A Hokage, A Wife & Half a Nine tails

Foxes Passing Messages

For the Sake of Words

~ Forenote ~

Sorry about the Hiatus and the AN-Update, I intend to post two chapters on this fiction, for every chapter of the others in order to catch it up.

Previously

Naruto managed to defeat Neji through use of his Explosive clones and determination, and in the end, as Neji passed out, he gave a speech the impressed not only the Hokage, but the Fox as well. With the fox having healed his wounds and restored his chakra, Naruto welcomed cheers from the crowd when the Hokage announced to the public that Naruto was his first nomination for promotion.

Uzumaki Naruto woke with a start. He could feel the surge of power from the Fox's chakra passing through him.

He hadn't even realized he'd fallen asleep. Thinking back on it, it was in the middle of Sasuke's match there was no way he would have fallen asleep! Someone must have put him to sleep with a jutsu or something...

Had the fox been trying to wake him up? That would explain the surge of chakra from a second ago.

Making a mental note to thank the giant fuzzbutt, Naruto looked around. He was sitting in one of the competitors seats looking out over the arena. Next to him, Shikamaru lay passed out as well.

Everyone around him had also passed out.

Down in the arena, Sasuke's match had been interrupted. The other two sand genin had appeared between Sasuke and his opponent. Their sensei leapt down to meet the three of them.

On the other side of the arena the proctor guy almost casually joined the arguing group. Naruto watched as Sasuke followed the suna trio from the arena. Other shinobi began to clash all around the stands.

Motion further down in the stands told him that Sakura was awake too. Their sensei was fighting a bunch of foreign shinobi even further down. Super-bushy-brows-sensei was also fighting.

Suddenly, Sakura looked in his direction and began running towards him, a small dog followed her.

Turning to Shikamaru, Naruto grabbed the boy's ankle and gave it a sharp jab with his thumb. "Oi Shika, Wake up!"

"Gah! Naruto you jerk! Whadcha do that for!" The now awake genin grabbed his ankle.

"We gotta help, the village is being attacked!" Naruto explained as Sakura finally reached them. "Sasuke-teme just left without us! We're Gonna have to run hard to catch up!"

"Baka!" Sakura shouted and then flinched and in a quieter voice continued "This is no time to try playing hero! Sensei has—"

"Naruto how many clones can you make?" Shika's interruption sounded sincerely interested.

"Sakura-chaaan…" Naruto almost pouted before registering the other boy's word's. "I… I don't know. A lot?"

"We need as many as you can make last for awhile. They need to spread out and protect the civilians."

The image of Kakashi-sensei henging into one of his clones popped into his head.

"I don't know guys what if the enemy tries to henge into them?"

"Don't worry about that, if your clones see anyone attacking civilians they can take them out. And if that includes you own clones then it works as long as they don't attack anyone not attacking the civilians."

That explanation sounded good enough, so Naruto made all the clones he could in one massive burst and there were a lot of them. The entire stadium was covered in a smoke screen of his chakra… when it cleared, the enemy shinobi were nearly overwhelmbed by the sheer amount. Even Naruto had to wonder if maybe some of that was from the fox's chakra.

0o0o0

It was in fact part due to the fox. Since the moment the fox had woken his jailer, he had been pumping a small amount of his chakra directly into the seal. Instead of pushing through it the way he normally did, his chakra was now being filtered as the seal was designed to do, except at a much higher rate.

Not as high as just sending his chakra past the seal did, but even then the seal would steal a portion of his chakra that passed it in order to replenish Naruto's chakra supply

This way was much less noticeable. And Naruto's already vastly improved control would be able to handle the filtered chakra better.

That voice from within the seal itself seemed to be pleased at his decision.

0o0o0

With his clones everywhere Naruto slipped away to follow Sasuke. Sakura and Shikamaru were in charge of his clones for now, it wasn't like he would need to make more right?

Heading off in the direction his teammate had, Naruto left the arena and pushed all his chakra into his speed. He didn't notice his sensei arriving where Shikamaru and Sakura waited with the dog.

He caught up to the Uchiha quickly. But not quick enough, as his teammate dodged various explosions all over the trees ahead of him. Finally landing upside down on a tree branch above, the Uchiha considered his options with an audible groan. "That was close."

With a grin Naruto made a few more clones and sent them out to trigger all the rest of the tripwires ahead of them. "Sasuke-teme, if we're gonna catch up to them we can't waste time on traps like these! I'll just set them off before we pass them got it?!"

Giving a small huff, the Uchiha dropped to another branch rightside up. "Sounds like it might work. But can you keep up?"

Naruto didn't even answer as his clones literally blurred from into motion. His teammate took a moment to blink and stare, then shook his head and followed. "When we catch up…" Sasuke began, but Naruto knew where he was going. "Yeah, I know. You want to fight that Gaara guy and finish your match, just leave the other two to me. I'll make sure they don't interrupt again."

The three suna genin came into view ahead of them, they seemed to have a short argument but it ended when the girl turned mid leap and swung her massive battle fan in an arc around her.

Almost all of the trees ahead of them collapsed.

Quickly doubling his troupe of clones the two leaf-nin used the constructs as stepping stones to climb over the falling shafts. Landing safely on a tree near the other side.

Behind the kunoichi blocking their way, Gaara and the cat suit guy continued to run.

She used another wind jutsu and Sasuke jumped out of the way. Following his teammate's lead, Naruto dodged it as well. Good thing he did, because the wind sliced right through the branch they were on.

As the two of them continued to dodge the winds sweeping in almost every direction Naruto thought over his last spar with ero-sennin. Like he had in that spar, Naruto increased the angles he was leaping and began using clones as midair spring boards.

He was almost ready to spring directly down from above her when she dodged out of the way of a trio of kunai Sasuke had thrown.

The result was a shouted sandstorm jutsu.

The blast of wind that followed slowly built up sand on many of the tree branches around them. Naruto only knew this because one of his clones slipped on one and saw the sand before it burst.

Shouting a warning at Sasuke about the sand, Naruto created several more clones, positioning them all over the air above the blonde girl.

The Uchiha nodded and they both launched at the clones. After two leaps Sasuke used a fire jutsu that enveloped the girl only to be blown away, but before she could counter attack with kunai aimed for the dodging Uchiha, Naruto appeared behind her from below, having used her focus on the air and more specifically on Sasuke's jutsu, to hide his crawling approach from the ground itself.

He sent his shoulder into her in a swift impact that slammed her into a tree trunk hard enough for the tree to give a loud crack! Her yelp of pain was the last sound she made as she crumpled to the ground.

Without a glance Sasuke had already returned to the chase. Naruto gave one last look to see that the girl was still breathing before he too raced away.

Behind them, a group of four including three genin and a dog had almost caught up.

0o0o0

Within the seal the Kyuubi continued to feed his chakra into the seal's filter. Said matrix adapted gradually to the willingness of the chakra and allowed even more to pass through. His jailer would soon be receiving chakra as fast as he was wasting it on all those clones.

Meanwhile, he could now almost clearly understand most of the words from the other Kyuubi. If he was right, and it actually was his other half speaking to him.

It seemed the more he interacted with the brat, the more he could interact with the whispers. It was likely that feeding his chakra directly into the seal was also increasing the connection. And now that he was able to understand most of them he was able to get out a couple details such as the other fox not being alone wherever it was.

0o0o0

Once more they caught up to the fleeing enemy. This time they landed in front of the guy.

"You through running away?" Sasuke challenged. Backing up his words, Naruto offered his own challenge.

And was completely ignored.

"Who said I was running?," The cat suit guy replied. "I'll take both of you on right here, no problem."

Setting Gaara down beside him the suna-nin pulled the machine thing off his back and set it on the branch on his other side. "Okay Uchiha, time you—"

"Hey! You Bastard He's not your opponent! Quit ignoring me!" Naruto shouted in irritation.

"Naruto is in fact correct: as your true opponent is me." A calm voice echoed through the tree's. Behind the two Suna-nin, Shino landed on a canopy branch and leapt over the enemy shinobi to join the others blocking the path.

"Shino! What are you doing here!" Naruto gasped in surprise.

"How did you follow us?" Sasuke calmly asked his fellow.

Once agian Naruto was ignored as the closely garbed genin answered Sasuke's question. "I planted a beetle on you as you left the arena. A female beetle. She releases a scent that is too faint for a human to follow, but a male beetle can."

With a glance at Naruto's twitching face he continued. "I'm here to claim dibs on Kankuro. Much the same as I'm sure you Sasuke are here to face Gaara since your match was never finished. Mine however wasn't even started."

"Sasuke! Shino!" The voice was Sakura! She and that dog had come too. And behind them… Naruto looked twice, Shikamaru was running!

A groan from the form beside him brought kankuro's eyes down to his brother. He only had time to flinch as the boy's fist embedded itself in his gut.

Bending over in pain the older boy dropped from the branch. "Nuisance." Gaara spoke as he unsteadily stood.

Dropping to the ground, Shino moved in on his opponent. Taking a swing at him and only barely missing as the suna-nin rolled away.

Naruto leapt from his perch to join Shika behind the unmoving Gaara.

As he landed he noticed the Nara's elongated shadow had ensnared the redhead already.

"Aw man, I really didn't want to face this guy again." The slacker complained. Then in a slightly louder voice he called to Sasuke. "Be careful he can still move his sand even while in my shadow possession jutsu."

"You fought this guy before?" Naruto asked about the complaint.

"Not exactly." The other replied. "I was visiting Choji in the hospital and this guy shows up wanting to kill that Lee kid… you know, the one that fought him in the preliminaries."

Shikamaru shuddered. "His sand caught me off guard and when he attacked me with it I only escaped because his first miss knocked some stuff over and got the attention of Lee's sensei."

"And I told you then that I would kill you." Gaara spoke without looking in their direction… Not that he could, Shikamaru was focus intently on not letting him move.

"When I asked him what he was doing there he said he was there to kill Lee for no other reason than he wanted to. I didn't get it, but his explanation was worse. He said was a demon from birth who could only exist by killing others."

"A demon huh?" Naruto was thoughtful. He knew all too well what it was like to be called a demon. But too call himself one? "He can say he's a demon all he wants, but I got the real thing inside of me. If Sasuke can't beat him then I'll handle it."

"Hm. Is that so. My demon is as real as yours is." And so Gaara explained to the group about how his father had used a jutsu on him before he was born, resulting in the death of his mother.

Shikamaru admitted that this was a lot more than the boy had said in the hospital.

Naruto, on the other hand, heard a lot more than was being said. He understood what Gaara was telling him, the demon Shukaku… was that like the Kyuubi? The hatred in Gaara's voice echoed in Naruto's heart as he realized exactly how similar they were.

More than just in that they both held demons, but also in how the villagers treated them like a plague. Everything Gaara said told him they were they same, yet Gaara was so much different than he was.

Then Gaara spoke of his first assassin. Of how his own uncle had imparted to him the purpose he now holds.

That in killing others, he exists. That he would live only for himself and love only himself. And that by killing them all he would be proving that he was real.

It hit Naruto that he might have become like this if he didn't have people to protect him. If the old man had tried to have him killed off the way Gaara's own dad had...He might have ended up exactly like Gaara.

Naruto was shaking. It wasn't fear… It was remorse. An overwhelming need to help Gaara pressed in on him. But behind that he could almost hear it in his ears. His own demon was speaking to him. "That boy… he contains my brother, the Ichihbi. Be careful of him."

Was the fox actually worried about him? Mental note to really, really thank the fox, and to say sorry for being a jerk earlier.

"I understand." He began. "The pain of being alone, it eats at you. And living without a purpose is almost worse. But killing people is the wrong way to go about—"

Gaara didn't let him finish and simply attacked with sand. Shikamaru abandoned his jutsu and dodged out of the way. But this time he didn't just avoid the sand. He sent a kunai towards Gaara forcing the sand to block and covering the boy's view. In that moment he grabbed Sakura and fled behind a thick tree truck.

Naruto, didn't hide. The blonde focused his chakra and attacked. Kicking Gaara straight through the blocking sand, sending him off his own branch.

"I don't really care about any of your family history. Whatever you sand village clowns are plotting ends here." Sasuke announced. "Besides, I'm dying to see what kind of demon you really are."

His confident challenge brought a whimper from the other suna-nin as he stepped back from his stand off with Shino on the ground. He gave a nervous chuckle. "You shouldn't go asking for that kind of trouble man. You have no idea what you're facing!"

"You! I can tell when I look into your eyes, your purpose makes you strong, but mine is stronger. We may be the same but only in killing you will I be able to prove that I even exist!" As he spoke his voice became sharper, more like screams, the sand armor on his face cracked loudly and began to peel away. "You are my preeeey!"

"Shit!" was all Kankuro said as he turned and ran. Shino hesitated a moment before he followed.

With another shriek, a mass of blue veined sand exploded from his arm launching at the Uchiha.

Sasuke had no choice but to dodge and moved from branch to branch as he looked in fear at the single transformed eye that followed him.

"Quit running around. Are you afraid Uchiha, does my true form scare you?!" Gaara bellowed. Naruto landed behind the redhead and once more sand attempted to block him only to be shoved aside by the force of the punch, Gaara was once more knocked from his branch, this time falling all the way to the ground.

Where Sasuke was waiting with a kick aimed for the monster's gut. Sasuke and he hit the redhead in tandem, both of them kicking him one way and another each easily matching the speed that out paced Gaara's sand in the preliminaries. When the mutated boy tried to attack one of them, the other would strike. Then, giving up on catching them individually, he simply blasted sand in all directions.

Sasuke had managed to avoid it the sand by leaping into the canopy out of its range, and Shikamaru, Sakura and that tiny dog had moved behind a tree much farther away from the battle.

Naruto had instead tried to force all his chakra to his skin the way Neji had done.

It kinda worked.

His shirt and pants had been torn up, but oddly his new jacket was still in one piece.

Once they had their footing again they saw that Gaara had now grown a tail.

Using his newest skill, Naruto created explosions around all the redhead. Causing the boy to scream in pain as he was burned by the dark red flames.

"—was the most pathetic fire jutsu I've ever seen Naruto." Sasuke spoke as a familiar sound rose screeching out into the air. Sasuke attacked with his lightning jutsu. Thousands of tiny screams held in his fist as he drove his hand into the enemy sand.

Another louder scream rang out, and Sasuke smashed into a tree several meters away. "This! This is it! This is why I have been looking forward to facing you! This is why I have been so excited to fight you! No one has ever been able to wound me so badly! Killing you will show me what it truly feels like to be alive!" Gaara shouted in some twisted joy.

As he shouted the rest of his torso was covered in sand as it crept across his face and down his other arm. With his entire upper body now covered Gaara seemed to be moving three times faster.

He launched himself at the recovering Uchiha. Naruto's foot caught him in the face sending him bouncing back into the charred remains of the previous explosive jutsu.

An arm of sand flew at the blond but was simply side stepped as the orange blur that he had become moved in for the strike. The tail blocked his way before he got more than halfway to the redheaded sand monster.

Jumping back, Naruto made several clones who all charged at once. Gaara only had three offensive limbs like this, he couldn't guard all directions at once!

Instead a bunch of mouths opened all over his body and a blast of sandy wind tore the clones apart.

Without missing a beat, the original Naruto's fist slammed into the sand mass having retried that chakra skin thing from last time. This time it worked well enough that he was able to land a massive punch right to Gaara's face, sending the sand from stumbling back. Until it jumped to avoid the hands that burst from the ground.

"Are you stupid? I could feel him digging through the ground before he even got deep enough to hide."

His explosions weren't strong enough to punch through the sand and he wasn't sure he could do more than single strikes himself without being caught, and none of his clones could reach the guy. Naruto had to find a way.

So creating three more clones he launched them into the air, straight for Gaara. As a result the sandy winds blasted up at them. However the clone's chakra skin seemed to be strong enough that two of them held out. Only to be snatched out of the air by a sand arm extended well past his clones blast range. Creating another two he handed one of his kunai off to one of them and they leapt over the two being held, one was caught by the other arm, and pulled the next over him and threw him at Gaara.

This would only work if he could get this clone close enough to the sand. He needed a fully formed explosive clone to reach the boy before the sand could destroy it.

Passing over Gaara, the clone landed on a tree branch behind him and dropped under the tail rolling his way under Gaara's back, "Straight from Kakashi-sensei's handbook, secret art of the hidden leaf! One thousand years of death!"

Almost everyone present felt overwhelming disappointment in Naruto when they saw what he had done.

The clone stabbed Gaara's butt with the kunai the original had given him. With all three limbs outstretched the sand around Gaara had thinned in order to push the clone away before it could explode. The blast cleaved Gaara's tail off and melted most of his back's armor as well, but it had been fully blocked.

Then,... the kunai exploded too.

Naruto had rolled three tags onto it. Having seen the sand cover for his explosive clones he wasn't taking any chances. So he went with overkill.

It was inside Gaara's guard, and most of his armor remaining had been blasted by the clone. Gaara howled as he was propelled over the ground digging a trench as he came to a stop.

"It's… It's not possible!" Gaara growled from his position embedded into the ground. "Your purpose, all you want is to protect people. That's what you told the Hyuuga. There… There is no way I'm going to disappear to a purpose like thaaaaaaaaat!"

With his shout of rage, a massive tower of sand appeared nearly out of nowhere. A single tendril of the expanding tower smacked into Naruto sending him flying through one tree after another until he was caught by Sasuke.

"Naruto, can you move?" the Uchiha asked as he pulled them both to their feet. When Naruto nodded and stood on his own, his teammate continued. "You need to take Sakura and Shikamaru out of here. By force if you need to. I'll find a way to bring down that monster. I have another chidori in me. If I can just hit Gaara in all of that I can end this."

Naruto was about to retort when the Uchiha said the alternative. That he would fight until he died to give them time to escape.

Naruto's mind raced as he processed what the Uchiha had just said. And with the swell of emotion it caused, Naruto slapped his hands together and charged his chakra. He couldn't help the shout of thrill as he felt more chakra flowing through him than ever before. Sasuke flinched away from it as the ground around them began to break apart.

From their hidden tree, Shikamaru and Sakura both stared in horror at the sheer amount of visible chakra flowing off the blonde.

The massive sand tower finally took form. It was a giant sand raccoon. So huge!

But Naruto was too empowered to feel the fear the rest of them found when seeing the beast. He created thousands of his explosive clones. They littered nearly every meter of every tree as far as they all could see. And they all launched themselves at the Sand monster. Once the beast had been nearly swarmed in orange, they exploded.

Sand was blown everywhere. And when it settled the mass that was left was crystallized by the sheer amount of flame and pressure. There was a loud crack. And a sheet of the glass fell from its place on the newly formed mountain. The bubbling sand beneath parted to allow Gaara to slid out, performing a jutsu as he emerged.

"I can't believe this...How could I be forced to use this against the likes of you!" Gaara muttered in disbelief. Then he slumped over.

A scream unlike any Gaara had let out thus far echoed through the forest as the sand around them all sucked inwards to the crystallized remains of the racoon. A large wave of it crashed down on the area the two genin had been standing in, but Sasuke managed to pull both of them out of the way.

"Naruto! You're out of chakra, you need to retreat!" The Uchiha growled as he leapt twice more to avoid them being caught.

"Iiiaaaayymmm Freeeheee!" The booming voice shouted with joy. At the same time there was a pulse of chakra and the sand demon began to reform faster than ever,

"Summon it!" The voice of the fox rang clearly in his mind. "I'll lend you my chakra, but you must summon the one who fought me!"

How do I even know which one that was? Naruto thought back.

"Just do it! Focus on the name Gamabunta! Use all the chakra I give you!"

Doing as instructed Naruto used the summoning jutsu. The result was an explosion of white puffy clouds as he felt himself instantly relocate many meters above where he had been. Sasuke Leapt from one tree to another as he moved from the giant toad trying to get a look at it's full size.

The toad looked one way then the other, slowly taking in the seen before him. "Hey, you on my head, where is the guy who summoned me? Where is Jiraiya?"

"Um… the thing is, I'm the one who summoned you. I need help with—"

The massive toad began to laugh, "As if someone as puny as you could summon a toad as massive as me!"

"Hey knock it off GamaBaka! I'm in the middle of a battle and since I summoned you you have to help!"

"Now who do you think you are?!" Bellowed the toad "Ordering me, Gamabunta, the chief toad?! Just cause you summoned me— And I'm not saying I even believe you on that, it still doesn't mean I have to do anything. And furthermore why would I ever want to fight a guy like that!

The toad nodded his head indicating the nearly reformed racoon.

0o0o0

When he agreed to lend Naruto his chakra for the summons his other half told him of, the kyuubi was given two main pieces of information. The first was to make sure it was Gamabunta, the one he had fought. The second was what to tell the toad. "Hey kid, tell him he helped your dad last time and his enemy then was way stronger than this one. He didn't even stick around til the end of the battle."

This was the first time he clearly understood all of what had been said. It seemed that in this state of battle, the lines of communication had finally been forced open. He could hear his other self clearly as the dark fox relayed words from its current company.

0o0o0

Naruto wasn't sure why, but after the fox helped him summon the toad he might as well say it. In the back of his mind he resolved to ask what the fox meant about his dad and see if the fox might actually know his parents. "Come on, you helped my dad last time, and that guy was much stronger than this guy!"

His plea was loud enough that it carried out to the watching shinobi. Sasuke didn't get the implications at first but the other two did.

The toad stopped and his eyes slowly angled up towards the boy on his head. "Ah! You must be little Naruto then! Why the hell hasn't Jiraiya summoned me to meet you until now!"

"Well I kinda didn't know who it was I was summoning. Other than your name, I just summoned the biggest one I could! You're actually the first grown up toad I've ever summoned."

The toad's mood changed immediately. "Well, since it's the first time you've summoned anyone, and it looks like this is important, I'll help you out. But only because I owe your dad. After this you gotta pay tribute like everyone else!"

"Tribute!?"

"The youngins like snacks and sweets, but the adults prefer sake or for a few odd cases, they'll want exaotic foods…"

By this time the Shukaku had fully reformed and was watching with keen interest as it waited to be acknowledged. Besides, they had been kind enough to let him reform...it chuckled evilly.

"But I'm not old enough to drink yet!" Naruto protested.

"Ah, then we'll start a tab for ya. Better yet, we'll just add your bill to Jiraiya's tab and you can pay him back."

At this point the ichibi had waited long enough and bellowed. "Are you going to ignore me all day!" It sent one of it's arms out in a stabbing sweep.

Without seeming to even see it the giant toad leapt away.

"Fine! But I want to be told exactly how much I owe him from one of you before I make a payment! He's already tricked me out of all my savings at the ramen sta—Hey watch out, my comrades are over in that direction, so you need to keep clear of that area got it!?" Naruto point to where he was talking about and the toad agreed.

The two massive beasts exchanged a couple rounds of jutsu the sand demon launching air and the toad water, however neither of them seemed to be gaining an advantage.

"In order to break the jutsu allowing the Shukaku to be free like this you need to wake up the brat hanging there on his face. One good whack should do it. But we're not going to get a good shot unless I can get ahold of the Shukaku. And my body doesn't have claws or horns to dig into its body." The toad advised him.

"Your going to have to do the Henge. I would do it but I'm not very good at it. Just focus on claws and fangs and I'll keep us clear until the jutsu is complete then we attack."

"Got it, claws and fangs!" Naruto replied with determination. Forming his hand seals there was only one image that came to mind, and for some reason the fox's chakra began to fill him once more.

Once the smoke of the jutsu cleared there was a massive Nine tailed fox in front of the Sand demon, but more than its shape and size, it even held the malevolence of the kyuubi. The henge was so complete that the Ichibi hesitated. "Aniki?"

that hesitation was enough for the toad turned fox to ensnare the other demon in tooth, claw and tail.

Using his shadow clone jutsu with what little he had in him Naruto formed a clone right in front of Gaara. And said clone swung his foot back and kicked the redhead square in the face. The force of the blow not only broke the genin's exposed nose, but also ripped him from his purch hanging out of the demon's head sand and sent him into the air.

Beneath them, the Sand construct froze cracked and shattered until a wave of loose sand poured down from its form into a small hill.

Leaping from what was once again a toad, the real Naruto caught Gaara before they both hit the ground.

"How did you beat me? You weren't even protecting anyone! You can't be that strong." Gaara shook in shock as Naruto held him firmly still.

"You're wrong! I was protecting someone. Someone exactly like me who was treated wrong!" And so Naruto sat there telling Gaara how close he had been to being like him and why he protected those precious to him. How they saved him from the pain of being alone and how he would rather die than go back to that pain which was why he would fight to the death to save those precious to him. Gaara was also precious to him because he was an important sibling container who held his demon's brother.

As he finished his words, Sasuke finally made it to the sand dune. Gamabunta called his goodbye and Naruto returned the farewell.

Shikamaru and Sakura arrived next. The pug informed them that Shino had beaten Kankuro, but once the massive sand demon was formed the boy had all but lost his will to fight. Temari had also appeared. She was beaten and hardly able to move, but she had walked right up to the leaf nin and begged them not to kill her youngest brother.

When Naruto announced, "you're all going to come back to the village and you won't be going back to the sand until I know Gaara will be treated right!" Not a single person laughed, or objected.

0o0o0

The 3rd Hokage had done what he could, he used that jutsu to consume those two, but he didn't have the chakra to seal off Orochimaru. At least he got his arms. Sarutobi smiled as he felt himself being pulled into the seal as well.

The next generation was ready… he was going to see Biwako again.

The passage into the next world felt as if everything had gone numb. Even with his eyes and tongue all he heard was white noise, all he saw was a field of chaotic greys in constant motion. Then it began to clear.

"Jiji! You awake yet?"

It sounded like Naruto, but it was too womanly.

He felt his shoulder getting shaken "Hey old man! What the hell happened? How did you and the other two Hokage get in here!?"

A sharp pain in his side where she probably punched his ribs.

"Answer me!"

"Kushina! He's an old man you don't kick old men for sleeping!"

Okay, so she kicked him…..Wait…

Hiruzen bolted upright, his eyes opened wide as he realized Kushina was dead!

But looking before him were both her and Minato! Oh kami! His failures would haunt him even in the afterlife.

"Hello-sensei," Minato smiled as he pulled Sarutobi up.

"Where are we?" He asked as he looked around. Most of their surroundings were a vast darkness

But in front of them was a glowing golden cage housing a battle to the death!

The kyuubi, only half it's original size, was trying viciously to eat the first and second Hokage's

Neither of them seemed able to perform jutsu so they were simply running around him.

"Well I guess we're in the belly of the death god." His successor replied with a shrug. "We have been here for years. We don't hunger or thirst. And we have no chakra. It doesn't matter how far you go there is nothing out there. But we can always find our way back to the seal."

Kushina took over for him saying "We once tried walking from it for as long as we could and lost track of time. By the time we got back Naruto had gone from being three to almost Ten."

The Hokage felt great relief from that. They hadn't witnessed the worst times of the boy's life…

"You know old man… you shouldn't get so relieved." She said. The smile on her face told him he was likely going to die again.

"I made up that story" Her fist arched back and came crashing toward him.

~ Note ~

All four of the team sent to get them arrived because the nine pursuing shinobi had been preoccupied with the Naruto clones. With the original Naruto gone, Kakashi had Shino join the group.

These two changes allowed them to catch up faster than in cannon.

The reason Gaara flipped out and attacked Kankuro was because he hadn't been taken away by Temari this time. With her knocked out by Naruto, she never caught up. And the other four did.

Yes, Naruto now has the four Hokage and half a fox in his gut. The suna three will be staying in the leaf village for a while and Naruto is going to learn about his parents.

Sorry again for the Hiatus. As I get back into my writing my progress will grow. For more frequent progress reports and in depth discussion, Please Friend or follow me on FB. ~ Jordan Tesla Painsake.

While T8: Retroversion will be my main Fic, Five others are on my list to work on at the moment: LATE Naruto: Life After the Ends; Uzumaki: A Lone Fox; The Thousand Ninja; Village Hidden in Plain Sight; and Wisdom of Chance. Descriptions on profile.