Puppet Legend

Chapter 4 - Kyuubi

"Welcome to my home."

Naruto looked around him in surprise, how did he get here? There was only one way to go, so Naruto took it cautiously. The passage turned a few corners, before Naruto found himself in a giant room, about the size of the whole apartment block he lived in. Three of the walls were stone, with a strange orange tinted liquid seeping through the gaps in the brickwork, and down to the floor, which was already covered in the stuff. The fourth consisted of a huge rusted iron bar gate, reaching all the way up to the ceiling.

'I wander what's inside?' Naruto thought, getting a bit excited, despite knowing he should be more scared. The bars were wider than Naruto and the gaps between twice as big.

He wasn't disappointed when a set of huge red eyes appeared behind the bars, about fifty feet up in the air. Naruto managed to hold himself from making a noise, but couldn't help stepping back a few paces.

"Who are you?" He managed to stutter out, looking at his feet to avoid the piercing red eyes.

"A friend."

Naruto gasped: that voice. This is what had been taking too him. Plucking up his courage, he asked another question.

"Where are we?"

A high melodic laugh filled the room, and Naruto looked up to see a face to go with the red eyes had come into the light. The giant red fox smiled, baring its teeth. "Afraid are we?"

"No." Naruto said defiantly, suddenly realizing something in his mind. "You're the Kyuubi."

"Oow, I'm famous. Yes my loyal subject, I am the great Kyuubi-Kitsune, lord of the foxes, and the tailed beasts, most powerful being on the planet."

"You're a girl." Naruto blurted out fairly incredulously.

"What gave it away?" She asked mockingly. "I washed all my make up off yesterday, even forgot to comb my hair... oh I know, maybe it was my voice. Anyway, what's wrong with me being a girl?"

"Nothing, it's just, all the stories...I assumed..."

"Naturally, even the Romans thought I was a male?"

"What! That's millions of years ago." Naruto said in astonishment, recalling a particularly boring lecture of Iruka's, something about an old world with flying machines bigger then houses, and little boxes with flashing lights, but he'd ignored most of that, even thought it was slightly more interesting then what coloured robes the different kage's wore…

"Only joking, I'm not that old." She said lightly.

"So where are we again?"

"Oh yeah, sorry I forgot, we're inside your mind."

"What." Naruto exclaimed!

"Your head, your body, whatever you want to call it. This is where the Yondaime put me. Those are the seals right there." She pointed to the middle of the bars where a small scrap of paper was, reading: 'seal'. "That's the only thing that's keeping me from escaping."

"Why can't you remove it?" Naruto asked, looking first at the huge Kyuubi in the cage, then at the tiny seal.

The fox giggled. "You don't think I've tried. No, I can't move anything but Chakra through these bars, and when I do, it automatically becomes yours to control. Also, if it were removed, then you'd probably be killed as an after effect of me being released, and I'd die, as my soul would still be linked to yours.

"You don't seem to mind all this, you're basically in prison."

"Yep, I've had eleven years to brood, so now I get someone to talk to, I'm all excited. Fortunately it hasn't been all doom and gloom down here. The seal grants me a fascinating insight into your thoughts; however I can only see things you're focusing on enough to visualize.

"What, you can see what I'm thinking?" Naruto blushed as a sudden thought appeared in his head.

The Kyuubi started giggling. "Gosh Naruto, I never knew you thought that way about that Sasuke-kun."

"Hey I didn't mean any of that, I didn't enjoy that kiss with Sasuke honest, I was just thinking that if I was gay..." Naruto had turned bright red, and tried to ignore the giant foxes laugh.

"Anyway, down to business, this is the first time I've been able to contact you, due to the continuous weakening of the seal over time that will naturally occur. This will cause a few side effects like more of my chakra will become available to you, and get slowly get converted into your Chakra, you'll change appearance slightly, and eventually, you'll be free of the tricks that the seal plays on your mind, making you more likely you to get angry, and encouraging you to use my powers.

"Finally the seal will reach a point, and will start to draw on your chakra. This will remove the chance of you turning into a mini me if you got really angry, luckily this hasn't happened yet, but if you take much more of my chakra then when you fought Mizuke, then I suspect something like this may happen. Also your chakra reserves will increase more over time, and as my reserves constantly grow, your strength will never stop until you die. As my Chakra will no longer have to pass through the Yondaime's, instead yours, it will be more freely available to you, and more will be converted. You getting all this?"

Naruto grinned sheepishly, and scratched the back of his head.

The huge fox groaned. "A seal needs a constant flow of Chakra to work. When your seal stops drawing on the Yondaime's, it will start to draw a tiny amount on your reserves, not that you'll notice, which will mean your reserves will increase, as more will be able to pass through the seal, however you'll look a bit more foxy, and you won't be able to draw on my power as much."

"OK, so when's this going to happen, and how do I get out of here, won't I wake up soon?"

"You should start to feel the change over the next few years; I'm not sure when the process will be finished. Time inside your head is slightly different. Your sleep is split up into different sections, one of which is called the REM sleep. This is when all dreams occur, so this is when your brain is most active, and I can speak to you easiest."

"So I'm dreaming?"

"No. I took you out of your dream and brought you here to talk to me, if you want to leave, then just go to sleep. When you get tired in here, it shows your time is up, and your either waking up, or the next stage of the sleep cycle is happening. This will happen two or three times a night, but I let you sleep through the first two. I believe you've just been having a rather exciting game of kiss chase with Sasuke-kun, I'm afraid we didn't get to see the end as I wanted to talk to you…shame, he had just cornered you, and was reaching out to…"

"I was not!"

"Yes you were" She giggled, which didn't quite suit the giant fox, and continued. "I can prove it to you if you like, go back to sleep, and..."

"Wait a minute, despite me not wanting to see myself getting raped by Sasuke, how can you see my dreams."

"Easy, I'm in your head remember, so can see things your focusing on. Luckily there's nothing else to occupy your attention but the dream, so I sit in on them every now and then. Luckily the 'Sakura-chan' dreams have dried up recently. If I saw that cow hit you one more time, I'd break out of the seal and kill her if it cost me my life." She spat out the name, of Naruto's ex-crush with particular venom, causing Naruto to raise his eyebrows, but he decided not to mention anything.

"So what do you want to talk to me about apart from this complicated seal thingy, Kyuubi-san?"

"Your training…"

"Yey."

"…Is crap!"

"Doh."

"You've gotten better, but you still spend far too much time eating Ramen, you're getting fat, you only know a few fire Jutsu's, which aren't suited to you, and you have absolutely no Taijutsu or Kenjutsu style or ability at the moment, not to mention Genjutsu."

"What, I'm not that bad, I can use the Uchiha stance quite well, and I beat all those clones. I don't need a sword, and Genjutsu's for wussies."

Naruto felt a sudden wave of Chakra wash over him, sending him flying backwards into the floor knocking the wind out of him. He looked up to see a annoyed fox, nine tailed waving, and snarling down at the blond.

"Genjutsu is not for wussies! Back when I was alive, and not stuck in some tubby homosexual's body, my speciality was Genjutsu. I could make people die from their own screaming; I would turn that pathetic Sharingan inside out, literally. I'd make people drown in their own tears and…"

"Small interruption, is that even possible, not trying to be rude, but when I cry, I don't think there would be enough to drown in…" Seeing the evil glare the fox was giving him, Naruto cringed a bit, and lay back down again. "Guess I'll just shut up eh?"

"Probably a cleaver thing to do, and yes it is possible, one day I'll prove it to you, if I ever get out of this place."

"But I'm hopeless at Genjutsu, I'll never be able to use it so what's the point."

"You need to learn how to detect it, and how to cancel it. Similarly, there's one of the seven swordsmen of the mist working from Akatsuki, so you'll need to be able to use a sword or some sort of weapon."

"There the guys that are after me, how do you know about them, I thought they were really secretive?"

"You don't think I wouldn't know about a bunch of humans wanting to steal my powers. I've known about them for ages, but wasn't worries because I'd have easily killed them all. I guess I got a bit arrogant, and ignored them. Now they're a big threat, and you need to start training to fight them immediately."

"What do I need to do?"

"Go to that place the Uchiha showed you tomorrow morning, and take the weapons, and whatever else you think might be useful. Then get a few weeks supply of food, create a clone to leave behind, and find a nice clearing in the forest. I won't be able to speak to you for a while, as it's taking a lot of effort for me to talk to you like this. I'll have to rest for a week at least, it's incredibly difficult to force a connection between the two of us during your sleep, and to be able to summon you here, you know. See you in a few days." And with that, the prison doors, with the giant fox behind them faded out of Naruto's view, and he slipped into uneasy sleep.

The next day, he woke up clutching his head in pain. After downing some fruit, a few aspirins and half a gallon of water, he set off towards the other side of town.

Twenty minutes later Naruto entered the storage room of the deserted clan house, and began sifting through the piles of scrolls and other extraneous items.

On the other side of town a white haired old man, with red marks running down his face, was interrupted from his morning…entertainment, by a streak of orange shooting into the females section of the hot springs, followed closely by four black ones. One quick puff of smoke and a severe beating later; four men staggered out of the hot springs clutching a various assortment of extremely painful looking injuries. The old Sannin grinned, for once in his long and perverted life; he had the pleasure of watching righteous anger, while not being on the receiving end.

Minutes later, Naruto was ambling across town; a storage scroll tucked under one arm. He nodded to the two gate guards, quickly explaining his need to test out some rather explosive new Jutsu's, and wandering off into the forest.

Just as the two guards were finishing their duty, they were confronted by a surprisingly exhausted looking ANBU unit, and fortunately enough they were able to help. Yes of course they'd seen Naruto; he'd entered the village a few hours ago, and mentioned he was returning home.

In a clearing about ten miles away from Konoha, Naruto collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, the remains of a partially formed chakra strings fading away from one of his fingers.

Thanks for the great response I've gotten from the first three chapters I've posted, I know I haven't posted for a while, but when I get this exam on Friday out of the way, I'm free to write…until my next coursework deadline :(

I get partial insomnia, and as I've know a lot about the subject, I thought I'd add a bit on info in there. If I wasn't doing my current course, I'd probably do psychology, I find it really interesting…yeah, you really didn't need to know all of that but oh well.

A lot of people mentioned Konoha burning, and potential pairings. Neither of these topics will occur anytime soon, so I can't promise anything. I usually reply to reviews after posting the next chapter, so thanks to everyone who's reviewed, it's incredibly helpful and encouraging.

Next Chapter: Training, and maybe another meeting with Kyuubi.