The Kinkou of the Yajuu

I don't own Naruto and Animorphs!

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"Talking"

'Thoughts'

-telepathy-

XD Scene change

/ Different point of view

):P Flash back

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Chapter 10

He watches as Cassie makes it about two feet before falling back, though she does slash a mark on the bark to mark her place on the trunk. So far, Cassie seems to know how to this form of tree climbing faster then the other Animorphs. The others have gotten about a foot up the trunks of their respective trees; Ax and Tobias have de-morphed since it's been close to two hours since they've started.

He'll admit, they were doing better then when he started but then, they didn't have as much chakra as he does, or for that matter, then average ninja. He blinks as he watches Marco run up for a total of three feet before Marco falls down, he studies Marco closely and chuckles as he sees what Marco's done. "How did you do that?" Rachel asks, the others turn to Marco and the teen just grins.

"He morphed slightly, not enough to be seen, but enough to give him a slight boost in energy." He explains, Marco looks slightly surprise that he noticed it. Thoughtful looks appear on the others faces and it's not long before the others follow Marco's example.

They progress faster after that, slowly they began to reverse the changes to see what effects different levels have. In the end, it seems that it works better if they're in-between morphs then in a full morph or totally human, but he figures that the ground work was laid and he called them in for lunch. Tobias and Ax head off to eat in their true bodies, leaving them to walk back to the base; he can tell that the others were giddy over what they've been doing for three hours straight.

"So once we get this down, we can try water walking?" Rachel asks and he glances at them; he presses his lips together as he thinks about it. "Like I said at the beginning, it's highly unusual to begin at this age, but I'll be watching you guys carefully. If you guys hadn't had this ability to morph, I'd say you'd never get that far since you need a steady amount of chakra to keep yourself on the water's surface. Morphing is the wild card in this and hopefully, we'll find that answer together." He admits honestly. They seem satisfied with that answer.

He feels something rumble in his gut and he sighs. –Ok, what's your two cents?- He asks the fox demon as he lowers his mental defences between him and the demon. –I want you to ask that blue deer to explain morphing.- The fox says and he blinks in surprise. –Why?- He asks and the Kyuubi answers, -If I know more about it, I can tell you if all this chakra training will pay off.- He sighs and replies, -I'll think about it.- He then resets his defensives.

'Ok, what's he up to?' He wonders as he enters into the mess hall. He asks some serious thinking to do.

XD

He sighs, his brain hurt but he had listened throughout Ax's explanation, something that seemed to have surprised Ax, he felt that Ax was better of not knowing the truth to why he asked about Morphing technology, he only hopes that the fox got what he needed and will fulfill his end of the deal by telling him if he's not giving them false hope about them begin able to walk on water. –I hope you're satisfied with that lecture.- He says to the fox, he's currently sitting outside, enjoying the fresh air and relative peace and quiet.

-I am and I'll have an answer for you by tonight.- The fox replies before the fox withdraws from the back of his mind. He resets his defences; its times like these that make him wonder just how smart the fox was. 'Or is he smart because he's trapped in an intelligent being that's self-aware?'

He wonders but discards that idea; he just decides that the fox is still trying to understand this morphing ability to see if it'll help him escape. True he had heard about the crocodile that Rachel 'burped' up and it makes him wonder if the Kyuubi wouldn't try something similar since he wouldn't put it pass the fox to tailor his coyote morph into something mimicking the fox's true body.

XD

He's relaxing in his living room; he's come back to change out fits as well as to get some groceries for the base. The bags were currently in his kitchen and he's going to be heading out in about an hour before he's going to seal them inside of a scroll so that they're easier to carry back to the base. He's channel surfing, trying to take his mind off of waiting for the fox's answer.

He's lying on the couch; he places the remote on the floor as he has it on a cartoon station. He begins to doze off, until his body becomes numb. He becomes alert but he finds that he's unable to coordinate his body. He feels a large amount of the fox's chakra begin to pool around his chest area.

Within about five minutes, the chakra exits out of his body and feeling returns to his body. He pulls off his shirt as best as he can and finds what appears to be some kind of baby animal. He slowly moves his upper body up so he can fully take his shirt without waking whatever was on his chest. Once he's done, he studies the little beast that's snoozing on top of him.

He shouts, -What the hell! What did you do?- The Kyuubi replies, -If I'm going to die with you, I might as well have an heir. Now shut the hell up, brat! I'm tired and I'm going to sleep. You better keep my kid safe…- He feels the fox retreat from his mind and he groans as he wonders what to do with the beast that's on him.

He takes time to examine the little beast that the Kyuubi created to be his heir. He's surprise to find quite a bit of feline characteristics in the little creature, he notices how bushy the long tail is. The base of the fluffy coat was a dark grey with what appears to be golden rosette spots; he studies the face and notices the black lines on the cheeks. 'He combined puma DNA with the coyote's DNA. I wonder what other kinds of DNA the fox added.' He wonders to himself.

The little beast attempts to curl up but almost falls off of his chest. The cub makes a startled noise as he catches the beast. He blinks as he finds himself looking into deep sapphire colour eyes that started from being startle to full alert. He keeps a firm grip on the cub as it growls and spats at him; he just sighs and puts the cub onto the couch. He watches as the cub begins to look around, though the little beast keeps glancing at him every now and then.

He sighs as the beast begins to shiver and despite the cub's protests, he wraps his shirt around the cub's body and holds the beast to his chest. He heads off to get the phone. He's going to contact the Chee to find out what they know about taking care of a little cub. The beast soon cuddles into his warm chest, getting over its discomfort over the fact that it's in his arms.

Soon enough the door bell rings, the cub looks startled at the sudden noise and he strokes the cub's back in an attempt to calm it down. He raises and eyebrow when he finds Cassie at the door. "Ah, it's so cute." Cassie says on seeing the cub. "I guess if you like some kind of feline canine cross." He says as he moves to allow Cassie into the apartment.

Cassie looks alert and once the door's closed he explains how the cub came into his care. "Do you think you can still morph into either?" Cassie asks once he's done explaining. "I think so, I doubt he'd want me to lose either morphs." He answers and Cassie nods. "Have you checked the gender?" Cassie asks and he glances down at the cub, it looks up at him with its right ear flickering to behind it. "Not really." He says finally.

Cassie holds out her hands to take the little beast and he hands over the very reluctant beast that's about a foot big. Cassie murmurs soft sounds as Cassie checks the butt of the cub. "It's a male." Cassie says and soon hands the cub back to him as the beast attempts to snarl at Cassie. "He didn't like me at first either." He admits and Cassie nods.

"You do have a bottle, right?" Cassie asks him, he stares blankly at her and she sighs. "There's money in the box by the book case." He tells her and soon enough, Cassie gone to get a bottle, leaving him alone with the Kyuubi's heir.

"So, what are we going to call you?" He says out loud as he looks down at the cub. The cub just yawns before the cub cocks his head to the side as it studies him with his blue eyes. He just sighs and can't help but wonder what kind of problems will come about with the young cub being at the center of it.

XD

He watches as Tobias keeps practicing even though the others had taken off two hours earlier. Little Soul, currently the cub's name since he couldn't come up with anything better, was wake and watching the feathered form racing up the trunk of a large tree. It's been about a whole month since Soul was 'born' and the cub's grown a few inches but not as much as baby animals usual do which might be hinting at the Kyuubi wanting his heir to grow at the rate of a human child instead of the fast pace of most beasts.

Soul takes a few shaky steps towards Tobias before the cub shivers and curls up on the ground. So far, Soul prefers his company over everyone else's company. It kind of means he's the one that's feeding Soul, cleaning up after him, and making sure the cub uses the littler boxes that were located throughout the base and his apartment.

He glances as Tobias makes a sharp sound in annoyance. He sighs and says, "You should rest, Tobias. Getting frustrated isn't going to help." Tobias gives him a sharp look and he returns it with a blank look. Tobias sighs and begins to morph back into a red-tailed hawk. "Did you want to check up on your mother?" He asks softly, they had been able to get to Tobias's mother before the Yeerks had, oddly enough, her eye sight returned after morphing into a red-tailed hawk, though her memory hadn't returned. Champ, Loren the human's Seeing Eye dog, was living with them at the base.

-No, not really.- Tobias says. He sighs and gets up; he picks up little Soul and the little guy protests slightly but seems to enjoy the extra warmth. "Is this about Taylor?" He asks as he brings up the whole incident happened four days after Soul was 'born.' The controller named Taylor tormented Tobias once the morphing ray proved to be 'ineffective.'

-Not about that, it's just that… what happened with Toby's ancestress makes me wonder about a few things is all.- The teen turned hawk says, he looks thoughtful about that since the group had returned three days ago from their visit to the Hork-Bajir home world. Oddly enough, Toby's ancestors' mind ended up going to Cassie.

The odd bird like alien had then taken DNA samples from Hork-Bajir population, though not of Toby or of the younger children like Naru, Toby's younger brother who's named after him. It had taken about two days to get all of the samples since the population was spread out in three valleys. They had headed off two weeks ago, they each had taken a Hork-Bajir morph, but he hadn't gone since he's busy taking care of Soul and doing other things, like helping Tobias's mother Loren adjust to her new surroundings, having a few private goes on the Yeerk pool with his shadow clones helping out, and finally, helping Tom and Rachel's sisters through the morphing process since he figures they'll need the ability to defend themselves when the time comes.

So far, Tom and the other two have three morphs each; the only one they share was a crow morph. Tom picked up a rattle snake morph from around the base and a tiger morph from their visit to the zoo. Jordan, Rachel's younger sister by two years, acquired a rhino and a dolphin. Sara, Rachel's last sibling, acquired a gorilla and an African hunting dog. He also ended up acquiring one since two of the dogs had investigated them and he didn't want the other to freak out when its partner became tranquil.

"Reminded you of what you're father did?" He asks and Tobias replies, -Kind of. It just makes me wish to be…- He glances at the teen turned hawk, wondering what's on Tobias's mind. "I'm guessing Rachel's in the equation, right?" He muses out loud, he's fifteen years old and in six month time, he's going to be sixteen. 'Old enough to learn how to drive.' He muses before pushing those kinds of thoughts out of his head.

-Kind of.- Was all Tobias would say before the teen turned hawk took to the sky. "Not really unexpected, though you'd think that Jake and Cassie would be just as honest as Tobias and Rachel." He muses to Soul, the cub just snuggles to his neck and he puts a hand on Soul's back to keep the cub from falling forward.

He finds Rachel at the entrance, looking about. On seeing him, she straightens up. "Have you seen Tobias?" Rachel asks. "He took off after I talked him into taking a break." He answers. Rachel looks off into the night sky, an unreadable expression on her face.

He sighs and heads off to the kitchen to get Soul some milk. Once he gets the bottle, Soul makes a slight grumbling sound on seeing the bottle. He heads out of the kitchen, he nods to Sara and she comes to coo over Soul as he drinks his milk.

He blinks as he notices a humanoid old man in the cafeteria. The being looks slightly startled on seeing Soul before the look vanishes. "Ellimist." He says when he finally thought of the being's name. "Who?" Sara asks and he nods towards the old looking being that can take any shape he wants. "How did he get in here?" Sara asks, startled on seeing the being for the first time. "He's a 'higher' being, he can stop time if he so choices." He informs Sara.

It's not long before the rest of the Animorphs appear, semi-ling out of nowhere, which startles Sara which startles Soul. –Ellimist!- Ax says in a cold, hard tone. He takes time to notice who else has appeared among the crowd. He spots the two Chee, Erek and Loren, Toby, and the rest of the population of the base, not including Champ the dog.

"I'm sorry for this interruption, but it seems that Naruto's home needs him for about a month." The Ellimist begins. He perks, interested into why he's needed and about the proposition of going home, even if for a visit.

The Ellimist gives them about two hours to decide, he's already making mental list of what he wants to take with him, other then the obvious items. From the looks of things, Toby's willing to come with him, which he doesn't mind.

XD

He has a sleeping Soul in a cloth slash, holding the cub close to his chest as a knapsack containing storage scrolls and cloths he didn't bother to put into scrolls. He glances to Ax, who's on his right and then over to Toby, who's walking to his left. Behind them all, Marco walks with Danielle, telling the younger teen a funny story.

To be truthful, he doesn't know why Marco volunteered to come along, but it seems that Jake wanted at least two non-aliens traveling with him and Marco mentioned a desirer to see an actual ninja village. Danielle had lost a game of rock, paper, and scissors with Blue, Kit, and Nath. He doesn't mind, though he wonders where they're going to be staying for the month they're visiting.

He notices the gates that lead into Hidden Leaf; he feels a mix of emotions on seeing it, the primary feeling is nervousness and home sickness. He snorts in amusement as he notices the looks on the guards' faces on seeing Ax and Toby. "Long time no see!" He says as they stop before the gate.

The two guarding the gate look at him, clearly forgetting that he's even there. "Naruto?" The one on the left says, clearly unnerved by the looks of Toby and Ax. "Hidden Leaf's number one surprising ninja is back. Also, the guy in blue is Aximili, or Ax for short and this is Toby." He says and then motions for Marco and Danielle to come forward. "He's Marco and that's Danielle. So, can we see the Fifth?" He asks the two.

The two exchange looks and in the end, they motioned them through. He figures that they just didn't want to deal with this. He leads the group towards the tower in hopes of talking with old lady Tsunade. He notices the crowd that's watching them, he ignores the looks, his years of being on the receiving end such attention helps him ignore them, though he hopes none of the others were getting nervous.

-This is very different then what I've seen back home.- Ax says privately. He nods and it's not long before they're at the tower, he notices that some of ANBU gathered at the base of the tower. He can tell that Ax and Toby were getting tense by their presence. Well, that's until Tsunade comes storming out of the tower, he watches as an ANBU is sent flying over head as Tsunade shouts, "I didn't ask for your opinion!"

"Hey old lady! Long time no see!" He shouts as Tsunade comes into view, the ANBU vanish, not wanting to be on the receiving end of her temper. "Miss me?" He asks, his trade mark grin plastered on his face. He can tell that the others were impressed and slightly nervous. "Brat." Tsunade says with a soft smile on her face. It's then did he notice how short the Fifth looks. It then dawns on that she hadn't gotten shorter, it was that he's gotten taller.

Once Tsunade is standing before him, instead of punching him for calling her old lady, she pulls him in for a hug. "Good to see you, brat." The Fifth says softly and just at that moment, Soul complains on him being woken up. He unrolls the cloth slightly, shown Soul's face to the Fifth. "Meet the Kyuubi's heir." He says, he notices the startled look on the old woman's face on hearing that.

To be continued …