As The Pendulum Swings

Bear-able Trouble

Yeah yeah yeah I know I said I'd update more often but hey shit happens. I unfortunately still don't have a proper writing program on my computer AND I no longer have access to school computers so your all screwed and no COMPLAINING. ROTFL

Add Mizukis scene?

for 1

against 1 (my vote counts too I'm even nice and just making it 1 vote like everyone else)

naruto7332: unfortunately (although my warning somehow got cut out) I don't currently have a decent writing program on my computer and the one I've been using doesn't have spell check although there shouldn't bee too many spelling errors in the last two chapters just mostly misused words and Naruto specific misspellings like bunshin. I'm glad you like it though.

I do not have an account 2010-03-14 chapter 2 : Yes the lack of explaining the visions is part of the plot although it wont be explained until much further along. At the momment he has no idea he's even had a vision. Also not to be rude but your not the first to ask so I feel I should mention (although no one reads these) this IS a N/H its even on the SUMMERY people *sweat-drops*. all rudeness aside I am very much happy you like my story

notgonnasay09: yay! you like my outfit too. ^.^ Another person dissed my coat. IT has POCKETS GALORE. .

Nibowin: I know but I have an extreme talent for misspelling and its not the same as originally writing it in a good program which is why there are still so many problems with my chapters. And no knock off can keep up with me did i mention that. *smiles innocently*

animefan109:thank you for the compliment and thank you for being the only one who cared enough to complain *cries and glomps*.

Chewie Cookies:yeah its really annoying too hopefully this one turned out much longer

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Recap~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"you know kid' you'll need to change the color of your headband and exchange out the chain out that necklace, they don't match the rest, the necklace I can help with the headband...well we have dye." She said a mile a minute as always. He agreed exchanging out the silver chain for an intricate looking dark orange one that suited it better and getting the homemade dye in the same color from the girl. His total came out to 10157 ryo. Wincing at the steep price he coughed up the money nearly emptying Gama-chan in doing so. He left the tent, leaving his old jumpsuit behind after taking his stuff out of it for her to burn, and wandered around stopping to buy a few cheaper groceries and a dictionary and headed for home quite broke and very glad that he would be getting more than just his orphans check this month as otherwise he'd have to be living an a very tight budget in order to pay for his run down old apartment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Present~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As he walked in his apartment he set his stuff down of his decrepit old couch and wandered over to his kitchen in order to grab himself some cup of ramen. He though briefly about immediately diving into all of his scrolls but well his head still kinda ached. If it werent for the fact that they would laugh and kick him out he would have gone to the hospital as he was getting kinda worried now. But alas they would in fact laugh and kick him out so there was no real point in going and he didn't want to worry the old man over a little headache no matter how odd it was he still had it.

While Naruto ate his ramen he began to think about his dream from the night before. Most of it hadn't made any sense at all but somehow he knew it was important although then again it WAS just a dream right? 'There's no way that giant creature is really going to descend and kill us all' he thought sweating a little the terror of it still vividly memorable. Still something about it all seemed to be burned into his brain. 'Right along with this blasted headach!' Naruto briefly considered if maybe bashing his head on the table would get rid of the incarnation of pure evil called a headache. In the end he didn't wanna risk making it wore so he managed to resist... barely.

'At least I get to grab ramen with Iruka later'he though as a wide grinn crossed his face. But for now with a heavy heart Naruto threw away his empty Styrofoam container of noodly goodness and turned towards his doom. For a moment Naruto stared at the scroll on his table and his bag and sweated torn between being petrified by the evils of reading and exited by what the scrolls contain. After all Naruto never did really learn to read with any fluency not to lack of trying or stupidity but more of a combination of pride and complete lack of help before he met Iruka which was only just this last year.

Iruka was the only academy teacher that never tried to sabotage him even though he hadn't shown any real liking to him at first either. After the first week or two Iruka seemed to warm up to his (supposedly) slowest student and sometimes helped his fill in a few of the wholes in his education the most prominent being Kawimari and the Henge Jutsu. But Naruto never told Iruka his most embarrassing secret since he hated looking stupid in front of his precious person. Naruto barely knew how to read at all let alone more than a character or two of kanji and didn't really know how to write, he could copy but that hardly qualified since he had no real idea what it said or why those characters made that word.

Which leads us to our heroes current problem. 'The scrolls of headache uppingness are truly a fearsome foe.' (naturally vocabulary is not his strong suit) Naruto would have to make liberal use of his newly bought dictionary if he wanted to read more than a handful of words off the page. This on its own would have been a headache inducing event as previous attempts told him but know he already had one. Still he would preserve after all kagebunshin and exploding tags are already awesome who knew what other treasures he had there. Suddenly a thought struck him while reminded of those previous events. how exactly was he going to protect these from the viligers this time. After all they always destroyed his poor harmless dictionary when they raided his house which still happened every once in a while. One of the more common points is when the caravans come to town which is why he rarely buys anything at them after all whats the point if they'll just destroy it. This time had been fine since it was early and no one was drinking yet but he couldn't leave this stuff here now and he couldn't take it with him incase of theft or destruction nor could he hand it to anyone to safeguard so what to do?

In the end Naruto deciding for henging himself to not look like he had anything and go and stash what he didn't want to have destroyed over the next week in his favorite meadow where he trained in a foxes den. He never understood why before but foxes had always followed his directions and the male fox from this den more so than any other since he spent more time around him. Now Naruto knew why the foxes liked him and why they freaked out so badly when he had brought a fox he'd found previously. The fox hadn't survived the civilians rage and Naruto almost hadn't either. Still they would protect his things and not harm them if he asked. Naruto had though about being mad at all foxes for his problem and especially the kyuubi but he couldn't shake the feeling there was more to the story.

Soon Naruto reached the meadow where he saw signs of an animal fight. With a cry of worry he dropped his things and ran for the den hoping his friend and his mate were simply enjoying a rabbit. Sadly as he go there he say his fox friends both hurt grievously and he cried. By the looks of the marks it had probably been a bear though why he had no idea. The pair looked up weakly as their life slowly drained issuing a warning to the boy who smelled so much like one of them. As Naruto turned he saw the bear who at the time of his distraught entrance had been out of view because of a tree. Naruto noticed the wounds some man made but mostly short punctures and cuts from his fox friends. The bear had apparently heard the little girl at his feet walk by and attacked her although by her position unharmed of the ground shivering he'd say he had walked in in time to save her a mauling by the foxes murderer. He knew logically it was the fault of whoever put the bear in the rage in the first place and didn't put him downs fault but for the moment all that mattered was the little girl and his now dying friends.

All of this happened in a second as the bear who had noticed the boys arrival decided the girl was the larger threat and lifted himself up in a fury about to maul her as she screamed, having been to petrified before to do so, and Naruto moved as fast as he could wrapping a wire around a kunai as he ran and then throwing it at the girl. Heart racing as his wire raced against the bear going around the girl in a maneuver he had only just learned and Naruto pulled as hard as he could. The girl was yanked out of the way sustaining cuts from the wire and scrapes from being dragged and was just barely safe. Naruto dropped the wire and was running again at the bear as it came to the realization its prey had moved and turned towards the now sobbing girl. He came up as the bear attempted to lunge and kicked it in the jaw as heard as he could knocking it on its back and effectively caching its attention. Narutos heart was beating so fast he wondered idly, in the spare second he had before the bear charged him, if it would come out of his chest. He hadn't noticed anything like this during his fight with Mizuki but then again he hadbeen in a serous amount of pain and really ticked. Also right now his emotions leaned more towards grief which wasn't as numbing as the righteous anger he had felt during his fight with Mizuki.

Naruto watched the bear rush him and preformed the cross shaped seal necessary for a Kagebunshin and made 8 or 9 confusing the bear momentarily before its nose told him which was which and rushing him again but that moment was all he needed as his clones descended on the bear and leaped into the air delivering the bear a kick to the to of head with his heal as it passed propelling Naruto into a flip as he landed smoothly. The bear now littered with kunai one or two being in vital points including one that had been unintentionally but luckily shoved through the bears eye and into its brain by a grossed out looking clone who had still been hanging on to said kunai. The sensation of blade through the soft eye matter was not much more pleasant than getting covered in some of the gross matter.

The clones all dispersed themselves as Naruto walked towards the now passed out girl briefly checking her physical state. She had the cuts from the wire and scrapes but none were deep as he clothing had taken the brunt. assured she wasn't bleeding to death he cut the wire and picked her up and walked towards the foxes. Setting her down he went to check on his two friends whom he had always been afraid to name. Names were a form of bond and he foolishly though if he never named them it wouldn't hurt as much when they passed. He knew now though that the lack of names had meant nothing as the furry companions looked at the fox jinchuriki with fading eyes. He kneeled down crying next to their den knowing they weren't going to make it.

"I'm sorry you too, i didn't get to you in time to save you. I could tell you fought valiantly though. That bear was just too mad eh. How bout i finally give you too names huh?" Naruto said attempting to smile through the tears. "How about Akio and Ayaka" Naruto sniffed. The foxes semed to nod at Naruto in agreement and the newly dubbed Akio nugged his mate weakly. Ayaka moved with the last of her energy moving a small black fox with one red ear towards Naruto. the others had clearly been killed in the struggle.

"You want me to take care of this one? alright if that's what your last wish is" Naruto said teats still streaming slowly. He picked up the foxes checking the gender quickly hiccuping softly. "I'll name him now so you can move on knowing." The foxes seemed to smile at this. "How about Akemi I...I think that means dawn of beauty kinda girly but he was born to something so ugly I... guess I hope to ... change that." The pair seem somehow pleased as they finally breathed their last breath.

Naruto quickly got up cradling the small waif of a fox who looked mostly like his father due to all that black fur but that right ear and now that he look left paw were the same color as his moms. splashing water on his face to clean his face from tears Naruto wondered if his eyes would be Akio's (father) green eyes or Ayaka's(mom) gorgeous gold ones. He supposed he would find out when the small fox was older, for now if he wasn't mistaken the fox was both blind and blue eyed being only a day old, if that.

So Naruto gathered the fox placing its shivering form in one of the ridiculous number of pockets on the inside of the coat making sure the head poked out so the frail thing could breath. Naruto dug a quick but deep grave using shadow clones for his newly orphaned foxes family vowing to make a headstone for them and vaguely remembering his original purpose for coming there and quickly put his scroll under a tree. All of this seemed to take forever with the emotional drain but in reality from the moment he entered the clearing until now had been maybe 8 minutes, half of which were spent fighting the bear. Naruto remembering the girl carefully hauled her on his back and set a quick jog to the hospital.

'Somhow I just know i'm gunna get blamed for this at least until she woke up'. Naruto groaned and set a harder pace for the hospital with the fox kit curled happily in his pocket pleased with this new sensation. Sure enough as he entered the village proper, thankfully the meadow was inside the walls of Konoha so he didn't have to get past the gate, he got what looked like the beginnings of a lynch mob. Naruto barely restrained a wince as he picked up speed, luckily there were a lot of other little kids around so if he hurried the mob might not form before things were explained by the girl since no one would believe him. Naruto saw the hospital just up ahead but didn't slow eyeing the crowd nearby wearily. He crossed into the hospital ER and tensed ready for the uphill battle ahead. A redheaded nurse looked up in the unusually calm ER and immediately sneered.

"We don't treat your kind deamon brat!" The prettly nurse snarled. She breathed in to start screaming at him in agusto but Naruto cut her off.

"Im not asking you too you blind broad!" Naruto yelled. "I'm asking you to help the girl who's unconscious on my back." Naruto glared. A kinder surgical medic took not of the girl hearing him yell and gasped and before the redhead could start in on him she rushed over and helped put the girl on a gurney.

"Where did she get these wounds!" She exclaimed already checking her and closing the injury's.

"I found her in the woods about to be attacked by a bear so I wrapped a wire around a kunai to pull her outta the way cause I was too far. I'm glad she was so light" Naruto said knowing he wouldn't be believed.

"HA the demon admits to attacking her" The red head yelled in loud triumph. The nicer surgical medic looked at him uncertain but willing to wait before judging but the redheaded pretty-faced witch threw him out and announced much to his dismay that he had attacked a 4 year old something girl. With a sigh Naruto leaped to his feet and ran as fast as he could on rooftops to the hokages tower. An ANBU dropped beside him as he got nearer clearly intending to make sure he got there. whether his reason was a nice one or not didn't matter to Naruto, after all his Ojisan would be the only one who would really believe him. Naruto with the mob following behind held at bay by the ANBU presence made it into the tower and then his Ojisans office. Naruto sighed in relief as he looked up at the old man who ran the village chest heaving from the whole ordeal, he'd be fine in a second though he always was. 'Awww man if this takes too long im gunna miss my free raman' Naruto nearly cried again at the thought.

"Naruto, what is all this about you attacking a child?" Ojisan better known as Hiruzen (no idea how to spell that) Sarutobi the Sandaime Hokage asked the young blond. So he explained what had happened in detail. "Oh dear, that has been blown out of proportion" Sarutobi sighed

"Your telling ME old man I'm never gunna make it to raman with Iruka now!" He said whining. He felt he deserved to whine a little today it had been pretty rough. Sarutobi laughed loudly at the boy and called in an ANBU.

"Could you call Umino Iruka to my office please?" Sarutobi asked. Naruto grinned, he might just get his ramen after all. The ANBU bowed and left and Sarutobi turned back to Naruto. "You should probably stay here till this is cleared up and in the mean time I don't see why we cant all have a little raman party for our little hero." Sarutobi told him with a smile. Naruto cheered and after briefing Iruka they all had a raman break in the old mans office and the whole situation was explained to the village as they did so by a Jounin although most would wait for the girls statement and of course the few currently raiding the boys apartment who thought obsessively that the brat was just a demon and that there was no way he saved her. But for now Naruto could forget and be happy with his precious people who had welcomed the little black fuzzball named Akemi just fine and had promised to help him get food for the kit in the future and of course the emergency bottle from the Inuzuka for the moment.

When Naruto did make it home he realized, after looking in dismay at the trashed apartment, he never did actually readthe scrolls. He sighed and went to bed tomorrow he supposed.

Yay end of day two! whew that was a lot of writing. I hope this chapter makes up for some of the wait :). 3,000 words or so without a/n woot.