Chapter 3: Red Robin On My Perch


The Red Robin represents Joy, Hope, Renewal, Bright Futures and
New Beginnings. Native American's thought of this beautiful creature as a
spiritual animal—and was greatly respected by many tribes. It's bright red
bosom representing the dawn, its bright yellow beak representing the
warm sun ray's of the day and its brown wings representing the dusk of
day...


"Man..." Sakura mumbled. "Maybe if Sai was here, he could use his Ninja Art to make us some freaking umbrellas...!"

"Hn," Sasuke agreed.

"Why can't Captain Yamato make some out of wood?" Naruto suggested.

"He's scared of lightning apparently," their captive stated.

Yamato glanced at him. "How would you know? I'm not scared of lightning—"

He was cut off when thunder and lightning cracked overhead, making the undercover ANBU captain jump out of his skin and grip Sasuke's shoulder like his life depended on it. Everyone sighed, shaking their heads in disapproval.

"I have never met a Jounin who was scared of lightning..." Sakura mumbled.

"Naruto was scared at one point," Sasuke pointed out. "Have you gotten over it yet?"

"Not really," he responded. "Now I'm just scared of being struck by lightning."

"That's really unnerving," Yamato murmured to himself. "We have some cover in the forest. Maybe we can travel through here."

"No way," the captive objected. "There are snakes, rats, bears, wildcats and mountain lions in this area!"

"There aren't any mountains though," Sakura pointed out.

"Yes there is," he mumbled. "It's pretty close, too. Literally thirty miles behind us."

"You know a lot about this place," Naruto commented. "Why is that?"

"I often camped in this area," he stated. "Hell, I've even lived in this forest a few times and I know my way around perfectly fine."

"Wild animals are no problem for us," Yamato assured him. "Even if they did approach us, we could fend ourselves perfectly fine."

"Idiot," he grumbled. "I experimented on a majority of them, so they have the knowledge of a Chunin-level shinobi and not to mention, some of them can wield a kunai they stole from my hut using only their mouth."

"Well, we are just gonna have to live with it," Yamato stated. "A few Chunin-level animals shouldn't be a problem."


"Yamato, this is a problem!" Sasuke snapped. "We're dealing with a pack of wolves with kunai's and shuriken. Why are they so difficult to handle?!"

"Oh, I dunno," Naruto retorted sarcastically. "'Cause we ain't using ninjutsu and not to mention, Sakura and Yamato aren't helping. Why aren't you two helping?!"

"I can't hurt them, they're cute!" Sakura objected.

"Cute...?" Naruto grumbled. "These things are cute?!" He clashed with another wolf, but he kicked the mutt away.

"They're tamable," their captive pointed out. He crossed his legs, sighing. "But then you killed one of them. If you hadn't thoughtlessly done that, then we wouldn't be in this kind of situation."

"But we didn't know that they were tamable!" Sasuke shouted.

"All animals are tamable," he grumbled. "Including the tailed-beast's. All tamable."

Yamato glanced at him. "How do you know?"

"I grew up in environment of beasts. When the Ichibi reincarnated, I spoke with him for a while and he was actually pretty smooth," their captive explained.

He met Shukaku...?

Naruto paused for a second. The Kyuubi had just spoken for the first time in what felt like months.

"What do you mean 'smooth'?" Sakura questioned. "He's a tailed-beast. Aren't they supposed to be cold and ruthless?"

That damn vixen...

"Tailed-beast, demon, animal, mammal...name it all. It simply makes no difference. You can tame and befriend everything by gaining trust," he stated. "Like right now, you guys have a different opinion on me."

Everyone glanced at him, slightly surprised. There was no emotion in Naruto's blind eyes, but it wasn't shocking considering his past and such.

Sasuke blocked another wolf attack. "Well you're certainly interesting. How do you know?"

"There are twelve senses to the body," he explained. "I can sense what you sense or feel. It's the kekkei genkai everyone wants. I'm the last one to ever inherit it so everyone is after me. The late Kazekage ordered my return because apparently, my parents origin come from Sunagakure, which I call bullshit."

"And yet, you're a shinobi...?" Yamato asked. He sounded annoyed and interested as well as pissed.

"Who in the ever loving fuck said that I was a shinobi?!"


Dear Tsunade-sama,

So, we figured out that our little "captive" isn't even a shinobi, let alone a missing one. I'd say the late Kazekage put the guy on the Bingo Book and classified him as a "missing nin". Should we continue?

-Yamato

Tsunade sighed. What a disaster. "Shizune, can you send a messenger bird back to Team Yamato? They can turn around and return to Konohagakure."

Shizune glanced at her, looking away from some research she was doing. "Why? Isn't that guy a top priority?"

"The message said that he wasn't even a shinobi, just an animal tamer with a kekkei genkai," Tsunade stated. "He's around sixteen or seventeen, and if I had a saying in it—and I do—he could become a fine shinobi. Maybe even a future shamen or sensor of some sort. Not to mention, with his help we can 'tame' the Kyuubi no Kitsune with no trouble whatsoever."

She frowned, closing the book and setting it down next to a pile of papers. "Well, okay...if you say so. What should we do about the mission, though?"

The Godaime thoughtfully hummed. She smirked in amusement. "Let's just say he got spirited away in the night by a monkey or something."

"That's...not very believable, Tsunade-sama..." Shizune murmured.

"Just send the message already!"


"So your name is Tsukiyomi Kai?" Sakura asked.

Tsukiyomi nodded. They had released him under the orders of Tsunade and they were currently warming by the fire with some rabbit which was caught by a wolf their once-captive-now-friend friend had tamed.

"Oh, so you have a name..." Naruto murmured. He was deliberately shocked and Tsukiyomi could just hear the sarcasm in the blonde's voice.

"Funny," he grumbled. He sighed, feeling like something was weighing his shoulders. He glanced to his right shoulder, finding that it was actually a wolf cub scrambling its way up his back. He glanced at the dark furred fuzzball and gently scowled. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

His only response was a whiny bark.

"Can you understand him?" Yamato asked.

He nodded. "I guess you can call me a shamen, but I wouldn't consider myself one because I can understand all animals and usually a normal shamen can understand one animal and that's all."

"But that makes you unique," Naruto stated. He snorted. "Maybe too unique."

Tsukiyomi rolled his gray eyes. "Oh shut up, snowboy."

"S-snowboy?!" he stammered. "Looks who's talking, wolfboy?!"

"I am not a wolfboy!" he objected.

"Then why are you surrounded by wolf cubs?!"

No one noticed, but he had three four month old cubs in his lap and one six month old on his head. Not to mention, the year old cub on his shoulder that crept up on him earlier.

"Since when were there cubs on him...?" Sakura murmured.

"Since a minute ago," Naruto retorted. He snorted again. "Totally a wolfboy."

"Your just jealous because I can tame a wolf and befriend a Kitsune while you can't," Tsukiyomi muttered.

"Mind you, I gained his trust about a year ago," the blonde stated. "The only thing in the way is the seal that's stuck to my gut!" He patted his stomach with a scowl.

"That's new," Yamato muttered.

Kit, stop doing that. It hurts my ears. Kurama retorted.

Then stop singing. It hurts my ears. Naruto snapped. Silence was his only response. He grinned in pridefully over his thought-to-be victory.

...Then stop being a dobe. The Kyuubi shot back disdainfully. You interrupted my beauty sleep. Prepare for pain, kit! It's coming!

He outwardly scowled and rubbed his ears when Kurama's loud, booming voice echoed through his head. Stop! It hurts!

"Um...Naruto, what the hell are you doing?" Sasuke asked.

The blonde was plugging his ears, scowling in pure annoyance.

"He's annoyed," Tsukiyomi concluded. "It must be the Kyuubi no Kitsune doing that."

"How do you know?" the Uchiha asked suspiciously.

He scowled. "No other explanation, do you have some kind of theory or conclusion?"

"No, of course not."

"Then why the hell are you so suspicious?"

"Because you're still a stranger to me."

"Well, it seems like I'll be sticking around. So you shouldn't play stranger anymore."

"You don't know that!"

"While you were arguing with snowboy, Yamato sent a report to the Hokage. About an hour or so later of more arguing, punches and retorts we got the message back. You three weren't listening, but Yamato stated that you lot of weirdo's are to return with me unharmed, unchained and alive because apparently to her, I have potential of being a Konohagakure no Sato shinobi."

"That explains why we're stuck with the wolfboy," Naruto snorted.

He had finally stopped scowling and made the Kyuubi stop his singing by playing the memory of 'the green things'; AKA Gai and Lee.

"Does everyone give everything a nickname of some kind in this team?" Yamato grumbled.

Sakura turned her head to him. "What do you mean? We have no nicknames for each other."

"Sasuke calls Naruto dobe. Naruto calls Sasuke duckbutt and teme. Tsukiyomi calls Naruto snowboy—for some reason—and Naruto calls Tsukiyomi wolfboy," he stated. "Naruto is also called the Number One Most Unpredictable shinobi by many citizens and other shinobi. And on top of that, most people call you pinky or Billboard Head."

She glared at him. "What was that?"

"Oh, nothing," Yamato answered nervously.

"Good, now, eat. We're getting up before sunset tomorrow so then we can get home early and actually get some sleep," Sakura stated. "Anyone who opposes it will have to face the Wrath of Pinky."

"Doesn't sound very menacing," Tsukiyomi mumbled, "but I'll note how much damage you do to the gaki. Good luck tomorrow morning, snowboy."

Naruto 'glared'. "Quit calling me that! It's Naruto Uzumaki! N-A-R-U-T-O U-Z-U-M-A-K-I!"


Tsukiyomi stared up through the trees towards the sky. He had lied about his surname being Kai, which he felt slightly guilty about. He could never truly lie, and he knew that the pressure will make him break eventually. He'll crack and say that his name is Tsukiyomi Uzumaki. If he knew that 'snowboy' was a fellow member of the clan, he wouldn't have lied. But he couldn't tell with him being a blonde and all. It didn't feel natural in some kind of way.

But then again, he had brown hair.

Sighing, Tsukiyomi rolled over. It felt nice to know that a relative of his was still around. His mother and father died when some shinobi invaded his village. It was destroyed and the brunette had to leave—plus, he was the only survivor of the attack. Ever since then, he was chased down by shinobi, assassins, and even some civilians who hated kekkei genkai's. He had subdued to living in the forest—the one they were staying at.

Tsukiyomi stared in surprised when he saw the dim light of dawn stain the sky. He hadn't gotten an ounce of sleep and Sakura was bound to wake up any moment. Some birds started tweeting and the cold air of morning made the brunette shiver.

He glanced over his shoulder and saw a red robin comfortably relaxing on Naruto's shoulder. It was such a ridiculously peaceful sight. He was a Jinchuuriki. So how in the world was a bird sitting upon his shoulder as if he was a tree branch swaying in the wind...?

Maybe he's just that peaceful... Tsukiyomi thought. He smiled. A miracle indeed. If the animals are acting like that, then so be it. He's the door to a new and bright path.

He glanced back up to the brightening sky.

Might as well fly while I still can, because I know that the world ahead of me is going to be full of peace, chaos and depressing choices...especially with Naruto. He's going to have to make a choice at some point. I don't know what, but it'll be quite the eye opener for his friends...


Did I mention that this is my first fanfiction posted on here? Oh, I didn't? Well it is. Critics welcome. :3