A/N: Okay, last chapter wasn't as long word count wise as I wanted it to be, but at the same time, I couldn't think of anything to add and I felt like that was a good stopping point, story wise. I'll look back at it eventually and see if there is anything I can add or improve on, but for now, I feel like it is best to keep my ideas flowing while they are coming to me easily. Also, thanks to the people who followed this story. I don't know how you found it so fast, but I'm glad you did. I am seriously writing this right after I published the first chapter. Much love to you for showing an interest in my writing.

I don't own the Naruto franchise, though I wish I did.

Chapter 2

5 years later, on the anniversary of the Day of the Kyūbi

Naruko was feeling scared. Very scared, actually. The nice old lady who was in charge at the orphanage she lived in suddenly fell over one day at lunch time and didn't get up. The young fox girl hoped Furi-obaa-san would get better soon, she must have been really sick. The other children who lived at the orphanage and adults who worked there weren't very nice to her at all. They were completely different from Furi-obaa-san. Naruko guessed having a tail and fuzzy ears on top of your head was a bad thing, since most people kept trying to rip them off of her. She didn't like it when people did that because it hurt her a lot.

Little did Naruko know, Furi-obaa-san would not be getting better any time soon. In fact, she would not be getting better at all. She wasn't sick, she was dead. She had, in fact, been poisoned by her co-workers for being nice to "the little demon-spawn bitch" and taking Naruko in to the orphanage at the Sandaime Hokage's request. They didn't care that the Hokage himself wanted the girl to be treated well and looked after with love and affection. In the opinion of the workers there, fox demons, or kitsune, are all pure evil, and should be... disposed of as quickly as possible. Many of them had lost family, friends, and lovers during the Day of the Kyūbi. Now that the one demon sympathizer at the orphanage was taken care of, they could finally get rid of the monster child without interference.

That night, as Naruko was sleeping, she felt a pair of hands roughly yank her out of bed. Just as she was about to cry out in surprise, she had a cloth stuffed in her mouth to gag her. She struggled frantically to get away, utterly terrified. "MMMPH!" Naruko tried to scream, but she was hit across the face. While she was stunned, her arms were roughly grabbed and held behind her back while her captor tied them together. Her legs received a similar treatment, being tied together to limit her movement. After that, she was forced into an old sack and it was tied shut firmly, barely giving her room to move.

"Shut up, you damn demon bitch. It is all you and your species' fault my family is dead. And now, because that senile hag Furi, sided with you instead of humans, we had to kill her to get rid of you. You damn disgusting creature!" An angry voice told Naruko. Naruko recognized the voice as female, one of the women who worked at the orphanage, but she was too distraught by the words to remember whose voice it was. Furi-obaa-san was killed? That nice old lady, who had never done anything to hurt anyone and always tried to make everyone happy, was killed because of her? Naruko never wanted that. Inside the sack, where her captor couldn't see her, she was crying. Not that her abductor would even care, she was too concerned about her own pain to even consider that someone like Naruko had emotions, too.

Naruko suddenly felt herself lifted into the air and being carried off somewhere. She didn't want this, she wanted out of this sack! She struggled and squirmed, trying to break free, but it was all futile. Her abductor, obviously annoyed by all her resistance, dropped the sack on the ground and kicked it several times, causing Naruko to whine in pain. That had *really* hurt, because whoever was doing this had not held back in the least. Now that she was too busy clutching her sides from pain to struggle anymore, her captor picked up the sack again and continued to carry it.

This continued for quite some time. Every now and then Naruko would make a feeble attempt at escape, but every time she did, the only thing it caused was for the whole kicking routine to be repeated. Eventually, Naruko heard her captor's footsteps change. Instead of the sound of shoes on a street, she heard the crunch of leaves and sticks. Where was this person taking her?

"There, this should be far enough no one finds you. Because you are such a cruel, evil being, I won't put you out of my misery quickly. Instead, I'll just leave you here to starve to death like you rabid animals deserve!" the voice angrily shouted at her. With one last, very vicious kick to the bag, Naruko finally heard her abuser walk out of the woods.

It took Naruko a long time to escape from the sack, and it was very painful. Whoever had tied her up was obviously not trained at it, because she was, eventually, able to wiggle her hands out of their bindings, although it did cause a nasty rope burn. After that, it was a little easier to free her feet and get the gag out of her mouth. Getting out of the sack itself proved challenging for the young kitsune, but not near as challenging as it would have been for a 5 year old human girl. She was eventually able to tear a hole in the tough fabric because of her somewhat claw-like nails. She looked around herself and... had no idea where she was, other than the forest. Exhausted, she found the softest bit of ground she could find, curled up, and cried herself to sleep.

1 year and 2 months later

Naruko was getting used to living in the forest. After what happened at the orphanage, she had become quite scared of going too near the village. Of course, when she was really hungry, she would risk it to try and scavenge food along the outskirts that some wasteful person threw out instead of finishing, but she usually just scavenged edible plants, or hunted for small rodents or insects to eat. The taste was... difficult to get used to at first, compared to what she had at the orphanage from Furi-obaa-san, but it was better than starving to death.

It was one of those times she had decided to scavenge a little closer to the village. She had been having a hard time finding all the food she needed. She already knew that as winter time approached, it meant less choices of things to eat. Naruko suddenly heard a flurry of motion coming from her right, past some bushes. She decided to investigate, in hopes that it was a squirrel or something. If she caught a squirrel to eat it would mean she could avoid trying to steal food from the village and risk another beating.

Meanwhile

Hyūga Hinata was scared. A group of older boys, probably ones that had just started in the academy, were pushing her around. They kept calling her an arrogant Hyūga and telling her to apologize for bumping into one of the boys. But even though she HAD apologized, apparently it wasn't enough to satisfy them. They shoved her on the ground and the leader put his foot on the back of her head, demanding that she apologize again.

"I-I'm s-s-sorry, I-I r-really didn't m-mean to b-bump into y-"

*CRASH, SMACK*

"Owww! What the hell was that?!" asked the leader of the bully brigade.

When Hinata looked up, she saw a redheaded girl about her age, but that girl looked... very different than most girls their age. Hinata had never seen a girl with fox ears and a tail before. And they looked real too, because they moved. She didn't know of any accessory that moved like that. The girl was wearing what basically amounted to dirty rags with how damaged and covered in mud and dirt she was. Her teeth, which she was baring at the bullies while she growled at them, looked a bit sharper than what she had seen on... well... anyone, before. She was crouched, apparently ready to jump at Hinata's would-be tormentors. The redhead's outright feral appearance was shocking to the young Hyūga girl, but she was grateful to be saved nevertheless.

"Leave her alone!" Naruko growled out loudly, furiously. The bullies, terrified by the appearance of the newcomer, pissed themselves on the spot before running away, all of them needing a change of pants after the fright of seeing such a demonic-looking redhead. With that done, Naruko straightened up out of her crouch, seeming to relax. "I hate people like that..." she muttered to herself, having forgotten that Hinata was still there.

"U-um, t-thank y-you.. EEP!" Hinata stuttered out, squeaking in surprise at Naruko spinning around so quickly in her own surprise. Now that she could see the fox girl a little better, she noticed a few more things about her appearance. One was that her eyes were a vibrant violet, with slits for pupils. Two, were some whisker birthmarks on the strange redhead's cheeks. Three, the girl was very thin. 'S-she is TOO t-thin,' Hinata thought, 'she m-must be hu-hungry.'

Fortunately, the fox girl seemed to relax a little when she saw the Hyūga heiress, deeming her not to be a threat. The redhead still seemed wary, however. "D-do you w-w-want th-this a-a-apple? I-its the l-least I c-c-can do to th-thank you for h-helping me" Hinata blushed as she offered an apple from the lunch she had been planning to eat to Naruko. Hinata blinked in surprise at how quickly the redhead not only took the apple, but ate the whole thing, not even leaving behind the core or stem. Hinata giggled in amusement when she realized what happened and saw the grateful expression on the strange girl's face.

"Lady Hinata!" a voice yelled "Get away from that filthy creature!" Hinata recognized it as the voice of the guard her father assigned her, a member of the Hyūga branch family.

"B-b-but..."

"Get away from Lady Hinata, you monster!" The Hyūga bodyguard roared at Naruko, aiming a kick at her and connecting solidly. Naruko yelped in pain, saw the hatred in the man's eyes, and scampered off deeper into the forest, fearful of receiving another beating from the villagers.

Hinata reached her hand in the direction Naruko ran off, even as her other hand was grabbed and dragged by the bodyguard. Hinata had wanted to learn more about the girl, she didn't seem like a bad person, a little strange maybe, but not bad. Her bodyguard told her "Lady Hinata, we must report to Hokage-sama about the creature that attempted to attack you."

"B-b-but she d-didn't!" Hinata started to exclaim, before she realized she was being ignored. As usual. With that, she just sighed and allowed herself to be escorted to Hokage tower.

In the Hokage's office

The Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was not a man you would think as someone who struggled with depression. But here he was, lamenting over the fact he had failed in his promise to his friend, Kurama. He had promised the fox he would look after his kit, Naruko, but she had gone missing over a year ago. 'I'm sorry, Kurama, I have failed in my promise to you. You trusted me to look out for her and now she's missing for over a year... It is likely that she's long since dea-'

"Hokage-sama!" he heard shouted before his office was barged into, quite rudely, by a Hyūga branch family member dragging the Heiress of the Hyūga clan by the wrist. Hiruzen sighed and studied the face of the man and little girl. The man was clearly in a state of panic, but the girl looked... disappointed and a little worried? Most people would think that the two are worried about the same thing, but the Sandaime Hokage was canny and wise enough to suspect that the Hyūga heiress was worried for an entirely different reason than her guard.

"What is it?" the Hokage sighed tiredly, not in the mood to reprimand the man for his rudeness.

"The kitsune bitch is still alive and tried to attack Lady Hinata in the forest along the northern outskirts to the village! I request a team of ANBU dispatched to kill the monster as quickly as possible before it can cause any more harm!"

"What?! Are you sure it was her?" the Hokage asked frantically.

"Absolutely! Red hair, fox tail and ears, violet fox eyes, and absolutely feral by the looks of it! I kicked at it to shoo it away and ran here as fast as I could to report," the man replied urgently.

"And what say you, Hinata-chan? Did this really happen?" asked the Hokage kindly.

"A-a-a g-girl that l-looked like th-that saved m-me from some b-b-bullies, but she d-didn't a-attack me. H-he did k-kick her, though," Hinata answered timidly. Hiruzen nodded in understanding while the Hyūga man looked shocked and doubtful. "Hebi-san, please arrest this man and take him to the T and I department. You and Ibiki are permitted to do whatever you wish to him there. Tenzō-kun, please search for Naruko and bring her here unharmed if you find her. Inu-kun, please escort young Hinata here back to the Hyūga estate" the Hokage ordered, feeling a fire of determination in him again now that he knew Naruko was still alive.

The female Torture and Interrogation ANBU, "Hebi," grabbed the man roughly, seemingly excited at the prospect of being allowed to torture the Hyūga man, who now looked utterly confused and scared of the sadistic aura radiating off the woman. "Inu" and "Tenzō" just sighed and shook their heads at the woman's antics before leaving via shunshin to complete the tasks the Hokage had ordered them to do.

6 Months later

Shikamaru was laying in a field in the outskirts of Konoha, watching clouds while his best friend, Chōji, sat next to him, eating a bag of chips. He found this relaxing; a good escape from his troublesome, nagging mother while his father was working on something for the Hokage. He would play shogi with his father later.

Quite abruptly, he heard a loud rustling of some bushes near the edge of the clearing. He lifted his head up and looked towards the bushes, while Chōji did the same. Soon enough, a redheaded girl near their age came stumbling out of the bushes, sniffing the air quite obviously, as if she were a member of that troublesome Inuzuka clan. But what made this girl even more troublesome than the Inuzuka clan was that she had fox ears and a fox tail. For as long as Shikamaru could remember, Konohagakure no Sato seemed to have had a massive hatred toward foxes, though he didn't really feel the same. He supposed it made sense, considering what happened on the day of the Kyūbi, but that was a single demon fox, not all foxes of any size, shape or variety!

"Troublesome," Shikamaru sighed as he saw the strange fox girl stumble towards them, eyes somewhat glazed and with a ravenous expression on her face, eyes locked on Chōji's now empty bag of chips. He did not miss the fact that the girl was way too thin, looking as if she were half-starved.

Unfortunately for the girl, she did not make it to her goal. She passed out and fell face first into the ground. "Oi! That looks bad Shikamaru, we have to help her. She's looks like she hasn't had a good meal in forever!" Chōji said, shocked at the state the poor girl was in. It gave Chōji shudders just imagining going that long without food.

Shikamaru sighed tiredly. "How troublesome, we need to get her to a restaurant that has been opened by recent immigrants to Konoha. Know any good ones?" he asked his friend. Choji thought about this for a moment. His favorite barbeque joint was out of the question as the owners were born and raised in Konoha. Suddenly, it came to him. "There's a new ramen shop that opened about a month ago. Teuchi-san moved from a smaller town somewhere else in Hi no Kuni to Konohagakure around then. We could take her there," he answered. Shikamaru nodded as he picked up the unconscious girl. "That'll work. Lead the way," the lazy boy said to his friend.

As they were headed into the village, Shikamaru and Chōji ran into their fathers, Nara Shikaku and Akimichi Chōza, who seemed to be on their way out of the village. When both men stopped and stared at the girl with wide eyes, Shikamaru realized he had gotten himself into a much more troublesome situation than he had first realized.

"How the-?!" Chōza said loudly in shock.

"Shikamaru, how did you manage to do such a troublesome thing as stumbling across the very girl the Sandaime Hokage has had Jōnin and ANBU trying to find for the last 6 months with no success?" Shikaku asked his son in amazement.

Upon hearing this, Chōji shouted at the top of his lungs from surprise "WHAT? YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR 6 MONTHS? SHE LITERALLY JUST STUMBLED UP TO US AND PASSED OUT!?" Unfortunately, this loud noise was able to wake Naruko up, who, upon realizing she was being carried toward the village that abused her so much, instantly decided to try and escape, struggling fiercely to get free from Shikamaru's grip.

"Ow! Dammit, this troublesome girl doesn't seem to want to go to - OW! - the village at all! Owww! She keeps scratching and struggling!" Shikamaru complained. Chōza, taking pity on his son's friend, took her from Shikamaru's arms, knowing he'd have a better chance at keeping the feral, terrified girl under control. Shikaku sighed, facepalmed, and said that he would go report this to the Hokage while the others made sure the crazed girl got something to eat.

Meanwhile, in the Hokage's office

It's been 6 months and still no sign of her?! Where the hell did Naruko go?" The Hokage asked the ANBU captain, Inu, incredulously. "It hasn't been no sign of her, sir. My dog summons have caught her scent every now and then, but... we just can't seem to find her. The trail just disappears whenever we follow it. We know she is out there, and alive, but we have no idea how to actually find her," the silver haired ANBU replied, feeling slightly embarrassed that two ANBU squads have been unable to find the fox girl for so long. Not to mention the standing orders for any jōnin not currently on a mission to aid in the search. Hiruzen rubbed his temples in frustration before lighting his pipe, deciding he needed to smoke to deal with said frustration.

At that moment, Shikaku appeared in the room via shunshin. "Hokage-sama, we've found her, but the current situation is... troublesome," said the Jōnin commander.

The Hokage stood quickly, alarmed at Shikaku's description of the situation. "Lead the way, and fill me in on the details as we go. Inu, pass this along to the search parties," Hiruzen commanded as he and Shikaku left.

As Shikaku described what had happened, the old Hokage could do nothing but facepalm at how Naruko had been recovered.

At Ichiraku Ramen

The girl had struggled most of the way there, though she had started getting tired towards the end of the group's journey to the ramen eatery. Now everyone was there, including Sarutobi Hiruzen, Shikaku, Shikamaru, Chōza, Chōji, and Naruko. Surprisingly, Naruko was behaving herself. She was sitting as Chōza had placed her, on a stool facing the counter. The reason why she was so well behaved is that her curiosity of the wonderful, appetizing smells far overpowered her fear right now. She was sniffing the air rapidly, looking around herself, trying to find the source of the amazing aroma.

"I'll pay for everyone as a job well done on finding Uzumaki Naruko," the Hokage declared happily. Shikamaru and Shikaku shared a look with each other. Both of them realized that offering to feed 2 Akimichi men and a half-starved, somewhat feral kitsune girl would NOT turn out well for the leader of Konohagakure no Sato.

About that time, Teuchi served everyone their first bowl. Just as the Akimichi men took their first mouthful of the pork ramen they both decided to order, everyone heard an odd clinking sound coming from Naruko. They turned and looked at her curiously. What they saw shocked them. She was chewing on her bowl, somewhat desperately, with it already empty, a bit of broth on the corner of her mouth. Everyone paled at the sight. The Hokage, the Naras, and the Akimichis paled because they had NEVER seen someone eat faster than an Akimichi. And this wasn't just a little faster. It seemed impossibly fast. Teuchi paled because he was wondering just how fast he would have to get the strange girl refills in order to prevent his actual dishes from being eaten as well. He hoped he could keep up. He quickly put another bowl in front of the voracious redhead as he called for his daughter with an edge of panic in his voice, "Ayame, I need you to go to the market and buy more ingredients, NOW." Ayame came out from the back, to answer her father, "Otou-san, can't it wait I w- OH," she said when she saw how fast Naruko inhaled another bowl of ramen. "Y-yeah on it!" Ayame answered as she ran out of the shop and towards the market as quickly as if she were trying out to be an Olympic sprinter. Meanwhile, the Akimichi men took this as a challenge to their reputation as the biggest eaters in the Hidden Leaf, so they started eating as much as they could and as fast as they could as well. "Troublesome," both Nara men declared at the same time.

Some time later

"How did she out-eat all of us combined? Including two Akimichis?" asked the Hokage in pure shock. This was unprecedented for any Akimichi to be outeaten by anyone not of their own clan. Especially the head of the clan and his son!

"Otou-san, I think I'm in love," Chōji told his father, staring at the finally satisfied kitsune girl, dazed by her eating abilities. Chōza nodded in approval at his son, smiling at him. Both Nara men facepalmed at Chōji's comment. "She is definitely a troublesome one, Shikamaru," Shikaku told his son. Shikamaru nodded in agreement.

"Here's the bill, Hokage-sama," Teuchi handed Hiruzen the bill. The Sandaime hesitantly looked at the bill and saw the numbers. He almost fainted right then. He himself had eaten 3 bowls, the Nara men had 2 each, Chōji had 17 bowls and Chōza had 21. Naruko, by herself, ate 52 bowls of ramen. Bringing the total to 97 bowls of ramen. The Hokage laughed nervously, "Haha, so about splitting the bill..?" He looked up to see everyone gone except Teuchi and Naruko, who seemed to be happily asleep after her meal, leaning on the counter. With a sigh, the Hokage paid the amount, crying internally at the financial blow he had just received. Teuchi smiled at his daughter as he watched them leave, "I think that little redhead girl is my new favorite customer." Ayame laughed, not disagreeing with her father in the least.

A/N: A dark start to the chapter, but some happy and funny moments at the end. Thanks for reading again, and please review so I know if I made any mistakes, what I can improve on, and what kind of things you think I did right!

Edit (9/19/2018): Finding errors every time I go back and read it. Oh well, maybe I'll get rid of all of them eventually.

Until next time!