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Thanks for reading and please enjoy

The Hybrid Tamer

-Chapter 23-

-Last Time-

As he spoke, Kyuubi was enveloped in a familiar swirl of shadows that began drawing him away from view. However, just before they reached his head, he offered his former jailor one last victorious smirk. "Until next time, Naruto."

And then he was gone.

-And now-

The air was heavy with tension over the Nonaka residence, so much so that even people passing by on the street couldn't help but shiver uneasily whenever they got close.

Within the building itself, Naruto could be found sitting on the couch, still in his new Teumesemon, with crossed arms alongside Rika's mother. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the room an unconscious Kyuubimon was laid out on a futon with several bandages wrapped around her chest and head.

The whiskered blonde's face was blank as he stared at the middle of the room, impatiently tapping his foot on the ground with enough force to leave a paw-print shaped indent in the floor. Every once in a while though, his gaze would snap towards a door to the side with concern and regret written all over his face.

Naruto was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't even notice, or perhaps he just decided to ignore, as a sniffling Rumiko grabbed some of his tails and started snuggling against them. The poor woman had been naturally very distraught ever since she'd been informed by one of the blonde's clones of Rika's kidnapping.

Her mood certainly didn't improve much when she'd seen the utterly brutalized condition her daughter had been in upon the original's blonde's return.

*Poof*

Both Naruto and Rumiko were snapped out of their thoughts as Gamakichi appeared in the typical summoning manner, the normally carefree and cheerful toad looking completely serious for once.

"Everything's set and ready to go." He stated while tossing a scroll he was carrying to the transformed blonde, before immediately vanishing in another cloud of smoke. Not that Naruto seemed to care at all as he focused solely on the newly acquired roll of parchment in his grasp.

Upon opening it to reveal a complex seal which he promptly smacked a hand onto and poured a HUGE amount of chakra into, so much that the air itself began to feel heavy just from the excess whilst sweat started pouring from the blonde's brow.

Then after a few moments the scroll started to smoke, prompting a now panting Naruto to drop it down onto the spot Gamakichi had just been standing.

*Poof*

Not a moment too soon either as smoke burst from the seal a moment later, before quickly dispelling to reveal none other than Shizune now standing before the pair.

"Uuugh, that was the worst thing I've ever-HOLY SHIT!" The ravenette started to groan out with a grimace, only to end up shouting in shock the moment she got a glimpse of the transformed blonde standing before her. Not that anyone could blame her given that not only did he have even more vulpine traits scarily similar to a certain Biju but he looked five years older at least and gone from being almost a foot shorter than her to a few inches taller.

And it didn't help that there was a horse sized nine tailed fox out cold in the corner.

"Naruto? Is that you? What-"

"I'll explain later Shizune-nee, we need to move." Naruto cut the woman off breathlessly while grabbing one of her hands, not giving her any time to react as he started dragging her towards the doorway.

Simply too stunned to really do anything else, Shizune allowed herself to be led along to the next room, where she was greeted to the sight of a very pale faced and battered Rika laid out on her bed, most of her body covered in bandages while icepacks were wrapped around her bruised neck.

Seiko was right at her side, in the middle of cleaning the bite wound on her granddaughter's neck when the pair walked in, a hopeful expression appearing on her face the moment she saw the unknown ravenette at the blonde's side. "Please tell me you're the doctor."

"Y-yeah… erm yes, that's me ma'am," Shizune said, stuttering slightly in a daze at first but quickly snapped out of it as she forced her shock aside and stepped up to the bed, her gaze softening as she took in Rika's injuries more closely. "Oh my, let me see what I can do."

Doing a few hand-signs, the medic-nin's hands were soon engulfed by a soft green glow before she held them out over the unconscious redhead. The light spread over the girl over time, growing slightly more intense whenever it passed over any of her injuries while small but noticeable pulses rebounded back to Shizune's hands as her brow furrowed in concentration.

Then slowly but steadily the various cuts and bruises still exposed starting to fade away while the girl gradually regained some of her natural pigment. However, before they healed fully, the light faded away altogether and Shizune let her hands drop to her sides.

"Poor girl has certainly been put through the ringer, half dozen bruised ribs, fractured scapula, bruised and fractured trachea, mild internal bleeding, and moderate blood loss," She listed off while giving the unconscious teen a sympathetic look, before offering the elderly woman beside her a supportive smile as she patted her shoulder. "But thankfully nothing that I can't treat. Give me a few hours and I'll have her right as rain again."

Seiko sighed deeply in pure relief while sinking into a nearby chair the moment these words reached her ears. "…Thank you, thank you so much."

"Of course," Shizune said while unsealing a bunch of medical supplies ranging from a portable heart-rate monitor to an IV pole and bags, the latter of which she swiftly started setting up. "Now, does, um…"

"Rika." Naruto supplied, getting a thankful nod from the ravenette.

"Does Rika have any allergies I should be aware of?"

"Not unless you're planning on giving her jalapenos."

"Good, and are there…" As Shizune got to work again, and continued to ask Seiko many important health related questions, neither of them noticed as Naruto slunk back out of the room.

The moment he was through the door though, the whiskered blonde vanished in a static blur and reappeared a few moments later on top the roof, laying flat on his tails with his legs hanging over the gutter. And there he remained, completely and totally motionless for what had to be the first time in his life as he watched the setting sun with a despondent and drained expression on his face.

It wouldn't be until the first stars were slowly starting to pop into view several hours later that Naruto finally moved again as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny storage scroll barely the size of his palm with the Hokage's stamp on it. Unrolling it as he sat up, he channeled a small amount of chakra into the seal within, thus causing a bottle of Sake to appear in his grasp.

And without missing a beat the transformed blonde ripped the cork out with his teeth and spat it off into the distance before starting to chug down the alcoholic beverage…

"What in Kami's name do you think you're doing?"

Only for it to be swiped away a few moments later by Shizune as she towered over the blonde with a disapproving stare.

Yet Naruto seemed completely unphased as he simply unsealed another bottle from the scroll whilst going back to staring at the sky.

"I believe they call it having a drink," He stated in a dull tone while yanking the cork out of the fresh jug, this time using one of his claws, and taking a quick swing of the alcoholic beverage before Shizune swiped it away too. "Shouldn't you be helping Rika?"

"I've already done everything I can for her, for now she just needs to rest and recover. Also fixed up the other girl too, Jeri if I'm not mistaken," The ravenette stated while taking a seat beside the blonde, idly swiping another bottle from him in the process. "Now since when did you start 'having a drink'?"

"About five minutes ago when I remembered I'd stole the emergency stash Baachan hid in the bottom of her desk two months ago and replaced it with a large stink bomb," Naruto said as he chuckled half-heartedly. "I wonder how much longer it'll be until she finally finds out."

'Luckily never because I already confiscated it.' Shizune thought to herself, mentally patting herself on the back for diffusing that potential disaster, before shaking her head and focusing back on the whiskered blonde. "Look, I know your upset Naruto-"

"Upset? Why would I be upset?" Naruto cut her off with a sarcastic laugh as he pulled out yet another jug. "It's not like I got completely duped by the fucking Kyuubi… and now it's on the loose with my face… and just tried to fucking murder someone I care about right in front of me-*Crack*-fuck!"

This time Shizune didn't even have to take the bottle away from the transformed boy as he accidentally crushed it within his grasp, making him swear loudly due to the fractured clay slicing into his fur covered flesh while Sake splattered all over himself and the ground below.

Said ravenette sighed in resignation while she set down two of the bottles in her grasp before pulling a towel and some gauze.

"As I was saying, I know that you're upset but trying to drink your problems away isn't the solution," Throwing the towel onto his lap, she surprised Naruto by taking a swig of the last bottle herself before handing it back to him, coincidentally knocking the Sake scroll away in the process, and getting started on wrapping his now bleeding hand. "However, circumstances as they are, I think I can let one or two drinks slide this once. Just as long as you promise to keep it in moderation, okay?"

Staring back at the healer, Naruto's gaze drifted to the bottle in his grasp until a tired sigh escaped his lips as he sipped the beverage with a nod. "Okay, I promise."

"Good boy," Shizune said joking while ruffling the top of the whiskered blonde's head, making his lips quirk up a bit. "Now, would you mind telling me what happened exactly? What do you mean when you said the Kyuubi is running around with your face?"

"It's exactly how it sounds." Naruto stated, flipping the hand the ravenette was bandaging over to reveal his digivice just as the screen lit up and a hologram of Kyuubi's 'new' form appeared, making Shizune's gasp in shock.

"Oh my…"

"Yeah, about the same way I reacted." The next twenty minutes or so pass by quickly as Naruto recapped recent events for Shizune, including explaining things like his sudden 'growth spurt', his sort-of-friend/partner Sangloupmon, and the Not-Kyuubi Kyuubimon in the living room below.

Once he was finished, the blonde's companion couldn't help but stare at him blankly for several moments before grabbing one of the open Sake jars and sipping at it.

"Wow, I can see why you wanted a drink so badly," She muttered softly, "But something just doesn't make sense. How could the Kyuubi have possibly escaped from the seal I the first place?"

"My best guess is he slipped free as data or something when Sangloupmon was trying to eat my digital life force or whatever," Naruto said with a shrug as he helped himself to another swig, only to end up grunting in annoyance upon finding his jug already empty. "That would explain why he could teleport in the same way at least."

"Perhaps, your seal was set up to contain the Kyuubi as a Chakra entity, so if it converted itself into living computer data like these digimon you've told me about, then in theory the seal could have possibly been tricked into letting it right out undeterred." Shizune said as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

"Well however it was, he had to ditch most of his chakra just to do it," Tossing the empty bottle aside, Naruto actually started to growl a bit with his fists clenched, bluish white flames flickering to life around his wrists, ankles, and tail tips. "That's why he took Rika, that bastard knew he couldn't take me head on anymore so he used her to make sure I wouldn't notice what he was really after."

The flames around Naruto got larger and more intense with each word he spoke whilst in contrast his tone grew colder. At the same time, his lips gradually curled into a snarl that showed off his razor-sharp canines, the fur on his arms and tails stood on end, and his ears twitched erratically.

"I swear, if I get my hands on him, I'll pummel his face in so hard that-" Whatever else the blonde was gonna say would remain a mystery as Shizune grabbed his shoulder.

"Naruto, while you have every right to be angry right now, that doesn't excuse acting like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum. Now calm down and cut the lightshow before you accidently set the house on fire," She stated firmly as she gave him with a stern look, which narrowed when he didn't respond. "Don't test me young man, I will bend you over my knee and give you a spanking."

In an instant all of Naruto's anger vanished and the flames dispersed, a nervous smile appearing on his lips as he cowed under Shizune's patented 'disappointed big sister' gaze, holding his hands up in surrender while his tails reflexively curled up protectively around his rear end. "No need for that Shizune-nee, I'll behave, I'll behave."

"Good," The ravenette said with a nod before standing up with the transformed boy in tow. "Now come on, it's time I give you a physical that's long overdue."

"Okay… do I-"

"You're not getting a lollipop afterwards."

"Aw man."

-Many hours later-

*Beep* … *Beep* …*Beep*

"Uuu-*cough*… ugh, w-wha… wh-*cough*-owww…" Violet eyes slowly flickered open as Rika gradually came back to consciousness, her voice hoarse and crackling as she tried to speak between coughing fits. She tried to get up as she looked around blearily, only for a strangled shout escape the redhead's lips when pretty much her entire body seized up in protest, making her fall flat onto her back again.

"Whoa, easy there, easy," A soft feminine voice said as someone grabbed the girl's sides and gently helped her sit up, fiddling with something or other in the process, before propping a few pillows behind her for support. As Rika's vision slowly came into focus, it allowed her to make out the unknown raven-haired woman that stood over, a kind smile on her lips as she held a cup of tea with a straw up to her lips. "Here, drink this."

Still pretty out of it, Rika complied on instinct and sipped up some the beverage… before sighing in blissful relief as it filled her with a warm soothing sensation that seemed to wash away most of her pain and soreness. At the same time, the redhead could feel the metaphoric fog lifting from her mind, allowing her to think and focus coherently, enough to finally identify the IV drip and HRM hooked up to her.

It even seemed to make her feel a bit more energetic, or in this case it be more accurate to say less completely and soul crushingly exhausted.

"Ahhh… thank you… ma'am." She mumbled gratefully in a slightly less raspy tone, adding the last part as an afterthought so not to seem disrespectful, something that the woman seemed to notice if her amused giggle was to go by.

"The name's Shizune and try not to talk too much, your throat is still healing," She said while setting the empty glass down. "Besides, if anyone you should be thanking my master, she spent almost twenty years developing this little concoction… although it was originally supposed to be a cure for hangovers."

'Shizune?' That name sounded familiar for some reason, ringing a few bells in the back of Rika's mind yet she couldn't quite remember where from. "Do I… know you?"

"Not personally no," Shizune said with a shake of her head, before looking towards the other side of the room with an amused smile. "But we do share a mutual acquaintance."

Follow the ravenette's gaze, Rika couldn't help but blink in surprise when she saw Naruto asleep in a chair alongside Jeri, the latter resting her head on the former's shoulder while a few of his tails wrapped around them both like a blanket. The rest of the blonde's tails were draped over her mother, whom was slumped over the side of the bed next to an IV drip and HRM that were hooked up to the redhead.

The only one not in the room was her grandmother and Renamon, though that was probably for the best given how cramped the room already was.

'Man, I must really been out of it.' Rika thought to herself as she finally noticed all of these very obvious things around her, before shaking her head with a frown as she turned back to Shizune right when the medic held her now glowing hands over her, making the redhead's eyes widen in realization. "You… you're from Naruto's home… but how?"

"Naruto brought me here shortly after he rescued you. It wasn't easy, nor particularly pleasant for that matter, but it was definitely for the best given your condition," Shizune explained without pausing her work, though she muttered the middle bit with a queasy expression. "Speaking of which, what did I just say about talking too much?"

"…How bad?" The redhead asked, making the medic grumble softly in annoyance at being blatantly ignored as she finally stopped healing.

"You want the honest truth?" Shizune asked back, before sighing when the girl nodded without hesitation. "You were incredibly lucky, if not for your grandmother keeping you stable and Naruto's quick thinking, most of your injuries could have easily become permanently debilitating if not outright life threatening."

The sheer bluntness of the ravenette's statement caused Rika to physically recoil while instinctually cupping her hands around her neck protectively.

"As it is now, you should make a full recovery within a few days," Shizune continued on, offering a sheepish apologetic smile as she spoke. "Normally it wouldn't take so long, but since you lack a chakra network of your own I'll have to keep to incremental treatments to avoid any unpleasant side-effects."

"Side… effects?" Rika parroted in concern, before flinching again when the medic-nin fixed her with a stern pointed look.

"No. Talking. Do you have any idea what condition your throat is in right now, young lady?" She asked rhetorically while gently tapping the redhead's nose, making her shrink back while her face scrunched up reflexively. "Unless you want to be mute for the rest of your life because you reckless blew your voice box out, then I suggest you do yourself a favor and as they say 'cram a sock in it', alright?"

Each word Shizune spoke was punctuated by the too-kind-to-be-genuine smile now on her lips that for some reason caused a shiver of dread to run down Rika's spine. Before she even realized what she was doing, she'd already covered her mouth with both hands and nodded in agreement, wincing slightly as the movement made her neck throb in pain.

"Much better," The ravenette said while playfully patting the head. "As for your question, your body has no Chakra naturally so it has been having a mild… allergic reaction you could say to my jutsu. Nothing too serious to worry about though, at worst just some mild nausea or lightheadedness every once in a while."

Nodding again in understanding, Rika started to relax a bit as she sank back into her bed…

*Cough* *cou-cough* *Cough* Only to end up immediately bursting into another coughing fit, prompting Shizune to bring her more of the herbal tea remedy that the redhead was more than happ to gulp down.

"Hmmmgh, whazza all the noishe?" At the same time, a slurred grumble rang out from Rumiko as the model rose, her fluffy coverings falling away to reveal her haggard form… and a half-eaten lollipop stuck to the side of her mouth. Rubbing her eyes with a yawn, she looked around sleepily for several moments with a confused expression. "Vhere am I? Thish isn't… vy…"

The woman trailed off mid-sentence the moment her gaze settled on her daughter, her grogginess evaporating instantly as a bright smile appeared on her lips and her bloodshot eyes started watering up again. "Oh my baby girl!"

Faster than Rika could even blink, her mother had her wrapped up in a surprisingly gentle hug with her face buried in the redhead's shoulder, gibbering out a fountain of unintelligible nonsense as she bawled her eyes out. Baffled by the sudden affection, the girl had no idea what to do and simply laid there with an almost perfect confused puppy look on her face, not even reacting as the lollipop once stuck to her mother's lips ended up in her hair.

All the while Shizune, who had thankfully been fast enough to get out of the way herself thus avoiding an unneeded mess, watched from the sidelines with an amused smile. However, her amusement soon faded away when she glanced at the corner of the room again where Jeri still slept…

… and Naruto nowhere to be seen.

Outside the Nonaka household, said blonde once again appeared on top of the roof, a frown on his lips as he stared at the city intently.

'You won't catch me off guard again Kyuubi, next time we meet I'll be ready for whatever dirty tricks you have planned.' He thought with clenched fists, his flames flaring up briefly as he imagined what kind of misery the former-biju was getting ready to cause him next.

-Meanwhile-

Within a classic fast food burger joint, a surprisingly human looking Kyuubi could be found casually sitting at a booth, taking a big bite out of a burger that had just been delivered to him.

"Mmm, so this is a cheeseburger? Not half bad," He muttered with an approving nod once he swallowed, before idly sipping at a drink with a pleased hum. "Having actual taste buds certainly makes this infernal form more bearable, almost makes me want to thank that stupid ningen… almost."

-End Chapter