"Hmm..." Naruto crossed out a line on his paper. "No, no, no, hexagon staple collapses definitely aren't going to work. Need a slow release instead of sudden one..."

"What are you doing." A voice interrupted him.

"Thinking, Ku-chan." Naruto rolled his eyes. "Duh."

"I know what Fuinjutsu looks like, idiot. What are you doing?" The Kyuubi growled.

"One of the things you said got my interest." Naruto responded. "Err- the other you. The darker one."

"What other me would be you be referring to, idiot?" The Kyuubi asked him. "It's not like there's more than two of me around."

Naruto grunted, scratching his chin. He clicked his fingers, and then wrote down a few lines of notes.

"It didn't escape my attention that you didn't answer my question, brat."

"Ah, fine. Man, you're really in a snit today, aren't you?" He put his pencil down, eyes narrowing at the designs he'd drawn. "The other you said that your soul got ripped in half. The Fourth's work, no question."

"Where are you going with this, brat?"

"I was thinking about Bijuu and Jinchuuriki." Naruto elaborated, picking his pencil up and swirling it in his fingers. "When a Bijuu is sealed into a Jinchuuriki, there's no way to extract the Bijuu without also killing the Jinchuuriki. I'd always attributed it to the Jinchuuriki's body suddenly losing a massive source of Chakra all at once, causing death when the body couldn't adapt."

Naruto waited for a moment for the Kyuubi to interject. When he didn't, Naruto continued on without any hesitation. "I also thought that that would be the only way it could be done. A Bijuu is... a discrete being; you can't just unseal a small part of it, free that part, and then go on to the next."

He smiled. "Can't you?" He asked himself. "You can't take a Bijuu out, piece by piece, can you? It's a Bijuu. One thing, indivisible. But then; your counterpart showed up. Both of you; intelligent, both of you; independent, both of you; the same Chakra split into two."

Naruto waited another moment for another interjection that didn't come. "It can't have been pleasant, but you certainly lived with it, didn't you? It proved that you were... not indivisible. And that? That opens up possibilities."

"Explain."

"I went through Gramps' old records on other Jinchuuriki. Not just the current ones; the older ones. I noticed something; every time the Bijuu were removed from their Jinchuuriki, the Jinchuuriki died immediately." He frowned. "With one exception; Kushina Uzumaki."

A low growl rang through his mind.

"Concentrate, for just one moment, would you?" Naruto asked him. "Why did she not die immediately? It wasn't because she was older than me when she had you sealed in her. Plenty of Jinchuuriki had that, and all died upon removal instantly. Was it because of her special Chakra and her abilities? I thought so, but it didn't make too much sense; there are other Jinchuuriki who were notably more compatible with their Bijuu, who also died upon unsealing. Then, there's only one other reason, isn't there? The Uzumaki Clan's famed vitality. Something we both share."

"Will you get to the point?"

Naruto clicked his tongue. "That is the point. It is possible to survive the release of one's Bijuu for short periods of time following that release. Not long, certainly, but long enough." He looked up, staring at a swirling design on a scroll. "And that? That opens up opportunities."

"'Opportunities'?"

"You know how my seal works, don't you?" Naruto asked.

"I was listening when the pervert explained it." The Kyuubi said in his 'of-course-I-fucking-do' voice.

"Good." Naruto nodded. "The important part of it is that the Eight Triagrams seal has a hole in it."

"Yes, yes, the one that constantly leaks my Chakra into your system!" The Kyuubi roared. "I already said I had been listening, you moron!"

"If you were listening, then surely you can see where I'm going with this, right?" Naruto asked. "Come on, Ku-chan. I know you're not dumb, so I shouldn't have to spell this out for you."

"Naruto." The Kyuubi's voice was deadly serious. He was even using his name. "Stop being coy and explain."

Naruto shook his head. "Fine. I'll spell it out for you. You want freedom, but your freedom means my death. That's just the natural thing with Jinchuuriki. Unsealing of the Bijuu equals death- But what if that wasn't true?"

Silence.

"A Bijuu cannot be unsealed piece by piece. You do all of it at once, or none of it. The sudden loss of it is what causes the death of the Jinchuuriki. The Bijuu cannot be removed slowly- But what if that wasn't true?"

More silence.

"If the answer to both of those questions is that they aren't true, then why can't I release you from my body, bit by bit? Thanks to the nature of the Eight Triagrams seal, your Chakra already leaks out naturally -at a small rate, sure, but we can change that-, so we have a vector for your release. There's a problem in how your Chakra leaks into my system but that can also be fixed. All I need is another seal to catch it before it gets into my system, then lock it up separately. To be safe, I'd have to start small and do that at an increasing rate, to give my body time to get used to having less and less of your Chakra leaking in, but even if I start at only one percent of your Chakra being intercepted, then It's only a matter of months before that turns into a hundred percent-"

"Freedom." The Kyuubi interrupted him. "You're talking about my freedom."

"Yeah." Naruto nodded. "I mean, we might want to hold off for a while so we can get this thing with the Akatsuki done with, but after that, there's not much stopping-"

"Aren't you afraid that, once I'm free, I'll turn around and kill you?"

"Err." Naruto briefly floundered. "I mean, you could try, but I know the seals that contain you pretty well. With Sage Mode and Kage Bunshin, it wouldn't be that hard to stop you-"

"Of course you're not afraid for yourself." Again, the Kyuubi cut him off. "Let me try again. Aren't you afraid that, once I'm free, I'll go blow up, say, Konohagakure?"

"You hate the village for what it represents more than you do for the people currently in it." Naruto noted.

"That has not stopped me before."

Naruto sighed. "Fine. Let me ask you a question, then."

"What?"

"Before the Valley of the End and the whole thing with Madara and Hashirama, the only times you ever appeared in history was when you came out nowhere and obliterated a town, or a village, or a Shinobi Clan, or whatever. Why?"

"Why what? Why did I obliterate them?"

"Well, that, and why did you only appear to destroy something?" Naruto clarified. "I have a theory about it, and I want to know if I'm right."