Speech

Thought

Tailed Beast.

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Wolf in Fox's Clothing

Intermission Chapter 1.

"Naruto.." Yugito panted, coming to a stop in the woods, "We've been going nonstop for the last seven hours! I gotta take a break."

The blond sat down, "Yeah, I could use a breather too. Besides, if I remember the map at the academy, we still have a couple of days before we reach Suna."

Since it was already night time, they decided to set up camp for the night. Naruto went off to hunt and Yugito was keeping the fire stoked.

"You know, kitten, now that you two are alone.." Nibi let out a seductive purr.

That caused the the kunoichi to flush bright red, "Nibi!"She squeaked indignantly, "This isn't the time for that! He's a sweet guy, that's true. But now isn't.."

"Oh, don't act so innocent. You forget, I've seen a couple of your fantasies. Like the one involving you two and the back of Ichiraku's?" The feline laughed when her container blushed even brighter, "We both know you've have the hots for the guy ever since that day you watched him train, remember?"

Yugito tried to fight the dreamy grin that was creeping onto her face but failed spectacularly as she recalled what happened, all because of the Dyamio's wife's cat. What was supposed to be a routine 10 minute checkup turned into an hour-long fight when the cat decided to go apeshit after smelling dog on Hana's clothes. After that, she immediately went to the first quiet place she could find for lunch to forget about the little monster.

That place turned out to be Training Ground 11. And as her luck would have it, that was also where Naruto had picked to practice his katas.

"Fun wasn't it, kitten?" Nibi decided to tease her, "Especially when he took off his vest. All those yummy muscles in the sunlight and the way they flexed.."

"Yeeaahh.." Yugito stared to purr until she felt herself heating up and snapped out of it, "DAMMIT, NIBI!" She yelped, tying to calm down and ignore the cat's fit of giggling.

Meanwhile, Naruto had managed to catch a small deer and was busy field dressing it when he felt the need to ask the fox something, "Hey, Kyuubi. You said Ichibi was the first one to ever be nice to you, what'd you mean?"

"Exactly what I said." Kyuubi responded, "A long time go, way before Konoha, mind you, I got into a fight with Hachibi and Rokubi; the 8 and 6-Tails. I managed to send them running, but I took a fair bit of punishment myself. To be honest, I wasn't exactly in any shape to defend myself if they had decided for another round."

"Anyway, I started looking for a place to recuperate when I ran into Ichi-Chan. At first I... thought she had gotten wind of the fight and came to finish the job, so I was pretty hostile to her. But she hung around, regardless. I guess it wasn't in her to just leave somebody who was injured. It didn't take me long to realize she was looking at my wounds whenever I was asleep. When I learned that, I was too surprised to feel threatened."

Kyuubi rested his head on his front paws as he reminisced, "After that we started talking. Never thought I'd say this, but Ichi-Chan's one of the sweetest girl's you'd probably ever meet, human or tailed-beast. Thanks to her, I was back to my old self in no time. Well, Hachibi got word and wasn't too happy that she had helped me." His tone darkened signifigantly, "The hebi-teme knew she wasn't as strong as he was, but he decided she needed punishment. I can't explain what happened when I learned they were fighting; all I remember is feeling undiluted rage at the worm wannabe."

"Did you let him live?" Naruto asked, not really needing to know what happened next.

"Ah, he managed to slip away before I could finish the job. But, knowing him, he's probably still off somewhere trying to regrow the tails I ripped off him." He replied, with a hit of self-satisfaction.

"Heh, sounds like you like her like you do Nibi."

Kyuubi jolted to his feet in shock, nearly banging his head on the ceiling, "Wha!? N-No! Don't-Don't be rediculous! I just care about her, that's all."

Naruto chuckled, "Oh really? Your tone says otherwise."

"That's not true! I..I mean..I'll admit she's pretty cute..that big bushy tail of hers that twitched like mad when she laughed..how fluffy she could be when she cuddled up against me after she had a nightmare..the fact she'd scrunch up that cute little pink nose of hers when she tried to pout..."

"Yep. You defiantly care about her." He busted out laughing when Kyuubi realized what he had just said.

"Wait! I..uh..That is...gah..!If it wasn't for his red fur, Kyuubi could be seen rivaling Hinata in the blush department, "Tojikomeru, baka-okami!"

The rest of the night was fairly normal, with the exception of Naruto getting a whiff of something odd when he returned to camp with the meat from his kill.

"Yugi, did you bring any candy with you?"

She shook her head, "No, why?"

"Something smells like honey around here." He took another sniff, "Bit of vanilla too." Looking around, he failed to notice the thermonuclear blush on his traveling companion.

"Oh, Kami...I KNEW there was something I forget to teach the kit about!" Kyuubi sweatdropped. Naruto could tell when a guy/girl liked someone, he knew that much. However, it was the OTHER half of the subject that he was clueless about.

Naruto shrugged as he put the meat on the fire, "Must be a beehive nearby."

Meanwhile, Yugito was mentally calling her tenant every name in the book.

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Ok, first of all, I KNOW this chapter is short. I intended it. It's mostly a little bit of side humor in the story, like in the Young Ones. (if you don't know what I'm talking about; check it out on youtube) I might put in a couple more like that. That and it's been a while since I updated this one and felt you guys could use a lil something to tide you over while I work on the next actual chapter.

tojikomeru is supposed to be 'shut up'. I got it from an online Japanese dictionary, so it might not be exactly what I was trying for.