A Wolf and A Tiger

Chapter 2

How to Find a Mask

The next time that Hinata/Alyssa woke up, it was while she was in her bed and under her covers, it took her a minute before she realized what had happened and how she was knocked out, Naruto used a jutsu to turn into a god in mortal flesh. She was getting overheated just thinking about what he looked like, so she tried to take her mind of it by looked out her window and saw that it was morning, if so then what happened with Naruto last night, what did he do, did he do something to the third hokage? She rushed out of bed and made her way out of the Hyuga compound as fast as she could and began speeding down the streets to reach the hokage's office, when she did, she was relieved to find him sitting there and doing paperwork.

"Aw, back to the land of the living I see, how was your night," Hiruzen asked the young Hyuga and prepared for the round of questions that were sure to come at any moment, and he just knew that the rest of the day was going to be a headache as well.

"Where is Naruto, what have you done with him," she demanded, she didn't think that he actually did something with Naruto, except maybe take him to a Yamanaka to get his memory of last night erased, or reconditioned or something.

"I did nothing to Naruto, normally when someone learns of top secret info such as what you and Naruto have learned, we send them to a Yamanaka to have their memory erased, but since what was learned is Naruto's business, he can keep his memory. It wouldn't do much good to send a Yamanaka in to do that anyways, the nine tails would reject the person and cast him out, the beast still has some power after all, including healing injuries to Naruto, but why should I let you keep your memories," he asked.

"Because Naruto needs a friend right now that can be trusted, and at the moment, you clearly do not fit into that category, he needs someone that he can talk to about this and someone who has known him for a while now," was her reply, and they both knew it was a good one.

"Very well, but let me set forth a condition, only Naruto can divulge as to whom he tells his secrets to, not you or anybody else can tell this secret, although I know you already know this, I have to say it anyways," Hiruzen replied as he took a puff of his pipe. She nodded in acceptance to this, it was only polite in regard to a secret, "now, on to better things, Naruto stole the scroll of seals because he was tricked by Mizuki into partaking a secret graduation exam, although I suspect he only did it to gain info on who Mizuki was working for. Naruto had some time to kill and decided to learn a jutsu from it, the shadow-clone jutsu, since the standard clone jutsu that the academy teaches takes chakra control that an Uzumaki like him with an abundance of chakra can't control. Iruka stumbled into this mess and found out about Mizuki's plan and after a confrontation that ended with Mizuki telling Naruto what he had just learned here, Iruka went ahead and promoted him to genin since Naruto proved that he could perform a clone jutsu."

"That's a lot to take in, but I guess it can't be helped I'll see him at the graduation orientation for team placement I suppose, goodbye lord hokage," Hinata/Alyssa stated before turning and walking out and back to the Hyuga compound. She still needed to get ready to take her shinobi registration photo, in a rush she came here in quite a mess, she still needed to shower and brush her long dark purple hair, her old brown hair looked good on her short, but she found she liked her hair longer with the dark purple. She, of course, wore her standard clothing, she wore her hidden leaf headband around her neck and made sure she plastered a smile on her phase for the photo and made sure she took it with as an elegant princess would, with grace and beauty.

She decided to wait until it was time for the team placement before she saw Naruto again, like she told the hokage, and decided to instead go to the different mask shops and see if they had a new shipment of wolf masks for her to go through. She had been asking the shop keepers to hold any new wolf masks they get in before putting them out for sale, of course, they didn't do this for free, so she offered a deal, hold them off and she wouldn't break every bone in their body. She hated to have to force it like that, but she was starting to worry, the mask shop owners all had a system in place where all of them talk to one another, from every village and roadside stand in the ninja world, so she had them all keep their feelers out for a wolf mask. As of now, she had gone through hundreds of wolf masks with not one of them being the one that hold Zen-Aku, and she hasn't gotten wind of any reports involving a monster humanoid wolf yet, so the mask has either yet to have been found, or he's laying low.

When the day finally arrived for team placements, she was sure to come in as quietly as possible, like she always does, and then Naruto came in quietly as well, which was strange for him, and set down next to her as he always does at this time. "Hey, Hinata, thanks for getting the old man to tell me the truth, even if he didn't know he was, and thanks for telling me the truth, indirectly, I mean," Naruto whispered to her.

"You're welcome Naruto, I didn't think it was right for him to keep that from you, it doesn't matter the reason, a child should know who his parents were, and thank you for being understanding about all of this," Hinata whispered back to him and he nodded.

He looked to be about to say something when Shikamaru walked by and spotted him, "huh, what are you doing here Naruto, this isn't for dropouts, you can't be here unless you graduate."

"Oh yeah, do you see this, do you see this, open your eyes Shikamaru, it's a regulation headband, we're going to be training together, how do you like that," Naruto said in a childish way, didn't want to let them know that he wasn't actually an idiot.

A huge stomping of feat was then heard coming for the door, and soon came in Sakura and Ino, they were both shoving one another in an attempt to get inside the classroom first, then they started to argue about who got inside first. That was before they began to argue about who was going to sit next to the resident brooder of the class, Sasuke, the person who was the lone survivor against a massacre that her elephant brain was saying wasn't as it seemed. Probably a conspiracy by the elders of the leaf to force Itachi, the one who committed such an act, out of the village while getting rid of all other Uchiha other than his younger, not as skilled by a long shot, brother who had an infirmity complex.

Both Hinata/Alyssa and Naruto hated Sasuke, his only drive was to kill his brother, they had both met him before when Sasuke was being picked up by Itachi, they got to know him and knew that out of everyone else, he was best suited to be hokage, even Naruto agreed to that. Of course, the rest of the class didn't agree, the girl side at least, they all had a burning desire to be with the brooder any way possible, while the boys hated him for either stealing all the girls, or hated him because he brought the mood in the room down very low.

They had mixed feelings about the rest of the class, Sakura was kind and sweet when she wanted to be, but had a temper and a set of lungs like a banshee, while Ino was almost just like her except Ino loved flowers and such with sass that put people off. Shino was quiet and hardly ever said a word to anyone, but they knew that him and his family had a thing for bugs so that was most people's focus and shut them down from ever speaking to him, Hinata/Alyssa and Naruto were not most people and talked regularly with him. Kiba was a wannabe alpha male that held no trace of alpha anywhere near him, but his boasting about it puts him more towards a certain category that had two banshees and a brooder in it. Shikamaru was smart for his age, actually, he was just smart in general that was just as lazy, his drive to become a ninja was most likely to do whatever he wanted, not all that bad, but what he wanted was to just watch clouds all day. Choji was a kid with a good heart, well, a heart full of high cholesterol if all the salty chips and very unhealthy sweats that he eats is anything to go by, but he doesn't like to fight unless angry and then he becomes an absolute beast at that point.

Soon Iruka came into the class and everyone went to their seats that were up and about before he began to speak, "as of today, you are all ninjas, to get here, you faced difficult trials and hardships, but that's nothing, what comes next will be far more difficult. Now you're only genin, first level ninjas, all the genin will be grouped into three-man squads, each squad will be led by a jounin, an elite ninja, and we want each squad to have a balance of strengths and abilities, so that's how we set them up. I will now announce the squads," the two stopped paying attention after that until they heard one of their names called, and guess who that is, "squad seven, Naruto Uzumaki. Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha."

"Great, I get the amazing brooder and the banshee, I hope you at least get someone on a good side," Naruto whispered to Hinata/Alyssa who nodded, he was going to have a busted ear drum for sure the next time they met in her opinion.

"Next, squad eight, Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame," Iruka announced again, Kiba smirked in self satisfaction while Shino adjusted his glasses, there goes that hope down the drain, Shino was fine, but Kiba was more trouble than he's worth. "Now, squad ten, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi," the teacher announced, well, at least with that group it was two against one, but that one was another banshee, at this rate, everybody from Hinata/Alyssa and Naruto's friends were going to be deaf.

"Iruka sensei, why does a great ninja like me have to be in the same group with a slug like Sasuke," Naruto asked, he knew the reason of course, but he still had to keep up the appearance of the idiot that everyone expects from him.

"Sasuke had the best scores of all the graduation students, Naruto, you had the worst scores, to create a balanced group, we put the best student with the worst student," Iruka informed, that wasn't the real reason of course, not the main one anyways. The real reason was because of Sasuke's sharingan, it can control the nine-tailed fox, even though Sasuke hasn't activated it yet, he'll still need to be on the same team for when he does activate it and needs to control Naruto. "After lunch, you'll meet your new jounin teachers, until then, class dismissed," the teacher announced, and of course Hinata/Alyssa and Naruto went off on their own to eat lunch alone while everyone else ate alone or in pairs. Afterwards they all returned to the classroom where each and jounin came in and took the groups away, and off to introduce themselves to one another, and once that was done they went off on their own again.

Hinata/Alyssa waited until after Naruto was done with his talk with his jounin sensei before they met up at a ramen stand named Ichiraku ramen where they talked about their jounin sensei's, and boy did they have much to talk about. Naruto's jounin sensei was his father's old student, Kakashi Hatake, known as the copy ninja because of his use of a sharingan to copy over a thousand jutsus with only one being his own originally made jutsu. Hinata/Alyssa's jounin sensei, Kurenai Yuhi, was new to the jounin scene but was rumored to be a genjutsu specialist, rumored to only be surpassed by Itachi Uchiha himself, that in of itself sung to her praises about her abilities. They both had quirks though, Kakashi seemed to be the lazy type while Kurenai seemed to hate all men because she saw them as nothing but perverts, both were said to be powerful though, so the quirks were put up with. Naruto told about how his sensei said not to eat breakfast for their survival test while Hinata/Alyssa was told the same thing, it was obviously a test on teamwork, only problem was how to get their team to work with one another.

The next day when they met up after their survival training is when they told each other what their survival test entailed, Naruto's was more focused on getting bells from his sensei by the use of teamwork, making their assumption true, they were an attack team. Hinata/Alyssa's was more focused on finding their sensei through their teamwork, they were obviously set up as a tracking team, with combat abilities of course, but mainly going to be used for tracking missions once they get out of D-rank missions, or chores if you prefer. When they weren't going on missions, they used their free time to train or get ramen together, the training was done individually as to surprise the other when they fought the other or together, the ramen was actually done together though.

It was a month later before either one of them ever went on a C-ranked mission, it was Naruto who went on the mission, he was to escort a bridge builder to his home village to build a bridge, it turned from C to A rank when a missing ninja by the name of Zabuza and his apprentice Haku showed up though. Naruto confirmed that they both died in battle and inspired him in the way of ninja, and it took another month before they came back after the bridge was complete, and they were right on time.

They were right on time for the chunin exams, exams that were to be had for genin to be promoted to chunin, the next rank for one to achieve in their ninja career, so it was a big deal. Ninja from other villages were coming in as well, Naruto even had a run in with three of these ninja, a blonde-haired girl, a makeup wearing boy, and another jinchuriki, the host of the one tailed sand spirit Shukaku, Gaara of the sand. Naruto even let his mask slip a little bit and show off his true side when one of them threatened someone still in the academy, the meeting let others see him like no one had ever seen Naruto behave before.

"I said put him down, now," Naruto said calmly as he turned his eyes to red with slit pupils, the one holding the little kid, Kankuro, let him go once he saw those eyes, they seemed familiar to him, and Naruto saw this before sensing something in the trees. He turned and saw Sasuke sitting on a branch and about to throw a pebble when he saw what was happening then he turned his head slightly to see someone standing upside down on a branch. "Nice to meet you mister one, you can call me mister nine if that makes things clear as to who you're messing with," Naruto introduced himself to the boy named Gaara, Gaara immediately got the picture because his eyes got wide and jumped down to beside his siblings.

"We're leaving, we don't need to bother with these people right now, let's go," Gaara said in a stoic and emotionless voice as he and the siblings began to walk away, nobody seemed to notice the slight fear in his eyes though, except for Naruto.

That was what happened, and Naruto was beating himself up for it when Hinata/Alyssa found him at Ichiraku ramen that night after she was informed of the chunin exams herself by her own sensei, her team immediately decided to enter it, they were ready. "I heard about what happened, how are you holding up," she asked as she took the seat right next to him and ordered some miso ramen, the same thing he was having.

"I'm doing good, just beating myself up a little for letting my mask slip, also thinking about maybe just letting it come down all together," Naruto informed her, which was probably for the best, the chunin exams will bring it all out anyways.

"I think you should let those masks of yours come down, I'm tired of not defending you when I hear your other team members come in and start talking about how dumb you are," Teuchi, the owner and head chef at Ichiraku ramen.

"Maybe we should, with the opponents getting stronger, the less likely they are going to underestimate us just because we act timid or foolish, I think it's time we dropped the act," Hinata/Alyssa suggested as well.

"That's too bad, I was beginning to like orange, but the safety of the team and the rest of my friends are going to have to take priority over everything else, let's do it," Naruto said with a smirk, who knows, it might be nice to see him in anything but neon orange.


Chunin exam test day 1

Hinata/Alyssa made her way with the rest of her team to the room where they would need to wait until the proctor came to deliver the first part of the exam, and they made sure to pass the mess with the genjutsu on the door to weed out the weak ones. When they got to the door, they were greeted by their sensei Kurenai, she explained that this was an individual choice that effects all of the squad, another speech about teamwork, and then they were able to enter into the room where a mass of genin greeted them. They waited a little while before they heard a commotion by the front door and turned to see that Naruto had arrived, and boy did he look different, hot to Hinata/Alyssa, just plain wrong to those who were used to see him in an orange jumpsuit.

Naruto now wore a deep red, almost black, pants stuffed inside of black combat boots, over his torso he wore a black, long sleeve shirt with a line in the same color red going down his center with the sleeves tucked inside black gauntlet-like gloves with a black headband on his forehead. Some of the ladies in the room turned to look at him as well and noticed that he looked quite hot, Hinata/Alyssa noticed the stares and glared at them as if to say back off, it didn't seem to work. Team eight kept walking up to team seven and steam ten in time to see Naruto turn to them, so Kiba decided to speak, "well, what do you know, it looks like the whole gang's back together again."

"Hi Naruto, I didn't think you'd choose that outfit for your debut attire, you clean up well," Hinata/Alyssa said as she got closer than the other girls in the room that didn't know Naruto were comfortable with, which was most actually.

"I don't know what's gotten in to him, but when we were confronted by a guy in a green body suit, he pointed out that we shouldn't be fighting before the exam, that it would be a waste to show our skills to one another before the battle portion," Sakura mentioned.

"Yeah, what happened to you loser, you think dressing different will make us see you as something more than what you are, you're still a loser that can't stack up to me," Sasuke goaded, he seamed to be testing Naruto to see if he actually has changed.

Naruto wasn't even paying attention to what they were saying, he was too busy staring at Hinata/Alyssa at how she changed her own look, she now just had on a smaller version of what she wore when she was unmorphed as a ranger back on Earth. Even in a younger body, she felt a small deal of satisfaction at being able to turn the head of a guy that she liked, and she was by no means a girl that loved attention, but coming from Naruto, she loved it.

"Huh, you say something," Naruto asked the two after he realized he was staring at her and someone had just asked him a question, the blank look on his face didn't help the projection of idiot in orange that he was trying to get rid of.

"Hey, Naruto, stop ogling my teammate with that dumb look on your face, or I'll make you," Kiba yelled out and got more attention on them then needed, and boy was there already eyes on all of them, they were the rookies in the exams after all.

"Back off Kiba, I don't mind him looking," Hinata/Alyssa said quietly with a blush that got Naruto's attention, he was sure going to tease her about it later on, but wasn't gong to now, it was serious time for right now, but not for long.

"Well, I do mind, if he's going to keep ogling you, he should do something about it, what are you going to do, huh, what are you going to do," Kiba exclaimed again and got in Naruto's face this time, some people didn't know when to quit.

Luckily, before Naruto could answer to the challenge, they were saved by someone named Kabuto Yakushi, while the others were talking to him, Naruto and Hinata/Alyssa were standing a little bit behind the group and talked quietly to each other. "Sorry about staring at you earlier, I just didn't expect you to come out swinging with that outfit, where did you even get that anyways," Naruto asked, anything to avoid looking at how beautiful he thought she looked.

"I made it, I'm handy with sowing and housework and such, I figured that if we're going to come out as our true selves, we should come out in what we're both comfortable in, but also what works," and she meant it, it also helped that she liked her old ranger uniform.

Naruto then spotted someone that caught his eye and nudged Hinata and pointed to who he saw, it was his fellow jinchuriki, Gaara of the sand, Naruto got a smile plastered on his face and the both of them went over to where the other jinchuriki was. From all the stares that the two were receiving though, she hooked her arm with his for comfort, "hello mister one, I hope that your stay in the village is going good, wouldn't want your stay to be any less than hospitable in a foreign village," Naruto said quietly.

"My stay has been fine mister nine, but my siblings don't know about the mister numbers part, I ask that you please don't mention the meaning of it," Gaara asked, his sibling couldn't believe it, he actually asked instead of threatened, it was funny to see.

"Of course, then I guess I should introduce myself then, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the leaf's most unpredictable ninja, this here is Hinata Hyuga, unrelenting tiger of the leaf, nice to meat you, Gaara of the sand," Naruto introduced them with a bow each.

"Likewise, these are my siblings, Temari and Kankuro, Kankuro is the one that had your fiend by his neck the other day while Temari is our sister," Gaara introduced his siblings who bowed as well as him to the two others.

Naruto heard a commotion coming from where the others were and saw that a guy from the sound village had just attacked that guy named Kabuto who was talking to the other rookies, it was clear that it was a sound based attack, which is why Kabuto fell apart. Hinata/Alyssa took a look around and saw that none of the other genin from the rest of the villages were looking at them, probably haven't for a while now, too focused on what the other rookies were doing to keep track of the smarter genin.

While the others were trying to figure it out, a smoke bomb erupted from the front of the class and out came a man in a black over coat saying, "all right, you baby face degenerates, pipe down and listen up, it's time to begin. I'm Ibiki Marino, your proctor, and from this moment, your worst enemy, now first, you candidates from the village hidden in the sound, knock it off, who told you could fight, you want to be failed before we've even begun?"

"Sorry, it's our first time, I guess we're a little bit jumpy, sir," the sound ninja said, you could hear the mimicry of sincerity in his voice though, it was clear that he didn't care about what he just did, it wasn't even a question if he did or not.

"Hmph, I'll say this once, so listen up, there will be no combat between candidates, no attacking each other without the permission of your proctor, and even than the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited. Anyone who even thinks of messing with me will be disqualified immediately, got it," Ibiki announced and nobody dared to say a word, "now, if we're ready, we'll proceed to the first stage of the chunin exam, hand over your paperwork, in return you'll each be given a number. This number determines where you will sit, we'll start the written test once you're all seated," everyone did as they were told and after a few fast calculations, Naruto and Hinata/Alyssa were able to get seat next to one another and away from the other members of their team. Ibiki tapped a piece of chalk against the chalk board, "eyes front, there are a few rules you need to be aware of, and I won't answer any questions, so you better pay attention the first time around. All right, rule number one is this, the written part of the exam is conducted on a point reduction system, and contrary to what some of you may be used to, you all begin the test with a perfect score of 10 points and one point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong. Rule number two, teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all three members, and rule number three is the sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating and for every incident they spot, they will subtract two from the culprit's score. Be warned, their eyes are extremely sharp, and if they catch you five times, you'll be dismissed before the tests are even scored, anyone foolish enough to be caught cheating by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here. If you want to be considered shinobi, then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be, and one more thing, if any candidate should get a 0 and fail the test, then the entire team fails. The final question won't be given out until 15 minutes before the end of the testing period, you'll have one-hour total," after a few ticks of the clock in the room Ibiki yelled out, "begin!"

Hinata/Alyssa and Naruto understood what the underlining meaning was, you can cheat as much as you want as long as you don't get caught, or you can answer all the questions as long as you know the answers. Meaning that the true meaning behind this test wasn't a written exam, it was information gathering, either use the information you've obtained up to that point to answer, or gather information on the fly from those that are probably in the audience that know the answers. Luckily for the two of them, they hid their true potential up till now, the keen observers could spot a byakugan activating easily, but they couldn't spot an elephant that was thinking, oh how she loved her animal spirits inside her soul. He went for a different approach, before the exam, he made sure to make a few shadow clones and hid them above them in the ceiling, mainly was going to be used for recon, but he kept them there after the rules were announced, they'd be put to some good use now.

After everything was done and over with and all the weak ones were weeded out, it was time for Ibiki to announce the final question, "all right, listen up, here's the 10th and final question, but before I give you the question, there are some more rules that you need to be aware of. These rules are unique to question 10, listen carefully and try not to let them frighten you, so rule number one, each of you are free to choose not to be given the final question, it's your decision."

"Whoa, so what's the catch, let's say we decide we don't want to do it, what happens then," Temari asked out loud, it was a valid question, but the answer to that was obvious.

"If you choose not to take the 10th question, regardless of your answers to the other nine, you'll get a zero, in other words, you fail, and that means that both of your teammates fail as well," after that was all kinds of whispers about taking the question. "Not so fast, you didn't let me finish, if you do accept the question but answer it incorrectly, you will not only fail, you will be barred from taking the chunin exam ever again," with that announcement let loose the dogs of war.

"Hey, that's bull man, that's ridiculous, what kind of bogus rule is that, there's lots of people her who've taken the test before," Kiba pointed out, quite stupidly so, of course they change the rules each exam.

Ibiki began to laugh a little before he began to speak, "I guess you're just unlucky, I wasn't making the rules before, but I am now, of course, if you don't want to take it, you don't have to, if you're not feeling confident, then by all means, skip it. You can come back and try again next year, but for now, if you're ready, the 10th and final question, those who don't want to take it, raise your hand, your number will be recorded and then you're free to go," a few people raised their hands and got out. "For those of you who are left, I admire your determination, if nothing else, but there is still one thing remaining to do, and that's for me to tell you that you've all passed the first exam," then he went on to explain the purpose of the first exam.

After the explanation, came an entrance that nobody would have expected, a big ball of fabric came in through the window to the room and out from it came kunai to hold up a sign and a woman with purple hair wearing a trench coat over mesh attire. "Heads up boys and girls, this is no time to be celebrating, I'll be your next proctor, Anko Mitarashi, ready for the second test, good then let's go, follow me," came her screaming voice.

"Is there anyone in this village that isn't crazy, I feel like everyone I meet is crazy, do you get that feeling as well," Hinata/Alyssa whispered to Naruto, he nodded and was about to whisper back when they were told to shut up and their squad leaders would let them know where to go in the morning.


The next morning

The next morning found all teams standing in front of a forest surrounded by a gate, "this is the location for the second phase of the exam, it's the 44th battle training zone, but we call it the forest of death," Anko announced to everyone who was gathered.

'It looks a bit creepy, but I can handle it, I've got the soul of a tiger, an elephant, and a dear inside of me, with those three, I can get through this, though, I'm concerned about Naruto,' Hinata/Alyssa thought as she noticed him swallow a little bit. She went over and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "don't worry Naruto, I'm sure that your team will get through this, just keep your guard up and don't bring it down for anything," she advised.

Naruto took a deep breath, her words always seemed to bring up his mood whenever he was down, "thanks, you always know what to say to help calm my nerves, thanks," he said with a nice and warm smile that always sent her heart a flutter.

"Now before we begin this test, I have something to hand out to you all, just a standard consent form, before the test, all of you are going to have to read over this form and sign it, some of you will die so I need your consent for that risk," Anko said with an evil grin. She handed it to a random person who began to pass around the form before going on to explain the terrain of the field they'll be entering in, and then telling them that they must all fight while within the hostile terrain to get one of two scrolls, a heaven and earth scroll. Each team filled out their forms and got in line to get their scroll, both team 7 and 8 got heaven scrolls, and that's what Hinata/Alyssa passed onto Naruto when she used her byakugan to see what they had, so she knew she wouldn't have to fight him. After that, they made their way to a gate each and waited for time to begin, team 8 was at gate 16 and team 7 was at gate 12, and after waiting for thirty minutes, the second exam for the chunin exam had finally begun.

It was maybe less than an hour before team 8 were almost attacked by some waterfall genin, but they had set a trap using leaches to get the drop on them before they could, so they were able to get their scroll, and luckily for them, it was an earth scroll. They headed out and to the tower as fast as they could, but for a moment, they were forced to stop as they watched a fight between Gaara and some rain genin, it was a slaughter, the rain ninja didn't stand a chance. When Gaara lifted the ninja and crushed them with his sand is when they all knew this guy is way over the limit of what they can do, well, Kiba and Shino, but Hinata/Alyssa would have to go all out and tap into all three of her wild zords to be able to fight him. Gaara obviously noticed them so she was sure to whisper, "number nine," and that made him halt any actual assault that he would have made on them, his siblings thought it was because they asked nicely though, but that didn't matter as long as they survived.

They soon were on their way and didn't look back, Akamaru was still shaken up though, but as long as Gaara knew to not kill them at that moment, the dog would get over it and they can get back to the exam. They made it to the tower and met the first team to arrive, there, Gaara and his siblings, so they waited until the other teams made it back in, one was team 10, another was the sound ninja, team 9, some leaf ninja that they never saw before, and last was team 7.

Hinata/Alyssa was so happy that Naruto made it in time that she ran up to him jumped in his arms in a hug, but something was off, there was a transformation jutsu around him, no only that, but it was a powerful transformation jutsu to cover something big. "Naruto, why is there a transformation jutsu on you, what happened while you were out there," she asked him quietly before he looked around to see if anyone was around, he decided to many people were in the room, so he took her into the hallway to talk.

"Listen Hinata, I did something and now I look marginally different then what you're used to," Naruto started to explain and stopped to pause and look around one more time before he began his tale of what happened.


Flashback

Naruto had just been released from a giant snake that had eaten him and was about to look for his teammates when he noticed something, there was a mask on the ground that had a design like a wolf on it, but it felt off somehow, it felt powerful. He went over to pick it up and found a pull on his being to put the mask on, almost as if it was hypnotizing him, without really thinking about it, he put the mask on and felt as if his head was slammed into a brick wall before blacking out.

The next time he woke up, he was in a large chamber in a sewer, everything had a creepy aura around it and one wall wasn't even a wall, it was a cage of some sort, with red bars that looked to be able to hold something big inside of it. "I'm pretty sure that I'm not supposed to be here, but I think this is my mental landscape, always pictured a forest and not a sewer, what does that say about me," Naruto asked himself out loud before a deep rumbling was heard all throughout the chamber.

"I see that you've finally decided to visit me, good to see you're accepting your role as a jinchuriki and not moping about," a deep voice said from within the cage, two red eyes with a slit in its pupils came into view and blinked at him.

"I didn't really mean to, I was taking part in the second round of the chunin exams when I found this wolf mask and put it on, then I was dragged in here, what's going on nine-tails," Naruto asked the fox, the fox stepped out of the shadows and presented his full form.

"That explains why that guy is here," the fox said before pointing to the new soul in Naruto's body, it was a humanoid wolf in all black, he had amber eyes and a single horn on his head with silver hair coming out form a wolf-like mask, "who are you stranger?"

"This is strange, usually when someone puts on the mask, I take over their body rather quickly, not pulled into their mental landscape, and not ever have they had another soul already in them, that complicates things," the stranger commented as he looked around.

"The fox asked you a question, and since you just said you came from the mask, I assume the mask was cursed with a wolf spirit of some kind inside of it, just my luck to be possessed by a freaking ghost," Naruto said as he sighed in exasperation.

"Not a spirit, well, not entirely, I am a duke org, a type of monster, my kind usually go around and try to conquer the earth through pollution and destruction, my name is Zen-Aku, what are your names," Zen-Aku introduced himself with a small bow.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, the number one most unpredictable ninja that is currently in existence, that is the nine-tailed fox, a tailed beast with the power to level mountain ranges, now leave my mind and go back to your mask," Naruto ordered.

"I cannot, the only way for someone to remove the mask is to defeat my physical form, not this mental projection that I am now, but when there are more than two souls that are inside the host, we become unstable and are not able to move freely," Zen-Aku stated.

"That complicates things, the current host is currently in a test where his life is on the line, if we do not figure a way out of this soon, he will die and you may be killed as well, or would you be sent back to the mask," the nine tails asked.

"I have never had a host die on me before, I am too strong to be killed is mainly the reason for that, and I've never really had this problem before, so I do not know if I will be killed as well, or be sent back to the mask," Zen-Aku answered truthfully.

"Nine tails, do you know of any jutsu or power that you have that will let him return to his mask, or at least let us move around," Naruto asked, it was logical considering he was the oldest being he knew of, and so he should know something.

"Let me think for a little bit, in the meantime, Zen-Aku, why don't you go through his memories and see just who you walked into, it'll take a little bit to think up how to get out of this mess, and call me by my name, Kurama," Kurama said as he retreated into his cell.

"Well, I might as well see that, might give me something to do while we wait for him, want to help guide me through, or do you want to sit and do nothing," Zen-Aku offered, he was a bit weirded out about what was going on, but wouldn't show it.

"You go on, some of those things I would prefer not to relive if I can help it, I'll just sit and meditate, when you can take all you can stomach, I think it'll be alright if you come back and puke a little bit, just not too much," Naruto said cryptically before he got into a meditative position.

Zen-Aku said nothing as he walked through a wall and went in search of the memories of his host, and he must have spent close to an hour seeing memories for as long as he could stomach all the hate and animosity towards a child he could bare. When he walked back in he said nothing and just looked at the boy in sadness and pity before focusing on the task at hand, "has Kurama found anything that could help us, or must we wait for a longer period of time."

"I've been waiting for you to come back, I see you're playing the tough guy act, but fine, I think I've found a way out of this mess, only question is, would you two be willing to do it, and before you two ask, you would have to merge fully for this to work," Kurama informed.

"You mean that I'll have to spend the rest of my life as a wolf-man," Naruto asked the fox with a raised eyebrow while pointing to the duke org, who was currently looking a little pale at the idea of becoming a kid in a village that hated a child like that.

"Yes, maybe, you'll have one of your personalities, one of your appearances appearance, all the memories from both parties, and you'll have the added bonus of having access to both sets of powers at will, or we could spend the rest of our lives stuck as a statue," Kurama suggested.

"Well when, I think we should merge, if we stay stuck as a statue, we'll starve pretty quickly after that, or animals could come eat us for food, or enemy ninja come and kill us because they can," Naruto listed off the reasons.

"There is also the advantages beyond the trial, with your ability to copy yourself, my natural skill and strength, and access to Kurama's power, we'd be unstoppable, even be able to become that hokage that you used to look up to," Zen-Aku mentioned.

"Then I'll prepare the ritual of shared consciousness," Kurama stated before he began to do some things inside of the cage, at the end of everything, the two was merged as one with a personality close to Naruto and appearance of Zen-Aku with powers of both.


Flashback end

"That's basically everything, other than me taking on Orochimaru before he put an odd number seal on top of the even seal that sealed the nine tails inside of me, I've had a rather uneventful time, what about you," Naruto/Zen-Aku asked Hinata/Alyssa.

"So, should I still call you Naruto, or should I call you something else," she asked before mentally kicking everyone for not asking her what she preferred to be called, and for failing her mission, but should have known the best way to find the mask was to send Naruto after it.

"I guess the best thing to call me is Zen-Aku Uzumaki, I need to honor both aspects of myself, both the duke org and the Uzumaki side, and why are you wearing what the white ranger used to wear," Zen-Aku asked with narrowed eyes.

"Then I guess we should be honest with one another, Animus sent me here to watch over the mask and make sure it didn't fall into the wrong hands, I was the former white tiger ranger, so now, you can call me Alyssa Hyuga," Alyssa introduced herself.

"What do we do now, I don't want to fight you, and I'm not sure if you can beat me, or if I can beat you," he asked her as he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms as if he was thinking all cool like, which made her want to giggle a little bit.

"I don't want to fight you either, I liked Naruto and I was actually fine with Zen-Aku, he was the most honorable of all the orgs that we fought, to have Naruto's personality with Zen-Aku's appearance, it makes me curious to see how you look now. However, it also terrifies me that someone with the duke org's strength now has access to the nine tails, while also knowing how the rest of his kind was, but as long as your personality is still the dominate one, I'm fine with not fighting you," she admitted.

"What about something else, maybe something more than just friends," Zen-Aku said as he got off the wall and stood in front of her and looked her in the eyes, "maybe something new to the both of us," he said softly as he leaned in. Alyssa's eyes widened a little bit, she always wanted a relationship with Naruto, he was kind and sweet and showed her a will to never give up beyond anything she had ever seen, even more than her friends, this is what she wanted, what she desired. It felt so right, that is why she leaned into what was happening as well, they were both so close to each other, the heat could be felt from the other one and providing each other with warmth as they were getting closer, and just as their lips were about to meet…