The Fox And The Wolves

Chapter One

The Fox And The Wolves
Chapter One

Hearing a howl, a young heavily pregnant fox raced through the forest. The wolf wasn’t too close but she knew she was getting ready to give birth she wanted to find a safe place to birth her litter. Out of breath, Kushina, a bright red furred fox panted and looked behind her, her lover Minato had not followed her instead he had chosen to stay behind and distract the wolf. Kushina really hoped that the yellow fox demon wouldn’t miss the birth of his children, she needed him to help raise them.
Hearing another howl, Kushina flinched and silently prayed that the wolf hadn’t gotten Minato. Although as fast as he was on his paws it would be hard for anyone to catch the demon. She just hoped that it wasn’t someone who was aware of the special abilities that fox demons carried, like the ability for males to get pregnant and it didn’t matter if it was the same species or not. It could be a wolf and a fox or a dog and fox, if the male fox was the demon then whatever kits were born of the mating would likely take after the father and have those same traits. Kushina herself was just normal red fox so she doubted that she would see much of herself in the kits, not that she cared about that. She only cared about giving Minato some healthy children.
Suddenly a sharp pain shot through her, and she keened lowly. She really needed to find a safe place, Minato would have to scent her out cause these kits were coming whether she was ready for them or not. Sensing trouble coming, Kushina spotted the small den that was nearly buried underneath the leaves and dashed into it, going as deep as the small cave would allow her to go. Finally when she reached the back she flopped down onto her side, contractions continued to shoot through her as she lay on the ground panting.
Several minutes later Kushina felt liquid gush out of her and she knew it wouldn’t be long until her kits came along. From the looks of things Minato wasn’t going to be here to see their birth. Breathing hard, Kushina breathed through the pain as she felt one tiny body slip out of her. She sat up, gently picking the kit up by the scruff of his neck and placing him closer to her belly where he could nurse.
An hour later two other kits slipped out of her and she moved them to where they could nurse. Two of them had red fur like her’s and the last and the smallest one had yellow fur, looking more like his father. Kushina knew that if this one managed to survive he would have his father’s abilities. Those abilities were also a danger magnet as other wild animals would be attracted to him to either mate him when he was old enough or to kill him to keep him from reaching his full potential as a half demon.
As she lay there her kits nursing, she wondered how she was supposed to hunt for food and protect her little ones too. She really needed Minato to be here, and she hoped that he hadn’t been captured, but considering the price that demon foxes could fetch on the black market she wouldn’t be surprised if he had. She had to find out for sure though what had happened. Growing tired, Kushina closed her eyes needing the rest to catch up from the exhaustion of giving birth.
“Come soon Minato.” Kushina murmured as she closed her eyes. She didn’t think that she even had the energy to keep her kits safe from predators at that moment in time.
A little while later, Kushina opened her eyes and sat up and began to gently run her tongue over her little ones. Right now they were at their most vulnerable because when foxes were first born, they were both deaf and blind which meant that Kushina would have to fight like hell to ensure their survival especially that one of Naruto, the one who would have to fight like hell for his entire life.
Hearing paws coming towards her, she growled low in her throat. She would allow no harm to come to her kits, they would grow up strong and unafraid to live. As the paws grew closer, Kushina caught the scent of the one that she had been longing for, the only problem was she could also smell his fear along with a mixture of blood.
When Minato reached them, he brushed his head against Kushina’s and licked her nose, before sniffing the kits that she had given birth too.
“I know you’re tired.” Minato said. “I am too, but you’re going to have to move the babies, the wolves are coming.”
“What are they after?” Kushina asked. “I thought they were looking for the demonic foxes.”
“They’re not.” Minato said, “These wolves are hunting down ordinary foxes for food, I don’t imagine that they will hesitate at eating a  few new born kits either.”
“What about Naruto?” Kushina asked “What do we do with him?” She didn’t want to abandon him, but if they move Kurama and Kyuubi, she wasn’t sure that she would be able to come back for him. If they hunters were truly after red coats, Kushina and Minato would have to move somewhere far away. Which most certainly meant certain death for her youngest, it broke Kushina’s heart just thinking about it.
“We have no choice, we can’t carry all three of them.” Minato said softly. “We’re going to have to leave him here.”
“I don’t want to.” Kushina whined, as she leaned forward and dragged her tongue down the blonde fox’s head. It didn’t seem fair that he would have to fight to live from the moment he was born.
“I don’t either, but if the wolves are coming closer what choice do we have? We have to protect our two oldest boys.” Kushina heaved a sigh perhaps she could nurse the young Naruto a little longer so that he could at least have some nourishment before he slowly starved. She doubted any other creature would find him back here and devour him.
“We don’t have time.” Minato said as if reading Kushina’s thoughts. “Whatever he’s had for now is going to have to be enough. I’m sure a wolf or something will find him eventually anyways.”
“I don’t want to think of him getting eaten.” Kushina said, glaring at Minato before picking Kurama up by the scruff of his neck, Minato doing the same with Kyuubi. Kushina glanced back at her other baby, her breaking as both her and Minato began making their way out of the den. She could only hope that his death would be a quick one because she didn’t want to think about him suffering.
Meanwhile a tired black wolf trudged through the forest her oldest pup who was nearly a year old silently packing his younger brother who was barely a few weeks old. They had moved from their home when the food supply had gotten low. They were tired and hungry, the youngest pup whining softly from hunger.
“Hush now Sasuke.” Mikoto murmured. “I’ll stop and nurse you soon enough, we just need to go a little farther first.” She was worn out from the long day of traveling, but her mate Fugaku had been right when he’d said that they needed to move the pups somewhere much safer. She figured that maybe being closer to Konoha would be better, considering, that Konoha seemed to worship the large black wolves. Maybe they would consider their Mikoto hoped that she would be able to raise Sasuke there, and maybe Itachi could learn to hunt and help teach Sasuke when the time came. Hopefully, Fugaku would be able to join them soon. Right now, he was sticking to their normal lands to help drive the foxes away from their territory, Fugaku had sent them closer to Konoha in case any of the demonic foxes tried to go after the mates. Mikoto was kind of tired of the war between the foxes but she knew that it likely wouldn’t ever really end. She never even really knew why it had started to begin with, to her it would have been simple to just live and let live but what did she know.
Suddenly she stopped and sniffed the air, there was something in a den nearby. She turned and headed in the direction the smell was coming from. Even if there was another creature living in the den she figured she could always chase it out, it would make a nice place to rest and to nurse Sasuke, who was still quietly crying.
“Here’s a good place to rest.” She told Itachi as they crawled into the den, making their way to the back. When they reached the back Mikoto noticed the small blonde fox. Mikoto sniffed at it, she could still smell the after birth which meant the little one was likely only hours old. Which made Mikoto wonder where the rest of his family was. Surely, they wouldn’t have just abandoned him so soon after birth.
“What is that?” Itachi asked, dropping Sasuke onto the ground and peering around his mother’s haunches. He licked his lips at the tiny body lying there, softly crying.
“Its a demonic fox.” Mikoto replied, the soft whimpers of the fox hurting her heart. The poor thing must have been hungry and cold, and scared.
“Can we eat it?” Itachi asked. His stomach growling from hunger.
“No. He wouldn’t give you much food anyways, he’s too little.” Mikoto said as she down on her side. She had never cared about the war between the foxes and wolves, maybe if she helped this one it could somehow make the others see that the foxes were just normal creatures, whether they were demonic or not.
“What are you going to do with it then?” Itachi asked as he took his muzzle and gently shoved Sasuke towards their mother. Sasuke almost immediately latched onto a nipple and began drinking.
“I’m going to try and feed it for one.” Mikoto said as she gently lifted the tiny fox up by the scruff of his neck and placed him beside Sasuke, hoping that the fox would be able to suckle in his weakened condition. Sure, enough the fox found the nipple blindly and began suckling, too hungry not to notice the smell wasn’t that of his own mothers.
“I’m surprised that’s he’s willing to drink.” Itachi commented as he lay down beside Mikoto and watched both of the pups as they hungrily drunk the milk that was offered to them.
“He must not have gotten to nurse for long after his birth.” Mikoto said. “The poor thing is pretty weak.”
“Dad’s not going to like you nursing him.” Itachi pointed out.
“Who cares.” Mikoto replied. “he’s an innocent baby, who doesn’t deserve to slowly starve to death as soon as he was born.”
“Why can’t he tell the difference between you and his mother?” Itachi wondered.
“Foxes are born both deaf and blind, they grow out of that as they get older.” Mikoto replied. “Hopefully by then though, he’ll recognize that we aren’t there to harm him. And in turn by helping raise him maybe his parents will also see that we aren’t always out to take over their territory or to cause them harm.”
“I see your point.” Itachi murmured, as he pushed himself to his feet. Since his father wasn’t here, he would have to go out and hunt something down for his mother to eat.
“I’ll be back soon.” Itachi told her. “Keep those guys safe.” Mikoto nodded and wrapped herself around the two suckling pups, offering the small fox some much needed warmth. Mikoto couldn’t help but wonder how the mother could have abandoned one so young. She hoped that she had been able to provide enough milk for the young one, she would hate to see the little guy die. Even if her kind was supposed to hate foxes.

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