Disclaimer: The series Naruto is the intellectual property of Masashi Kishimoto, including all related characters and settings, as well as the canon plot. I am obviously not he, as I am neither Japanese nor male. This is purely a work of fanfiction.

Summary: Sakura could not stop Sasuke's departure from Konoha. What if someone else had intercepted him also? Though he would not listen to those he knew, what if the one persuading him to stay knew him better than he realized?

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Fox Angel

by Kawaii Chibi Shun

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"Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun, wait!"

The genin in question continued on his way despite the imploring shout of his friend and teammate. What could someone like Sakura know about his life, after all? His only way to accomplish the goal, the ambition set before him was...

"Orochimaru-no-Sannin is not the only possible answer to your problems, Uchiha-san. And not the best one, either."

Activating his Sharingan and peering into the obscuring shadows of the buildings surrounding him, Sasuke moved his hand closer to his ever-present weapons pouch. "Who's there?"

"One who wishes to help." A burst of chakra and swirl of leaves found Sasuke in a small but well-kept apartment that was simply and tastefully decorated – provided that one ignored the abundance of potted plants scattered about, vines trailing from some.

Sasuke spun around, kunai in hand, and came eye to ... top of head ... with the source of the chakra. A young girl stood before him, perhaps his age but certainly not older, with golden blonde pigtails secured low on her head and trailing down her back, clad in navy blue leggings and sleeveless shirt with a short orange-red skirt over top. The Uchiha was so shocked at her harmless appearance rather than the expected attacker that his Sharingan deactivated on the spot.

Evidently, this was her apartment, as she kicked off her standard-issue blue ninja sandals in the general direction of the front door. Pausing, seemingly to compose herself, the girl tilted her head toward Sasuke's gaze, radiating the fluffy cuteness of a small kitten or puppy – at least until his obsidian eyes met red-amber ones that seemed to almost glow with ... the aura of a wild animal, a wolf or fox perhaps?

"Would the path of a nuke-nin truly make you happy, Uchiha-san? Is that truly the life you wish to lead?"

"What would you know of my life?" Sasuke retorted. "You have no idea what the right path for me is."

The girl sighed. "I am here to help those who need someone to talk to. Anything said in my presence here," she gestured to their plant-covered surroundings, "is said in confidence. I do not pretend to know all of your life. Tell me what I need to know to help you. Not a word will be breathed to another soul."

Sasuke snorted and began to stalk toward the door that the girl's sandals, along with other footwear of a similar size, were strewn near. He never made it, as he quickly found himself being dragged back into the combination kitchen and dining room by the back of his ill-kept and slightly longer than usual hair, which had been firmly grasped by a somewhat small but surprisingly strong hand.

Sighing, the genin resigned himself to a pointless conversation so as to avoid an even more pointless fight. After unceremoniously shoving him into one of the chairs around the small square table, the apartment's other occupant busied herself with preparing tea.

"You seem to know plenty about me, but you haven't even bothered to tell me your name even though you dragged me off for no good reason."

"I had a good reason. I want to stop you from making the stupidest mistake of your life, you ungrateful bastard. And you can call me Yoko."

"Alright ... Yoko ... why me? Why now?"

"What makes you think you are so very special, Uchiha-san?" came the reply, which had returned to the carefully worded lilt of before the odd - or, rather, normally spoken – outburst, despite the fact that the words should have sounded insulting or condescending. "Why do you assume this is the first time I have prevented a Konoha nin from making a mistake they would regret for as long or short as they live? No one ever says anything because they are happy about the absolute privacy to speak their minds I offer them. They do not want to share what they said here with anyone else, and most likely none of the others thought they would be believed if they spoke."

A cup of tea was set before Sasuke as Yoko placed the teapot and a small bowl of sugar on the table, then took a seat herself with a second cup in hand. "Calm down, already. Your secrets are safe from prying ears. I'm a Konoha nin too, and the San-daime and Go-daime have both trusted me enough to give their blessing." She indicated a half-open scroll near the tea as proof of her claim.

Sasuke half-heartedly verified the authenticity of the scroll, which said little more than the fact that Yoko was a loyal Konoha nin, before dropping his head onto his hands, elbows propped on the table to either side of his untouched teacup as his cracking composure threatened to finally break in the presence of this stranger who claimed to be trustworthy.

"Yoko, you have no idea what you are getting yourself into. You mustn't be anywhere near as well-informed as you seem to believe. There's a reason I'm the only Uchiha in Konoha-gakure."

Head bowed sadly, teacup clutched in both hands as though restraining herself from enveloping the other shinobi in a motherly embrace, the blond girl simply responded, "I know."

"Why? Why did Itachi do it?" The whisper was scarcely audible, not intended to be heard, but still reached the oddly somewhat pointed ears of the girl across the table.

"Only he knows for sure, I imagine. There may be a good reason. Better than insanity, at least. Whether there really is, I doubt any of us will ever know."

"He basically told me to make it my life's goal to avenge the clan by surpassing and killing him and restore the clan."

Yoko smiled, remarking, "Then the Uchiha clan was probably up to something. He might even have a justifiable, if insane, reason for what he did. He purposely spared you, too, don't forget that."

She was interrupted by a bout of either hysterical or ironic laughter from across the table. "So he wants to protect me by having me become a better ninja than him with hatred for him as my motivation? And then I'm supposed to revive the clan since the rest of it was in on some conspiracy and got killed off? I'm only thirteen, for crying out loud! I'm not even sure if I like girls yet in the first place!" Sasuke realized what he had just said and buried his face in his arms, face burning in embarrassment, nearly upsetting both his teacup and the sugar bowl in the process.

Yoko's only response was initially a bout of laughter that definitely did not fit into the mysterious and detached persona she had been presenting thus far, and would have sounded far less out of place coming from the village's current ninja prankster - not to be confused with his predecessors who included Umino Iruka, the Yon-daime Hokage, and Jiraiya-no-Sannin.

She didn't speak until the laughter had mostly passed and her entire cup of tea had been swallowed in a single gulp in a less than successful attempt to regain some sense of composure. "That would be a truly fitting revenge on whichever party is to blame." Upon receiving a confused stare, she continued, "To take a male life partner rather than a female wife would be an ironic form of revenge. You'd have found happiness, but there would definitely be no heirs, biological ones at least. If Itachi was completely unjustified in his actions, he'd be ... well, pissed to say the least. If it was the fault of the other members of the clan, they'd be rolling in their graves at the thought of their clan being nearly killed off then never restored because the only surviving member who wasn't a nuke-nin was in a homosexual relationship."

Sasuke just continued to blush, so Yoko decided to find a different topic.

"Why Orochimaru-no-Sannin?"

"To surpass my brother, I need power. Orochimaru is a very powerful shinobi, and he offered to take me as his apprentice."

"Itachi's more afraid of the Toad Pervert than Snake-Face, y'know," mused the girl as she absentmindedly poured herself more tea, then stirred in a spoonful of sugar with one hand as she propped her head up on the other.

Sasuke took a long sip of tea as he briefly pondered what he had just been told, deigning only to reply, "Your mask is slipping, Yoko."

"Eh?!" She sat bolt upright, spoon clattering to the floor, somehow managing to upend her chair in the process, which caused her to land in a heap on the apartment floor. "...Ouch. I'm okay."

Sitting back down and composing herself while rubbing her head where it had hit the floor, Yoko remarked, "Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm just not used to playing psychologist to someone my own age. Usually it's the older shinobi whose lives are screwed up."

Sasuke flushed slightly and opened his mouth as though to say something insulting, before thinking better of it and taking a sip of his now cooling tea.

"As I was saying, Tsunade Hokage-sama would most likely defeat Orochimaru-no-Sannin in a fair battle. He would be victorious against Jiraiya-no-Sannin, who would in turn probably defeat his female former teammate. Quite a mess there, I'm afraid. But Uchiha Itachi is believed to fear the Toad Sannin more of the two men of the group. Personally, I think you'd be better off finding another way to become a powerful shinobi rather than joining Orochimaru."

"He did offer me power. I'm just a bit apprehensive about what his price could be. But, what about the curse seal?"

"You seem to be able to control the power of the seal quite well, especially given how young you are and the rarity of seals bestowing power on their holder, rather than just a curse or such. It's rather odd, really. I wonder ... no, it isn't possible ..."

"What isn't?"

A sigh from the blond girl was the only reply he received until, "Uchiha-san, I know this is a rather ... strange ... request, but could you please remove your shirt and channel a small amount of chakra?"

As Sasuke complied hesitantly with a confused and suspicious look in his eyes and one hand straying near his weapons pouch as though expecting an attack like those from rabid fangirls, Yoko's eyes widened and she gasped audibly. "Oh, damn. This explains so much. Not good. Not good. Dammit, this is not good."

Sasuke immediately stopped channeling chakra. "What is it?" he snapped. "Tell me!"

Yoko was startled out of her chant, which had progressed into an ... interesting volley of curses.

"I'm not really the person to talk to, Uchiha-san. You would do well to show Hatake-san and certainly Hokage-sama. What I'm curious about is why no one realized sooner."

"Realized what?"

"I'd be willing to bet that Itachi knew. That's what the Uchiha clan must have been doing. It all makes sense now."

"Knew what?!"

"Hatake-san can explain better than I. Ask him when we're done talking here. Now, do you really think going to Orochimaru would be a good idea, or are you just out for revenge and being stubborn about it?"

"I'm not going to find my revenge by my brother's path. I'm not about to kill my closest friend just for the sake of power."

"But you'd give yourself for dead? Orochimaru-no-Sannin would use his Soul Transfer Jutsu to make your body his next if you went to him. If you really want revenge, I suggest you find out the entire story and attack the root of the problem. It may be Itachi, or the person prompting the Uchiha clan to do what caused him to ... Anyways, when you figure out who it is your should actually be trying to take revenge on, I recommend having backup. Your team, your friends, your comrades. Particularly the individual you would be killing if you actually tried to acquire the Mangekyo Sharingan."

"You just tell me what to do like it is easy to change the entire path of me life. Vengeance upon my 'Nii-san has been my main goal in life for years. How am I supposed to just alter my entire way of thinking about life just because one person says it is a good idea?"

Sighing, Yoko answered, "What you do with your life is your choice alone. I am just here to help keep shinobi from making poor decisions based upon lack of knowledge. We are taught so many things to survive the life of a ninja, but so few are prepared for the rest of life."

She smirked, a fox-like grin that showed fang-like eyeteeth that had been hidden during her talk with Sasuke. "It's time for you to go back, little snake." If Sasuke hadn't been so shocked, he may have found irony in being called little by a girl half a head shorter than he or a vulpine girl giving herself a name meaning fox spirit - for surely, Yoko wasn't her real name. As it was, he could barely prepare himself for what came next.

As Yoko walked toward him, slowly forming seals with her tiny, long-nailed (clawed?) hands, she continued speaking. "I am here only to set you on the right path. Whether you follow it is your choice. A mere shadow as myself is not one to help you as you travel through your life. You already have the people best suited to help you, whether or not you realize it."

The leaves of a teleportation jutsu swirled for a second time that night around Sasuke, and he found himself back where he started. The jutsu continued, returning Yoko to some other destination, but as she vanished, the words, "Good luck, Uchiha-san," could be heard.

Sakura was sitting on a park bench several yards away, crying softly. Sasuke stepped just a bit closer, and, not trusting his voice not to crack if he spoke normally, whispered softly, "I'm sorry Sakura. I'm not going anywhere, not yet at least." He ran off before she could bombard him with questions, not even sure if she had heard him.

Sakura bolted upright at the sound of his voice, lifting her head from where it had been buried in her hands as she had sobbed out her sorrow at the idea of losing a teammate who had become a dear friend to her, even if he could never see her as more.

Looking out in the direction he had run in, toward the center of town, Sakura smiled slightly. "Thank you." Then she stood up from the bench, and walked toward her own home, knowing she would see both of her teammates, who had come to be among her dearest friends, in the morning.

Sasuke continued running straight past the prestigious Uchiha district, into another shinobi neighborhood, where he knew Hatake Kakashi resided from his time training with the man in preparation for the fiasco of a Chunin Exam that had begun the entire mess he was currently entangled in.

When he arrived, Kakashi was so surprised to see Konoha-gakure's last Uchiha at his door late at night that he actually removed his hitaiate long enough to use his single Sharingan to verify that it was really Sasuke standing at his doorstep before allowing the boy inside.

Both Kakashi and Sasuke walked into the kitchen, a near duplicate of another Sasuke had been just a few minutes past, save the lack of plants and abundance of jutsu scrolls and ... questionable ... reading material.

Cutting straight to the chase, Sasuke asked his teacher, "Have you ever heard of a kunoichi who calls herself Yoko?"

"So you've met the infamous Fox Angel of Konoha-gakure too, eh?" A puzzled look on his student's face prompted him to elaborate. "Yoko, called the Fox Angel after the name she adopted and her voluntary vocation, acts as an emergency therapist for Konoha nins about to make stupid mistakes that they can still avoid. Most people don't say a word to anyone if she appears to help them since things have to be rather bad for her to interfere and they'd rather not have people know."

"Kakashi-sensei, you asked if I had met her 'too.'"

The Copy-Nin sighed. "Yoko is actually the reason I decided to try being a Jo-nin sensei, even if I did fail several potential teams before ending up in charge of Team Seven." Seeing that Sasuke looked about ready to uncharacteristically request more details rather than adopt an aloof attitude, Kakashi elaborated although he would have preferred not to.

"Being in the ANBU was all that was holding me together after I lost everyone dear to me, but eventually I couldn't stand it anymore. I was probably just days from deciding to perform seppuku when Yoko appeared right in the middle of my apartment, grabbed the blade I had been polishing for just that purpose, resheathed it, and used it to bash me over the head."

"This was several years ago, and she was just a little kid then. Cute little braided pigtails, bright orange pinafore dress with a big blue bow, and all innocent smile and sparkling eyes. Then she started yelling at me for being an idiot genius. Clearly, she didn't realize that was an oxymoron. Anyways, in the end she convinced me just to do something different with my life rather than ending it. I quit the ANBU to become an ordinary Jonin, and eventually became your sensei." He shrugged, as though to indicate that the story was over, even though he clearly wasn't sharing everything.

Resigning himself to never hearing more of Kakashi's experience with the unusual kunoichi, Sasuke related to Kakashi the major points of his conversation with Yoko, though he stumbled rather a lot upon reaching his outburst about not even being sure if he liked girls. Kakashi laughed at his un-Uchiha-like blush and just responded, "You're still a kid, even if you are a ninja. You're allowed to be confused," and prompted the Genin to continue speaking, commenting that Yoko's forced formal speech pattern sounded similar to, if slightly more mature than, when she had spoken with Kakashi after her initial bout of yelling.

Upon reaching the point at which Yoko asked Sasuke to channel chakra shirtless and her reaction to whatever she saw, Kakashi's sole visible eye widened and he asked Sasuke to repeat exactly what he had done earlier. When he resignedly complied, Kakashi sighed. "Sasuke, have you ever heard of the term Jinchuuriki?"

As Sasuke and Kakashi spoke, across the village from the other shinobi, a young girl began to prepare for bed in her otherwise uninhabited apartment. Leaving her clothing in a pile on the floor, she proceeded to take a brief shower before redressing in an oversized blue and white striped nightshirt with matching pants, and brushed both her teeth and long blond hair with the appropriate brushes.

Running her hand over the metal plate of her hitaiate, which she had chosen, along with visible weapons, not to wear while speaking with Sasuke so he wouldn't see her as a threat and refuse to speak civilly, she gazed out the window of her apartment, whose curtains were now open so she could see the moon and stars.

"Good luck, Sasuke. Your life isn't going to be easy, but at least you have had a family. They may all be deceased or mad now, but at least you had one as a child. It isn't easy to learn that your inner demons are real, but it's far better to be aware of being the vessel of the Orochibi-no-Hebi than to be fully possessed by Orochimaru-no-Sannin. I'll still be there for you every step of the way. Just not the way I spoke to you tonight."

At that, Uzumaki Naruto released one of his signature jutsus, the Kage Henge, the transformation equivalent of the Kage Bunshin, which he had been using for solid transformations for years, and went to bed. Talking to his friend as himself could wait until morning. He wasn't supposed to know what had gone on yet, after all.

O O O

Please try to pardon minor mischaracterizations, as I have never written in the Naruto fandom before, and this is in fact my first completed fanfiction to be posted. I actually finished it a little while ago, but I didn't have an account set up. I hope you enjoyed it, and would greatly appreciate reviews, though I'd prefer not to find pointless flames if you don't mind.

Also, I'm considering writing a full-length story with this as it's prequel, but I haven't decided yet. If I do, please don't expect it for a while. I'm a full time college student, and don't always know when I will have time to write.

Edit:  There is now a sequel in progress.  It is called "Fox's Wings", and can be found through my author profile.  Its updates are coming rather slowly due to my busy schedule at the university, but it is being worked on.  Also, my complete story "Sea Serpent" takes place in the same universe, though it's not a formal prequel, and Fox Angel / Fox's Wings and Sea Serpent each stand alone nicely.