After the pain

Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own Kakashi or Kyubi, as much as I would like too, but I hope
you enjoy the chapter any way.

slain lord Baki: Summer is super insanely buisy, sorry.

Purebloodprince: All I will say is...I LOVE TWISTS!!! Hope yu hang around for them, if not thank you for reading so far.

curiouse_corbi: I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT!!!!! You almost gave stuff away!

Max Suptal & blutark: Gaara is a little unpredictable, you never know when he will show up or what he will do. (Except me:) )

slade & sailor mercury: Thanks to both of you, hope you enjoy the rest.

FireKitty: Suffer badly??? That is a rather delcate term don't ya think? heheheheh * rubs hands together evily *

Reemu-Chan: You're no annoying in the least, I loved your review. And ditto on the first part before you said you were getting off topic.
Because I love it when people try to guess I will tell you one little thing. The messanger is alive he just can't travel right now.
As for Naruto and Temari..... read on my friend.

Thank you all again for your reviews, they help me out a lot and keep me motivated. Enjoy the chap.

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Chapter Thirteen (MY fav number)


Dust billowed into the air as he skidded across the ground on his side.
Cursing under his breath Kakashi managed to roll onto all fours as he came to a halt, he was barely stationary before he teleported into the trees.

Reappearing on a sturdy tree branch the silver haired jonin slumped against the trunk breathing heavily.

‘What the hell has gotten into him?’ He wondered as he tried to keep a bead on his opponent’s position while he regained his breath.

Glancing up at the sun the scarecrow cursed again.
They had only been at this for about half an hour, but it seemed like a hell of a lot longer.

Kakashi had known for a while now that Naruto barely broke a sweat when they spared together, and even though Kakashi didn’t exactly strain his self either he knew his former students’ abilities far surpassed his own.
But it had never been as blatant as it was this day.

But then something was very different about the fox boy today, he seemed agitated and tense, very unlike his usual relaxed self, This was very pronounced in his fighting style.

The silver haired man had found himself on the defensive during the entire bout, barely able to keep ahead of the intense range of attacks.
He was just thankful that as of yet Naruto had refrained from using any weapons.

With the amount of power he was putting behind his blows, weapons like a kunai would pass right though the trunk of a tree.

‘Speaking of trees, maybe I should have left him to beat up the poor things like he was when I arrived.’ Kakashi mused to himself as he moved to a different perch.
‘Then he could have just taken out what ever it is that is bothering him on something other then me.’

But it was to late now so Kakashi focused on trying to figure out how he was going to survive this ‘training session’ in one piece.

“Oh Sensei!” Naruto’s singsong voice drifted through the training grounds.

The tone sounded sickeningly sweet to Kakashi as he peered though the leaves of his currant hiding spot to see the big blonde standing in the middle of the small clearing.
He stood with his arms folded across his bare chest and a rather annoyed look on his face.

“Come on Hatake, quit fooling around and come fight me for real! I know your holding back!”

‘He has got to be kidding!’ Said jonin groaned.

‘He thinks I’m holding back?’ Now Kakashi had a feeling that he knew what it was like for his students the first time they had faced him.
Only in his case he didn’t have the option of coordinating a group attack.

Sighing he ran through his options and the various techniques at his disposal even as part of his brain was trying to convince him to call the whole session off.

“Tsunade, I just know you have something to do with this.” He muttered under his breath. “I am so going to get you back.”

After a few more seconds of strategizing Kakashi moved to a better view point even as he formed the seals to implement Naruto’s favorite technique.
If he didn’t have any back up he would just have to create some.

With several loud popping noises a dozen Kakashi doppelgangers appeared in the field and surrounded Naruto.

The blonde barely blinked but vanished for a moment only to reappear behind the closest clone and with one smooth lightning fast movement he snapped its neck.

The doppelganger disappeared in a cloud of vapor before it could hit the ground.

Kakashi sat stunned as his other creations charged in, only to be quickly and ruthlessly disposed of by Naruto’s bare hands, He never once reached for a weapon.

A shiver ran through him as he watched the systematic slaughter and was just glad he hadn’t been in the group.

In thirty-eight years Kakashi couldn’t remember having ever actually faced a situation where there was absolutely no chance in hell he could win.

Hell, if Naruto remained the way he was now there wasn’t even a chance that he would land a blow.

“Kakashi! I’m tiered of playing around!” Naruto’s voice thundered through the surrounding area.

The copy-nin was just glad no one else was around at the moment; the blonde was definitely not himself.

‘It’s time to end this session.’ Kakashi decided even as part of him balked at the idea of walking away.
He knew his time would be put to better use trying to figure out what was wrong with his former pupil.

Kakashi straightened from his crouched position, before he could move any farther he saw the blurred motion of Naruto spinning and launching something in his direction.

Only years of finely honed reflexes saved the silver haired man’s life as he automatically dodged to the right as a kunai zipped past his face, grazing his left cheekbone.

Reaching up he touched the spot and found a hole in his mask and a small trickle of blood.

“Shit!”

A growl sounded behind him and he spun in time to see an angry looking blonde cocking his fist.
Reacting immediately Kakashi threw himself backwards off the branch he stood on.
Channeling chakra into his feet he momentarily stood upside down as the tree trunk above him exploded into a million pieces about the size of matchsticks as the kitsune vessel put his fist through it.

Not taking any chances the scarecrow pushed off and bounced through the trees until he was back in the open field, intent on calling an end to the match.
Unfortunately he quickly discovered that Naruto was right behind him and was forced to block a punch that was aimed for his head with his forearms.
The impact reverberated up his arms, momentarily rendering them numb.

“Naruto what the hells wrong with you?” The older jonin demanded as two more blows followed the first.

“Nothing! I just want a decent workout!” The blonde snapped, switching from his fists to his feet.

Kakashi ducked and rolled as a round house kick came at him.

‘Shit shit shit shit!’

It didn’t look like Naruto was going to give him a chance to call off the fight.

That only left one option, it was the only way that that scarecrow saw him self getting out of this predicament in one piece.
As he came back to his feet his right hand reached across his face and straightened his lopsided forehead protector.

The Sharingan flashed red, the wheels started to spin immediately.

“About bloody time.” Naruto laughed as he fell back and settled into a fighting stance.

Kakashi did the same and for a moment neither man moved.
Focusing on bringing his breathing back to normal the copy-nin was distracted from his planning when he noticed that the blonde was breathing as hard as he was.
In fact on closer inspection he realized for the first time that the boy’s body was also dripping with sweat.

‘Wait a second, Naruto doesn’t sweat. What the hell?’ Kakashi knew the kind of abuse that Naruto’s body could take before it started showing signs of strain.
The blondes stamina was second to none, even if he had been up all night beating the crap out of a bunch of trees, there was no way he would be showing such obvious signs of fatigue from there short sparing session, such as it was.

Could he be sick?

“Naruto, I think it’s time to stop.” Kakashi announced as he straightened.

Naruto blinked several times in surprise before his eyes narrowed.

“When I finally get the chance to see your Sharingan in action? Not likely.” He snorted in dismissal.

Kakashi was moving before he had finished speaking.
Two kunai appeared in his hands, the only option that he saw was to momentarily render the big blonde unable to use his arms.

His target was the shoulder joints; he hoped to get close enough by faking a physical assault to send the knives into their targets.

Naruto’s image blinked out only to return much closer, having obviously decided to meet the attack head on, just as Kakashi had expected him too.

Blue eyes clashed with a miss matched pair of red and black, the Sharingan spun sending the illusion that the knives were aimed directly for the center of Naruto’s chest.
The copy-nin’s smiled grimly to himself as he saw the young man’s start to cross in a defensive manner.

‘Exactly what I needed.’

But before he could release his weapons at their intended targets, he found his momentum abruptly halted.

Stunned the silver haired man glanced down to discover that each kunai had been stooped dead by Naruto’s hands.

Kakashi had to blink twice before he was sure of what his eyes were telling him.
The razor tipped weapons had barely punctured the palms; it took him a moment to realize that the young man had channeled chakra into his hands to act as a shield, a move he had never witnessed before.

“Nice try sensei.” Naruto smirked before grabbing hold of the kunai blades heedless of the sharp edges cutting into his hands, he shifted his weight and before the stunned Kakashi could react a brutal kick landed on his chest, sending him flying, then skidding across the ground on his back.

It was the sound of Naruto’s almost manic laughter that brought the stunned silver haired man back to his senses.

“That was so lame Kakashi.” The blonde chuckled. “How could you think that I’d be fooled with that kind of trick?”

Coughing as his lungs recovered from having all the air forced out of them.
Kakashi slowly got to his feet, he was now convinced that Naruto was either sick, or he had completely lost his mind.

Even years ago, in the battles to get Sasuke back from Orochimaru or later in the fights against Itachi and the Akatsuki when Naruto had allowed the Kyubi to merge with him he had not displayed such erratic behavior.

Something was definitely wrong with the boy.

Kakashi’s theory was further compounded when blonde once again attacked.
Still slightly winded the scarecrow was barely able to block the hail storm of blows coming at him.
The three inch height difference between the two had never been more pronounced as Naruto used his added size to his advantage.

A moment later a scream pierced the air accompanied by the sound of breaking bones.

The combatants froze, and Kakashi was suddenly looking into the stunned blue eyes of the Naruto that he knew.

The pain shooting through his right arm caused him to groan.
They both looked down at the same time and Naruto’s face turned as pale as Kakashi was sure his own was as the young man realized that he held the scarecrows now mangled arm in a vice like grip.

“Oh my God!” The blonde Exclaimed, his grip immediately loosening.
“Damn Kakashi, I’m sorry I didn’t….”

“Just help me fix it.” Kakashi interrupted harshly through clenched teeth as he tried to keep his composer despite the mind numbing pain.

“Ya, hold on.”

Almost immediately Kakashi felt a blessed wave of warmth moving through his injured limb as Naruto channeled a flood of healing chakra through it.

“Ready.” He informed the blonde when he was certain that most of the feeling was gone.

Naruto nodded before carefully bringing the miss-shaped appendage back into its normal alignment.
Kakashi gritted his teeth as he felt the bone scraping bone, the pain was virtually none existent but it wasn’t gone completely.
He was just glad that Naruto had some medical training, it would have been a bitch trying to walk to the hospital with his arm as messed up as it was.

“It’s broken in three places.” Naruto informed him in a small voice. “I’ll heal it for you.”

For some reason the offer sent an uneasy feeling threw the older man.

“Don’t bother, just make sure it’s lined up properly.” Kakashi ordered.”

“But…”

“Just do it, and while you’re at it you can tell me what the hell is wrong with you.” It was one of the few times in his life that Kakashi found that the tone of his voice was approaching the volume of a yell.
He blamed most of it on the pain that was starting to creep back down his injured arm; pain wasn’t something that he handled particularly well.
But some of it was also because he was worried about the boy.

Silence reigned in the otherwise empty training grounds as Naruto worked on putting the severed bones back into their proper places.
It was only eight in the morning and the birds were greeting the new day with their sweet songs as they flitted in among the trees that had born witness to the odd one sided battle.

While Naruto worked he summoned a clone and sent it to get bandages and splints to use on Kakashi’s arm when the copy-nin once again forbade him to use his chakra to fuse the bones back together.

Kakashi waited until his right arm had been bound and placed in a makeshift sling before he began pushing Naruto for answers.

“I’ve never seen you like this Naruto, what is going on?”

The blonde fidgeted under his intense double eyed stare, Kakashi had purposely left his Sharingan uncovered so that he could better evaluate the boy.
The mirror wheel eye could help him detect any false hood that might be spoken.

“I don’t know, I guess I’ve been a little stressed lately.” Naruto finally mumbled as he absently massaged the backs of his hands.

The movement drew the older jonin’s attention when he could detect no evasion in the boy’s words.
He realized with a start that Naruto’s knuckles were bleeding.

‘That’s strange; the Kyubi’s power would normally have such minor cuts healed almost instantly.’ Kakashi thought with a frown.

Looking back on the brief session it dawned on him that he had not once felt the presence of the demons chakra during Naruto’s rampage.
Usually when the blonde’s emotions went into over drive one could always feel the nine tail’s power merging and mirroring his.

So what was different about today?
Kakashi had felt the intense emotions flowing through the boy the whole time, so why hadn’t the Kyubi surfaced?

“We better get you to the hospital Sensei.” Naruto told him, interrupting Kakashi’s train of thought.

“Not yet Naruto.” The silver haired man put a restraining hand on his former students shoulder when he made to walk away.

“You still have not told me what was behind all of this.”

Naruto shrugged away from the hand on his shoulder.

“Nothing, I just got a little carried away. It won’t happen again.” The tone of his voice was cold and held no tell tale emotions so after a moment of thought Kakashi decided not to ask anything else at that point in time.

Besides, the numbing sensation was beginning to dissipate leaving his injured arm throbbing with pain.
He really wasn’t feeling up to pushing for answers at that moment so he let the matter drop for the time being.

“Well it looks like you’re out a sparring partner for a while.” He pointed out with a slightly forced chuckle as he reached up with his uninjured left hand to pull his forehead protector back down to its usual position over the Sharingan.

“Looks that way.” Naruto replied as he stuffed his hands into his pants pockets. “I’ll walk you to the hospital.” He muttered refusing once again to meet Kakashi’s gaze.

With that he turned and walked back in the direction of Konoha.
Kakashi followed slowly, painfully and watched the young man as he stopped to retrieve his shirt and vest from where they hung over a low tree branch.

The silver haired man noticed that as Naruto reached for the black material of his t-shirt that his hands seemed to be trembling slightly, not only that but once he had finished pulling the stretchy fabric over his head it looked like his damaged hands were still seeping blood.

This only became more obvious when the blonde used the back of his hand to wipe the sweat off his forehead and the motion left a red smear in its wake.

Kakashi’s worried frown was hidden behind his torn mask, what was wrong with the boy?

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“NOT GOOD! NOT GOOD! NOT GOOD! This is SO not good!” Red eyes flashed. “Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshti! You stupid BASTARD!”

The Kyubi No Yoko had already exhausted every form of cursing in his own language and had now resorted to much more human terms, which he felt was acceptable since he was cursing out one of the blasted bipedal things.

“I can not believe he did this.” The fox growled as he paced his newly shrunken prison.
The pacing quickly reverted to his earlier activity of trying to find a crack in his prison walls. But once again the search ended with no weakness found.

Sharp nails clicked against the stone floor of his prison as the fiery nine tails danced in place, fidgeting in agitation.

In truth the demon was more then agitated, for the first time in his very long life the kitsune was panicking.
It wasn’t the confinement; he had become relatively used to his imprisonment over the years.

It was because for the first time in twenty five years the ancient demon was truly powerless, he had been well and this time truly sealed.
He had no contact with his vessel.

Oh he could still see, hear and smell everything that was going on around the human he inhabited, but he was now separate.
Completely and totally separated from his host’s body.

After Naruto had sealed him two days before Kyubi had thought that the boy had merely severed their communication link which resulted in the demon unable to communicate with the human.

The head aches Naruto had been experiencing in various degrees since then was simply a side effect of the severed link the kitsune was sure of it.

It was just a side effect the fox told himself the night before when after running himself to exhaustion the blonde had been tormented by nightmares.
Nightmares that for the six years and more the Kyubi had blocked, the boy didn’t know that of course.
It was the Kitsune’s way of attempting to make up for the mistakes he had made with the boy, to block out the unwanted and painful memories.

‘But that was just a side effect of severing our mental link.’ The demon had rationalized when Naruto had woke up trembling and drenched in sweat with the fraises ‘Monster’ ‘Demon!’ ‘You should have just died!’ and ‘Stay away, don’t touch me!’ Echoing through his head.

“Just a side effect.” The fox had mumbled to himself as the same images and words had disturbed his slumber as well and his tortured vessel had gone to the training grounds and proceeded to beat the shit out of some very defenseless trees.

At the time the Kyubi had been content with his assessment of the situation as he lay curled in a snug ball, all nine tails wrapped around his body, their tips waving slightly in boredom as he watched the wood shatter beneath the punishing blows of the blonde shinobi.

“He always was good at ignoring what was really bothering him.” He mumbled. “I wonder how long he will be able to ignore this situation.”

The kitsune had welcomed the diversion when the silver haired human had showed up to spar.
But that particular emotion had only lasted about five minuets, as the fox waited for the expected pull on his chakra as the match got off to a fast start.

But the pull never came, even though he could tell that his vessels chakra was getting low. Naruto should have been tapping into his own unlimited supply about then, especially considering the amount of energy he was putting into each blow.

Strong emotion had always brought the two powers together the quickest, at first it had been the boy’s anger or his strong protective instincts. But over the years any surge of emotion would do.
And today the boy’s emotions were in a state of turmoil, they were so intense that the combination of the two chakras could have manifested into a fire ball that could be very destructive if the host wished it to be.

But with the amount of control the boy had it would never come to that, he would usually just channel it into his movements, and in order not to wear out his own body he would simply draw from the Kyubi until he had worked through his frustration or anger.

But he didn’t, feeling a little uneasy Kyubi had uncurled himself, his glistening red and gold tails swishing back and forth as he closed his crimson eyes and for the first time inspected the spell that held him in place with his inner senses.

Understanding had dawned about the same time that Naruto had laughed gleefully at the prospect of facing the legendary copy-nin’s Sharingan.

Kyubi had been floored!
Still was in fact, somehow the blonde had managed to completely sever all tie’s between them, there was not only no communication, there was no sharing of chakra or any other power that the Kyubi possessed.

“This is really really really really REALLY bad.” The demon whined as he tried to break out of his confinement.

His essence flared to life and turned into hot white flames that filled the entire prison in an attempt to burn through the barrier as the ancient creature tried to identify the spell used to bind him.

Naruto needed to be healed as well as have his chakra replenished; his knuckles were raw, cracked and bleeding.
It was of course a very minor injury, but the demon was used to making sure that his host did not have any marks that could be interpreted as a weakness by an enemy.

But now he was prevented from doing even that.

Kyubi whined again when his flaming chakra was unable to render the slightest bit of damage to the bonds that held him.

“I would curse that filthy frog hermit if this was one of his spells.” The vulpine snarled, but as it turned out the creature realized with a start that it was actually a combination of spells that his vessel had used.
A combination that as far as Kyubi knew had never been used or even heard of before now. He didn’t even recognize half of its components, and he knew everything his host did and more.

“The boy is a genius and doesn’t even know it,” the fox sighed. “I bet he doesn’t even know how he did it.”

“So now he’s going through a personal crisis and I can’t do a damn thing about it.”

It wasn’t until the sound of breaking bones reached his pointed ears and he felt the shock, guilt and remorse that flooded through the young man’s emotions, and was quickly followed by the thought. ‘What am I doing?’ that the demon started to suspect that there might be something else wrong with his host.

Yes Naruto was an emotional human as it was, and yes he could loose his temper quite quickly when pushed even if that hadn’t happened in years.
Kyubi knew the fight Naruto had had with his new female was bothering him, but normally he tended to individualize situations.

He never allowed one thing to interfere with something else.
Except for today, blindly taking out his anger and frustration on his sparing partner.

Of course, Kyubi amended tapping one claw thoughtfully; the other day he had allowed thoughts of the female to distract him from a fight as well.

At the time the demon had found it rather amusing and had thought it to be nothing more then his growing attraction for the golden female.

That was before however, now he was starting to wonder if it was possible that the boy was suffering from a type of ……. For lack of a better word, withdrawal symptoms.
After all, regardless of the fact that he had not been aware of it until he was twelve Naruto’s body had been harmonizing with the demon power inside of him since the day he was born.

Kyubi flopped down on his side before slowly rolling onto his back as he tried to decide what to do.
Not that he could do much he admitted, in his currant state of imprisonment.

The fox absently took note that Naruto had returned to his den to shower and change before heading to the Hokage tower.

“What to do, what to do.” He mumbled to himself.

His long tongue lolled out the side of his mouth as he mentally went though his options, as limited as they were.

Naruto could no longer hear him; he had established that in the first hour after being bound.
His vast chakra had somehow been bound and sealed as well; for all intents and purposes the vessel was now free of the demon he carried, a normal human.

Kyubi snorted, half annoyed and half chuckling.

A normal person who may or may not be going though a major case of withdrawal that could rival any addicts, a grin formed on the fox’s face.
The thought actually conjured up a rather interesting picture.

It would have been almost funny if the female wasn’t involved Kyubi decided.
That thought was rather sobering, causing the kitsune to roll again so that he now rested on his belly with his chin resting on his crossed front paws.

‘Perhaps I should have told him that the female was carrying a kit.’ He mused. ‘I scented that as soon as we found her.’

The scent of said female drew his attention to what was happening outside of his prison.
She had asked if Naruto was alright as she had caught his wrapping his abused knuckles.

Kyubi really wanted to hit his host when he only grunted in response while refusing to look the female in the eye.
Kyubi sighed, humans were such stupid creatures at times, they made everything more complicated then it needed to be.

From his prison the ancient demon could smell her distress and uncertainty.

“Talk to her damn it! You need her!” He yelled, only to have his words bounce back at him from his cell’s walls.

He pinned his ears against his head to block out his echoing voice as he fumed, his plan was not going as well as he had hoped.
After all the years he had spent in the back ground, pretending to be his vessels conscience while waiting for him to move on with his life, he was sure of one thing.
The shinobi needed someone to care for and to care for him in return, that was why the demon had chosen this female.

She was a strong fighter in her own right but she was also a caring female having raised her younger siblings.
The kitsune had watched her over the years and become more and more convinced that she was the correct one for his vessel.

That was also the reason that while Naruto had been trying to save the females life the Kyubi had made the decision to heal the kit in her belly.
It made no difference to the fox how the offspring had been conceived all that mattered was that it was there, and it was exactly what the to potential mates needed to bring them together, nothing softened a female like carrying a litter and nothing brought out a males protective instincts like a female and her kits.

But it was just his luck that humans didn’t react to the natural things in life like every other creature on the planet.
No, the female had gone hysterical while Naruto was doing a damn fine job of pretending that the whole incident hadn’t taken place at all.

But still the kitsune was optimistic that his plan would work in the long run, instinct always won out in the end.

His thoughts were interrupted by voices belonging to the two involved in his plans
He wanted to shriek in anger when he heard Naruto tell the female that he would not be joining her for the midday meal before leaving his den without a backwards glance.

“This is really getting out of hand.” Kyubi decided.

“And here I am, getting myself shoved into this miserable box and I can’t do or say anything to help.”

Sighing heavily crimson eyes closed. “Why do humans have to be so damn complicated?” He complained.

“The first time around I messed up, and now when the chance comes to make it right I can’t do squat.”

The kitsune snorted in frustration. “And to think the biggest problem I thought I had was to get the boy to except a kit that wasn’t his own.”

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I’m going to have to leave it there for today other wise it would be another cliffy so I hope you all enjoyed it and please let me know that you think.