Chapter 6: Faces

Kyu was weary. As one of the few kitsune who regularly saw service as summons, he was more familiar with mankind than most. Still, fighting for his summoner in pitched battles with missing-nin from the Land of Air was no longer his idea of a good time.

He'd performed admirably, of course. In the latest bout, two missing-nin had returned to their village, to collect some personal items left behind when they decided to desert. It was the last mistake that they would make.

His ANBU summoner had decided circumstances were favorable for a trap, and on this much at least, the kitsune agreed. After being summoned, he'd done his duty, creating an illusion inside the home to mask the presence of ANBU agents until the missing-nin were too far inside to be able to make it out again.

That was the easy part. The real test for his summoner would come after the battle was won.

The missing-nin wouldn't suspect an ambush in their own home, after all, and certainly not by a full squad of ANBU. As far as they knew, there was no reason to expect that they would return home this week, and the security they had encountered thus far had been light. Many of the ANBU were supposedly meant to be on guard duty, protecting their borders with the Land of Water, but that had been a carefully planned lie.

That, at least, was a well conceived plan by the human ANBU members. By ensuring it leaked out that the ANBU were on border duty, the inner city was seen as unusually light on security. By encouraging the Kage to mention their plan to corner the missing-nin once they were sure the border was secure, a public time limit had been created. If any missing-nin needed to return home for something, now was apparently their opportunity. The stashes those missing-nin had left prior to fleeing would be safe, for now. But once the ANBU were recalled, there was a good chance they'd be found, and former Jounin Taka could not allow that. The life of a missing-nin was hard, and he needed those scrolls and supplies he'd had to stash under his house before he left. It was to be his last stash raid.

Kyu waited patiently until both he and his accomplice had made their way, slowly and cautiously, to the place they had once called home. His ANBU summoner by his side, it was an ancient but very effective tactic. The ANBU allowed the missing-nin to reveal the stash, hidden under some floorboards, waiting patiently.

A nod from his summoner, and Kyu dispelled the illusion.

Jutsu flew thick and fast in the small house, but it was a confined space, the ANBU outnumbered the missing-nin three to one, and the ANBU had the element of surprise. All they really had to do was contain the missing-nin. The rest was inevitable.

Taka's shield jutsu were good. His reaction time was better. The second the illusion dropped, he had his shield up before the ANBU projectiles flicked across the room to reach him. His second was already casting a summoning jutsu, to try to even the battle, while Taka looked for an escape route.

That was their problem: there wasn't one.

ANBU had every exit covered. The door. The windows. Even a strategically weakened wall section, something he'd put in place for just this eventuality. They were beating on his shield already with water bullets. That volume of water moving at that speed had enough kinetic force to break bones, and it was quite obvious that they were not going to be taken alive. You don't desert the Land of Air and expect your Kage to allow you to live. Especially if you're a Jounin, and they fear you defecting to a rival village.

He knitted his brow in thought, mind racing for an alternative way out as their water bullets crashed into his shield. His second was panicking slightly now, eyes darting from ANBU to ANBU, faces unreadable in their cold masks, as they went through the motions of the water bullet jutsu over and over.

There was one last option. Shadow jutsu, though common in the Land of Fire, were less well known outside it, and he'd picked up one from a member of the Nara clan, long ago, who he'd had the pleasure of interrogating in the field. It would have to do.

Grabbing onto his second, he made the hand signs.

"Shadow step jutsu!"

His stash room had been well-lit. No shadows anywhere. In retrospect, that should probably have been a warning sign. It is standard practice to light ambush grounds well, for you certainly do not want enemy ninja hiding in any shadows you have left available for their use.

It is a more advanced technique, however, to leave ONLY the shadows you wish your enemy to use.

So it was that they emerged into the only nearby shadow, a room upstairs, which the ANBU had left dark for precisely this purpose. The 7th member of the ANBU hit squad applied the knives to each of their backs, before they could even re-orient themselves from the technique.

Kyu's ears twitched, as he heard the sound of bodies hitting the floor upstairs. "That was faster than I expected", he intoned. His summoner did not even look in his direction. "Report to the Kage. Inform him that the targets have been eliminated".

So it had always been. Kyu was good at his job, but that's all he was to his ANBU summoner. A tool. A very useful tool, to be sure, but merely a tool. To be commanded, to be useful.

"Hai" he barked, his tail flicking in annoyance. It was only fair, after all, to give his summoner, with whom he had fought many battles, a chance. He turned his head back, after he left. "I have always served you well" he noted. "But, am I your friend? You only summon me when you need my skills. It is your right, by the summoning contract. Still, will you ever summon me when there are not ninja to kill?"

The ANBU's head turned. His summons were not normally so chatty. Indeed, they rarely spoke at all. More than once, his enemies had thought them mindless animals, and it had been the last mistake that they had the luxury of making.

For a second, he hesitated. It was a serious question, but this was a mission. There would be time for questions later. There was always time for questions – later. When there were not missing-nin to hunt, or borders to secure, or VIPs to protect. His team were staring at him. Would they think him soft if he said yes? There was only one way to find out, and he did not fancy doing so.

"Kyu, go. The Kage awaits. Inform him of our success. We can discuss this later."

Kyu smiled. It was a toothy smile, and accompanied by a flick of his second tail. "Of course", he purred. "My mistake". He turned to leave. "Goodbye, Summoner" he said, in a deceptively pleasant tone. Then, with a flash of orange and a light pattering of feet, he was gone.

"Try talking to him", quipped the ANBU watching the door. "You always bring him out for these things, but this is the first time I've seen him ask you for something." He paused for a moment. "Summons are strong, but you must never forget they can be strong-willed, too."

Silence reigned for half a minute. "I will think about it", the summoner eventually answered.

By that point, of course, Kyu was already at the Kage's office. The ANBU emblem on his armor got him past the other ANBU security at the many sets of doors between the street entry point, and the grand wooden doors to the Kage's personal office. ANBU recognized one of the personal summons of a fellow ANBU member, even if they had not been personally introduced. "I bear a message from ANBU team four" got him past the final set of doors. Apparently his use as a messenger had been expected.

The Kage of the Land of Air was just as blunt. "Kyu, report!" was commanded of him the moment he entered the office. He sighed. "Taka and his second have been terminated. Their stash of stolen scrolls has been recovered. No ANBU were injured. The plan worked flawlessly."

The Kage nodded. Kyu did not move. After a moment, the Kage looked up again from the myriad of paperwork, of scrolls, that covered his desk like a badly-woven tapesty. "Was there something else?" he asked.

"My fellow fox summons and I wish to see more of the world. We have served your ANBU well. Yet they seem to consider us mere tools, like a dagger or jutsu. We will fight when we must, but we wish to do more than simply fight. We wish, simply, to live."

The Kage stared at him. While it was true that the tailed beasts had been granted their freedom after the fourth Shinobi war, no summon had been asking for the same. This could set a dangerous precedent. Summons were plentiful. Many high-level ninja had a summon of some kind. He imagined a world where summons could roam freely – and he saw chaos. Mere tracking dogs were one thing. They generally got on quite well, even with civilians. Kitsune, on the other hand, were legendary tricksters and illusionists. To say nothing of their leader, the 9-tails. While it had fought on the side of humanity, history was long, and there were many, many cases in the books where it had destroyed whole villages. If ever there was a type of summon not fit to wander free, the Kyuubi and its kin were arguably it.

"What would you do?", he asked quietly.

"Run free of contracts, living in the wider land as we pleased."

It was not the answer he had wanted. Few could summon the kitsune. Few were willing to try. Fewer still to sign the summoning contract. A few years of good deeds by the Kyuubi had indeed been amazingly helpful for their image, but many still viewed them with suspicion and distrust. To have them run free through the lands made his danger sense prickle. Not to mention, letting them run free would allow them to work for other villages. He knew that the success of ANBU team four was greatly enhanced by that summon. He knew also that he did not want to start running into wild, unbound kitsune, nor to run into them working for other villages. The duties of Kage meant he had to put his village first.

"Perhaps we could speak of this later." he suggested kindly. He needed more information about this. He'd ask Kyu's summoner later to speak to the fox. Gather information about what the beast wanted. Perhaps he could be summoned in safe areas, further away from the village, for a little R&R. The fox frowned, nodded, and bowed.

"In that case, I take my leave", he stated simply. Then he turned, and did exactly that. Without asking to be dismissed.

The Kage frowned, unhappily. The fox's last reply was a statement, not a question. He would have to remind team four about discipline with their summons. In the presence of the Kage, you wait for him to dismiss you. You do not simply walk out. It was disrespectful, and it did not help the kitsune's case.

Kyu did not return to team four. Instead, he sought the nearest forest, a small affair, south of the village. Curling up within a tree, he turned his mind inwards.

Within seconds, the forest disappeared – to be replaced by another, much darker forest, in which glistened the eyes of his fellow kitsune. One pair above all were larger than a man, and focused intently upon him.

"I asked", stated Kyu simply. "My summoner is not inclined to let us run free. Not in the land of Air, anyway. I asked the Kage as well. He said we should speak of this 'later'. It is always 'later' with summons. Never 'now'. You may have earned your freedom with your deeds, but we have a long, long way to go before our kind are welcome to go wherever we please."

The enormous eyes of the Kyuubi regarded him silently.

Dozens of much smaller eyes focused upon him, and the whispers in the night grew in volume as they digested this latest piece of news.

At last, the nine-tails spoke. "As the biju have a shared mental space, so I created this space for all my children, that we may use it to decide our future, without worry that the humans will be spooked by our planning, and rein us in again. It is, however, useless if you refuse to use it. You speak only of facts. Tell me, little one, what have you decided?"

It was not a hard decision. In the weeks since Kurama first summoned them, he had given them all a choice. Come with him, or not. Many had decided to come with him, simply out of gratitude, or a desire to follow the greatest of their kind. Some few had decided not to go, no matter what, for they felt bound to the land, or to the humans that they knew. Some simply wished to fight.

The greatest number, however, gave it careful thought. Why, they asked, could they not be free on this world? Kurama's actions had gained him his freedom. Why not them, too? Should he not at least ask? Kurama had told them that he was unwilling to put their freedom at risk by telling the humans of their plans. He had been convinced that humanity would never give the kitsune freedom to wander their lands with impunity.

So, a bargain had been reached. Each kitsune could make their own decision. And they were allowed by the greatest of their kind to ask questions of the human they knew, to inform that decision. No kitsune, however, was allowed to tell the humans of their plan to leave. Or even that they were considering leaving. For that could bring down the wrath of all nations. The loss of the Kyuubi itself would alter the balance of power considerably, to say nothing of the loss of most kitsune at every rank.

Kyu nodded. "I have decided to come with you", he said. Another ripple of whispers went through the kitsune in the trees. Every kitsune that joined the exodus, made it easier for others to do so as well. Every story told of humanity ignoring them, or treating them like tools, of not making time for them or summoning them except to fight for their lives, had built the case for leaving.

Kurama stared down at the tiny kitsune before him. Mentally, he added one to an enormous, and still slowly growing, tally. He tried to resist the urge to compare it to the similarly enormous tally on the other side, of kitsune yet to be convinced.

"You have more experience than most of us, interacting with humans", he stated simply. "When we leave, we must be prepared. I have a new mission for you."

Kyu dipped his nose to the ground. A mission from the greatest of their kind was no small thing. It was an honor. If he did well, he might earn another tail from this.

Kurama continued. "When I invited you all to come with me, I said that the world to which we are going has humans. They are not like the humans you know. They have no ninjitsu. They have no way of the ninja at all. They are not familiar with summons, or indeed, 'talking beasts' as they would say, at all. Even of us, they know little. We may have visited them in the past, hundreds of years ago, when they were growing rice and simply trying to get by. But that is not enough. We require more up-to-date information on them. We need to know, in great depth, what we are getting ourselves into, before we go there. Your mission is to go, and find out as much about the human world as you can. Without revealing that you are kitsune."

Kyu paused. This would be a difficult mission. Nevertheless, as an ANBU summon, familiar with all their stealth techniques, and having great experience watch humans hunting, he was perhaps one of the best placed to avoid detection. It made sense that Kurama would choose him for this mission. Still, there were loose ends.

"What if I am summoned here? Would that not break my cover if I am summoned away from in front of the new humans?" he asked, nose still to the ground.

Kurama smiled. It was always slightly unnerving, as it showed teeth bigger than many kitsune.

He waved his paw, and a scroll appeared within it. He shook the scroll, and it unfurled, dropping from many stories above Kyu's head, down to the ground, then continuing to roll. It was the kitsune side of the summoning contract, filled with the names of every kitsune who could be summoned by any ninja in the lands.

Kurama rumbled quietly. "In time, we will need to make a new contract. However, in the meantime..."

He pointed to a section halfway up the towering pillar of parchment.

"Remove your name".

Kyu crouched, then jumped. His first landing was on a nearby tree, tall and twisted in the twilight of their mindscape. His second was on the neighboring tree, which he ran up, claws digging into the bark.

It took several more jumps before he was at the height Kurma had pointed to.

He was careful. A claw brushed lightly across the parchment. The name "Kyu", entered on it what felt like ages ago, now had a thin, horizontal claw mark crossing it out.

As he sailed through the air, he unfurled his tails to their full extent, relying on their friction to slow him as he landed in a tree, and then proceeded to run back down its bark, to the ground.

He felt free, free in a way he had not in a very long time. No more being summoned by ignorant, clueless humans. He now had a real mission, not for their pretty goals, but for the good of his people.

He wondered if this was how Kurama felt, when he had gathered all of his family around him, and made the pitch to leave.

"My lord", he began, nodding as Kurama spun the scroll to re-roll its seemingly endless parchment. "Where do you need me?"

"You", said a smiling, shifting Kurama, "will infiltrate the human city known as Tokyo."

He flicked one of his colossal tails, generating a small breeze in the clearing as a glowing red portal roughly Kyu's size opened up next to him.

"Before you go, there are some things you must know..."

"He did WHAT to the Kage?"

An angry member of ANBU's team four, back at headquarters, was notified of the day's events by the desk officer. Apparently, the Kage had left a message for him, specifically, regarding proper etiquette for summons in his team, and how he would soon be personally inspecting the team, to ensure they were maintaining proper discipline.

He was angry. How could his summon let him down like this? The kitsune had always been reliable in combat. Perhaps he was angry at his dismissal earlier. Perhaps his team-mate was right. He would have to see what was bothering the sly creature. After, of course, he was properly reprimanded for not showing due respect to their Kage, without whom ANBU operatives would not even have permission to use the dangerous kitsune summons in the first place.

He bit his finger, and traced the rune on the ground.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

It was not, however, Kyu that appeared before him. Instead, a small, silver-white fox appeared, wreathed in smoke from the jutsu, its eyes already staring at him.

"What is this?" he asked. "I summoned Kyu, not you! I require him to be here! This is not a matter for which I can use another summon!"

The white fox gazed at him coldly. Whether this was its natural look, as a creature that looked like it had grown in a very cold climate, he could not say. It did not give him a good feeling, though.

"Kyu is no longer available as a summon", the white fox intoned.

"What?"

"Kyu was less than pleased with your treatment of him as a summon. Specifically how you would only ever summon him for combat situations that involved killing fellow ninja. As you know, each member of our kind can choose whether they are available for summoning contracts. He has revoked his enrollment in that list. He may no longer be used as a summon. By you, or anyone else. This change is permanent."

ANBU always wear masks, when on duty. He was grateful for his, at this moment, to hide his look of shock, shock that was quickly becoming anger.

"Well then, that's... not good. What of my other summons via the fox contract? Are you my new summon?"

The white kitsune regarded him quietly for a moment.

"The others you were summoning already took their names off the contract prior to today. You simply did not notice as you had not summoned them in months, because you did not require their skills in battle. Kyu was the last kitsune who was answering your summons. New kitsune may step forward to answer you, but given the increased pressure on the kitsune who remain... it is possible that you will no longer find kitsune available to answer your summons."

His jaw dropped. The kitsune had always been willing to be summoned. When he had first started experimenting, after signing the fox contract, there had been countless kitsune of every color and nature, eager to venture out into the world via a contract summoning. The list had been so long, he had rarely got the same kitsune twice. But that had been years ago. Now... he seemed to always get the same four kitsune, and most usually, Kyu. That was who he was aiming for, granted, but he had thought that the reduction in available kitsune was a result of him getting better, more specific, more targeted, with the summoning jutsu. Not kitsune taking their names off the contract. That was a problem.

The duty officer was still staring at him. At him and the white kitsune, who stood motionless in front of his summoning rune.

"Will you answer it?", he asked the white kitsune.

"No", it answered tersely. "I am simply here to inform you about changes to the contract that will affect you."

This was not good. Not good at all.

"Very well", he replied. "I dismiss you, then. I must report to the Kage."

The kitsune bowed, and disappeared in the summoning smoke. He was going to have a lot of explaining to do. Kitsune taking their names off the summoning contract would weaken any ninja that relied on kitsune summons. A single kitsune doing it wasn't a big deal, but if lots of them were doing it, either he'd made some grave errors... or the kitsune were up to something.

He had hoped it was merely his own grave errors.

Kitsune being up to something, en masse, did not bode well.