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(fic-thing) Furry AU, no title yet
HOMG HELP ME, PEOPLE.
So I have this 'verse, yes? Where every canon thing that happened up to the rescue the kazekage arc happened about the same way, except for one -- well two -- big differences?
As in, 1) all the characters are furries. (I don't imagine them with muzzles, though you can, but the lower body is furry, yes, and also they have claws and padded hands and eeelittletwitchynoses) (Naruto and Ino are foxes, Sakura is an arabian horse XD, Sasuke and Neji are kitties -- EDIT Sai is a genet; looks like a cat a hell of a lot, but really isn't -- Kakashi is a wolf, Jiraiya is an arctic fox/wolf blahblahblah...)
and 2) Naruto is the avatar of Kyuubi, the living god of Fire Country, and people hated him because he was the son of Yondy the Godslayer. XD
What I really loved was 1) furries, 2) yay role reversal, but mostly 3) PERFECT SETUP FOR MULTI-PAIRINGS PORN. As in, if I followed more or less the post-timeskip stuff, NaruNeji, NaruGaara, NaruSakuIno, NaruSai, NaruHina, blahblah, and eventually, NaruSasu. T______T
This one was supposed to end up with Kyuunaru/Nejikitty porn. Alas, neji would have to be OOC as fuck to push Naruto far enough, and the way I've set it up, Naruto is askared of the Kyuubi side. ;_; bbbbut porn? foxykitty porn? SADNESS. Plz tell me how to fix it. T_T plzplzplz.
Tenten and Lee seemed settled for the night, and Gai-sensei was probably still at Kakashi's bedside; by now, drained of chakra to the brink of complete exhaustion or not, the wolf was probably about to tear off Gai's head. Neji didn't care much, as long as it kept his teacher out of his hair.
He slipped through the unfamiliar stone corridors, padded feet silent, tail curved high to avoid sweeping the floor behind him. He could hear gerbils scurrying around in the compound, probably delivering scrolls, and smell desert foxes and jackals guarding the few openings onto the cliff walls. The mix of scents in Suna was different, sharper, drier -- spicier, in a way, than Konoha's. It was almost as bizarre as the halls and classrooms and amphitheaters carved in the ochre rock, as if the whole plateau was one giant, communal burrow.
Following the faint breeze that tickled his long fur, he finally found an exit. The guard's huge fennec fox ears were flat on his head, and he wasn't even looking at Neji. Politely, the cat coughed to warn of his presence, and then swept outside past the guard; he had a feeling he knew what had the desert fox so overwhelmed.
The air was shockingly cool now that the sun was down. The angles of the high walls surrounding the courtyard were smoothed out by wind and sand, and tiny dust devils were lazily stirring toward the middle.
Up on the wall, a three-tailed fox stared at the darkening sky. Neji watched him in silence, and then leaped up to join him, scaling the wall quickly.
"Shouldn't you be asleep?" Neji asked coolly, the tip of his tail curling.
It had been so long since the last time he'd seen Naruto. And during the mission -- the frantic rush to save Gaara from the Akatsuki -- there hadn't been any time to gape at everything that had changed, and at everything that had stayed exactly the same.
Naruto blinked slowly, and then turned his head to grin at him, a quick flash of white fangs in the dark. "Like you can talk, you cat!"
Yes, pretty much the same. Neji gratified him with a disdainful sniff and perched on the parapet, and then started untangling the long white-with-black-rosettes fur of his tail. It was dusty; he disliked that.
"Prissy."
"Some people actually like other people to be able to notice the natural color of their fur," Neji informed the fox, a tad haughtily.
"It's your fault for having white fur. Though at least you don't have to dust off the rings..."
"Yours is turning golden-red," Neji observed softly.
Naruto's grin fell a little, and he turned away to face the desert again. "Yeah?"
"It was just yellow before."
"... Yeah, I know."
Neji fell silent and started grooming his tail again; his opening gambits didn't seem welcome.
It was strange, he reflected, how he could consider Naruto one of his most important friends, hold his opinion in such high regard, wonder so often about how he was doing, away from Konoha, and yet didn't actually know him well enough to have a comfortable conversation.
"Do you really think I've changed?" Naruto whispered finally.
Neji considered the question. "...Yes."
Naruto's ears drooped. "Oh."
"You've gotten stronger."
Naruto grinned at that, but it didn't seem entirely sincere. Neji's ear flicked in puzzlement, but he didn't ask; Naruto didn't seem very inclined to reply to anything too personal.
"Yeah... I did get stronger, didn't I."
"You saved Gaara's life," Neji pointed out, wondering if that was his problem. They had been close, very close, to losing the Kami of the Sand. Without the sacrifice of that old Tanuki woman...
"I almost didn't."
"But you did," Neji retorted, frowning.
Naruto shook his head, looking almost anguished. "You don't get it. I've got this ...problem with the Kyuubi's powers and... I almost didn't."
Neji blinked, frowned, tail lashing briefly around his ankles. It always felt weird to be reminded that Naruto -- the silly fox kit who didn't believe in fate -- was the avatar of a living god. "Wasn't that why you left Konoha? To teach yourself how?"
Naruto grinned at him, and hesitated. "Yeah... and no."
Neji gave him a curious look.
"Promise you won't tell."
The cat scowled, vaguely insulted. "Of course."
Naruto glanced away, and tried to pretend that he wasn't nervous. Neji's eyes weren't fooled. "Jiraiya showed me how to stuff ...him down. And how to access his power without accessing him."
Neji stared at the fox for a long minute as he tried to comprehend the enormity of the transgression.
"... But you're His avatar," he retorted without thinking.
Naruto's expression closed off, and he turned away, crouching to jump off the wall.
"Wait!" Neji whispered hurriedly. "Naruto -- wait." He hesitated, stared at the fox's back. Naruto wasn't moving; not leaving, but not turning to face him either. "How do you mean, stuff Him down? I thought... They teach us that you're one and the same."
Naruto sighed, and his shoulders slumped a little. He leaned heavily against the parapet. "Yeah, but no. Not really. We're a little weird like that." He looked up at Neji finally, giving him a tired smile. "Basically... He's here, with his power and his past lives. Kyuubi no Youko, Living God of Fire country, blahblahblah. And I'm there. Naruto the street fox. And we almost never mesh. Sometimes I'll get flashes of memories, and when I'm in deep shit I can tap into his power, but that's about as far as it goes, most of the time."
"And you haven't learned...?"
Naruto bristled. "I don't want to learn! I don't care who he was -- he's not me! And all that power -- it's too easy. I'll use it if I need to, but I want to earn things with my own two hands. I don't want everything handed to me because of something I did in a past life or three."
Neji had never thought of it like that before. "I see... Alright. But now you feel bad because you almost couldn't help Gaara?"
Naruto's shoulders slumped. "Yeah. I mean, it's all good for me to say I don't want Kyuubi's power, but what about the people I could save if I let him -- if I let him take over?"
"... Take over?"
"That's the way it is now, kinda. The priests tell me we should have started meshing 'round the edges when I was just a kit, but..." Naruto shrugged. "It never really happened. It's normal to see differences from one incarnation to the next -- we're all different lives -- but I'm really too different."
Neji frowned a little. He had heard the legends about the Kyuubi -- in some lives he was beneficent, in others maleficent, more often than not neutral, but always superior, enlightened and all-powerful. Naruto didn't fit the profile. Neji... wasn't sure he really wanted him to, now that he thought about it.
But as far as he knew, that was the way the Kyuubi's avatars had always worked.
"And there is really no likeness at all?"
Naruto looked away, and Neji thought that if the moon had given him more colors, he could have seen the fox go pale; his scent told of unease and fear. Neji hesitated, then bumped his shoulder into Naruto's, carefully looking down at the white-and-black tail he was still meticulously grooming.
"...There is," Naruto finally whispered; "and it's scaring the shit out of me. He's just -- too much. Too damn much. I don't want to like what he likes; you have no idea how he was the previous time. He..."
"Cruel, wasn't he. A sadistic streak. He was feared, notably because he was especially hard to appease." Neji groomed, groomed, still not looking at Naruto. "I've heard."
Naruto snarled, brief and vicious. Neji's eyes narrowed in wary surprise. "He wasn't hard to appease; he liked to see his puppets dance." Naruto's hands clenched on the parapet; the wind-smooth stone cracked under his padded fingers.
"And that's what you call a likeness?" Neji scoffed, giving Naruto an impatient look.
Naruto stared at him. Why was he looking so surprised? As if Neji didn't have a right to find the idea that Naruto was remotely like that utterly ridiculous.
"Naruto -- you never hesitate to risk your life to save people. Have you ever refused to save your teammates, even when they were faced against fighters who, as far as you knew, could have crushed you in seconds?" He didn't mention Sasuke by name; he had a little more tact than that. "You went against Shuukaku's avatar in defense of our village, when he had access to his powers and you didn't. Then, just yesterday, you went and tapped into a power that scares you and lent it to save that same avatar's life." His voice softened, and he looked away. "... You said you would change the Hyuuga clan for Hinata-sama and I."
"I like fighting," Naruto retorted, his voice rough with something Neji didn't try to name. "I was a stupid kit, way too idealistic, and who's to say I didn't promise that just so you'd respect me?"
Neji stared at him, incredulous. "Who put that bullshit in your head?"
Naruto looked away guiltily. "...No one. And you can't say that maybe, deep inside..."
"Have you abandoned the idea to change the Hyuuga clan?"
"No!"
"There you have it."
Naruto met his eyes for a few seconds, then eventually, he smiled. It was a bit shaky, but for now, it was enough. Neji started combing his tail again, waiting in silence as Naruto gathered his words.
"...Sometimes... I think I only try so hard because I'm pretending that deep down I'm not like him."
That self-pity was very much not like Naruto, from Neji's point of view, and it was starting to bother him. It was true that he didn't know Naruto all that well, but it still felt wrong, wrong, wrong. "Oh, for the love of all the Kami -- as far as I remember you were already like this well before our match. Just ask your teacher or your teammate if you think I wasn't close enough to know. You're not like the previous Kyuubi at all."
Naruto started pacing, ears flat on his head. "Neji, I love to fight. I love the taste of blood. And you know why I tried so hard to get Sasuke back?! Because he was mine, he was one of mine and he left, and he's not allowed to!"
Neji stared at Naruto in silence, eyes narrowed, tail flicking impatiently, and didn't allow himself to react to the fourth tail flickering into view behind his friend's back.
"Naruto." He didn't let go of the fox's eyes, even though they were starting to change, just a bit. "Just because foxes prefer to eat carrion and garbage, doesn't make them any less predators. Of course you like blood. I do, too."
Naruto spluttered. "Neji, you -- I don't eat carrion, you prick!"
Neji allowed himself a thin smirk. "And you are more than allowed to want to keep teammates where they belong, in your village and working with you, than... elsewhere." The subject was touchy; he had his own opinion on Sasuke's actions, but he was pretty sure that Naruto wasn't going to want to hear it. Besides, reminding Naruto of the incident when he was already off-balance wasn't a good idea.
The fourth tail gained enough definition for Neji to see fur instead of raw chakra, then slowly faded again.
"Do foxes have packs?" Neji asked softly.
"... Not really. Families, yeah."
"Hm. Still better than cats, as far as instinctive loyalty is concerned." Naruto growled briefly; Neji continued. He wasn't talking about Sasuke this time. "And yet the biggest and most influential clan in Konoha -- the Hyuuga clan -- is a clan of cats, who are renowned for their solitary ways." Naruto frowned; Neji lifted his hand to quiet him; he wasn't done yet. "So you will admit that instincts are not everything, right?"
"... Yeah... I guess..."
"Even when your instincts tell you to avoid people, hunt alone, or eat garbage?"
Naruto pouted. "I don't WANT to eat garbage!"
"And you don't want to piss on Konoha's walls to mark your territory either, of course," Neji concluded virtuously, and tried not to smirk too widely when Naruto looked guilty once again.
"You're an asshole."
"Indeed. And you have the instincts of the biggest predator the Fire Country has ever known. The instincts of a creature powerful beyond belief. You are on top of the food chain."
Naruto stared at him, teeth clenched, as if he wasn't sure where Neji was going, but was bracing himself for pain anyway.
"Kyuubi-sama is a Kami. He has been revered for hundreds of years. It is only natural to feel that you can dominate people. And it is natural -- as a fox -- to want to fight, and hunt." He softened his voice, once again. His eyes softened on their own, no matter what he thought of his own lack of proper decorum. "But you choose to hunt for food, not for sport; and you choose to play with your friends or drive away your enemies, not to beat up weaker people for your amusement; and you want to protect, not to bully or enslave."
Naruto was still staring at him, as if he wasn't sure what to make of Neji's speech; the cat sighed, tail curling around his ankles.
"What I mean is that the previous Kyuubi had the same bases to build himself on; he had the past lives, the raw power, and the predatory mindset; just like you. He chose another direction. Just because you have his memories doesn't mean that you have to throw away your own life and follow his way."
There was a moment of silence, and then Naruto's shoulders started shaking. "... Heh. Heheheheh. Are you telling me that fate isn't written in stone at birth, Neji?"
The corner of Neji's lip quirked up. He was aware of the irony.
Naruto deflated a little. "... I know that. I really do. But he's just so... huge. Huge and sadistic and bloodthirsty."
Sometimes, Neji thought that Naruto himself seemed a little larger than life; but not all that much, considering. Neji remembered feelings the faint echoes of Shuukaku's rage, during that same tournament over two years ago. He remembered the way the stadium had shaken with the power of Kyuubi breaking out of his Jyuuken. He didn't fault Naruto for feeling a little overwhelmed. "What were your other lives like?"
Naruto blinked at him, mouth open. "...You know what? I don't know. I've never been able to see anything past him."
"That's your problem. You can't see the unchanging part of the Kyuubi, because you can't disentangle it from the specifics of his last life."
Naruto's shoulders slumped, and he sighed theatrically. "Makes sense, but doesn't really help. I don't know if I could get in touch with the Kyuubi without giving way to that Kyuubi. The asshole one. And everyone just encourages me to greet it all with open arms."
"Everyone?"
"Well... The priests. Not Jiraiya. He still remembers the guy."
Neji frowned in annoyance. "Do they truly have no suggestions to offer as to how to fix it?"
"They don't know jack shit. They don't even have the slightest clue why it's happening, but they sure love their stupid theories about my -- my father interfering and all that."
Naruto looked angry now, and not the overblown kind of anger he had expressed at twelve, with puffed cheeks and a pout firmly affixed to his face. Neji wondered what Naruto thought of his father. From what he understood, Naruto hadn't known him at all, and it had to be hard, being the son of the Godslayer -- but even if Neji's own father had killed a dozen Kami with his own two hands, Neji would have hated anyone who dared to insult his memory.
"They're the same people who couldn't even find you before you tapped into the Kyuubi's power in the middle of a full stadium. In your place, I wouldn't worry too much about their theories," he commented dryly. "I'm not sure they would find their own tail even if they were sitting on it."
Naruto laughed; a real laugh this time, that rang surprisingly far and clear against the cliffs. "Yeah, you're right."
"Of course," Neji replied primly, and started grooming his tail again. "I'm always right."
Naruto laughed again, and sprawled on the parapet, his three tails swishing happily. Neji resisted the urge to bat at them.
"Ah, man, it's gonna be weird being back in Konoha. For good, I mean; I only stayed there like one day before we got this mission..."
"Weird how?"
"Well, everyone's gonna start worshipping again," Naruto replied, and grimaced at him. "When I was a kit, you know, after the Chuunin exam and before I left with Ero-sennin, he and Kakashi-sensei tried to keep me away from the crowds, so I didn't see much of that. Then I went back from my training trip just in time to get into a fight with Sasuke and then hunt him down; didn't even wonder how much shit Tsunade probably had to deal with for endangering me, even if back then I wasn't all... ascended yet. And then I left with Jiraiya again. But now... It's so weird to be adored like that. Before, they threw stones at me on sight, because the guy who fathered me happened to be a criminal or something, and now they're falling over themselves to lick my ass. And for what? Because now they know that I've got some dead guy squatting in the back of my head."
Neji considered him in silence for a few seconds, then leaned on the parapet beside him.
"I'm still the same guy, right?" Naruto sighed, wistful.
"Unfortunately, yes," Neji retorted smartly.
"Hey!"
"I mean it, though. You haven't changed much."
Naruto grinned at him; a strangely soft grin. "Liar. Earlier you said I did."
Neji waved it off. "I just meant that you had matured somewhat; apart from that, you're not very different."
Naruto leered, and flexed his arms suggestively. "Oh yeah, I did grow up. I'm a real--"
"Virile hunk of manflesh?" Neji suggested, managing, he wasn't sure how, to stay perfectly serious.
"I was gonna say stud, but this works too."
Neji shook his head in amused denial. Well, it seemed that the fox was back to normal. He could see Naruto draw himself back up his tower of self-confidence and optimism...
Neji discovered with alarming acuity that he didn't want him to, not yet. He didn't like Naruto to be depressed, it was unnatural and disturbing; but Naruto was his friend -- best friend, inasmuch as Hyuugas, and cats in general, had anything like that -- and he didn't want to go back to being yet another of Naruto's satellites again, basking in Naruto's warmth from afar and never allowed past his assigned orbit. Not so soon.
He could have dropped it now; and everything would have been back to normal, at least at the surface.
If he hesitated a second longer, the moment would be gone, the decision made for him; that was what prompted him to speak, in the end.
"We could try."
"Huh? Try what?"
"To get you to tap in the Kyuubi without letting the 'asshole' out."
Naruto stared weirdly at him. "... Are you fucking crazy?"
"Perhaps. But it isn't like you to be so scared."
Naruto twitched. "I'm not a coward! He's -- you have no idea!"
Neji looked away. What was he doing? He didn't have the first clue as to how to get Naruto to tap into this power, and it might do a lot more harm than good. The fox was right; he had no idea.
"You're right," he said reluctantly. "I can't pretend to understand what it is for you, though I had enough hints to venture a guess. But I know that the more you back off and convince yourself that he's too strong for you -- the more you pretend that you're not the Kyuubi at all -- and the stronger you make him. When you do end up having to open up, he will bowl you over."
Well. No. No, he didn't know. But he knew that he trusted in Naruto's stubbornness, like he trusted in little else.
"And you want me to do it here?" Naruto's wild gesture encompassed the courtyard, the darkened village beyond the high wall, with its round houses and tunnels dug into the red cliff, Neji himself, standing before him. "You're crazy! All those people! What if I revert to him?"
Neji shook his head. "I'm not suggesting to you give him full access; it would be suicidal. Just that you try to open up, even slightly, to those powers. Even if you get overwhelmed, it won't last."
"It might last long enough!"
+++++++++++++++
I'm a little iffy about the end of this -- in one hand I like the writing, but in the other hand it seems to me like i'm pushing the characters farther than they would go on their own and I don't like that. ~_~ suggestions as to another way to get to the desired end result?
Also bit that I'm keeping just in case I can reuse the logic but better:
"This town has a Kami. For the first half of his life, this Kami was a psychopathic, undiscriminating murderer. They'll know to stay out of the way until you return to normal."
Neji wasn't sure why he was still arguing. He agreed with Naruto; doing it here was a stupid idea. But he had a feeling that if he let it go now, that would be the end of it. The subject would be closed to him -- perhaps to everyone -- forever.
"And you?" Naruto retorted. "You'll be too close."
"Naruto. Do you trust me?"
The fox paused, ears tilting back indecisively. "...Well... Of course..."
"Then come on; we'll go out in the desert. There won't be risks there."
Neji paused, balanced on the guardrail; Naruto's claws were gripping his sleeve.
"I'm not risking--"
"I'm hardly defenseless. Do you remember my clan's ability?" Neji's expression softened a little as he saw Naruto's unconvinced and worried expression. "I know it didn't work as perfectly as it should have last time, but I can at least buy myself some time."
help plz. I don't want this story to die. ;_;
So I have this 'verse, yes? Where every canon thing that happened up to the rescue the kazekage arc happened about the same way, except for one -- well two -- big differences?
As in, 1) all the characters are furries. (I don't imagine them with muzzles, though you can, but the lower body is furry, yes, and also they have claws and padded hands and eeelittletwitchynoses) (Naruto and Ino are foxes, Sakura is an arabian horse XD, Sasuke and Neji are kitties -- EDIT Sai is a genet; looks like a cat a hell of a lot, but really isn't -- Kakashi is a wolf, Jiraiya is an arctic fox/wolf blahblahblah...)
and 2) Naruto is the avatar of Kyuubi, the living god of Fire Country, and people hated him because he was the son of Yondy the Godslayer. XD
What I really loved was 1) furries, 2) yay role reversal, but mostly 3) PERFECT SETUP FOR MULTI-PAIRINGS PORN. As in, if I followed more or less the post-timeskip stuff, NaruNeji, NaruGaara, NaruSakuIno, NaruSai, NaruHina, blahblah, and eventually, NaruSasu. T______T
This one was supposed to end up with Kyuunaru/Nejikitty porn. Alas, neji would have to be OOC as fuck to push Naruto far enough, and the way I've set it up, Naruto is askared of the Kyuubi side. ;_; bbbbut porn? foxykitty porn? SADNESS. Plz tell me how to fix it. T_T plzplzplz.
Tenten and Lee seemed settled for the night, and Gai-sensei was probably still at Kakashi's bedside; by now, drained of chakra to the brink of complete exhaustion or not, the wolf was probably about to tear off Gai's head. Neji didn't care much, as long as it kept his teacher out of his hair.
He slipped through the unfamiliar stone corridors, padded feet silent, tail curved high to avoid sweeping the floor behind him. He could hear gerbils scurrying around in the compound, probably delivering scrolls, and smell desert foxes and jackals guarding the few openings onto the cliff walls. The mix of scents in Suna was different, sharper, drier -- spicier, in a way, than Konoha's. It was almost as bizarre as the halls and classrooms and amphitheaters carved in the ochre rock, as if the whole plateau was one giant, communal burrow.
Following the faint breeze that tickled his long fur, he finally found an exit. The guard's huge fennec fox ears were flat on his head, and he wasn't even looking at Neji. Politely, the cat coughed to warn of his presence, and then swept outside past the guard; he had a feeling he knew what had the desert fox so overwhelmed.
The air was shockingly cool now that the sun was down. The angles of the high walls surrounding the courtyard were smoothed out by wind and sand, and tiny dust devils were lazily stirring toward the middle.
Up on the wall, a three-tailed fox stared at the darkening sky. Neji watched him in silence, and then leaped up to join him, scaling the wall quickly.
"Shouldn't you be asleep?" Neji asked coolly, the tip of his tail curling.
It had been so long since the last time he'd seen Naruto. And during the mission -- the frantic rush to save Gaara from the Akatsuki -- there hadn't been any time to gape at everything that had changed, and at everything that had stayed exactly the same.
Naruto blinked slowly, and then turned his head to grin at him, a quick flash of white fangs in the dark. "Like you can talk, you cat!"
Yes, pretty much the same. Neji gratified him with a disdainful sniff and perched on the parapet, and then started untangling the long white-with-black-rosettes fur of his tail. It was dusty; he disliked that.
"Prissy."
"Some people actually like other people to be able to notice the natural color of their fur," Neji informed the fox, a tad haughtily.
"It's your fault for having white fur. Though at least you don't have to dust off the rings..."
"Yours is turning golden-red," Neji observed softly.
Naruto's grin fell a little, and he turned away to face the desert again. "Yeah?"
"It was just yellow before."
"... Yeah, I know."
Neji fell silent and started grooming his tail again; his opening gambits didn't seem welcome.
It was strange, he reflected, how he could consider Naruto one of his most important friends, hold his opinion in such high regard, wonder so often about how he was doing, away from Konoha, and yet didn't actually know him well enough to have a comfortable conversation.
"Do you really think I've changed?" Naruto whispered finally.
Neji considered the question. "...Yes."
Naruto's ears drooped. "Oh."
"You've gotten stronger."
Naruto grinned at that, but it didn't seem entirely sincere. Neji's ear flicked in puzzlement, but he didn't ask; Naruto didn't seem very inclined to reply to anything too personal.
"Yeah... I did get stronger, didn't I."
"You saved Gaara's life," Neji pointed out, wondering if that was his problem. They had been close, very close, to losing the Kami of the Sand. Without the sacrifice of that old Tanuki woman...
"I almost didn't."
"But you did," Neji retorted, frowning.
Naruto shook his head, looking almost anguished. "You don't get it. I've got this ...problem with the Kyuubi's powers and... I almost didn't."
Neji blinked, frowned, tail lashing briefly around his ankles. It always felt weird to be reminded that Naruto -- the silly fox kit who didn't believe in fate -- was the avatar of a living god. "Wasn't that why you left Konoha? To teach yourself how?"
Naruto grinned at him, and hesitated. "Yeah... and no."
Neji gave him a curious look.
"Promise you won't tell."
The cat scowled, vaguely insulted. "Of course."
Naruto glanced away, and tried to pretend that he wasn't nervous. Neji's eyes weren't fooled. "Jiraiya showed me how to stuff ...him down. And how to access his power without accessing him."
Neji stared at the fox for a long minute as he tried to comprehend the enormity of the transgression.
"... But you're His avatar," he retorted without thinking.
Naruto's expression closed off, and he turned away, crouching to jump off the wall.
"Wait!" Neji whispered hurriedly. "Naruto -- wait." He hesitated, stared at the fox's back. Naruto wasn't moving; not leaving, but not turning to face him either. "How do you mean, stuff Him down? I thought... They teach us that you're one and the same."
Naruto sighed, and his shoulders slumped a little. He leaned heavily against the parapet. "Yeah, but no. Not really. We're a little weird like that." He looked up at Neji finally, giving him a tired smile. "Basically... He's here, with his power and his past lives. Kyuubi no Youko, Living God of Fire country, blahblahblah. And I'm there. Naruto the street fox. And we almost never mesh. Sometimes I'll get flashes of memories, and when I'm in deep shit I can tap into his power, but that's about as far as it goes, most of the time."
"And you haven't learned...?"
Naruto bristled. "I don't want to learn! I don't care who he was -- he's not me! And all that power -- it's too easy. I'll use it if I need to, but I want to earn things with my own two hands. I don't want everything handed to me because of something I did in a past life or three."
Neji had never thought of it like that before. "I see... Alright. But now you feel bad because you almost couldn't help Gaara?"
Naruto's shoulders slumped. "Yeah. I mean, it's all good for me to say I don't want Kyuubi's power, but what about the people I could save if I let him -- if I let him take over?"
"... Take over?"
"That's the way it is now, kinda. The priests tell me we should have started meshing 'round the edges when I was just a kit, but..." Naruto shrugged. "It never really happened. It's normal to see differences from one incarnation to the next -- we're all different lives -- but I'm really too different."
Neji frowned a little. He had heard the legends about the Kyuubi -- in some lives he was beneficent, in others maleficent, more often than not neutral, but always superior, enlightened and all-powerful. Naruto didn't fit the profile. Neji... wasn't sure he really wanted him to, now that he thought about it.
But as far as he knew, that was the way the Kyuubi's avatars had always worked.
"And there is really no likeness at all?"
Naruto looked away, and Neji thought that if the moon had given him more colors, he could have seen the fox go pale; his scent told of unease and fear. Neji hesitated, then bumped his shoulder into Naruto's, carefully looking down at the white-and-black tail he was still meticulously grooming.
"...There is," Naruto finally whispered; "and it's scaring the shit out of me. He's just -- too much. Too damn much. I don't want to like what he likes; you have no idea how he was the previous time. He..."
"Cruel, wasn't he. A sadistic streak. He was feared, notably because he was especially hard to appease." Neji groomed, groomed, still not looking at Naruto. "I've heard."
Naruto snarled, brief and vicious. Neji's eyes narrowed in wary surprise. "He wasn't hard to appease; he liked to see his puppets dance." Naruto's hands clenched on the parapet; the wind-smooth stone cracked under his padded fingers.
"And that's what you call a likeness?" Neji scoffed, giving Naruto an impatient look.
Naruto stared at him. Why was he looking so surprised? As if Neji didn't have a right to find the idea that Naruto was remotely like that utterly ridiculous.
"Naruto -- you never hesitate to risk your life to save people. Have you ever refused to save your teammates, even when they were faced against fighters who, as far as you knew, could have crushed you in seconds?" He didn't mention Sasuke by name; he had a little more tact than that. "You went against Shuukaku's avatar in defense of our village, when he had access to his powers and you didn't. Then, just yesterday, you went and tapped into a power that scares you and lent it to save that same avatar's life." His voice softened, and he looked away. "... You said you would change the Hyuuga clan for Hinata-sama and I."
"I like fighting," Naruto retorted, his voice rough with something Neji didn't try to name. "I was a stupid kit, way too idealistic, and who's to say I didn't promise that just so you'd respect me?"
Neji stared at him, incredulous. "Who put that bullshit in your head?"
Naruto looked away guiltily. "...No one. And you can't say that maybe, deep inside..."
"Have you abandoned the idea to change the Hyuuga clan?"
"No!"
"There you have it."
Naruto met his eyes for a few seconds, then eventually, he smiled. It was a bit shaky, but for now, it was enough. Neji started combing his tail again, waiting in silence as Naruto gathered his words.
"...Sometimes... I think I only try so hard because I'm pretending that deep down I'm not like him."
That self-pity was very much not like Naruto, from Neji's point of view, and it was starting to bother him. It was true that he didn't know Naruto all that well, but it still felt wrong, wrong, wrong. "Oh, for the love of all the Kami -- as far as I remember you were already like this well before our match. Just ask your teacher or your teammate if you think I wasn't close enough to know. You're not like the previous Kyuubi at all."
Naruto started pacing, ears flat on his head. "Neji, I love to fight. I love the taste of blood. And you know why I tried so hard to get Sasuke back?! Because he was mine, he was one of mine and he left, and he's not allowed to!"
Neji stared at Naruto in silence, eyes narrowed, tail flicking impatiently, and didn't allow himself to react to the fourth tail flickering into view behind his friend's back.
"Naruto." He didn't let go of the fox's eyes, even though they were starting to change, just a bit. "Just because foxes prefer to eat carrion and garbage, doesn't make them any less predators. Of course you like blood. I do, too."
Naruto spluttered. "Neji, you -- I don't eat carrion, you prick!"
Neji allowed himself a thin smirk. "And you are more than allowed to want to keep teammates where they belong, in your village and working with you, than... elsewhere." The subject was touchy; he had his own opinion on Sasuke's actions, but he was pretty sure that Naruto wasn't going to want to hear it. Besides, reminding Naruto of the incident when he was already off-balance wasn't a good idea.
The fourth tail gained enough definition for Neji to see fur instead of raw chakra, then slowly faded again.
"Do foxes have packs?" Neji asked softly.
"... Not really. Families, yeah."
"Hm. Still better than cats, as far as instinctive loyalty is concerned." Naruto growled briefly; Neji continued. He wasn't talking about Sasuke this time. "And yet the biggest and most influential clan in Konoha -- the Hyuuga clan -- is a clan of cats, who are renowned for their solitary ways." Naruto frowned; Neji lifted his hand to quiet him; he wasn't done yet. "So you will admit that instincts are not everything, right?"
"... Yeah... I guess..."
"Even when your instincts tell you to avoid people, hunt alone, or eat garbage?"
Naruto pouted. "I don't WANT to eat garbage!"
"And you don't want to piss on Konoha's walls to mark your territory either, of course," Neji concluded virtuously, and tried not to smirk too widely when Naruto looked guilty once again.
"You're an asshole."
"Indeed. And you have the instincts of the biggest predator the Fire Country has ever known. The instincts of a creature powerful beyond belief. You are on top of the food chain."
Naruto stared at him, teeth clenched, as if he wasn't sure where Neji was going, but was bracing himself for pain anyway.
"Kyuubi-sama is a Kami. He has been revered for hundreds of years. It is only natural to feel that you can dominate people. And it is natural -- as a fox -- to want to fight, and hunt." He softened his voice, once again. His eyes softened on their own, no matter what he thought of his own lack of proper decorum. "But you choose to hunt for food, not for sport; and you choose to play with your friends or drive away your enemies, not to beat up weaker people for your amusement; and you want to protect, not to bully or enslave."
Naruto was still staring at him, as if he wasn't sure what to make of Neji's speech; the cat sighed, tail curling around his ankles.
"What I mean is that the previous Kyuubi had the same bases to build himself on; he had the past lives, the raw power, and the predatory mindset; just like you. He chose another direction. Just because you have his memories doesn't mean that you have to throw away your own life and follow his way."
There was a moment of silence, and then Naruto's shoulders started shaking. "... Heh. Heheheheh. Are you telling me that fate isn't written in stone at birth, Neji?"
The corner of Neji's lip quirked up. He was aware of the irony.
Naruto deflated a little. "... I know that. I really do. But he's just so... huge. Huge and sadistic and bloodthirsty."
Sometimes, Neji thought that Naruto himself seemed a little larger than life; but not all that much, considering. Neji remembered feelings the faint echoes of Shuukaku's rage, during that same tournament over two years ago. He remembered the way the stadium had shaken with the power of Kyuubi breaking out of his Jyuuken. He didn't fault Naruto for feeling a little overwhelmed. "What were your other lives like?"
Naruto blinked at him, mouth open. "...You know what? I don't know. I've never been able to see anything past him."
"That's your problem. You can't see the unchanging part of the Kyuubi, because you can't disentangle it from the specifics of his last life."
Naruto's shoulders slumped, and he sighed theatrically. "Makes sense, but doesn't really help. I don't know if I could get in touch with the Kyuubi without giving way to that Kyuubi. The asshole one. And everyone just encourages me to greet it all with open arms."
"Everyone?"
"Well... The priests. Not Jiraiya. He still remembers the guy."
Neji frowned in annoyance. "Do they truly have no suggestions to offer as to how to fix it?"
"They don't know jack shit. They don't even have the slightest clue why it's happening, but they sure love their stupid theories about my -- my father interfering and all that."
Naruto looked angry now, and not the overblown kind of anger he had expressed at twelve, with puffed cheeks and a pout firmly affixed to his face. Neji wondered what Naruto thought of his father. From what he understood, Naruto hadn't known him at all, and it had to be hard, being the son of the Godslayer -- but even if Neji's own father had killed a dozen Kami with his own two hands, Neji would have hated anyone who dared to insult his memory.
"They're the same people who couldn't even find you before you tapped into the Kyuubi's power in the middle of a full stadium. In your place, I wouldn't worry too much about their theories," he commented dryly. "I'm not sure they would find their own tail even if they were sitting on it."
Naruto laughed; a real laugh this time, that rang surprisingly far and clear against the cliffs. "Yeah, you're right."
"Of course," Neji replied primly, and started grooming his tail again. "I'm always right."
Naruto laughed again, and sprawled on the parapet, his three tails swishing happily. Neji resisted the urge to bat at them.
"Ah, man, it's gonna be weird being back in Konoha. For good, I mean; I only stayed there like one day before we got this mission..."
"Weird how?"
"Well, everyone's gonna start worshipping again," Naruto replied, and grimaced at him. "When I was a kit, you know, after the Chuunin exam and before I left with Ero-sennin, he and Kakashi-sensei tried to keep me away from the crowds, so I didn't see much of that. Then I went back from my training trip just in time to get into a fight with Sasuke and then hunt him down; didn't even wonder how much shit Tsunade probably had to deal with for endangering me, even if back then I wasn't all... ascended yet. And then I left with Jiraiya again. But now... It's so weird to be adored like that. Before, they threw stones at me on sight, because the guy who fathered me happened to be a criminal or something, and now they're falling over themselves to lick my ass. And for what? Because now they know that I've got some dead guy squatting in the back of my head."
Neji considered him in silence for a few seconds, then leaned on the parapet beside him.
"I'm still the same guy, right?" Naruto sighed, wistful.
"Unfortunately, yes," Neji retorted smartly.
"Hey!"
"I mean it, though. You haven't changed much."
Naruto grinned at him; a strangely soft grin. "Liar. Earlier you said I did."
Neji waved it off. "I just meant that you had matured somewhat; apart from that, you're not very different."
Naruto leered, and flexed his arms suggestively. "Oh yeah, I did grow up. I'm a real--"
"Virile hunk of manflesh?" Neji suggested, managing, he wasn't sure how, to stay perfectly serious.
"I was gonna say stud, but this works too."
Neji shook his head in amused denial. Well, it seemed that the fox was back to normal. He could see Naruto draw himself back up his tower of self-confidence and optimism...
Neji discovered with alarming acuity that he didn't want him to, not yet. He didn't like Naruto to be depressed, it was unnatural and disturbing; but Naruto was his friend -- best friend, inasmuch as Hyuugas, and cats in general, had anything like that -- and he didn't want to go back to being yet another of Naruto's satellites again, basking in Naruto's warmth from afar and never allowed past his assigned orbit. Not so soon.
He could have dropped it now; and everything would have been back to normal, at least at the surface.
If he hesitated a second longer, the moment would be gone, the decision made for him; that was what prompted him to speak, in the end.
"We could try."
"Huh? Try what?"
"To get you to tap in the Kyuubi without letting the 'asshole' out."
Naruto stared weirdly at him. "... Are you fucking crazy?"
"Perhaps. But it isn't like you to be so scared."
Naruto twitched. "I'm not a coward! He's -- you have no idea!"
Neji looked away. What was he doing? He didn't have the first clue as to how to get Naruto to tap into this power, and it might do a lot more harm than good. The fox was right; he had no idea.
"You're right," he said reluctantly. "I can't pretend to understand what it is for you, though I had enough hints to venture a guess. But I know that the more you back off and convince yourself that he's too strong for you -- the more you pretend that you're not the Kyuubi at all -- and the stronger you make him. When you do end up having to open up, he will bowl you over."
Well. No. No, he didn't know. But he knew that he trusted in Naruto's stubbornness, like he trusted in little else.
"And you want me to do it here?" Naruto's wild gesture encompassed the courtyard, the darkened village beyond the high wall, with its round houses and tunnels dug into the red cliff, Neji himself, standing before him. "You're crazy! All those people! What if I revert to him?"
Neji shook his head. "I'm not suggesting to you give him full access; it would be suicidal. Just that you try to open up, even slightly, to those powers. Even if you get overwhelmed, it won't last."
"It might last long enough!"
+++++++++++++++
I'm a little iffy about the end of this -- in one hand I like the writing, but in the other hand it seems to me like i'm pushing the characters farther than they would go on their own and I don't like that. ~_~ suggestions as to another way to get to the desired end result?
Also bit that I'm keeping just in case I can reuse the logic but better:
"This town has a Kami. For the first half of his life, this Kami was a psychopathic, undiscriminating murderer. They'll know to stay out of the way until you return to normal."
Neji wasn't sure why he was still arguing. He agreed with Naruto; doing it here was a stupid idea. But he had a feeling that if he let it go now, that would be the end of it. The subject would be closed to him -- perhaps to everyone -- forever.
"And you?" Naruto retorted. "You'll be too close."
"Naruto. Do you trust me?"
The fox paused, ears tilting back indecisively. "...Well... Of course..."
"Then come on; we'll go out in the desert. There won't be risks there."
Neji paused, balanced on the guardrail; Naruto's claws were gripping his sleeve.
"I'm not risking--"
"I'm hardly defenseless. Do you remember my clan's ability?" Neji's expression softened a little as he saw Naruto's unconvinced and worried expression. "I know it didn't work as perfectly as it should have last time, but I can at least buy myself some time."
help plz. I don't want this story to die. ;_;
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Naruto is scared, and Neji is asking more of him, no? Neji can stay IC and still push Naruto into getting pissed off, or whatever he needs to be to let Kyuubi get the upper edge. Hell, it could be that they're both fine, but Naruto ends up struggling more with Kyuubi, and at the end of training/whatnot, some flippant remark sends Naruto over the edge despite himself and wham-bam-thank-you-sand there you go. XD;
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Maybe he's a tasmanian devil -- no, not rabid enough. *ponderponderponder*
Hrrmmm. hrm. hnn. this fic is so annoying. Maybe I should skip forward to the NaruSakuIno or something. XDDD
I kinda want to write a drabble about Kakashi knowing since Haku that his student was the Kyuubi and never saying anything even despite knowing he can get in deep shit for it. alas, I have nothing past this notion itself. hmmm.
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Skip to what you can do rather than dye in what you are stuck on.
And that would be interesting~!~
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http://www.juliesjungle.com/genet.php
He's like diet Sasuke, so he needed a beastie that looks like Sasuke's beastie but really isn't. XD Genets FTW.
*^^*
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The Deadliest Carnivore is a good article on them.
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Kinda cute, really.
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Wolverine? Fossa?
I have to admit, the idea of herbivore based furries as ninja seems a bit... odd. Sakura as an Arabian horse just seems... random, even though I know you must have put some thought into it and mapped some traits over to her. I probably would have gone with raccoon or fishercat1 or even squirrel (clever and stronger than they look.)
1. I think "fishercat" is a regional term limited to New England. They aren't cats. They're more like really big weasels. One really hard winter my friend's horse was attacked by one that dropped down out of a tree onto his back and tried to kill him with a spine bite. Since a quarter horse is definitely not natural prey (they like porcupines and hares) there was concern that it was rabid.
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digivolveevolve into Kirin, just like cats evolve into nekomata and foxes into many-tailed kitsune. XD... okay they don't in legends, but I like the idea of kirin!Sakura. Why should her partners get to evolve based on power and not her? XD
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I'd make her a deer in that case though, since kirin seem more deer-like than horsey. Chinese water deer and musk deer have tusks (both genders for the water deer, male only for the musk deer) which makes for an "ooh, neat!" moment. :) Bonus for musk deer living in forests.
Yes, I am pelting you links for unusual animals. ;) Bonus points if you make anyone a pangolin.
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... though horses would evolve into unicorns and that's really too precious for me XD alright, deer it is. It's similar enough. Or maybe she's a crossbreed. It happens. XD
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I'll keep Tsunade as a horse, though, because dude, the forehead diamond. XDD
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Yay! *happydances or fang-y deer*
Tsunade is definitely a warhorse. XD
*looks down threads* The only mammals that come to mind with naturally red eyes are some lemurs. Here's a good photo of a ringtail with red eyes. Other lemurs with reddish eyes are red-bellied lemurs (which also have reddish fur, hence the name) and aye-ayes (I've seen photos of glossy black furred aye-ayes with blood red eyes).
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Shizune would be a little Morgan, super determined and smallish and hardy and loyal and yay! I can imagine her as a black-and white paint. Kabuto would be a mustang. I have no idea why, exactly, but it works in my brain.
Were they not horse, then Shizune would... still be a horse? Perhaps a deer. But she's kind of fiercely protective... hmm. Kabuto would be a ferret. I keep returning to ferrets for some reason, probably because I love their little round ears and strange upholstery-ruining tendencies.
As for Oro, if he was a kitty, what about a caracal? They've got the same face! http://www.juliesjungle.com/caracals.php
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Hehe. The kind of kitty doesn't matter much, I think, since they all end up human-sized, but the ear tufts are a bit too silly for Orochimaru XD;;;
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Cute. Kinda like a kitty, but related to the hyena. Besides, Ferox is a really cool name for a kittyweaselpuppything.
Another option is a ferret/skunk. He is pretty shifty after all! And Skunk!Sai would be so. damn. adorable.
What do you have planned for the grownups?
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What beasties they are, you mean? Gai is an otter, I think. Kakashi a wolf, Iruka... I don't have a clue but then he probably won't appear at all, Tsunade a war horse, Oro a feline of some sort or other, Asuma a bear, and I don't know about Kurenai. I'd say a cat, too, but hmm.
Cats and foxes are the most common breeds in Konoha, BTW. And some beasties can crossbreed, though not easily, but the results tend to lean heavily toward one species or the other. Foxes are the ones who crossbreed the easiest, and their genes tend to be dominant.
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HAVE to comment with a second push for Sai = fossa, because
I'm going to try shutting up now.
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Asuma-bear! I love it!
I'd like to think of Iruka as a canine of some sort, probably leaning more towards the domestic variety. He's faithful and loyal and good with children, after all.
When I first read this I imagined kinda-disneyfied critters, sort of like The Lion King. Then I realized the fact that, well, paws can't do handseals or throw kunai. Hooves even less so.
(Are all the medic-nin ponies? Shizune and Kabuto (and poor dead Rin!) omg.
Damn it, I want to draw arts for this now. >___>
And I choked on my beer when I read "digivolve". Hilarious!
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Yeah, I was thinking he could be some kind of shepherd. Shepherd, teacher, that's close enough. XD
I tend to draw "furries" with lower half beastie and upper half human except for ears and eyes, so for me that's how they look. :p And finally I think Sakura might be a deer, or a deer/horse crossbreed so HMMM. Oh damn, what would Kabuto and Shizune be. XDD;;;; IDEAS PLZ.
ARTS YES.
>D
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this horn's kinda weird though XDD
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*DEATH BY CUTE*
♥
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This is what I thought about at work today!
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I mean. *cough* Just a suggestion? Because you are amazing, and this is glorious, and I'm serious! I will cry! D:
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heee, you're right. That would probably help a lot. he IS logical before everything else. *__* Maybe if he had read or heard just a little bit more about past life control... hrrrmmm.
I shall try to tweak it like that~ thank you! ^__^
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O GOODY, ♥
You're very welcome, of course! Anything to help the lovely soul who gives us lowly peons such wonderful fic, :D
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meep. ._.
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I- I'm not very good at charades.
But does that mean I should put the poetry away, too? And cancel the order for the roses?no subject
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shoves stalker liscense to bottom of purseUh. I love you? :Dno subject
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I think that Neji can use his wit and mind-**** abilities to get Naruto to release Kyuubi by thinking it was his idea. then when he has done so Naruto can adjust to the feeling of being Kyuubi.
Neji is supposed to be an expert at reading people and manipulating them, let him use those abilities ^^
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I really the relationship between Naruto and Neji so far..."Naruto didn't fit the profile. Neji... wasn't sure he really wanted him to, now that he thought about it." made me squee.
Okay, it seems to take a turn at "He could see Naruto draw himself back up his tower of self-confidence and optimism..." Neji doesn't want to lose access to Naruto as a friend(or anything more), so he's got to push him so that Naruto has to lean on Neji. It would be dysfunctional, but at this point it looks like the way Neji could keep him is to make Naruto dependent on him somehow. The question is, does Neji need Naruto that much?
From the direction, I think some shit would have to go done in the desert so that only the people who were there would understand it all (ie Naruto and Neji)....I can't think of what...um, Kyuubi coming out, sex, uh...
Oh, if you were just trying to get to the sex...Naruto saying something that give Neji hope that he doesn't have to "go back to being yet another of Naruto's satellites" and that Naruto doesn't want him to?
I kept getting distracted typing this up, so I hope it makes sense...
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A thought: If the Bijuu are gods on earth, what would Yamoto's ability to control them be considered? and what would Danzou be, a wolverine? (wait, they regenerate. scratch that) If daddy-dearest is the Godslayer, I'm guessing that he offed the last Kyuubi incarnation. Who did he off, some random KyuuAvatar? or someone specific, like Sarutobi-sensei?
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>___>
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What about a Maned Wolf or Red Wolf for Kurenai? Maneds' look a lot like foxes. O.o' Maybe a bit much...
Red wolves have stronger bonds, though, if you're planning to make side pairing with her. And a slightly more wary temperament.
The interactions seem all the more emphasized by the kind of animal they partly are, and slightly more unpredictable as well. Good luck trying to get this up and running! ^^
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If the scene feels forced, then it's badness. Neji usually pisses Naruto off because he's being unreasonable and Naruto is trying to get his point across. Neji being Neji (especially being a cat here) isn't going to concede easily once he thinks his is the right track to take. Naruto will be offended/upset/whatever at any attempt to shove him into a mold or idea that he's against. So, really, there is that way to push the issue. =^.^=
I would hate to see this die, too. Furry-nins FTW! I second the RP idea, too, but, yeah, it would have to be informal because this would either be really serious or utter crack AU furriness. X3 Rawr.