Author's Notes:
A bit slower pace than the first release and a bit more of the Twins.
~Siva'a
Chapter 8: The Golden Tod
~I I I~
Tatsua bluntly chimed in with, "We are going to live with you, kiddo!"
Naruto promptly passed out again, falling sideways while at rigid seiza attention, and flopped over until he lay flat on his back, face up. He finally had a family!
The Twins glanced at each other with matching stares of blinking confusion.
"Is this going to be a recurring theme? Should we buy him one of those special helmets?" Tatsua chirped.
Tamami shot another withering glare at her sister as she set about making their new Taichou comfortable again. Settling the tiny male once again into the comfort of her lap, she asked her smirking sister to slide the coffee table closer so she could get some things done while they waited.
"I don't," Tatsua started to say as she easily hefted the plain piece of sturdy furniture setting it gently next to her sister's right side, "see why we can't just leave and pretend that nothing happened... like we didn't get the call in the first place. Who will know?"
That comment made the kneeling woman pause, the air around her chilling enough to force goosebumps to the surface of Tatsua's lightly tanned skin. Tamami, however, refused to speak her thoughts on such a suggestion implying to the other woman that knew her so well that she was pretending not to have heard it in the first place. Tatsua, however, did realize her slip and the impact on her sibling as she fidgeted while her sister unsealed first an inkwell, followed by several brushes, then finally papers of various sizes with a waxy sheen.
It was still several moments before Tamami spoke, by then her hand already gently smoothing the excess ink from the finest brush tip she owned.
"No one knows where their life's path will eventually lead them, this is even more so for us – the Kitsune." Her eyes never left the tiny inkwell as she spoke.
"You, my sister, are all I've ever known and loved since our flight from the land of our birth but I will not keep your feet from the path you wish to pursue, despite how much it would hurt me to see you go."
'Well, shit.' Tatsua's breath caught in her throat. Tamami had just raised the stakes by making her intentions abundantly clear.
"You would leave me," the older sibling's shocked eyes wandering down to the unconscious child in her sister's lap, "for this?"
Tamami still hadn't looked up at this point.
"For the record, I am doing what Kyūbi-sama has commanded of us. For the second record, I am not abandoning anyone." Tamami held her sister's disbelieving stare without flinching. "It is you who are abandoning us."
Silence filled the air for many minutes as the kneeling Kitsune began drawing her brush across one of the normal sheets of paper at her side, her back straight in order to keep her overfull chest from smothering her peacefully sleeping charge. She stayed focused on her task even as her sister quietly turned on a heel and stepped from the spacious apartment.
The moments ticked by peacefully as Tamami's brush glided across the various sheets of paper she'd spread out on her impromptu work surface, the ticking of the plain circular wall clock the only accompaniment to the steady swishing of her calligraphy implement.
She kept working even after a quick glance at the clock revealed the passing of twenty minutes, a brief smile spreading her lips as her head leaned forward to try and peak past her chest to the gently snoring child in her lap.
"Well, twenty minutes is a record for Sua-chan." She paused and giggled lightly, a brief nod of her head swaying the silky curtain of golden hair as she agreed to some unheard comment.
"Yes, she can be a bit brash but that only means she is passionate about what she believes in."
A ruffled snort from her lap could almost be taken as agreement or amusement, depending on your familiarity with the subject with limbs sprawled to the four winds.
"I'm sure you two will grow to love each other in time." She glanced once up to the ceiling briefly. "Speaking of time... Three, two, aaaaaaannnd..."
She kept working even as her sister stormed back into the apartment only to stomp over to the couch throwing her body down onto it with a huff of air.
"Don't say it!"
"Welcome back, beloved sister."
"Screw you! You knew I never went much farther than the roof, didn't you?"
"Yes." The left corner of Tamami's mouth again crinkled into an upturned wrinkle.
Tamami could easily hear her older sister's muttered, "Damnable cheating sensors."
"You were never very good at running away."
"You never know! One day I just might really do it!"
"Of course, dear."
"I meant it!"
"Shh! He's still sleeping," Tamami shushed.
"Screw him to!" the now frustrated former runaway barked out.
"Someday, when he's old enough and if you're well-behaved enough, I might just let you."
Tatsua tried both ignoring her sister's conceited smirk and not choking on her own spit. "Never!"
"I need you to stop being hostile enough to pick up a few things for us," Tamami chirped with a happy smile, the ink on her list now dry as she passed one of her projects to her sibling. "Please find me something in blue, if you can."
Her sister snatched the sheet, read over it once briefly, then left the apartment yet again after making sure her ears and tails were securely hidden away. Not even her grumbling could remove the contented smile from Tamami's face as she turned to her next task, the image of Kyūbi-sama's new gift burning in her mind before her brush gracefully danced across several sheets of the waxy seal transfer squares.
~I I I~
When Naruto eventually came to, he had a difficult time remembering what happened and where he was. He remembered the summoning ceremony. He remembered the insanely pretty Kitsune in his apartment. He could still hear the fan over the stove trying to pump out all the smoke. 'Aaaah, I'm on the floor of my apartment. I must have passed out.'
Something wasn't right though. He couldn't see anything, and he wasn't exactly flat on his back. More importantly, something heavy was pressed to his forehead and it covered his eyes so he couldn't open them. He was aware that his head and shoulders were laying on something very soft, something that smelled of sakura petals.
He also hurt… as in all of him hurt from head to toe. Well, nothing for it but to find out why he couldn't open his eyes as he wanted to at least see what was going on. He reached up to lift off whatever was pressing on his face.
"Huyaaaah!" Shudder. Funny… that sounded like Tamami-chan.
Two very soft but strong hands closed on his own firmly pulling them away from whatever he was trying to move off of his head but Tamami's chest eventually lifted from his face.
"I-I-I-I-I…. s-sorry!... D-D-D-Didn't mean to!" he sputtered.
By now he was floundering especially since he realized he was snuggled comfortably in her lap.
"I think we can safely say he's a boob-man, eh?"
Both faces, both equally flushed in embarrassment, shot heated glares to the smug brawler sitting comfortably from her position of safety on the couch. She actually took a moment to lift the neckline of her mesh shirt away to glance down at her own not-inconsiderable chest strapped down like cargo.
"Or maybe it's just your over-sized-."
"NEE-CHAN!"
Despite the apparent distress of her baby sister, Tatsua's grin only increased at their growing discomfort. If she was stuck with this shit-sandwich, she was by Inari's grace going to enjoy every moment she could. Speaking of which, her glare turned particularly malicious as she looked down to lock stares with the still-glaring boy child.
"Taichou, you are going to have to get used to this as you will more than likely see us in various stages of undress while living with you. I know I'm partial to tee-shirts and panties when I'm relaxing at home."
The boy's sputtering shock gave her a warm feeling of achievement even as she reached up to absently rub the base of her neck.
"The naked female body should not surprise you as female shinobi, and more importantly female Kitsune once you're old enough, will most likely try to use this as a way to get close to you. Your enemy will use whatever means are available to them in order to exploit that weakness and many generals have been assassinated in their beds by shinobi pretending to be their lovers. With us, you need never doubt whether or not our loyalty and affections are sincere."
Naruto did marvelous credit to his gender and age group with his best wide-eyed "Eewwwwwww!" He is six after all and the "Talk" stuff was beginning to make his head hurt. He was still coming to terms with the fact that Tamami wasn't angry with him for squeezing her chest.
"Stop teasing him, and stop messing with that or it will get infected!"
This confused Naruto as he glanced up with a clearly confused look on his face to ask what Tamami was talking about. Unfortunately, his train of thought (and limited attention span was thrown off when he couldn't see the underside of her chin - all he could see was a wide expanse of dark blue cloth.
Apparently Tatsua got the message though as her hand shot down into her lap as if chased there by her own scowl. Forget that she'd even said that he would be seeing both of them more or less with nothing on as his limited attention span abruptly changed channels yet again. The one word the very young Naruto's mind latched on to was the honorific, "Taichou."
"Why?"
Tatsua paused, her scowl melting into a confused question. "Hnn?"
"Why do you keep calling me that?"
"Calling you what? Stumpy?"
The boy's face wrinkled up cutely into a six-year-old pout.
"No!" His outrage made her giggle, a sound that he liked and lessened his furious Glare no Jutsu of Doom. She was really lucky, in his honest opinion, he hadn't cranked it up to Level Two, the murderous Glare no Jutsu of Death.
"Jiji says I'll hit a growth spurt any day now!"
Tatsua snorted. Loudly. TWICE. "Uh-huh. Anyway, listen up, Stumpy-chan."
Despite the continued Glare no Jutsu of Doom, what followed (once he explained her precarious situation) was a detailed explanation of the young boy's new Kitsune position of power. Of how "Taichou" was an old term of respect for the highest level of military leader as theirs was a militarily-structured organization as compared to the mafia-oriented toads, who shall remain nameless from henceforward, or the chaotic ferrets that had no discernible structure that anyone could see. He sat gobsmacked as he learned how he was third in power below the Kami Inari and Kyuubi herself, their empress. As Kyuubi was sealed inside his belly (Tamami gently placed one palm on his stomach), he was the new emperor with direct access to Inari-kami himself, the honest to goodness Kami of all Kitsune.
He was, in fact, the Taichou entitled to all rights, privileges, and authority thereof and these two were his right-hand maidens sworn to defend and protect his life until he released them from his service – or they died while in the act of doing so, whichever came first.
Plenty of people had tried to make Naruto die but no one had ever sworn to die in his stead.
"Ano… don't I have to be Kitsune for that to happen?" Last he checked he was still a young boy. A human boy.
Tamami chuckled and one of her hands left his chest to gently stroke one of his long, golden ears from base to tip. The sensation was amazing, and his ear tried to twitch away from the delicate stroke. His body immediately flushed with warmth and shivered, much like she did earlier. It also did something weird to his stomach.
Simultaneously, Tatsua got up from her comfy perch to reach behind him and gently stroke one of his two tails, slowly bringing it up around his prone body so he could see it. It was the same golden blond as his hair and tipped with snow-white fur. It was apparently also very sensitive. He shuddered again, his tail flicking quickly out of her grasp as she rubbed it across her face and chin.
"We will need to work on your control, Taichou." Her very lecherous smirk was not lost on the flabbergasted youth.
"I need to see this." A hectic scramble and detangling of limbs ensued while he wriggled out from Tamami's grasp and staggered to the bathroom.
Tamami pouted at her suddenly cold lap - he was a regular furnace when sleeping - and Tatsua giggled as they waited for his reaction.
When the light flicked on he saw exactly what he expected to see – two long ears and two…two?... very fluffy tails swaying back and forth behind him. The fur was as golden as his hair except at the tips where it was a blinding white. Oddly enough, his tails felt pinched at the waistband of his sweats and he feared his limited-edition wardrobe was about to undergo modifications in the near future.
His eyes were the same deep blue, but the golden pupils were more oval-shaped than round and constricted further once the bright light came on making them shrink into slits, and his whisker marks were deeper. His mouth opened as his smile grew and that's when he noticed his pronounced canines.
Yup…he was a Kitsune and a darned good looking one if you please.
It was as he was gently poking his larger fangs with his fingertips that his right ear twitched towards the living room and he heard Tamami whispering to her sister hoping that he wouldn't send them away.
He smiled thinking those ears would be pretty useful if he could find a way to cover them. He was also pleasantly surprised by how much clearer his vision was and grinned again. He almost turned away when he turned off the light except a blue glow in the mirror caught his attention. Taking a second look, that blue glow was coming from his body, his whole body. He was giving off a steady stream of blue energy in an aura.
A bit concerned by this, he returned to the twins and sat down next to them with their expectant faces locked onto his eyes. Tamami looked disappointed when he didn't immediately snuggle back into her lap.
"Okay, what's going on?"
Without saying a word, the girls glanced to each other very quickly before reaching over to him and placing a hand on each shoulder.
"This had better work, Tama-chan," the bob-cut female groused.
Before he knew it, there was another pull on his mind and the three of them were back in the mindscape kneeling before the table with Kyuubi on the other side. Without preamble, the twins bowed deeply to the nine-tailed fox as the next important lesson was about to begin.
Kyuubi had a grin threatening to swallow her entire face. As she looked at her golden tod, her snow-capped Taichou, her body grew warm starting with her core. Shivering off the increase in animalistic pheromones, she settled into her lecture mode and wove a tale.
For half a moment, she considered applying the seal she'd provided to the Twins to herself only to wave off the idea. If things went according to plan, she'd never have to worry about him betraying her so why fight what she could overpower anyway?
"Three things have happened to you so that we," she motioned to herself and the two-tailed vixens," can keep you alive as this rotten village has very little interest in doing so." She raised one dainty index finger.
"First off, the twins are going to help train you and protect you. That is why we summoned them." Tatsua and Tamami smiled warmly and nodded their heads in agreement, Tatsua's shocked face at seeing the Kyuubi directly across from her beginning to sink in.
"Their job is to take care of you and help train you as the ultimate Kitsune warrior, the Warlord of our Kitsune army. Each has her own specialties and you can learn a great deal about being Kitsune from them. This will have the added benefit of preparing you for a shinobi career but that is not their primary goal and I ask you to remember that.
"Their first task is to help you relearn how to use your chakra since this," she waved one hand in vague circles in front of his face and shoulders, "…has reinforced your now expanded chakra network and more than likely wrecked what little control you had, if any."
Naruto's only response was, "Hnn… chakra?" Kyuubi continued unphased, tossing him a scroll explaining in detail how chakra worked both in humans and Kitsune. Glancing quickly over the first few feet of the scroll, he found the complicated chakra network of his tails very interesting reading.
Another finger joined the first. "Second, I removed the remaining two limiters from your seal matrix. This will unlock your physical and spiritual potential, but I cannot stress enough…" Her voice had risen slightly when she saw his face light up indicating his brain was tuning her out over dreams of being the next One-Punch super ninja… "...that this is a double-edged sword. If you don't learn to control your new body, and soon, all we've worked for will come undone and you'll remain weak and defenseless. As you are now, a civilian teenager could cripple you even with the magnificent body I have engineered for you.
"Finally, as you've noticed by now you have some new... accessories," she almost crooned as the third finger rose into the air. Naruto's new ears perked up and his tails started swaying side to side again, playfully swatting his twin playmates on their respective rumps. Kyuubi saw both ladies blush (the boy was completely oblivious to what he was doing) and heard a subtle sigh escape Tamami's lips. 'Huh, it's always the quiet ones.'
"I've given you the equivalent of a bloodline set package, basically the concentrated physical enhancements of the Kitsune race, with a couple of perks not normally included. It's up to these two to teach you and help you adapt but I will share with you my personal additions as they are not familiar with them. She bijuu smiled as both vixens absently reached back to the base of their skulls.
"You already have enhanced regeneration courtesy of exposure to my youki, which is funneled through these three Uzu medical seals." Three green seal arrays appeared on the table in front of them. "You can regenerate most damaged organs if given enough time and most poisons will have little effect on you but that does not make you invulnerable. Enough physical damage can still kill you and no amount of regeneration can help you if your head gets separated from your neck." She drew her thumb across her throat to emphasize her point.
"So, don't get cocky, kit."
Naruto filed that very important fact away, one hand ghosting up to his neck.
"Also, I've increased the density of your bone structure and muscle tissue by almost two-and-a-half times. This will give you added strength and durability making you harder to kill but not so bulky it makes you rigid and slow. We can't have a repeat of last year's birthday. If you die, I die. Let's not have that."
Naruto nodded emphatically in agreement.
"And finally, as we are now officially joined through the seal, and you are directly linked to my chakra (as you call it), we can do more than speak mentally outside of the mindscape. You will have access to my chakra affinities, which will grow as you gain more strength through an added number of tails. And you will get more tails, never more than eight though, as you get stronger." She leaned forward to garner his undivided attention. "And I WANT you to get stronger." She gently flicked his nose with her fingertip and smiled.
"Now go. I am tired after all my work and I'd like to rest."
This was a lot to take in, but he reached out and hugged the gorgeous Kyuubi one more time as things faded to nothing. When he glanced up to his new roommates, he grinned and hugged them both, then stood, stretched, and walked quietly into his bedroom.
Unsure of what to do the girls eventually went back to check on the new Kitsune only to see him face down on his bed snoring peacefully in deep slumber.
Naruto woke up hours later feeling great, Kyuubi's magic healing powers reducing his pain to a dull ache. He yawned and stretched suddenly puzzled as to why one of his new tails was stuck. Opening his eyes to find his face buried in Tamami's grasp, her baby-blue pajamas covered in little golden bees, and the rest of her pressed snugly up against his front like he was a self-heating body pillow. One of his was tails snuggled up to her face in her sleeping kung-fu action death grip.
He first began to blush and look for a way to escape without having to cut off his brand-new tail. Then he realized that he had a second tail and that it was also stuck but somehow behind him. Trying to free it he tugged on it.
It didn't come free but Tatsua moaned in a very odd way, her voice coming from right behind his ear, so he tugged again. No luck but he heard another moan before something squeezed his tail. Looking behind him, he saw her pajama-clad body pressed up against his back and his tail snuggled between her thighs.
Both of his tails were trapped, and he could smell something musky and sweet at the same time, his nose twitching as he tried to figure out a way to escape. If they were going to be sleeping with him in the same bed, he was going to need a bigger bed since he liked to spread out a bit.
Slowly prying his fuzzy appendages from their grips of doom, the walking night light snuck his way into the shower to scrub up for his new day casually noticing that at least a third of his bed was unoccupied with him still smashed between the two of them. He didn't mind being their teddy bear but they might have to set some boundaries.
He had to admit that the physical contact was nice though. He liked hugs. It was also while under the hot water (his old apartment never had hot water) that the notion of welcomed physical contact hit him with another issue.
Villagers hated him when he was normal Naruto. How was he going to get around as super Kitsune Naruto, the Golden Taichou? He resolved to start his new training regimen when the girls woke up, whatever it was going to be. Maybe they knew a way to fix that.
They'd also have to talk about sleeping and hogging his tails.
Inside the seal, Kyuubi laughed at his dilemma. 'You may not mind so much in a few years,' she thought quietly.
The answer he got when they finally awoke was not what he was hoping for.
His chakra control was shot. Well, it wasn't like he had a lot to begin with but what little he had was pretty much gone.
Standing in his living room with his tails fluttering frantically the boy-who-would-be-Kage couldn't even set fire to his own apartment. Wall climbing? Forget it. Assume Tamami's form with a henge? He got an Akimichi-sized girl with blue hair and no clothes. He couldn't even manage enough steady chakra to use chakra paper.
Oh well. Back to the drawing board.
He had to rework all of the basic chakra training he'd done with Kyuubi. The physical changes also came with both larger, more robust chakra coils and reserves basically destroying what little control he had just as she'd predicted. He was now trying to control the flow of a large river vice a fully-charged fire hose.
To make matters worse, he learned that his completely destroyed chakra control wasn't even solely caused by the growth in his chakra network; his overnight biological conversion into a Kitsune had developed something called the Modulous Gland located near the base of his tails, one gland having developed for each tail.
This genetic marvel's sole purpose was for the regulating of Reika-based chakra in his tail networks, networks that were supposed to be just as complicated as his human-developed chakra network. The only difference between his glands - because he was a human first - and the glands of a normal Kitsune was that his did more than regulate the flow of chakra to and from the tail's network.
His glands were larger and more complicated as they were required to either allow or prevent flow of his Kitsune spirit chakra (like a normal Kitsune) from his tail network to what they were calling his core network but also regulating that same flow by mixing the two normally incompatible chakras into a usable form of hybrid chakra that wouldn't poison him over time. Then end result was a more robust network as his chakra gates, coils, and tenketsu had to be reinforced to handle the revised flows.
The Twins seemed nonplussed and, with a gentle smile, told him that they already worked out a beginner training schedule for him.
His training would be broken up by their specialties.
Tamami would teach him general chakra control, Kitsune genjutsu, Kitsune elemental control and what little human ninjutsu she had learned over the years living in the human world, which admittedly was not much. What she didn't know they would study together. When he asked why it had to be Kitsune techniques, she informed him that they weren't well-versed in human techniques seeing as Kitsune arts were regulated through their tails, which internally regulated and molded their chakra into elemental forms without handseals.
Tatsua would work on his physical aspects to include reinforcement and extension techniques with chakra control exercises, Kitsune taijutsu, and Kitsune kenjutsu. Unfortunately, before they could get to the cool stuff, he would have to learn to control his new body and that would take time.
She seemed a bit too excited at that idea.
The three worked him to the bone always keeping him inside until he learned to alter his form enough to pass for human again, but it would take pretty much the rest of summer before he had enough control to hold Kitsune illusions long enough to get through a day of school and be able to learn transformations. There were two types, one that simply covered his appearance under a false image of no substance – in other words, he could still have his Kitsune appendages out but anyone bumping into them would break the illusion – and one that actually transformed him physically, removing the tails, ears and covered his eyes making him look and feel like the old Naruto.
At least he didn't glow anymore by the time August rolled around.
As much as he hated going without the tails and ears, the latter technique was more useful in that he could assume other more helpful forms… like a fox or other people he was familiar with. It also meant he could shop unopposed. Most vendors were very polite to his disguised forms, especially when he imitated women, which he was learning a great deal about living with two beautiful ones that shed clothing at the drop of a hat.
Tamami was very helpful in correcting problems with his shape change jutsu, his female persona coming a long way with her help.
He would eventually have to find a name for his female alter ego. It was very effective at persuading dirty old men to be nice to him. It also opened up whole new realms of pranking. It just took forever to learn enough control to maintain the form longer than thirty minutes.
They used this new level of control as an incentive to give him time outside of his apartment as he developed a severe case of cabin fever halfway through summer. His control shot up dramatically, however, and Tatsua was relentless in conditioning his body which served to further increase his physical chakra reserves. She even began to train him at night in nearby training grounds. He felt like a new man…. er, boy.
Training continued through the last civilian school year which by now was a blur of activity. His grades improved (when they weren't being actively sabotaged) and his overall scores were high enough to let him graduate. To be honest, teachers would have passed him anyway just to get the demon brat out of their classrooms. It did afford plenty of time to train before and after school with the twins and added new skills to his tool chest.
Wall climbing, water walking, camouflage, and voice throwing, all valuables tools in the Kitsune trickster bag, made nights of pranking (and evading) ANBU worth the exercise of fleeing for his life. Pranking the rude store owners just made life enjoyable, especially when Tatsua began teaching him burglar skills like lock picking, wirework, trap detection (and removal), and pick-pocketing.
When he found ledgers reporting how much shop owners had robbed from him, it all became very personal and he very diligently worked to balance the scales. He just gave the money to other street urchins and homeless people in the red-light district where he was just another social outcast.
He became very popular in that part of town.
~I I I~
"Okay, this looks like a good spot to camp for the night." Tatsua set her pack down and glanced back to her soon-to-be-eight-year-old charge as his heavy breaths quickly settled down into normal breathing. His stamina, even at such a young age astounded her. She refused to get attached to the tiny future psycho though.
Males just could not be trusted; she'd seen the mistake of that first hand and Kitsune were long-lived enough that Taichous were transitionary. There would be another one along soon enough and the Thirteen would make her female and all would be well again.
She pointedly averted her gaze up and away from his big, blue, gorgeous eyes once he looked up at her in anticipation. Nope, he wasn't cute at all, just another street rat. Yup.
Besides, he'd be warier of her after this camping visit.
"Okay, Taichou." She didn't have to look down to know he was vibrating with excitement. "We're going to set up a den here then we're going to learn trapping for small game." She glanced down and - yup, he was so excited his body was vibrating in place.
"Camping basics and small game trapping before we learn to hunt, got it?"
The small child pumped a fist into the air and began setting up their combined tent with excitement; she'd weened him of that spontaneously-shouting nonsense the last two times they'd come camping.
Thumps to the head were effective.
"Do you need a hand?"
He shook his head and shot her a cheeky "thumbs up" before diving right in. She, in turn, climbed up to a comfortable branch and watched closely as he set up the tent - noting a couple of poles would need to be tightened otherwise it was passable - then set about prepping a basic campfire complete with y-shaped sticks to make a spit. To cap it off, they were close enough to a stream that he returned with a flat-ish stone just big enough for a couple of metal mugs or a small pot.
The vixen smiled knowing the stone would get bigger over time as he got stronger. The fact that he remembered that she liked her tea in the morning, and that she used warming stones over the fire, made him less intolerable. he was almost bearable at this point.
"Come on, Stumpy." His hands flopped from their proud position on his tiny hips as he shot her another pout, er, glare.
"Let's go catch some fish then I'll teach you how to trap small game."
He tittered with excitement as the two sauntered off. Tatsua, offhandedly considered the lush bounty of Konoha's surrounding forests finding it ironic that the same despicable humans that once made his life a living hell were going to be responsible for him becoming the apex predator in these very same woods.
A shiver shot down her spine at the thought, the vixen unsure just yet if that was a good or a bad thing. He was male after all.
"Okay, Stumpy-chan." 'He growled. How cute!' "I'm going to show you three trapping methods I prefer to use when hunting game this week and we are going to store the rabbit carcasses in this handy scroll Tama-chan gave us so they don't go bad."
She cut him off immediately. "No, for the last time I don't know how to make storage scrolls. Stop asking, Stumpy-chan."
"First two we'll learn at the same time. We're going to learn how to make pitfalls and box traps." She glanced down to her little pack minion. "Did you bring the apple cores?"
Naruto obediently held up the trash bag filled with semi-rotten leftovers.
"Good. Let's get to work then!"
Building traps wasn't as tough as the future shinobi thought it would be. Finding rabbit activity wasn't too difficult either once you knew what their round poop pellets looked like or where to typically find holes in the ground surrounded by rabbit tracks.
Tatsua was full of helpful information, like how rabbits liked the sweetness of apples over veggies - the natural sugar made sense - but also how if you crushed an apple or two around your traps and snares it helped hide the scent of humans and other predators.
He also learned that the little buggers were really good jumpers so their pit trap needed to be at least an arm's length deep (Tatsua's arm length not his) and narrow to prevent them from jumping out of it. Finding thin twigs to lay over the pit then covering it with leaves made the pit easy to do just about anywhere if you had a shovel (since neither knew any neat jutsu). All it took was a little work.
Tatsua unsealed a pair of boxes and explained how big they needed to be and what kind of sticks she thought best to prop it up. It helped that she'd used hers regularly so it made for a bizarre kind of show and tell.
The next day, sure enough, they found a cute little bunny in the box and two sitting quietly in the shallow pit. Naruto's happiness at catching the cute balls of fluff had him briefly losing control with an exuberant "Yatta!" Unfortunately, all it did was startle the rabbits and earn him another bop on the noggin.
Still, it did nothing to curb his enthusiasm until she lifted one of the panicked creatures from the pit by the scruff of the neck and held it out to him, which generated a questioning look from the child.
That look melted into panicked fear two seconds later when she handed him a thin-bladed knife and blandly ordered him to "Kill it."
It would be a much more traumatized Uzumaki Naruto learning how to make tree snares two days later already knowing what was coming his way once they caught the next brace of rabbits.
~I I I~
Camping and hunting would not be the extent of his education.
Extension techniques allowed him to funnel chakra into his tails and make them stretch. This was extremely handy, especially when combined with tree walking through the tenketsu points in a Kitsune's tail, all three hundred and twelve of them. In fact, a Kitsune's tail had a highly developed chakra network as a vast majority of their chakra manipulation was funneled through their tails. By the time summer ended, he could stretch his tails to twice their natural length (each tail was three-quarters the length of his body) and could hold up to seventy-five kilos of weight in each. Tatsua was ecstatic especially at night when she wanted a security blanket.
She wouldn't teach him reinforcement just yet, but she did introduce him to it. Being able to boost his physical strength and speed, while generating a hide as tough as stone, made him drool but she told him the development of his body had to come first. If he was a good Taichou, she would start teaching him by the end of his first year in the academy.
And nothing he did, not his Puppy Eyes No Jutsu nor groveling on his knees with promises of all the hugs and kisses she could stand would change her mind.
Tatsua did take him out at night and into the forests to teach him how to use his senses. His normal vision was marvelous, but Kitsune night vision was incredible. Moonless nights were still crystal clear. With a small stream of chakra to his eyes, he could even see residual heat traces in animal tracks and heat signatures from bodies up to thirty meters away. She put him through his paces, but he learned a great deal about Kitsune sensory capabilities.
For one, Kitsune, like foxes, have binocular vision just like normal foxes do, vision granting a wider field of view with greater depth perception and accuracy even without streaming chakra to his eyes. This made it much more difficult to sneak up on a Kitsune with camouflage jutsu if they were able to study their environment undisturbed – even if you could get past their keen noses.
Another benefit came in the greater form of higher olfactory functions. While a fox's sense of smell isn't as good as your specialized (read hunting variety) Canis Lupus, his sense of smell was roughly fifty times better than a boring human and could accurately discriminate odors with a range of about half a mile. He was never going to beat an Inuzuka in the nose department, but he could hold his own.
It was extremely useful in keeping track of the twins by smell, especially when she taught him about the special caudal gland in the tip of his tail used to mark his mates (it smelled like a flower he wasn't familiar with). This also made their fascination with cuddling his tail much clearer – they were marking themselves as taken to other Kitsune males. This discovery made him blush for over an hour when he remembered that Tatsua tended to snuggle his tail between her thighs (she never quite gave up on that habit).
His parabolic ears were fantastic. Without chakra, he could hear rats and mice up to one hundred meters on a quiet night and target sounds to within a few degrees of accuracy, although lots of background noise cut down on the range. The only downside was that loud noises caused lots of distractions and some pain until he learned to mentally filter the excess.
The whisker marks and tail were used to help with his balance and high-speed locomotion. In addition to fine-tuning his balance (Tatsua smeared cream all over the whisker marks on one side of his face and laughed while he continuously fell over), they also were good for detecting shifts in air pressure by fast-moving items because of the extremely fine hair follicles nestled deep in the whisker grooves of his cheeks. His tails acted like large rudders even helping him change direction or position in midair. After he mastered movement with this pair of additions, Tatsua made him master the Kitsune transformation and learn how to move again without them once they were hidden.
In the end, he discovered that he missed his fuzzy add-ons and couldn't wait to unfurl them the moment he got home.
It wasn't until he mastered the basics that they taught him a chakra exercise to protect him against attacks that targeted those delicate senses. That was worth learning and resulted in a passionate make-out session with Tamami, much to her pleasure, even if it was only him repeatedly kissing her cheeks.
It got much better afterward as Tatsua started taking him out into the forested training areas of Konoha to learn how to hunt bigger game and survive with more than a rudimentary diet in the wild. They had to buy a small freezer chest to keep the extras they brought back, much to Tamami's joy, as it gave plenty of material to teach cooking with.
Tatsua taught him how to cook in the field but the Haught cuisine belonged to her sister.
By the time his birthday rolled around again, he was both a functional Kitsune and a passable human. They also stayed in this time around thanks to Tama-chan's basic defensive seal arrays and watched movies while snuggled up on the couch.
Yes, he needed to hide from the villagers. Yes, they scowled, yelled, insulted, and hurt him whenever they could get away with it (which was never now). Yes, they used every opportunity they could to "hunt down the demon brat!" but not every waking moment of his life was darkness and pain and suffering. Sometimes there were rather spectacular moments of light and love that helped to reaffirm that possibly, perhaps maybe, not every human was a wasted bag of walking flesh.
Sometimes, good things could happen to the Kyuubi container.
Take for instance a certain Miko near the southern outskirts of Konoha.
During his last year in the civilian school, and only during nights of the full moon, the Twins would take him to a very secluded training area they'd discovered when scouting out the village. These nights were quickly becoming Naruto's favorite because Kitsune biology was greatly affected by the lunar pull.
He felt energized during the full moon. On nights like these, when the full moon could be seen in the afternoon sky before the sunset, the Twins would take the boy to this secluded hideaway so that he could burn off excess energy near Training Area Fifty-Four. It was a small glade located just up a steep hillside from the tiny shrine dedicated to Omoikane, the little worshipped Kami of wisdom and intelligence.
The glade was small centering around a deep pool fed by a trickling waterfall, the resulting flow splitting off in two directions before gurgling down the hillside. One directly fed the shrine fresh water. The other ran off to join a larger stream before disappearing into the woods. It was in this second stream that the monks and Mikos of the shrine cleansed their bodies, just far enough away so that they didn't contaminate the pool at its source.
This did little to stop Naruto on the nights his guardians brought him to the pool in full Kitsune Hanyou form, a habit that became routine every month during the full cycle of the moon when their bodies raged against the moon's strongest pull.
The boy relished these early days when he could release the transformation and let furry bits fly openly. He'd strip down to just his shorts and boxers and would let loose his pent-up energy by running around, over, swimming in and leaping out of the pool, oft times running along the rocky face of the small waterfall, his joyous face raised to the moon above as he whooped and yelled.
Even with the pheromonal suppression seal at the base of their necks, their Taichou's youki-enhanced pheromone production was... a bit much to undertake. So out into the open air they boldly went.
The Twins, in their full battle fox forms, would sit by the poolside watching the young kit leap about whilst trying to cleanse their bodies of the built-up pheromones Naruto constantly released. They didn't fault Kyuubi for wanting to make him formidable from the start, but the child was innocently unaware, almost blissfully, of the effect biologically it was having on the two very fertile females.
Their eyes spent the greater part of the day mentally dilated, their brains literally high off extremely saturated levels of dopamine coursing through their mesolimbic pathways and their synaptic activity stimulated by his overactive pheromone production. So, the Twins brought him here for two reasons.
First, high levels of physical activity out here helped to reduce his physical activity in that tiny apartment reducing the spread of his pheromonal fog. Kyuubi ramped up his body to be on par with a mature Kitsune male and this meant he produced the very addicting stimulant like a smokestack.
Second, being out in the fresh air helped to calm their stressed-out receptors and reduced the chemical stack-up when they weren't right on top of him, so to speak. It was their own version of physical therapy combined with pheromonal purging.
Naruto didn't notice how their hands clenched and unclenched when the girls were fighting the urge to rip off his clothes. He didn't notice how their nostrils flared when he came back from harsh physical training and began stripping off layers of clothing to the many whines and whimpers from his female roommates. He didn't notice how they went without undergarments because their bodies refused to let them stay dry (though he had commented on the heavier levels of musk in the apartment so much that the poor oven vent stayed on pretty much all day long). He was seven. What did he know about Kitsune - let alone female - biology?
So, here they sat, their foxy tails swishing back and forth as the young Taichou leaped about with water flying off his body as he careened off the rocks situated around the pool hundreds of yards from the minor shrine. It was also here that he met his first crush.
Akio was wending her way up the trail to the spring. It was late afternoon and sounds were oddly distorted in the growing night, but she was sure she had heard it this time; there was something up there and she meant to chase it away while everyone else was finishing up the evening meal (she'd wolfed down her food so that she could get away to check it out). She could clearly hear splashing now as she drew closer, the happy shouts afterward sounded like a young boy.
Her brows narrowed in anger. Didn't this vagabond realize the importance of the pool that fed clean water to her shrine?
She would have to teach him a lesson.
Pausing to pick up a stout branch lying under a tree, she shook it a few times in what she hoped was a threatening manner (in truth, she had no idea how to fight she was just hoping to scare whoever it was away) and stealthily made her way off of the stone walking path and into the brush not far from the pool. As she crept through the tangles, her eyes nearly exploded from her face and her jaw fell open at the two majestic foxes she saw sitting peacefully by the water's edge, both lazing in the setting sun as they watched the most curious male child leaping about and… running on top of the water's surface?
She blinked once, twice, then three times as her eyes flicked back and forth between the odd trio.
She was stunned, and she knew not which oddity to stare at first. Foxes were a good omen for Omoikane as they were seen as intelligent creatures. Now Akio wasn't a child as she'd seen her fifteenth summer, and, by all rights, she was a lovely young woman in full possession of her faculties. Her shrine secretly tended the breed of Vulpes Schrencki that came to feed on the scraps the higher priests and Mikos left out at night once a week (they were careful not to overfeed the foxes lest they become too dependent). She could say with certainty as she secretly studied those smaller fluffballs that she loved foxes and had some familiarity with the breed. These two specimens were magnificent, unlike anything she had ever seen before.
The twin foxes were a beautiful golden red, more gold than red, and were larger than any other fox to date. On their haunches, she guessed their bodies were easily over a meter in length. Lean sinewy muscles twitched lazily under their silky fur and both of their twin tails… she blinked several times here… they each had two tails apiece, each an additional meter in length. They were enormous specimens, but she couldn't stop herself from whispering, "…Kitsune!" their ears twitched to her direction in response, but the creatures didn't bolt or stir from their perches. Instead, they remained absolutely focused on the blonde child running amok in her shrine's spring.
With great effort, Akio tore her gaze from the benevolent Kitsune and caught sight of the child doing somersaults and handsprings across the water's surface.
~I I I~
"Do you think Taichou has noticed her?"
Tamami gave the equivalent of a mental snort. "I doubt it. He is lost in the thrush of freedom, no matter how short it is."
"Let's see how this plays out then. Odds on bakemono versus seishin?"
Tamami chirped a very foxlike chuckle. "I see your play and raise you my dishes all next week – I say seishin."
Tatsua chirped her agreement. It would be nice not to go hunting with the Taichou for a while. Seeing him take down prey with his claws and fangs was very… stimulating.
~I I I~
This time she dropped her branch and gaped at the boy's tails, yes, tails as in more than one and his foxlike ears, all of which were a beautiful golden color tipped by white. It matched the shock of golden hair on his head. Her eyes tried to draw in more detail, but he was moving too quickly, and, at one point, he crested in a backwards leap into the air by flipping his body gracefully over the center of the pool before diving with minimal splashing into its depths. Moments later, he breached the surface and landed in a crouch on the surface, his body flexing (she had noticed his bare chest and back with a shameful blush) then shaking, the water flinging from his body starting at his head and working its way down to his tails, which "poofed" out into two bushy feather dusters.
Akio couldn't help it. She snickered then gasped as her hands flew to her traitorous mouth. Too late. The male Kitsune evidently heard her as one snow-tipped ear twitched before his head snapped in her direction, her chocolaty brown eyes meeting his deep blue ones, as deep a blue as the center of their spring.
She squeaked in terror and fled back down the hill, her body crashing clumsily through the brush.
Naruto looked to the Twins who merely tilted their heads like the poor defenseless creatures of the forest that they were. Recognizing their ploy, he grimaced then leaped off after the girl in the red and white Miko robes. If he didn't win her over, those two would play "Bad Kitsune" and threaten to eat her.
Thinking it over, they'd been pretty cranky lately. Perhaps they might actually eat someone this time? He began to move with a sense of urgency.
Leaping from the water's surface, he took to the trees and dropped down easily fifty meters ahead of the panicked girl who by now wasn't even watching where she was fleeing to. Naruto sighed.
Didn't girls ever pay attention when they watched scary movies? He leaped towards her to get her attention.
He landed right in front of her trying to make as much noise as he could. She was too panicked and ran into him anyway with a shriek, which meant she ricocheted off him when he used chakra to stay on his feet and fell back onto the hard pathway. When her eyes snapped up to meet his, she froze at first then frantically backpedaled until she bumped into a tree. Naruto, moving slowly and deliberately, crouched down on all fours and immediately went into "Shy Seishin" mode, turning his body partially sideways like an animal would when it stumbles upon something it couldn't quite figure out.
~I I I~
Tamami, still in her combat form, looked at Tatsua and gave a crappy grin (if foxes had the facial muscles to do that).
Tatsua merely waved her off with a tail, "It's not over yet. He still has time to eat her."
Tamami snorted.
~I I I~
Naruto raised his chin a bit, his long ears laid back along his head, and sniffed the air a few times. The girl was terrified, but she wasn't trying to run anymore. Her eyes were wide, her teeth were bared, lips parted and nostrils flared as she gave off short, quick pants. Both hands were clenched and at either side of her head with her face turned far enough away that she wasn't directly facing him; her eyes stayed locked on his every movement from the corner of her very white sockets. Naruto inched closer and sniffed again, his ears laid back but his eyes hesitant, almost nervous as he inched closer, then he flinched back a half step before waiting a few minutes and reaching out with one hand as if to draw closer again.
The girl's breathing began to slow. She hadn't relaxed her posture, but her robes weren't rapidly rising and falling like the bellows at blacksmith's forge. This was a good sign, so Naruto took it very slowly. He leaned forward without moving his hands and feet, almost as if this was as close as he dared to come and sniffed her again from a distance. Something about his tentative behavior perked her interest and the girl's lips closed partially, her teeth unclenching enough to start worrying her lower lip. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, she reached out with one balled fist, her own hand jerking back as if she wasn't sure this was a good idea, before her fingers uncurled showing her palm.
Naruto figured it was time to "ham up" the performance and try to win her past the fear that rolled off her body in waves. Fear produced sweat and too much fear was cloying, a bitter salty smell that stung his nose. So, Naruto sniffed as he got closer and sneezed, a high-pitched "Chhh!" sound that shook his head and made his Kitsune ears stand straight up, his eyes wide in mock surprise. The girl nervously chuckled after her hand jerked all the way back to her breast.
Perhaps she was trying to ease her own tension.
Perhaps she was afraid he'd start chewing on her arm.
Naruto rubbed the back of his hand across his nose and turned back to the frightened girl, his ears laying gently alongside his head as he inched his neck out again and tentatively sniffed for her, her hand slowly inching back out to meet him once more.
~I I I~
His eyes were such a deep blue but, in the middle where the pupils were ovoid, they were a rich golden color. Is this a "Tenko?" Could this be one of the celestial foxes? Has Inari blessed my devotion with this encounter? Akio was beginning to hope that this was a good omen.
She decided she would try to be bolder with the Kitsune boy. Etsudo would be green with envy! She said a quick prayer to Omoikane asking forgiveness for her vanity then slowly leaned forward to meet the encroaching spirit.
~I I I~
Naruto inched forward again until his nose touched her palm. He sniffed a few more times smelling her sweat, her fear, orange blossoms, and the smell of old lumber (must have been the stick she was holding). As her hand slowly turned palm up, his head tilted down, and he began to sniff along her forearm. She giggled softly, a sound he liked a lot actually, but didn't jerk away. When he got to her elbow, he decided to push things a bit faster (he could hear voices at the bottom of the path, someone saying they thought they'd heard "Akio" scream). That must be this girl.
He had a few minutes but not much more to win her over in the hopes of keeping his secret.
Naruto reached the crook of her elbow, which had bent due to the slightly ticklish sensation of him sniffing it, and as she pulled her arm closer to her side, his head followed along bumping against her chest. He was embarrassed at the contact, but she was too busy giggling to be offended as her other hand rested on top of his head inching its way to one of his ears. Feeling his blush blooming at contact with her soft chest, he covered his reaction up by sneezing once again and transforming into his combat form in a puff of sparkly smoke.
~I I I~
Tatsua eagerly leaned forward. They had heard the search party coming and wondered what the boy would do as his time ran out. She remained hopeful that she'd catch a break from hunting with the walking pheromone smokestack.
~I I I~
Akio coughed and waved away the smoke, so she could see. When the smoke cleared enough, she gasped aloud and uttered one word that made the Twins flinch, "TENKO!"
Naruto sat there in full two-tailed fox form, his golden coat rippling in the night breeze over densely-packed lean muscle. His azure eyes were turning more golden as his pupils began to expand allowing more light in the growing darkness. The girl was rapturous as her hands reached out and pulled the fox into a hug seemingly on impulse.
Naruto blinked in shock. Clearly her fear of the half-demon boy did not extend to the dangerous war fox that could easily rip her throat out. He stopped trying to figure it out the moment her hands started scratching behind his ears and the white fur under his chin.
It was heaven on earth. His eyes closed involuntarily, and his neck began to arch out as he leaned into her ministrations. What? What was going on back there?
His left hindquarter was convulsing against his wishes. Traitor! His mind screamed at the rebellious appendage… until she hit a certain spot in the middle of his back and his whole body twisted to the left in a curly-q causing him to collapse on the ground. Unphased, the girl switched both hands to scratch under his chin and along his belly. He was completely at her mercy, both hind legs kicking helplessly into the air as he involuntarily rolled over onto his back.
~I I I~
Tamami looked over to Tatsua with another grin.
Tatsua merely groused, "Don't say it."
"We're having beef curry Monday night." Tatsua grumbled while Tamami turned back to take special note of where the girl was scratching that made Taichou so helpless in her grasp.
~I I I~
Akio was in love at first furball. His fur was sheer silk, the white underside the brightest she had ever seen. Her own pristine robes were dingy in comparison. The gold of his coat could have been spun from the metal for all she could tell. She could feel the powerful muscle underneath – which explained his amazing physical feats at the pool – but his furry face made her want to smoosh him like the stuffed animals she used to have as a child.
Slowly she stopped scratching his tummy until his leg stopped twitching (she found that adorable) and the fox's head perked to the side, his ears standing straight up as he watched her carefully. Slowly she ran her palm along his muzzle and he cooed. The fox cooed, and her heart melted. With a lazy roll, the golden creature stood up enough to nuzzle her cheek and push his head against her neck. She caught a whiff of something like cinnamon and musk. Bright girl that she was, she thought she remembered reading about a gland near the fox's cheek used in marking its mates and she blushed. Was this Tenko… marking her as his mate? She hugged him, her arms wrapping around the corded muscle of his neck and began to cry. Happy as she was she found the situation utterly ridiculous.
She was a shrine maiden, sworn to a life of dedication to her temple and free of worldly affections. She'd made the vow not two years ago after having lost what employment she could find (old men were perverted wretches) and now she was smitten with a trickster fox spirit. She playfully scratched his neck – there went that leg again – and pointed his muzzle directly into her face.
"If you will be my Tenko, then this will be our little secret, beautiful seishin."
Naruto chirped a happy bark, then jerked his head past the girl's shoulder and down the path. The voices were getting closer and now she could hear them as well. His ears lowered again, and he then started to back away, this time fear showing in his eyes.
~I I I~
Akio felt the animal tense and her eyes grew big with fear. As she looked over her shoulder where her beloved Tenko was looking, she could hear the voices from her shrine family and her eyes jerked back to the now clearly nervous spirit.
"Wait," she frantically whispered, "…do not go! Don't leave me! I'll keep you safe… I promise…. Wait!"
She couldn't hold him. With a powerful jerk from his forelegs, the muscular fox pulled away but stopped after a few short paces as his head snapped back to the teary Miko. He hopped forward once again and nuzzled her one more time, licking her face and neck before bounding into the brush and out of sight. The girl had one hand to her cheek and the other outstretched to the fading memory of her golden fox spirit.
"I hope you come to visit me again, Tenko-sama," she whispered. She giggled when she heard him yip once in the brush. Before she knew it, warm human hands were hugging her and checking her over for injury.
She ignored their questions and admonitions about running off late in the day. She was in a dream, walking on a cloud of happiness. As her hand came away from her face, she found several golden strands of fur and winced. She hadn't heard him yelp but she hoped she hadn't injured the kind spirit in her frenzied grip. She just wanted him to stay.
Akio was almost ashamed at how disappointed she was to see her fellow shrine maidens. As nice as they were, none of them were fox spirits… that she knew of.
Akio carefully gathered up the strands she could see and pulled a lock of her own hair out, carefully wrapping it around the silken fur so that it made a strand she could braid later. Her shrine mates could only look on puzzled by her behavior even as she rose and walked confidently down the path back to the shrine, the strand of fur clutched tightly in her hands and nestled between her breasts.
Naruto vowed to return one day as he watched her saunter off down the path. He could still smell her orange blossom shampoo as he turned and padded off on his way home. He'd had enough fun for one day.
By the time Neko came around the summer before his first year of the ninja academy, Naruto was a completely different seven-almost-eight-year-old.
~I I I~