Once upon a time, there were two young boys. They were as close as brothers, having been raised together since infancy. Yamanaka Inori was a compassionate boy with piercing green eyes and blonde hair. Nara Shikarou was a cunning boy with clever dark eyes and dark hair. Their days filled with childish games soon gave way to days filled with taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu. When they came of age, they took their places as the heads of the Yamanaka and Nara clans.
One day, after they'd completed a spar, they discovered a vixen caught in a trap. Inori knelt by the vixen, but it nipped aggressively at his fingers. The creature's blue eyes flashed in fear and pain. Inori spoke calming words to the creature and eventually the vixen calmed and allowed him to pet her head.
Shikarou watched his friend disinterestedly. "The trap was set up by the one of the farmers. We should just leave it here."
The compassionate Inori pitied the vixen. "The poor creature is frightened. I'll free her from this trap and nurse her back to health."
Inori pried the vixen's hind leg free of the trap and carried her home. He tended to the creature's broken leg and nursed her back to health through the winter. He sat with the vixen by the fire, petting her soft fur and telling her the secret dreams of his heart that he had been afraid to reveal to anyone.
When the first buds of spring arrived on the trees, Inori took the vixen back to the spot that he'd found her to set her free. Before his eyes, she transformed into a beautiful woman. She hid her nakedness with long crimson hair. Inori only needed to look into her blue eyes to know that she was the same vixen that he had saved from the trap.
"My name is Akane," she said. "To thank you for your kindness, I will grant you one wish."
Yamanaka Inori knelt at her feet. "I do not desire riches or power. I require nothing as payment for my kindness was freely given. My only wish would be to have you as my wife, if it is also your desire."
Akane beamed at Inori. "It would be my dearest wish, Yamanaka Inori. You are an honest man with a pure and gentle heart. I would like nothing more than to be your wife."
In time, Akane bore Yamanaka Inori four children, two sons and two daughters. Their father Inori taught them the ninjutsu of the Yamanaka clan and their mother taught them even older jutsu.
Nara Shikarou lusted after Inori's wife. His jealousy twisted the love he held for his friend into something unspeakable. During a battle, Nara Shikarou left Inori's body unguarded. As a result, the Yamanaka clan head was dealt a mortal blow. Ignorant of the betrayal even as he lay dying on the battlefield, Inori begged his oldest friend, Nara Shikarou, to care for and protect his family.
Akane mourned her husband, but had their children to brighten the darkness of her despair. Akane's eldest son, who was fifteen years old, became clan head in his father's place. Shikarou lingered in the shadows, seeking a way to coerce Akane into his bed.
One day Shikarou followed Akane to the river to watch her bathe. He watched in awe as she transformed into a vixen, the very same vixen that his friend Inori had nursed back to health those many winters ago. He watched as the vixen hid a pearl in her robes and went deep into the forest to visit her sister who lived in the mountains.
Akane, not realizing that her secret had been discovered, left her most valuable possession vulnerable, her hoshi no tama. A hoshi no tama is the physical manifestation of both a kitsune's soul and power. Without it, Akane would be separated from her magic and would slowly waste away.
When Akane returned to the river after visiting her sister, Shikarou leapt from the bulrushes and called out, "I've discovered your secret, Akane. I have hidden your precious hoshi no tama. I will return it to you if you become my lover."
Taken by surprise by Shikarou's betrayal, Akane didn't know what to do. She could not return into her human form without her hoshi no tama. Unwilling to betray her husband's memory, Akane refused Shikarou even if it meant that she would no longer be able to see her children as a woman ever again.
Akane fled into the forest and sought out her sister for help. The cunning Shikarou placed Akane's hoshi no tama inside a pendant protected with a powerful seal. Akane's sister comforted and cared for her, using secret jutsu to prolong Akane's life. Akane stayed close to the Yamanaka clan to watch over her children and grandchildren. Akane's sister vowed revenge on the Nara clan and did everything in her power to discover a way to retrieve her sister's hoshi no tama from within the pendant guarded by an unconquerable fuinjutsu.