A/N: Took me forever to finally finish this story. The third of the five (now shortened to four) stories that I have set up after Becoming More's break. Well for anyone (if anyone) that was looking for this story it is finally here. Yay!
The walk back to Konohakagure was supposed to be nothing special. Just a run of the mill return to the village after a successful mission. Why Team Seven didn't really believe in run of the mill anything after their last mission. Supposedly a simple C-Rank mission to Nami, and they leave the place having finished an A-rank mission. Yeah, their beliefs in run of the mill were shattered at this point. So when they stumbled across a young girl trudging along the dirt path alone, they weren't surprised. What did surprise them was her state of being.
The girl wore a short, sleeveless ,white midriff shirt with fishnet armour underneath. Long white armlets adorned her forearms, and a short white apron skirt was worn over a pair of fishnet shorts. There was also a rather large, red cylinder pack wrapped on to her back with red sashes for some reason. Everything on her though was in tatters. Clothes nearly falling off of her body, mint green hair matted down with mud and leaves, an awkwardly bent leg that caused the girl to limp, and dried and fresh blood all over her light brown skin.
Team Seven was unsure of what to do about the girl. They had no idea who she was, and whether or not she was safe to approach, but they wanted to help the poor child before them. Naruto, being the most concerned about the girl, stepped forward. "Are you okay?" he asked only to receive a punch to the back of the head.
"Does she look okay you baka!?" Sakura hissed at him.
Kakashi sighed at the sight of his two students as they soon began bickering with each other. Why is it, the one team I pass, gets made up of short tempered children? His eye drifts over to Sasuke who was just ignoring everyone. And a kid with a superiority complex so big it's suffocating as well.
The young girl before her watch as the tension she saw in them just evaporated in the matter of seconds. The sight was mind boggling, and confused the girl who already was suffering a massive headache along with her physical injuries. Sakura's yelling at her blonde teammate was making said headache worse.
Trying to block them out, she grabbed her head with one of her hands and tried to limp past them. Just as she started scooting past them, Naruto suddenly hopped in front of her. She fell back on to her butt as his sudden appearance before her surprised and scared her a greatly.
"Oh no! Are you okay there!?" Naruto knelt down next to the girl as Sakura rushed over to her side.
Kakashi walked over to the three kids no longer feeling weary of the girl. If there was going to be an attack from an unknown it would have happened by now. Plus, the girl truly seemed to be in need of some help. "Are you lost?" he asked.
The girl just frantically looked at the people surrounding her with fear. She gripped the side of her head and groaned as her headache seemed to flare up. The pain throughout her body was only worsening in her eyes. She doubted she would last much longer. Then suddenly somebody touched her.
Usually this was grounds for her to freak out and lose her everlasting mind, but this touch was different from the touch she was used to. This touch carried to ill will towards her. In fact, it seemed to be trying to soothe her as it softly rubbed her cheek. Looking over, she saw Naruto frowning as he softly rubbed her cheek. "Hey, sorry I knocked you down. I didn't mean to."
For a second the girl just stared at the boy. It was the first time anyone had touched this way. A way that made her feel somewhat safer than usual. She took a shaky breath before looking around at the four people around, stopping on Naruto. "I'm... it's okay." Her voice came out soft and sweet to the ears.
Naruto grinned widely. "Ah, that's good. My name's Naruto! What's yours?" The girl just looked at him blankly with her orange eyes. Beautiful, he thought to himself.
Sasuke sighed. "Kakashi-sensei. Shouldn't we be going now? We need to get back to the village so I can continue to get stronger." Sakura sighed in pleasure as her eyes drifted over to her crush while he spoke.
"Hm," Kakashi rubbed his chin as he thought. "Yes we should be continuing on our way, but we can't leave this girl out here to fend for herself. She is in need of serious medical attention as well." He pointed at Naruto had yet to stop looking into the girl's eyes. "Naruto, you carry her so that she doesn't have to walk on that leg of hers anymore." Naruto shot up and saluted his sensei in an odd fashion that horrified Kakashi and gave two people back in their village a slight swelled head. "And please... never do that again."
Naruto nodded before slowly lifting the girl into his arms. When he was sure he wouldn't drop her, he swiftly shifted her on to his back. "I got her sensei."
Kakashi patted Naruto's head before turning to the rest of the team. "We'll be moving through the trees from now on you guys. The faster we get back, the faster we can get this girl to the hospital and relax." Everyone agreed to that and immediately took to the trees. The going was slow, as not to hurt the mint haired girl much, but it was still much faster than their earlier pace.
As they flew through the forest, Naruto felt the girl shift slightly on his back. He looked back at her to see those citrine eyes bearing down on him studiously. "Fū," she said. Naruto tilted his head in confusion as the girl looked at him. "My name... it is Fū."
The blond smiled cheekily at the girl on his back. "It's nice to meet you Fū. I hope we can be friends." The girl smiled for the first time that she can remember in a long time.
The Hokage was happy to see Team Seven return after being gone so long on their mission. There were times he feared the worse, and from the reports he had gotten, his fears weren't far off. He looked at Kakashi, who was rubbing the back of his head while chuckling nervously, with a stern face. "And why, might I ask, did you even continue with this mission again Kakashi?"
Kakashi eye smiled as he spoke. "Well you see I gave the order to return, but all of these little kids thought they had what it took to handle the mission and went on without me. I started to comeback on my own and just file them off as missing ninja, but my care for them brought me back. I couldn't leave them all alone to what might have been certain death."
Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto all glared at their masked teacher. You god damn liar, they all thought in unison.
Sarutobi rubbed his temples as he placed his pipe down. "You let a bunch of brats dictate the mission is what you are basically telling me Kakashi. If it wasn't for the success of the mission, and the possibilities for better trade of the village, I'd think I might have you placed on permanent D-Ranked missions for the next year." Kakashi gulped at the horror while his students as snickered at him. "I don't see why you are all laughing since you would be working right alongside of him."
Silence greeted the man's statement. The only sound in the room was the soft breathing of the girl who was still on the back of Naruto. Sighing, Sarutobi pointed at the girl. "This once, I'll let the four of you slide. Now tell me about this girl."
"There isn't much that we know about her Hokage-sama. We just found her stumbling along the side of the dirt road and decided to check on her." Kakashi looked at the girl as well as the others. "We thought it best to bring her here for medical treatment with how bad off she was."
Sarutobi nodded as Kakashi talked. "Her name is Fū!" Naruto suddenly said in an outburst.
"Fū huh. That's a nice name." Turning to Sasuke and Sakura, Sarutobi pointed at the two Genin. "You two go to Konoha's eastern hospital and bring back some medics to get the girl. I'll give you an average D-Rank pay along with the A-Rank pay you will be receiving for the mission to Wave."
Seeing a chance at earning a quick and easy bonus, the two Genin immediately left the Hokage Tower for the Hospital. Naruto groaned as he watched his friends go. "Why do they get to go earn extra money while I'm stuck here?" he whined as the Hokage activated a privacy seal without his noticing. Kakashi on the other hand did and suddenly became serious in demeanor.
"Is there a problem Hokage-sama?" he asked surprising Naruto.
Sarutobi again pointed at the girl on Naruto's back. "That girl is somewhat of a problem. She is like you Naruto-kun." The boy tilted his head in confusion while Kakashi's widened in disbelief as he looked at the girl.
"What do you mean Hokage-jiji? Do you know her or something?"
The old man splayed his hands out in front of him. "She has the same problem as you do Naruto-kun. That girl too has a demon sealed inside of her much like you." Naruto's eyes widened at the words he was hearing.
"How would you know that exactly, if you don't mind my asking of you, Hokage-sama?"
Pulling out a letter, Sarutobi tossed it on to his desk while pointing at it. "That, is a letter from Takikagure no Sato sent to all five of the major ninja villages. It states that they have recently let their jinchūriki of the Nanabi go free, and that anyone who could find the girl could have her no questions asked. This was came to me a week after you guys left, so who knows how long that girl has been roam alone all on her own."
Kakashi shook his head as Naruto growled. "So what, they just threw her out of the village!? How could they do something like that to her!? The people here hate me, but they haven't just thrown me out!"
"Calm yourself Naruto-kun. There is nothing that can be down about what was done. All that can be done now is for us to make sure she gets the proper medical attention she needs." Naruto continued growling unhappily as his eyes bore holes into the letter. The picture of Fū on it looked uncomfortable for the girl.
"So what will we do with her after she recovers?" Kakashi asked as he scratched his head.
The Hokage pointed at Naruto. "I don't feel comfortable forcing the girl to be a part of our village, but I also don't enjoy the prospect of letting her leave just to be hunted by the other villages. So when she has recovered I will offer her a few choices to choose from, and depending on her choice I have a mission for you Naruto-kun."
Naruto raised one of his fist high in the air before slapping it down on to his chest with a wild grin. "Don't worry Hokage-jiji! I can handle any mission throw at me!"
Kakashi chuckled at his student's antics while Sarutobi shook his head amusedly. "I haven't even told you what the mission is yet Naruto-kun, and I won't until it is necessary to tell you so calm down."
A knock was heard at the door, and Sarutobi quickly disabled the privacy seals around the room before calling in the person at the door. A medic ninja walked into the room with Sasuke and Sakura trailing him. "You called for a medic Hokage-sama?"
Nodding, the aged man pointed at Naruto and the girl. "Take the girl and give her the best treatment you can. I want to be sure this girl is taken care of properly."
"Hai Hokage-sama." The medic ninja held out his arms for Fū as Naruto gently passed her over to him. He nodded at his leader before quickly leaving with the girl. As soon as he was gone, Sarutobi waved everyone out of the room dismissing them.
Naruto quickly ran home for some much deserved rest, but on his way saw a little canine animal huddled into a ball in a pile of trash in the shadows of a dark alley. Its dull red coat was covered in muck, and its body seemed to be shivering from the unnatural cold that all alleys seemed to have for one reason or another.
The blond quickly scooped up the small animal and took it home with him. When he arrived at his apartment, he kicked open the door and took the canine to his sink. He gently placed the still shivering animal on his counter as he filled the sink with warm water.
Once that was done, he placed the animal in the neck high water. He grab some soap and gently rubbed it over the animal then used to the back of his nails to rub it in before flushing it off with water from the faucet. For the next half hour Naruto repeated this over and over again. By then he was sure, the by now discovered girl, was clean.
As he dried her fur he walked back to his room and dropped on to his bed. His clothes seemed to fall off his body as he shimmied around on his bed before crawling under the covers. Placing the female canine beside him, before covering her still covering form with a dry towel, he placed a hand on her head and slowly fell asleep.
The next day Naruto slowly woke to the feeling of something cold and wet rubbing across his neck. It took all of his concentration not to completely freak out at the feeling. Instead he just jerked back, grabbed his neck, and flung back his covers. The small red canine was lying on his bed. Slowly, the young animal began crawling about towards the cover to regain its lost warmth.
The blond haired boy smiled as he scratched the back of the animals head. As it pushed its head appreciatively into his hand, Naruto decided he would keep the young canine and sighed. "What am I going to do with you? I can't take you to the hospital with me since pets aren't allowed."
After humming to himself, the boy snapped his fingers and made a shadow clone. "You! Take her to Kiba's place! I'm sure that they'll take care of her and she won't be here all alone." The clone saluted before gently picking up the animal and taking off.
Quickly throwing on some clothes, Naruto ran out to the hospital. It didn't take him long to reach the hospital as Fū was put into the one closest to his apartment conveniently. He walked up to the front desk and tapped on the counter to get the black haired receptionist's attention. "Hey, can you direct me to a girl named Fū's room? She has this really cool looking green hair."
The receptionist looked down at him with barely disguised disgust. "Why would I tell you that? So you can try and corrupt a little girl, I think not."
"What are you talking about 'corrupt a little girl'? I'm just here to check on her," Naruto said back upset with the lady who was obviously against him for the Kyūbi.
"Oh yeah. Just because you say it doesn't make it true," she snorted.
Naruto growled at the lady just before a hand landed on his shoulder. "What is the problem Naruto-kun? Shouldn't you be checking up on Fū-san in room 2-7N?" Sticking his tongue out at the now sweating women, Naruto shot off to Fū's room. Glares were thrown his way as he made his way past them, but he ignored them. The glares had no effect
He knocked on the door of her room before casually walking in like it was an everyday occurrence for him. As he shut the door behind him, the boy looked at the girl laying down in the bed before him. Her eyes were still closed, and her chest was slowly rising and falling.
Naruto smiled as he walked over to her and sat in the chair next to her bed. He could see that most of her wounds had been wrapped and bandaged or had healed all on their own. Through the sheet it could be seen that her leg was no longer in the awkward position it had been in when his team found her, and her hair was no longer caked in mud.
I wonder what happened to her. I can't imagine what it must have been like to be thrown out of your own village just to be hunted down like a wild animal. Naruto brushed a strand of hair out of the girl's face when her eyes snapped open. He slightly jumped back in his chair as she stared at him alertly.
"Um... hi," Naruto said as he leaned back towards Fū while blinking away his surprise. The girl just continued to look at him. "Are you feeling okay?" Naruto reached a hand out and placed it on her bed.
Fū's eyes followed his hand until it rested next to her. Looking back at the spiky haired blond she sighed. "Yeah... yeah. Where am I?"
"You are in Konoha's Eastern Hospital," Sarutobi said as he walked into the room. Fū saw the man and her eyes widened considerably. She knew who she was in the presence of.
"H-hokage-sama! It is a pleasure to meet you!" The girl frantically tried to get up and bow to the man as he chuckled. Naruto stopped the girl from rising out of her bed as the old man chuckled softly.
"No need to stand Fū-san. You are here to recuperate, not bow before an old man." Sarutobi waved his hand slightly to calm her.
Fū looked at Sarutobi for a moment before looking at Naruto. For a moment the two seemed to get lost in thought before Fū frowned. "Could you please get your hands off of my chest you pervert?" Naruto blinked before jumping back with a large blush across his face. He started to trip over words as he tried to apologies to the young girl in the hospital bed. A smile broke out on Fū's face as she giggled slightly as she stuck her chest. "I wasn't being serious. You can put them back if you like feeling on hospitalized girls."
Sarutobi laughed heartily as Naruto looked like he was close to passing out. He was sure if any more blood rushed to the boy's face it would promptly explode all over the place. "Well if that wasn't long overdue for someone to finally get that boy," he said as his laughter died down. "Now Fū-san there is a reason I..."
Just as the Hokage began talking to her, Fū cut the man off with a wave of her hand. "I know what you're going to ask me, since my village basically threw me up for grabs, and I don't have an answer for you yet. I just ask you let me stay in the village until I decide whether or not I want to be a kunoichi here or not."
Sarutobi blinked before smiling at the girl. "It is good that you are considering the offer before it was even laid before you Fū-chan." Fū tilted her head at th sudden use of the affection with her name. "But I have more to offer than that."
"What else could you offer me?" Fū leaned forward with anticipation. She was always one to hear out a proposition.
"Why I can offer you a home. You can be a citizen of Konoha and never have to be involved in shinobi affairs at all. We can register you easily and end this little fox hunt for you. Everything should be fine as long as something doesn't demand your services due to your special condition."
Fū's eyes had been widening to impossible sizes as Sarutobi talked. She was amazed that someone would even offer something so amazingly satisfying that it could only happen in story books. "Man you say that like it's some kind of disease," she huffed as he finished talking. "Well, I would ask you what strings are attached, but I'm not going to pass something like this up. I doubt any other Kage would offer me something like this."
"As do I," Sarutobi said in agreement. "So you will be a civilian of my village here then?" Fū smiled and nodded eagerly. "Good. You seem to be taking all of this pretty well Fū-chan."
The mint haired girl shrugged. "If I let stuff like this get to me then I will never be happy. I try to meet all of my problems with a smile and a cocked fist." The two laughed as Naruto shook his head.
Clearing his head of Fū's early words, Naruto looked between them. "What's so funny you guys?"
"Fū-chan here has agreed to be a civilian of the village Naruto-kun." Sarutobi chuckled as the boy smiled widely.
He turned to Fū and gave her a thumb's up. "That's awesome Fū-chan! You're going to love it here in Konoha. There's no better place in the entire world to be. If someone tells you otherwise you tell me so I can kick their butts!" Naruto thumbed his chest pridefully.
"Alright then macho man, I'll remember that," Fū laughed.
Sarutobi smiled at the two kids before him. "I'm going to go now Fū-chan. Leave whenever you feel like it and stop by my office. By then I should have you in as a citizen, and I should have a home set up and ready for you to live in."
The mint haired girl frowned slightly. "Does that mean I'm going to be living all alone? I don't want to live by myself anymore."
"Oh! Oh! Oh! She can live with me Jiji!" Naruto jumped up in down in excitement. "There's enough room for the both of us in there!"
Fū looked surprisingly at Naruto as Sarutobi chuckled. "Alright Naruto-kun. I was just thinking the same thing as you were, but it is really all up to Fū-chan here."
The blond scratched the back of his head sheepishly as he glanced at Fū. Blinking away her surprise, Fū leaned back and smiled shyly at Naruto. "Well... I guess, but I thought we would wait to get married before we started living together. Though if you insist..." Naruto blushed furiously as he turned from Fū and covered his ears as she and Sarutobi laughed. "I'll stay with Naruto-kun~ Hokage-sama."
The Hokage nodded. "Alright, Naruto show Fū home once she is ready to leave while I... Naruto what's wrong?"
Naruto was looking at the wall like he had never seen it before. Grasping the side of his head he scrunched up his face and turned to the elderly man. "I sent a clone to the Inuzuka Clan Compound to let them take care of this little dog, well fox since this lady Hana said it was one, I found. It just dispelled and I suddenly knew everything that happened."
Sarutobi nodded sagely. "You have found what makes the Shadow Clone Jutsu such a powerful tool to have in your arsenal. You see Naruto-kun, when a Shadow Clone is dispelled everything it has seen, heard, tasted, smelled, and felt is sent back to you. It makes them amazing for infiltrating an enemy camp and gaining information without even going in."
"Wow! That's so cool!" Naruto and Fū exclaimed at the same time.
"Yes, that it is," the aged man chuckled. "Now I really must be going to register Fū-chan as a civilian and inform the council of her presence here in the village." With that, Sarutobi left the two alone.
A slight awkward, for the young blond, silence filled the room as Naruto glanced between the hospital door and Fū who was looking dead at him with a smile. "Well I'm ready to go now if you're ready," Fū cheerfully. "I just need to toss my clothes on real quick."
"Sure..." Naruto began to say, but turned to find Fū already pulling the hospital gown up her chest. He knew it was wrong to watch a girl undress, but the mint haired girl was acting so natural about it all that he just couldn't look away.
Watching her undress with a small trickle of blood from his nose and a large blush, Naruto found the skin over Fū's stomach somewhat alluring. It was an even lighter shade of caramel brown than the rest of her body. The higher he went, it seemed to lightly darken a bit more on her skin, and he soon found himself looking Fū's chest. Her breast were about the size of his fist if he balled them up. They seemed to bounce slightly as the girl momentarily struggled to get the hospital gown over her head before she just tore it in half to free herself.
"Damn thing was trying to strangle me," she mumbled as she hoped out of the bed. A loud thump drew her attention to the floor near the door. Lying passed out on the ground, Naruto mumbled softly to himself about beauty. He's so cute; don't you think show Chō-chan? He fits almost everything too yeah?
"That he is," a voice chuckled in Fū's mind. "And that he does." Big sister? That you in that boy there?
Most of me little sister. Most of me, a slightly distant voice answered.
What do you mean by that Ro-chan?
Eh, I'll tell you later. We are going to be around each other a lot, so we have time, but for now I'm pretty tired. taking a good ol' nap now.
What, wait! Ro-chan! Ro-chan! Argh, don't you dare go to sleep on me you lazy fox!
Cho-chan? Cho-chan you alright in there?
"Huh? Oh, I'm alright little one. Just a little lost in thought is all. What is it?"
...he hasn't woken up yet.
"Maybe stripping in front of him wasn't such a good suggestion after all."
A/N: Hope you all enjoyed. Until next time my friends!