Fate's Garden

Part 2 - Fox Den

Chapter 7 - Plans

Sasuke was carefully perched in a tree nearby, watching the exuberant kits sneak up on their prey. At the moment it was Yurei's turn. She was rather meek and reserved when she was around her siblings, or really anyone. Sasuke had a feeling though that there was more to the dusky vixen then met the eyes of those around her. She reduced her size to that of wolf and skulked through the shadows. Her eyes were riveted to the deer a few feet away from her. One paw slipped in some soft soil and rustled the grass at her feet. The deer looked up and saw her, post haste it sprinted off. Yurei followed dutifully, loping along behind.

Sasuke, the other kits and Ruko followed her as subtly as they could. They were not to help her, as this was her hunt. At first, when Sasuke realized that they would be getting the usual dinner, deer, he nearly laughed. Usually when the vixens went 'hunting' they would trot up behind their prey and snatch up the bite sized creature and bite down enough to kill it. It was laughable, the concept of a giant fox demon going 'hunting' as some sort of test when they could outpace their food at a brisk walk, and they could fit their target in their mouth whole quite easily. But when Ruko explained the rite of passage to him he understood. As they were Naruto's children, the ability to change their appearance was more privy to their control than to the other fox demons. They would change size and catch their food like a normal fox might. Now, he was watching.

Ru and Lena had already gone. They'd both done splendidly. Of course Ru had been a tad more vicious than was necessary but that was Ru. She was the outspoken one of the three and she was just trying to impress her mother, her sisters, and the pet. Sasuke had been startled when Ruko had suggested the idea to him, of the three kits having what could be described as an odd infatuation with him. He waved it off as them being young and curious and that they had nothing better to do with their time than swoon over the family pet. It was definitely strange. But none of them had actively tried to do anything other than compete for his attention and try to impress him. Mostly Sasuke saw it as rather endearing and nothing to be worried about. After all, it really did come down to, he was a mysterious human from a far away 'clan of humans' and he obviously wasn't related to them, and they saw him a lot. It didn't seem to bother any of them that he'd been alive for over a decade before they were even born. He scoffed at that though.

He'd run into Kyuubi earlier that day while he was waiting for the hunt to start. He'd asked about the kits' maturity level and discovered some valuable information. While it was usual that foxes aged seven years for every human year, for fox demons it was reversed. They aged one year for every human seven. But while one might think that would stunt their maturity, it actually didn't. Their maturity level increased by eleven years in only one human year. This explanation combined with Ruko's sly revelation made Sasuke far less bothered by the kits' attentions. It was puppy love, or rather, kit love. They were teenie boppers. He had nothing to be concerned about.

Sasuke watched with a small trace of pride as Yurei caught her assigned deer and resumed her normal size. He leapt down from the tree he was in and went to congratulate her as he had the other two. But it seemed that she avoided his gaze and his words and focused on her mother and sisters. It was strange because she wasn't obviously ignoring him; it was subtle, and practiced. He would have to find a way to mention it later, but for now he followed the four vixens as they gathered up the rest of the dinner in quick order. Now that the formalities were over, in their larger forms they set about snatching up deer in a fashion far easier than the 'hunt'.

Later that night Sasuke laid on the grass watching as Naruto played with his children. He'd made sure to remind him as subtly as possible during dinner about their agreement. The dobe had nodded and looked almost excited about the idea. Now, after dinner, in the warm summer evening they played tag and hide and seek all at once. Sasuke had yet to get his chance to try and pull Yurei aside and get to the bottom of her ignoring him. But as was the case earlier, her talent for ignoring someone was excellent. Also this was her time with her father that Sasuke had made sure to set up in accordance with his plan.

Speaking of his plan, it was working out great. He hadn't figured out the benefit of the kits' crush until only a few moments ago. They would want to spend more time with him which would bring him back into the family picture again. Even if it wasn't so much in a 'family' way as it was a 'hey look who MY mate is' way. Which, probably in the long run might be so great. Admittedly he was working out the kinks in his brain, but he tried to think of this whole 'crush' scenario as a help rather than a problem. So far he was mostly successful. He smirked as Ru struggled tenaciously to reach her father while he held her away with one paw. Lena was cuddling his ankle and Yurei was attacking his tail, when she could reach it of course. It was all very loving in a surprisingly human way. Sasuke was comforted and yet shocked to see the foxes acting in a way that he could so easily relate to human behavior. It must be a fluke, he decided.

After a few hours of good clean fun, Sasuke managed to pull Yurei away from her sisters. This was very hard to do as she was intent on ignoring him, and those three were always together. He was quite proud of himself when he finally got her alone. So proud he nearly forgot why he had done so in the first place.

"Why are you ignoring me?" He started.

Yurei kneaded the grass with her front paws and stared at the ground. Her ears were swiveled around to the back and flatted against her head. Her tail was swishing back and forth agitatedly, curled in as though she wanted to tuck it in between her legs. Sasuke noted that his fox-speak was effortless now and that he sometimes didn't even noticed when he was speaking it. How long would it be, before he forgot how to speak human?

"I overheard mother telling you that we thought of you as a human mate would…I just didn't want to add to that impression because I really don't think of you that way!"

"Really don't, huh? I'm that unappealing?"

"No! It's not that! I mean, well," she still wouldn't meet his eyes; "Ru and Lena feel that way I'm sure. So if you're looking for admirers you do have them. But you're father's mate so I don't see why you're so concerned with this…"

After that she did look up from the grass and meet his eyes, challenging him. Betraying one's mate emotionally was unspeakable in fox culture. Infidelity when it came to sex wasn't thought of because it wasn't unusual for one male to mate with many females. To run off and nuzzle and make eyes at some other fox or vixen, however, was heavily scorned.

Sasuke had forgotten entirely, again, that he was Naruto's mate. He wasn't sure how he had, with how the dobe reminded him so voraciously those few months ago and his vivid memories of earlier years…he stared at the grass. Those were some of the memories that Sasuke had decided early on the other Sasuke could keep to himself. The worst part was they were filled with so much pleasure he often felt himself warm up to them. Then he would consider the humiliation of being taken by any man, let alone the dobe. He would hate them after that.

"I'm not so concerned, really." Sasuke chose to turn this on Yurei, for the sake of saving his own hide, "But I don't understand how a kit of your intelligence would even consider suggesting such things. To think I would betray your father that way…"

Sasuke nearly choked at the wording he had unintentionally used. Thankfully his pained expression was taken by Yurei as insulted. The vixen skulked low to the ground and hurried off towards the cave. He felt marginally bad, in the back of his mind, for making Yurei look bad. Out of the kits he liked her best, since she was so quiet and reserved most of the time. But at the moment he was frozen, considering how much those words meant, something he rarely did. To think I would betray your father that way… he had, no, wait, he hadn't. That was what the dobe thought. Had thought. He was getting better. He understood.

Sasuke shook his head.

"Getting defensive are you?"

Sasuke's feeling of ice melted instantly at having been caught by the dobe of all people. He turned around to face Naruto in his demon form.

"She asked an inappropriate question and I answered it the way that's expected of me." Sasuke quipped.

"Gee, just when I was getting my hopes up that you were really defending us-I mean me. No, it's you living up to people's expectations." Naruto narrowed his eyes and scowled. It was an expression Sasuke was seeing on the dobe more and more often. It didn't look good on him, and Sasuke didn't like it.

"Why do you have to pay such close attention to what I say and take everything so seriously?" Sasuke snapped.

Naruto backed up and then snorted, "So you want me to ignore you? But you're not okay with my daughter ignoring you? What's that supposed to mean?"

Sasuke cringed as he too noted the underlying implications. "It doesn't mean anything! She can ignore me if she wants; I just wanted to know what I did!"

"So you do want me to ignore you?"

"Sorry I didn't answer all of three questions at the same time! What is with you?"

"Nothing's with me." Naruto grumbled, hurriedly shifting forms and loping off towards the cave.

Sasuke growled, kicking up grass and dirt. Why did the dobe have to be so god damned difficult? Their arguments were getting more and more senseless. They would start out of nowhere and because of the stupidest things. It was getting old. It reminded him greatly of their rivalry when Team 7 first started. Back then they weren't close at all, so the arguments had real dislike behind them, and they were just another way to say 'hey, I have a problem with you'. That was exactly it. Naruto still had a problem with him. What could he possibly still be angry at him for? Sasuke thought that he'd explained himself very well that night. He'd explained even more than he planned to or wanted to. But still the dobe wasn't satisfied? He never would be!

Sasuke stalked into the cave and settled down on his side of it. It seemed that until the kits were old enough to leave the cave he would remain on this side. Though, at this point, Sasuke wasn't sure if he wanted to sleep on the dobe's back again. If he was being so difficult. He rolled onto his side and faced the cave wall, sulking. A few minutes later he felt a nudge on his back and glanced behind him. An apologetic looking vixen was gazing at him woefully. He huffed and wheezed, and panted. A mixture of sounds that couldn't clearly translate into human, but let out a sense of acceptance and forgiveness. Yurei yipped at him, smiling before flopping down next to him with her back pressed against his.

That night he slept rather well, with a young vixen pressed against his back. He knew that this behavior was not too rare for litter mates to express and was essentially innocent. What wasn't so harmless was the potential gossip among the lesser clan members that might find out what Sasuke woke up to. In fact, the next morning when Sasuke happened to awake before his fox family, Sasuke did not see a smoke colored vixen lying next to him. A petite human girl with thick grey hair was snuggled against his back, sleeping peacefully. She'd shifted in her sleep. A show of trust expressed only towards a mate.

Sasuke had nudged Yurei that morning and made sure she shifted back before the others found out. Needless to say the young vixen was thoroughly confused and sorry for her actions. She promised not to tell anyone. Though Sasuke truly did not think anything of his 'mate's child, since he was the elder in this situation it would look terrible for him. After that, Sasuke waited impatiently for the one year marker to be up for the kits to move out of the cave.

They did move out of the cave, eventually. Then, Ru and Lena stayed on as huntresses for their mother. But Yurei surprised everyone by leaving the clan entirely. It wasn't uncommon, but it was permanent. She couldn't return to their territory without being seen as intruder. But, she would be allowed to have her own family and live in her own territory outside the clan. That was something that none of the lesser vixens in the clans would be allowed. Even the vixens shared between Kyuubi and Naruto were only mated with when they weren't in heat and couldn't possibly bear litters of their own.

Naruto was hit the hardest by Yurei's leaving the clan. Ever since Sasuke had encouraged he become closer to his children he'd spent an enormous amount of time with his kits. He was far closer to them than to any litters Ruko had ever borne to him. Then, without reason or warning she disappeared, having left the usual scratch marks on the trees on the border where she crossed over. She'd grown into a beautiful vixen, and it surely wouldn't be long before she attracted a mate and started a family. She had the strength to be an alpha-female and Sasuke knew she would be one in whichever territory she eventually settled in. But as Sasuke had once predicted, there was more to her than met the eyes. Even though she wasn't allowed to return, Sasuke saw her again, twenty five years later.

TBC…