Narutopolis

Chapter 02: Chrysalis

Rating: T
Pairing: Inuzuka Kiba and Uzumaki Naruto (I'm starting to like one-sided stuff, in this case Kiba -> Naruto :o but no, they'll see the light.. someday)
Notes: I'm fairly satisfied with the way this chapter ended, ya know? It's kind of cheesy, but eh. Thank you for the kind reviews, delusions dreamer, MeowMeow Man!
Disclaimer: I'm on my way to perfecting this 'steal the Naruto' jutsu. Till then, Naruto isn't mine

"Where am I?"

For he did not recognise the room in which he had just woken up from a slumber. Normally, his sister would be knocking at the door to wake him up; the smell of breakfast reach his bedroom; but in his eyes then, unlike what he expected, was a dull room without even a single decoration, with a small closet, a chest of drawers, two futons—one for himself, the other for Naruto,—a washbowl, two small windows, and a solid, wooden door leading to God only knows where.

He sat on the futon, looking rather drowsy. Looking to the right at Akamaru, he began caressing its back, feeling rather apologetic to have dragged the dog into betraying their country. Still sleeping on his left was Naruto; and he could see the little bit of sunshine that came through one of the windows falling directly onto his face, thereby accentuating his slight features and, in especial, the disorganised mass of brisk, blond hair. The fact that he had just woken up notwithstanding, he thought it funny how his mind vignetted everything in his eyes but Naruto, if the moment were rather inappropriate to think so.

A train of thought hit him; and he then realised that they were in a village in the border of the River country together with Itachi and Kisame. After quite a long trip from the village of Hidden Leaf, they were lodged in a small, unused house which had been kept clean by the neighbour—the broader of the two Akatsuki's members had paid them a certain amount of money to do so once a week.

Returning his attention back to Naruto, seeing him in his vulnerable state, smiling, suddenly feeling very aged and at the same time invigoratingly young, Kiba intuitively reached his hand for the blond hair (he would not do that if Naruto were awake). The balloon—the startling birthday balloon, he reasoned, must have caused him to become very fond of the boy whose sleeping face, as he watched himself brushing his hair, reminded him of being alone, standing far, far away in a land on which war was nonexistent—it was a juxtapositional image, he supposed—a place a great deal solemn and bright; at the same time forlornly godforsaken. Not that he would ever go to such a place, or even have the reason to, but it was nice to have it imagined. And then he wondered why he was seemingly daydreaming—had he not just woken up? Better to train, he thought. Probably better anything than sitting on a futon, daydreaming over a sleeping, if significantly blond, guy. But it might be the phase, as Kakashi would put, such as all boys—or guys, he added,—went through. It might be reaching puberty. It might be in love with Naruto.

Kisame suddenly opened the door; and Kiba was somewhat glad that he did, for he needed something to distract what he viewed as funny thoughts. And then he withdrew his hand from Naruto's head, frowning slightly at the thought of being caught doing something uncommon for a guy to do to another guy.

"Morning, lovebird! You should see the expression in your face just now," spoke Kisame, leaning against the doorframe. "What a sight! What a heartfelt passion! What a morning! You may continue whatever you were doing!"

Kiba felt rather too embarrassed to do anything at that moment in time. Kisame's reference to the expression in his face caused him again to wonder if he had really grown a feeling for the blond whom was on the verge of death; which was the sole reason why he was there in the first place. Did he like Naruto?—he wondered again.

The doorframe, however, looked like a picture frame which surrounded quite, again, a juxtapositional image in Kiba's mind—figuratively an image of Kisame, a dangerous member of Akatsuki with a great deal of chakra power reputable for both of being a Daimyo killer and of having caused turmoils in different tribes jesting in a theatrical manner about love. Missing nins, Kiba plainly thought, could be amusing.

"I can't see my own face. Um, can I help you?" asked Kiba, resisting his urge to chuckle.

"Rather, I'd think you're incapable of anything but fighting—but that's okay. Anyway, the Hyuuga girl is out with Itachi to help him sort out our subordinates that were in disguise yesterday; so we've basically got nothing to do at the moment," said Kisame. "I was thinking about giving you some training, but I reckon seeing young lovebirds making love is probably more interesting. After all, he's about to depart his life; so you might as well enjoy it while it's possible."

"Wha—no! Lecher! I-I mean... we're not... lovebirds. We're just friends, yes, obviously," stuttered Kiba, feeling some heat crawling up his face and fretting over the fact that he lost his composure. "So, about the training—"

"I'll have to examine your strengths and weaknesses first," said Kisame. "Itachi agreed last night that instead of him training you and me training the Hyuuga girl, since you're the same type as me—the muscleman type, and she's the same type as him—having special eyes and whatnot, I'll be the one to train you while Itachi'll be on her, although obviously last night the instatement's order was the other way around. At any rate... what's your name again?"

"It's Kiba, Kiba Inuzuka," he answered.

"Right—Kiba. You'll call me Kisame-shishou from now on," said him, laughing. "Oh my, Akatsuki members turning ninja instructors."

"Okay, Kisame-shishou," spoke Kiba, getting up, feeling rather bright.

"Alright!—you lot get up and get ready and all; the Hyuuga girl's cooked something nice too—having apprentices isn't bad after all. Meet me outside the house once you're ready, but don't take too long 'cause I don't like waiting. One more thing—it's possible for your village to have sent some people to pursue us; but I'll tell you what to do later if it does happen."

With that, Kisame turned and left the room.

Kiba rested on his right knee beside Naruto and poked him in the shoulder as he asked, "Why are you playing possum anyway?"

"H-how did you know?" spoke Naruto, opening his eyes. And then he laughed timidly and said, "Well—I was just curious to know why you and the shark-guy were talking about love—like, of all topics. Too bad I didn't get to hear about the lucky person—is it Hinata? You like Hinata?"

"Clot," said Kiba, slightly frowning.

"You know what?—this is the right opportunity of escaping for me," said Naruto with enthusiasm as he asssumed a sitting position. And then, frowning, averting from Kiba, he said, "But how can I possibly leave you? You're the clot who thought of this stupid rescue-Naruto-by-joining-Akatsuki thing in the first place!"

"We'll have a better chance if we encounter the pursuers our village might've sent," said Kiba. "But of course, we won't leave without Hinata. Damn. Ah well—be that as it may, we gotta get up now."

Said girl was with Itachi, inspecting his subordinates that he had brought the night before to secure the festival in disguise as Anbu members. She had come to a forest near the village with her head donned in a hood as an attempt to conceal her face—at least it seemed to work well to conceal her eyes.

Standing beside Itachi on a tree's branch, she nervously glanced in the direction of the ninjas who were kneeling on the ground in front. She was not nervous about the presence of Itachi, her new instructor; it was because she had a feeling that one or more of his subordinates were fake and sent by her village to spy them. It was perhaps a mere intuition, she thought as she brought herself to have some self-assurance.

She dared herself to use Byakugan, nonetheless, to examine all the ninjas in front whose uniform had made it rather difficult to differentiate them. She decided to aim her focus on their equipment first, surveying their patterns of shapes; and having noticed that only two out of fourteen persons had untwisted kunais with a Leaf symbol—kunais that were in general only used by ninjas from the Hidden Leaf, she immediately informed Itachi in a whisper, "I-I think two of them are fake."

"Which ones?" asked Itachi, slightly surprised at the intelligence despite his unwavering looks.

"Se-second from the left in the first row a-and the rightmost one in the last row," said Hinata. "Their equipment have a Leaf symbol."

"Excellent," said Itachi, raising his right arm and pointing its forefinger in the direction of the fake whom Hinata mentioned first in a manner which signified dignity. "This is my attendant; and I feel it necessary to examine her skills in advance. You are to fight her; and you may eliminate her if possible. The rest are to make sure no one runs away or gets in the way."

Hinata was surprised. She had expected to come into a fight against ninjas from her own hometown, but she had not expected it to be this soon. If a person were qualified to be sent to spy Akatsuki, it would probably be a Jounin, she considered. She was not sure whether she could win a fight against a Jounin, but she had come this far, and she, notwithstanding, had to survive till the day she had saved Naruto—the mere thought of saving him boosted her determination.

She jumped off the branch down to the ground. The ninjas in front of her except the one she would fight had the battle area cordoned off in a circular form. Having a stance, she quickly activated her Byakugan to examine the chakra flow and points of her opponent. Judging from the movement of his hands and chakra flow, she quickly noticed that her opponent was about to cast an illusion genjutsu.

Had she not have Byakugan, what she saw would have been a place thick with fog and horrid, body-less human heads circling around her—she could sense it, but she did not fall for the vision trick. Her opponent was about to invisibly thrust her in the back from behind with a kunai when she released chakra through all her chakra openings to free herself from the rather disturbing genjutsu; and then, swiftly, she turned backwards and deflected the kunai. She rapidly landed hits into three of her opponent's main chakra points in the torso with both her index finger and middle finger to directly close the main sections from which chakra were distributed to other points. Following immediately, she hit the middle of his chest using her gentle fist technique by releasing the maximum amount of chakra into her fist to directly damage the organs beneath the skin.

Her opponent fell prostrate as he coughed a good deal of blood. He could feel himself struggling to release chakra, immediately realising that some of his chakra points had been closed, that his opponent was most likely a Hyuuga.

"I forfeit," he spoke.

"Very well—now you and your comrade may return to your village and tell your superior that both the Hyuuga and the Inuzuka heirs are under my hypnosis," said Itachi, to everyone's surprise—Hinata's especially.

The excuse was certainly better than being conceived as a traitor, she thought as she dazed out, looking at the birds freely flying, for the first time feeling satisfied to have succeeded when needed.

"Give the captain the money," spoke Itachi to Hinata in reference to the payment of all his subordinates upon the departure of the two Leaf spies.

Hinata fished into her jacket's pocket a pouch containing slivers of money and gave it to one of the ninjas whom she supposed to be the captain, considering the outfit.

"Dismissed," said Itachi.

After saluting, all his subordinates quickly left, leaving only Hinata on the ground and Itachi in front of her, still standing on a tree branch.

"Do you happen to know why Byakugan and Sharingan are on the same level?" Itachi asked upon making sure that they were alone.

"I-I'm not sure. In terms of insight, the Byakugan is superior to Sharingan, but Byakugan doesn't have the capability to copy a jutsu at sight as Sharingan does," answered Hinata with composure. "Also, Sharingan can be used to cast an eye jutsu. Therefore, in my opinion, Sharingan is on a level higher than Byakugan."

"It's not in fact correct, as the Sharingan capable of casting an eye jutsu is Mangekyou Sharingan, which in itself surpasses the original Sharingan," said Itachi. "And do you happen to know that Byakugan has as well different levels that can be attained?"

"Yes—vision range aside, the first level of Byakugan allows the user to, bespeaking the human body, see the inner coils and the second level the opening points," said Hinata, wondering for the first time if there were any higher levels. "B-but that's all I know."

"Due to Byakugan's nature and the special taijutsu of the Hyuuga clan, even Mangekyou Sharingan is almost of necessity unable to affect a Hyuuga, provided that it is an accomplished one," said Itachi. "Normally, Byakugan is only used for its insight ability; however, although the practise has long since ceased, it can also be used to cast an eye jutsu and foresee a person's action in the nearest of future."

Hinata was struck nonplussed. How would an Uchiha know more than a Hyuuga about the abilities of the advanced blood abilities that the Hyuuga descendants exclusively possessed?—she wondered.

"It is a ninja's responsibility to be constantly alert; and thus the use of Byakugan's foreseeing ability is deemed impractical, not to mention that it takes a large amount of chakra to perform. And unlike Mangekyou Sharingan, Byakugan can only be used to perform ninjutsu," Itachi continued.

"H-how did y-you know?" Hinata spoke her mind. She was amazed, and thrilled at the prospect of being able to perform ninjutsu with Byakugan.

"The leader of Akatsuki is a Hyuuga," answered Itachi. "Only those who have fought with him and survived are qualified to be the real members of Akatsuki."

There was silence for a moment. It seemed to Hinata that Itachi was waiting for her response—her decision.

"What should I do to be able to perform ninjutsu by Byakugan?" she asked.

For she could stand it no longer. She might not be a genius like her cousin Neji or the leader of Akatsuki, but there was nothing to stop her from wanting to learn to be able to perform it. She believed that just as Mangekyou Sharingan had been one factor that elevated Itachi's power to so high a level, so too would Byakugan's advanced ability to execute ninjutsu be on hers. She was determined to prove to her Hyuuga superiors, friends, and instructor that she could be a great ninja and save Naruto, whomever from she would learn how to do so—that was her ninja way.

"By means of Sharingan, I was able to see how our leader did it. Byakugan comprise a great number of tiny chakra points beneath the cornea which are all activated by simply channeling chakra into your eyes. The more chakra used the greater the extent of your vision is and the deeper you can see inside a person's chakra system. However, to be able to use Byakugan to execute a ninjutsu, you need to know how to activate those chakra points partially. Rapid succession of channeling chakra to separate points in your Byakugan to form seal symbols will allow you to perform a ninjutsu furtively," said Itachi. "Activate your Byakugan and look me in the eye."

Hinata obeyed; and before she was able to comprehend why, Itachi had used Tsukuyomi on her. She could clearly see that in front of her then was a genjutsu; and by means of channeling chakra to certain chakra points, she could free herself from its effect. She did not do so because she realised that it was not meant to harm her, and instead, what she saw then was Itachi in battle against a man in a grassland during sundown; Itachi clad in his Uchiha uniform and his opponent in a cloak with a swirling cloud pattern—a cloak that had become a trademark of Akatsuki. It surprised her that Itachi's opponent looked very young—looked like he was aged the same as her; his hair was a tangle of long, spiky, white locks; his body slender, not taller than hers; and his eyes pigment-less. He was the leader of Akatsuki, she bewilderedly supposed.

She knew what to do. She used her best Byakugan to study all activities in the chakra system of Itachi's opponent. Like what she had heard from Itachi earlier, judging from the chakra activity in his opponent's eyes, she found that the chakra points inside the right one were only partially activated while the left one had all of them activated for Byakugan's visual purposes, although she could not see further than what result it brought to the right one—different shapes of light flashing inside. She could not see the process of the partial distribution of chakra he did inside the eyes.

Upon finishing the invocation, the sky became dark and clouds swirled up above, forming into one humongous cumulonimbus; and then several streaks of lightning struck down in the direction of Itachi (but they were effortlessly dodged), followed by, from the cloud's pivot, the descent of an enormous, demonic-looking and at once also beautiful, black hawk, whose white tail extended down twice its height and was filled with a great deal of chakra. It was a summoning jutsu, Hinata thought, quite in awe seeing such an astonishing creature, which was perhaps a great deal too almighty for her to manage to stay whole had it been her enemy.

Suddenly everything vanished. What she saw afterwards was the place where she was supposed to be—the forest in which she had settled with Itachi. She looked upwards at him, supposing that it was all that he wanted to show her.

"I could have used Mangekyou Sharingan to distract him if I pleased, letting such a complex summoning jutsu fail; but I wanted to see by myself what it was capable of," said Itachi. "While you don't have as much chakra as your two comrades do, your acceleration, wits, taijutsu skills, and use of chakra are urbane; therefore, you are ready to advance into this new leap. Your first assignment is finding out how to channel chakra into your Byakugan partially. For now, however, we will return to the village."

"Y-yes," said Hinata. She was confident that she would accomplish the task, for being a Hyuuga naturally caused her to be very in with chakra management. She decided to try it as they headed towards the village.

Kisame, Naruto, Kiba, and his dog, however, were heading towards the opposite direction, from the village through into the forest.

It was a splendid morning too, thought Kiba, as was the thought of learning new jutsus from his new instructor, Kisame. Like what often happened in fictional adventure novels, life struck anew by learning skills from a villain and emerge should an almighty hero. There no longer was fumbling—no hesitation in him. Swerving accurately, running smoothly, noiselessly, treading the apposite branches of trees and avoiding the reminders precisely at the right instants, he followed his instructor into the deeper parts of the forest. His crush, however, did not look at all enthusiastic or orderly in the way he was travelling. At the rate it was going, he might end up finding his crush unworthy of saving, he jested to himself in mind; and he straightaway felt guilty to even be able to think so—he liked him, and he was not stopping—and why was he suddenly obliged to insist?—he wondered. Yes. He was smitten by the blond. Hardly had he finished thinking than his instructor and Naruto stopped running just ahead. And then, rather intuitively, he stopped as well. His train of thought, however, did not stop until he chuntered, "You're stupid, Kiba."

"Fancy! You've just realised?" said Naruto, rather loudly.

"Not more so than you," said Kiba. "But still there must be some good in being stupid!"

"I know!" replied Naruto, suddenly looking fairly bright. "I've always thought so!—and I'm staying stupid, full stop."

"You know what?—we're stupid because there are smart people. We gotta blame them," said Kiba, grinning.

"That's a well-thought commentary," replied Naruto. "Um, that makes you a smart person then."

"But you can't blame me," said Kiba. "Because I'm the one who thought of that very idea—don't you agree, Akamaru?"

"Arf!" replied the dog, frivolously agreeing Kiba's point of view.

"Attaboy!" Kiba cheered his Akamaru.

"Of course," said Naruto, smirking at Kiba.

"Shut it. You're both obviously stupid," reprimanded Kisame, feeling rather afraid about the prospect of his intelligence plummeting by only being around the two boys.

"Um, I can smell the scent of Hinata and Itachi," said Kiba.

"Leave them be," said Kisame. "They must've finished their business and are returning to the village. Now it's your turn—let's see you fight against the fox boy."

Naruto scanned Kiba, finding this battle recalling that of his past battle against him during the Chuunin exam. He knew that the both of them were short-range combatants of the type that depended mostly on strength and speed. The goal was to create a situation in which he could use Rasengan to directly damage him; and judging from his opponent's speed, it was not bound to easily happen; therefore, for the time being, he decided that he would use Kage Bunshin no Jutsu to create clones and handle him until the opportunity came. Smiling, he scanned him again and formed a hand seal; and then he said, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

With a different hand seal, Kiba returned Akamaru into its actual size, which was twice his own. Seeing all the eight clones of Naruto advancing, he jumped and flipped backwards, turning himself upside down with his right hand on the ground, providing support for his body; and then he spun himself as he kicked the first four clones at once, causing them to vanish. The remaining four clones were already near him, having him in their hitting range; and they were about to throw a punch each when he focused some chakra in the right hand and discharged it, causing him to propel high and the impact to scatter the clones in their opposite directions.

And then he saw several kunais heading in his direction.

Naruto knew that it was difficult to dodge while in the air, thus he impelled them then. He had planned to use Rasengan once any of the kunais hit Kiba, as he would slow down momentarily at that point in time.

Kiba, however, understanding the circumstance, sent for Akamaru to snatch all the kunais a Naruto had impelled. He trampled against a tree's branch and made a bolt for the Naruto who threw the kunais, throwing a direct punch against his face. And then that Naruto vanished.

Two other Narutos ran towards Kiba from different directions, their hands ready to throw a punch, leaving one last Naruto in the distance. It was Naruto's hasty attitude that often was his biggest factor to lose a fight, he thought, waiting for the two to become closer—for his opportunity of being able to hit them both at once. And when the opportunity came, he crouched and, utilising his left foot as a pivot, he swiftly extended the right one to tackle the one behind and afterwards spun himself to as well tackle the other in front, causing the both of them to vanish.

It gave a chance for Naruto, however, to rush forwards and form Rasengan in his right hand. His opponent was already in his hitting range, and he was confident that this one would definitely hit him.

Sensing danger—the great amount of chakra Naruto put into his Rasengan and that his only option was to either shield himself with both hands or punch him in the lower body—which was risky, as it was very likely then for the compact tornado to end up hitting both him and his crush. And then he noticed that Naruto was grinning.

"One-nil!" said Naruto, standing still, dispersing his Rasengan, knowing that Kiba had lost and that if he continued, his friend could lose an arm—or even die.

"So you had been waiting for me to lose it so you could use that technique, eh?" Kiba said, raising him body, dusting off his pants. "Nice one."

"Na uh—your moves were really cool I thought I was never gonna get the chance to use it," replied Naruto, grinning at Kiba.

"Good taijutsu indeed," commented Kisame, who was then standing on a tree branch. "Was your teacher the Hidden Leaf's Green Beast?"

"No—it's Kurenai-sensei," answered Kiba. "She's actually pretty good with taijutsu."

"Ah, her. She fought against Itachi once," said Kisame, jumping down onto the ground. "At any rate, you're not as stupid as you seemed to be just before the fight."

"Um, thanks," muttered Kiba.

"So, between water and ice, which element do you like better?" asked Kisame.

Kiba thought for moment before saying, "Ice."

"Alright—from now on, you're going to learn ice-elemental jutsus and their characteristics, so you could use them to complement your fighting style," said Kisame.

"Ice-elemental jutsus?" asked Kiba.

"Yes—like Uchiha specialises in fire, my clan specialises in water and ice," said Kisame. "I personally prefer water though."

"I mean, give me an example of an ice-elemental jutsu," said Kiba, rather delighted.

"You could turn your dog into an ice being and everything he touched would freeze," said Kisame. "Or you could expel ice spikes, or you could have a contract in blood with an ice being—a penguin, for instance. Further to it, you could do with some improvisation."

"Aha! Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" shouted Naruto enthusiastically. "I can summon a giant toad!"

"Uh... I don't want a penguin," said Kiba, imagining a giant penguin.

"Okay—penguin it is then," said Kisame. "However, in order that you could summon a penguin big enough to be useful, you'd need to combine strength with your dog."

Kisame bit his right thumb, from which then some blood spewed. After quickly using the blood to draw seal on the left palm, he slammed it against the ground; and then the seals were carved on the ground and expanded into a huge collection of unreadable letters from which a puff of smoke blasted high in the air followed by the materialisation of an enormous penguin standing at about three metres tall with a white back and head and cobalt blue swirls on its breast—which looked like that of a tattoo,—and bringing a large scroll in its brown beak.

"Ohh—how cute!" shouted Naruto.

"It's alright for some, but... I think its colours are inverted?" said Kiba, dubiously watching the penguin waddling in his direction and lowering his head.

Kisame took the scroll, opened it, and put it on the ground. "You write your name in blood and press your and your dog's fingerprints further down there."

However much Kiba felt doubtful about the contract, he did as he was told.

"To summon one, channel chakra into your hand and do it the way I did just now or have your dog channel the same amount of chakra into its hand as you do and put them down at the same time," said Kisame. "The hand seals are dragon, bird, ox, elephant, and dog."

"Done," said Kiba, beginning to feel eager to give it a try. "Can I give it a try now?"

"Go for it," answered Kisame, putting the scroll back in his penguin's beak.

"Let's do it, Akamaru!" Grasping the front right limb of his dog with his left hand, he sent for it to produce a good deal of chakra into that limb; and then, deeming the amount sufficient, he thoroughly channeled the same amount in his right hand before forming the hand seals and both putting that hand and, with the left one, motioning his dog's front right limb down onto the ground.

An outburst of cold smoke and appeared a huge penguin—only slightly smaller than the one Kisame summoned. The first thing that Kiba noticed was that his penguin was, in the first place, darker in colour, with its back heather grey and its breast navy blue. It was pretty, if slightly scary—what with its bloodshot eyes, Kiba thought. That he could summon such a huge being gave him some spurt of sense of achievement, considering that it required nothing but a little amount of effort. He had the faintest idea of himself being indecisive, for he was delighted to be able to summon a penguin then while he had thought it lame theretofore; and again he recalled the gruesome case of whether he liked Naruto. Kiba, at the age of sixteen, summoned a huge penguin... and discovered his sexuality—astounding?—he jested to himself.

"Kiba?" called Naruto, tapping his shoulder, gazing him in the eye. "Granted it's a great success, but stop dazing out."

"I bet your first summoning failed?" said Kiba, promptly feeling very aware of Naruto's touch. For a moment, he felt the world spinning very fast around him—it perhaps had something to do with the touch. It was true, however, that the day went rather fast then—in only two hours since he woke up, he had discovered eventful things.

"Um, yeah," answered Naruto, averting his eyes from Kiba. "It was a tadpole. It was much harder than I thought it would be."

Kiba chuckled at that.

"Brother?" asked Kiba's penguin, waddling towards Kisame's penguin. "Did this guy also call you?"

"Nah—it's Kisame," answered the other penguin.

"So what are we here for in the first place?" asked Kiba's penguin, glancing around, probably looking for an enemy.

"Um, I just wanted to give the jutsu a try," said Kiba, facing his penguin. "I'm Kiba... and this is Akamaru—we're the ones who summoned you."

"Pleased to meet you, Kiba-kun" said his penguin, rather expressionlessly. "I'm Masashiro. If that's that, I'll make my way home now."

Upon Kiba's nod, the penguin said, "Till then." And then it vanished, leaving only a diluting puff of smoke around.

"I'm going home too if there's nothing more," said Kisame's penguin.

Kisame nodded at his penguin; and it vanished in the same manner his brother did.

"Good," said Kisame. "To be able to summon Masashiro, you must be pretty good. I suppose that's all for today. I'll give you some jutsu scrolls to read later. For now, let's return to the village."

"Thanks... Kisame-shishou," said Kiba, rather awkwardly, even though he was feeling very thankful about the experience he had given him. Turning his look back at Naruto, he smiled.

For Naruto, if not for his passion for Naruto, he would do anything to save him—he would lure, trap, and kill; he would be strong; he would tell a lie; he could even be viciously unkind; and he would wait and endure patiently like a chrysalis.

Smiling, he said, "So... you still owe me a meal."

TO BE CONTINUED