Naruto: Winds and Changes

"Orochimaru-sama has insured me that your sons defeat was a mere fluke. A matter of surprise and luck, nothing more."

"And yet, without Gaara in the finals all of our plans are ruined," The Kazekage frowned. "There is no way for us to defeat Konoha without having Gaara in their walls to strike them by surprise."

The young teen bowed his head, "Orochimaru-sama has come up with another plan to defeat Konoha. One he believes is better than the previous one we had."

"And one that will no doubt lead to more of my shinobi's deaths," While the Kazekage saw everyone and everything as either a tool or worthless, he did understand the value of good soldiers and the need to keep them alive. And he knew that any plan that snake of a man created, would put his shinobi on the front to take more damage than the man's Oto forces.

"No, with our original plan null and void, I will not support a campaign against Konoha, unless I feel the time is right."

"I see." The teen said slowly, "That's too bad."

It happened too fast for the Kazekage to see. A flash of light and that was it before he, along with the four ANBU he had brought to guard him died.

"Kukuku…" Orochimaru chuckled as he appeared behind the fallen Kazekage, his hand holding onto the Kusanagi blade as it dripped with the blood of the Kazekage. "It's too bad he didn't agree to my new proposition, if he had, he may have lived. Still, I feel it's better this way," He looked over at his most fanatically loyal servant. "How are you holding up Kimimaro-kun?"

"I am feeling fine Orochimaru-sama," Kimimaro replied. "Kabuto-san has assured me that I will be able to take part in the coming battle."

"Good. I am pleased to see your disease is being kept in check for now. I have great need of you," Orochimaru licked his lips.

Naruto awoke to see the white tiled ceiling of a hospital. He blinked a few times as he registered where he was before scowling. "Great, I wake up only to find myself stuck in a nightmare of bland ceilings, white walls and that Kami damned smell of antiseptics."

"Well I do apologize Naruto-kun, however it was necessary for you to come here so you could be healed."

Hearing the familiar voice Naruto turned around to see Sarutobi sitting on a chair next to his bed. "I'm pleased to see you're awake, you gave us quite the scare with your performance you know."

"Ojisan…" Naruto yawned as he pushed himself into a sitting position.

"Be careful not to move too much. The doctors said you were extremely badly damaged," Sarutobi said.

Naruto looked up and grinned, "Aww! You worry too much Ojisan." The blond ignored the protests of Sarutobi as he stood up and began to stretch, "Hmmm… I'm definitely sore, it feels a lot like someone decided to smash me with the Hokage monument…" He looked over at the Hokage, "How long have I been out?"

"About two days." Sarutobi answered, watching as Naruto took off the bandages he had on, "Do you really have to take those off? You might still be injured."

Naruto chuckled, "Yeah I'm sure, I don't want to look like a mummy while I walk around Konoha. And I'm perfectly fine, a tad tender is all."

Sarutobisighed and shook his head in exasperation, but knew that trying to stop the blond was pointless and there were other things they needed to talk about. "Naruto-kun, I believe there are some things you and I need to discuss."

"Um…ok. What kind of things did you want to talk about Ojisan?" Naruto decided to play innocent. Though he had a fairly good idea on what this was about.

Sarutobi gave him a deadpan look, "I believe you know what I want to talk about Naruto-kun. I know you are more intelligent then you sometimes let on."

Naruto sighed as he sat back down on the bed, "You want to talk about me using Kyuubi's youki right?"

Sarutobi nodded, "Yes I would. I would like to know when you learned to use that chakra."

"Well, I wouldn't say I learned to use it," Naruto tapped his chin, wondering how best to broach this subject. In the end he just decided to be honest, the old Hokage had always been understanding and he was sure he would be with this too. "My beat down of Gaara was in fact the first time I had used it since Nami, er wait, that's not quite true since I had also used it against Orochimaru in the forest…Though this was the first time I used it willingly and stayed myself while using it."

"I see," Sarutobi wished he could smoke his pipe right now, but not even he could get away with smoking in a hospital. "And how were you able to channel its chakra?"

"Kyuubi gave it to me," Naruto shrugged, upon seeing the Hokage's incredulous expression Naruto blinked. "What? She did, Kyuubi and I are all cool now." He paused when he listened to that statement in his head, "well, we're not exactly cool, but were no longer at each others throats."

"Ah! I see.. Kyuubi and you are…" Sarutobi frowned as he registered the two things Naruto said. The first, Naruto said he and Kyuubi were friends now, the second… "Did you say she? As in the Kyuubi No Kitsune is a girl!"

Naruto winced and held his head for a moment as he heard Kyuubi start to yell out threats to Sarutobi, "Yes, she's a girl, and she wants me to tell you that if she hears one more sexist comment about her gender, she's going to make sure you suffer untold amounts of torment before the Shinigami comes to take you."

Sarutobi shivered a bit at the implied threat, despite the fact that there was no way for Kyuubi to do anything of the sort, "I-I see… now you said you and Kyuubi are on good terms?"

"Of course I did. We're on… cordial terms," Naruto thought of his statement for a second before nodding, "I think that's the best way of putting it."

"And how do you know Kyuubi is a she?" asked Sarutobi as he eyed the genin wearily.

Naruto chuckled, "if you had been in the seal you would not have had to ask me that. Trust me when I say that there is no way she can be anything but female. She has this human form, er, half human form that she introduced herself with when talking to me. I doubt I could find many if any woman who is more attractive than her."

As he registered his words his mind blanked for a second, despite what he had said being completely true he was surprised he had said them. Perhaps the damage from his battle with Gaara had caused a severe case of head trauma, or maybe Anko had rubbed off on him even more then he had initially thought since that sounded like something she would say.

Kyuubi, having heard what Naruto said from the seal smirked, 'why Naruto you truly know what to say to make a lady feel special…'

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