"So I just learned that the entire situation around the Kyuubi was horribly mishandled."

"Hmm?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah. My mom kept him chained up on a floating ball, impaled through the stomach, hands, feet, and all of his tails."

They paused.

"That's horrible!" Sakura cried.

"Yeah." Naruto looked troubled. "Yeah it is. That's a genuinely horrible thing to do to a person. And that's what my mom was doing to him. For over a decade." He leaned against a tree, looking down at the ground.

Jiraiya took a sip from his cup, deigning not to say anything. I could tell that he was... troubled, to a small extent.

"I haven't... asked the Sanbi about his time imprisoned, but..." Well, suffice to say, he didn't like it. "Well, at least you know?"

"Yeah. Now I know. And now that I know, I'm not sure... what to think about mom." He winced.

"Kushina..." Jiraiya sighed. "Kushina was many things. You're a lot like her, actually."

"Hyperactive?" Sasuke smirked.

"Headstrong?" Sakura commented.

"Stubborn?" I joined in.

"Talkative and tomboyish, too." Jiraiya grinned.

Naruto pouted, glaring at us.

"Also like you, Kushina was good friends with an Uchiha." Jiraiya continued. "Coincidentally, that Uchiha was Mikoto Uchiha."

Sasuke's head snapped to Jiraiya.

"Oh yeah." He nodded, pre-empting Sasuke. "They even hoped that the both of you would be good friends."

Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other, before the former grinned and the latter smirked.

"She was also very short-tempered." Jiraiya noted. "She had a mean right hook, and she wasn't afraid to use it."

"So, Naruto takes after his father in looks, and his mother in personality?" Sakura asked.

"Pretty much." Jiraiya agreed. "Though he isn't exactly the same." He sat up. "Naruto is more... restrained than Kushina was. He's also a lot more devious and cunning than she was, and more willing to make friends."

Sasuke nodded. "Wanting to become friends with the Kyuubi, for example."

"Hey, if Drich can become friends with the Sanbi, I can befriend the Kyuubi." Naruto nodded.

"Is... that why you're doing it?"

"Not entirely." He shook his head. "I want to befriend him for a lot of reasons. Mostly just because I can."

I noted a flash of annoyance in the Kyuubi's Heart, which faded quickly.

"He's not making it easy, though." He rapped his knuckles against his stomach, over his seal. "But, one day, it's going to happen."

"Perhaps you should start with learning his name."

Naruto blinked. "The Kyuubi has a name?"

I stared at him. "Naruto, all the Bijuu have names. The Sanbi's is Isobu."

"Isobu..." Naruto tested the name out. "Huh. You know, I never even thought about..." He fell silent.

"Most people don't." I noted. "To most, the Bijuu are just ancient, mindless beings of destruction. They are ancient, but to call them mindless beings of destruction is wrong. They are capable of it, yes, but that is certainly not all that they are."

There was a minor note of curiosity in the Kyuubi's Heart. Naruto blinked a moment later.

"Kyuubi wants to know how much you know about them." He said.

"Oh, I know a lot of things. More than most beings do, not as much as I want to."

"And there's the being vague." Sasuke commented.

"Hey, I got to keep up the mystery somehow." I made a show of looking at my claws.

I paused.

"Actually, hold that thought."

"Hey."

One vast eye opened, an inner glow piercing the darkness of the water.

"Just thought I'd stop by to give a warning."

Isobu blinked.

"There's a bunch of ninjas gathering around this area." I said. "I'm fairly certain you've been found."

Isobu's eye narrowed.

Then, he started moving, pushing upwards, off the bottom of the swamp that he had been resting in.

I was pressed against his shell, taken along for the ride.

We broke the top of the water quickly -Isobu was big, and I sometimes wondered how he managed to find places where he could actually go underneath the water-, emerging with a massive spray of water that would have drenched the surroundings if we weren't already in a swamp.

He looked around, his eye quickly scanning the landscape for anything.

He found them, and glared in the direction of one of the groups- which was standing on top of a raised rock platform, etched with seals.

"Oh shit!" Came a cry from within the swamp.

Quickly, he spun around, one of his tails coming down to smash into the water next to him, sending a massive wave at the gathered ninja.

And then, he took off in the opposite direction, hurrying away from the ninja with far more speed and grace than one might expect from his something his size and shape.

"A year." He rumbled. "Not even a single year."

"Twice in the same year is not a good year."

"No." He agreed. "It really isn't. Do you have any idea how many sleeping spots I've gone through over the last decade?"

"I don't. Enlighten me?"

"Eight." He grunted. "They're finding me far, far too often. At this rate, I'm going to have to go into the ocean just to avoid them."

I teleported, shifting onto Isobu's head. "To be honest, I'm kind of surprised that you can avoid them at all. You're not exactly stealthy."

"It's not easy." He noted.

There was a thunderous boom as one of his tails crashed into the ground behind us, a portion of his Chakra sinking into it.

A moment later, the Chakra exploded upwards, producing a massive growth of coral, upwards and outwards, eventually surpassing the size of Isobu himself.

"Though, that helps." He kept moving, not slowing down for a moment. "Is it really too much to ask that they just leave me alone?"

"You already know the answer to that question."

"Yeah..." He sighed. "And I still don't like it."

"Of course not." I stated. "Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do about it. That's simply how the ninja world is."

We reached a cliff and promptly went right over it, diving to the water below.

The last thing I heard before we went under was a far-distant "Son of a bitch!"