Well I'm back, sorry for the delay but I've been busy with Thanksgiving...and a severe lack of crativity in the stories tank...50 miles from the nearest town. Right now depression is at the wheel moaning about how this is hopeless, happy is in the back seat boasting how great this is. Anger is so...well angry that it's yelling and literaly running 50 miles to the next town for a bit of creativity for the stories tank. Despiration and determination are trying to beat anger to the next town while simultaniously calling apathy for a ride. It's just a wreck...maybe I'll get some inspiration sooner or later but no matter what I'll be writting, just not with the same speed.

"Speech"

'Thought'

"Kyuubi"

(Standard Disclaimer)

Chapter 14: A Whole New Level

Naruto smiled at Hiashi but this was different, instead of his insanely happy smile this was a soft relieved looking smile. "Thank you Hiashi-sama," Naruto said with a bow of his head. "Sorry to interrupt this but everything is clear, the home is open and I suspect that since it's getting dark you all go in for the night. It's been a long day," said the ANBU masked Kakashi as he poked his head in the tent.

Hiashi nodded and stood quickly with Neji. Hiashi walked over to Hinata and picked her up from Naruto's tails. Even if he did swear to protect her Hiashi still had the instincts of a father. Together they reentered the Hyuga home finding it relatively undamaged except for Hinata's room of course. Hiashi thought a bit and decided that the extra room down the hall would be Hinata's until further notice. Naruto would just have to stay in the branch house on the grounds.

Naruto agreed and with reluctance allowed Hinata to rest as he followed Neji to the branch house dorms. Naruto found that the rooms were meant to hold a number of the branch house members. Since in the attack a few branch house members had unfortunately been killed, Neji had an open bed in his room.

Neji helped Naruto move his extensive collection of scrolls from his apartment to the storage closet in the large room. Neji would occasionally ask Naruto about the scrolls but other then that they didn't say much between them.

"Why is it you wish to stay here?" asked Neji as Naruto placed the final scroll on his stack. "Hm?" asked Naruto, "you're asking why a five tailed Kitsune, after vowing to protect this place and all who inhabit it, is asking to stay here?" Apparently all that teaching from Kyuubi was rubbing off on Naruto. Neji glared at Naruto with his pupil less white eyes and said, "no, I want to know why the boy who once painted the faces of the Hokage's wants us to house him."

Naruto's smirk dissolved and said, "do you know what it's like to have no family what so ever. To grow up never knowing why kids look up at their parents with such joy." Naruto laughed a bit to himself as he sat on the bed designated as his. "I suppose since it wouldn't effect the matter in the least now...do you know the history of the Kyuubi?"

Neji then proceeded to rattle off what he knew about the Kyuubi attack. "Heh, just like everyone else. Let me fill in some missing pieces for you. The Fourth couldn't kill the Kyuubi only seal it so he sealed the demon into a new born baby. It's umbilical cord would have to have just been cut so it's chakra circulatory system wouldn't be developed yet," Naruto said as Neji listened in rapt attention.

"He sealed the Kyuubi in the child and died in the process. The Hokage forced everyone to take a vow of secrecy about the children so no one, not even the boy, would know about it. The child carried the demon around for several years not knowing for a long time until someone broke the taboo and told the boy. From then on he never told a soul until the demon attempted to escape. He had to tell someone," Naruto sighed and noticed the look of understanding in Neji's eyes.

"I take it you get where I'm going with this," Naruto said dejectedly. Neji nodded and said, "in the chunin exams, when we fought. I looked into your chakra system and saw something. I'd be willing to guess it was the demon fox?" Naruto nodded, "at that point the fox would sometimes give me chakra to fight with. Now I have its body and along with it all its powers."

Naruto said this so freely because he knew at least Hinata would accept him into this home. This was no where near as painful the second time around. In fact it felt somewhat natural now. Maybe it was because Neji had probably already seen the demon, or maybe it was because he didn't really care.

"I warn you if you attempt to turn on this family I will kill you," Neji said with dead seriousness. Naruto calmly looked to the Hyuga prodigy and said, "I already vowed to protect this clan with my life." Neji stared stone face at Naruto and said, "if I was listening correctly, you said you would protect Hinata and this home." Naruto blinked a bit then his cheeks turned red. "Whatever," he said as he grabbed his covers and turned over to fall asleep, "night room mate."

Neji rolled his eyes and went to his own bed to sleep. Maybe a good night of rolling this over in his head and resting would make him accept the situation more.

Naruto fell into the realm of dreams and with it came his lesson with Kyuubi.

"Kyuubi-sensei! I'm here!" called Naruto as he strode into his mind, his body the form of a half human. His senses jumped and suddenly he ducked, barely missing an attack from the smaller five tailed Kitsune. Kyuubi skidded to a stop behind him and laughed. "Good night kid, ready for your lesson?" Kyuubi asked as he walked over to the completely alert Naruto. "YOU ALMOST DECAPITATED ME! " yelled Naruto in his mind.

"You'll need to be at your best for this training kid, it'll take stamina, a good mind, and some time but I'm sure you'll get it," Kyuubi said as he took a deep breath and began to wave his tails back and forth. "What is it?" asked Naruto as he watched Kyuubi's movements. "First is your eyes kid, you have a Kitsune's eyes now and a Guardian's to boot. You'll need to get used to and train them but in the mean time," Kyuubi thrust one of his tails forward and from it shot a bolt of lightning.

Naruto's eyes snapped open and on pure instinct the golden edges of his blue eyes began to glow and the world around Naruto slowed. He saw the bolt coming and he dodged to the side just in time to miss it. Naruto landed on his back as the bolt hit the ground and dispersed into nothingness. "Welcome to the next level kid," Kyuubi said as he began to rub his tails together once again.

The morning after Naruto had told Neji about what he had carried for so long and what he was now Neji took to it pretty well. He didn't hold the hate for Naruto as had many others but he was a bit more weary around him more then normal. Naruto accepted this saying it was better then hate.

Naruto, after his breakfast of ramen, rushed down the halls of the complex in his human form. He felt a tad bit uncomfortable with the branch house females looking him over and even worse swearing he saw one that had the Byakugan active and blushing like mad. He pushed it to the back of his mind and went directly to Hinata's room.

Naruto sighed to himself and sat down on a chair next to her bed watching her sleep peacefully wishing he could wake her and tell her how good of a job she did. Naruto watched and waited, his mind strolling over random things.

'The ramen was good this morning, I think the cook did something special to it. Hm...Hinata-chan looks happy. She's kinda cute when she's sleeping...WAIT! NO, NO, NO! BAD NARUTO!' Naruto thought as he began to smack his forehead with his fist. "Naruto-kun?" asked a quiet voice beside him.

He stopped hitting his head and looked down at the girl on the bed, a smile on her face as she looked at him. He smiled back and said, "Hinata-chan, you're awake." Hinata nodded as she sat up in her bed, finally getting an un-blurry picture of Naruto into her mind. Hinata blinked a few times before a deep blush spread on her face and she turned away attempting to keep it hidden.

"Hinata-chan are you ok?" Naruto asked as he carefully held his hand to her head, "you don't feel sick." Hinata blushed even deeper at the contact.'His hand it's so warm, and his body,' Hinata's thoughts began to lead into deeper things one involving Naruto and the Byakugan causing her to blush even darker. "I-I'm fine Naruto-kun," Hinata said with a soft voice and a slight smile.

Naruto was cautious but smiled back and nodded his head. 'This is the perfect opportunity!' thought Hinata as she looked into Naruto's smiling face. "Naruto-kun?" asked Hinata. Naruto looked at her with a questioning gaze and she continued with, "I-I...w-wanted to know if..." Her stutter began to get worse and she looked down at her hands fidgeting with her fingers.

"W-well...uh y-you...a-and...uh..." Hinata looked to her hands that were fidgeting quickly but suddenly she saw the hand placed over her own. She looked up at Naruto who simply smiled at her in response. Hinata looked at Naruto then his hand on hers and shook out of her stupor quickly rushing out the words, "wouldyouliketogoonapicnicwithme?"

Naruto blinked a few times and retracted his hand much to Hinata's dismay. 'Here it comes...' Hinata thought sadly. "Uh, could you say that a little slower?" asked Naruto as he scratched the back of his wild hair. Hinata gulped and said, "I-I asked i-if...y-you wanted t-to go w-with m-me on a p-picnic."

Naruto blinked then smiled wide saying, "yeah! Just remember to make some of those riceballs like the last time! They were awesome!" Hinata smiled and nodded, "sure Naruto-kun." "Sweet! Uh...when are we going?" Naruto asked with a scratch to the back of his head. "T-this afternoon?" offered Hinata to which Naruto smiled and nodded.

"Yeah that sounds good, well you'll want to get a shower and dressed and stuff so I'll see you later Hinata-chan! Noon at the front door ok, bye!" said Naruto as he reluctantly stood and exited the room. Hinata had to force herself to look away from him lest she use the Byakugan for inappropriate means.

Sasuke wandered the streets of Konoha trying to remember everything he could but this was all such a blur. For the past several years of training under Orochimaru he had slowly forgotten what Konoha looked like. What it felt like, how it smelled. He remembered how back in the Sound the days were almost always cloudy and it was always cold. Here it felt warm and the sky was sunny save for the few clouds hanging overhead.

He sighed as he felt the presence of his doppleganger, the ANBU that had tailed him almost every hour of the day. Yesterday had been quite an interesting day since it had been his fist day back.

He had been rushing through the streets of Konoha, being the victim of many peoples glares and even some who called out for ANBU to get the traitor. He ignored these and focused on his target, the front gate where all ninja who recently completed an out of village mission gathered.

He landed at the gate just in time to run into Sakura and her new team. It seemed like a 16 minute staring contest but in the end he got something that greatly resembled Gai and Lee. Sakura walked up to him, slapped him quite hard, then hugged him and cried into his uniform. He was never one that was good with comforting and with his brains rattled from the slap all he could do was awkwardly wrap his arms around her in a confused hug.

After a bit of crying she demanded to know what had happened and how he got back. He explained everything with Naruto, Itachi, the Hyuga mansion attack. He told her everything.

He smiled to himself as she, like she did when they were first assembled as team 7, asked him out on a date. He rolled his eyes but just for sport he accepted. He had to admit it was fun hearing what had happened while he was away but he didn't have many funny stories. Of course there was the Kabuto de-pants incident but that was completely irrelevant.

They parted ways and he went to his apartment to rest for the night. He woke up in the morning and decided to take a walk around the village to remember what he had forgotten.

He reached out once again to fell he had two ANBU tailing him and in an instant both of them were gone. This was his chance, he disappeared at top speed, his goal being the northern wall. Once he was where no one could see him he quickly pulled out a summoning scroll and in an instant he had a small flashing beacon and a carefully written scroll.

He tied the beacon to the scroll and with a running start he launched the scroll over the far north wall, far from the prying eyes of the ANBU, tower guards, and even the Hokage. He watched as the scroll sailed in the air and at the last second was caught mid air by a large bird who swiftly turned north flying off at the speed of sound.

End Chapter

Well that's it...I know not one of my best but I'm workin the best I can. Q and A time...

Q: Baseball?

A: Ok...if you look at the top of my last chapter whatever was written as a baseball symbol was in a specific font. This means they were just random comments made to express how Hiashi's train of thought was progressing. It was in no way connected to Hiashi's literal thoughts it was merely giveing an example of them in what a common American person would understand.

Q: Hinata training with Naruto?

A: ...to be honest I haven't thought about that. I'll keep it in mind.

Q: Kabuto de-pants incident?

A: ...you don't want to know...seriously...

Well that's it, I'd like togive you a taste of what I have...but to put it bluntly I have nothing at the moment. Sorry...well if that's all I'm out, later. Oh an happy Thanksgiving...