Legion of a ghost child

The next time Naruto woke up, he found that he was still in the room he had been in every other time he woke up. The room was still very bare, the shelves were empty and the whole gave him the feeling that it was made a very very very long time ago, the main reason he felt this way was because of the bed. The bed was very large actually, maybe large larger than a queen and a king-sized bed put together, or was that just imagination? He sat up straight on the bed to look around, the bed was low to the ground with zero space under the bed. The sheets that covered him were a sea of red and shining velvet, there were two layers of soft covers under the red sheet that served to warm Naruto to the point that he felt a little hot after being fulling covered for so long. The two sheets that warmed his body were also ultra sort, it was like being hugged in love and happiness if that's even possible. 

Naruto felt something shift on his left side, he looked to see a small baby fox laying next to him with golden fur. Looking at the fox by his side, he remembered what happened before falling asleep. The sadness he felt, the betrayal, it all hit him like a ton of bricks and a lone tear rolled down his cheek, but then he remembered what the little fox did to him and for him. He also remembered Kurama's words, the explanation he gave, Naruto pulled the little fox into his lap gently without waking him. "Looks like you're my only family now,"  thought Naruto as he pets the golden fox. 

Just then the door to the room opened and Kurama walked in, now that he was looking around the room, he noticed how big it was. It reminded him of a room that a futile lord and his wife would sleep in. It was large, maybe as big as a small apartment or something, with the bed in the center of the room. "Naruto?" Kurama asked once he saw how the blond on the bed was looking around the room.

"Kurama, who's the room is this?" Naruto asked looking at the human Kyuubi.

Kurama smiled as he took a seat in his usual spot in front of the blond, this time without the tea set, "it's my room."

"Why am I in your room? Don't you need it to sleep in?" Asked the blond.

"Yeas, but unlike you humans, I don't need to sleep that often. I also don't have the time to seep regular hours, the most sleep I could hope to get here would be a few hours at most out of the month," said the fox man.

This surprised Naruto a bit, "so, what do you do that stops you from sleeping in your bed?"

Kurama thought for a moment, "hmm, you can think of it as me being a Hokage or a clan head... but with less paperwork and more.... um." He thought for a moment more, he didn't know how to explain his role for right now, especially since the person he's explaining it too was an innocent four-year-old boy, he looked at the blond in front of him for a moment. After a long silence, mostly because he was arguing with himself inside his head, he could see Naruto losing his petitions so he cleared his throat again, "uh tell you what, how about we just say I'm like the head of my clan and leave it at that, alright?"

Naruto raised his eyebrow at that but saw he wasn't going to get any more info on the matter... for now anyway. Instead, he asked another question, "what happened to, back at the house, I can't remember anything after going to my room with the family album while the rest of the village was at the festival. How did I end up here in your room?"

Kurama had a sad look in his eye, it was plain as day, even Naruto saw it, then again he wasn't hiding it, to begin with. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, he didn't want to talk about what happened, luckily for him, the little fox with his newly golden fur woke up then. The little yawned and stretched himself out on Naruto's lap, he rubbed his eyes a bit with his paws before opening his eyes and looking around the room, he first saw Kurama before he turned his sights on Naruto. Upon seeing the blond, he gave him a big fox grin and cuddled up to the boy happily. When Kurama saw the little fox's eyes, he didn't really expect it at first, but then he remembered the premature bonding that happened before and nodded with a knowing smile on his face, Naruto, not missing the smile, looked at the fox man with a questioning look in his eyes as he heads the little fox. Naruto was shocked to see the eyes that the fox now had, when he first met the little fox his fur was a light red and his eyes were dark as night, but now the little fox's fur was golden and he had two different colored eyes, blue and green, just like him. He wanted to know why that was, he didn't even need to ask.

"This is why little kits of our clan are told to wait to do the bonding ritual, from the looks of it, this little kit has bonded with you more than I originally thought," stated Kurama.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, the little golden fox was now also intrigued by this question, Kurama expected as much.

"Well when you bonded before, his fur turned just as blond as your hair, but not only did his fur turn to gold, he also got a deeper connection with. Something that no human has ever achieved with our clan before. This connection goes deeper than just reading thoughts and being able to speak to each other, not just telepathically either, but may... just maybe, this kit will be able to now speak like you and I do." Kurama said with a small smile, Naruto was shocked, as well as the little fox. Not only had he been told that he could talk to the blond boy in his head, but also talk like a human when he got older, this information brought light into the fox's eyes at the prospects. While Naruto, too, was happy to be able to talk to his favorite animal but said animal would be able to understand him and talkback, this might- no this was- by far, the greatest thing that he had ever gotten in his life. Naruto looked at the little fox, who looked back at him, both equally happy. 

"However," the boy and the fox looked back at Kurama, "now that I see that you both share the same eyes, I think it's time that I take you to sign the Fox contract, just to make it official. I know that there will be some in the clan who would be very happy to have a human summon them again, if not in battle, then for good company."

Naruto was nearly floored at this information, he was only four, but already he was getting to sign a summoning contract! This brought tears to his eyes and he started crying tears of pure joy since the time of the book store incident, Kurama placed a hand on both Naruto's and the little fox's head, who was also crying, "come on you two. I'll explain more about your bonding on the way there," the two nodded and got out of bed, Naruto fell when he tried to walk from all the time he had been in bed, it hurt a little to just stand. It felt more than pins and needles, the feeling as if your leg or arm was still asleep or falling asleep, no that wasn't it though, this was a different feeling, Naruto couldn't place his finger on it, but he knew the way his body felt so stiff would make it very hard to move for a while. Especially if it was on his own, his legs felt like it belonged to someone else entirely, but why? Kurama saw the look on the young boy's face, he knew that he had to tell the boy the truth, somehow, and so on.. but not now, he wanted to get the bonding and summons over with before he had to talk about that. So, to save Naruto from the pain of stiff body parts, Kurama picked up Naruto who then picked up and held the little fox as they walked to the place where the contract was.

Back in Knonha

Minato and Kushina had been searching around the village for a couple of weeks now looking for their little lost son, they checked with some of the clan head. No luck. They checked the training grounds. Nothing. They checked the ramen stand. Not even a glimpse. Where could he be? it didn't make sense, where was Naruto? Where could he have gone? The couple was getting worried about their youngest brother, even Shio, though she was not the one who teased him the most, she still did it and she felt a little bad about it now so she helped look for Naruto the most out of all her siblings. After coming home to find the house destroyed, the whole family was worried about the little curly-haired boy, it showed to. However, they (and by they, I mean Kushina) was forced to drop the search, why? Because they had something slightly bigger to worry about now.

It had been a few weeks since the house was destroyed, it took a few days to rebuild the Namikaze house thanks to some of the shinobi in the village lending a hand, now it was twice as big as it was before. The reason for that was because they needed more space, it became known that after a few weeks of searching without food and rest, Kushina collapsed. She was brought to the hospital where Tsunade took a look and found out that the Red Death of Konoha was having triplets. TRIPLETS!! Minato was both happy and worried for his wife at the same time, even though he was happy that their family was growing to the size of an actual small clan, he was worried that Kushina wouldn't make it through to the birthing of their new additions. It's not like she had any problem giving birth to the five kids they had had, no, in fact, the Uzumaki clan was also known for getting pregnant quickly and sometimes a bit too easy for some, and those somewhere the head family of Uzu. Along with their long lives and mastery of seals, they also got pregnant whenever they wanted, which was one of the reasons why the five nations both feared and respected them so much until the end. There was once Kumo wanted some of the Uzumaki clan to come over to their side, given a few years they would have an army of redhead tomatoes at their command, but the Uzukage said no.

Now that you know about that, time to tell you why Minato was so worried about his tomato of a wife.

Flashback

It happened about the day before Naruto and Narumi's second birthday. Kushina was in the kitchen making breakfast, Minato was on the couch not too far away reading his Icha Icha pron: yaoi edition because he was a perv like that, plus he was bisexual (but he hadn't told his wife yet because e feared her reaction, plus she was a VERY BIG yaoi fan to the point it was almost scary). He was having one of his oh so rare days off, his oldest son was already taking missions, his second son was graduating from the academy next year, his oldest daughter teaching her little sister and brother how to read. Everyone was happy and getting along swimmingly, not to mention the Icha Icha book he was reading was his sensei's, Jiraya, new book, what more could he ask for? He was just getting to the part where the male characters were about to have a steamy threesome when he heard Kushina yelp in pain in the kitchen.

Quickly hiding his beloved porn in a place that only he could open with his chakra and taking out the regular Icha Icha too leave were the kids can't get, but it won't give his wife any fangirl ideas about him, then he rushed into the kitchen via yellow flash, all under ten seconds. He's practiced this type of thing relentlessly since it was the only way that Kushina would let him keep his books. When he got to the kitchen he saw his beloved wife on the floor, in pain, clutching her abdomen. Shio and the twins rushed into the kitchen shortly after Minato asking what was wrong with mommy while Minato's hands glowed green as he scanned her for injury.

"Daddy, what's going on, is mommy okay?" Asked Narumi to her father, her childish vocabulary butchering every word of the Japanese language. 

Minato gathered Kushina into his arms and lifted her, "don't worry, Narumi, mommy will be just fine because we're going to the hospital to see granny Tsunade. Your granny's gonna make mommy feel all better soon, okay?" He said as he walked over to the door, his children following closely behind, "Shio, could you get the door for me, please? Thanks," they quickly made their way outside the house to stand over a seal that Minato had placed their, "everyone get on the seal and hold onto me," he said to his kids who did just that, when they were all holding onto their father, they all disappeared and reappeared inside of Tsunade's office. She was about to protest about the way they entered her office (because it scared the shit out of her and almost wet herself because of it) but took one look at Kushina and let it slide... this time. She called for the assistant, Shizuna, who came so they could take the Red Death into an operating room, two hours later they came back out.

"What happened? Is my wife going to be alright?" Asked Minato to Tsunade.

"Don't worry, Minato, Kushina will be fine," Tsunade said which earned a sigh of relief from the other blond.

"Thank Kami... but what was wrong with her?" He asked he regretted when he saw the sad look on the grate medic's face.

"Well, even though she's an Uzumaki, she had a miscarriage and-" Tsunade began but was interrupted.

"WHAT?! But Uzumaki's never have miscarriages!" Stated the Hokage in shock.

"If you would let me talk, you'll know more," she said with forced calm, Minato apologized, "like I was saying, she lost the baby, I don't know why, but I do know that she'll survive. The other thing is that, after I had to remove the child to save her life, I made note of the state of her womb. It's nothing serious, she'll be able to conceive again if she wants, but from what I found, it may be a rough right."

"What do you mean?" Minato wondered worriedly.

"Hmm," Tsunade put a hand on her chin in a thinking pose, "by my best guess, if you two were to conceive again, Kushina would have to be watched very carefully. That means no stress, no heavy training though a little exercise is fine, and no missions for a while, that means before and after." She sighed, "she'll most likely be out of commotion for up to a year at the least."

Minato looked now in thought, he wasn't sure of how to feel, they had always talked about having a big family, Kushina more than him. Still, if he were to tell her, it would probably crush her to know that she may never have kids again, or that having another would be very risky. He didn't like seeing his tomato sad, it broke his heart, although she would most likely brake his leg or something if he ever called her tomato out loud, it was another one of his secret pleasures, next to his Icha Icha of cause. He realized where his mind was going when he thought about his beloved porn and shook himself of those thoughts, he looked back to Tsanude, "may we see her?"

Tsunade nodded, "yes, but she's sleeping right now, she needs her rest."

"Yes, of course," Minato said starting to walk over to his wife's room until he stopped to look back at the busty medic.

"Don't worry, I'll watch your children" Tsunade said, Minato nodded his thanks and started to walk again but stopped and turned back, "room 321."

Minato gave her a sheepish smile, "thanks," then he started heading in the right direction.

Flashback end

 Now Kushina is pregnant again and this time it's triplets, triplets, Minato couldn't believe his luck, three at once. When he heard the news he fainted, when he got to the hospital, he saw his wife and children there, he walked into the room with a worried look on his face as he wrung his hands. "Kids, do you mind going outside for a while, I need to talk to your mother about something important," he said to them, after a minute they all left, leaving their parents alone to talk. He threw up a silence seal so no one could hear what they were talking about, even his nosy daughters, when it was down he turned to his wife with a sigh.

"This is dangers, isn't it?" Kushina asked her husband who simply nodded.

"Yes, it could be very dangerous for you," Minato answered.

"How dangerous?"

"You could die," Minato looked away.

"So, I could die huh? Well, I guess there's only one thing left to do, isn't there?"The Uzumaki looked at her husband with sad eyes.

Minato nodded, "yes... abort the pregnancy so you can live," he said looking at the ground, he knew how much his wife would hate it, she may never sleep with him again. But it would be worth it as long as he had her by his side.

Kushina looked at Minato like he had lost his finger-licking mind, "are you crazy! There's no way that I'm doing that!" She all but yell.

His head shot up at her words, "but Kushina... you'll die if you do that, didn't you hear me?"

Kushina nodded, "yes I did Mina sweety, but there's still no way we're giving up on these children," she said slowly to him as if she was talking to a child. "The only way that I'm giving up the lives of my children is when I'm six feet under, do you understand?"

"But... but-but, yo-" he was interrupted.

"Minato! Do you understand?" Kushina almost yelled, she didn't want to get stressed out, not after what Minato told her and what Tsunade just confirmed for her, she was determined to keep her unborn children at all cost. It went against her family's way to just abort a child, even at the cost of their own lives.

Minato jumped at the intensity of his wife's voice, "y-yes d-dear, bu-but wha..." he trailed off when he heard her sign. He knew that sign, he hated that sign, let it be known that the Red Death of Konoha, even though every well versed in the ways of battle and sealing... Minato had to find out the hard way what happens when Kushina didn't get her way. To say that he was whipped would not be the way to describe him, in the eyes of the public, he was the strong and powerful 4th Hokage, but when he was alone with his wife... let us just say he doesn't always wear the pants in the relationship.

Kushina leaned back in her bed with her arms folded, she gave her husband a hard stare for a minute or two that made Minato sweat, then she spoke, "I know about your clan's hidden ability."

Minato's heart skipped a beat, "w-what...?"

"I know about your clan's ability, you know, the one where the males of the clan carry the child when the woman can't, that ability." Kushina narrowed her eyes, "or did you think that I wouldn't find out about?" Minato paled as he shook his head furiously from side to side, he was scared, his wife knew that his the males in his clan could carry children, to full term if they wanted even and this made him very afraid of what's yet to come. Kushina raised her eyebrows, "you know what this means, don't you?"

Minato now looked like a ghost, he gulped, "p-please..." he said in a small voice.

"What's the matter Mina sweety? Are you scared that I found out your little secret, huh? Is that it!?" Kushina's voice rose a little bit at the end making her husband flinch.

Minato was a very strong shinobi, but when it came to his wife and babies, he wasn't about to get in her way, "n-no, but I-I"

"IF YOU SAY 'BUT' ONE MORE TIME!" Kushina yelled making Minato whimper and back up against the wall next to the door.

Minato had a reason why he never told his wife about his clan's abilities, not because she was a meager yaoi fangirl, he could respect that about her. He was a fan of the stuff too, but that wasn't the problem. Minato just didn't want the side effects that would come with carrying a child, it wouldn't be so bad the first time, but what if his wife wanted more kids and she could carry them, what then? He knew what would, his darling wife would ask for him to carry them again, then the effects would either get worse before they had time to fade, meaning that he may have to say goodbye to his manhood for good! He didn't want that! Then there was the pain, getting stabbed and badly wounded, he could handle that, but CHILDBIRTH?! How did women do it? Kushina did it four times, the last time being twins, and each time Minato's poor hands had been crushed without mercy, could he handle that much pain in one area of his body? Minato shivered at the thought, but he knew that his options weren't in his favor so he had no say. Divorce or little to no chance of being a man in anything else than a name, only... maybe, in the future to come.

He sighed, knowing he had lost before even entering the room, he said, "fine..." he said reluctantly causing Kushina to glare at him and smile at him. "However, don't think that this means that I can carry a baby with both our genes after this and there are conditions that need to be met while I'm pregnant." He took in a deep breath and let it out shakily, "and... some of them you can't meet."

Kushina's smile only faded slightly as she wondered what her husband meant by that, but then brushed it off when she imagined what her husband would look like pregnant. She had once seen Shikaku Nara pregnant and it was an entrusting sight to see, her best friends Yoshino and Mikoto came to her one day and the three women started wondering how other men in the village would look if they were pregnant. They all agreed that Fugaku, Mikoto's husband, and Mito Gui would look weird if they were pregnant. While they were a little on the fence about Kakashi, but they knew Iruka would fit the role perfectly. By this point in here remembering, Kushina had started drooling with a bright blush on her face, Minato shivered again as he undid the seal and went to find Tsunade to transfer their unborn children into his own womb.

He saw his children waiting by the door when he opened it, he knew that they all were trying to listen in, not just his daughters this time. "Um dad, why's mom making that face?" Asked Shio as she stared at her mom's yaoi fangirl face, not to be mistaken as the regular fangirl face (they are different people).

Minato looked back at his wife who had started giggling perversely as her drool started to pool in her lap, her tong had slipped out of her mouth as she staring off into space, overall it creeped him out because he knew some of the things she was probably thinking right now. ABOUT HIM. "She's just really happy, that's all...." he turned back to his kids, he put on a smile, "why don't you guys go get something to eat?"

"What will you do dad," asked Ryu.

"I've got somethings to talk to Tsaunde about, it may take a while so you guys go ahead, okay? I'll catch you guys later," then Minato flashed away.

"What was that about?" asked M.J.

"Don't know," said Ryu.

Just then Narumi's stomach growled, "I want ramen!" Her siblings sighed but headed out to eat some ramen, already forgetting about what they were doing before they got to the hospital.

"When an adult fox summons and a human summoner bond, they become family or family friends, when a teen fox and a human bond, they become like siblings. However, whenever a baby fox and a human that is not a summoner bond, they become so connected that no matter where or how far they are, they will know exactly how the other is feeling, thinking, and know a little of what they are doing. To become so connected like that is so rare that it rarely happens, this connection, though is nice, has a few drawbacks. If, for example, the connection is severed for any amount of time, both of you will lose all of your memories of each other and what you did together until you both meet again. During that time you will also not know who you are, where you came from, losing all sense of direction, your minds for the most part will just hit reset until you guys come in contact with each other again, a simple thing of just a brush of the fur, lick on the cheek, or even something so small as sight will ignite the fire of your memories. With that fire lit, you will remember everything that happened before and after you lost each other, but be warned, each emotion you feel will be felt by the other. Every thought you think from now on-wards shall be shared, and with this in mind, the two of you won't ever have to feel alone again. Yet, the biggest thing you would need to fear is death, death comes like a shadow in the night and takes away just about anyone whether they are ready or not. If one of you die, likely, your personalities will forever be changed because of it, your trust will wain and almost unbreakable darkness will come over you in your loneliness."

Kurama explained everything he knew about humans bonding with foxes as they walked through Kurama's large palace-like house. Naruto listened intently as he was carried around since his legs wouldn't let him even stand for a long or short period. It was a little disturbing to the blond to be carried around the large home, not because he was in a new place that he's never been before, but because he just couldn't walk around it with his own two feet, he was sure to ask Kurama about tit later. Also in his arms was the little fox with his newly golden fur, the little fox would look around curiously at his surroundings with awe and wonder in his eyes, Naruto also took note of this as he wanted to know more. So he asked.

"Why did his eyes and fur change?" He asked looking at Kurama.

Kurama looked down into his arms between the two who were now staring at him in wonder, he shrugged, "don't know, kit, they just did," was his answer. Naruto deadpanned at this, for a four-year-old he made a pretty good deadpan face, the fox-man sighed, "as I said, this is rare and it seldom happens. The last time someone bonded with a baby fox was probably around the same time the 1st Hokage was just being born, so honestly, I don't have any information on it. Now," Kurama then got to a large door and opened it to reveal some stairs heading down, "let's go sign a contract," Naruto and the fox nodded as they started walking down the steps.

"Oh, by the way, I forgot to ask but what's this little guy's name?" Naruto asked.

"He doesn't have one," Kurama answered.

"Huh? How could he not have one, wasn't it kit?" Naruto asked confused.

Kurama shook his head, "no-no, that's just what we foxes call our young. Some people call us foxes, while others call us kitsunes, but that's mostly for the older ones, so we call our young kits, short for kitsunes. It's better than having to say 'baby fox' or 'little fox' all the damn time." He looked down at Naruto's sad face, he smiled, "but hay, since you brought it up, and he's your responsibility to take care of each other now, why don't you give him a name?"

Naruto's head shot up at that, "really?" He asked Kurama nodded, "alright, let's see, what should I call you?... How about Kibo, I think it stands for hope." The little fox's perked up at the name and he started wagging his tail with joy, he leaned over and licked the blond on his cheek, Naruto laughed, "okay, Kibo it is then."

Kurama chuckled, they continued walking until they got to the bottom, they started down a dark path that quickly lit up as the fox-man walked by. They stopped in front of an opening and went inside, Kurama put Naruto to sit in the middle of the room, Kibo, the newly name golden fox, was on his lap. The redhead stood in front of the two and did some hand signs before a large scroll poofed into being, Kurama took the scroll before it fell and opened it before handing it over to the small blond, "just sign your name in blood and put a handprint at the bottom." Naruto bit his finger and spelled out his name on the scroll before placing a bloody handprint on the bottom, the scroll poofed away once he was done, "good, now I'll show you how to summon us whenever you want. Attention because, for my clan, we have two sets of hand signs that need to be done for two different things," Kurama then did a set of hand signs before slamming his hands on the ground after biting his thumb. A bright red fox appeared in front of him the was almost the same size as Kurama's human form, but a few inches bigger, "this his Hati, he specializes in information gathering, battle tactics, ninjutsu, genjutsu, and stealthy prancing."

The fox named, Hati, looked around the room before his gaze landed on Naruto and Kibo, he gave a small smile (foxes can smile in my story) then turned to Kurama. "This is a pleasant surprise, I didn't think that I'd ever be summoned again, what's the occasion?" Asked Hati.

Kurama smirked, "it's good to see you in such high spirits, I was just showing our new summoner the hand signs."

Hati chuckled, "well, well, well," he looked at the blond boy in front of him, "this little kits gonna summon us?" Kurama stood next to Hati with a proud smile, he nodded once, "ha, well let's just hope that Koko doesn't hear about this before the kid grows up a bit, she'll have a fit."

Kurama chuckled again, "don't worry, even if she does hear about it, she won't hurt the first summoner we've had in a few decades."  

Hati lowed himself down until he was at eye level with Naruto, "hay kits, what your names?"

Naruto sat in awe at the large fox before him, he reached out a hand, "Naruto and this is Kibo," he said as his hand touched Hati's furry head. Hati hummed in approval.

The larger fox laid his eyes upon the golden one, "you're one of the rare ones, aren't you?" He asked Kibo, Kibo nodded as his two-colored eyes, "when did this happen, Kurama?"

"About a week ago," Kurama said nonchalantly. 

Hati lifted his head away from Naruto's petting to look back at Kurama, Naruto and Kibo both looked at the redhead in shock, "a whole week!?" They all, except Kibo, shouted at the man.

"How could we have been asleep for a whole week?" Naruto asked

"Time runs differently here, a week here would be like a day out there," Kurama said, "and you've been here for a month."

Naruto did the math in his head, which he was very good at for his age, "so I've only been gone for about five days then?" He asked Kurama nodded, "if I've only been here for five days, then how long..."  his thoughts were cut off when the redhead spoke.

"Don't worry Naruto, I'll explain when we're done here, is that reasonable?" He asked, the blond pouted but nodded, "good, let's move on to the next set."

"You'll have to explain it to me as well, Kurama, the elders won't like this," Hati said as he got up to move next to Kurama who had already started the second set of hand signs.

In a poof of smoke, a woman appeared with dark red hair and bright green eyes, she had fox ears on her head and was wearing a plain powder blue with a navy blue obi. She had a sweet face and looked to be in about her late teens to early twenties, she looked around the room for a moment, she smiled sweetly when she saw Naruto with Kibo on his lap. "Hello there, how did you get here?" She said in a silky voice, Naruto blushed at her beauty making the woman laugh, she looked around again stopping at Hati, "Hati, what are you doing here?"

"New summoner," Hati replied, "by the way, if you could not beat up Kurama in front of our new friend, it would be greatly appreciated."

"Ooooh, so Kurama's back eh? Where is he? I'd like to pay my respects," said the woman.

"Behind me," just then a blur shot out from behind Hati, snatching up Naruto and Kibo, and dashing out the opening to the room. "Looks like we'll have to go to his room to get some answers."

The girl sighed, "Fine, but this better be quick."

Back in Kurama's room, he placed Naruto back on the bed, "there, now, how about we get that question you've been holding out in the opening."

Naruto looked around to see that he was back in the room, he set Kibo next to him on the sheets, he turned back to Kurama with a deep breath, "what happened before I woke up here?"

So Kurama told him, "you died."

Naruto gave the man a look, "that's not funny."

"I know, I'm not joking," Kurama said returning the look.

"How can I be dead when I'm right here?" Naruto asked folding his arms over his chest, "I fell asleep on the night of my birthday, so that makes me five now, it had only been like what? A month, a month and a half, without food? I thou-"

"NO! I know what you're about to say and the answer, you seem to forget that you are a four-now five- year old boy, and you have me inside of you. If you were like other kids your age, you wouldn't look like a malnourished two-year-old, even your twin sister, that Narumo or Natsmi, or whatever her name is, is bigger than you. Not just that, but she eats more than you as well, but it doesn't seem like you mind before so I didn't say anything back then." Kurama sighed, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get upset."

Naruto was looking down at his hands that were now in his lap, "it's fine," he said in a low voice. But, could you tell me...how I..."

Kurama nodded, "this goes back a little further than when they left, but I'll tell you how you got here to save some time." Naruto looked up at the redhead then, Kurama took a seat on the bed in front of Naruto since he had been standing before, "you know that you're family left you at home for about five months with barely enough food, right?" Naruto nodded, "after five months your birthday and the festival came around, but you passed out on the first day of the festival after you passed out, it took the rest of that week plus two and a half days to get control of your body and bring you here. I guess it was a good thing that they decided to extend the festival for those extra days or else we wouldn't be here now... on the way I used chakra to keep you alive until we got here." Kurama looked over to the covered window as he continued, "when I took control of your body, you... died, somewhat, I think it's because you're an Uzumaki that you even survived that."

There was a long silence in the room as Naruto processed this, "how long," he finally said.

"About three minutes without a single pule or breath," Kurama answered.

Outside the room, Hati and the woman had come to talk to their clan head, Kurama, but then they heard him talking about how someone died, so they listened in. Curious to see who they were talking about, the woman knocked on the door and opened it a crack, "you might as well come in, I'm guessing you heard what we talked about."

"Yes, we heard," said the woman opening the door fully, the two walked into the and in front of the bed. They were all quite until the woman asked, "who died and how do you two know each other, it's not every day that Kurama goes out of his way to keep someone alive to his bedroom to heal for a month."

Kurama then told them about how he had been tricked into attacking the village, surprising Naruto since his parents didn't tell him that part (not that they knew), then he told them how he was sealed inside of Naruto. They asked how he got out of the seal and that's when he told them how Naruto had died that day, only for three minutes, but death was death. "After bringing him here, I put him into the Mystical Waters to bring him back fully, although I had to dilute the water some because of the side effects, and now we're here."

"You used the Mystical Waters on a human without the elder's permission?" Asked the woman.

Kurama's eyebrow twitched, "let me ask you this, Hidi, if I'm the clan head, why the hell do I need to go through the elders for every little damn thing?"

"Because that's the way it's always been, Kurama, you can't just-"

"Let me stop you there, Hidi, I'm the leader, they're the advisers," Kurama said slightly irked that she always took the elder's side over his. "They don't run thing, I do, they stay in the background and tell me how they used to do things so I can make my own choice, NOT so I can be a puppet."

"HAY! Before you two go at each other's throats, can you *points at Kurama* need to explain why I can't walk. If I've been brought back to life for only being dead for three minutes, then why can't I stand you?" Naruto asked, he was getting sick of all the back and forth about politics, "even though I've been in bed for a month, shouldn't I be able to at least stand up for a few minutes?"

"Well from what I can tell, you don't look like you've been very well fed, so how about we cut the chit chat and get some food in you," said Hati after being quite this whole time.

"Good idea, Hati, it's good to know that at least someone is thinking about the young *glares at Hidi*, shall we go?" Said Kurama as he picks up Naruto, while Hati makes his way over to the head of the bed and picks up Kibo by the back of the neck, Hidi just sighed and stomped out of the room.

"Is it always so lively around here?" Naruto asked watching as Hidi stormed out.

"You'll get used to her... someday," Kurama said and they all left the room.