Wutai's trees were filled with beautiful autumn foliage, and the whole country had turned out to celebrate Yuffie's eighteenth birthday. Everything was decked out with so many streamers and banners that the whole town resembled an over-iced birthday cake. In all honesty, Yuffie found it a bit annoying, but she didn't want to say anything. After all, these people would be her subjects when her dad eventually stepped down, and she did want them to like her.

There was a massive feast for the whole country at midday, but the table where Yuffie sat was reserved for her foreign friends, the ones who had fought beside her two years ago, in the battle against Sephiroth and Jenova. As the feast was winding down, Yuffie looked at her friends eagerly. "So who's up for a game later this afternoon?"

"What kind of game?" Tifa asked.

"It's this super-special game we only get to play on special occasions like this one," Yuffie explained. "It's sort of a combat simulation. We all put on special combat clothes so we're hard to see, and go out into the wilderness and hunt each other. Whoever can tear off their opponents' headbands without losing their own wins!"

"Not interested," Cloud said, shaking his head. "I spent enough time chasing you around two years ago."

"That's not a very nice thing to say," Yuffie growled at him. How could he bring that up on her birthday, of all times?! Wasn't there any expiration date on stupid stunts? She'd just been a kid back then…

"I believe I will pass," Vincent said. "It is not a guarantee that I could hold back my more…bestial side in such a game. I would not want to be responsible for any unpleasant accidents."

"Uh, yeah…that would be bad," Yuffie agreed, looking a little intimidated.

Tifa, Barret, Cid and Reeve all also declined the honor of participating.

"You guys suck!" Yuffie shouted at them. "What are you, scared?!"

"I'll do it with you!" Red XIII offered. "It sounds like fun!"

"Finally! Gawd, I'm glad at least one of you has some sense!" she exclaimed. Of course, she had known she could count on Red—he was always on her side!—but it annoyed her that not one of her other friends had been willing to play the most awesome game ever.

They waited about an hour after the meal was over, then Yuffie went back to her room and changed into the special combat gear. It was mottled in the same colors as the autumn foliage, and fitted tightly to her body, so tight that she was actually a little embarrassed as she stepped out of the room in it. Every line and crease beneath the skin-tight suit was outlined perfectly, and she was terrified that the chill in the air might make her nipples harden. Bad enough that she couldn't wear any undergarments under those clothes because they were going to show…

But at least Red was the one guy she knew who wouldn't make any lewd comments about the strangely revealing nature of her all-covering garb. Indeed, the only thing he said as she stepped out in front of him was to comment on how the outfit was even masking her scent a little, which would make the game that much more challenging!

"Okay, follow me," Yuffie said, then ran out of town as fast as she could. She didn't want anyone seeing her in that get-up who didn't have to. Once they were out of town, Yuffie led him towards the ancient shrine that was at the center of the game. "This is the old temple to Leviathan," she explained as they arrived at the derelict structure. "It's as old as the Da-Chao. We don't worship here anymore, but the grounds are still sacred, and no one's allowed into the woods behind the temple except during this game and a few other special rituals. It's sort of a rite of passage for young warriors going from boys to men. Er, girls to women, in my case," she added, with a nervous laugh. In truth, girls in Wutai did not usually partake in this particular ritual, which was why she had asked her friends to be her opponents, instead of any of the other people from Wutai, because she was pretty sure they would all have refused.

"So if you win, you'll be recognized as an adult warrior," Red concluded, nodding his head. "I went through something similar myself," he added, gesturing with his head towards the tribal markings on his haunches. "These were the proof of my success."

"It's not quite like that," Yuffie said, shaking her head. "I don't have to win to be recognized. Though it'll sure look better if I win! But I don't want you goin' easy on me, either!" she added hastily. "A fake win's worse than a loss."

"I agree," Red said, nodding. "I'll do my best to defeat you! What are the rules?"

"Well, we both have to wear these," Yuffie said, untying two thin blue streamers from one of the branches of a tree near the temple ruins. "Whoever gets their opponent's headband off wins. There aren't really any rules other than no magic and no trying to hurt your opponent. Pretty much everything goes other than that. It's more about stealth and tracking than combat, really."

Red looked puzzled as Yuffie started tying the streamer around her forehead. "It seems that starting out in the same place would make it more about combat, though…"

"Oh, no, we split up before the game starts!" Yuffie assured him, then knelt down in front of him, awkwardly aware of the fact that by now her nipples were fully hard…and right in front of Red's one good eye as she tried to find a place to tie the headband. "Where the heck am I gonna put this thing?!" she finally cried out in irritation.

"Ah…that's a good question," Red agreed. "If it is truly about stealth, would it be better to have it around my tail?" he suggested.

"I dunno…wouldn't that make it too easy for me?"

"There aren't many other good places to tie it, though," Red pointed out. "Not that I want a ribbon tied around my tail, but…"

"It's not a ribbon," Yuffie assured him, even as she moved around behind him to tie it onto his tail as he had suggested. "It's a ceremonial headband. Totally different from a silly old ribbon."

Red nodded, but didn't look entirely comforted. However, Yuffie couldn't think of anything else to say to placate his delicate ego, and instead headed over to the ruined structure itself. There was a massive bronze bell, and beside it, a ceremonial font filled with clean, pure water that constantly bubbled up from a natural spring. At the base of the font, a bucket and a small bottle of liquid soap and some other cleaning supplies were waiting, placed there earlier this morning by Yuffie herself, just in case. However, she certainly didn't need them at the moment! She dipped her hands in the ceremonial font, then placed them on the bell.

"I'm going to ring this bell, and as soon as it sounds, we both take off running in opposite directions. It'll keep sounding for about five minutes. As soon as it falls quiet, then the game is on," she told Red. "Ready?"

"Got it!" he agreed, nodding, with a fire in his eye as well as on his tail. "This is going to be fun!" he added, his voice sounding as youthful as he was for his species, a surprisingly uncommon occurrence.

"All right, here we go!" Yuffie exclaimed, then gave the bell a huge shove. It tilted far to the side, then began slowly swinging back towards her. As soon as its clapper hit the other side of the bell with a thunderous clang, Yuffie turned and started sprinting away into the forest, as did Red.

This was a game she was determined to win at all costs!

After entering the forest, Yuffie quickly leapt up into the tree tops and changed the direction of her traveling. "Good luck tracking me up here," she giggled to herself.

Soon, the bell fell silent, and Yuffie froze in the tree top, listening intently. However, she heard nothing. That was one reason she had wanted to play this game against her human friends; they would have made lots of noise with their big clunky boots in that forest. Red, on the other hand, was naturally well adapted to moving silently through the foliage, which was definitely a point in his advantage.

But Yuffie wasn't the greatest ninja in Wutai for nothing! She could move just as silently as a cat when she wanted to! Although it was more difficult to do so when moving from tree to tree, unfortunately. In fact, it was probably impossible, Yuffie realized with a grimace. Admittedly, she hadn't been making much more noise than a quiet autumn breeze, but it had been enough to cause Red to come running in her direction.

Yuffie moved a little higher up the tree, and clung to the trunk itself, placing it in between herself and her furry opponent. Soon, she could hear his breathing, and the quiet rustling of the flame on the tip of his tail as well as the nearly silent steps of his padded feet. As he stopped walking, his breathing took on an irregular pace. Was he sniffing the air, looking for her scent? She half wanted to accuse him of cheating, but since he couldn't climb the tree after her, she thought that might seem just a little hypocritical.

Apparently, her combat clothes really did mask her scent, because Red was soon padding away again. Yuffie slowly, carefully glanced in his direction, and saw his form receding away from her. This was going to be her best chance!

After a moment to steel herself, she let go of the tree, and kicked off its trunk, turning her body so that she could land in a full run, dashing towards him. Even as she reached out for the headband tied to his tail, Red started to contort his own body, leaping into the air and reaching for the whirling tails of her headband with his teeth.

Both of them missed their mark, and fell back away from each other. They started strafing in a circle, neither one taking their gaze off the other for a second…until Yuffie missed a step, and started tumbling backwards down a steep hill.

"Yuffie!"

Red charged after her, but he didn't seem interested in her headband any longer, rather he seemed to be worried about her safety. Yuffie knew, even as she tumbled downwards, head-over-heels, that she wasn't in any danger, because there was nothing but an empty field at the bottom of the hill, but she was touched by the worry in Red's voice as he followed her downhill.

In fact, she was so touched that she decided it wouldn't be very nice to pluck the headband off his tail while he was worried about her, so she resisted the urge, and leapt to her feet as soon as she had stopped falling. "The game's still on!" she shouted, backing away from him.

"Right!" Red leapt into the air, snapping at her headband from the front instead of aiming at its loose tails, the way he had earlier.

Yuffie dodged out of the way of his teeth, and grabbed the end of his headband as he passed. The loose knot gave way, and the headband was left in Yuffie's hand as Red sailed onwards into a deep mud puddle.

"I win!" Yuffie exclaimed, turning to look at her suddenly very muddy friend. "Ah! Sorry!" she added, fighting not to laugh, but he looked so silly covered in all that mud that it was incredibly hard to keep from laughing.

"Where did that come from…?" Red asked, struggling back out of the mud.

"There's a spring over there," Yuffie explained, tugging on his front legs to help him out. "It makes it really muddy down here. C'mon, I'll clean you off back at the temple."

"That's why there was a bucket there…?" Red asked as they headed back up the hill.

"Yeah. I figured there was a chance someone might end up covered in mud. Glad it's not me, though," she added, chuckling. "I used to get in a lot of trouble for playing in that mud. It's sort of sacred mud…or something. I dunno. I never really paid much attention to all that religious talk."

Red nodded, and they walked on in silence. Once they were back at the temple, Yuffie replaced both headbands on the tree she had taken them from, then filled the bucket with water from the font, and squirted some soap onto a bristly brush and a washcloth. She quickly used the washcloth to clean off his face and throat, then set it aside and picked up the brush.

"Tell me if I start doing this too hard, all right?" she asked, then started brushing Red down, scrubbing the mud out of his fur. She started on one side, then did his back, and then the other side as well. All the while, Red didn't say a word, though he did make some little sub-vocal noises that Yuffie didn't quite understand. They didn't seem to be complaints of any kind, though, so she tried not to pay any attention to them. Once she was done with his other side, she rinsed the brush off, then looked back at Red. "Lie down on your back or your side, okay? I gotta clean your belly now."

"Er…is that really necessary?" Red asked uncomfortably.

"Of course it is! Don't be stupid! Now lie down!"

Swallowing heavily, Red did as he was told, and laid down on his side, though with his back facing Yuffie. She grimaced, picked up the brush, and moved around to face his exposed belly. However, she was surprised to see something pinkish and decidedly not muddy there…and she turned rather red as she realized what it was. "It's just the pressure, the friction," Red said in an embarrassed tone.

"Y-yeah…like a cat, right?" Yuffie said, realizing that she felt a little nervous in the face of Red's surprisingly large erection. She'd never even thought about him as having that kind of equipment before… "All those cats the lady downstairs has…sometimes if you brush one of 'em long enough, they get…um…like that…"

"Y-yes, that's right…" Red answered, but he sounded every bit as nervous as Yuffie was.

However, there was nothing for it! His stomach was still covered in mud, and Yuffie knew she was going to be in big trouble if he went back to town with that 'sacred' mud on his belly. All the more so if he still had an erection…

So Yuffie started brushing down his belly the way she had brushed down his sides and back. At first, she tried not to look at his erection, but every time her hands brushed against it, she couldn't help but look at it, and the longer she looked at it, the harder it was to look away again. It was almost as long as her forearm, and nearly as thick around as her wrist. She tried very hard not to imagine the size of the opening it was intended for, or what it might feel like if he tried to put into a smaller one…but it was hard not to imagine it…

Once his belly was clean, Yuffie fetched the bottle of soap and the bucket of water, and knelt down again. Red couldn't possibly go back to town with that huge thing waggling along beneath him, after all…

"I better check that you're all clean," Yuffie said, then squirted some of the soap onto her hands. Gently, gingerly, almost fearfully, she slid her hands underneath the engorged member that seemed to be aiming itself directly at her.

Red let out a gasp, but didn't say anything, so Yuffie started sliding her hands up and down along the length of his erection. Her hands were quite slippery, thanks to the soap, so they slid easily, and the lubricated member felt quite pleasant to the skin of her fingers and palms. It was a little more pliant than she had expected, and she was surprised to notice bumps and slight depressions along its surface. She could also feel throbbing, rope-like veins, and she found herself tempted to play with them, tightening her grip on top of them and feeling the blood within the veins fighting to get past her hands.

"Y-Yuffie…" Red started to object, but he didn't seem able to produce any other words, only moans. His eye slid shut as Yuffie started pumping her hands along his erection more quickly.

As she continued the pumping motions with her hands, she found herself noticing that his phallus seemed to continue for a short ways beyond what was exposed and pink; there was a furry 'sheath' that led up to his balls, which she thought seemed larger than they usually did. In fact, she had rarely ever noticed them before, but now they seemed so large that she couldn't believe she could ever have failed to notice them. All the more so they way they were wobbling from side to side as Red's back legs started to twitch.

As Yuffie increased the speed of her hands, one of Red's front legs suddenly pressed down on her belly, and the other against her back, as if he was holding her in place, almost as if he was trying to ensure that she didn't stop, no matter what.

Not that she had any intention of stopping! She was actually quite enjoying giving him a hand job, and though she didn't want to admit it, even to herself, it was turning her on a little as well.

Soon Red began to make little rumbling noises in his throat. For a moment, Yuffie mistook them for growls, but she soon realized that they were more akin to purring than growling. Smiling, she began pumping her hands even faster. Red's front paw moved upwards from her belly to her breasts, and Yuffie felt something twitch between her legs as he clumsily pawed at her tender breasts through the exceedingly thin cloth of her skin-tight outfit. She wasn't sure if she was disappointed or relieved that his paw had moved up instead of down…

It was not much longer before Red let out a particularly loud moan, heralding an explosive burst of liquid from the tip of his erection. The liquid blasted all over Yuffie's chest and belly even as she released his softening member.

"Oh gross," she said, trying to wipe it off. "I wasn't thinking about that…"

"S-sorry," Red said, sounding exceptionally sheepish. He quickly rolled off his side and got to his feet, moving away from her, even as his now limp phallus began to retreat back into its sheath.

"It's okay…" Yuffie said, then dumped the bucket of water onto herself. The cold water completely dampened any arousal she had felt, but more importantly it washed off enough of Red's semen that she didn't think anyone would ever guess it had been there in the first place. Anyone who saw her all wet like that would just assume that she was the one who had taken the tumble into the mud.

For a few minutes, Yuffie just sat there shivering in the puddle of water and semen, while Red sat behind her, with his back to her. Neither of them spoke, but Yuffie could feel the heat of his flaming tail every time it twitched in her direction.

Finally, she got to her feet and collected her cleaning supplies. "Okay, we better go back to town before people come looking for us."

"Oh! R-right!" Red exclaimed, jumping slightly.

"Uh…Red…let's just…let's just pretend this didn't happen, okay?" Yuffie asked. "I mean…you know…the uh…um…what happened while I was cleaning you off…" she went on, finding herself surprisingly timid about speaking of what had just happened.

"That…that's probably for the best," Red agreed, but was it Yuffie's imagination that he sounded a little sad?

As he preceded her down the path back to Wutai, Yuffie felt that there was something almost forlorn about the way Red was walking…