Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Inuyasha just so now you can't sue me.
...
Chapter3: Learning to trust
"This Sesshomaru person, why is he so familiar? " The low baritone voice of the nine-tailed fox boomed around the dank mindscape as he narrowed his wild eyes. From the time he saw this man through his vessels' eyes , he knew he was a dog demon in guise.
If the demon fox didn't know any better he would assume this demon was related to the inu no taisho he had once met when the bijuu were created by the sage of six paths. The kitsune shifted and dismissed the idea.
...
"Sesshomaru-Sama, Rin and Naruto-San are hungry." Rin spoke for Naruto as well. His stomach had started rumbling a while ago and Rin chuckled and he nervously laughed that the milk in his fridge must've been out of date. Of course Rin had no idea what he meant by fridge but agreed anyway. It was evening and the sun was setting.
They were now on the back of Au-Un after much of Naruto's trouble trying to get himself balanced on the back of the dragon.
"Ugh!" Jaken face palmed himself. Humans were so helpless and needy, the little demon didn't know how he would be able to survive if he were one.
"Food again Rin?! You just ate a few hours ago!" He complained. Then continued,
"You know, Sesshomaru-Sama ought to just-!" Golden eyes found their way to the green demon's form.
"Jaken, take Au-Un, Rin and Naruto to find food in the forest." Sesshomaru's deep voice seemed to have a pacifying affect on Jaken and he went quiet immediately. Naruto snickered at Jaken's sudden change in behaviour.
"Y-yes Sesshomaru-Sama." Of course, he wanted to moan and grumble at the idea of watching over two kids to tend to their silly hunger-issues and almost felt hurt that his Lord thought watching over some meager children was a good job for him but he only complied under the inu-youkai's watchful eye.
Demons rarely required food and ate in months or even years so it was annoying how often humans had to consume food.
As Au-Un led them further into the forest,
Jaken huffed and started muttering something about troublesome humans but Naruto barely paid attention, he was looking at his surroundings with curiosity noting the slight glints of orange sunlight on the forage and the numerous berry trees that they were passing.
The boy soon lost interest in where he was and instead began playing with the red ribbon attached to the fox mask he was carrying.
"Naruto-San, what's your favourite food?" Rin questioned trying to make conversation.
Jaken who was sitting in front of Rin listened in, he too was inquisitive about the strange human.
The blonde was practically grinning from ear to ear, happy to talk about a subject- well one of the only subjects that interested him.
His favourite food? Of course! That was easy. "Ramen dattebayo!"
Rin blinked a few times and Jaken looked lost.
"Ra-amen?" They both said in unison looking at the bizarre blonde in front of them.
"Yeah ramen, like as in the noodles ramen." He clarified hoping for them to understand what he meant.
The green imp snorted and crossed his arms.
"Never heard of the stuff, Are you delusional human?" Naruto only glared.
"Ramen," She repeated letting the short two-syllable word roll off her tongue.
She didn't believe the blue eyed boy was lying but she had truly never heard of the strange noodle food he described.
Naruto went on to describe the marvellous dish he apparently ate every day and adored in every single way.
"Isn't that unhealthy for a human diet?" Jaken questioned trying to find faults in Naruto's favourite food.
"No! The food from your world sounds so nice!" Rin spoke enthusiastically.
"Hey Jaken," Naruto started
"Don't speak with me so casually boy! It's Jaken-Sama to you!" Naruto shrugged, the had gone up from the 'human' to boy which was apparently quite a privilege. Though he couldn't help teasing the imp.
"But your smaller than me, why should I call you Sama?" Jaken fumed.
"Because I'm hundreds of years older than you!"
"Ha! Fine then! In that case I should call you jiji!" Naruto debated as Jaken growled struggling to answer.
"N-no!" The blonde giggled. Rin laughed at Naruto's antics.
But soon after, his laugh faded and he looked up to the sky feeling homesickness sweep in and make him feel uneasy. The third Hokage's kind smiling face and wooden tobacco pipe came to mind and he lowered his head.
"Jiji."
Even if most of the people of Konoha detested him, even if he was forbidden to play with others his age, even if the people at the orphanage had shoved him out in the cold on most nights and had claimed to have forgotten to feed him, the village was still his home. He should stay loyal to Konoha, these people could be Konoha's enemies.
Right?
Naruto shook his head quickly at the realization that he probably wouldn't be able to trust these strange people in this strange world. He was being too trusting, going with them to where ever they were going, this could be another trick. He should have just ran when he had the chance.
A soft warm hand lay itself on his shoulder and the young boy practically flinched under the touch and looked over his shoulder to see a concerned looking girl staring right back at him.
There was shock and what could only be described as fear on his face, she could tell he was for some reason frightened but she wondered why.
Rin wanted to know who he was and know why those blue eyes looked so deep, so lonely and why his defined whisker-marks seemed like they scarred his life not just his cheeks. His sentence earlier about her parents wanting her to stay away from him had sparked her interest. There seemed to be a lot more to him than she had thought. He was like who she was before somebody had reached out and helped her.
"N-naruto-San, are you alright? You look sad." Rin's voice wavered sensing the blanket of sadness wrapped around him.
The blonde boy paused reticently clearly uncomfortable.
She felt so sorry for him.
Naruto stared at the dark eyed girl. It was the first time anyone had touched the boy without hate or intent to hurt him in their eyes. The warm hand reassured him somehow, telling him they weren't going to hurt him.
He just had a feeling deep down that he could trust these people. Even after knowing them for over a few hours he noticed that none of them looked at him the same way most of the whole leaf village did, not even the confident looking silver-haired man. And although the green imp disliked him he didn't appear to hate Naruto.
The girl called Rin was... Warm, friendly and happy.
"I'm fine Rin-chan, thanks."A genuine smile came to his face like a ray of sunshine after a storm breaking through grey clouds.
Jaken was trying to pretend he wasn't eavesdropping on their conversation but it looked quite obvious he was.
'What are those humans blabbering about?' Jaken wondered. The kappa shrugged, it was probably nothing of consequence anyway.
The young boy eyed the fruits in the trees they were passing.
Au-Un came to a halt and Naruto jumped of the dragon and Rin slid off slowly.
Without permission, The brown eyed girl grabbed the green creature and set him down on the ground much to his protests that he could get down by himself.
The place Au-Un had stopped was a clearing full of various berry bushes, and seemingly edible shrubs, mushrooms and fruit trees. Naruto tucked the kitsune mask under his arm so that the beautifully handcrafted object wouldn't fall and smash.
"Hey, are there any supermarkets around here?" asked Naruto. He had never eaten in the wild before and he would much prefer to go to a shop to get ramen.
"Suupa-markette?" They attempted to pronounce in unison.
"What do you mean? I've never heard of it." Rin admitted.
"You don't know what a supermarket is?!" He questioned surprise evident in his voice.
They shook their heads curious as to why he was acting like it was such a big deal.
The boy felt like face palming himself, what kind of backwoods had he ended up in!
Who hadn't heard of Ramen and Supermarkets before? Obviously these strange people.
Tears comically ran down his face. How could he survive a day without ramen?! He couldn't!
"No! my ramen!" Jaken looked at Naruto as if he was crazy.
After rolling her eyes at Naruto's exaggeration, Rin ran to a bush then crouched and began gathering berries then called for the blonde to join.
"Naruto-Kun!" She shouted.
Naruto blinked almost not recognizing his name.
'-Kun?' He thought noticing the informal suffix added to his name. He guessed he liked it.'Are we ... F-friends?' Blue eyes widened with new hope. But of course, the boy wouldn't ask in case she didn't want to be friends with him. After all, he had no friends and he was a loser, and he was annoying. His eyes brightened once again as another thought struck him.
He couldn't be that much of a loser if Rin had decided to even speak or be nice to him. A troubled frown had appeared on Naruto's face before a second later it was gone and it was replaced with a cheeky grin as he ran to Rin.
Jaken folded his arms and closed his eyes.
This would take ages and surely Sesshomaru-Sama would want them back by now.
"Be quick! Sesshomaru-Sama wouldn't waste his time waiting for you humans to gather your silly berries so hurry up!" Ignoring the small demon, they continued to pick berries and stuff them in Au-Un's satchel.
Rin was struggling to grab an apple that was on a tree and asked for help. Rin was a small girl and Naruto although younger than Rin was a few inches taller.
"No problem! That's easy!" He exclaimed.
Naruto could have easily stretched out to reach the fruit standing where he was but instead was climbing the tree with the speed of a monkey and when his ego got the best of him and he reached for an even higher one on his tiptoes and fell of the branch hitting the ground head first.
"Itai!"
"Naruto-Kun are you alright?!" Rin asked concerned running toward him.
"I think so," Came the muffled reply.
"Clumsy humans." Jaken shook his head watching from by Au-Un.
"D-demo, I only asked for that first apple not the highest one!" Rin explained to him.
"Ah, sorry." He apologized sheepishly before getting up.
They stuffed the satchel with mostly berries and fruit but with mushrooms as well.
Naruto immediately blanched as he spotted Rin picking up mushrooms.
"Mushrooms?" The girl turned back to him.
"Yes they are," Catching Naruto's practically green face she guessed he didn't favour the vegetable.
"Don't you like mushrooms?"
"No they are slimy and yucky." He made retching sound-effects. And Rin was starting to feel ill herself.
"Are you done messing about yet?!" squawked Jaken angrily.
"Oh, yes Jaken-Sama let's go!"
"Sure jiji." Jaken gave a sharp look back at the boy that had just spoken.
"Boy you need to learn manners and respect your elders!" The imp lectured.
Naruto couldn't help but snicker.
Jaken instead groaned. The boy was the epitome of mischief.
'What an errant child, why would Sesshomaru-sama keep someone like him around? What could he be thinking?'
They mounted Au-Un again before the large dragon took off with one beat of his wings.
Au-Un knew where to go, he could easily track his master by scent.
"Whoa!" Naruto marveled as Au-Un lifted higher than the trees.
He had never flown on anything before but ironically he was now flying on a dragon.
"Woo hoo!" He shouted above the tree tops holding his hands up in the air enjoying the moment until he lost grip of the dragon and he started to lose his balance.
"Careful!" Rin warned him snatching the back of his bloodied tee-shirt just in time so he didn't fall. The blonde grabbed the white mask swiftly before it dropped.
The boy then exhaled slowly realizing he was safe.
"Sorry,"
...
Sesshomaru looked up at the dark sky recalling the events of the day. The strange boy had appeared with a fox mask and he had seemed to heal like a demon. But he was still puzzled over why Tenseiga wanted him to save the boy. Could he be useful? Could it be his father trying to tell him something?
That boy's bubbling red youki, it seemed different to most demon ki and not even a hanyo's was the same or anywhere near similar when the youki was exposed on its strangest thing was the fox's demonic energy seemed to respond to Sesshomaru's Tenseiga.
The human boy could have the potential to be strong and of value to gaining Tessaiga.
Sesshomaru clenched his only hand into a fist, his claws digging into the skin of his palm and he didn't care. He could barely feel it.
Sesshomaru had never truly believed that the inu no taisho, his own father would leave him a weapon so useless that it didn't even deserve to be called a sword. He didn't believe his father would leave the precious Tessaiga in the careless hands of his weak hanyo brother. A mistake, that was what it was.
He looked down to his left kimono sleeve flapping in the wind. His half-brother would pay for underestimating the true son of inu no taisho and Sesshomaru would finally get back what was rightfully his. The dai-youkai held his head up high with pride as the wind blew his beautiful silver strands of hair around his face.
Yes, perhaps this was what father had meant to happen.
...
"Sesshomaru-Sama! Sesshomaru-Sama!" The green kappa demon called repeatedly waving his staff around.
"Jaken." Sesshomaru said less than enthusiastically. Au-Un lay down to rest curled up by his masters side.
Naruto and Rin began to take out the wild food they had picked and set it out on a cloth, Jaken made a small fire with his staff of two heads and Sesshomaru sat down by a tree with his legs crossed and his right hand tucked into his left kimono sleeve.
"Yum! These berries are awesome!" Naruto exclaimed licking the orange berry juices of his fingers. Naruto picked up a hand full of the berries and went toward Sesshomaru with them.
"What is it?" The silver-haired demon asked without even opening his eyes.
"Mister Sesshomaru was it?"
The dai-youkai cracked an amber eye open to stare at the child and the fruit he was holding. He narrowed his eyes and frowned.
Jaken openly gaped at Naruto's informality.
"N-nani? Boy, what do you think youre saying?! Its Sesshomaru-Sama to you!" He screamed.
Naruto gulped. He didn't want to get on the wrong side of this guy, he certainly didn't look like a pushover.
"U-um I mean Sesshomaru-Sama?" The boy tested the name slowly seeing the inu-youkai's previous displeasure. Naruto offered the berries toward him holding out his small stained palms.
"Would you like some b-"
"Drop the berries." Sesshomaru instructed him. Naruto glowered looking defensive and held onto the berries.
'Why does everyone treat me like this? I'm sick of it! I don't care who he is!'
"Huh? Why dattebayo?! If you didn't want them you should have just said!" Naruto retorted forgetting his precedent fear of the dai-youkai.
Rin seemed shocked by Naruto's behaviour to the person she respected most, while Jaken looked as if he was about to faint.
The powerful inu-youkai merely stared at the boy who glared back at him defiantly. This over- confident blonde child reminded him of someone he knew.
Naruto had always been used to defending himself in situations as he knew if he didn't stand up for himself, nobody would. He had always been too quick assuming that people were judging him.
"They are poisonous." Sesshomaru stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Huh?" Naruto asked stupidly not understanding.
"Sesshomaru-Sama said they were poisonous Naruto-Kun!"
Naruto dropped the stance and then looked generally confused.
"Ahhahahaha," Naruto laughed nervously and dropped the orange berries.
"Whoops!" The Uzumaki joked.
"It's no laughing matter silly boy!" The green imp reprimanded.
"Well I don't feel sick!" Naruto countered proudly. The kappa scoffed
"Yet!"
'So the demon fox must be repelling the poison from the food and drawing it away from the digestive system so it doesn't have the usual effect a poison would have on the body' Sesshomaru concluded.
The long lived dai-youkai had honestly never seen a human with a demon sealed inside their body. It was practically unheard of in the feudal era.
And anyway, normal humans did not have the capabilities nor the strength for holding a demon, but from what he had seen, it was as if the people from Naruto's strange world had superhuman elemental powers and the young boy was no exception.
"Anyway, dai-youkai do not require such lowly human food to survive."
"Oh!" Even though slightly offended by Sesshomaru's criticism of human food, there was an underlying interest there.
"So what do you eat?"
"Demons hunt creatures like rabbit and wild boar but it is not very often dai-youkai eat. It can be years."
"Y-years?!" The blonde spluttered almost choking on saliva as he fell back down on his butt in shock by Rin who was roasting mushrooms on twigs over the small fire.
The Uzumaki would have questioned if the inu-youkai was joking but just looking at the man's staid expression refrained him from asking. It was quite obvious Sesshomaru was not one for humour or sarcastic remarks.
Naruto didn't know what he would do if he was a demon like Sesshomaru. It would mean no more ramen and hunting stupid wild animals when he knew he would gladly wait for a cup ramen to take three minutes to cool instead.
A strong wind whipped round the forest shaking the trees and disturbing their small fire.
"Gah! It's colddd." Naruto spoke hugging his knees to his chest. The boy was wearing nothing but a flimsy tee-shirt, cargo pants that barely reached his knees and sandals. And of which none were suitable for bad or cold weather unless he desired to catch a cold.
Naruto's teeth began to chatter as another wave of cold washed over him. Rin was shivering but she was not nearly as cold as the younger boy beside her.
Sesshomaru said nothing though kicked a branch of wood that was by him into the fire making the small flame blaze brighter and burn away the piece of wood slowly.
Sesshomaru took another look at the shivering boy and made a mental note to purchase warmer clothing for him. After all, he would be no use to the inu-youkai frozen to death.
...
The green demon had fallen asleep awhile ago and his snoring was now disturbingly loud.
Sesshomaru was pretending not to notice it but his ears perked up at every dissonance.
Rin was awake staring a the now tiny fire and rubbing her small hands together.
It was freezing.
It was nothing new to Naruto to sleep out in the cold so he wasn't complaining. He was just glad he could somewhat trust these people not to kill him in the middle of the night.
But if only he had ramen, ramen would warm him up for sure. But apparently it didn't exist in the strange place he had landed himself in.
He wondered when was the last time Sesshomaru had eaten, probably years ago. The young boy scoffed to himself.
Then a thought came to his head, just how old was the inu-youkai? Being the inquisitive boy he was he asked without a second thought.
"Mister Sesshomaru how old are you exactly?" Naruto questioned.
"What is it to you boy?" Came the smooth reply.
"Are you older than jiji?" Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow what was this boy talking about?
Rin giggled at Naruto's new nickname for Jaken.
"Jiji?" Sesshomaru inquired. Naruto nodded at the amber eyed demon.
"Yeah, Jaken!" The dai-youkai looked to the sleeping form of his ever loyal follower and restrained the urge to smirk.
"Hn,"
The boy should have been glad that Jaken wasn't awake to hear his words or he would never have heard the end of it.
"I believe I am over 250 years old." Naruto blinked his blue eyes and looked up to the silver haired man.
"Y-you mean you don't know?!" The inu-youkai only ignored the comment.
"But wow you're old!" Naruto marveled forgetting his shyness before.
"Not for a dai-youkai, one hundred years is nothing. This Sesshomaru will live to be thousands of years old."
"O-oh."
"U-um mister?" Sesshomaru glanced in the young boys direction.
The boy was annoying, he asked too many questions and he didn't even address him as 'Lord' as a human should.
"What is it?"
"Have you heard of ramen before?" The silver demon frowned. He had never heard of such a thing.
"What is this ramen you speak of?" Sesshomaru was genuinely curious.
Naruto gave a grin happy to explain.
It seemed like this man could do anything so surely he could conjure up a bowl of ramen for him!
And without realizing it, Naruto was becoming more and more comfortable around these people. And slowly he was learning to trust again.
...
A/N:
Soooo, what da ya think?
Hope you liked it.
Also, Kurama has a mother in this fic, do you think you can guess who she is?
(Hint: She's from the Inuyasha verse!) It will all be revealed in the next chapter I think.
I should be updating by next week by the way.
Thank you for all the previous reviews, follows or favourites I appreciate every one.
And please, please review tell me what you think! (No flames please)