Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto I would not be writing this would I?

Chapter 4: Unsettling

Naruto slowly shook his head, a drop of blood falling from his mouth and onto Sasuke's headband. His eyes flicked down to an arm that protruded from his chest, covered in his blood. For a fraction of a second he thought that he saw a few sparks of electricity fly out of his wound but decided that it was just an illusion brought on from lack of blood to the brain. His eyes flicked to the right and he grinned painfully at the gray haired Jounin that had attacked him.

He wasn't worried about the injury, it wouldn't last. What was much more worrying to his mind was his own actions of the last few moments. He looked down at the badly injured boy underneath him, his eyes glazing over, blood pouring down his mouth like a river. Naruto couldn't believe that he had done this...what had gotten into him? Why had he lost control? He had felt the power of the fox pulse into him when he was angry or scared before and try to manipulate his actions but he had never lost himself to it before. Why had he this time? Could it be that...he really was becoming a demon?

A wave of pain shot through him and he realized that the Jounin was pulling his arm out of Naruto's chest. He coughed up more blood and felt his energy begin to leave him.

Before he lost his connection he turned his head to focus on the Jounin and mustering up as much strength as he could he spoke, "Jounin ninja...'cough'...sorry 'bout that. I wonder if I might know your name before I go?"

The gray-haired man showed know emotion but replied, "Kakashi...Hatake Kakashi is my name...Uzumaki-san"

Naruto's eyes opened wide in shock...and he vanished in a puff of smoke.

Miles away, in a simple square room, Momochi Naruto opened his eyes and stood up from his meditative stance. He felt a dull pain in his chest from where his clone had been attacked but it was completely drowned out by the feeling of dread and shock that the Jounin Kakashi had given him.

And also by his own lack of control. His mind flicked back to the other times that the fox's power had reared it's ugly head. The boosts had always been minimal, he had been a bit faster, a bit stronger, a bit angrier that was for sure. But never had it been this extreme.

He distinctly remembered the first time that it had ever happened. It had only been a year after Zabuza-sama had found him on the borders of the Fire Nation, he had been fighting a cloud-nin with Haku. The ninja was only a Gennin and Haku was handling it pretty easily himself, until Naruto had slipped up and Haku had taken a kunai in his back to save him. Naruto had never been so furious before. His hair began to grow out, his fangs and nails had become pointed, and his whisker marks had become slightly thicker. Haku had later said that a light re mist had also surrounded him. He had attacked the Gennin and nearly killed him. It hadn't taken Zabuza very long to figure out what Naruto was after that...

For weeks after Naruto's body had ached. It was as though he had been caught in the middle of an avalanche. And even worse, it had become difficult for him to control his chakra afterwards. As though some sort of dam was blocking the flow. The aching had gone away, the chakra dam never had. He had eventually gotten used to it and improved his chakra control but it had always made learning a new technique a pain since it was almost impossible for him to determine how much chakra to use.

Every subsequent time he had been taken over by the fox's power the aching had come back and the chakra block had gotten worse. The more power he used on the worse it was. But he had never in his life felt anywhere near as much power as he had just now...and the strange thing was, he didn't ache. Nor was he dizzy or disoriented and the chakra dam felt...gone! What had happened!?

Also strange was the sheer amount of power that had overtaken him. He had been angry, furious even, at the arrogant Uchiha boy true enough. But he had been far angrier in the past and had never gone out of control like that. He had barely been able to stop himself from landing a fatal blow at the last second. The Uchiha would be in bed for a while but thankfully he would not die.

He jumped to his feet and walked out the nearby door, intent on finding Zabuza-sama and asking him about it.

He didn't have long to look, Haku was standing right outside his door, the older boy's fist was in the air, prepared to knock.

"Oh, Naruto your up. Zabuza-sama wants to know if you have a report for him yet."

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, I got the information about the enemy, and I also need his help on something."

Haku smiled, "What is it? Maybe I can help."

Naruto thought for a moment. He doubted that Haku would be able to help him with this but at the same time he knew that the person who was like his brother would want to know about whatever might be bothering him. Slowly he recounted the tale, making sure to explain in detail what had happened with the nine-tails and why it bothered him so much.

Haku shook his head, "I don't understand what happened, and I doubt that Zabuza-sama would either. You are a Jinchuuriki and really not much is known about them because they are so rare. If I were you I would try to talk to the fox and see what he knows."

Naruto sighed. He had spoken to the fox a few times in the past and in general it had always started and ended the same way. With the enormous creature trying futilely to kill him through the giant bars that contained him.

"Fine," Naruto replied, "if Zabuza-sama doesn't know anyting then I will have a chat with the Kyuubi. But I would prefer if Zabuza could help me instead."

Haku smiled sadly at him, "I know otouto, I know."

Kakashi sighed in exasperation. A moment ago he was terrified that he had been too late, that his student had been killed. Now he almost wished that had happened...almost. At least it would be a lot less complicated that way.

Amazingly the katana had not seriously injured Sasuke. The blade had slipped through two of his ribs at just the right angle so that it missed his lungs, heart, esophagus, and any other vital organ. It had only cut through flesh and muscle.

Sasuke had recovered from the side effects of the Kyuubi's chakra remarkably fast and though he seemed to be in a decent bit of pain he was quite adamantly refusing to turn back. Kakashi didn't want to go on to possibly have to deal with a famous and dangerous ninja like Zabuza with Gennin to deal with, much less an injured one.

But Sasuke refused outright to turn back. He wanted to fight Naruto again, even if it killed him. He kept babbling about how "That boy would be the next test of his power." Eventually Kakashi had given up trying to convince him and gone over to speak with Kurenai and Tazuna.

"We have to turn back now," Kurenai stated, having also recognized the power of the nine-tails and the names Momochi and Naruto.

Tazuna was not happy. He was now desperately trying to convince a pair of Jounin, neither of whom wanted to continue.

"I know that this isn't exactly what you signed up for, but I did pay in advance and you do have a responsibility to protect me at least until we get back to the Wave Country."

Kakashi shook his head, "You mislead the Hokage as to what the mission entailed, technically we would be within our rights to kill you ourselves right now."

A bead of sweat rolled down Tazuna's forehead, "Listen, I'm sorry for what I did but I couldn't afford a B or A ranked mission, if you knew my story I'm sure that you would agree that I had no other choice."

Kurenai's eyes narrowed, "Well we have plenty of time, why don't you explain it to us?" She spoke with a hint of ice in her voice that would have chilled even Kakashi's spine if it had been directed at him.

Tazuna shook his head, "There's no time, I have to get back to the Wave Country as soon as possible. Lives are at stake."

Kurenai rolled her eyes, "Lives are always at stake in the ninja world mister Tazuna, if we took on a job for every sob story that couldn't pay that came along we would be a bankrupt village. We're going back."

Tazuna sighed, he only had one more card up his sleeve. If this didn't work then nothing would, "You're right of course. I was in way over my head from the start. I'll just go on by myself...but since I am sure to die can you please send a letter out to the Wave Country explaining what happened to my daughter and grandson. I'm 'sniff' all they have and when I die they will probably end up on the streets and my dearest daughter will have to resort to selling herself and my grand-kid will certainly have to become a petty thief." He took a dramatic sigh, "But I'm sure if you explain to them that the village of Kanoha just couldn't spare a few ninja to protect me because I couldn't pay then they will feel much better about it..."

Kakashi looked exasperated. His visible eye was half closed and you could see his frown underneath his mask. In all his life he had never heard such a stupidly blatant attempt to guilt a Jounin ninja like himself. He couldn't believe that this presumptuous man was actually trying to do something like this. He couldn't believe the look of expectancy on his face. He couldn't believe how incredibly corny that had just sounded ...but what he really couldn't believe that the guilting, corny, expectant, speech was actually working.

Sakura looked up as she heard the familiar footsteps of her sensei approaching. She had been doting over Sasuke ever since Kurenai had used her minimal knowledge of medical jutsu to stop his bleeding. The past actions had been very upsetting for her and she was seriously hoping that they would be turning back.

As soon as she saw the exasperated look on her sensei's face she knew that she was going to be disappointed. In the background Tazuna was grinning stupidly. Kurenai on the other hand was glaring at Kakashi's back so ferociously that the pink haired Gennin was amazed that he wasn't dissolving where he stood.

Sure enough as the silver-haired Jounin approached her the first words that came out of his mouth were, "I've decided that we are going to continue the mission despite the danger."

Sakura lowered her head, a look of worry on her face. "But Kakashi-sensei, we aren't ready for dangerous missions like this. And Sasuke needs medical attention, shouldn't we turn back?"

Kakashi shook his head. Despite Tazuna's disgusting attempt at guilt Kakashi had other reasons of his own for wanting to go on. "Sasuke is fine, his injury should be healed in a couple days with Kurenai's medical jutsu and even without that it wouldn't be fatal. He really got lucky actually, the blade missed his lungs by less then a millimeter".

Sakura shook her head, "But next time he might not be that lucky, what if we have to fight him again?"

"Then I will be there to protect you." Kakashi replied, "Last time I was hoping that Sasuke could learn something by fighting an enemy so much stronger then himself. I won't make that mistake again."

"But what if you can't help us?" asked the pink haired girl, "What if he attacks when you aren't there, or what if someone even stronger then him shows up?"

Kakashi smiled behind his mask. Someone stronger then Naruto was exactly what he expected. Momochi Zabuza has been running from the Mist tracker ninja for years. He was a known murderer and he had to be stopped. Kakashi knew that he might not get another chance like this.

"Don't worry Sakura, I won't let you get into a dangerous situation like this again."

Naruto cursed under his breath. As Haku had predicted Zabuza hadn't known anything about what had happened with the nine-tails. He had been far more interested to hear the news of Sharingan Kakashi and the six Gennin. He had seemed basically unworried about the Kyuubi and like Haku, had suggested that he talked to the fox about it...so that was exactly what he was going to do.

Naruto reached his room, checked to make sure that no one else was around, and slipped inside. He walked over to the center of the room, sat down and crossed his legs. He focused his mental energies internally and slowly slipped into a trance-like state.

When he opened his eyes he was in the familiar sewer of his own mind.

RobotPirateNinja: I have an explination for this, it will hopefully all make sense next chapter.

Narutomaniac: You are right, he really should be stronger. But I have come up with an explination for this that I hope makes up for it.

Miss Finnish: Kakashi doesn't really know what to think about Naruto. On one hand he almost killed Sasuke but on the other Sasuke was actually not badly injured and he could understand Naruto's anger for what he did.

Everyone else: Thanks for your reviews and I am sorry for not killing Sasuke. But how could I kill him when there is so much more torturing to do ;)