Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!

Of Foxes and Ferrets

Chapter 2

Shut Up, Gaki

Naruto yawned and turned over slightly, burying his nose in the pillow beneath him. He took a deep breath and his body went lax again. The pillow smelled really good- like burnt wood and some sort of spice he couldn't identify. Absently, he tugged the blanket around his legs up to his nose. It smelled nice too. And the bed he was sitting on was so soft. He didn't think he'd ever been so comfortable in his life. He snuggled into the cozy, good-smelling bed as far as he could. His bed in his apartment was never this comfortable.

No, never.

Never...

Naruto's eyes shot open. This wasn't his apartment. He looked around, trying to figure out where he was. He didn't recognize it. In fact, this place was a lot different than any other place he'd been(which wasn't saying much, but still).

To start, the place was almost completely made of wood. The table, the chairs- heck, even the house itself was made of wood. The only things that weren't wooden were the fireplace, the couch he was sitting on, and a painting hanging above the mantle. His eyes moved towards the kitchenette behind him. His eyes lit upon a bowl of fruit.

His stomach growled involuntarily.

The person who owned this place wouldn't mind if he took an apple or something, would they? The young boy swung his legs off the couch, knocking a cushion off in the process. Naruto wouldn't have noticed it except...

Except that it squeaked when it hit the floor.

And then it moved...IT MOVED.

"Ouch! Jeez kid, give me a warning next time, would ya?"

And it talked. A talking pillow.

The thing turned around and Naruto realized, with no small amount of relief, that it wasn't a pillow. But it was something. Something huge. It was a-

"Ah! Talking weasel!" he shouted, climbing as far away from the 'weasel' as he could.

"Oi! I ain't a weasel! I'm a ferret," the creature snarled, teeth bared.

At the petrified look he got from the kid, though, the ferret relaxed. He hopped back onto the couch and curled his tail around his black feet, "The name's Dorobou."

Naruto stared at Dorobou with wide eyes, his gaze unwavering. Then-

"Sugoi! I've never seen a talking ferret before!" he gushed, sitting back down on the couch, "Do you have awesome shinobi skills? I've heard that shinobi animals can talk. Are you one of them? Could you teach me anything cool? Is it true that-" Dorobou cut off Naruto's nearly-never-ending line of questions.

"Jeez, kid, one question at a time." The large ferret seemed irritated. At least he did to Naruto. Secretly, however, the mammal was pleased. Someone actually cared enough to hold up a decent conversation with him. In fact, this kid wanted to actually know about him. Hitomi hadn't cared that much in years.

Naruto scratched the back of his neck, grinning sheepishly, "Heh, sorry Dorobou-er..." he tried to come up with the proper suffix for the the fuzzy creature before him.

Dorobou waved his paw dismissively, "Forget the suffixes, kid. I'm just Dorobou."

Naruto nodded and continued his sentence, "Sorry, Dorobou. It's just...I've never met a talking ferret before. Heck, I've never even met a animal before."

"Meh, s'ok kid. I mean, I am pretty awesome," he smirked at this, fangs showing ever so slightly. His smirk faded, however, when a yawn came from behind the door on the other side of the room. The door swung open to reveal a very disheveled looking woman. Naruto almost immediately realized who she was.

"Hey, you're that old lady from yesterday!" he yelled, pointing an accusing finger at her.

A kunai imbedded itself in the wall a second later, taking a few strands of blonde hair along with it. Naruto's eyes widened in surprise, staring at the deadly weapon impaled in the wall behind him. One more inch to the right and he would've been dead.

"One: don't call me old- ever," she growled, "Two: don't shout so early in the morning. Three: my name is Hitomi, not old lady," Naruto opened his mouth to say something, but Hitomi didn't give him the chance, "And no, you may not call me Ferret-chan either."

Naruto huffed and crossed his arms, "You're no fun, Tomi-chan." He stuck his tongue out at her.

Hitomi sighed, "Shut up, Gaki." At this Naruto jumped off the couch.

"Hey! I am not a brat! Just you watch, I'll be the next Hokage and then you'll have to treat me with respect, dattebayo!" Hitomi twitched at the blonde's signature phrase, but she didn't show any sign of responding.

At the lack of response, Naruto huffed, "Fine, ignore me. But once I'm Hokage, you'll have to acknowledge me!" He turned to leave, but stopped when Hitomi spoke.

"Is that all it is to you?" Her voice was soft, but there was something there that Naruto couldn't identify.

"Eh? What are you talking about, Tomi-chan?" Naruto asked, turning to face her. She had her back to him, facing one of the photos on her table. She didn't seem bothered by the new nickname.

"Is that what being Hokage is to you? Gaining acknowledgment from others?" Hitomi reached out to touch the picture, "How selfish."

Naruto couldn't believe his ears. Selfish? She had no idea what it was like to have no one. To be left all alone. To be called demon spawn. How could she call him selfish? How is being beaten daily selfish? How is having no family, no one to care, selfish?

"What do you know?" he half-yelled, "You've never been Hokage. How would you know what's selfish and what isn't? How would you know what I've been through! I've been called a demon, devil spawn, and the devil himself! How is wanting people to care about me selfish!" In his rage, Naruto had pulled the kunai out of the wall and thrown it across the room. It missed terribly, but the satisfying sound of it hitting something calmed him a bit.

"I'm not saying that wanting people to care about you is selfish," her voice was barely audible now, "I'm saying that becoming Hokage just so people will acknowledge you is selfish. The Hokage is the strongest shinobi in the village. He protects his village, just like all the other Kage do. He has to be strong, intelligent, and have fighting experience," she moved over to him and bent down, so that she was looking him in the eyes, "They have to have leadership skills and charisma. They have to understand their people," her eyes softened, "They have to be kind and gentle and have a big heart," then she smirked slightly, "and they have to know how to throw kunai."

And just like that, the tension was gone. Naruto smiled.

Then his smile turned into a grin.

Then his grin turned into a laugh.

Hitomi didn't know how the gaki did it, but he did. Somehow, the little knucklehead had gotten her to teach him how to throw kunai. To be fair, she had set herself up for it with her Hokage speech and all, but it didn't mean she wasn't irritated. And Kami knows that the kid was plenty irritating. On the other hand, if he decided to go through with his Hokage dream, he already had his charisma skill down. If he asked a bridge to jump off of itself, it'd do it.

She sighed and began drawing in the dirt. The kid had been at it for nearly an hour now and he was hardly able to hit the outer ring of the target. She stepped back to examine her dirt drawing. It looked like a bunch of random scribbles in the dirt. Sighing in disappointment, she stood.

"Alright, Gaki," Naruto twitched at the nickname, "Let's see what you're doing wrong." She moved to his side and told him to throw another kunai. He did so and hit the very edge of the outermost ring. Hitomi frowned and repositioned his fingers.

"Now, when you throw it, don't throw it with your fingers," she leaned down and picked up a kunai from ground, "Flick it with your wrist." She threw hers and it hit dead center.

He tried to mimic her throw, but it ended up missing completely. Naruto grabbed his hair and yelled in frustration, "Argh! Why can't I get it."

Hitomi sighed and laid a hand on his shoulder, "Gaki, you can't expect to get it right away. Besides, you moved your ring finger just before you threw. It's supposed to be here," she moved it into it's correct position.

He stared intently at the weapon in his hand for a minute, then he turned to the target once more. He brought his hand back and flicked his wrist, letting his fingers release it at just the right moment. It flew through the air and hit the target.

Right on the second ring from the middle. Naruto cracked his eyes open. It took a moment before he realized his achievement. A wide, fox-like grin spread across his face.

"Yeah!" he cheered, "Hitomi-sensei, did you see that?"

Said woman smirked, "Yeah I did. And maybe if you keep your eyes open next time, you'll be able to hit the bulls-eye."

The boy growled at her, but looked pleased nonetheless. Hitomi's eyes shone in amusement. She ruffled his hair and sat back down.

"I'm hungry, Tomi-chaaaaan~!" Dorobou whined from his position curled up beneath one of the many trees surrounding them. Hitomi looked up at the sun. Half past noon. They'd been working since eight.

"Alright, Gaki!" Hitomi called, "It's time for a lunch break."

Naruto had made a lot of progress since his epiphany several hours ago. Now all of his kunai hit inside the first three rings on the five-ringed target. The boy's progress was sluggish compared to that of a normal student, but that was understandable. Nobody had been around to teach him the basics. Including the academy teachers, who's job it was to make sure he knew what to do, neglected him. He needed someone to teach him. Maybe she'd have to do that.

Hitomi blinked. Where had that come from? She was teaching the kid how to throw kunai, that was all. Nothing more, nothing less. She sighed, knowing that wasn't the case. She would have to train him. There were only a few people in the village that could see beyond their nose. Among which were the Sandaime, Ayame, and Teuchi. But the Sandaime was so busy and Ayame and Teuchi weren't shinobi, so the job was hers. Besides, she owed it to a few people. Naruto's response to her call for food, however, brought her out of her thoughts.

"Hang on, Hitomi-sensei! One more try!"

She shook her head and walked inside her house. She pulled a few cups of instant ramen out and heated the water. Once the kettle went off, she poured the water into the cups and took them outside. After setting one down in front of Dorobou, she sat down with her own; Naruto's sitting on a tree stump not too far from her.

"Yo, Gaki, if you don't get over here, I get your share of the ramen," at this, Naruto seemed to break out of training mode. He ran over and grabbed his cup. He cracked open his chopsticks with a quick 'Itadakimasu' before devouring his noodles like a ravenous monkey devours bananas.

Hitomi shook her head. She had a feeling she would be dealing with this gaki for a long time.

A/N: Greetings my loyal readers! Sorry I haven't been updating lately. I don't really have any excuse, just laziness. I have to say, I've been doing a lot of sentimental stuff, haven't I? Kaze no Miko has a lot of them because it's necessary to the plot development. Well...it's necessary for all of my stories, but...that means all my stories are sentimental. Hmm, weird.

In all honesty, I've never written Naruto before. Since he's a kid it'll be easier, but I'm planning on having him be smarter than in canon. The one thing I will keep, however, is his personality. What a lot of Smart!Naruto fics fail to do is keep Naruto's personality in check. He usually becomes an arrogant jerk like Saskue, which bothers me. I don't like Saskue. Anyway the whole point of Naruto having a personality like that is so that he can make people trust them and convince people to believe in themselves. If Naruto didn't have that personality, I probably wouldn't have been interested in the series at all. He'd be too much like any pretty-boy from any anime (Lelouche, Light Yagami, Kurama, Hiei, etc.). There's a reason why they're secondary characters, or have huge emotional trials, or possibly even both. If Naruto became that way, I think I'd shoot my computer to put it out of it's misery(if you haven't noticed Dark!Naruto and Smart!Naruto fics bother me). And what's up with some fanfics having him acting happy-go-lucky. I think that if he actually was acting, he wouldn't be able to accomplish what he has. Besides, he acts like that because he inherited his mother's attitude. He may look like daddy dearest, but when it comes to personality, his is definitely her's. Oh and to those who may think that Hitomi accepted accepted Naruto too fast, this was done ON PURPOSE. Reason 1) Naruto has natural charisma skills. He convinced Garra, someone who was positive that he was a monster and had to murder everyone, that he didn't have to be a monster. He makes you trust him. Reason 2) Hitomi has quite the back story. In fact, I'm considering writing a prequel to this to show Hitomi's life before she met Naruto. Anyway, Naruto reminds her of a few people she knew way back in the good old days, kinda like the whole thing with Tsunade and how Naruto reminded her of her dead boyfriend and brother. Yep, schist is gonna happen.

Anyway, I've come across major writers block for Kaze no Miko. I decided to update this because I'm following a new personal policy: One chapter of any story a week, no matter what. I'm also re-writing the first chapter of Lost Memories and jazzing up the first chapter of this story, as well. Hopefully, I'll be able to do that before I go on vacation next week. But don't worry people! I'll type up the next chapter on my iPhone so I'll have worked on it(if my parents don't kill me with tourism first x_x).

Well, bye! :3

Alias E.

P.S. Over two thousand words! Yea! Woo! Hooray! Hoo-rah! Er...I'll shut up now.