LMD here, a new story at last.

This is just a concept of an idea I've had in my head for over a year. Let me know if you like it enough for me to continue it

A Fox's Tale

The sun shone over the shinobi village of Konoha, it was a good day and many of the inhabitants of the city took advantage of it. Picnics in the park, yard work and in the cases of some of the residents, training.

The Rookie Nine, as they were called by senior shinobi, gathered in one of the many training grounds outside the village, joining them was team Gai. The chuunin exams were over and only one of their group had passed, Shikamaru. Because of this the other genin picked up the pace on their training. They would pass next time.

"Let's see, who's next then?" Shikamaru asked rummaging in a bag. The genin had been taking it in turns to spar with each other, Chouji and Lee and just finished and both boys lay on the grass to catch their breath. To chose partners each genin had taken a number, Shikamaru would then choose numbers from his bag to pair up the teams. "we have... number three..."

"That's me" Ino held up the scrap of paper with the number on it. Shikamaru nodded and reached back into the bag.

"And number eight, who is that?"

"Um, that's me" the timid girl rose her hand.

"Okay, Ino versus Hinata." Shikamaru confirmed and returned the bag to his feet before sitting back against the tree behind him.

Ino and Hinata moved down the slope into the open ground away from the other genin.

"Ready?" Ino asked stretching her arms. Hinata gulped and nodded. Both girls got into their fighting stances, Hinata activated her Byukugan. Hinata was a close range fighter whereas Ino was more suited to long range with support from her teammates so if Hinata got too close she would be in trouble. However, Ino had a plan.

Meanwhile Hinata was thinking along the same lines, she had to get close to Ino and quickly, then again she didn't really know what Ino's tai jutsu was like. The fight was started.

Hinata ran forward closing the distance between the two girls quicker than Ino had expected, the blond hopped to the side but Hinata swung around and stuck at her arm. The hit connected, Ino was caught off guard. Hinata twisted around to face her and tried to hit again but Ino had pulled out a dulled kunai and jabbed at Hinata's arm, forcing her to withdraw. Ino threw down a smoke bomb and jumped away. Hinata coughed to clear her throat, using her Byukugan she found Ino again a little behind her through the smoke. Hinata tried to turn to chase her but her foot was caught on something. Looking down she saw a gooy mass around her feet, it was sticky and held her in place. A sticky bomb. Hinata tried furiously to free her feet while Ino smirked. The blond formed a hand sign and lined it up with the trapped Hinata who started a series of hand signs as she tried to pull off a substitution.

"Mind transfer jutsu" Ino said smugly. She slumped to her knees and Hinata stopped struggling. After a moment Hinata straightened up and swept her hair out of her eyes. She looked up the hill with a very un-Hinata like grin, holding up two fingers in a V she said loudly.

"Mind transfer successful"

"Ino won then. Here, use this on her feet." Shikamaru tossed a small bottle of blue liquid, Ino-Hinata pulled off the lid and dumped the liquid around Hinata's feet. The sticky goo sizzled as the blue liquid ate away at it leaving the skin unharmed. Ino rotated Hinata's arms for a second, then formed another handsign.

"Release" Ino, back in her own body, stood up. "Good fight Hinata" Hinata stared blankly at the blond for a moment then she just fell forward with no attempt to stop herself, nor did she move.

"Hinata!" Kiba darted down the hill followed by the rest of the genin. "What happened?"

"I dunno, that's never happened before" Ino responded.

"Hey Hinata" Sakura shook the girl gently but got no response. "I think we should get her to the hospital." the others agreed and the small puppy whined. As the genin left another victim of the clashing jutsus lay unconscious in the bushes.

"She hasn't woke up?" Kiba asked, the doctor shook his head.

"Nope, she appears to be in a coma." the doctor looked at the chart, a confused expression on his face. "There doesn't seem to be a cause for it..."

"Ino has gone to her father to ask about this. If its something to do with the jutsu he would know" Shikamaru explained.

"Well when she gets back tell her to come to me." the doctor put the chart at the end of the bed and left, still looking baffled.

"Maybe it was just a shock to her system..." Sakura suggested with a shrug.

"Visiting hours are ending" A nurse poked his head in the door and started to shoo the genin out the door.

"Well maybe she'll wake up in a few hours." Naruto suggested as the left the hospital.

"It's getting late, I'm going to head home. We'll check in again in the morning." Tenten pointed over her shoulder towards her house. The others agreed and they all went their separate ways.

The morning sun played across Hinata's face. Her head was throbbing, she didn't know that Ino's technique would hit so hard. She opened her eyes expecting to see Neji leering over her echoing her fathers disapproval. She was alone and in a bush. Why was she a bush? Hinata pushed herself up on her hands. Her head was killing her. There was a puddle nearby. She pulled herself over to the water and tried to splash some on her face but when she looked into the reflective surface she got a shock. It wasn't her looking back, the face was small and furry with wide brown eyes, pointed ears and little white whiskers. A fox was looking at her, why was a fox looking at her? The fox in the puddle prodded its face with its paw, the same as Hinata had just done. Hinata let out a shout. The fox in the puddle yelped. Hinata looked back at her body, her clothes were not there, only a furry little body with a bushy tail.

She was in shock. She was a fox. How was this possible? She needed to get help. Hinata pushed herself up on all four of her paws and poked her head out from under the bush. The training ground was empty.

"Where is everyone?" Hinata thought to herself. She tried to jog towards the village but she fell as she tripped over her own paws, it was harder than it looked to run on four legs. Taking a moment to get used to her unusual body she walked slowly up the hill. When she became more confident, sped up into a trot. Nearing the gate Hinata began to wonder what could be done to help her, and who could even do it.

"I guess I should try and find one of my friends..." Hinata thought as she peeked her head around the gate. The streets were full of people going about their daily business, she would have to be careful with her small size now it would be easy to be stepped on.

A familiar bark sounded nearby. Hinata looked around and saw Kiba and Akamaru. With a surge of relief the little fox trotted inside the gate towards her friends. The puppy was charging towards her still barking. Hinata's smile faded, the dog was attacking.

"It's me. Akamaru!" Hinata shouted but all she did was yap at the dog. Hinata turned on her tail and ran back out the gate as the dog pursued the fox.

"Akamaru! Leave it alone!" Kiba shouted as he ran after the two animals.

Hinata ran back to the training grounds, thinking she could lose the dog in the thick under brush in the forest. As she jumped around a tree her back paws clipped the roots. She was still not used to this body. Falling on her stomach she tried to get up but Akamaru pounced on top of her and bit her front paw. Hinata let out a loud yelp. Akamaru released her paw and baring his teeth leant into attack again. Two hands grabbed the puppy and yanked him upwards away from the small fox. Kiba held the struggling dog over his head.

"Akamaru! What are you doing chasing a fox?" the dog whined.

"What's going on?" Kiba turned around to see team seven. They had seen Kiba sprinting after the puppy and came to make sure he was okay. Sakura had asked the question, Naruto was beside her and behind them, not looking interested at all was Sasuke.

"Just stopping Akamaru mauling a fox." Kiba said and stepped aside to let the others see the creature. Hinata had pushed herself up against the tree, her ears were flat against her head, her little heart was beating fit to burst. She was terrified.

"Oh, Any news on Hinata?" Sakura asked changing the topic.

"Me?" Hinata twitched her ears to listen.

"No change. She's still in the coma..." Kiba said sadly.

"I'm in a coma?"

"Ino's dad said they never heard of their mind transfer jutsu cause a coma like that before. The doctors don't know what to do."

"I'm sorry to hear that..." Sakura said.

"I'm sure she'll be okay, Hinata always seems to bounce back" Naruto stated confidently. Hinata's heart swelled at his announcement. He was so sure of her.

"I'm right here. Can't you hear me?"

The teens looked down at the fox as it barked at them.

"What's wrong with that fox?" Sakura asked looking at the small creature. Naruto crouched down and looked at the fox closely, Hinata stared into his eyes, willing him to understand, shouting mentally for him to recognise her.

"It's paw is hurt." He told the others. Hinata whined as he looked away, they couldn't understand her.

"Akamaru must have got a bite in..." Kiba said guiltily. Naruto reached towards the fox, "Wait, that thing is wild, it might bite you." Kiba exclaimed.

"It doesn't look feral..." Sasuke added as he looked over at the fox.

"But it's hurt. We can't leave it here. Isn't your sister a vet." Naruto looked up at Kiba.

"Well yeah but..." he was cut off as the small fox crept forward and prodded Kiba's foot with its uninjured paw.

"Looks like it knows we wanna help." Sakura sounded surprised.

"Alright then, that settles it. To the vet." Naruto said, he reached over and picked up the fox. It's whole body tensed as he touched it. He tucked the fox into the crook of his arm, it sat there shivering. Hinata had always wanted to be in Naruto's arms, but this was not the way she pictured it.

"Pft, you waste time on that if you want, I'm going to the training ground." Sasuke scowled and spun around to stalk away. Sakura wished Naruto luck and bounced after Sasuke.

"Lets go then." Kiba and Naruto started to walk back to the village. Hinata continued to tremble in Naruto's arms. What was she going to do, none of them could understand her little barks and squeaks, not even Akamaru, but that was wishful thinking in the first place.

The little fox let out a long whine, this was going to be a bad day.

End chapter one

I had this idea about a year and a half ago but i wanted to finish my running story first.

I hope you enjoy it.

If enough people like it i will continue, so review :)