Author's note:

Hi, Y'all! I am actually surprised myself that I was able to update this week, considering how busy I was. Now, on to the story!

Chapter 2

Most people, or at least most shinobi, would want nothing more to be as far away as possible from the enemy (unless they were on a mission or defending their village which made confrontation a necessity), even if that particular enemy was dying right in front of you from blood loss, unable to harm you. Naruto was not most people.

Upon seeing her so defenseless, lying in her own pool of blood, he could simply not will himself to ignore her.

He was quite aware of the fact that, upon waking up from her unconsciousness, she would him attack first and ask questions later. He told himself that she wouldn't be able to harm a fly in her condition, but the years had taught him to never underestimate his enemy.

Many people that had fallen to Naruto over the years had underestimated him as they had not been able to see through the façade Naruto deployed. Acting goofily in front of the enemy, yet remaining calm and collected in the inside was a tactic the blonde deployed often. While it may be true that Naruto's intellectual capabilities did not come close to a person, let us say, belonging to the Nara clan like Shikamaru, Naruto's quick thinking deserved appreciation in its own right. It was only in rare cases in which the boy lost his cool. Usually this happened when one of Naruto's precious people was in harm's way. Naruto cherished his bonds and this was why it had angered him that Sasuke had decided to cut his bond with him and the village. This way, Kyuubi was partly able to take control over Naruto, as many people believed the fox demon thrived on negative emotions like greed, anger, jeolusy, hate etc.

To top it all, he had to think of his training as well. It would at least take a minimum of two weeks for the girl to be able to get on her own feet. However, this did not contribute to his final decision at all since it would be implying that Naruto was acting selfishly and Naruto was far from selfish.

The hyperactive ninja also couldn't remember her name. Teriyaki, no…. Tazuna! Wait, why did that sound like an old geezers name?!…

Miles away, in the Land of Waves, a certain bridge builder sneezed. "Must be all the nutritional stuff Tsunami has been feeding me. Healthy, my ass!" he thought.

While Naruto had been pondering over all of this, the Kyuubi couldn't help but get annoyed at his container's annoying behavior. Blame it on Naruto to test the patience of what was possibly the most ancient being in the world.

"You better shut up and let me sleep before I decide to have you for breakfast."

Naruto had stumbled and lost his footing briefly, partly because of shock because Kyuubi rarely spoke to him and partly because of confusion because he hadn't uttered a word since his fight with Sasuke.

"Kyuubi?" Naruto spoke to himself.

"Who else, brat?"

"Umm…how were you able to hear my thoughts?" Naruto asked in a curious tone.

"It's because I am the great Kyuubi no youko, Kurama!" the fox stated in a boasting tone while puffing out its chest.

Naruto sweat dropped at this.

"What's a Kurama?"

It was now the demon fox's turn to sweat drop.

"It's my name, you incompetent baka! Feel honoured that you are the second person to ever hear my true name," Kyuubi roared.

"Sooo… how did you really hear my thoughts….and how am I talking to you? I didn't even have to enter that gloomy sewer (Naruto's mindscape) this time to talk with you."

The Kyuubi sighed before responding, "This seal allows me to hear my host's thoughts as well as see what you see, hear what hear, feel what you feel….get the gist?"

"Oh, that explains a lot. The seal must be pretty complicated although that's to be expected. It was made by the yondaime Hokage, after all."

"Even I have to admit your father was a remarkab…." Kyuubi trailed of as he looked at Naruto's face, full of shock and disbelief. Then the fox remembered that he accidently revealed something he shoudn't have.

Kyuubi facepalmed at his own idiocy. Next, he groaned slightly when he thought about the endless barrage of questions the brat would throw at him.

Kyuubi's predication turned out to be accurate. Not soon after his slip of tongue, Naruto began asking questions at the speed of light, not even pausing in between, to catch his breath. "Wait...what? Father? I thought the fourth hokage sealed you in me…This is so confusing…my head hurts. All your fault, you damn fox! Wait….what was I saying agai-…right, father? What the hell? Wait… Is it possible the fourth hokage was my fath-..no, that's impossible. Ahhh…answer me."

For the first time since Naruto had begun blabbing, Naruto noticed that Kyuubi had not spoken for a while. He wondered if Kurama had cut the link to talk to him telepathically. Naruto was opening his mouth to continue his rant but Kurama beat him to the chase.

"You are not ready for the answers yet, and this is neither the time nor the place to talk about these things. Don't you have more pressing matters right now, for instance, making sure the girl in front of you doesn't die, perhaps?" Kurama asked in a mocking tone.

"Yeah…"

Kurama sensed the slight hesitation in the boys tone. "Don't worry brat. She won't kill you in your sleep, if that's what you're thinking. I'll make sure that she doesn't…," wanting to elaborate, Kurama continued , "not because I care about you or anything, It's just that I would be greatly inconvenienced if you die as I'll have to wait several decades before I am able to manifest physically in your world."

Naruto hesitated before answering, "It's not that…It's just that I think I'll be better off taking her to Konoha for treatment, I don't know the first thing about medical stuff and I haven't exactly read the book, "How to take care of a girl you found in the forest who also might kill you."

Kurama rolled his eyes at this, not like the blonde could see it though. "Don't worry though; she isn't exactly in the position to kill you. As for your idea of taking her to Konoha concerns, let me ask you, do you really think your village will treat her better…hum? Tsunade might try to help her, but the civilians would take none of that. Even the hokage cannot go against the whole village's wishes. The civilians would most likely not take kindly to the fact that this girl helped in the invasion of the Leaf as well as the supposed 'kidnapping' of the last Uchiha, who they hail as a hero, god knows for what reason, who isn't a nuke nin and would probably execute your red headed girlfriend," Kyuubi teased, not being to help himself.

Naruto's cheeks turned the color of the aforementioned girl's hair. Kyuubi saw this and began to laugh, adding to the blonde's embarrassment.

"It's no- not l…like that, you dumb fox!" Naruto screamed in frustration.

Kyuubi ignored Naruto's recent comment and continued snickering. When the fox had regained his senses, Kurama said, "Whatever. By the way, the girl's name is Tayuya and unless you want her to die, you better take care of her yourself. I'm feeling generous, so I'll offer you the medical experience I have. Who knows, maybe you might look back at this moment in the future, with redheaded children annoying the hell out of you and wonder what life would have been like if you hadn't taken care of her."

Not wanting to listen to Naruto's rebuttal at his statement, Kurama cut off the mental link between him and his container.

It took a moment for Naruto to understand the implications of such a comment and when he did, he sighed before muttering, "What a troublesome fox." Realizing that Shikamaru behavior had began to rub off on him, Naruto sighed again before slumping on the couch nearby.

XXXXX

So that was why Naruto was in his current situation, taking care of the red headed girl he had stumbled across 3 days earlier.

He dabbed a wet towel on the girl's forehead before placing an ice pack on it. Tayuya had developed a slight fever the day before. Naruto, like a mother hen, began to frantically pace the room, worrying and wondering what to do. He had heard of infections from baa chan and knew how dangerous they could be, at least to a non-jinchuriki, anyway. A tailed beast was able to cure any infection so that's why Naruto did not know firsthand how severe they were. Kurama calmed him down, saying that it wasn't an infection but just a slight fever, probably because of chakra exhaustion.

Kurama, true to his word, had been offering his help when Naruto needed it. Naruto was wondering why exactly the demon fox was doing this, not that Naruto was complaining though.

Kurama had even told Naruto to make a pair of crutches as well as casts for the girl's legs. Her legs were now looking more like, well, legs instead of the bloody pulp they had been just days before. He had set the girl's knee bone correctly and to do that, he had to rebreak it. Talk about gritty work for a person with no medical knowledge, whatsoever.

Kurama had said there wasn't much more he could do and time would heal the rest of her injuries.

He noticed the ice pack on her forehead had started melting. He sat up from his position and groaned. His muscles were stiff because he had spent the last 3 days sitting on a couch while taking care of Tayuya. He stretched for a while, wanting to regain feeling in his arms and legs. Muscles still aching, he made his way to the kitchen.

The hut was surprisingly, adequately stocked up with food that would last 2 people a year or so. Cans and cans of fish, mushrooms and beef stew were found in the kitchen cabinets. He found no ramen though and briefly wondered if the residents had been evil, not keeping such a necessary thing in their household .The electricity was also working and there was also a fridge filled with water bottles and sodas alike. All of this made Naruto wonder whether this hut had been abandoned just recently but everything else except the consumables suggested otherwise. The doors were filled with cobwebs and there was so much dust that it had to be accumulating since at least 5 years. Now, Naruto was no neat freak but all this dust even made him cringe. There was also evidence that a fight had taken place in the living room. He found dried blood, which was not Tayuya's, and broken bottles as well as a few kunai and shuriken, although the mess was long gone by now. Naruto had cleaned the house the next day after arriving.

Deciding this was a mystery for another time, he stowed this information in the far corner of his mind.

The wooden hut was a single storied hut obviously meant for housing a couple as it had only one bedroom with one king sized bed occupying two-thirds of the room. There were two side tables which were also bare of any decorations or commodities. There was also a dresser and a bathroom on the right side of the bed. The whole hut was painted white on the inside giving it a rather dull look. Naruto thought a change of color, perhaps orange, would look good on the walls. Figures…

There was also a living room with two couches in the center, facing each other with a small table in between them. Lastly there was the kitchen, a rather small one at that. It only had a fridge, a sink and a small gas stove with a cabinet above the stove and one beneath it. Naruto figured the kitchen was probably no bigger than 2 by 2 meters.

Dumping the old ice bag in the bin, Naruto grabbed a new bag from the cabinet and opened the fridge's door. He now opened the top compartment of the fridge to take some ice out but was disappointed when he found none.

After filling the bag with water and placing it in the top compartment so that the water would freeze, he sighed tiredly. It had been a long day. Kurama had warned him that Tayuya would wake up soon so he could not let his guard down. The fox had also warned him to not let anything sharp, like a kunai or broken glass for example, be within an arm's reach from her unless he wanted to risk getting stabbed twice in the same week.

He tiredly made his way to the bedroom, wanting to go to the washroom. As the moon's position indicated it was close to midnight. He glanced at the couch on his way, the living room being slightly illuminated by a small lamp that was placed on the table in between the two couches. He saw a pair of chocolate brown eyes glaring at him intensely. If looks could kill, Naruto would have died a horrendous death.

That's it for today. Sorry for the cliffhangers though. R&R.