Disclaimer: I am not Kishimoto-sama; therefore Naruto doesn't belong to me. Got it? Good...

Takes place after the Sasuke retrieval mission, in the three months before Naruto leaves on his training mission with Jiraiya.

Bound Together

Chapter 2: Blame Game

"Speech" - talking.

Speech - flashback

"Speech" - Ino's thoughts.

"Speech" - Kyuubi talking.

"Hey, stop staring at forehead girl's ass, and start talking."

Ino's sharp voice shook Naruto out of his reverie, watching his crush walk out the door. With a sigh, he closed his eyes and reached into his mind to the dark place he knew Kyuubi dwelt.

"It's wet." Was the greeting awaiting him as Naruto now stood in the familiar dark sewer-like tunnels, an irate looking Ino appearing in front of him, tapping her foot impatiently, making little splashes in the water that covered the floor in all directions.

"I didn't decorate it," he replied, winning him a disapproving look from the girl, as he pointed down one hallway and they began walking.

"Oh, and I supposed Kyuubi did? Why is it in here anyway, didn't the Fourth destroy it?" She posed, taking in her surroundings, visibly uneasy despite her mask of being the no.1 fearless kunoichi of the leaf. Water dripped from pipes crisscrossing the ceiling, and light seemed to come from somewhere, but what worried her the most was that sound. Rushing air blew her short ponytail around, in a steady rhythm, which she certainly hoped was not breathing. Where in Naruto's mind were they, she wondered, and what did a demon have to do with it, especially after the horrible stories she read of it; even thinking of it sent shivers down her spine. Demons were the one thing she feared most, that and her wrappings coming undone in battle. (she did not wear much under them.)

Naruto sighed, recognizing the latent fear in the girl's eyes and the slight quiver in her voice. She wasn't exactly someone he considered a friend, but she didn't seem to hate him, and he certainly didn't want her to look at him like everyone else did, once he told her the truth. It's not like he could lie, not after she heard its voice. He steeled himself for the inevitable rejection, and began.

"It's always been here, since the night I was born, the night the Fourth sealed him into me, at the cost of his own life. I don't know why he picked me, but instead of being the village hero like he wanted me to be, all I got were cold stares and hate all my life from the adults who knew why, and kids our age who didn't and picked up on it. I didn't even know why until the night I became a genin, supposedly for my protection. Hell, I don't even know who my parents were." This confession was greeted with wide eyes as they continued down the hallway in silence.

Ino was taken aback, to say the least. She had always figured he was just a troublemaker, and always shrugged off her mother's warnings to avoid associating with him, never wondering why. Now she knew the reason, and frankly it sucked. All the times she had taunted him in the past, with no real malice towards him personally, but desperate to stay popular, she had no idea it was all he knew, all he had to look forward to.

That spiky ball of regret deep down, the aftermath of her broken friendship with Sakura just became slightly heavier. She stole a look at the boy walking next to her, and for possibly the first time, she noticed the hurt in his deep blue eyes, and it reminded her of green ones those years ago, when she befriended a lonely girl with pink hair with the same look of loneliness. She had been what Sakura needed at the time, and perhaps she was needed now. First she needed an icebreaker until they got to wherever they were going, and curiosity, was after, all her sharpest tool, since kunai would apparently be of little use here.

"So Kyuubi is inside of you, huh? What does he do besides talk to you?" She asked.

It was Naruto's turn to stare at the blond, wide eyed. He looked at her in amazement, and he didn't see that look of fear quite so prominent in her eyes, instead he saw curiosity and something else he couldn't quite name. Sympathy maybe? It was something he wasn't used to seeing from anyone other than Iruka-sensei, and only once on Sasuke that day on the dock, from one orphan to another. Maybe, just maybe, Ino wasn't just the loudmouth he took her for. Sure she was obnoxious, had horrible fashion sense, (Of course the boy's definition of fashion sense was wearing orange, so he didn't blame her, she was only a girl after all.) but she was here and now, and wasn't going anywhere in a hurry. He turned his attention back to her question.

"He pays his rent, he ruins my life, and he gives me a headache." He replied at last.

"Rent?"

"Chakra. A lot of it. If I let my emotions get the better of me, I get other changes too. Does that bother you?"

"No, not really. Have you ever lost control in front of your friends?"

"No."

"Have you ever hurt anyone or done anything you regretted while under its influence?"

"...Not yet."

"Have you ever hurt me?"

"No..."

"Then I've got nothing to worry about."

"So you're not afraid of me or hate me?"

"Well frankly, demons tend to scare the shit out of me, but you're too short to qualify."

"Hey!"

"My point is, you've had enough crap in your life to deal with, but it hasn't turned you into a missing nin by now like Sasuke, so why hate you? Like Shika always says, 'Hate is too troublesome, so why bother?' "

"Sasuke? What happened to the '-kun?' Aren't you the vice president of the Sasuke Fan girl club?" Naruto was puzzled.

"You've told me your deep dark secret, so I might as well tell you mine. I know he's a bastard just as well as you do. The only reason I put up with the whole 'Sasuke-kun!' act in the first place was for Sakura. It got her out of her books and around people again, even if the price was that it split us apart. Frankly, he's not worth my time, even if he looks dreamy. After all, my boyfriend's got to have more to say than 'hn' all the time. Not to mention, he's the only one in years who dares to make Sakura cry, and he tried to kill you! Didn't you take one of those Chidori things in the lung?"

"Yep. Obaa-chan said the first thing demon Chakra does is heal, and I've never needed more than a night's rest to recover from anything," he explained, and launched into a blow by blow description of his latest mission, the uncensored version he didn't dare tell Sakura-chan, including Kyuubi's role and Sasuke's transformation.

Ino listened with rapt attention to every detail, not noticing the tunnel was getting darker and the constant aura of menace around them was getting thicker. For his part, the boy seemed relieved to get the real story off his chest. She realized he must not have many people in his life that could be trusted to hear this version. It left her with a vague warm feeling deep down, a feeling of being trusted. Her regret ball seemed to lighten a bit. She had one question though.

"Obaa-chan?" She was pretty sure Naruto had no relatives, and this person seemed to be spoken of like family.

"Godaime Hokage-sama to everyone else."

"Right...I hope she can fix this."

"Of course she can, she can fix anything, and the furball can do whatever she can't, even if I had to pull his tails off one by one."

"You'd do that? For me?" Ino stared at him in amazement as a mental picture of a chibi Naruto pulling the tails off a huge demon took shape in her mind. She didn't know whether to feel flattered or concerned for his sanity.

"Of course I would. We're friends, right? We told each other our big secrets, and Iruka-sensei said only friends share the big secrets."

Ino stared at him hard, about to bash him for assuming such things when it struck her again. That look in his eyes. There was still hurt there, but now there was hope somewhere in there as well. 'Maybe he wears a mask like me', she wondered, 'Perhaps being within his own mind, he can't hide it behind that foxy grin of his.' She realized how vulnerable he must be in here, and perhaps on some level it appealed to her, the idea that he just might need her. It was a feeling she missed. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to keep him around, he talks more than the asshole Uchiha ever did, and whatever his other shortcomings, it felt good to be needed. Since she resigned from the Sasuke fanclub the morning the retrieval team returned decimated and empty handed, she had burned her bridges with her so-called friends, and she could use someone to talk to besides the lazy bum and the fatass. Maybe he had always been like this, it just took her until now to stop and listen to him for more than a few moments.

"I guess you're right. You don't have many friends, do you?"

"Not really. I've got precious people, but none I really call friends, not any more, not since Sasuke."

In for a penny, in for a pound, she thought, though she hadn't a clue as to what those were. Everyone used Ryos here.

"Then you've got one now."

"Really? Shake on it?"

She hesitated for a moment, then shook his hand.

"Friends."

-"Friends?" The blond boy asks. He looks no more than four or five.

"Friends." Replies a blond girl of the same age, shaking their pinkies together. They both had big blue eyes.

"Remember, you cant go back on a pinky promise."

"I never go back on a promise, its my nindo."

"Nindo? What's a nindo?"

"I dunno. My tousan says it a lot. He says someone named four taught him that. My tousan is a ninja!"

"What's a ninja?"

"Ninjas are the people with the metal plates tied to their heads. They're really strong and really brave, and they protect everyone else."

"I wanna be a ninja!"

"Well I'm gonna be a ninja too, a better ninja than you!"

"Nuh uh! Ill be the best ninja ever!"

"Fine, we'll both be the best ninjas and best friends-"

"Best friends?"

"Don't push your luck, whisker face. I'm in your damn head! A friend doesn't get any closer than that, but I still barely know you. You just might be worth keeping around though, just give it time, and I'll let you know. Just no ogling me or Rock Lee will look downright hot in comparison to your remains once I get back to my own body." Ino threatened, her voice getting shrill again.

And with that, she promptly walked into a steel bar.

Falling back onto her rear, she looked up. More bars, its a gate, she noticed. Her head was still ringing, so more thoughts would be a while in coming. She vaguely noticed a small paper seal in the center was the only thing keeping the massive gate closed.

Naruto, however, realized they were standing right outside Kyuubi's cage.

"It's him," he murmured, as two baleful red eyes and a gaping maw full of teeth formed out of the darkness. The rest of his form seemed to be made up of burning red shadows. It looked less than patient, Ino mused.

"You certainly took your time whelps. Why do you not trade life stories too while you are at it?"

"Well forgive my rudeness, your grand furballness. Lord Kitsune Kyuubi no youko, may I present Yamanaka Ino. Ino, bastard fox." Naruto proclaimed, having learned from Neji exactly how to imitate the most pompous of Hyuugas.

"I am less than amused, kit. Flattery does not suit you, do not waste my time with it. We would not be in this mess had you let me take control and feast on the rotund boy." The fox growled. Ino was stunned, partly from sheer terror at the size and killer intent of the creature on the other side of those bars, and partly in awe of just how fearless Naruto seemed in conversing with it. It did not get any better when it turn its attention on her.

"Female! Have not your den elders warned you to never use your mental abilities on demons? We are far beyond your comprehension, and now you see the result. Your spirit has become tainted from contact with my demonic energies, and you can no longer return to your body unaided. You are trapped here, as I am, and your fate will be likewise."

Ino was doing her best not to cower in front of this beast, even when it seemed to do an effective impression of her father's tirade whenever she left kunai lying on the stairs.

"I d-didn't know y-you were inside N-Naruto." she squeaked, vaguely like Hinata. It was all she could muster at the moment.

She tried to maintain a brave front, but all the same she was beginning to cry. This did not go unnoticed by Naruto.

"Hey you damn fox! None of this is her fault. It was MY Rasengan that blew Chouji back and caused her to miss. If anything, I'm the one to blame. Don't take it out on her because I screwed up again. Now what's that about fate?"

He suddenly felt something touch him at that moment. He looked to his side, and saw her holding his hand. Continuing up, he looked up into her deep blue eyes as she mouthed a silent "Thank you." He gave hers a gentle squeeze in return, and looked back into the cage as the demon explained.

"Her soul, in attempting to suppress yours and take control, came into contact with me and as anyone educated will tell you, no spirit ever touches a demon and escapes unharmed. Her soul is now too demonic in nature for her return jutsu to function."

"Yeah yeah, she's stuck here with us. I got that part. What did you mean by fate?" Naruto was evidently not related to patience.

"I was coming to that! Interrupt me again, and I will ensure you regret it. Better that she demonstrates, fool. Female! Channel your Chakra." It ordered.

Ino looked to Naruto, but his only answer was to shrug. Likewise, she couldn't see why not, and complied. Bringing her hands together in the seal of the ram, she closed her eyes, and attempted to mould some Chakra. It felt strange. Foreign somehow. She opened her eyes and stared at tendrils of orange chakra swirling around her, curiously the same color as Naruto's weird chakra, which she surmised must be Kyuubi's. Why was hers that color too, and why was some of it flowing away from her and into the seal on the cage? She stopped in case this was not a good thing.

"See Kit? Her Chakra is demonic in nature now, and is subject to this damn seal. Even now it is absorbing her essence as it does mine. She however will not last nearly as long. I estimate a week, perhaps two if she does not expend her own energies needlessly, before her life-force and memories become integrated with your own and her personality lost forever."

A splash next to him told Naruto that the blond girl's legs had given way beneath her as the fox came to the end of his lecture. He looked to her and saw that she was clutching her knees and rocking slightly back and forth, that lost hopeless look in her eyes all too familiar. This was not the Ino that he knew, not the brash and seemingly fearless Ino whose loudness rivaled his own.As the truth of the demon's words sank in and her mask of confidence and bravado was knocked so roughly away, what was left was a terrified little girl who had just been told that soon she would simply cease to exist, without even the benefit of a shinobi's honorable death. He didn't know what he could say to make her smile again, but instinct prevailed, and he did all he figured he could do.

He sat down next her, put his arms around her, and let her cry into his shoulder. It was something he had wished some could have done for him many times, and it felt good to do it for her.

"N-Naruto?" Her voice was stuttering and uneven, coming between almost choking sobs. Naruto had never seen a breakdown before.'

"Yeah?"

"P-promise me you w-wont let m-me disap-pear." She turned in his arms and looked right into his eyes, endless blue peering into endless blue. It was hard to believe she could disappear, she felt so real and warm, he wouldn't let her, he couldn't let her.

"Promise of a lifetime." She immediately began to calm down some.

"You two produce more fluff than all five hundred of my litters."

"Shut up you damn fox!"

"Oh, you have gone too far. Here female, this is what the boy is truly like! Flashback no Jutsu!"

Naruto has finally five minutes to find out what is in Kakashi-sensei's mysterious orange book. Warily he opens to a random page and reads the first line...

"Yar, bend over lassie and I'll show ye a fishstick that makes its OWN tartar sauce!"(A/N courtesy of LUE, board 402 and Blayze of NFNaruxSaku Fc)

Damn Sakura and her crazy bets...

"You pervert!" The sobbing abruptly stops as Naruto is introduced to Ino's fist for the first time. At least it hurts less than Sakura's.

"Hey Fox, what can we do so I don't end as up just a bunch of memories?" Her courage has returned also, he noticed, from his prone position on the ground.

"You are now a demonic spirit in every way that matters. Your only hope is to possess your body as any demon would. However, you do not have enough Chakra to perform your mind switching technique; one of your den must do it in your stead to move your soul from one body to another. You will also need the help of someone familiar with possession seals if you do wish to remain in your own body without dissipating. I know of someone in the Village of Sands with the necessary skills."

The demon turned to face Naruto again, who had by now picked himself off the damp floor and returned to Ino's side, her anger forgotten. She forgave quicker than Sakura too.

"Brat, your master the frog hermit is familiar with him. You know of his work, it was he who sealed pathetic Shukaku into the red haired boy. Go now, return to the waking world, inform the blond healer of all this so that I do not have to put up with more than one of you anymore." With that, Kyuubi slunk back into the shadows of his cage.

"Alright. Ino-chan, don't worry, I wont let anything happen to you, you're one of my precious people now." He gave her hand one last squeeze, and as the chamber and Ino faded back into his mind, he noticed the look on her face.

She was smiling again.

"So are you, Naruto...kun."

That's it for Chapter 2. Im certainly proud of it, and will ignore all flames. Constructive critics only please. I will bring in more of the cast next chapter. Pairing ideas please?