A/N: YO! This little ficlet is a result of many many MANY long hours of thinking and hard work! That, and a persistent idea that would NOT leave me be until I put it down on paper. So before our story begins, please, bear with me for a moment. The Tailed Beasts were originally one, right? And, (in theory) they will eventually become one once more, right?

So what would happen if a jiinchuuriki happened to absorb a SECOND tailed beast in addition to the one he already possesed? Oh, sure, he might EXPLODE from the sheer amount of excess chakra, but what if he survived? This story, is a continuation of that idea/plotline. And like the summary said, this takes place exclusively during the Guren arc, so I suggest you watch it in order to understand just what's happens!

This is why we can't have nice things!

~Unknown

Of Foxes and Turtles

Something was wrong.

Terribly, terribly wrong.

Uzumaki Naruto stared down at the Three Tailed Turtle, eyeing its burning body with fear and trepidation. Had that last jutsu been enough? Had his technique finished it? Was it dead? Warily, he edged his left foot forward. What he found caused his molars to clench in a rare bout of anger. Not only did the burning hulk continue to thrash and flail in and amidst the waters, but now it saw him. It was looking at him. Right at him. Its lone eye glinted darkly in the gloom as it leered up at its tormentor, a strange semblance of sentience surfacing behind the milky film of its lid. Despite himself, Naruto swallowed nervously.

Nope. Definitely not dead.

"Giiiiiiiiii...

The tailed beast tensed, its shoulders clenching against some gargantuan effort. Its three tails lashed the lake beneath it, stirring the currents into a frenzy; extinguishing the flames that besieged its shell. Having doused the fire, the Sanbi was now free to turn its attention towards the meddlesome human who pained it so. Its jaws snapped openly, forming a writhing mass of chakra within. A spiraling orb of chakra gathered before its maw, growing larger with each second. Before long, it utterly eclipsed both the lake as the cliff itself. With a sonorous roar, the blast plowed forward into the cliffside; shearing from the mainland and plunging its occupants into the frigid depths below. Briefly, he had to admire its ingenuity, Naruto did. Deprieve the enemy of the high ground and strike when the field was to your advantage. Which was precisely what the Sanbi had just done. Scarce had Naruto struck the water than he was atop it, struggling to stay aloft despite the waves threatening to throw him from his feet.

'Since when can that thing think?' He dodged backwards as another blast of water tore through the patch of mist he'd occupied but a moment before. It tore a swathe of sheer destruction as it coursed past, savaging the cliffside once again before dispersing. Naruto swung around, searching for Gamakichi and his brother amidst the debris. Both were nowhere to be seen. Either they'd returned by choice, or the lack of chakra had forced them to do so. So much for their combination technique.

He felt, rather than saw, the turtle. He took a step back as it broke the surface, looming out the fog like a great and unholy ghost. The thought made him shudder. Damnit, he hated ghosts! He absolutely hated ghosts! But this was no ghost, Naruto told himself as it surged forward. This was a Bijuu. A tailed beast of unparalleled power. Just like that bastard fox sealed in his stomach. Without Gamakichi and Gamatatsu to back him up-maybe even with them- it could easily kill him. Just a flick of its barbed tail and that was it. Game over. He stood no chance against it. Not without the Kyuubi's power. Unbidden, a memory came of what he'd nearly done to Sakura. No! He wasn't going to use that power anymore! Absolutely not! Not if it meant harming those most precious to him. Not at all!

'I'll do this with my own power.' He silently avowed. 'Not that damned fox's!'

And then suddenly it was upon him. The Sanbi loomed out of the fog, cooly regarding him with a lone iris. A low, burbling hiss worked its way out of its throat, but it made no effort to attack, though it could have easily done so. Nor did it move. Instead, it waited, bobbing against the currents as the waves lashed against its shell. It did not strike. It seemed to be...waiting. Watching him. Awaiting his next move. Naruto, despite knowing the effort to be futile, began to channel a rasengan into the center of his palm and...

...nothing.

The Sanbi, though it doubtlessly recognized the technique that had already done so much damage to its right eye, did not attack. And Naruto couldn't help but wonder why. It had been so aggressive before but now, now the creature was downright placid. It was as if he could reach out and touch it. And he just might have, had it not tried to devour him hours before. No, he was wary of this creature and he had every right to be. And yet...

Something in that eye of sea foam green stayed Naruto's hand. This creature was old. Ancient, even. He understood that this was a tailed beast. Just as he understood that he had to stop it somehow. Fat chance of that! He couldn't stop it, at least, not by himself. But he could see Kakashi-sensei, or any of the others for that matter. Doubtlessly they were here somewhere. He just didn't know where, damnitall!

And then, abruptly, the Sanbi submerged.

Its massive head dipped below the waves, followed soon thereafter by the rest of its massive bulk, leaving little more than a ripple. It sank like a stone, its flippers proppelling it to the depths below in the span of a heartbeat. And it stayed there. Naruto waited for it remerge; to rear its ugly head as it went on another rampage. When it refused, that was when he started to get nervous. Naruto didn't like this. He didn't like it one bit. He'd much rather have solid ground beneath his toes, rather than the unstable surface the lake offered him.

'Damnit, where'd he go?'

He scanned the surface of the water, hoping to find some sign of the foul beast. But the fog prevailed upon him once more, obstructing his vision and dulling his senses to the point of nonexistence. In a moment of weakness, Naruto cursed his own ineptitude. He'd had a chance to finish the Sanbi off-or at the very least force it to retreat-and he had let it slip through his fingers like running water. If the damned turtle didn't want to be found, then it wouldn't be found. Unless it wanted to find him.

It ocurred to him that he should probably seek safer ground, lest the Sanbi try and catch him unawares. He knew this. He wanted to do this, and yet he could not. By the time he'd taken his first step in the direction of the shoreline, the water had already begun to boil. Too late, he felt the current stir beneath his chakra-coated feet. Too late, did he notice the sudden shadow hurtling towards him from the murky depths.

He wasn't at all prepared for what came next.

Suddenly, and without warning, the creature surfaced. Perhaps 'surfaced' wasn't right word. More like exploded. The Sanbi lurched out of the lake, taking him with it as it rose out of the water. Deprived of his foothold, Naruto stumbled forward onto the creature's shell. His head spun as it kissed an iron-hard spike. Black spots swam before his vision as he struggled to rise.

Up, damn you! Get up! Swearing and spitting he got on his hands and knees and tried to stand, eyes watering, ears ringing. Pushing his hands against the gravely surface of the shell, he'd made it all of halfway, a half-assed oath leaving his lips before the shadow fell upon him; before he raised his gaze and realized what exactly he was looking at. In his haste to stand, he'd failed to notice the creature's three whip-like tails looming over his head.

Then, in a movement so swift that Naruto would later remark on it as little more than a blur, they struck. Each of those three tails could've easily disembowled him. They did not. Instead, to his dismay they stopped just short of his navel, and one of them lifted the hem of his jacket, exposing his stomach. The other coiled about his legs and bound him fast. And the third remaining tail, jammed against his stomach with enough force to crush a mountain.

Naruto gagged.

It felt as he'd just been stabbed. A flood of memories and images-primal instinctual emotional-inundated his senses. The scent of the cean breeze. The taste of briny saltwater upon his lips. A blurred landscape filled with inverted mountains and endless oceans. The sounds of a frantic, hammering heartbeat. All these sights and sounds and more held sway over him for what felt like an eternity. Finally, an overwhelming prescence sliced through the static like a hot knife through butter.

"Jiinchuuriki." A rough, fractured and gravelly voice resonated within Naruto's thoughts. Something touched his mind then; a frayed and tattered strand of conciousness that sought something. Perhaps a link with one of its own? Naruto didn't know, and quite frankly, he didn't care. He was too busy trying to swallow yesterday's dinner. And still this alien prescence continued to poke and prod at him, awaiting some measure of response.

Was he supposed to do something? Say something? Naruto didn't quite know how he ought respond. He knew only that his tennant protested violently against the sudden and violent intrusion of its personal space and host. The feeling was entirely mutual. And still, the Sanbi quivered in excitment.

"Jiinchuuriki!" Morce forecefully now the genderless tone commanded. There was a strange fascination to be found with its voice; a quaint, primitive excitement. Like a child demanding a toy or a dog gnawing a bone. It almost sounded eager. It pushed one of its tails against the seal, harder now. And then, everything fell away. Suddenly Uzumaki Naruto was no longer standing upon the slippery shell of Sanbi as it held him down. Suddenly he wasn't standing on anything at all. The Sanbi's shell was gone and so too was the creature itself. He was dimly aware of a voice calling to him-Hinata?-because suddenly, in addition the Sanbi's sudden dissapearance, he was falling.

"JIINCHUURIKI!"

Naruto couldn't even bring himself to channel chakra to his legs as he struck the water. Couldn't bring himself to move as he sank beneath the surface. Because he couldn't do anything. He couldn't cry out. Couldn't struggle. Strangely, the lack of oxygen didn't bother him at all. Not in the slightest. What did bother him was the giant manifestation of the Sanbi that loomed before him in his mind.

"Jinchuuriki." Softer, more insistently now. "Jin-chuu-ri-ki." Was that the only word it knew? It certainly seemed to be fascinated by it. By him. Transparent in origin, that great green chakra lingered between the realms for what felt like an eternity. This monstrous construct of chakra hovered before Naruto's soul for but a moment longer. Then, inexplicably, it dove forward. Uncaring of him, or his tenant, it proceeded to force its chakra upon the unwilling Uzumaki. To claim him as its host.

Despite the claim a certain kitsune had already laid to the blond.

Paper thin, his defenses shattered upon contact with the Three Tails. To Naruto's dismay, he began to blubber and bawl all over again. Writhing, gagging and choking, a liquid and pale substance poured from the Sanbi and its mouth, leaking from his mouth, nose, and even his eyes. Naruto wanted to retch, but his stomach crumpled in on itself and left his throat barren.

His eyes bulged and his body convulsed. Liquid fire coursed through his veins, scouring him clean. He tried to resist, tried to contain the chakra but the forces pulling upon him were simply too much to bear. It felt as if he were being slowly torn in two; as if his still-beating heart were being wrenched from his chest. He did everything he could to fight it, to fight the forces embuing him with its chakra and life-force, and succeeded only in prolonging his own suffering. And so, in the end, Uzumaki Naruto screamed.

He screamed; a strange, wordless scream.

"Daaaaaaaamniiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"

Overshadowing that soft whistle, came a sound. It was strange, this sound, a reedy thin cry, that echoed on into the distance, as though it were the dying gasp of an ancicent creature. It hung in the air, reverberating around them for what seemed like an eternity, before finally losing its tune and fading sadly into the night. However, another chorus immediately overlapped its final note, filling the void that had been left to it by its short lived predecessor.

The antithesis to its parent, this melody contained the voice of a young woman's. Soft and despairing, vibrant and brimming with boundless desire, emanating boundless grief and sorrow within this, its final melody. Unlike its bretheren, it was easily recognizeable, and distinctly human in origin. 'Twas many things, yet all were one and the same. It was the voice of a young woman, whispering softly to her lover. It was the laughter of a little girl, guilless and kind. It was the cry of an insatiable demon, raw with fury and battle lust. It was the sound of many, of two, and the voice of one. It was joy and sadness, anger and weakness, mistakes made, and yet to be made.

And it was coming from inside of him.

"This is strange." Abruptly, the screaming ended, replaced by a voice like velvet. It spoke to him, resonating from deep within his mind. "Sanity. I had forgotten what it felt like after all these centuries." Scarce had it spoken, than blue irises began to flicker. Sapphire gave way to teal then crimson, staining it a sickly red. A teal iris shone in the darkness, regarding him with thinly veiled amusement. White sclera blazed into a fury of scarlet, pulasating with power. Power, raw, incredible power, rose up inside of him like a wave, scouring him clean, restoring the sensation of feeling, of motion, to his limbs. Strange. This voice didn't belong to Kyuubi; because Kyuubi sure as hell didn't have a woman's voice. What the hell was this? What the hell was going on here?

"AAAARGH!" A feral snarl riocheted around in the genin's skull. "What devilry is this! Who let you in here, Kamehime!" A peal of mirthful laughter bounded off the walls of Naruto's skull, subsuquently deafening him.

"I believe I let myself in, Kurama." Came the bemused reply. "Ah, but you've no idea how wonderful it is to be able to think again! I can use my mind! I can communicate! As much as I want! As long as I want! No more one-word sentences for me! No sir! I can even take my human form again! Hallejulliah! How has it been since I've done that, eh, Kurama? Seriously though, do you you have any idea how long its been? I can't remember. Seriously.

"Not long enough, if you ask me." The fox grumbled. "And did you have to tell him my true name, you stupid turtle?" Naruto for the most part, gawped. He hadn't even considered the possibility. The Kyuubi actually had a name? Did all the tailed beasts have one? Each of them? And why on earth could he hear the Sanbi in his head now when he hadn't been able to before. Wait a second. The Sanbi. In. His. Head. Talking to him. Right now. That could only mean...mean...mean....!

"WHAT THE FUCKING HELL?"

Sanbi cackled mirthlessly.

"Oh dear, it seems he's finally succumbed to the shock." A dry chortle, followed by the sensation of fingertips across his face. "Uzumakis' truly are resilient, after all. Such a healthy amount of stamina, too..."

"Says the host stealing wench!"

Naruto had just enough time to wonder this before he went under.

"Great...now I have TWO voices in my head...

A/N: ENJOY! What can I say, the idea came to me! Naruto now has the powers of the Sanbi in addition to the Kyuubi! Well, technically the two are now one in the same, but I can proudly say that with the Three Tailed Turtle now within him he'll have some...unusual abilities. So what do you think? I know that the summary said harem, but should it be a harem? And if so who should be in it? I want this to be unique, after all! And yes, Sanbi is STRONGLY hinted to be of the opposite gender in this ficlet, that is to say, female. She, at the very least, shall be part of the harem! Now if only they would give out the rest of them...

Still, having two, crazy demons in his head, one of whom wants him and the other whom may (or may not) be female should definitely be interesting for our dear shinobi. Remember, this is all an idea in theory! Until then folks, Ja ne!

Note: Kamehime= Turtle Princess, an amusing interpretation I and several others came up with for the Sanbi's true name. No worries though. She'd mostly be going by Sanbi though. Also, BLEH on you, Tobi! Let's see you try and get the Three Tails now! That ought to throw a wrench in your evil schemes! Gee, I wonder how his training will turn out now that the Kyuubi and Sanbi are sort of one...XD B

Be sure and vote and Pm and tell what you think as well as any ideas! Love you all and thank you for your continued support!

~Nz

P.S:

R&R! =D