Alright, here's the deal. I'm going to be gone for the next week or two for spring break, so I worked my ass off and got this chapter done early. Don't expect this to become a habit as don't plan to update more than once a week. On another note, I'm looking for a beta reader. I've gotten sick of re-reading every chapter over and over again when my spelling a grammar sucks to begin with. If you are interested, e-mail me from the link in my profile and include your e-mail address so I can get back to you. Finally, I'm wondering if I should introduce any pairs and if so, who? Feel free to leave suggestions as long as you know I might not use it.
Read and review. You know the drill.
I don't own Naruto or anything else I might allude to in this story. If I did own Naruto, I would make sure that none of my characters were genderly confused.
Naruto's eyes opened, but it was not Naruto who opened them. Kyuubi was looking at his surrounding area. He had never been in a shinobi hospital first hand, so this was quite a new experience for him. The body was in perfect working order. All the pain the two had experienced had been purely in their mind, but it had hurt like hell then. Kyuubi then inverted his thoughts so he could speak with Naruto in their 'conference room.' On his way there he recalled the events that had brought them here.
Itachi's get away had been interrupted by an ANBU squad. Normally they wouldn't be a problem, but Itachi was still worn out from using the Tsukuyomi. He couldn't fight them and guaranty he would win and he couldn't outrun them with the extra weight of a motionless body. Kyuubi had been slightly lucid during that time and felt it when he was thrown at the ANBU guards. Itachi had been able to escape from the help of that distraction.
Kyuubi had arrived at his target. He saw Naruto pacing the floor in front of the tunnel exit, head down and muttering to himself. He was so caught up in whatever he was thinking about that he didn't even notice Kyuubi's arrival.
"Oi! What's got you all worked up kit?" Naruto looked up and smiled.
"I've just been thinking."
"That would be a first."
"Shut up!" Kyuubi laughed. They exchanged this playful banter on a regular basis over the eternity they had shared. However, Naruto actually seemed to have been thinking this time. When the blond boy actually put his mind to it he could have remarkable insight, but he rarely thought it was necessary to resort to such means.
"Okay, I'll bite. What were you thinking about?"
"Several things. First off, when I used Kage Bunshin, what happened to you?" Kyuubi seemed a little put off by this. What had happened to him? He searched his memories, trying to find something he could grab on to.
"Well, my mind was copied just like yours was. Why?" Naruto reviled a devious smile.
"What if I gave you control of a bunshin's body? That way we could both always be dominating. We could switch between the real body and the bunshin every week or something. What do you think?" Kyuubi could only smile at this stroke of genius. The blond boy really was full of surprises.
"I say that's a good plan. Plus constantly maintaining a bunshin will be good training." Naruto broke into a grin again. He loved getting recognition for his ideas. True, most of them were crazy, insane, stupid, or all of the above, but he had a few good ones from time to time.
"Great! Now to the second and third point. How are we going to explain who you are and, because it's against the law to talk about you, what should your name be?" A new name? How far in advance did this kid think?
"Well, let's tell the truth, or at least a half-truth. I'm an alternate persona that you discovered while Itachi was beating the crap out of you and I'm just a bunshin half the time. As for my name, how about Ky? Or maybe Kyu. What do you think?"
"Ky, defiantly. One syllable names just sound cool. And if we don't say you're Kyuubi, then I don't need to explain to Iruka-sensei that we made a deal, do I?" Kyuubi, or rather Ky, grimaced. He knew this was coming. After all, he did kill his parents.
"Naruto, is Iruka important to you?" The blond boy simply nodded his head. Ky sighed. He was afraid of that.
"If he is important to you, you should probably tell him the truth. He may want to fight me, but he can't really kill me. It will be good for him. Keeping secrets is fine, but you need to let in those close to you." Naruto look a little uncomfortable with the idea of the two people closest to him fighting, but he nodded in agreement. He had no desire to alienate the closest thing he had to a family.
"Alright. That clears things up with me. That leaves two more questions. What are we going to do about your friend in the cloud-nin?" Ky felt touched. He mentioned his friend one time and the boy kept asking about her. It was good to know she would be remembered by others.
"She's as good as gone kit. After training for twelve years with a demon's power she must be formidable. We couldn't beat her in our current condition and I doubt her offer to kill off the Hyuugas still stands."
"We could kill the Hyuugas off anyways. My friend Hinata-chan is a Hyuuga, so we can't kill her."
"You consider her your friend?"
"Well, she's nice to me, so I guess I do." Naruto looked puzzled as Ky began to chuckle.
"You have a lot to learn about the world, kit."
"And stop calling me that! It's getting annoying."
"Why do you think I do it?" Naruto gave Ky a meaningful glare before sticking out his tongue. Ky suppressed another chuckle. Maybe he was having too much fun at the boy's expense.
"And no, we can't just kill of the Hyuugas. Can you imagine the backlash that would entail? Anyways, what was the last question?" Ky was actually curious. Naruto's last statements did provoke some thought, so hopefully this last one would too.
"You're an ancient demon, right? Then you should be able to teach me so super cool ancient jutsus, right?" Ky stared at the young boy. He was tensing with anticipation. Ky hated to burst his bubble, but it had to be done.
"Kit, do foxes have hands?" Naruto blinked.
"Of course not."
"Then how do you expect us to use hand seals to use jutsus?" Naruto's eyes shot open and then he started to yell.
"Damn it! I knew something like this would happen! I just knew it! Nothing is ever perfect!"
"Kit!" Naruto was stopped mid-rave to look at his charcoal-haired counterpart.
"Just because I can't teach you jutsus, I can help in different ways. Remember that scroll you read? I have raw chakara use down to an art form, so I should be able to learn, and thus teach, those. Also, I can teach you my special taijutsu." Naruto's previously crest fallen face changed entirely as he heard this. He took a flying leap towards his mental roommate and trapped him in a hug.
"Kyuubi you're awesome!" Ky released a laugh.
"It's Ky now, remember? And before we do any training, I think we should focus on recovering. Don't you get you genin team tomorrow?" The blonds' eyes lit up again. Say anything involving being a shinobi and the kid grew all starry-eyed. It was sad in a way.
"There are a lot of things we need to do before you get your team, kit."
"Like what?"
"We need to give each other rudimentary training. I need to learn jutsus and hand signs and such, and you need to learn a decent taijutsu style. Right now you just kind of flail your fists around. And we need to get you a respectable set of clothes." Suddenly fear shot across the blond boy's face.
"What do you mean new clothes? What's wrong with what I've got?"
"Naruto, I wouldn't be caught dead in the company of a neon billboard such as yourself in public. We're getting you some clothes that won't make you a perfect target for anyone with a kunai." Naruto was viably pouting, but if Ky said it was true than it was probably true. It still pissed him off that this was coming from a giant red fox.
"Fine, but that doesn't mean I'll like them. But how are we going to train that much? We only have one day." Ky revealed his grin. It still retained the same qualities of danger and killing ability of his old one.
"Have you forgotten, kit? Time doesn't pass in here. As long as we're training our minds and not our bodies, we can train here forever."
Ky and Naruto stopped their talk to look to the walls. The walls were alive. The two saw a women garbed in a white nurse's gown looking at a clipboard at the foot of their bed. It was hard to see because their body's eyes were barely open. It was strange; it was easier for Naruto to think of the body as 'theirs' rather than 'his.' It was slightly disturbing. It was also strange that the nurse seemed to be as still as a statue. Because time was at a standstill nothing moved in their body's field of vision. Naruto was sick of looking at the world in pause.
"Oi, I'm going to take our body this week. Once I'm discharged from the hospitable I'll get you a bunshin body, got it?" Naruto then sprinted down the tunnel of his mind to his body. Even though they shared a body, the sewers were still Naruto's mind. Also, it appeared to have been cleaned up a little. At the very least there were less mushrooms growing.
The world continued to move again on the walls. The nurse was smiling gently as she told Naruto that he was free to go. No sooner had she said that, he leapt from bed and ran for the training ground. He placed his hands in their newly discovered cross sign. He focused his chakara into his fingers, imagining streams of blue light drifting into his hands. He released the energy. Suddenly, there were two Narutos. Naruto blinked.
"I didn't say anything." The bunshin smiled.
"You didn't need to. A skilled shinobi doesn't need to say anything. Heck, a skilled shinobi doesn't even need to use hand signs, but they do help." As a demonstration, the bunshin was covered with a poof of smoke which revealed a boy of Naruto's height. Naruto recognized the black-as-coal hair, buttonless red shirt, and black eyes instantly.
"I thought you couldn't use jutsus."
"I've seen you do this one a thousand times. It isn't exactly hard. Well, now we know we can both have bodies. Now, explain to me exactly how these bunshins work." Naruto looked like he was about to speak but stopped himself. He rested his chin on his fist and wore a look of deep contemplation on his face.
"You know, I don't really know." Ky shook his head. He had been expecting that. It was a good thing that he had been looking at the scroll was well.
"Let me tell you, kit, you should really try to comprehend what you read. I'll explain it as best as I can. These Kage Bunshins are copies of us mentally and physically. For example, if you cut of your left ear, all of you future bunshins would have one ear. If you see a complicated book, all of you subsequent bunshins would have seen that book too, follow?" Naruto was nodding his head. He seamed to remember Iruka-sensei saying something like this, but Ky made it easier to understand.
"Now, if you make a bunshin and then cut your ear off, nothing happens to you bunshins. He will still have two ears. Follow?" Naruto nodded again. It made sense so far. He could take this in small pieces and had learned a lot about patience since he met Kyuubi. Or since he met Ky, whichever you would prefer.
"Now, when a bunshin is killed or 'released,' shall we say, we receive their mental growth, but not their physical ones. Follow?" The blond boy grimaced a little. He was getting a little confused here. He didn't want to admit it to his partner, but the risk of doing something wrong was far worse.
"No, I don't. Can you give me an example?"
"Alright. Pretend that your bunshin read a book and then cut his ear off. When you released him, it would be like you had read the book, but nothing would happen to your ear. Our body cannot be affected by bunshins, but our minds can." Now Naruto was smiling at the black-eyed boy. It felt good to learn something new. It meant he had killed of a part of his ignorance. And Naruto felt he had an idea of where Ky was going with this.
"Knowing this, it would be a bad idea to use bunshins for physical training such as running, right?"
"You're half right, kit. Running would be a bad idea, but doing things like taijutsu and other jutsus wouldn't be a half bad idea."
"I thought that it wouldn't affect our body."
"It wouldn't. The most important part of taijutsu is to be able to react to any situation fluidly. If we have bunshins fight, we will have lots of experience in taijutsu without ever having lifted a finger. And jutsus are mainly trying to figure out how to channel chakara where it's needed and how to shape it. If we can do that without thinking about it, it will give us a good edge in our fights." The young shinobi looked sobered up. He had the idea right but he didn't think it all the way through. He shook his head; leave it to Ky to show him where he goofed up.
"However, because bunshins can't affect our body, we need to be constantly working it. That means running, chakara control, and any other body building thing you can think of." Ky sat down as if he was done and Naruto followed.
"So here is what I suggest. We will train each other mentally in this bunshin's mind and we will take turns working that body. Sound good?" The Naruto in the bunshin's mind was leaping up and down. Finally he would get to do something. He was getting bored by himself. The one outside was simply nodding. He got up and started to run. He planed to run around Konoha until midnight and then he would sleep till he had to go meet his team. The Ky in his mind had agreed wholeheartedly.
Back in the bunshin's mind, Ky and Naruto were arguing what to train with first.
"We need to become proficient with taijutsu so our bunshins can start working with it. I want to see how well that taijutsu will work with my chakara." Ky had voiced his opinion and was quickly met by his partners.
"But that's only good in close range. If we prefect our throwing skills, we can hit things from any distant and our bunshins can work with that!" As much as Ky hated to admit it, but Naruto was probably right, even if not for the right reasons. Throwing was mostly a mental skill and would be best preformed by a platoon of bunshins. Also, it seemed like a fairly simple skill, so he expected to pick it up quite quickly.
"Alright, let's do it your way. But as soon as we have made the bunshins, we study taijutsu, agreed?" The boy in the red shirt had extended his hand. It was quickly enveloped in a hand attached to a blond boy. Both smiled and spoke at the same time.
"Looks like we have a deal."
The blond boy was sprawled out over his bed. He didn't even bother to take a show he was so exhausted. Not only had he been running around Konoha almost none stop, (even a shinobi had to go to the bathroom now and again) but he had been trying to focus chakara to his feet the whole time. He figured it would be like running on Astroturf; he would release just a little from each foot as he was pushing of and it would put more spring in his step, pushing him along farther. He had gotten it to work by the end of the day, but not before suffering some humiliating instances where he pushed too much out and his leg had come out from under him. To make matters worse, Ky had picked it up almost instantly. He was easily able to sprint with their new running technique while Naruto had to be concentrating fully in order to go at a light run.
That was tiring enough, but his bunshins had been working, too. His mind was flooded by everything he had learned and was startled by some of the things he had been working on. Ky had been complaining about a headache as well. Being a bunshin cherry, it was too bad his first time had to have been so stressful. Taijutsu stances, jutsu hand sign orders, shuriken and kunai throwing technique, and some understandings between his partner and himself flowed through his eyes.
Flashbacks
"So why can't I use your chakara when you have so much more then me?" Naruto whined.
"Using your own will help you grow stronger. It's bad to depend on an outside force to help you grow stronger. Plus, I think demonic chakara is potently dangerous to humans."
"Raise your arm a bit and you're good. Now fling your arm forward and point to where you're aiming when you release." Naruto was physically moving Ky's arms into the right positions. He was glad Iruka-sensei had pushed throwing skills so hard. It was kind of fun being the teacher for once. Ky snapped his arm forward and the shuriken embedded itself about a foot below where Ky was aiming. He sighed. This could take a while.
"So it's not Horse-Bird-Ram-Serpent, but Horse-Bird-Tiger-Serpent? They look so similar it's hard to tell them apart."
"Ky, you need to get used to hands. Now make all the seals again, but faster this time." Naruto sighed as his partner turned pupil ran through the hands signs for the eighth time, still getting Ram and Tiger backwards.
"That's right. Let the chakara pour out of you body and form around you arm. There we go." Naruto's right arm had been engulfed in a shining blue light. When examined closed it would be clear that the light was actually chakara given form. A closer examination would show that said chakara had taken the shape of a fox's forearm. Naruto swung his arm forward and watched as the chakara claw seemed to drag behind his own arm.
"Put more chakara into it. It should be stuck to your arm, not dragging behind it!" Ky was not going to allow Naruto get by with all-right. Not after his humiliating lesson with hand seals he wasn't.
"Spin on your palm and thrust kick up. Your opponent should be there. If not, he is either behind you in which case you swim your leg down and use it to jump away from the area, or he is underground in which case you do the same thing." Naruto had sweat dripping off his face and his fists were swollen. He must have preformed the same drills a thousand times. Ky didn't look much better, but he had his mind occupied with remembering the pictures from the forbidden scroll.
'Why the hell did this stupid taijutsu form have to be in there?" Naruto asked himself as he began the sequence again.
"You're thousands of years old, Ky! Shouldn't you be stronger?" Ky had an annoyed look on his face and it was clear that Naruto had hit a sore spot.
"Being in captivity for twelve years with a seal repressing all of your strength can do that to someone. It would take a few decades to achieve my peak again. Demons deteriorate almost as fast as they can build yourself up, you know. It's nature's way to make sure demons don't become the single living thing on the planet."
"Really?"
"Of course. Still, it doesn't help that these bunshins can only handle so much power. Once we make it so our physical body can take more strain we can use more of my power."
"Our body?"
"Yeah, our body, kit."
End Flashbacks
"Argh!" Naruto slammed his face down into the pillow. He just wanted to go to bed. He couldn't keep doing this. It was almost as hard on his mind as Tsukuyomi was. Well, not really, but it seemed like it. He couldn't even completely look forward to tomorrow, either. Ky had outright demanded that he get a new outfit. He said it was embarrassing to be around 'a walking traffic cone.' What the hell was a traffic cone, anyways? And why couldn't he fall asleep? He was exhausted and needed rest, but for some reason he was wide awake.
"Damn adrenaline probably hasn't worn off yet." Ky answered. Naruto turned his head and looked at the boy lying on the couch. He looked just as beat as Naruto felt, and with good reason. They had just as much mental stress, being the only two remaining bodies. Refusing to stay awake any longer, Naruto used one of the new techniques he had learned.
"Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu. (Forced Sleep Technique)" Naruto immediately slumped forward onto his bed. Ky chuckled. He walked over to the bed and tucked the boy in. He then set himself up on the couch. He smiled to himself; he had finally gotten the damn hand signs down. As he was preparing the jutsu an old saying passed through his mind; 'May your dreams bring happiness and may they speak true.' In a few seconds Ky followed his partner into dreamland, his smile still on his face.