Well, this sucked. I had to get this up, but for some reason unknown to me, I couldn't get the damn thing up FFN. So, now that it works, I'll give y'all 2 chapters of Naruto/Kyuubi goodness!

Enjoy.

Btw: Krows Scared: don't worry about that :P There might be some OOCing on the Naruto chars, but hey! It'll be fine. Ever read the fanfic "Foxhound"?

Double Trouble

Chapter 4: Chakra control?

On the training field, Team 7 is once again assembled, and as usual, Kakashi's late. During the usual wait, we see the usual fawning-over-Sasuke by Sakura, the usual ignoring of Sakura by Sasuke, but Naruto's behavior was... off his usual. Naruto was quiet. He was still contemplating the words of Sakura the previous day. They hurt him beyond his mask. Quite frankly, he was tired of having to wear his 'happy nuisance mask' constantly. He looked at Sasuke. Sasuke looked back with a look in his eyes that almost said "help me get rid of this woman". They were waiting for only half an hours up till now. Naruto stood up and walked over to Sasuke. When he was three feet away from Sasuke, Sakura noticed him coming up. "What do you want, Naruto?" Sakura said, annoyed. "I don't want to go on a date with you, you should know that by now!" Naruto kept walking towards Sasuke while looking towards Sakura with an emotionless look on his face. When he was in front of Sasuke, he stopped, looked at him and asked: "Wanna spar? It's not like Kakashi-sensei's gonna be here in the coming 2 hours. Tho taijutsu only, since my chakra control's shot since that last mission." Sakura looked offended. "Why would he wanna spar with YOU? You're no match for-" "Yeah, let's go." Sasuke interrupted. Naruto and Sasuke walked to the middle of the clearing without sparing Sakura any look.

They stood opposite of each other and took their stances. "Ready?" Naruto said. "Go." Sasuke replied.

Naruto rushed in a straight line towards Sasuke and went for a straight punch.. His punch was caught by Sasuke's right hand and a left leg came flying in a roundabout kick towards his neck. He blocked the kick with his left arm and kicked towards the ribs. The kick was blocked by Sasuke's left leg. He felt his fist -which Sasuke caught- being pulled forward. Sasuke's left palm came flying towards his chin, which he dodged by swinging his head to the right. Good thing too, since Sasuke's right leg came flying over his head, which would've hit if he dodged to the left. He kicks with his left leg which was blocked by Sasuke's right hand resulting in the release of his hand. The both of them jumped back.

"You've gotten better." said Sasuke. "A week of kicking poles and practicing kata's tend to do that to you." replied Naruto. They continued to spar for another hour. Both were panting a bit showing signs of fatigue. "Ne, Sasuke. You should practice the activation of your Sharingan. I noticed you activated it in your fight with Haku." Sasuke froze a bit. "When did you notice?" he said. "The moment you said you were getting used to his speed. I noticed your eyes were red with black dots in them." replied Naruto. "How many dots? Tell me!" 'If I can activate the Sharingan better, I'll finally be able to kill my brother!' thought Sasuke. Naruto saw the ambitious look in Sasuke's eyes. "Sasuke... would you kill a friend to gain power?" The question just popped up in Naruto's head, but he felt it was important to ask. Sasuke froze again. 'What kind of question is that?' he thought. "You should think about that question really carefully, Sasuke... Remember: Power brings responsibility... So be careful how you use it." This statement was unusually wise, coming from Naruto. 'For Naruto to say intelligent things like that... Makes it worth considering. Would I kill a friend for power, or the Mangekyou Sharingan?' Sasuke's thoughts wandered off on the question while the two boys moved to the tree to sit down and wait the rest of the time for Kakashi to arrive.

A poof was heard and Kakashi appeared. "YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura screamed. "Well, there was this black cat that-" "LIAR!" Kakashi's little lie was once again interrupted by Sakura's scream. 'Hmm, I wonder why the loudmouth didn't join in.' Kakashi pondered. He looked towards Sasuke. 'He's in deep thoughts too... What's going on here?'

"OK, the Hokage gave us a nice D-rank mission again." Kakashi said. The word 'mission' made Naruto perk up. "Not a D-rank mission again! Give us some more action! Get us a C-rank or B-rank mission next time, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto loudly complained. 'Well I guess there's nothing wrong with the loudmouth.' Kakashi thought. He looked over to Sasuke, who gave him an eerie glare. A sweat drop appeared on the back of Kakashi's head. 'I guess he's back to normal too...'

.-.-. .-.-.

Another 2 weeks of missions went by. A much repeated mission was locating a certain cat, who kept escaping. Nobody on Team 7 however wondered why, as the welcome the poor thing received every time they retrieved it was a deadly strangle hold by the owner. During these two weeks, Naruto kept up his taijutsu practice. In addition, he focused his chakra around his arms and legs to function as weights, and as chakra control exercise. One morning, during the wait for what turned out to be another cat-retrieval-mission, Naruto asked Sasuke "And? Figured out an answer yet?". Sasuke replied "I don't know. Why do you ask? What would you do?". Naruto thought for a moment. "I ask because I definitely DON'T wanna be on the receiving end when you do." He replied with his foxy grin. "And I wouldn't even think about it. True strength comes from protecting your precious people. Why would I kill the source of my strength? Why do I think like that? Very simple. I've had a life where a friend is rare to have. I fight for recognition every day. Those precious few that have recognized me, gave me the strength to go on. I know your brother took away most of your precious people." When Naruto mentioned 'brother' Sasuke winced and clutched his fists in rage. "BUT! He didn't kill everybody! I remember you told you had two dreams. Don't give up one to get another, because I know you will try. I know that look in your eyes, I have to face it in a whole lot of others every damn day." The last statement confused Sasuke. 'What does he mean by that? There aren't many others like me...' Naruto continued: "Sasuke, I consider you one of my precious people. More so than the others of the rookie nine." "What about Sakura then? She's on your team as well." Sasuke asked. "She's so obsessed with you and how to look best in your eyes, she doesn't even notice me. Kakashi-sensei is... well... He is almost like the rest of them." Naruto's reply confused Sasuke even more. He decided to ask Naruto. "What do you mean by 'the look' thing? And who do you mean by 'them'?" Naruto thought about it a long time and said: "Let's do this: you will tell me about the good memories of your family, as much as you remember, and I'll answer those questions. I know that you'll have to take a jump in the deep with me for that, but I ensure you, it'll be worth it. Damn, now I sound like I'm giving a prize..." Naruto scratched the back of his head after those words. A pop was heard and Kakashi appeared. Sakura's yelling was the confirmation. "I'll get back to you on that sometime later." Naruto said. Sasuke was curious now. What could Naruto possibly tell him that was equal to his most precious memories? He'll have to think about that a bit longer, after the mission.

.-.-. .-.-.

That night, during his sleep, Naruto ended up in the Gates-room. "Huh? How'd I get here? Oh wait, it's inside my mind again..." "That's right, Naruto-kun. I called for you. When you're asleep, you're more sensitive for our words." "Does that mean the seal's getting weaker?" "I WISH IT DID! THEN I COULD RIP YOU APART AND FEAST ON YOUR INSIDES!" "Kyuubi-san, we agreed to let me do the talking for now, since you'd like to keep your hearing." Kyu-chan turned to Naruto again and said: "No, the seal isn't getting weaker, it's just a new possibility that got added when my mirror-seal got applied. Our communications link will strengthen over time if you wish. Now, the reason I, erm we, called you down was, that our chakra finally stabilized. Part of the reason I'm here is that I have to convert Kyuubi-san's chakra to my own. This is a tedious thing to do and it took me the past three weeks to get the process running, which explains your lousy chakra control of the past three weeks. From now on, I'll be partially converting Kyuubi-san's chakra. You'll still receive a little bit constantly, however it is less than before. Your control should increase alot now. That little weights exercise you're doing is working wonderfully as well." Kyu-chan smiled during the last remark. "...Hah... So... the converting thing is your way of paying rent, eh? Well, if it helps against the rage taking over when I use a lot of his chakra, I'll accept it... For now anyways." Naruto stuck out his tong a little after that last statement. Kyu-chan smiled and said: "Yes, it will make the use of his chakra a lot easier. Now rest up and feel the difference in the morning for yourself. Good night." "Good night, Kyu-chan, Furball." As Naruto drifted away to his dream, he didn't hear Kyuubi shout all kinds of terror towards him.

"Well, at least he DID say goodnight to you..." Kyu-chan said to Kyuubi. Kyuubi muttered some unknown things and retreated inside his prison.

...Continue?