Kiran let the cloth fall loose and smirked at Naruto's reaction. The sword looked mostly the same physically, but the blade…

The blade had been stained with something to make it dark, almost black, and unreflective. It somehow made the sword look more sinister.

Naruto reached out to touch it but Kiran stopped him.

"Before you so much as touch this sword," Kiran said, "You have to understand what it is. It has changed in many more ways than what you can see. Do you know why the 7 mist Tenken are called that? Why they are called 'heavenly swords'?"

Naruto shook his head.

"Because," Kiran continued, "they are more than just swords, that is why they are given names, after all. Each Tenken is forged using a number of forbidden jutsus that allow it to contain a bit of its wielders essence, and its powers reflect that. My brother's Samehada can smell and eat chakra, showing our family's rather 'sharklike' personalities."

Kiran grinned, showing his pointed teeth, then continued, quickly becoming serious again.

"But it also means that taking up one of the Tenken is a lifelong commitment, the sword is part of you until the day you die. Zabuza never had that connection with his sword because the jutsus needed were never done, but you need to understand what you're getting into. Are you sure you still want to go through with this?"

Naruto thought back to his time with the blade over the last couple of months, how it had started to feel like an extension of his body, and smirked at Kiran. "The sword is already a part of me," Naruto said, "so it's only fair that I give it some of myself."

Kiran nodded and carefully passed the sword to Naruto.

"Now, I'm not sure what's going to happen when we do this," Kiran said, "most of the Tenken start looking something like that." He gestured to Kubikiri, "When my brother did the blood ritual, his sword grew scales."

Naruto raised an eyebrow but let Kiran continue.

"First of all," Kiran instructed, "you need to carefully slit both your wrists with a kunai."

Naruto nervously took out a Kunai and did so. The blood ran freely.

"Now," Kiran continued, "Hold the sword upside down with both hands so your blood runs down the blade, and with the handle still between your hands, copy the hand seals I show you."

Naruto did so, and as he finished and held the last seal, his blood soaked into the blade, his wrist wounds healed, and he felt something torn out of his body. He fell to one knee, leaning on the sword as a vortex of red and blue chakra spun around him. He felt an odd burning in his belly and looked down to see his seal spinning furiously, exactly as it had done with the Shikifuujin Kai.

Suddenly, he felt the chakra sucked back into his body, but he watched as the outer two seals on his stomach disappeared, leaving only the spiral seal. Naruto panicked for a moment then took a deep breath and felt inside his body; he was pleasantly surprised to find the Kyuubi's chakra still sealed, exactly where it was supposed to be.

But there was something missing, and he felt an odd tugging at the back of his mind. Hearing Kiran gasp slightly, he came back to the real world and had his breath stolen from him.

The dark blade was now engraved, in the most precise detail, with the image of a blood red nine-tailed fox locked in combat with a deep blue dragon. A moment later, the name inscribed near the handle started to shift, the Kanji twisting and reforming to read:

Seirei Kirite (Spirit Cutter).

As he sat there on the ground, he felt a feeling of confusion emanate from the sword and burst out in hysterical laughter.

The sword had taken part of him, but it had also taken the soul of the Kyuubi.

15 minutes and a hell of a lot of explaining later, Kiran was nodding his head. When he thought about it, it made perfect sense. The jutsu was designed to take part of a person's soul, and no matter how powerful the seal, the Kyuubi's soul would be far less attached than Naruto's own, so the Jutsu had taken it.

This left Kyuubi's chakra inside Naruto, still happily mixing with the help of the remaining spiral seal, as well a confused demon fox inside the sword.

That was another thing Naruto found odd; he could vaguely feel what the fox was feeling and thinking.

Currently, said fox was very off balance. For years he had been in that cage, able to feel all his chakra but perceive nothing, now, he could feel things around him, but drawing on chakra was like drinking the ocean through a straw.

His feeling wasn't a form of sight exactly, just a perception of things nearby. He also found that he had a somewhat empathic connection to the brat.

Naruto was sitting on the floor of Kiran's living room when he felt it, a slight pull on his chakra, and realized the fox was trying to draw on it from inside the sword. Curious, he loosened his chakra control and let the fox take some, the sword started to flicker with a red glow.

Kiran walked back into the room to see Naruto holding the sword, which was surrounded by a fluctuating red aura. He sat down on the couch and observed the boy. Kiran had never seen a situation like this before and was fascinated.

Further experimentation revealed that the Kyuubi, if given enough chakra, could manifest parts of his body. This resulted in no small number of nicks and gashes on Naruto as the fox was still just a little irked about the 'arm severing' incident.

It was this, however, that led directly to the next discovery. Naruto could not only control how much Chakra the fox got, he could use his own chakra to manifest. Nothing as complex as what the Kyuubi could manage, after all, Naruto had to his own body he had to worry about controlling. But he soon found he could send a small burst of chakra from the sword.

Kiran suddenly broke the silence, "Now I get it!" He exclaimed.

Naruto was about to ask what Kiran got but didn't have time as the shark man just kept speaking.

"What was it you said before the ritual? That you felt the sword was part of your body. That's the power of your sword, to exude chakra from it as if it were a part of your body. But Kyuubi complicated things. That also explains the engraving, the red nine-tailed fox is obvious, but the blue dragon represents your chakra."

Kiran rushed on, now completely lost in his own world, "The two creatures in the engraving are fighting, but their also intertwined, much as you must be, therefore, your essence is mixed with the demons and that's what's holding Kyuubi's soul in the sword."

Naruto looked cautiously at Kiran. "Meaning?"

"Meaning," Kiran said, sounding proud of himself, "that the only reason Kyuubi still exists now that he's apart from his chakra is because he is, in the literal sense, now part of you. You aren't two separate beings anymore, your one being with two minds and two chakras."

As amazingly comforted as Naruto was by this thought, it meant that the fox would have to think twice before killing him, and that was a good thing.

Kiran continued to speak, completely oblivious to the mood, "Now that that's over with, its time for a sword throwing lesson!" he said with a grin.

Naruto glared. He added a few fear stimuli for extra effect.

"Or," Kiran continued, "We could start the lesson first thing tomorrow morning."

Naruto nodded, he needed some time alone with his 'sword.'

Once Kiran was out of the room, Naruto gave Kyuubi enough chakra for the demon to manifest a head. Naruto tried to play it cool, as if he had conversations with glowing red fox heads coming out of his sword every day.

"Well, Brat," the demon said, "This certainly is an…interesting twist."

"It changes little," Naruto replied, "you still need me to stay alive, and since I know how much you look forward to dying, I figure you'll contribute to my well being no matter how much you hate me."

Kyuubi laughed, "Yes, I suppose that's true. And I have to admit, this form allows me a great deal more freedom than that cage your belly and…"

Naruto cut him off, "Before anything, lets get one thing straight. We hate each other, correct?"

The fox head nodded with a feral grin

"But you need me to give you access to chakra or you're about as useful as Sakura."

The fox flinched, that had been harsh.

"But I'm stuck with you either way. So here's how things work. You help me fight, which you love to do anyway, and in return, I'll give you chakra. The only rule is that if you EVER hurt someone without what I think is a valid reason; I'll cut you off forever. Do we understand each other?"

"I suppose," the demon said with just a hint of annoyance. He was stuck with the brat, so he would just take the opportunities to reap destruction as they came. 14 years in a cage had taught him some patience.

Naruto sighed and collapsed on the floor as the head vanished. It was only suppertime and he was exhausted.

The evening was uneventful and the next morning, Naruto was up bright and early, getting ready for his throwing lesson.

Kiran led him out of the hidden sound and into the forest, where he found a tree he liked, took Naruto to a spot 140 feet away, and told him to try and cut the tree in half.

Naruto failed miserably the first few times, missing the tree or just nicking it, but on the 9th try, he felt that familiar tug that meant Seirei Kirite, or more specifically Kyuubi, wanted chakra.

He gave the sword some chakra as he released the throw and the sword not only cut through the tree perfectly, it also curved around and returned to Naruto's hand. He grinned. The demon could control it using chakra.

Kiran was taken slightly aback.

"Ok then, I guess it's on to lesson two…"

Lesson two was learning the Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu, a skill Kiran claimed was necessary. Due to his experience with the regular variant, applying it to a weapon wasn't very hard and Naruto picked it up quickly.

The only thing was that Naruto called it the Kirite Kage Bunshin no jutsu, since he claimed calling his sword a shuriken was insulting.

The rest of the morning revealed that Kyuubi could control 9 swords at once, the original and 8 shadow clones, all of which he delightedly used to reduce a rather large section of the forest to stumps.

By 3:00, Kiran was out of things to teach, he wasn't really a ninja after all, and declared that Naruto could go.

Naruto rushed back town. The operation would start in 4 days and he needed to be ready.

The plan he had concocted with the two Akatsuki was simple. Naruto was going to invade the sound.

Not for real of course, but enough confusion would be generated and destruction caused that Hoshigaki Kiran's death would be easily overlooked.

The problem had been how to make Naruto look like an invading army, but with careful planning, they had come up with an idea that would work and that, over the next 3 days, Naruto started to put into effect.

The first thing he did was pose as a simple workman carrying a bag of fertilizer. What no one noticed was that the bag had a hole, and everywhere he walked some fell out. What people didn't know was that there was gunpowder in the bag, not fertilizer. Kiran lived near the south gate, and Naruto, over the course of almost 2 days, had enough gunpowder just laying everywhere in the area like dust that the slightest spark would cause some to ignite, but people just passed if off as lighter malfunctions.

He switched from workman to repairman and spent the last day setting up shuriken launchers on the tops of houses so that, when triggered, they would shoot the kunai into the air and make them fall in the street looking as though they had been thrown over the houses.

Right before going to sleep the night before the mission, Naruto sat and thought, making sure he hadn't missed a part of the plan. The next morning he would wake up at dawn and start his mock attack an hour later. Naruto was going to instigate his invasion using as many shadow clones as he could make, all using henge to look like various leaf nins.

Kisame and Itachi would disguise themselves as sound nins and remove Kiran from his house before torching it. They weren't planning on being in the village more than 15 minutes.

8½ hours from the sound, Kisame detected what felt like a very large number of approaching chakra sources and quickly woke his partner.

9 hours from the sound, Temari led her advance team. Their job was to cover the north gate, so they would have to travel around the whole village to get to their positions, and they had to do it without alerting any sound sentries.

9½ hours from the hidden sound, Tsunade was leading the main invasion force; they would rest a short while an hour from the village and attack at dawn.

Half an hour before dawn, Naruto was knocked off of Kiran's couch, where he had been sleeping, to see Kisame and Itachi above him, disguised and looking like sound nins.

He glanced at the clock, "What's wrong?"

"A leaf invasion force will be here in 10 minutes." Itachi said, as if talking about the weather.

Naruto looked confused for a moment, "a REAL one?"

Itachi nodded.

"Shit," Naruto muttered, "this will be a pain, won't it?"

Itachi nodded again.

Kisame left to wake his brother and Naruto got off the couch and started to dress as he talked, "So we'll have to fight our way out? Which way?"

Itachi thought for a moment, "North. Assuming that you have everything set up for our plan, the first fire jutsu used in this area of town will light this place up, so we need to get out of the south end before the leaf arrive in," Itachi calmly pulled out a stick of strawberry Pocky as he checked his watch, "7 minutes"

Kisame ran back into the room, carrying a rather annoyed Kiran over his shoulder. Kiran's eyes widened as he saw Naruto with Itachi, but he quickly understood.

All three ran out the back and leapt onto the roof. Hidden sound was in chaos, people running everywhere making last minute defense preparations. All three moved their hands through seals and for one instant, every eye in hidden sound was facing in their direction as together, they called, "Kirigakure no jutsu!"

The mist started to form. Between the three of them, there had been more chakra put into the mist than was required to summon 8 Gamabuntas, and soon, all of hidden sound and surrounding area was enshrouded with it.

Kisame set his brother down and he and Naruto, in somewhat creepy synchronization, drew their swords and flicked off their wrappings. Both Akatsuki raised their eyebrows at Naruto's black engraved blade, but decided to question Kiran later.

Naruto reached into his pocket, and carefully tied on his forehead protector, taking time to run his hands over the kanji he had scratched in all those weeks ago. He could feel Seirei Kirite pulse with excitement as he looked out into the mist.

Without a word, Itachi picked up Kiran and the three shinobi dove into the fog.

They ran north silently, each already knowing what they would need to do. At the north gate, Itachi and Kisame would break right and Naruto would continue on. There would be a containment unit of shinobi to stop them from doing exactly what they were doing, and it would be Naruto's responsibility to distract them.

There could be no knowledge of Akatsuki, and with the leaf being the attackers; the danger of discovery was even more than usual.

They got to the north gate without trouble; everyone else was heading south to fight.

Just as they were arriving, they saw and heard a huge explosion on the south side of town. Both armies would be completely confused at this point.

As expected, Naruto watched as Itachi took a sharp right turn just outside the gate.

Naruto stopped atop the gate and looked out into the mist filled forest. Everything he had done since he left his village was for this moment, to look out over what would soon be a battle field not as a Konoha gennin or even as a Konoha nukenin, but as Fushichou Naruto.

His face widened into a dark grin. Then again, he thought, to his opponents, he would be nothing more than a demonic mirage.

Akimichi Chouji looked cautiously into the mist. He had used his multi-size no jutsu as soon as this unnatural fog had rolled in.

Less than 40 feet away, Naruto was cursing silently. He knew it was soft, but he really didn't want to kill those few people who had been relatively nice to him. He hefted the eager sword and sent it a clear message. No killing unless Naruto said so. The sword pulsed in his hand and he pulled back his arm and threw.

Chouji felt something coming and dove out of the way as it flew past him, it had looked like a huge sword. He was immediately on full alert, looking for something, anything, that would reveal his opponents location.

He lurched once, then twice more as he turned in horror to see three huge blades protruding from his back, each of which turned to smoke a moment later. The large man managed to let out a yell before he fell to his knees and passed out, returning to his normal size.

Naruto was already running past him to the next opponent. He knew the leaf containment unit formation, he had practiced it many times himself.

Yamanaka Ino knew nothing. Naruto was less than 5 feet away from her and she couldn't sense him. He circled her until he was behind her, and calmly, with a shallow slice, he severed her spinal cord near her waist and watched her collapse like a broken puppet. She would never walk again, but he figured he was saving her from a grisly death in combat. She was a crappy shinobi.

Now there was only one more. This was where he was going to take a risk, but he really didn't want the three dead. He jumped to where the third member should be posted, and as expected, he suddenly felt his body freeze.

He knew Shikamaru was somewhere in the mist, he had been sure the genius would find some way to catch him in a shadow bind even without seeing him. This was where it became dangerous. He sent a pulse of chakra to the sword; it sent back a feeling of understanding.

He opened the floodgates, pouring demonic chakra into the blade. The blades aura turned into a giant claw that shot off into the darkness. Naruto heard a grunt and the shadow bind was released. Now came the run-like-hell part.

Every shinobi within 3 miles would have felt that, manifesting took an insane amount of chakra, even by Kyuubi's standards. An investigation team would be there in minutes. He hoped it would be from the leaf.

But there was one problem. Naruto didn't know it, but he had only practiced containment operations with three people because that's how many were on his team. In the field, it was custom to have a fourth member, farther out.

It was for this reason that it caught Naruto rather off guard when a hurricane force wind blasted him up against a tree. He quickly recovered, but found himself in a now mistless clearing facing someone he immediately knew he would lose to.

Between the huge Kirigakure no jutsu and the Kyuubi's manifestation, he was drained of chakra. But more important was that despite the fact that he didn't even remember her name, he couldn't hurt Gaara's sister, he owed far too much to the sleepless boy.

Temari was bringing her fan around for a second blast when her blood froze.

As Itachi had taught him, Naruto did not force it, he simply allowed his body to flow into what the Sharingan master had called the 'death stance'. Naruto recognized it as what Orochimaru had used in the forest, a collection of fear stimulus that gave the target a paralyzing terror and a feeling of their impending doom.

She had seen him, and was working with the leaf; he couldn't afford to let her tell anyone about him.

His death stance wasn't very strong yet, and would start to wear off after just a few seconds.

Naruto made a decision, he had no time now, he would think of something later.

Temari fought to regain control of her body, logically, she knew she was helpless like this, but the fear was still too strong.

Suddenly, Naruto sprung into action, crossing the clearing of sliced trees between them in less than 3 seconds.

The last thing Temari saw was a set of demonic eyes burning into her own.

Naruto tossed the unconscious girl over his shoulder and glanced back at the mayhem behind him one last time before running as fast as he could into the forest.

Long since forgotten, the remains of Naruto's bag lay in the smoldering pile of wood that had once been Kiran's house, where in a few short hours, a certain longhaired Hyuuga would notice a necklace glinting in the sunlight.

Authors Note: Ok, once again, the story got away from me. I hadn't planned anything involving the Kyuubi for this chapter, but I rather like how it turned out, despite my complete inability to describe fight scenes.

Anyone expecting instant romance will be unfortunately disappointed. It took 9 chapters for the characters to meet, so I'm sure you can wait a few more.

A note about the swords new name, Seirei Kirite means spirit cutter, but seirei doesn't just mean spirit, it implies that it's a good or holy spirit, therefore, showing the rather dark essence of the sword.

Just to clarify before anyone asks, Naruto does not have access to all Kyuubi's chakra, most of it is still sealed away but is slowly mixing with his own. Therefore, Naruto has control of all his blue chakra, and some of the red. Kyuubi now gets all his chakra from Naruto's chakra reserves, meaning he can only access as much chakra as Naruto.

Next Chapter: The aftermath of the war, and Naruto and Temari have a rather violent first conversation

And to all those wondering, no, Shikamaru is not dead. I like him too much to kill him off.

Translation Notes:

Seirei Kirite – spirit cutter

Fushichou – Phoenix

Nukenin – Missing-nin

Shikifuujin Kai - Dead Demon Imprisonment

Kirite Kage Bunshin no Jutsu – Cutter Shadow Replication Technique

Kirigakure no Jutsu – Hidden Mist Technique