AN: Kind of important. So, for all of you who absolutely despise this life of theirs despite its rather extreme relevance to the storyline, no need to fear it is almost over. Only two chapters left, I swear to you. Maybe three, depending on how it turns out.

Also, some of you more nit-picky folks will notice the format of the fox-speak changes about halfway through the chapter. Instead of sounds and then italics, it is all in quotes. This is for the purposes of easier formatting and because since Sasuke can speak fox too I figure to have it all in quotes makes sense. :P ENJOY.

Fate's Garden

Part 2 - Fox Den

Chapter 6 - Milk

Naruto was avoiding Sasuke like the plague. He really shouldn't be. Everything was fine; he was making a huge deal out of nothing. After Sasuke's meltdown of the century, Naruto had at first felt euphoric. Then he felt bad for being so happy that his mate had experienced so much emotional distress. He was important. That was all Naruto had been able to think. When he just accepted Sasuke's words for what they were, everything did make a lot more sense. In fact, it felt great to believe everything Sasuke had said, that Naruto was important, and that he'd planned on coming home and so on and so forth. But at the same time, that was the problem: it felt too great.

Even though it hurt a lot to admit to something like Sasuke not caring about him at all, it was safer. Naruto had finally reached the point where he was okay with Sasuke not caring, and he trusted him the perfect amount and only for certain things. If they were attacked, Naruto knew he could trust Sasuke to help him fight off the danger and to protect him like he would protect Sasuke. If Naruto asked Sasuke to go get something from the market, he could trust that Sasuke would do it. But those differed immensely from Naruto's faith in Sasuke's words about their relationship, whatever it may be. If Sasuke said that he cared about Naruto, or that he didn't mean everything he'd said since he'd left Konoha, that was something that Naruto had taught himself not to trust. Now however, Sasuke was saying, 'its okay, I never meant to rip your heart out and stomp on it a whole bunch. You've been important to me all along! Pssht, you're crazy!'

Naruto knew it was reasonable to be weary of Sasuke, and he was completely in the right for not believing him at all. Sasuke was a good actor; he was a really good actor. He knew what to say and how to say it to manipulate whoever he wanted. Naruto, while a fair player on the stage was never great. He could only wear a fake smile for so long, and his manipulation was never up-to-par. Sasuke knew that most likely in order to keep Naruto happy, he had to stage a rather elaborate, humbling act to compensate for his less than stellar performance earlier. The act had been rather believable too. Naruto knew that Sasuke now expected him to relax and be more than happy with him. But Naruto could only act genuinely happy if he was, if he tried to fake his way through it his weariness would be blindingly obvious. He had to find something to be happy about that was un-Sasuke-related. It was the only way for him to get through this, or he'd go crazy.

Seeing as he had yet to discover this thing to be happy about, he was still avoiding Sasuke. But they were leaving for home tomorrow. Then they would be in close proximity for three days straight and there would be no escaping each other. So at this moment he was trying to find something to be happy about. He'd visited Kakashi-sensei, he'd visited Jiraiya, he'd visited Lee (that had certainly been fun), and he'd had lunch with Sakura (that had mostly been comforting rather than fun). None of it had made him truly happy. Now he was locked away in his study thinking about what he had to look forward to. Three days with the source of all of my suffering. No, he couldn't think like that. Happy! That's what he needed.

"Who am I kidding, huh?" He sighed.

"Not me." Sasuke replied.

Naruto's head jerked around on his neck, his eyes glued to the door where Sasuke stood. He was tense, he couldn't be defensive. He had to be happy. Think of something, think of something, think of something quick or he'll call you out…

"Hey teme, bored?" He started, letting a relaxed grin light up his face.

"Of course, there's nothing to do here."

"Remind you of home?"

Sasuke snorted. Naruto laughed. It was Sasuke's number one complaint when they were home. He had nothing really to do but wander about and speak with a clan that didn't really like him too much.

"Do you wanna try practicing speaking fox with me?"

Sasuke nodded.

Huff, yip. Okay, go!

Pant, bark, elongated yowl. Do you think I have an accent?

Wheezing laugh, snort, yip. Definitely!

Long wheeze, snort. Great.

Low hum, whine, loud bark. Don't worry, you'll get better.

"Hn." Sasuke gave up, collapsing on the floor of the study. "It feels so weird."

"I don't doubt it."

Naruto resumed his absent staring out the window, forcing himself to relax as much as possible. But it was just so hard. His last minute happy thought had been a life where Sasuke had never left, and he was only a little bit of an apathetic bastard, and Naruto could be sure he would never leave and that he wasn't lying when he said he cared. It was one of Naruto's most joyful, bittersweet dreams he'd ever had. In the later years of his first life whenever the thought of them would enter his conscious stream of thought he would scoff and push it back into the dregs of his subconscious. He had no time for idle fantasies, he had work to do. Now the overwhelming happiness at the thought of such a life was coming into conflict with the cold reality that it would never happen. His chest was clenching with the effort to withhold tears, and so he took deep breaths to try and calm himself down.

This form was too complicated. He needed simple. Naruto began divesting himself of all of his clothing, tossing one article here, and another there. Once he was completely bare he shifted. Much better. Naruto turned to face his mate and smiled. Happily he slid off of the couch and flopped down on the floor behind him.

Yowl, wheeze. What are you up to dobe?

Yip, whine. Grooming you, sit up.

Bark. No.

Naruto quickly reached down and hooked his teeth in the collar of Sasuke's kimono and yanked him into a sitting position. Sasuke barked something at him, but Naruto ignored him. He was going to be groomed whether he liked it or not. Naruto slipped his paws around Sasuke's waist and pulled him closer so that he could begin combing through his hair. His unsettled mate let out frustrated yowls and snarls every few minutes for a while. But after an hour or so, he calmed down. Naruto noted, in the back of his human mind, that Sasuke's fox speak was improving greatly.

A while or so later Naruto pulled a near boneless Sasuke up against his chest, laying his head over the teme's shoulder.

Bark. Mate?

Huff, Yes?

Sigh, wheeze, yip. I am happy.

The trip home, it turned out, wasn't nearly as bad as Sasuke thought it would be. He forgot that he would be riding fox-back home. When Naruto was in fox form he didn't have the capacity for awkwardness. It was one of the more complicated human emotions that foxes had the luxury of not feeling. The entire way home Naruto seemed to insist on remaining in his fox form. Even when they passed through towns he would wait outside for Sasuke or go hunt for food. This didn't really bother Sasuke too much. He could still speak with him due to his steadily improving fox-speak, and the dobe seemed to be happier that way.

Finally, after three long days of traveling they were home. Sasuke sighed, a soft smile appearing unbidden upon his face. They passed the border surrounding their territory and Sasuke could feel the difference. It felt more peaceful, quieter in this part of the forest. Sasuke would've never thought he'd call the clan's forest home, nor would he have guessed that he would miss it so much.

There was no formal welcome back sort of thing from the foxes. But every fox they encountered bowed respectfully towards them and would lick Naruto's snout. Some of them even licked Sasuke, and due to their size it almost knocked him over. Though he never heard any of the foxes speak he could feel it rising up from the earth around them, everyone was happy to see their Lord and his pet return. All the way back to the cave, Sasuke could feel Naruto grow more and more anxious. Maybe the foxes had spoken and he had missed it. But he'd been listening intently, waiting for his chance to use his newly altered vocal chords to speak with them. He didn't know how he could have missed it, unless all of this was just Naruto's animal instinct that Sasuke couldn't account for. That must've been it.

By the time they were only a few minutes from the cave, Naruto couldn't contain himself and he loped on ahead. Sasuke knew somehow that it wasn't an emergency, that it was a happy thing so he contented himself with walking the rest of the way. When he got there he saw what was causing Naruto's excitement.

Ruko was lying down in the cave on her side, three kits at her belly suckling. They were obviously newborns, probably only a few days old. But seeing the size of their parents, it wasn't surprising that lying down they came up to Sasuke's waist. It was odd knowing that these were Naruto's…children. It was even worse knowing that he'd already had many others and that they were already considered grownups in this society. It just made the dobe sound so…old.

Wheeze, sigh, yip. Congratulations, Ruko. Your kits are beautiful.

Ruko turned from her mate's affectionate nuzzling to stare wide eyed at the family pet.

"You speak fox, how?"

"I had my vocal chords altered by another human during our visit."

"Why?"

"I think it's pretty disrespectful for me to not try to communicate in your language when I'm living on your lands, don't you?"

"You flatter me, pet." Ruko chuckled in the wheezing way foxes laughed.

Sasuke inclined his head and replied, "Can I get you dinner, perhaps?"

"Do not take too long, pet." Ruko teased.

Sasuke nodded and headed for the mouth of the cave. He didn't get much farther than that however. Naruto surged past him and blocked the gaping maw with his bulk. He snarled and growled at Sasuke in a way he never had before in his fox form. Sasuke shuffled backwards into the cave, accidentally tripping over a rock onto his rear.

"You are my mate as well, don't forget your place and start acting like my vixen is your bitch to hunt for. Stay in the cave where you belong." Naruto punctuated his sentences with clacking of his fangs and before he sped off he snarled at Sasuke one last time.

Sasuke sat there, stunned. Naruto had never acted that way towards him before. He hadn't even realized what he'd done with Ruko just then was an insult in fox society. By being a little too respectful towards Ruko and offering to find food for her he'd suggested that her mate was incapable. During such a time as the first few days after the birth of a litter this was especially rude. Sasuke sighed and did as he'd been ordered and stayed in the cave. Ruko snorted at his sulking.

"What did you expect, pet? A warm thank you?"

"I just wasn't thinking about it that way. I thought I was doing a nice thing."

"I know enough about you foolish humans to understand that. I'm sure in hind sight my mate will understand too. Do not worry much."

"He hasn't treated me like this before." Sasuke muttered.

Either Ruko didn't hear him, or she chose to ignore him. Sasuke guessed it was the latter, considering her enhanced hearing and all. He sighed, resting against the cave wall, waiting for his 'mate' to come home.

The next day, Sasuke awoke for once not on Naruto's back. It was a strange feeling. He stretched and stood up, preparing to head out and handle his usual morning necessities. On his way out he paused and let his eyes rest on the newborn kits. They were like little lumps of fur about three feet tall and six feet long. Sasuke rolled his eyes before heading out.

The grass was soft on his feet as he followed the well beaten path to the stream he bathed in each morning. The air was warm in the highlands during springtime, but it was also humid. It felt like he was walking around underneath a thick blanket he couldn't take off. Mist hung in the air around him and by the time he reached the river he was anxious to get in the water. He shrugged off his shorts and kicked them to the side before smoothly slipping off the bank into the cool stream. He dipped under to get his hair wet and to find a clean rock to scrub his skin with. When he resurfaced there was a very naked dobe standing at the edge of the river giving him that guilty look of his.

Sasuke glared and childishly splashed him with water. Naruto pouted and joined him in the river, deciding that working on Sasuke's hair for him was a suitable way of kissing up. Sasuke pushed him away and continued washing himself. When the dobe reached for him again he glared and smacked his hand away. Naruto sighed and cleared his throat.

"The vixens should be bringing in breakfast soon near the usual spot…don't take too long washing up." Naruto swam easily over to the shore and climbed out. He resumed his fox form and ran off, disappearing amidst the trees.

Sasuke thought of going into town to avoid the dobe as a sort of revenge but decided against it. He wouldn't enjoy himself so really he'd be punishing himself instead of the dobe. The goal here was to make Naruto feel bad, not himself. As he was getting out and drying off he decided that maybe he shouldn't be extremely vindictive in this case. After all, the dobe had tried to make amends in his usual clingy, overly affectionate way. He pulled on his shorts and made his way to breakfast.

Over the next few weeks Sasuke and Naruto returned to normal. Sasuke lazed about, sometimes interacting with the other foxes, did his laundry and so on. Naruto handled whatever business as lord the clan entailed and they usually saw each other only at meal times and at bedtime. Sasuke did not make the mistake of offering to help Ruko with the kits, he knew that he'd most likely be growled and snarled at for weeks if he did. They weren't yet big enough to leave the cave but they had opened their eyes and started wiggling around. Sasuke had sat off to the side and listened in while Naruto and Ruko had picked out names for them. The variety in coat colors in the litter was interesting. They were all girls, and one was grey while neither parent was, her name was Yurei. There was one kit that was yellow paler and yet brighter than Naruto, and she was named Ru. Their sister was a deep fuchsia like her mother Ruko, and her name was Lena. Yurei was the quiet one, content to take long naps at her mother's side and not take part in any playing too much. Ru was by far the feistiest and her sister Lena while not nearly as unruly, was antsy enough to wrestle with her.

With the kits around, Sasuke felt more out of place than usual. What was he? The pet. The kits would try to play with him sometimes, pawing at him with their nubbly little feet. But other than that he was just there. He sat against the wall of the cave acting as the spectator to Naruto's happy family life. He knew there was love there, in its own fox-ish way. But it wasn't like human love. Those kits would be punted out to fend for themselves and literally chased off by the time they were around one year old. These kits had it easier, they were girls, so that meant they could stay on and act as hunters for their mother and be well protected. But if they did stay they would never be allowed to mate and have children of their own. Naruto knew his children, he would recognize them if he saw them, but he didn't really have any significant relationship with them. Especially since he was the father he didn't interact with them much. Typically it was the mother's job to raise the kits, and to take them hunting to prepare them for life outside of the clan in case they later chose to leave.

More and more time passed, and the kits were getting bigger and even learning to talk. With their arrival, he was becoming quite used to sleeping on the opposite side of the cave from the cozy little fox family. He was really starting to hate it. So one day, Sasuke being the impatient vengeful bastard that he was started scheming up a way to work himself back into the family unit.

Sasuke told himself that he was doing this because he thought it was what Naruto really wanted. Later he would figure that it was really his own selfish way of trying to be included in the family more. But that didn't matter. That day when Sasuke woke up on his side of the cave (as he was starting loathe doing) the kits were jittery and bouncing around already. They'd come over and licked him all over and batted at him with their paws.

"Pet! Pet! Wake up!" They yipped.

"I'm up, I'm up." He barked, standing up and heading for the mouth of the cave.

"We're going on our first hunt with mama today!"

"Yippee." He twirled one finger around in the air, "Now go back to your mom I'm going to go wash up before breakfast."

"Are you going to come with us?"

Sasuke paused and turned around to eye them in confusion, "Come with you on the hunt?"

"Yeah!" Ru barked enthusiastically, wagging her tail with her but up in the air.

"Momma said you could." Lena piped in.

"Really? I'll have to hear that from her to believe it."

Ruko barked in the affirmative from where she was just then waking up and stretching. "They wouldn't stop yammering about it, pet. I don't see what harm it could do."

"Alright, I'll tag along."

"Yay!" Ru and Lena pranced around him, yipping and whining and barking their delight. At four months old they were already as tall as him, yet they acted like he was the bigger one.

"When are you going on this hunt of yours?"

"Later this afternoon, we'll be the ones providing dinner tonight."

"Alright then, I can go wash up."

"Yes."

So Sasuke left the cave, shuffling off in the direction of his 'bathing river' as he'd often dubbed it in his head. When he was about half-way there he noticed the dobe following him. He rolled his eyes and glanced over his shoulder. Naruto wheezed a nervous fox laugh before shifting forms and jogging to catch up to him. He slung a casual arm around Sasuke's shoulders and offered a feeble good morning.

"Good morning, dobe."

"Hey teme," Naruto started.

"Yes?"

"Thanks for agreeing to go with them, I know it'll be weird but they were really making a fuss over it earlier. I don't know how you slept through it."

"I don't know either."

"You know they really seem to like you."

Sasuke shrugged Naruto's arm off of his shoulders when they reached the river. He dropped his shorts and slid down into the stream while turning to shoot a look at Naruto. But otherwise he said nothing. There was nothing really for him to say to that statement. He thought about his scheme, as it were, and as he worked on combing out the knots in his wet hair he broke the silence.

"You know dobe, one might think they were closer to me than they are to their own father." He smirked just to add to the jab.

"They do see you more, and as their father, in fox society it's not that unusual for them not to be close to me." Naruto shrugged.

Sasuke scowled inwardly. Naruto hadn't taken to the bait as he'd hoped so now he had to find another way to make his case. Even as the words begin to leave his mouth he felt the tiniest bit bad about it. It was pretty low of him to use this excuse…but Sasuke didn't have a conscience, for the most part, so all was well.

"But you're not really a fox, remember? Don't you remember that we don't know how long we're going to be here?"

Naruto tensed at that thought and then slumped a little. "Yeah…"

"So wouldn't you like to get to know your kids better before you suddenly die off and get shipped to another life?"

Naruto pressed a thumb to his bottom lip and nodded weakly. Sasuke felt the beginnings of triumph swell up in his chest like a balloon. He finished scrubbing himself free of dirt and climbed out of the river to dry himself off as best he could. This involved a potentially gratuitous amount of shaking and wiping his feet off on the grass. Then he pulled his shorts back on and started padding off in the direction of breakfast, the dobe having resumed his fox form and trailing pensively behind him.

Breakfast with the clan was always an interesting ordeal. The vixens woke up earlier than everyone else and went to find food. Then they piled their kills up in the usual feeding area for various clan members to partake. Due to the social hierarchy, certain members of the clan went to eat first. Kyuubi went first because of the co-ruling lords he was older and therefore had seniority. Then his mate, Shii, and then their most recent kits that had been born only a week after Ruko's. After that was Naruto, and then Ruko, then their kits, and then Sasuke. Once Sasuke had ripped off a piece of meat for himself to go cook there was a slightly more complex eating order. The vixens that Naruto and Kyuubi shared for casual sex would eat. Then the head vixen under the mates of the lords, and then the remaining males that had stayed on to serve the higher ranking clan members.

As usual Sasuke waited in line for his turn to pick out his breakfast. All around him he could hear the noisy chattering and gossiping between the vixens and the males. Most of them were talking about the newest kits' training hunt this afternoon. It was a big deal because it was to be their very first hunt, and in almost any animal society it was an important affair. After Yurei had bitten off her serving of deer Sasuke moved forward to take his piece. He took hold of one deer leg and forced a bit of chakra into his arms to buffer them from the force it would take to rip it off of the animal. Once he'd gotten it he relaxed and slung it over his shoulder.

Sasuke meandered over to Ruko who was lounging under one of the oak trees eating her breakfast with her family. He politely asked of her if he could have some milk, at which the kits giggled. As usual Ruko obliged him kindly. Sasuke was very conscious of just how bizarre the concept was, and he knew that he probably deserved to be giggled at but it certainly didn't make him feel better. Besides, before the stupid little runts were born he didn't have to deal with their antics. Choosing to eat away from them and their teasing laughter, after he'd taken a second swig of milk he wandered away from the feeding area to cook his breakfast and eat alone.

TBC...