I'm back! Sorry, sorry sorry, to all those who've been followin' my stories of Naruto that I 'aven't updated recently. I was grounded from fanfic for a few days, an' I lost my muse(screw off, ya bitch!) in that time. And I've 'ad schoolwork to do, so sorry. Now, I'm torn between keepin' this a NaruIno pairin' or makin' it a NaruTema pairin'...Bored now! Writin' like Hell. Makin' references that many people might not get.
"Sup" speech of people.
'Yo' thoughts of people or quoting.
"Waz up" demon speech.
Jutsu
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Naruto was, in a word, hurting. He had assisted how he could, with his condition being what it is, and he was pulverized. Fuu hadn't done much better, she had donned her chakra armor and had still gotten her ass kicked. Gaara had been then knocked out by Fuu's obnoxiously crippling strength, she was still pissed through the night and into the day, "Hey Fuu, how are y-Ungh!" "Shut up, Naruto-kun!"
Her tone and the killer intent she was giving off demanded respect and no nonsense, as she punched Naruto into a tree. Gaara had been getting up when this exchange went on, he was fully awake when he heard a pained grunt and a yell of female fury to his right. He looked at them to see, a nightmare! Fuu had the look of the devil in her eyes and the most powerful jinchuuriki was downed by said young woman.
"...Fuu, I'd suggest you not attack Naruto anymore. He is still healing after all." His voice was monotone, but Fuu could tell he held a shred of concern for their burden-brother, "Ungh! Fine, but you two owe me...BIG TIME!" Her shout awoke the downed Kyuubi vessel into a state of terror and made Gaara jump with a start at her ferocity. He had anime tears rolling down his eyes, while Naruto was hiding somewhere in the underbrush as a fox. Fuu realized Naruto had used chakra when he whined in mild pain, he hadn't used a lot of chakra like he did for the bijuu shunshin.
She slowly stomped over to the fox's hiding spot, eliciting fear from the ball of red fur, "Naruto-kun," Her voice was as menacing as her demeanor. "Why are you in henge? You know you shouldn't use chakra right now, what with your coils having been overexerted. So why are you a fox?!" Her last question was more of a growled out statement. Th young woman would've continued, had a sword not landed right between the fox and Shichibi jinchuuriki.
It was Gaara who spoke, with an angry edge in his voice, "Does the whole village know of your safe haven, Uzumaki?!" Out of the woods stepped a man with dark skin, shades on, a white set of clothes that must have been custom mad with how strange they looked, a bunch of swords in sheathes on his back, the kanji for 'iron' on his right shoulder, and on his forehead was the hitae-ate of Kumogakure, "Yo say ho! There ain't no need to be scared yo! I am the one and only Hachi-san-sama, Kirabi though!"(Killer B is Viz for Kirabi)
His proclamation for who he was brought sighs of relief from the younger three jinchuuriki. Naruto was especially thankful that his haven was still safe from discovery. Fuu and Gaara were just glad that Naruto wouldn't die anytime soon/before their fight. The older man walked over to his sword like there wasn't a problem in the world, "Why's one of the Kumogakure jinchuuriki here on their own, while a jonin no-less?"
Fuu's tone spoke volumes of her distrust and suspicions towards people. Kirabi was a little hurt at her distrust, but he understood perfectly well what her deal was, "It's fine now, y'all! I'm the one who's gonna be the eight-ball! That's in a pool table! If ya've never read the fables! Ah yea!" His rhymes weren't much to go off of if one were to assume his intelligence, but his shaded eyes spoke everything against that theory. Naruto released the form of a fox to speak to the man, "Why are you here any way, Hachi-san?"
His honorific of respect brought a soft smile onto the larger man's face, "I'm here, to help you three out! Ya fools, ya fools! I'm here, to tell ya what being a jinchuuriki's all about!" His laid-back attitude was a little off-putting for Fuu and Gaara, but clarly not for Naruto. "Okay okay...So, what's there to say?" He had a sly smirk on after saying this, his response was a hit upside the head and mutterings from the Hachibi jinchuuriki who was writing in a notebook. "Raps aside, you three's control needs some work if your exploits are to be believed...Kitsunin, Gaara of the Sand, and Fearless Fuu."
They each looked to each other, their names were that well known? Fuu spoke up this time, "I'm not in the Bingo Book like these two," She jerked a thumb at the two young men she helped out last night, "How do you know my nickname?!" "It's all good, ya know! I learned it from a young man who said something about a 'heartbreaking and heartless, bitch'. I only know your title from him after he said you jumped in a sandstorm out of boredom!"
Gaara and Naruto were now very interested in their female companion, "Why and how was there a sandstorm in Takigakure?" Fuu smacked Naruto upside the head for his lack of common sense, "It was a small mission in Kaze no Kuni, Baka!" Naruto got up begrudgingly from the ground, "Oh" Was all he said. Kirabi took the time to look them over before continuing, "I need you three to train in the areas you fail in before I can help you. I'm sorry, but I have to go! Or your place will be more? No! Yeah!"
With that, he ran off from the clearing. Leaving three young adults confused and a little paranoid. Naruto spoke up, "These exams are going to burn my ass"
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Sakura and Sasuke were looking for Naruto again, Sakura had lost the way to Naruto's Sanctuary and Sasuke didn't know where to look. They had resigned themselves to their fate of being found first, when Naruto-fox landed on Sasuke's head and passed out; "N-Naruto?! Where were you?! We were worried sick about you, we thought that guy with the eye shadow or terrifyingly strong chick had 'ck'd you!" Sakura made a face resembling a dead person as she said 'ck', this noise and expression made the fox purr amusedly.
The other questions that would've been asked were stopped before they could be birthed, by none other than Kakashi. Naruto upon seeing him, leaped at the jonin and swiped the book right out of his hands then jumped onto a roof and ran away. Kakashi had looked at his empty hand like nothing happened, until it registered and he let out a girly shriek at the little canine who stole his smut. His students, however, were laughing it up at their sensei's misfortune of scorning Naruto.
Anko had seen the whole thing and had caught the little miscreant that was 'her brat'. She walked to the pale and anime-crying Kakashi and downed with laughter Sakura and Sasuke, holding Naruto-fox who had fallen asleep again. "Alright, Kashi-kun! No more with the smut, you're giving him too many chances to take it and that's going to be his leverage over you! He's tired himself out enough, he doesn't need another reason to slow his coils healing anymore than he does already!"
Her stern voice made Kakashi stop his sniveling and ended the other genins' laughter abruptly. Kakashi looked to his hands like they were alien to him before pulling three slips from his pouch, "Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto; I've signed you three up for the Chunin Exams, and I wish you best of a fox's luck! Now, onto more pressing matters, Anko," Her attention was now directed to Kakashi. "Did you find out why there was a Bijuu's chakra detected last night?"
He was answered with a negative shake of the head, to which he sighed, "Okay, then can you take care of him?" He gestured to the sleeping fox in her arms, and his question clearly offended her, "Oh! So, it's because you came along and became his sensei that I'm now an incompetent guardian?! Wow, nice to know how and where you stand Kashi-kun!" Her attitude was that of a violently protective family member, scaring the three in front of her to no end.
Before the answer could be brought up, Anko huffed and stalked away with a glower on her face. Sakura was now worried about if Naruto's behavioral personality was being spurred on by Anko. Sasuke was just scared for anyone who messed with her today, 'She is pissed off with us, and anyone who bothers her is going to regret it.' Kakashi was just trying to figure out when and where the day went wrong, 'Let us see, I was at the Hero's Stone and I went on a walk for a couple of hours. I rad my Icha Icha books, and then I got the sign-up sheets for my team. So where did I go wrong?'
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Anko laid the ball of fur, she called 'her brat', down on her couch next to her for a nap after a long night of searching for the Bijuu chakra's source. 'It must have been Brat and his new friends playing or something...Oh well, time to sleep.' She yawned and passed out almost instantaneously. Unknown to her, the apartment she had lived in for years was being watched by prying eyes.
Timeskip, 3 hours
The ninja watching over a sleeping Anko and Naruto-fox, was clearly a young woman of skill since she went undetected for so long. She was no taller than Sakura by the looks of things and she had her hair in a long pony-tail. Yamanaka Ino was being ungodly patient right now, and it was driving her nuts. 'Come on, just need to see how long until Anko-san wakes up! Then, if she leaves for long enough, Foxy-kun will be all mine!'
Anko involuntarily shivered all of a sudden and held her little fur-brat closer, to the ire of Ino. 'She's even keeping me from him in her sleep! How does she do that?! Come across as nice and protective, and yet so mean and sadistic?! Just look at that contented smile on her face, sh must know I'm here!' Before her mental rant could go on, Anko awoke and left for who knows where. 'YES! Foxy-kun is all mine!'
She opened the window quietly and landed softly in the living room of the apartment. Unbeknownst to her, Anko had done a 'round the back' to catch the would-be stealth extraordinaire. Just as the young kunoichi was about to grab Naruto, she put a hand over her mouth and grabbed her hands before the wannabe 'fox-napper' could get her hands on his sleeping form.
Anko's voice was a harsh whisper, from years of training in interrogation and torture to find anyway into a prisoner's guard, "Who are you, what are you doing here, and most importantly, what are you going or trying to do to Naruto?!" The one Anko held's eyes widened at the sudden appearance of the Tokubetsu Jonin. "I'm going to take you to the I&T Department if you make any wrong move or sounds when I let you go to answer me, got it?!" She shook the intruder lightly to get her point across, before receiving a frantic nod. "Good"
Ino hadn't even detected the woman who held her now, 'Why did she stop me from getting Foxy-kun, she will never understand him!' Anko had released Ino's mouth, allowing her to breathe better. "Now; who are you, what are you doing here and why are you trying to take Naruto?!" Her just-above-a-whisper was still strong willed and no nonsense.
"I-it's me Anko-san, Yamanaka Ino. I'm one of Foxy-kun's friends, why are you holding him captive?!" Ino's voice was no louder than a whisper as well, her 'holding captive' question confused Anko a great deal; "Captive?! I take him here when he doesn't want to be hunted by the village everytime he makes a break for his den! What are you planning to do with him?!" She lowly growled this question, scaring Ino and causing Naruto-fox to start whine/squeaking in distress for Anko. The Snake Mistress let Ino go, walked over to the other side of the couch and scooped him up into her arms where she began to whisper quiet reassurances to the clearly scared fox.
"Easy easy, it's alright. Anko-chan's here. I'm not going to let anything or anyone hurt you." She continued this while rocking her arms back and forth, soothing the fox into a temporary peaceful sleep. Anko looked to the Yamanaka heiress when she said 'anyone' with venom in her voice, daring the younger kunoichi to make a move. "Now, I don't like repeating myself! What are you planning to do with Naruto?!" Her voice was low once more, only it came out like a snakes hiss instead of a growl from earlier.
"I-I wanted to get Foxy-kun and be the one who takes care of him...Why is he so*starts to choke up*aggressive towards me?! He's friendly with Billboard Brow, but not me! Why?!" Her voice was at an average level for indoors, but to Anko it was a loud and clear threat. "What do you mean 'take car of'?! Are you one of Danzo's goons?! Are you a member of ROOT?!" Her indoors voice was still intimidating to Ino, her voice demanded attention and deserved respect.
"W-what's ROOT and who's Danzo? I just want Foxy-kun, and you took him away from me! He always acts aggressive when I'm around, I want answers, that's all I want..." Ino's sobs were heartfelt and Anko felt guilty for making her cry, but she was still cautious about her. Danzo and ROOT had tried to commandeer Naruto before, who's to say they wouldn't use a friend of his to try again? Still, it mad Anko feel bad, so with a steeled resolve she lowered herself to the kneeling and lightly sobbing Ino to talk.
"What do you want to know?" Ino looked up, shocked, at the face of honesty that Anko gave her, "I can only answer within reason, there's a law preventing me from letting a great deal of info slip," But the young kunoichi didn't seem to car, she stared at the woman before her with gratitude and admiration for trying to answer her questions. "O-Okay, why does he act so angrily around me? I mean, I know I wasn't the nicest person to him in the academy but that's all in the pa-?"
Anko was chuckling at her while shaking her head amusedly at the young woman, "He doesn't understand a lot of positive feelings towards people, he knows how they feel, but not how to cope with them or how to recognize them properly. He isn't emotionally impaired, far from it, he leads a heavy burden and childhood. He and I share that much; we are both orphans, we're both misunderstood by the village, both scorned by the village as well, and a few other things. He...I can't believe I'm going to say this, he doesn't understand the feelings you're portraying to him or the feelings you make him feel. That sounds cheesy, but hear me out."
Ino nodded to her to continue after asking her to be heard, "He was always treated badly, there are a few who love him as family;the drop outs from your class, the Ichirakus and myself. We treat him nicely and he understands the familial love we generate around him. You were mean to him," The girl listening winced and retreated into herself a little at the jab, "And now you're being nice to him. He doesn't understand why you're acting like a fangirl, you're the Uchiha's groupie and not Brat's. You also make him feel safe and comfortable, a few times he's been 'adopted' to families who seemed nice and made him feel the same before they abused him...He's never been the same after each time; a little more distant, a little more dark, a little more bloodthirsty...H doesn't want a repeat of those things and is being aggressive as a self defense mechanism."
"You make him, feel unhated and safe, these feelings bring up horrible memories. That's why he acts mean to you and anyone else outside of our little circle; Inuzuka Kiba, Akamaru, Nara Shikamaru, Akamichi Choji, Ichiraku Teuchi, Ichiraku Ayame, and Mitarashi Anko. Those are the people he trusts, and even around us he's cautious, in case we end up like the others who acted the same or if it turns out we're under mindcontrol or someone's using our appearances to get close to him." Ino looked heartbroken, 'He was abused by those who adopted him each and everytime? That can't be, he's been so nice to people, what would make him a target?'
"Before you ask, I can't tell you why he's hated by the older generation. The law stops us from telling your generation and under, otherwise we and those we tell are executed on the spot or publicly...Hhhuuuuhhhh, I hate this village's arrogance and ignorance to what's right in front of them, they ruined this poor and sweet little boy...Into something he shouldn't have been for many more years..." Anko looked out the window, it was another full moon and there wasn't any Bijuu chakra. 'Today must be my day of confessions.'
"I wouldn't take him any other way than he is right now, but when he's attacked by villagers again...He'll fight back this time and prove them right in their eyes, making him public enemy number one! I'm not keeping him from you, I'm keeping you from him, or in other words 'keeping him from another heartbreak'. I won't stand by and be ignorant like when he was in that, that, damnable orphanage! He is trying to figure out how to deal with you properly, you're mean and then you're nice or vice versa and he can't understand why...I'm rambling, what else are you questioning?" Ino looked to hr surprised she was willing to answer more questions, "Why was he watching us as a fox? And on that note, why was he a fox in the first place? Foxes are hunted in Konohagakure, ever since the kyuubi attack, he of all people know this he loves foxes..."
Anko smirked softly at her, it wasn't a smirk of superiority or a smirk of sadism, it was a kind smirk. "He is a fox in more ways than behavior and henge. He pranks like a fox, his senses are as strong as an Inuzuka's, he's clever as a whip and loyal to the end of where we begin. He has a fox as his spirit animal in a way and as his clan's old animal symbol. He's mostly a fox at heart, always has been and he's never been ashamed of it. The reason for watching you, was he wanted to make sure his classmates from this year were doing okay and he wanted to learn why he was hated...He found out on his own and it, it broke him for a few weeks, he wouldn't eat or sleep...He'd just be there looking around like he forgot everything, it broke my heart to see him lose that spark."
Anko's eyes were verging on tears, but she wouldn't be seen as a weak person, not with Naruto's safety on the line. Ino chose another question from her plethora, "Why doesn't he live in his apartment anymore? I get that the villagers are horrible, but they can't know where he lives...can they?" Anko looked at her with a solemn face that said perfectly, 'You don't understand a thing, do you?' "The area you're in, is the Poor District, we have the whorehouses, the bad construction, bars and gambling. The drunks who saw him would follow him when he started out, they'd break in and break his apartment down, just to spite him and get to him...They never got caught, they never suffered, they never and I mean never faced justice. I hate this village, or more accurately, the villagers who can't learn to stay out of shit they don't understand! They assume to know everything, they assume to know what they're talking about, they assume it's okay to use a little and innocent boy as a scapegoat for their own fucking arrogance! Humanity can't take care of itself, I will b one of the first to admit that, it's always those scorned who understand the most..."
Ino was now crying silently, 'T-this can't be...T-this can't be true, it can't be real! Anko-san and Foxy-kun have suffered so much, and they're still loyal to this village?!' "W*sobs*Why don't you two leave the village? This place is horrible to you two, why don't you leave and save yourselves the pain and torment?!" She raised her voice ever-so-slightly, getting Anko to 'sh' her. "If we did...They'd find us, or make us Missing-nin, putting a bounty on our heads and creating a life whre we'd have to choose between death, family, and running forever...We're bound here for the rest of our lives, until the next Hokage grows a pair and stands up to the Elders...Damn them, those wretches, grrrr! Naruto is, ungh, and I quote; 'The villages greatest weapon, the strength Konohagakure needs to defeat our enemies forever'...I hate what Tobirama-sama and Uzumaki Ashina-sama dream was ruined into, they wanted a great place, but instead they got...Konohagakure, the village that can't do a damn fucking thing right!"
"Every hidden village, every, single one of them except Uzushiogakure has fucked up with their Jinchuuriki! They*sobs lightly*were born into a world of pain, neglect, and nothing else but blood. The Sandaime Hokage made a law so that Naruto could make friends, but it backfired. Ooohhh, did it backfire! The older generation's ideals and fucked up biased point of view, was passed to you runts!" She held so much venom in her voice, one would think she was a snake that couldn't stop it's venom glands from overproducing the stuff. It was almost palpable, Ino was terrified of what she'd learn next if she continued. But she cam this far, she couldn't turn back now.
"Will Foxy-kun...Naruto, ever, be able to have a better life?" Her voice was almost defeated, Anko's answers had destroyed her beautiful picture of Konohagakure as a great village, all in one night. "No," Her straight-forward, single-word, no other possibility answer was...Terrifying. Ino was outright crying now, "Why are we*sniffles* so cruel?! Why are we so Kami-damn*shudders* evil?! Why can't-?!" Anko put a finger to Ino's lips to stop her words, Naruto yet slept and they didn't want him to lash out. Before Anko could speak again, Naruto wriggled out of her grasp and slept walked over to Ino. The medium sized red fox began to rub Ino's arms, legs and face comfortingly and he fox-purred encouragingly, bringing a smile to the faces of Ino and Anko.
Anko continued where she left off, "Not if Naruto-kun gives up...Not if Naruto-kun doesn't complete his dream, our dream, the dream he carries for everyone he touches..." Ino's tears were now joyful at the defiance in her voice as she asked the last and most important question, "What is that dream, Anko-san?" Anko looked at her through teary eyes and a sweet, innocent smile before answering; "To fix what was broken by the villagers and the arrogant all over the world, especially Konoha!" That one sentence, brought hope to Ino's burdened soul. She would help, and she would do everything in her power to make sure Naruto fulfilled that dream.
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There y'all 'ave it...I wanted to expand on Naruto and Ino's love/hate relationship, or rather Ino's love and Naruto's hate. It was supposed to be a happy-go-lucky chapter, but it wrote itself. Ino's been actin' weird 'round Naruto, confusin' 'is already meddled mind and soul. Ino wanted answers, she got 'em, like a kick to the throat or a boot to the face. Whatcha think? Did I fuck up, did I make it emotionally movin', did I make it original? Please R&R, and for now...SEE YA!