And here is what may be the last chapter for a while seeing as I am posting this the day I get to my college. I start classes the day after meaning I will have to focus on them as much as possible. Still every now and then I will try to get something out. Just know if I do I will probably give a bit of attention seeing as I neglected them for far too long in favor of the story all my readers have been missing the most (basically I got questions on this one and not the other). So, anyways on the bright side if I pass everything this year (which will be hard) I will just have to take one last test (which is made by the state meaning yet another hard test) and I will be a LVT and will more than likely spend a few years working as that before even going to try for getting something else (like research, or going for vet (which is extremely hard seeing as just vet tech classes kick your ass))

Chapter 24

"Foolish kit. Nearly losing to a single nigen. Pathetic." Was the first thing Naruto heard when he woke up and found himself in a large sewer system.

"What- Kyuubi?" was Naruto's first response before he shook off the fogginess he felt in his head. "Well what do you expect even if he was a bastard, he still trained to be a good ninja." He then added.

"Bah, the Uchiha brat may have trained but you trained much more. You had a good amount of your clan jutsu that you never even used. You had a bloodline that could easily restrain and keep your opponent away and you fought him head on. Kit you didn't think and that is why I was forced to help a sorry bastard like you. I warn you next time you fight you better use what you know…I refuse to have a weak jailer….even if I plan on getting out of here as soon as possible." Kyuubi told him after his cage seemed to just appear out of nothing right behind Naruto. His figure at the moment was completely blocked by darkness only showing his eyes and his teeth whenever he spoke making him a terrifying sight for anyone except Naruto who was use to it. Though the most interesting part of the cage for Naruto when he turned to look at the fox was that he was now standing on what looked to be a field of grass.

"Well that is new." Naruto couldn't help but think until the fox's words sunk into his own thoughts and he clenched his teeth in annoyance. "Damn, fuzzball actually is making sense. I could have done that much better but thanks to finally feeling strong in my life for once I got way too cocky…I will have to work on that." Naruto admitted to himself before sitting down with his legs crossed unconsciously making himself float on top of the water.

"Yea that fight probably could have gone better fuzzball I will admit that…though any clue how long I will be stuck in my mind world? I want to see how the others did" Naruto asked the fox clearly concerned with his teammates which made the Kyuubi blink in surprise.

"This kit actually admitted that I was right? Usually my jailers only just try and ignore me no matter what and just try to steal my chakra…and he actually cares more about his team for a reason to get out of here rather than wanting to get away from me…this kit is a strange nigen." The Kyuubi thought before responding to the blond. "Even with my chakra and your own regeneration healing you that snake bastards blade is slowing down the process seeing as it automatically added poison that tried to make your blood thinner and take longer to clot…so even though the process has been going on for the two days you were out cold… meaning you probably will have to wait a few more of the real world hours before you can wake up meaning maybe a full day in your mind world." Kyuubi told him honestly and expected him to complain though was surprised yet again by the fact Naruto just said 'thanks' and sat down and simply seemed to be meditating to anyone who could see him. But to the fox who even when it is a mind version of the blond could read his mind a bit could tell he was going over his last mission to try and see what he needed to work on. "This nigen…" Kyubi began to think surprised before simply just forgetting it and curling up to rest after spending a good amount of time watching the blond heal.

~Konoha Hospital~

Haku, Sakura, Ino, and Hinata were all sitting in a clean white room that currently held the still unconscious Naruto. They have spent a good amount of time of the past two days just waiting and worrying about Naruto. Course Ayame also came in to watch over him as well but due to having a job as a civilian she still was pretty busy even though she wanted to be there. Still she didn't force herself to go to work until Haku, Ino, and Hinata told her they would tell her when he woke up right away if she was stuck at work. Which just shows that they were all worrying about their boyfriend's safety seeing as they saw the injuries he came in with and Sakura would tell you she is simply worried about her teammate. Course both Ino and Hinata also checked up on their own teammates as well but Kiba was released from the hospital yesterday and Choji was simply staying another night under watch after he was successfully healed though Ino couldn't help but smile a bit when she remembered the reaction her get well present got.

*Flashback (Naruto's day 2 of healing (aka day before))*

"Ugh, man this sucks…I mean the hospital food is so bad even I can barely call it food." Choji complained after he woke up from his emergency medical session.

"Well Choji at least you will be leaving tomorrow and then you will be able to eat all you want anywhere you want." Shikamaru told his teammate who smiled and began to droll at the thought. "Still I am sorry that I let all of you guys get so injured." He added upset looking down at his hands which only had a splint on one of his fingers.

"Hey Shikamaru don't worry about it we all knew what could happen on the mission and still accepted. Remember we are all ninja and we all know that at any time…that might happen to us." Choji told him in one of his rare serious times. Shikamaru was about to respond when the door opening up suddenly stopped him. Both of the guys then saw Ino walking in carrying a large tray of food.

"FOOD!" Choji called out happily drooling at the sight of the food and would have ran over to her if he still didn't feel weak. This of course only made Ino chuckle and walk over to the food lover to let him eat what he wanted after they helped him sit up.

"Yes, and it is all for you Choji seeing as the doctors said that you have no restrictions anymore besides having to get some rest and relaxation." Ino told him and then watched amused as he finished the food nearly as fast as Naruto with ramen.

"Ah, that hit the spot. Thank you so much Ino." Choji told her happily rubbing his belly. "…though I would never think that you would ever be the one letting me eat as much as I wanted…not that I mean to be offensive by saying that." He told her adding the last part fearing she would get mad at him.

*sigh* "Ya Choji I know I was like that before with my dieting craze but I out grew that. I mean both me and Sakura have decided to stop that after we became determined to become better ninja…and when we told Hinata, Tenten, and Haku that they all immediately explained the problems with kunoichi dieting." Ino told them remembering how against it the girls were. "Plus, as much as I have to admit that you look good as your new skinny self it just isn't the look for you. Now that I am not obsessed with only looks; I can honestly say you would just not be you without your normal weight." Ino told him honestly and instead of getting mad at the comment that could be taken as a fat joke he simply smiled at his friend.

"Thanks for finally understanding Ino." He told her happy that she wouldn't bug him constantly about his clans desire to be 'chubby'. "Still I figured you would be busy for most of your time worrying about Naruto seeing as he is your boyfriend…and was the most injured of us all." Choji told his friend.

"Well I am really worried about him and yea me and the rest of us do spend a lot of time just hopping that he wakes up when we aren't too busy to be with him. But still I have known you two for all my life. So, how much of a cold-hearted girl would I have to be to forget about one of my closest friends when he is injured." She told him shocking the now skinny boy quite a bit. Though he didn't let it affect him much and instead just enjoyed the fact they both visited him and they all simply talked for a bit before Ino finally decided to go check up on Naruto yet again before the hospital visiting hours ended. Course when she left both of the boys were silent for a moment before their conversation turned to their female teammate.

"Man if I knew Naruto would rub off so much on her I would have tried to bring them together ages ago just so she wouldn't be so troublesome." Shikamaru commented while stretching his arms out over his head.

"Yea, I mean sure at first I was kind of worried about what her treatment in a CRA harem would be…even if she was mean to us for several of the academy years. But now I am with you on that idea. I mean after he got her off of being stuck on the Uchiha she changed her focus from becoming more 'beautiful' to being a better ninja. Plus, it is nice that she seems to have gotten some of Naruto's personality as well seeing as I doubt that our love crazed friend would have ever put thought into who her precious people are." Choji admitted seeing as he enjoyed being around the new Ino.

*Flash back end*

When she came back this morning, she brought up a breakfast to Choji as well just to make up for some of the things she said to him when she was in what she liked to call immature faze. But after that she quickly went to see her new love interest who as expected was still sleeping peacefully on the hospital bed. While he looked peaceful if one was to look at his chest, they would see a large red area where the poison that was on whatever stabbed the blond tried to eat away at. "Naruto-kun what happened to you and who did this?" Ino thought worried knowing that Sasuke never touched poisons while he was in Konoha so it couldn't be him. Course the rest of the girls around him were also just as curious as to what happened as well…especially Haku who wanted to try and get revenge on whoever hurt her 'master' while she wasn't there to protect him. Course it was at this time that she finally remembered something that she forgot about before. "Oh, wait I am such a fool. How could I forget that this is what my clans own information gathering jutsus are for." Ino thought before walking up to Naruto's head while doing hand signs making the rest of the girls curious. Course they didn't get any time to ask her a question before she already used her jutsu to enter Naruto's mind.

~Mindscape~

"Now let's see first step is to create a physiological representation of Naruto's mind-" She began to think and planned to make the 'world' she could move around in and look for information in before she realized that she was already in a massive sewer system. "Okay so he already has one…I thought Dad said that almost all people never really have the ability to make their own mind world...strange. Still I guess I better just go find the information I am looking for." She thought shrugging of the weirdness before moving through the sewers but surprisingly not really feeling her feet getting wet even though they were in water. Course while doing this she attempted to float around and look like you were supposed to in the world they created but in this one something seemed to be stopping her from doing so. Still she walked around the system looking for where his memories would be before eventually entering a very large room.

Looking around said room she saw that its walls were just like the rest of the system but in this room half of it seemed to be split off by massive bars and beyond said bars was what appeared to be grass. Though the most surprising thing for her is that she saw what looked to be an unconscious Naruto sitting near the bars looking into them. So, she quickly grew curious as to why the bars were there and began walking up to them and nearly went through them before all of a sudden she felt her breath leave her as a massive amount of charka that was darker than anything she ever felt before appeared and forced her to her knees. "W-what is this chakra? It feels like extremely condensed KI. But that is impossible…Naruto just what kind of chakra do you have?" She thought now slightly worried before she looked around the cage and this time nearly had a heart attack as she saw two massive eyes staring down at her.

"Well what do you know the kit's mind walking vixen actually came into his mind eh?...Well I guess I should show her why a jinchuriki's mind isn't something the unprepared should enter." The Kyuubi called out with an evil smile growing on his face as he launched a wave of his dense chakra at the girl that would easily cause chakra burns and corrosion on whatever parts of her body it touched…and seeing as what happened in the mind realm happened to her in the real world that would have been really bad. Though right before it could hit her a blur got in front of her and took the hit. "Che, Damn spoilsport" Kyubi muttered before falling back asleep now that his chance of fun was gone.

"What are you doing here Ino-chan?" Ino heard a voice kindly tell her and quickly looked back in the direction she saw the beast only to see Naruto looking at her worried.

"W-well I was just trying to figure out what happened to you seeing as Kakashi-sensei had no idea." Ino admitted. "…sorry for entering your mind without your permission…I know it was wrong and you can get me reprimanded when you wake up if you want. I was just worried. But before you do…What was that thing!?" Ino told him going from upset to afraid only to be surprised that Naruto hugged her.

"Ino I am not mad that you entered my mind. After all I would be worried if one of you girls were in the hospital for so long with no one knowing why or how. Plus, with your clan's ability that temptation of finding out must have been too much to ignore." Naruto told her trying to comfort her seeing as he hated seeing anyone upset. "Just if there is a next time you come into my mind make sure I am able to show you around to what you need or that you are prepared. Seeing as that thing as you called it is the Kyuubi…he is my sealed resident as you found out about a while ago." Naruto told her honestly.

"That was the biju that attacked years ago…I don't know how people ever found the will power to fight that massive creature." Ino mumbled feeling a shiver of terror run through her body.

"Yea, it is amazing what people will do when pushed…though Ino if you don't mind can you leave my mind for now seeing as I will be able to explain what happened myself when I wake up in a few hours…but it means a lot to know someone finally is worrying about my safety." Naruto told her honestly and she simply nodded her head and dismissed her justu and began to fade from Naruto's mind with her last thought being how sad he seemed talking about people worrying about his safety. "It must be because of the childhood all of us in the village gave him…" was her last thought then she returned to the outside world.

~Outside world~

When Ino came out of her jutsu the she first tried to walk to the others but stumbled for a moment before getting her footing again and sat down next to the others now tired feeling mentally tired. Course she then realized that all of the others in the room were still staring at her with curiosity clear on their faces.

"So, what happened?" Sakura asked her friend knowing exactly what she just did.

"Well I wasn't able to learn anything from Naruto's mind his….defenses were too good even when he was out cold. So, I can't say who or how this happened to him but I do know he should be waking up in a few hours seeing as his mental persona told me." Ino told them causing all of them to smile at that.

=two hours later=

Naruto slowly began to finally feel himself leaving his mental world and began to feel the soreness that his body still felt. Soon after he was able to smell all of the chemicals around him making him realize he was in the hospital. Course he didn't let this disappointment stop him from opening his eyes slowly blinking away the blurriness that he soon saw and eventually looked around the room to see four excited people standing close to the bed.

"Good you are finally awake Naruto-kun" Hinata mumbled out relieved.

"Yea how are you feeling Naruto?" Sakura asks the blond.

"Ugh, I feel sore….still sorry for making you guys worry…it seems like that is all I have been doing recently." Naruto mumbles out even though he throat felt dry and coughed a few times. Course before he could even ask for something Haku was already close to him with a cup of water.

"Do not worry Naruto-sama this is just a part of being ninja for our village…though who did this so I may know who to kill for harming my master." Haku asked him after letting him drink the water.

"Someone that I don't want you to fight Haku-chan. But if you really must know I suppose you can see if you can sit in for the report I am sure Baa-chan will want soon I am sure." Naruto told them not wanting to explain his first failed mission more than once.

"…fine" Haku told him after a moment of realizing he didn't want to talk about it.

"Yea right now it is just good to have my fellow blond awake again. I mean you have no idea how worried we were for the two days it took you to do so." Ino quickly added getting away from a touchy subject.

"I guess…though why did you girls wait so long? All of you had to have much better stuff to do than just looking after a sleeping person." Naruto asked them briefly having his thoughts flash back to the times where he woke up as a child in the hospital after a beating with only a letter and present from Sarutobi explaining he had to do his job but wanted him to get well.

"Are you crazy Naru-kun we are your girlfriends of course we would care enough about you to put seeing you and taking care of you while you are injured above anything else we could be doing." Ino told him shocked that he would think they would do that.

"Y-yea Naruto-kun we all l-l-..care for you." Hinata shyly confirmed shocking the blond even more. He then just looked at each one of the people around him and saw nothing but concern and care.

"They all truly do care for me…so this is truly what having loved ones feels like…I think I like this new warm feeling." Naruto thought happy now that they broke him from his thoughts of his bad past.

"Thank you girls for caring." Was all he told them but they didn't realize what just that alone meant to a jinchuriki. Course it still brought a smile to each of the girls faces.

"Wow they all really do care for each other..." Sakura thought beginning to get lost in thought looking at the lovers with longing in her eyes. Course this moment only lasted a minute or two before Naruto remembered where he was.

"Um, girls as much as I enjoy all of you around me can one of you get someone to check up on me to release me from the hospital. I really don't like this place." Naruto asked making them making them all laugh a bit.

"Sure Naruto it is just funny how you are fine doing anything else but when it comes to a hospital you try and avoid them no matter what." Ino told him still laughing now remembering how they had a day of school where they all had to go to the hospital for a physical exam to make sure they were all healthy enough to be ninja. For during that time Naruto not only tried to skip the day of school but also managed to escape from the class two times in comical ways only to be dragged back by Iruka who even threatened to tie him up to make him go with the class. Course Naruto just blushed out of embarrassment.

"I can't help it if this place is terrible. Blame the people that made it all white and make it always smell like nasty chemicals." Naruto mumbled out making the girls laugh yet again until Ino left to get someone to check on Naruto.

=Little while later=

When a doctor finally came in, they quickly ran a scanning jutsu over Naruto and eventually found that he was good enough to leave the hospital much to the pleasure of said blond. So, he quickly prepared to leave the room and get as far away from it as he could and found that Haku actually managed to quickly go to their house to get him a clean pair of clothes which was rewarded with a quick kiss on the lips. Needless to say, this caused said girl to blush a bit at the unexpected kiss but still had a small smile on her face after it. Course eventually Naruto came back to the girls wearing said clothes and happily brought them all out of the hospital.

"So, what should we do now gals?" Naruto asked happily not able to try and figure out what he wanted to do first after getting out of the hospital.

"W-well Naruto-kun we told Ayame-san that we would tell her when you woke up so it would be best to go to the stand now." Hinata told her boyfriend who smiled back at her.

"Great idea Hinata-chan. Not only do we get to see Ayame-chan after such a long nap but also get some ramen" Naruto tells her happily giving her a tight hug before walking a bit faster towards the shopping district for his ramen leaving the rest of the girls to wake up a surprised blushing Hinata before following after their hyper boyfriend, or in Sakura's case teammate.

"hmm, I guess Naruto-kun is really hyper now that he is out of the hospital and he did spend two days knocked out. He must have a lot of energy to burn…" Hinata began to think right after the hug which quickly continued to become her own little fantasy that she stayed in blushing the whole time until she was woken up by the rest of the group. Course after this they made it to the stand relatively fast and all sat down on the stools.

"Hello and welcome to- Naruto!" Ayame began saying then when she saw Naruto she was shocked for a moment before giving him a tight hug. "Thank God you are finally awake Naruto-kun we were all so worried about you." She added in while still holding him tight.

"Umm, Ayame-san you may want to loosen up your hold on him or he might pass out." Sakura gently told Ayame only for her to look at Naruto and begin to see him go blue.

"Oh, Naruto I am so sorry!" She quickly tells him and lets him out of the hug.

"It is okay Ayame-chan I am just happy that all of you girls are somehow happy being with someone like me." Naruto says with a weak smile.

"Don't say that Naruto-kun even though we have to share we do so willingly just because we all love you that much. You aren't a bad person for having to date multiple girls and we can all tell that you are trying your best to keep us all happy." Hinata told him shocking the rest of the group seeing as she didn't even stutter at all. Course after Naruto got over that and thought about what Hinata said he blushed out of embarrassment and rubs the back of his head.

"Thank you I guess Hinata but honestly with your girl's beauty while still working hard and not being snotty you all really deserve to be treated like the princesses you are in my opinion." Naruto told them not really knowing how to explain himself. Course he still managed to get each one of his girlfriends to blush at this comment.

"Oh, thank you Naruto-kun. I think you deserve a reward." Ino told the blond then glanced over to Ayame with a smile that somehow was brought to her face as well and they both leaned over to Naruto and kissed him on both cheeks at the same time causing Naruto to blush not knowing what to do.

"Well it looks like we surprised our favorite blond boy a bit." Ayame told the group giggling before she heard Naruto's stomach growl. "I guess I should take care of that as well." She added with a laugh before taking all the other girls orders and went back to prep the meal seeing as she already knew what Naruto always gets.

"…Well I guess I should have expected something like this. Still it I so awkward being the third wheel so to speak….I really need to find someone" Sakura thought as she watched the seen she accidentally was stuck in the middle of. Still even with Sakura feeling out of place the whole group still had a good meal happily talking to each other with Ayame joining in whenever there weren't more customers coming in.

Eventually they all had their fill and the group headed towards the hokage tower seeing as Naruto still had to give Tsunade his report and the girls were all curious about what happened. Though when they learned exactly what happened all the girls with either horrified or enraged. Still eventually he finished and Naruto was finally able to leave and head back home to rest and all the rest of the group felt like they wanted to do the same thing although they still had a lot of the day left. So, Naruto quickly made a few clones and ordered them to walk each one of them home making each one of them even happier at their boyfriend's attempt to be the 'proper' guy.

~Ino's house~

With Ino she happily walked home with her arm holding onto Naruto's until they eventually made it back to her clan house and she kissed the clone on the lip to say good bye and quickly ran inside not seeing the surprised blush she created before the clone dispelled. Though when she made it inside, she quickly went to find her father.

This search made her eventually reach his home office where he was looking through a few scrolls. "Hey dad?"

"Yes Ino what is it?" Inoichi asked putting down his scroll.

"Well um is it possible for people to have an 'inner world' without us needing to create it?"

"Well I suppose that it is possible if said person used their mind a lot. But that is very unlikely seeing as even genjutsu users who have to use their intelligence in their for their jutsu so meeting one is next to impossible more than likely. In fact, I can only think of two people in this village that might be possible to have an inner world." Inoichi told her. "Why do you ask?"

"Well I was curious what happened to Naruto so I…kind of.. might have entered his mind while he was still out cold to try and find out what happened to him." She told him then flinched back expecting him to be mad at her for invading someone's privacy. Course at first she just saw her father take a deep breath before looking at her.

"While I am disappointed that you broke clan rules, I will let you go with only a warning. Though you must tell Naruto and if he so desires that he can get you punished for it if he doesn't already know you did it. But as for his mind he is a…special case." Inoichi told her seriously.

"Yes, I have already told him seeing as I saw him in his own mind. But when you say special case do you mean the fact that he is a jinchuriki?" she asked relieved he isn't too mad at her but still noticed him freeze up when she said jinchuriki.

"First off do not tell anyone else about that seeing as that is supposed to be a secret that only a few know of and you could be punished for knowing if the wrong person told you." He told her seriously only for cutting him off.

"Well Naruto was the one who told us after we asked about the seal on his chest." She quickly told him afraid of punishment from the village which usually started with going to the T&I's area which everyone fears.

"Well than that is fine. Just don't tell people that you know and you will be fine. But I guess seeing as you do; I can explain why his mind is a bit different…You see due to his condition of having a demon sealed into his body itself Naruto's mind is changed. For the demon somehow pushes its conscious through the seal so that it is able to represent itself within the holder's mind. It then tries its hardest to make the person used in the seal to either release them or let them do what they want. This of course puts a lot of strain on their minds. Course also due to the fact that people don't understand the sealing process fully they treat the person…differently putting even more strain on their minds. Due to this they always have enough mental….'parts' shall we say to build their own mind realm. Though these are very dangerous for mind walkers like us. For within that area there are large pathways for both the jinchuriki's own chakra which is usually massive and also a pathway for the demonic chakra that the seal siphons off from the beast which is highly corrosive to those not use to it." Inoichi explains and Ino instantly pictures the red chakra that was about to hit her only to be blocked.

"So that means just that small amount of chakra would have severely hurt me if Naruto-kun didn't block it." She realized mentally thanking the blond for saving her from a lot pain and even possibly her untimely death. Course as she thought this her father continued his explanation.

"Now the most dangerous part of this is the beat itself which while the seal stops it from being able to harm the host directly does not stop it from being able to attack any mind walkers that enter what could be considered its territory. This is why anyone entering a jinchuriki's mind needs to use extreme caution or else they more than likely to die." Inoichi tells her remember all the times he needed to enter the blonds mind to make sure that he was still sane. A job that put a bitter taste into not only his mouth but everyone who knew about it. For all of them knew the main reason it had to be done was due to the villagers treating the unlucky blond like trash. "So, I highly recommend that you never try to enter his mind until you are much more skilled in our clan's jutsu. And even then only do so if absolutely necessary." He finished telling his daughter realizing that he shook her up quite a bit now that she realized what danger she was unknowingly in.

"T-thank you father." She stuttered out and left to go relax and sort out her own thoughts for a bit.

And that is where I am going to end this chapter. Now I kind of like the way I am going with these but I am sure a lot of others are complaining…oh well let them have fun I guess if it isn't really constructive criticism I don't really care about it. Now I am trying to push a good bit more of 'romance' like parts into this story as I think I have said before but now I am also trying to put in the fact that the girls are unknowingly helping heal Naruto's mind from all the abuse he had as a younger kid, which I gave a hint to in this chapter in fact. Anyways like I said in the beginning this will probably be my last update for a while due to college but I will try and put out something if possible but I have to study A LOT and practice essential skills A LOT…hopefully I will at least pass everything because right now I am nervous about a lot of this seeing as some of these skills are hard to do and of course you don't get a lot of practice for them (I haven't done something called a blood smear all summer but have to show a teacher how 'good' I do one the first week of school). But enough of my whining just know I will try my hardest to work on my stuff but I will focus more on my other stories which I have kind of neglected all summer to get my most popular story some much needed work. Ja Ne.