There was absolute silence in the forest. A very bad sign if your shinobi. The forest was never silent, even at night. Which was why the three shinobi, a team leader and two genin, were on the ground instead of jumping through the trees. They had better defense on the ground and could easily move, than being open every time they jumped to the next branch in mid-air. The three were being very cautious, and alert if the twitching at every chance they got was any indication what so ever.

"Why does Hokage-sama have to send us on a recon mission with barely information about the target? Sure, we got the target's info, but did she really forget to tell us about the missing nins that were working for him and it could have been a C-rank turned A-rank?" The pinkette whispered harshly wearily watching the bush that she thought just moved. She was average height for her age and had shoulder length hair. Her team mates looked exactly alike, except for the few differences. One was older looking, had red eyes, taller, and his raven hair was longer styled in a low ponytail. The younger was taller than the pinky, but shorter than the older raven. His hair was the same raven color, but shorter spikes were his style and had onyx eyes.

They were all back to back and watching their surroundings for any indication of the tailing missing nins. They had just barely gotten away with some pretty good damage. The younger raven, Sasuke, 15 years-old, had sustained a deep gash on his left thigh and shoulder, along with a handful of other cuts and bruises. His older brother, Itachi, 18 years-old, had a bad cut on his cheek and a long, but shallow graze across his torso, also with cuts and bruises in various places. The pinkette, Sakura, same age as Sasuke, had managed to get away with only bruises and a small cut above her eyebrow. Then again, she wasn't the one who was fighting the most nins.

Sasuke and Itachi were breathing hard and labored. Unfortunately, the last missing nin they had ganged up on together had gotten them really good with his sword which was coated with a rare poison. Suddenly, five gray garbed nins jumped out of the forest foliage. "Their over here! We found the Konoha shinobi!" One of the nin shouted into the forest. Itachi quickly dispatched that one with a fast kunai in between the eyes.

Sasuke found the one most near him and also took care of him with a kunai to the heart. Then he started to grapple with the one that had tried to close in from behind him. Itachi was occupied with his current target, as Sakura finished with her target and the nin fell dead upon the ground. More reinforcements had arrived to take the fallen one's place, and it was starting to get too hard for the ravens to keep fighting. "Sakura! Get back to the village! Send some more shinobi to help, whoever you see!"Sasuke yelled at her while she was free and had the mobility to run. He quickly slit the throat of the opponent in front of him.

Sakura nodded and took off towards the village at top speed. Sasuke was once again distracted with another nin as he crashed in with more reinforcements."Sasuke, retreat! At the forest's Royal's!" Itachi shouted to the younger raven, moving back into the trees and taking off in one direction. Sasuke took off in the opposite direction understanding Itachi instantly. The forest's Royal's was an area in the west section of the forest where his brother and him would play as children.

It was at the opposite end of the forest from the village and close to the center of the forest. The area was covered in willows and had a big meadow of wild flowers. They had thought it was the most beautiful place they had ever seen, so they named it the Royals. Itachi had made a small platform in one of the willows and hidden it with a genjutsu, so that it was only theirs. Sasuke took a quick glance around him and found he was just about 50 meters from the Royals.

Unfortunately there was two nins still on his tail, and he was starting to get light-head and losing his vision due to the poison. 'Great, these two won't give up. I'll have to eliminate them to get away.' Sasuke thought as he spun around. Grabbing a handful of shuriken between his fingers, he shot them at the nins on his tail. They hit one of his targets, but the other was lucky to have dodged the shuriken. The male nin quickly gained ground on Sasuke and the two were engaged in a close range combat.

'Fuck. My vision is failing and my body is starting to go into paralysis. Fuck-freakin-tastic.' Sasuke thought dryly. His body was starting to get stiff and hard to move, he was also starting to sweat bullets. The poison was starting to do damage to his body no doubt. 'Shit!' was his immediate thought when he felt himself loose his balance and slip off the branch. He hit the ground hard and his vision was starting to get black spots in it. The ninja stepped off the branch with a smirk and landed a few meters away from Sasuke. "Well, Well, Well. I'd never thought that you got a dose of Ginshu's infamous rare Shi-mahi poison. Too bad, after you go into the paralysis, it will start to shut down all your body functions as well. You'll be dead in, oh, about 30 or 40 minutes. Might as well put you out of your misery now." The female nin grinned psychotically pulling out a kunai.

Lunging, the nin aimed straight for his heart. 'This is it. I'm going to die here.' Sasuke shut his eyes tight preparing to feel the sharp pain of being stabbed. But nothing happened. No sharp pain. No feeling of warm, wet blood flowing. No nothing, well, except the sound of something crashing to the ground and gurgling. Sasuke barely had enough energy to lift an eyelid. He saw a flash of orange-gold and unique blue, the sound of air swishing around something soft. "Dare-? Who are you?" Sasuke managed to breathe out, though his voice was hoarse and it cracked slightly. "Shhh. I am known as a Gerdrain. None call me by name, except my brother. You are safe, rest." a soothing purr of a male's voice came to his ears. There was a chiming of a bell, and though it was soft, it was undoubtedly the sound of a bell. His vision going black, last thing he saw was piercing blue eyes.
~?Pov~

'Strange, the forest is quiet, and it's still. The trees are holding their breath. Wait...' the figure stilled, nose twitching. Blue eyes widened and the orange-gold was a blur of movement. It was a small orange-gold fox with unique blue eyes and nine fluffy tails, that were flickering with alarm behind him, and softly chiming bell tied tightly with blue ribbon around his furry front leg. 'That's the smell of blood... What the hell is going on!?' the fox wasn't slowing down.

The fox froze, alert of his surroundings, ears twitching at the noises it could hear. From what it sounded like there was a fight going on. Sniffing the air again, he could tell it was a pretty big one and the odds against one side. There were three ninja, from Konoha judging by the smell of crisp autumn leaves, an older male, a younger male, brothers by the way they had similar scents, and a young female. Then there were a whole bunch of missing nins surrounding the area, scattered by the small whiffs he got time and again.

'Great, nins. And to think that they were scared of this part of the forest, because of 'oh! Scary demons and unusual things happen there!' Che! Scary my tail fluff! Fucking Superstitious Villagers.' the fox grumbled mentally. Then he felt a shift in the scent that was carried to him. The group split apart, the female heading the way to the village and the two males splitting up, but still heading in the same general direction.

To the west of the forest, other wise know to the animals of the forest as the Festive grounds. They had their gatherings and festivals in the meadow and the willows were home to many. In fact, he lived in a willow, but it was on the holy ground, or heart of the forest. It was his and his brother's responsibility to take care of the forest and all creatures that dwell in it. They were called the 'Gerdrain' or Guardian in the guttural language of animals.

He was trailing the younger male, as he could sense his brother follow the older male. He hid in the brush just under the tree that the young male was fighting in, catching a whiff a something tangy and foul. 'Poison.' the fox thought. Then he watched with startled eyes as the young nin fell of the branch he was balancing on and hit the ground with a jarring thud! 'Oooo~. That had to hurt.' the fox thought, wincing sympathetically. He now had a good visual of the male now, though,

He was tall, maybe 5'9'' or 5'10'', had dark blueish raven hair, pale porcelain skin, and was of a good muscle built form, though not bulky. 'Oh... It's Sasuke Uchiha.' the fox thought dryly. He knew all of the villagers and ninja of Konoha. It was hard not to miss the handsome raven. Especially when you were finally old enough to transfer into the village.

The fox listened to the nin speaking, appalled at the nin as he listened to her psychotic talk. Then he saw her pull out a kunai and lunge for Sasuke's heart. Snarling at himself for not intervening sooner, he leaped out of the brush. He saw the terrified looked on her face, before crashing into her form with his jaws firmly locked around her wind pipe, crushing it. The nin made a gurgling noise, the sound proof of her drowning in her own blood. She was dead a few seconds later.

He walked up to Sasuke seeing him fight the poison's effects, it was probably already starting to shut his systems down. "Dare-? Who are you?" Sasuke seemed to use the last of what he had to choke that out. 'So he is still alert enough to tell that there is someone here.' the fox thought, before replying in human tongue soothingly,"Shhh. I am known as a Gerdrain. None call me by name, except my brother. You are safe, rest." That seemed to do the trick as Sasuke easily fell unconscious. 'I need to get him to the den. The poison is making it's way through his system, and he is extremely lucky I have the antidote for that specific poison. My brother seems to be making his way back to the den with the elder Uchiha as well.'

The fox while looking slight and weak, was quite strong. Using his tails to create himself space to wriggle between the raven and the ground, he quickly hauled Sasuke up onto his back and secured him with his tails curling around the limp body. A soft chiming was all that was heard in silence of the forest as the fox disappeared into the night.

So how was that? I got this idea from reading another fanfiction, I don't remember which one, so I give full credit of the IDEA, not the story (the story is my version), to whomever it belongs to. Feed back people, I love it!