Chapter 11:

"How could you be so dumb?" Boruto asked his sister. "Bring a wild animal here like that. Didn't you know what would happen?"

Himawari started to cry.

"Wait, wait! I didn't mean you were dumb. No, no! I just… I'm sorry. I…" Boruto didn't intend for her to cry. "I just meant, he shouldn't have tricked you like that. I know you said he's your friend but he seems pretty mean to me. Not telling you and all."

Himawari shook her head. "I should have asked more questions. I didn't know that's what he meant by playing with the other villagers. I just wanted to bring him home to surprise Daddy. And Koeda wanted so much to meet him. I didn't want to let him down."

"Yeah, but…" Boruto thought his sister made a stupid decision, but he was foolish, too. He left her alone at the party and wasn't more suspicious when she clung to that bag like it was full of buried treasure. She merely wanted to give their father a nice surprise and give a gift to a new friend. She was trying to be kind.

"I hope Koeda and the others are going to be ok," she said over her bowl of soup. "He looked so sad when they left yesterday."

"He should be sad. Look at all the damage he caused."

"But he didn't mean it," said Himawari. "You heard Daddy. Koeda is just five years old. He's younger than me."

"But his talking skills are on par with yours and mine. Five or not, I'm sensing that he has the intellect of someone our age."

"Emotions of a child but the intellect of an adult," Hinata said with a smile. "I wonder if Shikamaru felt the same way when he was growing up. Or even Neji…"

Boruto tried to finish his breakfast in a hurry. He had a full day planned of video-games and training ahead of him.

"Thanks for breakfast, Mom. See you later!" He pushed away from the table and hurried outside.

"Don't be out too late, Boruto. I'm making steak tonight."

"I'll be there!"

Boruto ran across the street, searching for his friends. "Shikadai! Mitsuki! Where are you guys?!" he shouted.

"Don't shout so loud," lectured Shikadai as he walked beside his father. "You'll wake up the whole neighborhood."

"So what if I do? It's morning."

"Consider those who are nursing off a hangover from binge drinking last night."

"Like the ones who drank to cope with what happened to them yesterday," added his father. "The whole fox incident."

Shikadai shrugged. "I didn't think it was a big deal. I could have handled it pretty well."

Shikamaru looked down at him. "Oh?"

"Yeah," added Boruto. "Where were you when it all went down, anyway? I didn't even see you."

"The mark of a good ninja."

"Oh, don't tease."

Shikamaru sighed. "It's over now, so let's get back to work. You have a lot of training to do."

Shikadai scoffed. "The exams are ages away, Dad. I don't have to do anything for a while."

"Don't train the night before. Same rule for studying."

Shikadai shrugged. "It's a pain either way."

"I bet you couldn't do anything against those fox things that showed up yesterday," Boruto taunted his friend. "That's why you were nowhere to be found."

"I was around. Where were you?"

"In the heat of it all. I was fighting one."

"I heard the Seventh came along to save your ass. Had two of them in his hands while you were on the ground."

"That's not what happened at all!"

"It's only part true," said Shikamaru. "Yes, the Hokage did have two foxes in hand, but Boruto was defending two people at the time. They both did a tremendous job. No need to butt heads about it."

A massive gust of wind tore through the street like a cyclone and tossed Shikadai into his father. Boruto braced himself and covered his head with both arms.

"What the hell was that?"

Shikamaru ran in the direction of the blast. The children followed him.

They heard screaming.

Shikamaru emerged and stood in the middle of the next street, looking around. A woman ran passed him looking frightened. He saw her being chased by what appeared to be a bear. Once the woman was out of sight, the bear morphed into a small, laughing fox.

"Them again?!" Boruto said as soon as he saw it. "I thought Dad got rid of them all."

"I guess not all of them wanted to go willingly."

The fox stopped laughing and jumped, avoiding an attack from above. Sai landed in a crouching position, kunai tip stuck in the dirt.

"Missed it."

The fox cackled and led them down another street. Someone else screamed.

"Inojin!" Sai ran after the fox.

The others followed.

The fox was on Inojin's head, preventing him from launching any attacks. Inojin stumbled and tried to throw the fox off his shoulders. He finally managed to toss it to the ground and tried to stab it. The fox jumped and landed closer to the group.

"I got it," said Shikadai and tried stretching his shadow a far as it would go to snare the fox.

His shadow reached but was unsuccessful in trapping it. The shadow wiggled and twitched and the fox ran off.

"I don't get it. Why didn't it work?" Shikadai looked frightened. His jutsu had never done that before.

"Jutsu won't work on kitsune," said Shikamaru. "I've crossed paths with them before."

Inojin held up two kunai. "Then we can use these to fight them." He ran after the small fox, but it had scurried into a crevice too small from him to reach.

Then another fox showed up. This one bigger and sporting two tails.

"Could that be the parent?" Shikadai questioned upon seeing the new fox.

"It doesn't matter." Boruto took out a kunai himself. "I'll get it."

The fox jumped, avoiding the weapon.

"Be careful, Boruto," warned Shikamaru. "If it has more tails, it's more powerful."

"I can do it." Boruto saw the fox leap from the roof and soar straight at him. Boruto held up his weapon.

"No!" Shikamaru shoved Boruto out of the way.

"I had it! Why did you-"

"Curse!" The fox's paw touched Shikamaru's chest. Then it jumped and did the same thing to Sai. "Curse!"

"Ah..!"

Shikamaru's body began to glow. He locked eyes with his son for just a moment then was completely engulfed.

"Dad!" Inojin shrieked as he watched his father disappear in the strange light consuming his body.

The children watched helplessly as the adults began to shrink.

When the light faded, they got to see Shikamaru and Sai in their new furry forms.

"Wha..?" Shikamaru looked up rather than down at his son. Then he looked at his body. "What..?!"

He had paws.

"Huh?!" Sai was seeing the same thing. "I'm a…"

"A fox!" gasped Inojin. "Dad, you're a fox!"

Shikamaru and Sai looked at each other. They had both been transformed into foxes. They mirrored each other's wide-eyed expressions and furry faces perfectly.

Inojin fell to his knees, looking at his father. On all fours, he was at eye level with his parent. "Dad..?"

Sai looked at him. "Inojin… I…"

"You can still talk," he realized. "I can understand you."

"D- Dad…" Shikadai looked at his own father. "Is that you? Is that really you?"

Shikamaru looked at his paws and tail. "I'm afraid so." He sighed. "This is troublesome."

Boruto overcame his shock and looked at the roof. The two-tailed fox turned and fled as soon as Boruto spotted it.

"I'll get that fox!" Boruto ran after it as fast as he could.

Sai looked at Shikamaru. "We have to find the Hokage."

Shikamaru nodded back. "Right."

The two stood up on their four legs and took off. It was shaky going but they were still fast.

"Wait! Dad, wait!"

"Aw, crap!" wailed Shikadai. "This is not good. Dad's a fox!"

"Mine, too!"

"Yeah, but this is bad for another reason. Boruto took off after one of them. He's got weapons and is determined to hunt down these things. What if he mistakes one of our dads for a real fox?"

Inojin grabbed the sides of his head and wailed. "Ohh! This is bad! This is really bad!"

"We have to stop him!"


Boruto caught up to the two-tails and threw his weapon at it. The kunai went right through its back and into the ground. It was an illusion. Boruto stood and looked around for another fox, hoping the next one would be real.

Instead, he spotted his father. "Dad!"

Naruto looked up. "The kitsune are back."

"I know! One of them turned Shikadai and Inojin's dads into foxes!"

Naruto looked troubled. "A kitsune curse."

"You know what it is, then?"

"Sure do. I've dealt with these guys before. A lot of them are my friends but we've had to deal with some bad ones in the past, too."

"Then these must be the bad ones." Boruto took out two new kunai. "I'll put a stop to them once and for all."

Naruto grabbed his shoulder. "No, Boruto! You can't."

"I'm strong enough. I can do this."

"No, I mean-"

Boruto had already taken off. He spotted another fox and went after it.

Along the way, he ran into Sarada who was chasing the same fox.

"Boruto! Wait!" came Inojin's voice. "Stop!"

Boruto looked back and the fox was gone. "What'd you do that for? I had it!"

"Boruto, listen to me. We-"

"Boruto!" Naruto landed behind his son. "You ran off before I could tell you. It's not about your strength. There's a reason you can't kill these kitsune."

Finally listening, Boruto turned. "What do you mean?"

"If Shikamaru and Sai have both been transformed into foxes then you risk accidentally injuring or killing them."

"That's what we've been trying to tell you," panted Inojin. "Our dads look the same as these other foxes. If we can't tell them apart, then how do we know you're not hunting our dads?"

Boruto hadn't thought of that. "Easy. I'll ask them if they are. They can still talk."

"But, Boruto," said Naruto, "kitsune are tricky. They can disguise their voices and change shape. Simply asking one of them won't be enough."

Boruto thought. "Then how do I know you're not a fox pretending to be my dad? You could be feeding me false information."

Naruto folded his arms. "Your mother's name is Hinata and you have a little sister named Himawari and her birthday is in six months."

"Ok, checks out."

"If a fox can do that, how are we supposed to find them?" asked Sarada.

"We'll just corner a fox and ask it some questions and if it doesn't answer correctly, then we wipe it out."

"Boruto, the fox you ask could be another villager which means they wouldn't know the answer either," pointed out Sarada. "It's already been proven that they can turn people into foxes, so how do we know they haven't done this to other humans?"

"Hm."

"There's another reason you can't kill them, aside from some of them being my friends," said Naruto. "If you end up killing the fox that cursed your parents, then the curse cannot be lifted. They'll be stuck as foxes permanently."

"What?!" the children shouted.

"The kitsune has to be alive and uninjured in order to reverse the curse." Naruto looked over his shoulder. "I have to go. There are things happening all over the village. I have to see to it."

"Wait!" Sarada called after him. "You're leaving us? But we have questions!"

"Stick together and remember what I told you. Do not kill any kitsune. No matter what!" Naruto disappeared in a flash.

The small group turned to each other with worried looks. "What do we do now?"

Naruto reached the gate to the village and ran into the woods.

"That was a lie," came the beast's voice. "You just lied to your son and those other children."

Naruto smirked.

"If a kitsune is killed, their curse is automatically reversed."

"I know."

Kurama growled. "Then why'd you say that?"

"To protect my friends." Naruto slowed to a stop and faced the village. "I asked Ryosuke to do me a favor and he agreed on the condition that none of his foxes be harmed."

Kurama snorted. "Putting the village at risk to teach those kids a lesson. I must be rubbing off on you."

"I have other reasons."

"Naruto!"

He turned and saw two foxes stumble up to him. Even as foxes, Naruto knew who they were. The angry shouting was a dead giveaway but it was more than just their voices.

Shikamaru stood on a rock and gave him a sour look. "Naruto, this wasn't part of the agreement."

"You never said we would get turned into foxes ourselves," complained Sai.

Naruto smiled. "I asked them to do it when you weren't around."

"What? Why would you do that?" Shikamaru asked fiercely. "We arranged for this whole thing to happen in order to test their skills. Why did we have to get turned into foxes? Just to add to the danger? To make them think?"

"More than that," answered Naruto. "I've actually wanted to do this for a long time. Back then I wanted to do it because I thought it would be fun for us all to play together as foxes. But now I did it for other reasons."

"Which are?"

Naruto gave Shikamaru a firm but gentle look. "Training."

"Hm?"

"You guys need training. Not ninja training, but it should help with your ninja skills as well."

Sai looked confused. "In addition to ninja skills? Then that means there's another reason for this training. What is it?"

"To help you."

"That's obvious," said Sai. "But help us do what?"

"That's up to you. It's whatever the training helps you do."

They exchanged looks. "That doesn't make any sense," said Shikamaru.

Naruto sighed. "I told you guys about when I was transformed into a kitsune the first time, right?"

"Yeah."

"It was a long time ago but the things I learned have stayed with me." Naruto closed his eyes, fond memories returning. "What the foxes taught me were things I could apply to myself as a human and as a human being."

"There's a difference?"

He nodded. "It wasn't just the lessons they taught me. It was being with them and learning who they were and what they were about. Simply being with them was a learning experience. Not just for learning about kitsune but also about learning about myself and what things mean to me."

He remembered seeing Ryosuke cry as they sat on the mountain that night. To this day, he remembered every tear on his face vividly.

"They did not have a leader at the time. Ryosuke was the most qualified but he refused to rule them. He did not want to lead because he was afraid. He was worried he would become corrupt and they would suffer for it. He was worried about this because another fox had betrayed them when he got his second tail and did everything he could to destroy them and the humans. I told Ryosuke that that fox was already bad and was using his extra tail as an excuse. It wasn't the power that corrupted him. He was already corrupted. He hated them from the start."

Naruto understood Ryosuke's fear. He believed that Ryosuke was too kind to become corrupted and told him this. So far, the kitsune lived peacefully on the mountain and the humans were not bothered by them in the slightest.

"He finally became a two-tails and became their leader. Not for the power or his own selfish desires. He did it for them. His selfish wish was to remain as he was and not have power. He gave that up for their sake. He did it to protect them."

"What does that matter?" asked Shikamaru.

"What Ryosuke said and did made me wonder what kind of Hokage I wanted to be," Naruto admitted. "Back when I was a kid, I wanted to be Hokage to show everyone in the village what I was made of so they would all be sorry they treated me like crap. So they would have to show me some respect."

It was revenge at the time. Just a child's selfish desire for attention.

"When I went out on missions and learned more about ninja and what we were about, I started to rethink what I wanted to do as Hokage. I said that I would change the rules so things would be better for everyone. So we wouldn't be just tools."

Sai blinked. He remembered what his training was like and what he had been taught all his life. And how everything changed when he met Naruto.

"When I met Ryosuke, I started to think about the position as Hokage even more." Naruto opened his eyes and looked down. "I realized I had to do what was right and in the best interest of others. It wasn't about what I wanted, but what they needed. Ryosuke taught me that."

So many people influenced him in his life. People who helped shape him into the person he was today and the Hokage he became. Ryosuke was one of them. He learned a lot from his animal friend. They learned a lot from each other.

"More than anything, I treasure his friendship. But I'll never forget the lessons he taught me. Or the questions I asked myself." Naruto sighed. "My actions are my own, but I can't ignore certain influences. He made me question myself and that wasn't a bad thing. It made me think. I realized I still had a long way to go to become Hokage. I still had to discover what kind of Hokage I wanted to be and what the village needed me to be."

It was best for him and for others.

Naruto turned around and put his hands on his hips. "So… I thought maybe experiencing life as a kitsune for a little bit might do you guys some good. Maybe you'll learn something you never thought you needed to know."

Or remember what they had forgotten.

Shikamaru frowned. "So this whole thing was on purpose. Teaching them a lesson and us at the same time. What a pain."

"Don't worry. I got plenty of tutors for you to learn from."

Shikamaru and Sai turned. Three foxes were waiting for them among the trees.

"You have got to be kidding," moaned Shikamaru.

"As long as you're foxes, you might as well learn to act like 'em."

Shikamaru sighed, seeing that he didn't have much of a choice.

It was for the best, he realized. He wouldn't know how to survive as a fox without help and the kitsune who put him under this spell was nowhere to be found so he wouldn't be able to change back anytime soon. It was either learn or suffer.

Shikamaru and Sai approached the group and introduced themselves.

"I'm Seki, this is my brother Reki and that's Aurora."

Shikamaru had encountered Seki before but it had been a while.

Aurora motioned for them to follow. "Let's get started."


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