:Tuesday:
He could barely wait till sunrise so he woke a few minutes early to head out. His sleeping nephew rolled over off his head onto the earthy floor when he got up. He picked the child up gently by his scruff and carried him off to his parents that weren't there.
The rest of the litter were there though so he set the child amongst the others and watched him cuddle up to them. Their parents must have been out hunting. He left the den quietly and stretched out once he was outside.
"You're awake! We brought breakfast early." Itachi beamed joyously with a smile over to his younger brother. Kakashi was walking along beside his him with four dead rabbits in his mouth by their tails.
"Thank you both."
"No problem at all. Are the children still sleep?" He asked with a swish of his tail when he came to a halt in front of his brother.
The Alpha nodded as Kakashi placed the rabbits in front of their den.
"We should wake them." The silver lined wolf announced while he headed inside to wake his offspring.
"I'll take one to leave."
"Huh? Why?" The older brother questioned his kin that had been acting strange lately.
Sasuke took one of the rabbits by its tail in his mouth and glanced back at his brother. His ears dropped making an apologetic face before he took off.
"Wait! Who's going to do the patrol… today…?" His dawned off as his little brother disappeared out of site into the woods again.
"Rabbit?!"
"Fooood!"
"Movee overrr!"
"Get off of me ChiChi!"
"Papaaa!"
The hurried voices of the hungry children mewled from within the den as they tried to get untangled with their fathers help. Itachi sighed figuring he'd get his mate to do the patrol party today and when his brother comes back he'd get some answers.
~oOOo~
The sun was rising as the wolf raced through the woods to the spot where they'd promised to meet. He'd made a list of things to ask the fox with first being a relocation of their meeting place. He should have did that last night but he didn't have time to even think properly.
Once he was there the sun was up in the orange tanned sky mixing with purple hue. He dropped the rabbit on the ground in a hurry so he could sniff around. His tail swished franticly as his ears were erect listening out for any sudden movement.
"You beat me here…that's not good." Naruto jumped out from amongst the bushes into the clearing. He landed with a soft thud and sat on his hind legs with his tail up and moving back and forth with the breeze innocently.
"Kitsu-"
"Aye! My names Naruto. I don't do pet names wolf!" The fox snapped with a sly grin at the end. He strutted over to the happy wolf and almost cringed at the odd feeling.
"Well you may call me whatever you wish Naruto."
The Alpha then hunched over to nudge the dead rabbit with his nose towards the approaching mammal.
Naruto stopped to lean his head down with his ears back to sniff the presented kill.
"You didn't catch this?" He revealed as he continued pick up other scents.
"No, my brother's mate did."
"Hm...Then I don't want it."
The fox held his head up high and turned his back on the confused wolf.
"Why?"
"Because you didn't catch it! Plus it's a rabbit…they're not exactly a first courting gift either."
"Courting?" Sasuke perked up at the inspiring news. He had never really courted with anyone so this was a big step for him.
"No I didn't mean it like tha-"
"So we have a chance?!" The wolf ushered in a hurry while stepping up beside his questionable mate.
"No we don't I-…Forget it. Where is my gift then?"
"Somewhere out of Tsuyoi territory?"
"Fair enough." Naruto cooed playfully with a nip at the Uchiha's ear.
The Alpha's ear twitched slightly at the attempted contact. He led the way blushing through raven fur the whole time.
"Pardon me for asking but you are the Alpha of your pack correct?"
"Yes." Sasuke answered as they headed a good distance away into 'unclaimed' territory.
"So shouldn't you be back home doing Alpha business instead of mingling with a fox?"
"My brother can handle it…My turn, are there more of you?"
"Of course…why?"
They came upon a river crossing that stretched far on for miles down the mountain. No one ever came over here too much or claimed this territory because the rushing waters were dangerous for pups. At the banks the two stopped to look around.
"You're kind of a Myth so to speak…."
"Why do you say that?"
"Well because no one has seen a fox for a long time now. After the war apparently, many people just assumed you never existed."
"Hmm, is that so…?"
"Yes?" Sasuke halted to see the once again distant look on the fox.
"Hah, no point in dwelling in the past. Where's my gift wolfy?" Naruto said with hidden urgency in his voice to get off the topic.
"Um…." The pack leader looked up and down the river for any hint of a worthy present.
"I guess you really don't love me then."
"I do it's just…I've never done this before…" He admitted his folly while lowering his head in shame.
The fox was arguing with himself on how pathetic the wolf was and yet somehow cute at the same time. He was definitely more emotional than most of his kind that he'd met.
"Oh forget it then. I'm not the one for gifts anyway…I'm more for fighting!" Naruto smiled cunningly, knowing that it would distract him.
"Fighting?"
"ON GAURD!" The fox shouted and launched at the un-expecting wolf, making them roll off along the banks way to close to the raging river. They ended up in a position they were way too familiar with.
"Heh-heh not bad wolfy." He leaned up and flicked his tongue over the wolf's nose.
Sasuke chuckled and returned the gesture by licking his mate's cheek more than once.
Naruto giggled and pawed the wolf's muzzle to stop.
"How come we can't be together but we can spend time together?" Sasuke asked after a few minutes of play.
"Because you're a wolf…" Those words meant allot more than the Alpha thought they did.
"Just because we are of different breed?"
"No."
"Then why?"
"I can't tell you so stop asking! We can't be together! Why don't you just except that?!"
The fox squirmed his way out from under the wolf, not liking the change in conversation. He started to walk away with his head down and not a single farewell.
"Naruto…wait! I'm sor-"
"You should go home wolfy…I think they need you right about now." Naruto hinted with a strange regretful tone and his back to the wolf.
"What do you mean?"
Sasuke got no response as the fox took off suddenly down the river banks. The wolf felt his heart racing all of a sudden as he got that instinctive feeling that something was seriously wrong. He dashed back around trees and over bushes towards home. Upon getting closer he could hear mournful howls and the crying from startled children.
When he made it back to the den he saw everyone fretting about over the young and others.
"Sasuke where have you been?!" Sakura demanded to know as she darted over from her den opening, leaving Lee with the pups.
"I was busy! What's going on?" He looked around in a panic upon not being greeted by his brother or Kakashi first.
"Busy?! The Tsuyoi attacked! Kakashi was on patrol at the time with half the group while the others stayed. They…they ambushed the patrol! Then they attacked us directly like it was practiced! No one was prepared! I-It was so early and it happened so fast that everyone just defended what they could!" She found herself stammering for air after that rush of information and the tragedy that had took place.
"Where's my brother? Where's Kakashi?"
"Kakashi and Itachi are at the Med-Den….for some reason they were the only ones injured terribly besides the patrol…." The cherry blossom wolf looked down in despair for reasons unknown to the Alpha.
"Where are their young?"
"Itachi tried his best but…but Senbei…he…he killed them all except for Ibuki….we couldn't find her so we're guessing he took her and…"
Sasuke stared at the she wolf, not processing what he'd just heard.
"Senbei was here….?"
"This was personal Sasuke. He went straight for Itachi and his pups! What did you do to him?!" She raged out of fear earning the clans attention.
This was way out of the norm for Senbei to direct a full on attack for just one specific pack member. The Tsuyoi Alpha has done many things but he has never done something like this during mating season.
To top it off Sasuke had been leaving allot recently so this rose their suspicion more. The Alpha could sense the tension rising amongst the pack and took a hesitated paw forward.
"I'm sorry fo-"
"For abandoning us?!" someone from the pack interrupted.
"Yeah where were you?!"
More stirs of questions and anger arose towards the unprepared pack leader. Everyone wanted to know why this happened and why he wasn't here. As they started to swarm him he made a dash for the med-den.
After entry through the vine like curtains he saw Kakashi and Itachi beside each other on their sides breathing heavily against the den walls as the med wolf Tsunade looked them over.
"You've caused quite a stir pup…where were you?" Tsunade asked as she bit back the vexation building up in her voice. She was a pale-ish yellow wolf with a purple painted diamond in the middle of her forehead to show her med ranking. Currently she was the only one…
Sasuke just walked over to his brother and sniffed his unconscious body worriedly.
"Stop."
He backed off at her words with his head down.
"Where were you?"
"Where are the pups?" Sasuke asked in an absent voice, not wanting to believe what Sakura had told him.
"All over their den….A team's over there cleaning up the place." She didn't mean to sound so nonchalant…She was just angry at him and the wolf responsible for such a heinous crime.
The Alpha choked and collapsed on the floor, bringing his paws over his eyes.
"Don't cry now. It's too late to weep…. That monster has their daughter." She looked over the raven that was crying softly trying not to fully break.
"The only reason I'm not blaming you for this is because…it's as if you weren't supposed to be here. From the patrol that barely made it back they told me how Senbei ambushed them and went after Kakashi directly. He then let his party deal with them so no one got back to warn us. Once he felt he injured Kakashi enough he came here with the rest of his group…."
"I was so busy trying to protect the medicine I didn't notice that they weren't really trying to kill any of us until I heard an awful scream from Itachi's den. By the time I got there with some others it was too late and they retreated…. This was a direct hit at the people you love rather than the whole pack. I went up to the mountains a while ago to consult the elders and they believe the same thing."
"So if I was here this wouldn't have happened." Sasuke groaned in a fit of self-pity through tears.
"Even if you were here the outcome might have still been the same. With that said I ask again. Where the hell have you been?"