The Tailed... Human? [Tail 1 - Naruto Fan-Fiction]

Chapter 3: Bear-ly made it!

Naruto watched Kitsune as she walked ahead of him with Kiba, throwing insults at each other and practically bashing their heads together every few minutes. Her tail twitched with every step, her ears flipped back and forth as the sounds of the forest reached them, the whole tail and ear combination entrancing him.

"Hey Naruto," Kitsune called, pulling him out of his haze. "What's that?" She had come to a stop, smacking her fist against Kiba's chest to make sure he didn't scare off the creature.

"That's a deer, believe it!" Naruto put his hands on the back of his head, giving her a smile. "We must be in the Nara's forest," he looked around, not seeing any people around.

"Ech!" Kitsune and Kiba scowled, noses scrunching up in unison. They looked at each other, stuck out their tongues and looked the other way. "Whatever that is, it's rancid!" Kiba shouted, assuming it was a person that was making the smell.

"That's not a person..." Kitsune sniffed the air again, "A human's smell hits the nose differently," after years of smelling nothing but filth in Orochimaru's hideout, she had learned the difference between humans and creatures... being a mix of both herself.

"Whatever, like you know!" Kiba crossed his arms, taking a huge whiff of the air along with his dog, trying to find the smell before Kitsune could.

"Uh, guys..." Naruto murmured, pointing towards a bush nearby. A brown bear was poking its head out of the bush, a decaying animal in its jaws, muffling its growl. "Run!" Kiba and Naruto began booking it, leaving Kitsune standing in the clearing.

She was frozen, her legs refused to move and her tail had stopped its natural twitching. I'm not afraid of bears, what the hell is going on?! She begged her legs to move, getting only a slight shaking feeling from them as the bear closed in on her.

"Kitsune!" Kiba shouted, waving his arms from up in a tree nearby. "Come on!" Naruto was waving as well, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't make her body move. "Dude, bears hunt foxes." Kiba hissed to Naruto, who just sat there. "She's practically a fox; her instincts are going to get her killed!"

"We have to help her!" Naruto smacked Kiba's back, almost pushing him out of the tree. "You first!"

"No, you!" Kiba pushed back, getting a push in return.

Damnit, move! The bear was only a few inches from her, the decaying prey making her hand cover her nose so she wouldn't gag. You're not a fox, she reminded herself, ignoring her now lashing tail. You're not a fox, damnit! With a final inward scream, she turned on her heels and began booking it out of the clearing.

"Go, Kitsune!" Naruto screamed, pumping his fist in the air as she launched herself out of a bush and kept running from the bear, which was now chasing her with the intent to kill.

"A little help would be appreciated!" She squealed, dropping to the ground and rolling out of the bears sight. Her eyes closed and her ears perked up, listening intently for where the bear was, hearing it stomping around behind the tree she was hiding behind.

She forced her breathing to slow, trying to keep quiet so the bear couldn't hear here over the ruckus the two nitwits were making. Exhaling, she turned to the tree and started climbing slowly, avoiding any flimsy looking branches.

As she reached for the next branch, her wrist slid up against the bark, reopening the cut she'd made just before her escape a few days ago. The scent of blood hit the air, alerting the bear of where she was and forcing her arm to drop to her side to push it against her clothes to stop the bleeding, splashing the branches below her with the blood.

With one arm holding onto the tree branch a few feet above the ground and the other plastered to her side, the bear rounded the tree and started clawing the tree trying to get to her. She desperately tried to get a foothold but her foot kept skidding on the trail of blood that was on the branches below.

"Damnit, I'm going down!" Kiba shouted, grabbing the tree branch below him and swinging towards where Kitsune was hanging, her hold on the branch above her slipping. "HEY!" He grabbed a rock from nearby, throwing it at the bear, which was intent on getting the bleeding target.

"Over there!" A pointy haired female rounded the corner, riding a freakin huge one-eared husky with an eye patch. "That's the smell!" She pointed towards where Kitsune was hanging, her tail flailing wildly in an attempt to escape the bear's jaws.

"M-mom?!" Kiba stuttered, making eye contact with the girl. With a growl, the bear turned towards her, baring its teeth menacingly.

"Get out of here!" She shouted, making the dog beneath her let out a bark that rang through Kitsune's ears and made her fall from the tree. The bear took a step back, looking intimidated but not entirely convinced that it was in danger.

As if on cue, a small group of people rounded the corner, two with black ponytails and another person with three dogs around her. Kitsune stayed on the ground, figuring it was safer to lay down then to try to explain what she was doing there... the pointy haired girl didn't seem like the kind to listen.

"Kiba!" The girl with three dogs yelled as her dogs took off after the bear, biting and nipping at its feet as it ran to make sure it wouldn't come back.

"H-hey sis," Kiba muttered, looking down at the ground like a dog that'd just been smacked on the nose.

"What the hell are you doing out here, you little shit?!" The pointy haired one smacked his forehead, placing her hands on her hips and waiting for an explanation.

"Well, I... see, Naruto and I..." Naruto jumped from the tree, waving his hand. "We found this girl, who's weird and is kind of mean and..." He stopped talking, clearly tired of sticking his foot in his mouth.

"Ah, yes, the one that smells awful." She looked back towards Kitsune, who was lying on the ground licking her wrist. "The hell, is that a tail?" Walking over to where Kitsune was, she pulled on the tail roughly, lifting her rear end off of the ground.

"Agh, hey!" She shouted, clawing at the ground trying to get away. "Stop that hurts!" The woman let her tail go, watching as Kitsune pulled it close to her chest and pouted.

"So that's attached, how weird," She knelt down next to Kitsune and poked her chest. "Where you from, weirdo?" The group gathered around Kitsune, switching their eyes from her ears to her tail curiously.

"I-I don't know," she lied, hugging her tail closer. The pointy haired lady looked at her for a moment; her eyebrow raised, but soon stood back up and offered her hand to Kitsune.

"I'm Tsume, Kiba's mom." Kitsune took her hand, getting lifted off the ground effortlessly.

"K-Kitsune," Tsume let out a hearty laugh, smacking Kitsune's back.

"Fox, eh? Fitting I guess!" The two ponytailed guys in the back just looked at each other as Tsume made small talk with Kitsune. "Anyway, that's Hana, my other child," she pointed to the girl with the tree dogs. "That's Shikamaru and his dad Shikaku." They gave a lazy wave as they were mentioned. "They own the land you're on, that's why they're here."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know I was trespassing," Kitsune's tail flicked. "I can leave..." Tsume held up her hand, stopping her sentence.

"No, we're taking you back to the Leaf until you're all better," she held up Kitsune's wrist, the blood seeping out like sap from a tree. "Any objections?" She offered to the surrounding ground, none of which apparently objected. "Good!" She laughed, jumping back onto her dog and patting its butt. "You're all walking!" She shouted as her dog took off, leaving the rest of us standing awkwardly together.

"Your Mom is scary, man," Shikamaru sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "I think Moms are about the same, though," Shikaku scoffed, stuffing his hands in his pockets and following the trail of broken foliage that Tsume had left.