Sorry for non-acceptable lateness. Got hit by a major case of Writer's block. Then I got Okami for Christmas. And Assassin's Creed III. And Pokémon Black 2. Go figure.

I find it very flattering that so many of you who reviewed came with so many suggestions. It really makes me happy that you care to that level. One amusing thing though is that just about everything that you guys have pointed out, I have already made plans for. What those plans are, you'll just have to wait and see... Or log in and send me a PM, asking me. I'm not overly tight-lipped about my plans

About the details about the Lilmothiit race that so many of you requested; they are actually a canon race and have their own page on the TES wiki, but for all of you lazy buggers, I'll write down what I could find about them in the second AN's at the bottom of the page. The information available is VERY sparse, so as for the rest... You'll just have to wait and see what I've cooked up. Don't worry; it will only be a few chapters until (part of) the story will be told. Patience, people.

On a different note, a friend of mine from school read this story and had apparently never heard the expression "cool as a cucumber" before, and because of that, whenever he sees a picture of Jiraya, his mind now substitutes him with a cucumber. With a smiley face. Even in Jiraya's dying scene. That was totally intentional, by the way. Totally.

Seriously, that's not my fault, dude. Your brain did that all by its own.

Journey of a Lilmothiit

Chapter 3
The Calm before the Storm

The waters of Lake Ilinalta shimmered brightly in the rays of the rising sun. Its clear, almost crystalline water was nearly freezing cold through most of the year, but in this early morning of Sun's Height, the water was mild, pleasantly cool as a contrast to the warm air of a summer morning.

On the southern shore of this lake, beside a large boulder, there was a simple camp, made up of a small tent, a single bedroll and an improvised fireplace. A set of rather unique leather armor plated with small, almost mesh-like scales of a light green metal lay folded by the tent. A large slab of slowly cooling, grilled venison meat was perched over the dying embers, waiting patiently for the camp's only inhabitant.

Naruto was taking a morning swim in the lake. It was a habit he had taken up quite soon after his arrival, despite the cold waters. As it turned out, the Nords weren't very keen about cleanliness. They bathed no more often than twice a month, which they claimed was enough. And often, here in Tamriel. Pah, he called bullshit on that one. At least twice a week, that was his standards. Unfortunately, they had not seen fit to invent a pipe system yet, so there was no running water to be found. He had to settle for Lake Ilinalta, and that was fine with him. It was a beautiful lake and these trips gave him some peace and quiet for his own thoughts.

Looking down into the mostly clear waters as he washed his face, he couldn't help but let his gaze linger at the surface. He wasn't entirely used to the fanged visage that was reflected back at him yet. It was unsettling just how similar his face was to that of the Kyuubi's. It was still clearly his face, sure enough, and anyone with attention to details would see it. His angles were softer, he still had his own coloring, and his eyes were not nearly as fierce as the Youma's, but no matter which way you put it, he still looked like the Kyuubi's nephew.

That was a thought that didn't bother him nearly as much now as it would have a few months earlier. Ever since the scroll incident, that big old fox had been having a rather drastic change in attitude towards him. He still didn't really know why, as the big oaf avoided the subject like the plague, but Naruto didn't argue; everybody had their secrets and he wasn't going to pry. It wasn't worth it, when it came down to it. He knew it had something to do with the Lilmothiit, his supposed ancestors, their apparent disappearance from the face of Tamriel and their subsequent appearance in the Elemental nations, but the Youma wasn't very forthcoming. Whenever he tried to breach the subject, all he would get from the guy was a guarded reading of guilt, along with the words 'perhaps some other day, kit'. So far, that day hadn't come, but he could wait.

The change of attitude was welcome however, since the Kyuubi was, in the end, the only familiar face that he had around. He had also finally learned the large bastard's name, too. Kurama, it was. The guy was still a rude bastard with an overly short fuse, but at least he could consider Kurama a friend now. Using the definition of 'friend' rather loosely, of course.

Having washed the last of his sleepiness away, Naruto returned to his camp on the shore, wanting to eat his rather protein-filled breakfast before it got cold. He had to get back to Helgen in a few hours; Torolf needed the metal he'd brought in from Whiterun.

Trekking up the worn path to Helgen, Naruto adjusted his armor, having rushed a bit when putting it on, which had led to a rather uncomfortable fit. He was rather satisfied with his armor, being the first real armor above pure Leather that he'd been able to modify to his needs and desires without compromising the quality. He'd used the standard Leather armor as base but forgone the pauldrons, since they would only serve to get in the way. He'd had to skip over the boots entirely too, replacing them with rather long, segmented greaves and nothing at all for his feet, since his paws made such things redundant. Finally, he'd enforced the whole thing with his personal scale-mesh, made from his favorite alloy of mostly Orichalcum with some Iron, creating a bright, gray-ish green metal that was both sturdy and surprisingly light.

Taking a deep breath, the young Lilmothiit gazed upon the small town that had been his home away from home for over three months that was now only a hundred meters away. A guardsman standing by the gates recognized him easily.

"Hey, fox-kid!"

Back in Konoha, that would have been an insult, a verbal sneer of the greatest kind. Here in Helgen, it was merely affectionate teasing. Something he had kind of deserved with his intense insistence that contrary to their assumptions, he was not Khajiit; he was Lilmothiit. Not cat. Fox. He wasn't entirely sure why he was feeling so defensive about it, but it did nothing to lessen it. He supposed it was as if somebody would call a human 'Spriggan' or something silly like that. After a while someone started calling him fox-kid instead of using his actual name, which they all actually knew, Helgen being a small village and him being the only non-human and all that, and it just sort of spread.

Naruto grinned to himself. Unlike him, the possibly last Lilmothiit, the town guard was pretty anonymous. In fact, he had more difficulty telling them apart than he did the ANBU back home, but on the plus side, the guardsmen had more personality. Kakashi-sensei didn't count; he was ex-ANBU, after all.

"Any news, Glen?"

"I'm Olaf!"

"Oh, you all look the same..."

The guard grumbled half-heartedly. It was just something one had to get used to as a guardsman.
"Did you hear about Ulfric?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "No?"

Olaf seemed to grin, happy to be the first one to share the news. "General Tullius finally managed to catch that bastard and his closest lieutenants. They're on the way here for the execution."

"Here? In Helgen?" the youngster asked, caught off-guard. He knew who Ulfric was; he was the infamous leader of the Stormcloak rebellion, after all. Three months was more than enough time to have snapped up that little tidbit. "That seems like a big… ekse… esketu…"

"Execution."

"What you said. But why Helgen? Wouldn't the Imperial City or at least Solitude be better?" Inwardly, Naruto grumbled about his still broken and obviously lacking Tamrielic.

The guard shrugged. "Don't know much about the details, but the Legion will be sending reinforcements to up the security. Oh, speaking of reinforcements, Captain Hadvar was asking for you."

Naruto groaned. "And I just got back... Oh well, might just as well see what he wants. See ya, Glen!"

"It's Olaf, dammit!"

The barracks were bustling with activity, the imperial reinforcements having already arrived. Hadvar, the acting Captain of the town guard was as a result of this swamped with duty, giving out orders to the right and left. He wasn't really a captain, strictly speaking, but he was the leader of the local guard, and despite his young age he had the most training out of all of them, so they tended to simply call him 'Captain'. He seemed to brighten up significantly when Naruto stepped through the door.

"Ah, you're back!"

"Just in time for the party, I hear..." the young fox muttered. The prospect of an execution really put a damper on his mood.

"So you heard? Don't like it, do you?"

Naruto shook his head. "Should I? No matter whose, a life is still a life…"

"You never did like killing, eh Nar?"

The fox hummed, eyes attaining a rare sparkle of wisdom, the kind of wisdom that came from experience. "Life is a gift that should never be returned early."

Hadvar sighed. He'd heard that many times from the old adventuring veteran that spent most days at the tavern. "In truth, I agree with you, kid, but neither you nor I am in charge here. All we can do is make sure that innocent lives aren't spilled. That is why I called for you."

The Lilmothiit raised an eyebrow. "You want me to help you? But I'm not a guard..."

"You're still the best fighter in town," the guard commander pointed out.

That actually said more about the town than it did about him, in Naruto's opinion, but it was still quite the praise, something that the young boy was far from used to. He scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "I'm not..."

Hadvar punched his shoulder teasingly. "And who was it that defeated those bandit spellswords who attacked us three weeks ago, eh? Stop being so modest, Nar."

He chuckled, blushing. "Heh. I guess I did that..."

The young captain frowned slightly, knowing the young Lilmothiit well enough by this point to tell that the kid was hiding something. "What's bothering you?"

Naruto's nervous smile dropped like a sinking rock. Hadvar was right, something was bothering him. There was just something in the air... He couldn't put his finger on it. Ever since he first heard of the whole execution business, he'd felt a strange sort of... premonition, as if something was about to happen. Something terrible. But he didn't want Hadvar to know; the poor sod had enough on his plate as it were. With disturbingly practiced ease, the young shinobi played it off as something else. "It's just... I'm surprised you all trust me..."

"Nonsense!" Hadvar scoffed. "With you here the security in Helgen has just short of doubled in efficiency. You alone have fought off more bandits in these three months than most of the guards here have in their life! And you're what, sixteen?"

"Fifteen in a few months, actually..."

The older of the two gave the younger a friendly punch in the back. "See my point? You might not be a Nord by blood, lad, but you by Kyne herself sure have the heart o' one! You've done more for this town in this short a time than many could ever hope to. Give me one reason I shouldn't trust you."

Naruto on the other hand was pretty sure he could list more than a few reasons, having been raised in the paranoid society that he'd been, but it didn't matter; he had just wanted to avert attention from the previous subject. He chuckled. "All right, all right, you win. So, sentry duty?" He silently cheered for knowing the somewhat obscure word, thanks to having spent a lot of time with the guards.

"Aye." Hadvar nodded. "I'm positioning you at the-"

"Big bro Naru!"

At the sound of the familiar voice, Naruto immediately brightened up, mentally dropping all that ill premonitions and military action was and turned towards the young boy that he had come to recognize as something of a little brother ran towards him, smiling brightly. "Haming!"

The eleven-year-old tackled his older brother-figure with a hug, laughing in glee. "You're back!"

Naruto laughed right back, catching the young Nord boy and swung him up onto his shoulders. "Yep! Your big bro is back!"

Hadvar chuckled, smiling at the two. The two boys had bonded so very quickly over the three months and it was truly heartwarming to see them play. To see how Torolf's young one seemed to bring out the more natural playfulness in the young teen who in his opinion seemed to be growing up way too fast. It would be cruel to keep them here any long, he thought, so he dismissed the teen. "Be there at the south-eastern tower in two hours. OK?"

The blonde fox grinned back at the captain. "Tavern-tower. Two hours. Got it."

As Naruto and Haming turned around and left the building, Hadvar resumed his duties with a small smile on his lips. He was a busy man who had a lot of business to do, but now that the young straggler was back in the village, he couldn't help but feel as if the clouds had parted somewhat.

"So big bro?! Did you fight any bears this time? Did you see any Spriggans? Were you attacked by bandits? Who did you have to hunt down? Huh? Tell me! Tell me!"

Naruto laughed softly at the young boy's antics as he sat high up on his shoulders. It had only been a few days, but he had missed the kid. Grinning widely, he said, "Oh, did I, did I now? You want to know?"

"Yeah!" Haming exclaimed. "Of course I want to know! What happened, brother? Tell me!"

"I don't believe you~," the blond fox teased in a sing-song tone.

The eleven-year-old pouted so much that Naruto could hear it. "Brother!"

Naruto chuckled, relenting. "Alright, alright. Well, there was this little encounter I had on the east road to Rorikstead..."

Naruto chuckled to himself as Haming listened to his story with gusto. Haming kind of reminded him of Konohamaru back home. They had the same kind of feel to them, the same kind of energy that never failed to bring a smile to his face. He had even been teaching the young Nord how to throw shuriken in his spare time. When Torolf wasn't watching, obviously. His sensei would have his head if he knew that Naruto let his little cub play with lethally sharp objects like that. Not that he would ever let the little one get hurt, of course.

"And then?" Haming urged on, practically bouncing on Naruto's shoulders.

"Well, I punched him out, of course!" the blond said, as if it was an everyday thing.

"A bear? With your bare hands?"

"Well, no..."

"Hah!" the kid exclaimed. "I knew it! Not even you can take down a bear bare-handed!"

"Actually," Naruto chuckled, before pouncing on the unsuspecting Haming with a tickle-attack. "I took him down bear-handed!"

"Hah-Br-brother! Hahah... th- hah- that's lame!" the boy somehow managed to squeeze out between laughs as he succumbed to the attack of his brother-figure. "La-ha-ha-hamest he-ver!"

"Oh, shut it. It wasn't that bad..."

"It was. Just about the worst pun I've ever heard," Kurama decided to point out.

"Oh, who asked you?"

But the jovial tone in the Youma's voice was swiftly dropped like a rock. "Kit?"

"Is something the matter?"

"Can you feel it? That?"

Naruto hummed inwardly. "Yeah, I do. What is it?"

"Bad news, that's what it is," Kurama said, sighing. "Just make sure to keep an extra eye out for trouble, OK?"

"Big bro?"

"Hm?" The voice of a puzzled Haming snapped Naruto back to the land of the corporeal.

"You zoned out. Something the matter?"

He shook his head, smiling at the little one. "It's nothing. Come on; let's get these ingots to Torolf-sensei."

"Naruto?" Haming said when he was once again perched upon the shoulders of the blond fox.

"Yes?"

"You never told me what that means, that senn-sej thing you say. What does it mean?"

"I haven't? Well, sensei means Teacher, in my tongue. It can mean other things too, though."

The Nord child hummed thoughtfully. "How was your homeland like?"

Naruto chuckled. It was easy to forget that despite the fact that he had been here for three whole months already, he's only been able to speak their language well enough to communicate without much problem for a few weeks. "Well, it's a lot warmer there, for one."

Haming huffed. "It's not that cold here!"

At that remark, the blond couldn't hold his laughter in. "Hah! You haven't been outside Skyrim in your whole life, have you, Haming?"

"Well, no..."

Naruto chuckled. "I haven't been in a land this cold since that quest in Yuuki no Kuni."

"Ju-ki?"

"No, Yuuki. The land of snow. It was all snow and ice and... all that."

"Like Winterhold?"

The blond teen shrugged. "Haven't been there, but yes, kind of like Winterhold, frozen and cold and stuff. I'd take the warm, lush forests of Hi no Kuni over Yuuki any day."

"You really miss your home, don't you?" Haming said, suddenly very solemn.

Naruto hummed, as to say yes. Sensing the little one's growing distress, he was quick to reassure the boy. "Don't you worry! I still don't even know how to get back in the first place. You're gonna be stuck with me for a while!"

"Not true!" the boy accused, not cheered up in the least. "You're going to leave! You said you're leaving for the Mages' College in two weeks!"

"Aa, that's true," the older admitted. "But I'm hardly joining them; I just need their help to find my way home."

But Haming just kept on muttering, "You're leaving..."

Any reply that he would have conjured was drowned out by a very familiar shout. "Hey! Look who's back!" It was Torolf, ever upbeat, standing by his burning forge. "How was the hunt?"
Before Naruto could answer, the smith frowned, almost glaring at his apprentice. "Why is my little Cub sad?"

Naruto made a few pacifying gestures, his face clearly betraying the fact that Torolf was scaring him shitless. The smith was quite the papa bear when it came to his dear little 'cub'. "He's just being sad about me leaving."

Torolf softened considerably in the blink of an eye and scooped up his son, giving him a noogie. "Don't be a moron, son. 'S not like he won't visit us? Right?"

The blond grinned. "Of course I will! I'd be mad not to!"

"Promise?" asked the little one.

"Promise."

"Pinky-swear?"

With a smile, Naruto held out his furry pinky. "Pinky-swear."

Haming brightened up, now grinning brightly as he returned the gesture, sealing the deal. It wasn't as if he wouldn't come back to visit them anyway, but if Haming wanted reassurance, then Naruto had no problem providing it. Besides, he always kept his promises, no matter what.

"But Naru, I can't see why you would want to go to those wizards. Those Mages are nothing but trouble, I hear," Torolf said.

"You keep telling me that, sensei," Naruto replied. "But things like… things like this… the whole world-crossing thing aren't natural. If anyone would know about it, it would be the mages. I need to get home, Torolf."

"I know," the man admitted with a sigh. "I know. I just don't trust those bloody magicians. What they do, it just ain't natural…"

"And so is not world-hopping."

Torolf smirked, chuckling at his apprentice's still lacking and quite broken language. "Aye, you're right. But the Wizards are fancy folk with fancy words, and you ain't gonna impress them with that tongue of yours."

Naruto pouted. "I'm getting better…"

"That you are, lad. That you are, at a surprising rate, too," the smith agreed. "But you ain't gonna get much better in this little bump in the road."

"A bump in the road with a wall," the teen remarked.

"Aye, a bump in the road with a mighty wall, indeed. Anyway little kit, I happen to have had a bit of a talk with a good colleague in Whiterun…"

"Oh? Who?"

Torolf grinned widely, puffing up his chest as if boasting of having clubbed at troll to death with a piece of firewood. "Why, Eorlund Graymane himself!"

Naruto's eyes widened. Eorlund Graymane he had heard of. Was hard not to, having lived with a smith for three months. "You mean the best smith in Skyrim, that Eorlund? What did he say?"

The smith chuckled yet again, enjoying the way he was dragging it out. It was always amusing. "Weeeell… Incidentally I showed him some of your creations…"

Parabolic ears perked up. The young shinobi was hooked. "Really? What did he say?"

Chuckling, Torolf ruffled the teen's mane. "He was quite impressed, I'd say. With good reason, too. Wanted to teach you a thing or two himself, he did. So what do you say? You gonna bite?"

Naruto couldn't do much but doing a rather impressive imitation of a fish. Eorlund Graymane, the Eorlund Graymane had been impressed by him! Wanted to teach him steelwork! Personally! The situation was just unreal. Would this mean that he would be allowed to work at the Skyforge?

Oh, he'd heard of the Skyforge, all right. It was legendary. The bards even sang songs about the ancient eagle forge every now and then at the inn. For any smith, even a budding one such as himself, it was a dream coming true.

"But da-ad!" Haming's voice cut through his flabbergasted mind. "You're making him leave sooner! Meanie dad!"

"Oh, don't be an idiot, son," said the smith, lightly bonking the little one on the head. "Naru here wants to get home. Can you blame him for that?"

Haming muttered. "Well... no, but..."

"And, the Companions travel a lot," Torolf explained and once again turned to address Naruto. "That means they hear a lot. You're looking for information, so I'd say you should start with them."

Naruto nodded, before frowning. "You think they'll let me in?"

That earned him a chop over the head. "I know that you've got a brain in that skull of yours. Use it for once!" Torolf sighed while the young teen nursed his now aching head. "Eorlund is more or less the smith of the Companions. If you were to be his pupil, their doors would be open. By Shor, I wouldn't be surprised if they'd invite you to join, with your battle prowess!"

Naruto blushed, scratching the back of his head. "I'll think about it. Anyway, I'll go store away the metals; Hadvar asked me to stand sentry at the Tavern-tower during the execution, so I need to hurry."

"Well what are you waiting for, then? Get a move on!"

Chuckling, the blond fox started walking to the barn to load off his burden, but stopped as little Haming once again called out for him. "Big brother!" Naruto turned around, meeting the intense, glaring gaze of the young Nord. "We'll play later, got it?"

Naruto chuckled. "Got it."

And with that, the young Lilmothiit walked off. It would seem that he had a lot to think about.

I didn't get nearly as far as I'd wanted to. In fact, I wanted to write through the Unbound quest, but if I did, I'd have been forced to let you wait at least another twenty days, so I saved that for the next chapter, which I have no plans on delaying. This time, I'll be on schedule.

Now, the canon data on the Lilmothiit, as promised:

Now, as I said, the canon data on the Lilmothiit is very sparse indeed. On the wiki, this is all that is written on the Lilmothiit data page:

"The Lilmothiit are a lost, unknown beast race that resemble canines. Their fate is unknown, and the only information on them is stated in the Pocket Guide to the Empire (Oblivion).

Biology

Like the Khajiit and Argonians, humanoid in form, and animalian in appearance.

History

The Lilmothiit used to call Black Marsh their homeland. It is not said why they left, some believe they were driven out by the Argonians.

They were a tribal race like most beast folk, with the exception of Khajiit.

The Akaviri may have had interactions with the Lilmothiit, shown by the Akaviri using Lilmothiit ruins as grounds for prisons."

The name Lilmothiit appears in but three sentences in the PGttE, reading thus:

"In additional to the reptilian Argonians, who are today Black Marsh's most visible denizen, there were once tribes of men (...) and tribes of mer (...) and even a tribe who may have been related to the Khajiit of Elsweyr, the vulpine Lilmothiit. "

"The southern coastal regions, not surprisingly, were the realms of the Lilmothiit, though they were a nomadic group and left few enduring signs of their existence that were not covered up by later civilizations."

And finally: "The worst of the dungeons was constructed in the following era by Potentate Versidue-shae on the ruins of the Lilmothiit community called Blackrose."

Short version, they were more or less like Khajiit, only foxes, no-one knows how they disappeared, they lived in the Black marsh, at least most of the time, had a nomadic, tribal culture, founded Blackrose (and likely the city of Lilmoth) and the fact that the southern coastal regions was their realms is apparently not surprising.

That's all. No really, that is everything there is on the canon Lilmothiit. As is it all the info I'm having any intention of giving you for now. Besides, this is more than Naruto himself knows at this point, anyway.