Caught in the Middle

Chapter 9

Things Still to Come

Disclaimer: ...Nope, still don't own Naruto...fuck.

Once again guys, I want to start off by saying I'm sorry for the monster waiting time. I had lots of school work and a good portion of my time was spent up dating Fateful XIII as well. Anyway, some new I think you all should know before hand, after this chapter there will be a bit of a time-skip.

Nothing major that will propel us ten year in the future or anything, I'm just fast-forwarding a bit to the ending of Naruto's basic training. I know you guys probably don't want another four chapters of him just learning about things we already know everything about. Just because his training with Kakashi is done though, don't think he won't be improving his skills, he's still going to have a lot to learn afterwords.

Anyway, just thought I'd give you guys a heads up beforehand.

Read on!


Again, Naruto awoke in a daze. He felt disoriented and he his muscles were sore; he shook his head and cleared the grogginess from his head. He looked up at the ceiling and tried to remember what exactly happened last. He was in the gym, Sasuke showed up, they fought for a minute, and then he remembered getting shot. Then he also remembered getting up and punching Sasuke and sending him through a wall, then everything got blurry. All he remembered after that was a lot of anger and frustration, and the occasional jolts of pain. Other than that, it was a big blur.

He looked down when he heard the door open and saw a nurse pop her head in. When she saw he was awake she leaned back and looked a little down the hallway.

"I was wrong, he is awake," she said to someone Naruto couldn't see.

A mere two seconds after she uttered that sentence, she was knocked out of the way as a red blur swooped into the room. The next thing he knew, there was a sharp pain on the back of his head and he clasped onto it in pain.

"Ow! What the hell was that!?" he groaned.

He looked up to see Karen standing next to his bed with a raised fist, looking down at him with an angry face.

"What was that for!?" he shouted.

She grabbed him by the collar of his hospital gown and stuck her face right in front of his.

"That was for running off alone and knocking yourself unconscious again!" she shouted back.

He was about to argue with her again, but instead of yelling again he looked down with a more saddened look on his face. Partially because she was right and he had done all that, but mostly because he thought after yesterday she might have changed her attitude towards him a bit, namely he thought she'd at least stop punching him. Apparently he was wrong.

"I was scared to death you idiot."

That surprised him and he looked up again; her eyes had softened and she was smiling at him.

"Y-you were?"

She pulled him into a hug and held on tightly, refusing to let go.

"Of course, my best friend runs off to fight a crazy demon hunter and I'm going to freak out. Why wouldn't I be worried about you?"

At first he was too stunned to respond, but in the end, he was glad and had a goofy smile on his face.

"Well sorry about that, but I'm fine now and ready to get moving."

She moved back and continued to smile, shaking her head.

"You're such a goofball."

He smiled wider and gave her a thumbs up.

"Ah, Naruto, here I was worried you'd gotten lazy on me," said a calm voice from the doorway.

The pair looked over and saw Kakashi leaning against the door with his familiar book in hand. He sent an eye-smile their way and waved.

"Yo."

"Hey Kakashi, so what happened, is everybody alright? What happened to Sasuke?" asked Naruto eagerly.

Karen looked at him like he was crazy, which confused him. "You mean you don't remember?"

He shook his head.

"Are you serious, you mean to tell me you don't remember anything about kicking that bastard Sasuke's a-…"

She was interrupted as Kakashi quickly covered the length of the room and put a hand over Karen's mouth, silencing her.

"We'll be right back Naruto, just a sec," said Kakashi urgently.

He dragged the kicking and frustrated kitsune royalty out of the room and into the hallway. Once they were a good distance away, Kakashi released his grip, leaving a fuming girl in front of him.

"What was that about!?"

"Karen," he said just above a whisper, "you can't mention anything about what happened yesterday."

Now she was confused to. "Why not?"

"Do you remember back when Naruto almost died on that day when you were at the cemetery?"

She nodded.

"Well when your fellow kitsune revived him, he gave him something…extra."

She tilted her head, not understanding what he was trying to say.

"What do you mean by 'extra'?"

"I mean, he now has kitsune powers, and I mean all of them. The enhanced strength, speed, and senses, the increased reserves of magical energy, his life span has even been jacked up. He had some demon ancestry so the demonic energies that he was exposed to were amplified, increased the potency of the powers he was already being given. The downside to this is his mental discipline isn't able to suppress the kitsune's natural violent tendencies, and when in that state, he becomes much more violent and uncontrollable."

Karen was shocked by the sudden revelation, but tried to remain rational.

"So…what do we do?"

Kakashi sighed. "Well, I'm hoping as time goes on and he gets stronger that his control over his powers will improve. We shouldn't have to worry about them popping out whenever though, he seems to be able to call on them only when he's on the verge of death, and to keep them going he has to remain angry."

She looked up at him with determined eyes.

"What can I do to help?"

Kakashi sighed again and looked into Naruto's room; the boy was lying laxly in his bed, looking up at the ceiling in what appeared to be deep thought.

"Right now, not much; the only thing I have to ask of you is that you be there for him. When I look at him, I see his father more than anything, and it isn't just the looks. His mother had a big influence on him for sure, his attitude and his mouth are evidence of that, but underneath that is his father."

Karen looked up at Kakashi as he watched fiddle was his beds blanket, looking bored.

"I know he'll need you. Naruto is his father in the aspect that he's always going to be trying to protect everyone; he'll give away all his hope and happiness leaving none of it for himself. Karen, I'm relying on you to help him hold onto his spirit; give him happiness when he doesn't have any, keep him moving forward. He's got an extremely hard road ahead, and without anyone to help hold him up, even he'll eventually break apart. The same goes for you; don't be afraid to ask him for help, you can't make it all on your own either. You two need to rely on each other, you're in this together."

She looked at Naruto, her fingers against the glass, and decided it was time to start repaying him for everything for all the things he had done for her. Even early on when she was a jerk to him and brushed him aside like he was nothing special, he still went out of his way to watch out for her. She had a lot to give back, so it was time to start paying up.

She walked into Naruto's room with high spirits, determined to do just as Kakashi had said, to keep him going through hard times and support him any way she could. If one could see under Kakashi's mask, they would see a smile on his face, smiling at how the two of them acted with each other. Despite all the teasing and the little pranks, they were closer than most people would think.

The part that made him the happiest though, was when he looked at the fox girl and the blond, he could have sworn, just for a moment, that he was staring at Kushina and Minato.

He was a little sad though; looking on at Naruto, a teenager with the soul and innocence of a child, and Karen, an emotionally traumatized girl who just wanted to live in peace, it was almost a tragedy what they were going to be put through in the future. With Sasuke as well as the kitsune hounding them down, eventually even the FBPS wouldn't be safe; it was a political mess all over. If the kitsune found out that Karen was here, they would demand her back.

If they did, then Karen would certainly be killed. If they didn't though, a war was sure to break out, one that would suck in the rest of the supernatural world as well as the rest of the human nations. The death toll would be of apocalyptic proportions.

Then there was Naruto's predicament; his powers had become quite a problem with the director and some of the higher ups. He was still wondering what would happen to the boy after the meeting yesterday.

Flashback

"Kakashi," said Tsunade, "this is a serious problem, what are we going to do with Naruto?"

"Ma'am, if I might be so bold, it has only been…what, not even half a week? This isn't something that can happen overnight, and you have to admit, these were some pretty extreme circumstances."

She nodded. "I realize that Kakashi, but I need to know if this will be something happening frequently; I was able to keep the incident quiet from everyone who saw it this time, but what if the next time this happens he's out in the public, what if someone gets killed?"

"Well, from what I've observed so far, I think it's safe to assume that Naruto can't call on this power willingly, as it only seems to manifest itself when he's on the verge of death. Think about it, the first time he used it, he had just been impaled through the chest, and from what Karen told me, this time he'd been shot in the head. Both of which he should never have survived but did thanks to those powers taking over," defended Kakashi.

Tsunade leaned back in her seat and sighed.

"Fine, I'll give you some more time Kakashi, both because I know it will be a slow process, and because I know it was under unusual circumstances. If there's another incident like this though, I'll be forced to take action. I can't keep him safe forever."

End of Flashback

He sighed; those two would sure have a lot to deal with. There was at least one thing that would keep them going forward though; at least they had each other.


Back in Orochimaru's underground base, Sasuke had just returned from his assault on the FBPS headquarters. He was still aching and sore from the beating that Naruto had given him with that strange new power of his. He was still wondering what the blond could have done in such a short time to make him so strong; he had to know his secrets.

He made his way to Orochimaru's main chamber; the slithering snake of a man was sitting atop a throne on the other end of the room. His piercing gaze hit Sasuke immediately, and locked onto him as he marched up to his seat.

Sasuke was a unique boy; he didn't cower in fear like most did when in his presence. In fact, Sasuke openly showed him disrespect, namely calling him just Orochimaru, and not bowing when entering his presence. Though he would have quickly killed anyone to insult him so, he could see Sasuke was a special case, and decided that he liked that fire in him. He encouraged a certain amount of disobedience from him…but not too much.

"What have you to report Sasuke, were you successful."

"I…no, I wasn't Orochimaru."

The mans eye twitched at the news, but decided that if Sasuke was defeated, then it must have been for an good reason, and in this defeat could lay some new information that he could use.

"Explain," he hissed.

"The boy, Naruto, he had…a new power. It was like nothing I've ever seen; his body glowed orange and red like he was on fire and his strength was unreal. He was with two grenades and my Grand Fireball spell all at point blank range and he didn't even have a scratch on him. He was…inhuman."

From his description alone, Orochimaru could tell what had gone wrong. This boy, this Naruto, obviously had been given the Kitsune's Gift. This was troubling news; his powers were most likely raw and uncontrollable now, but if he learned to grasp them and use them at will…well he would be a very, very big problem.

"Sasuke, this boy has a very unique gift, one that is not to be taken lightly. You would need your curse seals power to hope to match him in that state."

Sasuke growled, but remained calm.

"What do we do then?"

"The FBPS will most definitely be on high alert for quite some time after that attack, so infiltration again will be impossible. We will have to bide our time, until that time, hone your skills and strengthen yourself; you will need all the power you can acquire."

Sasuke nodded. "I plan to."

"That reminds me by boy, I have a small present for you," he said in his sly voice as she threw an object at Sasuke, which he easily caught.

He looked down at it; at first he had no idea what it was, only that it was narrow but long and was a bit heavy, but light enough to move around freely. He realized that there was a small divide near one end, and deduced that it must be a handle. He pulled on it, revealing a shining blade inside.

It was straight and sharp; he recognized it as a chokuto blade. (A/N: Translates to: Straight Sword)

"I'll be instructing you in its use later, it will be of great use to you," said Orochimaru.

He smirked and put the blade back in its sheath. He was going to train hard until he was stronger than Naruto, no loser blond was going to beat an Uchiha.


Naruto and Karen both burst out laughing. Naruto had just been recounting the time where he spray-painted the statue of his schools founder, and the subsequent chase scene.

"A-and so...I'm running down the halls with three teachers on my ass, all screaming at me to slow down before kill someone. Then, sure enough, out of nowhere, my favorite teacher Mr. Umino runs around the corner as I'm coming up on it and BAM!" he shouted as he clapped his hands together to signify the impact, "We both smack into each other face first and knock each other unconscious!"

Karen had to hold onto Naruto's bed to keep from falling over. She leaned over and hit the edge of the thin mattress with her fist as she laughed wildly. Naruto was laughing as well, almost to the point of having his eyes water.

"Oh...oh God Naruto, that's hilarious. I can't believe you did that."

He snickered with his fox-like grin on his face, "Heh, I got a million of em'"

The two of them took some deep breaths and finally settled down, Naruto laid back in his bed while Karen reclined back in her seat. Naruto stared at the ceiling and groaned; he hated hospitals.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just hate hospitals so much! I want to be back in the gym training!" he growled.

"I know you do, but you have to be patient, they'll let you go in the morning after you've rested properly. There's no rush Naruto."

"Yes there is!" he shouted back.

She gave him a confused look. "Why is there a rush?"

"Because," he said looking serious, "Sasuke...he's way better than me, I can't deny that. I need to train as much as possible, so I can match him and beat him; he's my first stepping stone to reaching my parent's level. Plus, he tried to hurt you, and there's no way I'm letting that slide. Nobody screws with people precious to me, that especially goes for pretty-boy emo fagots!"

As he ranted about getting stronger, he didn't notice Karen blush when he said that she was precious to him. Once he settled down again, he sighed.

"So..." said Karen, "what do you think is going to happen now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, one you finish your training and stuff, what are we going to do next? Are we going to spend the rest of our lives couped up in this place?" she asked with a hint of nervousness.

"Of course not, you'll be home in no time! I'll find a way to get you back home, just you wait, you'll be sitting on that throne where you belong before you know it!" he said confidently.

She smiled, but still sighed.

"Ya know," she started, "I've sort of gotten used to being bonded to you, not having that link between us will be kind of weird, once we're finally free of it."

He nodded.

"Yeah, it's gotten to me a little to, kind of nice though."

"Nice?"

"Yeah, nice. It's kind of like a feeling...like I know I'll never be alone, I'll always have someone there to watch my back."

She nodded. "That's sort of how it feels for me to."

"Hey, since we're not always gonna be bonded, let's make a promise, a promise that no matter where we end up in the world, we'll always protect each other. No matter what kind of danger it is, we'll come to each others rescue and have each others backs."

"Alright then, a promise it is," she agreed.

Naruto smiled and extended his arm and hand his hand balled into a fist except for his pinky.

"A pinky swear, I think we're a little old for that."

He shrugged. "Come on, just humor me."

Karen smiled and wrapped her pinky around his, and that was that.

"There, it's an official promise. Just so you know, kitsune always hold to their promises, so even if you don't want me to come save your sorry ass, I'm going to anyway."

He grinned widely again. "That's alright, I'd do the same for you anyway. Now whatever happens, we'll face it together as a team. Let life throw all the Sasuke's and supernatural baddies it wants at us, we'll take em' all down!"

"Yeah," Karen agreed, "together."


Okay, like I said, there will be a time-skip next chapter. Naruto will pretty much be done with all his training, except of course his swordsmanship, but he'll have that down sooner or later, I promise. Some more Naruto characters will be introduced in the next few chapters, so look forward to that.

Oh, and for all of you who might be complaining that Naruto and Karen aren't making any noticeable "progress", then shut up, you'll like the next few chapters.

I'll have the next chapter up...whenever.

Review!