Chapter 15:

When dawn arrived, Naruto found himself alone in the woods on top of a leaf-stuffed bag and two twigs wrapped around his arm. He sat up slowly and looked around. The kitsune were all gone but they had left a dead lizard and a mouse head for him. He wouldn't be eating those any time soon. His body was stiff and sore. His foot had healed nicely and he could put weight on it. His arm was another story. It was still in a lot of pain and he couldn't use it. Now that he wasn't a fox, it wasn't very important to him. He didn't have to walk on it so it wasn't going to slow him down.

Naruto stood up and collected the bag, dumping the leaves on the ground. "I must have nodded off at some point during the night." The kitsune must have left when the sun came up to climb back up the mountain to safety. Sometimes human children wandered into the woods during the day and so did adults from time to time. If they remained here with him, it would be dangerous. Plus, this was the time of day when they slept. Foxes weren't likely to sleep out in the open like this and expose themselves to enemies. Naruto understood their reasons and didn't feel abandoned. After all, they stayed with him all night long and took very good care of him. "Maybe they figured that since I would turn back into a human, I could get help. Maybe someone would find me or something."

He shrugged and carried the bag back to the palace, resting his injured arm on the strap as a makeshift sling. He squinted in the sunlight, coming out of the shaded woods. He could smell breakfast cooking in the homes of the townspeople. He climbed up the hill and up to the palace gate. That's when he stopped. He could see the hunters loading up their carriage in a hurry. The prince was running down the steps of his palace, calling out to them.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"We're out of here!" said one of the hunters, tossing a large sack into the back of the carriage.

"I told you to wait and talk about this," said Akio. "Don't be so hasty."

"We're not staying no matter how much you pay us!"

"They're just foxes and you're running away with your tail between your legs?"

"Those weren't foxes!"

Another hunter came around the other side of the carriage carrying his bow and the trap that caught Naruto's foot on the farm. "Those were kitsune! They're like super foxes!"

"I heard they're essentially spirits. They can't be killed by normal means. There's no way we're going back in there. Even if you gave us your entire fortune and then some. We're not having those things after us the rest of our lives."

Akio looked very upset. "I paid you to do a job."

"Then do it yourself!" The hunter tossed a bag at the prince's chest. "Keep your money! We're done!"

"You said you could handle this job."

"That was before we knew they were kitsune. They're not wild animals. They have the intellect of a human, the body and instinct of a fox and power that is beyond either one. Those things are magical. Next time, get your facts straight before sending us in to kill a bunch of super-naturals. We hunt wild animals, not spirits."

"And besides," said another hunter. "You never mentioned that this was their land and their home. We're invading their land. It's like you're paying us to break into someone's house and murder them. That ain't right!"

"Yeah! Breaking and entering... Really? We're not doing that."

"Totally. We're taking our gear, our traps, our weapons and our services and getting the hell out of here." They slammed the back door shut and finished hooking their single brown horse up to the front.

Akio stood in front of the carriage. "You can't just leave."

"We can and we are. You have your money. You can't keep us here."

"You get back in that mountain and kill those foxes! I have a town to keep safe."

"Then we suggest you keep to your land. As long as no one goes up into that mountain the kitsune won't bother you. You keep to your own and they'll keep to theirs."

"It's not going to work like that. Just kill them already. I want them all wiped out so there won't be any more problems."

"You keep bothering them and there will be." The hunter gave the horse a nudge. "Let's get the hell out of here."

Akio stepped out of the way as the horse came towards him. "Get back here!" he called after them.

"No way in hell! We're never coming back here!" yelled the hunter. "I told you, we don't do supernatural." He pushed the carriage forward and the horse went through the front gate, down the hill and far, far away.

Akio stood in the middle of the yard staring after them. With a frustrated sigh, he turned and went back into his palace.

Naruto, who had been watching the whole thing from the gate, smirked and walked onto the property with his head held high as if he owned the place. He didn't even notice the pain in his arm until he tried to open the front door.

"How in the hell did you manage this? And don't tell me you slept on it wrong." Sakura went to work healing Naruto's injured arm. "You're covered in dirt, too. What the hell happened to you?"

Naruto chuckled sheepishly. "Heheheh... I went out looking for the assassin last night and kind of messed myself up."

"I'll say."

Naruto was feeling pretty good about himself. So good that he didn't care what Sakura had to say. Those hunters were gone and they were never coming back. He had done it. He managed to protect his kitsune friends and kept them all safe. Everything was going to be ok. Now he just had to focus on other things, like his promise to them. He still had to find the two-tailed fox, Reevo.

However, he had reached a dead end with that. His two most likely suspects were tossed out because not all of the pieces matched up. If they weren't foxes at night then it couldn't have been them. Sleeping during the day was another thing. The prince didn't fit that piece of the puzzle or the one about being a fox at night. The old man said he slept during the day so Naruto thought for sure it was him. However, if he was the one who killed Seki's brother, then it would have taken place at night and he could have only done it if he was human. Seki himself said it was a human that did it. He was running out of ideas fast.

"There. You should be all set."

Naruto flexed his arm. It was much better. No pain at all. "Thanks, Sakura."

"So, you mind telling me how this happened to you exactly?"

"I told you, I was looking for the assassin guy and this happened."

"Yeah, but how?"

"I fell, ok?"

"It looks worse than a simple fall."

"Look, it's embarrassing, ok? I've got to go take a bath now and get some of this dirt off."

During his bath, Naruto tried to think about what else he could do to track down the two-tailed fox. Maybe there were more clues in the town. He had to go down there anyway to clean up the traps he left in the woods. He didn't leave very many and they were all marked so they would be easy to find.

After his bath, Naruto ditched the bag back in his room and got ready to go back into the forest. He counted his weapons and supplies, making sure nothing was amiss. Then he gathered up what he would need to clean up those traps and left the room. On his way down the hall, Naruto started thinking. He was so deep in thought, he didn't notice Sai walking towards him from the other end of the hall until they almost ran into each other.

"Are you alright, Naruto?"

"Uh, yeah. Just thinking."

"Alright." Sai started to walk away.

"Hey, Sai?"

He stopped. "Yeah?"

"Something's bothering me. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

Naruto faced Sai. "If the prince has never left this palace, if he's never been in town or in the woods, how did he know where the foxes were living? How did he know where they were?"

Sai thought about it. "Well, there are two possibilities for that which come to mind right away. First, it could be common knowledge. Wild animals tend to live in those areas. Someone also could have told him. The other possibility is that he has left the palace and does know where they are. After all, he lied to us about the secret passages in the palace. Maybe he's lying about never leaving this place, too."

"Yeah. But the servants all said that he doesn't leave. And since they're all over the place, someone would have seen him."

"True," said Sai. "Unless he uses one of those passages."

Naruto blinked. "And none of the servants know where they are. They wouldn't know, would they?"

Sai nodded, smiling.

Naruto left the palace and went into town thinking about what he had just learned. Akio could have been told where the kitsune were or he already knew where they were after seeing them firsthand. His parents were the ones who made a deal with the kitsune so it was very possible that he knew where they were because of that. Even so, Naruto still had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

He trudged through the forest, rounding up every trap he had set the day before. He used a few clones to make the job go by faster. Once everything was gathered up, Naruto started to walk back but not before taking a little detour. He wandered deeper into the forest until he arrived at the waterfall and turned left. He stopped in front of the grave he had dug and took something out of his bag and left it on top of the mound of dirt as an offering. The strawberry wasn't much, but it was something. He would have left flowers but he figured he would appreciate this a lot better. He would have brought more food and left it for the kitsune to find later that evening, but he thought other animals would reach it before they could unless he buried it the way they taught him. He would have to wait until lunch to do that if he still had the desire. He snagged that strawberry from the fruit cup Sakura had left on the table when she was healing him. It was all he could sneak away.

When Naruto left the forest and stepped into town, the first thing that reached his ears were complaints. Curious, he went into town and found the old man arguing with a few of the women, their children hiding behind their legs close to tears.

"Get a hold of your brats, lady! I'm not going to tell you again!"

"You are just rude, cruel and all around unlikable!"

Naruto stood among the small crowd of adults watching the women and old man exchange comments in the middle of the street.

"That damn ball of theirs keep banging against the side of my house! It's annoying and loud! But they think it's funny, don't they? Teach your children some manners!"

"How dare you!" scolded one of the women. "We've taught our children more manners than you have in your whole body!"

"And they apologized for it, didn't they? But no, you had to come out and scream at them. You are so mean!"

"They kept it up! And don't buy into their weak apology. I'm not buying it for a second. You have your kids stop bothering the neighbors and be good children by keeping inside the house and being quiet!"

One of the mothers took her children by the hand and led them away from the old man, comforting them with gentle words. The other mother refused to budge and pointed at the old man. "All you ever do is complain. Nothing pleases you. It's always someone else. All these years, you haven't said one nice thing to anyone. You're just a bitter old man."

"I wouldn't be bitter if people would do their damn jobs around here!" The old man banged his cane against the side of his house. "What has that brat of a prince done about my house being broken into? Huh? Nothing! So now just anybody can come waltzing in and take things off people's walls?!"

"Only one thing was taken and it's no wonder it was," said the woman. "If you ask me, the person who did it did you a favor. You know pelts are illegal in this town. The king and queen made it so a while ago along with the hunting laws. What do you suppose would happen if the family found out that you made a fresh fox pelt in your home after the law was made?"

"No one tells me what to do! What I can and can't have in my own house! Besides, that damn fox was making a racket outside my house in the middle of the night. I had to take care of it. Who knows what things it could be carrying? I don't want to get bitten!"

"Ha! Shows what you know. If you leave it alone, it will leave you alone."

"Don't give me any of that!" yelled the old man. "I know it was your brats that did it! You're just protecting them! Trying to cover it up!"

"The very nerve!" the woman yelled. "How dare you accuse me or my children without any proof!"

"The woman's right," called a man from the sidelines. "You had a fox skinned after the law was put in place and then you hang it on the wall for all to see. You are just asking for trouble, aren't you?"

"That's right. You're so cruel. The fox was running and you went and killed it. What a wicked old man you are! Show some mercy. It was running scared and you chased it down. What do you think the king and queen would have done if they knew?"

"We'll they're dead, aren't they?" said the old man. "I guess we'll never know. And that brat of a prince is so loving of animals he cares more about them than the well-being of his people. We're ruled by weaklings."

"The prince watches out for his people. He's taken good care of us all."

"The hell he is! If he were, then he would have done something about the brat who stole that pelt from my wall!"

"I thought you hated that thing, anyway. Why would you keep it? You hate animals. All of them."

The old man growled. "The animal items I have are from my family long passed. My father loved his wood carvings. Sure, I hate animals, but does that mean I'll discard his work now that he's dead? Now who's cruel?"

"And I suppose that pelt is your little contribution?" asked the woman in a snide tone.

"None of your business!" The old man pointed his cane at the two boys hiding behind her. "Stop hiding them and make them confess. I know they did it!"

"If you so much as touch my children...!"

"They deserve a beating for stealing from an elder! Bring them forward now or are we going to have a problem?"

"They didn't do it!" Naruto pushed through the crowd and stood in front of the old man. "I did! I went into your house the other day and took that pelt off your wall."

The old man whacked Naruto in the shin with his cane. "I should have known it was you. I knew you were trouble when you first came here. Why would you break into my home and steal from me?"

"Because that fox was running away and you chased him down and killed him! There were two other foxes there that night. His younger brothers! They were looking for food and ran off when you came outside. He was just protecting his siblings! He didn't deserve to die like that!" Naruto spat. "And if you have laws against killing foxes, why the hell would you go out and do it anyway? You're the one who's looking for trouble!"

"How do you know what the fox was doing? What it was thinking? They're just dumb animals," said the old man, taking another swing at Naruto's legs. "That fox was making trouble. I only did what the people of this town are too scared to do themselves!"

"Ok! Fine!" Naruto grabbed the man's cane to prevent him from hitting him again. "When you're hungry and come to my village asking for food because you can't stand it anymore, I'll kill you and mount your corpse on the wall! How about that?!"

"Humans and foxes are two different things! It's a damn animal, for crying out loud!"

"So that makes it ok?"

The old man pulled his cane free and stood on it shakily. "Don't preach to me, boy! The people of this town eat meat all the time and I'm sure you do the same thing. Suddenly it's cruel? How do you think you get the meat you're eating, huh? You have to kill it!"

"There's a difference between getting meat for the table and cruelty," said the mother from behind Naruto. "What you did was wrong and you know it."

"You know what? Fine!" The old man started to walk back into his house. "Be that way! You know what? You did do me a favor. I didn't like that pelt anyway. I was going to hang it outside my house to warn the other foxes not to come around here anymore, but if I had done that then the prince would have known what I did and I would have been in a lot of trouble. So yeah, you're right." He opened the door to his house and before slamming it shut, he yelled back, "You kid ninja need to finish up and get the hell out! I'm sick of looking at you and you're just making this whole town a lot worse!"

Naruto rubbed his shin. "Ow..."

The woman stepped closer to Naruto. "Are you alright, dear?"

"I'm alright."

The woman smiled at him. "Ah... You're a good boy. I can tell." Then she tapped him on the head. "Still, you shouldn't have broken into his home to steal. Be a better ninja than that."

"The window was open."

The woman laughed. "I see, I see."

The crowd began to disperse. Naruto looked back at the woman. "He's just a mean old guy, isn't he? Every time I see him, he's doing something mean."

"All the time. I think he's just mean because bad things have happened to him in life. His wife died a few years ago and he hasn't found anyone else so now he's all alone. I suppose he wants people to be just as miserable as he is."

Naruto nodded in understanding. "Ah." Then he asked, "I noticed that you guys all seem to support those laws the royal family set into place and you guys seem to like animals, too. You even told the old man that he was wrong to chase down the fox and kill it. But if that's the case, then why would you all complain to the prince about the foxes coming into town at night?"

"Hm?" The woman cocked her head. "What are you talking about?"

"The prince said that he was getting too many complaints from the people in town about the foxes. Not just the old man. Everyone's been complaining."

The woman shook her head. "I don't know anything about that. I never said a word to the prince on the matter. The foxes only go through the trash and pick out things we don't want anyway. It's all wasted food so they can have it. They don't bother me. I haven't heard about anyone complaining."

"No one?"

A passerby overhearing them stopped and commented, "I know I haven't said anything to the prince and I don't know anyone who has."

"The foxes aren't a bother to me," said a man.

"Agreed. They're outside and never try to come into our homes. I hardly notice them. Most of us are in bed at that time. I know I am."

"Oh, I know. They hardly make a sound. If they did, I could understand if someone were to complain. But they're so quiet I hardly notice them."

"Wait a minute," said Naruto, looking around at the townspeople. "So, none of you have complained to the prince about the foxes? No one wants them stopped or gotten rid of?"

"Goodness, no."

"Where would you get an idea like that?"

"Yeah, the foxes aren't violent at all. Very docile."

"They eat the food that goes to waste. No problems for me."

Naruto lowered his head, soaking it all in. They never complained. They didn't know what he was talking about, even though the prince said everyone in town has been complaining.

He lied.

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