DisclaimerXx Naruto and KHR do not belong to me and they never will
Just a note here, the pairing is not and never will be Naruto/Kitsune x Tsuna. Their relationship within this fic will be as brothers, really close brothers but brothers none the less.
The official pairing is Naruto/Kitsune x Fon
However I will, for those who are interested be putting up a poll for Tsuna's pairing although I am currently leaning toward Hibari or Reborn. There will be nothing explicit written by me although if I one day do end up finishing this feel free to write any lemons or whatever, just pm me and give me credit for my original ideas.
Enjoy~
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It was an unwritten, unspoken rule that Tsunayoshi Sawada did not like birthdays.
Well, lets rephrase that, Tsuna had no problem with the idea of the holiday itself, no it's what the holiday entailed for him personally that had him annoyed. Running from multiple bullies at once (because of course they had to find out that it was his 'special day') and being belittled by vindictive teachers was not something that he considered fun, not in the slightest.
And so it was with a heavy heart (and a body covered in bruises) that Tsuna walked home from school on his ninth birthday.
He tugged uncomfortably on the loose bandages surrounding his wrist that concealed the hand prints of one particular bully who had been over-eager in his beating (basically resulting in Tsuna being pinned to the wall while the bully and his friends had beaten the metaphorical shit out of him) Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately considering the many questions that could be asked, the school nurse was not in and Tsuna had been forced to sort out his own treatment. It didn't really matter though, after all with his mother's addiction problems Tsuna had a lot of practise treating his own wounds (and threading back together his bleeding heart).
Tsuna gave a dull glance (eg. Tsuna's version of a glare because Tsuna is to nice to outright glare at something) to the sky, because seriously why did the weather have to be so nice, sun high and sky dyed a pleasant azure, when his day was going so bad? Caramel eyes with an amber tint narrowed slightly before the nine year old sighed and carried on on his way, ignoring the several jeers that came his way from passing peers.
Hitching his bag higher upon his shoulder Tsuna retrieved the key from underneath the doormat and slotted the metal into the lock. Once inside he decided to forgoe leaving his shoes to the side, he was planning on going out into the garden anyway.
Walking down the small stretch of hallway that led to the kitchen Tsuna sighed softly before opening his eyes and preparing a customary "ohayo" greeting toward his mother.
The word died upon his lips as he came to a halt on the threshold of the kitchen.
The bottles were already present, sitting innocently upon the table, inconspicuous and yet not.
No,no it was too early! Why would they already be here..
The panic rose, his eyes growing wide and pierced with denial because there had always, always been a method to his mother's madness, a rota that dictated when the woman was to pick up the poison. Never had she drunk before six pm.
But there she was, leaning against the counter and muttering to herself. Disheveled hair and dark, heavy bags under her eyes. She was a wreck.
Tsuna inwardly took a deep breath and prepared himself to take a step forward into the limelight, after all it was easier to get it over and done with. However, once more, he froze. But this time it was not out of confusion or even reluctance. No. What stopped him now was blatant and crippling fear.
Because as Nana stood, leaning on the side of the kitchen counter.
She held a knife.
Well, held wasn't the right word to use, no it was more like the brunette woman was caressing, as a mother would their child, the blade within her grasp, a small smile spread across her face.
Tsuna remained where he was, in the shadow, paralysed in realization.
She was going to knife him.
For her the words were not enough.
She would carve them into his skin.
Tsunayoshi Sawada was to one day become a brave and just Mafia boss. A man to be admired and a man who was to put his family above all others. Tsuna Sawada would strike the hearts and souls of many in his journey to greatness.
However, nine year old Tsunayoshi Sawada was still a child. And he could still be hurt (even further then he was already) and more importantly he could still be scared. And scared he was.
And so he ran. Well first he sprint-walked through the house and into the back garden before he ducked under the loose fence slate (gods bless his small stature) and out into the back streets. Then he ran. And ran and ran.
Eventually he reached his safe haven (the place he would go when it was all just too much) an abandoned shrine deep within the nearby wood. The place was perfect.
Dark wood beams joined together to create a small building with crawling vines covering the sides. The trees surrounding the shrine were tall with leafy canopies that let only flecks of light fall onto the grass covered ground. However, Tsuna's favourite part of the shrine was the single sakura tree that stood proud next to the building. To Tsuna the tree seemed almost magical, with its wraith like petals that danced through the air like the embers of a flame. The shrine itself was small and the inside sparse although Tsuna himself had dragged two of the spare futons from home into it as well as several candles. His final additions had been cleaning and first aid equipment. He often came here straight from school or at the weekend. At these times he would normally have either light wounds from his bullies or his mother. Cleaning the place had been his first priority as the shack had been filled with dust and cobwebs galore. It had taken him six weeks to clean the building to a standard that he was satisfied with. And satisfied he was, because the little shrine in the woods had become his salvation. Somewhere for him to go when it all got too much, when it all piled up and he needed a break, like now. But he would always be back the next day, he would be back by his home just before his mother arose.
(Because stupid, innocent little Tsuna still believed that one day it would all just blow over and he would have his mother back)
But today was different. Because, as the little sky was bent in half, panting after his small sprint session, he smelt something.
Blood. And lots of it. Tsuna was no stranger the crimson liquid that flowed through his veins, he had seen it far more then any other boy his age (well apart from Namimori's infamous skylark of course) but this was... he gulped, forcing the bile back down his throat and crept closer to the body that was sprawled against his beloved sakura tree.
The man, no teenager was rather eye catching. he possessed long seemingly uncontrollable blonde spikes pulled into a low ponytail, tied by a simple white bandage, behind him with two locks wrapped in bandages framing either side of his face and a fringe that partially fell over his eyes but was styled to fall toward the right side of the teen's face. He had peculiar thin whisker marks on both of his cheeks and alongside his slightly upturned eyes his similarity to a fox was undeniable.
He was wearing tight black pants that were fastened to his lower legs by tight white bandages and tucked into black boots. He wore a high collared grey shirt with the right sleeve seemingly ripped of at the shoulder and the other long enough to cover his hand, although he seemed to be wearing a skin tight three quarter sleeved skintight black top underneath . Said hands were covered by black fingerless gloves with engraved metal plates on the back.
Resting against the bark of the tree next to the blonde was something that made Tsuna pause in his advance. It was a scythe. And not a small one either. Even leaning innocently against the sakura tree the weapon reached a height of roughly five foot five, far taller then poor Tsuna (who was cursed with a measly height of four foot two). The shaft of the weapon was straight and made of a pitch black metal of some kind that seemed to draw in light and hoard it, refusing to reflect in any way. The blade was a shade of silver that existed only in fine jewellery. And said cruel curved blade reached a length of approximately three foot five. A black leather band laid nearby, obviously used to hold the weapon to someone's back. Tsuna couldn't deny that it was hard to picture the teen, who looked deceptively lean and somewhat frail, leant against the rough bark.
However, all of this detail was rather hard for Tsuna to discern seeing as both boy and weapon were literally drenched in blood.
For a second longer the brunette hovered, uncertain, before the blonde, because naturally he wanted to stay away from someone who could potentially wield such a terrifying weapon. But before he could walk away the blonde gave a rather pitiful moan of pain, his eyelashes fluttering to briefly reveal polished aquamarine orbs. And well Tsuna couldn't just leave him there could he?
"Excuse me? H-Hey are you okay sir?"
He stuttered, cursing himself inwardly for asking such a stupid question, of course the teen wasn't okay he was covered from head to toe in blood! However, in answer to his question the teens eyes closed and he slumped even further down the tree as the gentle promises of unconsciousness drew him in.
Tsuna panicked. (Because goddammit this guy was not going to die and ruin his beautiful sakura tree and goddammit why was there so much blood?)
"Oh gods! Stay awake!" He shouted running forward and pressing his hand to the blondes forehead. Great, so the teen had an unknown amount of lacerations to his body, possible internal bleeding and now a rapidly worsening fever on top of it all, because bruises weren't enough.
Upon seeing that the troublesome teen was not waking up any time soon Tsuna awkwardly positioned himself in order to shuffle-carry the boy into the shrine and deposit him on the spare futon, thanking the gods for small mercies (eg. His forethought of bringing a second futon and that the teen had been relatively light)
Determination sparked deep inside Tsuna as he looked down upon his soon to be patient.
Time to get to work.
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When Kitsune next woke up it was to the sweet fragrance of morning air and the chirping of birds. His memory was hazy although he did remember summoning one of his mirrors with the last of his remaining energy and stumbling to rest against a tree in some kind of woods.
His eyes snapped open.
...
Where was the tree.
And. Wait a second.
Where the fuck was his mask!
...
His panic was obvious now as he raised his hands (hadn't he been wearing gloves?) To his face and clawed at his cheeks desperately.
Were was it?
Gritting his teeth ( his sensei had made sure it was a useful scare tactic against his enemies, should his mask be taken, by sharpening his canines to give him a feral look) he sat up straight, only to been struck with a crippling pain as every muscle within his stomach seemed to protest against his movement.
"Arghhhh!" Kitsune's scream of pain was quiet but nonetheless there and it was all that was needed to alert his company on his state of awareness.
"Wait! Don't sit up! Your wounds will reopen!"
A voice rung out suddenly, for Kitsune at least, and hands (two, so that meant one person his intuition provided him through a haze of pain and they were small, so either a short guy or a child although the chance of the person being female wasn't to be ignored) were there. Pressing gently down on his stomach in a way that seemed to somewhat alleviate the pain whilst simultaneously pushing him back down into the floor, no a futon.
Five minutes passed filled with nothing but the blonde's heavy pants and a near visible tension, because even if this mystery person was helping with his wounds like hell Kitsune was going to trust them!
When the pain finally passed the hands returned and Kitsune was able to discover just how small the hands were. They were tiny, in a way some may see as delicate and frail, and Kitsune could not help but feel more then a little sorrowful.
Because the owner of these tiny hands had obviously treated, or helped treat him.
The owner of these hands had seen blood, his blood and the blood of those he had slain.
The owner of these hands had been tainted by his darkness.
(And the last thing Kitsune wanted was for another innocent to be damaged because of him)
A palm was pressed flat against his forehead, Kitsune recognized this as a way to test for fevers or colds ( none had done this for him since his mother... no don't even go there) and from the mumbling of his (helper? healer?) companion he was able to discern that he had had a fever which had gone down substantially and was nearly out of his system.
Then the path of the hands changed and he was being gently eased up to be propped against several pillows (and gods was that comfy, not that he would admit it) finally allowing him to link a face to the hands.
The image of a small fluffy, bunny of all things, was the first thing to come mind.
The boy was short and thin. And not in a good way, to Kitsune the lack weight and height was easily seen as a result of malnutrition and not a fashion statement. The kid, because he couldn't have been older then ten, had been rendered frail by a lack of balanced vitamins and nutrients and Kitsune could not prevent the narrowing of his eyes.
He hated any kind of child abuse.
(Of course he always forgets to factor in that he to is still considered a child. Because in his mind he had been forced to be an adult ever since that moment)
He blinked before continuing to categorise the looks of the boy in front of him, who merely blinked back.
He had Pale skin alongside a heart shaped face with a small button nose. His shock of brown hair was similar to his own in that is seemed uncontrollable although the kid's had a more fluffy quality to it, thus adding to his bunny image. His eyes were what really caught Kitsune's attention though (and not in a pervy way, get your minds out of the gutter!) At first glance they seemed to be an average caramel brown, not particularly rare, but the second and closer glance showed that the boy's eyes were far from ordinary. A soft caramel entwined with ribbons of liquid amber alongside a tint of orange stared back at him. They were, breathtaking.
Reluctantly the blonde dragged his eyes away and looked down at the boys clothes simple black trousers and a button up white shirt - a school uniform he realised, so why was the boy here?
"E-excuse m-me but how are you f-feeling, um..."
Kitsune's eyes shot up and he automatically glared at the boy, freezing as the child flinched back, as if expecting to be hit for asking a question. Well, this is awkward he mused before lightly clearing his throat and turning his head to the side, just then realising that the side he had turned to face showed a view of an open door and the beginnings of a wood beyond a small patch of grass. Upon the grass stood a large sakura tree and he could vaguely see a large blood stain, stark against the pain bark. Also leaning against the tree was his beloved scythe and he couldn't stop the relief that painted his features when he saw it. He turned back to face the brunette and noted with slight amusement that the boy, who seemed to have been watching him intently, turned bright red and looked down at his knees, of which he was sitting on.
"Sorry, for scaring you but why would you ask that?"
Kitsune finally asked, because really, it was obvious that the boy had been the one to help him and why would he ask that instead of something like, "why were you covered in other people's blood?"
However, the boy simply blinked and cocked his head to the side,
"I-its fine, b-bu-but why wouldn't I?" the boy frowned seeming to grow more confident, " you were hurt... really hurt and I was super worried! I did what I could but once or twice you stopped breathing and I thought you were gonna die and I didn't want you to because the voice in my head told me that you're nice and the voice in my head is never wrong and I..."
Kitsune held up his, thankfully uninjured, right arm in an attempt to shut the kid up, and the brunette immediately silenced himself and shrunk down, almost folding into himself. (Kitsune inwardly frowned at this because why would he be scared of a raised hand, unless... why was the world so twisted?)
"You said, the voice in you head. What the fuc- what do you mean the voice in your head? And why would it tell you to trust me? Are you insane or something?" Kitsune asked confused.
The kneeling boy shook his head madly in denial.
"No it's more like a-a feeling. Like something is reassuring me that you are safe..." the boy's face suddenly brightened as he got an idea, "sometimes when the bullies are violent it told me how to dodge! Like this one time a bully tried to hit me and the voice told me to go left, the mean boy fell over and knocked himself out!"
Blue eyes widened as Kitsune finally made a connection,
"Intuition!"
The brunette cocked his head once more,
"Whaaa?"
Meanwhile, Kitsune narrowed his eyes as he looked at the boy,
"Yeah. Everyone has a basic form of it, although mist people call it common sense. But," his gaze sharpened, " you seem to have an advance form of it, and you don't seem to have had any training so... I wonder,"
The boy stared back for a second more before he looked down at his watch and paled causing Kitsune to raise an eyebrow in silent question.
"Hieeeeeee!"
Kitsune jumped slightly and stared at the boy in mild amazement, how had such a small creature been able too make such a loud noise? The boy stood and grabbed a nearby bag, that Kitsune berated himself for not noticing, before running to and out of the door with only a few tossed words over his shoulder,
"I'll be back after school but please don't move or you'll reopen the wounds and it will hurt loads!"
And then he was gone.
Wait.
What?
...
For a few more seconds Kitsune merely sat and watched as the metaphorical dust trail left behind after the brunette faded. What had just happened? He sighed and shook his head before once more attempting to stand... and once more being reduced to a panting wreck when his wounds protested. He tried to access his flames but it seemed that they were still recovering being locked away by that snivelling bastard and thus he could do nothing.
And then he realised something,
That damned bunny hadn't given him his name!
And where was his fucking mask!
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Tsuna didn't know what to think of the teen currently recovering in his beloved shrine.
The blonde had been asleep for three days and had only just woken up. This had allowed Tsuna more then enough time to look over his wounds and fix them up the best he could.
His first thought had been scary.
The teen possessed frosty blue eyes with slightly slitted pupils, and when he had glared at him the slit had become more pronounced. This, alongside those sharp canines and the strangely cold aura thingy that seemed to surround him had inner Tsuna curled in a corner with a dark cloud over his head.
Scary...
But the voice, that the blonde called intuition, whatever that was. Told him different. Well not different, the voic- his intuition did tell him that the blonde was scary, only that the boy was hurting. And not just physically. His intuition told him that something had happened to make the teen like he was, because even the thought of Hibari Kyouya wasn't as scary as the blonde's glare, and that the teen wouldn't hurt Tsuna.
And what reason would Tsuna have to believe that the voi- his intuition was lying? None.
And so, then and there, on his way to school Tsuna decided that he would make the blonde happy. Because he had seen what sadness had done to people (he wanted his kaa-san back, why couldn't she hear him?) And he didn't want any more people to hurt.
Tsuna decided to be the best friend ever to, to ... wait a sec. What was the blonde's name...
"HIIIEEEEEEEEE! I DIDN'T GET HIS NAME!"
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School was, luckily, normal that day.
Normal translating to only mild bruises and mainly just name calling.
Tsuna was quick to be one of the first put of the building and on his way back to his house (It wasn't home. Because home is where the heart is and Tsuna's heart is locked deep within himself where no one can break it any more the it already is.) To collect some more supplies as well as some food, he forgot to feed the blonde this morning and the teen-whose-name-he-did-not-know was probably starving. He also grabbed a can of food for himself as he had not had lunch. He felt safe when doing this as he knew his mother had arranged to meet with some of her close (but not close enough to see the truth) friends and wouldn't be back until later that night.
He planned on staying in the shrine that night and penned a letter for her saying he was staying at a friends, his normal excuse that she probably didn't believe, and could hardly contain his happiness. Because this time he would be with a friend, well soon-to-be-friend. He already had a spare set of uniforms and other supplies back at the shrine so he was ready to go.
It didn't take long for him to reach the shrine after that but he stopped just before the door to take a deep deep breath and collect himself.
Yeah. He was ready.
"You're back."
Tsuna's eyes widened and he turned quickly to face the sakura tree and the blonde who stared back with bored eyes. In shock he raised his arm to point at the teen but did nothing else. The blonde smirked back at him before speaking.
"I was bored and I couldn't really see outside of that shack-thingy, anything is more interesting then a wooden wall so I figured that I may as well move out here," the smug undertone in his voice was apparent as he met Tsuna's incredulous gaze.
"Are you an idiot! You could have opened up your wounds! And it's a shrine!" Tsuna shouted angrily. The teen bristled and narrowed his gaze,
"You expect me to sit there and watch a freaking wall for seven hours!? I don't care if it's a shrine of a cat's litter box!"
"It was six and a half hours, not that long. You're an adult aren't you? So you should learn some patience!"
The blonde crossed his arms and look to the side a pout crossing his face,
"Shut up! I'm fourteen, not some old codger!" The smirk returned with a vengeance as he flicked his hair, "you think I'd have these luscious locks if I was an old grandpa?!"
For a second Tsuna just stared at the blonde who was proudly wearing a rather annoying smirk, before, for the first time in four years he laughed and laughed and laughed.
"Let's just get you back inside the shrine, ne,"
"Hmph,"
(Because Kitsune, despite being only a child himself, hated to see a child being mistreated in any way. And his own inner voice, his own hyper intuition told him that this small amout of laughter had made the bunny's day. But if anyone ever asked- he just didn't want to owe the strange rabbit-boy a debt. )
(Destiny just laughs and continues spinning the new path that has been decided)
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Thanks for reading!
Really appreciate reviews and constructive criticism but flamers will face Kitsune's scythe.
Wingedsilverfang~
Ja ne