Disclaimer: Roses are red, violets are blue; I do not own, so please don't sue.

Chapter One
Prologue

The horror came to Konohagakure no Sato in an October's night. I heard all about it—the village burning and being torn apart into little pieces, terrified people screaming everywhere, men and women who didn't know if they would live to see another day praying for something, anything, to save them from it.

That night, legends were made, blood ran freely through the streets, and a monster was sealed.

People fought. People died.

Then, in some place right in the middle of it, I was born.

The way I heard them spinning the tale, the survivors mourned those who hadn't had that luck and, after the tears ran dry, they picked up the remains of the village and went on to rebuild their home the best they could.

No one who managed to live through this would forget that day, but as they say, life goes on.

Fourteen years passed by since the night the Nine-Tailed Fox almost destroyed the village.

Fourteen years since it had been sealed within me.

It's kinda the peaceful night out of here, I thought, just as a breeze blew through the window and brought with it the scent of leaves and trees from the forests around the village.

Too bad that, inside my little apartment located on the border of a district populated by whores and criminals and backstabbers and even some good people here and there, no one could give less of a shit about peace and quiet.

"Maybe if I tweak the axis of the eight trigrams matrix here, then—shit."

I stopped talking to myself a bit to scratch my chest. The seals I had written all over my face and body were making my skin itch like hell and, of course, it was just how my luck had it that I couldn't poke them all that much without destroying all the work I already did

over the floor in the living room and the brush in my hand looked like a blur of motion while I was giving the last touches to the seal before me. It was being drawn on a human-sized paper sheet, which was positioned right in the center of the sealing circle—a circle wide as the room was, going from wall to wall.

Wait, didn't that sound badass enough? Excuse me then—for I am an Uzumaki and Fūinjutsu is our flesh and blood. My clan could eat exploding tags for breakfast and then light a cigarette with the sparks.

Sealing was a skill that threaded the fine line between science and art and could make almost anything happen. I took to it like a duck to the water—even if I still couldn't make head or tails of the Eight Trigrams Seal that held the Kyuubi inside my metaphorical guts.

It could only be called a masterpiece, really—there's no way the seal holding the greatest of the Tailed Beasts inside could be anything less than that. Then there was the little fact about how the Yondaime had to summon the fucking Death God to made it work.

That fella took to heart the notion that if it's not overkill, you just aren't doing it right.

Matter at hand being, I and Fūinjutsu? A match made in heaven. After all, in the immortal words of the distinguished ANBU Commander Dragon, I amounted to nothing more than—and that's a real quote here—an oversized, red-eyed, whiskered meathead with zero common sense and an alarming tendency for pyromania.

Couldn't dispute the claim, really.

I let out an exhausted breath, "I think that is finally it."

"I will say again," Kyuubi's voice resonated inside my mind, "this is completely stupid and you are obviously brain damaged or completely mad if you can't realize this."

"Madness is just another word for greatness, love," I answered with a smile.

She snorted. "I ate people for less than giving me silly nicknames brat. And no—madness is another name for I think my container is a suicidal moron."

"Wait, you do care? I am touched, seriously—right here in the heart."

I did not squeal with joy seeing how she was concerned about me, no matter how cute it looked. If anyone ever says anything but, you better burn the heretic because real men do not squeal in any way, shape, or form.

"Oh you are touched alright, it's just not in the heart," Kyuubi said. "But by all means, come here in the Mindscape and I will show you how touched I can make you feel, annoying twerp."

I just shrugged the half-baked threat from my favorite person/mythical being/bringer of destruction. She clearly had some millenniums of experience with the tsun-tsun ways.

Even then, thank Kami I had learned how to block some thoughts from her.

Someone would think that your mental privacy would be the least of the problems about having a giant rabbit-fox thingy—who also happened to have destroyed half of your village—sealed inside your gut. This someone would be wrong.

I leaned over the sheet again. "Yeah, yeah, ain't you a big ball of sunshine? Now be quiet and let me check it out in the Codex for the last time."

The enormous book was opened by my side on a page showing a seal almost equal the one I drew on the sheet. The Uzumaki Codex—containing the sum of all the collected knowledge about the Sealing Arts from my clan and their story since immemorial times.

The only thing that allowed me to be that much proficient in the art.

At least, Uzumaki Codex was the official name of it. In the notes of the last Uzukage of Uzushiogakure—also known as my grandfather, Uzumaki Kenshiro—it was called simply The Awesomest Book of High-Octane Enlightenment.

Grandpa was a wise man.

Jiji—the Sandaime Hokage—gave me the book on the day he drafted me into the ANBU Black Ops. These pages were the only thing I ever had from my heritage and my own little treasure, the only people allowed to see it being me and the Kyuubi.

I drank every piece of information of these pages like a thirsty man lost in Suna and the knowledge I earned from it was what brought me to the seal I was finishing to double-check now.

Well, the knowledge and—no. I shouldn't—couldn't, think about her now.

I shook my head and got back to work, there's no way I would let my mind go back to that subject now of all the times, not when I finally could do something to try and rectify my disgusting weakness.

Not now.

I finished the check-up and smiled, as I couldn't find even a single misplaced line in the array.

"We're in the clear," I said, closing the book with a snap. "Let's do it."

I got up to my feet with a groan and re-sealed the Codex in my wrist with a puff of smoke, then I walked to the small table I had put next to the window—carefully positioned under the moonlight—and took a deep breath.

Time to get to the real business.

I activated one of the seals—a little circle on the floor next to the table—and stepped inside it. That was a simple Two-Way Transport Seal with a tweaked Vanishing Cluster, the change made so it would be continuously open for the substance it was keyed for.

The substance being, of course, my blood.

When touched by it, the seal would transfer the liquid to a bowl in the center of the room, no matter whatever much I bleed. Pretty useful thing, if I could say myself.

The last tools I needed to begin were these eight pieces of refined chakra metal scattered over the table. Each one had the thickness of a nail and a pointy end, each one decorated as the ritual demanded.

And let me tell you, these didn't come cheap.

I took another deep breath and picked the first one, rolling it between my fingers. The metal felt cold and the kanji for Ichi carved on its side glittered under the light for a split-second.

"Well, no time like now," I muttered to myself.

Very, very cautiously, I positioned the sharp end a bit over my left eye and pressed it against my skin, biting my lip and forcing my body to not move. I could feel it tearing my flesh—a wound which would not heal until I decided so, as I had made an effort of will to halt my natural healing factor.

It was piercing my face millimeter to millimeter until it met my cranium, then I charged the metal with my chakra and pushed.

"Kaimon, fūin!" I cried through gritted teeth.

Little droplets of blood fell all over the floor and were absorbed by the sealing circle under me. The seal over my left eye, now charged, flared alive—the excess of chakra rushing through my body and pulsating in unison with each one of my heartbeats.

Then I picked another piece and positioned it over my right eye.

"Kyūmon, fūin!"

If I wanted to, I could even close my eyes by now. I did my research about the positions of the Eight Gates again and again until I knew them by instinct. The third, Seimon, resided in my spinal chord along with the Shōmon, Tomon was in my abdomen, Keimon in my stomach—I took real care with this one because of the Eight Trigrams Seal—and then there was the Kyōmon, just under it.

As I pierce each one of them, more of the seals over my body were activating and the pain I felt increased by leaps and bounds, yet, I soldiered on like the stubborn bastard I always had been. My chakra was in turmoil, to say it kindly, and a headache began bashing my head in.

Just a little more.

My body was at war with myself. Every piece of metal inside me was channeling power through the Chakra Gates to the seals in my skin—catalyzing and molding the energy into what I needed it to be.

Maito Gai could open his Chakra Gates at will, but I? I was piercing them.

Just as the Uzumaki no Saisei demanded of me.

Everyone in my clan had enormous chakra pools in comparison with the ordinary ninja, so they created the Uzumaki no Saisei to be an evolution and a trial. To be considered an adult, everyone in the clan needed to be knowledgeable enough to make the seal and have the resolve to perfectly execute it.

The last pin of chakra metal was positioned in my chest, just over my heart, waiting for me eagerly—the aura around my body being almost hungry for more power. I steadied myself, feeling the untamed chakra lashing out.

I clenched my jaw and dit it. "Kyomon, fūin!"

I leaned on the table to keep myself straight and almost broke it. The metal piercing my body twisted and crumbled to dust as the blood all over me evaporated. I could feel my chakra alive, melding with my bones and flesh, ink searing my skin and flaring in angry red lines.

"Brat!" I heard Kyuubi calling. "We're nearing critical mass! Go!"

Even if I wanted to run, the walk back to the main sealing circle was a slow one—I couldn't trust my own body to not break everything in the way, including myself. The paper in the center of the room depicted an exact outline of my skeleton, chakra coils, tenketsu and muscular system, which I had drawn with painstakingly care under the fox's guidance.

After all, it was just the picture of the neighborhood for her.

I kneeled over the sheet, still focused on containing the power inside me, and picked the bowl full of blood. I dipped my finger in the liquid and activated the circle—the symbols on the floor shone brightly and the designs over the wall began spinning as my chakra powered them.

I raised the bowl over my head, taking a deep breath, and turned it over.

Then I clapped my hands together and put them on the ground with a shout.

"Fūinjutsu: Uzumaki no Saisei, Fūin!"

I screamed my throat raw as the pain doubled and then tripled. Every nerve of my body protested at once and I felt like I was suddenly submerged in a vat full of acid.

My blood—after all, blood was the best medium for sealing—was acting like a connection between what was depicted in the sheet and my body, the liquid crawling over my skin and even through it like magma.

Then the fox came to play. Kyuubi flooded my body with her chakra and my teeth tore my lower lip as I was destroyed from within.

Every chakra coil, every piece of me, everything screamed in agony. My muscles were unraveling while my blood vessels were ripped open and each little cell of my body was being infused with raw power.

My bones were slowly melted by the chakra before they reformed, one after another—and I felt it all with all the slowness in the world. I dropped face first to the ground as convulsions racked my body and bent my spine while I was pulverized to dust and put together again.

The screams stopped just because my lungs didn't function anymore. The only sounds in the room now being the blood rushing into my head and the lines in the walls spinning and whirring like a giant fan, absorbing the excess of energy in the ambient and bringing it back to me.

I was blind for maybe fifteen seconds before my eyes reformed again.

When the pain stopped, I was trembling on the floor after what appeared to be hour—yet, in the real world, couldn't have been more than a few minutes. Every muscle in my body spasmed and it looked like a hurricane had happened in the middle of the room.

The landlord would be displeased.

"Naruto? Naruto, are you here?" I heard Kyuubi, uncertainty clear in her voice as she called me. I blinked two times in answer her because I didn't trust my throat to produce something more recognizable than a gargle. "Congratulations brat, it really worked! We're done here."

That was true, I could even feel it—every part of my body had been permanently infused with chakra. My chakra coils were no more as my own flesh was entwined with my chakra now.

I made some experimental grunts to try and find my voice, then turned my head to the side to spit a glob of blood. "Good, but I will wait until I regain the feeling in my legs before I try to stand up, thank you very much."

"Puny meatbags these days, I never saw the likes of Hashirama Senju kissing the floor over small fry like that in the good old times."

A coarse laugh bubbled in my throat and I tried my best attempt at a roguish smile. "Why? Want me to kiss you instead of the floor?''

Kyuubi just ignored the question and I felt a little more of her chakra coursing through myself. "Run the expected effects for me again, so I can check and compare with what I remember from Mito and Kushina."

I recalled what I knew of the Uzumaki no Saisei and began reciting it in my seldom used lecture mode, which I had proudly shanghaied from Iruka-sensei. Even then, I couldn't shake the nagging suspicion that she was just trying to see if I wasn't brain damaged after the process.

The scary thing? I wanted to know, too.

"The way it should be used makes chakra fusion with the body at a cellular level; the chakra coils just cease to exist and everything in your body becomes one with chakra."

"Checked, you don't have the coils anymore."

I tried to wiggle my toes and smiled when I felt them working normally.

"The effects are the basic package of unbridled Uzumaki violence—more strength, speed, enhanced healing," Kyuubi made a strangled noise and I rolled my eyes. "Shut up, I know mine is kinda ridiculous already. Anyway, the ritual supposed to attune you better with your chakra nature too, although in our case..."

I let the sentence hang there.

"I see—the perfect fusion of spiritual and physical chakra with the material medium. It's— really, it's no surprise that everyone wanted you abominations wiped from the world."

I nodded. "In a nutshell, then?"

A truly unholy grin stretched my lips and I could bet my right arm that it was perfectly mirrored in the Fox's maw. Oh yeah, my life would be very, very interesting from now onward.

"I am a very, very dangerous individual now."

After a second's silence, Kyuubi spoke with some disbelief in her voice. "No shit, brat. You put hours upon hours of effort in that seal and... that's the result?"

Wait, what? Did I hear a giant murderous fox squeal in delight?

"I am so proud! My jinchūriki is the shit now!"

How could I disagree with her? Making eldritch things with ink, stubbornness and a bad attitude always had been a proud Uzumaki tradition, and the fūinjutsu madness was quite the common trait in the Uzumaki family line.

Thinking about it, I could truly imagine mom running around in the afterlife like a squirrel on cocaine, yelling for anyone close enough to hear about how "my son is awesome, 'ttebane!".

Smiling at that mental image, I raised myself off the floor and felt distinctly relieved that I hadn't become a crippled slime. Rotating my arms to test my flexibility, I cracked my neck and stretched my sore muscles to get the blood flowing back to them.

How was I doing after this ritual-sealing hybrid, you ask?

Fucking good, that's how.

My body felt better than ever, the pain and soreness all but vanished and I was feeling like I could withstand a bum-rush of Iwa heavy-hitters with just my boxers and a smile. I picked the scraps of chakra metal of the table and crushed them in my hand without any effort, reducing the things to nothing but warped shapes and metallic dust.

I felt alive.

And my chakra—now, that was impressive.

I whistled. "Kyū..."

The fox didn't even try to conceal her amusement. "Brat?"

I opened my arms and flared my chakra, blowing everything around me away. "Kyū!"

"Brat!" She shouted.

I couldn't hold it inside me anymore and began laughing. Hard. So hard I dropped wheezing to the ground while holding my sides. It was just precious, once again the ingenuity of the Uzumaki Clan gave me a way to kick ass and take names.

Still snickering and with a happy skip on my steps, I walked to the bathroom and took my clothes off, only to suddenly feel the urge to stop in the front of the mirror. A chill ran over my spine as a thought came to the forefront of my mind.

I didn't stop to think about it, but could my features have been altered by what I did? I was almost scared to look, but I did nonetheless.

I promptly breathed in relief.

The same man was looking back to me. The strong jaw, the looks—too ruggedly, in my opinion, to be called handsome. Three whiskers on each cheek, high cheekbones, straight nose. I was taller than everyone my age, and more muscular than everyone in Konoha too. Anko-chan had said something about heroic build while talking about me. Bulging biceps and developed chest, veins and muscles everywhere—muscular fibers, myocytes, with the density of titanium and sinews stronger than steel cables, the doc on the HQ said.

The only change was my eyes. The slitted pupil remained here, but the normal red of the iris was more vivid, glowing a bit more than before.

I rubbed my hand over my face—that was definitely too much emotion for that night.

Shaking my head, I stepped into the shower and, under the warmth of the water, scrubbed the ink off my skin. Daydreams of all the exploits, chaos and generously applied amounts of property damage lurking in my future made me almost drool.

In a totally unrelated note, I like to imagine that at this exact time, the citizens of Konoha shivered in abject terror.

Kyuubi was thoroughly amused.

After calming myself with the bath, I jumped on my bed and drifted into meditation with ease. I followed the pull of the seal in my stomach to enter my mindscape, as I needed to talk with my vixen now.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

Inhale — there.

When I opened my eyes, I was inside the seal and my vision was dominated by a lushly green field, scattered with some seriously big trees and a beautiful night sky sprinkled with the stars from above. The plains extended to the limit of my vision and beyond, with a far-away river cutting them.

The single most eye-catching feature there was, of course, a giant reddish-orange fox lying down peacefully under an oversized tree. Strange, I know—peace and she didn't usually mix too much, so I looked at the unusual scene with a smile.

I always liked to visit Kyuubi before sleeping, mostly because I didn't appreciate the fact that she was alone here most of the time.

"Yo, Kyu. Everything's alright here?" I asked, walking in her direction.

The Fox eyed me carefully.

"Yes, Naruto. I'm good," She said. Her voice sounded... different. Soft, almost.

Wait—holy shit!

She used my name, my fucking name! She never called me Naruto normally, it was only "brat", "ningen" and a whole bunch of nicknames—some better than others. What in the bloody hell had inspired this change?

"I'm Naruto now?"

She just stared at me.

I sat cross legged at her side and leaned to support my back in her fur. "Of course I am—what's on your mind?"

She ignored the question and pointed to the night sky. "Look."

Then Kyuubi waved a paw and the firmament of the mindscape changed.

I couldn't describe the appearance without saying anything more than the fact that the night sky now had lights draped all over it—it looked simply breathtaking, these green lights which appeared to be dancing with the stars.

"That's…" I tried again to find the right words and failed utterly, resigning myself to stare at the spectacle with an open mouth. "That's incredible, Kyū! What is that?"

"It was called Aurora Borealis—The Northern Lights. A natural effect which happened around the poles of our world a long, very long, time ago," she said. "I don't know if it still happens, but back in the day, I loved to lie down and look at these lights… now they are just a reminder of a past long gone."

I found myself grinning—the fox had witnessed so much, knew so much, and it was simply amazing! I remembered how she used to tell me stories when I was younger, of the old times and many different things, about battles, about men and women who changed the world and of lands outside the Elemental Nations.

"You impressed me today."

And that brought my thoughts crashing down to earth.

"Wha—with the seal work? Come on—you're millenniums old, a hairless monkey with a brush like you normally call me can't be that impressive." I dismissed the compliment, trying to hide the pride I felt at hearing it.

"No, not with the seal. To do what we've done—you gave me free reign with your body. With the same ease I attached the Uzumaki no Saisei to your insides," Kyuubi shook her head, "Naruto, I could have done much more. I am not certain if you know, but, if I wanted, I could overpower the seal and your own coils to be free. And kill you in the process."

She whispered the last part, but I heard it clearly and didn't even need to think to answer her.

"I knew. Just as I knew you wouldn't do it."

She tried to mask her surprise, I think, but the slight widening of her eyes and the slack of her jaw gave her away. "And how, exactly, did you know I wouldn't?"

"Because I trust you."

Her blank expression changed in one of absolute shock—it was like she never received the trust of a human being before and, thinking about it, that was probably the case. Almost everyone considered her a raving beast and reacted to her presence by fighting or fleeing.

It was a sad thought because I knew the error of this judgment better than anyone alive. She was brilliant—smart, knowledgeable, and the single most interesting person I knew.

"Yes, you have my trust, Kyū," I nervously rubbed the back of my neck. "Look, I'm not big with emotional talks, but if you need to be certain of something, it's this. I would trust you with my life without a second thought."

We fell into a comfortable silence as I looked to the Mindscape's sky. She knew the reasons for that trust and they were important ones indeed. When I had no one to turn to, she was there for me—with me. She never left me alone.

I stood up and began pacing around, still trying to organize my thoughts in a way I could make some sense of my own reasons and tell her.

"You know, Jiji and the people in the ANBU are important to me too," I kicked a stone and turned to her, waving a hand. "Fuck, Kakashi is practically my brother in all but blood—but they aren't you, you know? For them, I would fight, bleed and kill, but for you?" I lowered my voice almost to a whisper. "I would die for you, Kyu. Come hell or high water, it is you and me against the world, without you—Kyuubi, you are the only thing keeping me sane. If something happened to you, I—"

I looked down, trying to find the correct, smart words, without success. My nervous tick began acting again—with each snap of my fingers, a little flame ignited in my hands before it was snuffed out by another snap.

"You know what? I wouldn't exchange my life for anyone's else. Ever. Just because I have you."

She stood in silence, a comprehensible reaction to the bomb I had just dropped. Kyū could count her age with five digits or more and her thought processes—her moral compass was, simply put, inhuman.

The realization of what I had just said probably struck her silly.

But it was the truth. When I was a little boy who knew nothing, she was there teaching me, guiding me when I was growing and telling me her stories. When I fought for his village in my missions, she was here with me too, helping me to survive and win.

Kyuubi helped me cast away most of these pesky concerns about what the villagers thought about me and focus on people who really mattered, and she did it with her mere presence and companionship. She changed me to more than I could ever be if I was left alone the mushroom style—kept in the dark and fed with bullshit.

And I was nothing if not grateful for it.

Finally, she saw fit to begin talking.

"Naruto, I've known you before even you knew yourself," Kyuubi said, "and yet, you keep surprising me."

She inhaled a deep breath and looked at the sky.

"You already knew how, when I was unleashed upon Konoha by that son of an Uchiha whore, the people here saw me just like all humans did before—a rampaging beast. Even when I tried to reason with the silly maggots—"

"Calling them silly maggots probably didn't help your case."

Kyuubi gave me a look and I made the wise decision of shut up. "Then, when you awoke inside the seal after the situation at the Forest of Death, we talked," she shrugged her shoulders, "of course it was merely for the novelty of the thing. My previous seals had me strapped to rocks or nailed with pointy shit, so a talkative host was quite the news—even if I had already fully planned to rip your mind at the earliest convenience."

Of course she did. Why was I not even a bit surprised?

One of her tails nudged me in the head. "But you, this tiny little squirt of a human, talked to me like I was just another person or a rational being—and lo and behold, I really am. There were you, smaller than my pinkie, talking a big game to me. To me!"

She laughed at the absurdity of the situation and even I let a snicker or two escape. Seriously, remembering that made me think I should have had a big pair of brass balls with the third one made of titanium—and maybe measure of insanity—when I was a kid. Probably both.

"There and then, I decided to remain and see what you would become—I'm immortal, it's no biggie either way."

I snorted and caressed her tail. "I live only to entertain you, ne?''

She ignored me, the rude little—heh, little—thing. "I was pleasantly surprised with your own brand of... let's say, uniqueness, you crazy bastard. You made immortality interesting for the first time in ages and... well, I am amused. So you shall receive a reward."

As she finished talking, her enormous body began glowing.

I raised an eyebrow and clapped with false enthusiasm. "Thank you, thank you! I feel really appreciated now that I have a brand new demonic flashlight, why, thank you!"

She still managed to give me a withering glare. "Lame. Just watch and be amazed."

Let's never be said that Uzumaki Naruto didn't enjoy a gift in any shape or kind. I nodded happily and waited, and waited, and—the fuck?!

From the absolutely nothing, I shit you not, she was suddenly enveloped by fire. Well, I could do something like that too, so it wasn't so big of a surprise—the surprise was the form she had inside that fire.

I swallowed dryly.

For the barest of the seconds, I saw it and that creature was just wrong—wrong in the sense of breaking the possible shapes of the reality, contorting in a geometry just impossible for the human mind to comprehend. Too many sides, too many angles—that thing wasn't a fox, wasn't a—it just was.

Kyuubi howled to the sky and the flames around it suddenly flared to a painful degree, the light of a star going supernova contained in her new and otherworldly form. The being was swirling and compressing itself, making the mindscape tremble with her immeasurable power.

I could hear someone or something screaming in the wind and everything pulsated around us like a giant heartbeat.

With another howl, the Northern Lights above us blistered red before they broke into wisps of light as the sky burned. The very weaving of the mindscape unraveled and twisted at her show of strength, groaning and screeching at her presence.

For the first time, I understood why the Yondaime needed the help of a god to seal the Nine Tailed Fox inside me—being in that presence was the closest thing to a religious experience I ever had been through.

I smelled the smoke of fields torn apart by war and felt the heat of flames in all forms caressing my skin. I saw a sun rising and dying on the horizon and heard meat sizzling in a bonfire, there were stars being born and the eruption of volcanoes all around me.

I saw and felt everything.

My own chakra was answering the call—a blazing inferno, inside me and hungry.

Her presence was everywhere and, for my life, I couldn't avoid looking at her until the power subsided—just for me to immediately bit my lower lip in hopes of stopping the nervous laugh bubbling in my throat.

The giant fox was no more—instead, inside the light, there was a form with a head and four limbs as the demon inside me turned into a woman and a rather petite one. She would reach my chest, at most, and would appear totally fragile next to me—even if I knew better.

Then the light disappeared and I fully saw her human form for the first time.

My jaw fell to the ground.

She was, in a word, gorgeous.

Her face was heart-shaped, with a cute nose, regal cheekbones, and pouty lips. Her hair flowed in a bright red color, which made me of fire and blood, covering an eye and reaching the base of her spine. She had the perfect hourglass figure, with wide hips and a thin waist. It could be said that her smile was a bit wider than it was adequate to her face, yet, it added to his beauty instead of detracting from it—kind of a dangerous allure.

Like a queen—that was the only thing I could think about how she looked and carried herself.

She was clearly well-endowed, wearing a white kimono with red designs, and the fact that I couldn't see a signal of a bra made my cheeks burn. She a black choker around her delicate neck and the stone in the center of was a representation of the seal, making a contrast with her pale skin.

When she opened her eyes, they were like mine but inexplicably different—a pair of crimson irises and slit pupils burning with an eerily glow in the Mindscape's night.

She wouldn't fool anyone if she tried to pass as a human, as no mere human being could ever be this beautiful and unblemished.

My thoughts were interrupted by a warm pressure—tasting slightly of strawberries— right against my lips. It was an unexpected and welcomed sensation, that kiss—my first kiss. A chaste kiss which ended too fast for my liking.

Speechless, the only thing I could rationalize enough to do was to look in her eyes and put my hands on her waist, bringing her closer and waiting for her to take the next step.

And her eyes! They were shockingly full of a feeling I never even dreamed about seeing and, in these fleeting seconds, I could honestly say that I knew her for what she really was. I could see anything and everything the single most important person in my world had in her heart.

Prideful. Arrogant. Deadly. She didn't have a smidge of care about almost anything or anyone, viewing the human race with scorn and contempt. A textbook demoness through and through.

Sure, sure, of course, she was all of that.

With me? She could make me laugh at the worst days and we could talk for hours at end. For me, the Kyuubi no Kitsune wasn't only a being hellbent in devastation nor an eldritch abomination who only felt rage.

She was perfect.

"My name is Natsumi."

Her voice had changed with the transformation, now velvety and full of silky undertones. Yet, even if she sounded sultry and feminine now, her words still carried a current of inhuman power—and I almost flinched remembering what she really was, that thing inside the fire.

"And with that kiss, I made your mine."

I couldn't think, really, so I just acted.

I cupped her cheek and kissed her lips. It probably was sloppy—I didn't have much experience, but she seemed to like it. I pushed her until her back was pressed against the tree and caressed her sides—then her hands were suddenly in my hair, unmaking the ponytail and scratching my scalp.

We practically melded together, her breasts a firm and alluring pressure against my exposed chest. She tentatively touched my lips with the tip of her tongue and I opened my mouth, our tongues clashing in need and without any reminiscence of restraint or control.

The kiss only stopped when I felt the need of air and, even then, I could feel an almost obscenely big smile forming on my face—an expression she mirrored in her own. How do they say it? Jackpot, tiger!

"I—" I said, trying to regain my breath. "I think we should stop for tonight."

Her grin was reminiscent of the cat that got the canary. "Well, whatever, it's not like I am going anywhere."

Then she put a finger on my lips.

"Just one thing—Nat is okay, but if you call me Natsumi-chan, I will rip your tongue off with my own teeth and slap you with it."

I laughed and nuzzled my face in the crook of her neck. "Stop before you turn me on, little vixen," I said, kissing her on the lips one more time before what I said fully registered to her.

She pushed me away and punched my shoulder. "Little vixen? Fuck you, meatbag!"

"Sorry, I have class. You will need to wait for the third date."

Nat just rolled her eyes and gave a smile just a few steps of being downright predatory, looking at me like I was a piece of meat—the thing is, I couldn't decide if I should feel threatened or pleased by it.

So I settled for being turned on. Hormonal teenager there and all, gents.

Stealing another kiss, I released her and found myself already missing the heat of her body. Funny how someone can miss something he had just got, no?

Then I had a great idea.

Intending to give her a gift too, and an awesome one at that, I closed his eyes for a second and spread my will over the Mindscape's form, focusing on all the feelings of home, of belonging, I had in me.

My tongue poked through my lips and, with my face scrunched in concentration, I clapped my hands together and touched the ground.

The mindscape trembled before me and, slowly, a house sprouted from the soil—created with nothing but my will—and the building was very impressive in my humble opinion.

It was mostly made of wood and built very similarly to the Sarutobi Clan Compound, where Hokage-jiji let me host my meager birthday parties when I was younger. It represented a place of good memories and happiness for me and, now, it was hers.

Things inside the Mindscape tend to be quite the in-your-face kind of symbolic.

The house had a garden and big windows, as I already knew that Natsumi liked to awake with the sunrise shining on her face. I never got the hang of it, must be a fox thing, but to each one his own.

Proud of my creation, I caught her hand and walked her to the house—no, to her house. Our house.

"I don't like gettin' things without giving anything in return," I said, scratching my chin. "The house is yours, Nat."

Nat looked around with a finger under her lower lip. "I don't know, it looks like quite the nouveau-riche kind of house. I will need to redecorate it extensively before it suits my needs."

She made a show of looking to the house for some seconds more before she turned to me again. "In all seriousness now, thank you—I haven't had a house in almost two centuries."

I shook my head and embraced her again, giving her a long last kiss before I left. It wasn't a steamy or lustful one, but it was sweet—a kiss intended to mean that I would be back in no time for more.

The last thing I could see before my presence in the landscape faded was Natsumi, standing here at the doormat and touching his lips daintily, with a small and beautiful smile still on her face.

When I woke up, I needed all of my willpower to just suppress an enthusiastic yell and a suitable celebratory dance. This night had been—hell, what's with Natsumi finally talking about herself to me and the kiss— the kiss! Holy mother of Log, I had kissed the Kyuubi.

Or, to be more exact, she kissed me.

Kami's balls.

Thinking about it, with her living inside me, kissing her sounds as an extreme case of bilateral masturbation—and on that note, I need to say that my mind always had been quite warped in some ways, so bear with me there.

Could I consider her my girlfriend? Unlikely, as she was above this pedestrian shit. She would probably call me her "mate" just to fuck with me and laugh at my face, and I didn't doubt for a second that she would do it.

Whatever our label was, you better be pretty fucking sure that we were together now.

A snort escaped from my lips when I thought more about my actual situation.

If the someone caught wind of my kiss and—hopefully—future ones with Natsumi, the hospital would need to be on red alert for cardiac arrests and a lynch mob would be knocking at my door. She would probably find a way to stroll right in the village just for shits and giggles, too.

Without wiping the totally satisfied look from my face, I closed my eyes and set my sails to the dreamland. I was under the distinct impression that my dreams would evoke the figure of a certain red-haired vixen with burning eyes and luscious, strawberry flavored lips.

Things were looking up for me.

Uzumaki Codex

(The Awesomest Book of High-Octane Enlightenment)

Fūinjutsu: Uzumaki no Saisei ‒ Seal Art: Whirlpool Rebirth.

Rank: A/S

Created by the Uzumaki Clan to remedy the lack of control over their large pool of chakra and enhance the mutations commons to their bloodline—a mixture of sealing array and ritual designated to mix the chakra and the flesh of the recipient, infusing the body with chakra and destroying the chakra coils. Effects range from enhanced control over the user chakra, easier molding of chakra and natural enhancement of body features (muscles, bones, nerves, and organs).

It's theorized that jinchūrikis, with a cooperative bijū, can attain one hundred percent synchronization. (If you are reading, Kushi-hime, sorry—you already have done the ritual without the Bijū's help, so it will remain only a theory. Also, for the love of Kami, please forget about that flaky blonde twerp already before I feel the need to bulldoze him to the next thursday—Uzumaki Kenshiro)

To succeed in the coming of age ceremony of Uzushiogakure, the Uzumaki in question needs to craft, execute and withstand the ritual to be considered an adult member of the clan.

(Kenshiro here again just for an addendum. The reasoning behind this rule is, by the mouth of our representative at diplomatic liaisons Uzumaki Kamina—"We are already awesome, so with that, we will double the awesome. Whoever can't double the hell of the awesome, just needs to strive to triple it instead of giving up! We need to go beyond the impossible and kick logic in the balls, as a true Uzumaki should do!". After that, he received a standing ovation.)