Hey guys, been like a whole 2 weeks, that's crazy, anyway sorry it took so long to get this out to you, had trouble writing the chapter, and then when I felt like writing it I had work to do and stuff so yeah, but here it is, enjoy :) All the reviews mean a lot :) Just a quick note, there was some guy who reviewed that my math was wrong. I deleted the review so as to not confuse other people. To the guy who reviewed maybe it wasn't clear in my writing but you are the first person to assume I was talking about 4 years of training in one day. Which would be ridiculous. 4 years in one month, which while still ridiculous, isn't as ridiculous given 200 clones a day at 6 hrs a day, anyway mini rant over, enjoy the chapter guys/gals.

Also another note: My chapter titles are very unoriginal, I try to make up for that with the actual chapters, hopefully I'm still succeeding :P

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. This fact saddens me greatly.

The Champion of Clan Namikaze

Chapter 10: Jinchuuriki Showdown

Gaara stood between the genin; blonde and black haired ninja staring down the red head. The boy had a mad look in his eyes as he cackled, the urn on his back breaking and sand from the ground gathering around his feet.

The substance travelled up his body and enveloped his arms, transforming the once small limbs into giant claws made of sand.

NO! He can't! Our father will have us killed for not keeping him in line. Temari was a wreck, but she knew there was nothing she could do about the situation that was unfolding in front of the entire stadium.

xXx

"The only reason I'm allowing this to continue is because I trust Naruto's judgment after everything I've seen of him. If this escalates any further, –"

"It won't, you have nothing to worry about Hokage-sama, I won't let this out of my control," the Kazekage said, trying not to show how nervous he really was about the situation.

Something was amiss, and Hiruzen wasn't letting him get the slip on him.

xXx

Gaara was the first to attack, hungry for blood. Reaching out with his claw he went to slash at Sasuke but turning his back on Naruto was his first mistake.

With the use of his sharingan Sasuke easily avoided the slow but powerful sand attack while Naruto threw a kunai at the back of their combatant.

To his chagrin the attack was swiftly blocked by a wall of sand rising from the ground faster than he could blink; but it was nothing he couldn't deal with.

Teleporting in close to the kunai Naruto took a step before slamming a regular sized Rasengan against the sand wall that had only just appeared. It lost all of its form as the A rank jutsu blew it apart, giving the blonde enough time to slip through the sand guard and slap a piece of paper to the back of the genin with his left hand while following up by slamming a punch into his head, chakra burst and all. The sand ninja stumbled from the strike but recovered easily.

Before Gaara could turn and respond to the genin that should never have been able to get that close to him the threat was gone and Naruto was standing next to Sasuke. These pests were strong, but they were also cowardly, why couldn't they just face their fate and die!

"So," Naruto said casually as he stood next to his teammate with his hands in his coat pockets, "how do you want to take this guy, I got a seal on him, but I'm not sure how much use it will be. That punch should have floored him, he must be using some kind of sand armor on his body."

"Yeah you should have seen the fight with Lee. He only just managed to crack it," Sasuke responded, having been the one to see the fight out of the two of them.

"Well whatever we use is going to have to have some punch if we want to get through it." He looked over at his teammate to see him smiling, "What? You have an idea?"

"Yeah, just get me in close with that seal of yours, I'll handle the rest."

"Whatever you say, just don't steal all the glory,"

"Tch, yeah as if I'd let you have any,"

"STOP UNDERESTIMATING ME!" the two genin had just been casually standing and talking strategy as Gaara stood ready to attack them. They should have been afraid of him! Everyone was afraid of him!

He charged at them, swinging his two massive arms and launching barrages of sand shuriken at the Konoha shinobi. They dodged easily but it gave Gaara time to close the distance and to everyone in the stadium it looked like he had the genius Uchiha dead to rights.

Sasuke stood going through hand seals as the rampaging sand Jinchuuriki approached, but before he could land a crushing blow his second combatant distracted him.

The blonde was making a move to attack from the left, a glowing blue orb in his hand as he flew across the ground with incredible speed. Gaara responded with a gnarled sand claw that hit only air as Naruto disappeared.

The next moment Gaara felt the Rasegan impact with the side of his armored face, and while the sand took the most of the damage he was flung from his charge at Sasuke and flew through the air.

Quickly recovering with the use of his grossly oversized limbs he stood upright and turned back to the two Konoha genin as angry as ever.

"Sorry," Sasuke said, his hand now glowing with electricity, "But you're going to have to try harder than that, too bad you won't get a chance,"

"GAHHHH MOTHER WA-,"

"Now Naruto,"

Gaara saw the boy disappear and a moment later he was screaming. He had never felt such pain in his entire life, and when he looked down he saw the source of his agony. A hand covered with electricity was jutting through his shoulder from behind. The attack had been directed at his heart but his sand defense had reacted just fast enough to deflect the strike, sending it through his shoulder instead.

Blood was gushing from the wound and before he could respond to the attack his attacker reappeared in front of him, the blond holding onto his shoulder.

"You really went for the kill shot? I mean yeah he's a freak, but we don't need to kill him dude," Naruto knew that Sasuke was still ruthless but even he hadn't been expecting that.

"Eghh, he wants to kill us, I figure it's only fair game," When he put it that way Naruto guessed he had a point, but still.

Oh god! What have they done! No one's managed to make Gaara bleed in his entire life, what's he going to do! Temari knew it was only a matter of time before Gaara completely lost control; they didn't have much time left.

Gaara was definitely losing it. These two ninja had to die a painful crushing death, and as he gathered endless amounts of sand from the ground his form grew and it wasn't long before a giant Tanuki at least two stories tall was standing in the pit staring down Naruto and Sasuke.

"Is that a Tanuki?" Sasuke wondered out loud. The beast roared in anger.

"I don't know teme, but maybe we should avoid pissing it off until we work out how strong it is."

It began thrashing about, completely tearing up the pit and launching debris at the audience. Any rocks that weren't blocked by the jounin in attendance exploded amongst the stands, and cries of fear erupted from the spectators.

"Teme, let's take this somewhere a little more isolated, we can go all out then, we can't risk him hurting the villagers," the Uchiha nodded in agreement at Naruto's suggestion.

Naruto had more room to fight in his compound, he just need to make sure Gaara didn't break down his house because Karin was still locked inside, that, and he had a sweet house. The protection seal should hold up, but if this guy got any bigger he might actually do some damage. But even if it was a risk to his place he needed to get this guy away from all these people. He couldn't have any of his friends in danger.

"No, NARUTO! What do you think you are DOING!" Kakashi had lip read the young blonde and was worried for his student. He really thought he could take this guy? He was a monster!

But his cries were too little too late; Naruto had already grabbed the Uchiha, teleported to the sand ninja, placed his hand on the back of the monster and the three disappeared.

xXx

Karin was worried. She had felt the presence of Orochimaru in the village, and now Naruto, Gaara, and Sasuke were just outside in the compound. She had no idea why, but she knew that before disappearing they'd been engaged in a fight.

Even Karin had to admit that her ability was incredibly useful. She ran to a window to watch what was happening outside.

The two shinobi and the sand monster fell to the ground and separated, Gaara confused as to what exactly had happened.

"Where have you taken me!" Gaara's gravelly distorted voice echoed out from the giant sand monsters mouth.

"Somewhere where we can fight without endangering all those people."

"It won't matter! Hahahahaha I'll kill you and then I'll kill your friends, and you won't be able to stop me, Mother demands it!"

"Sorry to disappoint, but that won't be happening. Dobe's right, you might be able to go all out now, but so can we," Sasuke turned to Naruto, "Let's take him out before he gets any bigger, I don't know about you but I don't have anything that can take down a monster the size of the Hokage building so I'd rather he didn't get any bigger,"

"Right, I've got an idea. Right now I don't see us punching through that much sand even with that new move you have. It's really our only shot, got it? Give me a fireball when I tell you alright?"

"Yeah dobe, just give me the signal but we need to end this quickly, unlike you I can't do this all day." Sasuke said jumping back from a downward slam that Gaara had launched at him. Naruto noticed the Uchiha was starting to look tired, those new moves of his must really take it out of him.

"Right," Naruto made his move toward the sand monster that was just continuing to grow in size, "OI WHAT DOES A FAT TANUKI THINK IT CAN ACTUALLY DO AGAINST THE GREATEST NINJA OF ALL TIME!"

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Gaara screamed as Naruto threw of a barrage of Hiraishin Kunai, peppering his body and the ground around him.

"Start getting that fireball ready," Naruto called over his shoulder as he ducked and weaved the deadly strikes Gaara was throwing, merely trying to bide his time long enough for Sasuke to gather chakra.

When Gaara realized he couldn't hit the nimble blonde he withdrew and inhaled before exhaling a torrent of air infused with sand, the attack looked like it was about to make contact with Naruto but at the last second he disappeared, reappearing over near one of his kunai out of harm's way.

The sand monster turned again and exhaled another deadly torrent only this time it was directed at Sasuke.

"Now or never teme!"

Sasuke disappeared a fraction of a second after Naruto appeared next to him and the two reappeared behind the giant Tanuki, jutsus at ready. The sand creation roared in anger at once again being unable to keep up. "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique) Futon: Daitoppa(Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)".

The raging blue inferno collided with the Tanuki as it turned to face them. As soon as it made contact it began crystallizing the sand. The sheer heat of the attack when it made contact and passed around the giant Tanuki turned it into nothing more than a giant opaque glass statue.

They could see it shaking as the ninja trapped inside struggled to release himself, but before he could make another move against them Naruto was already back on the offensive.

"I'll be back in a second teme."

"Wait, what? Where are you going?"

"This is going to suck," Naruto whispered under his breath.

Naruto created two clones that start generating chakra between the two of them in a manner reminiscent of his fight with Kiba. The original quickly appeared next to the glass Tanuki and threw a kunai as hard as he could manage directly up. When it looked like the kunai was coming to a stop he teleported to it before fling it even higher and disappeared again.

Reappearing over one hundred meters in the air above the still struggling Gaara, Naruto began forming a giant Rasengan above his head before turning toward the ground. Just as he began his rapid descent the two clones appeared above him and released the jutsu, dispelling themselves and creating a powerful shockwave that propelled the original at an ridiculous pace towards the ground.

Sasuke just watched with his mouth open as his friend rocketed towards Gaara as he struggled.

"Why is my best friend completely insane?" Sasuke asked himself, "And why do I think this is completely awesome?"

The collision was monstrous. The shockwave that rang out as Naruto and his Rasengan collided with the statue and then subsequently the ground as the glass Tanuki was obliterated was enough to almost knock the Uchiha over.

Dust and debris were kicked up in the wake of the attack and Sasuke had to admit that if Gaara could stand up after taking that hit then he really was something else.

Karin was amazed by the attack, and the ingenuity that Naruto had shown in getting the power he needed to destroy his combatant. Yeah, her boyfriend was a badass. She was glad that she could sense that he was still okay, that looked like it could have really done some damage; freefalling one hundred meters is generally not a good idea, even when not being propelled by a shockwave.

She could still feel Naruto's life force going strong, if a little less vigorous than usual, but that was to be expected, he'd just been through the fight of his life.

What confused her though was that she could still sense the sand ninja, surely he couldn't still fight after that hit?

As Naruto lay in the rather large crater that he'd just created in his own compound he knew something was off. Quickly hiraishining to his teammate Sasuke was surprised when Naruto appeared next to him lying on the ground.

"Hey dobe, even I'll admit that was pretty sweet, now lets get back to the others, you dealt with this guy."

"Actually I don't think I have," Naruto said from his position on the ground, "I felt the ground moving in the crater, I don't know how but he managed to survive, no one should have been able to survive that."

Sasuke was curious as to how someone could live through a combination attack like that.

Gaara was equally surprised at the power of the attacks that were getting thrown at him. He was furious that they'd almost once again managed to take him out. His shoulder would have bled profusely if he hadn't plugged the wound, and he was covered in light burns. He'd managed to tunnel out of his glass prison with the use of some sand that hadn't been crystallized completely.

He felt the shockwave that the attack had generated. If anyone had been on the receiving end of that they'd have been obliterated. It was time for him to show them the true power of a jinchuuriki, no more playing with his dinner, so to speak.

Naruto and Sasuke were almost on their last legs and what emerged from the ground in front of them really didn't help their situation.

As they stood waiting for the attack that they knew would come a giant sand Tanuki once again appeared, emerging from the ground, this time easily twice as large as the last one.

"Guess it's my turn now, seeing as how you couldn't handle him dobe," Sasuke said to his teammate that was now standing next to him.

Sasuke knew he was almost out of chakra, but as powerful as his friend was he really didn't see how he could defeat this monster by himself.

He drew on every ounce of chakra that he could, prepared for whatever attack was going to come. And then he drew a little bit more. Black lines and seals began emerging from the cursed seal that Orochimaru had placed on him a month ago, and cascaded across his body.

Sasuke felt the power surge through his body, but with this insane power came pain. Pain that surged through every part of his body, pain he had felt the first time the seal had been placed on him.

"SASUKE!" Naruto screamed as his friend collapsed to his knees screaming.

That was all the opportunity Gaara needed to attack, rushing forward with incredible speed for his size. Naruto, distracted by his friend's situation didn't react to the giant sand arm sweeping in from the side in time.

Naruto grabbed Sasuke just as they were hit and disappeared. The momentum imparted on them as they disappeared was enough to carry them straight across the ground from where they appeared out of the reach of the Tanuki and into a tree as Naruto tried desperately to get them out of danger.

The blonde had managed to mitigate the damage to himself and his teammate as much as possible, but Sasuke was now useless. The impact with the tree and the pain from the seal had rendered him unconscious and battered, the seal receding now that Sasuke wasn't drawing on its power.

xXx

Karin was distraught as an injured Naruto and an unconscious Sasuke appeared in front of her in the living room. She immediately went to work on healing Naruto's wounds but was pushed off.

"Sasuke, help Sasuke first, I need to go back and finish this," Naruto said, his voice slightly deeper than usual.

She could feel another strange chakra that she had yet to feel emerging from the boy as he stood with a blank look in his eyes, a chakra that scared her.

xXx

"Where am I?" Naruto was confused, one minute he was standing next to his defeated friend, and now he was in some random sewer.

"You are in your mind," a gruff voice said. The voice emanated from behind a series of bars, a voice that Naruto recognized.

"You! You're the one that gave me the power on the bridge. The Kyuubi."

"Good to know you can put two and two together. You can't even beat the Shukaku though, how depressing. You are as useless and pathetic as a vessel as I'd come to think."

"You know what that thing is?"

"Yes you little brat, that ninja is like you, he contains one of the tailed beasts."

"Well are you going to help me? Or are you going to sit there being a useless fox? You've been sitting inside me for my entire life getting me nothing but disdain, how about you help me for once?"

"And why should I help you? You're my prison, why would a prisoner help his warden?"

"Because neither of us asked for this, and because I'm going out there whether you help me or not, what happens if I die?"

"You'd really risk your life for your weakling friends?"

"You've been stuck with me for my entire life, don't tell me you don't already know the answer to that question."

The Kyuubi just grunted before expelling some of its power through the bars to help the boy. Well he was the Kyuubi; if the kid got any more riled up he might be able to take control and escape. So it wasn't all for nothing.

xXx

"I will not let this monster hurt any more of my friends! I'll protect them at all costs," Naruto was furious that Sasuke had been hurt; he was supposed to protect his teammates. A red chakra cloak surrounded him as his whisker marks grew more pronounced and his fingernails grew into claws.

"Look after Sasuke, and I'll stop this monster from hurting anyone else," Naruto said with a furious look in his eyes that frightened Karin. If she was ever the reason he was like this she didn't know what she'd do. He disappeared.

"You really think you can take me! I now realize why you are so strong. The Jinchuuriki of Konoha, but that means nothing now. I will destroy you!"

"NO! I will do anything I can to stop you from hurting anyone in this village. This is my home, and these are my friends and I will stop at nothing to protect them from you or anyone else." Naruto's resolve had never been stronger, and as the angry power of the Kyuubi surged through him he was more confident than ever.

Rushing through a series of hand seals and pouring as much chakra as he could into them he summoned the one creature he knew would be able to help him against a monster of this size.

"What do you want Jiraiya!" Gamabunta roared as the smoke of the summoning began clearing.

"It's me!"

"Brat, what do you think you are doing summoning me!"

"Look there isn't time to explain much but I'm fighting the Jinchuuriki of the Shukaku, we need to stop him before he does any more damage, or gets any bigger." Before their very eyes however Gaara appeared on the top of the head of the massive construct.

"Say hello to mother," and with those words he closed his eyes and his head lulled, the boy falling asleep.

"What? Why is he falling asleep in the middle of a fight?"

"BAHAHAHAHAHAHA YOU THINK A SIMPLE TOAD IS ENOUGH TO STOP ME!" A voice boomed out from Shukaku as it grew. A tick mark appeared on the brow of Gamabunta and at that any trepidation he had about fighting disappeared.

"Kid, get serious, he's trying to fully release the Shukaku, we need to stop him NOW!" Gamabunta had been having a chill day too; luckily he hadn't cracked open the sake he had been just about to drink.

How did a kid even get into fights like this? He had to admit that he liked the kid though, he'd seen him fighting Jiraiya occasionally and the boy had talent.

The towering sand creature began growing in size again. And was now almost on par with Gamabunta.

"What do I do?" Naruto was running out of ideas.

"We need to wake him up, hit him in the head or something, I don't know we just need to wake him up before the Shukaku gets fully released."

Right, that didn't sound too hard, all Naruto needed to do was throw some kunai to get close and then it'd all be over. But the kunai he threw never made it that far. The construct just blocked them with its massive arms.

There wasn't any way that Naruto could make it close. He attempted to Hiraishin to the seal on the back of Gaara, but the clothing that he'd applied it to was singed and cut from the previous attacks. The seal must have been damaged.

"You're going to have to get me close!"

"Righto kid, hold on tight,"

And with that the giant toad moved in with incredible speed to attack the ever-growing monster.

Despite their efforts Shukaku was too quick, his manipulation of the sand too powerful and every strike Gamabunta made was quickly blocked by the monstrous sand limbs. After deflecting the incoming strikes the Shukaku flicked its massive tail around and slammed it into Gamabunta, knocking him away.

The tailed beast inhaled before a massive sand infused air bullet emerged from the mouth of the exhaling Shukaku flying toward the toad still recovering from the previous hit.

Gamabunta only managed to get his arms up in time to partially block the attack but even after taking damage immediately jumped back on the attack.

"Boss Toad! He's too quick, we need to slow him down, what water techniques do you have?"

The toad didn't respond verbally, but his actions showed that he'd been listening.

Shukaku blocked and diverted the strikes of the toad knowing that he was not at full power, and if his arms got locked in a struggle there was little he could do to stop the blonde brat from making it to his pathetic vessel and waking it.

But the physical strikes weren't the end game for the massive toad. As soon as he'd finished his barrage he paused and exhaled a number of large powerful water balls. Even Naruto was surprised at the ferocity of attack.

The impacts the water shots made with the arms of the Shukaku rang out as massive booms. Naruto was surprised he didn't have an audience with the scene they were making. He kind of wished he had someone watching what he was planning to do now.

"Now THROW ME!"

"WHAT!"

"DON'T ASK QUESTIONS! JUST THROW ME!"

And with that the toad, confident in Naruto's abilities, well as confident as you could be in someone who wished to be thrown at a massive sand construct that could easily crush them, grabbed the boy from his head and threw him as hard as he could at Gaara.

Naruto had been hoping that with his arms damaged and wet the Shukaku wouldn't be able to get his hands up in time. They didn't come up fast enough to knock him from the sky, but he raised them fast to enough to try and prevent Naruto from making it to Gaara.

The blonde wasn't having any of it. Turning in mid air he went through a series of hand seals before "Futon: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)" releasing a massive torrent of air from his hands that further accelerated his already insane flight speed.

Turning back to face the giant sand guard he thrust his arm forward, forming a giant demonic chakra infused Rasengan seconds before impact. Naruto barely slowed. With the speed he hit the damaged and wet arms the Rasengan carved through the inconsistent sand like a knife through butter.

Naruto rocketed through the air as the Shukaku tried to bring defenses up but it was too late. Any wall that he brought up to stop the human bullet that was Naruto Uzumaki was simply not enough.

The blonde let his rasengan fade as he drew closer to the sleeping Jinchuuriki. Rasengan or not the attack had to hurt. Naruto's fist collided with the boy's face, and at the speed he made contact, well you wouldn't want to be Gaara afterwards. Within seconds the construct was falling to pieces, the Shukaku temporarily defeated and the two ninja began their descent, one exhausted, the other barely conscious.

Gamabunta caught Naruto as he fell and set him on the ground.

"That was ballsy kid, I like your style, bah! To think I'd ever say that to a little runt like you! Hahahahah see you around," The massive toad just chuckled before disappearing in a massive plume of smoke.

The fight now over Naruto forced the Kyuubi's chakra away, much to the disappointment of the fox. Without the help of the tailed beast's chakra he certainly felt his exhaustion, but he still had enough juice to walk over to the sand ninja and look down at him.

"Are you going to kill me?" Gaara asked from his position on the ground, blood pouring from his face.

"Why would I do that? I've stopped you, and now you know I can stop you. If you try this again though I might not be as nice about it."

"Why do you try so hard to protect this village? I know what you are, they know what you are," Gaara was having trouble talking now, choking, pausing, and stuttering from all the damage Naruto had inflicted.

"Because this is my village, and if I can protect them maybe they'll realize that I'm not the monster that they think I am. That and true strength comes from doing anything to protect those that you care about. And I have people that I care about and who care about me."

"Huh," was all Gaara could manage.

Naruto bent down to pick up the boy and disappeared in a flash.

xXx

Everyone was surprised when they saw Naruto appear in the middle of the stadium, a broken but still conscious Gaara slung over his shoulder. Walking up out of the pit to where the sand ninja had been spectating the fights he dropped their brother at their feet.

"There you go, all yours now. I've had enough crazy for one day,"

And with that, before they could say a word, before they or anyone else could express the shock that they were feeling at what had happened, Naruto disappeared. He really needed a very well deserved rest.

He didn't even notice the Jounin standing in the room preventing the sand ninja from leaving.

xXx

(The Kage's Box at the time of Naruto, Gaara, and Sasuke's disappearance)

"I thought you said you had this under control?"

"Yes, well excuse me, I have business to attend to," Orochimaru stood, he needed to get away from here, this was not how this was supposed to play out, that bastard Jinchuuriki Gaara might have ruined everything.

"I think not, explain to me why you couldn't keep your subordinate under control,"

He's starting to suspect something. If anything Orochimaru was paranoid. Paranoia and careful planning are how a shinobi lives a longer than average life after all.

"I'm afraid I can't do that right now Hokage-san,"

"Well I can't let you leave Orochimaru," Hiruzen had started to expect Orochimaru more of the treachery with every little thing he was learning. The subtle and almost unnoticeable flinch gave him the verification he needed.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"Give it up, you think I wouldn't be able to pick up on the tricks of one of my own students? Maybe if I had no idea of any of your plans, but thankfully I do, now stand down and turn yourself in."

Orochimaru knew that with the situation as it was there was no way he was going to be able to exact revenge on the village, he'd postponed the invasion, but things were falling down around him. He'd live to fight another day, live to exact revenge on the village that spited him for his genius. Yes he would save his trump cards for a more certain victory.

"Kukukukuku," Was all Orochimaru uttered before smoke erupted from his feet and muffled cries were issued from the two ANBU standing outside the door a moment prior to them dropping dead, the Sannin already fleeing the scene.

xXx

(With Kakashi just as Naruto returned Gaara to the Sand Siblings; Outskirts of Konoha)

"Pakkun, where is he?" Kakashi said as he stood in the middle of a clearing containing a number of dead ANBU.

"His scent disappears here, I don't know what he did to get away but it worked, Kabuto is gone."

We should have taken him when we had the chance.

xXx

Karin didn't know what to think when Naruto appeared next to her and the defeated Sasuke and collapsed on the couch. She'd never seen someone fight like that. She assumed that Orochimaru probably had power much greater; she'd just never seen him use it.

His chakra had been so terrifying when he had that strange red chakra cloak, but she knew that he cared about her. She knew that he was still Naruto and that he would do anything for her and the other people he cared about. She pitied anyone on the receiving end of a beating from him in the future.

As scary as it was, he did what he did to protect her and the others. He really was amazing in her eyes.

Sasuke was resting more comfortably now that the majority of his wounds had been healed. He just needed to get some sleep now. Karin was confident in her medical skills; he'd be fine.

Moving over to her boyfriend she began trying to see what was wrong with him using her medical ninjutsu.

"Don't, I just need to rest," He said, surprising her, "Although a hug would be nice," he added with a smile, not bothering opening his eyes.

She couldn't help but marvel at the people she'd befriended, and at the boy she now had looking after her, squeezing onto the couch next to him, with a smile on her face and her head on his shoulder.

xXx

Naruto appeared in his mindscape almost as soon as Karin climbed on top of him and he let himself fall asleep.

"Thanks for the help you grumpy fox. I wouldn't have been able to do what I did without you,"

"Pfft, do you realize now you can't ever succeed without my power, how weak you are?"

Naruto didn't even bother biting at the bait "Yeah whatever, just wanted to say that the power was cool and all, it helped me out," just as he was about to leave however a thought crossed his mind, "You must get pretty bloody bored in here,"

The Kyuubi grunted in acknowledgement, wanting to give the kid as little satisfaction at his displeasure as he could.

"I hope you realize that I don't hate you anymore, I hated you for a while when I found out you were the reason I was treated the way I was. But I don't anymore. Not after seeing what happened to that other Jinchuuriki. Sure neither of us wanted to be in this position, but you helped me out without even realizing. I got treated the way I did by the village because you were inside me, but that wasn't your choice, and its because of you I've gotten this strong, and because of that I have the friends I've always wanted."

The Kyuubi just sat in silence for a while, not wanting to say anything to the soppy blonde standing in front of him.

"I do have one question though,"

The beast's ears pricked up and he looked the boy lazily with one eye to indicate he was partially paying attention.

"Why did you attack the village twelve years ago?"

When the fox didn't reply, Naruto just turned and walked away, "Whatever you crabby old fox. Let me know if you want me to change my mindscape into something else, this sewer is depressing."

So yeah!

Hope you enjoyed, review on what you thought about zeh chapter! :)

The next chapter will either be incredibly soon, which while possible is unlikely, as it will mean I got up yesterday and hammered it out in under 4 hrs, or another 1-2 week break from the looks of my schedule :) but you know, these things change.

Have fun doing what you all do, and make sure to review :) Until next time!