Title: Traveling with a Demon

Summary: With a promise of intense training to get stronger, Naruto takes Kyuubi up on his offer to leave the village. Will Naruto find something more than just strength on his training trip? Will he find love?

Pairings: KyuuNaru

Warnings: Yaoi

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Okay, and a note from the old chapter: Homura is the female of the two Hokage advisors. I should've put that in there, sorry if you didn't know…

Sorry about not updating in forever; GOD, I HATE HIGH SCHOOL! But anyway, I'm doing a MASS UPDATE! And I was rereading some of my stories and thought: Oh dear lord, I wrote that? For shame… So, I put a poll on my profile about which stories I should rewrite. I won't be offended.

And as a note for that, I won't be changing much – usually just adding more description and showing foreshadowing and such. I won't be changing the pairings or the major plot points, but I may tweak a few small things, nothing major though.

Now, onto the story! Enjoy!

Chapter Seven – The Return of Itachi Uchiha

Sasuke frowns, "I 'become one of the best'? What does that mean?" Naruto and Kyuubi have consistently confused him since the moment he met them. This couldn't be good for his health..

Naruto grins. "That means Kyuu and I will train you to become one of the best shinobi out there! You'll be so strong that your brother will abandon his plan!" He was actually a bit excited about that. He loved messing with the older Uchiha. He was just so much fun to tease!

"Plan? What plan?" Sasuke asks urgently. Itachi had a plan? And it involved him?

"Eh," Naruto mutters, "It's too complicated for me to explain, ask him sometime." He looks out over the lake and mumbles to himself, "It might also have something to do with me falling asleep halfway through his explanation of it…"

Hearing Naruto's mumble, Sasuke raises an incredulous eyebrow. He shakes his head before turning back to the house. He needs to think this over. Ever since that night, he'd thought Itachi hated him, thought he was the bad guy and now…

Naruto immediately looks back at him. Maybe they shouldn't have told Sasuke all about Itachi just yet…

Sasuke looks away from the house to see Naruto staring blankly at him. "I'll be fine," he sighs. He glares at the ground. "Just keep everyone away from me if you can…I need some time to myself…"

"Will do!" Naruto shouts saluting Sasuke military style. Sasuke walks up to the door, and Kyuubi steps away from it, hearing his footsteps. He pushes the door open and walks inside, completely ignoring Kakashi and heading up the stairs.

Kakashi makes to follow, but Naruto appears in front of him on the stairs. "Move," Kakashi growls out. He's had enough of their games! They're messing with his students and he needs to find out what's going on!

Naruto shakes his head. "No can do! I gave my word, and I never go back on my word!" He folds his arms and scowls at the man before running up the stairs to stand guard outside the boy's bedroom. He said keep everyone away from him, after all.

Naruto glares at all who pass by Sasuke's door as the boy inside thinks over what was said to him. His glares at Kiba were especially dark. That mutt should learn to keep away from him. Just because he had decided to go for a walk in the forest away from Kyuubi to meditate on the jutsu he was learning, doesn't mean he doesn't like the red-haired demon!

That mutt had the gall to just walk up to him and ask him out! Of course Naruto scoffed and turned him down, but the idiot just wouldn't quit! Then Kyuubi showed up when Kiba started saying some rather x-rated things. Naruto had never seen such a hateful look in Kyuubi's eyes.

Sasuke was sitting on his tatami mat, staring dully at the floor.

Itachi was innocent. But the council said he wasn't… Sasuke scowls.

He's been told lie after damned lie his entire life! But… can he truly just accept it? Just like that? If Itachi was innocent, and he loved Sasuke, why wouldn't he take the boy with him? Sasuke knew the answer to that. Itachi loved him, and wants him safe. At the time, it would be safer for an untrained seven year old to stay in the village.

'But Naruto left the village at that age!' an irritated voice calls out from the back of his mind. Sasuke scowls and stamps down that voice. Naruto had been traveling with a demon that has the strength to flatten a village! Sasuke would only have his brother.

While Itachi is strong, he may not have been strong enough to protect both of them.

Sasuke sighs and glances out his window. His eyes lazily follow a red-orange fox dashing into the forest. He frowns as it disappears into the foliage. Did he see a scroll in its mouth? Nah, he's just being delusional. He shakes his head and looks down again.

Kyuubi and Naruto had promised to train him, but the price was that he couldn't stay in the village. He snorts. That's easy enough. Everyone there was annoying and, apparently, the council wanted to use him as a breeding stock! Like he was some kind of animal! He growls and glares at nothing.

He wishes he had the sharingan. If he did, then he'd be able to destroy their asses. He wanted to prove to them not to mess with an Uchiha!

'Yeah! Raze that damned village to the ground!' Sasuke almost agrees with that voice, but something crosses his mind. Was it really the entire village's fault? No. It was the council's fault; maybe not the current council, unless it hasn't changed in these past five years.

He sighs and lies back down on the floor, closing his eyes. Maybe if he just got some sleep, he'd be able to think about this better.

Outside the door, Naruto leans up against it and frowns. He could hear quiet snoring. Sasuke was asleep? He sighs and looks up, readying a glare, when he hears footsteps. He blinks. It was Kyuubi.

"Hey," the demon whispers. "Will he be able to hear us?"

Naruto shakes his head. "He fell asleep."

Kyuubi nods and gets closer, glancing around for eavesdroppers. "I sent a letter to Itachi. I used one of my fox summons."

Naruto nods. "What did you say?"

"That we met Sasuke. That we ended up telling him the truth. And that we're taking him away from the village," Kyuubi sighs and glares at the ground. "The way that damned place is run, it's like they're trying to create enemies!"

Naruto shrugs. "They're stupid…"

"Yeah, they," Kyuubi falls silent. He heard footsteps. He glares at Kakashi, who was coming up the stairs. "What do you want?"

Kakashi stops a good distance away from the two boys. He glances at Sasuke's door. "What are your intentions with Sasuke?"

"They're with his best interests in mind," Kyuubi says vaguely.

Kakashi glares and his hand trails to his kunai pouch. "If you're planning on taking him away then I'll have to stop you."

Kyuubi smirks. "You think you can?" Naruto blinks and looks back at the door. It sounded like Sasuke was awake. He was coming this way. The blond opens his mouth to tell Kyuubi when Kakashi moves.

Kyuubi flings up the sleeve of his left arm, revealing a seal wrapped around his wrist. He doesn't notice Sasuke opening the door and blinking in shock at the scene in front of him. The not-so-evil demon activates the seal and pulls out the sword he had bought when he had first left with Naruto.

With a flash and the clash of metal, Kyuubi and Kakashi meet in the middle, both glaring at each other. Kyuubi was growling, his hair becoming wilder and his expression more feral. He was dipping into his chakra.

The sound doesn't go unnoticed. Tazuna, Inari, and Tsunami all come upstairs and stare wide-eyed at the scene. Kiba and Sakura come out of their respective rooms and look nervously at the two clashing shinobi before them.

Kyuubi smirks. "Like the sword, eh, Gaki?" Kakashi was eyeing the sword warily. "I've had it custom made." They pull back and square off once more. "It can even handle my chakra streaming through it." He looks fondly at the blade. "I've went toe-to-two with some of the strongest nin with this."

"Oh? And who would that be?" Kakashi asks lazily, looking Sasuke over. He seemed unhurt.

"Oh, Orochimaru, Itachi, Kisame, you know, S-rank ninja," Kyuubi says casually.

Kakashi's eyes widen. "Aw, Kyuu," Naruto whines. "Why do you always frighten your enemies?"

"They're fun to play with," he responds, causing Sasuke to snort. Kyuubi smirks. "But I do have respect for the dying; I give them the honor of landing at least one non-lethal hit on me before I kill them."

Naruto snorts. "That didn't happen before."

Kyuubi scowls; Naruto was thinking of those two bastard thieves who had tried to steal from them when Kyuubi wasn't there. Those idiots had the gall to even think about touching his Naruto. "Yeah, well, that was different. Those bastards deserved to die!"

Naruto sighs and shakes his head. "No one deserves to die."

Sasuke and Kyuubi both disagreed with the blond but kept quiet. Kyuubi then turns back to Kakashi, who was watching the interaction warily and in confusion. How could Naruto act so calmly around the demon? It didn't make sense! He's supposed to hate it! It was the reason the villagers treated him like crap! It attacked Konoha for kami's sake!

"How can you be so casual with it?" Kakashi asks Naruto. "It attacked Konoha! It killed hundreds of people!"

Kyuubi's eyes flashed, and in a second, his blade was at Kakashi's throat. "If you think I had a choice in that matter, then you're sorely mistaken." He growls and pulls away, sneering at the ground. These Konoha fools were so ignorant!

Kakashi was confused. The demon didn't have a choice? What was that supposed to mean? "What?"

"I'm going to the roof," he says, shoving Kiba out of the way as he walks past. With a warning glare at the mutt to stay away from Naruto, he clambered out of the window at the end of the hallway and onto the roof.

Naruto sighs. "I'm surprised he didn't kill someone. He absolutely hates it when someone says that." He glares at Kakashi. "Next time, asshole, watch your mouth."

Naruto growls and follows Kyuubi out to the roof. Silence reigns in the hallway. No one knows what to say…

Sasuke was in shock. The Kyuubi didn't attack Konoha by choice? He glances over in time to see Kakashi heading his way. He inwardly groans and slams the door shut. He didn't want to speak with that man right now!

He turns around, intent on slipping out the window, but stops in shock. Standing not two feet in front of him was the man who had been the subject of his thoughts for the past few hours. "N-nii-san?" he asks, his voice barely above a whisper.

Itachi smiles sadly at him. He opens his mouth to speak, but the door starts opening. It was Kakashi.

The two older men stare at each other over Sasuke's head. Sasuke briefly entertains the thought of him being too short before Itachi picks him up around the middle and jumps out the window. Sasuke's eyes were wide as they land on top of the water. He knew that if he trained hard enough, he'd eventually be able to do this, but since he couldn't just yet…

Sasuke holds tightly onto his older brother, not wanting to get wet. Itachi realizes that Sasuke probably didn't know how to walk up walls, let alone walk on water just yet, so he jumps onto the shore. He sets Sasuke down just as Kakashi lands in front of him.

"Itachi," Kakashi says, his eyes narrowing.

Itachi glances over to the building, seeing Naruto and Kyuubi standing up on the roof, ready to move if they were needed. Itachi mentally curses. He needs to speak with Sasuke! He stares impassively at Kakashi. "It would be best if you were to move aside, Kakashi-san," he says.

His only response is another glare.

Sasuke looks at his brother. Was he really innocent? Well, there was only one way to find out. But first, he had to get away from that annoying Kakashi. His sensei seemed to be too preoccupied with focusing on his brother that he didn't catch the little boy pulling out smoke bombs.

Sasuke throws them on the ground in between the two shinobi and grabs hold of Itachi. He takes a deep breath, jumps, and they fall into the lake.

Itachi, catching onto Sasuke's idea, grabs hold of his brother and they swim to the other side of the lake, which passed under part of the forest. It came up in a small pond somewhere within the forest that most people didn't know about.

Moving quickly with the use of his chakra, Itachi pulls Sasuke and himself up into the pond. They break the water's surface and gasp for air. They pull each other out of the pond and sit on the back. Itachi then turns to Sasuke. "We need to talk, Otouto."

Kyuubi sits back down on the roof with a smirk. "It seems that kid's brighter than I thought," he murmurs to Naruto.

Naruto snorts and curls up next to him. "You're just saying that because he humiliated Kakashi."

Kyuubi pretended to think about it. "I guess you're right."

Naruto snorts and snuggles up to him. "Now shush! I want a nap before we go see if either Uchiha survives this meeting." Kyuubi shakes his head but pulls the blond closer nonetheless.

"I spoil you."

"That you do," Naruto says with a cheeky grin.

Alright, who should I pair Sasuke with since he's going to be a main character? No, I don't really want to add him to the main pairing, but I don't really know who I should pair him up with… Gaara, maybe? Eh, just tell me your opinion.

-MosukeHinata