He shook his head and made his way to his bedroom. As he shed his clothes Naruto's hand went to the necklaces he had on. More specifically the one he had gotten on his recent mission. It was a near replica of both Haku's and the Shodai's Necklace except instead of being turquoise or a light green, it was a deep blue and did not have a snowflake surrounding it. The Daimyo of Kiba No Kuni had given it to him as a thank you and to be rid of what he thought was a curse since Aoi was apparently after the necklace, and it had not been the first time he had, had people try to kill simply so they could get their hands on it.
He absently wondered if these necklaces held some kind of connection, and if they did, what? Dispelling the thought Naruto sunk onto his bed and closed his eyes; bringing himself into his mindscape.
The next thing Naruto knew was he was laying on the bed in Kyuubi's hut while she sat near the edge of the bed with her tails in her lap and looking at him with an amused expression, "Kyuu-chan."
"Welcome back Naruto-kun," Kyuubi greeted with a smile, even though Naruto could not see it with his eyes closed. "You seem tired."
Naruto cracked an eye open as he looked over at Kyuubi and gave her a small grin, "Well I'm tired of all these boring ass missions anyways. Life's getting too monotonous, I need some excitement to spice it up." he paused for a moment, "Though this last mission wasn't bad, I got a hot date, I got to beat the shit out of some guy, got the bounty of the guy I beat the shit out of and got two swords, one of which belonged to the Nidaime Hokage. Yep, definitely a good mission this time."
He never noticed the narrowing of Kyuubi's eyes or the way her lips became thin lines, especially since the look was gone before he could notice.
"Oh? Am I not exciting enough?" asked Kyuubi in a mock hurt voice.
Naruto just rolled his eyes, "You know what I mean Kyuu-chan. The missions they have me doing while kind of exciting, are for the most part boring. This last one was actually the most exciting one I've had in a long time, and even then that Aoi guy was a pansy. I can't believe someone as weak as him was able to wield the Raijin No Ken."
"He reminded me a lot of that Mizuki person," Kyuubi hummed in thought. "Chances are he tricked some poor naïve Genin into stealing it for him. Maybe he told them they would be allowed to become Genin if they did that for him."
"Hardy har har," Naruto glared at Kyuubi as she gave him a cheeky grin. He set his head back down on the pillow that was under it, "You're so damn lucky I'm comfortable and you're the most powerful demon in existence or I would kick your ass."
Kyuubi grinned mischievously, "Ah, but I am the most powerful demon in existence, so there is really nothing you can do."
Naruto grumbled a bit before falling silent. For a while he just listened to the breathing he and Kyuubi were doing. Finally he asked a question he had been curious about, "Hey Kyuu-chan. Do you have a name other than Kyuubi?" When the demoness looked at him oddly he elaborated, "It just seems like Kyuubi is more of a title then anything."
Kyuubi hummed for a moment, "I suppose it is both my title and my name. You have to understand when I would pose as nobility I went by many names. Thousands even. I do not even remember all of the names I have gone by in my lifetime." She paused for a moment and began to move along the bed.
Naruto looked over when he felt the bed shift and saw Kyuubi laying down on the other side of the bed, getting herself comfortable before continuing her story, "I suppose if I were to have a name, it would be Kyotome, the name given to me by the people who 'raised' me when I first gained a human form."
"So you can't remember the thousands of names you've gone by, but that one you can? Sentimental much?" asked Naruto with a grin.
"Don't be ridiculous," Kyuubi scoffed. "They were humans, I am not and while they could be considered the closest thing to a family I have had, those facts won't change. There is no point in being sentimental about things like that. They served their purpose, though I do have a certain fondness for the name as it was my first."
"Would you like me to call you that?" Kyuubi looked down and noticed Naruto was giving her an intent look.
She gave an uncaring shrug, "You can call me whatever you want. Personally I don't really care about names; those are something you humans give to others. Unlike Kyotome, Kyuubi reflects exactly who and what I am."
Naruto sighed, "I suppose Kyuu-chan will do for now then."
Kyuubi shrugged her shoulders as if to say 'whatever you'd like' before looking back up at the ceiling. The rest of their time within the seal it was relatively silent with only a smattering of conversation between them.
It was several hours later when Naruto was brought out of his mindscape by a knock at the door. Grumbling he made his way to front door and opened it to see a bear masked ANBU standing there, "Does Baa-chan need me for something Kuma-san?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama wishes to speak with you about something," Kuma replied.
Naruto nodded. "Tell her I'll be there in a minute, I just need to get ready."
The bear masked ANBU member nodded and disappeared within a Shunshin.
"You called baa-chan!" Naruto shouted as he entered Tsunade's office, ducking under a paperweight sent his way.
Tsunade glared at him for a second before getting down to business, "Yes I did brat. Or to be more accurate he did."
Naruto looked to where Tsunade was pointing and saw the air shimmer to reveal Jiraiya, "Ero-sennin? What are you doing here? I thought you would be peeping at the hot springs for your next book or something."
Jiraiya crossed his arm, "Still a disrespectful brat I see. I called you here because I have some important information that has to do with you, as well as an offer to train you."
That took Naruto by a bit of surprise, "Train me?"
"That's right gaki. You remember what I've told you about Akatsuki?" Naruto nodded. "It seems their still searching for the other Bijuu and their hosts, now I don't really know what this means for you but it is possible they may make the attempt again. And since they've already infiltrated Konoha once already…"
Naruto frowned, "So this means there is a chance they'll attack me within Konoha's walls?" When he saw Jiraiya nod he grinned, "So I'm guessing there's a reason you actually had to call me in to tell me this, otherwise you would have just popped up in my house and said I'm going to train you."
"Got it in one gaki," Jiraiya smirked before getting serious. "Because of my spy network I can't stay in the village, if I'm going to train you, we need to leave the village for a certain amount of time."
Naruto narrowed his eyes as he saw where this was going, "And how long is a 'certain' amount of time."
"Three years," Tsunade answered before Jiraiya.
"No," Naruto shook his head. "There is no way I'm leaving for three years. You can get any of those thoughts out of your head right now, I have no interest in being gone that long."
"Be reasonable gaki," Jiraiya said. "I can't stay here to train you, but you need to be trained by someone who is strong enough to take on S-ranked ninja. The only people in this village who are capable of that are myself and Tsunade. And you're no medical ninja."
"I'm not putting off my career for three years so I can go gallivanting with your perverted ass Ero-sennin," Naruto crossed his arms as if say his decision was final.
"Your career won't be put on hold for this Naruto," Tsunade interrupted, getting the blond to look at her. "You and Jiraiya will be doing missions outside of the village to gain experience while he teaches you. Jiraiya is going to send me regular reports on your progress during these missions, and if you do well enough I will promote you to Jonin upon your return."
"What about my friends?" asked Naruto. "I'll be leaving for three years; I don't want to be away from them for that long." An image of Tenten popped into his head when he said that but he shook thoughts of her away and refocused his attention on the two others in the room.
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