Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Naruto or Digimon franchises. Comments/Criticism is fine as long as it isn't straight up hate or flaming. If you do not like, no one is forcing you to read and you can just leave.

Thank you and please enjoy

The Hybrid Tamer

-Chapter 12-

-Last Time-

Noticing his reaction, Jeri followed the small fox's gaze she was just in time to see one of her classmates Takato also go around that corner. "What's Takato doing over there?" She wondered aloud, getting several yips from Naruto in response as he tried to get out of the odd girl's grasp without accidentally hurting her. "You want to follow him?"

Naruto responded with a slight nod of his head while yipping several more times which made Jeri smile. "Alright then, lets go after him." She said cheerfully a she gave chase, missing the face-paw that Naruto did as they went.

-And Now-

Naruto and Jeri stayed as quiet as possible as the girl peered around the corner to see Takato holding a red and white dinosaur looking digimon with a black hazard sign on it's chest around the neck while talking to an unknown blue-haired boy with a white and green rabbit digimon sitting on top of his head.

"Takato was it? I get that your new to this and everything, but I don't think bringing your friend there to school was a very bright idea." The unknown boy said in calm but slightly condescending tone that got Takato to looked down in shame.

"Yeah, I really doubt that people would buy him being a stuffed animal like me." The digimon on the boy's head said jokingly, before yelping as his 'ride' gave him a pointed look.

"Now's not the time for your jokes Terriermon."

"Momentai Henry."

"You take it easy." The now named Henry said with a roll of his eyes before turning back to Takato. "Anyway, you should really get out of here before someone else-"

"What's his problem?" Terriermon suddenly cut in with a tilted head. His question was directed towards the still unnamed dino digimon, who had started growling angrily out of the blue while swiveling his head towards where Naruto and Jeri were hidden, accidentally tossing Takato off in the procces. Understandable unnerved by this, Jeri tried to back away quietly, only for the ever-dreaded plot device that brought woe and misery to many a person to strike: AKA that small stick on the ground you always just happen to step on.

*Snap*

Startled by the sudden breaking sound, the odd girl involuntarily gasped and fell to the ground before the four. This in turn set off the digimon as it growled even louder while it's mouth started glowing red.

"Guilmon stop!" Takato yelled while trying to grab the red dino again.

"Pyro Sphere!" Sadly, his attempt ended in failure as Guilmon opened his mouth wide and fired a ball of compressed red fire straight at Jeri and Naruto.

Seeing the eminent threat approaching, Naruto swore mentally as he finally managed to break out of Jeri's iron grip, thanks to her behind frozen in terror, and dispelled his transformation a split second before the attack hit.

"JERI!" Takato screamed out in worry as he saw his classmate, and not-so-secret crush, get engulfed in a burst of fire and smoke. Shoving the digimon in his arms to the side, he started to rush over, only to come skidding to a halt as the dust started to clear.

Instead of seeing the girl badly hurt or possibly even dead, like he was expected, the goggle wearing boy was met with the sight of Naruto crouched in front of her with his now scorched arms held out in a protective manner. His tail was resting over Jeri's quaking form, acting a second layer of defense as it stopped any dirt and debris that were tossed around from the blast from hitting her.

Slowly getting up, Naruto hissed as the burns covering his arms stung, though he could already feel them starting to heal. Turning back to the girl he saved, he lifted his tail up to reveal her shaking a bit but otherwise unharmed. Assured that she was alright, the foxy blonde turned his attention back to the others with his eyes narrowing dangerously.

"Mind me asking just what the fuck that was about?" He asked in a dangerously quiet tone that immediately put the two boys and rabbit digimon on edge while Guilmon continued to growl.

"I-I'm so sorry! Guilmon o-only just hatched r-recently and he hasn't got his i-intsincts under control!" Takato said nervously with his hands held up in a placating manner. 'Holy cow this guy's scary!'

Henry however, while equally unnerved, was able to keep his cool long enough to think somewhat coherently. 'Must be that girl's partner, hopefully we can resolve this peacefully.' He thought while looking from the unknown 'digimon' that had just appeared to the girl he was protecting.

These thoughts were sent crashing to the ground however as Guilmon apparently got tired of standing around and charged at Naruto with his claws covered in a menacing purple glow. "Rock Bre-UGH!"

Unfortunately for the dino, Naruto was ready for him this time and before he got more than halfway was quite literally punted out of the area when Naruto appeared in front of him with a rising kick. Not wasting time after that, Naruto returned to Jeri's side and carefully scooped her up into a bridal carry and turning to leave.

"I'll take you on your word this time, but if he isn't under control soon I will end him myself." He said before hopping high into the air and out of sight.

As soon as he was gone, Takato fell to the ground with a shaky sigh. "Oh god… oh god…" He muttered, before fainting from mental exhaustion.

Seeing this, Henry sighed before kneeling beside the boy and fishing around in his pockets until he pulled out a cell phone. Flipping it open, he quickly went through the contacts until he found one labeled 'Mom' and hitting call.

"…Hello, is this Takato's mother? …Yeah, sorry to startle you ma'am but I calle to inform you that your son had a near miss with a car just a second ago… No, he's fine, just passed out from the scare... Okay, we'll be waiting at the school for you." He said before hanging up.

"Really Henry? Almost hit by a car?" Terriermon asked with a mixture of humor and confusion.

"What? I couldn't exactly say "Hey, you son's digimon almost roasted his classmate.'"

"Touché."

"Now, come on, we better find a place for this guy to hide before she gets here." Henry said while pointing to a dirt covered Guilmon as he wandered back and started poking Takato's passed out form with his snout. Had any of them been more aware of their surroundings as they left, they would have seen Renamon perched in a tree with a dull look on her face.

'Nope, not worth it.' She thought to herself before turning around and leaving. She knew if she tried to delete those two digimon, Naruto would find out somehow. And dealing with him being pissed at her was not worth the small amount of data those two rookies would give her.

Back with Naruto and Jeri, the blonde had gotten a decent distance away from the scene of the incident before silently dropping into an alley. His arms had already fully healed by this time, with only a few bald spots remaining that were quickly filling back up. "Hey," He said while gently shaking her a little, getting the shaking girl in her arms to look up at him. "Are you alright?"

Jeri opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out so she simply nodded her head weakly.

"Good, I'm going to put you down now." He said, adjusting his grip until her feet settled onto the ground. Slowly removing his arms away, Naruto was ready to catch her at a moment's notice if it looked like she would fall over again. It was unnecessary thankfully, as other than a bit of wobbliness, Jeri managed to stand on her own and once she got a firmer feel of her balance, promptly turned around and hugged the boy tightly around the chest,

"T-thank y-you Fluffy." She said, her voice muffled by his shirt while her eyes teared up slightly.

"No problem." Naruto said with a small grin as he rubbed the girl's head the same way Iruka would his whenever he had been upset. He would have corrected her on the name, but she was clearly still very fragile at the moment so let it slide.

Once she was able to settle down a little, she reluctantly pulled away from him and flushed a bit in embarrassment when she saw the snot and tear stains she'd left. "S-sorry," She muttered while trying to wipe her nose.

"It's fine," He said, waving her apology off with a shrug before placing a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "You had a pretty close call back there, it's only natural to be a bit shaken." As he spoke, Naruto ruffled Jeri's hair a bit while looking at the sky. "Speaking of which, why don't I take you home? It's starting to get late and your family is probably worried."

Following his gaze, Jeri was surprised to see the sun was getting pretty close to the horizon. "Yeah… worried," She muttered, her usual chipper tone gaining a tint of sadness to it that Naruto would have missed if it wasn't for his recently enhanced hearing. Filing the oddity for later, Naruto picked Jeri back up, flipped her onto his back, and grabbed her legs while his tail wrapped around both their waists like a belt.

"Hold on tight." He told her while tensing his legs intentionally slow, having learned from Rika to give newbies fair warning. Quickly realizing what he was about to do, Jeri clung tightly to the boy's neck just as he leapt straight into the air and landed on the roof of the building nine stories above them. "Now, which way to your place?" He asked while walking to the opposite edge of the rooftop so that they had an almost unbroken view of the entire city.

Heart pounding a bit from the brief flight, Jeri shook her head and pointed to the east. "My house is that way, in Shibuya." With a destination set, Naruto double-checked his grip on his passenger before leaping to another building.

With her mind no longer completely blocked up with fear, Jeri felt amazement flow through her as she soared high over the streets of Shinjuku. The people below her were barely visible specks while the cars looked like the toys her half-brother played with. It was only made more exhilarating by the constant rising and falling as Naruto leapt from rooftop to rooftop.

She was so lost into the feeling, she didn't even realize it was over until she suddenly felt her feet touch the ground again outside her home and saw Naruto standing in front of her with a worried expression. "Hey, you alright?" Naruto asked with a tilted head.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah, sorry. It's just… that was amazing!" She said breathlessly with a large smile as she held a hand to her chest.

Seeing this, Naruto chuckled while moving to her side and patting her back. "Yeah, the first times can be a bit wowing."

"That's an understatement." The odd girl said, taking a few deep breaths to slow down her racing pulse before turning a little somber. "I wish I could do that again."

"And who says you can't?" Naruto asked with a smirk, making her perk up as he put a slip of paper with Rika's home address in her hand. "All you have to do is come by and ask."

"R-really?" She asked softly, smiling brightly when she got a nod in response from the vulpine blonde as he turned around to leave. "Then see you soon."

Pausing just outside an ally, Naruto looked back at her with his trademark foxy grin. "Seen you soon." He said, then vanished around the corner.

Having almost completely forgotten the horrible experience that she had gone through for the moment thanks to the adrenaline rush, Jeri quickly pocketed the address and skipped to her door with a spring in her step. In her excitement, the girl missed her step-mother's face peering out the window with a shocked expression.

'Well, that was certainly an interesting experience.' Naruto thought as he dropped back into the streets of Shinjuku and hid his vulpine features with a quick henge, though did nothing to hide the big smile on his face. 'Time to get some ramen!' He'd made a new friend today, and that was always cause for celebration to him.

However, as he walked Naruto couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in curiosity as the amount of people around him began to lessen a lot as he went. He would have shrugged it off as it getting late, but he'd gone through this part of town enough times to learn the basic patterns of traffic and unless he was mistaken it should be the beginning of rush hour.

Just as he came to this realization, Naruto's ears heard a low-pitched whistling that was getting closer. Acting on reflex, Naruto spun around and dodged out of the way as a small red and grey blur shot passed where he was. That turned out to be a decoy though as another blur zipped in while he was moving and struck into his side, causing his henge to dispel.

Stumbling a bit from the impact, the blonde managed to steady himself after a second and glanced down to see a tranquillizer dart that he swiftly pulled out. It was pointless though as Naruto could already feel the effects kicking in and his vision blurred slightly.

Pushing past this, he dodged out of the way of six more darts while dozens of men dressed in riot gear and a few helicopters flooded into the area. 'Crap, need to even the odds!' Naruto thought as he raised his hands up to make shadow clones, only to be forced to abort the attempt in favor of dodging as a literal wave of tranq rounds fired at him.

Statistics weren't on his side though as the sheer amount of them and the multitude of directions they were coming from made it impossible for him to dodge them all and ended up getting hit several times on his arms, legs, and chest. With each successful shot, Naruto's vision rapidly became more distorted and his movements sluggish.

When the firing finally stopped, he had been hit at least forty times and could barely see straight. Stumbling around in a drunken-like daze, he resorted to swinging blindly whenever one of the dark shapes that represented the men attacking him appeared to get too close. It worked somewhat as he managed to hit several of them pretty hard before feeling something wrap around his right arm.

As he tried to pull himself free, Naruto's other hand was bound, and he was jabbed in several places by smaller darts with cords attached that shocked him. Unfortunately for the people attacking him however, Naruto had been zapped by a lot worse and retaliated by igniting his hands aflame, thus burning his bindings off, and striking out wildly as the cries of surprise and pain reached his ears.

The small victory wasn't to last though as the flames around his hand flickered out as he couldn't concentrate on maintaining them. Not even a second after that, something hard and heavy struck him across the face, knocking him off his feet and crashing to the ground where he was promptly dogpiled by the remaining men.

"Who are you people!? Why are you attacking me!?" Naruto demanded as he struggled to get loose. His question remained unanswered though as a blurry figure dressed in white appeared in his view and jabbed something into his neck, making everything go black.

-End Chapter-

AN: Just to be clear, Jeri will have a small, tiny crush on Naruto for a while, but that will mostly be due to hero worship and will fade in time. That being said, they will develop a more sibling like blonde over time and I have been considering making Naruto her official partner, so feel free to voice your opinion on that.

As for the whole her getting almost killed by Guilmon, well I honestly feel like something like that should have happened given how Guilmon would not listen to anyone when he went into those feral states and generally attacked blindly. And finally, yes, Naruto got captured, reason why? He let his guard down and Hypnos mobbed him before he could mount a proper defense. What will happen next? Keep reading to find out.

Also, my updates for all my stories will probably come in more slowly than normal as I have a new project I'm working on. It is a completely original, non-fanfic graphic novel I'm trying to create and am posting on Deviantart under the username Rad654. Please feel free to check it out and give your opinion, though I'm only 'okay' at drawing so don't expect superb art and such. Thank you for reading and please review.