Chapter Four

--Search Party Part 2

"B-brother?…" Naruto said slowly. As if the thought hadn't quite sunk in. He had been alone all his life. Just the thought of having a relative filled his insides with joy. But at the same time he was overwhelmed and confused.

Sumaru nodded faintly. "As I'm sure you already know, twelve years ago the Fourth Hokage sealed the Nine-tailed Kyubi within your body." Naruto nodded to show he understood. "What you did not know was that after that incident Konoha ordered that all of the Kitsune in the land were to be sealed inside the bodies of newborns." Naruto nodded again. "But in my case, I was still developing within the womb when they sealed the beast inside of me. My mother passed giving birth to me…"

Sumaru paused for a moment and formed a strange hand gesture that Naruto did not recognize. He bowed slightly; It looked as if he was praying. "But luckily…" he began once more. The suddenness of it made him jump a bit. "My two brothers, Naku… and Kintaro…" He pointed to each of his two fellow fighters in turn as he said their name aloud. "took good care of me. But…" Sumaru began fiddling with a cloth wrapped around the top of his head.

'But? There are a lot of ups and downs to this case…' Naruto thought.

The knot came undone and the cloth fell slowly to the ground. "My abnormalities made it rather difficult to lead a normal life. "

Naruto wasn't sure if 'abnormalities' was the correct word for it. Where the cloth had once been, two equally-sized fox ears protruded from the top of Sumaru's head. The twitched attentively a few times. Then Sumaru walked over to where Naruto's thrown kunai lay on the ground.

"I think they've heard enough…" Naku said from behind Naruto.

Naruto looked all around him. "They? They who?"

"There's no reason to hide from us you three…." Naku continued.

"Three? Nobody even knows I'm here." Then he suddenly remembered that Sakura and Iruka-sensei did know. "Damn…" he muttered under his breath. Sure enough, two Genins and a Jounin descended from the treetops. Kakashi came down first, closely followed by Shikamaru, then Sakura. All three landed deftly on their feet. Kakashi was holding his copy of Para Para Paradise open, but wasn't reading.

He simply said, "I had no idea…" He tucked his book away and walked over cautiously to where Sumaru stood, Naruto's kunai in hand. Sakura glanced over at Naruto, who turned away after catching it.

'I can't believe she told them!' Then he remembered what he had said to her before he left his house. He wondered what she did after that,

---Naruto's Imagination---

*The Inner Sakura is picking up chairs and tossing them through windows. She moves the stove under the window drapes and turns it on full blast. Within seconds Naruto's home is ablaze, and Inner Sakura is laughing maliciously.*

---Naruto's Imagination---

Naruto slowly turned his head to face her. Their eyes met for a split second, then Sakura broke the gaze and began to blush fiercely. He didn't have time to analyze the situation, because from behind him he heard a familiar voice say, "How troublesome… I came all the way out here for nothing…" Naruto only knew one guy in Konoha --no, the world-- that used the word 'troublesome' in everything he does. He spun around and sure enough, he found Shikamaru leaning against the trunk of a tree, arms crossed, and staring off dazedly into the night sky.

"Hey! Shikamaru! What are you doing here?"

"Tch… your so troublesome Naruto…" Naruto wanted to curse him out, but didn't have a chance to because Kakashi was coming his way, closely followed by the half-kitsune, Sumaru.

"These three want to stay with you, Naruto, and become citizens of Konoha."

"What?! Stay with me? But my home is too small. It can't fit three more people in it!"

"Hmm…" Kakashi seemed to be thinking hard; a little too hard. He had probably already thought up of a back-up plan beforehand. "Ok then… How about this: Sumaru will stay with you, Naku will stay with Shikamaru---"

"What?! Why me? I have nothing to do with this!" Shikamaru burst out.

"Well… he can't live with me, and a male stranger staying with Sakura is out of the question, and Sasuke would lost his mind… So your stuck." He smiled.

"Tch! How troublesome…"

"And Kintaro will live with me…"

"Did you not just say that they couldn't live with you?!"

Kakashi smiled again. "Correction: I said Naku couldn't stay with me."

"Kakashi-sensei… I despise you…"

He took out his copy of Para Para Paradise ."I love you too Shikamaru…" The whole party, including Kintaro who had not spoken a word, burst into laughter.