Last Time:
"The idiot probably knocked himself out and now they're panicking about the bet." Sasuke said with an amused snort. He was looking forward to Naruto being humiliated and just as much as, if not more so, Kakashi was looking forward to getting his prize ...
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Naruto woke up in his home with Kurama and Konohamaru lying in bed with him. With great care he tried to get out from under Konohamaru without waking him. However, that wasn't easy since the raven was the type who sleeps with his limbs spread wide. A comfy sleeping position for sure, but with two other people sharing the bed it was awkward.
"He's a heavy sleeper." Kurama whispered after waking up to the blonde's attempts at freedom.
"An adorable starfish." Naruto muttered as Kurama flipped out of bed to help untangle the raven's limbs from his. Once he was free he stood up and wrapped his arms around the redhead. "We'll need to rethink the sleeping arrangement." He whispered in amusement.
"Definitely." Kurama said with a smile before being pulled into a steamy kiss courtesy of Naruto.
When the kiss slowly ended Naruto reluctantly pulled away, "I got you something that you'll probably find very fun." Naruto said as he unsealed a special set of 5 kunai and 5 shuriken.
"Oh?" A perplexed Kurama commented as he looked at the unimpressive ninja weapons. However, when Naruto turned it on Kurama beamed. "That's hilarious!" He laughed when he saw the kunai glow pink along the edges and start vibrating. The color of the glow changed as Naruto shifted through the intensities and modes. "Oh I'm going to have to play with these! We can use these while you're busy with the chunin exams ... right, Konohamaru?" He said as he sent a cheeky smile to Konohamaru who was awake for most of the toy demonstration.
Konohamaru blushed, "You got a lot of them." He commented quietly, but didn't say anything about not wanting to play.
"Of course. More to share. Plus they have a tree walking like sticking feature so why not use as many on your body as you can, right?" The blonde said with a wink as Konohamaru came over to them. "Tell me anything you guys learn while using them." He said teasingly, getting Kurama to chuckle when Konohamaru blushed brightly.
Konohamaru pouted, "Why should I tell you something you will see?" He said sassily. It was purely out of annoyance from the teasing, but he immediately realized what he said and the blushed darkened immensely.
Before the younger ninja could pass out from blushing too hard Naruto captured his lips in a gentle kiss. "We'll talk about that after dealing with team 8." He said softly after pulling away from Konohamaru's slightly dazed flushed face.
"Yeah." A calmer Konohamaru said happily before they all dressed, which was quick since Kurama had already grabbed some of Konohamaru's clothes for him, and went to the hokage tower ...
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Hiruzen blinked, "I probably should've told them to go home." He whispered so he didn't wake up the members of team 8 who were all sleeping in his office now.
The second the team returned he told them that they would get answers once they were well rested. Apparently, they wanted to make sure that would happen and they were too tired to leave so they fell asleep right there. Hinata was still asleep on the couch. Kiba, Shino and Kurenai, who left the pink crystal on the hokage's desk, were sleeping on the floor using Akamaru as a fluffy pillow.
With everyone sleeping he left to get a bit of shut eye himself. By the time he returned Naruto was there with Kurama and Konohamaru. The three looked well rested and very amused by team 8's stubbornness.
"Wake them up." Hiruzen said, sounding serious, but he just couldn't help but look a bit amused when Naruto chose to wake everyone up by carefully leaning down and kissing Shino.
As a result Shino mewled in his sleep and his insects started crawling everywhere. Just after the insect user's eyes snapped open and he realized he wasn't in a dream, so did the rest of team 8. The itching from bugs crawling across their skin made Kurenai, Kiba, Hinata and Akamaru quickly wake up.
"Dammit, Shino! Why do your bugs only bite me?!" Kiba yelped as he shook the bugs off while the rest of team 8 didn't seem bothered as they yawned.
Shino sighed as Naruto helped him up, "My insects clearly don't always follow my orders. They follow my emotions just as much." He said calmly and silently ordered his bugs back to him. "They also don't like you because of that prank of yours."
"What pra-" Kiba's jaw dropped clearly remembering what prank his teammate meant. "That was years ago!" Kiba whined, but Akamaru was obviously not tolerating it today and the big dog grabbed Kiba by the butt of his pants. With some excellent maneuvering the dog plopped Kiba onto the couch where Hinata was. Akamaru immediately let go, got off the couch and sat on Kiba's feet so the Inuzuka couldn't get away.
"Technically yes, but we only recently realized it was you, not Naruto, remember? My insects can hold grudges and I can't really control that."Shino said before looking up at Naruto and then to the hokage. "What's going on, hokage-sama?"
Kurenai nodded as she joined two of her genin on the couch, "Yes. Please tell us." She said, noticing that Shino seemed to stay standing close to Naruto and the two other people who were there. Those people were the hokage's grandson and a pretty red haired guy she didn't recognize.
Hiruzen chuckled, "Very well." He said and seemed to pause as wondering how to start. "First, this is Kurama, one of Naruto's boyfriends." Hiruzen said casually as he pointed to the redhead in the room and ignored the blushes on Konohamaru and Shino's faces. "As for why you're here, let's start with the least interesting secret. Back when the nine tailed fox was forced to attack the village by an unknown Uchiha ... and yes that is exactly what happened." He said making it very clear that the demon didn't attack on his own volition.
Hinata's eyes widened, "The demon was controlled in both attacks?" She asked, remembering what the history books said about Madara controlling the demon in the first attack on Konoha. Even Kurenai looked surprised by that little tidbit.
The hokage nodded, "Yes and, discounting the much bigger death toll, it's exactly like the first time. Neither time the fox could be stopped and had to be sealed away into a person. Naruto had the nine tails sealed in him right after the demon was removed from his mother who was the vessel before him. Giving birth weakens the seal and the unknown Uchiha took advantage before Naruto's father could get the seal stabilized." He said and fell silent to let that part sink in.
Instead of taking this moment seriously Kiba saw Shino's hand take hold of Naruto's hand and his eyes widened, "Oh! You have a crush on Naruto!" Kiba exclaimed while pointing at Shino who instantly blushed. "That explains why you've been acting weird. It all makes sense now!"
Hinata chuckled sheepishly as Kurenai face palmed, "I don't think that's the point, Kiba."
Kiba shrugged, "I get what the hokage said. Naruto is the demon vessel for the nine tailed fox, but that was more interesting." He said bluntly while pointing at the insect user's hand, which was holding Naruto's hand.
"You're almost correct. There's a great deal more." Hiruzen said so seriously that even Kiba was paying attention again. "During Hinata's poking around she noticed a small part of the villagers' cruelty. I will skip the details and just sum it up. Naruto suffered greatly. He has gone through hell throughout his life. After one especially bad incident when he was 7-"
"7?!" Kurenai gasped only to wince when the hokage glanced at her. "I'm sorry, hokage-sama."
The hokage sighed, "Anyway, it was then Naruto heard a voice and when I came to his private infirmary room in ROOT he told me. It turns out every time Naruto was hurt this seal, one that hasn't been used on a demon before, was torturing the demon. We found the demon was very kind and I promised Naruto that I'd find a way to fix the seal so it wouldn't hurt him. However, I took too long."
"Yeah." Naruto commented as he backed away from Shino. "I was an impatient kid that just found out that the nice person inside me was in pain. I went inside my own mind, I have been able to do so since meeting the demon, and instead of talking to the demon like usual I ripped the seal."
Hiruzen nodded, "Naruto hasn't been the vessel for over a decade now."
Kurenai looked absolutely shocked, "but where did the demon- ... no, wait! How are you alive?! Removing a demon ... it always ... you should be dead." Kurenai exclaimed. She was clearly so shocked and concerned that she could barely speak.
"Like I said, the demon was very kind." Hiruzen smiled as he pulled out his and Kurenai's pink crystals. "The demon knew what would happen and did something drastic to save Naruto. He skillfully pushed a very small fraction of his power back into Naruto and tried to get Naruto's chakra to merge with his. As a side effect Naruto's body coated itself in crystal. That's when the demon brought Naruto to me because, of course, he decided to do this in the middle of nowhere." He said almost sounding a little exasperated. Perhaps this conversation was bringing back some old feelings, mainly annoyance and concern.
Naruto chuckled sheepishly, "Ok ... probably wasn't a great idea."
Hiruzen snorted at the blonde's comment, which was probably the understatement of the century, "After giving everyone a collective heart attack, Naruto's new partly demonic chakra calmed down. We found that the crystal was actually a bloodline that was accidentally activated. No one knows it because the villagers and council will want him dead, but he has people training him to control each aspect of his new abilities."
"The demon ... if his chakra is partly demonic then it should be dangerous. I take it the demon helped train him." Kurenai commented slowly as if she was trying to wrap her head around everything.
Hiruzen smiled, "He has done a great more than that."
"However, even I can't keep Naruto out of trouble." The redhead said, making it clear exactly who he was.
For a moment there was an awkward and tense silence. It was expected though. After all, Kurama just revealed that he was a demon that had immense power. A power that, despite being an ancient demon, was also used as a weapon against Konoha twice in the past. Anyone would need a moment to let that sink in. However, only Naruto and Hiruzen knew that the very tense silence was making Kurama nervous.
Thankfully, Kiba seemed to hate the weird silence too and looked at Shino, "I didn't peg you for the harem type." He said bluntly, and blatantly ignored the dumbfounded looks, or blush in Shino's case, he got for the comment. "So what happened to the Uchiha who used you this most recent time?" He asked both Kurama and the hokage.
Kurama sighed in relief as the other members of team 8 seemed to finally relax and the smell of anxiety went away, "There have been some leads and they all point to the Akatsuki."
"So ... you'd be in just as much danger as the vessels even if you're free." Kurenai said as she tried to feel less freaked out about being near a demon, which was easier than expected.
Hiruzen nodded, "Until we stop the person in question they could do it again especially if it gets out that Kurama is out. Of course, the villagers are already pissed so it's dangerous enough as it is." He explained, but sighed when he saw that tears started coming to Hinata's eyes. "There's more to this recent mess than you think, Hinata. I won't try to sugarcoat it. Your methods of getting information did not help anyone, but something happened years ago that finally became an issue. We may as well go through that too since we talked about everything else. Did you all know that there are far more demons than just the tailed demons?"
"What? ... no." A dumbfounded Kurenai gasped and looked at her equally confused genin.
Kurama smiled sadly, "It's nowhere near as easy to find others since my siblings and I were sealed away. Many went into hiding, but that made things difficult for me." The redhead sighed and looked at Akamaru. "You might understand the feeling of going into heat the best. It happens to demons too, but demons apparently lose control of their chakra in a way that's toxic to humans. I wish that was something I knew before ..." Kurama trailed off sadly.
Naruto wrapped an arm around the demon's waist and kissed his cheek to comfort him, "For a few years people were assigned keep Kurama calm during his heat, but he never had sex with a human before that point. The people who helped were warped by the unstable chakra and never healed. I'm not affected both because I was Kurama's vessel for a while and because I'm kind of part demon now so I help Kurama now. That doesn't help the first people who helped Kurama though. They escaped the treatment facility they were in and attacked a few villagers ... and yes this happened while Hinata was messing around. I know because I used a crystal to stay in touch with everyone. Everyone who, by the way, were also investigating you guys and Kakashi."
Hiruzen felt that the members of team 8 were still trying to absorb everything they were told, "The chunin exams will start soon, which brings me back to the bet." The hokage looked at Naruto. "I know you're capable of passing, but don't focus on that-"
"What?" Kurenai snapped out of her daze. "Hokage-sama, Naruto needs to prove he's chunin level for the bet."
The hokage chuckled, "He can prove that in the third round. I have no worries about that, but I fear what will happen when he does. Ignoring the tantrum the villagers will throw once they think Naruto got stronger there's also Orochimaru and his new accomplice to worry about. By all means embarrass Kakashi. The fool would know everything if he bothered to ever give Naruto the time of day. When this issue is dealt with I plan to go through with my plan to put Naruto on a different team, but we have a few other things to worry about."
Hinata stepped up, "Can we help?"
"Yes." The hokage nodded pleased that the team 8 members all seemed more interested in helping than condemning Kurama. With them in the loop then maybe they'll do more damage to someone else like Orochimaru. "If it's a wide scale invasion then there will be signs. Look for anything unusual. Also try to stay near team 7. Orochimaru has shown interest in the Sharingan before so Sasuke might be a target."
Kiba saw Shino instantly light up at that order, "Looks like you literally get your demon in the sack."
Whatever tension there was, was instantly destroyed by that one joke. Soon after everyone was dismissed and left the office. There was an exam to get to ...