Speech

Thought

Kyuubi

Ok, I've decided on the second one: amplified abilities. I know, it's been done who knows how much, but technically he IS bionic now in a way; and since the nanites are spread through his body, I figured to add it on principal. The third'll be announced next chapter. Plus I'm throwing in one for opinions; something akin to the Sharingan, but more like a video camera to let him record techniques to study, not copy outright.

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"What do you have in mind?" Naruto gulped, not really sure how to act around the girl in front of him. Kasumi looked to be about 15, almost twice his age. He had heard from other boys that teenage girls could be temperamental, so he decided to let his cautious side take the stage.

Kasumi grinned, a look that made her seem downright harmless, "Well, since it is partially my fault your life's the equivalent of an unflushed toilet, I'm going to help you with learning to defend yourself as well as control your new addition. In exchange, you take part of this seal off so I can enjoy the outside world. I give you my word that I'm not going to flatten Konoha the minute I'm out. Like I said, that was a goof-up on my part." She quickly added after Naruto's eyes nearly bugged out, "Although I have made up a list of a few temes in this village that deserve a good beating, but that's beside the point. I just wanna get some fresh air and stretch my legs a bit. Eight years in a room where you can hardly stand up isn't much fun. Besides, the lion's share of my chakra'll still be held back by the seal."

"Well...you don't seem like you're lying, but I don't know anything about seals." Naruto looked up at the piece of paper with a hit of apprehension.

"Relax, just rip.." However her instructions were cut off by a sudden shriek from Naruto. She looked to see him shaking on the floor, trying to back away from..something that had seemed to show up out of nowhere. A large steel sphere the size of one of the Inuzuka's biggest dogs stood on six jointed legs like a spider. She watched as it started turning into his direction, it's legs clicking rapidly as it moved. Once it was what one could only assume was facing him, it suddenly straightened up, as if it had just snapped to attention.

"INTEGRATION PROTOCOLS COMPLETE. WARNING: HOST'S ENERGY LEVELS DO NOT MATCH PHYSICAL PARAMETERS. REQUEST RECTIFYING BEFORE INITIATING MERGING SEQUENCE" It suddenly called out in a hallow metallic voice.

"What the heck's THAT?!" Naruto yelled, scrambling against Kasumi's bars in an attempt to get away from it.

The moment he was close, she managed to reach out and wrap an arm around him, "Naruto, it's ok. I..I think that just a representation of your new nanites."

"W-what's a 'nana-night' ??"

"Nanites, Naruto." She chuckled, "Their basically really tiny machines. Too small to see with a human eye. It's easier if you think of them like ants. They all work as one big unit, more or less. They must've been what was in that glass ball you broke."

"You mean there's more of them.." He gulped again, Inside me??"

"Yep. Your new arm is made entirely out of them, and according to this one, it looks like the rest have all spread to the rest of your body." She pursed her lips in thought, "Although I'm surprised some still existed. They were all supposedly destroyed long before the first shinobi war.

Naruto looked at his arm with a slightly creeped out expression before he recalled what the machine said, "Wait, what'd it mean by 'host's levels' and all that other stuff it said"

"Well, if I understood it right, they think something out of balance in your body; and I'm guessing they''re asking for permission to fix it." She gave him a nudge, "They're yours now. Go and tell them what to do. Go on."

"Uh..ok.." He got to his feet and took a deep breath, "Um..ok..go..go ahead and fix it."

The sphere seemed to snap to attention again, "AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED. BEGINNING REPAIRS. INITIATING SHUT DOWN OF ALL NON-VITALS IN 5...4..3..."

Naruto started panicking, "S-shut down!? What the..?"

Kasumi gulped, "I think their gonna knock you out while they work.."

"2...1.."

"HOLD ON! WAIT UP!" They both yelled, but it was too late.

"HOST SHUT-DOWN ENGAGED." With that, the nanite, Naruto, even the cavern vanished in an instant. In effect, Naruto had just been put into a nanite-induced coma

"Aw kuso!" Kasumi swore in the darkness, kicking one of the bars in frustration.. She realized she hadn't finished telling him how to let her out.With him out like this, she couldn't even tell what was going on outside, much less talk to him. What really sucked was she had no idea how long it would last. All she could do now was wait.

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"Is this everything there was?" Sarutobi asked the ANBU he had sent to the lab. It didn't take them long to return with a few folders, papers, and a recording cassette. The folder carried the words 'Project: Nanosoul' on the label.

"Hai, Hokage-Sama." Tora said, "Everything else had been destroyed, judging by the ashes we found. Even the memory banks on the computers had been wiped."

"Well, it's better than nothing. Dismissed." The second they vanished, he retrieved an old tape player from his desk drawer and popped the tape in while he looked through the files.

The tape held only static for a moment before a voice came on:

"Day 8,

We're making progress. Finally, visible cohesion amog the nanites ("Nanites?" Sarutotobo muttered, shifting more of his attention to the tape.") So far we can only group them in upwards of a few grams, but it still shows promise. We've christened the future system "Nanosoul''

'Day 21,

Today is a milestone in our research! We tested a sample on one of our test rats. It had recently suffered the loss of a leg and couldn't walk as well as an infection in one of its eyes. No sooner did we introduce the sample than it began to work. Within an hour, they had replicated the lost limb, stronger than ever. We even caught it digging the claws into the side of its cage multiple times while trying to climb out. What's more is the rat's health seems to be improving at an impressive rate. The eye has been completely healed with a couple of days, giving system unprecedented medical potential!!"

"So, this 'Nanosoul' was intended for healing?" the Hokage muttered as he rummaged through the papers. The item in question was described a nanotechnological mass designed to merge itself into severely injured organisms. IE: severe burns, broken bones, missing limbs. However, it also seemed to carry promise of being a weapon since any missing limbs replaced were far stronger than the originals and the nanites were capable of augmenting the hosts natural abilities since they remained in the body permanently.

As far as he could tell, they continued research for as long as possible until they were forced to abandon the lab for some reason, either loss of funding or the threat of an attack. Either way, they left the remaining nanites in containment in the lab. Rather poor containing, he thought, if an 8 year old could let the Nanosoul out. Since he had just lost a limb, apparently it detected the injury somehow and actively went to him to repair the damage.

"I was right, things are definatly not going to be the same." He muttered.

Suddenly one of the shinobi came barging in, "Hokage-Sama! It's Uzumaki, he's fallen into a coma!"

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I apologize for the shortness, but you'll be learning more about it in future chapters. Just felt it best to introduce just what Naruto carried now.