Hi!

Before you read, I want to say that in my version of Naruto, Mizuki never actually tells Naruto that he is the container of the nine-tailed fox. It's going to be important.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the any of the other characters, I just use them for my story.

Naruto:

I barely had time to register that Ino had used her jutsu before her consciousness was gone. Recently, she had been talking about minor improvements in her jutsu. I was sure that she was up to a couple of minutes by now. However, I had control back very quickly this time. And I had also noticed that Ino's unconscious body was falling out of the tree she had been perched in.

I swore, lunging to catch her in the air. It sort of worked. On one hand, she probably hadn't broken anything. On the other, I had gotten the wind knocked out of me and might've broken my arm.

I pulled myself out from underneath Ino and moved her to rest against a tree trunk. Hopefully, she'd come to in a few minutes. I was fine with the fact that she wasn't awake yet, as I debated the merits of going to a hospital versus the merits of pretending like nothing happened to my arm. I really didn't want to go to the hospital, so I decided to ask Ino if she knew of anything that could help me when she woke up.

A little while later, Ino stirred. I immediately got up and walked over to her.

"Hey, Ino."

"Naruto?" she asked, looking disoriented.

"Yeah?"

"What happened?"

"Well, we were sparring and you used your clan's mind transfer technique on me. It didn't last long, maybe a few seconds, but your body fell out of the tree you were sitting in as soon as you switched," I explained.

Ino's eyes widened as the memories came back. Suddenly, there was a look of terror on her face and she began to slowly inch away from me.

"What the fuck lives in your head?"

"What do you mean?" I squinted my eyes, "I'm pretty sure the only thing in here-" –I tapped my skull– "-is my awesome brain."

"I definitely saw something else there, like some kind of scary creature."

"Were you hallucinating?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"YES!" she yelled and then grumbled, "Idiot."

"Okay, okay. Maybe Kakashi-sensei would know. Or we could get someone else from your clan to redo the jutsu."

Ino visibly paled at the second option, leaving me curious and a little frightened. After all, we were talking about something she had seen in my head.

"Why are you here?"

Both Ino and I turned at the sound of our third teammate's voice.

"SASUKE-KUN!" my female teammate screeched. I covered my ears as Ino started a one-sided conversation.

Sasuke cut her off, asking me, "What are you doing here?" again.

"We were sparring. What are you doing here?"

"None of your business."

That arrogant bastard. I was going to-

My train of thought was interrupted by Ino who was trying to get Sasuke's attention back.

"Why don't you come with us to find Kakashi?"

"No."

Ino pouted, but her face brightened again after a few seconds. "If we find him, he can teach you a new jutsu or help you with your cool eyes."

"Sharingan," Sasuke snarled, "It's called the sharingan."

"Whatever you wanna call it. But what do you say?"

"Fine."

"Yay!"

"Ino? I think I broke my arm. Do I have to go to the hospital?" I asked.

"Yes!"

"Eh. I guess I'll do it later."

"We're going now."

After a brief detour to the hospital for my arm to get healed, the three of us walked side by side, keeping our eyes peeled for Kakashi-sensei and his weird hair. The sun was sinking, turning the sky red and orange. We were walking in silence, something I don't particularly like. However, this time it was companionable rather than annoying. After all, these were the moments when I really appreciated the fact that I had friends and a team and a sensei. So much has changed for me over the past few months. The moment abruptly passed when Ino tugged on Sasuke's sleeve and said, "Look- there he is!"

I yelled, "Sensei!", waving wildly with my good arm and running towards him.

Kakashi-sensei didn't bother to close his book as we approached him.

"What do you three need?" he asked, eyes never straying from the pages.

"We have a question," I said, "And Sasuke wants you to train him."

"Ask the question first and then I'll consider the training part."

I glanced at Ino. She began to tell Kakashi-sensei about their spar.

When she reached the part about her being cornered in the tree, she told him, "Now here's the weird part. I decided to use my mind transfer jutsu on him and it worked. But, in his mind, I couldn't find his consciousness. I felt the strongest killing intent I had ever witnessed. Then there was this evil laugh-" –here Ino shivered uncomfortably– "-and I turned to see two red eyes. I was immediately ejected from his mind after that and I woke up in my own body again."

I had been focusing on Ino because I hadn't heard the details before, but now I looked at Kakashi-sensei. I was surprised to find that he had snapped his book closed.

"Ino, Naruto, and Sasuke, listen to me," he said seriously. "All three of you go home immediately and do not talk to anyone about what you just told me. Not a single person. Meet me at the regular spot at 7 in the morning."

He gave us one more warning look before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

Ino and I exchanged confused looks and Sasuke looked as baffled as he could, being a block of ice and all when it came to emotions.

I spoke first: "Well…, I guess I'll see y'all tomorrow. Bye."

I walked away, heading home, when I thought I heard laughter. I spun around, but there was nothing. Oh, no. I'm hearing things now, too. Maybe Sensei will stop being so mysterious tomorrow and we can actually get some answers.

Kakashi-sensei led the three of us to the Hokage Tower, all the way up to the top floor, where Old Man Third's office was. Sensei knocked, received the "enter" from the Old Man, and gestured for us to walk in before him.

Old Man Third was sitting behind his desk, stacks of paper on and around it. "Team 7."

"Lord Third," the three of us said in unison. I know when things are serious and don't want to get into deeper trouble by not addressing the Hokage properly.

He motioned for the ANBU to seal the room.

"What I'm about to tell you will not leave this room, understood?"

We nodded quickly.

"This concerns Naruto. Have you three ever heard of the nine-tailed fox?"

"We learned about the attack in the academy, sir," Sasuke said. "The Fourth killed it and saved the village, but died in the process."

"Well, the Fourth did defeat the fox, but he didn't kill it. He sealed it."

"Where?" Ino questioned.

"He sealed the demon into a person. That person is you, Naruto Uzumaki."

The stunned silence in the room lasted all of three seconds before I yelped:

"Wha- how- I would know, right?" I stammered disbelievingly.

My teammates simply gaped at me.

"Have you ever wondered why you have so much chakra?"

"I don't! My academy instructors said that I didn't have a lot of chakra," I replied.

Kakashi-sensei spoke instead, "Actually, the reports say that you don't have good control of your chakra, most likely caused by the immense amount of it. And you have used the chakra before." He turned to Old Man Third. "During their first mission out of Konoha - the d-rank-turned-a-rank - he was fighting Haku - the new addition to the village - with Sasuke. Sasuke was put in a near-death state by Haku, but Naruto thought he died. There was a surge of malicious chakra - so strong that it was visible, burning a bright red. According to Haku, Naruto experienced a great boost in his abilities and nearly killed the fake hunter-nin. Something snapped him out of it, though."

I was too shocked to form a response to that. I don't remember that.

"How does that relate to my story?" Ino wanted to know.

"I suppose the nine-tails saw the weakness in Naruto's mind when you switched and appeared to take advantage of that. Maybe it kicked you out when it saw you weren't Naruto." Kakashi-sensei theorized.

"I saw the… nine-tails?" she sounded slightly faint.

"Yes, but he wouldn't have been able to harm you," Old Man Third responded.

Kakashi-sensei winced a little and added something else: "Naruto… you know how people look at you? They see you as the nine-tails demon."

And that is when I ran straight out of the office, bursting through the wooden doors. I ran all the way to the farthest training field, not caring as I bumped into people. —-
I crossed my hands in the sign for shadow clones.

Nearly 100 appeared, and I wasted no time in dispelling the ones closest to me with taijutsu. Why am I just now learning about this? Punch. How do the villagers know if it's supposed to be a secret? Punch. How could they think that I am a demon fox? Kick. What if Ino and Sasuke feel the same way? I threw shuriken and kunai in all directions, the poof noise that signaled dispelled clones ringing throughout the training ground.

I repeated the hand signs, vaguely noticing my eyesight sharpening. I was feeling a burning sensation throughout my body when I heard someone yell:

"Naruto!"

I turned around, the burning feeling dissipating. To my surprise, the person who had yelled at me had pink hair. Sakura.

She was right in front of me now. "What are you doing here? Where is your team? Are you training without them today?"

It was at that moment that my brain helpfully reminded me that I used to have a crush on her. And, my old nervousness kicked in.

"What do you mean?" Idiot. You don't even have a crush on her anymore and you're still acting like this. Let's get it together.

"Well…," Sakura said, "this is actually my team's - team 10's - training ground."

"Oh." Now this is a little bit awkward.

The slightly confused expression melted from her face and she asked me:

"Did you come because you wanted to train with Choji and Shikamaru?"

"Yeah!" You saved it! Let's pretend like that was the plan all along.

"They'll be here in about 30 minutes. I just like to be here early." She paused. "Are your teammates coming?"

That soured my mood rather quickly. It must have shown in my expression because Sakura asked me if she said something wrong. Do I tell her? It can't hurt if I don't tell her the specifics, I guess. Then again, it is well-known in this village for a secret. If she figures it out, she won't know anymore than the adults.

"Earlier, I got some bad news from the Hokage and my teammates might see me differently because of it. I don't know if they wanna be around me anymore." I said. Nice job not saying anything revealing.

"Did you ask them about it?" she asked me.

"Huh?"

"Did you ask them how they felt about the news?"

"No. I ran out of there. Why?"

Sakura's expression turned to one of disbelief. "So, let me get this straight: You heard some secret about yourself, which your teammates may or may not think worse of you for. Then, you ran away from them without really getting their reactions. Finally, you decided that they wouldn't like you, even though they have been your teammates for at least a few months now. Also, you didn't know this thing about you, either, kind of putting you in the same boat as them, in terms of information. You weren't hiding anything." she said, with her voice rising more as she went on.

"Well…when you put it like that…," I replied weakly.

"Dumbass!" she yelled at me. "Go talk to them!"

"But I wanted to train with Shika and Choji!" I complained, feeling annoyed with the term she used to address me.

Sakura looked at me pointedly. "You were the one looking sad when I brought them up. I don't want you to mope throughout training. My team's training."

"Ok, fine, bye. But I'm going to be back another day."

I trudged off to find my teammates.

Surprisingly, the first one I found was Sasuke, because he was the only one to stick to our schedule and train after I left. I was not happy that they weren't all together. Do I have to talk to him first? I asked myself. I can pretend I didn't see him and then go find Sensei and Ino.

"Did you come back to use the training ground?" Sasuke asked loudly, indicating that he knew I was there. Oops. Guess I wasn't that secretive when I got here.

I walked over to him, and, before he could speak, or I could think this through, I blurted:

"Do you think I'm a monster?"

He smirked at me, a reaction which I had not expected. "No. You're still the same, weak, Naruto you were before. In fact, it's kind of surprising that you could contain a demon that strong and also fail the graduation exam three times."

"Bastard," I grumbled, feeling relieved, but making sure it didn't show.

"Did you come all this way just to ask me that?"

"..."

And now I felt a little stupid. I shook it off.

"Do you wanna spar with me?" I asked.

"Why would I bother? The outcome is always the same," he replied confidently.

So, I ran at him and attempted to punch him in the face. Sasuke dodged, backflipping away from me. He was pulling a few shuriken out of his pouch when I yelled:

"It's a spar, Sasuke! A spar! No weapons!"

He actually listened to me, putting the weapons away. Look at that. Sasuke followed the instructions I gave him! I'm so cool. My happiness was short-lived, however, as he said something else:

"Spars are just practice fights against allies, so that's not a rule unless you're an academy student. But, I suppose if you fight like one, you would also follow the rules they have to."

While we were talking, he had moved, so we were both now in hand-to-hand combat range. We punched, kicked, dodged, and ducked until we fell into a kind of rhythm. Said rhythm was harder for me to keep up with, but Sasuke was slowing down slightly, too. We spent a few minutes like that, before Sasuke finally landed a hit on me. I stopped sparring and fell on my butt, panting for breath. Sasuke stuck his hands into his pockets and turned to walk away, saying, "I have something I have to do."

"So did I win our spar?!"

He didn't bother to answer.

"YES!" I yelled.

Oh, I almost forgot! I have to go find Ino. I want to talk to her.

Thanks for reading.

Bye!