Last time:

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! exclaimed Naruto. 5 poofs were heard. When the smoke cleared, Naruto found 5 screaming chibi-Naruto's hanging onto his arms and legs, begging for ramen with loud voices and large puppy-eyes. "HEEEEHH! HOW'D I END UP IN KINDERGARTEN?" was the only reaction could think of in that situation…

Double Trouble

Chapter 3: hospital visit

"Damn! My chakra control is shot beyond belief! I can't believe this! Not even Kage Bunshin's working properly!" exclaims Naruto panting heavily. 'Damn... Even my stamina's shot...' were the last thoughts that crossed the mind of Naruto before passing out. Kakashi was watching Naruto's training from a distance. 'If anything, his progress is a regress... I guess I was wrong to expect great things from the fox...' After those thoughts, Kakashi leaves Naruto lying there on the training-field, to go and check up on Sasuke, who's still in the hospital, 1 week after the dreadful mission.

.-.-. .-.-.

"Huh? Where am I?" Naruto passes through a long, narrow corridor, which smells of wet fur and is poorly lighted. The layer of water on the ground doesn't make traveling through the corridor any more comfortable.

"DAMNIT WOMAN! STOP TAPPING ME LIKE I'M A FUCKING BEERKEG! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON-"

"You don't have hands, you've got claws. Now stop whining. It's not like it's hurting you."

Naruto was startled by the booming voice. The reply was nothing short of... interesting...

"YOU'RE HURTING MY EARS WITH THAT SPIN-O-DOOM! GET RID OF IT!"

"What's this? The great Demonlord Kyuubi's afraid of a little spinning wheel?"

'Kyuubi? As in, THE Kyuubi?' thought Naruto. 'What the hell is going on here?'

"I FEAR NOTHING! I WILL DISEMBOWELL YOU FOR THAT!"

"... I am SOO... NOT impressed... Now behave, we have a visitor."

"WHAT? NOT ONLY IS THAT CRACKPOT OF A VESSEL WEAK, HE'S EVEN LETTING SOME TWIRP ENTERING HIS MIND?" Naruto freezes as he takes the corner and end up in front of the enormous Soul Gates that hold a big nine-tailed fox. This last statement ticked Naruto off. Surely, he wasn't letting some furball insult him right in front of him. "YOU SHUT UP, OVERGROWN FURBALL! WHO ARE YOU TO CRITISIZE ME? YOU'RE THE ONE THAT GOT 'DUMPED' IN HERE! WHAT MAKES THAT OF YOU THEN, HUH? 'CAUGHT IN A CROSSFIRE?" Naruto didn't even consider the sheer size of the 100 foot tall fox intimidating. He wasn't weak. 'Wow. That sounded pretty smart too...' he thought. "The boy's got a point there, 'furball'." This statement, accompanied with a female giggle made Naruto look at his left instantly. "What the- Who're you? Isn't the furball supposed to be the only one in here... In me?" "YOU SHITTY BRAT! WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE, I WILL RIP YOU APART!" Naruto covered his ears during that outcry by Kyuubi. "SHUT UP FURBALL! CAN'T YOU SEE I'M TRYING TO GET SOME DECENT INFO HERE! BE A GOOD PET AND SHUT UP!" This time, Kyuubi covered his ears, but the word 'pet' kept dancing around in his mind. "YOU DARE CALLING THE DEMONLORD A PET? I-" "YES, I JUST DID! IT'S NOT LIKE YOU CAN DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT, RIGHT? NOW SHUT UP AND LEMME TALK TO THE WOMAN FOR A WHILE, DAMNIT!" Kyuubi still covered his ears as Naruto's yell hollowed through his prison. This brat could permanently damage his hearing if he wasn't careful. Naruto took the silence to give the lady behind the Seal Gates on his left his question again. "Well... The 'furball' was supposed to be the only one, yes. Technically, he still is." "Huh? No he isn't. He's over there." Naruto points at the Soul Gates on his right. "Well, not entirely..."

.-.-. .-.-.

The last reply made Kyuubi curious as well... How did this woman-looking thing in here? It was shitty enough being locked inside this idiot without having a woman naggin' and making a racket in here.

"Child, do you-" "The name's Uzumaki Naruto, remember it!" The fact this woman was behind bars must mean she's done something as well, thus she had to come with a damn good story to get some compassion. "Nice to meet you. I am known as Kyuubi-hime." "Huh? You related to that furball? What did YOU do then?" Naruto interrupted. "If you will let me finish telling you my little story, I'm sure you will have that little question answered. OK?" Kyuubi-hime replied. "Umm... Sounds fair enough. So talk." 'I would've expected a scream about not bullshitting him... I guess my arrival accompanied some mental changes... I like them, so far.' thought Kyuubi-hime. She let out a little giggle.

"Naruto-chan, do you-" "DON'T YOU -CHAN ME!" A blush crept up Naruto's cheeks. " Just Naruto is fine..." "OK, Naruto-kun, do you remember the mission where you and your team ended up in the middle of a fight?" "Yes, the one where the Stone and Rain were dukin' it out, yeah." Naruto replied. "Well, when you received that wound in your abdomen, the seal breached and was almost destroyed." Naruto almost interrupted, but remembered the words of Kyuubi-hime about letting her tell her story, so he refrained from doing so. "The little part of the seal that remained, kept that furball over there partially in you." "DAMNIT WOMAN! SHUT UP! I LET THE KID 'CUZ I WANNA KEEP MY HEARING, BUT YOU'D BETTER NOT CALL ME THAT AGAIN! RESPECT TH-" "WOULD YOU SHUT UP AND LET HER TELL THE DAMN STORY!" Naruto interrupted. Kyuubi winced and covered up his ears as good as he could once more. "THANK YOU!" "As I was saying, kyuubi wasn't entirely set free, but only a part. As a soul cannot 'live' when there is less than 60 remaining, it killed Kyuubi." "Then why is he still here?" Kyuubi-hime ignored the question and continued. "Since the Yondaime Hokage's deal with the Shinigami was 'a constant power-mixing and a simultaneous death', which was not the case in this matter, the Shinigami was quite disturbed. Therefore He gave me a choice: to return to you and let you live, or to let you die because you were dying anyway due to that wound. I chose the first option, and now I'm here. Apparently, the furball's soul was regenerated as well. That covers about it, right?" Naruto let the little story sink in. "That's a nice story, but I still don't know who YOU are... So if you could stop side-tracking here..." Naruto was getting a bit agitated. "Let's start with the basics, OK? I'm Uzumaki Naruto. And you are?" Kyuubi-hime could slap herself in the forehead, which she almost did. "How stupid of me. I am known as Kyuubi-hime, Princess of the demon life on the Earth." Kyuubi behind the other gates gasped, getting the attention of the other two. "NO WAY WOMAN! YOU TELLING ME YOU'RE PART OF ME?" 'Oh shit, too loud again...' thought Kyuubi while covering his ears again. Naruto however was still puzzling it out when Kyuubi-hime responded: "Yes, I am the part that was you before the Corruption overwhelmed you." "... Well I STILL don't like you..."

"So... Let me get this straight: Kyuubi-hime's part of Kyuubi-the-furball but got separated due to the accident that happened at the C-Rank delivery mission?" said Naruto. "Yes, that's about it." "Heh... I'll ask about that corruption thing another time then. I think this is enough for me to handle for a day." Naruto stood and turned around to walk away. He stopped and turned once again and said: "Oh, to get some things straight: big fox Kyuubi will be furball and small well-formed female (Naruto blushed as he said that) will be Kyu-chan. Of course, I expect Kyu-chan to pay rent as well. Seeya next time." "Naruto-kun, would you please refrain from referring to me as Kyu-chan? It makes me feel uncomfortable..." Kyu-chan blushed and twirled her foot a bit. "No. I'll give any female I like and appreciate the -chan suffix, so I suggest you live with it." Naruto gave her a big trademark foxy grin and walked away.

.-.-. .-.-.

Naruto woke up flat-out on the training field. "Oh yeah... I passed out due to Chakra depletion... Guess Kyu-chan's responsible for that, hehehe." Naruto stretched a bit and felt pretty good again. He looked up at the sky and saw the sun setting while the moon was about to rise. "I guess it's about 8 pm. Well... Since I ain't feelin' hungry, I'll train a bit more taijutsu. My chakra control's messed up anyways." Naruto started kicking and punching the training logs for 2 hours. Panting heavily and feeling satisfied, he headed towards Ramen Heaven: Ichiraku Ramen. 'I'd better take as much ramen as I can, since I almost died a week ago' he thought while getting a huge grin on his face. After eating 21 bowls (usually he ate about 15, but he figured the arrival of Kyu-chan raised his appetite once more) he paid up and went to bed.

.-.-. .-.-.

Naruto woke up, warmed up some instant-ramen cups, ate them and headed off to the training field. 'I should check up on the bastard... he's still my teammate, after all...' thought Naruto. As he entered the hospital, he saw 'the look' in the eyes of the villagers. When he reached the room of Sasuke, he noticed the abundance of the scent of flowers. 'someone's REALLY popular... I bet it's Sasuke's fan club who did this.' And as he entered Sasuke's room, he saw Sasuke, sleeping in his bed, surrounded by flowers like he was Sleeping Beauty reincarnated. "Well, I guess you're quite popular, eh?" Naruto whispered. "You'd better wake up, or your fan club might drown you in that stinkin' plant collection..." He noticed a twitch in Sasuke's eyebrows after that sentence, which resulted in a twitch appearing in Naruto's face. "YOU BASTARD! STOP BEING SUCH A SPOILED BRAT AND GET TO TRAINING AGAIN ALREADY!" As Naruto said this, he pounded a fist on Sasuke's head. Sasuke tried to dodge, but instead of getting hit on the forehead, he got hit on the ear. "OUCH! You Dobe! You WANT me to stay in this 'stinkin' plant collection'?" Sasuke exclaimed. "HELL NO! GET TO TRAINING ALREADY! KAKASHI-SENSEI'S BEING AN ASS BY NOT TRAINING ME AND SAKURA'S NEVER TO BE FOUND! AT LEAST WHEN YOU'RE AROUND, I GET SOME TRAINING!" Naruto replied. "... sounds almost like you missed me, scaredy-cat." Sasuke said, smirking. Naruto was in internal termoil over that last statement. He WAS missing the presence of Sasuke, but he didn't like being called a scaredy-cat. After some face-wrenching on Naruto's part, he replied: "Well, yeah... I miss having you around. It's boring without you." Sasuke didn't expect that. He was sure Naruto was gonna yell around and wreak havoc about not being a scaredy-cat. He was stunned. The doors swinging open with 2 nurses and Sakura on their tail wasn't helping much either. Sakura saw Naruto in Sasuke's room and immediately punched him through the window: "YOU IDIOT! YOU DISTURBED SASUKE-KUN'S REST! HE DOESN'T NEED YOU TO BE HERE!" she yelled after the flying Naruto. The nurses checked up on Sasuke and concluded he was fine, apart from the bruise on his ear. "Leave it." Sasuke said when the nurses were about to treat the bruise. "Sasuke-kun, you're so cool!" Sakura shrieked. A pop was heard and after the smoke cleared, Kakashi said: "Well, I guess we can get to do some missions again. Seeya all tomorrow at 8 am on the training field. Oh... someone pass the message to our loud-mouth." Kakashi popped away again.

...Continue?