Kitsune Mistress

Princess of Ikana

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

Chapter 8: Vessel


Her grandmother had warned about her beauty, the sly kitsune of rumored past.

Mito Uzumaki was the first jinchuriki of the nine tailed fox and the reason why the village had mediated a contract between the remaining Uzumaki's and the Uchiha clan.

The Senju clan was the runner up for the seat of Hokage, and their leader, Harashima, eventually married Mito. They had two children and then three grandchildren.

Two of the grandchildren and their parents died in the great war. Now, years later, Tsunade was the sole survivor of her clan, the last Senju.

She was getting older herself and had no children, so she was going to be the last of a great clan.

She was not upset about it, though. The Senju were once as stubborn as the Uchiha, and maybe it would be best if both clans died out, leaving the playing field open for the younger generation.

Shizune interrupted her thoughts when she handed her a medical file.

"Here's the report of the one patient we have this morning, and some notes on Sakura's profile for reference," Shizune instructed.

"Ah, thanks," Tsunade responded, leafing through the file before glancing over Sakura's shinobi profile.

As a genin, there was not too much information available on her. Her stats from the Academy, based on her grades. Minor summaries of the various D ranked missions team seven went on, with the slightly longer notes from their only C ranked mission, which was basically a failure.

Sakura's greatest affinity was for genjutsu, she had a basic understanding of ninjutsu, and could perform the basic requirements from the ninja academy. She had the lowest levels in physical strength and taijutsu but excelled in tactical analysis and planning, where she was second in the class after Shikamaru. She was also the top of her class in chakra control, which was good for learning medical ninjutsu.

Tsunade signed off the forms inside the file and handed everything back to Shizune, who tucked them under her arm as she was called to the front of the hospital, where Sakura had arrived, 5 minutes ahead of schedule.


The idea of Sakura being the perfect vessel to an evil spirit truly bothered Itachi. She was a mere child still, and if the kitsune got ahold of her, would that be it for this lifetime for her? The disbandment of team seven led him back to the Hokage's office, asking for his next assignment, and he was asked two important questions. Did he want to lead a brand new genin team, graduating out of the academy, or rejoin the ANBU corps?

Sasuke was a genin now, and Itachi was free to choose how to live his life, not having to protect his little brother anymore. He had chosen not to become clan leader, letting Shisui take charge. His parents were dead and had no opinion anymore… In a way, Itachi felt like his purpose in life had been defeated compared to when he was 13 years old. 5 years ago felt like a lifetime.

Worried for both Sakura and Naruto's futures, Itachi agreed to be reinstated as a member of the ANBU, but he had conditions…


Naruto had decided to hole himself inside his bedroom. When Minato had managed to calm him down and take him home, Naruto was still furious, but not rageful anymore.

"They have no right keeping me trapped in the village. I am a shinobi, and I should be allowed to leave on missions like everyone else!" he argued.

Minato agreed with him as his father, but as a Hokage… he knew that the jinchuriki was never allowed to physically leave the village, as it was breaking the contract with the Uchiha, and it was now his fault that he had given his son hope of regular life.

"Naruto, we need to talk about what it means to be the jinchuriki…" he started, wincing when he saw the look of betrayal in his eyes.

The jinchuuriki before him, Kushina, was only promoted to genin status and allowed to 'participate' in village missions… she had been told since she was little that this was going to be the extent of her being a ninja. Once she turned 13, she was then engaged to an Uchiha and trained in becoming a wife. Outside of her responsibilities involving the clan, she did D ranked missions until she was 20 and was then discharged from service to Konoha. She married at 21 and transferred the bijuu to Naruto when she birthed the twins… and the rest was history.

The next host was determined before Naruto had even been born, but when it came time for the transfer, the biijuu's chakra rejected the next Uzumaki host, and their small clan panicked as there were only 30 or so of them left, and none were a suitable match. Naruto was given up for consideration at the sweet age of 3 years old, being Kushina's first born son and sharing her lineage. The nine tails accepted this offering, and his fate was sealed.

Kushina, after losing the twins, but still being a mother to Naruto even though she was bitter, now had the responsibility of overseeing his engagement to an Uchiha of the clans' choosing.

Naruto would be turning 13 in 3 more months and begin courting a Uchiha.

He declined the engagement and locked himself in his room. He was stuck within the boundaries of the village, but no one could tell him that his whole life had already been planned since he was 3 years old!


Sakura was fidgeting in her seat, sitting across from Tsunade and Shizune as they sorted through pages of a quiz they were going to test her with to start.

"Now, this may seem superficial as I'm aware of how smart you already are. This quiz is geared more to those in this profession, and I just want to see where your overall knowledge sits," Tsunade explained, passing the small quiz to her.

Sitting back, Tsunade allowed her 30 minutes to answer all of the questions to the best of her abilities.


Over dinner, Itachi announced to Sasuke his intent to reenter the ANBU.

"It's been nice having meals together since I already missed so much of your childhood," he said between bites of a curry he had made earlier.

"I'm fine, you are the one who worries, nii-san. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to attend the next chunin exams in three more months, and then both of us will be busy," Sasuke remarked, not feeling like there was much loss in Itachi going back to never being home often.

"I know you are very good at adapting to new situations, but I thought you had made some bonds with Naruto and Sakura as a team…."

"I'm disappointed, but we'll stay friends. I'm sure Naruto will always be in the village, probably moving into Ichiraku's if he could, and Sakura is being trained by the Hokage and her assistant, so she'll eventually be working at the hospital full time. There'll be plenty of opportunities for me to see both of them," Sasuke replied, not fretting about it, but also admitting he considered them his friends.

Itachi was glad that Sasuke had met people he could relate to even if they weren't allowed to be an official team…


Late that evening, Itachi reported to the Hokage for his first new mission. Tsunade assigned him the codename Crow.

"If possible, I would like you to refrain from using your sharingan. No one is to know you are an Uchiha. This is a guard mission, and the person you will be looking over is Haruno Sakura. She is being targeted by the kitsune outside our village, and I'm sure she is willing to go through more than a little trouble if it means she can claim Sakura as her own. This will be in cooperation with another ANBU, Kuma?" Tsunade called.

Another member appeared with the summon and kneeled. He had spiky silver hair, a mask with 'bears' markings and shape.

"Yes Hokage-sama?" he responded quietly.

"You will both take on 12 hour shifts and watch over Haruno 24/7, until I can determine her safety," she instructed.

"Yes," they both replied.

She dismissed them.

Outside of her office, they met up on the rooftop of Sakura's house.

"Crow, I will start the shift. It is currently 10:47pm, how about we do 12-12 to make it easy? You will meet me right before noon, and I'll return right before midnight? Sounds acceptable?" Kuma asked.

"It is, I will return promptly at 11:55am. Wherever you are with Haruno-san, I think using the standard way of communication is good, let me know where you will be once you know her schedule for that day."

Pulling his hood back up, Itachi left the other ANBU and headed back to headquarters to change and retrieve his day to day clothes.


A/N: Thanks to Cherry for looking over the chapter:)

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