Chapter 10: A Dog

Naruto looked at Teinei disbelievingly. When the climate had change and Naruto and Kurisutaru pulled on warmer clothes, Teinei did not. He didn't seem bothered by the weather in the least. Was he impervious to the cold or something? "Are we almost there?" he asked somewhat irritably.

To answer his question, Kurisutaru pointed up ahead of them in the wooded area to a small house. "There it is," she said.

"Why is there a genjutsu around it?" Teinei asked.

"It's to hide its size and make it less noticeable," she replied. Striding up to the door, she knocked just enough so it could be heard.

A little boy peeked out past the chain lock. "Who are you?" His hair was jet-black with white wisps, and short and spiky.

Kurisutaru smiled warmly. "Are your parents or Yuuta home?"

"Kaido, what are you doing?" a voice asked from inside, "Who's at the door?" A girl approximately the same age as Kurisutaru walked up behind the toddler. Her hair was long and white with black wisps where Kaido's were white: a near-perfect opposite. She gasped when she saw her visitors, immediately unlocking the door. "Kurisutaru, come in!"

"Where is everybody?" Kurisutaru asked as they entered.

"Mom and Dad are on a mission," Yuuta said, scooping Kaido in her arms. "What are you doing here?"

"A mission," she answered. Motioning to her company, she said, "These are my friends Naruto and Teinei."

"It's been years since we visited the Land of Fire. How did you know where our house was?"

"Marugo told me."

"Ah, I see. Well, I was just about to start supper. Are you staying?"

"If you don't mind; yes."

"Can you watch Kaido while I cook?"

"Sure," Teinei answered, predicting his friend's next sentence.

"I'll help," Kurisutaru offered, following her distant cousin to the kitchen.

"Want to see my new toy?" Kaido asked the visitors.

"Okay," Teinei agreed, and he was immediately being pulled by the hand to sit on the couch.

Naruto sat on the floor, shoes removed.

Kaido began showing both of them his toys, visually proud. He suddenly stopped, taking great interest in the whiskers on the blonde's face. "How did you get those?" he asked curiously.

"These? I've always had them." Feeling only slightly awkward, he let the child poke at the whisker-like birthmarks on his face. As he poked, Naruto asked Teinei, "So, how is she related to these guys?"

"Kurisutaru's mother is a cousin of Yuuta's father. The entire Tetsu clan has roots that trace back here at some point. Even some members of the Buke clan do, too," Teinei answered, not paying attention.

There was a very light series of taps from below the floorboards of the room. "What's that?" Naruto asked.

"That's Soichi," Kaido chirped as he pulled carefully at the skin on the blonde's cheeks to test if the marks stretched. "She's probably hungry."

"Is that your cat?" Naruto asked.

"No," he answered simply. "She's our--"

Yuuta entered. "Dog," she finished quickly. "We can't have her out when guests are over, especially when our parents aren't home."

"Does she have a disease or something?" the blonde asked.

Her nose twisted, "She's not suitable for company. Anyway, dinner is ready."

Teinei watched as Kaido pouted angrily, glaring at Yuuta with obedient silence, but clearly not understanding the situation. Naruto stood with the two-year-old in his arms as Kaido continued to investigate the whisker marks, walking to the dining room. The child refused to be removed from Naruto's arms and ate while sitting in his lap at the table.

Kurisutaru couldn't resist cracking a smile whenever she looked at them. She was surprised when he didn't grow annoyed over dinner, as he was being pelted with questions and news about Kaido, himself. The table grew quiet when more light taps sounded beneath the floor in the living room.

"I'll go check on her," Yuuta announced as she stood.

"Can I go see Soichi?" Kaido asked, "Can she come out?"

"No," Yuuta said sternly. Leaving the dining room, she disappeared into the living room.

Kaido folded his arms and pouted, "But Soichi was going to show me a new trick today," he grumbled.

"Did you teach her a trick?" Naruto asked.

"No. She learns them and shows me. Then, Mommy, Daddy, and Yuuta get mad."

"Why?"

Kaido shrugged. "They say she's dangerous, but I think she's really nice!"

Kurisutaru didn't like what she was hearing in the least. "Dangerous how? Should Yuuta be down there by herself?"

There was a loud thump that made Naruto jump to his feet, Kaido still in his arms. Shifting the child to his back, he ran to the living room. "Yuuta, are you okay?"

She stood in the doorway, rubbing the top of her fingers and hand soothingly as it bruised. "I'm fine. I just tripped by accident and landed on my hand."

"Let Kurisutaru take a look at your hand," Naruto said. When they re-entered the dining room, Kurisutaru and Teinei were starting to clean up. "Hey, can you take a look at her hand/"

Kurisutaru held out her hand for her relative's and turned it over gently in her grasp. Closely examining the hand, she mentally noted that it appeared to be from punching something which curbed around the shape of Yuuta's fist. "There's some swelling from the initial impact, but no harm done. You'll be fine in a minute or two," she said aloud.

"I didn't think it would be very bad," Yuuta said, "Kaido, time for bed; it's late."

He slid off Naruto's back and whined, "But I want to see Soichi!"

"She's already asleep," Yuuta told him, scooping the child in her arms. "I'll be back in a minute."

"That definitely wasn't from falling," Kurisutaru noted quietly when Yuuta was gone, "She punched something."

"Are you sure?" Teinei asked.

"Are you saying she punched the dog?" Naruto asked after she nodded.

"If it was a dog, she wouldn't have wasted time with bending over and just kicked it," Teinei reasoned. "And, if she did, the dog could've bit her face and I don't think Yuuta would take that chance."

"So, what's down there?" Naruto asked.

"Whatever it is, it's big and it's not an animal," Teinei decided. He looked to Kurisutaru. "Do you want to check it out?"

She unconsciously tinkered with her locket between her fingers in thought. "No, not right now. If we see something we shouldn't, we'll wear out our welcome."

"We're supposed to ignore it, then?" Naruto asked.

"For now," Teinei confirmed.

Yuuta soon returned and cleaned from dinner with Kurisutaru's help. Afterwards, she escorted Kurisutaru to her parents' vacant bedroom to sleep, and then she escorted Teinei and Naruto into the room that would soon be Kaido's. "He's sleeping in my room for now until the final touches on this room are done," Yuuta explained. "Goodnight, guys."

The moment she closed the door, Teinei opened the window and Naruto asked, "Where are you going?"

"The roof; you can have the bed," Teinei answered. Quickly climbing out the window, he closed it enough so the outside cold wouldn't affect the room's temperature but so he could re-enter later.

Naruto rolled his eyes and lay down to sleep. Hours later, something caused him to wake up and he couldn't fall asleep again. Giving up, he crawled out of bed and snuck downstairs, and he stepped outside. It was cold, but the wind was still as he walked around the woods. Looking up at the moon, he recognized it to be waning gibbous.

"Pretty, isn't it?" a girl asked form a tree above him.

He jumped, not expecting to have company. "What?"

"The moon: it's pretty," she repeated in paraphrase.

"What are you doing out here?" He saw her long, white hair appear to glow in the moon's light. When she looked down at him, her eyes were an icy grey-blue and deep in thought.

"I come out here at night to play."

"How?"

Her lips turned into a slight from with her conflicting inner thoughts before she leapt down gracefully from the tree. He saw that her jeans were black and her sweater was baby pink, made of undeniably warm fleece. "Do you want to see?"

"Sure," Naruto answered.

She thought more, as if contemplating his reaction or maybe his sincerity. Once she was satisfied with her conclusion, she knelt down on one knee and scooped up a handful of snow with a pebble. Standing, she plucked a twig from the tree and set it in the snow in her hands next to the pebble already there. Closing her other hand over the top, she took a deep breath as her eyes glowed brighter with a hint of green and gray swimming in her irises. When her hand moved from over the snow, he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Is that for real?" Naruto wondered aloud in awe. In her hand where the snow had been was a miniature waterfall. It was a rocky, snowed-over landscape with a few tiny, scattered trees. The water actually ran through it and pooled at the bottom, no source of water in sight. It was accurate down to the very last detail, but absent of animals.

"What do you think?" she asked cheerily.

"That's amazing!"

"Hey!" a voice called.

With a gasp, she ducked to the ground behind the tree, dropping the tiny waterfall as it turned into snow once again. "Who was that?" she asked quietly.

Before he could answer, Kaido yelled again, "Where did you go?"

Naruto watched as a smile stretched over her face as it lit up happily, almost in tears from joy as she stood. "Kaido!" she called, running from behind the tree and straight to him. She knelt slightly in her run so he could jump into her arms in a hug. Pulling him away from her stomach a moment, she winced. "Be careful. I hurt my tummy," she said.

"What happened, Soichi?" Kaido asked worriedly.

"Wait, Soichi?" Naruto asked, "This is Soichi?"

"Yeah, that's me," she answered, pulling Kaido closer protectively, "What about it?"

"How do you two know each other?"

"She's my big sister," Kaido chirped.

"Quiet, Kaido," Soichi murmured.

"How old are you? Why were you locked downstairs and then Yuuta lied about it? And how did you do that thing with the snow?" Naruto pressed.

"I'm eleven and Yuuta is… cautious."

Naruto took a step towards her and she quickly took two steps back. "Why did she punch you in the stomach?"

"I don't have to answer you!"

"Why do they hate you?"

Soichi stopped in her tracks. "What?"

"I saw it in Yuuta's face when she said you name," he answered softly.

She waited several moments before asking, "Have you ever heard of the nine Bijuu?"

"More or less," he replied carefully.

"How about Jinchuuriki?"

"I know a thing or two about them."

Once again Soichi drew out the silence, full of caution. "I'm the Jinchuuriki for the Bijuu Houkou."

Naruto blinked twice. It made complete sense to him now. The hate and masked fear in Yuuta's face should have given it away immediately. "Are you serious?"

"Why would I want someone to believe I was a demonic freak if I was normal?" she answered, nearly in tears.

"You're not a demonic freak," he replied, "because then I would be, too."

Soichi's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean? You can't possibly be…"

"Why not? I've met another Jinchuuriki besides you, so I don't find your story that hard to believe." Naruto glanced down at the sleeping Kaido in her arms. "He should go inside so he doesn't get sick out here."

She looked at the boy curled up in her arms against her body. "But, I don't want to go back down there," Soichi replied softly, "I hate it there."

"I'll take him in, then." Naruto watched as she thought and heard a faint grumble of her stomach. "When was the last time you ate?"

"Breakfast, I think," she answered. "I was wondering… which Bijuu is it?"

"Kyuubi," he said quietly.

"Hey, Naruto?" Kurisutaru called.

He turned to see her approaching, wearing blue-and-white flannel pajamas. "Hey, Kurisutaru!"

"It's the middle of the night; what are you doing out here?" she asked.

"I was just talking to--" He turned back and Soichi was gone. Naruto jumped when he heard the tree whisper.

"Who's she?" the voice asked.

"She's okay," Naruto assured. "Kurisutaru, this is Soichi." He motioned to where he heard the voice come from.

"Soichi is a tree? Are you feeling all right?"

"What? No! Soichi is--"

"Maybe you should go to bed."

"I'm fine!" he insisted.

To stop the arguing, Soichi slowly released the illusion on herself and Kaido that caused them to look like part of the tree's trunk. The girl's morphing appearance left Kurisutaru momentarily speechless. She felt like smacking herself in the forehead for not figuring it out. Kurisutaru had read files on all the Jinchuuriki that had been documented so far in the Hokage's library. Name: Soichi Raito. Last recorded location: rural Land of Snow.

"Kaido will get sick if he stays out here. You can sleep with me for the night," Kurisutaru said.

Soichi considered this, apprehensive. "I don't know…"

"Naruto, go inside and bring a sandwich to my room, please," Kurisutaru said. Speaking loudly, she called, "Teinei? Come here, please?"

Teinei arrived in moments. "What is it?"

"Can you put Kaido back to bed without Yuuta noticing?"

"No problem," he replied. Teinei offered his arms out for Kaido, but waited until Soichi surrendered him before taking the boy away. He was gone in a flash.

"Soichi, you come with me, okay?" Kurisutaru said with a warm, comforting smile. Taking the girl by the hand, she led Soichi into the house and to her assigned bedroom. Naruto was waiting there with the sandwich he was asked to make.

As Soichi ate, the three ninjas discussed. Teinei left for the roof after some time and Naruto asked, "So, what are we going to do when Yuuta finds out we know?"

"We'll handle it tomorrow. For now, just go to sleep. Goodnight," Kurisutaru decided, ushering him out.

Curled up now in the large bed, Soichi's tired eyes traveled up to them. "Naruto? Kurisutaru? Thanks."

"No problem," Naruto said as he left.

Kurisutaru smiled as she closed the door. "You're welcome." Turning off the lights, Soichi was already asleep as Kurisutaru climbed in bed, asleep almost instantly from the night's activities tiring toll.