The Vulpine Familiar of Zero
Chapter 2: Well…This is Something
"So…you must be the Kyuubi no Kitsune," said Naruto as he gazed upon the fabled beast behind the cage in awe and fear from the aura and large red slitted eyes which were looking at him.
"As if there is another giant being with nine tails sealed inside of you besides me," said Kyuubi with a scoff.
"Hey, what's with the attitude? You're acting just like that jerk Sasuke-teme!" said Naruto angrily, he stopped in the middle of his rant when he heard growling and saw the fox looking angrier than himself.
"Don't compare me to an Uchiha! I am nothing like the bearers of that accursed name!" said the Kyuubi in anger.
Naruto waved his hands in a placating manner "Whoa whoa, calm down. I didn't know that there were others who dislike the teme,"
"'Dislike' is too tame of a word to describe the vast amount of hatred I hold for the Uchiha after what they had done to me,"
"What did they do to you besides being emos?" asked Naruto curiously.
"That is none of your concern, I brought you here to talk about the mess you got us in…interesting but a mess nonetheless,"
"What mess?"
"The fact that you ended up here in another world is exactly what I'm talking about,"
"Well it wasn't my fault, that portal thingy appeared from out of nowhere and pulled me in!" Naruto protested.
The Kyuubi laid his head on his human like paws "A situation which wouldn't have happened had you taken many things seriously instead of goofing around at the Academy,"
"What are you talking about? I've been taking things seriously, the clone jutsu never seems to work the way I wanted it no matter how many times I tried,"
"And it never came across your mind to ask for help, I am well aware of the teachers who refused to have anything to do with you except for one,"
Naruto looked down at that "Iruka-sensei…,"
"You had been taking anything he tried to teach you for granted and yet it was some of those very lessons which has been helping you so far. You aspire to be Hokage and yet go about it foolishly by messing around instead of preparing for the future. Such an attitude would get yourself and anyone around killed the moment you step out of the village,"
"But I beat Mizuki-teme easily with the Shadow Clone jutsu!" Naruto responded angrily, one thing he hates is being underestimated.
"That human was completely taken by surprise after underestimating you, it would have been a different story altogether had you gone against a more experienced opponent. As of now, you are naïve and weak without strength. Strength which is needed if you want to protect yourself and anyone else, not to mention that if you die and I die as well," said Kurama
Naruto was silent for few moments before speaking up in a calm voice "So what is it you want me to do?"
"I believe you came up with the answer to that question last two nights,"
Naruto's eyes widened upon realizing what he meant "I can learn more jutsu from the scroll and train hard to become strong then I'll find a way back to Konoha,"
"Good, you're not as dumb as you look," said the Kyuubi with a scoff.
"You don't have to be so mean, but why are you helping me?" asked Naruto confusedly.
"Don't think that I am doing this out of the kindness of my heart, it's like I said earlier before, if you die then I die as well so I'm merely making sure that you live longer for my sake as well," Kyuubi retorted.
"Is that all you have to say for me?" asked Naruto with his arms crossed.
"Also try to find out more about those markings on your hands, they somehow have an influence on your body mostly when you hold any kind of weapon. And another thing…make sure to learn a lot from the Uzumaki scrolls as they will be of great use to you. Now get lost, I'm tired enough as it is," Kyuubi released a burst of chakra to send Naruto flying out of the sewer and disappearing from the mindscape before going to sleep.
Naruto slowly opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times before sitting up "Where…where am I?" he looked around and realized where he is "I'm in Louise's room, but why am I lying on her bed?"
"Are you awake Naruto-san?" a familiar voice spoke up, causing Naruto to turn and see Siesta entering the room carrying a platter of two loaves of bread and a glass of water "I'm so glad to see you're alright as you've been asleep for about a day which is rather surprising as we expected you to take a longer time to recover,"
"Well I've always been quick at recovering that I hardly ever get sick, so what happened after I had passed out?" asked Naruto curiously.
"Miss Vallière had appointed me to bring you a meal," Siesta looked to her right with Naruto following suit to see Louise asleep on a desk nearby with the scroll on it before her "She's been watching over you all this time without sleeping,"
"She did?" Naruto was surprised to hear that, no one had been this concerned about him besides the Third Hokage and Iruka "I guess she isn't all that bad,"
"I never would have thought that you were capable of using magic," said Siesta.
"I didn't use magic, I used chakra instead," said Naruto.
"Chakra, what's that?" Siesta tilted her head in confusion, something Naruto found to be cute.
"It is the combination of physical energy and spiritual energy which a ninja uses to perform many feats that we call jutsu like the one you saw yesterday," Naruto explained.
"Amazing, so do you know any more of these jutsu?"
"Not yet, I'll need to do some training and learn some. I can show them to you when I've mastered a few,"
"Oh, then I'll be looking forward to it. I'll take my leave so that you can rest some more,"
"Okay, catch ya later Siesta-chan," Naruto watched as the maid left the room and waited for a few moments before hopping off the bed, revealing to have recovered completely as he approached the pinkette "She's pretty cute, maybe more than Sakura-chan if she's nicer,"
He picked Louise up from the chair before placing her on the bed but left her clothes, not wanting to be labeled a pervert whatsoever. Naruto sat on his heap of hay with the scroll unraveled on his knees as he read through the content, he carefully read on each jutsu to see which he should learn in the meantime and even discovered a special feature of the Shadow Clone jutsu which enables him to receive the memories of his clones once they've dispelled. Suddenly a deep gruff voice spoke up from out of nowhere, surprising the blonde.
"Hey brat,"
Naruto jumped a bit with his heart pounding against his chest "That voice, Kyuubi?"
"Of course it's me, better speak to me with your thoughts if you don't people to think that you're anymore crazy than they think you are,"
"Okay, so what's the matter?" thought Naruto.
"Before you attempt to learn any more of those jutsu, there are some that you absolutely must not learn for they are forbidden. Another are a few exercises to help train you to control your chakra which I had observed before being sealed into you,"
"What are these exercises?"
"Better listen carefully because I am not in the mood to hold your hand every time, also keep in mind that using your shadow clones will help you learn faster,"
Naruto listened attentively to the exercises and even wrote them down after taking some sheets of paper from Louise's desk before letting sleep take over with plans for training the next day.
In the morning, Naruto woke up with a loud yawn and looked around only to come upon a strange sight; Louise was wide awake and dressed in her nightwear and there was a basket full of clothes next to the bed. The blonde ninja got up and approached her with a look of minor confusion.
"Good morning Louise-chan, and what's with the basket of clothes?" asked Naruto.
"It's laundry that piled up while you were bedridden after doing something stupid," said Louise stoically.
"You mean for me to wash them?" Naruto took a glance at the basket and caught sight of a pair of pink lacy panties, causing him to look away.
"Of course, for it is one of the many duties of a familiar,"
"You know, Siesta-chan told me about how you watched over me. I just wanted to say thanks for doing that," Naruto bowed in gratefulness.
Louise looked at him as if he was stupid "Huh? Why are you thanking me? It's common sense for a familiar to be cared for by the master to whom must always be grateful, seems to me that you're still not aware about your position as a familiar. Now get to washing,"
Naruto growled in anger before walking to pick up the basket of laundry while grumbling "All you had to say was 'you're welcome', and here I thought you were cute," he left the room while closing the door behind him.
Louise watched Naruto leave before laying down on her bed and began to think about the fight between him and Guiche "He is just a peasant and yet was able to beat a noble while using magic. If so, then why isn't he a noble? I'll need to ask him once he returns,"
Meanwhile, Naruto was outside the dormitory near one of the smaller fountains where he had one of his shadow clones wash the laundry while he was near one of the walls with a piece of paper in hand.
"Okay then, time to try out one of the training methods that the Kyuubi had told me yesterday," Naruto read the paper.
The Tree Climbing Practice is a training method used to gain more skills with chakra control. The training involves focusing a fixed amount of chakra to the bottom of one's feet and using that to climb a tree without using any hands. If the stream of chakra is too weak, one will lose their footing and fall off, and if it's too strong, the user will be repelled from the tree and fall off.
Naruto looked up towards the wall "Well I don't see any trees around here but these walls will have to do," Naruto crossed the middle and index fingers of each and created several shadow clones next to him "Okay guys, let's do this!"
"Roger boss!" the clones responded in chorus.
Naruto and the clones proceeded to attempt the training exercise, there were multiple failed tries and mishaps due to using too little or too much chakra. Naruto would frequently dispel the clones to receive their memory and experience then create more with them making lesser mistakes by gradually finding the right amount of chakra to use. However, the blonde ninja ended up tiring himself out due to practicing the tree climbing and using the Shadow Clone jutsu multiple times, so he sat up against the wall while noting that his clone is just about finished with the laundry then he noticed the students exiting from the dorms with their familiars following them to the classrooms.
"And to think that I'm in the same boat as those creatures," Naruto muttered to himself, he heard footsteps approaching and looked to see Louise staring down at him with a frown on her face.
"What are you doing, why aren't you washing the laundry like you're supposed to?" Louise demanded for an answer.
"I am or rather my clone is doing that and is just about done with it," Naruto pointed at the grumbling clone with Louise blinking in surprise.
"W-well, I'll need you to escort me to the classroom once you've hung them out to dry. You got that?"
"Yeah yeah, I heard you loud and clear," Naruto muttered lowly, he felt rested enough to go and help his clone out while Louise left with a huff, neither of them noticed that Kirche and her friend were looking at the blonde ninja with interest.
Later on, Louise was in the classroom with the others as they attended a lecture by one of their teachers, but the pinkette wasn't pouring her entire attention to the lecture as she couldn't help but throw glances towards the spiky haired familiar sitting next to her who was silently reading from a scroll. She tried to read some of the contents but couldn't make heads or tails of foreign language.
"Hey, what are you reading?" Louise whispered lowly.
Naruto looked up to respond "I'm reading about Fuinjutsu,"
"Fuinjutsu? Is it about some sort of magic spell from that giant scroll of yours?"
"It's not a magic spell, it's one of the many jutsu we use where I came from like the one you saw me use. This is the first time I'm learning about this particular type and yet it feels like I've known about it all along," said Naruto, looking genuinely confused "I'd like to ask for scrolls of blank paper and ink to practice on,"
Louise was about to respond when she saw Kirche suddenly rise from her to speak up for everyone to hear.
"Mrs. Chevreuse, I hate to say this, but a certain student can't even use one element with a zero percent rate of magical success is among us,"
"Huh?" Naruto blinked in confusion then he noticed that every single student was looking straight at Louise "Why are they looking at her like that? Oh…I see now,"
Mrs. Chevreuse coughed loudly to try and resume classes, Naruto chose to remain silent until after class. Sure enough, the lecture ended and Louise was the first to exit the classroom with Naruto being quick to follow. The walk was all too quiet until the ninja decided to break the silence.
"Louise, are you doing okay?" asked Naruto.
"…," the pinkette didn't reply.
"I now have a good idea why they call you Louise the Zero, but you shouldn't let that get to you. Believe me, I've been there too,"
At those Louise rounded on Naruto with a look of anger "How would you know, huh? How would you know the feeling of being looked down on every time?!"
Naruto simply smiled sadly "Back home at the academy, I was labeled the deadlast because of my 'poor' performance. I failed the graduation exams to become a ninja three times in a row, all because of one jutsu that was always in the exams and it tripped me up every time,"
"What jutsu was it?" asked Louise, feeling curious about his story.
"The Clone jutsu,"
"The Clone jutsu, don't you mean the Shadow Clone jutsu since I remember it was called before?"
"The one I now use is the advanced version of it, because when I use it, my clones end up like this…," Naruto formed a handsign and there was a puff of smoke which dissipated to reveal two clones but they were sprawled out on the ground while looking pale which made Louise cringe at the sight of them before they disappeared "Because of that, everyone laughed at me and proclaimed me a failure,"
The pinkette was surprised at what she just heard, it's just like what she's going through "What did you do whenever they say that about you?"
Naruto responded with a foxy grin "I chose not to give up and worked harder every time to prove that they were wrong and that I am worth something. Don't let anyone tell you what you can or can't do, the one who has the final say in things is yourself,"
Louise couldn't find any words to say to this, this boy has gone through the same thing and yet still remains confident to move past his failures with success as his main target. She was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Naruto call out to her cheerfully.
"When we get back to the dorm, I'm gonna show you something I recently learnt. It will definitely wow you," said Naruto excitedly.
"Really? Let's see if you can impress me," said Louise with a huff, Naruto simply shrugged his shoulders and went on ahead, not seeing the small smile on her lips before she followed after him. They arrived at her room in the dormitory as she to sit on the bed and faced "Now then, what is this amazing thing you want to show me?"
"First, do you have a blank scroll along with an inkbottle I could use? I'll need it for what I'm about to do," said Naruto.
"Hold on a moment," Louise went to her desk drawer and brought out the requested items to give to him "This better be worth it,"
"It sure will," Naruto unrolled the scroll on the ground then dipped the inkbrush into the inkbottle then he proceeded to draw intricate markings on the scroll with a steady hand. Louise was in awe at the sight of the inscriptions as she has never seen anything like them before. Soon enough, Naruto was done drawing the symbols "There, all done. Now to give it some time to dry,"
"Is that really all, the artwork is rather unique but was it just this you wanted to show me?" asked Louise.
"Not yet, let's wait for it to dry first," said Naruto, carrying the scroll to the window and letting it dry quickly which didn't take all that long before bringing it back inside "Now then, do you have anything like an umbrella or something?"
"Well there's my books," Louise went to her desk and brought out a stack of books.
"These will do," Naruto took the books and placed them on the inscriptions then he weaved through a set of handsigns "Seal!" there was a puff of smoke which dissipated to revel that the books are gone, surprising Louise who jumped up from her bed.
"What just happened to my books? Where did they go?" asked Louise confusedly.
Naruto picked up the scroll with one hand and pointed at it "I stored them inside of the scroll,"
"But how's that possible?"
"Fuinjutsu means sealing techniques, it is the art of sealing many things like objects, energy and quite possibly living beings within another object," Naruto explained to the pinkette who was in awe yet again.
"I never would have thought that such a thing is possible, but how do you get it out?" asked Louise.
"Oh that's easy," Naruto placed the unraveled scroll on the ground and put a hand onto the seal before channeling chakra into it, causing the books to appear. "I already stored the Scroll of Seals into storage seal on my arm so I won't have to worry about anyone trying to get their hands on it," Naruto rolled back the sleeve of his right arm to reveal yet another seal on it.
"But won't the ink wash off if water were to touch it?"
"Normally yes, but I drew the matrix with both my blood and chakra so it will never be erased," said Naruto "Not to mention it really hurt when my clones were drawing it on me,"
"So is there more to this than just storing things?"
"Yeah there are, but I'll need to read more from the scrolls then practice them," said Naruto, then he got up "If you don't mind, I wanna go out for a walk. I won't be long,"
"...Okay, but you better not run," said Louise.
Naruto rolled his eyes "I already said that I'm not from around here so where will I run off to?" he left the room and was about to climb down the stairs when he came upon a familiar person "Siesta-chan?"
Said girl blinked in confusion "Naruto-san, what are you doing out here?"
"Well I thought to take a walk an-" Naruto's stomach rumbled, causing him to blush in embarrassment "Now I remember that I hadn't eaten today,"
Siesta giggled in response "Then I have just the solution for that, plus they also wanted to meet you,"
"They?" Naruto tilted his head to the side and blinked in confusion.
The blonde ninja soon found himself at the kitchen gorging on some food given to him by the chef and his coworkers. Naruto found the food to be quite delicious despite it not being ramen, the poor blonde cried mentally at the thought of never eating the food of the gods ever again.
"Man, this is some good eating," said Naruto after slurping a spoonful of soup.
"Sorry about them being leftovers but you can eat as much as you want, Our Fist," said the chef cheerfully.
"Our Fist?" asked Naruto.
"That's right, you're a peasant just like us and yet was able to defeat a noble with skills and a bit of your own magic. You're the pride of us peasants, Our Fist!"
Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly "It's not that big of a deal, I just didn't like that he tried to take out his frustrations on me because he didn't want to admit that he was two-timing,"
The chef laughed out loud "This kid is quite humble, the total opposite of those stupid nobles!" the workers nodded in agreement, seeing as the blonde wasn't bragging in the least.
"But I gotta say that they're pretty lucky to get to eat tasty food like this every day," said Naruto then he felt an arm around his neck and turned to see that it was the chef.
"When it come to me, Marteau the head chef, anything will end up tasting exquisite! That is magic in and of itself," said Marteau.
"Whoa, you remind me of another chef who said something like that, I wish you two could meet and I bet you would make some awesome food," said Naruto.
"That's Our Fist! Ever humble, please let me kiss you!"
Naruto blinked at that statement "Wait what?' he turned to see the chef lean close with his puckered lips, causing the blonde to panic and switch places with a log while standing far away with the plate of food in hand, surprising everyone.
"Thanks but I'll pass on the man kisses and simply return the favor another time," said Naruto, he could hear the Kyuubi snickering at his reaction.
"Such modesty, as expected," said Marteau with a smirk before returning to his cooking with some of the staff following after him to help.
Later on, Naruto bade them goodnight and left with Siesta accompanying him. They both stopped to gaze upon the moons illuminating the sky for some time without saying a word, then Siesta was the one to break the awkward silence.
"I hope that you would come again, every one of them is a fan of yours," said Siesta.
"I definitely will, I'm always up for making new friends. You know I was a little worried about what was going to happen to me when I ended up here, but now I feel a lot more confident," said Naruto with a smile.
"Um Naruto-san, I'm hoping that I could have a long conversation with you sometime," said Siesta with a gentle smile.
Naruto was taken aback with a pink tinge on his cheeks, this is the first time that a girl actually wants to hang around unlike back home where he was shunned and thought of as a nuisance. This caused the blonde to feel a bit shy but he responded nonetheless.
"S-sure, I did say that I would show you some jutsu once I've learnt them," said Naruto.
"That you did,"
"Well, I better head back to Louise-chan or she would think that I ran away from her,"
"Good night,"
"Night," Naruto walked back into the dormitory and climbed up the stairs to the third where Louise's room is with a smile on his face, there was some ups and downs but most of today was pretty okay to him "Siesta is so nice, she's way different compared to the girls back home…huh?" he saw hand of dark complexion sticking out of an open door and waving as if beckoning him to approach.
The blonde ninja looked around and saw that he was the only one being called, his ever curious nature took over as he gradually approached the door when the hand suddenly reached out to grab the collar of his jacket and pulled him inside by surprise as he tumbled to the wooden floor. Naruto sat up to see he was in a darkened room with several candlelight and the moon shining through the window.
"Where am I?" Naruto muttered.
"Welcome," Naruto turned towards the voice only for his face to turn beet red upon seeing Kirche standing before him while dressed in a very alluring lingerie with her familiar Flame sitting nearby "Welcome to my suite, Naruto Uzumaki if that is the correct way to say your name,"
"Uh okay, is there something you want from me?" asked Naruto.
"Naruto-kun, I know that it's something that shouldn't be, but my byname is Fever as I tend to burn like a torch," said Kirche.
"Okay?" he didn't get what she was talking about.
"You understand? What I'm trying to say is…," Kirche went down on all fours and leaned her face forward close to Naruto who began to feel rather nervous "I'm in love with you!"
Naruto's eyes widened and his jaw dropped opened "Huh!?"
"You were so cool when you defeated Guiche that my heart began pounding like crazy and I know that you're one that could put it at ease," the redhead held one of Naruto's hands in hers and leaned even further to kiss him.
"Kirche!" a voice suddenly spoke, causing them to turn round and saw a male hovering outside the open window.
"Oh Styx?" said Kirche in surprise.
"I came by because you didn't show up at our promised time!" said Styx with a frown.
"Then change the time to two hours from now,"
"That's not the deal!"
Kirche rolled her eyes before picking up her wand and pointing it at Styx as a tongue of flame from one of the candles transformed into a snake before shooting forward and struck Styx, sending falling down to the ground below.
"Who was that?" asked Naruto.
"Just a friend," Kirche answered "Now as I was sa-"
"Kirche!" another male student was hovering at the window "Who is that man? Tonight, I want you to burn up with m-Argh!" he too got knocked down to the ground by a flaming snake.
"Another friend?"
"That's right, I-,"
"Kirche!" this time, three males were at the window "What are you doing?! You said you didn't have any particular lover!"
"She must be a very good friend to a lot of males," said Kyuubi sarcastically.
"How about you three wait until after six hours?" said Kirche with a sweatdrop.
"It will be morning by then!" the boys complained.
The redhead let out a sigh of annoyance "Flame!" the salamander rose up to launch a blast of fire from its mouth to send the trio crashing to the ground below.
"Falling and burning…a painful combo," thought Naruto with a sweatdrop, then he was pushed to the ground with Kirche on top of him.
"Like I said before, I love you and ready to give you proof," said Kirche.
Naruto looked straight into her eyes for a few moments before finally responding "Kirche…I don't think we should do this,"
The redhead blinked in confusion "Why not, is because of my friends' interference?"
"Just what is it you like about me?
"…your strength and how gallant you were in your duel with Guiche shows that you are more than just a mere peasant,"
"Do you know what my favorite food is? My hobbies, my likes and dislikes, what makes me happy or sad? Do you really know anything about me?"
"…," Kirche didn't how to respond to his question.
Naruto crawled backwards to sit up "Just as you don't know much about me, I don't know much about you either. Even if you said that you love me, would you truly be happy if I responded to your feelings halfheartedly? There's no doubt that you're beautiful especially your hair, but I don't want you to do something that might hurt you for the rest of your life, the guilt could very well kill me,"
Kirche looked down to the ground with the locks of her hair covering her eyes from sight "So…you're rejecting me?"
Naruto placed his hands on her shoulders "I'd rather that we become friends first, this is too sudden for me and I believe that we should get to know each other. I want to know you for who you are just like you would need to know me. That way you can decide if you really like me or not,"
Kirche was stunned speechless, this boy is completely different from the others she usually leads around, she looked into his eyes and could see that he absolutely meant what he said and felt a strange sense of heat radiate from within her. Kirche then spoke with a small smile on her lips.
"Okay Naruto-kun, we'll try it your way. I am rather curious about to be honest," said Kirche.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head "Yeah well, I gotta go now, we could meet up some other time?"
"Of course Naruto-kun, I bid you goodnight,"
"Same to you,"
Naruto got up and left the room with Kirche looking at the closed door and let out a deep sigh as she laid on her bed and put out the candles with a wave of her wand "Naruto Uzumaki…a truly odd but interesting familiar. Acknowledged my beauty but wishes to know more about me, I could say the same for him,"
Meanwhile, Naruto finally arrived at Louise's room and entered to find said person awake with a look of annoyance.
"What took you so long? You said you were just going for a walk," said Louise.
Naruto sat on his heap of hay "Sorry, I got sidetracked along the way before getting here, was able to learn a couple of things along the way,"
"Whatever, just don't take too long again. It is inappropriate for a familiar to be away from the master for too long," Louise laid down her down and waved her wand to put out the lights.
Naruto laid down as well with a loud yawn "I'll keep that in mind," then he went to sleep in order to awaken the next day.
"Even though the brat is dense, he listens to his heart and not the head between his legs like certain males, reminds me of him," Kyuubi muttered within the mindscape before going back to sleep.
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto has finally encountered the Kyuubi which has been sealed within him since birth, the Bijuu was rather quick to point out the blonde's current level of strength along with annoyance at not training himself properly despite shortcomings during the academy. With what seems like a reluctant alliance, Naruto began his training with help from the Scroll of Seals and the Bijuu himself, and was making some progress.
This Naruto is still mostly naïve but will definitely mature as time goes on and gets less dense as well with his interactions with everyone around him having already started the process as a part of himself which had been subconsciously repressed was released. Be sure to read and review as always.
This is Hussbek from Ghana.
Signing out.