Chapter Two

Beware the wish made in haste!

What one shall get may not be a kind fate.

-Advice for the Fool

They were in a park tonight. The wind was cool and Naruto was sober. That ridiculous, red hair brushed against him filling his nose with the other's scent. But he was deliberately ignoring that. Instead, Naruto was complaining.

"-and the boxes just keep piling up and up and up! I don't think I'll ever get the smell outa my house: paper and ink. Blegh! As if that's not bad enough, I wasn't made for this research shit. I have to read and reread and reread again to understand even a part of the damn scroll I'm stuck on. Doesn't Baa-chan know the only reason I learned sealing at all was because Ero-sennin beat it into my head?"

Red, as Naruto had spontaneously decided to call him, looked amused.

"You said these scrolls were on the Bijuu, yes?" Red asked.

"Yeah… Why?"

"I happen to know a few stories about them. Would you like me to tell some of them to you?"

"Sure, why not?"

***Bleeding***Truth***

Long ago in a time near forgotten, there was a Priest who wandered the lands preaching to any that would listen. He was a handsome man, strong and charismatic, despite the simple trappings he wore. Where ever he went women swooned and even some men. And for all this his message surprised many: pleasure is Sin. And, according to this Priest, no Sin was greater than enjoying sex, especially, men enjoying sex with men.

How could a man who looked as this man did, denounce what he tempted in others? Even though the ideals of the culture at the time stood against the theme of the lecture, many were swayed. The women were shocked and the men shamed as they fell before the man and repented. Some even swore to take up the teachings of the Priest and share this wisdom with others. In this way the Priest traveled from town to town, city to city.

It was as the Priest preached in a meadow just outside a small village that he was introduced to a Kitsune. The Kitsune, appalled by the Priest's words, argued with the man for three days. They went back and forth parrying, and countering eloquently with words as the debate grew more and more heated. At the end of the third day the Priest refused to be moved, and the Kitsune suddenly went from furious to sly.

"Why would you deny yourself and others? Why fight what makes us happy?" the Kitsune asked.

"There is no happiness in sin! I deny only that which will lead to our ruin," the Priest proclaimed.

"So it is your belief that should you lay with a man you would be ruined?"

"Yes, the teachings say that to fall to such temptation is ruinous."

"Hm. So as a Priest you are able to resist all these ruinous temptations?"

"Yes, no matter the temptation I shall pervail!"

"Very well, than you should not object to a bet then."

"I do not gamble, for it is ruinous."

"It would be more a test of sorts, with specific consequences."

"You wish to test my faith?"

"Yes! A simple test, and should you pass I swear to renounce my ways and follow your teachings."

"Is this so? Well then, I shall agree!"

"But you have not asked what would be the price should you fail."

"I shall not fail!"

"Good. Now I will tell you my test."

"Yes, yes. Proceed, and quickly! I have much traveling to do."

"Of course. I will go from here and seek out the greatest of Kitsune, and to him I will present this idea of ours. Then I will ask him to seek you out, and tempt you to lay with him. He will tempt you three times: once for everyday we have stood in this meadow. If at the end you have stood firm, he will take from me my Kitsune blood and cast me as a mortal man to follow you. If you fail once, he will grant you Kitsune blood and teach you our ways. If you fail twice, he will take you as his pet. If you fail all three times, he will take you and present you as a gift to Inari-sama where your soul will be bound to the Kami's whims for all eternity."

The Priest startled and cried out a protest, but the Kitsune would not hear it.

"You have already agreed Priest! Do you go back on your word? Will you not stand behind what you say?"

The priest hesitated. The Kitsune stood firm.

"Very well, yes, I have already agreed. Do your worst fiend!"

"Oh no, not I! I am not the greates of Kitsune. But I shall depart now to go to him and tell him of you."