Chapter 1
The young blonde yawned as the light crept through the glassless window and into his closed eyes, gently urging him to begin his day. He grunted and unwillingly began to stir from his threadbare blanket. The sunlight seemed to just soak into him and warm him like a sunning animal. He tossed the small blanket aside and grinned to himself, knowing that his favorite part of the day was about to begin.
He put on a white t-shirt and his sweatpants, grabbed his blanket and daily clothes, and left through the window. He hopped from rooftop to rooftop, practicing his flipping every leap. He cleared the town and made it past the wall quickly. "This is where the fun part begins," he thought to himself. He got down in a sprinting stance and took off as fast as he could down his trail, from the grass to the trees, alternating his path every day so that it wouldn't get worn down. He loved seeing the animals before they even managed to hear him.
There was a doe in a small clearing that looked like it had a heart attack from his rather fast fly-by. There was a small fox cub stalking a toad, which he stopped just for a second to watch until it ran to hide again when he heard Naruto's approach. He smiled watching it, then flying down his path until he finally arrived. He made it to his own personal little waterfall. "It isn't very big," he grinned approaching the fall that was only a foot taller than he was, "but it's all mine." He took his time bathing then dried off using his blanket. He twisted all the water out of his blanket and got dressed in his normal clothes with his orange jumpsuit (that's what it looks like to me so deal).
He was fully awake now from the cool, natural shower and began to walk back to his home. He took his time to look at the animals on his way. He saw a young bear cub which he quickly left in case its mother got any ideas about him. He saw the squirrels playing. He saw the same fox kit stuck in a trap. He even saw…. He looked back again realizing what he just saw.
Naruto quickly got angry. The fox demon Kyuubi (Naruto's fox demon sealed inside him) was asleep thankfully, but Kyuubi would have been pissed. Some bastard was trying to hunt it for its fur! They were hunting on HIS trail! They were hunting FOXES on HIS trail! He walked up to the fox. It saw his unhidden approach and began thrashing within the trap. It cringed knowing that death would surely be upon it only for its fur.
Naruto gathered his chakra to his right hand to make it stronger and stronger. His hand began to glow a deep blue and he crushed the trap completely. The fox kit looked at Naruto utterly confused at first, then growled at him, starting to limp away but not looking away from the strange human. He started to leave, but he began to worry a little about the leg. "It's still a young fox, not quite an adult. It probably wouldn't be able to survive with its leg like that…" He meditated for a quick second to appear before Kyuubi. "Wake up you damned fox!" He mentally threw a stone into the sealed cage-like entrance.
The fox demon roared in fury at the insignificant worm on the other side of the seal. "How DARE," the fox demon began fuming at the boy until he saw what the boy saw. He looked at the boy questioningly. "Humans don't care about us foxes, no matter wh—"
Naruto growled at Kyuubi. "Give me the scent of the fox, bastard. It should still be being fed by its mother, but it was out hunting. We both know that means it's alone. Do it or one of your own will die." The demon growled gently starting to rebuke the boy. "And don't say it isn't. You may be a demon, but you're still a fox."
Kyuubi looked into the boy's eyes with all his hatred and anger, searching his soul for some ulterior motive. "What's one more death? I'm a demon. The weak shall die… That's the Rule!" He looked through Naruto's eyes at the weak fox kit. He looked at Naruto again. "Know this, you miserable human…" the demon spat with all his hate, "… What happens to this kit is no longer my concern. Are we agreed?"
Naruto looked into the demon's eyes. "We're agreed, now give me your scent so I can stop talking to your sorry ass." He saw a red glow creeping under the cage, then wrapping tight around him, making it almost impossible for him to breathe as his scent was replaced with that of a vulpine. He collapsed inside his mind to recover from the choking grasp of the demon fox, and then left his mind back to reality.
He moved upwind of the fox, staying in open sight and not making any sudden movements. The young kit took in Naruto's scent, confused that it wasn't that of a human, but another fox. It kept growling at him and limped a few steps away before it stumbled onto all fours. Suddenly it felt a hand on its fur. It felt the pressure of being pinned down, but it wasn't a rough pressure.
The kit turned and bit into Naruto's hand. He just looked at it reassuringly though. "The human hasn't punched me or hurt me… He looks just like a human… but he doesn't act like a human… and he doesn't smell like a human…maybe… maybe he isn't a human?" The young kit slowly released his hand, and then cautiously licked it. "I need his help. I can't live on my own anymore… not until my leg heals anyway."
Naruto carefully picked up the young kit and took it to his little waterfall. He very carefully washed where the trap had dug into its leg and bit his lip. "I guess there's no other choice. I have to keep my clothes wearable because they're the only set I got!" He looked at his poor blanket and sighed. "I guess there's no other way is there little one. I don't know very much about first aid, so this is just going to have to do." He snapped a small branch in half and laid them next to the fox. "The nights are going to get colder…" He talked to himself as he ripped two small strips from his blanket/towel. He tied the sticks on each side of his leg with the small cloth strips to help keep the kit's bone from moving too much and lessen the pain.
"I don't know what all this junk is for… but he has honest eyes. Maybe… Maybe I really can trust him until I heal." The fox looked at the make-shift splint curiously as the young blonde carefully picked it up. It heard words that it didn't understand, but that was okay, because it felt safe again… for the first time in a good while.
"I don't know how to fix you up better," the boy said while wrapping the fox in his coat, "but I bet I know someone who does." With that, Naruto began to walk, careful not to shake the kit's leg too much on his way to meet the rest of his team for their daily training.