Author's Comment:
I made a decision that's going to piss some of you off. No, I doesn't have anything to do with the Kyuubi; although, it does involve another long time fan favorite of the series. Well, you've been warned.

Nine Tailed Symbiosis

Chapter 5

"The Need to be Strong"

"Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another." - Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Naruto panted as he reached his safe zone, but he did not yield. Instead, he dived under a fairly large tree. He wiggled between the large roots before stopping his flee and resting his back against one. His breaths bounced off the roots beneath the tree, echoing if you will. Despite his efforts to calm down, his breathing remained just as loud. He didn't know if they made it through his wide array of traps, but he had one fall back if they did. He reached behind one of the roots before digging up a box. The box was brown with a black metal lock on the front. The boy bit down on his thumb before smearing the blood over the keyhole. A quick blue flash left before the lock popped off. He smiled before looking inside the box. It was 3 feet by 2 feet, so what he pulled out was a shocker. A slingshot colored blue, with a black band. Next he placed an small glass sphere in it. It was no ordinary sphere, blue electricity radiated from the center to the edges. He seemed to wait forever before a shadow dropped in the only opening. He released the band, resulting in the sphere being launched towards the silhouette. The figure caught the ball in their palm. The figured seemed to examine it before tossing it away. Naruto eeped before turning to crawl out of it; however, the figure was faster. They grabbed his ankle and dragged him out with them.

Naruto found himself tossed onto the ground in the middle of his testing area. His eyes were closed tight, attempting to adjust to the light after hiding away in the low levels of light beneath the tree. He released a groan before hissing as he forced his eyes open. Despite the density of the forest, light still shone through. Standing above Naruto were two ANBU ninja. Both were clearly female; however, one had a strange hair style. Her hair spiked upwards, defying gravity, and seemed to flow into a tip. In a way, it resembled a flame. She wore a mask with a snake face on it. The other one had straight black hair in a single pony tail. She wore a monkey mask with green markings. The leader of the group had a katana on her back while the subordinate had the standard weapon pouch.

"About damn time. Quick, let's go. I'm sure the ruckus drew a few prying eyes." The monkey mask wearing ninja picked Naruto up, throwing him over her shoulders. Naruto squirmed as much as possible, but the ANBU held tight. Despite his attempts, Naruto could barely move his body.

"D-damn." He struggled once more before relaxing. "Why can't I move my hands or my feet?! What's going on?" A loud clang reverberated through the area. The leader of the two had just deflected a kunai aimed for her forehead.

"Now, now. You know we weren't ordered to interfere with his life." A snide voice echoed from somewhere above. A strong gust of wind rushed past the two, hitting the ground. They had not seen someone move that fast before, they knew she was already behind them. The two barely had time to leap from the ground before it exploded into pieces. A shadow zoomed behind the monkey masked ninja, before another ANBU appeared. One drop kick sent the woman spinning to the ground. Before Naruto could reach the same fate he was swept up in a pair of arms and placed down quickly. Now two ANBU faced each other. One standing protectively over the boy, the other standing side ways on a tree. Both stared each other down before drawing their swords out.

"So, are you finally ready to lose?" The snake sneered towards the other.

"You know the penalties for breaking the law. Especially this law." Another minute would pass before the two leapt at each other. Swords clashed and sparks danced in the air like fire flies. The atmosphere grew dark, so some might even say it became heavier. The two pushed off each other, flying through the air before landing. The mystery ANBU was the first to react. In a flash, her hands began moving in a pattern. Horse, serpent, ram, monkey, boar, horse, tiger! "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" She shouted before taking a big breath and spewing out a large fire ball. Whether it formed out side the mask or she spat it out through a hole in it, we may never know. The fire ball began spinning before impacting the tree and burning the trunk. The ANBU turned and pulled her sword up just in time to block the blade. The two pushed off again before the rogue ANBU preformed a technique just as fast as her counter part. Tiger, serpent, ram! A large explosion of smoke covered her immediate area. When the smoke cleared, a eleven copies of the woman had appeared, making twelve in total.

"Let us see how well you protect one of the demons now." A wicked grin formed on the originals face before seven of her clones rushed the ANBU. The rogue took four with her to finish the fight by killing Naruto. At the moment, Naruto was unconscious on the forest floor. His hands were behind his back with glowing blue circles on them. His legs had a similar treatment, the same blue chakra cuffs.

The ANBU's eyes widened as she realized her intentions. "No!" Her hands acted without thinking. Serpent, dragon, hare, tiger! "Fire Style: Fire Dragon Jutsu!" A massive beast of fire zoomed away from her mouth, rocketing towards Naruto and the rogues. Four clones stopped and preformed a counter technique. Ox, monkey, hare, rat, boar, bird, ox, horse, bird, rat, tiger, dog, tiger, snake, ox, ram, serpent, boar, ram, rat, dragon, monkey, bird, tatsu, bird, ox, horse, ram, tiger, serpent, rat, monkey, hare, boar, tatsu, ox, monkey, bird, dragon, rat, boar, bird! "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" Just before the dragon engulfed the entire group in flames, one massive water dragon collided with it. Steam spread across the battle field quickly, allowing the ANBU to reach Naruto wthout being noticed.

"Where?! Where is he!" The rogue shouted as if she were having a temper tantrum. She waited in place for the smoke to clear away, only to freeze. All of her clones were gone. It was just the two of them. "Y-You..." She growled from behind her mask.

"What's the matter? I thought you were finally going to beat me." The ANBU walked closer, swaying her hips, mocking her.

"Damn you!" Screamed the rogue. She moved to make hand symbols only to scream in terror when the girl transformed into a dragon in front of her before swallowing her whole.

"So, I guess you were all talk after all." The female ANBU sat on top of a nearby branch, hands still in the bird symbol. She leaped down from her position and began walking over to the rogue ANBU operative. She was soaked, masked knocked off her face revealing chocolate brown eyes with some hair hanging in her face. "What a shame. You were such a good ninja." Her sword had been washed away by the dragon and she was tangled up in wires; however, she was hadn't even recovered to attempt a decent attack. A sandal kicked her in the chin, forcing her to roll away and onto her stomach. She coughed some before winching at the foot stomping between her shoulder blades. "Why on Earth would you do this Chiyoko?" The rogue, finally identified as Chiyoko, noticed her enemy's hands sweep past her vision.

"Please..." She whispered. Her arms were suddenly tightened against her body as the wires she had planned to use against the child were now being used against her.

"What?"

"P-Please... don't..." Her voice was shaken. She waited for a response before speaking again. "Please-"

"Who? Who helped you?" The ANBU made it sound like she was commanding her to tell her.

""Ayako, Akira, and Daisuke..."

"This was your idea?" The strings loosened slightly.

"No, we were told to by an outside contractor. I think their name was Kohaku." She felt the strings being fiddled with before loosening. "Thank you, thank you..." Her voice dived below a whisper.

"No, thank Kohaku." Her voice was back to being monotone. Chiyoko's last known sound would be that of a ear piercing screech before a kunai was jabbed through the back of her head and out her mouth...

Naruto began to stir, he felt tired, really tired. He looked around and noticed massive damage to the surrounding area. "Wha-what happened?" He was feeling groggy and had slurred his words some. He looked over to the nearest recognizable thing, a body. It looked soaked in water, but blood was beginning to pool near the head. "Who's that?" Everything seemed to have an afterimage. Recovering from chakra exhaustion so soon had side effects. He looked around and spotted an ANBU near him. "Who are you?"

"I'm no one Naruto. All you need to do now is get some rest." She struck his neck so quick that he didn't even notice. He began to get tunnel vision before he felt himself falling. Everything seemed dull and slow down. The very last thing he remembered seeing was a dog mask...