chapter 13

meeting the Kyuubi

"We're going to be doing something a bit different today," Kurenai-sensei told the combined teams seven and eight. "The other night, Asuma informed me that you, Naruto, need to learn some meditation exercises. Is that correct?"

He looked up at the red-eyed jonin, his answer more subdued than it would have normally been as he thought of just why he needed to learn the exercises. "Yeah, right."

"Since the art of meditation can be useful for all sorts of things," she continued, "I decided that it would be best to teach it to all of you. Hinata, Shikamaru, Chouji, I have already taught you the basic idea behind meditation in the past. Care to explain it to your friends?" Somehow, the request had more of the feel of a command.

The... big-boned... genin spoke up after a moment, as one of his teammates was busy watching the clouds while the other couldn't seem to find her voice, instead making a few strange stuttering sounds before giving up. "Well, y'see -munch- the point of most meditation -munch- is to sorta clear your mind -munch- and focus only on yourself -munch- so you can sense your own body and chakra -munch- in a clearer way."

The woman cut him off with a wave of her hand. "Shikamaru? Would you kindly continue?"

He yawned. "Troublesome. When trying to meditate, you have to block all your senses from your mind and sorta relax, but you're not allowed to fall asleep."

Apparently, that was all he was going to say.

"U-um," the Hyuuga girl picked up, "O-once you've reached a m-meditative state, you will f-feel yourself d-drifting away from y-your body. It-it's hard to e-explain in words." For some reason, Hinata's face was really red; Naruto wondered if she might have had a fever. The weird girl seemed to get sick an awful lot, but she still made it to her team training every day. That was pretty admirable if you asked him.

"Correct. Thank you, you three." the red-eyed woman praised. "The meditation technique I will be teaching you today, though, is different from regular meditation. It is a technique to help one explore their own mind and should not be attempted by yourselves until you are very skilled, as the mind is a very delicate thing." On the mention of entering the mind, the blue-eyed boy noticed Ino perk up, as Shikamaru shot a brief glance in his direction, probably wondering just what he needed to get inside his own head for

"The purpose of the exercise we are about to do is to get you into the state from which you can move into your mind. When it succeeds, you will know instantly, and you should be able to spend what feels like as much time as you want inside. Let us begin.

"Now," she began giving them instructions, which they all followed as she spoke, "I want all of you to lay down on your backs in the grass. Close your eyes and listen to nothing but the sound of my voice and the steady rhythm of your breathing. Feel your chakra as it flows through your body, and relax."

Naruto was having trouble following that last bit. It was, after all, pretty hard to relax when you're preparing to meet the most powerful demon in existence. "Let all the tension flow out of your body. Feel the comforting warmth of the sun, but do not pay attention to it. It is simply there, part of the world around you..." She went on like this for what seemed like forever, but the young genin just couldn't get himself to relax, damn it!

"It should feel as though you are separate from your body, yet more a part of yourself. Sensations should feel heightened, but distant. Once you reach this state, simply imagine yourself being inside your own mind. Do not try and give form to your mind, that will come on its own. Just imagine yourself being there. I will now cast a genjutsu to help you along. Let the chakra wash over you and pass through you."

Just as she had said, Naruto could feel the wave of chakra move through him. He tried to picture himself inside his own mind, as Kurenai-sensei had instructed, but mental images of giant nine-tailed kitsune kept on interrupting his thoughts.

For about thirty seconds this went on. Thirty slow, agonizing seconds of complete silence, during which the boy knew without a doubt he had completely failed this first attempt. Then he heard Ino, Hinata, and Chouji simultaneously let out quiet sighs of amazement and joy.

"You can all open your eyes now," the jonin kunoichi told them. "I see it worked for the three of you." She gestured to the ones who had sighed. "For the others, let's figure out where you went wrong. Shikamaru," the woman called out to her lazy student, telling him to go first.

He didn't answer.

"Shikamaru?"

Still nothing.

The Nara boy had fallen asleep. His sensei glared at him. "Shikamaru, wake up."

Nothing.

"May I do it?" Naruto asked. He didn't bother waiting for an answer, though, instead making a single kage bunshin and having it henge into a bucket. There was a stream about a fifteen second sprint away with some very cold water.

Half a minute later, the lazy genin woke up, wet and shivering. He glared at the smirking blonde, muttered "troublesome," and stalked off.

Kurenai-sensei continued as though it hadn't happened. "Now we know why it didn't work for him. Kiba, where do you think your problem was?"

The Inuzuka stopped to think for a moment before answering, slowly. "It... it has to do with the way Akamaru and I are bonded. I can't really get that feeling of just myself that we needed because he's always there too."

The woman gazed at the boy and his companion. "If you wish to attempt this exercise again, there is a jutsu I can use on you that will temporarily weaken the bond between the two of you, though it can only work with your cooperation. I will understand if you do not wish to do this, as that kind of bo-"

"No, I'll give it a shot," Kiba interrupted.

She nodded. "Very well. And Naruto, why do you thi-"

The blonde boy also cut her off mid-sentence. "I couldn't relax."

The red-eyed jonin pursed her lips. "I cans see why, given just what you are trying to achieve by doing this. Hmm..." She paused for a moment, considering. "Hinata, since you have already succeeded in this exercise, I would like you to help Naruto to become relaxed as he meditates. Doing so should also help you to work on some issues as well."

The boy saw everyone else except for Kurenai-sensei go into a state of shock, even Shikamaru, who had just returned wearing dry clothes while the pale-eyed girl herself turned beet red. Whatever was making her sick must have been something really strong, that came and went suddenly, for her to be fine one moment and sweating and red-faced the next.

It took her some minutes before the fever went down and she started to speak semi-clearly again. "U-umm, N-Naruto-kun..."

"Go on, Hinata," the woman encouraged her.

"U-um... I-I'm g-g-going to g-g-give y-you a m-m-m-massage, s-so I-I'll n-n-need you to t-t-take o-off yo-your sh-sh-sh-shirt." Wow, the weird girl stuttered a lot.

"Okay," he responded, unzipping his jacket and pulling his T-shirt up over his head. At the same time, though, Hinata's fever came back, worse than ever. "Oi, Hinata, you sure you'll be okay? That looks like a nasty fever..." Just to check, he put his hand to her forehead. "You're burning up! We need to get you to the hospital right away! Climb up on my back, and I'll carry you!"

Then she fainted, and Naruto really started to panic. What if she died from whatever she had? It was worse today than he'd ever seen it before! What if-

A strong grip on his shoulder forced the boy to stop. Kurenai-sensei looked down at him kindly. "She'll be fine, Naruto. Just give her a minute."

It didn't really make any sense to him. People didn't normally recover from high fevers and fainting in only a minute, but the jonin's restraining hand kept him from doing anything. As they waited, he could hear the laziest genin in Konoha mutter "Troublesome," and Ino and Kiba let out a sigh in unison. It was the sigh they reserved for whenever he did something really, really stupid, but this time Naruto just couldn't figure out what it was. He'd have to ask them later.

Sure enough, though, Hinata did wake up after about a minute. The fever was stll there, but it didn't seem quite as bad as it had been.

"I-'m s-sorry," she apologized.

She sure did that a lot. "Sorry for what?" he asked. "You can't help it when you get sick. You really don't need to apologize so much, Hinata."

"Ah, s-sor-" She cut herself off in mid word. "Th-this time, when Kurenai-sensei is t-talking to y-you, I w-will be sending my ch-chakra into you slowly to h-help you re-relax."

Naruto grinned at her. "Sounds good. Thanks, Hinata!"

Kurenai-sensei turned to Kiba. "Are you sure you want to do this? It will be quite painful."

His teammate and Akamaru were resolved. "I want to know what my mind is like. Besides, we can handle a little pain, right, Akamaru?"

"Arf!"

"Very well." She formed the handseals so quickly the blue-eyed boy could make out nothing more than a blur.

"Shinkon Rikaku no Jutsu" (soul separation jutsu)

Both the Inuzuka and his companion let out an agonizing howl of pain and anguish for almost five seconds straight. The two blondes of team seven were at their side in an instant. Akamaru was panting heavily, and Kiba was slumped over, a hand clutched to his heart.

"Kiba! How're you feeling?" Naruto asked in concern.

"Ugh... Hell... Like someone... ripped out my heart..." he gasped out.

Kurenai-sensei had a serious look on her face. "I did try to warn you. Do you still feel up to doing this?"

"Yeah, just... Just gimme a minute..."

"Take as much time as you need," she comforted him. "The effects of the jutsu will last for two hours."

It was actually closer to five minutes before the dog boy was ready. "All right, let us try this again. Shikamaru, no falling asleep. Chouji, Ino, feel free to join in if you wish."

This time, Hinata's gentle touch and the soothing flow of her chakra through his coils made Naruto's body relax. Her soft hands ran across his stomach, sending out slow pulses of chakra. It felt nice.

It still didn't work, though. Despite feeling more relaxed than he ever had before in his life, the demon container never found himself slipping into that state of mind Kurenai-sensei wanted them to reach, where everything was sharp yet not wholly there, where he was part of himself yet not. Strange, but now that he thought about it, it sounded like a familiar sensation...

The other four let out sighs of contentment, signaling the end of the exercise and that they had all gotten it to work. Why did everything have to be so hard for him? Oh well, the blonde was used to it by now.

"What didn't work this time, Naruto?" She wasn't belittling him, like so many of the Academy teachers used to. No, Kurenai-sensei had asked the question in a supportive voice. She wanted to know where the problem was so they could fix it before trying again.

"It's that 'there but not there' state we have to get to. I couldn't. But..." he thought for a moment. "The way you describe it, it sounds a lot like how I'll sometimes feel during a really intense spar, when I sorta let go and start running on instinct, y'know? So I was thinking, if I could maybe be relaxed and fighting at the same time somehow, then it might work, right?"

The red-eyed jonin paused to consider this. "Since so many of the usual rules about how people function do not seem to apply to you, Naruto, it just might. We'll give it a shot, but this will likely be difficult. Get ready for battle and stay that way as Hinata makes your body relax, then come at me with everything you have while keeping yourself in that relaxed state. I should tell you, however, that I don not think anyone has ever tried anything like this before, so I have no idea how it will turn out."

The small genin slipped into battle mode, senses sharpening and taking in every detail of his surroundings, while his full attention was on Kurenai-sensei. He could feel Hinata's hands running across him again, forcing his body into a relaxed state.

Trying to hold both the combat state and the relaxed state at once was taking every bit of concentration he had. Naruto really wasn't sure how long he could keep it up...

Then his opponent rushed at him, and there was no time for thinking. He crouched under a kick at his head, lashing out with a quick right fist at the same time. But there was suddenly another kick heading for his feet, so he leapt straight backwards, flipping around in midair and doing a handspring back towards his opponent, feet first. The woman twirled to the side, and he could hear a punch heading for his ribs. He grabbed the incoming fist with his closer hand and used it as support to throw himself just over his opponent's head, aiming a kick at her back as he came down, while the other foot aligned itself with the ground to prepare for landing. She bent forward to avoid it, and the fight continued.

Naruto could feel it. A sort of double state of being, where he was relaxed and tense at the same time, completely calm, and yet feeling everything around him with perfect clarity. This was it. He tried to imagine what it would be like to be inside his own mind...

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A sewer. His mind was a sewer. That was just great; he had a stinky, smelly, wet, dark sewer for a mind. Right, now he had come here to meet the fox, so the best way to find the bastard would be to follow that dim red glow coupled with a distant feeling of tremendous power he could feel from up ahead. He walked, wading through the calf-deep water for what felt like both an eternity and no time at all. Then he found himself in front of a gigantic cage, without ever having actually gotten there. He was just there. The mind was weird like that, the boy guessed. The cage was gargantuan. Gargantuan, he liked that word, so rare that you had a chance to use it in a sentence. He'd learned it a couple weeks back, while still in Wave. And right in the middle of the cage was a slip of paper, slightly larger than his hand, with the kanji for "seal" on it.

Behind the cage was the Kyuubi. "So, you finally come before Me," it boomed. Naruto looked up at the great beast. The Kyuubi no Kitsune, mightiest of the Bijuu, a being of near-infinite power and destruction, its blood-red eyes, each much larger than he was, concentrating their gaze in him, its light orange fur stretched over powerful muscles, and its nine tails waving about behind it, extending into the darkness. The amount of raw power he could feel coming off of it was unreal.

"Aren't you supposed to be bigger?" he asked. Not that the beast was small by any means, just that the stories described it as over a hundred meters tall, while the demon before him was no more than fifty.

It laughed cruelly. "Heh he heh. You've got guts, boy. I am limiting My power because the full extent of My greatness would probably break your puny little mind. Actually, that wouldn't be so bad..."

Without any further warning, there was a bright flash of white light and the feeling of power increased to such a level that Naruto was forced to his knees.

No way was he gonna stay like that, though. Slowly, painfully, he got his feet under him once more and began rising to a stand, under what felt like several tons of pressure trying to force him down. He brought his head up to look at the fox once more and would have gasped, had part of his mind not realized that was probably exactly the kind of reaction the great kitsune wanted.

Great was indeed a fitting word. The Kyuubi was so large that it momentarily threw off his depth perception, not just a hundred meters tall, but a full two hundred fifty. It was nearly a mile away, the slip of paper so far that his excellent vision couldn't make it out as more than a tiny dot. The cage had expanded too, of course, each bar probably at least twice as thick around as the trees in Konoha. Every aspect of the fox seemed to have been intensified in some way. The huge blood-red eyes were glowing, giving off a light of their own Even from this distance, he knew that the claws and teeth would be sharp enough to easily slice through chakra-hardened steel without applying any real pressure. The kitsune's frame had become even more muscular, every slight movement of its body accompanied by a shift in the huge, powerful, toned muscle. And the nine tails, now clearly visible, as if light was now radiating from the fox itself, moved about gracefully in the air behind it, a symbol of its absolute power.

"So you are still sane and even able to stand? Impressive. Very few have a mind that strong. But your strength will make it all the more satisfying when I do break you." Its voice was even louder than before, and Naruto's whole body vibrated with the sound.

"I will NEVER give in to you!" he shouted.

The Kyuubi laughed again, a low, dark chuckle that filled the air throughout the impossibly large chamber. "Your spirit is admirable, but pointless. As I told you before, you have already had a taste of My power. It is only a matter of time until you come back for more. And then your body will be Mine."

"Like hell. I'd rather die." Some part of him knew that the fox would be able to hear him clearly, even over this distance.

"You will fall to Me, Naruto, for My power is greater than all."

The blonde smirked. "Oh really? Then how'd you end up stuck in me?" he goaded. Of course, purposefully attempting to anger a demon so old and powerful that no one knows just how old and powerful it is isn't usually the smartest idea. And it makes you feel like an idiot when it doesn't work.

The kitsune smiled. And there was something about the way that it smiled that made Naruto feel uneasy. Like it knew something he didn't. "You really want to know? I suppose I can tell you, as it is far too late now for anything to stop Me.

"Several millennia ago, I realized that if I stayed in My original body, I would never reach the peak of My power. The body was imperfect, tiny flaws running throughout it. So I set things in motion to make for myself a new body. The perfect body.

"Though it was not My preferred method, I worked silently, unnoticed, manipulating this human to fall in love with that one so they would have a child with these traits, thousands of times over, in all parts of the world, and waited until a set came within five generations of the end result. Then I laid a trap, to be sure none would be able to realize My purpose in time to do anything to prevent it. I implanted a bit of My power into the eyes of a human. When the time came, he and his descendants would take the blame for My actions.

"Finally, a little over twelve years ago, you were conceived. My perfect body, or as close to it as needed. A few last manipulations, implanting the idea for the jutsu used to seal Me into the head of your Yondaime Hokage, making the weakling I gave My power to, Madara Uchiha, believe he could control Me, then I waited.

"I waited until the night of your birth, before allowing Madara to 'send' Me to destroy your village. Had I truly wanted it destroyed, the place you call home would have been nothing more than a hole in the ground, but I didn't. I simply caused enough destruction and mayhem, having quite a fun time as I did so, that your Hokage was forced to stop Me, using the jutsu I had given him to seal Me into the only newborn that night. You.

"You wanted to know, Naruto, how I was sealed into you despite My power? I did it on purpose. You see, there was one flaw I made sure to include when placing the idea for the jutsu into your leader's mind. For the briefest instant after the sealing, I had full access to your body, and that was when I made the final changes.

"You were still human at that time, genetically superior to the greatest extent possible, but still human. I used my instant to improve you, make you better, make you more, form you into the perfect vessel for My power. I improved every aspect of your physical being, giving you the potential to be stronger, faster, smarter, and millions of other changes you would not be able to comprehend. Your senses, your memory, your healing rate, your lack of need for sleep, your near-constant excess of energy, all these and more come from what I did that night. Your body was built to function with Me. That is why you found My power to be so irresistible when you used it."

Naruto stood there for what felt like hours, going over everything he had just learned from the Kyuubi. As much as he wanted to believe it was a lie, the fox's words made too much damn sense to be anything but the truth. He really was a monster then... The villagers had been right all along...

"No!"

He searched around for the voice. It had sounded... familiar, like a memory from a dream. There was no one, though. No one but himself and a now angry Kyuubi. Angry because he had been crumbling falling apart, the last thing between it and its final goal nearly gone, when that single word had floated in. That one word, spoken in a voice so full of confidence, belief, and hope that he couldn't help but agree.

He wasn't a monster! He was Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konoha! No matter wether his body was technically human or not, his mind was! And that was what mattered. To think that he had almost forgotten that about himself again, only to be reminded at the last possible moment, just like Iruka-sensei had done for him that night in the forest.

And now Naruto was angry too. Angry at himself for nearly falling into the kitsune's trap, and even more angry at the fox itself for the way it had played God with him and his ancestors. He had previously been considering asking the Kyuubi about his parents but changed his mind. It probably wouldn't have told him, anyway.

"Nice try, furball, but it didn't work!" he jeered at the beast.

"Leave." it growled out, the low rumble more like a small earthquake than a sound. The fox's tone was one of warning and danger, the kind of voice that would have any sane person running as far away from it as possible.

Fortunately, Naruto wasn't quite sane, at least according to the psychowatchamacalit evaluation Asuma-sensei had made him do the day after they had gotten back. "Make me." He glared defiantly at the demon, piercing blue eyes looking into giant, glowing red ones, and braced himself physically and mentally for whatever the Kyuubi was about to do.

"ROOOOAAAAARRRR!"

The sound was deafening, and the sheer force it was delivered with forced all the water from the room in seconds. The small boy held firm. This was his mind, and there was no fucking way he was about to lose to the bastard that had destroyed his entire life! The Kyuubi launched an enormous mass of vile red chakra at him, larger even than the fox itself, filling the entire chamber. Naruto brought up his own bright blue chakra, in amounts far greater than anything he could have hoped to manage in his physical body, and wrapped it around himself in a dense, shining shield of light just before the wave hit. It felt like hours before the shaking and roaring stopped, and the kitsune's power output lowered from 'all-consuming' to 'mind-blowing.' He hadn't moved.

Naruto let his chakra shield fade away, smirked at the Kyuubi, and walked out, knowing he had won this round.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Not the least bit prepared for the sudden shift back to reality, the young ninja crashed into the ground, hard. It was at that point he remembered that he'd been in mid-jump when he'd entered his mind.

Kurenai-sensei turned to look at him. "It worked, then?"

"Yeah, it worked." He smiled, because even though there was all that stuff he had learned from the fox, and he knew his mind wasn't anywhere near done dealing with that, he had succeeded in getting into his own mind and in pissing off the most powerful being in existence and living to tell about it. The quiet in the back part of his conscious mind where the demon resided proved that it too knew he had come out on top in their first meeting.

"So, what was your mind like, Naruto?" his fellow blue-eyed blonde asked excitedly.

Kiba of course threw in his own bit. "Yeah, mine was really neat. It was like the forests around Konoha, but there were cats everywhere for me to chase, and every cat would run away and climb a different tree, and when I followed, I could relive some of my memories! So how about it?"

He made sure to face away from his friends and kept his voice sounding exactly the way he wanted it. "Secret," the demon container said, before turning back to them, a playful smirk on his features.

"Oh come on!" Ino shouted out, exasperated. "I'll tell you about mine," she enticed.

"Maybe some other day. Besides," he grinned at the team's kunoichi, "yours is probably a field of flowers, with some kunai here and there for your violent side."

The Yamanaka's mouth fell open. "H-how did you..."

"No way, I was right? Awesome!" He laughed at his unbelievable luck.

Then the girl's mouth closed up into a small smirk, not unlike the one he had just given the furball inside his head. "Gotchya."

"Damn it." He could stand up to the Kyuubi on Kitsune, but not Yamanaka Ino. Amazing.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

comments: (note that the comments for chapters 1-16 were written well after the chapters themselves)

This chapter is divided into two distinct halves. The first half is a bit more lighthearted, with a bit of oh-so-sweet Naru/Hina, along with the rest of the team 7/8 interaction. I'm sure there's a lot of reader who are upset that this isn't a Naru/Hina fic (and probably just about as many happy it isn't). Personally, I love that pairing, and the ways they interact with each other, but it just wouldn't fit the tone I'm going for in this story.

I also try to put a bit of emphasis on Kiba in this first half, as I feel I neglected him in the last chapter. His bond with Akamaru (and that of all Inuzuka with their companions), in my story, is more than just friendship. There's actually a deep connection between their souls, to the point where they physically can't live apart.

The second half of the chapter is exposition time. Naruto finally meets up with the Kyuubi, and the fox reveals something I'd been planning since the moment I started this story. Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen any author give the Kyuubi a legitimate reason to want to attack. 99% of the time, it's manipulated by someone, and the other 1% is because it's a being of destruction and wanted to destroy. I took a different approach, and it was fun finally being able to reveal all this stuff to my readers.

To finish off, the line "like a memory from a dream" is stolen. Naming the source gets you a cookie.