Author's Notes

Revised as of 03/06/2022

LEGEND BELOW

"In the beginning..." = Normal speech.

''I kinda wanted to know.'' = Normal thoughts.

"You dare to defy me!?" = Bujuu/Naruto talking.

''That's what I thought.'' = Bujuu/Naruto's thoughts.

Chapter 7

The beginning of Team 8

"Hmm... Darling, I think that our Sensei is late again..." It was early morning in the village hidden in the leaves. The sun only just beginning to shine its warming rays over the horizon and onto the land below. As the Kitsune and Hyuuga princess duo would have it, they found themselves awake and back at their ninja academy awaiting the arrival of Kurenai, as well as the other two girls. They had promised to meet up at the break of dawn, but it seemed as if their team did not fully comprehend just what the break of dawn meant.

Naruto had once again dawned his 'guardian spirit' form, his much smaller form. This was, so far, the easiest form he could manage, and do so for the longest amount of time. He was working on something else, but he wasn't confident in managing it correctly yet.

The little fox was resting in Hinata's lap, the both of them waiting atop the Ninja academy's roof. She'd taken to petting Naruto's back to pass the time, something the little fox deeply enjoyed.

Roughly another half hour passed before the rest of the team finally appeared. The door to the roof swung open, revealing both Ino and Sakura who had taken the stairs to the top, unlike Naruto and Hinata who saw fit to scale the building. Being a ninja had its perks, and one of them was definitely the ability to climb practically anything, even walking upside down. It seemed apparent that these two did not have that knowledge however.

Following the arrival of the other two girls, there was a flash of leaves that appeared suddenly, only to fade away and reveal Kurenai.

"I apologize for being late, I was occupied with..." Kurenai slowly trailed off when she realized that she didn't actually have a valid excuse. "Hmm, Hatake-Kun makes it seem so easy..." she muttered, lost in thought. She coughed weakly to try and gain any sort of ground in the conversation, and because Hinata's little fox's gaze was unnerving her.

"R-Right then.. Introductions were covered yesterday. Today we will cover... Hmm." She raised a hand to her chin in thought again, her expression blank. The woman went silent again when it became apparent that she really didn't know what she was doing, and if the things she wasn't doing was being done correctly. ''Oh... I definitely should've had Hatake-Kun give me some notes...'' She ranted in her head.

Seeing as she seemed to be lost, the best friends pair of pink and blonde threw a glance at each other, hoping that maybe the other would have some sort of info. They would both be disappointed, however. As it would seem, Kurama would be the first to voice his complaints.

"Are all Jonin-Sensei's like this?" Ino whispered to Sakura, who signed back with a "No idea...".

"Yuhi-Sensei, listen..." The little fox spoke slowly, with such a deep commanding voice that continued to catch them off guard. Especially when that voice came from such a small body. "Are you trying to waste my Princess's time? For your sake, that better not be the truth..." The eyebrow twitching annoyance that carried into his tone was made very apparent, what with the way his tails were angrily flicking back and forth. It was also possibly the longest sentence the group had ever heard him speak in one sitting.

"I-.." Kurenai looked taken aback by the little creature's apparent lack of respect, and his arrogance. But her expression barely shifted from the lack of emotion to lightly shocked. "O-Of course I'm not..." Her rebuttal lost all of its energy almost the moment she started speaking.

"Ho-Hokage-Sama entrusted me with this team, do you doubt him..?" She retorted, staring him down. The little fox's face didn't even twitch, signaling that yes, yes he does doubt him. Her face fell, her shoulders dropping. "I-..." She stopped suddenly, before vanishing in a swirl of leaves. The group of ninja in training glanced at each other, lost as to what happened.

"Hmm... Kurama-Kun, what just happened?" Hinata asked, glancing down to the little fox in her lap in confusion. The other girls turned to face him as well, hoping that he potentially knew of their sensei's location. The fox was silent for a moment, before glancing off to the right, seemingly staring at nothing. Then he cracked a victorious grin.

"She gave up, I suppose." He stated, as if that in of itself perfectly explained everything. And, low and behold, it would in just a moment. And then, as if she never left, she reappeared in a swirl of leaves. However, this time...

"What the-!? Who the hell-!? Where-!?" Standing beside Kurenai and wearing nothing but a mask and a pair of black pants and a book in hand, was the built silver haired legend of Konoha himself, Hatake Kakashi. And as it would seem, his choice in the matter of joining their little team meeting didn't matter, especially not to the red eyed Yuhi. "Kurenai?! The fuck-?!" Kakashi exclaimed.

"I need your help, Hatake-Kun." The woman stated flatly.

"I was about to take a shower." He retorted hotly.

"Can you help train them?" She ignored him.

"You're ignoring me..."

"And then afterwards we can get dinner." And again.

"I already had pl-" He was cut off once more.

"And then I can help train your Genin."

"But I-" And again.

"And then we can go back to my place and you can show me that new style you were practicing in the bedro-"

"Okay! Okay!" He jumped in, slapping a hand over her mouth. "I'll help train your ninja..."

She stared at his hand, wide eyed but expression still blank. Was it really that simple to convince her boyfriend to do something? Perhaps she should start talking about their private life more often, because that was the only thing that seemed to get the lazy Jonin moving.

"Oh good." She said quietly, although he could hear her relief. Kakashi sighed lowly, before stashing his book and clapping his hands.

"Well alright! Let's get down to business. So you three are her new team huh?" The silver haired man asked, wide smile behind his mask. The response he got was mixed.

"You could grind steel on those abs..." Sakura signed to Ino in stunned disbelief, getting a nod of agreement from the blonde haired heiress.

"I could stare at them all day and not get bored..." Ino sighed, her eyes drifting. There was a healthy red hue on both girl's cheeks. Kakashi felt like smashing his head into a wall, but managed to keep his cool. Hinata threw a subtle glance at her teammates, before addressing the man.

"So... it would seem, Hatake-Sensei..." The lavender haired princess retorted, managing to keep a straight face. However her disappointment was only amplified by the fox in her lap, who's face screamed murder. The little creature was only kept calm by the lovely princess's soft hands that refused to stop petting him. She was used to the flames he'd emit when angry, and calmly ignored the fire that seemed to leak from his lips.

The rest of the team meeting continued in a similar fashion, but Naruto forced himself to tune everything out, lest he lose his patience and explode. His fur was bristling the entire time, his eyes closed and a sneer marring his maw. The Hokage better have some explaining to do, because if he entrusted the safety of his Princess to a bunch of buffoons, he wasn't going to let it slide. Hinata could feel the killing intent the little fox was emitting, and she partially understood why he was upset.

That didn't mean that she didn't find the reason behind it incredibly cute...

"Hey, Hana! You're going to be late for that mission!" It was around mid morning in the Inuzuka clan matriarch's household, and as the animalistic people would have it, sleeping in was practically in their blood. Kiba, the only male descendant from the current clan head, had been up early taking care of the Ninja's Ninken. He'd known that his sister had a mission early in the day, and he knew that she'd likely sleep in anyway. Good thing she had a great little brother like him to help her out!

"Oh Haanaa! Wake the hell up!" He howled through her bedroom door, grin on his face. He knew he was being pesky, but didn't care anyway. There was a resounding thud from behind the door, he backed off just before it came flying open.

"Damnit brat! I'm sleeping!" Hana hissed, glaring daggers at the cheeky grin Kiba threw at her. The boy threw his arms up behind his head, smiling widely.

"Yeah, I know. But you're awake now, see?" He responded. She gave him a deadpan stare before disappearing back into her room. With nothing else to do he wandered off. He was off today, his sensei having been called away for something important. That of course left him and his team by themselves. He huffed with a frown. He was already bored.

"Huh.. I wonder what Naruto's been up to.." He muttered, before grinning. "I bet he's just lazing around again.. damn lazy fox." He said, but there was no heat to his words.

After he, Shikamaru and Hinata found him like that some time back, the fox only associated with them. There was a level of open hostility to practically everyone outside the Hyuuga clan, with the exceptions being him, Shikamaru and the Hokage, but that wasn't saying much in the old man's case. And maybe Iruka as well. And if he was being entirely honest with himself, he didn't blame the fox one bit. The people of Konohagakure were relatively nice people, but they could be especially vicious to those they hated and or feared. And Naruto, they used to hate. But as time went on, that in turn, changed to fear of him.

"Bud's lived a hard life..." He mused. He was only fifteen as is, but it was a tough pill to swallow learning that Naruto, despite being younger then the rest of the clan heirs and heiress's, had suffered the majority of his entire life.

That night when he found him in that abandoned building in the red light district was something he'd never forget. Everything changed after that. Despite his pride as a member of the Inuzuka, and a maturing alpha, as his mother said, he deeply respected Naruto for not lashing out at those that hurt him.

He knew full well just how powerful Naruto probably was now, compared to when he was just a human. Hinata told him about that stray Kumo Jonin that tried to kidnap Hanabi, and how Naruto would have easily torn the man limb from limb if not for her timely intervention. No, Kiba knew his place under the power that Naruto held. That was a true alpha, and he was proud to call him a friend.

Speaking of Naruto, he'd been walking lost in thought so long that he found himself wandering to the Hyuuga clan's front gates. After a brief moment of thought, he decided to make his way in. He'd been so busy with training that he hadn't the chance to check up on his nine tailed bro. The guards stopped him for a quick question, before letting him pass. A quick minutes walk found him just outside Hinata's private garden spring. Naruto would kill him if he messed anything here up, that was for damn sure.

He saw the massive golden fox relaxing by the spring, belly up and head hanging back. If one thing was for certain, it was that Naruto knew how to relax. Kiba barely got within thirty feet of him before one of his nine tails suddenly extended and wrapped itself around him, pulling him in close.

"Woah!? Hahaha!" He laughed from within the Kyuubi's grasp. "Hinata wasn't kidding! You do have a great nose!" He exclaimed with a cheeky grin. Naruto finally opened one eyes, glancing up at the laughing Inuzuka, before cracking a grin of his own.

"Hmm... Hello to you too, Kiba." It was the deep hum of his voice that greeted the teen. "Did you need something?" The fox asked tiredly. Besides opening a single eye and grabbing kiba with his tail, he hadn't moved an inch.

"I actually came to check up on you. My sensei bounced today so I was bored." He stated casually, as if he wasn't being held aloft ten feet in the air by the most powerful thing within miles. "It's been forever since we hung out..."

Naruto hummed in response, before setting him down and rolling over to his feet. He found himself staring at the fish in the spring, lost in thought. He sighed, before addressing the Inuzuka.

"Yeah.. It has been." The fox muttered. "After Hinata finally got placed with a team of her own, her damn sensei's been doing nothing but taking them on team training exercises and D-rank missions. Ino and Sakura are great actually, but this lack of action is killing me..." He ranted, his tails thumping the ground angrily. Kiba couldn't help but notice how he seemed to separate himself from being included in the team. "It's been a year since that stupid team meeting, and they've accomplished nothing..." Kiba could tell just talking about it was making him angry. He needed to change the subject.

"Ah, you know, forget about the team for now." He said offhandedly. "What about you and Hinata? How has life been?" At that a smile broke out across the fox's black lips. Leave it to mentioning what he cared about most to put him in a better mood. "That good huh?" Kiba chimed in, a knowing smile plastered over his face.

"I swear, I don't know what I'd be without her..." He muttered quietly. Kiba didn't have to be a genius to catch the fact that Naruto said what not where. Kiba had a pretty good god damn idea where Naruto would be right now without his Princess, to calm him down and keep a level head. He'd seen Naruto nearly blow up over minor things many times now, and the unbridled rage the fox held within was almost always hidden just beneath the surface. And from the stories he's heard so far, it didn't take much for that rage to breach the surface. It was a reason that unless Hinata accompanied him, he almost never left the Hyuuga compound.

But as much as Naruto hated, and how impossibly hard it was to calm him down, one look at Hinata's crying face violently shot down that anger. Kiba had the rare chance of seeing the fox cower under said Hyuuga when she got mad with him. It was a strange relationship for sure, but he thinks he speaks for most when he says that he's glad for Hinata's part in it.

Some people might call him weird for saying this, he understood Naruto's anger. He remembered the stories his mother told him when he was younger. About the legendary Kyuubi no Yoko, who's unimaginable rage knew no bounds, who's very hate could kill if it so much as looked at you.

If Naruto truly had been turned into the legendary Kyuubi, then his random bursts of murderous hatred were explained. Naruto wasn't the Kyuubi, but his soul had more or less taken over the body of the Kyuubi. And with all that power, came all that blinding hatred. He assumed the fact that Naruto wasn't immediately mentally broken under all that stress and mental strain could be attested to his horrible upbringing, and the fact that he was more or less used to intense emotions.

At least, that's how his mother explained it to him. She said it was a stressful and only partially understood situation, and that the Hokage wanted as few people to know about it as long as he could make it last. As it was, the only reason Tsume explained it in detail was the fact that he already knew Naruto had been changed, and so withholding information like that would be irrelevant.

"Princess is actually out right now. Two of her personal guards are with her." Naruto stated, finally turning away from the water to face the teen. "I was planning on spending the rest of the afternoon napping, in fact..." Following what he said a large yawn escaped his maw. Kiba laughed.

"You're a damn lazy fox, you know that?" The wild boy stated. Naruto hummed with a smile. He completely agreed with that statement.

"It's just so hard to... have energy for anything nowadays..." He sighed, yawning halfway through. Kiba just laughed, Naruto cementing his statement immediately. Naruto seemed to space out again for a moment, before facing Kiba once more. "Do you know how tiring it is... being angry all the time?" He asked, not really expecting an answer. Kiba was silent for a moment, before sighing.

"I'm sorry buddy, I wish I could say I've been there..." Kiba explained, before pulling the larger fox into a rather strange looking hug. "But I want you to know that we're always here for yah." Naruto sighed, closing his eyes happily. It was always reassuring to learn that people still cared for him. Many days he was overcome with feelings of insecurity, and it was moments like this and with Hinata's love that helped him realize. There were still great people in this world. Not many, but some nonetheless.

"Thanks Kiba.." He muttered.

"Anytime bud. Anytime..." He needed to change the subject, but how?

Silence passed for a little while after that, Naruto returning to simply basking in the afternoon sunlight. It wasn't until Kiba started humming that the fox felt like the teen was up to something devious. And knowing Kiba, it was probably only one or two things.

"So... boob guy or butt guy?" Naruto had to mentally do a double take, just to make sure his ears weren't deceiving him.

"E-.. Excuse me?" He sounded offended in a way. Should he be offended? He was confused. "I'm unsure if I follow..." Definitely confused.

"Oh come off it!" The brown haired teen jabbed. "You know what I'm talking about! Do you like butts on a girl or boobs? Personally I'm a big boob guy myself, however I'm not picky..."

"How the h-.. How did we even get on a topic like this, I wonder?" Naruto deadpanned, eyebrow twitching. He had a real big urge to slap the teen upside the head, and held no guilt to the thought.

"You like em' large or small? I won't judge." Kiba was grinning madly, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at the nine tailed monster. A blush made its way onto the fox's face, not that you could tell with all his fur...

"... You sound just like my godfather..." He sighed. Honestly, he barely tolerated one damn pervert. He couldn't handle two. Damn, such was life he supposed. At least dog boy wasn't talking like that about Hinata, then he'd have some choice words, to say the least.

"Large, gotcha!" Kiba exclaimed with a thumbs up. Naruto felt his face heat up again. What did this stupid question matter anyway, it's not like he could even enter a relationship as he was. Who'd even want to be romantically involved with him, a massive nine tailed fox?

"Is It doesn't matter anyway.My compatibility for a relationship is slim..." Naruto narrowly dodged the subject, or so he thought. Kiba's grin just widened.

"You say that now, fox boy! But I hear you're able to change your shape, and have been getting better at it." He said, big dumb smile marring his features. That response got the white diamond-like gem said fox's forehead to gleam in response. "Sooo... how long until you can rock a semi normal human body again? You've got this white gold form down great, it makes it real easy to hang around with you." That also got said fox to shut up. He wanted to refute the teen's claims, but couldn't deny the truth he found in them.

Honestly, he had been training to control his new body. With the power of the legendary Kyuubi, many different abilities came with it. Besides his apparent immense strength, he had a limitless supply of chakra, or at the very least so much that he had never run low. His body was very mailable, with it existing physically, yet at the same time he's able to bend said physics around himself. That was how he was able to extend his tails triple their length, and how he was able to shrink and also rarely, grow parts of himself in size. Or just his entire body too.

He thought that was all well and good, but it wasn't until his godfather, Jiraya, started getting personally involved with him that he learned that there was much more to his body. It was Jiraya that suggested that Naruto try and shift his body to that of something different then a fox. Since then, training to better control his powers had begun. That was well over a year ago.

"Ah, well then, let's see it!" Kiba stated. Apparently Naruto's silence gave away his knowledge of his level of abilities. He wasn't going to lie, changing back to a quote unquote normal form was indeed something he'd been training to do. And only recently had he grained some level of success in that department. He supposed it couldn't hurt to show Kiba his current ability...

"Tch... Okay, fine..." The fox finally relented with a grumble, standing up from his resting spot. "But don't laugh, or I'll kill you, I suppose..." The grunted threat fell on uncaring ears.

"Alright alright, ya' big fluffy tsundere!" Kiba thoughtfully ducked the tail that came flying at him in response. Naruto closed his eyes, standing stock still. Kiba wisely shut up, instead watching curiously. He was genuinely interested to see how far the fox had come.

Naruto's eyes tightened in concentration, his brows furrowed. A few moments passed before the Hoshi no Tama in his forehead began to light up. A second later his entire body was enveloped in a blinding white light.

"Woah.." This was the first time he'd truly seen Naruto transform before.

Eventually the outline of his body began to shift and morph. The sounds of a struggle were audible, and it seemed as if the shift was going to fail. But after a few seconds, his body began to change shape. Soon enough his body had seemingly returned to a normal human shape, however, with many foxlike additions. Eventually the light faded, leaving behind...

"W-Woah! Dude! Look at you!" Kiba couldn't help the huge grin that split his face. When the light vanished, what was left in its wake Kiba could only describe as, well... "Dude, you're straight up beautiful!" He wasn't afraid to say it, their friendship was like that. He barely resembled the blonde he grew up knowing.

Kiba's visual inspection wasn't wrong, the form Naruto took was very elegant. He looked similar to the forth Hokage in a way, but much younger and lacking any baby fat. His face was sharp, sharper then before the incident. He had three thick red face paint-like marks on each cheek reminiscent of whiskers. Bright red face paint decorated around his eyes, bringing out his strange looking golden eyes which sported an intriguing new cross shaped pupil. His canine teeth had extended in length and ended at a sharp shining point.

There was a wind passing through, shuffling his newly minted head of spiked yet smooth blond hair, of which two large blond furred fox ears extended from, the insides of marked with a red fur. The rest of his body seemed rather normal, besides the nine massive beautiful bright blond and white tipped tails that burst from his rear end. His finger tips were marked with bright red painted long sharp fingernails.

And finally, he was adorned in some sort of expensive looking elegant ceremonial robes that instantly reminded Kiba of some sort of mythical shrine maiden or spirit. Adorning the robes were multiple red ribbons and even, a fur collar that was decorated with a yellow and red rope from which a large golden bell hung from. Another bell and ribbon hung from each of his large twitching ears. His feet were topped with bright red wooden sandals, of which left his sharp red painted toenails exposed. And finally, a giant black bow tie wrapped around his abdomen like a high rise belt.

"This is what you're capable of!? Dude, why don't you just use this form all the time?!" Almost in response to his question, Naruto's Hoshi no Tama, which had been moved to his chest during the transformation, started glowing brightly from under his robes. The now humanoid Kitsune's eyes narrowed and twitched in concentration.

"A-As I am now... this for- tch!?" He seemed to struggle with something, hand raised to his head in pain. It felt strange hearing, Naruto's voice in anything but a deep gravely rumble. But this new form seemed to soften that voice tremendously. "W-Without Princess's a-assistance, its v-very hard to... to.." He was cut off as his form fluctuated, turning white momentarily before he gained control again. He didn't need to explain any more, the point was made. With his current skills in body transformation, maintaining this form was very difficult. He'd need more skill and time with it to keep it level.

"Wow... How long can you.. stay like this?" Kiba asked, motioning to the elegant Kitsune shrine keeper. Naruto seemed to take in a deep breath, before letting it out and calming down.

"Not too long, probably ten minutes or so..." After the initial struggle, he'd gained control of his raging chakra enough for the time being. He stood there for a moment, eyes closed in concentration. Behind him his massive fluffy tails billowed in the wind, waving about at random.

"Well uh, that's pretty awesome all things considered!" The teen exclaimed, hand on his hips. Then he started humming, raising a hand to his chin in seemingly deep thought. Naruto felt a foreboding sensation wash over him, instantly reminding him of Jiraya's presence. His blood ran cold. Could Kiba have found out? Even Jiraya hadn't figured it out yet. He'd die of embarrassment if anyone important found out.

"Hmm... If it wasn't boobs or butts... then..." Naruto facepalmed. He swore this guy was a one track mind, at all damn times. It was seriously starting to get on his nerv-.

"..legs?" As if a damn flood gate had opened, the Kitsune's face lit up like a fire, blushing from head to toe. Kiba couldn't look more gleeful, and wasn't afraid to voice it. "Hahaha! Yes! I knew you had some kind of kink! It's always the weird ones! I thought it would've been her chest your were madly after, but now see it was her lower half-!?"

He barely escaped the repeated tail strikes that came flying at him. "Woah!? O-Okay okay!" Kiba was stuck between squealing like a pig and running for his life. "Woah hey, I'm sorry!" Of course, by this point Naruto only saw red. "H-Hey!? Mercy?!"

"No..." And the deep voice was back.

"Holy shit! When did you learn to spit fire?!?" Kiba was going to learn the hard way, just what happened when you mess with Konoha's resident nine tailed fox. He wasn't looking forward to explaining to his mother why his favorite coat was burned.

"You're beautiful!!" Kiba hissed, trying to put the fire on his ass out.

"Flattery will get you nowhere..." He growled, but his rebuttal was shot down by the blush that lit up his face at the teen's words. He wasn't going to deny just how nice it felt to hear those words.

"-just the sexiest goddamn creature I've ever seen! Like holy shit! You're so hot that no one else could even dream of stealing your Hyuuga babe away!!" By this point he swore he saw steam coming from the Kitsune's furred ears as he sputtered. His face was so red he found it hard to differentiate between his face and the color of his eyeliner he had. "Like damn, so when you mentioned her killer headlock with her thighs while training, you were-!?"

"Die..."

"Hinata?! Hinata help me!" He shouted, scrambling to hide behind the Hyuuga princes that had apparently just returned from a shopping trip, only to find her fox terrorizing the Inuzuka heir. From the looks of it, he deserved it. Said heiress took one look at the Kitsune's form, before a maddening blush bloomed across her face.

"H-Hmm... n-no." She coughed, failing to hide her blush. "N-No I don't think I will..."

"Die!"

"Save meee!"

CHAPTER

6

END