Disclaimer: Me no own


Fantasy Fox

"Okay class, this weeks assignment will be a piece on the Nine-Tailed Fox. You can write it however you want. You'll read them out to the rest of the class on Monday morning!" Iruka smiled, completely oblivious to the groans coming from his class.

The class grumbled as they made their way out of the Academy. Who would rather do homework than play on their dad's old Nintendo 64? One boy did. Who? Uzumaki Naruto. Why? He didn't have a dad to play old games with or a mum to bake cookies with. He usually got his homework done as soon as it was given, the only problem was handing it in. He always left it on the kitchen counter on the hand-in day.

So that is why when Naruto got home, the first thing he did was go to the kitchen and spread his books, pens and paper over the table. Then he sat down and started to think about what he could write.

2 hours later

Naruto stared at his blank piece of paper. In the two hours of sitting there he had come up with nothing. He usually didn't have so much trouble coming up with something to write. Naruto sighed and stood up. 'Maybe some ramen will help me think…' he thought as he made his way out of his apartment and to Ichiraku Ramen.

As he walked, people glared at him from all directions, muttering darkly about him. Even though his face had its' usual sunny grin on, on the inside he was crying. Why did they all hate him so much? Why? He hadn't done anything to them. When he finally got to Ichiraku's he was almost crying despite his sunny demeanour.

"One large miso ramen, please." Naruto asked as normally as possible. Ichiraku nodded, not noticing the boy was almost in tears because he had his head in a book. He passed the boy a bowl of ramen which caused Naruto to look up and notice the book.

"Hey, what's that you're reading?" Naruto asked as he inhaled his ramen. Ichiraku looked from his book and glanced down at Naruto.

"It's a book full of animal poems. I bought this years ago, when I was in secondary school. (A/N: Yes, I'm English. No high schools for me.) This is the first chance I've had to read it." Ichiraku explained, showing Naruto the front cover. Suddenly, Naruto was struck with an idea. He quickly inhaled the rest of his ramen and slapped his money down on the bench.

"Thanks for the meal!" he called back over his shoulder as he sprinted home. When he got home he immediately plonked himself down in front of his homework and started writing like there was no tomorrow. Finally, one hour later, after much writing and crossing out, he was done! He couldn't wait until Monday.

Monday

"Okay class, time for you to read out your homework. Who wants to go first?" Naruto's hand shot into air like a bullet, surprising the whole class. "Okay Naruto, since your hand was in the air first…" Iruka trailed off as Naruto leapt up and sped towards the front of the classroom.

"Okay Naruto, before you start would you mind telling us what your piece is called and what format you wrote it in?" Iruka asked.

"I've written a poem called 'Fantasy Fox'." Naruto said immediately. The girls cooed at the cute name while the boys groaned and thought 'Couldn't he have chosen something that sounded a bit more manly?!'

"Okay, you may start whenever you're ready Naruto." Iruka told the young boy. Naruto took a deep breath before saying:

"Fantasy Fox

In the deep, dark forest

Fox, I heard you hunting

I saw you darting

Catching your prey

Your eyes gleam like diamonds

On a cold, cold win6ers day

In the deep, dark forest

Fox, I heard you hunting

I saw your fur

It is as red as the reddest blush

I saw your tail

Brushing against the rosemary bush

In the deep, dark forest

Fox, I heard you hunting

I heard you returning to your earth

Giving your catch to your cubs

You work full time a bit like a teacher

Except there are no subs

In the deep, dark forest

Fox, I heard you hunting

Fox, I saw you darting,

Daring from bush to bush

I saw you pouncing

Killing your prey without any rush

In the deep, dark forest

Fox, I saw you hunting

I heard you rustling

Rustling through the winter leaves

Trying to prepare dinner on Christmas Eve

The eve of all eves

In the deep, dark forest

Fox, I heard you hunting

Fox, I saw you running

Running from the farmers

They thought you might hurt them

But you didn't want to harm us

In the deep, dark forest

Fox, I heard you running

The farmers are intent on killing you

They have released the dogs

They catch you and rip your flesh

Your cries heard only by frogs

In the deep, dark forest

Fox, I heard you dying…"

There was silence and then one person started clapping, then another and then another and soon the whole class was clapping and cheering for Naruto. Naruto just stood there, surprised that they liked his poem but his face soon broke into its usual sunny smile and he started soaking in the glory.

Iruka smiled as he put an A+ next to Naruto's name. 'I knew you could do it Naruto…'