Blind (Discontinued)

10

Kakashi watched as Takumi sparred with a blond that looked somewhat familiar. But why?

"I'm going to jump into the fight now. You will have two people to fight, okay Naruto?" Sasuke said, standing up. Naruto nodded, not saying a word. He split his focus between the two of them as Sasuke stepped into the fight, syncing with Takumi expertly.

Keisuke and Kakashi watched the three sparring and almost faceplanted out of shock when they saw it. HE'S SPARRING BLINDFOLDED!?

As the fight went on, the two ANBU watched in awe of the high paced mock fight taking place in the clearing in front of them. Kakashi could hardly believe that the two boys from his team were somehow still genin from the strength and stamina they were showing, but what really bothered him was why the blond kid they were practicing with didn't seem to have a ninja headband. He still hadn't figured out why he looked so familiar, but seeing how he was distracted by the fight taking place, it made sense. Plus the blindfold hid any minuscule hints that remained hidden in the shape of Naruto's eyes, considering his eye color was drastically different from his original.

"Keep it up, Naruto!" Takumi called with a smile.

Keisuke watched his little brother, surprised at how much fun he seemed to be having. Back at home, he seemed to never smile anymore, to never have any fun, so seeing him display such joy felt like a weight he hadn't noticed had been lifted off his shoulders and he couldn't help but smile.

Naruto had yet to notice the two ANBU who were standing so close to the edge of the clearing due to the fact that he was focusing his all into the mock fight against Sasuke and Takumi. However, if they had started talking at any moment, he'd instantly know where they were. Yes, Kakashi and Keisuke were concealing their presences, but if Naruto had been paying attention to more than just the fight, it really wouldn't matter. Well, it wouldn't for Keisuke, since Kakashi is just too awesome to be detected, even by Naruto. Yet.

Speaking of Naruto, he was having the time of his life while sparring with Sasuke and Takumi. It was the closest he'd gotten to his old view of normalcy in four months, which, while it brought about heartache, it also gave him a sense of peace and joy.

Sasuke could tell Naruto was happy, not only because of the smile on his face, but also thanks to their telepathic link. While Naruto wasn't actually saying how happy he was, he was still conveying the potent emotion quite strongly, which, in turn, caused Sasuke to start feeling joy of his own, even creating a small smile to form on his otherwise frozen lips.

Takumi was exceedingly grateful to have followed Sasuke and getting to meet Naruto. He finally had some friends whom he could hang out with instead of train all stinking day long by himself while his two older brothers were off doing missions and being loyal leaf ninja. One of the downsides of being the youngest son of the head of the Takahashi clan was his brothers had little to no time to spend with him, what with one being the clan heir and a total GENIUS and the other always being away on missions or training trips, trying to get away from all the attention caused by being the second genius to be born into the head family, even if his genius was different than their older brother's. All this while Takumi was treated like the baby of the family, too "weak" and "fragile" to handle the stress and pressure of the world of ninja, too "innocent" to understand the inner workings of the village and his clan like all the other Takahashi clan members. Only his brothers seemed to know the real him, since it was his oldest brother, Ryosuke, who had convinced their dad to let him become a ninja in the first place, while Keisuke had secretly trained him in their clan's kekkei genkai. He was glad they had done that for him, but he still felt like some sort of a failure. His dad didn't help by insisting that he had a bodyguard most of the time, even though Takumi usually just ditched the poor guy. (A/N until his dad found a way around it... Mwahaha)

"Okay... I'm getting tired, guys..." Naruto said in-between ducking from a punch to the head and blocking a kick to the abdomen.

"You ready to stop, Sasuke?" Takumi asked the ravenett.

Sasuke nodded. "If Naruto is ready to be done, we should stop."

So they stopped. Naruto plopped down on the ground right where he was standing and laid his head on his knees. He took some calming breaths and slowly his hearing and concentration went back to normal. Still, he didn't notice the other two presences that were so close. He was simply just too tired.

"Hey, Naruto, you okay?" Takumi asked the blond boy.

"Yeah... I'll be fine... Just let me rest..." Naruto mumbled just loud enough to be heard. And with that, he went limp. Well, kinda.

~Naruto's mindscape~

"So, kit. How'd the spar go?" Kurama asked.

"Ugh... I'm waaay out of practice... That was way too hard, even if I was using my hearing instead of sight..."

Kurama regarded his former jailor. He looked so much like his father it almost wasn't funny. 'Speaking of his father, it was a rather smart idea to cut me in half the way he did...' Kurama thought to himself. Though at times he missed his more hateful half, he was rather glad that the kit didn't have to deal with him quite yet.

You see, when Minito sealed half of the nine tailed fox into Naruto, he didn't just randomly tear Kurama in half. No, he carefully cut the fox in half, splitting him into Light Kurama and Dark Kurama, sealing Dark Kurama into himself and Light Kurama into young Naruto.

"Still, you not only managed to hold your own against Sasuke, but both of them when he teamed up with the Takahashi brat. I'm rather proud of you, kit," beamed Kurama.

"Ew, you're getting mushy!" Naruto exclaimed, backing away from the fox slightly with a grin playing at his face.

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Hello! So, how's this chapter? Did some of your questions get answered? My mom was the one who originally came up with the idea that the Kurama inside Naruto was the lighter half, and I had to agree with her that it made a lot more sense then something I'd probably come up with in my own time. Knowing me, it'd be really far out there... XD Anyways, I love my mom! She's great!

This chapter is dedicated to scrletfyre

Total word count this time is around 15601!