It had been surprisingly easy to track Tsunade down. Or perhaps he was just that determined… he wasn't sure. The burning need to talk to her about the vile truths he had learned certainly kept him motivated and focused. No time for distracting research.

Unfortunately.

But he knew how important this would be—how much it would mean to Tsunade to know. As much as he wanted to swing by the local bathhouse, he couldn't bring himself to do it, for once.

He'd do so afterwards. And spend hours there. Or days… depending on how well the upcoming conversation went.

He found her at a mid-sized casino, drinking straight from a large bottle at the bar with a wild look in her eye and a tenseness to her posture that indicated she was either looking for or expecting a fight. However, he knew her well enough to also see what others would miss: the underlying confusion and worry that screamed to him in her every movement. Something had really freaked her out.

Frowning, he looked around and sent his senses out. Nothing of particular note stood out to him that he wouldn't expect inside a casino… although, he also couldn't detect Shizune in the direct vicinity. That… could be nothing though. They weren't joined at the hip. Still, he wondered where Tsunade's loyal follower could be.

He took the seat next to her with a sigh, taking out his bottle of Toad Sake, but didn't open it. The sharp look in her eyes bore into his own when he turned his attention to her.

After a long moment of relative silence, she scoffed. "Figures. Just when I send Shizune away to start packing, you show up."

Jiraiya nodded grimly, his eyes not wavering from hers. He didn't even glance down at her (lovely) chest. No, he needed her to know how serious he was. "How much did you win?"

The blond grunted at him, "Getting right to it then?" She took another swig of her bottle. "Not my biggest win, but enough for a couple of these." He noted the label on the green glass she held up. Mid-range booze, so the equivalent of a long B-rank mission pay, most likely.

Jiraiya did some mental calculations. "Yeah, that sounds about right," he grumbled. As determined as he was, he had not been looking forward to this conversation.

Tsunade scowled at him, drained the bottle with one last, long swig, then got up to leave. "Whatever you have to say, I don't want to hear it."

The Toad Sage didn't bother standing up to try and stop her. "Maybe not, but you really should."

She marched over to him and he braced for physical aggression from his old teammate… just in case.

"What makes you say that?" she practically hissed.

Jiraiya spoke with a voice so low, only a skilled ninja could hear it over the sound of the casino in the background. "We got information on Nawaki's and Dan's deaths. I thought you'd want… or perhaps would need to know."

Tsunade flinched at the names and her eyes went wide. For several seconds, she just stood there, breath hitched and face pale. Then she looked away, obviously trying to wrap her mind around what he'd just said.

Eventually, she shook her head. "What could you possibly have to say about them?" she asked, her voice harsh and low. Yeah, about the kind of tone he'd expected. Then again, he knew he'd be walking on thin ice.

So he held the sake jug out to her.

She blinked at it, surprised.

"A peace offering. You'll need it," he muttered.

Her worry spiked obviously. Gingerly, as if the jug would break (it wouldn't, it was made by the Toads of Mount Myobokou after all) she took it and very slowly, sat down on the seat she'd just vacated. Her eyes stayed on Jiraiya, filled with a wary longing—she wanted to know, but knew this would not be a pleasant conversation.

"How… how bad?" she whispered, hugging the jug to her like a lifeline. She closed her eyes, bracing herself.

He could relate.

"They were targeted… by an ally." He tried to deliver that with as much gentleness as he could.

Tsunade's eyes snapped open, fixing her shocked gaze on his.

"What?" This time, it only took her a moment to process. Then the emotions came: Fury, guilt, sadness, and a longing—all aged and worn—flashed across her face. Eventually it calmed and she studied his expression again. Was it bad that he was glad he saw that familiar fire in her eye? It had been gone for so long…

"You really are serious right now," she said.

He just nodded.

She sighed and turned. "Follow me. This seems to be a conversation we'll want privacy for."

Jiraiya nodded and stood to follow her, sighing in relief. She knew herself well enough to take them somewhere she could destroy things.

Like mountains.

Hopefully the village didn't need those.

xXx

The moment Naruto saw Kakashi-sensei he couldn't help but grin, completely oblivious to the sudden tension from his teammates or the ready stances from the ANBU.

"Kakashi-sensei! We did it! We did the test! And we worked as a team, just like you wanted! We got the scroll from Indra-nii!" He grabbed said scroll from Sakura's hand and held it up triumphantly.

Beside him, Sakura smacked her forehead and Sasuke sighed. "Dobe."

"Hey!"

"Indeed you did," Indra said quietly, his warm eye landing on Naruto. Then he turned and looked pointedly at the silver-haired ninja. "The equivalent of the bell test, and they worked together to get the scroll from a far stronger opponent. It was quite impressive. A shame you weren't there to see it."

Kakashi-sensei's visible eye opened a little wider, but that was the only visible change before he closed said eye in what looked like a smile…? He'd done that when he first met them too, so that's what Naruto assumed it was.

"Good job, kids."

"What's going on?" Sasuke demanded as he stepped forward, body tense.

Naruto looked around at the visible ANBU and finally realized something was off.

"Nothing. Indra-san?" Kakashi-sensei turned to Indra-nii, who nodded once in confirmation. "Indra-san, here, needs to go with myself and the ANBU for a little bit, while you three need to go see the Hokage."

He eye-smiled again at them. Then he looked back at their current sensei. "That won't be a problem, will it, Indra-san?"

Naruto looked up at his newest friend, not quite sure what to think. Was Indra-nii in trouble? He really hoped not…

"No," Indra said, raising his hand to the side of his head, palm facing out… like he was surrendering.

The blond of the group swallowed, and he felt a zing of fear run through his stomach.

"Y-you're not going to hurt Indra-nii, are you?" Naruto asked Kakashi-sensei.

"Naruto," Sakura hissed, "be quiet!"

He ignored her.

"Are you?!"

"Naruto," Indra-nii turned to him, a small, comforting smile on his face. "I'll be fine."

The blond glanced around at the ANBU again, shuffling nervously. They didn't look happy…

"You… promise?" he asked.

His friend just nodded serenely.

"I promise."

That made him feel infinitely better.

"You'd better be fine," he said loudly, pointing at the man who just smiled a little wider. (He really didn't do big smiles, did he? Maybe Naruto could fix that?)

Then he did something weird. He, very slowly, reached over to brush his hair away from his covered eye, letting Naruto see it for the first time. It was… purple. With weird circles in it and funny marks in the center rings. Next to him, Sasuke gasped.

"Tell Kurama I said 'Hi'," was all Indra-nii said, before letting his hair fall back in place.

Naruto frowned and cocked his head. He glanced over at Sasuke and Sakura who looked about as confused as he was. Then he looked back up to see Indra-nii walking along the branch over towards Kakashi-sensei, his single hand still held up in surrender.

"Hey! Who's Kurama?"

But Indra-nii didn't answer.

"If you will follow me to the Hokage Tower," an ANBU in a cat mask said quietly, appearing right beside them and making Naruto and Sakura jump.

The genin glanced at each other, then nodded at the ANBU and jumped down to begin the trek to the center of the village. Naruto clenched his fists, determined to make the old man tell him exactly what was going on.

He wasn't about to let one of his few precious people be hurt.

They'd just gotten out of the training grounds when his stomach started to feel weird. They made it about half-way to the Hokage tower when he had to stop because it just kept getting worse.

"Naruto, keep up!" Sakura shouted, looking back over her shoulder. The moment she saw him curled over, clutching at his stomach, though, her expression softened. "Naruto?"

She came running back to him. Ahead of them, Sasuke and the ANBU member both paused.

"What's wrong, Naruto?" Sakura asked looking more than a little uncomfortable, her hand hovering between her and him as if she didn't know if she should touch him or not. That hurt a little, but was honestly better than how she and some others had treated him before.

"I… I don't know," he said through gritted teeth. Did they feel sharper? Weird… "My stomach feels… different."

"Different how?"

He shook his head, not knowing how to describe it; both hot and cold, and… swirly?

"H-here. I just found out how to do a diagnostic jutsu," she said, molding some chakra and holding her hand out to hover over his shoulder and back, then moving it up to his head.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke asked walking up to them with a frown.

"Naruto's stomach started… hurting I guess?"

The Uchiha scoffed. "Dobe, are you sick after using too much chakra or something?"

"No!" he growled… literally. Why was he growling? He also glared up at his teammate.

Sasuke stiffened and took a step back.

"N-naruto… your eyes," Sakura's voice said softly, shakily.

"What's wrong with them?" he asked worriedly.

"They're red…" she said.

"And slitted," Sasuke added on.

That… had never happened before! "What?!" he asked, then grunted as a particularly large wave of… swirly rushed through him. He gasped and clutched at the wall he was leaning against. He felt it crumble a little under his fingers…

"It… feels like there are two different types of chakra in you," Sakura said. "One is leaking into you from… well, your stomach? But that makes no sense."

And suddenly Naruto knew what it was. His breath caught in his throat and he backed away from his teammates quickly, not wanting to hurt them. Neither one of them seemed to know how to react to that with anything but surprise. Naruto couldn't focus on that right now though, because… Was the Fox trying to break out? Why now? What had happened?

"N-no," he started, but grunted again and his arm went right back to his stomach as another wave of the swirly… no the Fox's chakra rushed through him.

"S-stop," he hissed, directing that inside. If the Fox heard, it didn't listen.

"I'll get you to the hospital," the ANBU said, appearing next to Naruto and scooping him up. It surprised him because people rarely held him like this—in their arms… close. It was… nice. So he clung to the ANBU vest, hiding his face away despite knowing how weak it made him seem. He hated it but… a giant chakra monster was trying to break out of him! He deserved a little of this… didn't he?

"I… it's the Fox," he whispered. The ANBU tensed under him.

"The Hokage Tower then," they corrected themselves. "Come, quickly!" And with that, they were bounding across the rooftops, Sasuke and Sakura following behind as best they could.

Meanwhile, Naruto took several deep breaths and focused all of his concentration on stopping the feeling of the strange chakra overtaking him.

Then he was falling into darkness…

xXx

Naruto woke in water. Around him, he could see a tunnel of sorts, with pipes of all kinds running along it, stretching off into the darkness on both sides. The only sound that reached him was a slow dripping of water and, off in the distance, a growling?

Where am I? He thought, getting to his knees and then his feet. He looked in both directions once again before deciding to follow the growling. He… was a little curious, but honestly, the silence in the darkness behind him scared him more than whatever was making the growling, for some reason. Not that he was scared.

So he began walking. The growling grew louder and sometimes he could swear he heard words…

He didn't know how long he waded through the luke-warm water, but it seemed like a long time before he saw a light ahead of him. It wasn't bright, but it was different than the darkness he'd seen before. He hurried over, hoping for a way out or something, but what he got was a large room with a vaulted ceiling. On the other side of said room stood the bars to a cage… but not just any bars. No, these were larger than he was round and stretched just as high as the enormous ceiling, taking up the entire wall. Behind the bars, he could see nothing but darkness, although he could hear splashing… as if someone (or something) was walking. Pacing? And the growls had become so much louder that they reverberated through his very soul.

"Hello?" he ventured as he walked into the room cautiously, ignoring how quickly his heart sped up.

"There you are!" A pair of large, red, slitted eyes turned to Naruto who yelped despite himself and stumbled back, splashing the water around him.

"Uh… Yeah! I'm right here!" he said as loudly and with as much bravado has he could. He wasn't sure what he expected, but a long, loud sigh reminiscent of Iruka-sensei wasn't it. It was almost as if this wasn't…

"Y-you're the Kyuubi… aren't you?"

"Yes, yes. You may marvel at my magnificence... later. Right now, you need to tell that name-stealing, intelligence insulting, one armed fraud of an Uchiha to get in here right now!"

It was… more than a little scary to stand in front of this… creature when it—no, he radiated so much anger Naruto could feel it. At first he couldn't help but be glad that anger wasn't directed towards him.

But then he figured out who the Kyuubi had just insulted and his own hackles raised.

"Don't you talk about Indra-nii like that, you stupid fox!"

"QUIET!" The Kyuubi yelled and Naruto remembered who he was talking to. He gulped, and shrank back for a moment as the anger radiation increased, but then tilted his chin up in defiance, even as the chakra monster continued to rant. "You have no idea just what that… that intruder has done! At first I thought it an annoying coincidence, but his actions just showed it was a purposeful choice! He has stolen the name of my brother, the eyes of my father, and used them as his own! As if he has any right to either! This is unforgivable."

Naruto blinked. "Wait… you have a brother?" And a father but… yeah.

The fox paused for a moment and stared down at Naruto with a blank expression. Well… he didn't look as angry in any case.

"That is none of your business."

"Whadja mean its none of my business?! You sent that… swirly stuff—chakra or whatever—into me, totally freaked out my teammates and the ANBU…" he paused and felt a rush of concern, "And probably Jiji too!" Because the ANBU would probably tell him.

"There was no other way to contact you, idiot," the fox growled.

"I'm not an idiot! And I'm not letting you insult my nii-san because he reminds you of yours!"

"Indra was younger than me! I am the oldest!"

"And I'm not gonna bring him here just so you can yell at him!" Naruto continued without even acknowledging the Kyuubi's roar.

"I will not yell at him! I will tear him to pieces for daring to steal my family's name and bloodline and then taunting me for it!"

The blond clenched his fists and went to open his mouth again when the Kyuubi's words caught up with him.

"Wait… are you Kurama?"

"YOU DARE USE MY NAME?!"

Instead of responding, Naruto frowned, remembering back. "I… don't get it. How did he know your name? I didn't even know you had a name."

"Of course I have a name! And you will not use it or I will make your death particularly slow and painful!"

Why was this guy reminding him of Sasuke? Except… a bit more violent. But that wasn't exactly unexpected, he supposed.

"By the way, where is here?" he asked, looking around curiously. The anger was still there—everywhere—but the more he was around it, the more he got used to it. He could almost ignore it right now, so he looked more closely at the room and walls. They were all very smooth, like they'd just been built. And the cage gates even had some decoration on both of the far sides in a swirling pattern. In the center of the gates, sat a single piece of paper that said 'seal'.

Wait… was that piece of paper all that was holding the Kyuubi inside those gates? He hoped that seal was a lot stronger than it looked…

"This is inside the seal, brat!"

"Oh. Then how could Indra-nii come here?"

"Stop using that stolen name!"

Naruto frowned. "That's my nii-san's name and I'm not going to stop using it just because you don't like it."

"Insolent brat!"

"I am not!" he shot back, then shook his head. "You didn't say how he could get in here anyway."

"If he has his rinnegan unlocked than he has his Sharingan unlocked and he can use either to enter this space… theoretically."

Naruto just scratched his head. "What are those… gan things?"

Another sigh from the Kyuubi. It was almost as fun as getting one from Jiji. Funner than getting one from Iruka-sensei. And he was pretty sure that if the fox could do something to him already, he would have.

"I will not explain such things to a plebeian too stupid to understand."

Naruto didn't know what a plebeian was, but it didn't sound nice. Why was the Kyuubi always insulting Naruto like that? Yeah, he was stuck inside him, and that sucked, but that wasn't exactly Naruto's fault. It also seemed more than that somehow…

Wait… was Kurama… lonely?

Like Naruto was… because he yelled at people sometimes and said mean things he didn't really want to say when he was lonely… and angry. He tried to ignore it, but it happened anyway. Well, the fox kind of deserved it for what he did to the village… but only kind of, because no one really deserved to be alone.

"I'm not stupid," he said. Because that needed to be said.

Kurama just scoffed.

"And what should I call you?"

Silence for several seconds as the fox slowly turned to look at Naruto with a strange expression on his face.

"What?"

"You said you don't want me calling you by your name, so what should I call you?" And he thought Naruto was dumb?

More silence.

"Kyuubi No Kitsune or Kyuubi No Yoko as my greatness goes far beyond your mortal comprehension."

The blond didn't know what 'comprehension' was either but eh.

"Is just Kyuubi okay? Otherwise that's really long to say."

Why did the fox like to stare at him in silence like that?

"Whatever. Just get that impostor in here!"

Naruto frowned and folded his arms. "Look, I can ask him, but he might say no." He might not even know how to come inside the seal (that was actually really weird, now that he thought about it). Naruto didn't even know how he'd got in here.

Actually…

"How do I come back?" he asked before Kurama—Kyuubi could say anything.

Another sigh. Naruto tried not to smile. "Focus on the chakra in the seal and throw your mind in here."

The blond frowned as he thought about that, then nodded. "Okay. How do I get out."

"Just do the opposite! Honestly! Focus on the outside world and draw your mind there! It isn't that difficult, idiot."

"I told you, I'm not an idiot!" Naruto said. Kurama didn't answer, so Naruto assumed he won and nodded. "I'll see you later then, Kyuubi."

He waved at the fox and closed his eyes, ignoring the snort from the chakra beast. It took him a minute to get it, but eventually he did. The silence of the tunnels (sewers?) faded away into frantic talking and voices.

Then he opened his eyes, staring up at the rafters of Jiji's office. He could even hear Jiji speaking in the background in a much calmer voice than the one he'd heard before.

"… Then he just collapsed?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the ANBU—that was the voice from before—said. "I got him here as quickly as I could."

"That would explain why I sensed that chakra…" Jiji sighed. "As did likely every jounin in the village… and half the chuunin. If we're lucky, this will not get back to the civilian population. Let me look at that… Oh."

Jiji looked down at Naruto, noticing he was awake for the first time.

The blond just grinned. "Hi, Jiji!"

A long silence.

"Naruto, how are you feeling?"

He thought down to his stomach, but it felt fine. "I'm good, Jiji."

The old man frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Kyuubi just wanted to tell me to get Indra-nii to come and talk to him."

The Hokage stared at him blankly. "Talk… to him?"

Naruto tipped his head to one side. "Well, he said he wanted to 'rip him apart' and that Indra-nii stole his younger brother's name or something like that, but I think he really just wanted to talk."

More blank stares and silence. He was getting a lot of that today.

"Oh! By the way, you can't hurt Indra-nii! He's been super cool! He's totally awesome! He's been teaching me!"

Instead of making Jiji relax, that seemed to worry him more.

"Teaching you what, Naruto?"

"You know how Mizuki-the-traitor taught me? Well, he taught me wrong. On purpose! So Indra-nii told me about how I can remember what my kage bunshin learn and he's been going through the academy katas and teaching me how to do it right. But he also said to keep being unpredictable. That it's my greatest strength! He didn't ever treat me bad, Jiji! He's been super nice from the moment I met him! He took me out to Ramen and he started teaching Sakura and Sasuke too!"

The Hokage just sat back on his haunches—oh, they were on the ground, weird—and rubbed his forehead tiredly.

"Naruto, he's an unknown ninja who has potentially done some serious damage to our village."

"He wouldn't!"

"How do you know that?" A slightly out-of-breath voice came from the door. Everyone turned to see Sakura and Sasuke in the doorway. Apparently they'd been let through? Naruto usually had to sneak… or barge. They probably barged.

Still, Naruto couldn't help but be hurt at Sasuke's question. "What do you mean, how do I know that? You've trained with Indra-nii! You know how awesome he is!"

"All I know is that he's an unknown Uchiha who left me alone for years," Sasuke shot back.

"He was on a mission!" Naruto yelled.

"No, he wasn't," Jiji cut in calmly.

Everyone turned to look at him as he continued to speak. "I do not know of any living Uchiha except for Sasuke, here… and his brother."

Naruto frowned. Right, the jerk who had killed all of Sasuke's family except for him.

"As far as I know, there is no other Uchiha loyal to the village," the Hokage continued.

This time, the silence felt… heavy. Naruto didn't really know what to say to that, so he just stared at Jiji in horror.

"But… but he was so cool…" he eventually managed to say.

"He helped me learn how to tree walk and water walk," Sakura spoke up, her voice soft. "And he helped me choose my own ninja path to focus on."

Sasuke frowned. "He did get her to back off and focus… that was nice."

Sakura squeaked and her face went red. "Sorry," she whispered.

The jerk just rolled his eyes.

"Come on, Jiji! You gotta give him a chance!" Naruto said, choosing to focus on Indra-nii. That was more important right now.

The older man looked put out. "Naruto, just after you left him, your…" he paused and glanced over at Sasuke and Sakura, "condition flared up."

Condition? Did he mean the Kyuubi? Probably.

Naruto looked away. "That wasn't his fault. That was the fox's."

Jiji just seemed to get more frustrated. "Naruto, you need to stop trusting everyone who's nice to you just because they're nice to you!"

That wasn't fair! He felt his fists ball.

"Then I'd be even more alone," he said.

The Hokage didn't seem to know what to say to that, just looking pained. Eventually, he sighed.

"Naruto, I can't promise you that nothing will happen to… Indra. We have to investigate. If I didn't I would be letting the village down. That's what a Hokage does: make the hard decisions for the benefit of everyone."

Everyone. Because everyone didn't seem to include Naruto. It never did.

But he also got where Jiji was coming from. When he got to be Hokage, he'd probably have to make decisions like that too. Or he'd find a way to prevent those! Yeah.

"Just… please listen to him?" he finally asked, hating that that was the best he could do for Indra-nii. Well, if things got bad, he'd just have to go and break him out of… wherever he was being held later.

Jiji's expression turned sad and he reached down to pat Naruto on the shoulder. "I will. Now, I need to check your… stomach."

His seal, he meant.

"Uchiha-san, Harano-san," the Hokage turned his attention to them. "I will need written reports of every interaction you've had with Indra-san. I would also like to speak with you shortly, but for now, if you could wait outside while I—"

"Jiji," Naruto cut him off, trying to sound as strong and firm as he could, "I want to tell them. They're my teammates."

The old man blinked at Naruto, then looked warily up at the two standing in the doorway. "Are you sure, Naruto?"

The blond nodded firmly. "They deserve to know. Besides… I trust them." Because they'd worked so well together just now, and if he didn't begin to trust them, why should they trust him?

Jiji sighed. Not the kind of annoyed or frustrated sigh Naruto thought was funny, but a long, tired one. "Very well. Please shut the door while I examine the seal, Cat."

The ANBU nodded, ushered the other two inside and shut the door before disappearing.

That was actually really cool.

The Hokage brought his focus back to the present. "What I am about to tell you is an S-ranked secret that you cannot tell to anyone else without my or Naruto's express permission, on pain of death."

Sakura and Sasuke exchanged glances and then looked back, nodding. Sakura seemed a little shaken, though, as she audibly gulped. Sasuke just looked… intense.

"Roll up your shirt, Naruto," Jiji instructed.

The blond laid back down and did as he was told.

"Channel some chakra."

Ah, so the seal was why Jiji had had him do that every year for as long as he could remember. That made sense.

He did so.

Sakura gasped.

"What is that?" Sasuke asked.

"A seal," the Hokage said as he examined it. "The seal of a Jinchuuriki. Bijuu cannot be killed—not conventionally, in any case. So when the Fourth fought for the village twelve years ago, he had no choice but to seal the monster into a human, as they are the only vessels capable of housing a bijuu. Naruto is the container for the Nine-tailed demon fox."

xXx

AN: Thank you for all of your responses. No, seriously. Quathis and I really appreciate it. We read every one, even if we can't always respond.

A lot of you wanted a showdown here, but... Indra just giving up like that would likely screw with everyone's heads more. You know, Ninja village? LOL And so yeah. Meanwhile, he literally name-dropped to the Kyuubi. *sigh* He may need some hints on what is acceptable as trolling and what isn't...

In any case, thank you again! 3

My (rather quiet) discord: discord. gg/xDDz3gqWfy (no spaces)