Yay! Chapter two is complete! Please let me know if I get OOC with any of the characters because that's exactly what I am trying to avoid! I still haven't decided on pairings yet, and I know that sometimes people get annoyed with OC pairings so I might just leave her out of the pairings unless you guys could forgive me. She's my baby so treat her kindly, please!
The girls hair was so long that it covered her body when she sat down, but after she had gotten up a few moments before it came to light that the girl who was so desperately clinging to Naruto was, in fact... Naked. Not that it was something the genin hadn't seen before, Naruto was always flaunting his 'Sexy Jutsu', but this would be many of the young boys first encounter with a fully developed naked and in person woman. She buried her face in Naruto's orange jacked, klinging to him as a babe would cling to it's mother. And what she had said earlier... A blush rose to the blonde's face and he was torn between holding her for her own support or pushing her away for the sake of decency. His pupils dialated, and the panic started to set in when he acknowledged the descending looks he was getting from his teammates.
"H-heh. Um, look here, I'm not your mother, you see..." He held her at arm's length and looked pleadingly at his friends.
"A little help here?" Shino approached, and took off his long coat, revealing a tight, black undershirt.
"Eek! What are you doing!?" Sakura squealed, knowing well what he was doing but acting surprised because of who he was. Shino was so quite that she had almost forgotten that he was there. Times like these made her thankful that she lived in a ninja village. All the boys trained, and their bodies were nice. Shin raised an eyebrow at her and gently draped his coat on the strange girl's shoulders, covering her features from the view of the group of embarased boys. Sasuke turned slightly pink, and looked away but it was less noticeable on him than the others. Kiba had been openly staring, jaw dropped clear to the floor. The girl's slender fingers released Naruto's shirt and moved to clutch the coat. She again attempted to get up, but fell down with the effort. She was unable to stand.
Kiba noticed his opening to make a good impression on the girl, and moved closer to help her stand, but Akamaru growled loudly and barked at her.
"H-hey! Stop that, Akamaru!" He apologized profusely, glaring at the dog for ruining his first impression. Her eyes snapped to look at the pup, her eerie glare freezing even those who did not instigate it. Whimpering came from Kiba's coat, and they noticed that the dog had hidden.
/The dog is the mortal enemy of the fox./
When she averted her eyes and again attempted to stand, Shino offered his hand. She gracefully placed her hand in his and rose to her feet, wobbling a bit before regaining her balance. By this time, Naruto had gotten up and was looking embarrassed, a rarity for him since he usually reveled in the strange looks he got. This was different, he could feel something inside him when he heard the song she had been singing. He knew that song from a long time ago, a very long time ago. Shivers went up his spine as he remembered hearing that voice in his head, Kyuubi's voice. It was so harsh when it taunted him, tried to convince him how he needed her. Fox spirits were dominantly female, so he knew it was a woman even though her voice sounded so cruel as to kill without a second thought. He could feel her voice, not yet hear, but feel, as it bubbled to the surface seeking a way through the seal. His stomach burned and then the feeling was gone.
She took another step, almost falling for the weakness of her own legs. She flinched, all the genin could tell that each step brought her pain. How long? How long had she been there? She had fallen asleep in a borrowed den, awaiting the day to arrive and she would have to return to the astral plane once again to be with her mother. She enjoyed her visits to the physical plane, everything was so... So beautiful. They smelled like nothing in her home, her home that was made merely by the will of so many spirits. No, this was all real. She had fallen to sleep thinking this, only to wake up surrounded by stone and alone. Utterly alone. A time passed and she could hear her mother's angry rage, so close it was to her. She called out, but it was in vain. She could not be heard, the seal put on the room was too strong. It had been strong enough to hold out all spirit things, but these human children didn't even notice it was there... It was broken now, as the door had been broken, but she could still remember the feeling of it. The boy who had placed it there, yes he had come back only once. It was then that she had found out how she got there. He came back to tell her that he would never let her out for what she had done to his village. She did not know what he had been talking about, but she remembered his face. She had gone over it every day for the past twelve years, just to make sure that she never forgot it, never forgot him. When the time came, she would have her revenge on him, but now... Now she needed to feed.
Kitsune can exist on the physical plane in several ways. The first is to take on a human host, to enter their body. It is the best when one is staying in the physical plane for a long period of time. Usually, the kitsune will enter the fetus of a pregnant woman, pushing the undeveloped soul out to make room for it's own. If the human is willing, the kitsune can make a deal with an older human and take over their body in return for a favor or power.
The second way is to inhabit a shrine and feed off of the prayers and offerings given to them by it's people. The kitsune then in turn will protect that area from bad spirits and give the people good luck, and repay them by doing favors.
Lastly, kitsune can choose to simply manifest themselves in their own form. This is the most dangerous to the environment, as it takes a vast amount of energy to do this. They can gain energy in many ways, or limit their powers so that they are less damaging. They become less damaging by sealing some of their tails away in a hoshi no tama or star ball. This seals away their power, making it easier for them to manifest. Another way is to feed off of their environment, or living things. Each kitsune has an element based on the thirteen Chinese elements. Usually, they feast off of their respective element and gain power by doing so. For example, a wind kitsune would feed off the air making it stale and unmoving, while a forest kitsune would make plants around their territory sickly or die. Kitsune can feed on other elements than their own, but will only do so in times of great need, for it is more difficult for them to feed outside of their element. The last way is for them to feed off of human souls. This experience is very pleasurable for the human and kitsune alike, but the human will grow sickly if the kitsune feeds too often and may eventually grow lifeless. Kitsune often find human counterparts in which to feed off of, and since feeding leaves the human sore and in pain they will tell the human how to alleviate it with certain herbs or medical solutions. Kitsune can forcefully feed off of humans, but it is more beneficial for both of them if their life force is given willingly. If done right, the human will gain from it as well as the kitsune since they make their own life force and it comes back quickly. Kitsune follow the spirit world's strict rule of give and receive equally, so they always give back to their patrons. However, they also have a moral code of their own. If a good deed is done, the kitsune will be very grateful and will repay the deed tenfold. But if a harm is done to them, they can hold horrible grudges lasting many eons and will even wait until the person is reborn in order to wreak their revenge.
"She doesn't look so good..." Sakura was feeling a little left out, since the guys had a naked woman to stare at and was feeling the need for attention again. They all looked at her cynically for her obvious comment.
"W-What should we do with her? She can't come with us to the city, we'd get caught for coming here without permission..." Naruto scratched his nose. The others thought of all the reasons that the girl couldn't come home with them until they were all staring at Sasuke. He raised a thin eyebrow.
"...?" The others all agreed that she would have to go to Sasuke's. He lived in the abandoned Uchiha district, no one ever went there. He had his own qualms with the idea, but eventually gave way when the girl collapsed onto the floor. There was a series of shouting, everyone blaming everyone else for taking so long that she fainted. It was agreed that she would stay there for the time being, but not alone with Sasuke, Naruto had argued, in case he did something weird. None of them said aloud that he was more likely to do something weird because they thought that it would be better with more of them anyway, and she had, after all called him mother. The others smirked at Naruto calling him 'okasan' on the occasion. Shino ended up carrying her, but had the help of Sasuke since she was very tall. She weighed almost nothing, Sakura noted with a hint of envy, but it was awkward for only one of them to carry her piggy back since she was embarassingly naked under Shino's coat and that position revealed a bit more than necessary.
After all the excitement of the day, they had nearly forgotten all about the other half of their squad, who arrived at the arranged meeting point tired and unsatisfied with the whole adventure.
"Man, where are those idiots, anyway? They're late!" Tenten was getting rather annoyed with them. They were supposed to meet them an hour ago and the kunai that she regularly kept strapped to the inside of her leg was starting to chafe. Shikamaru sighed. He was laying on his back, staring up at the sky with the usual expression on his face.
"They probably got themselves into some kind of mess. How troublesome." Ino was being more of a bitch than usual, seeing as Sakura had gotten to go off with Sasuke. What could possibly keep Sasuke away from her for this long? She sighed. Chouji was, of course, eating chips and Lee was making himself busy doing chin ups on a nearby tree.
"If I can't do 500 chin ups, then I have to do 1000 push ups with Neji sitting on my back." Speaking of which, he was using his Byakugan to scout the area for the missing ninjas.
"They're heading our way, but they seem to have someone with them." The others, with the exception of Shikamaru who didn't really care, gathered around Naji for information.
"Who is it? What do they look like?" Neji concentrated on the image, and responded to Tenten's prodding.
"It's... A girl. She's very thin, she looks ill. Shino and Sasuke are supporting her, and she appears to be unconscious. Ino's face was struck with a jealous expression when he mentioned the gender of the newcomer.
"Well, what's she look like? Is she... Pretty? How long is her hair? What's she dressed in?" Neji ignored the rest of the nonsense that flooded out of her mouth, and gave a short description of her.
"She's fairly tall, I'd say around five foot seven, and her hair trails on the ground. How strange. She is..." He smirked at Ino, knowing that this would make her angry.
"Quite attractive." Tenten guessed this meant that she was very attractive coming from Neji, and as he had expected, Ino was furious. This lead her on a rant including many phrased such as 'how dare she' and 'my Sasuke', but everyone had grown accustomed to ignoring her. Several excruciatingly long minutes later, the group reached the clearing.
"Heh, sorry we're late!" Naruto scratched the back of his head, and led the others to the group.
"You'd never guess what happened..." After hearing the tale, and picking out the parts they knew Naruto had made up to make himself feel important, they set the girl down to see if she would wake up. Almost instantly, the plants on the ground started to die, going from green, to yellow, to brown as quickly as if a fire had spread among them. The genin's eyes widened and even the most uninterested of them relented to the circle around her. They watched in awe as her eyelids fluttered open, her long lashes finally parting top from bottom. A circle of dead plants surrounded her and even as they were dieing, a little bit of color came back into her cheeks. She breathed in long, shallow breaths, each one labored but gracefully so. The others stepped back a moment as the air around her became tasteless, and the rock Chouji had been sitting on crumbled beneath him. And in the center of all the death, ironically, sat a very beautiful young girl. She sat up, now with easy breathing, and looked around at her surroundings. She frowned as she picked up a dead honey clover and it turned to dust at her touch. The others looked at her with wariness, unsure if she was helpless or dangerous. Then she turned to them, and did something that cast away any doubts they may have had. She smiled.
"Ohayou... Or is is Konban wa..." She corrected herself as she looked up at the darkened sky. She again attempted to stand up, Shino, Kiba, and Naruto gathered closer ready to catch her if she fell again. When she stumbled they all got ready, only to have her catch herself. She stood uneasily on her legs, but with confidence. Then she bowed to them in greeting, as if to make up for the trouble she was giving them.
"Gomen nasai..." Her voice was quiet, but smooth. It wasn't overly high like a lot of girls their age, and not seductively low like some older women. It wasn't rough or raspy, not was it oily and overly flattering. It was just what it was. It was a likable voice. They observed her, and waited to see if she would say something else, when Naruto broke the silence.
"Oi! I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Who're you?" Sakura hit him over the head for being so direct, but halted when the girl again spoke.
"My name... I am Seien."
Yes, next I'll try to add in a bit more humor instead of drama, but hey, this fic blows hot and cold so... I hope you enjoyed the story so far, I'll try to update often. Now to do the essay I keep putting off, so bye bye!