"Seal master?" Naruto asked, clearly unaware of the meaning behind the title.

Kakashi took the chance to explain "A seal master is someone that has been recognized as a master of Fuinjutsu, they are among the most knowledgeable and powerful in all matters relating to seals and things like that. It takes years of intense study and research to become a seal master. A low level seal master is able to recognize a large variety of seals at a glance and able to alter a seal or make it unusable."

Everyone saw Naruto's eyes light up as Kakashi explained the topic. Hiruzen could see the same look in Naruto's eyes as he saw in his mothers and in his father's when he had talked to them about Fuinjutsu when they were a bit older than Naruto was now. The familiarity to the pair warmed Hiruzen's old heart.

'He'll be just like them, if not greater.' Hiruzen thought to himself.

Naruto looked at the elderly Hokage "You said both my parents were masters of Fuinjutsu, does that mean they were seal masters?"

Hiruzen nodded "Yes, they were. Although your mother had a broader range of knowledge, while your father was more specialized and creative. Together they created a wide variety of seals that we use in the village today."

As the conversation shifted over to a long winded discussion about Naruto's parents and their feats during the times that they had worked with their fellow shinobi, both when they were on duty as shinobi and also during their times off, those that they rarely seemed to take. They talked long into the night must to Naruto's joy, Tsume's interest about the past and desire to make up for the fact that she hadn't been there for him in the past, Tsunade's mild amusement at some of the stories and resurfaced memories, Kakashi's amusement and Hiruzen's desperate attempt to stay away from the dreaded amount of paperwork that he had to do.

After hours Tsume was the first to point out the time, mostly because Naruto's stomach had started to growl lightly, hearing it she had looked at her watch and saw that she had to return to her compound and meet with her family for the regular clan meeting that she had. Offering her apologies Tsume left in a hurry.

Kakashi took the opportunity to take his leave as well, promising Naruto that he would come by either the next day or the day after to begin his training and he would be bringing a few of his other instructors with him so they could evaluate where they were going to begin. Seeing the look in his one visible eye Naruto shuddered slightly. Tsunade had done the same thing with him the other day, he had been starting to annoy her about training and refused to take no for an answer so they had a light spar where she asked Naruto to attack her, it ended after Naruto was thrown across the compound and slid across the ground.

Following which she had given him a small training regime which consisted of him running around the border of the compound at a set pace to build up endurance and stamina, following which he would spend some time doing stretches, an insane amount of push ups, sit ups, suicide runs and several other exorcises. After doing those exorcises he would have some time around lunch, since the main point of the exercises was mostly to waste his time and stop him from annoying Tsunade as she slept of various hangovers and caught up on much needed 'beauty' sleep, Naruto would spend his free time reading over some scrolls that he'd come across or doing tasks for Tsunade.

It was reading one of these scrolls that reminded him about the three scrolls that his parents had left him, provoking him to take a look at what they contained earlier that day.

Seeing that everyone was leaving the elderly Hokage decided that he had best be getting back to his own family, all the while secretly hoping that something would come up so he would be able to avoid the dreaded paper work for just a short while longer.

After Tsunade and Naruto walked the elderly man to the entrance to the compound, they realized that they were alone. Tsunade's assistant Shizune was working at the hospital tonight, so it was just the two of them. Tsunade didn't want to do anything special and Naruto wasn't allowed to leave the compound for some time, as per the cover that they had used against the council.

"Ok brat, go and get yourself cleaned up. I've got some stuff I need to look at then we'll have something to eat." Tsunade instructed him.

Naruto nodded and ran off to the guest building that he was using as his to have a shower and wait until dinner.

When Naruto walked into his room searching for a change of clothes to take to the bathroom when he felt a burning sensation come from within the seal on his arm. Holding out his palm, he summoned the book out from the seal.

From what he could see the book itself was perfectly fine, there were no obvious markings on its cover, there was no scratches. No markings of any kind that he could see. But for some reason it responded to something, and it had hurt. But why?

Seeing as the feeling was gone and the book was fine he returned the book to the seal and picked up some clothes and proceeded to having a bath.

(Later that night)

The sound of dripping water filled the air.

There was a pungent smell in the air.

The sound of someone walking through water echoed throughout the space.

There was no light source but for some reason there was plenty of light.

Naruto had no idea where he was walking but he did seem to know, on some level, where he was walking instinctively.

He turned and walked down a pathway that he had never seen before.

For some reason there was no hesitation as he walked, no fear of where he was going. He had never been here before but was comfortable with the path he started walking.

He turned down another path way.

It was a few moments before he saw what he was seemingly looking for.

Naruto looked upon a large aged metal gate. There were signs of damage, as though something had attempted to fight its way out, tooth and nail. He looked around and saw that there were marks on the floor, walls and roof on both sides of the gate. Whatever was on the other side of the gate had been struggling to fight its way out. Realizing what the plan had been he smirked at the effort. Whatever was inside the gate had tried to dig its way out, it had tried to dig a hole under the gate, around and over the gate but it didn't seem to work as Naruto could see the gashes on the surfaces had started to fade and match the dreary dull grey cement colour that he could see everywhere, it seemed that the water was even the same colour.

He took a step closer to the gate to see what was on the other side, to see what was on the other side of the gate. There was something about the gate that seemed off to him, but he couldn't place it, after all this was the first time that he was seeing the gate.

"So, after all this time you finally decide to visit me again young kit." Came a somewhat familiar voice. It took a moment for the memory to surface with everything that happened lately.

"Kurama!" He called out gleefully.

"It would seem that you forgot about me" Naruto paled slightly at the comment.

"It's not my fault, I was gonna visit again but I was attacked again, now I'm with Tsunade-baa-chan, I'm training and then there's the tome and-"

"I know about all that already." Kurama stated, stopping Naruto before he could keep rambling.

Naruto assumed his trademark thinking position "Then why am I here? I haven't figured out how to get down here on my own yet."

"It's about that Tome of yours."

There seemed to be more anger in her voice than the last time that Naruto and the female Biju spoke.

"What about it?" he asked.

"Let's start with why you have the book? I thought that I destroyed that thing." She simply stated at the end.

"I found it in one of the scrolls that my Kaa-san left me, I could feel it inside one of the scrolls and it started to annoy me with how much It called out so it was the first thing that I looked for, and now here it is." He explained.

"You really need to work on how you explain things kit." Kurama said.

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. Then he realized something.

"Where are you?"

"Hn?" came the intelligent response.

"I can't see you. The last time I was here I could see you, you are a massive nine tailed fox after all." He said.

Naruto heard a deep, depressed sorrowful sigh.

"Kit there's some things we should talk about, some things I can't talk about until you're older, mostly because there are things that need to be said at certain times but I think we should talk about one of these first." Kurama replied.

"OK."

Naruto heard footsteps echoing from behind the cage. It was oddly suspenseful, even though the only other being that was ever here was the Kyuubi – was Kurama, the sound of footsteps that weren't small earthquakes was strange and put him on edge slightly. Instinctively Naruto took a step back and made himself look small, as he had learnt to do when he was being chased by various mobs during his younger life.

Slowly the sound of the footsteps came closer, he could see the ripples flowing through the water as someone on the other side walked through the still waters.

"One of the main things that we should talk about is that book and how it relates to myself." Came Kurama's voice.

Naruto stopped before answering.

Kurama's voice was different, before it sounded like a man, deep and powerful, but now it sounded higher – more feminine.

Before Naruto was able to speak Kurama spoke.

"It would be foolish of me to ask you what you know about myself or where I came from, because I know that you do not know the answer. The answer has been forgotten over the course of time." Kurama spoke, Naruto could tell she was giving a lecture "I am Kurama, the nine tailed Fox"

Standing before Naruto in the light was a beautiful young women. She was the same height as he was. She was wearing a light cerulean blue Kimono with a purple sash wrapped around her waist, along the base of the kimono were small foxes depicted in mid step. Her hair was crimson red and easily reached half way down her back as it was, without being tied up. Her eyes were the most stunning thing about her, as far as Naruto could see. Kurama's eyes were a powerful orange, he noted that it was similar to her fur from the first time they had met, standing in contrast to the black slit pupil, and similar to what her full fox form had.

"Wow"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…HUH?"

The beautiful women that was standing in front of Naruto, separated by the large gate stared at him here eyes white and jaw hanging. She had been expecting a variety of different reactions to take place. She had run through various scenarios of things that could have happened; He could have shouted and screamed, demanding to know who she was. That she would have been able to deal with easily. Him hitting on her? Doubtful but he was still a male. Laughing and thinking that this was all a joke? Sure no problem. Use her deep massive fox voice and scare him straight. BUT just staring at her in awe…nope! She had no idea how to handle that. It had never happened to cross her mind.

Even though he was known for pranks and being unpredictable she had never thought that he would do something so unexpected.

"Your hair…" He said after a moment.

Kurama raised a suspicious eyebrow and looked him up and down "What about it?"

"…it's pretty."

Ladies and gentlemen: Common sense has left the building.

Naruto noticed that Kurama was in a state of shock/surprise, she was just staring at him and not moving in the slightest. He shifted from side to side and watched as her eyes just moved as he moved, they never left his.

"That's really creepy…" he stated as he looked away.

It remained like this for a few minutes. Neither Naruto nor Kurama said anything.

Naruto refused to look at her because of the way her eyes just kept staring at him as he moved, which made him feel very insecure and Kurama was just stunned at the fact that she, a neigh immortal being of malice, hatred and all things evil was being complimented about her hair. After a while of sneaking glances to see if Kurama had regained some level of composure so they could continue their talk he finally snapped.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?! ALL I SAID WAS I LIKED YOUR HAIR! IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG WITH ADMITTING THAT I THINK IT'S CUTE!" he shouted.

Unknown to the young blond, being in his mindscape everything was vastly influenced by his emotions and thoughts. An example of which was the sudden soundwave that resulted in Kurama being thrown far away from Naruto's mental form.

Realizing what just happened Naruto bolted through the bars of the gate and sprinted forward, attempting to follow the path that Kurama had taken when she was blasted away from him. He didn't take any notice of the things around him and just kept running. And running. And running.

It seemed like a good few minutes that he was running until he came across Kurama sitting up and rubbing her temples. She was grumbling something along the lines of 'Stupid blond humans' when he got close.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

Kurama looked at him and said nothing.

Naruto knelt down and looked at where she was holding her head.

"You look ok. But you should sit down for a bit." He instructed as he helped her onto her feet, noticing the chair that he hadn't seen before Naruto helped her into it.

Kurama rubbed her head and leaned back against the chair…then leapt to her feet.

"Where the fuck did that come from?" she screeched.

Naruto had covered his ears but was unable to do it fast enough and got an earful of Kurama's loud panicked voice.

"OW!" he said pointedly "I just saw the chair myself, I thought it was yours."

Kurama shook her head.

"It's not mine, there was nothing here other than the gate, all this water and all this darkness." She pointed at everything that she had mentioned.

"Seems like it sucks in here to me." Naruto simply stated, his young mind not understanding what had caused Kurama to get worked up about. She didn't have a chair and now she does, was there an issue with that?

Kurama looked at him once again and stated simply "Yeah"

"Then why don't you leave?" he asked, as if it was that simple.

"I can't"

"Why not?"

"Because of the gate."

"Don't they work both ways?"

"…"

"Since I was able to come in, shouldn't you be able to go out?"

"It's not that simple." She replied as she looked at the gate.

"Why?" he asked, his head cocked to the side.

"Because if it was then I wouldn't be here." She replied as she turned to look at him "And neither would you."

"Why?"

"Because."

"That's not an answer."

"Yes it is."

"No it's not."

"It's the one you're getting, so that means it is."

"Why are you mad?"

"Because you're here and that-"she pointed to the chair "-is also here, which shouldn't even be possible."

"Why not?"

"Because this isn't a physical place, that's why!"

Naruto cocked his head to the side and looked around, which was somewhat strange for anyone to see.

"Right, small words." Kurama sighed "This place is inside your mind, so that means that there can be nothing here, at all."

Naruto returned his focus to her "But you're here, and so am I."

"That's different."

"How?"

"Because of the seal."

"The one that keeps you here?" he asked.

Kurama nodded.

"That's dumb."

Kurama blinked, then remembered who she was talking to.

"Shouldn't there be more ramen if this is my mind?" he asked.

Before either party was able to say another word the smell of ramen filled the air. Kurama looked at Naruto curiously.

"How did you do that?"

"Dunno. But its better then what it smelled like before."

Kurama could only nod, she had been living inside a mental sewer for the duration of Naruto's life and after a few years when he had hidden inside a real one her cage had started to smell like one ever since, it had been slowly driving her mad. It was also one of the reasons why she lashed out when Naruto had first appeared inside the seal and spoke to her.

Naruto closed his eyes and started to focus, Kurama noticed this and started to really get confused. Without saying anything she sat down on the chair that had been sitting there, empty for some time, seeing as he was technically right and she should be sitting down she took the chance and occupied the chair, pulling her feet out of the water and resting them on the seat and her head on her knees.

'This is the first time that I've been, somewhat unrestrained.' She noted. And it was true. When she was contained inside her last host, Naruto's mother she was held in place by chains against a round rock and hadn't been able to move anything other than her fingers and toes, albeit there were wooden stakes embedded in her hands, feet, chest and all her tails making it extremely painful to do so, it was the only thing she could do.

Before that she was trapped inside another Uzumaki women, though it was mildly better than being contained inside Kushina, not that she knew it at the time. She had been strung up, for lack of a better word, underneath a large wooden mihashira torii with nine Shinmei torii holding down her tails and chains wrapped around her limbs preventing any form of movement.

She just watched as Naruto stood there with his eyes squeezed close for some time before she had begun to lose interest in him and his antics. She looked around and had yet to spot anything new, other than the chair, inside her dull space until her eyes landed on Naruto's concentrating figure. Being the cunning and devious fox that she was she decided to play with the only interesting thing that had appeared in front of her since she was trapped. Naruto himself.

Slowly placing her foot in the water, trying not to make any noise or disturb the water itself Kurama slowly made her way towards him. She quietly lifted her foot out of the water and slipped it behind Naruto, as soon as it touched the floor under the water she stopped and waited for him to move or do something that would indicate whether or not he noticed what she was doing. After a moment of nothing Kurama moved her other leg so she was now standing behind him completely hidden from him and would be able to surprise (read: scare the living shit out of) him.

As soon as she was in place she had started to feel something strange. This whole time Naruto had been channelling chakra whilst standing in front of her and she hadn't noticed the entire time that he had been doing it.

"RRRRAAAAA!" Naruto threw his arms out, releasing all the chakra that he had been accumulating while standing in place.

Kurama had been thrown back several meters and fell, landing on her backside looking at Naruto in wonder. A large pillar of cerulean blue chakra radiated from his small figure, it reached high into the emptiness above. She watched as the powerful blue chakra seemed to fill up the sky above the seal, Kurama had no clue as to how much room was inside the seal as she had spent weeks travelling in different directions never to find a solid surface, other than the gate and the wall that it was connected to.

As she was watching she was fortunate enough to have closed her eyes as a large burst of pure white light illuminated the interior of the seal, she could feel the pure power that the young blond had released and it was blinding, so much so that Kurama had to cover her eyes just to block out the bright light that he was releasing. The sheer force that he was releasing was more powerful than anything that she had ever encountered, it was even stronger than anything she had ever released before she was sealed, before she was first sealed and before she was sealed inside Naruto. The power she was feeling continued to grow stronger and stronger, so much so that it was beginning to overwhelm her senses, she struggled to breathe under his sheer raw power, and she had started to pull herself away from him.

She was afraid, for one of the few times in her life she was scared for her life. The level of power he was displaying was something that she had only felt few times throughout her ancient life. But feeling the amount of force that he was radiating was something that had only belonged to few beings she had ever come across.

"I…I…I…its O…O…Over N…Nine-Thousand!" she exclaimed.

All of a sudden the sheer amount of force retracted, it was so sudden that her breath was taken away, she gasped as the air was taken from her lungs.

Her hand dropped away from her eyes, blocking out the bright light, and went to her neck acting out of instinct to work some air into her lungs, once she wasn't covering her eyes she was able to see Naruto standing in the same place that he was before but this time he was surrounded by a powerful white aura. It easily radiated an inch outside his body with wisps of power snaking away from him.

'I've never seen just how much power he has, it could be beyond anything that I've come across. It's already stronger than anything Mito or Kushina ever had or that I could ever saw them use.' She thought as her breath returned and she calmed down 'Just how much power does he have? How far will he grow?'

She watched as the white aura started to intensify and spread out from him.

It started to pick up speed as it worked its way away from him.

As soon as it god close to Kurama she cringed and waited for some kind of pain to hit her.

…

…

But nothing happened.

Although she could feel something growing between her fingers. She opened her eyes slowly and looked at her hand to see what it was.

As soon as she saw the small amount of green between her finger tips her eyes shot open and she spun around to look at Naruto so fast if she was outside the seal her neck would have snapped at how fast she did so.

All around Naruto small sprouts of grass were growing and spreading out from Naruto with impressive speeds. Kurama could only watch as it spread out and take away all the water that she was so use to wading through ever since she was sealed away inside his body.

She watched as the Solid cement that she had stepped on every day transformed into soft soil. As the grass spread out and formed a whole new world inside the seal for her, all because he had mentioned his favourite meal and the smell of which changed the horrid smell she had been suffering with for some time. Now the air started to smell of the fresh green planes that she had walked through generations ago, the smell of pine, oak, and flowers filled the air.

She looked around in wonder as trees, flowers, shrubs, bushes, hills…a wild terrain was created from such a young boy. She looked around and marvelled at the hills and mountains she could see in the far distance, a waterfall raging to the far west, connecting to a crystal clear river that spread out.

Suddenly she had to look at the ground as a bright light appeared above her.

Using one hand she looked into the space above the cage and saw that there was now a dazzling bright ball in the sky…wait…sky?

"Since when was there a sky?" she thought aloud.

"Since I wanted there to be one." Came a voice behind her.

Kurama spun around and saw that Naruto was sweating profusely. She wasn't able to say anything. She was so stunned at everything that she was seeing and had yet to see that she wasn't able to say anything.

Naruto's horrid orange jumpsuit shimmered and vanished, leaving Naruto in different clothes. He was now wearing black steel capped boots, with the steel on the outside of the boot, black pants held up with a red belt, a light jacket instead of a shirt that matched the similar colour scheme of black, on the outside, and red, on the inside, he also had an orange piece of cloth wrapped around his right wrist and a black fingerless glove on his left hand. Completing the new look was a black headband with a pair of goggles with red lenses.

"It's the same with everything around here." He stated simply "For the most part anyway."

Kurama was still looking at him.

"What?"

Kurama opened her mouth as if to say something but she was unable to form any words, she could only gesture at his clothes and at everything around them.

Naruto chuckled at her reaction.

"The clothes I saw around the village a while ago and I liked them so I thought I'd try them on and see how they looked." Answering one of Kurama's questions. He then looked out over everything that he had made.

"The new landscape was, for the most part, a basic idea of what I thought you'd like." He said "Though I did put a few things for myself, the waterfall being one of them. I tried to remove all the water so it'd be all green and nice but that wouldn't work so I was stuck with keeping a river, but for the most part I was able to keep it underground. There's a large lake not far from here that I thought you would like, it's big enough for you cool off in when you're in…"

"Kyuubi form?" Kurama supplied.

"I was going to say Big Fox form, but that works too." He smiled, a large familiarly foxy grin

It was infectious and soon a small smile appeared on Kurama's face as well.

"There's a little something special that I had placed to the south." Naruto said as he gently took Kurama's hand.

Allowing him to lead her Kurama took in all the new things around her. She spotted wild flowers growing along the forest floor in the shade of large trees. It was wild, untamed, untouched by mortals…it was beautiful. As they were walking the sound of their footsteps changed. Just seconds ago the only sound, other than the wind through the trees, was the sound of their feet stepping on packed earth, but now when Kurama looked down she saw that they were walking on a long raised wooden platform.

Realizing that there were still changes being made to the mindscape as they were walking Kurama focussed on Naruto, she was awestruck at everything that he was doing it was nothing short of a miracle for her after spending so long trapped within a sewer of darkness, she had almost wished she was still trapped inside one of her previous hosts. At least they had some kind of cloudy mist that was, at best, something to look at if nothing else, though she really didn't care for the chains that they used on her while she was contained inside them, but it wasn't a dark hole with the only light source being outside her cage, even as spacious as it oddly was.

"This is amazing Naruto-kun" she admitted as the pair walked.

Naruto chuckled and looked away, trying not to give away his secrets or show just how much it meant to hear those words from her. It was something that he had wanted to hear someone, anyone, say about his abilities or skills. It was just unfortunate that the amount of people in the world, both his own and the real world, which said that to him amounted to only Kurama and the elderly Hokage…and possibly Tsunade, though she could have just been saying that while she was drunk a few days ago.

"The biggest surprize is up ahead." He simply stated and continued to lead the ancient female demoness along the path.

'If he keeps doing things like this then I'm going to have to-WOAH! Where did that come from?' Kurama was caught off guard at the random thought that crossed her mind. 'There's no way that I can feel like that. Especially to him…I mean he's human and I'm…'

She wasn't able to continue her thought for several reasons;

One, if she kept travelling down that pathway then she would have to admit that even for the slightest of moments that she had thought about him in that way.

Two, she remembered the last time that she had heard of a Human and Demon falling in love and what that caused.

Three, she was trapped inside him. She wouldn't be able to have that kind of relationship with him even though she would never think about doing such a thing, the thought never crossed her mind, just like her reasoning for the thought.

Eventually Kurama and Naruto came to a fork in the road. One way went left, into the forest, and the other went right, out towards the grassy planes.

She was guided towards the right path, away from the forest.

"Why are we not going towards the forest?" she asked him curiosity taking hold over reason.

"Because the thing that I want to show you is over here." Naruto said.

He had to choose his words carefully. He may have had plenty of experience hiding his emotions but for some reason while he has been around Kurama he hasn't been able to keep them concealed from her.

When he had realized that he could change things inside his unusual mindscape, mainly when he was able to start smelling ramen instead of the rotting decay that permeated through Kurama's cage he had decided that he would make an attempt to change things for her, after all it was because of her that he was actually alive. He doesn't hold a grudge against her, just people that can't tell the difference between a container and its contents. Ignorant civilians, he was going to do something about that when he became Hokage.

It was just like his Jiji said when he had been talking about why the civilian council was trying to take control of the shinobi academy…

{Some time ago}

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Shinobi no Kami, Sandaime Hokage, slammed his fist against the solid oak table that he had been attached too for some time.

"I told you this would happen Hiruzen." Said his companion "You have allowed the council to take too much control, the civilian council in particular."

Hiruzen glared at his companion but shook his head sadly a moment later.

"What could I have done? Rule with fear? Intimidate everyone that lives in the village until they leave and the village falls to ashes?" He asked rhetorically as he sent papers flying across the surface of the table, some falling onto the floor.

"I think that it would have been preferable to do something like that…even if you only did so during the council meetings." His companion stated.

The two men chuckled slightly at the unintentional mental image that generated.

Sitting in the room with piles of paperwork was something that either men had intended to do that day, but they both knew that they had no other choice. With the last war finally over, the village STILL recovering from the Kyuubi attack some years ago the Hokage had, unknowingly to anyone, silently observed the current graduating class at the academy. He had been surprised to say the least.

When the last academy review had been scheduled, every ten years with a minor review every three, occurred during the end of wartimes when defences and tension were high somehow the Civilian council, which had been responsible for several aspects of shinobi life while the Hokage was on the frontlines leading his troops, had decided that there more 'important' things that needed to be taught at the academy and several key and important classes had been shrunk down or outright removed. Some areas that had fallen under this arrangement were; Sealing arts (Fuinjutsu), history, stealth training (how that was removed was still a mystery to this day), trap making, medical introduction and shinobi specialization classes. Even the graduation requirements hadn't escaped the 'all mighty councils' revision.

The graduation requirement had been simple, to a point.

A student had to be able to hit 15/20 targets using Shurikenjutsu, perform a bushin, of their choice, as some clans had their own, a Kuwarmi, Henge, a basic D-rank Genjutsu, pass a written test which tested all theoretical knowledge that was covered during their time at the academy, average stealth level and have made a functional cloak of invisibility.

Then there were some speciality classes for Kunoichi. Mostly dealing with what to do if captured, seduction, poisons and antidotes, and how to keep themselves 'protected' (Not going into it) should they be and a few other special classes that the males never needed to know about.

In place of these important classes there were now pointless classes, some of which had nothing to do with being a shinobi in any way. Flower arranging, sewing and knitting and several other classes that were actually detrimental to young Kunoichi development. It also caused a sever lack of young women attending the academy making it a male intensive career.

"We will have to do all that we can possibly do in order to rectify this. They don't seem to understand just how our world works, no matter what I do there is no way, that I can see, to show them that the world they think they live in is nothing but a shell of what we really live in." Hiruzen stated as he looked at another document that he needed to sign for the academy.

"We?" his companion asked sarcastically.

Hiruzen looked at him.

"Yes Danzo, you heard me correctly." He stated "You want to keep this village strong just as much as I do. You also know, as do I, that the academy has been tainted by the civilian council. If I didn't know better I'd say that they were trying to weaken the shinobi forces so they can make this a civilian village under their control instead of a village under the Hokage's command."

Danzo sighed and looked at a document that was close to him.

"What do you want me to do Hiruzen? As you just said, this village is under the Hokage's command no one else's."

Both men took a sip of tea and started discussing plans to make the village strong again. Unknown to both, or each other, so they assumed, Naruto was sitting just outside the room and was able to hear what they were talking about.

{Back to Naruto and Kurama}

The civilian population are uninformed about how things work, even with all the people around them that try to show them just how things are they attempt to pull things back and make them conform to their personal ideals without any regards as to the truth or requirements that either side need to survive. Konoha was lucky that there was nothing more serious than a drop in the amount of females that became shinobi in the village, if it had been any worse than the village could have been weak enough to lose its position as one of the five great hidden villages.

A moment later Naruto and Kurama arrived in a small clearing. The wooden platform that the pair had been walking on came to an end only to be replaced by a stone pathway that led to a quaint cabin.

It was nothing special, from some of the homes that Naruto had seen around the village, and he'd only seen images of different houses in some of the books that he'd seen whilst digging for food. But for some reason this house was something that he was able to imagine and create so perfectly. It was only a small round log cabin, sitting in an open grass field, surrounded by a thick coniferous forest. It had a wooden fence surrounding the perimeter of the cabin with an open wooden gate waiting for the pair to walk through.

"What is…" the words died off in her mouth as Kurama looked at Naruto "This is for…"

Naruto nodded "Yeah, this is your home. I know that my whole mind is your home, but I thought that you'd be happier with an actual house of some kind."

Kurama said nothing, her eyes were transfixed on the 1-storey house as she walked through the gate. A few steps later she was walking up the small wooden steps and onto the terrace before stopping at the closed door.

She ran her hand lovingly along the wooden doorframe as Naruto spoke.

"It's not much. But I hope that you like it."

"I love it." Kurama whispered as she gingerly reached for the handle.

Only using a small amount of force on the knob she slowly opened the door and looked inside her new home.

Inside the home there were two lush orange couches with wooden handles sitting atop a white carpet square, seeming to separate itself from the floorboards. Sitting between the couches was a small coffee table with adorable blue flowers siting in the middle. There was no landing after the doorway so Kurama kept her shoes on and walked inside.

There was nothing on any of the walls, though the walls were not flat as she had thought. The walls kept the same look as the exterior of the cabin, logs made up the wall instead of drywall or plaster. They were the same colour as the floorboards. Sitting just a few feet from one of the couches was a small standing wooden heater with a roaring fire keeping the room warm. She saw the two large windows that stood parallel with the two couches, they were taller than she was, in her current form anyway, standing at least nine feet high with crimson drapes letting the light drift in.

Kurama made her way through the cabin looking at everything that she could.

She saw the kitchen, filled with different appliances, and thanks to Naruto, a cupboard filled with Ramen.

'That sweet, little goofball' she thought to herself as she giggled at the sight.

She saw the bathroom that followed the traditional Konoha style, except the bath was twice as large as it normally would have been. It was perfect for relaxing in, just like it would be at a hot springs.

The bedroom had one large king sized four-poster bed. It had amazing purple curtains tied to the side. The sheets were the same beautiful shade of purple and, as she could instantly tell, were made of silk. There was even a cute little plush fox sitting on the bed between two of the pillows.

"I don't know where most of the look came from…" Naruto said after countless minutes of silence as Kurama explored her home "All that I had thought about was giving you a small home that you would be able to enjoy in comfort and looked as amazing as it could without being too over the top."

Kurama smirked and looked at Naruto "So there's not a marble statue of me in one of the rooms or in the backyard?"

Naruto just rolled his eyes and chuckled "Not this time, but that doesn't mean that you have seen everything that I've made."

As he walked away Kurama giggled at his response.

'How can this get any better?' she thought to herself as she picked up the small toy fox and squeezed it tight.

She found Naruto a short while later sitting on one of the couches with two cups of tea and a plate of biscuits.

"I love it." Kurama stated as she walked over to the couches.

"You can keep looking around if you want, I'm in no hurry."

Kurama shook her head "I told you that we had to talk earlier and I think that I should do that now. That way when you wake up later I can explore and find everything that you have hidden at my own pace.

Naruto nodded and sipped his tea and they began their conversation.

Hello everyone,

I hope you like this chapter. For those wondering what Naruto's mindscape looks like I have a small gift.
Look up Sword art online and look up Kirito and Asuna's house on floor 22.
That will give you the closest description of Naruto's mindscape and the house is the same, with a small change to the bedroom (i put one bed instead of two)

I have added a poll for who the pairings should be. If you have any ideas that aren't listed just put them in a pm or review and select the option that says so, that way i know to look here.
I will add a small tally of what the votes are whenever i put up a new chapter.

The poll will remain until a later chapter when i plan on bringing in a pairing, so that will more than likely be when Naruto is at the academy or close to when he is supposed to graduate.

Let me know what you thought of the chapter in a review.