Curse Of The Nine-Tails(Naruto Fan-Fic)

The Cat and the Fox

~July, 2014~

Katara pov

I've been in the Leaf Village for about a month.

Can it be my imagination? Or can I sometimes see a pair of red eyes in the bushes when I sleep in the trees?

If Sasuke really is intending to hunt me down, then I don't want him to catch me.

Besides, I've been busy helping Naruto and the others with repairing the village from the attack from Pein.

I still feel an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach every time somebody talks about the Akatsuki, and I tend to find an excuse just to avoid the topic.

I was sitting in one of the trees in the village, right now, one of my legs swinging over the branch. Katrina sat on my shoulder, nibbling at her paw as she searched for any stray bugs on her. It was daytime, and I could hear the construction everywhere around me, the clanging of metal, wood hitting wood.

"Hi, Rogue."

I looked down to see Naruto standing there in his usual getup, smiling.

"Hey."

"Watcha doin?" He asked.

"Nothing much." I shrugged. "What's up?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to head to the Korean BBQ with Sakura, Sai, and the others. We're taking a break from our jobs and thought you might like to join."

I glanced at Katrina who was watching me intently.

Best to go. She said. We'll be better protected in the crowd. Obviously she had gotten the feeling Sasuke was hunting us down as well.

I looked back down at Naruto. "Why not? Sure, I'll go." I leaped down from my branch and landed next to him.

We walked down the street with Katrina on my shoulder and found the whole group waiting in front of a large building.

"There they are! The slowpokes!" Sakura scowled, playfully punching my arm. "About time you got here. Choji has been complaining for a while."

"We didn't take that long." Naruto whined.

"Oh, shut up. Come on! Let's go eat some BBQ!" Sakura grabbed my hand happily and we all entered the building.

The owner was happy to see all of us and led us to a large room set up for the whole group. We all sat down around our table and the meat came in.

I sniffed the meat, and breathed happily. Even Katrina seemed pleased as she eyed the big steak in front of her.

You won't get out of here without feeding me. She said in my ear.

"I was planning on feeding you anyways." I mumbled back. "After all, you are me. And I can't live with an empty stomach."

Katrina purred in reply and watched as I took out my chopsticks.

"So did you guys get any intel on either Katara or Sasuke?" Sai asked around the table.

I gripped my utensils tightly.

"Nothing. I don't know what's going on with Katara. Somehow she just seemed to disappear from the face of the world. Nobody knows where she is, and nobody knows how she's moving." Shikamaru said. "I didn't get much out of Sasuke, either."

Naruto looked down unhappily. "Then how are we supposed to find them?"

"It's best if we just keep searching." Neji murmured. "We might find something on them if we dig deep enough."