Author's Notes: I decided to get this out as soon as I could so that all five of my readers didn't agonize over the cliffhanger last chapter at the expense of their relationships and obligations. (That was both a joke about how few people are reading this and a joke overstating the importance of this story to said readership. I hope you all got a good chuckle out of it.) Well, don't let me keep you any longer. Here's the next chapter.


44

Chapter 4: Hell, Sanctuary


The crash seemed deafening. Maybe his panicked state emphasized the noise, or perhaps his senses had actually become sharper because of his transformation. That thought brought him back to the fact that he was a fucking fox. He wasn't quite getting over that yet.

As he struggled to orient his fox body from its awkward position on the floor, his ears twitched, picking up hurried footsteps heading down the hallway toward his room. The crash must've been as loud as he thought it had been. This was not good. He quickly untangled himself and stood up on all four paws, looking toward the doorway. It registered in his mind that he needed to hide. Or at least do something aside from just standing there…too late.

A nurse burst through the door, hitting the light switch in one practiced motion. "Mr. Uchiha, are you-?"

The lights came on, and the words died in her throat. She stood there, open-mouthed, and they had a staring match that seemed to last an eternity. His tensed body probably didn't help his current situation. He barely came up to her waist, but he probably looked ready to pounce. He had to do something.

"Nurse-"

She screamed and quickly slammed the door as she dashed into the hallway. He could hear her shouts echoing down the hallway as she put as much distance between them as possible. This was not good at all.

A brief moment later, the alarm began blaring.

Not good at all. The village-wide alarm system had been installed after the Nine-Tailed Fox attack, and it was to only be pressed in the direst circumstances, namely another fox attack. Apparently this qualified for that category. Whether the nurse was overreacting or not had no meaning now; at any moment, hunters and other defenders of the village would descend upon the hospital, armed to the teeth with weapons. He had no way to defend himself and, based on the nurse's reaction, no way to plead his case. At best, he would become a test subject in Danzo's master plan, just like the small fox they'd captured, but that wasn't any comfort. He had no way to prove that he'd been Sasuke not even a day ago. They might even think he'd eaten…himself.

And at worst, they'd kill him on the spot. He had to escape.

Before that thought fully formed in his mind, he felt a strange tingling sensation course through his body, like supernatural hands were stretching his body and adding weight. He felt heavier. Not only that, he felt…longer. As though something was growing out from behind him. He looked backward. No. Not again. Two tails. He had grown another tail, and everything around him seemed a bit smaller. Or maybe he was bigger….

Was this what other foxes went through when they grew extra tails? He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want any association with foxes. But his free will had been blatantly thrust aside, and now his home was a death trap.

The blaring alarm brought him back to the present. He needed to leave before he was surrounded, if he wasn't already. He moved over to the door, thanking the gods that the handles only had to be pushed down as opposed to turned. It was probably for the hospital staff's benefit, but now it had possibly saved his life. He tried to imagine grappling with the door knob if it had been round. The notion would have amused him at any other time.

Carefully prodding the door open with his snout, Sasuke peeked into the hallway. The lights were dimmed at night, and that could prove quite advantageous. He glanced down at his black fur in a silent moment of appreciation, then looked up again, scanning both directions the hallway lead. They were eerie at night, deserted, but not for long. He could hear pounding footsteps not too far off. Luckily, he knew the hospital layout pretty well, despite avoiding this place whenever possible. He took off in the opposite direction of the footsteps, looking for the nearest set of stairs. A glance at a passing sign told him he was on the third floor.

His fox body started to feel more familiar, as much as that sickened him. His mind adjusted well to having four legs instead of two. It seemed he'd been granted some fox instincts along with his new body. How convenient. Still, it was saving his life; he couldn't complain too much. His fluid movements and padded feet barely made any noise as he bounded down the hallway. Good. Maybe that would buy him some more time.

He reached a staircase and carefully climbed down. It was almost embarrassing how difficult stairs were with four legs, but he didn't have time to think about it. He reached the bottom, where an emergency exit glowed faintly in the semi-darkness. He hesitated for a moment, but realized this was probably his best chance of escape. The hunters had probably just reached his room by now, and, if they had all been informed of the details of this "crisis," were probably watching all of the main entrances, at least. He didn't like relying on the ignorance of his opponents to save him, but he had no other options in this situation.

He carefully pushed the door open, wincing at the additional alarm puncturing the already pulsing air. Well, now they knew someone had used an emergency exit. Hopefully that didn't set him back too far. He glanced around, but he'd come out on a more secluded side of the hospital, so he saw no one. However, this was no time to relax. He quickly crept across the street to the nearest alleyway, where he paused for a moment to consider his options.

Quite honestly, he had very few. He could attempt to hide in the village, but he had no way of knowing how long his…condition…would last, and the possibility of discovery was way too high for his liking. So the only other option was leaving the village, but where would he go? He would never get anywhere just running from place to place. What if his condition never went away without help? What if he had to find a cure to return himself to his real body? He could think of only two places this cure could possibly be. One, it could be with the little red fox imprisoned somewhere in Danzo's compound. At this point, attempting to find the fox would be utter suicide. Security was on high alert, and his compound under the Hokage tower was one of the most secure places in the village.

That left only one option, one he would never consider under normal circumstances. However, these were the farthest from normal circumstances he'd ever been in his life. Insane times called for insane measures.

He had to return to Area 44. The Forest of Death. The belly of the beast. But now he was a beast. How fitting. Very well, if that was his only chance to change back to normal, he would take it.

Mind fixed on his new goal, he decided to make his way toward the front gates. He once again lamented his reliance on chance. Hunters guarded the front gates at all hours, especially during a crisis. In fact, they might have already closed the gate, locking him in the village. He hoped that instead, they'd been called away to help at the hospital. Standard protocol was to close the gate during a crisis, but crises came along so rarely, and he was just one fox. He could only hope.

With that knowledge, he took off, padded feet masking his movement. As he wove through back alleys and between buildings, the alarm continued to blare, and he began to hear shouts and see flashlight beams as hunters desperately searched for him. So they'd figured out he had left the hospital. Luckily, his enhanced senses helped him avoid any surprise confrontations. He didn't want to have to hurt anyone. He would especially hate to encounter Kakashi or Shikamaru, not only because, out of everyone, he respected them the most as comrades; but also because, out of everyone, he respected them the most as comrades. As in they could probably kill him before he had a chance to react, no matter how familiar he became with this fox body.

Speaking of his fox body, he began to feel strange again. It was the same feeling as before, that feeling of expanding and lengthening. It almost caused him to trip, and he was forced to stop for a moment as a wave of dizziness accompanied this new change. The dizziness was absent last time, but he had no way of knowing which was natural. He looked behind him to find another tail waving in the slight breeze. Three. He had three tails. When would it end?

No time to think about that. He wasn't far now. He'd been zigzagging through the eerily abandoned village for a long time. He knew why it seemed abandoned, of course. Civilians were required to stay inside during a crisis unless the evacuation alarm went off. That left the streets deserted except for the patrolling hunters. It also helped that it was the middle of the night.

But now the end was in sight, literally. He finally reached the series of buildings directly in front of the gate. This was it. Was he free? He peeked out from behind the final building.

They were closing the gate. But it wasn't closed yet. There was hope.

There was a rather large gap between the outermost buildings and the wall, probably so that if the wall collapsed, it wouldn't destroy a sizable amount of the village on its way down. A reasonable decision, but now it presented a huge problem for him. Hunters lined the top of the wall, shining searchlights throughout the area in case he tried to escape. Well, they assumed right. But there was no time to consider the danger. The gate was almost shut.

He had to move. Now.

With that thought, Sasuke dashed out of his final sanctuary. He made a beeline for the gate, attempting to dodge the searchlights for as long as possible, but it was no use. A searchlight swung faster than he'd anticipated, and he was caught in a blinding beam of light.

Instantly, he heard shouts all along the wall. More searchlights pinpointed him, following his every move. And suddenly, a kunai thudded into the ground where he'd been a second before. They were firing their weapons. A moment after that realization hit, kunai rained down, and he was forced to move unpredictably in the hope of avoiding a surely fatal wound. Once he was hit once, it was probably over. Kunai hurt. He didn't think he could keep up his current speed if one was lodged in his back. Or it might kill him instantly. That option was always open.

Amidst this onslaught, the gate continued to close. It appeared that they sped up the process as soon as they spotted him. He struggled to push himself faster, but a realization hit him like all of those kunai at once.

He wasn't going to make it.

No! No, he had to do something. He had to make it. He couldn't give up. He couldn't die like this, a monster in his own home. But what could he do?

Chakra! He'd forgotten about chakra! Did foxes have chakra? Did it work the same as it did with humans? He could only hope.

Desperately attempting to channel chakra, Sasuke concentrated on his paws, on the feeling of speed that he desperately desired. And slowly, he felt himself moving faster. No choice but to move in a straight line. No time to think about the kunai. He pushed himself to his limits; his paws became mere blurs.

His fur brushed the massive gates as they swung closed with a loud boom behind him.

Even as the guards attempted to swing the searchlights around, he escaped into the trees, leaving the shouts and shrieking alarm behind. They slowly faded as he came closer to the towering tree line of the Forest of Death. There was no going back now.

He finally came upon the sole unbroken fence encircling the forest. Pushing more chakra into his limbs, he cleared the fence in one massive bound. He then navigated the myriad ruined remains of old, overgrown fences before the impenetrable canopy of the forest enshrouded him.

After an extended period of hopping across roots and pushing through underbrush, Sasuke finally decided that he was far enough into the forest that no human would find him, especially at night. He hoped that nothing else decided to find him, as he'd never felt more vulnerable. He felt chakra exhaustion gnawing at his senses, and with only slight hesitation, he buried himself underneath some bushes and collapsed into sleep.


What woke him was the sound of rustling in the area. It took him a brief moment to come to his senses before his eyes snapped open and he tensed. He was a fox, and he was in the Forest of Death. Those two facts, lost in the bliss of sleep, came rushing back and made his ears twitch at the slightest noise.

He carefully got up, but the crackling leaves underneath him made him wince. The rustling outside of his makeshift shelter ceased. Well, better see what fate awaited him. He'd rather find out while it was far away than have it find him in the bushes.

Sasuke carefully moved until his head broke through the leaves. The clearing in front of him actually had a decent amount of sunlight thanks to a few gaps in the canopy. The stillness of the forest once again put him on edge. The noise he'd heard had come from directly in front of him. Where had it gone?

"Hey!" Directly behind him.

Sasuke jerked, tumbling into the clearing. A combination of shock and instinct fueled his attempt to leave the immediate vicinity of the voice. He landed quite awkwardly on his back, and the first things he caught sight of as his vision straightened were his tails waving above him. Specifically that there were five of them. Had he grown more while he was sleeping? That was the only reasonable explanation, as reasonable as anything was right now.

"Ah, sorry! Didn't mean to startle you!" said the voice. Right, he couldn't forget about the voice.

He rolled onto his stomach, carefully scooting away from the unknown creature. However, what emerged from the brush directly into a beam of sunlight made his jaw drop.

It was a fox. A six-tailed fox that seemed a bit larger than him, but what really caught his attention was the fox's golden yellow fur that practically shimmered in the sunlight. Bright blue eyes gazed at him with curiosity.

It registered in the back of his mind that that fur would be worth a fortune.

The fox padded closer to him, forcing Sasuke to take a step back as he raised himself off of the ground. "You okay?" The fox seemed to grin. An odd sight. "Hey, I'm looking for someone. Actually, two someones. Could you help me…?"

He seemed to see Sasuke fully for the first time. He moved closer, sniffing the air. "Hmm, I don't think I've ever seen you before. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a pitch-black fox before. That's awesome! What part of the forest are you from?"

Sasuke stood there, dumbfounded. All sense of self-preservation went out the window for a moment. After a brief pause, the fox shook his head, laughing. "I'm sorry; Hinata would kill me for being so rude. Let me introduce myself before I ask a million personal questions."

The fox seemed to stand straighter, though his tails continued to swing lazily behind him. "My name's Uzumaki Naruto. What's yours?"