Wow, Prince of Tennis rocks!! I really recommend it. I know what you're thinking… I don't even like tennis? Well me neither until I started watching it on YouTube. I've read some of the manga, but to be honest, the drawing style isn't my cup of tea, but the anime rocks! Gah, sorry for talking about it so much, it just excites me so much!!!!

Anyway… to the next chapter!

Wait, Kuki-chan?

Three ninja stopped on a large tree branch as they watched three rookies. They remained silent as they listened.

"First of all, everyone is going towards the tower, right?" Kiba's voice sounded through the clearing. "That means it would be smart to set traps in the vicinity of the tower."

It was silent a moment after Akamaru barked. Kiba smirked. "Hear that? Looks like we've got one already..."

"Where are they?" Shino asked in his quiet voice and expressionless face.

One of the ninjas listening, a rain nin, smirked. "They're just kids. They're in the open, they're just begging for an attack."

"They've found out our presence..." one of the ninja spoke.

The last team member smirked. "They have not found our location."

All of a sudden the first ninja turned blue. Weird sounds came from him, making his teammates worry.

"W-what's wrong? And what's in your shirt!?" The team members watched as a large bump moved up the ninja's coat and stay by the neck. The hood fell to reveal a large, black, obviously feeding leech.

"W-what is that!?" the ninjas shouted.

As soon as he said that, leeches the size of cats rained down. It wasn't long at all before the leeches completely covered the ninjas' bodies, sucking the blood, and life from them. Back in the clearing Shino watched the killing reflected in his black glasses.

Anko, standing outside of the forest, smirked and cackled loudly.

Team seven stopped walking.

"Sounds like someone got hurt." Sakura whispered.

The team looked backwards. A large flock of birds took off from a section of the forest to their right.

"As long as it doesn't interfere with surviving..." Sasuke shrugged before continuing on.

… and on.

… and on.

"You know, if we don't run into a team soon, we are never gonna get a scroll," Naruto remarked. It had been more than five hours, and it was getting dark in the forest.

"Right, we should set up camp and a few traps then," Sasuke answered, and they found a clearing to settle for the night.

Three days later… Two days till deadline.

We either have extremely good luck, or we have the worst luck, ever. Naruto thought as he fingered his sword's handle. Throughout there journey, they had only met two teams, and all of them sucked at fighting. Unfortunately, neither had the scroll they needed either, so when they snatched it from the team, they stored it away in Sakura's pouch. So now they had three earth scrolls. (I think it was meant to be earth…)

Sakura had her face screwed in thought, and then said aloud, "Sasuke-kun, don't you think it would be a good idea to have, I dunno, some password, in case we get separated. We've been quite lucky, and it feels like something big is going to happen soon…"

Sasuke paused. "Yes, that would be a good idea."

They sat down in a circle on the dirt ground, thinking it over. Sasuke was the first to think of it.

"Alright, I'll only say this once, so listen carefully. The question will be: 'When does a ninja strike?' And the response is: 'A ninja waits until the time is right. When the enemy sleeps and drops his guard. When his weapons lie forgotten in the stillness of the night. That is the moment for a ninja to strike' Got it?"

They both nodded, and Naruto tilted his head slightly to the left.

Although, a good ninja never let's his guard down, so if a ninja attacks another ninja who's sleeping, he might aswell have attacked him when he was awake, no? Bah, ahh well…

"I'll keep the scroll," Sasuke said as he stood up.

"But Sasuke," Naruto whined as he and Sakura got up, "I want to have the scroll now."

Before they could argue any further, they heard an extremely high-pitched noise. They turned heads in the direction it had come.

"What was that?"

Out of nowhere, a windstorm came towards them, blowing them completely away. After the extremely suspicious wind subsided, Sakura gingerly stood up, and spotted Sasuke a little ways off.

Sasuke noticed her approaching and took out his kunai. "Stay there. When does a ninja strike?"

Sakura smiled confidently. "'A ninja waits until the time is right. When the enemy sleeps and drops his guard. When his weapons lie forgotten in the stillness of the night. That is the moment for a ninja to strike."

Sasuke lowered his kunai and nodded to her.

She sighed in relief, "And I have no doubt that you're Sasuke…where's Naruto?"

"Hey everyone! Are you guys okay?" Naruto came running up to them.

"Naruto! Wait!" Sakura halted Naruto with an outstretched arm. "Password?"

Naruto stopped with a grin on his face. "A ninja waits until the time is right. When the enemy sleeps and drops his guard. When his weapons lie forgotten in the stillness of the night. That is the moment for a ninja to strike."

Sasuke threw a kunai at Naruto, which Naruto jumped to his left and fell to the ground to dodge.

"Hey! What the hell Sasuke!?" Naruto shouted.

"So this time we have someone good enough to dodge an attack..." Sasuke said.

"So how did you know?" The imposter asked.

"We knew you were listening from underground, where you could hear us but couldn't see us, so part of the password was to tap our forehead at the word that. You were tricked," Sasuke finished with a smirk.

The imposter's astonished expression turned into a sly grin. His tongue appeared, running over his lips in a hungry manner.

"I see, you are a cunning one, Sasuke." In a large blast of smoke, the grass ninja girl appeared, straw hat slightly tilted over her face. The ninja removed her hat with a sinister smile. "You never let your guard down, do you?"

Sasuke's eyes hardened.

The girl chuckled. "It looks like I can have more fun than I expected..." she licked her lips again, the long tongue reaching past her face.

Sasuke glared at the rain nin.

----

"Ouch..." Naruto moaned, managing to flip himself in the right position. Naruto got to his knees and looked around. His teammates were nowhere to be found. Damn, that wind was powerful! Definitely a jutsu, even an idiot would know that!

He was about to head back to where he came from when he heard something big rustling behind him. He spun around, and stared as the body of and seriously humongous snake towered over him.

He blinked.

The snake flicked out its tongue in a menacing way.

He blinked again, hard. And, in a rather hesitant voice…

"Kuki-chan???"

The snake froze, forked tongue still in the air. It seemed as though a few minutes passed, when the snake suddenly broke out of its stupor and bowed rapidly to the small boy.

"Kitsuna-sama!!(1) M-my greatest apologies! I did not realise I was in your presence! I'm so sorry, please forgive me!" She squeaked.

Naruto blinked in surprise and quickly moved forward. "What are you talking about, Kuki-chan? Why, it was only 20 years ago when my father took me to the summoning world and met you! Gosh, you sure have grown! I remember when you were as small as a shrub, and now look at you! By the way, my name's Naruto now. I recognised you as soon as I felt your chakra, after all, it is so unique and I would never forget it!"

If snakes could blush, Kuki would be beet red. Bad, bad! He's a demon prince, and you are just a summoning animal! But I can dream…

"Thank you Naruto-sama! You are too merciful. Gah, and I was going to eat you!"

Naruto laughed at the image, and soon Kuki joined him.

"Hah, that reminds me of when you first met me!"

-- Flashback! -- (Please note I haven't seen the summoning world before, if it even showed in the Shippuden, but this is my take on it.)

Kitsuna looked around excitedly, admiring the beautiful colours that surrounded him. Unlike the real world, this one was a place of relative peace, and seemed most fitting as a paradise. Contrary to what Kitsuna thought, where he imagined all the summons would be in their own summoning groups, the lowly summons in one place, the medium summons in another, and the main summons to be living in royalty or something.

What actually met him, even though the summons did seem to hang out mostly with their own species, they all mingled and lived in the same place, albeit, a very, large, place. And another thing that seemed to stump him. The ground. It was completely flat.

Well, not in the sense that it was smooth, but in the fact that the summoning world, was not a planet, and it was… flat. No curviness on the horizon, at all.

What was even worse was the fact that there was no sun. It was still a blue sky, but you could look anywhere and everywhere, and the sun never glared in your eyes, because there was, actually, no sun to see. It left him wondering where all the light came from then. He couldn't find the light source anywhere, and the nonexistent shadows weren't any help.

Well, he wouldn't think about it. The summons, all shapes and sizes (some larger than small trees and others smaller than a flower) was an almost hypnotic change compared to his rather dull life in a forest.

"Are you focusing?"

Kitsuna glanced towards his father, who had changed into his human form. He couldn't be a fox because a) His tails were very powerful, and one accidental sweep could blow the summons away, b) It would attract too much attention and c) He got to wear cool clothes. He was currently wearing a red and black attire with a large, red sword that he hardly ever used.

Kitsuna was six years old and his shoulder was as high as his father's human shoulder height. His single tail flicked behind him.

"Sure, father. So who was it we were meeting?"

The Kyuubi and King of Bijuu inclined his head at the question and smiled daintily.

"You should not make a habit of forgetting important names, son." he chided in a soft voice. Kitsuna flattened his ears a notch.

"I do have a good memory! It's just that I've gotten distracted and forgotten them…" Kitsuna replied.

The Kyuubi gave him a strange look, before chuckling heartily, his flowing red hair dancing.

By now, a few of the wiser summons had noticed their presence. Their chakra was suppressed, but they were large enough to still be felt. One summon, a crane, met them and bowed. The crane had obviously been informed of their arrival.

"Kyuubi-sama, Kitsuna-sama, we are honoured to be in your presence. Please follow me," the crane said with a rather feminine voice.

They were led to an extremely tall stone wall, that bordered what was definitely a large ground behind it. (big enough to hold lots of summons the size of Gamabunta) with two tiger summons guarding an equally large grey door, or arch, for lack of better term. The tigers bowed, and stepped aside, and the massive doors that looked extremely heavy slid inwards and open. Inside, the ground was covered in luscious green grass, much like outside, but here there was also a small creek funning through, and also many summons milling around. But there were only three different summons here.

Slugs, snakes, and toads.

There was another enclosed area at the back, this time with a large archway and no doors. They were led there, and walked through a short passageway into light again, and immediately met three of the largest summons. A large red toad (only one with clothes) sat in the middle, and to its left a large white and blue slug, and to its right a large purple and black snake with its body curled up on the floor.

All three bowed.

"Kyuubi-sama, it has been a while," the toad said.

"Indeed it has, Gamabunta-sama. I hope you are all well," he replied. The summons nodded their head.

"Ssaa, and this is your son?" the snake said.

"Yes, he is Kitsuna."

"Hhmm, he has great potential," he said, before turning towards the small fox, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Manda."

Kitsuna bowed his head. The slug slithered forward a bit.

"Hello Kitsuna-sama," she spoke in a feminine voice, "I am Katsuyu, queen of the slug summons."

"I am Gamabunta, boss of the toad summons. It is a pleasure to meet you."

The Kyuubi held out his hands.

"My gift to you."

Red chakra swirled, and a large scroll appeared, he put it vertically on to the ground. He repeated this two more times, so three scrolls stood in front of him.

A few large black beetles came from behind the three summons, grasping the scrolls in their mandibles and taking them back into the building.

"Our gift to you," Gamabunta said, and from behind, and lizard crawled out, a box on its back. The lizard made its way to the pair. The Kyuubi bent down and opened the box, bringing out a large, gold necklace with black beads. The lizards bowed before heading back.

"It will completely conceal your chakra when you want it too, so as to not allow you to be detected," Manda said.

The Kyuubi put it on, and in a swirl of chakra, grew to his true form. Kitsuna thought the necklace would break immediately, but to his surprise, it grew with him, not hanging comfortably on the large fox's neck. The nine tails swished contentedly behind. Soon the fox disappeared, and his human form stood there once more. He bowed to the summons.

"Thank you. We shall leave now."

A shriek of laughter sounded behind, and they turned to see a small snake slithering out of the walkway, quickly followed by a medium sized snake. The little snake took one look at Kitsuna before leaping at him with a loud cry of "FOOD!"

The little snakes attack was instantly stopped by a large purple and black tail, belonging to Manda. The snake slammed into the hard skin, before slipping heavily onto the floor. It raised itself again, shaking its head.

The larger snake finally caught up, panting heavily. "I-I'm so sorry! Please forgive her! Kuki-chan! What did I say about running off?!"

Manda brought his tail back and formally bowed to Kitsuna.

"My apologies. Some of my snakes are very young and don't know better."

Kitsuna just smiled, "It's okay. Though I've never been called food before…" The Kyuubi smiled too, and quickly took his hand of the hilt of his sword.

"But you are food!" the little snake known as Kuki shouted, and was met with a loud "Kuki-chan!" from the older snake.

"But daddy, you said foxes are tasty treats!"

"Mortal foxes! Can't you see this is a demon fox?"

Kuki squinted at Kitsuna for a while, before announcing loudly, "He doesn't look so tough!"

This was met with a lot of raised brows and a few chuckles from the two demons.

"Well I'm tougher than you!" Kitsuna said.

"Yeah right! I could beat you in a fight anytime!" Kuki argued back.

"I'd like to se-"

"Kitsuna, enough. We are leaving now." The Kyuubi interrupted. Kitsuna laughed, and followed his father, but not before showing his pearly whites to the small pouting snake.

"Bye Kuki-chan!"

Kuki hissed angrily back at him. "I'll get you someday, when I'm as big as a house!"

"I'll be waiting!" Kitsuna replied back, before disappearing into the hallway.

-- End Flashback! – (Long, I know…)

They both laughed at that memory.

"I never got to see you again! How are you?" Naruto asked.

"I have been very well, thank you. After you had left, Father and Lord Manda had a long talk with me and put me on cleaning duty for a week as punishment!"

Naruto laughed loudly at that. Then suddenly remembered.

"What are you doing here anyway?"

Kuki stopped, and then remembered. "Lord Orochimaru summoned me to eat you so he could fight the Uchiha boy…"

"Huh, haven't heard of this Orochimaru… I guess we should find them, do you mind helping?

Kuki shook her head furiously. "Not at all, Naruto-sama! It would be my pleasure after nearly eating you!"

Naruto grinned before leaping onto her head, and they were off!

(1): This was his temporary name for his first five years alive. I hope Kitsuna doesn't sound too feminine.

Can anyone tell me whether Manda is the king of snakes? I researched and it only said he was the main summon of Orochimaru?

-- If you are curious to know what was in the scrolls, it was jutsu. You can pick what jutsu though.

Wow, that is probably my longest chapter yet! Anyway, please review! It encourages me to make updates faster!!