A/N: Many thanks to WolfGirl13 and anime qeeun who reviewed my past chapter. Well, I thought the chapter was bland coz there didn't seem to have enough feeling, you know? Anyways, let's get it on to Chapter 6.
Disclaimer: I don't know why I even bother to do this since everyone knows Kishimoto-sensei owns Naruto.
"…" talk
[…] thoughts
Italics flashbacks/emphasis
= = = changes in scene/time
Chapter 6: The Fox Unmasked.
"Su-Sumanai! I didn't mean to-I wasn't thinking! I just, lost control! Sumanai!"
"Shuri. Shuri!" The dark-eyed Uchiha snapped out of her thoughts as Sumire placed a hand on her shoulder. "Doushite? You're so distracted lately. Are you sick or something?" She placed a hand on Shuri's forehead. Laughing lightly, the brunette removed her friend's hand. "Nanimo desu." Sumire sat back in her chair, sighing to herself. "I wonder where Tsukishi-kun had gone. He didn't even leave a notice." Shuri stayed silent, memories of the last incident flashing across her mind. "Now that I think of it, you don't seem much like yourself since Tsukishi-kun left." Sumire intelligently concluded. She leaned forward and stared into Shuri's eyes. "You're missing him." Shuri blushed and backed up. "I-Iie!" She exclaimed, waving her hands in front of her. Sumire gave her a suspicious look. The Yamanaka clan was renowned for their mind controlling jutsus and Sumire was not one easily fooled, especially when her best friend was acting strangely. "You're blushing. Does that mean you two had something going on?" "Chi-Chigaimasen!" Sumire continued to glare at Shuri, as though the kunoichi will immediately begin telling her things. After a moment of silence, Sumire removed her eyes from Shuri.
"Come on, don't fool me. You're so easy to read, Shuri." Shuri blushed a little more and avoided her friend's eyes. "Did something happen?" Shuri shook her head and looked down. Sighing, the pregnant lady gave up on pursuing the subject. "Okay if you don't want to talk about it." Shuri got up and said, "I'll be heading out today." "Hai, ki o tsukete yo." "Hai."
* * * * * *
Shuri walked down the forest path, not really aware of where her legs were leading her. Before she knew it, she had already ended up in the spot where she last saw Kyo. Remembering the sudden kiss he gave her, she raised a hand and touched her lips. [Kyo-kun, why did you do that?] Suddenly, Shuri was interrupted by voices of men. She noticed three men walking towards her, speaking loudly. She saw from their hitai-ate that they were from the Konoha. Noticing the bottles in their hands, she knew they were drunkards. [Getting wasted so early in the day.] Shuri made sure not to make any eye contact and walked past them.
The men saw Shuri walking past them and soon surrounded her. "Ojouchan, play with us, eh?" Shuri cautiously observed the men and tried to walk past but they stood in her way. The three men began to close in on her. [What now? I don't have any weapons with me. Not even a kunai.] Although she was rejected by the Uchiha clan, she could still fight to defend herself. As one of them pulled her towards him, she could smell sake on his breath. He gripped her wrist tightly. Shuri gritted her teeth and spun around, flinging the man off his feet.
"Why you bitch!" They started to pull out kunais and shurikens, ready to attack Shuri. [Shinobis?] She didn't have time to think as the first man, Jeru threw a kunai at her. She easily sidestepped that but had to jump aside to avoid to rain of shurikens that followed. The other man, Isetsu, launched towards her. Picking up the nearest kunai, Shuri ducked under the large man and tripped him. Isetsu went flying into a tree. Wake, the third man, began to perform hand seals, one that Shuri recognized as… "Katon, Ryuuka no Jutsu!" She hit the dirt as the hot flames missed her by inches. [For drunkards, they still keep a good sense when they fight.] Shuri was so busy with keeping an eye on Wake that she didn't see Jeru running towards her. He tackled her into the ground. Shuri struggled as hard as she could but Jeru was too strong to push off. The men smirked evilly and Shuri began to panic.
As they advanced on her, a sudden blur shot out of nowhere and knocked Jeru off Shuri. Shuri sat up quickly and began to witness the commotion that took over. There, in the middle of the clearing, a huge brown fox had Jeru's shoulder in his jaws. His two other companions stared at the kitsune before trying to rescue him. Wake did another set of seals. "Katon, Housenka no Jutsu!" he screamed and released the fireballs towards the fox. It was smothered in flames and Wake smiled triumphantly. It was short-lived however as the fox swept it mighty tail and knocked him into a tree. The fox was practically uninjured. Isetsu rammed his shoulder into the fox. Growling, the fox lashed out a paw and left three long slash marks in his back. The three shinobis picked themselves off the ground and ran off before the fox could do anything else to them.
The fox then turned around and approached Shuri, who backed up a little. It stopped in its tracks. For one long moment, Shuri just stared into the fox's eyes. They were red and looked very familiar. The eyes also conveyed a certain feeling. Suddenly, the fox turned away and began to retreat into the forest. Shuri snapped out of her gaze as she realized who the fox was. She stood up quickly and cried, "Kyo-kun! Matte!"
Doushite-Why?/What's wrong?
Nanimo desu-It's nothing
Chigaimasen-No!/It's wrong
Ki o tsukete-[Please] be careful/Take care
Ojouchan-Miss/Girl
Matte-Wait!
A/N: Well, that's the chapter. How'd you like it? I know it's short but that's the sequence of events. I'm like, having major writer's block and the mountain of schoolwork isn't helping! Now that Shuri knows about Kyo aka Kyubi, how will she react? That's for you to find out in the next chapter! Please R & R ne? ^_^