Hello peoples. Thanks for reviewing, to everyone who did. I'm trying to keep people in character, so any constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.
Quick note, I HATED the latest manga chapter (385, I think) and I'm not going to consider it's existance. I am no longer listening to Kishimoto-sensei. No way.
Anyway, I hope you like this chapter.
Disclaimer (because I haven't written one before) : I don't own Naruto. If I did, Naruto and Sasuke would be together. And Itachi would be lovely. But alas, it isn't so.
"What's that?"
"The Academy."
"What's that?"
"The Hokage's house."
"What's that?"
"The Academy. Still."
"And that?"
"A ramen shop."
The little girl let out a squeal of excitement and grabbed the unsuspecting black-haired boy by the hand, and pulled him towards the little ramen shop. Naruto scrambled up one of the stools in an animalistic manner and began to shout at the top of her voice.
"Ramen, ramen, I love ramen."
Sasuke paled, and started to back away from his little blonde lodger, but she turned and pinned him with a blue-eyed stare, and for some reason, unknown entirely to him, he advanced towards the little shack, and pulls himself up onto a stool that was taller than him.
A man, presumably the owner, came forwards, and smiled at the two youths.
"Hello!" Naruto shouted happily, her face contorted slightly in a vulpine grin. "Can we have some ramen, please."
The shop keeper nodded. He called out something indistinguishable amid the sound of clattering pans, before he settled his attention back to the two children.
"You're an Uchiha, aren't you?" he asked, his brown eyes piercing Sasuke's midnight ones. Sasuke nodded, his face remaining set.
He looked Naruto over once, before his eyes widened. "You're Minato-sama's daughter, aren't you."
Naruto smiled happily. "Yep. You knew my daddy?"
The man nodded, smiling once again. "My name's Teuchi. He used to come and sit in that very seat, and we'd have ramen together. It's nice to finally meet you, Naruto-sama."
She took a moment to thank him, then began to scratch feverishly at the whisker marks on her cheeks, then stopped abruptly. "Is Ayame-nee-chan here?" she asked, sniffing slightly at the air.
She can smell her? Sasuke asked himself. How can she do that? What else can she do?
"I'll go and get her for you. Your ramen will be ready in a few minutes."
Naruto let out a whoop of excitement as the man went through to the back of the store. Sauske blinked compulsively at her for a few moments as she continued to bounce up and down on her chair, chanting her mantra, 'ramen, ramen, ramen'. She looked, to him, like any other child, excited and relaxed. There was something more to her, which told him, through her speech, that she had grown up with adults, with little interaction with children. She was weird, like that Inuzuka boy who spoke to dogs. Sasuke frowned.
"Nee-chan!" Naruto shouted loudly, launching herself from her chair, over the counter and into a slightly older, brown haired girl's arms. The girl staggered a bit under the sudden assault, but wrapped her arms around the blonde, laying her forehead on the crown of Naruto's affectionately.
Does she know everyone here?
"When did you get here, Naruto-imoto?" she asked, setting her back on the counter, her back to Sasuke. For a brief moment, he felt dejected, but recovered himself quickly. Uchiha's were never put out. It was written in the clan book.
"Yesterday. I got to sleep in a bed," she whispered happily.
Ayame smiled fondly at her, and said, "That's wonderful, Naruto-chan."
The little girl scrambled back over the counter and settled onto the stool beside Sasuke, before she looked at him and smiled openly.
"This is Sasuke, I live with him." She gestured avidly at the raven-haired boy, and Ayame smiled nicely at him. She was kind, Sasuke had decided, and genuine.
"I'm Ayame. It's nice to meet another friend of Naruto's, other than Itachi-sensei."
Sasuke looked up at her. "You know my brother?"
Ayame and Teuchi laughed slightly. "Everyone knows Itachi," Teuchi told him. "And everyone knows the Uchiha clan. Were expecting great things of you, Sasuke-san."
Sasuke shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
"And of you, Naruto-sama."
Naruto puffed her chest out, her large shirt spilling from her shoulder. "I'm already great. Best kunoichi ever. Other than Tsunade-ba-chan."
Behind him, a bell rang, and Teuchi clapped his hands. "Ramen time."
Naruto began to cry happily.
"And then Naruto-chan bit him. And Tamamo-chan bit him too. He couldn't walk for days," Ayame said, amidst howls of laughter from Naruto and her father. Sasuke merely smiled.
"I had fun with Naruto-chan, and Itachi-sensei was a great team-leader, even though he was younger than me."
Naruto sighed happily for a moment, before her head sprang up, and she looked down the street, her qzure eyes flickering madly as if she were searching for something.
"I gotta go, Ayame-nee-chan, Teuchi-ji-san. I'll see you soon. C'mon Sasuke."
She grabbed him by the hand, and they darted down the street, Naruto in the lead, and headed back to the Uchiha compound, even though Sasuke was sure she didn't know the directions.
Tsunade had had a few too many sake, and it wasn't even six o'clock in the evening. Mikoto rubbed her back gently as the older woman sobbed into the table. It didn't seem to help that she had a four-tailed fox tugging on her pony-tail 'playfully', and her errant 'daughter' had been gone since midday.
"And that damned fox is such a bad influence on her. She bites people, you know. Properly, with teeth and everything. And she likes the taste of blood."
Itachi stroked the fox on the back, and picked her from the floor. As he tickled behind her ear, the little fox went limp, and her mouth hung open, letting go of the wet blonde hair she had been gnawing on.
"She seems nice enough to me."
Tsunade sobbed slightly harder. "Not that fox. The demon," she hissed. "They talk, you know. All the time." She sat up and sniffed, her eyes red and bloodshot. "That's why she knows so much. That's why she can punch so hard when she gets angry. Her eyes go all red and she goes all growly. I hate Minato-sama for letting her do that."
The fox in Itachi's arms jumped to attention, and barked loudly a few times, before going limp again.
Fugaku raised one eyebrow at the little orange bundle, who gave a contented little growl, and closed her brown eyes.
"And now, she's on her way here. Can I go to bed please?" Tsunade asked. Mikoto took her by the hand, and led her away to a dark, quiet room, where she could recover from her self-inflicted drunken haze.
The shoji slid open with a bang, and Naruto was standing in the doorway, Sasuke's hand trapped in hers like a nut in a cracker, her bunches in disarray.
The fox in Itachi's arms leapt towards the door, and with a bark and a burst of red petals, she became the size of a large wolf. "Tamamo-chan!"
The fox jumped forwards, pouncing little girl, bringing her and Sasuke to the floor, where Naruto laughed and tried to squirm away from her rough tongue, as it darted across her face.
Her squeals of delight were missed by Sasuke, who got to his feet, brushed himself down, and moved towards the table. Before he could reach it however, the fox collided with him from the side, throwing him to the floor, its warm tongue and breath ticklish against his shrouded collar bone.
Sasuke held back a laugh for as long as he could before it spilled from his lips, even as he tried to push the fox's muzzle away from him.
He succeeded, and it sat back on its feet, both tails swaying gently in the air.
"Who is this?" he asked, scrambling over to his fathers side, hiding behind him slightly.
"Tamamo-chaaaaaaaan," she replied happily, rubbing her nose between the fox's ears as her tails coiled around her legs.
The fox pulled her down to sit beside her, and wrapped her tails around her almost possessively. "She's my very best friend. Tamamo-chan goes everywhere with me. Even to visit her mummy."
Itachi's eyes narrowed, and the suddenly appeared Sharingan in his eyes began to spin slowly. Naruto laid a hand on her stomach gently, as behind and around her, Tamamo's fur began to bristle, and she began to growl.
Naruto looked up, and directly into Itachi's red eyes, as he own eyes began to bleed the same colour. In a voice that was not her own, she hissed , "Murderer."
Thanks for reading. I hope you liked Tamamo - the inspiration for the bit where Itachi is holding her came from Lilo & Stitch. I'm watching it .
Soooo...thanks. Later.