The Guardian's Kitsune

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Naruto x ?

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''Normal Speech''

Inner Thoughts, Dialogue, or reading passages from books and scrolls

(Dark over lapping echoes)

''Boss Summons, Demons, Dark beings speaking, Demonic/Angry characters Speaking as well as extremely Dark spells and Magic.''

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Story Start

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As Will clasped Cornelia's hand and got ready to touch the five blue flames painted on the cave wall, she felt a wave of uncertainty surge through her chest. She didn't want to admit it, but she was scared.

She glanced around the circle at her friends. On their pale faces, she could see the same fear that same feeling.

But she also saw Cornelia's set jaw.

And Taranee's neutral look.

And Irma's stubbornly pouty lips.

And Hay Lin's fiery eyes.

They were all scared. But they were also determined! 'We're together!" Will reminded herself as her fingers intertwined with Cornelia's. That gave her strength finally to touch her hand to the scroll-like picture on the cave wall. She pressed her palm against the rock and closed her eyes.

Then she waited for the Heart of Kandrakar that was within her to work its magic. She expected to feel a bubble of energy well up inside her. Maybe a swirl of pink magic would envelop the quintet. Or perhaps the portal would burst open, flickering with blue flames. Maybe the tunnel would even undulate, just like the one that had opened in Mrs. Rudolph's attic.

Whatever happened, Will knew it would be dramatic. She braced herself and waited. And waited. But nothing happened. No happened. No pink swirls. No big, bad shafts of light. Nothing.

Finally, Will opened one eye a crack and glanced around. Her hand was still placed over the blue drawing. She and her four friends were still standing, shivering slightly, in a cold, seaside cave. Each one of them had cautiously opened one of her eyes.

Finally, Will sighed in frustration and dropped Cornelia's hand.

''Nothing happened!"' She cried.

'Oh, sure it did,' Cornelia cracked. ''Magic kept us here among all this amazing artwork.''

When Cornelia tossed out the careless barb, Will felt her shoulders sag.

'First, I create a clueless astral drop, she thought. Then, I can't even open a portal.

Excuse me,' Will thought, glancing at the ceiling and toward the place where she imagined the Oracle of Kandrakar lived. Please remind me again why I'm the leader of this crew? Especially when I can't seem to do anything right?

Will must have been wearing her sadness on her slave, because Irma spoke up cheerfully.

''Don't worry, Will,'' She said. ''I get faint sometimes, too usually when it's been a long time since dinner.''

Cornelia hugged and turned her back. ''At this rate we won't make it in time to save...'' She stopped herself. Chiding herself for such a thought. Will was already feeling kind of low. She didn't need more pressure to be added.

Will felt as if someone had kicked her in the stomach. She hadn't even thought of the possibility. The Metamoorians seemed intent on catching the guardians. There was no guarantee that even Naruto was alive. Sure Kuiinshi said he was tough, but why hadn't he tried to contact her? Let her know he was okay? What if he couldn't contact her? What if he was hurt or worse?

Feeling short of breath, she whispered, 'Why don't you say it? That there's no guarantee he's alive; isn't that what you were about to say?''' As she rasped out the words, Will felt dread. Her voice grew shrill, and, before she knew it, she'd stomped over to Cornelia and leaned into her pretty, sullen face.

''Why should you care right? It's not like he's your old friend. One of the only people of your old life who thought you were then trash.''

Will's outburst seemed to crack Cornelia's icy veneer. She actually seemed startled and...perhaps...even remorseful? Her voice was less edgy as she replied, ''I'm sorry Will. I didn't even know why I said that. I want to save the guy too.''

''Not as much as me!'' Will almost screamed. She felt her lip tremble and her eyes well up with tears.

''When I needed a shoulder to cry on and couldn't go to my mom he was there. He always made me smile no matter how gloomy I feel. Every hour! Every minute! I hear feel as if I could hear his voice.'' Will flung her backpack to the ground and fell to her knees, burying her face in her hands. Her body was shaking with sobs now.

''Will...it's ok!'' Taranee tried to comfort. Wiping the tears from the bob-cut haired girl's eyes with her thumb.

Will continued to sniffle loudly, and her chest heaved with sobs. She didn't know if she'd ever be able to stop crying! She really was a terrible leader!

But suddenly, something broke though Will's grief. It was the light, cool touch of a hand on her shoulder. It was Cornelia's! In a tender and comforting voice, Cornelia whispered,''Will I'm sor...''

''Shhhhh!'' That was Irma. And her voice sounded urgent.

''Listen!'' She hissed.

A feeling of fear made Will catch her breath. With one last hiccup, her sobs subsided. She peered into the cave. Irma's head was cocked intently.

''What?'' Hay Lin whispered. ''I don't hear anything.''

''That's my point,'' Irma squeaked. ''Where's the noise of the waves? The roar of the ocean?''

Suddenly, Irma spun around.

''And that's not all,'' she exclaimed, pointing at the ceiling. ''Look, there's a weird, glowing light in here all of a sudden.''

Irma turned off her flashlight to prove her point. Will gasped, Irma was right. The cave, which should have been pitch-black without the flashlight beam, was filled with a wavy, blue light.

''And the cave walls have become all smooth and glassy,'' Irma added. ''Like the inside of a real shell!''

No sooner had Irma said the word ''shell'' than Will heard an echoey, distant roar. It sounded just like the inside of a shell when she cupped it around her ear to hear the ocean!

''What is that?'' Will asked anxiously, glancing over her shoulder.

Then she screamed.

The ocean sound in a seashell was usually just an illusion. But what she saw real...a giant gush or rolling water, crashing through the cave and heading straight for the Guardians. It was going to engulf them!

''Water!"' Hay Lin screamed. ''Lots and lots of water!''

Cornelia threw herself against Irma as the water began to swirl around the girls' feet.

''Irma!'' She cried. ''Do something!"

Acting seemingly on instinct, Irma thrust out her arms besides her. In a steely voice, she announced, ''I'll create a bubble of air!"

Will felt the water rise around them. She sucked in desperate gulp of air and held her breath. Then she squeezed her eyes shut and grabbed onto Cornelia and Hay Lin for some much-needed support.

She gasped as the cold water swirled around her legs. It quickly rose to her waist. Then her chest. Then her head!

''Aaaaaaaaagh!'' Will screamed. She Gasped and screamed again. Before she could scream a third time, she realized something. She just breathed she thought incredulously. She gasped and didn't suck in a lungful of water.

Will's eyes flew open. Irma had done exactly what she'd said she would! She'd created a giant, bobbly air bubble around the five of them. Now, they were bouncing along peacefully in water that surrounded them on all sides.

Will heaved a sigh of relief and flashed Irma a triumphant thumbs-up. But she didn't have time to savor their survival. They had to figure out what to do next! And where they were headed.

Will spun around and pressed her hands to the balloon-like wall of the air bubble. She peered around, but all she could see was the walls of the cave. They were still smooth and glassy. The walls had also elongated into a long tunnel...a tunnel that was transporting their air bubble at a rapid pace.

''That was no tidal wave,'' Will declared. ''This is a portal. We're crossing over into Metamoor!"

Hay Lin pulled her backpack off her shoulders and began yanking heavy, shapeless cloaks out of it. They were made of nubby, brown fabric. ''Quick! Put these on,'' she ordered the girls tossing each one a garment.

''What kind of fashion faux pas are these?'' Cornelia asked, regarding her cloak with a curled lip.

''Hey, don't dis the designer,'' Irma said, squirming into her own cloak. Its floppy hood completely covered her honey-colored hair.

''Don't worry about it,'' Hay Lin said. ''They are pretty ugly. Like monks' robes. They're in the same things I remember seeing the people in Meridian wear.''

''Brilliant!"' Will cried, pulling her own cloak around her shoulders. "This way, we can be less suspicious.''

''That's what I was hoping,'' Hay Lin said. ''Of course, we don't even know if we're in the right place."

''We'll find out soon enough,'' Cornelia pointed out, pressing her hands to the wall of the air bubble. ''There's a light up ahead. We're heading out of this tunnel!"

Will clutched at Cornelia's robe. Hay Lin and Irma threw their arms around each other. As the bubble plunged through the mouth of the tunnel, they looked around. And then together, they all began to quake!

''If this is what's outside,'' Hay Lin cried, ''I want to go back inside! Now!"

''We're...we're...specks!"' Irma cried. ''We're floating around in nothingness!'' Will nodded in agreement. A nod was all she could muster. There was no way she could talk. She was petrified. Where were they? She peeked over her shoulder at the giant cave from which the girls had emerged.

It 'was' a seashell!

'That's impossible!" Will thought. There's no seashell on earth big enough to dwarf five girls like us.

Will turned back to her friends to see what they thought. Their faces told her that they were occupied with other worries...namely, the giant, glassy orb looming right in front of their air bubble!

In the center of the orb was an inky dot, as looming and menacing as a black hole. Around the dot was a shimmery circle of green. And around that was a sea of white, threaded with craggy, red seams. A glassy, blue shade of some sort closed over the orb. Just as quickly, the shade lifted. Then it lowered and lifted again.

Almost like a blinking eyelid, Will thought.

A blinking eyelid?

Suddenly, Hay Lin squealed and fell backward, landing on the floor of the bubble with a plop. Cornelia hunched down over her knees in fear. And Will grabbed Irma and Taranee's elbows, clutching her friends' arms with the strength born of terror. They were trapped in a bubble with no way to escape. Nothing they had encountered before she could have prepared Will for what she was now looking at. This was unbelievable...and terrifying.

''Irma?'' She squeaked. ''That nothingness you mentioned? Well, it's looking right as us!''

Will, Cornelia, Taranee, and Hay Lin were silent for a moment before they clung to each other and shrieked in horror.

But Irma couldn't must up the breath to scream. She was too busy. One part of her mind was focused on being terrified but another part of her, the part that was a magical Guardian, had to concentrate on keeping herself and her friends alive. Without Irma's air bubble, they were sunk...literally.

So, even as Irma gaped at the giant eyeball...which was scrutinizing the girls between slow, lazy blinks...she had to keep blue magic pulsing from her palms, breathing life into their air bubble and keeping the water at bay.

Speaking of water, Irma thought, what kind of odd ocean were they floating around in anyway? 'Time to scope out the situation!'

Luckily, the giant eyeball chose that very moment to rise up, up, up, and away from the Guardians. As Irma craned her neck to peer at the retreating orb, she gasped.

She was staring straight as a lumpish, blue Metamoorian creature...another one of the ogres that had been terrorizing the guardians ever since they had first acquired their powers. And just like the other big, blue creature in their lives, this creature was unspeakably ugly. His big, potatoey head was flanked by pointy, fuzzy ears and gray, rock like lumps. His neck was nonexistent. His hands, which were clutching a tall glass of water, were awkward, pudgy, and tipped with dirty claws.

The only different between this blue guy and the other blue guy? The first villain...Vathek, as Irma had heard him called the last time they had been in Metamoor...was only about the twice of size of the girls. This ogre was at least one hundred times as big as they were.

He was peering down at the girls with a devilish grin. And that's when Irma noticed something else.

He was dry.

Whereas, they were all wet! Irma thought. 'We're inside some container of water in this giant's house. Now I know how Jack the Giant-Killer felt!''

Suddenly, the blue creatured opened his mouth to say something. Irma couldn't have been more shock at this first utterance.

''Mommy!"' He cried. The creature's voice was thick and phlegmy, but also high-pitched.

''He's just a kid!'' Will hissed in Irma's ear.

''Come and see Mommy!'' The kid cried again. As he slammed his giant water glass down near the girls' container. Irma began to wrap her brain around this new reality. They were this giant, blue kid's new pets!''

''I'm cooking dinner Fargart,'' a deep, numbly voice called from the distance somewhere. ''I can't come and see.''

The blue kid...Fargart...trotted away. So Irma and her friends had a chance to look around.

The room looked like the interior of a medieval castle: looming Gothic furniture, tapestries, and Tudor-style windowpanes. The walls were made of stone blocks, and the light was dim.

'Yup.' Irma thought with a nod. 'We're in Metamoor, all right.' The last time the girls had landed in the gloomy world, the architecture had all looked like this...cold, foreboding, and ancient.

While the child whined in response to his mother's lecture about the shell being empty and picking up things. They put together that they were miniature sized. Narrowly escaping the aquatic green beast with eight legs and puckering mouth when their magic kicked in and restored them to the right size they continued the rescue mission.

The Guardians found themselves standing on crowded, cobble-stoned street lined with gray, stone buildings. The air was hazy with soot and dirt. And it didn't smell so great, either.

Apprehensively, the girls tiptoed down the empty street. Irma found herself pulling her cloak more tightly around her and shivering.

''Naruto must be here somewhere,'' Will said, as the girls rounded a corner.

''And so are a bunch of monsters,'' Irma said in a quivering voice. ''Remember what it was like here before? Lizardy creatures and big, lumpy, blue guys, and scaly, dreadlocky Mrs. Rudolph types?''

She looked to her friends. Will and Cornelia gave her trembly nods. But Hay Lin only smiled peacefully. As she walked...make that glided...down the bumpy street, the smallest Guardian closed her eyes and cocked her head, yet she never stumbled or tripped.

''Hay Lin?'' Cornelia blurted. ''What's with you?''

''Nothing,'' Hay Lin replied without opening her eyes. ''The air of Metamoor's streets is talking to me! I smell its perfumes. I hear the sound of its voices. I think these monsters are not so different from us after all!''

Irma looked at Hay Lin's face. Her bud seemed so serene...happy, even! As the five girls walked into a courtyard milling with Metamoorians, Irma willed herself to follow her friend's example...to restrain herself from shuddering in disgust. And that was when she really saw what Hay Lin was talking about. Though this Metamoorian city's dweller looked about as different from the Guardians as they possibly could, their activities were familiar. Green, scaly youths were chasing a ball around the cobble-stoned street. A tall lizard in brown cloak was buying some blue vegetables from a street cart. A couple of plump, flat-snouted creatures were giggling and clutching schoolbooks.

'Those girls might be our age!" Irma marveled. 'They really are just like us, dashing home for an after-school snack and gossiping about cute boys.'

Suddenly, Irma was looking at the bustling city with a gleam in her eye. Hay Lin practically spoke her thoughts.

''The last time we were here'' Hay Lin declared, "I felt like an outsider. But today, it frightens me less!"'

Irma keep looking around. When her eye fell upon a little store tucked between a grisly butcher's shop and a parchment-filled newsstand, she grinned.

''I've got an idea,'' she said. ''As long as we're feeling brave, why not start unraveling Metamoor's mysteries? How about right there!"

She pointed at a store filled with all sorts of mysterious wares. In the window, Irma saw parchment scrolls and telescope like instruments. She saw orbs that looked like crystal balls and mortars and pestles just made for a witch's workshop. She saw...adventure.

''Umm, I don't know,'' Will shakily responded.

''We've got to fly below the radar here.''

''Come on, Will! Look at that dusty old shop,'' Irma said. ''Do you think anyone goes in there? I just want to take a quick peek around. Five minutes. You won't be sorry!'' Then she trotted across the street toward the shop.

Irma stuck to her promise, and, a few minutes later, the girls were walking through Metamoor's streets once again. They'd pulled their faces deep within their cloaks' shadow hoods. Irma no longer felt chilled and shivery. Their browse through the bizarre shop had whipped her into an excited sweat. Or maybe she was just feeling the heat of Will's glare. Her stare was harsh!"

''I'm so mad at you, Irma!'' Will suddenly cried out.

''Why?'' Irma demanded in surprise.

''You shouldn't have talked to that shopkeeper,'' Will said. ''Do you want Phobos and his followers to find out about us?''

''Please,'' Irma said, waggling the bell shaped cuff of the sleeve of her heavy cloak.

''In clothes like these, even Mrs. Knickerbocker wouldn't recognize us.'' And our eagle eye principal sees everything.

''Anyway,'' she continued out loud. ''It was worth it. I traded him my watch for...this!''

With a dramatic flourish, Irma pulled her prize out from under her cloak and showed it to her friends. The blue ball cradled in her palm pulsed with glowing energy.

''Wow, a sphere,'' Cornelia said dryly. ''Do you quick it or eat it?''

''Wait a minute,'' Hay Lin said excitedly.

She grabbed Irma's wrist and leaned over to take a closer look at the orb.

''Hey...that's a three-dimensional map of Metamoor!'' She cried. ''Wow! If you squint at it, you can even see people in miniature.''

''Uh-huh,'' Irma bragged. ''I've got the whole world in my hands, you could say. And look at this.''

Irma turned the sphere around in her hands until she found a starfish-shaped building.

''See?'' She said, pointing to the little star. ''The shopkeeper told me that that's the castle of Phobos.''

''Do you think Naruto is locked up inside there?'' Hay Lin cried.

''I don't know,'' Will said, gently lifting the map from Irma's hand and peering at it with determination. 'I guess it's possible. And if that is where he is, we've got a lot of ground to cover.

Will looked at Irma seriously; Irma saw fire in their leader's brown eyes.

''We will find Naruto,'' Will declared. ''Even if we have to walk all over this entire planet!''