Chapter 164: CH 164
'What in the world are you babbling about now? You've been really pissy lately and I'm getting kind of tired of your crap. The last few times I went into the mindscape you didn't even wake up to talk to me.' Naruto thought rather testily.
Naruto went into auto-pilot mode as he felt a little pull, sending him thoughts on what the Kyuubi was currently doing. Apparently it was bored enough that it had taken to chewing on some guy with long spiky black hair and strange red old style armor. Kyuubi spit him out and huffed, "What I mean is what the hell do you think you've been doing lately? What happened to the little blonde killing machine you used to be, the runt of a human that earned my respect? What happened to the brat that cut down an entire room of Kumo ninja without batting an eye? Does that son of a bitch still breathe?"
Naruto didn't have the time to even start thinking about what he meant by that, 'I don't know what you're talking about. This is who I am, and I'm still that damn good. Just because I can be normal after I'm done with the fight doesn't mean anything.' "You lie!" He felt the Kyuubi roar to him, "You're lying to me and to yourself. This isn't you. When you first unlocked your sealed memories once more I took the way you were acting with a grain of salt. I figured that when you got a few kills under your belt and had gotten back into some wetwork you would go back to the way you were. Rehabilitation if you will. Instead, you got worse. And now look at you; you're some guard dog for a bunch of withered old crones more often then you're in battle. You joke around and fall in line behind crones that couldn't strap on your sandals... Kami boy, you were starting to consider those Konoha weaklings in the stadium as your peers, as if they were on your level."
'They are my peers. Come the end of this exam they're going to be my fellow chunin. What do you want from me? Do you want me to just shut myself in like when I was a kid? To just train and go on missions? To be like I was in Root? News flash furball; that's why I'm not there anymore! At this point Danzo-jiji can't turn me back, he couldn't even make me a mindless drone when I was five, how in the blue hell is he going to do anything with me now?' Naruto raged at the demon in his mind.
For over a year now, the Kyuubi had been angry at something. It couldn't have just been because Jiraiya loosened the seal, that would only be enough reasoning for why Naruto was feeling it more often these days, the times where the Kyuubi was actually pleasant were becoming few and far between. This was why it was angry, because Naruto wasn't dark enough for it. He had taken the example of his sealed state and had opened up to people. He had those that he actually considered friends. He spent a lot of his time with these people instead of fighting like he used to.
As he tore through the sand dunes he decided to put this on the backburner for the time being, 'Alright listen up. We don't have time to be fighting and bitching at each other right now. After we handle this we can gripe at each other to your heart's delight, if we survive, but for the moment we need to focus. You're getting sick of me? That's fine, we were never friends, but like it or not I need you and you need me.'
There was silence before a low growl, "As loathe as I am to admit it you are right. Right before a battle is not the time to go over this, but rest assured, this is not over. You are a mere shell of what you used to be, and at this rate you always will be." With that, the connection between the two was cut off.
Naruto pulled up his hood as he kept up the frantic pace through the desert, 'I'm not a shell of anything you stupid fox. I'm more than I ever have been before. Why would I ever want to go back to the way things used to be? Fighting just for the sake of being a ninja is no way to live.'
XxX
As Kiba's opponent finally dropped from blood loss, giving the wild looking teen the victory in his bout, Shizune looked over at Tsunade and whispered through her applause, "Do you think Naruto-kun will be alright?"
Tsunade kept her eyes ahead of her, 'If he gets overwhelmed we'll know about it immediately and courtesy be damned, I'm going out there and cracking some skulls myself. I can't even enjoy the tournament anymore, and Sakura is in the next fight. All of my genin are the last three remaining and I can't even enjoy the show.'
Kurotsuchi looked around, "Where is that Naruto kid that Hokage-sama sent flying? She said he would be alright and that was 45 minutes ago, he still isn't back yet."