Chapter 4:

The foxes went into the town to scavenge food. Naruto didn't feel like following them. Sensing that Naruto's heart wasn't into this and that his mind was elsewhere, Ryosuke took Naruto to the mountain to chat. The climb was easier tonight. Naruto was getting better at this in record time.

Ryosuke and Naruto were left on the cliff alone, looking out at the night sky covering the town like a protective dome. Naruto had many questions. He had suspicions, too. Ryosuke waited for him to speak.

"So, I'm cursed, right?"

"Yes," said Ryosuke. "And since you keep changing form from night to day, it's obvious that's your curse. Otherwise, you would still be a fox no matter the time. Since I'm not the caster, I have to guess on the details of your curse based on what I see."

"But you're not the ones who cursed me. Are you?"

Ryosuke shook his head. "No."

"Then who did?"

Ryosuke lowered his head. His face darkened. Naruto must have struck some sort of nerve. Ryosuke looked very upset. Just as Naruto was about to apologize for saying something he shouldn't have, Ryosuke spoke up.

"Reevo."

Naruto's ears twitched. "What?"

"That's the name of the one who cursed you. His name is Reevo. And..." Ryosuke's sigh fell like a stone to the ground. "... he used to be one of us."

Naruto moved closer to make sure he heard everything Ryosuke had to say. "Another fox did this to me? A kitsune did this?"

He nodded. "Yeah. He's a two-tails. He's more powerful than us. Reevo the two-tails."

Naruto kept thinking of a two-tailed beast, but he was certain that this was still a kitsune they were talking about. "So why did he do this?"

Ryosuke sighed again. "It's a difficult subject, Naruto."

"Oh. Sorry." Naruto wanted to know what it was but if it was too upsetting there was no way it would happen. He had to drop the subject.

"But it is one you must hear."

Naruto looked up. He gave Ryosuke his undivided attention.

"We used to live together in the same pack. The one you know now. We used to be much bigger. Because we're hunted by humans, we tended to avoid them and lived in the wild. Humans hunted foxes for their fur and meat. They also trapped us and had us killed, convinced we were nothing but pests. An arrangement was made so that we could live in peace. As long as we were given offerings, we would not enter human villages and bother them. Which meant no digging through trash and no pranks. Everyone agreed. For many years, this was the arrangement and we lived in peace."

Naruto nodded. This explained why they were given offerings. Naruto had been wondering about that.

"However, Reevo wasn't satisfied. He hated living the way we were. Forced to dwell in the forest and call a mountain our home. And still, humans treated us like pests. We were still hunted for our fur and skinned. Any fox that was found in town was beat to death or chased away with terrible injuries. Reevo hated this. He said that foxes shouldn't be treated this way. Humans were treated better. He didn't want to live as a fox anymore. He wanted to live the life of a human. Humans got the best of everything. He would watch them; study them. He learned a lot."

"But he can't just live like a human," said Naruto. "There's no way. He's a kitsune and everyone can see that."

"Ah, but one day he got his wish," Ryosuke continued. "His tail split into two and he became a two-tails. With the additional tail, his power grew. He could now assume a human form. He could transform himself into a human being and fool everyone."

Naruto gasped. "He can turn himself into a human?"

"Yes. And he did. He told us that he was going to live a better life. He was going to live among humans as a human. He said he would never have to hunt for food again or fear of being beaten for being seen in town. And so, he left us and we never saw him again. We assume he got his wish and is now living as a human."

"You don't know?" Naruto asked.

"No. We don't know what human he changed into. You see, having two tails allows us to transform ourselves into a human but it doesn't give us a human form of our own. He would be in disguise. Taking on the form of someone else who is already living in the village." Ryosuke's face darkened again. "So far, no human seemed to be acting any different. No one was reported missing and there are no duplicates. Which means he must have gotten rid of the human he changed into."

Naruto's heart started racing. "By gotten rid of... do you mean...?" He gulped. "He killed them?"

"We don't think so. There are other ways of getting rid of a person than having them killed. Another power a fox gains with the addition of a second tail is curse inducement. He can force another person to change into anything he wants. Even into a fox. As you can see for yourself."

Naruto looked down at his fox body.

"He took their place as a human and forced them to take the place of something else. It could be anything. You got off easy and became a fox. Others aren't so lucky."

"How do you mean?"

Ryosuke looked over the cliff with a sad look on his face. "There used to be more of us, Naruto. More than a dozen kitsune. Now it's down to the ones you see. We know Reevo cursed them all so they would never be seen again."

"Why would he do that?"

"Because he doesn't want his secret revealed. He's afraid if one of us finds out which human he has changed into, we can do something about it. We can either try stopping him ourselves, alert the humans, whatever. So, he curses us to stop us. Once a kitsune finds out his identity, he curses them before they can give us the news. Most likely into an object. Objects don't speak. He must have done the same thing with the human he changed into so they couldn't tell others the truth."

Naruto was beginning to see the problem. "It's one thing for the guy to want to live as a human but it's another to take a human's place and get rid of the real one. That's awful."

"It could be anyone. A child, an old man, anyone." Ryosuke turned from the sky and looked back at Naruto. "We want to stop him. We want to stop him from cursing people, and from taking people's place. He'll curse anyone who gets in his way, or anyone on a whim. You must have either pissed him off, gotten close to discovering who he truly was or were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and suffered the result of one of his many whims."

Naruto looked at his paws. "I think I know why he might have changed me into this."

"Why's that?"

"I'm a ninja. I have a lot of jutsu I can use and a lot of other skills. I noticed that as a kitsune, I have none of that. I couldn't get up the mountain last night when I was a kitsune but I could easily do it as a human. I couldn't use chakra. I can't make hand-signs with paws, either. Turing me into a fox weakened me." Naruto sighed heavily. "And now I can't tell my friends about this or let them know I'm a fox at night or they'll get cursed as well. He must have been betting on that. If I do tell, I'll weaken them, too."

Ryosuke nodded in understanding.

"Now, even if I do run into the two-tailed fox, I can't do anything about it. I can't tell my friends, I can't battle him myself. I'll just get in the way no matter what."

"Plus, unless the two-tails is stopped, everyone will remain cursed. Which means even after your mission here is done, you'll still turn into a fox at night for the rest of your life. Ninja have missions at night, don't you? Talk about a handicap."

"You're right!" Naruto cried. "What if I'm in the middle of fighting someone and I turn into a fox? I'll be a sitting duck! Oh, what a pain!"

Naruto felt so useless. This was a no-win situation. What was he supposed to do?

"I know!" Ryosuke was looking a lot more cheerful now. "Why don't we train you?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah!" Ryosuke looked hopeful. "You're a kitsune, aren't you? Which means you can do anything we can. This way it won't be a total loss. Even if you leave this village cursed, at least you'll be able to do something in your fox form. Kitsune can do a lot of things. Let us teach you."

"You'll teach me how to be a kitsune?"

"We'll teach you how to use our fox abilities. You'll be able to use fox magic. We'll teach you all that we know. You'll cast illusions, learn possession. And also, how to use your other natural fox talents. It'll be great."

Naruto thought about it. There really wasn't much to think about. It sounded great. He'd learn a lot. He was excited to learn about his kitsune abilities. He jumped at the chance. "Yeah! Let's do it. I want to learn!"

Ryosuke gave him a foxy grin. "We'll get started tonight. Let's not waste any time."

Naruto's training started that night at the top of the mountain in a circle of trees. All the foxes were gathered there. Naruto stood in the middle, wondering if they were all going to teach him or just sit and watch while Ryosuke took over.

Ryosuke stood in front of Naruto and backed up so there was some distance between them. "I'm going to show you how to use fox fire. It's a skill every fox needs and uses on a regular basis. Without it, our power is limited. Even a young fox knows how to use this important skill. It's second nature to us kitsune. Are you ready?"

Naruto nodded, excited.

"Alright. Pay close attention." Ryosuke wagged his tail. He brought his tail close to his body and gave his fur a stroke. Light blue flames rose from his tail like dust from an old quilt. The flames started off small but grew quickly and became bright burning fire balls. "This is fox fire. This is how it looks in its most basic form."

Naruto stared wide-eyed at the flames hovering over Ryosuke's head. It was as if someone was holding an invisible torch over his body. It seemed kitsune could produce fire from their tails.

"Now we can bend the fire to our will and use many different fox magic techniques. One in particular would be the power of illusion. We can use fox fire to cast illusions to confuse our enemies or to pull pranks."

"Awesome!" Naruto's paws were dancing in place. He couldn't wait to give it a try.

"Here is a simple illusion we can use." The flame over Ryosuke's head began to flicker and change shape. It grew larger and took on a different form. It no longer looked like fire. It was a bird. It looked like a normal everyday bird with nothing out of the ordinary.

"That's so cool...! But wait..." Naruto cocked his head. There was something off about the bird now that he looked at it more closely. He could see the trees through its body. The bird had the body of a ghost. It wasn't solid at all. It was obviously an illusion. "I can see right through it."

"Or course you can," said Ishi. "Only humans and other creatures are fooled. To them it will appear perfectly solid and they won't be able to tell the difference between an illusion and the real thing. But kitsune eyes are special. We can see through our own deception. We're not so easily fooled."

"But it's only illusions we can see through," pointed out Aurora. "We can't tell other things apart. For instance, we can't tell if someone is a transformed fox or not."

So that meant they couldn't tell which human the two-tailed fox had disguised himself as. That made tracking him even harder.

"Would you like to give it a try, Naruto?" Ryosuke offered.

"Sure!" Naruto took a step forward and brought his tail close to his body. He stroked the fur with his paw. At first there was nothing, but soon tiny pieces of flame flew from his fur like sparks. It was like rubbing a balloon on his head. Naruto rubbed harder to get more flames. A giant flame shot from his tail, flew in front of his face and vanished.

"Be careful, Naruto," warned Ryosuke. "You must control the fire. If you don't, it will disappear before you can do anything with it. Try to maintain it. Gather up a good flame and hold it in your paw. We'll go from there once you've managed that."

Gather up the flame and hold it in his paw? How was he supposed to do that?

Naruto tried several times and each time, the fire would get out of control and vanish before he could do anything with it. He mastered conjuring it from his tail, now he just had to get to the next step. This was a lot harder than he thought it would be. When he managed to draw the fire out of his fur, he was so excited and thought it would be a cakewalk. He turned out to be mistaken. This turned out to be more like trying to learn how to ride a bicycle before getting his training wheels. He could sit on the bike. Now he just had to peddle and maintain balance long enough to get anywhere.

Ryosuke kept trying to give him tips and advice but after a while he started to repeat himself. It seemed there was nothing else he could tell him. Naruto had to figure it out from here. This came so naturally for them that it must have been difficult for them to teach it to someone who knew nothing about their nature. It wasn't just that, actually. There was only so much they could tell him after a certain point. Just like riding a bike. Sit on it and peddle. There wasn't much else that could be said other than some helpful tips for how to do that.

Naruto sat on the grass and tried to think. Ryosuke kept encouraging him, no matter how many kitsune started to lose faith in Naruto's abilities. Some of the kitsune looked worried for him. Others looked bored or annoyed. To them, this must have been like watching a baby take its first steps. It was exciting but after a while it seemed like nothing was going to happen.

"Focus, Naruto," Ryosuke said to him. "You have the flame conjuring down. Just gather it up in your paw. Draw it out and hold it. Imagine dragging your paw through mud and cupping a clump of it on you paw pad."

"He's not getting it, Ryosuke," said Aurora.

"Maybe it's because the analogies are wrong?" mumbled Seki. "Maybe it would be easier for him if we compared it to something a human would understand?"

"Like what? We don't know what humans-"

"Just let him try," said Ryosuke. "He'll get it. Maybe if he practices tonight, he'll get it tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Ah!"

The foxes were getting impatient. Naruto couldn't blame them. What they were saying was true, though.

As a matter of what, what Seki said did give Naruto an idea. Maybe the issue was the difference between being a fox and being human. Maybe he was going about this the wrong way. Now that he thought about it, this training seemed similar to his ninja training. Especially when he was first starting out. He remembered the tree climbing technique and everything he had to go through for that. Maybe he could apply it to this. Chakra control must have been similar to fire control. It had to be.

Naruto tried to imagine the fire as chakra. Now he just had to gather it up into his paw as Ryosuke said. Gather it up. Like chakra. Like the Rasengan. Of course. That's what he needed to do. It was the same thing.

Naruto gave it another shot. He drew more fire from his tail then tried to focus it into his paw like chakra. He concentrated. The fire began to bend. He focused all his energy into this. The flame bent and flickered. Then, slowly but surely, it began to coil itself into a ball much like the Rasengan. It floated to his paw and hovered there obediently.

"I did it," Naruto breathed. He turned to Ryosuke with a smile. "I did it!"

"About time!" said Aurora, but she was smiling when she said it. Even she seemed proud of his achievement.

"Perfect," said Ryosuke. "Now onto the next step. I want you to cast an illusion with it. Force the flame to take shape. Anything you want."

"Whatever I want, huh?" This seemed a little harder to do, but Naruto was confident. If he applied what he knew as a ninja to this kitsune training, he had a feeling he could master these new abilities in no time. If he compared certain ninja skills to fox magic, maybe it wouldn't be so hard to understand.

Illusions. They seemed similar to using a Substitution Jutsu or even the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Maybe he could apply that here and get somewhere. That could help his training out a lot. Maybe even make it go faster. It was worth a try.

Naruto tried bending the flame to his will and force it to take shape. At first it only flickered and waved, taking on no other shape. Naruto concentrated, trying to make it into a clone of himself. That was the easiest thing to do to start with. Clones were easy for him to do now, so making an illusion clone would have been no problem. He poured his energy into the flame and it started to take shape. He tried to will it into the shape of himself. Slowly, very slowly, it started to work. He could see the body forming and gaining some color.

The kitsune watched him in silence, letting him concentrate.

His illusion was getting stronger. Slowly but surely, it improved until at last they were looking at a human Naruto clone.

Naruto looked at his successful human clone and smiled at his work. "I did it."

The clone stood still and silent like a painting on a wall. Naruto tried to get it to move. The clone's arm lifted slightly but with its movement, the arm momentarily faded and came back when the clone stopped. It reminded Naruto of a match flame being waved through the air without going out.

"This is good for your first time," Ryosuke told him. "Good job."

"How's it look to you guys? Is it ok?"

The other kitsune thought it was good work for a first attempt. They praised him.

"Try thinking of the illusion as a puppet on strings you can control," advised Ryosuke. "You can move it. Make it do what you want. Try. Try moving your puppet self."

Naruto had been trying to move it just by thinking about it. With Ryosuke's advice, Naruto thought he could do a better job this time around. Naruto used his paw to move the illusion, trying to imagine it as a puppet as Ryosuke had said. The illusion bent forward, bowing at the waist. It was working. Naruto tried to get his clone to wave to him. With a little work, the clone turned to the left and waved at Naruto with its right hand.

"Yes!" Naruto cheered. "Yes, I did it."

"You're good," said Ryosuke.

The illusion lingered for another minute then vanished. Ryosuke said that they didn't last long if the kitsune wasn't concentrating or no longer wanted it around. Naruto wanted to try again and make more clones this time. It took him a while but by the end of practice, he managed to produce a total of two perfect clones. The third one never fully solidified and looked like a ghost without legs hovering in the air. Naruto wanted to do better but even he knew it was time to give it a rest. Even so, he couldn't put it out of his mind and kept thinking of ways he could improve.

Some of the kitsune were going back into town to look for some food and offered to take Naruto along. Thinking he may get some new ideas, he decided to join them.

The town was dark and quiet. Most of the homes were locked up tight and dark. Despite this, the kitsune urged him to be cautious and move carefully without making a sound. Naruto crept along with the group looking from left to right for signs of life. Going in pairs, the kitsune started to spread out. Lunabell went with Ryosuke and Sonar went with Aurora. Naruto went with Seki. Each group remained close to the others, never venturing past the block they were on.

Before Naruto could ask what they were doing, he saw Ryosuke stand on his hind legs and lower his head into a trash can while Lunabell watched. Seki started doing the same. He rummaged around in the can near Naruto and pulled out discarded pieces of food no one wanted and dropped them on the ground. Naruto wrinkled his nose in disgust as orange peels fell to the ground and pieces of meat with trash still stuck to them.

This is what they were reduced to. Fishing in trash cans for discarded remains of human food. It was disgusting.

Then Naruto noticed that the kitsune weren't tipping over the cans. It would make things easier to search. Was it because they didn't want to make a mess?

"Want to help?" Seki asked, taking his head out of the trash can.

"Oh, uh..." Naruto didn't want to go digging through trash like a stray animal.

"Give it a try." Seki offered Naruto the can.

Having no other choice, Naruto climbed up and peered inside. The smell was even more foul up close. His sensitive fox nose itched and burned. He couldn't stand it.

"Find anything good?" Seki asked him.

Was he actually expected to look? Naruto used his paw to dig through the garbage but found nothing appealing. He quickly took his paw away, needing it for support. He could feel the trash can tipping without it there to steady himself. Naruto took his head out and climbed down. "No. Nothing good."

"Not even an apple core?" Seki sounded disappointed. Was food so hard for them to find that a measly apple core was something to hope for? Judging from the look on Seki's face, it sounded like a lucky find. Or at the very least, a meal.

"Why not tip the cans over?" Naruto suggested. "You might find more at the bottom."

"We can't do that. The humans will know we were here and come after us. We can't make a mess. It will make noise, to boot."

"Found something." Ryosuke pulled a chicken leg out of the trash with his teeth and dropped it on the ground.

Naruto winced. The kitsune were digging through trash with their teeth. Naruto only used his paw and he could barely stand it. How were they not grossed out?

"We'll look over here." Seki took Naruto to the next trash can across the street. "Did you want to try this one, Naruto?"

"No, you look." Naruto didn't want to stick his head in garbage again.

Seki moved towards the can, then stopped. He started backing away.

"What?" Naruto came closer and saw a dog staring at them from around the side of the house. "What?"

Seki pinned his ears back and started to back away slowly. "We should leave."

"Why? It's just a dog."

The dog started growling and showed its teeth. Even Naruto knew it was going to attack. His fur was standing on end.

"Ryosuke!" Seki shouted. "Dog!"

The dog snapped at them and ran forward. The kitsune picked up what they could and ran back to the woods. Seki called for Naruto and took off running. Naruto followed him. When he looked back, he saw the dog chasing them, snapping at their tails and snarling. Since all the kitsune were running, Naruto followed their lead and didn't engage the dog. He ran as fast as he could.

As he ran, he noticed that Seki was no longer in front of him. They were running alongside each other. Soon, Naruto was in front of him. Naruto's speed had increased. He was faster than he was before. Naruto was getting the hang of his fox body.

The dog followed them all the way to the edge of the town and stopped once they reached the woods. Even with the dog no longer chasing them, the foxes didn't stop for an instant. As soon as they reached the mountain, they started climbing. Naruto took a running start and jumped to the first rock his paws could grasp. From there, he climbed, following the group up the side of the mountain. It didn't take him long at all this time. He didn't need their help to get up like the other night. Before he knew it, they reached the top and stopped to catch their breath and dump their findings in the grass.

Naruto looked behind him at the long drop down the mountain. It was just as high as it was last night but somehow, he managed to climb it quickly so it didn't seem so large. Then he turned to Seki. "Why did we run from the dog? What's wrong?"

Seki panted. "Kitsune fear dogs. Some even have a hatred of them."

"Why?"

"Because dogs eat foxes. We are foxes, after all. Humans have used dogs for hunting for centuries. They hunt and kill foxes," explained Seki. "Not only that, but dogs are also capable of detecting a kitsune. They can sense us."

"Sense us? What do you mean?"

"If a fox is transformed or using an illusion to hide behind, a dog can tell that a kitsune is there and find us. A dog won't be fooled by a transformation. It will know that it is a kitsune in disguise."

"Really?"

Seki nodded. "For those reasons, dogs are dangerous. They're a threat in both cases. So, we have to avoid them."

"Oh. Thanks for telling me." Naruto had no idea. There was a lot more to being a kitsune than he realized.

"We can't go back into town tonight," said Ryosuke. "The dog will be looking for us. We have to make do with what we have tonight."

"Then what do we do for the rest of the night?" asked Seki.

"We can help Naruto with his fox fire," Ryosuke suggested. "As long as he's up for it."

Naruto was happy to agree. He was ready to improve. He would get better and he was more than willing to do so.

What an exhilarating night. Naruto had such a blast. He couldn't believe how quickly he picked things up. In a single night, he had learned how to use fox fire. His speed had increased as well. He was getting a lot better at racing in his fox body. Even his climbing had improved. He was a faster learner than he thought.

However, come morning, he was feeling the effects of his fun evening. His muscles were sore and he could barely keep his eyes open. He had managed to crawl into bed just before the sun rose that morning and by the time he collapsed into bed, he was human again. Only a short time later, he heard Neji knocking on his door to rouse him for breakfast. He had only slept for two hours at most. He didn't want to get out of bed. He wanted to rest and recover from last night. He could always eat later. The next thing he knew, Sakura was pounding on his door and demanded he get up at once. Naruto dragged himself out of bed and into the hall.

The prince didn't meet them for breakfast. According to the staff, he had taken breakfast into his morning room as he often did to do some work. That suited Naruto just fine. He couldn't stand the way the prince looked at Sakura.

"I think we should approach this differently today," Neji was saying. "The prince is being very vague about the issue."

"So, you've noticed that, too?" Sakura looked across the table at Naruto who was about to take a header into his eggs. She slammed her fist on the tabletop to get his attention. "Naruto!"

His head snapped up immediately. "I'm up! I'm up!"

Neji continued. "As I was saying... The prince doesn't seem to want to address the issue."

"According to the staff, he doesn't see anything as a problem. He figured everything would work itself out and there was no need to send for assistance," said Sai. "Only through their pressuring did he finally agree."

"I see," said Sakura. "So, he's avoiding the issue because he doesn't approve of sending for aid when he thinks there isn't a need for it. He only did it because the staff begged him to. Maybe he feels that by sending for help, it's a poor reflection on his rule as the prince of this land. If he can't handle things himself..."

"That's a possibility." Neji looked across the table at Naruto. His eyes kept fluttering shut and was starting to drool onto his plate. It was pretty distracting. "Naruto, are we boring you?"

"No, no." Naruto tried not to yawn but he couldn't help it.

"Why are you so tired?"

"I, uh..." He couldn't tell them the truth. They would end up cursed as well. He had to keep everything he was doing at night a secret. "I... didn't get a lot of sleep last night. My bed was lumpy."

"Try to pay attention. This next part is important."

"I am, I am."

Neji went back to his speech. "I think we should approach things a little differently today. Yesterday, we asked the people in town if any of them had a reason to harm the prince or if any of them had a grudge against him. They said they didn't. But I think we were asking the wrong question. I think we should have asked if they knew anyone who would want to hurt the prince. Be it on this land or another."

"You're right. That is a better question to ask."

"Then it's agreed," Neji announced. "We'll do that today after our meal."

Naruto landed face-first into his plate.

Neji rolled his eyes. "For God's sake." He got out of his seat, reached across the table and picked Naruto up by his hair. "What is wrong with you?"

Naruto whined and pried Neji's hand away. "I told you, I'm tired!"

"This is a bit excessive, don't you think?" Neji sat back down. "Ask the servants to bring you some warm milk or something. You're on a mission, so we can't have you nodding off like that."

"Then let me take a nap or something."

"Then how will you sleep tonight if you take a nap now? Then you'll be up all night anyway. Tough it out until this evening, then go straight to bed and get some rest."

Naruto couldn't do that. He had arranged to meet the kitsune again that evening after sunset. Naruto had to be rested for that. He had to sleep during the day. However, with Neji around, he wasn't going to be able to. He had to try to sneak in a quick nap without him noticing.

We're starting to learn more about Naruto's curse and about the kitsune.

It would seem Naruto now has two problems to face: his current mission, and the kitsune who cursed him.

Thoughts? Predictions?

Please review! ^-^ Thanks!