Life as A Fox

Chapter 60

NSW-The Forsaken Author of the Lost Story (see my bio for explanation)

OMG CHAPTER 60! YAY!

ATTENTION, LOOKING FOR QUESTIONS FOR THE Q AND A SOON, NEED QUESTIONS TO ANSWER TO, PLEASE SPAM ME, I DON'T CARE I NEED SOMETHING TO DO, PLEASE AND THANKS...WRITING IN CAPS LOCK IS FUN...WEEEEEEEEEEE!

Shikamaru gave the vendor his money. He was dressed in normal civilian clothes, even though he was just returning from a mission. He had decided it was too hot to wear the ungodly hot vest and black long-sleeved shirt and pants ninja wore underneath it. He picked up his purchase and noticed a gathering of the crowd. The market was busy today in this small little town.

So Shikamaru had to wait for two ladies walking on platform getas, and wearing long elaborate bright Kimonos. Their faces were painted in the normal geisha fashion and their hair was done up in such way that made Shikamaru wonder how it was possible to make hair stay like that that. He walked forward, the ground was dry and dusty, they needed rain soon.

Shikamaru passed through the growing crowd. All about the people were abuzz with excitement, mothers holding their children's hands and balancing goods on their hips while they waited patiently next to traders and merchants; who, in turn, were trying to take advantage of the possible buyers. Shikamaru also saw a few mangy little boys, working their delicate little fingers on people's purses.

One had tried to do his to him, but Shikamaru had caught him with a deft hand then said "Try asking next time." Then he dropped his change into the child's hand. The child's fingers were dirty, along with his face, and his greasy mop of hair was tucked up underneath a stingy old cap. His clothes looked like they came from the trash (which they probably had) and he had no shoes. But the kid still held his hands out and they curved greedily, like claws for the change. The boy's eyes for a moment brightened in thankfulness as he backed away slowly. Then, taking care to hide the money from other pickpockets' eyes, he dashed away into a back ally.

Shikamaru turned back to the phenomenon going on, he just wanted to see what had people so stirred. Then a little girl next to her mom spoke "Is it true? That the prophet is going to speak today?" Shikamaru's heart skipped a beat. The prophet, they had heard rumors and stories of this man. He rose up out of nowhere, claiming to be touched by the Gods. He spoke out proclaiming their will.

Shikamaru and most in Konoha would have ignored this if it weren't for the fact that he spoke out against demons, telling all that it was man's destiny to wipe them from this earth. This caused many problems as you can guess. In some places, ninjas with signed summoning contracts with demons had been either murdered, or forced to abandon their contracts.

A man who managed to run away before this had happened to him had fled to Konoha - that was how they first learned about this 'prophet'. Somehow people were taking what this man said to heart, he was...popular; the rambling of a mad man, were in style apparently. Shikamaru shook his head, when would people learn to use their heads?

But the crowd went quiet as three men came on stage, two were obviously meant as guards. Shikamaru could tell by their stature and the way they scanned the crowd with their beady hawk-like eyes. Shikamaru casually stood to the side, hiding himself behind a cloth vendor's cart. Then, peeking through two piles of different cloth, Shikamaru watched as the middle man stood out front on stage.

He wore a long brown cloak, edges tinged with fur, and a gold necklace with the symbol for the Eleventh God, the god of humanity. The man himself was older then Shikamaru, perhaps in his thirties or even forties. He wasn't a tall man, but still something crackled about him. He held a certain authority in his stance.

His eyes scanned the crowd as he held up his hands for silence. Shikamaru shivered. His eyes...they looked as though they knew something, something no one else knew. Could it be possible? That he could have been touched by the Gods? Shikamaru didn't see how, of course - he could only see one side of the man's face.

The man, he also noted, had a small beard upon his chin, but it was neat and tidy, well groomed. It had been cut with precision and jutted out exactly a half of an inch from his chin; its width just as long. It reminded Shikamaru of a goat scruff only...neater. It reminded Shikamaru of the beards that rulers of a far-off desert land had.

Shikamaru remembered reading such tales in his father's library. How they were adorned with linen clothes and kohl around the eyes. When they were boys they would only have one patch of hair shaven, the rest of their head was bald, and only when they were a man could they cut that hair off. Shikamaru shook thought from mind.

Then the man's head turned, and Shikamaru realized why people called him 'touched' by the gods. For upon the left side of his face looked to be a perfect hand print, not a scar, but a birthmark. It covered the complete left half of his face. The palm ending just above the lips, and the fingers stretched out across the eye and up the forehead, the thumb of the hand ended exactly in the middle of the man's temple.

The man smiled and spoke. "Brothers and sister' of the family of humanity, I come before you today only as a humble servant of our creator's word." The man spoke, a silence descending over the people. Shikamaru stared out at them, all of them were like dumbstruck beasts; their eyes glossy, their mouths lax as they drank in his words.

The man continued, and Shikamaru listened. "I have became known to some as 'the prophet', but I can say this now, I am no prophet." 'You got that right' Shikamaru thought "I am meerly doing that which the Eleventh god has commanded us, he speaks to us from his scriptures! The knowledge my friends is free for the taking, you need only to see."

The man turned and held up a golden scroll, which he unrolled and read aloud from. "So the creator of man went down among his people. They were afraid of him and his bright glory and they hid. But the god called out to them and spoke: 'Fear not my children, you need not fear me nor any of the Gods' creations. You need not fear even death.'"

The prophet continued. Shikamaru had to admit, this guy could tell a story. "One man spoke out to the god. 'If we need not fear you nor death, then what shall we fear?' The god turned to the man and brought him close to his side. 'The thing which you shall fear is the creatures of ungodly creation, created by the Thirteenth goddess, the one who fell from favor. She has created vile creatures, creatures that can come in at night and take the souls of your childre. They feed off of blood and sacrifice and grow more powerful because of it. Take heed to my warning and go out among your people and arm them with precious metal from deep within the earth. Take the metal and go out and hunt these creatures down; drive them from the lands with fire and blood. Only then can you be free from all fear."

The prophet looked up "Don't you see? We are supposed to drive demons from our lands! That was the duty given to us." One man spoke up "but, does he say demons specifically? Also how are we to know what is a demon and what is not?" The prophet smiled. "You ask good questions my friend, and I can give you answers in return."

The prophet flipped the scroll open to another part. He spoke: "...and so the humans went out and searched for the creatures who were given the names 'demons' by the demonic goddess herself. But no matter where they went no demon could be found. The humans grew disheartened and cried out to their god. He heard their pleas and came down among them once more."

"The god then turned to them and asked 'What troubles you my children?' the people cried out and said 'we are unable to find any of these creatures, long and hard have we searched.' The god chuckled and spoke 'Demons are clever, they hide themselves with the forms of animals, but they can soon be found out.' The god then grabbed two rabbits who watched nearby. The god took them in his hands and spoke 'Demons will call out to you in your tongue, beg you to stop and trick you into letting them live, do not be fooled by their powers.'"

The prophet took a break and continued. "The god then began to crush the rabbits and sure enough his blessed words were made true, the rabbits cried out in human voices. The god laughed and killed them, the humans then went out into the fields and forests and captured many animals, some were found to be demons and others the humans kept and slowly the humans began to tame the beasts of the wild."

The man spoke. "So you see, my people, if it were not for our ways, we would have been slaughtered in our sleep by not have domesticated the animals of this world." He looked to all of them "It is our duty to rid this land of them, you may say that the valiant ninja of this world have gotten power over demons but it is not so, the demons only use them as tools, we must ride the demons, do you people not know the tales?"

The man continued "I have visited a clan, deep within the mountains. I have heard the tales of what they had went throug., a demon had came into their midst, and when he did so, the clan became to befall great and terrible curses. Their numbers fell rapidly, this once peace loving clan was almost destroyed by this one demon."

He still spoke. "They were not the only one to have pain befall them. A women came to me, with young son, explaining to me, that a demon had come into their home and destroyed their livelihood and ripped the women's lover from her arms." The man was quiet, and for a few minutes there was dead silence. Then he went on. "All of these horrifying acts were done by the same demon, a demon that lives freely and is hailed as a hero, within the walls of Konoha." The people gasped and Shikamaru looked about, the man continued gaining confidence. "The village has seen fit to grant demons a safe 'haven!' A place where they can live and breed! Gain power to overthrow all that is good and just!"

The man spoke "Will you allow this to happen?Wwill you allow for demons to someday walk among you? Commanding you at will with their vile tongues? Will you allow them to simply take all that you hold dear from you?" The people grew angry, they shouted 'NO' to each of his questions. Shikamaru felt a slow sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

The man smiled "I thought not. Then join with me my friends, join back with your god, serve him gladly and let us overthrow these abominations from our world...forever!" A cheer went up from all around. Shikamaru was unnerved at how quickly the crowd got sucked in, how they now cried out for blood and war when only a few seconds ago they were crying out prices for their supplies. Shikamaru waited until the fervor went down then he went to his hotel, hid his clothes in his sac and ran as fast as he could towards home.

He first made a quick stop in town - a place that always brought up hard memories, the house of Kurenai sensei. He could hear her humming in the kitchen as he opened up the gate and walked up the stone path-way to the small, cottage-like house. He knocked on the door, and she called out "Come in Shikamaru" He smirked she always knew it was him.

He entered and removed his shoes; she came to him, her hair tied back in a messy ponytail. She wore an apron. "I was just cutting vegetables, would you join us for lunch?" Shikamaru shook his head "I have to report in from a mission, I just came to drop something off." He took out the toy he had purchased in the market.

Kurenai smiled and called out. "Asagi! Shikamaru is here!" The sound of excited little foot prints ran their way to them. "Shikamaru!" The boy screamed with happiness. He had his fathers hair and skin color, along with his father's eye shape; but his eye color belonged to his mother. Shikamaru handed him the toy, Asami squealed and hugged him.

Shikamaru held him and hugged him back, he ruffled Asami's hair. "You spoil him too much." Kurenai said, laughing. Shikamaru smiled. "I spoil him just like his father spoiled me." Kurenai smiled softly at the thought. "I know, he did, but life still moves on Shikamaru Now you better report in for your mission and...you get those wedding invites out soon." Shikamaru laughed. "Yeah I know, I know...but it's not going to be a while yet, we have to wait for her citizenship papers come through."

Kurenai gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek,;then Shikamaru was off on his way.

Yume nuzzled up to Naruto in the shade of the tree. He breathed in her scent deeply as he rested his head on her side. He could only imagine that in awhile if he did that soon little feet would be kicking at him. He smiled, he had done it, or rather, they had done it. They had taken being mates a step further and now Yume was expecting.

He was not going to go into detail of what had transpired between the two of them on those nights. He knew people spoke of what happened and wrote it down, but he thought it was too beautiful and intimate to say in words, other then the fact that it was the most wonderful experience he had ever had; to be one with the person you love in body, soul and heart.

He had always feared how he would go about...well...mating, but he found that, if he didn't think about it and just closed his eyes, just let his body do what was instinct what happened...well happened. Sometimes your head just got in the way of things. As he and Yume dozed, the world was perfect. Everything was, and nothing could possibly change it.

"NO! Shikamaru, no! I don't want him knowing. I've kept it from him for a reason! He doesn't need to know about these things...not now. He and Yume are expecting." Shikamaru sighed angrily. "You think I don't know that? Naruto screamed it from the top of his lungs for all of Konoha to hear." Hinata smiled at the memory, it was true. After all of Naruto's punishments had cleared up, Yume had went into heat.

All of them were unsure of what would happen next but few were surprised when one morning Naruto could be heard shouting. "I'm gonna to be a dad!" at the top of his lungs on top of the Hokage monument. Hinata watched the couple outside as Shikamaru spoke. "He needs to know." Hinata nodded. "I know, but they seem so happy and content right now, do they need to worry?"

Shikamaru shrugged "It's just a religious thing that has started, it can easily be taken care of; they're not that big, but who knows people might grow out of it. They only like it because it's new...and they're idiots." Shikamaru said. Hinata nodded. "True, true, but wait for them to come inside...let them dream." Shikamaru nodded.

I am sorry to say that this will be the only chapter for awhile, I will be busy the next week or so, adjusting to my new life, and so will my beta. But after that I think we can settle down and begin to type, so until then...I will let you dream.

NSW