Disclaimer: I don't have any ownership of Naruto or Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. I am just doing this for my own entertainment and hopefully the reader's.

Signum formed up with Vita and Zafira to face off against the giant toad. In all likelihood they would not be able to defeat the monster amphibian without expending all of their remaining cartridges, but they only needed to to delay it until Shamal could finish having the book absorb the power to fill the rest of the pages from the boy. Settling calmly into an attack stance she watch for the toad to emerge from the ravine.

Then the feeling washed over them, as if purified hatred, malice, and wrath were flowing through the air. The three of them turned slowly to find Shamal starring in terror as magical flames flowed out of a seal around the boy's navel and up the channel from the linker core.

As the four knights looked on the flames overwhelmed and surrounded the book. A rumbling bestial laugh started echoing throughout the barrier as a vulpine face with two red slitted eyes formed from the growing ball of fire.

The laughter was transformed into a howl of rage as a spike emerged from the beast's forehead and seemed to start pulling back towards the boy. They stared in rapt fascination as the spike changed from red to gold flames.

The howl grew in menace and wrath as the torrent of fire flowing from the boy to the book redoubled in size. All the while the golden flames were pulling in more of the cloud and forming a chain leading back through the book to a ripple in the air above where the boy and his guardian had been left on the ground.

As the chain of golden fire reached the space above the pair it flared out first into a pair of hands grasping the chain, then arms, then the form of a woman emerged with the chain embedded in her own chest. The golden flames flowed down from her torso like a gown to cover the book's latest victims in a golden shroud.

While they stared in amazement four more chains stabbed down from the specter into the ground, only to emerge again stabbing into the boiling red miasma ripping it away from the book and into a dome formed as the chains pulled back and continued to grow and intertwine.

Seeing the first chain begin to pull back, dragging the book along with it towards the dome, Signum finally found the will to act. Racing forward she grabbed ahold of the book and tried to wrest it from the grip of the chain.

Nearly snarling with the effort She found herself in a loosing battle, until rescue came from an unexpected source.

"Get away from there you young fools." Shouted the giant toad as its massive webbed hand flew through the scene and knocked all of them flying.

The leader of the knights felt as though every part of her body was battered and bruised as she rolled to a stop, with the Book of Darkness still clutched to her chest. As the others ran over to join her from where they landed, she focused on making sure the toad had not pressed its attack. Instead she found him? staring raptly as the flames within the dome slowly changed from boiling red to billowing gold.

"Are you alright, and is the book damaged?" Shamal asked hurriedly. He normal tentative voice and demeanor abandoned in her concern.

Signum slowly uncurled herself from around the book. "Bruised but not injured." She stated after finally taking a deep breath. Opening the book she found it undamaged, and something even better. "Only thirty pages remain unfilled!"

"What danger might the power of that beast within the book pose?" Zafira asked quietly.

Getting to her feet Signum smiled. "That is a concern we will have to explore, but for now let's return home.

Nodding Shamal put her hand forward. "Initiating dimensional transfer." She stated with more confidence and calm while a green glowing triangular mandala appeared beneath their feet. The spell form flashed resulting in the quartet disappearing.

############

"There was another child in there!" Naruto heard a woman's voice wail, feeling like he just had Kiba and Akamaru go to town on him with gatsuga for something like a week on end.

"For the moment there is no way we can chase after them." A man's voice responded levelly. "I have repaired the seal as much as possible for now."

Cracking open his eyes slightly and turning his head towards the voices, Naruto at first thought he must be dreaming or maybe inside the mind-space where he met the kyuubi. The woman turned out to be prettier than Sakura with long flowing red hair and, at the moment tear filled, violet eyes. He did not recognize her, but somehow he felt he knew her. The man standing behind her with his hands resting on her shoulders he easily recognized from pictures as Namikaze Minato. 'Why would the Yondiame be in my dreams?' he wondered, still feeling far too sluggish to try and move or ask.

He was more convinced this had to be a dream because he saw himself and the super pervert Jiraya kneeling off to the side of them with a young girl whose blue hair was in twin pony tails and wearing a very odd outfit consisting a black or dark blue body suit with a dagger like extension of cloth going down to mid thigh. A pair of bright blue leather belts went around her chest above and below where she might have breasts for them to emphasize if given a few years. A third belt went around the girl's waist and was buckled in the front forming a v shape and supporting blue-white fringes of cloth to cover her hips and suggest a skirt. On her legs were thigh high stockings that ended in a stylized garter that held them in place and suggested leather. Heavy metal looking ankle boots with yellow triangle accents in place of buckles covered her feet. All of it covered by a black knee length cloak with a blue lining.

"So what do you make of these?" He heard the blond haired fourth lord ask.

"The copies of Naruto and Jiraya-sensei are just representations of the life force the book extracted from them." He heard the lady say. 'They know me?'

"The little girl is something else entirely. I found her with these 'devices'

, there was another one like her there but the book was ripped away before I could pull her out" Naruto saw her smile sadly at the child. "It is as if the book was taking the life force it had stolen from someone else and combining it with other elements it already had to boost it's own defense."

"So she is alive then?" Naruto watched as the man moved over to the girl revealing that the woman was chained in place.

"I called her and the other a child for a reason." the woman chided gently. "It's as though she is missing just a small spark to make her live. The devices seem to be designed to channel chakra or whatever variant name they call it in their techniques."

Minato stepped over to where a small crystal sphere hanging on a necklace and a blue faceted gem set in a triangular frame like on the girl's boots and fingerless gloves floated in mid air. He held a hand up to each and concentrated for a moment. "Vulnificus? Luciferon? Whatever sentience is in that book has a very sick sense of humor."

The man then knelt down beside the girl and put a hand to her forehead. He closed his eyes for several minutes, and Naruto witnessed a full body shudder go through him. "Levi the slasher?" The name was stated in whispered snarl. "No whatever drives that book is so dark it makes Madara seem a holy monk by comparison. It is as if it wanted this child to be nothing but a psychotic weapon."

"We must stop it then." The lady says with a gasp.

"We can't my love, we are outside the seal. Once you release the barrier we will quickly fade." The yondaime shakes his head. "We will have to trust and make use of what we have here." He then moved over to the devices again, and while moving them Naruto noticed for the first time that he did not actually touch them but they seemed to float guided by his hand over to the copies of himself and Jiraya. The man seemed to contemplate what to do for a moment before stating. "Program start, import new data, and accept new designations." He turned to the blue gem which he had placed in front of the fragment of Jiraya. [Afirmative] "Abraxxas the lightning sage" Naruto watched as the image of Jiraya dissolved and merged with the gem which became orange. Turning to the red gem floating in front of Naruto's own fragment [Standby ready] "Raphael the storm shield."

Watching his own image dissolve into the gem making it white, Naruto finally found the energy to roll onto his side but not much more. The light seemed to dim slightly and he could now see that they were inside a dome made of the chains tied to the woman.

"You always said you wished we could have had more children Kushina," Minato stated quietly as he "lifted" the girl he had called Levi and brought her over to the woman he called his love. "Do you think you could love and guide this child as our daughter?"

"But what about you?" Kushina asks quietly.

"If I had followed your advice this could never have happened." Minato says sadly. "I still believe I made the right and necessary choice but I will be the one to face the consequences by becoming a tool to see it through to the end."

Sobbing now Kushina places her ethereal arms around the girl. "Yes I can."

Minato hugs the two of them and whispers. "Program start, accept new data and designation, Uzumaki Levina."

Naruto watches as the light dims and the dome shrinks. Kushina vanishes into the girl. Blue hair turns red, blue straps and blue white cloth turn orange. As the girl takes a breath and opens her eyes he sees that her eyes are violet. The chains that had bound Kushina now emerge from Levina. The child starts sobbing and hugging Minato as the now gem of Abraxxas flies into the triangular frame in her glove.

"What's going on here?" Naruto finally finds his voice as he levers himself onto his hands and knees.

Minato whispers into the girl's ear, and she gets up shakily to move over to where the real Jiraya had been laying across from Naruto. After pulling the scroll from his back, she quickly rolls through the various storage seals looking for something while Naruto stands up to face the fourth lord.

"I was wondering when you would announce yourself to be awake." Minato says to him quietly. "How old are you now? You were less then an hour old the last time we met."

"I'll be thirteen come October, you should know the date, but why do you care?" The boy says with sourness equal to curiosity.

"A father is always curious about his children." The man says with an honest smile. He doubled over when Naruto slugged him in the solar plexus with suddenly recovered energy.

"How could you seal the Kyuubi inside your own son?" Naruto narrows his eyes when looking into his father's matching pair as the man straightens. "What was my mother's advice?"

"The Kyuubi had been sealed inside her." The fourth answered honestly. "Your birth weakened the seal, and a man by the name of Uchiha Madara used that to extract and set the fox to attacking Konoha. The process nearly killed her, working Together we recaptured it, and injured Madara enough to make him flee. She wanted me to reseal it inside her." He pauses to catch a three pronged kunai Levina tossed to him and tuck it into his belt. "That would have certainly killed her and destroyed the fox as well. But you and I would have survived for the time at least."

"Why didn't you?" Naruto's hands ball into fists, and he fairly shakes with rage. "Do you have any idea what I have been through because of the fox?"

"Yes I saw quite a bit of it from within the seal." Minato admits sadly. "I chose instead to seal half of the Kyuubi's power within you along with the last of my and your mother's chakra. While taking the rest into death with me."

"Nani-ttebayo!" Minato blocks the boy's punch this time. The second as well.

"Because Madara sought the Kyuubi's power for a reason." He answers levelly. "I managed to injure him and drive him away, but that would not stop him seeking revenge. By sealing the fox inside you it meant he would have to go through a great deal of time and effort to hope of having a chance to extract it again. Giving you time to learn to use the fox's powers against him instead. While giving you a chance to meet your mother and get her help and advice in controlling the fox, which I can't give."

"I hoped the village would see you as a hero who kept the beast locked away." Feeling the boy's shaking subside Minato rests his hands on his son's shoulders. "I am sorry it did not work out that way."

"It's alright, I can take it." Naruto brushes the hands away and wipes his face and eyes with the sleeve of his jacket. Looking up he smiles. "I'm the son of the fourth hokage after all."

Minato ruffles Naruto's hair and takes what looks like a short sword with the leaf symbol impressed in the metal just above the cloth wrapped handle from Levina. "You realize there is a reason the sandime has you use your mother's family name don't you."

"You were considered a high level threat by a lot of the other villages, and during the course of missions were forced to kill many enemy ninja, especially during the war." Naruto reaches over and wraps an arm around Levina's shoulders drawing her close to him before she could retreat away again. "Many of the other villages would have put a price on my head, either to eliminate a potential new threat or for revenge. With me being the village pariah there would have been no shortage of informants ready to sell me out, some would have considered it a service to the village. Levi-chan will be in no less danger. So I guess if we ever want to be able to embrace our heritage proudly, we have to make sure we are accepted for our own worth by the village." Hugging the sobbing girl close to him he smiles up at his father. "Until then I will just have to do my job as a big brother properly and keep her safe."

Practically beaming Minato hugs both children again. Straightening he says "Then there is one last mission I must assign to you as hokage. It is an S class mission that only you can accomplish." Seeing Naruto's eyes perk up in interest he struggles to maintain a solemn expression. "When you were attacked a fragment of the Kyuubi escaped into that book. If left unchecked it will succeed in reforming into a new fox demon and rampage on another world, before that can happen you must chase after it and destroy it. I can give you a device with that power."

"This one?" Naruto asks while taking hold of the opalescent gem floating in the air.

"No I doubt that one will even work for you, too much of a clash of personalities." Minato chuckles at Naruto's rolling eyes and Levina's giggles. "I think it best if you give that to someone you trust that could use a dash of your belief in self worth."

More seriously he steps back a few paces. "Levina do you remember enough about the world the book came from to visualize a safe place, and possible comrades, to your brother." At her nod he smiles. "Then Naruto let me present you with your device." Grabbing the kunai from his belt he holds it so Naruto can see the seal embossed into the wooden handle. "This is one of my hirashin kunai that I used with my time space Jutsu the flying thunder god. It held a special place in my life and will serve as a binding for me."

Holding up the short sword he continues. "This is a specially made chakra blade that will allow you to channel your energies as well as what remains here of the Kyuubi's purified chakra to travel to whatever time and space the assailants came from. Among other abilities I will give the completed tool."

"Please forgive me this last touch of vanity." He says with a wink, as he brings his hands together. "I give you the lord of the hurricane of time and space Shippukou!" With that pronouncement he and the two weapons disappear in a blinding flash of light.

Once it clears all that is left is a sheathed hand a half double edged sword with a blue diamond shaped gem and two prongs like the hirashin kunai possessed as a guard between the handle and blade. At the far end of the handle is a cylinder shape. Reaching out Naruto takes ahold of the sheath and reaching around Levina experimentally twists the end of the cylinder. It pops loose to reveal six smaller golden cylinders attached to the cap sliding out of slots in the larger cylinder.

"Those are for the device to draw out and compress the Kyuubi's power for you or I to use to power attacks later in battle." Levina offers. "Abraxxas device mode." The gem pops out of the triangle bracket on the back of her glove and transforms into a black axe like pole arm weapon with a large orange crystal in the round base the axe head attaches to. A cover just below that on the handle slides back to reveal a similarly slotted cylinder.

Slotting the holder back into the cylinder Naruto draws the sword and finds the seal that had been on the kunai engraved on the blade instead. Turning the sword around also reveals that the expanded opening on the sheath is just large enough to slide the end of the handle into making the weapon into a naganata. Naruto gives this new form a twirl and grins.

"We have a mission to accomplish Levi-chan, but there is one more requirement that the yondaime left out." Seeing her confused face he uses Shippukou to point at Jiraya still unconscious on the ground. "We also need to secure medical attention for Ero-senin ."

"I know a place that would be just perfect." Levi says with a giggle, the tone of which should have worried Naruto if he had thought about it.

"Show me." Was all he said instead.

Levi reaches her hands to Naruto's forehead and closes her eyes in concentration. Naruto smiles and the world blurs as if being seen through a hurricane.

Notes:

The one thing I can see people crying foul on is Naruto's speech to Minato. All I want to point out is outside of situations where he is beset by learned helplessness (written tests anyone), or going overboard trying to show up Sasuke, Naruto does show a good bit of perceptiveness. (against Zabuza, the fight with the rain nin in the forest of death, etc)

Now I ask for the reader's opinion. Would you like the next chapter to start dealing with the Book of Darkness incident under the Kyuubi's influence, or go straight to the return to Konoha and the changes to the chunin exam battle. Handling the other later.