I never know what to say in these little headers. C'est la vie, you'll hear that alot from me. Ooo, Imma poet and I didn't even know it! *Hangs head in shame* Here's the chapter and please leave a review.
Chapter 1: Into the Leaves
There it was, the great Village Hidden in the Leaves, Konohagakure. A few years ago, it was nearly destroyed by Kurama, the Demon Fox. I never liked him, putting the "nine-tailed fox" name to shame. When I heard he had been sealed, I jumped for joy. Unfortunately, I was attending Master Inari's function.
You see, I too am a nine-tailed fox. Before you say anything, however, I'm not a yako like Kurama. I'm a zenko, one who serves the god, Inari. As punishment for disrupting my master's soiree, Inari charged me with keeping an eye on Kurama's host. Just when I thought I'd never have to see him again, I have to check up on his host regularly!
So here I am, four years since that day in front of Konoha's gates. During the past four years, I kept my eye on that little rascal Naruto. I watched him grow from the sidelines. And, I saw the looks of barely disguised hatred the previous generation gave him. My heart ached for the babe, knowing that as he grew, other children his age would come to despise him as their elders did. He showed absolutely no sign of turning into the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.
He was just a little boy who had the burden of bearing the fox-like his mother and grandfather before him. Today, on the fourth year of Kurama's imprisonment, I disguised myself as a seven-year old girl who at least bore some resemblance to my beautiful, natural form.
I gave myself long gold-colored tresses and kept my bright silver eyes. When they don human form, all kitsune, save for Kurama, have a face that is considered beautiful by mortals. High cheekbones and thin noses are the norm, you'll rarely see a humanized kitsune with facial disfigurement unless they thought it necessary to ugly themselves. I know we're pretty vain, right?
I steeled myself and marched up to the gates, glad that I remembered to put on "clothes" when I transformed. I didn't wait long before two shinobi appeared, presumably back from their break. One had a white strip of cloth wrapping over his nose and cheeks and the other had his half of his face covered by his bangs.
Nose Strip knelt in front of me and asked, "Now what is an adorable little girl doing outside of the village?" He gave my cheeks a pinch, completely ignorant of the death glare I was giving him.
"Would you be so kind as to stop, it's quite annoying," my tone of voice, though high-pitched like a young girl's, sounded like someone many times my age, and gave the gate guards a nasty shock. "I mean, will you take me to Lord Hokage please? I'm not from around here and I've nowhere else to turn to," I amended, giving them the full force of my big eyes. Though I felt sick from having to use the "cutesy tactic," so to speak.
"Naturally, everyone sees Lord Hokage when they first visit. But . . . ," the other one paused and his partner jumped in, "What do you mean, 'nowhere else to go'?"
"Umm . . . you see . . .," I'm toast! Then it hit me, "My village was destroyed a little while ago and everyone left." My voice started to choke up for this next bit, "My mom and daddy died, and I went to live with my uncle in a town nearby," tears leaked from my eyes, and I got ready for the big finish, "only, I hated living with him and he did very, very bad things to me and I couldn't take it anymore and I . . . I . . . ," Sobs racked my body so hard, I had trouble standing.
You learn a trick or two when you get to be as old as I am and every woman needs to know how to release the floodgates on command. The ninjas looked at each other, ready to start crying themselves. Their eyes were positively swimming with tears, no lie!
"We - We'll take you to see the 3rd now," Half Face said, nose dripping. Inwardly, I was shouting at them for taking my story to heart so much. What if I were someone with malicious intentions? I just nodded, it was too soon for me to stop crying and still be believable.
A few moments later, I had regained my composure and dried my face with the sleeve of my dress. I smiled at the two men and slid my hand into Half Face's and said, "My name's Kitty, Kitty Youko."
First Chapter Complete!
Next Time: Kitty looks around Konoha and sees Naruto all by his lonesome and nearly gives the Third a heart attack!