"Be patient, you've been waiting four months for this; you can wait a few more minutes for the monks to finish their seal." Sure enough around them a few monks were drawing out a large and powerful containment seal on the ground. It was more for the sake of comfort than actual protection; if worst came to worst it wouldn't hold out all that long against a Kyuubified Sora.
"Yeah yeah, speak for yourself, I can't wait to be finally free." Naruto just smiled at his friend, for the past week or so Sora had become more and more anxious. He was happy to see his friend so excited but he also thought it would be rather strange after all was said and done. He had always kind of enjoyed knowing that he and Sora shared the same burden; it was something that connected them, an unspoken bond of understanding. He shook the thoughts off as he finally got the all clear from the monks as they retreated to a safe distance.
"Alright, let's do this!" Sora matched the blonde's grin as they moved to the centre of the sealing array. Naruto quickly created ten shadow clones, most of which immediately closed their eyes to spare Naruto a rather intense headache. The ones that didn't led their clone brethren into a small ring with Sora at the centre, each finding a spot to hold onto Sora with both hands. The original smiled warmly as he rested his hands directly on Sora's chest, already able to feel the gentle yet excited flow of his chakra.
"You ready?" Sora seemed hesitant for a moment but one look at the determination in his friend's steely eyes and that hesitation vanished with a small nod. Without further ceremony Naruto closed his eyes and began to focus on his path, feeling past Sora to the seal on his stomach. The feeling of the Kyuubi's Chakra was unmistakable within the seal, flowing quickly and erratically without a proper conscious mind to guide it.
Naruto latched onto it, as did his ten clones and slowly they began to draw it out. The change was immediate at the virulent red Chakra began flowing through Sora, pushing his less potent Chakra aside. He was enshrouded by a familiar cloak, this tie only one tail swaying behind him as Naruto held back the rest of the Chakra, managing its flow through Sora and into him with care. The boy at the centre of all this began to pant heavily; it felt like his body was slowly being roasted from the inside.
Naruto noticed the red seep into his friend's eyes as soon as it happened but he couldn't speed up the process; any faster and he would begin to burn away Sora's Chakra network. He just gritted his teeth, hoping he could finish before anything could happen. He should have known it would be a tall order as Sora began to thrash inside his circle of blondes, first the tail, then the clawed hands. The clones did their best to keep him steady and contained but being as weak and fragile as they were it wasn't much.
Naruto couldn't risk them popping early either, that would cause an influx of chakra that could be dangerous for him. He was so focused on drawing out the Chakra and keeping his clones from bursting under Sora's wild swings he missed the bubbling red tail suddenly lunge at him from below. His cry echoed into the courtyard at the tail pierced his side, the burning from the vile Chakra almost as bad as the wound itself.
"Come on Sora! Don't give up just yet! We're nearly there!" The wound was already closing as the Chakra he absorbed went to work healing it. However a clone was less lucky as the tail was once again brought around, slamming straight through its head. The original blonde winced at the influx of memories and Chakra but held out just long enough for the last of the burning red cloak to ebb away. Naruto was able to give Sora one last smile before falling backwards, exhausted. Sora looked down at the unconscious blonde as he felt a wave of exhaustion hit him as well; before he fell into the arms of one of the clones he managed a weak smile.
"You kept your promise after all."
Naruto realised what he was doing and stopped rubbing his side; the wound hadn't even scarred but he remembered it vividly enough. He hadn't woken up for a whole day after that, the strain on his body from the extra Bijuu Chakra proving too much for him. If it hadn't been for his Preta Path and the seal siphoning off the excess he probably would have died. As it was neither he nor Sora received any lasting damage; in fact Sora's Chakra system had been stretched quite a bit during the whole ordeal leaving him with much larger reserves than before. However that was a double edged sword as his control went completely haywire.
Something moving caught his eye and as he looked around he caught the bushy tail of a desert fox just disappearing over the peak of the Dune he himself was climbing. That immediately sent his thoughts towards the other fox in his life as he looked down at his stomach.
The small blonde sat calmly in a meditative position just outside the bars of the Kyuubi's cage; far enough that its claws could not reach him. The great fox was in its usual position deep within its cell, however every few minutes or so it would crack a single eye, observing its vessel with mild curiosity. Finally, after about an hour of nothing but the sounds of the enormous Bijuu breathing, the Kyuubi pulled itself to its feet, walking over to the bars of the cage.
"What is it you are doing Ningen?" Naruto didn't open his eyes, he didn't even move, he just continued to calmly sit there, focusing on the feel of his chakra through his body. After about five minutes, in which the great beast grew increasingly irritated to the point where it was about to bang against the bars, he spoke.
"I'm meditating." Enormous red eyes narrowed in indignation far above the peaceful human as its nine tails swayed dangerously. The blonde was unfazed, he was now too used to the Kyuubi's hollow attempts at intimidation to even notice.
"I can see that Ningen." The smallest of smirks tweaked at the corners or Naruto's mouth but he still didn't move.
"Then why did you ask?" His response was a large gust of wind as the Kyuubi grunted in annoyance.
"Do you enjoy trying my patience Ningen?" The usually loud and domineering voice was reduced to a low menacing growl which barely fazed the meditating monk-in-training.
"It's pretty amusing I'll admit" The blonde finally let his hands rest at his sides as he looked up; his face adopting the same expression as his master with a serene smile and narrowed eyes. It was something he had been working on to both honour his teacher and irritate Sora, a win-win. "And my name is Naruto." This time he didn't even get an immediate response, just the background sounds of the enormous tails swishing back and forth.
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