A Bad Start

Looking at my reflection, I couldn't help but feel down on myself. Yesterday's encounter leaving me with an 'owner', and I just couldn't figure out how to remove the damned thing without quite literally cutting my head off.

I reached up to touch it again, only to shiver at the touch of the slightly reflective surface as my finger slid over it, pressing it slightly into my throat. My gloved hands sliding over the surface without resistance. It was as if it was actual metal that had been melted and molded around my neck.

Shifting into my fox form to slip it off didn't work, the stupid thing shrunk with me, and nearly choked me to death when I shifted back… 'That's right, Shukaku has the magnet release… If he used that, it would form into metal. So not only is it created from Shukaku's chakra, but an advanced elemental release as well. Normal elements and chakra mean nothing to it… and I still don't know what Shukaku's body seal does!'

Honestly, I still couldn't get over the fact that my adoptive mother thought it was cute and funny that I had decided to wear a collar… I didn't want to ruin her amusement by correcting her, not with something she couldn't help to fix anyways.

Sighing, I prepared for the day, a day where everything will start. I needed to be ready for this. I had worked hard to get this far, and would prove that I would be able to do what's needed in the future, at least to myself.

After getting dressed, I proceeded to meet up with my new teammates. We headed for the exam center, outright ignoring the eternal chuunin, we were early. We turned in our forms, and entered the room. We sat down and started chatting quietly as the room filled up.

I felt a slight squeeze on my collar, causing a slight whimper from me. Looking up, I saw what could be classified as my 'mate' if only because of force. He gave a satisfied smirk, and continued on his way. His female sibling gave me a slightly sympathetic look, while the other outright ignored my presence.

I just looked down, tail and ears following. It was depressing. And I still couldn't help but wonder why Shukaku would help him with this, or rather tell him to do it... Was it because he hates Kurama? or because he didn't like me masquerading around as his possible Daughter? or just plain amusement?

I came out of my thoughts when I heard the front getting loud, a squeal from a dumb blonde, and quite a bit of a commotion. It rather took a lot, but I did eventually look up. Then I came across something that horrified me… 'SASUKE!'

'That's wrong! This is wrong! Wh-How?! Why is he here?! nonononono no! He can't be here! His teammate is who…? Oh god… Kabuto, you devious bastard! How the hell did you and Orochi-Teme set this up?! How did you even manage to get him in as a Genin?! How are you his freaking teammate?!'

For the second time in twenty-four hours, my world was turned upside down. I was freaking out so much, I hadn't noticed my teammates worried looks until the proctor entered. When I finally did, I reassured them I was fine.

Eventually we got settled in, and the test started - a test exactly as I remembered. 'At least some things hadn't changed for the worst.' I continued thinking up what I could do the entire time, until it was nearly time for the final answer. I quickly scribbled a note and left it face down. The proctor would check each paper a few minutes after we leave. I hoped he would be quick enough to get notice to Anko while she was handing out scrolls.

The entire time I just couldn't help but think, over and over, 'I screwed up' in my head. 'It was a terrible idea to push him out of a team. Of course the council would somehow get him up in the ranks. They want to show the Uchiha off! This is going to ruin everything!'

Finally, he said we passed. I had actually missed the tenth question entirely. Something I hope he noticed, actually. It might help him check my note - "A Kusa-Nin and Kabuto of the leaf smell like snakes. Unless Anko is close friends with both a genin and a foreign nin, they might have something to do with Orochimaru."

Though, I couldn't help but worry. I had actually created several barriers for use against the snake, but I couldn't do anything with them if I wasn't in range of Sasuke. And there was no way I would be in time to find them with both my team following me, Kabuto on the squad, and us being on separate teams from the start putting us at completely different entrance zones of the forest. But I could try.

Anko eventually led us off - apparently I was spacing out in my troubled thoughts too much, and zoning out while fretting. We arrived, signed our wavers, and received our scrolls. Orochi still found a way to lick Anko… but I was still spacing out until it actually happened, sending a shiver down my form in realization he was actually here.

Luckily I was being ignored, probably thought I was an interesting specimen for my external features, and could pick me off another time. I was slightly grateful for his ignorance. My nerves were getting to me though. There was no way that Orochimaru wouldn't go straight for Sasuke with Kabuto sitting on his team. 'They had to have actually set this up beforehand.'

We were moved to our own separate gates. We had an earth scroll, something my two teammates let me hold on to since I had storage seals in the palms of my hands - literally. They kept giving me odd looks, but otherwise ignored my obvious change in behaviour. Probably thinking I was nervous, which I was, but not for the reasons they're thinking.

The buzzer sounded and we rushed forwards. Then I did something they hadn't seen before. I created a hundred Kage-Bunshin, a hundred Grass-Gensei-Bunshin, a hundred Lightning-Genso-Bunshin in the form of one-tailed foxes for my current singular tail, then I proceeded to slice my hand and form twenty-five Bakuha-Chi-Bunshin. I was going all out. They immediately took off, separating to find the Bastard, and remove him from the equation.

"Kami…" I heard from behind me, but ignored it as we moved towards the tower. Being closer to the center would mean faster response time to find Sasuke. It doesn't help that he's hiding his chakra signature so well - where did he even learn that - among the fact that half the forest has creatures as strong as genin and chuunin in chakra levels. They had obviously filled this place with far more dangerous animals since my last being here.

If I could kill Orochi, I could remove Kabuto too. Something that would undeniably help in the end. But if I can't, I will need Sasuke's match against Gaara to time the start of the invasion. It would be better to have a set time we already know. And I'm not stupid enough to think they don't rig these matchups somehow. Even the preliminaries…

We got near the tower when I finally sensed them. It had only been fifteen minutes since we entered, and a ten kilometer trip through dangerous terrain and creatures. Sasuke was all the way on the other side of the forest, and still there. But he's fighting…! 'Damn damn damn! With Kabuto there, he really did start right off! Kabuto could signal him their location, and easily pretend to be unable to help for some reason!'

I created a Kage-Bunshin to relay my orders, and their location, then a wood clone to take my place on the team so I could run off to help. But it was too late. Even going full speed through this forest, it would take five or ten minutes to navigate without issues. My bunshin wouldn't make it either...

I arrived on the outskirts of the battle, my copies not too far behind, and I could already feel the bastard moving away. There was also a team of ANBU moving in with Anko in the lead. There was nothing I could do. Sasuke would survive, and continue on. Kabuto would make sure of that.

Sighing to myself, I relayed my orders around again. My clones were to fish out teams and remove them, unless they're from Konoha. Of course Suna was exempt too, since they could crush my clones effortlessly.

I moved back to my team, at a slower pace, of course. They never even noticed my disappearance or kawarimi. Camping out near the tower, waiting for my clones to get a scroll. Somehow they had caught Bakashi's laziness…

Shaking my head, I moved to wait with them. If you can't beat them, join them! What's done is done. I screwed up. Terribly… But I couldn't outright remove the curse. There would be questions, and I doubt Sasuke would even trust me, let alone want it gone. I didn't even know the logic or have anything of its creation to go on. And the compression is too dense and unstable to unravel without issues on Sasuke's body - Orochi's bad sealing the cause. It showed in the survival rate of the seal...

Eventually a clone popped out of the treeline carrying a Heaven Scroll. It handed it to me even as I heard a small 'pop' in the distance with a rush of memories of an Ame team raining needles down on a clone. 'They probably didn't like the surprise inside… Wonder if my bunshin was close enough for actual damage though.'

I left my clones to gather more scrolls while my team and I proceeded into the tower, not even an hour into the exam. I could feel a couple of my Genso-Bunshin taken out by wild animals, giving them the shock of their lives, while a couple managed to surround a team and proceeded to paralyze them by touch.

It was truly unique watching myself from a distance, a fox flowing straight into the check of a genin and electric shocks visibly shooting out of his body into the ground below. My neary Gensei-Bunshin stealing their scroll swiftly, and proceeding to a hidden location to await orders. Whether it decides to give it to a Konoha team or discard it still remains. I have no doubt one of our teams will need a scroll with what I'm doing.

My own team proceeded to unravel the scrolls and summon Iruka. Why him? I don't know, I wasn't actually that close with the man. His surprise at our quick summon of him changed into some shpiel I ignored in favor of operating my clone army.

Eventually we were led to our own bedrooms, shown where the training ground was, and given food in the cafeteria, where I stayed for seconds, and thirds or random things. They didn't have ramen…

I was eating roast as dinner when a sight I hadn't wanted to see came in. My ears twitching back and forth at the sound of footsteps, I turned to look at the intruder.

"eep!" I literally couldn't hold that in. A girlish response taking over, something I abhorred. Immediately I started shaking a little. My body's automatic response taking over, forcing that trembling through my body, an automatic droop of my ears towards the sides, and a submissive drop of my tail behind the bench.

My quiet voice was still loud enough to garner the attention of the one person I was actually scared of - Gaara - the quiet area was perfect for echoes. The man looked to his side to spot me. He was probably catching on to my animalistic reactions since they keep happening.

Rejecting my own reactions, and instincts, I turned to face him, looking directly into his eyes, defiance reflected from mine. My ears and tail straying to a fighting position. And I growled. Oh, I growled loudly. An animalistic threat to his very being.

The only problem was that I was his. He gave a feral smirk, almost matching in with his current insanity. He raised his hand, plainly in view as if to show off, and lightly squeezed his fingers together. Immediately I felt tightening around my neck - a slight choking pinch.

"ughnnn!" My eyes widened in realization, fur standing on end. He is in control..! It was hard NOT to understand when someone so blatantly shows they have power over your body. They of course would want to show it off too. And I had no doubt he was enjoying it - having near absolute submission from a being far stronger than himself.

I started whimpering again, a tear coming out of my eyes. I shut them quickly, and looked down. My fox features following in tandem. My body had just submitted to him. 'No, I just submitted myself to him...'

I felt the collar lessen, and looked up to his triumphant smile. My voice couldn't help but whine again at the sight. 'He owns me… and he's right. He said it before, and I can't deny it anymore. And unless I can figure out how to get this damn collar off, or grind up the courage to behead myself, it won't change.'

There was another tear rolling down the other side of my face. I just leaned over onto the table, placing my head down, and using my arms as pillows, silently crying into my arms at my defeat. I literally couldn't act against him. Every time I would try, he would just have to squeeze his hand to dominate my will.

I just sat there crying into my arms, silently letting my frustrations out. There was another kink in my plans. I would be unable to place a seal on him without at least a moment of preparation. But he could force me down in an instant. All of my plans were going down the drain today!

Hearing him walk off finally, I looked up. My uneaten food still in front of me. But I didn't want it. Sighing, I wiped my eyes, and headed off to bed. It was going to be a long wait until the preliminaries…

The next few days were hard on me. Or at least, they were troubling. I didn't want to stay inside my room the entire time, so I was constantly walking around or going through kata's in the training grounds. That left me in sight of others though.

Gaara seemed to be able to locate me at will. Every few hours I would accidentally run into him, or he would walk by. Whenever this happened, if I showed any defiance, any indication against him, even just my dislike, he would put a squeeze around my neck. The tightening quickly put me into soft whines, making me look down, followed my ears and tail. Only once I showed him my submissive form would the pain go away.

On the third day, I went against all instincts and continued glaring at him despite the tightness. That was a mistake. Immediately I yelped - his tightening of my collar until I couldn't breathe as the cause, the pain practically unbearable, and I collapsed almost instantly. My breath returned in gasps once he lessened it. I was breathing hard from that.

My ears almost didn't register him walking up to me, "It would be unwise to resist me again."

"Wh-Why are you doing this?" From my side, legs sprawled out straight behind me, I pushed my torso off the ground, and I looked up at him with a wetness forming in my eyes. His emotional displeasure was evident.

"Mother said you would be the perfect mate. She said you're strong. That I should make you mine. I have also found that I enjoy your reactions, especially from your… exotic traits."

My eyes widened slightly at his admission. 'He… likes my ears? This is just getting weirder!'

"Your defiance is slightly refreshing, but I dislike glares. Mother says I should enjoy my 'pet', so I shall. I will not tolerate disobedience."

Hearing that wasn't something I expected. He was still supposed to be this half-crazed psychopath hell-bent on blood. Was my mere form enough to shift him away? 'But… to be called his 'pet' was just… '

My face was reddening in embarrassment, my tail curled up through my legs in shame and submission, and my body shivered with a slightly warm feeling coming from my belly. I couldn't help but ask why I was acting this way. 'But I don't want this!' I closed my eyes tightly, and nodded.

With his piece said, he turned and walked away, leaving me there on the ground, my form shivering from the encounters, for multiple reasons I couldn't elaborate upon myself. I sat myself up, and pulled my tail to my chest through my legs. 'My cute furry tail, why do you act as you do? I love you. You're warm, cozy, cover me up at night, and help me balance in quick runs. But why do you betray me so?'

Despite my situation, I couldn't help but try to cheer myself up with a sad joke. It worked, if only slightly. I dug my face deep into my tail, trying to get the past few minutes out of my mind in its fuzzy embrace.

Eventually I sighed, and let it go. Getting up, feeling my tail tickle my upper thighs as if flowed through my legs, I moved on. 'I can't really do anything about it right now… I'm just glad he's not...' My face blushed deep red with that trailing thought. 'No no no! That won't happen….right?'

That day, I went to bed early, curled up in the cozy embrace of my six tails curling around my form.

The rest of our free time was spent similarly. However, I showed no defiance against my 'owner'. The less interaction we had, the better. His scent was always close by, so he was almost always on my mind, keeping my thoughts away from possible destructions - I hadn't even thought about it hardly at all. He was completely distracting!

Every time he came near, I would bow my head, looking down, with my fox ears drooping to the sides in submission, and my tail flowing between and around a leg. And I couldn't help but blush at my own reaction! I hoped that was why I was blushing… I honestly didn't know why my tail wrapped around my leg though, it just confused me.

Eventually the day of the preliminaries came. We were gathered up at the tournament arena. We were told about it all, and the rules explained - no killing, forfeiting, etc. The one thing I finally remembered was Hayate! Yuugao had been talking about him affectionately for years, but he was scheduled to die! I would have to save him or she would become a walking cloud of depression - I shivered at the thought of not being able to go near my personal sunshine.

We were lead up the stairs to watch, and I sat down thinking of what to do. I glanced over at Gaara and back away… 'Gah! This stupid situation is keeping me distracted from things I need to do!'

I Ignored the matches, until I heard my wasn't as if I didn't know all of their abilities already. Looking up I was astonished to see I was facing Neji of all people. 'Now?!' Looking over to him, I saw a game-winning smirk plastered on his face.

We walked down to the arena to stand across from one another. His pupil-less lavender eyes staring straight into my own. It was as if they could see through me - 'Which, I supposed they could...'

We stood there for a moment, staring each other down until Hayate signaled us to fight.

I took a my personalized Uzu stance, letting my sleeves fall pasts my hands. No matter what, I didn't actually want to kill another leaf genin. At least not one that isn't a traitor… Kabuto had already left, and Orochi wasn't here this day. I felt sorry for Sasuke having to fight in his state, but I couldn't do anything now.

"You should forfeit."

I blanked at him. 'Really?! He's actually going into this during the fight?'

Ignoring him, I summoned a few senbon in each hand, then without hand seals I produced twenty Kage-Bunshin around him. His eyes widened in realization of his own situation.

Immediately he activated his byakugan, only to see almost fifty senbon speeding through the air towards him, sent through the air from spinning clones, attempting to use the motions to both distract and hide the weapons, as well as creating a time gap between each one.

He immediately spun around, creating a barrier of chakra, deflecting the entire attack. Frowning, I pushed aside my thoughts of using something possibly deadly. His barrier was strong though…

"I told you that you should fo-"

I cut him off, "Oh save the fate crap for someone who will listen. Nobody else believes that pathetic spiel you talk about. And you, yourself, actually know it's not true."

His face turned furious, but before he could open my mouth I continued.

"You could run away from Konoha, exile yourself from your clan, you could even kill yourself. There are many ways out of your situation, even if you can't remove that slave seal."

His eyes widened at that. His emotional turmoil increasing.

"Shut up! What could a dead-last failure know about my situation?!"

I blinked at that. Then giggled. That turned into full-blown laughter. I was actually rolling on the ground. My clones had the good sense to be ready to protect me though. Neji, however, was utterly confused even if he was outright furious.

Eventually I calmed myself down to hear the end of his sentence.

"-laughing at my situation."

I got up off the ground, sides hurting from laughter. I just shook my head at his ill-begotten knowledge. He knew nothing, yet assumes so much! Sometimes it was sad that nobody my age knew about the glares, the hatred, the putrid aura of the town as I walk through it. The feelings literally make me sick. I can ignore it, since it's not extreme levels, but so much of it hurts.

"If only you knew how much I understood your situation. It's rather unfortunate you don't know mine." He looked even more confused at my words now…

I looked towards the old man watching us, "Jiji, permission to disclose an S-Class secret?"

The Hokage's raised an eyebrow for a moment. Then lowered it knowing I was going to tell about the sealing, rather than myself. But he still went into thought. "...Denied. You may in private with trusted individuals, however not in a public setting such as this."

All the young people in the audience were confused by my talks. The elders, however, understood from the start. They didn't know my true being though.

I lowered my head in understanding, however my eyes were slightly saddened. "There's not much point if it's not now though…"

I shook it off. "Sorry, Hyuuga-san, we have a match to finish. And without the revelation of my situation, you couldn't understand anyways."

It was then that he took a good look at me. Directly at my being. So far he was only keeping himself ready for defense, and only listening to my words apparently.

"Huh? You're clothes… it's like they're alive! They have their own chakra network! You…. Y-Your Chakra… What's going on?" His eyes widening as he took note of my coils. "W-What are you?! Your ears are real. Your tail, it's like there's six sets of coils running through it, yet there's only one tail. How..."

I gave a sad smile at that, with a voice to match. "They're a part of me? I guess I can say this much. Maybe not my situation, but my seal is worse than even yours. My life worse..."

Once again, he looked shocked at my words.

My face turned serious, "enough about us though. I will give you two pieces of advice. The first is the academy doesn't give an accurate perception of strength or ability. The second, never underestimate your opponent!"

My clones ran to him, attempting to harm him. They were summoned with my seal on, so they would only be about his speed. While they were attacking, I released my resistance seal, and took a ready stance.

The clones were quickly removed from around him, but they put two or three hits in of my dense sleeves slapping his body, along with the fact that he was blocking them rather than evading, and bruises appear all along his arms. He was panting slightly at the exertion. Obviously my clones were slower than he was, but their combined effort managed damage.

Giving a small smirk, I went into motion. Immediately I was in his guard, something he obviously didn't expect. Directly in front of him, crouched down, I swung my arm towards his face, forcing him to back away, even as he hit two tenketsu as he moved back, however I flowed into the motion, ignoring the pain, bringing my other arm down, and my lower body up, extending myself as I rotated, allowing my dense shoe to come into contact with his shoulder before he could move far enough out of the way.

He twisted away with my attack, then moved back in, attempting to use the famed Jyuken to bind more points, but I just moved to the side, forcing one hand to miss, while the other hit, even as I was another whirlpool of motion, bringing my body into a diagonal rotation rather than flat, I forced his arms away at the same time as moving my attack in.

Just in time, he moved his head out of the way of my sleeve, instead hitting his shoulder. I kept rotating however, and brought my leg down close, inside his stance, other sleeve headed for his face, while my first hand headed downwards. He ducked this, even as I went down on my sleeved hands.

My legs went around, up and down towards his lowered head, even as he tried to move out of the way again. However, my speed was greater than his now. There wasn't a way to avoid this. So my compressed-tree boot came down hard on the back of his head.

He went down. Hard. A small crater formed where his body flattened down into the ground, the force of my kick planting him.

I followed through, after landing on the ground, immediately doing another rotation, letting centrifugal force increase my speed, force, and overall damage. I fell into the ground, slamming my other dense heeled boot into his back, causing the crater to deepen, and a yell from his mouth.

I flipped backwards out of the crater, landing gracefully on my feet. Sleeves billowing until stopping from my motions.

"Fate has a strange way of working out sometimes, Neji-San. If anyone has a right to talk about that, it would be me. For more reasons than even the Hokage knows. Talk to your uncle, maybe he could shed some light upon the truth."

I walked away from him, a completely silent crowd gawking at me. The Hokage giving a sad, yet curious look in his eyes. The instructors, asides from those that actually know me, had wide-eyes. Walking past them, I came to pass the only one I actually wanted to avoid.

Immediately I felt the collar around my neck constricting. My automatic submission as a response gave him obvious glee when I looked towards him from his inconspicuous attack. I gave a slight whimper - unheard by everyone but him - as I continued walking. My drooped tail and ears the only indication something happened.

I walked to the end of the crowd, and sat against the wall, hugging myself. 'He's not going to stop. Not even in public! I don't even know what he might do after this is over!' My eyes widened at that last realization. 'He could drag me to Suna if he wanted!'

I shivered at that last thought. Suna was a desert. The heat would be painful. A place I really didn't want to be going to. I went into my depressing thoughts until we were called to draw lots. Following instructions, I picked mine and waited until we were situated on the board. The displayed matchups were scary.

Lee vs Hinata

Sasuke vs Kankuro

Shikamaru vs Dosu

Naruna vs Temari - vs Gaara

"I-I have to face both Temari AND Gaara? One after the other-ttebane?!" My eyes widened in horror. I was to face the sister, then the beast. I was to be the indicator of the start of the invasion!

I looked over toward the blood spot that was left behind by Gaara's opponent. The kusa-nin didn't stand a chance. He wouldn't kill me, but the psychopath was still vicious!

"I've gotta find Jiraiya…" I muttered as I we left running out of the tower through the forest and towards Konoha.