Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Naruto or Digimon franchises. Comments/Criticism is fine as long as it isn't hate or flaming.

Thanks for reading and please enjoy

The Hybrid Tamer

-Chapter 22-

-Last Time-

[Compatible digimon partner detected. Establishing digital link.]

"Oh yeah, now that's what I'm talking about," Renamon muttered, shivering with an excited grin as she felt pure power far greater than any she'd gotten from Rika flow through her, reenergizing her and healing her body almost instantly. Clenching and unclenching her fists several times, the foxy digimon couldn't help but chuckle eagerly as the surge settled down within her. "Talk about a rush, I feel like I could take on an Ultimate right now."

"Well let's hope that's true," Naruto said while staring down at the ground, snapping Renamon out of her revelry as she did the same to see Kyuubi all by himself staring right back at them with that same mocking grin.

"Because this is far from over."

-And Now, Rika-

*Clu-thunk* "Graaaaah…" "Guuur…"

'Please don't see me! Please don't hear me! Please don't anything!' Rika pleaded mentally, her heart thundering like a drum as she tip toed down a hallway towards an open doorway. That wouldn't be so bad, if it didn't happen to have a pair of zombies just a few feet away from it shambling away in the opposite direction, their gaze fixated on the quivering scalpel in a wall.

By some small mercy, the undead beings didn't notice anything and she managed to reach the new room unopposed. Peeking in to find it was clear, the redhead quickly slipped inside and silently shutting the door before releasing a heavy sigh of relief as she locked it behind her for good measure.

"Oh thank god." She muttered as she leaned against the door for support, her whole body trembling from the after-effects of adrenaline almost constantly pumping through her terrified and blood-stained form. It had barely been five minutes since this nightmare started, yet it might as well have been an eternity for the terrified girl as she slowly made her way through the maze of corridors and rooms.

Her only real saving grace was that each of the zombies appeared to be incredibly stupid, and followed some kind of set series of orders, such as constantly patrolling set areas or guarding certain doors. Literally the only time they strayed from this was whenever Rika did something that got their attention, which she used to her advantage by throwing something down a hall and such to lure them away, like she had just done.

That didn't mean she could take it easy though, as in contrast to their lack of intelligence, those things were bloody observant and even the slightest misstep could bring one hobbling straight for her direction if she wasn't careful. Thankfully, the few times that had happened, she had been able to either give them the slip or introduced them to her new friend Mr. Hatchet-in-the-face.

Back to the present, once Rika managed to steady her nerves, she pushed herself off the door and took another look at her new surroundings. It was some kind of office, with a fancy desk and chair near the middle, a couple cabinets and bookshelves, and a painting of a wolf on one of the walls.

However, the most important detail for the redhead, was the complete and utter lack of another exit. Even worse, if the steadily rising sound of guttural groaning and moaning was to go by, the rotten duo outside had lost interest in her diversion and had taken up post at the door again, leaving her trapped.

'Okay, don't panic, don't panic, you'll be alright,' Rika told herself as she forcefully stamped down her fear before walking over to the nearest cabinet, slipping her hatchet into one of her belt loops along the way. 'Just have to barricade the door and-' *Shht-click* '-the hell?'

The young teen ended up cutting off her own thoughts as she tried to hoist the cabinet over to the door, it wouldn't lift off even a single inch. Yet at the same time, the piece of furniture almost effortlessly slid across the ground with a soft grating click.

*Thwa-bap* "Ack!" Before she could really think about this oddity though, the top drawer suddenly sprang open at high speed straight into the redhead's waist. Stumbling back several steps until she bumped into the blank painting, a whimper slipped past Rika's lips and her eyes watered as she cupped her groin, which had been hit directly by the drawer's handle.

"…Owwww… that bastard… I'm gonna kill him." She muttered through grit teeth, anger flooding through her like a tidal wave as she recovered from the sudden, and incredibly painful, surprise. Making her way back over to the now open cabinet, said anger quickly turned into shock as she beheld its contents, a silenced pistol, a few full clips, and a flashlight.

'This can't be good.' Rika thought, looking around suspiciously while scooping up the items. Last time she got something helpful, a mob of zombies almost killed her, so sue her if she was a little paranoid about being given yet another, and most likely far more affective, weapon to use.

*Click* And for good reason it turned out, as not even a second later the lights went out, leaving the poor redhead in total darkness.

Rika gulped out nervously, flicking on the flash light to reveal her terrified expression before she pointed it ahead of her…

"Graaaaaah…"

…only to freeze as she felt and heard something breathing very heavily on her neck.

"…Oh crap-baskets."

-Meanwhile-

"So, what's the plan?" Renamon asked as she stared down at the smirking Kyuubi, a frown on her lips at how the transformed Biju seemed quite content on letting them make the first move.

"Hit fast and hit hard, we take him down now," Naruto stated while rifling around with a hand of cards before grabbing one in particular and stuffing the rest into their case. "He's up to something, I don't know what but the longer this draws out the more we're playing into his hands and the less likely we find Rika alive."

"Agreed," The fox digimon muttered while smirking when she caught a glimpse of the card her 'Temporary' Tamer was about to use. "You really are going for overkill."

"When it comes to this guy, there's no such thing as overkill," Naruto retorted in a dead serious tone while swiping the card through his digivice. "Digi-modify: Artic Mode Activate."

In perfect sync, he and Renamon were briefly engulfed by bright light-blue glows before fading away to show their new looks. For both of them, their blonde hair and fur was turned light blue, their glove-sleeves were now deep navy blue, a light amount of frost covered their hands, and each now wore a long red scarf.

Their changes weren't perfectly identical though, as Renamon's shoulder tufts had been frozen over into icy spikes and the purple spirals on her thighs had turned pure white whilst Naruto gained an icy spiked pauldron on his right shoulder and a parka-style vest.

Of course, neither foxy teens particularly cared about any of this as they immediately launched themselves towards the Kyuubi with mist around their fists, who simply grinned even wider and cracked his neck.

"Oh, this is gonna be fun," He said, casually back flipping out of the way right as Renamon and Naruto reached him, their combined punches cratering the asphalt and flash-freezing everything in a five-yard radius. "Is this the part where I make an obligatory pun about ice and calming down?"

"No, it's the part where I knock out all your teeth!" Naruto retorted while inhaling deeply, his chest inflating to a nigh ridiculous degree, and firing a powerful stream of wind that froze everything in its path.

Not feeling like being turned into a foxcicle, Kyuubi quickly hopped out of the freezing breeze's path before bending almost ninety degrees backwards to avoid Renamon's mist shrouded fist, ice forming into long icy daggers around her claws. Not letting up, the foxy digimon unleashed an onslaught of punches and kicks, each enhanced with her new cryokinetic abilities whilst Naruto launched massive large icicles to box their opponent in.

Unfortunately, not a single blow landed as the redhead biju avoided or redirected each one, all the while that same smug smirk remained.

"Hmph, so predictable," That all changed in a blink though when Kyuubi dodged a kick aimed for his torso and suddenly grabbed the limb. Eyes widening, Renamon quickly tried to pull her limb free, only to be hoisted into the air and painfully slammed into an inbound Naruto, sending them both tumbling away. "Word to the wise, try learning some new tricks already like the good little leashed mutt you are."

*Poof*

"And you need to pay better attention to your surroundings." Naruto's voice said from behind the biju right as the whiskered teen the digimon crashed into burst into smoke, making his eyes widen in realization as he spun around-

*Bam* "GAMMPH!" And was greeted by a punch to the face, causing him to stagger back in pain as his entire head was engulfed within a block of ice, curtesy of a grinning Naruto.

"Power Paw!" Not even a second later, a recovered Renamon followed up with a rising kick that knocked Kyuubi into the air before following up with a roundhouse that launched him into the side of a nearby skyscraper, his body smashing clean through steel and glass like wet tissue paper. "How's that for leashed mutt you wannabe rip-off."

"Damn… nice kick." Naruto said with an impressed whistle and a mild sweat drop at the destruction. 'I hope whoever owns that place has insurance.'

"Thank you, now let's go before he-"

"Digi Modify…" Kyuubi's rumbling voice cut Renamon off midsentence as an ominous reddish-brown glow emanated from his crash site, before he emerged with stone encased fists and a spiked brown leather jacket. "Terra Mode Activate."

"Oh son of a bitch." Naruto swore while Renamon sighed in annoyance, both getting in ready positions.

-Back with Rika-

"*Ptew* *Ptew* *Ptew*

Muffled shots rang out in quick succession, each one accompanied by a flash of light that briefly lit up the room and revealing two things.

The first was Rika, cowering behind the desk firing wild shots with her new gun, her eyes looking like they were about to pop out of her head, skin paler than bleached rice, and a fresh trail of blood oozing down the sides of her neck curtesy of a nasty looking wound on the back of her neck.

That last bit would be curtesy of the second thing, a sickly-looking wolf almost twice as big as Rika with a huge drooling mouth full of jagged teeth, razor sharp claws, and patches of pitch-black fur covering its half rotten body.

Covered in fresh bullet wounds and snarling angrily, the beast slowly made its way towards the redhead through the hail of rounds, barely even flinching as the bits of metal burrowed into its flesh.

*Ptew* *Ptew-Splat* "Grrglkh…" At least it was, until one lucky shot managed to get it right between the eyes, causing the wolf to stumble back in apparent shock before getting hit twice more in quick succession, falling over into a limp heap as its head was blown apart in a bloody shower of gore.

*Ptew* *Ptew* *Ptew* *Ptew* *Click* *Click* *Click*

Despite this however, Rika just kept on shooting until the gun eventually ran out of rounds, the weapon clicking loudly several times until she finally realized that the thing was down for good.

With hands shaking so bad it was a miracle she could even hold something, the redheaded teen picked up her previously discarded flashlight off the floor and immediately pointed it at the wolf's now mostly headless corpse, just in time to see the cloud of red data ooze free. Seeing that it wasn't moving anymore, she quickly flashed the light at every corner of the room at least twice over, making damn sure there was nothing else in the room.

'How the hell did that thing get in here? There's only one wa-' "Gng!" Rika flinched and grabbed the back of her neck as the bite wound there flared in pain, snapping the nearly hyperventilating girl out of her thoughts.

Eyes widening in alarm at feeling the blood slowly yet steadily oozing from the wound, she grabbed the bottom of her shirt and with a grunt of effort ripped a long strip of fabric free. This left most of her stomach exposed sure, but that was the last thing she was worried about as she wrapped the cloth tightly around her neck.

With that issue taken care of for the time being, the redhead focused back on her surroundings, able to notice a few key details now that she had slightly calmed down.

First, there were no more wolves, which was fantastic.

Secondly, her wrists hurt, a lot. She had no idea what model or caliber it was, but her new pistol kicked like a mule and likely the only thing that kept it flying from her grasp earlier was her fear induced death grip on the thing.

And lastly, and much more important though, was that the doorway was gone. It wasn't broken, it wasn't knocked over, and it wasn't cave in, it was just fucking gone somehow, with a solid wall where it had been not even a minute ago.

"What is up with this place?" Rika thought aloud, pushing herself up into a standing position while randomly fiddling with her pistol until she got it to eject its empty mag. As it clattered against the ground, she grabbed a fresh one from her pocket and slid in. *Chtt* "OW!" *Ptew*

Thanks to her jitteriness and inexperience however, the redhead ended up getting the side of her hand pinched by the slide as it clicked back in place, causing her to accidentally pull the trigger with a pained yelp.

Stepping back reflexively from the pain and recoil, she ended up stepping into a small splotch of blood which made her to slip and stumble even more before colliding back first into the painting on the wall.

"Nnng! Fuck!" Rika swore through grit teeth, her eyes watering quite a bit as the painting's ridged frame dug into her lower back.

"Stupid freaking jerk… and his…" The young teen started to grumble, only to trail off when she realized her upper half was still moving backwards. Turning her head in confusion, Rika's eyes widened in shock as she saw the painting behind her glowing ominously as she sank into it. "What the he-!?"

-Meanwhile, in the City-

"HA!" The ground shook and rumbled, glass shattered, and dust kicked into the air as Naruto and Renamon attacked Kyuubi from both sides. All three of them were haggard, covered with cuts, bruises, and scrapes whilst the surrounding area looked like it had been torn through by a tornado.

Deflecting a freezing punch from Naruto, Kyuubi made a slab of asphalt spring up with a stomp to catch Renamon's arm at the same time, then sending both the wall and fox digimon flying with a kick.

Turning his full attention back to his former host, the transformed biju had just enough time to dodge the ice spear aimed for his head before retaliating with a punch.

This turned out to be a mistake though, as instead of blocking like he expected, Naruto ducked under the punch at the last second making Kyuubi overextend and leaving himself wide open to the punch the whiskered teen express delivered to his gut.

Gasping for breath as the air was forced from his lungs, the redhead could do nothing as Naruto then grabbed his collar and slammed their foreheads together, a resounding crack filling the air at the impact. The icy blonde then followed up by smashing Kyuubi into the ground with enough force to embed his doppelganger several inches into the ground before repeatedly punching him in the face with an ice incased fist.

Once he felt the transformed biju was tenderized enough, Naruto froze the redhead's arms in place and pulled his head up with a snarl. "Where is she Kyuubi!?"

"Hehehe… ugh… I'll admit, that actually hurt," Ignoring the blonde's question, the Kyuubi chuckled deeply as his smug grin never wavered, even as his eye started to swell and blood oozed from his busted lip. "Seems I've underestimated you, I didn't think you would do this much damage to me even in this weaker form."

"Grrr, just tell me where Rika is already or I swear to Kami I'll beat it out of you!" Naruto threatened, holding up his fist for added emphasis, which only made Kyuubi chuckle harder. Before Naruto could ask him what he found so funny, several cement spikes shot from the ground, forcing him to jump back to avoid getting skewered.

Scowling in annoyance, he glared at Kyuubi as the transformed biju shattered his icy bindings with apparently no effort and slowly stood up.

"You wanna see your little friend so bad? Fine, here's a hint," He stated while pulling something from his pocket and tossing it at the blonde, who caught it on reflex, before giving a mocking salute as what looked like liquid darkness started engulfing his form. "Later meatbag."

"Oh no you do-" "Incoming!" Naruto started to yell as he charged at Kyuubi, only to be cut off by a shout from Renamon as a massive iceberg-sized chunk of ice crashed on top of the redhead, the foxy digimon landing next to her fellow blonde while cradling her arm.

"Please tell me that I got him with that." Renamon muttered tiredly, staring at the hunk of ice intently as she and Naruto reverted back to their normal states.

"No… he got away," The whiskered blonde said with a shake of his head, knowing that the formerly nine-tailed fox escaped somehow. "Dammit, we don't have time for this cat and mouse crap."

"I know and that's exactly why he's doing it," The foxy digimon said with a sigh before she noticed her fellow blonde staring at something in the palm of his hand, a coin of some kind. "What's that?"

"Not a clue, he said it was a hint," Naruto muttered as he passed it over to her. "You got any idea what it's supposed to mean?"

"Hmm," Looking the coin over, Renamon noted that both sides had the same odd image of a short man holding up a hammer with something written around the edges in english, Lit-something. "If I'm not mistaken it's an arcade token."

"A what now?" The whiskered blonde asked with a quirked brow.

"They're public gaming places, mostly for kids and teenagers."

"Ugh, so he's just taunting us again, fantastic," Naruto grumbled through grit teeth while clenching his fists before reaching into his card pouch. "You know what, fuck this. He wants to jerk us around like puppets, then let's see how he likes when I cut the strings."

Glancing at her companion in confusion, Renamon was about to ask him what he meant by that only to pause in disbelief when she saw him pull out Sangloupmon's Digi Card. "Are you serious?"

"Completely." Was all Naruto said in response as he brought the chip to his digivice, the side of which slid open when it got close to reveal an empty slot. Setting it in without hesitation, both blondes watched as the device sucked the slot back.

"Digi Card: Sangloupmon Activated. Initializing." The digivice stated a second later as a ball of purple light formed above the screen that zipped several feet away and started rapidly expanding, gaining shape and definition as it did before the light faded.

Once it was completely gone, both blondes tensed as Sangloupmon was revealed in his full glory, the demon wolf digimon rolling his shoulders and stretching out with a relieved sigh. "Ahhhh, fresh air, having all the data I can eat is great and all but do you have any idea how boring it is inside that thing?"

-Back to a certain redhead-

"AAAAH!" Rika screamed at the top of her lungs as she fell through what could only be described as a tunnel of insanity. Everything was swirling, twirling, and mish-mashing around in a chaotic everchanging motion that made it impossible to even tell which way was up or down.

"AAAAAAA-*Thump*-glkjdh!" At least it was, until everything came to an abrupt stop and with a sudden nauseating shift of perception, the young teen found herself flying sideways down a hallway until she crashed into the ground and after skipping like a stop several times tumbled to a stop.

…

"…Owwwwww…" Rika groaned as she slowly pushed herself up, coughing up a glob of phlegm and blood while swaying a bit as her vision swam in doubles. As it settled back into focus though, the girl was shocked and horrified at the sight of the desolated hallway she started in, complete with severed hand and zombie corpse. "…The hell… how did I… what just happened?"

"Well, would you look at that, you're still alive," The injured redhead froze the moment that dreadfully familiar voice sounded out from right behind her whilst a furred hand settled onto her head, claws lightly scratching the top of her head. "I'll be honest, I was pretty sure you'd been dead an hour ago. Today is just full of surprises, isn't it?"

Walking into Rika's field of view, Kyuubi grinned down at her whilst casually patting her cheek, right on top of the cut he'd left there beforehand. Snapping out of her stupor at the contact, the young girl snarled and tried to bite the hand, causing the transformed biju to quickly retract the limb with an amused chuckle.

"And you still got some fight left in you as well, how cute."

"I'll show you cute!" Rika yelled while pointing her pistol right at Kyuubi's head and firing two shots at point blank. However, the instant she did so, the redhead hybrid vanished in a static blur and reappeared right beside her, one hand grabbing her wrist and forcing her to drop the gun with a quick twist.

Then faster than the girl could blink she found herself laid out the floor, her captor sitting on her back with his legs pinning her arms and his tail curled around her neck, holding her head in place.

"Hmph, still as stupid as ever though," Kyuubi stated while intentionally digging his knees into Rika's sides, before grinning darkly when his digivice suddenly blinked twice. "Huh, that was fast. Better buck up there red, it's show time."

Confused, Rika tried to ask what he meant by that, or probably just threaten him angrily, but was unable to do either as the grip of the foxy hybrid's tail tightened right as he snapped his fingers, causing a screen like projection to appear in front of the pair showing none other than the haggard forms of Renamon and Naruto.

[Rika!?]

-Ten Minutes Earlier-

"You are surprising calm right now," Naruto said as he and Renamon watched Sangloupmon calmly stretch and flex, both of them ready to brawl out at a moment's notice despite the wolf's completely chill attitude. "Shouldn't you be all vengeful towards me for killing you?"

"Not really my thing," The wolf said while cracking his neck one last time before taking a seat and turning towards the blonde duo. "Besides, there was nothing personal, I needed to eat, you didn't want to be eaten, we battled, I lost, end of story."

"Makes sense I guess," Naruto said unsurely, relaxing a tiny bit at Sangloupmon's words. "Anyway, I kinda need your help with something very important. Will you-"

"Meh sure, I got nothing better to do," Sangloupmon stated with a shrug without even bothering to wait for Naruto to finish talking, causing said blonde and Renamon to sweatdrop. "What'cha need boss man?"

'Well… that was waaaay easier than I thought it would be,' The whiskered blonde thought while steeling his nerves as he walked up to the wolf, reaching into his pocket and pulling out Rika's severed pony-tail, holding it out for the purple canine to see. "I could tell you're pretty good at tracking when we fought, so could you possibly find someone with this?"

Not answering right away, Sangloupmon simply leaned in close and started sniffing the bundle of hair before suddenly lapping the whole thing up and swallowing it, making Naruto blink in surprise as a red glow emanated from under the wings covering the wolf's face. "Hmm, human child, twelve years old, female, natural redhead, she's about a kilometer east of here."

…

…

"You could tell all of that just from eating hair?" Naruto asked incredulously while Renamon rose a brow, both more than a little stunned at the wolf digimon's analysis.

"That and more boss man," Sangloupmon said confidently as he stood up. "Now I'm guessing you want me to take you two to this girl, correct?"

"Yes, please." Renamon affirmed with a nod, getting the purple wolf to smirk.

"Alright then, try not to puke."

"Why would we..." Naruto started to ask, only to trail off when Sangloupmon suddenly dissolved into a mass of shadows which quickly enveloped the foxy blondes. A second later and a mild wave of vertigo rushed through the duo before the darkness receded to show that they were now standing outside an old rundown arcade. "Oh, handy."

"Your friend is inside there," Sangloupmon stated breathlessly as he reformed beside the duo, panting tiredly with his head bowed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go take a nap. That was much more tiring than I thought it be."

Naruto or Renamon had no chance to respond as the wolf dissolved back into a ball of data and zipped back into the former's digivice.

"…And moving on." Renamon muttered while walking towards the building with Naruto in tow, deciding to ignore the total random spontaneousness that was the last two minutes of her life.

As they headed inside, the duo were greeted by a large dusty room filled with a plethora of old game machines, a prize booth with mostly empty shelves, and a large sign with the same logo on it as the token.

'Hmph, so it wasn't just a taunt after all, the bastard was actually telling the truth.' Naruto thought while eyeing the sign with clenched fists.

"Naruto, over there." Snapping from his thoughts when Renamon called his name, he turned to see her gesturing to towards to the middle of the room, where a solitary arcade game was sitting. This would have been rather unremarkable given they were in an arcade, if it wasn't for the fact it was the only one with power, the start screen blinking innocently… and literally every other machine around it had been moved away from it.

Not wasting any time, the whiskered blonde zipped over to the game, expecting to find some kind of clue or hint…

*Kzt* "Gah!" *Bwooo* However, the moment he got close, two things happened. First, an electrical barrier popped up around the machine, zapping the blonde and making him stumble back a few steps in surprise, and secondly, the screen changed to reveal Kyuubi grinning at him mockingly with a beaten and bloodied Rika pinned under him.

"Rika!"

[Well, well, about time you got here boy, I was starting to worry that you'd miss the big finale] The redheaded humanoid biju said smugly, a grin on his lips as Naruto glared at him in pure rage. [What's wrong blondie, aren't you happy you made it to the final level?]

"Kyuubi, I swear to Kami if you don't let Rika go right now I'll-"

[You'll what? Kill me? Beat me to a bloody pulp?] The Kyuubi laughed out loud whilst resting his hands against the back of his head. [Sure, go right ahead. I'll just wait for you in here then.]

"Grrr-" "Naruto, don't!" Renamon shouted as she caught Naruto's wrist when he tried to punch the game machine with a flaming fist.

"Let me go Renamon, I'm gonna smash that bastard's smug face in!" He growled while trying to pry himself out of his fellow blonde's grasp.

"No! You're going to kill Rika!" The foxy digimon yelled back, getting Naruto to snap out of his rage with a confused look until she elaborated. "This isn't a video feed, he and Rika are actually inside that game."

[Which means if you break the game, you can say goodbye to your little friend here forever] Kyuubi said as his smug grin grew even wider at seeing Naruto's shock. [Hm, how sad that would be, huh brat? And it would have been all your fault.]

And just like that Naruto was trembling with rage and fury again, his face turning red and teeth groaning from how tightly his jaw was clenched.

"Fine you bastard! Then I'll just come in there and-GAH!" The whiskered blonde yelled in pain as he tried to use his digivice on the machine, only to get zapped again by the barrier that sprung back up around it.

-Inside the game-

'That's it, just a little bit more,' Kyuubi thought as he watched Naruto's growing anger, or more specifically the light red glow that was starting to form around the whiskered blonde just as he managed to make a small crack in the barrier. "And of course, what sort of game would this be without the dramatic countdown."

-Arcade-

"What do you mean by that?" Renamon demanded with narrowed eyes.

[Oh why explain it when I can just show you?] The transformed biju asked rhetorically as he suddenly stood up before turning to the girl he'd just been sitting on, his grin rapidly turning sinister. The reason for this was revealed not even a second later as, much to Naruto and Renamon's horror, Rika was hoisted into the air by the tail still wrapped and now visibly constricting around her throat, choking gasps slipping from her lips and her face turning red as she weakly clawed at the furred appendage.

"You bastard! Let her go dammit!" Naruto yelled while pressing his hand against the slowly cracking barrier with all his might, his digivice glowing blindingly bright. "She has nothing to do with this Kyuubi! This is between you and me! So just let her go!"

Crossing his arms, Kyuubi tilted his head and gave his former host a challenging look. [Make me.]

'Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! This is taking too long!' Naruto swore mentally as he struggled against the barrier, his eyes focused solely on Rika as the girl's face turned blue and her arms fell limply at her sides. So intense was his focus, he didn't even notice as Renamon placed her hands over his and started pushing as well, nor the bubbling red chakra flowing from his gut into his digivice as the screen glowed orange. 'I have to get to her now! I have to keep pushing! I need to save her! I need to save her NOW!'

[Digi-volution]

In a flash of light, the barrier shattered to pieces and both foxy blondes were suddenly sucked through the screen of the game machine. Yet, at the same time, several rings of data burst from Naruto's digivice and encased him and Renamon, taking on the appearance of virtual eggs.

"Kitsumon digivolve to…" Within his egg, Naruto's skin and clothes seem to peel itself off his body to revealing a glowing orange framework of his body, before it rapidly started to change shape and new flesh formed around it. His body grew larger, the joints of his legs shifting around as pristine white fur and flame clad over them, his tail flailed and squirmed violently before splitting into nine identical copies with flaming tips, and his muscled grew more defined and solid.

All of this happened in less than a second and once finished, the egg burst in a shower of data right in front of Kyuubi to reveal the now older looking, nine-tailed blonde wearing plain black pants, a dark blue vest that left most of his now chiseled chest exposed, and a matching pair of orange leg and arm guards. "…Teumesemon!"

"Renamon digivolve to… Kyuubimon!" The now named Kyuubimon exclaimed as she burst out of her own egg to reveal her much larger quadrupedal form of a, ironically enough, blonde nine-tailed kitsune with a rope bow around her neck.

And all the while, Kyuubi watched this go down with a genuinely surprised expression on his face. "Huh… did not see this co-Guh!"

The former biju was cut off as Naruto appeared right in front of him, the transformed blonde's fist firmly lodged in his gut. Stunned from the blow, Kyuubi's grip on Rika slacked and the girl fell towards the ground until Naruto caught her while sparta kicking his former prisoner right at Kyuubimon, who promptly slammed him into the ground with a tail and blasted him with her spiritual flames.

'Now that was satisfying.' The blonde couldn't help but think to himself before quickly turning his attention towards the trembling redhead in his arms as she coughed and wheezed, greedily inhaling air only to hack it back up. "Hey, easy there, easy."

*Cough* *Cough* "…Naruto?" Rika wheezed out, her vision hazy and unfocused as she stared at the blonde.

"Yeah it's me," He said soothingly while adjusting his hold on her to a princess carry while internally cringing when he really saw just how beat up she was. "You're gonna be okay now, I've got you. I've got you."

"Tha-*cough* thank… god… I thought I… *cough* I was gonna…"

"Shh, don't talk, you need to save your strength," Naruto stated in a somewhat firm tone. "I'll get you to Seiko-baachan in no time so she can fix you up good as new."

"…Ok… good… thank…" Was all Rika managed to say before passing out, her head lulling against the blonde's shoulder and briefly alarming him until he felt her soft breathing against his neck.

Seeing that his precious cargo was alright for the moment, Naruto focused his attention back onto Kyuubimon and Kyuubi…

…Just in time to hop out of the way as the former crashed into the space he was standing, covered in bruises and burns.

"Renamon!" He called in alarm at seeing the large yellow fox all battered and beaten, before snapping his gaze towards the Kyuubi with a mixture of complete shock and a withering glare.

"Well then, I must say this has been much more interesting than I thought it would be," The transformed biju stated while clapping mockingly as a dreadfully familiar red energy oozed out from the surrounding walls and seeping into his body, his wounds healing instantly and the purple parts of his fur fading to red. "But I've gotten what I wanted, so it's time this game came to an end… for now."

As he spoke, Kyuubi was enveloped in a familiar swirl of shadows that began drawing him away from view. However, just before they reached his head, he offered his former jailor one last victorious smirk. "Until next time, Naruto."

And then he was gone.

-End Chapter-

AN: Phew, lot going down in this chap. First things first, just to be clear for those who kept asking about it, Kyuubi didn't do this 'just because he's evil', though I get why you might assume that at first. He did have a reason for all of this, and yet it may not be as obvious as it appears to be, internet cookie to anyone who figures it out before the next chapter. Thanks for reading and please review