"Okay Kise you know what to do right?"

"Yes! If you start to lose control then I stab you multiple times. A-are you sure that's what I have to do?"

Naruto chuckled as he sat cross legged in a fairly enclosed forest clearing in Sound Country. He paid no attention to the floating kunai above his legs and arms as he reached up and rubbed the girls head affectionately. Naruto gave a soft smile and it helped ease the young girls tension considerably.

"Yes, the giant turtle said he will try and pull back as much as he can, but in case we aren't fast enough that I need you to snap me out of it."

"I would appreciate it if you didn't refer to me as a 'giant turtle'."

"But am I wrong?"

Naruto laughed as he ignored the Bijuu as he started to mumble to himself and curse at the young boy. It had been yet another month since Naruto and Kise had started their journey and while their progress to Kumo had been slow, Naruto had made it a point to get as much training in for both Kise and himself. Kise was progressing much faster than Naruto had anticipated, at a much faster rate than Naruto had when he was training with Shisui. The girls magnet release was a scary bloodline, she was nowhere close to mastering it by any means. But she was proficient enough now that she barely even had to put any effort in to control smaller objects like kunai and senbon.

The puppets were a little more tricky for her.

The masked man was kind enough to leave them two puppets in his scroll that he packed for the kids. It was the same two puppets that Kise had attacked Naruto with and she was having a hard time controlling them. Since she didn't know how to actually use and control chakra strings she was completely reliant on her magnet release. Before, her emotions were strong enough to take control and almost act like the puppets had their own free will. It responded to her fear, almost like a defense mechanism. Naruto had chalked it up to her very mediocre chakra control and she spent most of her days balancing kunai above three of her fingers while training in the tree climbing exercise.

And while she was busy with her chakra control Naruto most of his time went into fine tuning his genjutsu and ninjutsu. He had added over ten jutsu to his water and blood style arsenal and his genjutsu was almost second hand nature to him. Naruto wanted to increase his speed but sadly he didn't have any higher training weights on him and more of the ones that were sold in stores were way past his price range to afford. He did think about stealing some but a harsh glare from Kise had stopped his thoughts before they went very far. So he had given the smaller weights he was wearing to the young girl, she protested at first but after Naruto's explanation she ended up caving in, rather begrudgingly, but it was still a win in Naruto's book.

But for the past three weeks Isobu had told Naruto that it was time to start training in the Bijuus chakra. Naruto was hesitant at first, he didn't want to end up losing control and putting Kise in any danger. Isobu was quick to squash Naruto's fears as he had explained that if they had an outsider perform physical harm on him then it would give Isobu enough time to suck back in the chakra he was forcing into Naruto's coils.

After he had explained this to Kise she looked at him like he was crazy, which he understood why since it was far fetched and quite peculiar, especially to someone so young. Kise ended up agreeing pretty quickly, and most nights were spent dedicated to his bijuu training. Isobu had been a good coach and never let it get too bad that Naruto ended up losing control, the vile chakra was potent, and it burned like hell in his veins and he wasn't sure if he would ever get used to it. Overtime Isobu said that it would burn less and less the more he used it in his body, every jinchuuriki had to go through this with the exception of the Kyuubi. The Kyuubi was special and he was the only one who's chakra would actually heal their hosts so they never actually felt the burn in their bodies.

Naruto and Isobu haven't had a lot of success, they were about half way to forming a singular tail before Naruto could feel his control slipping away. And it had been like that for the first three weeks into training, baby steps were being made but ultimately it ended in failure. Naruto had begane to get irritated in his lack of results, he didn't think it would have been this hard to control even a singular tail. But it was mainly the toll it was taking on his body, the seal on his stomach wasn't like any of the other jinchuriki. His seal was much more freeing to Isobu and allowed the demon more control over his chakra as he was willingly allowing Naruto to use it, and Naruto could physically feel when Isobu was molding it. And since his seal had much more leeway in that regard Naruto, it would always burn almost unbearably every single time.

"Okay...let's do this."

Naruto said to both Kise and Isobu, but mainly he was talking to himself. He could already feel the phantom pain relieving itself in his body as he formed a ram seal in front of him. He let the warm breeze glide over him as he shut his eyes and took multiple deep breaths. Kise watched him with a mixture of worry and concentration as a fiery red chakra started to form around his body. The floor under Naruto started to break away, sinking a few inches deep as the pressure started to cut the grass around him. Naruto fought back a wince as the malevolent chakra forced its way into his coild. His veins felt like they were on fire as he stayed rooted in place fighting back against the exertion.

The chakra cloak then began to take shape, the color had started to darken to a very deep shade of maroon as half a tail had started to grow behind him. The tail was still incomplete as it was about half the size that it should be. Naruto fought back gasping in pain as Isobu pumped more chakra into him. Kise took a step back from the amount of pressure that was emitting from Naruto, shuddering as the vile chakra filled the area with a thick cloud of malice. She kept her control on the kunai's as Naruto raised his head. HIs eyes opened wide in pain and Kise could see the pain resonating in his now multi colored eyes. Naruto's golden right eye went the widest it had ever been, his body felt like he was running through the depths of hell and he could physically feel his blood start to burn. A deep growl escaped it's way from Naruto's throat as his sharingan eye spun wildly in his socket, having activated from the over amount of chakra in his body.

Kise grew more concerned as her kunai started to shake from the demon's chakra and was about to send them into Naruito's body. She was stopped as Naruto reached out to her, telling her to stop as the tail behind him started to grow in size.

"N-no don't! I-i-i'm almost t-there!"

Kise wanted to argue but she reluctantly stated silent as Naruto fell down to the ground. He was holding himself with one arm as he gasped for air, the chakra suffocating, His air supply was slowly diminishing but Isobu still hadn't pulled back and he was barely still in control of his actions. It took everything in his body to stop Kise from ending the training prematurely. Blades of grass started to disintegrate under the chakra as he screamed, he was ignoring Isobu's words as the scream tore from his throat and echoed into the quiet night.

"Hold on for just a second Naruto!"

Naruto didn't hear the demon, it felt like the skin was getting burnt to a crisp as two identical horns made of chakra outlined the outer edges of his head. He felt his teeth grow sharper and with a loud swing the singular chakra tail came to life as he smashed against the tree behind him.

Kise jumped slightly from the impact and was about to plunge the kunai into Naruto to stop him until he fell to the ground panting. She couldn't get a good look at his face but the chakra cloak was still flowing over his body. The immense pressure suddenly vanished and the sense of malice was much smaller than it was before. The tail of chakra swung behind Naruto before falling to the ground and resting besides the hurting blonde. Kise called his name as she ran over to him, reaching out to see if he was okay. As soon as her hand made contact with Naruto she instinctively snapped her hand back with a squeal, the chakra cloak was incredibly hot and burned her at the touch instantly. She winced in pain as she gripped her hand painfully.

"Naruto-san, Naruto-san are you okay?!"

"Y-yeah. I'm still i-in co-control right…?"

Naruto asked between breaths, turning his face to stare into the heavily concerned eyes of Kise. Kise nodded happily, glad to see that he was okay as his sharingan stopped spinning. Naruto slowly got to his feet with the help of Kise, the chakra cloak didn't burn anymore as it receded into a very thin layer over his skin and bubbled comfortably. Naruto's legs were shaky as he stood tall, trying his best to not lean into the young girl as his chakra tail stuck itself into the ground to keep him centered. Naruto's head felt wobbly, rocking back and forth as he finally got his breathing back under control.

"Good job kid, you managed to stay in control AND master the first tail." Isobu stated proudly. He actually didn't think Naruto would be able to master the first tail in such a short amount of time. It was heavily taxing on the boy's body and we would take more time until he could go into the chakra state himself, but the pain would be severely reduced and almost non-existent next time he attempted to enter the first tail. The Bijuu grinned as Naruto just hummed in response, it was a miracle in itself that he was still conscious after all of that.

Naruto allowed his eyes to shut as Isobu's chaka reverted back into him. The red chakra swirled around the two kids until flowing into the invisible seal on his chest. Naruto separated himself from Kise as he pushed his back up against a tree. The pain in his body had vanished, but the lingering soreness had stayed back with a vengeance.

Kise sighed in relief as she saw Naruto just looked to be worn out and not physically hurt. She couldn't even imagine what pain he was going though while dealing with demonic chakra. She was skeptical at first when Naruto had told her about the demon in his gut and she would be lying if she said she wasn't a little scared after he had said that. Then Naruto went on to share about his past to the young girl and Kise had instantly forgot about her fear or worries as they talked the night away. He had told her in confidence and they both felt a special connection to each other, and for once in her entire life, she truly felt special.

"Naruto-san, can I ask you something?"

Naruto turned down to look at Kise. He smiled playfully as he reached a heavy arm forward and ruffled her hair with much more vigor than he had before. Kise shrieked in surprise as her head copied Naruto's from earlier and wobbled back and forth as he completely messed up her hair. Kise giggled at the attention as she reached up to try and stop the ruthless attack on her head, grabbing his hand as she smiled up at Naruto. The blonde laughed quietly before nodding his head at Kise after she let go of his hand.

"Well ummmm."

Naruto watched her as she shifted in place awkwardly, her face flushed a deep crimson red as she fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. Naruto's eyes grew more worried as he attempted to get a little closer to the girl. She had acted like this since they had the very emotional talk in the hotel a month ago and he was beginning to get really worried. Kise tried to hide her growing embarrassment with her free hand as she looked away from him, she really wanted to ask about a certain point in Naruto's past but she wasn't sure if she would get offended or sad if she did. Naruto had told her she could ask him anything she wanted but she learned to be withdrawn in the past years when she was alone, so it was hard for her to ask. After a few minutes of awkward silence and some more awkward kicking on the ground Kise finally turned to Naruto, her face still incredibly red as her golden eyes shined with curiosity.

"C-can you tell me about this Shisui person? Y-you talk about him highly and I guess...I was just curious."

Naruto smiled so wide his teeth were showing. Kise felt her awkwardness slowly fade away as he took a seat next to her, hand on her head as she beamed up at him. Naruto felt an overwhelming amount of pride surge in him, he gets down a new technique with his Bijju partner and gets to talk about Shisui?

"Yes I'll be happy to Kise-chan!"

Konoha

"...huh?"

"Is this...seriously real?"

"It certainly looks like it is tits-chan."

Narumi sweatdropped as she looked at the flabbergasted looks from team 11 as they stared at her in disbelief. Beneath her sweatdrop though, she was feeling extremely uncomfortable in her current situation. She would much rather be talking to her family about her traitorous brother than in this situation, and she would choose that 100 times over. The sexy jounin blinked several times as she tried to comprehend the situation. Shizuka and Sai were looking at her with a mixture of unease and pure shock. And it was starting to really get under her skin.

"This is where you crack? How pathetic."

"I swear i'm going to find a muzzle to put on you to finally shut you up for once,"

The four of them stood silently in the middle of the training ground as they started at each other. Narumi had interrupted their current training session rather unexpectedly making the remaining team 11 members slightly go on edge. Narumi couldn't blame them though, she was rather unpleasant the last time they had worked together in Tuna and was very distant when they traveled back together from Roka. Narumi hadn't seen any of them since their return to Konoha, since she was quite busy returning all of her chunin vests and was forced to take several loyalty and performance tests since she had been demoted. It was standardized but it didn't make it any less pointless, or boring.

So once she had finally gotten free time, she made a conscious effort to seek out the team after her talk with her father just moments ago. Narumi watched uncomfortably as Shizuka and Sai started to bicker about the black haired girl's nickname. She vaguely remembered something similar happening back in Tizuna but it was still surprising to watch. Anko's eyes hadn't left the young Namikaze as her brown eyes tried their best to read the red-head. Something was definitely different about Narumi and she didn't know what it could be.

For one she wasn't wearing her chunin vest, the dark green jacket was nowhere to be seen and she was dressed far more casually than Anko had ever seen her. She wore the same black shinobi pants that were the perfect combination of not too tight, but loose enough to move freely. She was wearing a dark t-shirt that ended just above her belly button that then turned into fishnets that covered up her midriff and both of her arms and ended just below her elbows. The remaining space of her right arm was completely covered in bandage wrapping, and her Konoha headband was still wrapped proudly around her forehead with a dark blue cloth to match her shinobi sandals.

Narumi bowed her head, catching the genin off guard, especially Shizuka who voiced her confusion rather loudly. Anko stayed silent as she watched Narumi under a critical eye, something was fishy about this whole ordeal.

"Narumi Namikaze here reporting for duty, as of today I will be your new genin teammate."

….

…

"Huh?"

All three of the team 11 members said simultaneously, not taking their eyes away from the bowing Namikaze. Narumi stayed in her bowing position and didn't want to look up, she could feel her cheeks reddening in embarrassment and didn't want them to notice. Anko felt her mind shut down on her completely as she digested what Narumi had said.

"Genin? But you are a chunin."

"Due to my disobedience to Kurenai-san on our last mission and my refusal to several missions regarding Naruto, Hokage-sama deemed it necessary to demote my shinobi rank until I prove that I can be a chunin of Konoha no Sato."

Once again, team 11 was rendered speechless. Shizuka was the first to break out of her stature, she felt her lips form a scowl as she glared at Narumi. She stalked over to Narumi and grabbed the girl by the color of her shirt and brought her cose, Narumi didn't even flinch and was very thankful the red in her cheeks had faded.

"What do you mean refusal of missions regarding Naruto-kun? Are you not even trying to get him back?" Shizuka growled out, her grip tightening around Narumi's shirt. The red-head shook her head negatively to Shizuka. That seemed to be the wrong choice and it only caused Shiozuka to grow angrier.

"Tch, how typical of you! Just like you Namikaze's to abandon him again when he needs us the most! How fucking dare-"

"Shizuka enough!"

Anko said, pulling away Shizuka from Narumi. The black-haired genin scowled at her sensei as Narumi smoothed out her now wrinkled shirt. Anko scolded Shizuka with a silent glare making the smaller girl recoil slightly. Anko pursed her lips as she turned back to Narumi.

"Look, as much as we would like to trust you about Naruto-kun, we don't. He had told us how you all treated him and left him alone for all these years and frankly, we are all pretty disgusted by it." Anko said rudely, her eyes sharpening as Shizuka and Sai nodded along with their sensei. Narumi didn't even try to hide her agreement with them and she nodded her head.

"I understand."

"But," Anko started, drawing a frown from Shizuka. "I will at least give you the benefit of the doubt and let you explain to us your side." Anko finished. Shizuka jumped up in surprise at Anko's words and looked at her sensei in shock.

"But sensei-"

"I have no excuses whatsoever about my treatment, and I will not stand here and lie to you all and make up some lame excuse. Naruto had made it very clear to me on our last mission that he saw none of us Namikaze as family, he said we were all strangers to him" Naruto said, her eyes flashing with sadness for a moment. Team 11 looked at her in shock, at both her words and Naruto's actions.

"As for the reason for my refusal, I believe since we are the ones who drove him away, the last thing he wants is to return to the family that was never there for him." Narumi lied again.

Shizuka grumbled in her spot, as Anko nodded her head. In a sad way Anko could understand what the girl was saying. Naruto had left for a reason, he needed to get away from the place that reminded him of all his pain and suffering. No matter how much it hurt her to even say, she understood why. Sai seemed to share her thoughts as he looked away from Narumi, letting a frown take over.

"Yes, I can understand that." Sai muttered.

"Even so why do you have to join our team? I much rather have Kagami-san instead."

"Kagami-san had been granted sole apprenticeship under Kurenai-san, she would be training him with her team and on days off." It was true, Kagami had proved his loyalty to Konoha and had come clean on everything he knew about the kidnappings and other information he might have known. Minato was quick to agree after learning about his rare chakra condition and believed him to be a good fit for the village. Kagami cried tears of joy as he was handed a Konoha headband after several weeks of waiting.

Shizuka groaned as she turned back to Sai and Anko, throwing her arms to Narumi's direction as she yelled.

"And you guys are okay with this?!"

"This is a direct order from Hokage-sama, fighting back is pointless."

Shizuka glared at Sai and was about to retort until Anko had thrown her hand over the feisty girl's mouth. Shizuka grumbled in annoyance and Anko couldn't help but smirk somewhat playfully.

"Like what Sai-kun said, arguing is pointless. But." Anko said, turning to Narumi, she put on the darkest glare she could that actually sent a chill down the red-heads spine. Anko's eyes promised pain as she spoke, her voice was void of any emotion as it echoed throughout the training ground.

"You will listen to my command no matter what, I wont tolerate disobedience of any kind. And if I sense even a single ounce of hostility from you, or even a single shed of disloyalty like you had done with Naruto-kun. I will not hesitate to turn you into the Hokage. Do you understand?"

Narumi gulped and nodded her head as she replied with a strong yes. After she had agreed the dark look vanished from Anko's eyes and she put on a huge smile, clapping her hands in amusement and was muttering to herself about getting her banner to show Narumi. Shizuka pouted and glared at Narumi.

"I still would have preferred Kagami-san."

"Well there's no need to complain tits-chan, stressing about it will only give you more wrinkles."

"God dammit Sai shut up!"

Narumi once again sweatdropped as Shizuka started throwing a large amount of kunai into his direction. Narumi wasn't sure, but she thought she saw a real look of fear flash in Sai's eyes as he started to run away from the girl's onslaught. Anko laughed loudly as she sprinted off towards her team, helping Shizuka in her attack and leaving Narumi in the field. Narumi expected something like this to happen, so she wasn't as hurt as she would have been. Still team 11 was definitely an odd group of shinobi. Narumi was starting to second guess her choice of joining team 11.

"Maybe I should have tried to join Kurenai-san's team instead."

She thought with a groan as she looked up into the sky. She wasn't particularly close to Kurnaqi, well Narumi really wasn't close with anyone outside of her family. But she and Kurenai had met up a few times during Narumi's month probation of tests, and Narumi was confident enough to call the two of them acquaintances now. Several of their talks had always revolved around Naruto. Since they were the only ones in Konoha who were aware of his secrets, and Narumi planned to keep it that way. It was part of the reason why she refused to tell anyone else the real reason Naruto had left, she was keeping a promise that she had made herself. When Kurenai had asked why the answer came to Narumi faster than anything else.

"It was a way to make my parents see the error in their ways and finally see what they have been doing to Naruto. It's easy to convince them especially under these circumstances. And I'm sure the last thing Naruto would want is more people to go after him or know that you were ever in danger. The only reason I told you about it was because he cares for you and I didn't want you to hate him. It was supposed to be a secret, so I will make sure it stays a secret."

Narumi sighed again as she thought back to that day, Kurenai had been very shocked but she understood well enough to drop the issue and they would only talk about it in secret, if they even talked about it at all. Her eyes watched a singular cloud float by and gave it a sad smile. She would prove to Naruto that she would be there for him, she wanted to make it up in any way she could. Even if they aren't family aymore, she would still try and support him for the time they had lost together.

"Stay safe out there Naruto-nii."