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Chapter 15: Crow's Nest

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A/N: This chapter is more experimental than the rest. My apologies for any glaring canon deviations in advance. If they're too much for you, just think of this chapter as a filler, because I wanted to have a little bit of fun with this one. I just want to make my imagination run wild for a bit here, but I will be taking some elements from this chapter in the future so I decided to include this in the main Kitsune Monogatari chapters as opposed to releasing this as a stand-alone plus the individual scenes will be too short to be released as standalone ones. So, bear with it? I'll try to keep this one shorter so it won't have as much impact in the story. Hehe.

Disclaimers: The events in this chapter may or may have no bearing on the actual story itself.

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"I have a bad dream."

Naruto rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he looked at the small figure in front of him. After their talk, Sasuke was able to convince his omega to stay the night at the Uchiha mansion; the night being too deep for a journey for the kids to make their way home.

Reluctantly, and still drained from the events of the day, Naruto accepted the invitation and allowed himself to settle in at the guest house of the Uchiha main house. As expected, the rooms in the Uchiha mansion are way bigger than Naruto's old apartment, so much so that Naruto actually had his clones rearrange the furniture to form a nest in the middle of the room, which is at least twice or thrice the size of what he's used to.

So the dresser and the bookcases that decorated the walls were pushed to the center to surround a standard-sized king sized bed, much smaller than the custom bed that Naruto had at home but way more luxurious and softer in material and construction.

As the omega's eyes adjusted to the faint moonlight that streamed in from the windows, his glowing golden eyes locked upon Sarada's trembling figure on the doorway.

"Sarada? Is that you?"

The figure merely looked to the side in embarrassment, but Naruto's heightened sight could not mistake the terror in those eyes.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Sarada shook her head. There was a short pause before it clicked into Naruto what the girl wanted.

"Are you sure? We're all guys here." Naruto sheepishly replied before parting his tails to reveal Boruto and Menma hugging each other within the confines of their father's soft fluffy tails.

Sarada slowly nodded her head and Naruto's sharp eyes could not mistake the slight blush gracing the girl's cheeks. Smiling widely, the omega patted the bed next to him, signaling his invitation.

With a wide smile, Sarada slowly made her way to the bed and lied down with the boys. Naruto's tails covered her along with her brothers and for once, Sarada fell into one of the most warm and inviting sleep.

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"I didn't appreciate you flirting with Naruto-kun like that, Shisui." Sasuke did a double take as he heard his brother's annoyed voice. Wait? His brother? Angry? Cautiously, the alpha lingered at the side of the door frame to his brother's room as he listened in. Shisui-san's playful laughter soon followed.

"Still as stiff as ever Itachi. Lighten up will you? I was just playing."

A soft thud was heard, to what Sasuke assumed as Itachi punching the wall next to him can be heard. But it didn't have its full force, telling Sasuke that Itachi wasn't really serious.

"Playing? It's bad enough that you have your hands all over Naruto-kun. And YOU have to do it in front of me, too?"

A short pause was heard before a rustling of the clothes can be heard again.

"All right my dear Prince." Sasuke felt himself gagged at the sickly sweet voice of his Shisui-niisan, a tone that he never heard before. "I apologize. I won't do it again. How may I make it up to my dearest?" He never heard his brother figure speak like that before.

"Oh you definitely won't do it again. And to make sure you won't, you will be punished…severely." A dangerous cold tone was intermixed with warm playful ones to Itachi's voice as Sasuke strained his head further, curious to hear more.

That was when he smelled it. The unmistakable scent of an aroused omega.

Sasuke's eyes widened as he smelled the strong scent of arousal, a sweet vanilla scent mixed with a strong bite of unique scents that escaped from the room. Before he can hear even more, the alpha ran for the guest rooms and slammed the door wide opened as he waltz in, still shaking, as if traumatized.

"Oh what now?" An annoyed guttural voice shook the alpha from his thoughts to face his omega, wide awake and glaring at him, obviously annoyed at being woken this deep in the night…again.

Sasuke gave his omega a pleading look before crawling into bed, still shaking. Sighing. The omega parted his tails again, surprising Sasuke to see not only Menma and Boruto but Sarada as well, sleeping beside his omega.

"Thanks, Naruto."

"Whatever." The omega gave him a gentle kiss on his forehead, before wrapping them all back in the warm embrace of his soft velvety tails.

"Good night, love."

"Good night, alpha." Though the last one was more of a mumble than a coherent phrase.

The whole Uchiha family fell into a silent, yet peaceful sleep as both alpha and omega hugged each other, their children sleeping peaceful in between them.

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Naruto woke up at the crack of dawn and yawned to himself. As his sleep was disturbed multiple times during the night, he found it uneasy to go back into a longer deeper sleep and so he decided to explore the Uchiha grounds to preoccupy himself. He left a clone by his sleeping family to provide them the comfort and warmth for an uninterrupted sleep as Naruto wandered around past the courtyard, and into a giant lake.

His eyes chanced upon a lavish aviary and was fascinated by the black ebony birds inside. Curious, the omega approached the bird's nest and noticed that they were filled with crows. He marveled at the birds for a second, mesmerized by their soft ebony feathers. Someone must have taken really good care of them to have such shiny feathers.

That was when a kunai was headed towards Naruto. He was barely able to dodge it before six masked ninja threw six more kunai at him, leading Naruto to frantically dodge or block them with his tails.

Worrying that he'll wake the others, Naruto summoned two more clones to defend the Uchiha estate. Not wanting to disturb the sleeping occupants just a few steps away, Naruto led his attackers to the Uchiha training grounds by striking with his tails and running, baiting the masked intruder as he does so until he found a place where there are more trees than man-made structures.

Four of Naruto's tails immediately transformed into scythes as they blocked invisible attacks, too quick to be detected by the normal eye but his honed instincts was able to fully process the incoming attack. He felt two of his clones dispelled and the memories of their encounter filled Naruto's eyes with inescapable blackness and images of multiple flickering ninja, too numerous to even attempt to count.

Gauging that his attacker is not an average ninja, Naruto summoned multiple rasengan behind him with his five remaining tails, dodged another katakana strike before trying to gauge his opponent.

"Rasenrangan!" Naruto yelled, once he found an opening, as he hurled the rasengan which merely passed through his enemies' bodies.

That diversion seemed to be enough to have distracted his enemy however allowing him to summon more clones to deal with the other ninja which surprisingly have now become more numerous than he originally counted. What the hell is going on here? Is he caught in a genjutsu?

Naruto tried the seals for a release jutsu but the bodies in front of him did not disappear. Naruto was barely able to contain his footing before he was attacked by a barrage of katana, his tails, barely keeping up with the sheer speed of the strikes as crows joined in trying to distract him from his opponent. His clones were in a similar predicament and it won't be long before they were once again dispelled effortlessly by their silent and fast attacker.

That was when Naruto activated his kyuubi mode, a golden chakra cloak intermingling with red orange flame enveloping his body, that the omega was finally able to keep up with his attacker. He was anxious to end this battle at once as worry bubbled at the pit of his stomach. If there are multiple attackers here, who knows what could happened to his family. In one decisive strike, his tails were able to finally grab a body, his tails wrapping themselves on two wrists and two ankles, before two of them were transformed into a sharp scythe, threateningly pointed at his attacker's face.

"Who the hell ARE you!" Naruto asked, panting, as his free tail finally grabbed the mask and removed it from the attacker's face. "What do you want?" He inquired threateningly.

That was when his golden eyes widened in surprise, finally seeing the face behind the mask.

"Shisui-san!"

The man in front of him grinned widely. "I am so sorry, Shisui-san. I didn't know it was you."

Naruto slowly put the man down and released the older Uchiha.

"Well done Naruto-kun."

"What? I don't—Huh?, What?" Naruto stammered, flabbergasted and surprised, his brain still catching up to what has just happened.

The older man just chuckled and whistled, obviously impressed.

"My apologies Naruto-kun. I was just about to feed my pet crows when I saw you admiring them. I got a little bit tempted." Shisui wiped the sweat from his brow as he moved closer to the other omega.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Naruto nearly yelled, his mind holding his voice down not wanting to wake anyone up.

"I have to admit, that was pretty fun. Worked up a pretty good sweat." Shisui coolly answered as he looked on to the omega with an amused look.

"Well you should warn me if you want a spar Next Time! Geez." Naruto puffed his cheeks, annoyed at being tricked by the elder Uchiha. The Uchiha poked at his cheeks playfully before Naruto swatted his hand away.

"You gave me quite a surprise, Shisui-san." Shisui merely smiled as he casually swung an arm over the omega's neck.

"I must say, you're as good as they say you are Naruto-kun." Shisui then began dragging him back to the aviary. "Feed the crows with me? It won't be for a while before breakfast is ready."

Realizing that there's really no threat, Naruto calmed his beating heart and allowed the man to lead him, relief flooding over his body, but at the same time, the thrill of combat still very much alive. He looked up to the man leading him to the aviary, a smile slowly made its way to his face, before a decision flashed in his mind. Yeah, he wouldn't mind sparring with Shisui-san again.

The two omega went on to feed Shisui's crows, with the older male freely talking to Naruto about his pets while the curious, younger omega listened on and admired the man's birds.

The sun is now slowly rising. Soon, they'll have to get back to the mansion and begin the day.

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Naruto headed to the Uchiha kitchen and found the maids were busy preparing breakfast. They were surprised to see the omega willingly entered the kitchen, his presence hard to ignore as his tails practically tower almost any normal human.

He had to admit he had fun with Shisui earlier. But he wanted to prepare breakfast for his alpha. He was spurred by last night's interaction, and wanted to do something nice for Sasuke. So he went to the kitchen pantry, picked out the best tomatoes he could find and chose the ingredients that go along with them.

The maids wanted to protest, afraid that they'll get scolded for letting a guest do some work but Naruto assured them that he wanted to prepare breakfast for his own family.

So he set out to prepare a simple ramen for himself and Menma, and a yakisoba bun for Boruto. All this were effortlessly done with his tails simultaneously; his remaining tails were also busy deftly cutting and tossing the salad of tomato, lettuce and croutons at the side, just the way Sasuke likes it. The maids looked on mesmerized as Naruto quickly prepared a breakfast that he knows his family will love.

He have memorized most of their favorites after all. Satisfied at his handiwork, he smiled at the maids and instructed them to serve the foods he prepared when they come down, gave a quick bow and made his way back to the guest rooms to shower, the spar with Shisui have left him feeling sticky and dirty.

After he showered, he took a moment to survey his family and his look softened as he saw Sasuke beside Sarada, Menma and Boruto on the bed, still fast asleep in the arms of his clone. He quickly dispelled his clone as he woke up the four people on the bed.

"Sasuke! Sarada, Menma, Boruto. Wake up you guys! Time for breakfast." He gently whispered. Menma gently swatted his tail before murmuring "five more minutes papa." Sasuke slowly stirred but didn't wake, Boruto merely moaned while Sarada slowly opened her eyes.

She saw Naruto-san gave her father a quick peck on the forehead and can't help but giggle as the Uchiha swung an arm over his neck and grabbed the omega towards him. "Let go Sasuke!" Sasuke groaned but didn't wake. Frustrated, Naruto held a devious smile as his tails set out to tickle the boys still bed which promptly woke them up as the room filled with laughter. Sasuke promptly released his omega and looked at him in half-hearted annoyance. Sarada can't help but smile and look on, but Naruto gave her a pat on the head and a smile as he continued to tickle the other boys still in bed with his tails.

"We're up dad!"

"Quit it papa! We're up!"

"Dobe! Stop it!"

The three boys stood up in unison as they laughed against Naruto's persistent tails. Satisfied that they won't be going to bed anytime soon, Naruto stopped and greeted his family good morning.

"Good morning you guys. Ready to start the day?" He was met with groans aside from Sarada who was now awake and was looking at the scene with an amused expression. "Start preparing alright? Breakfast is ready. Oh and Sarada, I didn't quite get what you want for breakfast. Is there something you want?"

"Just tea Naruto-san!"

"Roger that! Now hurry up you guys, before breakfast gets cold."

And just like that the Uchiha household started its day.

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Preview for the next chapter:

Naruto was sworn in as the Hokage's official personal guard. They set out to interrogate Shin Uchiha in the hopes of learning more of his attack. And why did Sound ninja sabotage their train anyway? Hopefully he'll have the answers their looking for.

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A/N: Yay! That was quite uneventful. Haha. Just a little slice of life for now, I suppose. Anyway, I hope you still liked it. :)