Taiyo no Megami the Iron lord

Chapter 2: Changing on a Celestial Level

(I own nothing except for the Big Mama in Rapture, and even then, it's a strange and complicated ownership. Enjoy!)

She was out of Hi no Kuni.

Nobunaga had told her they had crossed the border about an hour or two ago. It was official. Konoha was now a distant, painful memory. Naruko now felt confident that she could now look forward to her new future, a bright future, under her mentor and, dare she say, new father-figure Nobunaga. In the past few days she had gotten to know him she had only gotten closer and closer. Though the question of why the old man didn't immediately discriminate her as a demon like 99.9% of the people she knew when they first met was still unanswered, she was still confident that he was as nice as he appeared and didn't have a secret agenda like so many others. She trusted him.

How few, if any, could she say that about?

It was now getting towards sunset, and Nobunaga was currently looking for a place to set up camp for the night seeing as they had to stay away from populated areas to avoid attracting attention to Naruko. This caused her to worry about when they reached Tetsu no Kuni what would occur seeing as how they were going to stay there thus her fox-girl state would be exposed. Nevertheless, Nobunaga had assured her that everything would be fine. After all, he didn't attack her at first site, and she was traveling with him: a former Tetsu no Kuni taishou. What reason would they have for attacking a little girl? That and the fact that there were strict rules about harming children in Tetsu no Kuni also helped.

Soon, Nobunaga had found a suitable place for camp on top of a ridge. Naruko hopped off Nobunaga's shoulders (she rides on his shoulder like Yachiru does with Kenpachi) and proceeded to help him set the campsite up. She set the supplies down next to the campfire Nobunaga was setting up and got out two blankets for the two of them. Nobunaga was about to lite the fire when Naruko stopped him, "Wait Nobunaga-jiji. I want to try something!"

Nobunaga blinked but receded from starting the campfire, "Okay, what do you have in mind?"

"I want to try and light it," Naruko answered as a small fireball formed in front of her tail. She moved the tail over the fire and the fireball lit up the wood. The old samurai blinked in surprise, "You have this much control over your powers already?"

Naruko shrugged, "I don't know. I just already knew how to do it. It was very strange."

Nobunaga looked at her raising an eyebrow studying Naruko for a bit before he shrugged it off and shook his head, "Nevertheless, you've done a good job. I get tired very easily nowadays. I miss my youth."

Naruko giggled, "You're youth? That must have been ages ago, Nobunaga-jiji!"

A rain cloud formed over Nobunaga's head as he stared at the ground depressed, "Th-thanks for that, Naruko-chan."

Naruko giggled again, "You're welcome, Nobunaga-jiji!"

Snapping out of his depression, Nobunaga looked at the young fox-girl's smile and proceeded to return it. It was hard not to smile when this little one was smiling as well. The retired samurai took a deep breath, "Come on. Let's get ready for the night. I have a feeling something very interesting is going to happen."

Naruko tilted her head and blinked in confusion, "What do you mean, Nobunaga-jiji? How do you know that?"

The old man gave a knowing grin, "Call it instinct, Naruko-chan. Trust me when I say I have experience decoding it's signals."

About two hours later. . .

"Wow," Naruko exclaimed excitedly. She was leaning forward in her sitting position. Her hands were on Nobunaga's knees as she sat in his lap looking at the night sky above. Her tails were wagging unconsciously as she expressed her excitement. They sometimes brushed against Nobunaga's face so for the most part he stared up at the night sky along with the little fox-girl. "This is amazing, Nobunaga-jiji!"