Kavaul – If I owned Naruto, I would kidnap the Kyuubi to have as my pet and glomp him daily. And Naruto too. What does that say about my sanity?

Prologue.

"Once upon a time. . ." The fox half-whispered reassurances of his past to himself in the dampness and gloom of his chambers, pausing to take in the 'home' of the Fox Lord with a snort, a half-smile quirking up one blackened lip strangely. "There was a fox. . ."

The fox lay down with a colossal thump, grinning and his teeth reflecting the pale, artificial light from the sewers. He mumbled, humming indistinctly, "Don't look at me now; I have nothing left to show. . ." He half-sang, half-mumbled the phrase that had darted through his mind.

But no one was there to hear him, so the Kyuubi shifted himself, taking a shuddering breath as if readying himself to pull the truth out, strand by painful strand. "Once upon a time. . ."

But then, how was he supposed to know that a small, scrawny child with blonde hair near stained brown with grime and dirt, with painfully honest blue eyes, was listening?

"In the beginning, of course, born in the patchwork lands that were scarred and scorched by Demon flame and fury, the great Fox Lord Kyuubi was a small, wriggly fox-child, with one tail and red fuzz growing over pinkish skin. He was not born as the great Lord Kyuubi, as we all know.

He constantly gnawed on things, though, which was quite normal for a fox kit, but he always did little strange things.

For example, perhaps, his senses overlapped in a way that scent became vivid colors flashing through his mind's eye, sight melding into sound, and so on and so forth. But they ignored all of these, and the small, squirmy fox kit grew and grew and grew.

This is the Fox Lord's first tale, and it would do well for you to lend an ear. Perhaps you may know of this, perhaps you may have not.

Our first story begins underneath the bare, blackened tendrils that extend from the trunk, branches only in the vaguest sense, more like long twigs that clattered and scratched against each other.

The fox kit is almost as old as the turn of the century, and he still does not know of the dangers that lurk beyond the Wall, a tall and towering wall made of stone and earth, roots hanging out from cracks haphazardly, clinging on. It is far too tall, and simply too massive to allow the adventurous Demon to climb it.

The Tree is near the Wall, and the small fox-child is waiting at the base of the charred tree. He has not yet grown out of his residual baby fat—After all, it takes rather a lot more centuries to grow out of the puppy fat that clings to him.

The fox is waiting—hesitating—and then Wolf comes.

Fox does not like Wolf very much, of course, because Wolf is always too happy all the time, his lips curving in an ever-malicious grin. But Wolf is older than Fox, and he knows this, and this is why Fox tolerates Wolf.

Wolf grins, tilting his head and releasing a breathy, taunting giggle. But then, even the breathy giggle comes out as raspy and harsh and hysterical.

He tells Fox, that sorrow is the funniest thing ever.

The fox-kit does not understand, because joy is what causes laughter, and laughter is happiness, and sorrow is the opposite of happiness. Wolf tells Fox, in a chiding tone and looking for all the world like Fox should know it, that Fox can only know of the hilarity of sorrow when he is drowning in insanity.

Fox smiles, without malicious intent or any real joy, rather satisfaction upon finding the answer to his problem, delighted that it was solved.

Wolf giggles again, and then races off. Fox follows."

The tanned boy sucks in a breath that he doesn't know that he was holding, listening to the story. His eyes find a dark corner to linger on, stretching with a languid grace.

The Hokage would have been horrified to find that he'd been listening to the Fox tell it's story.

That is, of course, disregarding the fact that he'd found the Voice's story far more interesting than the history class at the Academy.