Ill proceed to mope. We're so close to the ending and its rather sad. It was lots a fun depicting Naruto as the determined hero and I hope you guys liked it as much as I liked writing it.

But here Im getting all depressed. We still have a chapter and a half after this. We're almost there but not quite, so lets enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Legend:

"Ramen!" - Aloud speech

'Damn!' - Thinking/ Thought speech

'Fool.' - Kyuubi thought speech

"Hark!" - Kyuubi Speaking

"Eh?" -Fox/misc speech

Fortune's Fool

Chapter 10 - Believe! Fight!

By: Mirazhe1

As the ref forcefully thrust Naruto's fist into the air (oddly enough, the broken one clutching the leaf-dagger for dear life. Gaara's sand had indeed crushed the bones within and was for the moment painfully useless), the vessel blinked at the sound of a roaring crowd. Be it from outrage or pride, he wasn't sure (having never had a few thousand civilian of a ninja village roar his name and cheer), but he grinned foxishly none the less.

"Believe, Fight," he muttered, likely to himself. Kyuubi balanced on his shoulder sure footedly smiled a fanged grin at his jailer, chuckling.

"Fortunes' Fools, are we not, kittling?" Naruto laughed; indeed! How odd it was for Konoha, hater of Kyuubi and his jailer and anything related, would cheer and clap for him. Him! Uzumaki Naruto. Vessel of the Kyuubi! How funny it was how it turned out.

"Fortunes' Fools indeed," The vessel answered, chuckling. Calmed now, Naruto looked to Gaara, who stood off aways, arms crossed yet not looking all that irritable. Naruto attempted to carefully remove his taloned gloves, but only with the help of one hand, it was rather impossible. The tanuki vessel looked on carefully.

"I've crushed your hand," He said evenly. "I apologize." Naruto merely waved his good hand, tenderly favouring his broken one as the shock wore off and began to relentlessly sheer pain. He offered his left hand and Gaara took it carefully, avoiding the sharp talons. They shook firmly, both offering varying degrees of a smile.

And that's were they left it, Naruto returning to the Finalists waiting area, and Gaara disappearing in a swirl of sand. Naruto, back in the waiting area, sat frowning with Kyuubi beside him. The remaining contestants merely spared him a glance (or in Sasuke's case, a glare), too immersed in their own thoughts about their up coming battles. The vessel finally managed to gingerly remove the glove and take a look at his rather broken looking hand. It would take a good many hours, if not days, to heal... And he still had his match with Sasuke coming up.

A medic nin approached, offering to treat the mangled hand but Naruto politely declined. With Kyuubi's chakra still flooding his system from the battle (when he had so hastily healed the stab wound from Gaara's sand), no normal medic nin would be able to heal him. The vessel sat in thought about what to do for a moment carefully listening to Shino's and Shikamaru's battle (not that there was much to listen to), until Kyuubi mentally suggested a summon he was familiar with. Apparently the fox spirit summon (Naruto couldn't recall whom it was, the fox spirit summoning clan was so huge) was a talented healer among foxes, as the healing talent was very rare. And the medic fox being just that, a fox, Kyuubi's chakra wouldn't be the slightest hindrance.

Naruto silently agreed, beginning a long string of one handed seals. Without both hands to preform the summoning, it took twice as long, as the vessel hadn't dabbled deeply in the subject of one handed seals. Finally, after a long while, the summon shimmered into Naruto's view, looking on with the kind eyes of a healer and glowing with silver energy like a ghost. Sasuke, more attentive than the pondering Temari or swooning Sakura, blinked and looked to the shift in the air. Eyes narrowing, he activated his Sharingan and squinting eyes widened.

"Ahh... Thou hast the spirit and chakra of a powerful Kitsune," The medic fox said with a grin. "And I speak not of thine... companion." She smiled kindly to Kyuubi. "What would one servant by the likes of me do for thee?" Naruto spared Sasuke a small glance, but telling by the Uchiha's confused look, he couldn't hear a thing.

"A fellow kitsune," He sent a swift glance to Kyuubi as he explained and the medic fox spirit nodded in understanding, "Told me you were a talented healer. My hand has been crushed and needs to be healed quickly." The vessel extended his hand tenderly for the fox spirit to see. She looked on, kind fox eyes becoming critical as she gazed at the hand.

"What the hell is that, fox-spit," Sasuke asked venomously. Sakura blinked away from her swooning and finally noticed the slight shimmer in the air and Sasuke's sharingan eyes, slowly putting two and two together as to why she couldn't see anything. Temari merely ignored them both with a scoff (she had heard from Gaara of Naruto's strange ways), leaving to go find Kankuro and Gaara. The vessel looked up with Kyuubi's growling, blinking from the fox spirit as she carefully sniffed at his hand.

"A summon," he answered shortly. He idly wondered why everyone in Konoha enjoyed calling him Fox-spit. It was a rather uninsulting name, even if it ran deep for Naruto from being called it for years. Perhaps it had something to do with Kyuubi and it just became an unlikely habit for everyone in Konoha. Sasuke scoffed.

"What kind of useless summon is that? It doesn't even look tangible."

"A spirit. And thus one that can possess you. And thus one that can make you dance in the women's hot springs naked, singing like the cranky crow you are that your a traitor to Konoha." The Uchiha's gaze hardened and Sakura lunged forward. He grabbed the back of his shirt and whispered something to her. Immediately, she calmed but looked devilishly satisfied. Shrugging, Naruto turned back to the medic fox's work.

She seemed done evaluating now and began to gather chakra. She thrust her black nose forward to rest on the vessel's hand, giving him the oddest sensation. Not only was he hard pressed not to pull his hand back (even the small touch was torture), but the fox spirit's nose seemed cold like a dog's, almost icy to the touch. Regardless, he could feel the healing chakra enter his hand, quickly rearranging bones, muscles, and the like. It was a rather painful process, having his bones be rebuilt, but finally after a long quarter of an hour, the medic fox was done. She finished with a warm lick on the back of his hand, dispelling the icy feeling her wet nose left behind. Naruto thanked her and she nodded, disappearing like dust in the wind.

Sometime during the healing, Shikamaru returned to the waiting area, obviously the victor. The lazy ninja didn't even question why Naruto sat there, grimacing in pain for the past 5 minutes for no reason. He had overheard about the vessel's spirit fox summons as Neji explained it to his team. How troublesome of a summon. Shikamaru sure hoped he wouldn't be duking it out with Naruto any time soon; he had been at the invasion and had heard the explosions coming from the ring during his fight.

Naruto gingerly flexed his hand, and was happy to find no pain. Glancing around, he saw that Temari and Sakura were gone, and Shikamaru had returned.

'Ahh, good. Just in time. She is a wonder is she not?' Kyuubi said to his jailer privately. 'T'will be a short fight. The Flower may be strong, but the Wind is stronger.' Sure enough, Temari trudged back in shortly after, badly cut and bruised but the victor. If she was this bad off, Naruto loathed to see Sakura. He frowned though, as he looked to Sasuke.

It was his turn again.

"BEGIN!"

The Uchiha and the vessel squared off, both reluctant to make the first move. Sasuke glared sharply at Naruto, Sharingan eyes blazing. Naruto reached for his pocket, probing for his gloves. His eyes widened though, as Sasuke held them up in his clenched fist.

"Looking for these?"

Naruto inwardly cursed at his stupidity (Kyuubi helping him curse all the while). Leaving the gloves in the waiting area like a rookie idiot. Shit.

"Unfortunately," Sasuke continued, "I couldn't copy your 'Kitsune Claw' for some reason," Naruto grinned mischievously, "And without these you can't do that technique, so I guess they're useless to both of us." The Uchiha tossed the gloves into the air, preformed seals in a flash, and called out "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" A huge fireball incinerated the gloves and continued toward Naruto.

Naruto danced out of the way, on all fours for maximum speed. He glanced back to watch Kyuubi run the other way. The vessel and his companion readied themselves but Sasuke stood up now, straight and relaxed. His head tilted, as if listening to something. He sighed, obviously exasperated.

"Sorry Naruto, guess we can't have our fight today. But don't worry, we will when I destroy the Leaf." Naruto's eyes widened and he sent a signal to Tsunade up in the Hokage seating. Immediately, Godaime unsheathed a kunai and plunged it into the neck of the Kazekage beside her. The man sat stunned for a moment, before poofing away and leaving a log behind.

Sasuke, blurring through seals, looked up and preformed "Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu!" The stream of fire flew straight up into the air, high above the stadium before dissipating away. A rumbling was heard, slowly growing, as the snake summon king, Manda, slithered over the high walls of the stadium and offering his head for the smug Uchiha to climb onto.

Naruto rushed forward, tackling Sasuke through the middle, but the Uchiha poofed away, reappearing on Manda's forehead. The snake quickly retreated and disappeared before the vessel could regain his bearings.

"Fuck," he muttered. Onto plan B then. Kyuubi, a short distance away, stood expectantly. Gathering chakra and and preforming a half tiger seal he murmured "Kai." Immediately, the image of the small fox flickered and reappeared as the huge horse sized form he really was. The fox's large head swiviled to the direction Manda and Sasuke were retreating.

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?" Kyuubi murmured morbidly. Naruto's already furrowed brow seemed to wrinkle more.

Naruto ran up and vaulted onto his back as Kyuubi dashed forward with a kick.

Time to find his comrades.

Its a very windy thing to sit upon the back of a house sized fox as it ran full speed to battle. Naruto had successfully found each of the Rookie Nin (apart from, oddly enough, Sakura and of coarse Sasuke), and Gai's team, and they proceeded to run after Manda and Sasuke.

Only to be left in his trail when they couldn't run fast enough.

And this, this, was why all of the genin were huddled together on the back of the now colossus 'Tenko'. Naruto broke the dam and flooded the fox's faux body with the red chakra, making it grow in power and stature. There were very few questions of how Naruto made this come about; the other genin were slowly growing used to Naruto's bag of surprises, and thus with little a word (apart from the exuberant "COOL!"s), the vessel's comrades crawled to the back of the giant fox. They were making great time now, as the trail became more and more fresh according to many noses and Byakugan.

Slowly, the tall trees that had at first hindered their movement, filtered out and left a huge field in their wake. It was a peaceful scene, the field stretching for miles and covered with tall grass and various flowers. Oddly enough as Konoha was currently being attacked, it was peacefully quiet and everything reflected the yellowed sunlight. Kyuubi, from memory, and Naruto, from stories, recognized it quickly.

The battlefield.

Nodding their heads in respect for a moment, the genin jumped from Kyuubi's back as his chakra flow lessened and, thus, shrunk to his normal horse size. The large team advanced slowly, carefully. The air was stuffy at the sent of snake as it hung about, and even ones without enhanced senses could feel it.

"How horrid a thing to corrupt this battlefield with the stench of snake. T's a memorial." Naruto nodded agreeingly, but most of the team looked confused. A few of the more educated ninja seemed to understand, such as Shikamaru and Neji.

"Memorial of what?" Kiba asked, nose wrinkling. Akamaru yipped in agreement.

"Yondaime and Kyuubi. This is their battlefield, their Last Stand. This is were Kyuubi was sealed away," Naruto answered, as he walked to the front of the group. He took great care not to look anyone in the eyes.

"Sooo... What? You know this since your so in tune with foxes?" Ino guessed jauntily.

"... Something like that," Naruto answered after a moment. A few of the so-called prodigies (and a few that weren't) looked on doubtfully. "Come on," he finally cut off, advancing. The group fell silent (apart from a few being silenced by others) and followed their team leader.

Contrary to it once being a battlefield, the area was rather hilly, with small rises and valleys. Ironically, the valleys resembled canine footprints. But as the team came to the top of one of the taller hills, they stopped short.

There, far away yet visible, just breaking over a hill stood a large army of samurai and ninja. Their armour glimmered and glistened in the yellow sunlight as they slowly came to a fidgeting stop. The glare of kunai and katana pierced the genin's eyes as they were drawn and unsheathed. Though they had stopped, the army seemed ever moving as each individual moved to their own accord, like a waving sea of clanking armour and weapons before them. And in front of it all, standing together proudly, stood Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke.

The genin team took a step back, clearly out-numbered at least a hundred to one.

A few of the more vocal ninja had the gall to curse in their own way, such as Naruto, Lee, Ten Ten, Kankuro, Kyuubi, and Kiba.

A few of the more weak hearted took a step back, or fell to their knees, such as the newly healed Ino and Hinata.

A few of the more hardened and realistic ninja gave dirty and worried looks to the army, such as Shikamaru, Gaara, Temari, Chouji, and Shino.

But they all took an involuntary step back.

But Naruto, Kyuubi by his side, took a step forward.

"Dumb-ass Fox-Spit! What the hell you doing?" Kiba bellowed. The vessel flinched at the insult, old memories pooling forward, but Kyuubi inconspicuously leaned toward him, coarse fur brushing his jailer's bare arm in comfort. Naruto seemed to relax.

"Going to fight them," He answered cooly. Many frowned.

"Idiot, we're out numbered a hundred to one. Its too troublesome." Naruto frowned deeply. The vessel gauged their reactions, looking about his team.

"P-please, Naruto-kun," Hinata stuttered, reverting back to old ways as she poked her fingers together and looking back and forth at the army unsurely. "We aren't strong enough. We... need to get help. B-before the enemy g-gathers reinforcements." The idea of it only seemed to scare Hinata more. Many seemed to agree, while a few, Gaara and Lee, looked indecisive. Naruto seemed to gather himself up, standing taller.

"You don't get it," He retorted. "They are the reinforcements." He pointed to the sea of enemies across the field behind him. He never took his eyes from the group. "If we retreat, they're going to follow us to Konoha and infiltrate." He noted a few disbelieving looks. "Don't worry, they know the way; Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura are leading them." Naruto lifted his chin defiantly. "For the past few months, I have been under the command of the Uchiha team leader to find evidence of his treason. I followed him to serve my turn upon him.

"But no more; our evidence is across this field, waiting for us to gouge out it's eyes and drag it back to Konoha." The Kyuubi vessel stood even taller, proud and confident. "But not only that, these people are here to destroy Konoha. Konoha, our home, our village and our precious thing. The thing we fight for. So if they want a fight, let's give it to them! BELIEVE! FIGHT!"

Yeah thats about it. Can't you guys wait to see what happens next? The climax! Will Konoha fall!

(Lol, now THAT sounded like a corny "Next Time" anouncement if I ever saw one)

Y'all are just gonna LOVE the next chapter, I know it :)

'Azhe out.