Naruto stared across the open grassland that stretched from where Wave country ended to where the Konoha forest began, it was a bit of a no-mans-land and had gotten the unofficial nickname of 'Little Kusa' and was where the Konoha ninja tended to practice their open land battlefield tactics and tracking, just in case. He was scouting ahead of his team on his return trip after the successful mission to wave to help the old drunk. He had to admit being a little saddened that Haku and Zubuza had to die, but as a ninja, and more importantly, as a barely watched orphan, he was well aware that death was a part of life, especially when you made crappy decisions like they had.
Unfortunately he was currently just the smallest, slightest bit... errm... turned around. He couldn't be lost of course, because an awesome ninja like him would never get lost, but he had to admit that he was a bit confused at the moment, and had been for a bit over an hour now.
"Let's see... I thought the forest was over there... but it was just a stand of trees around a water pit... and then I went that way... and ended up back at the trees... so I went that way... and now i'm back here again... Hmmm..."
Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a coughing laugh behind him. Drawing a kunai he whirled around and prepaired to defend himself, but... there was nothing there...
"Hello?"
there was a couple of heartbeats and the sound of the wind blowing through the grass, but nothing else... Naruto was a bit torn, but though he decided to keep alert he really had no time to investigate.
"Right... Stupid Imagionation."
He holstered his Kunai...
"ok... so... that way is out... and that way is out... gotta be this way!"
with his head high he marched toward the sun...
... an hour later, with the sun on his left he marched right back to where he started from... he knew this because he had apperently missed his pouch with the kunai, and it was still stuck in the ground next to his sandel tracks
"Damn..."
Again he thought he heard a coughing laugh, and again he whirled toward the sound only to stare out over empty grasslands...
"ok... that's just freaky... Left this time!"
and again he took off, and again he found himself right back where he started... this time though he was sure he felt eyes on him.
Six more tries, six more failures, and the feeling of being watched just kept growing untill finally he sat down.
"HEY! I'm sick of this! Help me out or go away!"
There was silence and then he suddenly felt hot breath on the back of his neck.
"AH... hah?"
Naruto's yell of triumph was cut off as the fur covered rock he was poking with his pointer started growing, and didn't stop untill it hit well over seven foot.
"Congratulations Human. It only took you nine hours to notice me"
The voice that spoke was deep, it was raspy, and it held an unmistakable undertone of humor as naruto craned his head back to look up at the massive tiger towering over him. Naruto of course was scared shitless, and so he fell back on the only thing he knew.
"Pfft. Kyuubi's bigger."
There was a couple seconds of silence as the Massive Tiger processed the comment before it broke out in the deep coughing laughter he had heard earlier.
"Yes, I suppose he would be. You have spirit human, and I'm bored. How would you like a summons?"
(A/N) You can thank Manatheron for this... Thanks Manatheron.
