Thank you and I appreciate it. Now on with the tale.

(BIJUU THINKING)

BIJUU TALKING

SUMMONING TALKING

(SUMMONING THINKING)

" People Talking"

OOOOOOOOOOOO - Scene change

(Peoples thoughts)

CLANG!! The sound reverberated throughout the training area as the assembly of jounin watched a piece of art before them. Two masters of the blade fought intensely as the blades blurred. The swords and masters a blur but for pauses as blades locked.

"You" panted a sickly looking jounin coughed." Are holding back.

His opponent gave no words as but a raised pierced eyebrow before he was suddenly an inch away form his opponent. His blade horizontal and a millimeter from the brown haired man's neck.

Hayate coughed again and nervously stepped back as Naruto spoke.

"I held back not out of disrespect but the simple joy of fighting another with blade." He indicated with benihime the shinobi around them watching.

"You and I are of three of the kenjutsu users here. The rest are ninjutsu users almost exclusively." Naruto said with just a tad bit of disdain.

"It is not about who is best in a spar anyway Hayate-san but what can be learned of one self in it. You have learned of limitations in your style and I have found what may and may not work against said crescent style. To fight with the sword is not a battle of skills of levels in mastery but of one's soul. Of ones conviction" Naruto said with a clarity of truth as he looked into his sparring partners eyes.

With a bow the whiskered blonde turned his blade vanishing as he left leaving Hayate grinning like a loon at the fun and challenge of becoming a rival to the teen.

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Naruto sat before the small table as he wrote. His crisp and slow writing conveying what he was trying to express in every word. The idea had come when trying to find ways of insuring the ideals of the swordsman that the seven had taught to him and he hoped as well to bring to others who would follow the blade.

The book wouldn't be a training manual but a set of ideas. A way of doing things and finding truth for your own path. Of what he believed and the others whose legacy he bore carried before him. The truth of the sword. The integrity that only the sword can not even half way completed he hoped to finish it before they came in numbers.

Naruto wasn't stupid. He knew that by defeating Kisame-sempai they would no longer come alone but in pairs or even groups to collect him and they wouldn't be so honorable as his former teacher and blood brother. Add to the fact he knew next to nothing of any of them.

It was also why he begun to train Tenten into the ground. At the thought of the girls growing prowess he smiled. She had no idea what he planned should she show the results he hoped for but if she did... Perhaps the seven could be..

Shaking his head of such thoughts he felt a familiar pulse sending warm waves of calming energy through him reacting to his stress as it tried to soothe him. Smiling a rare smile he blade appeared before him as he held it with both hands. One holding the handle the other the blade as sent his own wave of comfort to it before closing his eyes.

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The touch was silk against his shoulder. As the pale arms encircled him from behind in his sitting position. The feeling of hair cascaded down his chest as she leaned her head on his shoulder and his hand came up and clasped hers in an affectionate grasp.

He opened his eyes to see the familiar seen of the ancient forest around him. Sakura trees in full blossom ancient as cherry blossoms littered the ground. The sun shined through lighting the air with with the hue of so many blossoms as he sat with her leaning against his back.

Though neither spoke they both conveyed what they wanted as they sat there before she shifted bring herself into his view. Her pale beautiful skin stood out against her delicate black silk kimono with a deep red layer underneath. The kimono covered her elegant and beautiful form up to her neck.

Her feet were covered in white tabi socks and traditional wooden sandals. Her face though stole any comparisons away. Her simple beauty of her face was the most dangerous kind. The kind of beauty that could make you do anything. Like a devil from heaven or an angel from hell. Her red eyes like sapphire looked at him showing him her world as her full pouty red lips framed perfectly to her angular face as her striking red hair cascaded down her shoulders to her waist in a mass of silky curls. To say she was beautiful was like comparing the moon to a rock there was no comparison.

She lay her self against his chest her back melding against her chest as his hands encircled her. These were rare times. There time when they could just be. No thought but the feeling of the other against them.

To others his word was something of rare caliber. Fools.. Benihime was sentient and just as alive as anyone. It was her emotions and own want that had bonded them. They just like the seven swordsman were bonded. A link between them closer than any lover.

She had seen his very soul when he'd found the blade and something rare had happen the once enchanted blade had drawn a part of him into it. It had drawn the most powerful tailed demon into it. The kyuubi no kitsune was the soul within benihime and for the first time the to had talked and found more things in kindred than in any before.

To the point to where she had even told him her most inner secret. Her true name. So to honor her he used it for the very blade she now resided in. The name was benihime. Since then they was as intimate as any lover.

For now though was not a moment for passion but of pause. He needed to know he wasnt alone at times and she was there always. So they would stay as the petals fell around them. His demon, his lover, his listener and when it happened his blade.

Which is why he fought with her only against worthy opponents any thing else would be any insult. But that was for another time for now he sat and simply combed his hand though her hair.

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Tenten was exhausted as she dragged herself upstairs but absolutely thrilled down to the core of being. Her sempai had been pushing her to the edge and beyond literally as she continued to learn more of the path of the sword than ever before.

She had proven to herself and many others when she had actually taken Neiji down in a spar her kitana inches from his precious eyes. To say she had improved was an understatement in the least. Still she proven she could.

More so Naruto-sempai had finally given her another complement today and that meant more than anything to her. The feeling of approval drove her further than any thing else and she found herself desiring his recognition more and more. To her the day he believed her to be a true kenjutsu user was her one goal. After that the world was open to her.

Taking her sweat covered closed off her took a shower and getting ready for bed smiled as her cheeks turned red thinking about her sempai. His bare glistening in sweat as he looked at her with his cerulean eyes and she couldnt help but giggle. Making sure she she sound proofed her room she reached into her sweats with a finger.

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Anko sat there her back to his as they sat her dango in hand as she munched on it. She stopped to sip on her red bean soup and relaxed against her friends back. She smiled remembering dragging the reclusive blonde to the dango stand when she learned he hadn't even heard of it.

Now he sat with his own stick back to hers as he chewed on the stick of food. Though they never said much it was just how that turned out. Still it was quiet funny when some idiots had commented back when they had first started hanging out.

The two civilians had remarked how the snake whore most be trying to corrupt the younger shinobi. Before she could blink the two where suddenly laying unconscious dozens of painful looking cuts across there arms.

Her defender had simply sat back down leaning back against her back taking another bite and spoke with a note of disdain in his voice. "I am disillusioned enough to know that no man's opinion on any subject is worth a damn unless backed up with enough genuine information to make him really know what he's talking about."

He'd then turned his head in her direction and said." And there so uniformed of how you really are, I believe they needed a quick reintroduction in how to treat a respectable woman." Before turning back to his meal.

He didn't know it but he had earned a friend forever in Anko Mitarashi. She smiled and leaned against him enjoying treat and having another friend to her small group of them like Kurenai and Kakashi.

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The darkened room was cold and wet as the cloaked figures stood in a circle waiting for the leader to speak.

"It would seem that two-tailed, eight and nine tailed jinchuuriki will be far harder to acquire than the others by leagues. I have just learned that the nine tails container defeated Kisame by himself using kenjutsu alone." Spoke the clear leader of the people gathered in cloak in shadows as many circled eyes showed a lack of emotion.

"Itachi take Zetsu and observe the boy. DO not engage and come back once you found out more about his abilities and what we are dealing with. I don't wont us walking in blindly. It already cost a powerful member not easily replaced." The leader spoke with disdain.

With a nod a shorter man and another with two long pron like protrusions atop his shoulder left.

The others quickly left but the leader as he stared at an enormous statue.

"Soon we will have all we need then the world" He siad as he raised his hand and opened his hand wide."Will be are's"He said crushing his hand into a fist.

END

Well it's been a while since an update but between training dealing with family issues and recent injuries life's been a little hectic I hope you enjoy it as I try to solidify the bonds between naruto and others and get the ball rolling with ataksuki and the chunnin exams coming up.