Winged Spiral

By FullMetalRuromaru

A/N: One of the characters might seem like an OC at first. He's not.

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The dark-haired woman looked out of the apartment window and smiled.

It was in the early hours of October the eleventh, about an hour after the festival of the Kyuubi's defeat had ended. Everyone had gotten off the streets, retreating to hotel rooms, apartments, houses, or even clan compounds depending on who they were. She wouldn't have been surprised if she was the only still-awake person in this sector of the village.

There was still a while before dawn, but the sky was beginning to lighten in the east nonetheless. Overhead, several birds flew- the usual sparrows and crows and one hawk that was probably bound for either the ANBU or the Hokages (not that either of them would be up at this hour- Sarutobi liked his sleep, and Tsunade had probably been rip-roaring drunk not too many hours before.) Curiously, there was also one much larger bird, much higher in the sky. It was so high that all the woman could see was its silhouette against the slowly brightening light, but her trained eyes could tell that this bird was over six feet long and had a wingspan of almost twelve feet.

She smiled and opened the window.

Graceful as the bird that he was so often mistaken for, the ANBU member spiraled down and caught onto her windowsill. He had shoulder-length, slightly spiky brown hair, a mask that looked like a falcon with whiskers, and two large red and black wings sprouting from his back. True to the woman's prediction, they were just under twelve feet across when he flexed them.

"Any reason why you're still up, hime?" he asked lazily, voice grinning at her. "Most other people are in bed, you know."

"I'm not 'most other people', though," she retorted, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "Mind letting me see what you look like today?"

The ANBU member took off his mask, slinging it around his neck with a cord. Tiny drops of water dripped off of it, a reminder of how high he could fly when the mood took him. His face was average- a few small scars here and there, but nothing remarkable. He looked like the sort of person who made it to Chuunin unscathed, but never got any farther. You'd never remember his face if you saw it in a crowd. The grin was catching, though. "That better?"

"Much," she smiled, leaning forward to kiss him.

After they'd pulled apart again, she remarked, "Anko will be sorry she's missed you."

"Oh?" he replied.

"She's one of the 'most other people' you referred to earlier. Got stone drunk and finally passed out twenty minutes ago."

"Clearly, I should have come earlier," he replied with another grin. "Pity."

"I wouldn't wake her up now," the woman warned. "Let's let her put off her hangover until morning."

He nodded with yet another smile, content to let her do the talking.

"Aren't you afraid you'll get caught?"

"No," he replied again. "Everyone else is indoors, asleep. I checked. And I'm using my bloodline limit, so if they try to see through the illusion, it won't be there."

"That's a very useful talent of yours."

Another nod.

She felt a sudden flash of irritation. "Would you at least put yourself back in your normal appearance? It's a bit unnerving, talking and kissing with you in an appearance I've never even seen before!"

"Funny, you didn't seem to be having much trouble a moment ago," came the reply. However, a moment later, the brown hair turned blond and got even spikier, the unremarkable eyes turned a striking shade of bright sky blue, and whisker marks scrawled across his cheeks.

"Better, Kurenai-hime?" asked Naruto.

She smiled, leaned forward, and kissed him again. "Yes, better."

They separated again. It was much closer to dawn now. Kurenai smiled at her lover. "We've been hearing much less noise from the east forest these days. Have you stopped using explosions on the poor idiots who stumble after you when you're training, or have they just stopped coming?"

He gave her the slow, lazy grin that said the cursed seal wasn't bothering him too much today and he was content- for once. "Ino's stopped hounding me. I think she finally took a hint that I wasn't interested. Kiba and Neji, though- they've been irritating me more and more. I've just found a... more effective way to deal with them."

"Don't damage them permanently," Kurenai warned, then glanced up at the horizon. "Your should probably go. People are going to start getting up soon, and you shouldn't be seen."

He laughed, a noise like the sun that caught in the air and bounced off, reverberating off of their surroundings until it seemed as if the world was laughing as the first light of dawn came over the horizon. Then, as the moment passed and faded, he jumped backwards off of the ledge just outside the window, somersaulting in midair and gently drifting earthward.

Kurenai stuck her head out of the window in time to see him spread his wings and flap hard just before he reached the ground. Once, twice- and then his wings caught the air in a mighty down stroke and he soared upward with a cry of happiness, of the wind in his hair and the fire at his feet. In the dawn light, the light on his wings caught fire and looked like flame, and a blazing phoenix caught a downdraft and soared high above the village of Konohagakure no Sato.

Then Kurenai was forced to blink from the vision's proud splendor, and there was no longer a phoenix in midair- only a silhouette in the distance overhead of a 'bird' far bigger than it had any right to be and a mystified shopkeeper in the street below, who was picking up a foot-long black-tipped red feather from the ground and scratching his old and wrinkled head.

Kurenai shut the window. From the next room came a groan of "oh- my head," and she laughed quietly to herself and went to find the hangover medicine.

After all, there was no point in wasting time. She wanted to see another phoenix tomorrow morning- and besides (as she was sure Anko would agree), it would be interesting to find out what would happen to Neji and Kiba today when they tried to find out Naruto's training methods.

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A/N: Heh heh heh... I know I don't have the best track record for writing either one-shots or romance, but this got into my head and wouldn't get out. I felt really isolated today; I came home to find that nobody had made contact with me since late last night when I was last on... and then I saw some fan art and read some fanfiction that was slightly depressing and that I probably shouldn't have been anywhere near, because I get weird when I'm down... yeah. This is what happened. Hopefully it hasn't been too bad. If you survived my bad writing to this point, then thanks for reading.

This is sorta a spinoff of a series I might do later. However, this is NaruKure and (I guess) implied KureNaruAnko... and in the series, there won't be a pairing involving Anko. (If I ever do it.) I think Naruto is about 17 or 18 in this; that puts Kurenai at about age 32 or 33 in canon, but let's just say she's 25 or so. Orochimaru isn't dead, but he isn't giving them much trouble at the moment either; the same for Akatsuki. Sasuke is dead. Sakura has no interest in Naruto or Kakashi and rarely ever sees them. That's about it.