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 is obviously out of question, only one option remains...

Warnings: Male slash, yaoi, lemons, some violence, cursing, minor character bashing (Kagome)... ok, more than just minor Kagome bashing ^^

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

Disclaimer: don't own anything T.T

"Talking"

"Demon talking"

'Thinking'

'Inner demon'

Dreams/flashbacks

Chapter 8: Snake in the grass

"… . Che. Let's go back to the village, I'm hungry." Inuyasha said, hoping to change the topic; not liking the direction the conversation had taken, "And you, kitsune, you'll come with us and fix this mess. What's your name by the way? I'm Inuyasha!"

"Naruto," the blonde answered absentmindedly.

'Now I remember where I have heard of him before. He's that bastard Sesshomaru's baby brother. Just my luck', he thought wearily.

"So you're called Naruto? How old are you? That was a great prank." The young fox child babbled to Naruto on the way to the village, bouncing excitedly on the balls of his feet.

Personally, he wasn't nearly as fond of the idea to return to the very same village he had pranked just some hours ago as the kit was. He had pranked enough people in his long, demon lifetime to know what to expect from his victims. Being lynched by a bunch of angry villagers wasn't really on top of his to-do-list. It had been one of the tamer prank in his repertoire… but after seeing the way the wannabe priestess reacted to her new complexion he really didn't want to go back to face the rest of the villagers. Besides, the humans in Edo didn't seem to like demons very much, at all. So why the hell was he returning to the village again?

"Because you are curious about the hanyou. You want to see what he's like. You want to see if he's anything like Sesshomaru described him," Naruto's youkai commented.

"Yeah, and curiosity killed the cat. I don't have a good feeling about this whole thing."

"Come on, it's not like you can't escape anytime you want and you're not exactly a damsel in distress. One little shunshin and you're out of there."

"Oh… Right," the blond answered sheepishly, "I forgot all about that for a moment."

"… "

"Hey! Hey YOU! BLONDIE!" Shippo yelled right into Naruto's ear, ripping the blonde from his thoughts.

"Huh? What? What's wrong with you? Why are yelling at me?" Naruto asked, annoyed, rubbing his abused ear with his hand.

"You weren't answering my questions! I asked you the same question about ten times already." The little kitsune whined.

"Yes, kit, my name is Naruto. Thank you for the compliment. But it was a very simple prank. You should have seen the pranks pulled when I was a kit." The blonde explained patiently. He couldn't help himself, the child was really adorable.

"Why do you look nothing like Shippo if you are a fox demon? You have no tail or anything else like that." Kagome interrupted impatiently, obviously annoyed that the whole situation didn't turn out how she had expected it to.

"It's because he's not just any fox demon." Inuyasha announced.

"Have you heard of him before, my friend?" The monk inquired.

"Not of him in particular." The half demon replied cryptically.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The green-faced girl cut in again in her shrill voice.

"It means that he's special. He's obviously from a royal bloodline. Kitsune, all demons actually, that are born into a royal clan are born in humanoid from and learn to shift to animal sometime in their early years. Low-born demons are born in animal form and learn to turn humanoid with age. My brother is another example for a scion of a royal bloodline." The hanyou explained, irritated by her behavior.

"Wow, Inuyasha. You're really knowledgeable in these things, aren't you?" The demon slayer interjected in a surprised tone. None noticed the small flinch that went through Naruto's body at the mention of the demon lord.

"Of course I am. You do remember that I'm the child of a demon lord and a human princess, don't you? I had to learn all that shit when I was a kid. My mother wanted me to know about my heritage. It was very important for her." Inuyasha replied mirthlessly.

"I did forget that. But just because you act nothing like a prince and more like a brute. It's like you were born in a cave or something." Kagome sighed exuberantly.

"Well at least he doesn't go around dressed like a whore." Naruto mumbled under his breath, irked by the way she was talking about her friend.

"What was that?"She demanded sharply, having heard what the blonde had said despite his muttering.

"I said that you …"

„Hey, Naruto! So… how did you do it?" The young kitsune kit asked the blond suddenly, returning to his earlier line of questions. Obviously scenting another conflict and changing the topic before the situation could escalate.

„ How did I do what, kit?" The other replied, bewildered by the sudden interruption.

"…What did you do to the well to turn all of the villagers green?" Shippo asked for what felt like the thousand time.

"Hmm? Oh, just some harmless herbs, the color should wear off anytime now." The blonde answered, letting Shippo change the subject without a fight. He wasn't really in the mood for another argument with the girl. He'd had enough confrontations for one day.

"Harmless, my ass." Kagome mumbled none too quietly. Apparently she wasn't quite ready to give up the fight.

"Listen, just what the hell is your problem with me anyways? It was a goddamned prank. It's nothing permanent, so fuck off already. Dear god, you act as if nobody ever pulled a prank on you. You travel with a fox kit for Kami's sake, don't tell me he has never pulled a prank you. I don't see you screaming for his blood," Naruto ranted, good god this girl annoyed the hell out of him.

"Inuyasha, don't let him talk to me like that!"

"Can't you do anything on your own? Inuyasha do this, Inuyasha do that. If I were you, doggy boy, I would have run off screaming years ago. Maybe he should also carry you around, since you're not able to survive by yourself. Should he remind you to breathe too?"

"…So Naruto-san, you seem to be very young in demonic terms, how come you are traveling on your own?" The monk asked in another attempt to change the topic.

"Huh? Oh, yes, I am actually. At first my great grandfather didn't really want me to travel on my own, he had wanted me to wait until after mating season and wanted to send at least a dozen guards with me. But I prefer to travel on my own. Besides, spending mating season at court is a form of torture in my opinion. In the end my grandfather let me go on my own, I can be very convincing when I want to be. Besides, I can take care of myself."

"Could have fooled me," Inuyasha muttered.

"Hey, I could so kick your ass if I tried. And I could have run at anytime, I'm a lot faster than you," Naruto answered, sticking his tongue out at the hanyou.

"Anyways, Naruto-san, I wanted to ask you something. Your markings are a sign of royalty, which territory does your clan rule over? Who is the current Lord? How far down the line of succession are you? Will you rule someday?" The demon slayer asked.

"Che, don't you humans know anything. The South is ruled by the Kitsune clan. Their current lord is called Yuuki or something, as far as I know he doesn't have any family since his kid dropped off the face of earth." The hanyou answered in Naruto's place.

"…Actually, he does. Lord Yuuki of the South is my grandfather. Or rather, great grandfather."

"So you're a little princess," Inuyasha commented smirking.

"Hey! I'll show you princess, asshole." Naruto yelled preparing to jump Inuyasha for his comment.

"Now, now. No fighting, childeren." Miroku said amused.

Pouting in disappointment, Naruto crossed his arms, abandoning his attack on Inuyasha. The hanyou just snickered at that, ignoring the glare the blonde sent his way.

"You're really good at keeping people from fighting, Miroku," Sango commented chuckling at the childish behavior of their companions.

"Yes, I am. I'm so glad you took notice. I bet I would be just as good with children. Children squabble all the time. What do you say, Sango? Do you want to find out? Will you mother my children, my dear?" The monk replied enthusiastically, taking Sango's hands in his and kneeling in front of her.

The slap he got in return resounded throughout the whole forest, startling the birds all around them, and it left a bright red handprint on Miroku's face. Then Sango stalked off in a huff.

"Does this happen often?" The blonde fox demon asked bemusedly after watching that display.

"Yeah, happens all the time. But usually she hits him because Miroku is a big pervert. He's always trying to grab her bum. But I think Sango kind of likes it. She gets terribly angry when he's making advances towards other girls. But don't tell her I said that, she's really scary when she's angry," The redhead whispered conspiratorially.

"Yeah, girls are usually absolutely terrifying when they're angry. Kit, whatever you do, when a girl asks you whether you think she's fat, run for your life. There is no right answer for that question." Naruto whispered back shuddering as he remembered the time he told Sakura that she looked as if she had gained weight. He had been pretty naïve back then and he had absolutely no clue how to deal with girls. He had been hiding out from Sakura for a whole week.

"So, just out of curiosity, how long do we have to walk 'til we reach that damn village?" Naruto asked no one in particular. He was getting pretty nervous. He really didn't want to know what would the villagers do to him should they get their hands on him. It could get very ugly.

'Oh, come on. Don't be such a baby. They are just humans. And they're not even the tough chakra-wielding version, like the humans of Konoha. It won't be that bad. It's not like we have to stand still and endure everything they throw at us. As soon as they try something, we're out of there.' Naruto's youkai said, trying to placate the blonde.

'Right. You're absolutely right. There's really nothing to be afraid of. They're just humans.'

'Besides, we have big blue eyes, long blonde hair and are pretty cute. We'll use that to our advantage, should it come down to it. No human could hurt something so cute and angelic looking.'

'Well, I can just hope that you're right. I'm too young to die.'

'And far too beautiful.'

'… God, I can't believe it, my inner demon is a narcissist.'

'Am not.'

'…Whatever.'

Finally, after what seemed like hours of walking, Naruto could see the outlines of a village in the distance. Without his human companions, or rather his human ballast as he had been calling them inwardly, he could have been there hours ago. How the other demons could stand the pace at which their human companions traveled Naruto couldn't even begin to understand. Even when he had been still a shinobi of Konoha, he had hated to travel with civilians, preferring to travel the ninja way, jumping at high speed from tree to tree. Traveling at such a slow pace made him restless. He had too much energy for that. And he had far too much time to think about all the pranks he couldn't pull and all the things he couldn't do because he was wasting so much of his time being a slowpoke. Sometimes he really hated his hyperactive kitsune nature. Young kitsune, especially those who haven't reached their maturity yet, usually had a mischievous streak a mile wide, or so Naruto had heard from his great grandfather.

Before they had even come close to the village they could already see a lot of people assembled at its edge. Seeing that, Naruto swallowed nervously. It seemed that the villagers had been waiting for the return of Inuyasha and his gang of misfits. The people seemed a lot calmer compared to the last time Naruto had seen them, just after they had discovered what he had done to them, and the color of their skin was almost completely back to normal. Now Naruto was kind of glad that they had traveled at such a slow pace. Maybe now that the green color was wearing off and nobody had dropped dead the people would be less inclined to lynch him.

When they had finally reached the group of villagers an old woman in a miko garb, wearing an eye patch, welcomed back Inuyasha and his friends, ignoring Naruto at first

"So Inuyasha, I see you have found our culprit," the old women stated evenly.

"Keh. Sure I did." The hanyou answered self confidently.

"So, young man, how do you excuse your behavior?" She asked calmly, finally addressing Naruto. That wasn't the kind of reaction Naruto had expected from his victims. Particularly the humans of Edo had shown some very violent behavior after he had pranked them.

'Okay, now or never,' The blonde thought after he got over his surprise.

"Hehe, ugh… I didn't want to cause any harm. Honestly. It was just a prank, just some herbs I added to the water. Nothing harmful, I swear. It's a part of my nature. I'm a fox demon. I can't really help it," Naruto answered sheepishly. Though, he did have the grace to blush in embarrassment.

'Cuter, use your kicked puppy look.' His inner demon interjected.

"I see…" She replied sternly. For a second Naruto tensed in anticipation.

"…Well, no harm done, child. I guess we can let it slide this time. It's not the first time that the village was targeted by a fox demon. Little Shippo here can also be quite mischievous," the old lady replied fondly.

"Thank you," Naruto answered with a smile.

"WHAT? That's all?! He scared the hell out of the villagers and you say no harm done. Kaede, don't you think he should be punished?!" Kagome whined in disappointment.

"Child, I can hardly punish him for something that is in his nature. That would be the same as to punish someone for breathing. Don't be foolish," The old miko answered coolly, seemingly used to the young girl's childish behavior.

"But, Kaede, he.. "

"No, Kagome. Now be a good girl and behave." Kaede said forcefully.

"What's wrong with you people? Gahh. I can't stand to be here anymore. Inuyasha, I'm going home. Come get me when all of you are back to normal and ready to apologize for how you have treated me. But only when that thing is gone. I really don't want to deal with him anymore," Having said her part, the girl turned heel with an angry huff and stormed off into the direction of the forest on the other side of the village.

"Good riddance," Naruto mumbled.

"So, old hag, do we get something to eat today? Chasing down fox demons makes hungry," Inuyasha said after Kagome was out of sight, obviously used to that kind of behavior from the girl.

"Of course, Inuyasha. I made some stew for you. I have also saved some rare meat for you, Shippo and Kirara. Now that Kagome has gone home you won't have to hide it. You're also welcome to join us, young kitsune, after you introduce yourself, of course."

"Yummy." Shippo squealed enthusiastically.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the blonde replied bewildered, "where are my manners? My name is Naruto."

"He's the grandson of a demon lord, a little princess," Inuyasha interrupted cheekily.

"I am not."

"Sure you are."

"Don't tease the lad, Inuyasha."

"Party-pooper," Inuyasha mumbled, something that earned him a hit from Kaede's walking stick.

"Ouch, you old hag. You don't have to hit me." The hanyou complained. Snickering at his misfortune, Naruto followed the pair into the village, the rest of the group right behind them.

In the Western Palace councilman Itomaru was beside himself with rage. Sesshomaru, that stupid pup, had left the palace to run after the damn fox. Just after he had thought that the blonde finally was out of his hair, the idiot had to run after him. For a few days things had looked so promising. The deadline of the council was slowly running out and there had been no other competition to deal with.

Oh, he knew that the stubborn lord wouldn't choose his daughter by his own volition, but that hardly mattered. He wouldn't choose any of the other candidates either. In the end the council would decide over that matter. And since he was the only councilman with enough political weight, among other resources, his success was just about guaranteed.

He was so furious that he had destroyed a good part of his office in a fit of rage. He was just about to smash a few more things when his daughter stormed his office. Just from the look on her face he knew that he would need a lot of nerve to deal with her.

"Oto-san, do you know what that old bastard Rei Inu just told me? Lord Sesshomaru has left the palace!" She cried indignantly.

"Thank you for that useless piece of information, Kaori. Why don't you tell me something I don't already know?" He snapped at her.

"You knew? Why didn't you do something?"

"By the time I was told of his sudden departure it was already far too late. Rei Inu enjoyed himself very much when he informed me that his grandson left."

"Well, send someone after him! Do something! My future as Lady of the West is on the line!" She shrieked hysterically.

Faster than the girl could blink Itomaru moved, backhanding Kaori across the face. Gracelessly she fell on her behind.

"Control yourself." He snarled angrily. Kaori watched him wide-eyed, clutching her red check with her hand.

"All of this could have been avoided had you done your job. It's a good thing that I still have an ace up my sleeve."

"Oto-san?" His daughter asked meekly.

"I had hoped that Sesshomaru would lose interest in the blonde pest after he left the palace. But that doesn't mean that I haven't prepared for the eventuality. If everything goes according to plan, Sesshomaru will come too late to win back his beau."

"Too late?"

"Yes, too late. The blonde will either be already mated or dead." He explained.

'I just hope that Katsuro had enough time to accomplish his mission. I didn't expect Sesshomaru to set out so soon." Itomaru thought uneasily.

Floating several hundred feet above ground, Sesshomaru took a deep breath, scenting the air for any traces of Naruto's scent.

'He sure travels fast.' His inner demon commented impressed.

'That alone wouldn't be much of a problem. Somehow he seems to disappear from time to time. His scent just disappears and reappears miles away. It is incredible frustrating to lose Naruto's scent trail all the time.'

'I bet it is the same trick he used to escape us that one time we had him cornered.'

'Kami, I wish he'd never left the castle. Everything would have been so much easier.'

'Well, you can only fault yourself for that.'

'…You'll never live that down, will you?' The young lord asked exasperatedly.

'I do not think so. No.'

Annoyed would be the best way to describe the way Sesshomaru was feeling at the moment. Annoyed and truly frustrated. Initially he had hoped that it would be easy to find Naruto and to convince him to return to the Western palace. It didn't take long for him to grasp that finding his little kitsune wouldn't be as easy as he had imagined. He had hoped it would take two days or three at most and now he had been looking for the blond for more than a week. Still, he hadn't found him.

He had tried to follow Naruto's scent after leaving his palace but his future mate was not as easily traced as he had believed. Every time the demon lord thought he was getting close to Naruto his scent would suddenly disappear.

For a short moment he had thought the blond was doing it on purpose. Naruto's was certainly mischievous enough for that kind of thing. But Naruto couldn't have possibly known that somebody would follow him. He had no reason to believe that Sesshomaru would go after him, not after the way the two of them had parted.

He had needed some time to find an explanation for the reoccurring disappearance of Naruto's scent. Why would he change locations so often? And so suddenly? Then, after he had discovered multiple human villages where the villagers were desperately trying to wash different colors off their cattle, their clothes, their houses, their hair etc he finally knew why Naruto's scent disappeared frequently and that the young fox demon had a certain fondness for the color orange.

For some reason the blonde was on a pranking rampage and was obviously using his secret disappearing technique to vanish from the crime scenes. Though, somehow, Sesshomaru knew that he was probably the reason for Naruto's behavior. Even when the blonde had still been staying at the palace, the number of his pranks seemed to increase every time the two of them had clashed.

Regardless, he admitted that some of the pranks were really impressing. In one village he had somehow covered the hands of the people in a sticky substance. Some of the villages had been stuck with their hands in very embarrassing places. Some were stuck with their finger in their nose, with their hand in their pants or even in the pants of someone else. And those were only some of the tamer possibilities. Even he could resist a smirk at that particular prank. Still, it was annoying him to no end that he had to find Naruto's scent all over again.

But losing the blonde's scent all the time wasn't the only problem the demon lord had to deal with. The biggest problem so far was that Naruto didn't stay in one place for more than a few hours at a time and that made it nearly impossible for him to gain on his future mate.

He didn't have much time left to find the blonde, the mating season would begin soon and if he couldn't find Naruto in time he would be forced to mate with one of the children of his councilmen, or worse, Kaori. He shuddered at the thought alone; he would rather commit incest and mate with his own brother before he even touched that stupid bitch. He didn't want to spend the rest of his long, long lifetime with a bitch that mated with him because she wanted to be the next Lady of the West.

Besides, as the Lord of the West, he needed to have an heir and he didn't want someone as weak as Kaori to be the mother of his future children. Kaori was also a very shallow and uncaring person so he didn't believe she would be able to love any children they would have. She most probably wouldn't want to have more than one child either, since she was always so terribly worried about her thin figure. And he certainly didn't want his children to inherit her stupidity and her obvious mental disorder, which was the only possible explanation for her absolute lack of common sense and self-preservation.

Naruto was everything Kaori was not. He was caring, strong, independent and intelligent. He wasn't spoiled or squeamish and wasn't afraid to do some work on his own. Kaori wouldn't survive a day without her servants.

Sesshomaru's could only hope for Naruto to take a break somewhere for a day or two, that would give him just enough time to catch up.

In contrast to Sesshomaru, another person didn't have as much trouble to follow Naruto. Unlike the demon lord, Katsuro didn't have to rely on scents to follow his prey; he could see and feel the smallest traces of youki any demon left behind. Out of all the personal mercenaries Lord Itomaru hat at his disposal Katsuro was the best tracker. Even among other snake demons, his senses were superior. With a simple flick of his tongue he could track even the smallest traces of youki over several miles.

But he had to admit that this time his prey was a bit of a challenge. When he had first received his mission he had been a bit disappointed and had thought that the mission would be done quickly. Who would have thought that the grandson of the Lord of the South would turn out to be so hard to track? Usually the children of nobles were absolutely useless when they left their homes. After being pampered all their life they were helpless like newborns when they were out on their own. He had thought the Lord of the South an idiot for letting his grandson out of his sight so close to mating season.

It seemed there was more to the blonde than he believed. Oh, he couldn't wait to get his hands on the little morsel.

Before he had discovered that the blonde fox was more than just a spoilt noble he had seriously contemplated killing the kit and get over it. Since his mission was either to mate the boy or to kill him. He had thought him beautiful, but beauty alone wasn't a good enough reason for him to spend the rest of his lifetime bound to a pampered prince. Because even though he worked for them, he hated nobles with a passion.

But since he knew that the fox not just a pretty face, his plan to kill him went out of the window. He would enjoy claiming the little blonde over and over all through the mating season. The fact that the boy had caught the eyes of Lord Sesshomaru just sweetened the deal. The lord would probably burst with envy when he learned that a lowly snake demon succeeded where he had failed.

Now he only had to overwhelm the fox. And he had to be extra careful. The fact that it had taken so long to track him down made it clear that he had very little information concerning his target. He had no clue whether the boy could defend himself or not. The lack of information could prove to be very dangerous and could endanger the whole mission.

His best shot would probably be to take the blonde unaware. Injecting the boy with his paralyzing poison was also an option…and one that had already been successful.

Author's note: Sooo, finally I finished rewriting all of the old chapters of my story. Now there's only new stuff coming. At that note, I should probably say that from now it's possible that updating could take a bit longer. Though I hope that I will be able to avoid that. The next chapter is about halfway finished and I have heaps of notes. So if real life doesn't get in the way there should be no problems.

Thank you for reading. Sorry for the delay, I had learn for an exam ( it was horrible XD) . I hoped you enjoyed it.

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