But that was not important either, he was now a Konoha ninja, no longer in Ne. He answered to another higher-up and belonged to their forces now.
Naruto groaned as he sat up in a meditative position. The last thought he had before slipping into his own mind was that he was still a weapon, he had just been lost and collected by another.
XxX
Naruto opened his eyes to reveal himself standing at the door of his own apartment. Naruto sighed, "Well it's better than a sewer I guess…" He opened the door and walked through his mindscape/apartment to find a dog-sized fox with nine-tails and a collar asleep on what was supposed to be his bed, obviously the Kyuubi.
The Kyuubi's ears twitched as he drew closer and it sat its head up to let out a vulpine yawn, "Hello kit. I have to say, it's a major improvement over the sewer."
Naruto sat on the bed next to the fox and looked over at the awakening biju, "I can see you're enjoying it. It's still not as cool as it used to be though. If I want to see my own apartment then I sure as hell wouldn't come in here."
The fox growled in comfort as Naruto shook his head with a faint smirk, "So is my mind good enough to broker out the old deal again or what?"
Kyuubi cracked open an eye and stood to walk over to Naruto, "Well since I can make physical contact with you again we can do this right now. Anything you want to add? Anything you didn't like? You want to get rid of the trigger?"
Naruto raised his eyebrow, "No I liked the trigger. Hell no, we're keeping that, that was always cool. Keep that, also you can still see and feel everything I do, you can talk to me, but I can still mute you-."
"Spoilsport…" Kyuubi butted Naruto with its muzzle.
Naruto kept reeling off deals, "I get to retrain using your chakra, and I have to get ridiculously strong again, per the first agreement. I still have to kick the guy that helped the Yondaime come up with the seal that imprisoned you in me in the balls, and I think I'll enjoy doing that more than you will. Am I forgetting anything?"
Kyuubi scratched behind its ears, "No not really. If you want to make another deal or something I'm always open to negotiations, remember that kit. And don't wait too long to use the trigger, you know I always liked that move."
Naruto stood up and let the Kyuubi lay back down on the bed, "Alright, I'm gone. Later you lazy-ass fox…"
Kyuubi batted one of its tails in acknowledgement as Naruto left the apartment/mindscape.
XxX
Naruto opened his eyes and sat up to reveal the hazy outline of the sun outside, "Damn it, did I blackout until morning?" Naruto shakily stood up and went into his bathroom to help wake himself up. As he was brushing his teeth a knock came at his window. Spitting and rinsing his mouth he then walked over to the window in his bedroom revealing an Anbu in a bear mask, "Kuma-san. I must have slept through Tsunade-baachan's coronation right?"
The Anbu nodded, "Tsunade-sama wishes for you to meet her at the tower immediately."
Naruto nodded, "Sure thing, just let me change clothes and then I'll go."
The Anbu used shunshin to disappear from sight as Naruto shut his window.
Upon changing and leaving his house Naruto was once again subjected to the usual looks of disdain and scorn from the villagers. Naruto went through a mental checklist as he walked towards the tower, 'I'm gonna get that guy, that guy, that bitch is screwed. Oh! That guy is getting fucked when I get free time!' Naruto had not lost his luster for pranks and seeing as how he needed to vent on someone anyway why not take it out on the people that dislike you regardless.
As he arrived in the tower he found the same Anbu from his house standing in front of the door of Tsunade's office, "Hokage-sama is waiting inside Uzumaki-san." Naruto nodded and entered.
Naruto found the office filled wall to wall with many of Konoha's high level ninja. Naruto sauntered, pushed, slid, and mashed his way through until he reached Tsunade's desk, "You wanted to see me baa-chan?"
Tsunade glared at Naruto as she heard snickering coming from the back, "Yes brat. I asked for you to come today so that I could get a general idea of your promotion. I've asked these jounin here because they must know more of what you're capable of than I do."
Naruto snorted, "Yeah right…"
Tsunade opened the floor for the others to voice their opinion on Naruto. Needless to say most had nothing too flattering to say about the blonde, the only thing most said that was actually good was that he had high reserves, and then the compliments dropped off sharply. Naruto could only stand silently and pondering, 'That guy's getting it, that guy's getting it. Oh hell no! He called me what? That guy's getting fucked!'
Meanwhile the Kyuubi was doing some musing of its own, "You could kill that guy, you could kill that guy… What the hell? That guy wouldn't last more than 5 seconds against you, how is he getting a say in this?"
Kurenai then stepped forward to take her turn, "Naruto has high chakra reserves and stamina, which lend themselves to him well when he uses Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Other than that, and an ability to think on his feet, however I cannot give him a good grade in the other facets of being a shinobi. He is usually reckless and quick to act before thinking, he has poor chakra control due to such high reserves, his taijutsu has almost no true form, he has no aptitude for genjutsu, and other than his aforementioned Kage Bunshin he has no true ninjutsu to speak of."
In the back Iruka had to grit his teeth hearing all of these people speak about Naruto as if he was a burden on the program. Asuma pretty much agreed to the same thing leaving Naruto looking around, "Where the hell is Kakashi? Shouldn't someone have my back in here?"
Asuma looked at Naruto, "Good luck with that kid, Kakashi isn't going to show for this until we're three hours in."
Naruto felt like slamming his head into something; a person or inanimate object, it didn't really matter to him. Tsunade noticed that everyone was done with their opinions and looked to Naruto, "Well we've heard from everyone else Naruto, so what about you? Do you have anything to say about what you've been told today? You have the floor."