Chapter 17:
He knew it. He knew it! The prince was really the two-tailed fox. Reevo had disguised himself as Prince Akio and took over his life. He had been fooling everyone for years. This explained everything.
Naruto was triumphant. He exposed the impostor. He was happy about that but he was mostly pleased to know that his first guess was the correct one. It was the prince all along. He was right. Now Naruto had an excuse to beat him up like he had been wanting to do from day one. Now he could pound him to his heart's content.
"You are very clever, Naruto," said the prince, now identified to be Reevo. "Just what I'd expect from a kitsune. Still, it was foolish of you to come alone."
Naruto's eyes darted to the open secret door behind him, tucked carefully behind a curtain. His eyes went back to the prince, not wanting to take his eyes off him for too long. "I didn't want them to get cursed like the others."
"Ah, yes. Them." Reevo began to chuckle. "It's funny. Some of them discovered me on accident. They crossed my path at the wrong time. Some thought it was me, like Reki, and I had to do something about it."
So, it was true. Reki did find out the truth and Reevo had to silence him.
"Other foxes came here to ask the prince why the offerings had stopped. They came pleading for an answer, begging for mercy. They came to reason with the prince. How silly is that?"
Naruto let out a growl.
Reevo smirked at him in a mocking manner. "Please. Don't look so upset. You aren't even a real kitsune. What the hell do you care?"
"They welcomed me as one of them and treated me as part of their group! Those kitsune have been very good to me and they're my friends! And I promised them that I would help find you and put a stop to all this."
"So, you come here alone? Not very smart. Noble as it might be to want to protect them, it's stupid to think you actually stand a chance against me. No matter how long you've trained or how strong you are, I still have more tails than you. I'm more powerful." Reevo's two tails appeared behind his borrowed form, swishing back and forth lazily. "I'm clever, too. How else do you think I've managed to fool everyone in this place for so long?"
"Come on. No one ever suspected?"
Reevo shrugged. "Well, one or two people in the staff have stumbled upon the truth, but I put a curse on them and came up with a reason for their disappearance. Like how they moved to another land or went back because a loved one was sick back home. Stuff like that. Humans will believe anything."
As much as Naruto wanted to rip his face off, there were a few things he had to know. "There's still a couple things I don't understand. For instance, when I turned into a dog the other day, how come you didn't react the way I thought you would?"
"Oh, that." Reevo laughed. "Good try on your part, but it was all pointless." He gestured to his nose. "Your scent. I could smell you. Even when a ninja is transformed, there's no getting past a kitsune's nose. I could tell it was you by your scent."
"Ok, then how come I couldn't smell you as a fox? And the other kitsune. Why couldn't they track you down by your scent?"
"Because I've been living with humans for so long in a human town in a human palace wearing human clothing. It's masked my scent up nicely. It makes it harder to tell. Besides, I've been around so many people, one scent gets transferred to someone else and so on. It makes it more difficult."
"Alright." There was still something Naruto didn't understand. "Even with everything you've done to keep this a secret, there's still one thing I don't get. How were you able to assume the prince's life so seamlessly? You're able to perform as a prince would, do his duties, signs papers and all that. How were you able to do it so well?"
"Oh, that's easy." Reevo leaned back on the bed. "I've studied the prince for a long time. I've watched him for some time, keeping track of everything he does and how he does it."
"But you knew things only the prince would know. Like details about his parents and family history and stuff like that."
Reevo chuckled again. "Some of those things weren't hard to figure out. Some of it's common knowledge. For other things, I had to trick him to get the information. Using a transformation to pose as someone who is interested in him, a maid who wants to know more about his family. Things like that. I also used some dream manipulation for some stuff. Even fox fire, conjuring up images of his dead parents, making him think they were in the room with him."
"That's just cruel!" Naruto knew how torturous it was to place someone's dead parents in front of them. It wasn't just a tease, it was sick. "How dare you toy with someone's feelings like that!"
"Most of the time, the guy thought he was having an intensely vivid dream. Which came from his grief. No big deal."
"What about the secret passages?" asked Naruto. "How did you know about those?"
"Oh, come on!" Reevo laughed. "How do you think I took over his form and did away with the real one? The prince has his habits. One of them is coming to the garden on sleepless nights to look at the sky and the night flowers. I saw him come out of that passage loads of times. That's when I jumped him and took his form." Reevo was laughing again. "You should have seen the look on his face when he saw a copy staring back at him! Priceless! His face was just as good when I turned him into a freaking painting and had him mounted on the wall for all to see!"
The painting! No wonder he looked frightened and sad. That was him! The real prince was hanging in the hallway, watching helplessly as this impostor ran his entire home wearing his face. Even worse, no one knew it wasn't really him and therefore never wondered what had become of the real prince. That poor prince must have been suffering so much day in and day out, trapped as a painting of himself.
Naruto let out another growl. Reevo had no remorse whatsoever. He didn't care at all. He enjoyed it! Naruto had to do something to stop him and set things right.
"You're sick! You know that?" Naruto spat. "Do you have any idea what you're doing? How many people are suffering because of you? Cursing those kitsune..." It finally sunk in. "Wait a minute." Naruto's eyes widened in horror. "You. You hired those hunters to kill them. You... wanted them dead. You knew all along who they were."
"Of course, I did." Reevo smirked again. He was proud of this.
"So then..." Naruto could hardly believe it. "And the offerings..." He understood the truth. "It wasn't that you stopped enforcing the offerings once you took over the prince's life..."
Reevo nodded. "I ordered the offerings to stop. I told everyone to no longer leave food outside for the kitsune. Very few asked for a reason, going blindly with whatever the prince says. But those who did question were given whatever answer I could come up with at the time. They bought it. I basically told them that it was doing more harm than good and that it would be better to stop. When there were further questions, I told them that there was a food shortage and that the kitsune no longer needed it. That we had come up with other arrangements. Something like that. I can't really remember what I said at the time."
"Do you have any idea how much they've suffered because of that?!" Naruto yelled. Naruto spoke from the anger of a kitsune and as a friend. He ran with them, hunted with them, learned from them. He saw firsthand how they suffered. What it was like to be hungry. How little they had to eat. The pitiful scraps they managed to dig up from the trash and the paltry some from the forest. They had so little and so many kitsune.
"If you ask me, I did them a favor by cursing so many of them. They don't need to eat if they're an object."
Naruto snarled at Reevo's remark. "They're starving up there!"
"I know. That was the plan," Reevo explained calmly. "I knew without their offerings, one of two things would happen. They would either starve to death, or they would be forced to go into town to eat which would result in the humans attacking and possibly killing them. Both of which works fine with me."
"You want them dead?" Naruto breathed.
Reevo didn't nod, but his smirk and smug tone told Naruto everything he needed to know. He wanted them to die.
"I knew they would never leave the mountain. It's their home, after all. They were all born there. Have family there. They were there first and then the humans came in and built this town," Reevo explained with an air of malice in his voice. "Since it wasn't happening soon enough and that they were getting closer and closer to finding out who I was, I had to hire those hunters to finish the job. I thought they would all be dead by now. It was an oversight on my part, I guess you could say."
"You keep saying 'they' live there and 'they' have family there. But you're a kitsune, too, Reevo!"
"Not anymore, I'm not." Reevo leaned back on the bed, resting his arms on his twin tails as if they were the arms of a chair. "I never liked being a kitsune. I hated living in the mountain, having to work for everything I had, even the food I ate. I wanted more. I wanted to be a human and live as one of them. They have the better life. Some better than others."
"But those kitsune are so kind and helpful. Even to me. They knew I was a human but they still accepted me."
Reevo scoffed. "I'm aware of that. They treated me well, too. But I hated them. I always did. They prefer to live peaceful lives among humans, while I prefer to do as I please. Pranks aren't enough for me and not the kind they like. My ideas were seen as cruel. They were always content with their lives in the mountain. I hate them. All of them and everything they stand for. Now that I'm a human, I want nothing to do with them. Even every memory of them must be done away with. I want every last trace of that old life I had before this gone, completely erased. And that means wiping them out."
"You're sick!" Naruto barked. "How could you-"
"I want nothing to do with them. Not even a reminder of them or that old life," said Reevo. He didn't sound upset at all about losing his friends. He didn't even get emotional when he spoke about having them all murdered. "Plus, I can't risk them finding out the truth about me and then blabbing to the humans. Do you have any idea what they would do to me if they found out? That I have been pretending to be the prince for all these years while the real one is hanging in the hallway, helpless and afraid? They'd torture me and would even have me killed. I can't let that happen. And besides, I hate kitsune and everything about them. I'm a human now. Not just a human, but a prince. I can have it done if I wish. I'll have every last one of them wiped out. I want them all dead."
"Reevo!"
Reevo's ears perked up and his yellow eyes went straight to the secret door. Naruto turned his head to look. Ryosuke was standing in the passageway with a look of horror and shock on his face.
He slowly stepped into the room and looked the prince over, from head to tail. Reevo seemed surprised to see him at first but now looked indifferent. Ryosuke stood in the middle of the room, staring wordlessly at Reevo for what seemed like minutes. Naruto couldn't see his face since his back was to him as he faced Reevo, but Naruto could sense what he must have been feeling. He had just heard that one of his own kind had plotted to have them all killed. Not only that, but he had been trying for years. It wasn't a quick death he was planning for them either. Taking away the offerings meant dying a slow death of starvation. If that didn't work, then they would end up being killed by humans which meant another painful way to go. A hunter's traps were slow, agonizing torture, and an average human catching them outside meant dying by the unskilled hands of someone with whatever they had available. They could have been beaten to death or stabbed and left to bleed out. Everything Reevo had planned for their demise was nothing short of horrific.
"Why?" Ryosuke's voice was soft and sad.
Reevo just looked at him with the same indifferent expression. He had no remorse for the hell he put these foxes through and didn't care that one of them had just overheard his plans to murder them all.
"Reevo... Why?" Ryosuke asked again. His voice was breaking. "Tell me why!" he shouted.
As he did so, some of his tears fell to the carpet. This was the second time Naruto saw Ryosuke cry.
"You heard me," said the stoic Reevo. "I want you all dead. I can't stand the sight of any of you."
"All those years..." said Ryosuke quietly. "All those years in the mountain. From the time we were pups to when our parents left the world to us... Everyday. Us hunting together and gathering food together. Running up and down the mountain together. Playing games together. The time we shared... none of that means anything to you? At all? None of it? We grew up together. You and I, and Seki and Aurora and Eago and Luna-"
"That was my old life. I want nothing to do with it anymore and that includes you." Reevo's eyes gleamed dangerously as he sat under his canopy bed. "I wanted you dead for a while. When I became a two-tails, I knew I would finally get my wish. I could do it and do it as a human. It was perfect. I thought everything out. I had been planning this for years. Of course, I couldn't do it as a single-tailed fox. But once my tail started to split, I started to take some steps to ensure that you would get killed one way or another."
"Such as?" Naruto asked, stepping closer to Ryosuke.
"I used some of the pranks I prefer on some of my favorite people in town. Well, just one family in particular. The old geezer in town and his wife. She had a heart condition and what I liked to do was scare her with haunting visions from my fox fire. I would crawl into the house and leave things in her path for her to tip over and would sneak up on her and frighten her good. Sometimes I would make her think I had eaten her arm off her body and show her visions of her blood pooling on the floor."
"We do not use those kinds of pranks, Reevo! That's not funny! It's cruel!" snapped Ryosuke. "We would only scare humans with creepy visions when they are a danger to us and we want them to run away. That's it! We never to it for laughs and we never take it that far!"
"You don't. But I do." Reevo sneered again. "You stop when they scream or when they run. I keep going. In fact, I scared her so bad her heart finally gave out and she died!" Reevo started laughing hysterically.
Naruto and Ryosuke weren't laughing. It made Naruto sick. It was no wonder that old man in town hated animals and why he was so bitter. Now Naruto couldn't blame him for killing the first kitsune he saw outside his home. Reevo had provoked him and did so on purpose so from then on, he would associate any kitsune he saw with that one who scared his wife to death. Now he thought they were all like that and believed every one of them was cruel and killed them on sight. Seki's brother was one of the unlucky ones. If Reevo hadn't done what he did, it might never have happened. Things might had turned out a lot differently. In fact, now Naruto saw Reevo as the killer. He was just killing through a brokenhearted and revengeful old man.
"Like I said," Reevo's laugh was getting softer. "I've been planning for years. Even going that far to make sure someone would want to kill you in town. He was the easiest target."
"You're sick!" Naruto barked loudly. "Because of you, Seki's brother is dead!"
"And the other one is on my shelf. Big deal."
Naruto began to snarl and showed his teeth, ready for a fight. If only Ryosuke wasn't in his way, he would have attacked by now.
"You didn't think everything out completely, Reevo," he said.
Naruto's anger calmed somewhat, now curious about what Ryosuke had to say.
"Oh?" questioned Reevo.
"You may look like the prince and you might have put on a good act but there's one thing you cannot imitate and that is your downfall."
Naruto and Reevo waited for the answer.
"Aging," he said at last. "When a kitsune takes on the form of a human, they only take on the appearance the human is at that moment. Don't you see, Reevo? Humans age and at a faster rate than kitsune. You transformed into him three or so years ago, but you still look as he did three years ago. He hasn't aged a day. And you will always look this way because a transformation cannot age. Don't you think the humans will start to catch on when the prince still looks like a child when he is fifty years old? They'll know something's wrong. What then, Reevo?"
That was an excellent point. If Reevo couldn't age the body, it would be problematic. The prince needed to age and Reevo couldn't do that.
"Well..." he said slowly. "I've thought about it. For now, I'm ok. But in a few years, yes, I will need to age his body, which is something I can't do. I cannot alter the form I've taken on. It's as it is at that moment and nothing can be changed. What I thought about doing was letting the prince out of his curse for a moment, see how he looks, and then put the curse back on him. And if that doesn't work and people start to catch on, then I'll simply curse them and get on with my life."
"So, your plan is to silence anyone who starts to notice that you might not really be the prince?" said Naruto. "That's crazy!"
"You'll curse everyone in town, all his staff, until there's no one left."
"Then I'll pretend to be another human."
"And curse them just like you did the prince and no doubt leave everyone you've already cursed exactly how they are!" said Ryosuke.
Reevo looked very proud, as if Ryosuke was praising him for his cleverness. "It's a work in progress. I'm sure I'll come up with something. I don't really want to stop being a prince, after all. I like it."
"You just took over someone else's life!" said Naruto, stepping closer. "You didn't work for it. Basically, you're taking credit for what other people have done."
"So?" Reevo scoffed. "Weren't you listening? I never liked working for anything. Not my food, not to keep living, nothing. This way, it's easy."
Naruto could never support such a thing. Everything he wanted, he had to work for. Even if it was hard, it was worth doing. Like becoming Hokage. If he didn't do anything to get that title, then he didn't want it. That just wasn't how it was done. It was meant to be done with hard work.
Then another question entered his mind. "Wait a second," said Naruto. "You said that the life of a prince is great, but it's not. Princes get attacked by people all the time. Even those assassins."
"I knew what they were plotting," said Reevo. "Since I knew that the lord was starting to suspect, if figured something was going to happen."
"Still..." Naruto looked down in thought. "He went through all that trouble to hire assassins to pose as his helpers and yet he still sent those threatening letters to you? He really blew it on that if you ask me."
"Oh, he didn't send those letters to me," said Reevo. "I did."
Naruto looked up. "Huh? You sent them to yourself? Why?"
Reevo's tails wagged as he lifted himself up, as if proud of his reasons. "First, I was bored. But secondly, I was looking for a mate."
"A mate?" Naruto repeated. Then that meant he was right about him flirting with Sakura. He was hitting on her.
"Yes," said Reevo. He seemed very proud of himself and spoke smugly to the two foxes on his carpet. "Human or fox, I'm still a male and I have needs. But I couldn't very well marry anyone from town. Since the prince never leaves to go into town, it would seem odd having a town girl on my arm. And I certainly couldn't date any of the help. That's not very becoming of a prince. Odd, really. A prince marries higher class than that. I had heard that ninja females existed so I wrote those letters to myself to get the staff worked up and I would write it off as nothing. I've always found the prince to be a bit naive so I figured he wouldn't be too bothered by it anyway and be more concerned about other people rather than himself. That would get the staff very worried and they would then pressure me, the prince, into sending for help. That way it would be justified. No one would question me sending for ninja aid then."
"So, it was all a set up," Naruto growled. "You were never in any real danger at all."
"So, the assassins were just in the right place at the right time," added Ryosuke. "Which would stand to reason that if you had not called for help from ninja or anyone for that matter, that when the assassins did attack, you would have cursed them all. Is that right, Reevo?"
Reevo nodded his head with a big smile on his face. "Yes. I have to protect myself, after all. And so what if the lord suddenly went missing? Not my problem. His town would have figured something out and if not, who cares?"
Naruto spoke again. "So, when you called for aid from a ninja village, did you get to pick who came along? That's not usually how it works. The Hokage gets to decide who gets to go on these missions based on who is available and has the proper skills."
Reevo shrugged. "It was luck of the draw, really." He sat back on his tails again, using them as a cushion. "I had hoped that a female would come along on this mission and the female I would then take as my mate. I was fortunate that a good-looking girl came with you on the mission. Sakura isn't half bad looking for a human. But it's not just looks. She's strong and intelligent, too. A decent background and a very capable girl. A suitable mate."
That was the truth of the matter. Reevo got lucky with Sakura. He was really in the market for any female and didn't care who showed up. It just happened to be Sakura. If another female ninja had come along, like Tenten or Ino or Hinata, he would have just as easily picked them. As far as females went, he was pleased with Sakura. He was interested in her strength and skills. He wanted a good mate. He had recommendations. However, if the female who showed up didn't possess any of the qualities he was looking for, then he would simply settle for whatever girl showed up to the palace.
"But wait," Naruto said. "What if no girl showed up? What if it was all guy ninja who came here and there were no girls? What then?"
Reevo threw up his hands in a shrug. "Eh. I would have figured something out. Maybe tried again later or come up with some lie stating that there had to be at least one female with them for some reason. I'm clever."
"Clever?" It was Naruto's turn to scoff at him. "You were looking for any girl. Any! Sure, you have your own check list of what you want, but when it comes right down to it, you would have just settled for anyone. You don't give a damn about the girl who shows up. You couldn't care less about them, what they like, their interests. You just want any old girl to take as your mate. You're not clever, you're shallow! You just reach in and pick any girl at random."
"I was clever enough for Sakura," he chuckled smugly.
Naruto's claws scratched the carpet under his paws. He hated that tone and that look on his smug stolen human face.
Reevo leaned forward on the bed, smirking at him as if he had the whole world figured out. "Oh, yes. While you were doing your own investigating and sleeping off your nightly adventures, I've been cuddling up to Sakura. She's a smart girl. I got lucky with this one."
Naruto growled, but Reevo wasn't intimidated in the slightest.
"I've been keeping her happy. I've given her everything she could ever want. I've made sure she's happy and comfortable. She's given only the finest of things and treated like an honored guest. Girls are easy to fool. Pay them a few complements, shower them with gifts, treat them like royalty, and they'll fall in line." Reevo started chuckling and his tails flicked the air like tall, bushy orange flames. "Even if I didn't do any of that, I'm a prince. What girl doesn't want a prince? Sakura's no different. Girls want a rich, handsome husband. One who will give them everything they want and more. What girl doesn't want to marry a prince? It's easy!"
Naruto snarled and his tail began to swish.
"Aw, did I strike a nerve?" Reevo laughed. "Haha, don't look so upset, Naruto. Like you ever stood a chance. As if Sakura could ever want you. Come on. Between the two of us, who do you think she would choose? A prince who treats her like a rare and beautiful treasure, or a lowly ninja who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut?"
This guy was asking for it.
"Come on, Naruto. Don't think I haven't noticed. You've been pissing her off ever since you got here. And that's just here. I can only imagine how many times you piss her off during your daily lives. How many times does she yell at you? How many times does she hit you? How many times have you annoyed her? How many times have you said the wrong thing? How many times do you speak without giving it an ounce of thought? How many times have you messed up? And what of this? How many times have you asked her out on a date and how many times has she said yes?"
Naruto's tail dropped and his anger was replaced with shock and heartache. He was right. Sakura had never once agreed to go out on a date with him, no matter how many times he asked. She was almost always yelling at him and she punched him almost all the time. Most of the time, he never knew what he did. He had even hurt her before when he lost control of himself and scratched her arm as the nine-tailed fox took over. He never meant to hurt her but he did. He messed up a lot. When Sasuke left, all she ever did was ask Naruto to bring him back. She didn't even reach for Naruto. She was still clinging to Sasuke. He never stood a chance.
"Face it, Naruto," hissed Reevo. "She doesn't want you. How could she? Especially when compared to me?"
Naruto lifted his gaze to glare at him. "Sakura's my friend."
"So? Friends can only get you so far. I can give Sakura whatever she wants. Can you do that?"
"I may not be a rich prince or anything like that, but I am her friend and I am always there for her. I can protect Sakura and I-"
"It doesn't matter, Naruto. You're not the one she wants. You're just chasing shadows. Sakura will pick me. I've been hinting at her for some time that I wish to have her as my princess. I even intend to ask her to stay at the palace with me and be my bride. How could she pass it up? She won't. No girl can resist a prince. And what girl wouldn't want to be a princess? She won't have to do anything anymore. No more dangerous missions, no more getting dirty or having to work. She can relax in a palace with a prince and be royalty. She'll take my offer, Naruto. She'll happily be with me and leave you and the rest of the filth behind."
"Sakura would never choose a lowlife like you! You're not sincere at all! You just use charming words to get people to do what you want and use them. You don't even care about Sakura. Her only value to you is being female! That's it! You don't care about her at all or anyone for that matter. I care about Sakura because she's my friend!"
"Sakura doesn't even like you. She doesn't care about you." Reevo hissed. "She'll pick me over you any day. Who could blame her? It's no contest. Who would want someone like you anyway? Who could ever care about you?"
Ryosuke stood so close to Naruto that their fur rubbed together in a gentle caress. "I do. I care about him," he said. "I don't care if Naruto is human or not. Naruto is Naruto and that's all I care about. Naruto is my friend and I care about him."
Reevo laughed. "I wouldn't put it past you to like a flea like him, but really? What could you possibly see in him? What makes him worthy of friendship?"
"Naruto is kind and caring. He has courage and he will always protect his friends. And he never gives up. No matter what. He will always be there for you and he will always fight for what he believes in and he never goes back on his word. Even if he promises the impossible, he will do his best to deliver, which is truly admirable." Ryosuke turned away to look into Naruto's eyes. When their eyes met, Ryosuke smiled. "He is a true friend and one worth protecting."
Naruto smiled back.
Reevo laughed cruelly, taking everything they said as a joke. Even without saying anything, he continued to mock them. He laughed so much, some of his fox features were beginning to show on his stolen face. For a few moments, his face turned into a muzzle and his teeth turned into fangs. These features shifted on his face, going from human to fox and back again. Once he was through laughing, his foxy features melted away and once again the prince's face was staring at them with a twisted smile.
"See, Ryosuke," he said in his smug tone. "This is exactly why I always saw you as weak. You're pathetic. Always putting others before yourself, willing to go so far even though you know it is pointless. Even when you do not possess the strength to do anything, you are still willing to try. You should only bother trying if you know you stand a chance. If there is the promise of winning, then you do something. If there is no promise then don't bother. That's the smart thing to do."
"I am willing to try and that takes guts, Reevo."
"Guts? Ha! That's what's going to be splattered on the ground if you do not run away from the challenge. It's not even worth trying."
"I am willing to try for the sake of my friends!" Ryosuke said confidently. "The ones you abandoned because you felt they were beneath you. The ones you thought were weighing you down. I love my friends and I'm willing to protect them. All of them!"
"You cannot deliver such an impossible promise, Ryosuke."
"I am willing to try. I don't want to lose them. And I will not let you hurt any more of my friends! I will not let you hurt anyone else!"
"You're a fool!" barked Reevo. "That is an impossible promise, Ryosuke. Don't you see? Standing before a power stronger than your own means nothing short of failure. You can never win. And you can never defeat me! I'm stronger than you. Stronger than both of you. Even if you trained hard for every moment of your sorry life, you will never be able to stop me. I have more tails than you. You and the rest of them. I'm stronger than you, Ryosuke! You don't stand a chance against me!"
Ryosuke snarled, showing his teeth. "Then this might help!" Ryosuke's tail swished from side to side.
There came a sound like tearing fabric. Naruto watched Ryosuke's tail in awe. The very tip of his tail had already begun to split, which he had been keeping hidden under his fur. Now that his tail was moving so quickly, the split was more noticeable. The tearing sound wasn't coming from the tip but from the middle of his tail which had now begun to divide. With a loud crack, Ryosuke's tail split into two, sending sparks and flame into the air like the light from a firework.
Ryosuke had become a two-tailed fox. All for the sake of his friends.
Naruto couldn't resist the smile spreading across his face. He knew what this meant. What this meant for Ryosuke and the rest of the kitsune. This second tail was irrefutable truth that Ryosuke was now the leader of the kitsune in the mountain. And now an equal match for Reevo. He stood a chance now.
On the bed, Reevo looked like someone had a knife to his throat. Once he recovered from his shock, Reevo narrowed his eyes with a snarl. "So, you actually were willing to become a two-tails. I never thought you would have the guts to do it. I figured you would resist the transformation because you were too afraid of changing into someone like me."
"I am nothing like you," answered Ryosuke. "I would never abandon my friends. And if it's to protect them, I'm willing to sacrifice anything for them. Even this." Ryosuke looked at the two tails wagging behind him. "Even doing something as difficult as this... knowing how I feel about it... Yeah. I'm willing to do it for them."
Reevo snarled again. "You're pathetic. If you were truly strong you would do whatever you want to do."
"Sometimes, doing what's best for others means doing what you don't want to do. The same thing goes for doing what's best."
Reevo snorted. "Even your words are foolish. I do whatever I please. Who cares if it's right or for the best of others? I do whatever I want. If someone else gets screwed from me doing so then so be it. I don't care. I only look out for me. To hell with all of you."
"And you're running the town." Naruto scoffed. "You don't deserve to lead anybody."
"Who says I want to?" Reevo looked back at Ryosuke. "You know what? I think after I finish dealing with you, I'll go into that mountain myself and curse the rest of you and be done with it. Maybe I'll drop them off the cliff so they shatter, killing them all. Maybe I'll do the same to the objects in the palace. There's so much stuff and so many I've cursed, I don't know the cursed from the regular objects anymore. I've lost track. I'll just break them all." He looked at Naruto. "And once I'm done, I'll take Sakura as my mate. She won't say no. She'll be proud. Hell, she'll beg to be my mate. Maybe I'll even keep you alive so you can see it for yourself, Naruto. Won't that be something?"
He was asking for it. He was asking for it! Naruto couldn't stand it anymore. He bent all four of his legs, preparing to spring. Then a noise caught his sensitive fox ears and he paused. A rattling sound was coming from the ceiling. The others heard it, too, and looked up.
A tile from the ceiling was lifted and pushed off to the side and someone came down from the hole in the ceiling. The person jumped down and landed beside them. It was a human. A ninja.
Naruto gasped and tried to hide his face from his friend, hoping she wouldn't recognize him.
Upon seeing her, Reevo hid his fox features and changed his demeanor at once. "Oh! Sakura!" he said in the prince's voice. "Thank goodness you're here. These foxes came in and started threatening me. I think they might be in league with the assassins. Please, help me."
Sakura stood looking from fox to fox and then to the prince. "Save it!" she snapped.
Reevo blinked. "Pardon?"
"I heard the whole thing!" she said pointing at him. "You're not the real prince at all. You're an impostor!"
Reevo swallowed. For once he was at a loss for words.
Naruto kept his head down but tried to look at her at the same time.
"I had a feeling something was up so I hid in the ceiling. Naruto left the palace and according to Neji he had been doing that for the past few nights. Then Neji disappeared and I got worried."
Naruto blinked. Maybe hiding Neji was a good thing. It got Sakura worried enough to do a little spying of her own.
"A lot of weird stuff has been going on and I decided to get to the bottom of it."
Reevo stayed quiet while Sakura spoke.
"Get out of there!" she ordered him. "I heard it all. You're a fox, aren't you? Don't deny it. I know it's the truth. I also heard you admit doing some pretty cruel things to other people and hiring some hunters to kill your own kind up in the mountain. Also, how you cursed the prince so you could take over and the assassin as well. I also heard what you had to say about hiring us for this fake mission."
Reevo crawled out from the shadows of his bed and crouched on the edge of the mattress. "Then you also heard how I wanted to take you for my bride."
"Yeah." Sakura glared at him. "And there's no way in hell I'm doing that. Prince or fox, there is no way I'm marrying you."
Naruto lifted his head. He felt such a strange mixture of surprise and relief. Sakura had no desire to be with the prince and it wasn't just because she knew he was really a fox.
"What?" Reevo was so surprised, he dropped the prince's voice and used his own to speak to her. "But why? If you and I were to marry, you would one day become queen. What girl wouldn't want that?"
"It's not just the things you said," she told him. "Even before I knew you were a fox, I never felt that way about you. Your words were nice and all, but I wasn't falling for it. I knew something was up. Even Naruto knew something was up and he's a moron."
Naruto frowned.
"When it comes right down to it, even if you were a real prince and not some fox, I still wouldn't marry you and become queen. I've made a life for myself. I have a family back home and friends. And I chose to be a ninja. I'm doing what I want. And you know what? I'm good at it. I would never give that up."
"Not even for the good life?" he asked her.
Sakura shook her head. "I have a good life. I like the life I'm living. I would never give it up. I could never abandon my friends. And I certainly could never give it up to be with some prince who talks bad about my friends, especially Naruto!"
Naruto's heart skipped a beat. She would never go with a prince who spoke ill of her friends. Even him. That meant that she did care about him after all and held him in high regard. Which proved that Reevo didn't know what he was talking about. Sakura admitted Naruto was one of her dearest friends and she truly cared about him.
"Maybe if you took the time to actually get to know me rather than see me as just some girl you could make your own, you'd know I would never do that. You would know what kind of girl I am."
Reevo didn't take rejection well as it turned out. Naruto saw the look on his face change to something sinister. "Fine," he growled. "Clearly it's wasted on you in more ways than one. Maybe I could have let it slide that you knew the truth about me if you were fine with it but clearly, you're not. I can't let you go knowing my secret. If you refuse to be my mate, then I'll have to find someone else. Maybe one who isn't so crafty or thinks so highly of herself."
Sakura got into a fighting stance, knowing he was bound to attack.
"Too bad. I did like your intellect," said Reevo. "But perhaps, to avoid this in the future, I'll have to go with something who isn't as smart. Seems like a pain." Reevo lifted his eyes which glowed dangerously as they fell on Sakura. "You will regret this, Sakura. Rejecting me, finding out the truth, all of it."
Reevo's fox features were back. He sprang from the bed, his two tails giving him balance as he darted straight toward Sakura with his hand outstretched. Sakura backed up to punch him but he was too fast. Reevo placed his hand on Sakura's stomach. His hand was glowing the same color as fox fire. In fact, it looked like his hand was engulfed in flame.
"Curse!"
No longer caring if she knew it was him, Naruto turned his whole body toward her as she screamed, "Sakura!"
It was too late. There was nothing they could do.
Sakura's body began to glow the same color as Reevo's hand and then began to shrink. Sakura watched in horror as her body rapidly changed into something not human. Her face contorted in a silent scream and she was gone.
"Sakura!" Naruto ran forward.
Reevo took his hand away and stepped back, revealing the small ornament on the floor where Sakura once stood. It was a small glass lotus flower that sparkled in the moonlight. The flower was the same color as Sakura's hair.
"Sakura..." Naruto stood over the object. Nothing about it was human. Could she even see him? Could she hear him? If he were to touch her, would she feel it? Naruto had never seen the curse performed before. It was amazing as much as it was frightening. Naruto bent his head over the glass object and called to it gently. "Sakura?"
Reevo lifted his foot to stomp on the glass flower. He was going to kill her.
"No!" Naruto picked the delicate glass flower up in his mouth and carried it to safety. He had to be extremely careful so as not to break or chip any part of it. He could end up damaging Sakura. Even killing her.
Reevo turned and found Naruto holding object on the other side of the room. When Reevo turned to follow and finish what he started, Naruto jumped to the chair by the fireplace and scampered onto the backrest. From there he climbed to the stone shelf, hoping to be out of reach. When he looked back, he saw Reevo reaching up for them with his human hands. He grabbed Naruto's tail and yanked, trying to bring him down. Naruto yelped and his back legs slipped from the stone. He tried hard not to bite down and hurt Sakura. He kept his jaw stiff, trying to carry her as gently as he could. He gripped the stone frame with his front paws, trying to pull himself up.
If he put Sakura down, he could fight back. But if he did, she could get smashed. She was made of glass now. If he put her down, she could slip and fall, shattering on the floor. His perch was made of stone. If he dropped her, she could just as easily break without having to hit the ground. Worst of all, he feared that if he did put her down that Reevo would snatch her up and break her. When it came right down to it, the safest place for Sakura right now was in his mouth.
Suddenly, Reevo stopped pulling and released Naruto's tail. Naruto climbed back up and looked around to see what had happened. Reevo was on the ground and Ryosuke was on top of him, biting him. Naruto watched the two go at it from safely atop the fireplace. Reevo punched Ryosuke in the face with his human hands but Ryosuke continued to bite him. When Reevo punched him again, Ryosuke quickly turned his head and bit down on Reevo's knuckles. He howled in pain and started to flail, trying to shake Ryosuke off. They rolled around on the floor, crashing into the wall, the chair and the bookcase.
Naruto debated whether or not to help, but that would require him to put Sakura down. The way they were rolling around, she would be in danger. She was helpless as a glass flower and very fragile. Naruto couldn't risk it.
Reevo threw Ryosuke off but he had changed during their fight. His face had changed into that of a fox and his ears were back on top of his head, one of which was bleeding. His hands had also changed into hybrid paws. His tails swished back and forth, sweeping the floorboards. Ryosuke stood a short distance away, panting and bleeding from his nose. Reevo looked like a hybrid fox now. Aside from his clothes and hair, he looked very different from the human prince he was pretending to be. This fight was causing him to change into his natural form.
Ryosuke charged back in and Reevo kicked him with his hybrid legs. Even they had changed as well. He started to run away from Ryosuke on all fours, just like a fox. As much as he hated being a fox, it was what he truly was and it was something he couldn't fight. This was natural for him. Ryosuke pursued him. Reevo jumped at the last moment, letting Ryosuke sail under him and then planted both feet into his back, flattening Ryosuke to the carpet. Keeping him pinned, Reevo used his hybrid hands to slash Ryosuke repeatedly, drawing blood from his neck, back and head.
Naruto looked around for a place he could hide Sakura so she would be safe and he could fight. As soon as his head was turned from the fight, something went sailing by his head and he pulled back. When he looked, Reevo and Ryosuke were chasing each other around the room again, Reevo was throwing things at the kitsune. Naruto couldn't put Sakura down as long as they were doing that.
Reevo pounced on Ryosuke and the two rolled into the bookshelf again, snarling like beasts. Naruto watched from the fireplace, hoping Ryosuke would be alright. He heard someone yelp and ran to the edge of the shelf to look. Reevo had Ryosuke on his back and was biting his chest with his fox teeth. His whole body had become fox. This was how he truly looked. Now the only thing human about him was the clothing wrapped loosely around his smaller frame. Ryosuke threw him off and made a run for it. Reevo chased him. Shedding his human clothing, he ran after Ryosuke and shoved him roughly into the wall. They rolled over each other and broke apart. They chased each other around the room and came together in another violent attack, knocking over anything in their path.
Finally, their fight took them to the window. Reevo got tangled in the drapes and Ryosuke took this opportunity to slash him across the face. With a mighty pull, Reevo took the drapes down along with the pole supporting them which fell to the ground with a clang. The drapes fell over Ryosuke and the two continued their fight under the fabric where Naruto couldn't see them. They clawed their way out, cutting holes in the cloth and the two emerged still biting and scratching each other mercilessly. They shoved one another until they ended up tumbling out the window into the yard.
Naruto jumped down from his perch and left Sakura on the safest and softest thing he could find. He set her down on the overturned chair which was nicely padded, and whispered to her, "I'll be right back, Sakura. Don't move." His ears drooped. "Well, you know what I mean."
With that, he turned around and ran across the debris to the shattered window. He couldn't see them but he could hear them growling and snarling as their fight continued.
"Hang on, Ryosuke! I'm coming!" To avoid the broken glass, Naruto jumped out the window. He landed in the grass and ran to catch up with them. As he ran, he noticed trails of blood all over the yard. There was blood in the grass, the bush and even on the stone path leading to the rest of the garden. There was a lot of blood and a lot of fur. He hoped Ryosuke was alright.
Gasp again.
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