . ball . . ."

"Meet Big Mama!" Kyuubi shouted as another tentacled creature, ten times the size of Slimy, exploded from the ground. In seconds, it had fixated on Naruto.

Ino stared at Naruto, now calm, as her father and Tsunade talked over possibilities of what they could do to explore his mind. She knew that they were worried she could find out about the thing.

What could it be? Now, she wasn't a genius of Shikamaru's stature, but Ino wasn't stupid either. She was pretty observant as well, after she stopped swooning over Sasuke.

I know that Naruto lives alone. She'd delivered flowers from concerned people to his apartment after one of his hospital stays. Ino would be quite busy when he got out this time; her parents' shop was already running out of get-well baskets.

I also know that a lot of the villagers didn't like him. Some still don't. She'd seen it in the market where the flower shop was. When people saw him coming, they'd often all step back, making it seem like he had an invisible barrier around him when he walked. Parents shifted their children closer, shop owners would turn their bodies so that the doors were blocked to him.

Then there was the Chuunin Exam. Neji had pressed sixty-four of his chakra points. He shouldn't have been able to move, much less channel chakra and beat Hyuuga Neji. And what was with that chakra, anyway? Ino had never seen red chakra like that. And it had a peculiar feel to it, too. Something not quite human.

Ino frowned as she stared at Naruto. That's just nonsense. Naruto, not human?

fine, I'll admit that he does have unnatural stamina and energy. He heals quickly, too, and I've never seen anyone with facial marks like that. And how did he beat Gaara when he was twelve? He was a total idiot then.

Speaking of Gaara, there was something about that mission to Sand, too, Ino thought, rubbing her hands together in contemplation. Sakura was acting differently when she came back. She looked like she'd been given a lot to think about

Ino sat back. I'll have to talk to Shikamaru about this. He's smart. He'll put things together.

"Ino?"

She straightened and faced her father. "Yes?"

He motioned her over and explained the plan they'd decided on. Inoichi would enter Naruto's mind and explore, while Ino acted as his anchor, in case something happened and he needed to pull back.

The two Yamanakas stepped up to Naruto's bedside. Ino connected to her father. Once he was secure, Inoichi settled himself, gathered his chakra and ran through the handseals for the jutsu.

Kyuubi glared at Big Mama, then calculated how much time he had until Naruto was in range of her tentacles again. Of course, the brat just had to go use a jutsu, didn't he?

Didn't I specifically tell the fool not to?

The demon fox drove forward and began to frantically slice and dice the tentacles, which just happened to be thick as tree trunks. So far, Big Mama was still focused on Naruto.

"And of course she would be," Kyuubi snapped as he fought to gain her attention. "She got the taste of his chakra from his DAMN RASENGAN!"

He drove forward, flipping out of the way, ripping appendages off and, in some cases, biting straight through them with his fangs. Still, the giant creature watched his kit, waiting for him to come back down.

Naruto, for his part, was staring right back at Big Mama in horror. She was freaking huge! Her tentacles were thicker than his entire body, and there were more of them than he could count, even if he had the time or the inclination. Somewhere over to the left, he noticed Kyuubi tearing his way to Big Mama's main body, but it didn't look like he was making much progress.

If one of those wraps around me, I'm screwed sideways. Naruto reached for several more kunai, a meager defense against the monster on the ground.

At last, as Kyuubi hacked through five of her tentacles at once, Big Mama turned her eyes to him. He smirked, thinking he had her attention, but she just flicked him away.

Naruto saw Kyuubi go flying, seeing his hope against this thing go sailing away as well. He turned his attention back to Big Mama, who was bringing her tentacles back to her and gathering them underneath her.

What is she doing? Naruto wondered as he began to fall back down.

Kyuubi's internal monologue would have made a sailor blush. He cursed Big Mama for threatening his kit, he cursed Minato for putting them in this situation, he cursed Naruto for being such an idiot, he cursed Meara for passing her recklessness on to her son, he cursed himself for realizing that simple taijutsu would not suffice.

He landed easily, stopping his momentum by digging his claws into the ground. Kyuubi spun around, tracking Big Mama's movements with his sharp eyes.

Oh, no, he thought. She can't be jumping.

To his great distress, she was. Big Mama was gathering all of her tentacles underneath her body, preparing to launch herself into the air after Naruto. Kyuubi took off at a dead run, intent on getting between the monster and Naruto.

That will not happen again.

Had Naruto been paying attention to something other than Big Mama and his painful ribs, he would have noticed something change, a slight pull at his center. But he wasn't that attentive or subtle, so he didn't notice when Yamanaka Inoichi slipped inside his mind.

"A sewer?" Inoichi wondered, staring at the water that went to his ankles. "I suppose it's to be expected from a student of Jiraiya."

With a sigh, the man began to trudge through the deserted halls of the sewer.

"Hello?" he called. It was possible Naruto was trapped somewhere in his mind, unable to break free. If he could hear Inoichi's voice, it might help him.

"Naruto?" The ninja moved through the maze of corridors carefully. He didn't want to disturb anything he shouldn't. He turned a corner and started.

Before him were two gates, ascending into the high, dark reaches of the chamber he'd entered. It wasn't their size that worried him, though.

It was the fact that they were opened.

He could see on one of the gates, the paper with 'seal' written on it, still intact, if a bit worn around the edges.

"So, someone pulled it off," Inoichi murmured. "And let Kyuubi out."

His heart pounded in fear at that, but if the fox was free, it surely would have taken over Naruto's body by now and razed Konoha. He took a closer look around the chamber and noticed two long, thin cords running up into the darkness. One was red, the other blue.

Inoichi stepped closer, staring at the two in wonder.

Kyuubi threw himself into the air, on a beeline to come right between Big Mama and Naruto. He started gathering his chakra, concentrating it until it was becoming solid and firm in his mouth, then layered liquid chakra over that. He glared at Big Mama.

You won't hurt him.

Naruto, for his part, was running through any and all plans his mind could come up with. It wasn't a very long or impressive list. Suddenly, Kyuubi slammed into him from the side. His body howled at him. It really wasn't fair how much he was abusing it here.

Big Mama launched herself forward, screaming straight at Kyuubi and Naruto, on their new trajectory. Naruto tensed. "Kyuu—"

The fox nodded and spun so that he was facing the monster. He took a deep breath and added one final layer of pure red, flaming chakra on the chakra ball in his mouth before spitting it at Big Mama.

Naruto stared at the fiery ball of hell that exploded out of Kyuubi. It flew straight and true at the main body of the being, promising pain and death. Big Mama screeched in rage as it slammed into her. Kyuubi spun back around and wrapped his arms around Naruto, shielding him.

Chakra exploded outward from Big Mama. It sent her back to the ground with a tremendous crash, cratering the ground. The red chakra expanded on the ground, leaving scorch marks and ruts. Naruto closed his eyes against the brightness.

In the meeting chamber, Kagami put a hand to her stomach, then burped out a little bit of fire. She chuckled.

Inoichi was thrown back as the thin red cord suddenly got a lot bigger. He brought his arms up as a shield. It didn't do any good, as he was still shoved back and banged against the wall.

Kyuubi and Naruto continued to fall, finally landing hard on the ground. Naruto moaned at the pain shooting across his entire body, but Kyuubi was already tugging him up.

"Can't stay, kit," he muttered, glancing to the charred lumps that used to be Big Mama. "Come on. We gotta move, come on. Get up."

With another groan, the blond willed himself to his feet and began to stagger in the direction Kyuubi was steering him.

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So, that was a fight scene. There will be more to come, some of them in flashbacks. I based Kyuubi's move off of what Naruto did in his four-tailed form, for those of you that have read that far.

Well, can't talk. I really have to get to work. Make me happy? R&R?