Kitsune Mistress

Princess of Ikana

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and its respective owners.

Chapter 7: Guarded


Sakura rushed into the bushes after the pair of eyes, knowing it was her duty to protect the village from all threats. She came face to face with… herself?

Shocked. she hesitated in her attack. The spirit smirked, catching her hesitation, and grabbed her wrist roughly.

Yelling out, afraid now, Sakura attempted to yank her arm back and suddenly felt someone pull her away from the offending claw.

"Who's there?" she asked aloud.

"Sakura! Get it together!" a familiar voice.

Eyes coming back into focus, she saw Itachi-sensei attacking the being with a small fire jutsu as it just hissed at him angrily.

"Uchiha!" she growled demonically.

Not being as affected by regular chakra, and since her kind ate a lot of children from the clan, jutsu used by Uchiha members were overall weaker against her.

Seeing his attacks aren't working well, Sakura recovered and joined the fray, not wanting her sensei to save her from something that was always after Uchiha.

What could she do? Panicking, Sakura took a risk and infiltrated the spirit's mind with genjutsu.

She was shocked to see what looked like the village they had recently visited, except this one was on fire, and shinobi were ransacking it. She couldn't tell much, as she was seeing these events through the eyes of the fox spirit. She stumbled outside of the building while passing a mirror, and Sakura saw herself in the reflection.

The kitsune then ran out of the house and took cover in some bushes while waiting for some ninja to pass before she continued to a shrine with a fox deity at its entrance, hiding in the main shrine. Salvation never came, only three ninja with crimson red eyes that took advantage of her.

After it was over, she lay in her own blood and died, and the vision ended… Sakura came back to her senses and saw that she had distracted her long enough for Itachi to gain the upperhand in the one sided battle.

She saw it!

Yotsuna glared at her doppelganger, enraged that her past had been revealed. Real pain still hitting her from Itachi's last attack, she withdrew from the village as fast as she could. She needed to regroup.

Itachi breathed a small sigh of relief that she decided to yield before turning back to Sakura, who had collapsed to the ground, still reeling from what she assumed had been the spirits' past before she became a Kitsune…

"Are you okay?" he asked lightly, not wanting to scare her more.

"I…am alright," she choked out, tears now spilling over.

As if on instinct, Sakura reached out and on impulse, hugged her sensei.

"When I tried distracting her… I saw her past life … and I think it was also mine… is that even possible, sensei?" she asked, trembling now.

His sharingan blended behind his iris, and he blinked in surprise. Whatever that meant, it couldn't be good.

Itachi pulled her out of the bushes and walked them both in the direction of the Hokage's office.


Tsunade was relaxing with a bottle of sake while Shizune was reading a scroll of mission reports for the day when there was a knock at the door.

They weren't expecting anyone, so it was a bit unusual, but Shizune opened the door to see Sakura and Itachi standing there.

Closing the door behind them, Shizune took her place beside Tsunade once more.

"To what do I owe this visit?" she asked.

"Reporting in. The kitsune has been spotted in the village, and Sakura bravely defended us until I arrived on the scene. I did manage to subdue her, and she has retreated for the time being, but now I am worried about Sakura being a high level target," Itachi explained.

They looked at Sakura for further information.

"I attacked her mind with a clever genjutsu I have been developing. While I was distracting her, I saw a vision of the village where we previously had a mission, the one on the border of sand, but it was being attacked by squads of Uchiha… who ended up killing her… or me… I believe I may have been her in a past life, and perhaps she needs me as her physical body?" summarized Sakura.

"A reincarnation and the perfect host for such a spirit? I can see why you're so concerned," Tsunade replied while sighing. This wasn't something she hoped was going to happen during her reign as leader of the hidden leaf.

Itachi and Sakura awaited orders or dismissal as Tsunade and Shizune talked amongst themselves.

"Haruno, Sakura," Tsunade called with authority.

"Yes ma'am?" she replied, a bit intimidated.

"Shizune and I have decided to take you on as our apprentice. You will learn how to defend yourself and learn the ways of medical jutsu. ith your talents in chakra control, mind techniques, and your fast learning ability, I believe you to be a good fit. Do you accept this assignment?" she asked.

Sakura looked sheepishly at the string of compliments and then at her sensei. She had only been a part of Team 7 for about a year now… but what would her boys do without her?

"I…" she started hesitating.

Itachi gave her a nod of approval.

"Accept," she finished.

"Congratulations. You will report to Shizune at the local hospital first thing tomorrow morning," Tsunade commanded before dismissing them.


In the hallway, Sakura looked up at Itachi with a frown.

"What will happen to team 7 now, sensei?" she asked.

"We are being dismantled, unfortunately… Naruto is needed here full time, as his first priority is the protection of the Uchiha clan, and Sasuke will be reassigned to another team…" Itachi explained.

"Aren't you disappointed?"

Itachi couldn't answer that question. As a Jonin and ex-ANBU black ops captain, emotions were easy enough to bottle as needed.

Truly, he was disappointed that his time as their teacher was coming to an end, but unfortunately that came with having two essential children in his care, the jinchuriki and now the girl that could be the kitsune's perfect vessel…

She would need constant surveillance and training to defend herself from the spirit, for if she fell into the hands of the fox, the whole village would be at stake.

"No, I am happy to see that you have been offered a great opportunity, and Naruto will find his own purpose as a protector. Sasuke might be disappointed, but I think he always wanted someone else to be his teacher, wanting to best me once and for all. He is rather competiviate, wouldn't you agree?" Itachi said after a moment.

"Maybe, but Itachi-sensei… I am disappointed about not being your student anymore…" Sakura admitted.

Itachi ruffled her hair in an affectionate way in response.

"Thank you, Sakura. Now let's go tell the other two before they hear about it themselves," he directed, jumping from the staircase to the rooftops of Konoha.


As expected, Sasuke didn't show much emotion at being reassigned to another genin team.

Naruto, on the other hand, was in a blind rage…

Which summoned parts of the nine tailed fox to leak out into the physical world.

Itachi yelled at the other two to stay back as he dodged and defended against the attacks made by an angry Naruto.

Itachi summoned one of his crows and wrote a quick message before flinging it to the skies above and making protecting the other two his priority.

Seeing the nine tailed fox chakra for the first time was terrifying but thrilling for Sasuke and Sakura, who always wondered how Naruto contained such a vast amount of 'evil' chakra inside of him.

Sakura started yelling at him. She was upset that he couldn't see the bigger picture and learn to become resilient like herself, who knew things were going to change and become difficult as they continued to get older.

They were Shinobi of Konohagakure! It was always inevitable that they would be split up eventually.

Sasuke then placed his hand on her shoulder, grabbing her attention.

"He's not upset because of that," he stated grimly.

Sakura was surprised that Sasuke knew more than she did, as Naruto's friend.

"He's upset because they just told him that he would never be allowed to leave the perimeter of the village ever again until they choose the next jinchuriki, but by that time he would still be a genin technically, while the rest of us would be full fledged ninja… " Sasuke explained.

She thought back to when they first met, and their first few days after graduation… Naruto had been super excited at being allowed to become a genin, and being allowed to go on missions, possibly even outside of the village… but his purpose had always been directed by the Hokage, and the village elders who needed his presence for protection of the younger generation. Without the host of the nine tails, their children would probably all be gone by now, successfully ending their genetic line… which is what the Kitsune wanted in the end, a true revenge story.

She understood now…

"Fate has truly been cruel to him, hasn't it?" she whispered to Sasuke, who only nodded his agreement.


Not long after, the crow flew away. The Yondaime appeared out of thin air and took over subduing his son, and Itachi jumped back to stand with Sasuke and Sakura.

"Sensei?" Sakura muttered as she watched Minato seal Naruto's beast mode form, after which he was knocked unconscious and fell into Minato's waiting arms.

"He will be okay, Sakura. Let Yondaime-sama deal with the aftermath, from here out." Itachi instructed while walking back towards the village, Sasuke following shortly behind.

Sakura remained for a while longer as she watched Minato cradle Naruto like an infant, stroking his hair and whispering to him, probably sorry that he was the reason that Naruto was being used by the village he loved and promised to protect.


A/N: Thanks to Cherry for Beta'ed this chapter :) I honestly don't know how I managed before having a BETA help me? We are going to now enter some angst, nothing extreme but I thought I'd warn in case you wanted some happier moments. As always feel free to leave likes, kudos, favorites, follows, comments, and reviews on whichever platform you are reading on.