Yo! I'm back! I just wanted to say, thanks so much for all the feedback I got! It really helped me write this chapter. :) Special Thanks to raWtaleNt999, Illuminated, and outcastmike. Also, please reread chapter 3, as I have revised it. I started looking back and reading my old chapters. I almost cried. So I'll probably revise my chapters regularly.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, nor do I make any money off of it.


10:55 PM

Yugito rested on a rock, one hand resting on her knee, the other holding a book.

"Yo."

Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"Why did you call me here?" He asked, gritting his teeth.

"Why, indeed," Yugito wondered, putting on a completely fake thinking expression, mocking him.

"Get on with it."

"I called you here to offer you something. A deal, a very good one at that" The blonde woman answered, leaning down so that Naruto's eyes were levelled with hers.

Surprised by the sudden lack of distance, and already in emotional turmoil, Naruto pulled open the flap on his weapons pouch, taking a wide swing at the other blonde.

Yugito threw her head backwards to avoid the slash, but took a small scratch on her hitai-ate, right between the two clouds on her forehead protector.

"Stay away."

The older ninja chuckled.

"My, my, we are on edge today, aren't we, Naruto-kun,"

Naruto's eyes narrowed, his lips curling into a silent snarl.

He hated to admit it, but Yugito was right. He had never been so on edge before in other, far more dangerous scenarios before. No one had ever been able to make lose control over his emotions like that. There was just something about the damn woman that ticked him off.

It's just because of her attitude.

At least that's what he told himself.

"Well, if you're done throwing a temper tantrum, let me finish what I was saying," Yugito continued.

Naruto waited.

"How would you like to join Kumo?"

It was so quiet that crickets could he heard chirping in the background. Both blondes were waiting for something.

Then, for the first time since Yugito had met him, Naruto surprised her. He laughed.

Naruto laughed aloud. He laughed so hard his throat started to feel hoarse, yet he kept on laughing.

He looked maniacal, sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight, eyes widening with twisted mirth. The terrible sound filled the late night air.

"You went through all this trouble to say that!" Naruto exclaimed.

"I fail to find the humor in this," Yugito wore a puzzled expression.

"What are you going to say next, huh?" Naruto was still laughing. "That I'm going to have a better life at Kumo? That I'll be treated better there?"

Yugito regained her composure. This was something she was prepared for.

"Of course not, a jinchuuriki will never be accepted by the common man. But I can offer you power, control over the most powerful bijuu. How about that, huh?" the blonde tried to tempt Naruto.

Naruto's smile vanished, his eyes turning cold, and his smile turned upside down.

"Ignorance is bliss. If I were ignorant, I would readily come with you."

Naruto turned on his heel and strode away, leaving Yugito to ponder how to convince him, now that he had seen through everything she tried to do.

Naruto climbed into bed, unnerved. Thank god he had finally been able to put his mask back on in the end. For the majority of the meeting, however, he had revealed his true emotions to someone for the first time. He fell asleep thinking about the last person he had opened up to.

8:30 PM

Naruto awoke to someone prodding his forehead with a finger. He tried to reach for his kunai pouch, to find that it wasn't there. He glanced up to get a better look at his offender.

And found a big pair of dark eyes staring right at him, still prodding his forehead.

"What in the world! Holy shit, what are you doing here?!" Naruto roared.

Yugito gracefully leapt out of the range of his fury.

"Wow. Thank god. I thought you were dead." Yugito said cheerfully.

Naruto groped around his night stand, quickly finding that his weapons pouch was not where it was supposed to be.

Naruto looked at Yugito. Then he looked at the door. Then he returned his gaze back to the Nibi host and stared at her intensely.

Yugito stared back innocently.

He groaned.

"Can't you take a hint? I'm not going, now get out of my apartment," the annoyed blonde growled.

"Well, I can't exactly leave, seeing as you haven't agreed to join Kumo yet, so I'll just stick around here and annoy you till you agree to come with me, m'kay?" Yugito replied, smirking.

"What's going to stop me from reporting you to the Hokage?" Naruto shot back.

Yugito simply smiled knowingly and said, "I know you won't. You'll be thrown in jail to "protect" you from us. You know that. Jinchuuriki are tools. Our comfort doesn't matter."

Naruto growled, but inwardly he was laughing.

That may have been true for any other jinchuuriki, but the Hokage was one of the few people he trusted, and the only person he trusted with his life. He wouldn't report her, of course, but not for the reason she thought. When he was done with her, she would wish he had turned her over to the authorities.

I have a lot to do. She's gonna be gone in a week. I swear.

Team 7 Training Ground 2:00 PM

"You guys are progressing a lot faster than the normal genin, so I've decided to shift gears and find a new way to train."

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto stood in training ground 7, listening to Kakashi telling him about his new horrifying way to torture them.

Kakashi reached into a bag he had brought and pulled out a stack of seal paper.

"These are resistance seals. They are designed to help you train to your full potential. A Level 1 seal does nothing; it's just a piece of paper. A Level 2 makes it 2 times harder to move than it normally

would be; Level 3 makes it 3 times harder to move, and so on. When you get used to a level, that means your strength has increased. I'll be adjusting them to make them compatible with your current

strengths," Kakashi said with a cheerful/creepy smile. (Disregarding the fact that what he had just told them merited no such cheerful/creepy smile) (Or... did it?).

The training was grueling. There was no other word to describe it.

The silver haired jounin actually tried to make the seals compatible with Sasuke and Sakura, but he seemed intent on getting revenge on Naruto for that little training prank in Wave.

"Hmm, you seemed to be really agile even with Level 5, maybe I should upgrade it even more. Level 10, perhaps?" Kakashi said with a thoughtful expression, inwardly cackling.

Naruto! You shall be punished for punishing me for punishing you for punishing me! Wait... What? Lost my train of thought there. Oh right. I remember what I'm supposed to say now.

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!

Already struggling with level 5, Naruto had somehow mustered the energy to leap into a tree when Kakashi suggested that he upgrade from level 5 to 6. Now, though, he started to regret doing it.

The blonde shinobi attempted to shoot out of the tree and sprint the hell out of the training grounds as fast as he could. Any direction would be good, as long as it was away from his crazy sensei.

Granted, he should have done it in the beginning, but how should he know that level 5 was something that even jounin level ninja had to ease into?

Too late, he realized that in his current state, Sakura could probably run laps around him without breaking a sweat.

Before his feet even left the tree branch, Kakashi had shunshined behind him and painted some kanji on the resistance seal slapped on his back.

A huge weight settled upon him, and Naruto struggled to stay standing on his branch. He fought tooth and nail, as hard as he could. It took all of his strength not to crash into the earth. Finally, he settled his balance and stayed in a crouching position.

Oh, this isn't so ba-

Craaacckk!

The branch snapped and caused Naruto to slam into the ground face first.

BOOM

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. Another name for Resistance Seals is Gravity Seals," Kakashi said happily, sadistic smile hidden behind his mask of doom.

Naruto's cursing was so loud that even muffled by the cold, hard, earth, Kakashi could understand what he was saying.

"Hmm, I wonder what an assfucker is," Kakashi pondered, as he strode over to Sasuke and Sakura to help them out with their training.

10:00 PM: Naruto's Apartment

After 7 hours of lying in the dirt, face firmly planted 3 inches deep into the ground; the blonde shinobi had somehow managed to summon enough energy to drag himself into his apartment and collapse on the floor, facing the ceiling. Sound of him landing was similar to the sound of a 500 lb. war hammer crashing down on a metal box.

As his vision cleared, Naruto saw a blonde woman lean over and peer down at him, and then suddenly Naruto's mood lifted. He smirked.

"Did you like my gift?" He asked.

"A kunai launched at me when I lay a hand on the window, a sharp, rough, rusty blade on the window that should cut my hand when I open it, camouflaged nails every 3.2 feet be 2.7 feet, and a lot more that I'm not even going to name. I had a lot of fun disabling them though. " Yugito replied with an innocent expression.

Naruto was about to smile.

Wait... disabling them?

It was at that point in time when Naruto realized several things. The window pane was shattered, the frame broken, scratched up floor, a pile of nails on his bed, and scratched up walls. But that wasn't even the worst of it.

It was the fur balls. They were everywhere. On his bed, on his floor, hanging on his wall, floating, in the air, they were stuck in every nook and cranny anyone could think of.

In fact, he was laying on some right now.

"I hope you don't mind. The fur balls just didn't seem to be coming out the right way today," Yugito sighed.

Oh thank god. So this isn't an everyday occurrence. Wait... Other way!? OTHER WAY!? THERE'S FUR BALLS IN HER SHIT!?

At that point, the pressure of his grueling training and ruined apartment became too much, and Naruto promptly fell unconscious.


Yo! Told you I wasn't dead! Sorry though. Even after all those great suggestions, I just couldn't seem to come up with a good chapter. This is one of the most important parts of the story. I hope you've found that this chapter is better quality than the previous ones. I have learned a lot over the past few months that I have been AFK, and I've been trying to integrate that into my writing. Sarah1281 was probably my greatest inspiration for sarcastic humor. Great author, by the way.

Anyway, this chapter is sort of a comic relief to introduce you guys back into the story after my long period of laziness. Next chapter, prepare for extremely angsty angst! And, as a side note, I will show you the last person naruto opened his heart to. It's also the REAL way he got so strong. I decided I needed a better backstory for Naruto than simply getting to jounin level by, *snort* gathering scrolls. Anyway, ANGST!

Kakashi: MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

What are you doing, here? Get back into the story!

*Kakashi leaves with his head down, sullen and ashamed*

Anyway, please favorite, follow, or review.

... At this point I'm just trying to up my word count.

ONOMATOPOEIA! CIRCUMLOCUTION! PARSIMONIOUS! EXPELLIARMUS!