*Obligatory 'I don't own Naruto so please don't sue me' header*

Transformation Arc:

Chapter 3 - Reunion

"There's no way! There's just no way!" Sakura whispered, looking up at her old teammate, eyes quivering in their sockets. It was Naruto all right, there was no mistaking it.

His face was mostly the same as she remembered it from three years ago – slightly chubby cheeks, three whisker marks adorning each side. He still had his lopsided grin, but it was made all the more unsettling by the look in his eyes. And his eyes… his eyes. They were a deep, crimson red – a stark contrast from the pools of crystal blue that she was so used to seeing staring back at her, asking her on dates and pulling pranks on the village.

That innocent look was gone, replaced with one that was crazed – deranged, even. He had small black rod piercings across his forehead and in front of his ears, giving him the appearance of a cadaver that had been pulled apart for research then clamped back together. The color of his skin played the part as well, giving off an eerie pale and lifeless glow.

But the most startling change of all was his hair. His once untamed and wild blond hair had become a rather fiery orange color – and small pieces of his scalp were missing, giving his hair the appearance of having lost a fight with a pair of scissors and a roll of bubble gum.

His forehead protector was in tatters, and the symbol for the Hidden Leaf, set in metal in the middle, had a sharp and jagged line drawn through it.

Sakura resisted the urge to gag. His appearance was too much for her to take in at once. He looked like a dead man walking, and from what she had understood from how he disappeared, she didn't doubt that to be the case at all.

She urged herself to speak, but all that came out was a horrified whimper – it was Gai who finally broke the silence as the Kazekage rescue team stared at their former comrade, stupefied by what they were seeing.

"Just what are you now, anyway, Naruto? And who did this to you?"

Naruto's eyes bulged slightly as he broke out into another fit of deranged laughter. "Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. And what am I? I just told you!" He leaned forward, completely expressionless, and stated plainly, "I'm Kyuubi."

"But… but you were dead!" shouted Neji. "Jiraiya saw your dead body himself!"

Another fit of laughter, and a long, exasperated sigh. "Was dead? WAS dead?" He giggled maniacally, and took a step forward, staring Neji down. Then, without warning, he took out a kunai from within his tattered robes, and plunged it into his chest, where his heart…

…should have been.

He watched their horrified faces and cackled again. "You see, Neji, I AM dead!"

His gaze softened as he let go of the kunai, leaving it firmly seated within his upper body. "This body is nothing more than a puppet that I'm stuck to," He spat, a look of pure hatred on his face.

"What are you talking about? Naruto, slow down." Kakashi took a step back, towards where Lee, Neji, and Hinata were standing.

Now Lee spoke. His voice was ragged – he was obviously in pain. But that didn't stop him from asking a question.

"How do we know you are who you say you are? Are you really the Naruto I know?"

Naruto sighed, and smirked. He stuck out his left hand, snapped a few times, and held his index finger out, pointing towards the sky. As if on cue, a massive orb of blue swirling chakra began to rotate on top of it, where it held for a moment while he addressed his former companions again. "This enough of an explanation for you?"

Sakura eyed the Rasengan, her worst fears becoming true. 'So this really is Naruto then… what happened-'

Hinata screamed, taking two steps forward. "What happened to you?!"

Naruto ignored her, fascinated by the orb of energy he was holding. After a moment or two, blue and black orbs began to amass themselves around him, orbiting around the Rasengan, before fusing with it completely, turning it a deep shade of purple. After he was satisfied with its size, he looked it over with a bored expression, tossing it from hand to hand, index finger to index finger.

Kakashi's eyes widened. "Is… is that?"

Suddenly, Naruto flicked upwards, and the small orb flew off into the sky. A moment later, it erupted in a mind-numbingly massive and powerful explosion, blotting out the sun and deafening the group of ninja below it for a moment. After a few heartbeats, the blast receded, leaving a massive cloud of vaporized atmosphere, and ash from the few unfortunate birds that couldn't get away in time.

Naruto's expression was still bored, and he was now focused on the ring on his finger. It was a blue-teal color, and Naruto twisted it around his right index finger with mild amusement. Then, he turned back to the Leaf ninja.

"And now you know that I'm serious when I say that I'm the Kyuubi."

"But how? What did Naruto do to release you? And why didn't you reform after Naruto died?"

The boy placed his hand over his chest, around the kunai, and donned an expression of fake hurt. "You talk about me as if I'm not standing right in front of you." He grinned, and moved his hand to his face, gently rubbing the black metal rods that were imbedded in his skin.

"You mean you're both the Kyuubi and Naruto?" Kakashi eclaimed. "How is that even possible?"

Naruto looked down on the group, and let out a single chuckle. "Ha! There's a lot that even I didn't know, until it all started happening." He reached into his robes again, and pulled out a small, mangled book – and tossed it to Kakashi. He caught it without breaking eye contact.

"What's this?"

Naruto closed his eyes, and smirked. "It should help answer all of your questions. They say knowledge is power, but in this case, I'd say thinking something like that would be rather foolish, wouldn't you agree?"

Finally, Kakashi looked down, and saw the words "TRAINING LOG AND DIARY" along the top, followed by the name "JIRAIYA" etched into the bottom. The leather bound book had seen better days, but it was still in one piece. He looked back up at his former student, a look of surprise and curiosity across his face.

"Why are you giving me this?"

Naruto shrugged with a smile. "You deserve to know. At least, that's how I see it." As Kakashi looked at the book again, Naruto glanced at the sky, and noted the position of the sun. He cursed, and turned back to Kakashi.

"Well, it looks like our time here has run out. You lot made me who I am today, and for that I am grateful. For that reason, I will spare your lives." His eyes narrowed, as he glanced briefly at everyone before his gaze returned to his sensei's. "I will not make the same decision twice."

With a flurry of black and red, he turned around quickly, and began to walk back towards the charred forest behind him. What they saw next made their stomachs turn – and Hinata let out another sob.

There was a massive hole in the back of the boy, only slightly covered by a small tattered piece of his Akatsuki robe. Within the hole, a large mass of black and red chakra flowed about, flashing occasionally, and glowing with an evil aura that radiated outwards like heat from a flame.

Naruto chortled again at their reaction, and turned around slightly to look back at them as Sasori made his way back to the hiding place that he had stashed Gaara in. "Like what you see?"

Finally, Sakura stepped forward as well. "Wait, stop! What are you planning to do with Gaara?"

Naruto stopped, and looked at her. His gaze was like the blade of a knife, and it drew all the heat out of her in a moment. She stood there, shaking, terrified, as he blinked a few times and shook his head. "It's not Gaara we want. We only want the One-Tails. Gaara is of no concern to us."

"We can't let you just steal our friend- your friend away like that!" Neji growled, moving into his Gentle Fist taijutsu stance. Naruto let out a shrill laugh, then turned to look at him.

"That's true, I guess. I should have expected as much. Oh well, better to be safe than sorry."

As the group began to move forward towards their former comrade, a red flash shot across their fields of vision all at once, and they fell to the ground, nearing unconsciousness.

"I can't have you meddling in my affairs, now can I?" He said, looking down at Kakashi with a smile, before turning around and walking away.

Hinata watched his cloaked silhouette walk off into the distance, as her eyelids grew heavy and her head began to throb. "Wh…what happened to you, N…Naruto?"

Sakura woke with a start, almost cracking her skull against Lee's, who was hovering over her with a damp cloth and dabbing her forehead. He jumped, she jumped, and everyone else in the clearing jumped.

"Oh, good. Sakura. You're awake too." Kakashi sighed, before waving at her from across the way. He was sitting on a tree trunk, with a few pieces of paper out, jotting things down. He had the small leather bound book sitting on the log beside him, and was watching Sakura try and stand up with a look of concern. "Are you sure you should be moving around? I'm not exactly a medical expert, but I can tell when someone has had some minor head injuries."

Sakura stood, grimacing and grabbing her head before looking back up at her sensei. "I'll be fine in a moment. I just need to get my bearings, that's all."

She looked around, and noticed that they were in the same clearing they had been in before when they encountered Naruto, only now it was late at night. A small campfire danced about in the center of the clearing, where Hinata was laying, still unconscious.

Neji and Gai were sitting on the opposite side of the fire, looking solemnly into it as it flowed around, moving across the wood in the pile like a sickness. Lee was sitting to her right, staring at her with his big black eyes, wondering if she was okay. She rubbed her face, and sat back down again.

"There we go. Much better." She popped her neck, and looked back at Kakashi. "What happened, exactly? If I didn't know any better, I'd say that we just ran into Naruto. And he was with the Akatsuki. And where's Chiyo?"

"Hmm." Kakashi murmured in agreement. "I thought it was a dream too. But no, it's not." He turned slightly, and picked up the book that was sitting next to him. "Chiyo went after them, I think. But regardless, you might want to read this."

She caught it easily; he had only underhanded it to her. She gasped slightly at seeing the name and title of the book, and quickly flipped it open to read it, before closing it again suddenly.

"Wait, what about Gaara?"

"I lost the trail," came Pakkun's voice, jumping down into the clearing from the treetops above. "Wherever they are, they're shielded. I can't detect any of the Nine-Tails' chakra anymore."

Sakura sighed, and Kakashi just looked at her. "This mission is a failure. We are going to head back to the Leaf and try to dissect this… new development properly. And try to figure out a way to bring him back."

The girl only nodded, still looking at the book in front of her, as Hinata began to stir.

"Wh-what happened?" she mumbled, as she got to her feet. Suddenly, her eyes shot open. "He's alive. S-somehow, he's alive!" She smiled slightly, then frowned, remembering that 'he' had almost killed them for the fun of it.

Gai piped up. "Yes, and whoever did that to him was most unyouthful in every way. I have my money on Orochimaru." He glared at the fire for a moment, then jumped up with a renewed fervor. "All right then! Time to get back to training!" He took off into the charred woods, jumping on his hands until he couldn't be seen anymore.

Kakashi only deadpanned and sighed, shaking his head. "I don't know how he does it."

"It wasn't Orochimaru, wasn't it."

The lack of stuttering in Hinata's voice shocked them slightly, especially after what she had just seen. Their shock, however, was dwarfed by the words she spoke themselves.

"What do you mean, Hinata?" Sakura looked up at the bluenette, who had since begun to frown angrily into the fire in front of her.

"W-well, he didn't have a curse mark. At least, not one that I c-could see, plus, I mostly just have this gut feeling."

"You're right. It wasn't Orochimaru that did this." This time, Kakashi's voice stunned the shellshocked shinobi. He pointed to the book. "That book tells us everything that we need to know. It fills in all the blanks… Naruto was right." Then he, too, averted his eyes to the fire before them. "I couldn't have been more wrong with my hypothesis." He mumbled, before putting his hands into his pockets.

Neji piped up. "We have to get this information to Lady Hokage. How far away are we from the Hidden Leaf?"

Kakashi looked up at him. "We're a little less than a day's walk. We should get there by midday tomorrow, if we hurry." Then, his voice took a much more serious tone. "You're right; we need to get this intel back to the Leaf as soon as possible. If this is true, then we are going to need some serious time to think."

Sakura couldn't help herself anymore, and opened up to the first page of the diary. Her eyes grew wide as she read the first page.

TRAINING LOG AND DIARY, BY JIRAIYA

ENTRY ONE – TWO DAYS BEFORE DEPARTURE WITH NARUTO

I was told by Tsunade that it would be a good idea if I wrote down the progress and development of Naruto's training, in case something were to go wrong, or for future reference. For once, I actually agree with her. If the Akatsuki are really after him, then there's a good chance that we'll run into some trouble along the way, and I want to make sure that our travels are well documented enough that others can learn from this experience. After all, a 3 year training expedition across the world with a legendary Sannin is something that many would kill for!

Regardless, we leave two days from now at sunrise. Our first stop along the way is a pleasant little Hot Springs resort just north of the Hidden Leaf Village – somewhere where I'm sure I'll find lots of lovely specimens for my research into the next Makeout Tactics novel! I already anticipate that it will be a best seller, and I haven't even put pen to paper yet! In fact, I think I'll start right away! I'll just have to stop by the woman's bath here in the Leaf in order to gather some more… inspiration…

ENTRY TWO – DAY TWO OF TRAINING

And we're off! Naruto got a little peeved at our first destination, and demanded that we go somewhere else. I normally wouldn't buckle to that brat's demands, but the woman heard him screaming and shouting and I got busted. So now we're on the road again, this time heading towards a small village in the hills towards the Hidden Rain.

It's come to my understanding that we are going to need to tap into the Nine-Tails' chakra in order for Naruto to have a snowball's chance in hell of defending himself against the Akatsuki. That brat has talent, I'll give him that, but talent alone doesn't stop a group of rogue S-class ninja from coming in and snatching you up in the night like the boogieman. For now, I've got him on some chakra control exercises. He doesn't seem to be enjoying them, but he has to start with the basics. How this kid has gotten anywhere is beyond me. Well, actually, it isn't! It's obviously because of the tutelage of his amazing sensei that he's made it this far. But regardless, the basics aren't called basics for no good reason. So for now, that's what we'll be working towards.

In the meantime, I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for anything that could possibly help in taming the Nine-Tails within Naruto. This next village has a library, perhaps I'll snoop around in their restricted section. You never know what sorts of secrets that long-extinct clans leave behind that are ripe for the picking. Sort of like another series of restricted books. Hehehe.

ENTRY THREE – DAY SIXTY TWO OF TRAINING

I found something! I couldn't believe it at first, but I think I finally found an answer to what we need. It's an old sealing jutsu that was long since used to incapacitate large forest creatures that would rampage through their village all the time. It seems far-fetched, but I think I can actually modify the sealing technique so that it works in combination with the eight trigrams seal that Minato placed on his son, and I think it will completely suppress the Nine-Tails' personality and allow him to tap into its chakra without consequence or worry of the Tailed Beast getting out. I'll be working on that in the coming days.

For now though, I've been training Naruto in basic combat reasoning. For goodness' sake, the fact that this kid has lived this long is a miracle in itself. Once he can finally think a little bit better on his feet, we'll finally try to get to some real, meaningful stuff. As soon as I get this jutsu formula worked out, we'll be starting on that immediately.

ENTRY FOUR – DAY SEVENTY EIGHT OF TRAINING

We did it! Err, rather, I did it! After toiling over the sealing jutsu I found, I figured out a way to get it to work with the Eight Trigrams Seal. And it worked great! Naruto says that now the Nine-Tails has finally shut up. And, he's been able to tap into its chakra almost completely so far. He's been pretty excited about the power boost, but I can't let it all get to his head. For now though, I think that I'll be trying to get him to master the Big-Ball Rasengan technique – now that he has extra chakra in spades, he can properly train for longer periods of time without too much fatigue. Before, this would have seriously exhausted him. Now though, I'll bet that he can pull of a few dozen of these bad boys consecutively in combat. That is, of course, if he's actually able to get it down. And for as hard-headed as he is, I'm finding it hard to hope he'll ever master it.

Also – I ran into a half dozen beautiful women on the riverfront this afternoon. For further reference, please see "Research Notes, page 387". I drew a pretty generous picture of one of them there. She'll definitely be inspiration for my next book!

ENTRY FIVE – DAY EIGHTY FIVE OF TRAINING

Honestly, did I ever have doubts in the kid? He's mastered the Big Ball Rasengan – at least, his is bigger than mine is now. Hmmpf. Regardless, I think we'll move on to some shadow clone formations – I have an idea for how he can use them as jumping platforms while in midair to change direction. It's possible it's nothing, but it's worth a shot!

Something strange has started happening to Naruto though. His hair's started turning orange! Well, the hair that's actually staying on his head. For some reason, he's losing clumps of it on a daily basis, and it's seriously starting to freak me out. Part of me thinks that he's doing this in order to spite me. That cheeky son of a bitch. I'll have to go through his stuff and try to find that hair dye. Because I bet you half the profits of the next Makeout Tactics book that he's gonna come for me next.

ENTRY SIX – DAY ONE HUNDRED AND TWO OF TRAINING

This… isn't good, I'll admit. Naruto is getting very fatigued, very quickly now. I honestly have no idea what's wrong with him. Maybe he's just pulling my leg. But honestly, that boy would saw off his own foot if it meant he could keep training. Regardless of fatigue, his hair has started to turn orange – it's rather strange seeing him like this now. Every time I see him, I jump, because he looks a little like Yahiko. Except with mostly blond hair. And he doesn't have a Rinnegan wielding friend. (yet)

Note to self: look into relationship between Rinnegan and orange hair.

Naruto has been able to pull off mid-air direction changes using shadow clones – I have to admit, it's a pretty useful technique. However, now he's adamant that he can increase the size of his big-ball Rasengan even more than he already has, and has basically spent every waking moment trying to do so. If he gets the damn thing any bigger, I'm going to have to start trying to pump more chakra into my own Giant Rasengan. I swear, this whole trip has been nothing but a power struggle.

ENTRY SEVEN – DAY ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN OF TRAINING

Naruto's fallen ill. Very ill. I'm taking him to the nearby hospital to see what they have to say.

ENTRY EIGHT – DAY ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE OF TRAINING

Well, turns out I was right! It's chakra exhaustion. The bastard's run himself dry with all the big-ball Rasengan he's made the last few days.

Still, I'm a little concerned with some of the things that have been happening to Naruto recently, so I'm going to try to take the seal off and give him some time to recuperate before we try anything else. His hair has turned completely orange, and he looks older than Tsunade does. Something's wrong with him, so we're gonna play it safe and just remove the seal and go from there.

ENTRY NINE – DAY ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN OF TRAINING

Naruto unresponsive. Taking to hospital now. Very bad feeling.