I don't own Naruto. But if I did, Neji would have tarot as a hobby. Wouldn't that be appropriate for someone so interested in fate?
Chapter 11: The Foxes Hidden In The Leaves
The next day Iruka had to go to the academy to handle the end of the term, meaning he needed someone to watch over Akane. Since she got along with Anko he asked if she could do it for a few hours. The problem was finding her, since Anko usually was a fairly private person. Why wouldn't she be, considering that most saw her and thought of Orochimaru the most? Anko was a lot like Naruto in that both wanted to be recognized as themselves but if they didn't want to be found they couldn't be. Odd considering it shouldn't be that hard to find a boy wearing all orange and a woman with purple hair.
In the end, Iruka couldn't find her and had to leave Akane at the hokage tower to be watched over for the day then he went to the academy. Now, if Akane was responsible, she would have gone right to Tsunade and Shizune, told them the situation, and awaited the results.
Too bad Uzumaki's aren't known to be responsible. Neither are fox demons for that matter.
Akane waited until Iruka was out of sight and just walked off before anyone noticed she was there. She figured there shouldn't be any problems if she tried spending some time alone for once. After all, her father had done that for many years and survived. And he was a human. She was a powerful bijuu with most of Naruto's imprinted memories. Surely she could handle any trouble that might come along. Besides, she had a strong desire to have some Naruto-esque fun and that was always better when there were no supervisors around.
Now the hard part was thinking of what to do. If she got lucky she might find some stray paint cans lying around. Naruto had left her some ryo to use if she needed to, and she wondered what to do with it after some Ichiraku ramen. Not hungry at the moment, she just walked thru Konoha, looking around and hoping to find some kids to hang out with. Most weren't out at the moment, as they were at school, so she eventually ended up at one of the parks. This one had no playground, it was more of a nature center. The scent and sounds of the forested area made her feel really comfortable and at home. To pass the time, she decided to see if she could find a way to bring some of these scents to Naruto's apartment.
While she walked down the stone pathway she ended up running into Ino who was looking over some flowerbeds. Ino saw her out of the corner of her eyes and turned to greet the young girl. "Good morning Akane-chan. What brings you here?"
"Good morning... umm... sorry, I can't remember your name. 'Pig-san' is all that comes to mind. And I'm looking for things that smell good."
"The name's Ino. And if you want flowers or something you came to the right person. Anything in particular you want?"
Akane didn't respond right away. "How about...? I don't know. Just whatever smells good I guess." Then to toy with the ponytailed girl she added another question. "Know any flowers that smell like ramen?"
Ino didn't know whether she should facefault or groan. "That's it. You need some feminine guidance. Stick close to me and learn a little."
For the next hour Ino tried to educate Akane on flowers and scented herbs. Akane found she preferred the scents of jasmine, roses, and cinnamon, while she greatly disliked mint. She said some rather vulgar things regarding the aroma and Ino scolded her on her use of such language. She also scolded the young girl for trying to drink right out of a small pond that had fish, frogs, and ducks swimming in it. While she was there, but before Ino noticed, Akane made an interesting discovery.
She found a white fox vixen with grey-tipped ears, feet, and tail. It had been trying to get a drink too and kept a curious eye on her from a distance. Akane smiled at seeing a fox nearby and reached out to pet it. It backed away, quietly growling 'Stranger' in canine-speak at her.
"No threat." Akane told it back in canine-speak.
"Human village my territory. You're an intruder."
"Why are you here?" Akane asked.
"Akane-chan? What are you doing?" Ino asked as she brought the girl a small water bottle to drink from.
"Just noticed this cute little fox and I wanted a closer look." She answered.
Ino took a longer look at the fox. 'Hmm... something's not right. A normal fox shouldn't be white in this environment.' Ignoring it for now, she turned back to Akane. "Say Akane, did Naruto leave you a house key?" She nodded. "Good. What do you say we go there and give the place a woman's touch? After all, you wouldn't want to live in a place that reeks of too much testosterone do you?"
"Is that what that smell was?" Akane asked, not realizing Ino was joking. "I thought it was dirty laundry or something."
After a long snicker, Ino led Akane out of the park and back towards Naruto's place. While they were walking Akane noticed that the white fox was tailing them with about two meters distance between them. She stopped walking but signaled for the fox to come closer, which it cautiously did.
"How many tails do you have?" It bluntly asked her.
Akane looked intrigued. "You can tell I'm a fox demon?"
"Your scent is clear. I'm a one-tail. What are you?"
"I have nine tails. Why?"
The white fox almost face-faulted. "Nine? That is impossible!"
"Believe it. I'll prove it later in private."
"Akane-chan, why are you growling?" Ino asked, having to backtrack a bit to rejoin the girl who had stopped walking.
"Just answering a question."
Ino looked confused. "You mean, you were talking to that fox?"
"Yeah. Weren't you already told I could?"
Ino then remembered hearing from Naruto that Akane had some connection to an Inuzuka-like clan. "Oh yeah. Must have slipped my mind for a moment." With that, they kept walking, and the white fox kept trailing them, but now kept closer.
They got to the apartment quickly and Akane opened the door to the apartment. When they walked inside, Akane sniffed the place. "Sorry Ino-san, but I still say that's dirty laundry, not testerwhatever."
"Well, you'd be surprised how much they smell alike." Ino replied comically. "You'll know for sure someday when you have a husband."
Akane gave the Yamanaka a confused glance. "Do you have a husband already? Is that why you know so much?" Ino just blushed and looked away. "By the way, just what is a husband? Does it stink?"
Ino nearly wet herself from laughing at that comment.
Team Eight was hurrying towards Konoha as quickly as they could, but still taking the long way to avoid being followed. They had something important to tell the hokage, and if they kept at this pace, they should be able to do so next morning.
Ino had really gotten into fixing up Naruto's apartment to make it more homely for Akane. The fox girl wasn't exactly sure what the problem was. After all, the place was cleaner than a den dug in the ground, so why did it have to be cleaner? Better smelling was a plus, but that was all Akane was really concerned about. Ino covered that by putting the dirty clothes Naruto had neglected into the washer and gotten to some of the dishes. All the while Akane sat down and watched, petting the white fox that had nestled comfortably on her lap now.
However, she had to leave for a brief time to go get her vacuum, as Naruto's needed repairs. When she left, the white fox jumped off Akane's lap and faced her. "Show me your true form." It demanded, revealing it could speak the human language as well as the vulpine one. Akane stood up and transformed without hand signs. In her place was a large red fox the size of a small lion with nine swaying tails. "So you do in fact have nine tails?"
"Is that a problem?"
"There's only one fox demon in existence that has nine tails. Surely you know this." The white fox demon stated.
The red fox shook her head. "Sorry. I don't know anything about fox demons outside myself. You're the first one I've seen. I must admit I'm surprised, since I was told they aren't welcome here."
"Then what are you doing here?"
"I'm living with Otou-san. What are you doing here? And what's your name? Mine's Akane if you didn't already catch it." Akane responded.
"I'm called Sassha. I've lived here all my life, because my mother was killed here when our ruler Kyuubi-sama was forced to attack here. I haven't been able to leave for some reason, and I've wondered if Kyuubi-sama would get released. Okaa-san was pretty close to her." The white fox, Sassha answered.
Akane's ears twitched momentarily. "Kyuubi? Otou-san said that was what I used to be called. Any connection?"
"Hmm... possibly. We'll have to wait until another fox demon comes around until we can confirm anything." Sassha told her.
The doorbell rang, surprising them both. Akane turned back into a red-haired human girl wearing a red shirt and dark blue shorts and answered the door. Standing before her was a young girl her age with long black hair tied in a low ponytail. For some reason she wore a male kimono that was black with icy-blue swirls on her shoulders, black boots with similar swirls on the top of each foot, and an icy-blue obi which held a black sheathed sword on her left hip. The most distinguishing feature of all were the red fang marks on her cheeks. A husky puppy was standing at her right and made a small bark.
Akane smiled to be friendly. "Hello. Can I help you?" A quick sniff of the new girl made her think of Kiba.
"Umm..." The new girl spoke quietly and looked down, rubbing her knuckles together. "Do you... have you seen a small white fox anywhere?"
"You mean Sassha?" Akane asked.
The new girl looked up hopefully. "You saw her? You know her name?"
"Sure. She told me." Akane said without realizing she probably shouldn't have.
"W-what? Sas-Sassha-chan told you? She never speaks to anyone outside the pack." She then noticed the puppy go inside the apartment. "Mino-chan?" She looked over Akane's shoulder and saw her husky next to the white fox. "Sassha-chan?"
"I take it you're out for the day Shiba-sama am I right?" Sassha asked. "Akane-sama, allow me to introduce my partner, Shiba Inuzuka-sama."
"Inuzuka? Are you related to Kiba-ojisan?" Akane asked.
The girl, now identified as Shiba, looked away slightly. "Yeah. He's my cousin. You know him?"
"Yep. He's okay. Probably could use a tick bath or something, but not bad. I heard somebody say he should be neutered, whatever that means." Akane answered nonchalantly. Sassha snickered a bit at hearing that. "Were you at the academy? So are you a ninja now?"
Shiba looked down at her feet now. "Not yet. I've still got several terms to go before that happens. Not that... anybody believes... I can do it."
Akane blinked twice in confusion. "Why is that?"
"I'drathernottalkaboutit." Shiba quickly muttered. "I just came here to find Sassha-chan. I should really get going."
"Can I see you later then?" Akane asked. "I'd like to spend some time with some kids rather than a bunch of Otou-san's friends for once. Please?"
Shiba looked up and blinked several times. "You... actually want to spend time with me?"
Akane tilted her head. "Why does that sound like it's rare for you? Yes, I'd like to spend some time with you and your animal friends. Is that okay?"
Shiba slowly nodded after a longer than normal wait. "S-sure. I would like that."
Akane gave a foxy grin like Naruto. "Great. Meet me at Ichiraku's ramen in the morning. See ya then."
Shiba later left after a polite parting, taking both Sassha and her puppy Mino with her. She was really curious about why some girl she had never seen before suddenly wanted to be nice to her. Almost be friends even. It was surprising, to her at least. But not as surprising as the fact that the redhead smelled almost entirely like a fox.
Credit for the creation of the characters Shiba, Sassha, and Mino mostly goes to Narnia Moons. They will play a good part in this story later on.