Fate's Garden

Part 2.5 - Living With Rabbits

Chapter 1 - Little One Eats Rice

Naruto was patrolling the borders of his territory, thinking about Sasuke. He'd gotten to the point where he'd worked himself up into state of overwhelming guilt and shame. He felt so terrible for ignoring Sasuke and starting fights with him for nothing. He wanted to fix things, he did. He wanted to make Sasuke understand his viewpoint and make everything go back to normal. But as he was thinking about going to find the teme a mass barking and yowling rose up from all over the territory. Cries of anger, of mourning echoed throughout.

There was an intruder, and they had killed a member of the clan. The chain of mourning howls relayed the message over miles. Snarling, Naruto turned and sprinted towards the direction of the ruckus. Whoever had killed a member of his clan would pay. No one messed with the clan of Lords Kyuubi and Kyros. His adrenaline pumping, his heard pounding, he could smell the anger and the sadness in the air. The growls and clacking of fangs worked their way into his ears as he came closer and closer to the scene of the crime.

There was a circle of foxes up ahead and when they heard him coming they turned to see who it was. When they saw it was him they parted and allowed him to enter the ring. In the middle, lying curled up as small as she could be was his daughter, Yurei. There were bite marks all over her, and it was obvious that if let go she wouldn't be alive by the time she made it the border. She was whimpering and yowling, her tail tucked between her legs and pressed firm against her belly. All of the clan was baring their teeth, and barking at her. Hackles were raised and fur was on edge.

Naruto remaining in his fox form was filled with only a few emotions, and none of them forgiving. Anger, for her, his daughter to kill a clan member, how dare her? Sadness that he would now have to kill her, and then lastly, happiness for avenging his clan by killing the intruder who had hurt them. He circled her, swooping in to snap his jaws at her haunches without actually biting her. It was a show to satisfy the clan, and oddly, to satisfy himself. He wanted to scare her and make her last moments her worst.

After several minutes of the scaring he dived in and added his own damage. Biting down and ripping out chunks of flesh and fur, over and over until he reached her throat and crushed it between his jaws. When the intruder lay still he yipped and pranced around the body, announcing that the clan was avenged. Following this he turned and inquired of his brethren who the foul one had killed. There was a mourning cry as the name was uttered.

"Pet."

Sasuke awoke in the living room of the grandfather's house. In fact, he noted he was on the same couch as last he woke there in between lives. He was just as exhausted as last time too, and his back ached terribly. He groaned as he sat up, bending and twisting about in order to hear the desired crick-cracks from his spine. Sighing he slid out from under the blanket and gazed about the empty room. None of the gods or their children was around. Oh well. He was technically apart of the family, it wouldn't be a crime for him to go into the kitchen and make himself some breakfast.

Standing up and stretching he set about dodging pillows and chairs and bunched up carpets that might try and trip him. The living room was messy in a lived in way, as opposed to a 'gee you're a slob' way. He liked it, to an extent. Getting to the entryway to the kitchen was an exercise in patience; he nearly fell over several times. But it was not in vain. He reached the kitchen and realized he had no idea where anything was kept. He snorted. On with the exploration. He peered in drawers, opened cabinets, took one look into the refrigerator and wondered about the utility bills. Then he realized this was a god's house and there were no bills to pay. That must be nice. He thought idly.

It took him upwards of half an hour to find a bowl, a pan, some rice and some vegetables. Then he slouched in front of the wooden stove where he had the pan sat on top while he waited for his food to cook. It was a while before he discovered that he hadn't lit a fire in the stove, nor gathered wood to be lit. That required another slice of time a glutton might cut for himself. Once Sasuke had finally finished cooking and curled himself up into a miscellaneous arm chair in the living room with his rice bowl he noticed he hadn't really been hungry to begin with. But all the same he ate his breakfast because so much effort had been put into it. He sighed.

As he was eating Sasuke was slowly starting to remember what happened that led to his death. Yurei showing up and yelling at him and saying things she had no right to say. He snarled into his food as he focused on inhaling rice and broccoli. Naruto wouldn't even find out what really happened either. If Yurei was allowed to talk, that is. She probably wouldn't be, and would just be killed. Sasuke swallowed a particularly difficult carrot and thought about the dobe. He'd probably go with instincts first and kill the intruder, he'd learned that much over the two and a half decades he'd been in that life. There had been only three intruders over that course of time and they were all killed without hesitation. But this was Yurei, Naruto's daughter, one of the 'chosen three' as they'd been called since Naruto had grown so close to them. He'd realize what he'd done later and be out of his mind with grief. Sasuke would like to think that grief might not outweigh that of the sadness over his mate's death. But, Sasuke snorted derisively, he might not care at all seeing how little they talked. He grumbled.

"Very grumpy I see," the grandfather chuckled.

Sasuke looked up from his breakfast to see the old man waddling across the living room towards him. He was alone and seemed perfectly fine with Sasuke's presence. He was smiling in that knowing, patient way he usually did. Eventually the old man had pulled chair over and sat down next to his guest. Then he sighed in content and said nothing. Sasuke stared at him, waiting for him to say something, anything. But the old man refused him, staring up through the beautiful skylights as if he really had nothing to say.

"Do I have to move on…before the dobe?" Sasuke asked, "I can't just stay here, can I?"

The grandfather's head moved slowly around to face Sasuke, as though what he'd said wasn't all that important.

"I would have you move on," the grandfather started, "if my grandson was not intending on taking so long to leave his life behind."

"So I can stay?" Sasuke clarified.

The old man turned away from him again, peacefully ignoring him in that slightly aggravating way. He seemed so intent on staring at every bit and piece of the room, taking in everything that he saw nearly every day. Were there days here? Sasuke had no idea.

Just as he felt himself relaxing Sasuke was startled by the grandfather's voice answering his question, "You might inquire about living with Yuuta. I believe he has a spare room at the burrow. You might find the children suitable playmates until you move on."

Playmates? How old did this guy think he was? Five? Sasuke scowled and prepared himself to ask where he might find the rabbit god. But the grandfather was already toddling out of the room, calling delightfully over his shoulder, 'I'll be in the garden, little one!'

Sasuke glared at his empty rice bowl and mumbled, "I'm not little…"

TBC…