Kitsune Mistress

Princess of Ikana

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and its respective owners.

Chapter 6: Haughty

Naruto and Sakura got scolded for leaving the village overnight but life resumed. A few days later, while Team 7 was training together at their usual training site and taking their short break mid afternoon, Sasuke walked up to Naruto and inquired about what had been bothering him all that morning so far.

"Nii-san said he was going to talk to Minato-sama about asking if I can move in with you two for the time being and wondered if he had done that yet?" Sasuke inquired awkwardly, still trying to work out on his own why Itachi was going to such lengths.

Clearly Naruto hadn't heard this yet because his mouth dropped open in shock and no words came spilling out besides…

"WHAT?!"

Sakura walked up to both of them with a puzzled look on her face as well.

Sasuke mildly blushed in embarrassment, before haughtily looking away from both of them and insisting they continue their practise before they had lunch and went to go meet up with Itachi-sensei for a new mission brief.

Itachi became even more concerned for Sasuke's wellbeing after he discovered a scroll from the distant past of the 1st Hokage's era, where there were shinobi profiles with pictures, and he was gazing at a real Sasuke look alike… The Shodaime's brother Izuna, who was reported murdered in his later years, a mystery still unsolved. If the story was true that Izuna was the one that killed the human that then turned into the vengeful spirit that haunted them till this day, she definitely would want to kill Sasuke for his unfortunate resemblance.

Taking his evidence, he walked to the Namikaze residence and spoke at length with Minato about the possibility of Sasuke moving in temporarily, now that Itachi had identified him as a target of the kitsune.

Minato was concerned, but he didn't think that the fox would be so bold to venture into the village solely for Sasuke's demise. Ultimately, he declined Itachi's request.

"I'm sorry, Itachi-san. I understand your concerns, but I seriously doubt that he would be targeted that heavily, as the fox would be risking herself too much to sneak into the village for one boy. Naruto's Bijuu harms her greatly. She would perish before she could get out again," he explained.

Itachi looked a bit sheepish. As highly intelligent as he was, he wondered whether he should have figured that out as well.

"I apologize for the rash decision. You're right, she wouldn't risk everything for one kill unless it benefitted her greatly, and Sasuke's death wouldn't," he agreed before bowing to the previous Hokage and taking his leave.

Unexpectedly, Minato was summoned to an important meeting with the current Hokage and the leader of the Uchiha clan that afternoon after Itachi spoke with him.

He was also surprised that it was just the three of them, and there were no elders of the Uchiha or the village present.

Growing internally wary, he sat down and greeted the two.

"Is this the top secret of whichever you are about to tell me?" he stated neutrally.

Tsunade laughed lightly at his serious tone, expecting as much.

"Not as much as you are probably guessing," she replied with a small smile.

Shisui was abnormally quiet. Before his appointment as clan leader over Itachi, he had been a vibrant spirit and jokester, but he didn't realize the amount of responsibility he had taken on and did envy Itachi a small amount for passing it to him.

"There was an incident while Team 7 was on their first C ranked mission. Once they came back and I found out it was a failure in the sense that they were unable to find any evidence of other shinobi kidnapping children from that village, I sent in Team 8, and with the Hyuuga's long range abilities, we determined that children were simply wandering off into the woods and disappearing without a trace… which means it's probably related to the kitsune… " Tsunade began.

"Without the Kyuubi's protection over the village, she must have determined it was an ample opportunity and attacked the Uchiha district directly," mentioned Shisui quietly.

Minato's eyes glimmered, knowing this was bad.

"How many casualties?" he asked simply.

Shisui looked gutted.

"20 children from 9 different families were taken… including Kushina's twins…" he replied.

Minoto cringed, for he knew something bad had happened when he went and brought Naruto home from the Uchiha's meeting, and Kushina was crying heavily as they were leaving. When he arrived home and asked Naruto what had happened, he didn't want to discuss it in any detail… and Minato dropped the subject, thinking if he gave him some space, maybe he would open up about it.

"I wanted to speak privately to you two about this before I am forced to act on behalf of my clan and place blame on the Hokage's office in assigning missions to Naruto that lay outside of the villages as his purpose to keep us safe at all times as outlined in the original agreement with the first Hokage and the Uzumaki clan…" Shisui continued.

Minato sighed, knowing he was partly to blame as well for letting Naruto leave, when as a previous Hokage, he had known the agreement like the back of his hand.

Speaking with Tsunade about his next mission, after leaving Minato's, Itachi wasn't too surprised to learn that she was suspending all of their missions until further notice…

He sent a scroll with the notice to his 3 students and went home for the afternoon, awaiting Sasuke's return. They needed to speak at length about what had happened recently.

Walking home from training, Sasuke pondered over the possibility that perhaps Itachi was worrying too much t and couldn't see that he could protect himself perfectly now that he was a Genin…

He entered their apartment and steeled himself for the conversation he had been dreading all day, but when he found Itachi in the kitchen, he wasn't gloomy as Sasuke imagined but happy and had prepared all of his favorite dishes while waiting for him.

"Did you guys have a good training session today?" he asked in a positive tone.

Sasuke ignored the question and sat down, bracing himself. Ok, this was worse than what he had imagined.

"Nii-san, cut the act, am I being moved to Naruto's or not?" he demanded, sulking already.

Itachi narrowed his eyes and took off his apron.

"I'm just trying to lighten the mood, as so much is going on right now…" he muttered mainly to himself.

Sasuke stared at him.

"No, you are staying here, I realize that though I'm worried you've become a target of hers, the fox won't single you out without any sort of higher benefit to herself, so instead you are just going to have to deal with me watching over you more than I have. Discreetly, of course, but I thought I'd warn you of my presence…"

Sasuke didn't like this outcome either, but it was better than moving in with Naruto.

Naruto usually liked to stop by Ichiraku Ramen before going home on monday nights, as Minato agreed to let him have one night he could have whatever he wanted to eat, and he was obsessed with ramen for whatever reason.

Skipping on his usual treat, he headed straight home and burst through the door in a hurry and located his dad in the kitchen.

"Sasuke-teme is going to be living with us?!" he yelled at his father.

Minato raised his eyebrow at the outburst.

"Where did you hear that from?" he asked.

"Sasuke mentioned it during training, and I couldn't answer him because I hadn't been told anything about it…." Naruto continued, this time more calmly.

"Itachi-san came by this morning to ask, but I declined him, so no, Sasuke will not be moving in." Minato told him, turning back to his dinner preparation.

Naruto smiled and sighs with relief. He didn't think he could stand to live with his rival…

"Naruto, are you now ready to tell me what happened with your mother?"

Naruto frowned but was willing to tell him now that Sakura had talked to him the night before.

"She blames me for her twin's deaths. They were taken by the kitsune while I was away…" he stated.

Sakura sure didn't envy the other two in all of their family drama that were going on, but she did wish that she came from a more interesting clan compared to her non existent one… it was a really dumb thing to think about, since there was nothing wrong with her life. She was a very capable kunoichi if she could just get past her shy streak.

She did ask the both of them for pointers with her ninjutsu, as she wasn't very good at some new techniques she was developing, and well her proficiency in genjutsu helped her to trick her opponents, but her teammates knew her tricks by now, and it had stopped working on them…. Plus she tired out quickly, and wasn't the strongest at taijutsu … yet.

She was honest with Naruto. She truly trusted him, but with the Uchiha brothers, she had yet to blossom completely.

Sasuke was patient, and she could tell that he didn't consider her a complete burden, but he was definitely defensive of her while they went on missions, probably thinking she couldn't handle it by herself.

Itachi-sensei gave her a bit more opportunity to prove she could handle herself because he believed that she wouldn't improve if she were to be protected all the time.

Naruto always protected her and assumed that she wasn't much help. Though she knew he would have her back, she felt annoyed that he wouldn't help her grow as much as the Uchiha brothers. Sensei was right, she needed to keep proving that she was learning and improving herself along with the other two. She was just as much a shinobi of the hidden leaf.

Knowing someone else who was in a similar predicament, she had secretly begun training on the side in the evening hours three times a week.

That person was Hinata Hyuuga.

She was the infamous heir to one of Konoha's clans but never grew confident in her own abilities. She was determined to keep up with their classmates now that they were Genin. Naruto had been her idol since they were 4 years old, when he had unknowingly saved her from some bullies.

Sakura noticed her following her and Naruto once and confronted her about it once after school and found out that Hinata liked him.

Sakura was her main threat, as everyone knew that they had become close friends one day out of the blue. Sakura smiled at her thought, because she never considered Naruto as a love interest. She didn't like anyone at the moment and totally support Hinata in her quest to get to know her childhood crush.

After another productive session with her friend, Sakura was walking home when she caught a glimmer of silver in the bushes. It was an eye staring straight at her…

A/N: Thanks Cherry for beta'ing this chapter :) We have another update this coming weekend on Sunday, taking us back to my original biweekly update schedule phew. So sorry its taken me longer to catch up then intended. Also another note, no spoilers from me but all I can recommend is don't get too attached to the 'present days gang' ;)

As always feel free to leave a like, kudos, favorite, follow, comment or review on whichever platform you are reading on *heart* thank you all my readers you keep me going.