Alyondria: Look, just sit on the edge of the cliff... or let go, it's like a five inch drop before your feet hit the ground...

The-Eighth-Sin: Yeah... it was gross... sorry...

ratpigeon: Not just ANY jinchuuriki either.

CelticReaper: No... it's his cousin Cornelius... Corny for short, and it's far worse... Sorry about the shortness, hope this makes up for it. *has never really watched Southpark*

jolteonforever: No... but it's not a bad idea... Might have to think on that one a bit more... Here's what's next, see Naruto *gets censored for spoilers* And that's what happens in this chapter. So you can see that Naruto's innocence is keeping up with his body just fine. Hehehehe piecing...

Trinity the Kitsune Kunoichi: Thank you. Will do. Updating. Yes you can, just don't want to. Always has been to me. *pokes the bag of laughter*

O.o: Woah... a smilie name... trippy... uhh... you alright ma'am? Didn't hurt yourself, right?

anotamous: I have plans for Tobi... oh and he's a good boy... a very very good boy...

Elemental Dragon Swordman: Always a pleasure to see you two again... Thanks for the comments, and I just washed that rug.

HikariNoTenshi-San: First... DE-CAF... second, glad you enjoyed it. Hmm... a fandom self-insertion fic set during this insanity... yeah... I'm not gonna touch that one... but link me if anyone does it. Here's the update.

Anonymous: Bob talks in the third person I see... SR can do that too, since SR is the author and SR is just that crazy. But I won't cause it'd just end up annoying me. Sorry about the facial pains... hopefully this story cures it... oh wait it's the cause... uhh... hopefully the next one you read cures it! . . . Yeah... that's the ticket... (hey send me some info on those two characters you were talking about...) Shoulda, didn't cause it'd be just a smidge on the anti-climatic side, no? Ara ara... She was a bit creepy, wasn't she? Well it's Naruto, I mean of course there's gotta be sewers involved! Thanks for the review, next one below.

badkidoh: Thank you, I guess.

Gilligan's Ghost: No, thank you for reviewing.

spottedstar2: *noms on the chocolate bunny, still typing away at the next chapter* . . . *holds up a sign saying Happy Easter, and goes back to work*

90MLLu: Yay for short and liked! Good things come in small packages right? So my next chapter'll be 500 words! *ducks under the thrown objects* Yeesh... no sense of humor here... Uhh anywhosits... Ara ara... The clones were fun to contemplate how to use in new and interesting ways... and I think I'm having a lot of fun success with them. Well... he'll get clean eventually. Glad you're enjoying this, cause I'm sure Naruto's not.


Icha Icha: Animal Magnetism

Chapter 21

Naruto blinked a couple moments in realization of what Gaara had meant by 'it's time' and the one thing he could think about, was the last thing he wanted. "Come on Gaara, we're like brothers right? I mean you wouldn't want to do this with Kankuro, would you?" Naruto reasoned, trying to buy himself some time to get away.

Even as Naruto backed away, Gaara approached steadily. "No, I would not with Kankuro... he is not my type... however..." Gaara whispered softly as he pulled a leaf out of his pocket and held it up with two fingers. "Kankuro cannot become a woman just by adding a leaf."

Naruto's eyes widened as he turned to run, feeling only a momentary pause when the leaf landed on his head, transforming him into a woman again. Instead of wasting breath cussing about it, she simply ran for it, Gaara rode a wave of sand over the filth of the sewer in his pursuit of the now feminized Naruto. Even though he knew this was wrong, and that he shouldn't be chasing after the one person to have saved him, he had to admit the view on Naruto's female ass in those nice silk pants was a very tantalizing one. From what he could see of Naruto's front, she filled out the silk blouse she wound up in very nicely. Pausing only a moment in his chase, he considered that maybe he should pay more attention to women after this was over. They were very, very nice to look at after all, and he did have some of those fangirls who wouldn't mind being an experimental date for him.

Still, he had to chase after Naruto or Shukaku would try to take over his waking form and force him to go after Naruto. At least the rules only had him chasing the blond for an hour. If Naruto ever forgave him, he would like to get his advice on this dating thing, maybe even see if he could have his sensei try to improve the seal on Shukaku. After all it would be nice to try this thing called sleep without him destroying all of Suna.

Gaara sent out a wall of sand to block Naruto from taking an offshoot of the main or even to continue forward, instead forcing her to go out of a manhole. Following her up into the day light, he smiled seeing the hot springs just a short distance away. After all, Naruto could use a bath, and there was no place better than the hot springs for that.

Using his sand to contain and guide the blond, he smiled as Naruto leaped over one of the walls, only to look slightly guilty when a moment later Naruto's screams were drowned out by the shouts of "GET HER!" by several dozen female voices. He should have known that it wasn't going to be completely abandoned.

Seeing Naruto manage to get out of the other side of the spring, he smirked and just capped the top of the spring, walking over it slowly while he the women below ran into the bottom of it with shouts of protest.

Frowning he continued to stalk after Naruto, feeling more at ease with his pursuit. He knew that the pheromones were affecting him now, but he couldn't really find it in himself to care. He had spent ten minutes in his pursuit of Naruto, and if he could continue to restrain himself for the next fifty he would have proven himself the stronger man than the sex crazed Shukaku once again.

Pulling himself from his smug sense of victory over Shukaku, he couldn't help but wonder why Naruto was leading him to this isolated spring. Lowering the amount of chakra he was putting out, he let his foot dip into the water, finding that it was colder than the other hot spring Naruto had just left, however, he noticed that Naruto seemed to be smiling victoriously. Watching the blond dive into the water, he sighed and decided to follow, though his sand would be weakened by being wet, but that would be better for Naruto after all. Taking a deep breath, he dove into the cold water, feeling a current pulling him along. Ahead, he could barely see the form of Naruto slipping into a hole, a moment later he joined Naruto in her trip.

As the current carried him away, he watched as several forms of luminous algae passed by, each one clinging to a rock on the ceiling above him. In a way it was very soothing, he could see why his fellow Jinchuuriki would take this path. He wasn't sure how long had passed with him watching the glowing plants over him, but he noticed that he was running out of time to hold his breath, so he had to assume that it was at least three minutes. Just as he was beginning to worry for his own health, the ceiling pulled away from the water, and he drifted up to the surface, where he was able to take a breath. It was at that moment he found himself slipping out into an open area with willow branches brushing over his body. Blinking at the sudden light of the sun in his eyes, he looked around.

As his vision returned, he found that Naruto was sitting at a campsite looking ready to go completely insane. Gaara swam over to the far shore, trying to give Naruto some running room as he began talking. "Uzumaki..."

Naruto's head snapped up, and the fearful look of a trapped fox shown in the blonde's eyes. Holding up his hands in what he had learned was supposed to be a placating manner, Gaara stepped back from his friend. "I just want to apologize for chasing you, as you know this last 24 hours is to be the Bijuu's time. I felt it would be best to get out of Konoha, just in case one of them was not contained."

Seeing Naruto nod, he looked around the surprisingly beautiful clearing that they found themselves in. "This is beautiful Uzumaki, almost like a garden, but very natural."

"Thank you," Naruto spoke up softly, the feminine voice sending a shiver rippling through Gaara's spine, forcing him to fight every urge in his body to pounce on the sun kissed vision of beauty just a short distance away. "Sarutobi-jii-san taught me gardening, and showed me how to get here."

"We should leave here then..." Gaara suggested with a frown. "I do not wish to see such a thing of beauty destroyed because of this hunt..."

Naruto nodded and began to rise, shortly before Gaara held up a hand to stop her. "Wait Uzumaki... san... uh... would you mind sitting here for a few minutes?" he offered, seeing the look of exhaustion and insanity in his friend's eyes. "I will remain here, upwind of you... we could consider it a date... a step closer to the mating Shukaku wishes to have."

Naruto watched Gaara evenly for a moment before settling back down and hugging her knees to her chest quietly in thought. As the silence stretched, Gaara found that he hated seeing his friend so quiet and began raking his brain for any topic to get her talking. Something to let that beautiful and melodious voice to ring out and continue to send the shivers down his back. A second after he started, the idea hit him like a bijuu. The seals.

"I noticed... that you do not seem to suffer the insomnia that I do with my... guest..." Gaara started watching Naruto cautiously, seeing her body relax slightly he decided to continue on with his train of thought. "If it is at all possible... I was wondering if maybe your villages seal master, Jiraiya-san I believe, could look at mine... maybe improve it, if possible?" The look of surprise in his friend's eye at the hint of hope in Gaara's normally emotionless voice was worth every nano-second it lasted, made even more of a special occasion when the blond gave the sand user one of his patented mile-wide fox grins before nodding.

"Sure!" Naruto proclaimed loudly, jutting her thumb upward. Unfortunately, the reassurance that might have offered before, was lost when it tightened the blouse across her chest, causing Gaara to begin twitching, and fight off the strange urge he felt to stare. For some reason he couldn't specify, he felt that his nose should be bleeding. "Ero-sennin would probably be glad to help you out! Especially if I let him use this for his new book series. He owes me so much right now..."

The pout that Naruto ended with caused Gaara to whimper, for some reason, he found that this form of Naruto was very devastating to his promise of not pursuing his friend for himself. Biting his lip he focused his attention on the ground before him, counting to ten before speaking again. "I would feel ill at ease if you used up a favor for this request... maybe the day after tomorrow or the one after that I could go with you to be properly introduced. As an ally, it would be in Konoha's interest to strengthen my control... perhaps we could study each other's usage for weaknesses?"

"That sounds great!" Naruto exclaimed, with a sparkling smile on her face. "I've been wanting to know how you've grown since our last fight."

The odd choice of words for the second sentence was ignored for the moment since Gaara found himself stuck staring at the dazzling smile of the girl before him. Forcing himself to blink and look away, Gaara noticed the shadows of the tree were about right for them to move out. "Uzumaki... it is time we leave."

Before the sand user could even look up, he found that Naruto had already bolted, taking off like a shot through the trees. Slowly standing himself, Gaara walked slowly towards the ice cold water of the pool he'd drifted into earlier, and dove in with little preliminary hesitation. With his flaming arousal thus doused, he turned and began his pursuit of the foxy blonde woman. After all, didn't they say the chase was half the fun?

Gaara smiled warmly at the thought of having helped his friend. Somewhere deep in his heart, he knew that it was the right thing to do, and really... that was all he needed for now.