Summary: Uchiha Sasuke isn't someone Naruto would want to spend the rest of his life with - especially since his life as a fox demon won't end anytime soon. Too bad that his wishes don't matter to Sasuke; since suicide's obviously out of question, only one option remains... .

Author's note: This chapter has been beta'd by 'XxDreaming of RealityxX'

Author's note the 2nd : Ok, sooo... after years of service my faithful notebook has decided to die on me... now, no reason to panic, nothing was lost (all hail the wonderful invention that is dropbox). Seeing as I have to buy a new notebook the upload of the next chapter could be delayed.

Warnings: Male slash, yaoi, lemons (non-elaborate), some violence, cursing, minor character bashing (mostly Kagome)

Disclaimer: don't own anything T.T

"Talking"

"Demon talking"

'Thinking'

'Inner demon'

Dreams/flashbacks

Chapter 2: Welcome to Edo

Sesshomaru, Lord of the Western Lands, was on his way to the council meeting when he first met Naruto.

Naruto didn't have a clue where the hell he was. One moment he was getting molested by a crazed Sasuke and then, suddenly, he was in an unfamiliar room surrounded by armed strangers. He got rid of Sasuke, ok, but now he was on the run again. The last thing he needed at the moment was to be surrounded by unfamiliar males. He had nearly been raped and he was hurt and bleeding and… alone. And the best thing was, he lost so much blood, thanks to his injuries, he was getting dizzy and would surely pass out any moment now. The only reason he was able to move at all, despite the dizziness and the pain, was his inner demon, who had taken over his body for the moment while Naruto himself had taken the backseat.

'For Kami's sake! What is this place? A palace? Why is it so fucking huge? I'll never find a way out of here, damn..!.' Naruto thought in despair.

'We need to find a way out of here soon. Not even I can keep us moving in this condition for much longer.'

'Well shit,' Naruto cursed, 'God, please. I just want to get out of here.'

He was so preoccupied with cursing his bad luck and frantically looking for an escape route that he didn't notice the tall white haired man walking straight at him. That is, until they collided.

Sesshomaru, Lord of the West, was in a very bad mood. The Council of Elders had sent for him, again, because of his non-existing mating problems. Why couldn't they just leave him alone? For Kami's sake, he wouldn't mate to some whiney bitch just for the sake of producing an heir.

If he was to mate, he'd need to find someone he could stand to be around for more than a few minutes, at first. Unfortunately he hadn't met someone like that, yet.

Of course, the Daiyoukai of the Western Lands had high expectations for a mate. For one, he was really not into females. Most of them were weak, clingy and only interested in money, power or status. Females like that had been throwing themselves onto him, since he matured over 300 years ago, right, left and centre. Of course there were females that weren't like that, but obviously all the decent ones were already mated or had simply no interest to mate.

The males weren't that much better though. True, they weren't all that weak. But he had yet to encounter one he didn't want to kill after five minutes in their company.

'I need a good idea on how to avoid getting mated this time. This Sesshomaru won't be forced to mate some weak bitch! And I certainly won't consent to mate to any children of the elders. Those are the worst candidates of all. Those weaklings are spoilt rotten and obviously mentally retarded. If you take a look at their parents. If they think I don't know what they really want, they've got another thing coming.'

He was so lost in his thoughts that the grey blur that was coming his way went unnoticed. Only when the same dusty blur crashed into him at full speed he came back to reality. The figure was thrown backwards and landed with a pained yelp on the floor in front of him.

Taking a closer look Sesshomaru identified the blur to be a young male youkai. He was a kitsune youkai, at least according to his smell. The young male was obviously heavily injured and he was covered in blood and dust from head to toe. A long katana was lodged deep into the young one's bleeding shoulder and the upper part of his body was mostly uncovered but for some ripped pieces of clothing. He couldn't see much of the boys face or distinguish his hair color because of the dust.

Though as the young youkai looked up Sesshomaru discovered the most stunning pair of eyes he'd ever seen. Beautiful blue eyes the sky itself would be jealous of.

The boy stiffened when he noticed him. His terrified blue eyes flickered red. As if the demon inside the boy was trying to take over. For a moment the two of them kept staring at each other.

A moment later Rei Inu and some of the guards hurried down the hall in their direction.

In an instant the young kitsune was back on his feet, trying to make a run for it with a speed that seemed impossible in his current state. On instinct Sesshomaru caught the boys wrist non to gently, halting the young ones escape in its track.

As soon as the youkai realized he was caught he started trashing and growling, trying to escape Sesshomaru's hold. Obviously panicking, the kitsune ripped the katana out of his shoulder, splashing the Lord of the West with his blood as he swung the sword at him in another attempt to free himself. It was a good attempt, but Sesshomaru had years of experience on the young one concerning fighting. Before the kitsune could even blink Sesshomaru had already caught his other wrist with his free hand.

Before the boy could begin to struggle anew, his grandfather, Rei Inu, knocked him out with a well placed blow to his neck. Like a puppet whose strings were cut the kitsune collapsed into Sesshomaru's hold. The katana clattered to the floor uselessly.

"You should go to your meeting with the Elders, pup. I have the situation under control. I'll take out little fox here to the healer." said the old dog demon, taking the boy from a stunned Sesshomaru's hold. The whole situation had happened so fast and was so surprising that even the Lord of the West was perplexed. His grandfather was already on his way to the healer's wing before Sesshomaru had even really grasped what happened.

"What situation, Ojii-sama? You will have to explain." the Lord of the West called after him.

'What was that?' Sesshomaru thought as he continued to the council chambers.

Rei Inu ignored the questions from his grandson in favor of getting to the healer as fast as possible. The young kitsune he was currently carrying was in a horrible state.

'Where did he come from?' the old inu-youkai wondered as he hurried along the corridor.

The young boy intrigued him. It didn't happen every day that a young demon appeared inside the council chamber in a flash of golden light, seemingly out of nowhere. Though kitsune were known for their magical abilities, teleportation was a very rare ability even among the most powerful of them. He wasn't even sure the young one had teleported at all. Usually a lot of smoke was involved in the process of kitsune teleportation.

'That must be the most exciting that has happened in a while,' he thought. Life in the palace was rather boring for a demon that was as old as him. He had had a rather exciting life in his youth.

At the moment though that mattered little since he was very worried. The kit was in a bad shape. Though the boy's wounds had mostly stopped bleeding, the young one seemed to have lost a lot of blood, if all of the blood on him turned out to be his. Though another male scent clung to the boy, none of the blood on him smelt of anyone else but the young fox.

Rei Inu hadn't come very far before he noticed that the young one had developed a fever. It looked like he hadn't able to bleed out all the poison. The old dog demon increased his pace in worry.

Now he was even more impressed that the young one had been able to move, much less run halfway across the palace in his state.

'Quite stubborn, this one!' he chuckled as he hurriedly opened the door to the healers room with his foot. Gently he placed the injured boy on the bed in the corner of the room.

"You'll be fine, young one," he said when the boy whimpered in pain and went looking for Norio, the best healer the palace had to offer.

Sesshomaru's little get together with the council of elders really wasn't going well. They had been discussing his future mating for hours now and they still weren't making any progress. Somehow Sesshomaru has been able to keep his temper under control. Though now he wished he'd just killed the old dogs. Life would be so much easier for all parties concerned.

"This Sesshomaru will not be talked into mating. Nor even my grandfather had been able to convince me to take a mate. Why did you believe I would listen to you? I will decide myself when and who I see fit to mate." he said, his voice void of any emotion.

"That is exactly the problem, my lord. There is no one you deem worthy. There are so many willing candidates, both male and female. Yet you do not even spare them a passing glance. We gave you more than enough time already. Three hundred years should have been more than enough time to find a suitable mate. If you do not find an appropriate mate of your own by the end of the next mating season, we will pick one for you. This is our final decision, my lord" said Itomaru.

"You seem to forget that I am your Lord. I do not have to give in to your demands," the young lord sneered.

"That may be so. But you seem to forget that you need the support of the inuyoukai clans to rule the Western lands. The clans have tolerated the fact that you have no mate and no heir for a long time now. I do not think they will do so for much longer," the elder countered smirking.

'And you're absolutely innocent in that regard, of course' Sesshomaru thought, growling.

"Do not waste too much time brooding, my lord. Four months is a rather short time for such an endeavor," Itomaru said at the young lord's growl.

After that the elders left the council chambers. And Sesshomaru was left alone, boiling with rage. How for kami's sake was he supposed to find a worthy mate in four months?

After regaining the control over his emotions, he went to find his grandfather. He still wanted an explanation or the episode that had occurred on his way to meet the old farts.

'Would it be suspicious if all of the elders met their end in some gruesome accident?' he thought before finally he left the council chambers.

Just as he had predicted he found his grandfather lingering near the healer wing, right in front of Norio's chamber. He still seemed to be waiting for the healer to finish treating the young kitsune's injuries.

"Grandfather!" he addressed Rei Inu.

"Ah, Sesshou! How did your meeting go?" the other man asked, obviously amused.

" …."

"That good, huh?" said Rei Inu concerned.

"I need to find a mate until the end of the next mating season or they will force one onto me! Usually I wouldn't care what they want, but this time they use the clans as leverage. Itomaru said I would lose the support of the clans if I don't mate soon," he snarled.

"And I bet Itomaru spend a lot of time convincing them," his grandfather replied.

"How long do you think Norio will need to finish with our young guest?" Sesshomaru asked, eager to change the subject. He really didn't want to think on that at the moment.

"Hm? Well, that's hard to say. The young one had been poisoned. Though he had bled out most of the poison, he still developed a fever on the way here. The poison seemed to be a strong one. It's a real wonder the boy was able to move at all," answered the elder inu-youkai.

Then he went about explaining everything that happened in the council chambers. How the young fox had appeared out of nowhere, heavily injured and how he had fled in panic.

"That boy is really tough. High pain tolerance. It was rather impressive how he just ripped that sword out of his shoulder. He must have been really scared. I'm really curious about how he got here, especially in that state," the old man continued.

"We will have to wait until he regains consciousness. We can't do anything but wait at the moment."

The first think Naruto noticed, when he slowly came to, was that he was lying on a soft bed. He was feeling very disorientated though. Slowly, he opened his eyes. He didn't recognize the place. He was alone in a spacious room lying on a big bed. The place reminded him a bit of a hospital since it smelled strongly of herbs and medicine. Foolishly Naruto tried to sit up. It was a stupid idea; he instantly regretted it. Everything had started spinning the moment he had moved his head from his pillow and he had had to lie back down at once. Only then he noticed that his body was hurting all over, though especially his shoulder, and that his head was throbbing painfully. As if that wasn't bad enough his throat was felling dry and the blonde felt like he would die of thirst. Groaning he forced his eyes to open once again.

Trying to get up again would have to wait a bit it seemed.

Once everything had finally stopped spinning Naruto took some time to take in his surroundings. The light in the room was rather dim, the only light was coming from the moon that shone through the high windows of the room. In spite of that the young kitsune could make out the details of the room rather well, thanks to his demonic senses.

The room he was in was rather spacious though sparely furnished. The furniture in the room consisted of a few beds, including the one he was laying on, a desk, a chair and several shelves filled with jars and bottles. That combined with the smell of medicine confirmed that he was indeed in some kind of hospital room. Surprisingly he was the only patient in the room, it seemed. He was completely on his own, no medical personnel in sight.

Considering the bits and pieces Naruto remembered of the events that had landed him here, he was somewhat surprised he didn't end up in a prison cell rather than a hospital room. He did remember that he had attacked someone with a sword. Now he really wondered why he was left unguarded.

'Maybe they think an injured person is not much of a threat?' he thought.

'Maybe an ordinary injured person. I do think we have shown them that we are not ordinary', Naruto's youkai commented.

Judging from the moon outside he must have slept for several hours at least. When he had appeared in this strange place it had still been light outside. The blonde was still feeling weak and slightly feverish, but better. Soon he would be completely recovered and would be able to make his escape from this stupid place, with too many floors and corridors.

It was then, while he was planning his escape, that Naruto heard voices outside the big wooden door of his room. He could make out three different voices, all of them male. Deciding that eavesdropping was his best option at the moment, he listened in.

Just outside that very door, Rei Inu, Sesshomaru and Norio the healer were discussing Naruto's condition. The young kitsune was definitely full of surprises.

To be able to treat the injured kit properly, the boy had to be washed first. Especially his injuries had to be cleaned carefully. The young one's body already had a poison to fight and an infection was about the last thing he needed. So Norio had ordered some of his assistants to bath him carefully.

The old healer nearly had a heart failure when he saw the young one after he had been cleaned up a bit. Long blonde hair, as bright as the sun, he had never seen such a shade before. But what surprised him more were the red stripes on the cheeks of the boy, three red whisker-like lines on each cheek. Those were royal marking that much was clear.

Once he had finished treating the young ones injuries he reported his discovery to his lord. And then things got complicated. There was only one royal fox demon clan in Edo. The South was ruled by a lord of this clan. The problem was that the relationship between the South and the West was about as bad as it could be. The South and the West had been on the edge of war with each other for several centuries. So they wouldn't know whether the fox demons missed one of their children.

This of course led to the question of what to do with the kit.

In the end Lord Sesshomaru had decided to send word to the Lord of the South, who was a very old fox demon and whom had been lord since before the time of Sesshomaru's grandfather. He had sent his fastest courier with a letter explaining the situation.

The only thing they could do now was to wait for an answer from the old lord.

Now that they had solved that problem and were waiting for the young fox to wake up Sesshomaru asked about the condition of the young fox demon for the first time.

"It is not too bad my Lord. None of his inner organs was injured. The sword narrowly missed a lung, he was lucky in that regard, so he should be healed up soon enough. He still has fever though; I do not recognise the poison he was poisoned with. It is not a lethal poison that much I can say. I believe the poison was used to temporarily paralyse my young patient. He was not able bleed out all of it, so it is a miracle that he could move at all. Much of his youki is depleted and if I had to guess I would say that my charge used his youki to keep moving. A very hard thing to accomplish but not impossible," explained the healer.

His lord Sesshomaru nodded in understanding but didn't say anything.

Norio's lips twitched at that, he was barely able to repress a smirk from forming on his face. He knew his lord long enough to be able to tell when someone caught his interest, though it didn't happen too often. He had been a healer in the palace since long before Sesshomaru's birth. He had been the one to treat all the scrapes and bruises of his infancy and all the wounds the young lord had earned in battle since he had reached adulthood.

"You can see him if you want to my Lord. You haven't seen him without the blood yet, he's a pretty thing once you get rid of the dirt." Norio teased.

Rei Inu who has been standing right next to them let out a chuckle. Norio was, beside himself of course, the only one who could tease his oldest grandson without losing his head. You can hardly behead a person who took care of you your whole life. In addition, it would really be a shame to lose such a competent healer.

Wordlessly Sesshomaru entered the room the young fox boy was resting in. Norio and Rei Inu were right behind him, trying hard not to grin.

When he heard the door to his room opening Naruto started panicking. What to do now? Should he fake sleep to escape questioning or should he just tell the truth? What would be the best thing to do in this situation?

Deciding against the idea of feigning sleep, he sat up to face the door. Lying wouldn't help him either way because any demon with his salt would able to smell a lie.

Then three male demons entered the room. Two of them had long flowing white hair and both of them seemed to be dog demons. What's more the two of them were obviously related, they smelt like family. The last male that had entered didn't look anything like the other two, though he too was an inu-youkai. He was not overly tall. His hair was long and pitch-black, he appeared no older than a human male of forty, yet he still felt very old. His youki felt older than that of any demon Naruto had ever met.

Though the two while haired males had an aura of authority about them, it was the third demon that had caught his interest. It was him who spoke first.

"I see you are awake, young one. How are you feeling?" he asked gently.

Not really knowing what else to say Naruto mumbled "fine", looking away from the other demons in the room.

The younger one of the two white haired dog demons kept staring at him strangely and that was making him kind of nervous. It was really annoying.

"It would be prudent of you to introduce yourself." he demanded, his voice commanding yet void of any emotion.

Naruto's eyebrow twitched at the demand.

"Where I'm from it is considered polite to introduce yourself first!" Naruto said while inwardly ranting, 'Rude asshole! Damn, he reminds me of the teme. Another emotionless bastard… There must be a nest somewhere! Oh god, what if it's contagious?!'

The demon let out a growl, obviously not used to be talked back to. Now he was glaring at Naruto for his perceived insolence.

'He he, still know how to push peoples buttons. And he makes it so easy, too.'

Naruto had to keep himself from snickering at the pissed of man. Riling up people was fun.

The older dog demon, putting his hand on the younger one's shoulder in a calming gesture, replied, "You are certainly right, young man, how rude of us. Allow me to introduce us. I am Rei Inu, the pup here is my grandson Sesshomaru– "

The one now called Sesshomaru bristled at being called a pup.

"- and the old man there is Norio. He is our best healer and it was him who took care of you while you were unconscious" Rei Inu continued ignoring his irritated grandson.

"Naruto" the kit mumbled, while thinking sullenly, 'There goes my theory of asshole-ness being contagious'

"So, Naruto, would you care to enlighten us as to how you appeared out of nowhere in the middle of our council chambers?" asked Rei Inu smirking at his grandson in victory.

"…"

"Come on child, tell us something about yourself" the old dog demon insisted lightly.

Naruto was pondering on what to tell him. Did he have to tell the truth?

'Yeah, sure! Hello, my name is Naruto and I just travelled through time and space to escape a psychotic childhood friend. That's so realistic!'

Now that he thought about it, it did sound crazy, maybe telling them the truth wasn't in his best interest.

"Look, I'm grateful to you, really. For treating my injuries and all that rot but I am leaving as soon as possible anyway, so there's no need for you to know anything about me. Besides I don't feel like telling you." he answered crossing his arms stubbornly before him.

"You will not leave without permission. And certainly not without explaining yourself," snarled an enraged Sesshomaru.

As Sesshomaru entered the healing room after Norio and his grandfather his eyes instantly swept to the young kitsune occupying one of the beds.

If he hadn't been Sesshomaru, Lord of the Western Land, his eyes would have popped right out of their sockets.

Instead of the dirty youth he encountered in his hallway sat a stunning beauty. Long golden hair and sky blue eyes were rarely seen in Edo. Even before the young kitsune had been given a bath he had already caught his interest. Their first meeting had been rather unforgettable. Never in all his years as the Lord of the West had anybody dared to attack him in his own palace. And though Sesshomaru was famous (or rather infamous) in Edo, the youth didn't seem to know who he was. Now he was truly intrigued.

His inner Youkai had also taken interest in the young one, though his motives were very of a different nature. It saw a potential mate in the blonde.

Sesshomaru paid it no mind, of course. He was used to ignoring his youkai. Sesshomaru wasn't someone who listened to his baser instincts very often. Though he could not deny the potential the fox had as a mate. He was a beauty and if he was able to escape his grandfather and some of his best warriors while heavily injured he had to be strong.

Overall he had had a good first impression of the kitsune. That is until the brat opened his mouth.

He actually had the nerve to reprimand his manners. He had grown up in a palace and has been tutored by the best teachers in the country. In his own palace no less.

'How dare him. My manners are flawless!' he thought, irritated.

'When you choose to employ them', his youkai commented.

'Be silent' the young lord snarled at his demon.

He let out a growl and glared at the fox. Only his grandfather's hand on his shoulder kept his temper in check.

The more the kitsune youkai; spoke the less Sesshomaru liked him. Though he introduced himself, he refused to give them any further information on his person.

As he started talking about leaving his palace as soon as he was able to, Sesshomaru had had enough.

'Letting him leave after I have already sent word to the Lord of the South about a young Kitsune youkai of royal blood in my palace would be political suicide.'

"You will not leave without permission. And certainly not without explaining yourself," he snarled angrily.

At that the youth narrowed his eyes, not looking very pleased.

"You have no right to keep me here! I do not belong here nor do I want to stay. This is not your decision to make, it is mine!" he spat back.

That was when Sesshomaru's grandfather interfered.

"Listen Naruto-kun, you cannot leave here. Not yet at least. Not without causing us a whole lot of problems. When you appeared in our palace we contacted the Lord of the South. He is the head of the Kitsune youkai clan. We had to contact him; since you are obviously too young to be on your own, as you have not yet reached your maturity. We thought that you might have gone missing and that your family was probably looking for you. Your leaving here, before he saw you, would cause us much trouble. And the West doesn't really need any more trouble with the South. We have been at the brink of a war for quite some time. You wouldn't want to be the cause of a war, would you?" he said calmly while giving Sesshomaru a scolding look.

The look made him feel like a fool for losing his cool with the young kitsune. He was centuries older and wiser, after all.

"Listen. That's really quite unnecessary. Nobody is looking for me. I have been an orphan my whole life. I'm sure that they won't be interested in me at all. I've never even been in the South," Naruto answered nervously.

"You will stay of your own free will and be treated as a guest. Or you try to leave and we will be forced to lock you up and treat you as a prisoner. Either way, you will stay at least until we heard from the South. We have already sent word. If their lord deems you important enough that he has to take a look at you, you will stay until he saw you" The Lord of the West stated before the kit could retort anything, regaining his cool.

"Fine then, no need to get so worked up. I'll stay until this Lord-guy saw me. But then I'm out of here," replied a pouting Naruto.

Sesshomaru's youkai stirred again at Naruto's submissive behaviour. Without saying another word he left the room before it could make any annoying comments.

"You're just lucky that starting an international incident isn't on my to do list this week," the young kitsune called after him.

I just hope that grandfather's family isn't around anymore. It has been several centuries after all' Naruto thought after he had been left alone to get some rest.

'Karma is a bitch... We'll never get that lucky. To demons, a few centuries are nothing. Knowing our luck they're probably still looking for him, too', Naruto's inner demon answered.

'Hmm. Let's hope grandfather's dad isn't mad at him anymore. They didn't part on good terms after all. At least judging from what I know from the old man Hokage,' the young man thought sleepily. Sleep sounded like a really good idea right now.

Meanwhile, in a grand palace, somewhere in the land of the Southern Lord.

The Lord of the South had been dealing with paperwork when a servant announced the arrival of a messenger from the Lord of the West. To say he was surprised would be a big understatement. This was the first message he had gotten from the Lord of the South for nearly half a millennium. They had been on the brink of war for quite some time. He really couldn't imagine why the young lord would write to him now.

When he finally opened the letter, the message shocked him beyond belief. A young kitsune of royal blood had appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the palace of the Western Lord?

'Maybe it is... Maybe he has finally forgiven me for disregarding his wishes. It's been so long', the old lord thought hopefully.

He never thought this day would come. His son knew how to hold a grudge.

"Prepare my fastest carriage and some of my best warriors," he shouted at the youkai that guarded the door to his study, his work completely forgotten.

"We are going to visit the Lord of the West."

His child had finally come home.

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