Author's notes: hahaha, we're getting closer to the really good parts. I don't mean to shout spoilers if I am, so I apologise, but I'm just soooo excited to get on with the story. I just want to shout out what happens in the entire plot, but I don't want to ruin it for you guys, so I'm maintaining all urges fiddles with fingers. Anywho, I did say in the previous chapter that I wanted to get our two foxy buddies Kitsune and Kuro more involved...well here they come XD Chapter Seventeen. Enjoy
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE UNFORTUNATE ONES
Sakura sat up, blushing at her own embarrassment and pouted, "Damn you, Kakashi," she snapped, eyeing the silver haired man some more before sitting up properly. Leaning back against the tree they slept under, she heard an abrupt growl and movement against the small of her back.
She turned around hastily to find Kitsune and Kuro trying to sleep there; Kuro staring at the startled medic with one eye open. Under the black fox's paw was a still sleeping Kitsune, who was purring softly.
"Sorry Kuro, I didn't know you were there," Sakura said apologetically.
Kuro opened both his big blue eyes and meowed, signing his acceptance and returning his attention to the brown fox under him. Sakura grinned, watching momentarily before returning her awareness to the Jounin on her right.
"Haha, very funny, Kakashi; teasing me should've been something I'd expect from you but why the waist?" Sakura blushed at the thought of Kakashi feeling her up like that.
Kakashi smirked, "dunno, I guess I just like to experiment with something new for a change…" Kakashi stopped in his words as he watched Sakura's face turn from disappointed and confused to utter annoyance and anger, which Kakashi received a whack upside the back of his head, "baka! Think before you say something like that, especially to a woman like me," she retorted irksomely as an eye twitched.
Kakashi chuckled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head, saying, "Sorry, guess I haven't fully woken up yet," he started chucking again and Sakura just rolled her eyes with a sigh.
Still a bit irritated at how Kakashi started her morning, she was quickly caught off guard when Kuro nudged the small of her back, "huh?" Sakura turned to find Kuro frowning and whining lightly. Something was really bothering Kuro.
"What's wrong Kuro?" Kakashi asked, getting in a better position to face his foxy black friend.
Kuro started whining, signalling something out of place and he knew it. Sakura finally figured it out, "Kakashi, look," Sakura uttered with sheer worry in her eyes.
Sakura patted a rather sleepy Kitsune, who didn't appear to be moving much, "Kitsune, are you okay?" Sakura asked, nudging the brown fox softly before receiving a bite from the black fox.
"Ow!" Sakura was startled at Kuro's reaction with Kitsune not waking up.
The bite wasn't deep at all, just squeezed the skin on her hand; nothing serious or bleeding for that matter.
"What's gotten Kuro all riled up?" Kakashi wondered, watching his fox companion whine as he tried to get Kitsune to wake up.
"It's Kitsune, she won't wake up," Sakura was really starting to worry now that Kitsune wasn't reacting to anything Kuro or Sakura did to her.
Staring ominously, Sakura watched as Kuro nudged Kitsune continuously to wake up or say something to show she wasn't dead. Kuro was whining and freaking out and pawed Kitsune's head to finally get a response.
"Mrrrrr…." Kitsune finally opened her eyes, but they weren't green.
"Kakashi, her eyes…" Sakura stared at Kitsune's weak state.
"Their red…" Sakura patted the brown fox gently to only receive another growl from Kuro.
Kuro hissed at Sakura before he too fell weak and dropped to the ground with a whine, "Kuro!" Kakashi worried, grabbing the black fox and letting him rest in his arms. Sakura too grabbed Kitsune gently and held the fox in her arms.
"What's wrong with them?" Sakura asked, starting to really freak out over the two weak foxes.
Kakashi shook his head, "I don't know, but we should get back to the apartment and check it out before it could get worse," with a nod from the medic, the two leap up into the trees and set off to the village.
The two Jounins jump from one branch to the next, realising that they haven't eaten yet and their stomachs were already begging for breakfast. Sakura felt that she had not yet regained all her chakra, but she had enough to check what was causing the weakness in the two foxes.
Hastily, Sakura and Kakashi carry Kitsune and Kuro with great care to not to upset them, "I wonder what caused them to get sick like this?" Sakura asked herself, glancing down at the moaning and sleepy fox in her arms.
"I don't know, but look; Kuro's eyes are red as well," Kakashi showed Sakura the black fox's weak glare and his eyes were changing to a shade of crimson, "but his eyes were blue just a minute ago," Sakura prompted, getting really concerned and confused about the health of both Kuro and Kitsune.
Soon enough, Kakashi and Sakura made it back to the village and quickly made their way to the back of their apartment.
"Up here, quickly," Kakashi pointed up on the veranda and leapt up onto it, waiting for Sakura to follow him.
The two crept through the window of Kakashi's bedroom and placed the two sick foxes on his bed, "Sakura-chan, I need you to check what is wrong with them. Can you do that?" Kakashi said a distinct look of concern in his mismatched eyes.
"Of course," Sakura replied with a nod and immediately got down to work.
Assessing Kuro first, Sakura placed her hand gently on Kuro's body and focused her chakra through her hand to check the interior of the black fox. The heart was fine, just beating a little fast due to the pain Kuro must've been feeling at this point. Sakura noticed the strange flow of chakra in the fox's system before her hands began to sting.
She winced at the pain and withdrew her hand, feeling it burn at the touch, "okay, that was weird," Sakura muttered, staring at her hand that was now slightly red from the burning sensation she was feeling the second she was looking at Kuro's chakra.
"So, what's wrong with him?" Kakashi asked patiently, staring at the somewhat surprised medic.
Sakura didn't reply; she sighed as she moved on to Kitsune's health. Doing the same thing as she did to Kuro, she concentrated her chakra through her hand and into Kitsune's tiny body to check the problem internally. Again, Sakura's hand began to blister from the hot chakra she felt within the brown fox.
She gasped as she winced at the stinging burn she felt in her hands, now slowly creeping up her arm. Sakura fell back, cringing at the pain in her arms and stared at the two foxes in complete awe.
"Aargh!" Sakura shouted, latching her free hand around the cut on her arm.
"Sakura, what's wrong?" Kakashi kneeled beside his former student, placing his hand on the medic's shoulder, before quickly taking it back after his hand began to sting.
Sakura shook her head, feeling the burning sensation starting to fade as she gazed at the sick foxes, "their chakra; it burns," she stated, sitting up again with Kakashi's aid and rubbed her hands sorely.
Sakura placed two fingers on Kuro's forehead and suddenly she felt the whole world spin. She winced again, feeling the pain in her cut starting to sear at the slightest touch. Suddenly, Kuro's eyes opened, still red and they had the distinct strike of death in them. Sakura froze before falling back in total shock.
"Sakura!" a voice shouted out to her.
Sakura knew it was Kakashi and she could barely hear him call out to her as she slowly passed out. Now in complete darkness, Sakura started to see flashbacks from many years ago as a Gennin:
Naruto stood in front of the snake's head with a kunai in both hands, catching his breath before looking up at the frightened Sasuke with his red and catlike eyes, "hey you. You're not hurt are you? You little scaredy cat,"…
The red chakra oozed from the blonde's body, causing the crowd to gasp, "I'm the one who will be Hokage some day," he announced angrily, glaring at Neji, who stared in surprise at the level of chakra he saw with his Byakuugan…
"No. Don't say that Sasuke is yours. He doesn't belong to you," the second tail spouted along with the third. Both Sakura and Sai gazed at the enraged blonde and backed away a few steps…
The miniature Nine Tails roared loudly at Orochimaru to intimidate him, but it was a lost cause. Naruto swished his four tails around and eyed the snake wielder, "Naruto! Please stop!" Sakura screamed, running to him, "no, Sakura don't," Yamato warned, but it was too late; Naruto had already made his move towards the medic and lashed out one of his tails, hitting Sakura on her arm and made her fly back…
Naruto leapt at the frightened medic and growled, "Naruto, stop! Please stop!" Sakura protested against the incensed blonde in hopes of him actually listening to her, but alas, Naruto didn't hear anything that was said to him and continued to attack Sakura…
"S…-ra-chn," Sakura only barely heard that.
She finally opened her eyes and was staring at Kakashi, "hmhmm…" Sakura mumbled before her eyes widened and she sat up at an instant. Kakashi however was slightly confused at what was exactly happening at the moment. With Kakashi still holding onto the medic, Sakura sighed, looking around the room and glanced at Kakashi.
"How long was I out for?" she asked.
Kakashi looked off for a second before answering, "not that long; only about ten minutes," he helped Sakura to her feet and let her get back to her work.
"Were you able to do anything while I was out?" Sakura asked, observing the two foxes carefully.
Kakashi shook his head, "there was nothing I was able to do to help these two," he stated, sighing lightly to himself and rubbed the back of his head as he glanced over to Kuro and Kitsune.
Sakura nodded, knowing that Kakashi wouldn't be able to do much while was out. Kakashi looked uncertain for a moment and finally found the words, "Sakura-chan, what happened to you back there? You just fell back and fainted," he said hastily as Sakura took a seat in front of the foxes.
Sakura was silent for a moment before sighing heavily, saying, "right after Kuro looked at me, I was seeing flashbacks of when Naruto used the Kyuubi's chakra in battle," Kakashi's eyes widened, now paying his attention to Kuro and Kitsune.
Sakura sat up properly and took a calming breath. Focusing more chakra to her hands, Sakura placed them on both foxes to compare them. This technique Sakura was using was only used by very experienced medics and Sakura had only just started learning about this. Feeling the pain in her arms already, Sakura pushed that aside to concentrate on Kuro and Kitsune's health.
But before Sakura could find the source of their problem, Kuro stood up, startling Sakura, "Kuro, are you okay?" Sakura wondered, wanting to pat the black fox, but Kuro refused to be touched.
"The descendents of the Kyuubi have been awakened and thou shall be ready," Kuro said. Both Sakura and Kakashi were extremely surprised.
"What? Kuro can talk?" Kakashi wondered, completely dumbfounded and baffled at what Kuro was now doing. Kuro's eyes were glowing red and red colours began to flow from the two foxes' tiny bodies.
Sakura stared into Kuro's eyes and said, "What do we have to be ready for?" Kuro winced, growling at his pain, "After the container of the Kyuubi was killed, something was left behind," he paused, sighing to rid himself of the pain in his body.
"The Kyuubi and the boy had fused with their spirits and consciousness and created something to protect those precious to the boy's life. Once the boy died, his spirit and the Kyuubi's created nine young and very live foxes to represent the boy's and the Kyuubi's life; each with their own personality and colour,"
Sakura and Kakashi listened to the deep voice that belonged to the black fox, though it was very strange for a fox such as Kuro to be able to talk to them freely in the first place, "where did the nine foxes end up?" Kakashi asked, sitting down next to the pink haired medic.
Kuro grinned, "Kitsune and I belong to you two and the rest lie elsewhere in the ninja world; to those who the boy and the Kyuubi had exchanged lives with. In other words, the boy's closest friends have each received a fox identical to their own personality,"
Sakura and Kakashi finally recognised the colours flowing from Kuro and Kitsune's systems, "Kakashi, look. It's…" Sakura paused, "the Kyuubi's red chakra…" Kakashi finished her sentence and gaped at the black fox.
"The boy had made many friends within his life, but only nine were chosen. Why? Because each fox represents a tail of the Kyuubi itself," Kuro exclaimed, closing his eyes, "overtime, the master's fox will learn from them and grow stronger, as well as in size. The nine foxes can grow to be nearly half the owner's size, maybe bigger," he continued.
Sakura was puzzled, "but how did you end up with the Kyuubi's chakra?" she asked.
Kuro chuckled; it sounded evil and almost like the Kyuubi itself, "the Kyuubi's essence is left in all nine foxes, but we do not awaken them until later on while bonding with our masters," he explained, looking off to his right where Kitsune lay unconscious.
"But what is the purpose of this all?" Sakura asked, demanding several questions, which was starting to irritate the black fox.
"The one you called Naruto and friend wanted to share his feelings to his closest friends and by doing so, he would truly understand how his friends were to him by leaving tiny foxes to take his place,"
Kakashi switched glances from the questioning Sakura to the talking Kuro; this was by far the weirdest day he had ever had. Kuro's chakra began to return within him and he sighed, "My duty as a fox is to show you what Naruto wanted in his life. I now am Kakashi's fox companion and will remain as such until the day he dies,"
Kuro sits down on Kakashi's bed and said, "Sakura, the reason you saw those visions of the past of Naruto and the Kyuubi's chakra was because you were affected the most after his death, and the reason you were affected so much is something you will soon find out," with that said, Kuro's eyes returned to their normal blue colour and collapsed on the bed.
Both Sakura and Kakashi glanced at one another with puzzlement and looked back at the two foxes that lay there, "now that was really weird," Kakashi stated plainly and touched the black fox to find that his hand didn't get burnt by the chakra.
"Move your hands for a minute," Sakura ushered his hands away from the black fox and replaced them with her own.
Sakura let her chakra flow through her hands and into Kuro, searching for any internal problems beside the red chakra, which didn't seem to bother her anymore. With nothing to find but perhaps a minor headache for both foxes, Sakura gave them a soft smile and faced Kakashi, "they're fine now, I think they just need to rest a while and they'll be back to normal," she assured, patting Kitsune gently and getting to her feet.
Kakashi sighed in relief, staring at Kuro with still a slight worry in his eyes. Pushing those thoughts aside for the time being, Kakashi readjusted his headband and covered his left eye to preserve his chakra without it going to waste, "we'd better head out, we'll get something to eat on the way out of the village before we starve," he suggested thoughtfully and eyeing the two sleeping foxes.
Sakura's stomach strongly agreed with a soft growl and the medic's face flushed a light shade of red. The two Jounins carefully picked Kuro and Kitsune up and made their way out of Kakashi's room and paced them tenderly on the couch. After doing so, Sakura dashed right into the bathroom to shower. Kakashi sighed as he watched Sakura shut the door behind her.
Shortly after Sakura emerged from the bathroom with a fluffy towel wrapped around her and she hastily skipped along to her room, "you can use the bathroom now," she said quickly and shut the door to her room.
Kakashi grinned sheepishly as he grabbed the clothes he needed and disappeared into the bathroom for a good fifteen minutes.
Sakura exited her room and took a deep breath of her clean self; glad that she finally got to shower since her little experience in the forest the day before. She looked at the cut on her arm and sighed, placing her hand over it and focusing chakra through it to heal her injury. It didn't take long to heal and soon she tended to all other bruises and cuts she received that day.
Fixing the last nasty looking bruise on her ankle, Kakashi walked out of the bathroom with an undershirt on with the mask or course, and a pair of pants. Sakura, who was in a strange healing position as if she was trying to scrape something sticky from her high heel shoe, looked up to the silver haired man across the room and smiled, "just tending to the last of my injuries," she said so innocently.
"Okay…" Kakashi replied, though he didn't really care what Sakura was doing and dried his hair with the towel that was still around his neck.
Walking off, Sakura sighed as she felt hunger take over and the shortage of chakra ache her muscles and joints. She glanced over to the sleeping foxes and thought back to what Kuro had said about the link between the Kyuubi and Naruto, and rubbed the side of her neck as she strode her way back into her bedroom and packed her backpack.
After Sakura took an awful while packing her bag, Kakashi stood out in front of the apartment door with the key in hand and his foot tapping on the floor in almost complete impatience. After another ten minutes of waiting and both foxes in Kakashi's arms, still asleep, Sakura finally walks out of the room.
"Took you long enough," Kakashi heaved a sigh frustratingly.
Sakura shrugged as she adjusted her bag straps and grinned widely, "ready to go?" she asked, still grinning. Kakashi grunted and nearly fell over from the sudden question and sighed, "lets go," he opened the door and allowed Sakura to exit the building.
Quietly Kakashi and Sakura exited the village after having something to eat and burn off on their day's travel. Sakura worriedly carried Kitsune in her arms, glancing down at the resting brown fox half the time and not putting a smile on her tired face. Kakashi quickly peeked a look at the worrying medic and sighed gracefully, "What lovely weather we've been having," he tried, changing the mood in the atmosphere as much as he could without creeping Sakura out.
"Huh?" Sakura whizzed from her blank staring phase to a questioning look in her emerald eyes.
Kakashi stared a moment before chuckling a little and returning to his little orange book.
"Oh the weather? Yeah, it sure has, but I have a feeling that it won't stay like this for very long," Sakura finally answered, trying to keep a straight face by staring at the snoozing fox in her arms.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, glancing only briefly from his precious reading material to only return to the text before him. Sakura sighed audibly as she looked down at the fox in her arms. She noticed how calm Kitsune was sleeping and that she didn't look uncomfortable or anything of the sort.
Later in the day, the sun rose to the highest point, setting its rays upon the spacing trees ahead. The thick forest was clearing and the path was sloping upward slightly as the two progressed on their mission.
The path almost seemed endless to the eyes of both Shinobi; Kakashi wasn't completely bothered, he was mostly too busy to notice because he had his nose buried in his orange covered book. Sakura sighed in frustration as boredom overtook her. She glanced up at the sky to notice the sun was fast in its path to set. Slightly surprised, Sakura sighed again, wanting to fall asleep, but still pulling her mind to the brown ball of fuzz in her arms.
"Alright…" Kakashi started, "we'll rest here for the night,"
Sakura glanced over her shoulder to find Kakashi just standing there before he turned to the side of the road and past a tree. Calmly Sakura followed him to where he stopped and dumped his bag on the ground without dropping Kuro from his subtle grip.
Sakura lay down the second her sleeping bag was rolled out and huffed a big sigh, "ahh, finally," she murmured through the fabric of the sleeping bag. Kakashi rolled his eyes with a chuckle as he started the fire, glancing to the pink haired medic every second.
As Kakashi was laying out his sleeping gear, Sakura was just staring at him; having nothing better to do. The silver haired Jounin felt Sakura's gaze on him and felt a little uneasy with her eyes on him, although he didn't mind getting all the attention; he was just nervous about the fact that it was his former student.
Sakura relaxed herself as she stared at the dancing flames of the campfire. Soon sleep overtook her senses and was completely asleep. Kakashi heard the sleeping Kunoichi breathing steadily and sighed as he shut his book and settled in the sleeping bag, allowing slumber take over and off he went.
Author's notes: I think I might've over done it a little with the whole Kuro talking thing, but you decide. I actaully enjoyed how the chapter started off with Kakashi getting a smack from Sakura hehehe. I really do enjoy writing these stories, and I certainly hope you guys enjoy reading them
With love