True Luck

Chapter 5 – Am I the Kyuubi?

Italics – Thoughts

A few weeks passed and Ino was impatiently waiting for Naruto to return. She missed him dearly, and wanted to know his secret.

Well, whatever it is, I hope I can help him with it.

Somehow she got word that Naruto was heading back and was almost there at the gates, so she excused herself from her parents shop and waited by the gates to see him.

A few hours passed, but her feelings never deterred. She was still excited to see her best friends, both Naruto and Sakura. Although her feelings for Sasuke was still there, she began to grow up and notice it was nothing but a crush, as her actions in the past couple of months showed.

"Team 7 coming back from a mission. We're going to report to the Hokage." Ino looked up, apparently she was so distracted by her thoughts and didn't notice that team 7 was right in front of her.

"Sakura! Naru..." she started waving at the group, and saw that Sakura was waving back at her, but Naruto's head was hung low. His clothes were torn, and he didn't look up. She barely noticed that behind the group, there was another person standing there. It was someone with long straight black hair, but that was it, because 'she' was completely tied up.

What's going on? Why is that person tied up? What's wrong with Naru? There were a lot of questions that Ino had, so she decided to just walk up to the group.

"Hey guys, what's going on?"

"Hey Ino, we just got back from our mission. We have to go report to the Hokage." Sakura was the only person that answered her.

"Hey Naru..." She was desperate to try and get a response out of Naruto, but all he did was look up at her and give a weak smile before looking back down. She glanced over at Sakura, and all she did was shake her head.

What's going on? What happened on that mission. She was confused and upset, but there was nothing she could do.

Team 7 arrived in the Hokage's office and after seeing the bonded prisoner, he dismissed his guards and closed the door.

"So what happened?" Sarutobi asked while eying the prisoner.

Kakashi scratched his head, "Well, it looked like our client, Tazuna, misinformed us about the mission parameters. There were enemy ninjas targeting him among other things."

"And her?" Sarutobi pointed at the prisoner, and everyone chuckled.

Naruto decided to step in, "Old man, that's a boy," Sarutobi face-faulted. "His name is Haku and it's my fault that he's here."

Sarutobi recovered from the shock that this beautiful person was a boy, "I captured him after I thought he killed both Sasuke and Saku. I figured he should live to redeem himself from that, but now that I found out he left them alive, I want to protect him."

"I see. Why don't you tell me what happened during the entire mission. It seems like there's much more that happened here."

Naruto sighed, "Old man, they all know. They saw me during my fight with Haku." Naruto looked down in shame.

Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi all saw what had happened during that fight. Naruto refused to talked to them the entire time after that fight, and was all curious what had happened. Kakashi knew that Naruto had the Kyuubi in him, but this wasn't the Kyuubi's power.

"Well it began like this..."

Ino was waiting impatiently outside the Hokage's office. Naruto had to have a good reason to just dismiss her, she thought, but it still made her angry thinking about it. Suddenly the door opened and they all stepped out except for Kakashi and that other person.

Naruto was shocked to see Ino there, he had planned on hiding from her after they were dismissed. She grabbed his hand, but he pulled away. "Ino-chan...I'm sorry, can we meet up later, I'm not feeling up to anything right now." Her heart broke at the emotions that he was showing.

He simply walked away without saying anything to his teammates either, so Ino turned to them, "What the hell happened on that mission?"

"Um...Ino...I dunno if..." Sakura started to try and make an excuse for Naruto.

"Oh no you don't Forehead." Sakura hung her head down. It's been a while since she's been called that. "I need to know what happened, and if you don't tell me, I'm making Sasuke here do it!"

Sasuke looked mortified, so he walked behind Sakura and pushed her forward, "You're doing it. I ain't a part of this."

"Uh, hell no Sasuke-kun, if I'm telling her anything, you're going to be there!" She grabbed his hand and gave Ino an indicator to grab his other hand.

"Hn." Sasuke sighed as he was dragged away by both of the girls.

They arrived at Sakura's house and all went inside her room, where Sasuke stood against the wall and both girls sat on the bed.

"So what happened?" Ino was tired of waiting for an answer.

"Honestly? We don't know." Ino fell off the bed to Sakura's blunt reply.

"Why the hell did you drag me all the way over here if you don't want to tell me?" Ino started to stand up, but Sakura grabbed her hand and pulled her back down.

"Jeez Ino, I'm just saying we don't know exactly what happened. It was during the fight with that boy and..." Ino cut her off.

"Wait that was a boy?" Ino yelled, while Sakura nodded, "That boy was prettier than you!"

Fighting the urge to punch her, Sakura just cleared her throat, "Ahem, anyways, when we woke up during the fight with Haku, Naruto was covered in an purple chakra and was killing the goons that were hired to kill our client."

"Naru killed? What was that purple chakra?"

"I don't know what that chakra was, do you Sasuke-kun?" They both looked at Sasuke, and Ino had a hopeful look on her face to get some answers.

"No I don't." Seeing Ino's face drop at that, he continued, "I don't know what it was, but whatever it is, it had a large amount of killer intent. Maybe Naruto can fully explain everything to you."

"Yeah Ino, there's some things that only Naruto can explain to you." They had left out the bits about knowing that he was housing the Kyuubi, they still didn't understand why his chakra was purple though, even asking Kakashi about it, he said it's chakra should be red.

"I know he was torn about the killing though. He killed a lot of people to protect everyone. Maybe that's why he feels so down. Ino, he hasn't even talked to us since that fight, we don't know why," Sakura figured if Ino knew it wasn't just her that he was ignoring, maybe she would feel better.

"I see. Well thank you guys for telling me." She got up and left.

Even with Ino leaving, Sasuke decided to stay and talk to Sakura. "Sakura.."

"Yes, Sasuke-kun?"

"I know we haven't talked much after that battle, because it's been awkward with Naruto, what do you think about everything?"

"Hmm, I honestly don't know why he's acting like that. It looks like he saved our lives, and he figured out a little bit about his powers, but it doesn't really explain anything."

"What about the Kyuubi?"

"I always had a feeling he was hiding something big like that, now I know why everyone hated him so much. I don't agree with it, cause it's still my Naru when I look at him."

"Hn."

"And what about you Sasuke-kun, what do you think about the Kyuubi being inside Naru?" She involuntarily tensed. She didn't know what she would do if Sasuke didn't approve of Naruto anymore.

"Hn. I think all the adults are idiots." Sakura chuckled at this. I guess that means that he's okay with Naru.

"I guess we'll talk to him when he's all ready to tell us. It doesn't seem like we should push anything, huh? Sakura wanted some sort of confirmation. She wanted to go bang on Naruto's door and ask him what the hell was going on, but knew she should. Sasuke seemed to sense the unease from her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"He'll tell us when he's ready. Right now all we can do is give him his space."

Ino managed to pick the lock quite easily. Although if she just tried, the door wasn't even locked. Sneaking inside, she looked around to see a cold empty apartment, in spite of how dark it was.

Naruto couldn't sleep, his mind was completely occupied as he twisted in bed, he felt Ino's chakra enter his apartment. He walked over to his door as she approached, and opened it as she was.

"AHH!" Ino felt her heart jump out of her chest.

Naruto cringed at the shriek. "Ino, calm down!"

"Sorry Naru, you scared the hell out of me!"

"Oh, sorry, I sensed you sneaking in." Ino was confused, she was sure she had snuck in very carefully. All that time spent pranking with Naruto honed her skills with stealth.

"Um, Naru..." Ino began speaking.

"Look Ino-chan. I know I promised I would tell you everything when I got back, but I just want to rest right now. It was a really long mission. Can you please see yourself out? Don't worry about the lock on the door, it doesn't work." Naruto walked back into his room and laid down.

He really didn't want to talk about his problems. As he tried to relax, he felt a weight on his bed, and before he could turn around, he felt a warm body lay next to him, and an arm wrapped around him.

"Ino-chan..."

"Look Naru, you don't have to tell me anything right now...I can tell how much you are hurting. I just want you to know that I'm here for you. Just go to sleep and we will talk tomorrow." She cuddled up into his back.

A few tears escaped as he closed his eyes.

The sun hit his eyes as he shifted in bed. He was extremely comfortable, which was surprising seeing the mood he has been in the last couple of days. Deciding that he should be awake, he opened his eyes and the sight shocked him.

She enjoyed cuddling. That was something Ino would never tell anyone, but she loved cuddling. Usually it was with her body pillows, but this particular morning, she was aware of 2 things. 1, Pillows aren't this warm, and 2, pillows don't move. So she opened her eyes.

They both opened their eyes at the same time, and as realization dawned upon them what had happened last night, they both blushed profusely as they sat up.

"Um..."

"Yeah...uh..." They were both stammering. Ino thought this was getting ridiculous and forced herself to calm down.

"Naru, I hope you feel a little bit better...I was really worried about you."

He looked at her and smiled. She always calmed him down and keep his mind off the stress that was his life. "I'm okay now Ino-chan. Thank you for spending the night with me."

Noticing the double meaning, they both blushed again.

"Ahem, Naru...what happened on the mission? It seems like you've been gone for months, not weeks."

"I know Ino-chan, it feels the same way for me too. I'm trying to handle everything that's happened." It was true. It seemed like months of experience was condensing itself to the few short weeks of the mission. Here was Ino, and he did owe her some sort of explanation, but the problem was, he didn't know where.

"Naru, whats wrong?" She didn't know what she could do for him. He seemed so hurt, so she placed her hands on his, the only gesture she could think of to show that she wanted him to lean on her for support.

"Everything..." Ino's eyes widened. She could tell he was having a hard time putting things together.

"Why don't you just start at the beginning?"

Naruto gave her a light smile. It seemed so simple, just start at the beginning and sort everything out that way.

"Ok...well it all started with us transporting our client, Tazuna, to the wave country."

Team 7 was walking towards the Wave Country. It was a uneventful trip, but it was nice to do a mission that was outside of Konoha. As they walked, Naruto 'sensed' someone ahead. He didn't know why, but he just knew.

"Kaka-sensei, there's some people ahead." Naruto walked over to his sensei and warn him.

"Hmm? How do you know that?" Kakashi didn't notice any movement at all.

"I don't know how I know, I just know. They're not as strong as you, but stronger than us." Everyone stopped and turned towards Naruto, wondering what he was talking about.

"How do you know that, Naru?"

Naruto scratched his head, "I don't know how I know, but I feel it. About 100 feet ahead of us, there's 2, I'm guess ninja's that are just standing there, it seems like. I only know that because there's no one else around, and they stick out like sore thumbs."

"So what should we do, sensei." Everyone was still skeptic about it, but Sakura knew to ask the leader for orders.

Naruto, instead, answered, "Why don't I make a few Kage Bunshins and Henge them into us and send them ahead. If something happens, we know I was right."

"So what happened?"

Naruto continued his story, "Well, it turns out they were transformed into a water puddle, I guess that's why I could sense them, but when we walked by, they attacked my clones and they all got dispelled. By the time we got there, they had ran off."

Ino had a nagging feeling, so she decided to ask, "How did you sense them Naru? Is that how you could tell I was in your place last night?"

Naruto nodded, "It seems because of how I gain my chakra, I seem to have developed the ability to sense things. It's like I feel their life force or something. It's kinda difficult to explain."

"Hmm, that's interesting."

"Yeah, Kaka-sensei has a sharingan eye of all things." Ino's eyes widened, "Don't you mean Sasuke?" She remembered that the Uchiha clan had the sharingan eyes as a kekkai genkai.

"Well, he does too, but that's for later, Kaka-sensei has one too, that's why he covers up his left eye."

"I see..."

"Well anyways, he said his eyes kinda see my chakra flow. During some of the trip after our attack with Zabuza, he showed me how to have better control of my chakra, even though it's not technically chakra that I use."

"Wait, wait Naru. You're saying bunch of things that I don't understand. Who's Zabuza, and what do you mean you don't use chakra?"

"Zabuza was the missing-nin that was hired to kill our client. It seems that we were hired to protect him from Zabuza and the person that hired him."

"That's not a C Ranked mission! Naru you could have died." Ino was scared for Naruto, but calmed herself down. He was here now, he wasn't killed or anything so it turned out okay, right?

"Yeah, we knew that, but I guess we were just eager to not fail a mission and didn't really see the danger. Anyways, I sensed Zabuza before he could ambush us, and Kaka-sensei managed to barely beat him. That's how we found out he had the sharingan."

"Oh ok. So what's up with your chakra and such?"

"Ah, well, the energy I use for my jutsu's aren't my chakra. The energy I absorb externally is what I use, and I can't really mold that the same way as everyone else can. In other words, I'm not drawing in my chakra, but I try to mold it as if I do, and that's why I always messed up jutsu's, like my bunshin and such."

"I see...so what is this energy that you DO use?"

"Well Kaka-sensei said it was 'Ki'. Since I have no other reference to it, I guess I'll call it that too."

"Ki, huh?"

"Yeah, well he had use do chakra control exercises, like tree walking, so I found out that I can draw in ki quicker with practice. I guess Sakura has a small chakra reserve, so she managed to master the training in one go."

"Wow Sakura is pretty good huh. What is tree walking?"

"Oh, it's where I use my ki to focus on my feet and walk up a tree. In order words, walking vertically."

"Wow, that sounds complicated."

"It was for me and Sasuke. I'm sure you could do it pretty easily."

"Why was it hard for Sasuke?" Ino didn't think Sasuke wasn't capable of doing something correctly the first time.

For the first time in a few days, Naruto chuckled, "That's what he thought too. But because he has a higher chakra reserve, it's harder to control. And since I have a huge reserve as well as not using my chakra, it was difficult for me too."

"That makes sense. So then what happened?"

"I guess I was excited with the training, so I over trained this one night and Sasuke had to drag me back to the house. I had overslept the next morning, which I guess was a good thing now." Naruto looked down. If he hadn't been there, Inari and Tsunami would have died.

"Why was it a good thing?"

"Because I overslept, they didn't think there would be a ninja there. So Gatou, the head guy in charge, sent a few swordsmen to try and kill Tazuna's family."

He started to clench his fist. It was pure luck that he was there. Ino didn't know what to do, she never had to deal with this.

"After I managed save them, I headed for the bridge to meet up with the team.

Naruto arrived on the bridge behind everyone. Before he could reach the rest of his team, 2 figures stood in his way.

"Hey, you're that orange brat that tricked us last time?" The 2 figures appeared in full view and upon inspection they were wearing gray cloaks with an armored gauntlet.

"Who the hell are you? Get out of my way." Naruto yelled at them, he had to get to his team.

"We're the demon brothers, Gozu and Meizu. You shouldn't be worried about your team. Zabuza-sama is going to kill them."

Naruto's eyes widened in fear. Their last fight had been pretty horrible. Only through his different ideas of tricking and deceiving did they win that fight without any major harm. Although Naruto had gotten stronger these past couple of days, this was a different fight, and he knew it.

Both brothers charged at Naruto straight on. Out numbering the kid 2 to 1, they severely underestimated him. Just as they both impaled Naruto with their claws, he disappeared.

"What the fuck? He disappeared?!" Gozu tried to look around, but a sharp pain hit his neck and he was knocked out cold.

"What?" Meizu looked over at his brother slumping over and jumped away from Naruto. He's fast! Crouching down to get ready to charge, he stopped with Naruto picked up his brother's unconscious body, and pulling out a kunai.

"What are you doing to Gozu!? Let him go." Naruto simply threw the body over to his brother. Meizu put his arms out in an attempt to safely catch his brother, but before he landed, Naruto suddenly appeared and punched in him the face.

As he was losing consciousness, he spotted Gozu's body where Naruto was standing and it dawned on him. The kid wasn't fast, he tricked us by doing the Kawarimi to confuse us. That kid got us good.

Naruto quickly tied them up, then tied them together to ensure that they couldn't escape. Looking back towards the fight he saw a huge white looking dome. The dome was created using chakra, but he concentrated and felt 3 different chakras, all 3 he recognized.

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! 2 clones appeared and ran up towards the dome.

"You guys have them?" As the 2 clones turned around and nodded, "Wait for my queue."

Naruto ran around the dome and found Tazuna standing by himself. Running up to him and grabbing his arm, he dragged Tazuna away from Kakashi towards the direction of his clones. Tazuna couldn't say anything as he was flying through the air.

"NOW!" Naruto yelled at the clones, as he ran past them. Naruto stopped and stood in front of Tazuna as his 2 clones Kawarimi'ed with Sakura and Sasuke. As they appeared, Naruto frowned at the sight.

Both Sakura and Sasuke had looked like porcupines. Needles protruded from all over them, including all their limbs.

I still sense them, they're still alive, thank god.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" A single clone appeared and they both ran up to the unconscious teammates and they picked them up to carry them back to Tazuna.

"Tazuna-san, keep an eye on them." Tazuna just nodded and knelt over.

Naruto was mad, blood was dripping out of them. But he wasn't mad at the person that did this, he was mad at himself for not being able to protect them. Silently cursing under his breath, he just watched as the 2 clones in the dome dispersed and the ice dome jutsu was dropped.

A figure appeared with a mask and started walking towards Naruto. His eyes narrowed at the attempt of deception of the mask.

"Haku, I know it's you. Why are you doing this?"

"Impressive that you know it's me Naruto-kun." Haku took off his mask and tossed it aside, "I guess I don't need that anymore huh?"

"I asked you a question, Haku."

"I'm doing what Zabuza-san wants. You guys just happen to be in the way."

Naruto's facial expression dropped even further, "What happened in the forest, what was all that bullshit you fed me?"

Haku's face never changed, "It wasn't bullshit, I live to serve Zabuza-san, his dream is my dream."

"So your dream is to kill my friends?"

Haku's face actually dropped at this question, "Whatever and whoever stands in his way is my enemy."

Naruto's head snapped back up and turned around. NO! Their chakra is getting too weak!

"You killed them!" Naruto voice was getting feral. "We could have worked all this shit out without death!"

"I'm sorry Naruto-kun. That is the way of the ninja. We are tools to be used."

Naruto growled at that statement, "NO! I'm not like that. You will pay for killing my friends."

Red chakra was being emitted from Naruto's body. As it began to wrapped around Naruto, blue chakra also started to spiral around the current red one, and began melding together to a purple chakra. Haku already felt the killer intent that was coming off of Naruto and started to mold his Ice Mirrors.

"No you don't!" Naruto disappeared from view and his fist collided with the mirror shattering it.

Haku looked surprised at his speed and power. He tried to create more mirrors, to no avail. Anytime a mirror would try and mold itself, Naruto would already be there and with a simple punch, it would shatter.

Haku knew he was running out of chakra to continue this so he stopped. Naruto saw that Haku wasn't going to try anything else so he charged at Haku and delivered a devastating knee to his stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

Haku fell to the ground clutching his stomach in agony. He couldn't breath and couldn't move. All he could do is wait for the death that was inevitably coming. He heard a loud chirping noise in the distance, and it got louder and louder, and then nothing. Why hasn't he dealt me the killing blow?

Haku looked up and saw Naruto's crying face. "Why didn't you kill me?"

"I want to. I want to kill you so much, but I know it won't bring them back." His face went from being completely angry to just sad. "I know you aren't a bad person, so I am going to let you live. And you are going to spend the rest of your life atoning for killing 2 of my precious people."

He landed a quick hit to Haku's neck knocking him out. He looked over at Tazuna and threw some rope over to him, "Tie him up." His feral voice was back, and he dashed off to where Kakashi was.

On Kakashi's side, he had just pulled his arm back out of Zabuza's chest where he stabbed him with his Chidori. He looked around and saw Naruto, still encase in a malicious purple chakra.

"Naruto, what is going on?" Kakashi was worried that the seal had broken. All he could feel from Naruto was an immense amount of killer intent and visible chakra that wasn't red like the Kyuubi's should be.

"There's other people on the bridge. They want to kill us." Naruto just stared at the group ahead. He saw the group get off the boat and piled on the bridge. Naruto disappeared from view, but Kakashi saw him jumping into the air towards the direction of the boat. He pulled his fist back and slammed it into the deck of the boat when he landed. The force of the blow split the ship in half and began to sink.

Naruto jumped back onto the bridge behind them this time. He could here them whisper amongst themselves, and heard the name Gatou. Naruto recognized the name and growled.

"Where is Gatou!?" Naruto demanded in the most menacing voice. He saw a small short man trying to hide among his men and recognized who it was.

He dashed at blinding speed, knocking everyone away, and grabbed Gatou by the neck. "This is all your fault. It is all your fault my friends are dead."

All his men started running away. That amount of visible chakra and killer intent scared everyone and they started to run away, but they all stopped when they saw a mob of the villagers.

Back to Naruto, he squeezed his hands, choking the man. Feeling that Gatou was desperately fighting because his life was draining from him, Naruto frowned and snapped his neck, killing him in that moment.

Naruto tossed him aside and began walking back across the bridge. As he looked up, Kakashi and Tazuna helping both Sasuke and Sakura back up. His chakra dissipated and his eyes widened as he realized that everyone had seen him. They had all seen what he was.

"Naru..." Ino was just hugging him, trying to comfort him in any way.

"Kakashi-sensei, started to ask me questions with them in front of me and they found out my secret." Naruto still had his head lowered.

"Ino-chan... Do you know what happened 12 years ago on October 10th?"

"Umm...wasn't that the day that the Kyuubi attacked Konoha?"

Naruto nodded, "Yes, and that was the Yondaime defeated it."

Ino just nodded to this fact as it was common knowledge, "Ino-chan, he defeated it, he didn't kill it."

"What? What do you mean? What's the difference?" Ino didn't know where this was going.

"Yondaime defeated the Kyuubi by sealing it inside of a infant at the time." Ino's eyes widened.

"Ino, I have the Kyuubi sealed inside of me. That's my secret."

Several moments passed, but Ino still didn't let Naruto go from her embrace. This was a huge secret and Naruto had trusted her enough to tell her.

"I don't know why you didn't think you couldn't tell me this secret Naru, but I won't ever hate you."

"Ino. That purple chakra. When I was so mad, I just wanted to hurt those people that hurt my friends. I was in complete control. I knew what I was doing. I knew that I had killed."

"Naru, it isn't your fault. You did what any person would do, you just wanted someone to pay. But you can't think like that, both Sasuke and Sakura are alive and well."

"I know Ino," she frowned because he stopped using 'chan', "but I knew what was happening, am I the Kyuubi?"

:)