Ha! That's fifty bucks you owe me!

Teral: (grumbles)Fine...

Laret: You guys aren't betting again, are you?

Sure are!

Laret: Well, what was it about this time?

Teral: I said ac wouldn't be able to finish 11 by today.

Oh yee of little faith.

Laret: albino chocobo owns nothing but the plot.

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"Blegh! That thing tasted so bad!" Naruto said while he stuck his tongue out as far as it could. "No amount of Listerine will ever make this taste go away!"

He was currently walking away from the Uchiha mansion after overhearing Sakura and Sasuke's talk. And let's not forget that oh-so-tasty black bird thing that happened to crash through the window.

"At least now I have a better idea of what's going on. But, Sakura didn't say anything about Link turning into anything…" he mused to himself, not taking any notice to where his feet—excuse me, paws—were leading him. I didn't get to play knight either, he thought miserably, totally shattering his fantasy from earlier.

He continued his meandering pace down who-knows-what street when he heard something. It was really soft, so he couldn't tell what it was instantly. He stopped walking, stood completely still, closed his eyes and slightly lowered his head.

Cl-cl-clink…cl-cl-clink…cl-cl-clink…

He kept hearing those soft clinking noises while thinking(so hard he thought his head would burst), trying to match the object to the sound. Eventually, in his mind's eye he saw a chain moving in time with the sound. Fear struck as he bounded back into reality.

Someone…or something it headed my way! And they have chains! Oh crap, what am I gonna do, what am I gonna do, what am I gonna do… and thus was his train of thought, repeating the same phrase like a broken record. I know! I'll do what every ninja would do!...Hide!

Unfortunately, he never got to put his plan into action. Because just then, a grey and white blur bounded around the corner, and Naruto, forgetting he stopped at the corner, got bowled over by the mass of fur. Naruto and the not-quite-so-blurry-anymore blur rolled down the street a bit. Our fox-boy kept his eyes screwed shut until he felt his world stop spinning. When it did, he felt he was on something warm and fuzzy.

He slowly opened his azure eyes to see the same eyes staring back at him. He wasn't looking in the mirror, though, since the head they were attached to was grey with a line of green running up from the nose. Then, he realized he was on the other animal's chest…and they were almost kissing. He reflexively clenched his fists at the memory, except that they were paws and had claws which dug into the other's chest.

"Ow! Hey, what was that for?" it, just then found out to be a he, exclaimed. He tried to gently shake the smaller of the two off. Naruto got the note and jumped off quickly. He looked back and saw that the thing he landed on was a wolf that was mostly grey with a sort of streamlined look. The wolf rolled so that his back was to Naruto and started looking for where the claw marks were. The fox noticed along its spine was a green line opposed to his orange.

"Alright you!" Naruto shouted, instinctively making his fur stand on end. The wolf stopped searching and lazily looked over where its shoulder would be. "I want answers and you're not leaving until I get them!"

The wolf seemed to frown(it's always hard to tell) and pick itself up off the ground.

"One: I could kick your butt twice before you even knew what hit you," the wolf stated in an oddly familiar voice. "Two: I'll be asking some questions of my own. And three," here the wolf paused, then seemed to smile, "fire away!"

"Okayyy," Naruto said, who was a bit taken back by the quick mood swing, "Who are you?"

"I am exactly as I seem. Next." He said in a bored tone as he flopped down into a laying position; his tail lightly hitting the ground.

He's messing with me. "What's your name?"

"Names aren't important."

"C'mon, tell me!"

"You first."

"Fine! I'm Naruto! Happy!? Now tell me yours!"

After hearing his name, the wolf's ears perked and his tail stopped in mid-air. He seemed to frown in a pensive gesture.

"I'm…oh, just call me Colin."

He's good at lying. Naruto thought. He was just about to ask his next question when Colin beat him to it.

"Why are you a fox?"

Naruto, being caught off guard, and not really knowing why,was only about to say one thing. "Huh?"

"Why are you a fox and not a spirit?"

"Why would I be a spirit? No one around here is."

"Relax and look over there." Here the wolf motioned with its head over to a tree. Naruto looked over, but only saw a bird in the branch.

"What? It's just a bird."

"You're not listening," Colin sighed. "You're using your senses too much, like you don't want to be caught off guard or something. Calm down, give your senses a break and look again."

Naruto was beginning to get annoyed, but decided to try it. He closed his eyes and tried to relax. When he opened them again, everything was a lot brighter.

"Whoa," he said in complete awe. The sky was no longer pitch black with small points of lights—it was now pink and yellow and red and looked like it was on fire!

"Ahem," the wolf cleared its throat to get his attention. When he had it, he motioned back to the tree. Naruto looked back over to it, and where the bird once was was a small blue flame.

"Whoa! What happened to the bird!?"

"Aside from turning into a spirit, but not just now, absolutely nothing. It probably doesn't even know it's a spirit. And to them, anyone here, we are the spirits." The wolf said calmly and slowly, as if explaining it to a small child. Naruto was currently freaking out.

"But I can't die yet! I have to become—"

"You didn't die," he interrupted.

"But you said I'm a spirit!"

"No, I said that to the spirits we're like spirits—meaning that they can't see, touch, speak or even hear us, but we can."

"…Whut?"

"Nevermind," the wolf growled irritably, "all you need to know is that we can't interfere with them and vice versa. Now," he stepped closer to Naruto threateningly, which caused the latter to instinctively take a step back, "answer my question: Why aren't you a spirit?"

"How should I know!?"

"Wrong," he said decisively, "if anything, you would be the only one to know. Something that makes you different, makes you stand out in the crowd. That is the reason you aren't a spirit." The wolf then cocked his head and said with a crooked smile, "Feel like sharing?"

What's this guy getting at? Naruto thought with irritation. Something that makes me different? Well, I'm going to be the Hokage! I have to be stronger than everyone else! Yeah! That'll work!

Naruto was about to start his usual "I'm gonna be the Hokage!" monologue when "Colin" interrupted him again.

"You may want to think about your answer very carefully. Otherwise," the wolf's voice fell and a shadow crossed his face, "I may think you're a monster sent to kill me, and I cannot, and will not, die yet."

Naruto audibly gulped at the senior fighter's threat because he knew the wolf before him would not hesitate to make good on it.

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This is more of my cup of tea, fellow readers.

Teral: Yeah. You just love tension. But, that is the last, and I mean last, of the prewritten stuff for this story. Don't be surprised if the next update is two weeks from now.

Wanna bet?

Laret: Read and review please! More reviews equals more motivation equals sooner updates!

Equals more money for me! Heh heh.