Kakashi: Foxed

Kakashi made sure he was standing in front of his fellow Konoha jounin as Naruto's body twisted and stretched into a new and much taller form; he had no illusions about his ability to offer more than token resistance against his student's tenant should Yoko become violent, but the bijuu did at least grudgingly tolerate his continued existence for his wife's sake. Though the distinctly humanoid form rapidly taking shape in front of him was nothing like Kakashi's memories of That Night, or even the more recent Wave mission, the sheer presence of the demon was such that even without the sheer malevolence of its usual aura its chakra still carried incredible weight, making it hard to breathe freely. Well, its youki. Whatever.

"Hatake." The jounin stiffened at the deep, inhuman rumble that emerged from his transformed student's lips. "Introduce your fellow insects." It was unmistakeably an order and not a remotely polite one. Then again, the Kyuubi was not an entity that needed courtly manners to get people to do as it told them to despite its rather old-fashioned attitude.

"Kyuubi-dono, may I humbly present my fellow jounin of Konohagakure Sarutobi Asuma and Yuuhi Kurenai, the jounin formerly of Iwagakure Deidara and…" Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the other Akasuki member, uncertain of his identity.

"Akasuna no Sasori."

"… and the jounin formerly of Sunagakure, Sasori of the Red Sands," Kakashi finished smoothly. "Gentlemen and lady, may I present to you Kyuubi-dono." Because this was most definitely not Naruto playing an elaborate prank. Naruto was not four inches past six feet tall, nor did he have that fine, elegant leanness that comes from generations of careful breeding. Naruto did not have waist-length, blood-red hair in a high ponytail, exotically slanted maroon-rimmed eyes with vermillion irises and slit pupils, or delicately pointed ears set slightly higher on the sides of his head than was strictly normal. Nor did Naruto have such sharp cheekbones, such fair skin, such broad shoulders or such long-fingered hands. His student didn't wear perfectly fitted, lacquered and polished black samurai armour over red silk kimono and hakana either and he definitely didn't have a black-tipped tail as long as he was tall curled casually over one shoulder like an expensive scarf.

No, this was not just Kakashi's most unpredictable student dressing to impress: this was a demon wearing said student's skin.

"This is what has been dispatched to hunt me and mine? A man who so fears death he has entirely ceased to live and a child so eager for the end he throws away his own life in the pursuit of a formless ideal?" Yoko demanded icily, tone utterly scornful as a single scarlet eyebrow arched haughtily. "Pathetic."

Deidara twitched. "I'm not a child, un!"

The raised eyebrow quirked at an angle that suggested a degree of amused disdain: "You do not deny how little you value your life." It was not a question.

The bomber grinned manically. "Life is art and art is a bang, un!"

Yoko snorted. "Children," it muttered in disgust.

"Besides, we were supposed to be looking for the Gobi but Sasori-danna decided that since you were here and it wasn't we could settle, un," Deidara added, stifled amusement flavouring his words.

Yoko clicked his tongue dismissively. "Humans. The only things as pathetic as your ridiculous frailty are your delusions of competence."

"Hey, un!"

"Quiet, Deidara," Sasori said repressively, not having moved at all since telling Kakashi his name. "We are here to capture the nine-tails, not banter with it."

"Such hubris," the Kyuubi bit out, looking down its nose at the S-class nukenin infamous for his puppetry skills and proficiency with poisons. "I will never be defeated by one such as you." With that the demon in human form abruptly and rudely turned its back on the two ninja in cloud-patterned coats and stalked past Kakashi back towards the village with all the unconscious grace and poise of an apex predator.

Sasori shifted slightly, then twitched as Yoko didn't even falter. Kakashi lifted his hitai-ite just enough to catch sight of the chakra strings recoiling from his student's possessed form like water bouncing off a hot pan.

"Are you going to follow him?" Kakashi asked Deidara in a studiously idle tone of voice as he let his forehead protector slide back down over his sharingan.

"Nah: he's not our problem. Sasori-danna's just being impatient, un," the bomber replied airily. "Shall we leave, danna?"

"Hmph."

"My wife won't be too happy if you manage to kill her friend, you know," the Copy-nin mused.

The teenage bomber waved a hand dismissively, revealing the mouth in his palm with its protruding tongue. "She won't mind that much really, un. She knows that ninja do as they're ordered to so issues should get taken up with the person who sponsored the mission, un." The slightly effeminate blond grinned. "She's a blast like that, un!"

"We're leaving, Deidara," Sasori said abruptly, turning away. "Come."

"Coming danna, un!" Both nukenin blurred away, leaving only the very faintest of chakra trails. Kakashi left pursuit up to the ANBU who had been observing the confrontation from cover.

"Well," Kurenai said shakily, "that was… civil."

"It was, wasn't it?" Kakashi agreed absently. "I'd better go catch up with my student." He shunshined off, leaving his colleagues to their confusion.

Naruto was not hard to find: he was two training grounds over in the direction Yoko had stalked off in, back to his normal self other than a few faint wisps of orange floating around him.

"I thought you said the seal was secure," the jounin commented after a short silence.

"It is, Kakashi-sensei: I could have reassumed control any time I wanted," Naruto assured him earnestly, turning to look his teaching in the face with wide, serious eyes. "It was too good a bluff to miss though: they'll be warier of me if they think Yoko can step to the forefront like that on a whim and recognise that it is cunning in its own right rather than just a mindless mass of youki and brute force."

Which was all true: the demon fox has presented itself to those hunting it as a powerful, perceptive and sophisticated opponent that the Akatsuki would now have to take much more seriously. Which was both good and bad, as Naruto and his tenant would be forced to live up to those expectations or else die trying.

"It was an awesome prank, too," Naruto added as an afterthought.

"Prank?"

The blond grinned. "Kitsune are tricksters, sensei, especially when people get too full of themselves."

Kakashi blinked, assimilating the bewildering concept of a prankster bijuu. "Maa, I'll take your word for it. Why did your tenant say Akasuna no Sasori had ceased to live?"

The young chūnin blinked. "You didn't notice, sensei? He wasn't really alive: just a puppet with a living chakra core. Not very many emotions either and all of them bitter or hateful." The jinchuuriki shivered. "Deidara's a repressed and insecure mess but he's way more emotionally healthy than Sasori."

"You certainly grew up interesting in that okiya, didn't you?" Kakashi teased, ruffling his student's shoulder-length hair playfully.

A/N: The Kyuubi gets his turn to shine, which he does very well. I see him as being a lot like Sesshoumaru, but older and sufficiently secure in himself to really let loose with his sense of humour.