Welcome, my readers, to the fifteenth act of New Life in Naruto?! Our actors are poised and ready to give you a performance you'll surely won't forget during this time of panic! Now, let us raise the curtain and may you be mesmerized by what is about unfold as our actors flawlessly play their roles in tonight's tale.

Chapter Fifteen: A Meeting of Two Jinchurikis

To say I was nervous was the biggest understatement of the century considering I'm standing in front of a giant nine-tailed fox. A giant nine-tailed fox that could swallow me whole if he so felt like it without batting an eye. But for the sake of a brighter future, I can't show any signs of being intimidated or nervous. After all, if I fail in convincing Kurama to cooperate, there's no way of getting Naruto stronger in a short amount of time.

"So, this human is your new Jinchuriki, three tails?" Kurama questioned, leaning forward to get a good look at me and I felt my body tense slightly. You can practically taste the venom when the fox tailed beast called me a human. "You're nothing more than a child, not even worth being called an appetizer, what's stopping me from just eating you here and now?"

"Wait, nine tails." Isobu said, using his tails to push Kurama back a little to give me some space. "Please listen to what he has to say, it's important."

"What could possibly be so important that I, the great nine tailed fox, have to listen to the words of a mere human?" Wow, I knew that Kurama is prideful and hates humans, but this is borderline pessimistic and now I'm starting to have second thoughts about this idea of Isobu's. Kurma's eyes narrowed at me before turning his attention to Isobu. "You should know that you should never trust humans, they'll only see you as a tool to use as they wish."

"Kojiro isn't like that." Isobu argued, moving so he was behind me before using a tail to lift me up and placed me on top of his shell. "Ever since he became my Jinchuriki, he hasn't abused the use of my chakra and I trust he never will."

"A mere act." Kurama scoffed, turning his head to the side but never took his eyes off me. "This human is just waiting for the right moment to betray your so called trust." I opened my mouth to protest the nine-tailed fox's claims, but closed it when a hate filled glare was sent my way. "We tailed beasts are nothing but mindless animals to you humans for you to use as weapons for your petty power struggle."

"You mean like how Madara Uchiha manipulated you?" I asked softly, but immediately regretted it when the hatred in Kurama's eyes increased tenfold as a low growl left his bared fangs.

"NEVER SAY THAT NAME IN FRONT OF ME AGAIN!" Kurama roared, his voice being enough to create a shockwave that pushed me off Isobu's shell before one of his tails caught me. "HE AND THE FIRST HOKAGE ARE PRIME EXAMPLES THAT HUMANS CAN NEVER BE TRUSTED! DON'T THINK I'VE FORGOTTEN THE FIRST'S WIFE, MITO UZUMAKI, KUSHINA UZUMAKI, AND THE FOURTH HOKAGE!" At the mention of Kushina and the fourth hokage, I immediately thought of Naruto and my fingers curled into tight fists as I lowered my head, my hair shadowing my eyes. "WHAT MAKES THEM THINK THEY CAN CONTROL ME, THE NINE-TAILED FOX?! IF THEY WERE STILL ALIVE AND I WASN'T SEALED, I WOULD DEVOUR THEM AND EVERY HUMAN IN THIS WORLD!"

"Shut up." I muttered, halting Kurama's rant as he and Isobu looked towards me as I tightened my fists, my nails pierced through skin and if this were in the real world then blood would be dripping on Isobu's tail right now. "So you had a few bad experiences with humans, and that's enough to hate them all as a whole?" I raised my head and glared at the giant fox in front of me. "How pathetic, I pity you."

"What was that?! Listen you-"

"No, you listen!" There was no way in hell I'm giving this pessimistic fox another chance to speak, cause I've heard enough. "What gives you the right to judge all us humans for the actions of a few, huh, do you think you're some kind of god?!" Kurama opened his mouth to probably say something in retaliation, but I was pissed right now and I wasn't done. "Shut that mouth, I'm far from done!"

"You insolent human!" Kurama growled, his tail thrashing around behind him to show his anger but I wasn't backing down and continued to glare up at him. "How dare you order me, I'm going to enjoy ripping you apart!"

"Oh get over yourself, do you think that you're justified for your actions against humans because of a few bad apples in the bunch?!" I raised a hand to point at the fox when he opened his mouth again. "Well news flash dumbass, everyone's not perfect and that goes for you too! You should be ashamed of yourself, I bet Hagoromo would be rolling in his grave right now if he could see how you're acting!"

"What?" If Kurama's eyes widened in both shock and anger when I mentioned Hagoromo I didn't notice, I was too angry to pay attention to what I was saying. He bared his fangs as he leaned towards me in an intimidating way. "What do you know about the old man?!"

"More than you apparently!" I spat out, not the least bit scared of the fangs inches from biting my head off. "In fact, wasn't the point of Hagoromo's teachings of ninshu to bring peace and understanding to the world?!" I took a step forward, nearly stepping over the edge of Isobu's tail, and I narrowed my eyes in disappointment at the fox. "And here you are saying you'll kill every last human because you were manipulated and sealed?! That's pretty much spitting in the face of someone who's practically your parent!"

"Kojiro." Isobu said softly, but I was too focused on Kurama and giving him a piece of my mind that I didn't hear him.

"You have some nerve!" Kurama swiped a claw at me and I ducked out of the way. "Why should I listen to the words of an insignificant human like you?!" He prepared for another strike but Isobu wrapped a tail around Kurama's arm to halt the strike. "I should just kill you here and now, then there will be one less human in this world!"

"I'm not done, because I have a question I've been meaning to ask for a long time!" I knew I was going to regret what's about to come out of my mouth, but I didn't care, someone needed to set this bastard of a fox straight and take him down a peg or two. "So you better listen, cause I'm saying it once!"

"You dare give me orders?!" Kurama jerked his arms out of Isobu's grip and raised his claws over his head before bringing it down on me. "Die!"

"Are you happy, are you proud of your accomplishments?!" Kurama's claw halted to a stop, the tip just barely touching my forehead but I didn't so much as flinched. "Well I'm not, and Hagoromo is most certainly not, and do you know why?!" Kurama opened his mouth, probably to respond, but I beat him to it. "I'll tell you why, because what you did is the opposite of what Hagoromo was teaching and instead of trying to bring peace like he wanted, you went and created more hatred, more specifically, hatred towards the tailed beasts and their Jinchuriki!"

"Kojiro, calm down." Isobu placed a tail on my head to calm me, but I gently pushed it aside. I'm grateful Isobu is trying to calm me down, but I can't stop now, not until I'm finished with what I needed to say.

"I am the nine-tailed fox, the very embodiment of hatred, why should I make peace with you pathetic humans?!"

"Why didn't you try to be understanding?!" I was starting to have trouble breathing at this point, probably because I didn't stop talking and not getting enough air in my lungs. "Maybe if you did, then you wouldn't have been sealed three times, maybe Naruto wouldn't be hated for having you sealed in him, and he would still have his parents!" Kurama's eyes widened in shock as I mentioned his Jinchuriki and his parents but I didn't pay that much attention as my glare intensified. "You wanted to be the embodiment of hatred, well congratulations, I hope you're happy!"

Silence filled the void which is the tailed beasts psychic plane with the only sound being me taking deep breaths to get as much air in my lungs as possible. None of us moved an inch, not even Kurama's tails were swaying and he would be mistaken for a statue if you didn't look closely enough.

"...How do you know all of that?" Kurama asked, still reeling from my rant and the fact that I knew more than I should.

"This is what we wanted to talk to you about, Kurama." Isobu said, saying the fox's true name for the first time since we arrived as he used a tail to lower the claw still on my forehead. "Kojiro here is not like any other human. The same could be said about your Jinchuriki if you give him a chance."

"I'm not even sure I want to do this anymore, Isobu." I muttered under my breath as I finally managed to calm myself down. It suddenly became hard to stay on my feet so I sat myself down on Isobu's tail. "If what I said didn't get the message through, nothing will."

"Please, Kojiro?" Isobu pleaded, placing a tail on my head like he always does to comfort me. I looked over to Kurama and remembered why I agreed to this in the first place. I sighed in resignation before giving a reluctant nod of my head. "Now, Kurama, I want you to look in Kojiro's memories."

"Hmph, don't tell me what to do." Kurama brought a tail up to me so the tip was touching my forehead and I felt a slight discomfort but didn't resist as I brought up the memories I wanted to show Kurama. My time in my previous life, the Naruto anime and Manga, but most importantly, what happens in the future and what would become of him and Naruto. "I see." Kurama removed his tail from my forehead and looked at me with appraising eyes. "It's hard to believe, but it explains how you know so much about the old man."

"I didn't believe it at first either, Kurama." Isobu said as he placed me on top of his shell and let his tails fall behind him. "But Kojiro's memories were too genuine to be fake and I felt the other should know."

"That's why it's imperative that you form a link with Naruto, Kurama." I added, sitting cross legged as I looked up towards the nine-tailed fox, hoping that he would at least consider it. "Do you want the ten tails to be resurrected when you could have stopped it?"

"Don't think showing me your memories was enough, human." Kurama growled as he turned his back to me and Isobu. I lowered my head sadly, knowing that Isobu and I failed in convincing Kurama. "However…" I raised my head while Kurama turned his to look at me. "If what you showed me is true, then I'll give the boy a chance." His eyes narrowed slightly when I started to smile hopefully. "Just know that if he shows any signs of being no different than the rest of the humans, I will not hesitate to rid this world of them all."

"That's all I ask!" I shouted happily, getting to my feet and bowing to the giant fox. "Thank you, Kurama!"

"Hmph." Kurama turned his head forward again before curling into a ball and resting his head on his paws. "Now get out, your business here is done, right?"

Before I could respond, everything went black and when I opened my eyes, I was back in my new room. I blinked a couple times to get the sleep out of my eyes as I sat up and let out a small yawn. I looked out the window to see that it was morning, barely dawn judging by the little light outside. Since I was awake now, I picked up my hair stick and hairband to make my usual spiky ponytail. Of course, I considered cutting my hair to look more like a boy than a girl, but I couldn't go through with it. This may sound stupid, sentimental, and nobody would care, but I feel closer to my parents with it like this. My mother because of how much I looked like her and my father because of my blue spiky hair.

'There I go again.' I shook my head to get the sad thoughts out of my head as I neatly folded the blanket and futon. 'No more sad thoughts, it's time I start living up to my name.'

I heard someone knocking on my door before it opened to reveal Shisui without his headband who blinked in surprise. "Oh, you're already awake."

"G-good morning, Shisui." I shyly greeted, walking over to him and noticed he was holding a piece of paper with what looked like a list written on it. "Are you going shopping?"

"Yeah." Shisui nodded, bringing the paper up to read it over in case he forgot anything before looking down to me. "I thought that, since you'll be staying with me for a while, we would go shopping for everything you need like spare clothes, a toothbrush, and other things."

"You don't have to do all that!" I said, eyes wide and I waved my hands quickly as I looked around the pretty empty room before looking back to Shisui. "Just you letting me stay with you is enough."

"So you're fine with wearing the same clothes everyday?" Shisui asked, raising an eyebrow as I looked down to the white shirt with the Kurosawa clan mark and brown shirt I was wearing and made a look of disgust at how dirty it was. "I rest my case, we'll leave after breakfast."

'I forgot I left my kimono in the abandoned village.' I thought regretfully as I remembered that in my haste to run from Shisui, I completely left my kimono by the hot springs. 'Great job, Kojiro, way to lose your only other change of clothes despite the bloodstains on it.'

My hand unconsciously went up to grip my shoulder that was stabbed by that Hanako lady as I followed Shisui out of my room and down the stairs. I had to suppress a shiver when I remembered how that woman tormented me and used her daggers to play russian roulette. I'm really lucky I got away from her and her partner, I don't even want to know what they were going to do to me if they took me to their boss. When we reached the kitchen, I saw on the table was a bowl of rice topped with furikake, grilled fish, and another smaller bowl next to the rice.

'What's in that smaller bowl?' I thought curiously, standing on my tippy toes to try and see the contents but soon gave up when that didn't work and glared at the table. 'Damn my small height, I can't wait to get older so nothing's over my head again.'

"It's miso soup, Kojiro." Shisui said, placing a hand on my head which made me tense for a moment. I looked up to Shisui to see that he had an amused smirk on his face. "Don't worry, I'm sure that you'll get taller soon."

'When will everyone stop treating me like a kid?' I blinked at that thought and looked down at myself. 'Oh, right, I am a kid.' I let out an inaudible sigh before climbing up a chair and sat on it while Shisui sat on the one across from me and we both clapped our hands. "Thanks for the food."

After breakfast, Shisui and I left his house to begin shopping for everything I needed. Our first stop was a clothing store which had a wide variety of clothes and I could have sworn some of them looked more like cosplay costumes than anything else. I almost lost it when one of the employees called me a cute little girl and tried to get me to try on a pink frilly skirt. Shisui, bless his soul, managed to stop her and explain that I was a boy which resulted in her frantically apologizing for her error.

"Are you sure you don't want to cut your hair?" Shisui asked as he sifted through the many boys shirts hanging on a rack. "There would be less people thinking you're a girl if you do."

"I'm sure." I reached for my mother's hair stick and lightly brushed a finger over the flower design. "I have my reasons for keeping it long."

And I did, not only because I feel closer to my mother and I feel more comfortable with my hair long. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but because of my feminine looks, I could easily disguise myself as a girl without using a transformation. Meaning I can do infiltration missions without fear of the illusion dispelling and people who can see through illusions would be none the wiser. So yeah, I have my reasons for keeping my hair long.

"If you say so." Shisui picked out a few shirts before handing them to me. "Here, try these on."

"Okay." I took the clothes and entered the changing room to try them on.

The shirts varied in sleeve length and color but most were blue, black, red, green, and white. The pants also varied in length, but the colors were more on the blue, black, and brown side. After several minutes of trying on different clothes and choosing the ones I liked, we were finally paying for them with me asking if it was possible to add the Kurosawa clan's symbol on the shirts. When asked what it looked like, I just pointed to the design on the shirt I was currently wearing, before saying they could do it but we had to pick them up later. After that, we bought a toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, and conditioner for me before we decided to go home for lunch.

"We can worry about furnishing your room another day." Shisui said as he took off his sandals when we got home as I did the same. He looked down to me as he got to his feet, the bag of things we bought in one hand. "In the meantime, why don't you find something to do in here while I put everything away?"

"Kay." I nodded before running down the halls as I tried to find something to entertain myself with.

What, I may be mentally older, but that doesn't mean I don't get bored easily. Eventually, I searched the whole house and couldn't find anything to do that wasn't cleaning. It wasn't until something glinting in my peripheral caught my attention. When I turned my head to see what it was, I knew that my boredom was about to come to an end. What I saw was a partially opened chest and inside was a large amount of kunai, shuriken, and senbon.

"This is where he keeps them?" I muttered under my breath as I reached into the chest and carefully pulled out a kunai and shuriken to stare at them. "I'm holding an actual kunai and shuriken."

"Want to try them out, Kojiro?" Isobu asked, probably feeling my inner fanboy raging to come out and play.

"Is it that obvious?" I let a sheepish laugh before taking three of each from the chest and set them on the floor. "I hope Shisui doesn't mind if I borrow a few." After closing the chest, I picked up the weapons and looked around the house for anything I can use for target practice. In the backyard was a single dead tree that had a small circle where a tree branch used to be. "Perfect."

"Please be careful, Kojiro." Isobu said worriedly as I set the weapons down and picked up a kunai. "Those are real weapons and you could hurt yourself."

"I'll be fine, Isobu." I said reassuringly, testing the weight of the kunai in my hand before facing the tree. "I'm bound to get hurt anyway, so this can be pain tolerance training too. As the saying goes, no pain no gain." I held the kunai at arms length, lining it up to the circle on the tree, and threw it with all my strength. I watched in excitement as the kunai cut through the air only to facefault when it flew past the tree before getting back to my feet. "What happened?"

"I believe the kunai went past the tree, Kojiro."

"Yeah, I got that much." I sweat dropped at Isobu pointing out the obvious before picking up another kunai. "This time I'm not gonna miss."

And so begins the montage of me continuously throwing kunai at a poor defenceless tree for who knows how long. I know that practice makes perfect, but you'd think I'd at least graze the damn tree after the fiftieth try. At what I think was the eighty second try, I was tired and frustrated that I didn't care if the kunai hit or not anymore. In fact, I was just blindly throwing them now hoping to hit something.

"Come on!" I yelled, throwing the kunai in my hand to the ground in frustration and glared at the unharmed tree. "How is it I still haven't hit that stupid tree?!"

"Maybe it's time you switched to a different weapon, Kojiro." Isobu suggested, channeling his chakra through my system to help calm me down. "It's not good to be so focused on one thing."

"You're right, Isobu." I closed my eyes as I took a deep breath before opening them and reached for the senbon. "These are next." I decided to pick up all three and held them between my fingers before throwing them at the tree. Knowing they were going to miss, I turned my back to the tree only to turn back when I heard a low thunk and was shocked to see the senbon embedded in the bark of the tree. "I hit it?"

"You did." I jumped at the sudden voice and turned to see Shisui standing a few feet away with his arms crossed. "Nice shot, by the way."

"Shisui!" I exclaimed in surprise before looking to the kunai and shuriken next to me then panicked as I looked back to the approaching Shisui. "I can explain!"

"No need." Shisui said, halting any excuse that was about to leave my lips. "It's pretty obvious what you were doing." He took a knee and looked me in the eye before looking to the tree where the senbon was still embedded. "It looked to me like you were target practicing."

"I'm sorry." I apologized, lowering my head as I knew I was going to get scolded for taking Shisui's stuff without asking. "I just saw them and wanted to see if I was any good."

"Let me see your hands." I looked up at Shisui in surprise to see that he had his hand held out to me. "Your hands." I was so surprised he wasn't scolding me that I just obeyed and held up my hands which he took in his and inspected them. "You need to be careful, those are real kunai and you could hurt yourself."

"You're not mad?" I asked softly while Shisui never took his eyes off my hands as he looked at them from front to back.

"I wouldn't say that." Shisui replied as he looked at me, disapproval evident in his eyes and I knew I was in trouble. "If you wanted to do some target practice, you could have asked me so I could supervise and make sure you didn't get hurt." He let go of my hands and I let them fall to my sides as Shisui got to his feet. "It doesn't look like you're hurt, but let me know the next time you want to do target practice so I can prepare some dull weapons for you to use."

"Okay, I'm sorry, Shisui." I said, fingering the hem of my shirt as I found the ground interesting all of a sudden.

"Well, since we're here, why not try the kunai again?" Again I looked up in surprise as Shisui handed me a kunai that had its edges dulled. "I'll tell you what you're doing wrong afterwards."

I looked to the kunai with uncertainty before looking back to Shisui who nodded his head in encouragement. Hesitantly, I took the kunai before turning to face the tree again and threw the weapon. It flew through the air and past the tree like all my previous attempts before I looked up to Shisui only to flinch when I saw he had his sharingan active. Having noticed my flinch, Shisui deactivated his sharingan and smile apologetically to me.

"Sorry, I forgot you're scared of my sharingan." He seated himself on the ground and I did too as I patiently awaited what he would say. "The reason you keep missing with the kunai is because you're throwing them too hard."

"I am?" My eyes widened in surprise as Shisui nodded his head. "How does that explain why I keep missing?"

"It messes with your trajectory." Shisui explained as he picked up a kunai and held it horizontally before he started to shake it slightly. "Because you were throwing the kunai with all your strength, the kunai follows your hand as you throw it, making it unstable as it flies through the air." He set the kunai down between us and pointed to the tree I've been trying to hit. "It's because of this instability that the kunai misses the tree."

"I never thought of that." I muttered thoughtfully, looking down at the kunai then to the tree.

"Here, give it another try." I looked back to Shisui who had another dull kunai held out to me. "Only this time, don't throw so hard."

"Kay." I took the kunai before getting to my feet and turned to face the tree. I threw the kunai, not as hard this time, and watched as it flew through the air before a low thunk was heard. A bright smile formed on my face when I saw the kunai hit the base of the tree a few inches over its roots. "I hit it!"

"Good job." I looked back to Shisui who was picking up the remaining kunai and the shuriken. "Keep practicing and you'll have it down in no time." He turned his attention to the tree and the three senbon embedded into it just below the circle I was aiming for. "But it looks like you have a talent for senbon."

"You think so?" I looked towards the senbon and how natural it felt to have them between my fingers when I threw them. It's true that senbon don't inflict that much damage, but hit the right point in the body or inflict enough damage, then they can be very fatal. I also remember somewhere that they can be used for acupuncture as well so mastering senbon is probably a good idea.

"I'd say the tree is more than enough proof." Shisui's voice brought me out of my thoughts and I didn't even notice he was now in front of the tree pulling the senbon out. "It's true these can be thrown with great accuracy, but they aren't ideal weapons for killing unless you have an immense amount of knowledge about the human body." After removing the last senbon, Shisui turned and walked towards me. "That's why there's not many ninja who use them, I keep them on hand because it never hurts to have some variety."

"Can I have them?" I asked, getting a curious look from Shisui and I laughed sheepishly as I fingered the hem of my shirt. "I want to be a medical ninja, and senbon could be used for acupuncture."

"I see." Shisui looked at the senbon thoughtfully, probably debating whether or not he should give the sharp pointy objects to a child. After careful consideration, he held out the senbon to me with a stern look in his eyes. "Just be careful with them."

"I will!" I nodded as I excitedly took the senbon and looked at them before smiling bright up to Shisui for the first time. "Thank you, Shisui!"

Since that day, I've been practicing throwing the senbon at the tree with Shisui standing to the side to make sure I didn't hurt myself. He even gave me advice when I practiced with the dull kunai and shuriken he gave me. Needless to say, we've gotten closer and it got a little easier to look him in the eye without flinching. I still get scared when he activates his sharingan, but I wasn't going to let that affect our relationship. Before I knew it, a month had passed since I arrived in the leaf village and started living with Shisui and I was starting to see him as a big brother. He actually trusts me enough to stay at home by myself when he goes on small missions but has me stay with Zensuke when he would be gone for days. When it's just small missions, I take the chance he's gone to train in Isobu's chakra so my body would get used to it.

Speaking of which, that's what I'm doing right now in my room which has been furnished and no longer the empty room it was when I first saw it. My room now had a bed below the window, a small desk next to a bookcase, a dresser for my clothes, and a circular blue and green rug in the middle of the room. I was actually sitting on said rug legs crossed as Isobu's chakra enveloped my body with a single chakra tail swaying behind me.

'Okay, so far so good.' I thought as a bead of sweat trailed down the side of my face, eyes closed in concentration as I tried to maintain the state I was in. I gasped as my eyes shot open and Isobu's chakra dispersed from my body before I leaned forward to rest my hands on the rug breathing hard and covered in sweat. "Damn, not even ten minutes."

"It's still an improvement, Kojiro." Isobu said reassuringly as I propped my hands behind me and let my head hang back to stare at the ceiling. "At the rate you're going, you'll reach ten minutes in no time."

"I hope so, Isobu." I muttered, raising a hand up as if I was reaching for the ceiling. "I'll never know when I'll need to use your chakra, so I want to have it last as long as possible when that time comes."

"Just don't push yourself too hard." Isobu said, worry evident in his voice as I got to my feet and walked to my dresser to get a change of clothes. "Rest is part of training too."

"Don't worry, I know." After picking the clothes, I left my room and walked down the halls of Shisui's house toward the bathroom. "Unlike a certain pair of bushy eyebrowed workaholics, I know when to rest."

When I reached the bathroom, I turned the faucet on to let the hot water fill the tub before setting the clean clothes on the sink counter. I removed my hair stick and hairband to let my hair fall before I began to take off my clothes. I then began to wash my hair and scrub my body before getting in the tub and sighed at how good the hot water felt.

"Aaah, nothing like a hot bath after chakra training." I cupped my hands before bringing up a handful of water and letting it fall back in the tub. "I wonder what I should do now, Shisui won't be back for a few more hours."

"You could practice your kunai throwing." Isobu suggested and I hummed in thought as I swirled a finger along the surface of the water. "You're getting better at that."

"I already did that two hours ago." I said, looking up to the ceiling as I watched the steam rise. "Same with shuriken and senbon, and working on your chakra again would be overdoing it." I closed my eyes as I tried to think of what I could do before I perked up. "I know, I could learn sealing!"

"Sealing?" Isobu asked curiously as I got out of the tub and started to dry off my body and hair before putting on my clean clothes. "Why would you want to learn that?"

"Sealing can be very useful in the future." I explained as I tied my hair in its usual spiky ponytail and used my hair stick to keep the hairband secure. "I can make paper bombs, storage scrolls, and many other stuff. Plus, having knowledge of seals will make undoing them easier if we get caught in a trap."

"That's a good point." After I was fully dressed in a red shirt with the Kurosawa clan mark on it and brown shorts, I left the bathroom and walked down the hall. "But how will you learn sealing? Shisui doesn't have any books on the subject."

"Then I'll go to the library." I replied as I got to the front door and put on my sandals. "Luckily I remember the way from here."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I just shrugged casually to Isobu's concern as I left the house and locked the door with the spare key Shisui gave me. "What if someone tried to kidnap you?"

"Then I'll run." I replied as I walked down the streets of the Uchiha compound, my hand reaching into one of my pockets which had a few senbon I carefully placed there so they wouldn't poke me. "And I have a little surprise for them if they try to stop me."

I eventually left the compound and into the streets of the leaf village to see that it was bustling with people. I carefully weaved my way through the crowd as I walked down the street, waving to anyone who spotted me. When I finally made it to the library, I went inside and checked out the first sealing book I could find which was about storage seals ironically. After leaving the library, I went to a nearby park to sit on a bench and began to read the book from front to back.

"Okay, this looks simple enough." I muttered when I reached the third chapter of the book before setting down next to me. "Let's see if I can nail this on the first try." I rummaged through my pockets and pulled out a small sheet of paper, a bottle of ink, and a brush. "Good thing I had these in my pockets."

"I was wondering why you brought those along." Isobu mused as I pulled the stopper off the ink bottle and dipped the tip of the brush in the ink. "Don't be disappointed if you don't get it right the first try, Kojiro."

"It's just ink on paper, Isobu, what could possibly happen?"

You'd think after watching so much anime in my previous life I learned never to say that line. Let's just say that it was going smoothly up to the part I tried to seal something inside the formula I wrote on the paper. First attempt, nothing. Second attempt, the seal fizzled and sent the senbon I was trying to seal flying past my face. Attempt number three was the most frustrating, only half the senbon got sealed almost as if the seal was mocking me.

"Oh, come on!" I shouted in frustration, glaring at the half sealed senbon as if willing it to be fully sealed. I felt Isobu's chakra running through my system again as I started to calm down and mentally thanked Isobu. Now that I was calm again, I carefully inspected the seal I wrote. "I know I wrote the sealing formula correctly, so why isn't it working?"

The sound of boisterous laughter got my attention and I looked to the source to see a boy my physical age with spiky blond hair and three pairs of whisker-like marks on his cheeks wearing a green long sleeved shirt in a short sleeved white shirt with a red spiral printed on it, black shorts, and blue sandals. He had one arm wrapped around his stomach while the other was pointing at me and he had tears in the corners of his cerulean blue eyes from how hard he was laughing.

"That's so funny!" The boy said between his laughter and I could feel my face going red in embarrassment. "Your face was priceless!" He then made a wide eyed terrified face, which was the face I made when the senbon almost pierced me in the eye, before he started to laugh so hard he was holding his sides and on his knees. "I've never seen a face that funny before, believe it!"

"I-it wasn't that funny!" I shouted getting to my feet and stomped towards the blond and glared down at him. "I almost lost an eye there!" It was clear he wasn't listening because he just kept laughing. "Stop laughing, sealing jutsu is hard, okay?!"

"Apparently, you sealed half of that needle after all!" The blond said which resulted in laughing harder while my face felt like it was on fire and I mentally wondered how he wasn't hyperventilating yet. "It's just paper and ink and you still failed!"

"Why don't you try it then?!" I ran over to the bench to grab the ink, brush, book, and paper before running back to the blond and held the items out to him. "We'll see who has the last laugh after!"

"Please, this'll be easy!" After the blond got over his laughter, he took the items from me and I showed him what the sealing formula looked like. I watched patiently as he wrote the formula on the paper before holding it out proudly to me when he was finished. "What do you think of that?"

'It's nothing but scribbles.' I thought with a sweat drop as I stared at the blond's "sealing formula" with a deadpan look on my face. I tilted my head to the side to look at the blond, my deadpan expression still in place. "You're kidding, right?"

"What's with that face?!" The blond demanded, slamming the paper on the ground and held out a hand to me. "Give me something to seal, I'll show you!" I just sighed before handing him my last senbon and he placed it on top of the paper. He made the ram hand sign before slamming his hand on the edge of the paper. We waited for a few minutes, but nothing happened and I could have sworn I heard that bird in the anime squawking "Aho, Aho" as it flies by.

"Wow, you really showed me." I said sarcastically as I sat down on the ground cross legged and picked up the senbon. "Well, not like I'm one to talk, I can't even fully seal a simple senbon."

"Again."

"Huh?" I blinked in surprise when the blond turned the paper over to its blank side and tried to rewrite the formula.

"Let me try again." The blond repeated, not taking his eyes off the paper and I couldn't do anything but watch the blond work.

'Wow, he's really determined.' I could tell just by looking that the blond was really absorbed in writing the sealing formula. I blinked when I suddenly realized something. 'Wait, I feel like I should know this kid.' I titled my head to the side to get a better look of his face and my eyes widened so much that they would fall out of their sockets. 'It's Naruto!'

So I just sat there, trying to process that the kid in front of me was Naruto Uzumaki and I talked to him! Okay, fanboy Kyle, back in the closet you go, I need to think about what this implies and how I should proceed. I immediately thought about Kurama and hoped that the fox will give the blond a chance like he said he would. After numerous fails and a couple hours have passed, I noticed that Naruto's hand writing was getting better with each attempt. He also looked like he was starting to have fun, maybe his Uzumaki blood kicked in or something?

A loud poof snapped me out of my thoughts and I looked down at the paper between Naruto and I and I was shocked at what I saw. The senbon was gone and the kanji for "weapon" was now on the paper. I didn't have time to process this when Naruto got to his feet and raised his fists into the air with a big smile on his face. "I did it!"

"Yeah, you did." Was all I could say before I too smiled and got to my feet and held out my hand to the blond. "I'll admit I lost, you really showed me."

"Heck yeah!" Naruto grinned as he took my hand and shook it. "That was surprisingly fun!"

"Glad you enjoyed yourself." I said with a small laugh as we let go of each other's hand. "I'm Kojiro, Kojiro Kurosawa, what's your name?"

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, believe it!" Naruto introduced himself with a thumb jabbed at his chest. "And I'm gonna be Hokage someday!"

"Hokage, that's so cool!" I said excitedly which was partially an act, I was excited, but I already knew what the blond's dream was and his reason.

"Kojiro!" I jumped at the familiar voice and slowly looked behind me to see Shisui walking over to us. "There you are, I was looking everywhere for you."

"It's Shisui." I whispered while mentally cursing myself for not realizing that the sun was already setting. When Shisui reached us, I laughed nervously and turned to face the obviously upset Uchiha. "Hey, Shisui, what are you doing here?"

"That's my line." Shisui crossed his arms as he looked down at me. "When I got home you weren't there, do you have any idea how worried I was?"

"I'm sorry." I lightly kicked a rock before pointing to Naruto. "I was playing with my new friend and I guess I Iost track of time."

"New friend?" Shisui raised an eyebrow before looking towards Naruto who was surprised I called him a friend. "Him?"

"Yeah!" I nodded before running over to Naruto and placed an arm over his shoulder and smiled towards Shisui. "We were playing ninjas not too long ago and we were trying to think of what else to play!"

"Kojiro, I can see the ink bottle and brush on the ground." Shisui said, pointing to said ink bottle and brush along. I let out another nervous laugh, my eyes wandering to the book I got from the library. Shisui followed my gaze and reached down to pick the book up and read what was inside. "Is this a book on making storage seals?"

"Yeah." I nodded as I removed my arm from Naruto's shoulder, pointing to the paper that still had my senbon sealed inside and Shisui picked it up. "We wanted to try making them, so I went to the library to get a book on how to make storage seals."

"Kojiro." Shisui sighed as he closed the book before he looked down at Naruto and I. "If you and your friend wanted to learn how to make them, you could have asked me when I got home."

"I didn't want to bother you." I said, suddenly finding the ground very interesting as I lightly kicked a nearby rock. "You looked really tired recently, so I wanted to rest when you got home."

"Wait." Shisui and I looked towards Naruto, who had his arms crossed while looking like he was thinking very hard on something before his eyes widened and pointed at me. "You're a boy?!"

Silence, that was the only word that best describes what filled the park as Shisui and I just stared at the blond Jinchuriki. If I could hear Kurama right now, he would probably be laughing his nine-tailed ass off right about now. It was taking every ounce of willpower I had not to throttle the blond in front of me.

"Anyway, it's time for Kojiro and I to go home for dinner now." Shisui suddenly said as he rested a hand on my shoulder and nodded to Naruto. "Thank you for spending time with him."

"No problem!" Naruto grinned and gave Shisui a thumbs up before directing it towards me. "It's been fun, Kojiro, let's do it again sometime." He then turned his back to us and began to walk away when I had a sudden idea.

"Shisui, can we have Naruto over for dinner?" I asked as I looked up hopefully at Shisui much to the surprise of Naruto. "He's my first friend here in the village and I want to spend more time with him."

"I don't know, Kojiro." Shisui said thoughtfully and I could see that Naruto also looked hopeful. "I'm not sure if we have enough ingredients for three people."

"We can buy more on the way home." I suggested, giving the Uchiha my best puppy dog pout which was having the desired effect of crumbling Shisui's defenses, now for the final push. "Please?"

Shisui just stared at me for a moment before sighing in resignation. "Alright, you win."

"Yay!" I shouted cheerfully and smiled brightly to Naruto who was also smiling. "Hear that, Naruto, you can come over!"

"I heard, believe it!" Naruto ran over to me and we high fived each other much to the amusement of Shisui.

We then left the park with Naruto and I excitedly talked to each other about ourselves and what we liked to do. After buying the ingredients needed for dinner, Shisui and I brought Naruto to our house where I guided the blond to my room while we waited for Shisui to finish cooking dinner. We ended up playing a game of cards where the loser gets a flick on the forehead and Naruto won every time. So, when Shisui called us down for dinner, Naruto had a victorious grin while I had a red spot on my forehead. But all that was forgotten when we started telling jokes over dinner and getting a laugh out of the other. But soon after it was sadly time for Naruto to go home and for me to get ready for bed. As I climbed under the sheets and closed my eyes to sleep, I found myself in my mindscape with Isobu in front of me.

"Alright, Isobu, it's time to start planning."

Sadly, it is now time for the curtain to fall on the closing of yet another act. But fear not, there is more to come, for I shall replied to your reviews as our actors rehearse for the next act that is to follow.

Squadpunk 2.0: Kojiro/Ino? I'll take that under consideration as I contemplate who to pair him up with. Yes, the fun and much more is about to begin indeed.

Burning Moonlight: Excellent points about the Yamanakas, though I am not Sakura is a good choice either. Nonetheless, I will take it under consideration.

Iamnotafraid: Excellent observations.

Drouppi: You are welcome and yes, I am back. Yes, he's finally in Konoha and I plan to keep the teams the same because it feels wrong to mess with them to me. Yes, there will be romance, I haven't decided who to pair Kojiro with yet. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Blueowl: I'm also glad. Same here, can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs is the appropriate saying here I believe. My thought's exactly. I am also relieved and you will have to keep reading to find out.

NazgulBelserion: I'm not sure there is a word for all of that.

ObliviousIJ: Lol, I was honestly tempted to use that in this chapter.

CriticalFanatic: Sorry about that, I am not abandoning this fanfic.

Sagar Kumar1: I'm happy to hear you're impressed. I probably won't be able to do everything you requested, but I will my best to include some of them in.

SilverDragon1218: Glad to hear you're excited. I don't know either, but good luck finding that out. Thank you for your kind words, it's reviews like these that keeps me going. You stay safe and happy as well and may you stay in the best of health.

xiu: I'm happy to hear you love this fanfic and here's the new chapter as you requested. I will do my best to provide more chapters as soon as I can.

king og the sky: Indeed there isn't, so I'll take this pairing under consideration.

Akusui: Thank you for your kind words, I do my best to make my chapters the best they could possibly be.

Karsap: KojiroxTenTen? That would be an interesting pairing, like with the KojiroxIno pairing requests, I'll take it under consideration.

Immortal Potatoe: Happy to hear it.

NathanielTheCat: Happy to hear that and I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter.

JWolfcat: I hope this chapter answered your inquiry.

ryyaikki: Happy to hear that and glad I made your day. As requested, here is the next chapter and I will work on the next one as soon as I can.

Guest: Fear not, this will never be a harem. I never understood the appeal of harems, to be honest. Now that you mention it, you're right.

Sultan Asil Arsian: Kurotsuchi? Like the other pairing requests, I will take it under consideration.

True Hyper Sonic: Hit the nail on the head. Duly noted. Indeed, it is OP, which is why I made chakra control abysmal from the start. Hope his talk with Kurama satisfied your curiosity, though it probably didn't go as you thought.

seant5054: Like with the rest, I will take it under consideration.

guest reader: I'll think about it.

With that done, I bid you all farewell until the next act of our story.