1I was trapped and alone in the forest. I was keeping myself safe in a hotspot for magical power. It helped me to feed off the residual magic.
I am a spirit fox, called Kitsune in most circles. I have six tails personally. I'm not the most powerful, but I do alright.
I was quite startled, as you might imagine, when the strange human stepped on my tail. He had chakra, I could sense that, and his eyes were decked with the infamous Sharingan that my brother Kurama had warned me about!
Demons, and humans for that matter, often captured my kind and stole our hoshi. I would be forced to grant luck to anyone who possessed my hoshi!
"Nyah!" I cried and leapt into the nearest tree.
The human—ninja!—caught me in his gentle hands and swept me into his arms.
"Are you hurt?" Rhetorical question. Strangely gently voice. Wearing a robe with red clouds. Sharingan deactivated—a show that he meant no harm.
I whimpered; the pressure he was putting on my tail hurt!
He moved his hands over my fur—without permission!—and found the injury. To my surprise, his face fell and he looked apologetic!
"I am sorry." He said. "I am Itachi. I'll be taking care of you until you get well, Lady Fox."
I blushed my fox blush. No one had ever called me a Lady before; including brother! He just called me kit-imouto; which I despised.
He bandaged my tail. "Don't worry. I'll take care of you."
I do not understand humans.
He put me in a very soft satchel.
I clutched my hoshi to my chest. I had been captured!
Xxx
Itachi took the fox to the place he was staying the night.
It was the first time he'd cared for something other than himself. He at first tried to think of it as caring for a baby.
So he made her a little nest of pillows and sat her there, patting her, and rummaged for something for her to eat.
But, as if she sensed that he thought of her as an infant, the fox went against his assumptions.
She leapt into his belongings and captured every shiny object of value (including his money!) and traipsed it over to her new den and pushed it in a pile; like a hoard.
She then shot him a death glare, daring him to take it back.
It was around this time that her fox tummy began to growl. So he set about to finding her food.
She just stuck up her nose at all the human food he offered.
"So what do you want?" Itachi groused, about to lose his temper. Which was saying a lot, as he was a very patient man.
Before he could, however, she was rummaging in his belongings again. She came out with a bag of candy in her mouth—Konpeito.
"No! You can't!" Itachi reached out.
He remembered why he had bought the candy. He'd seen Sasuke eating some with his friends. Smiling.
"You can't have that!" Itachi said again. He tried to fight her, but there was a flash from her necklace and he tripped; and fell over his own feet onto the floor.
What was that? Bad luck?
After a silence, in which he felt totally defeated, he felt a cold nose pushing against his hand.
There she was, the skittish vixen.
She was holding the bag of candy. Some of it was eaten, but she returned the rest to him.
He looked up to thank her, maybe pet her; but she was fast. She was back in her den, either asleep or pretending to be asleep.
He sighed, putting a piece of Konpeito in his mouth. That memory of Sasuke still on his mind, he fell asleep on the bed, and later felt her warmth as she moseyed over and curled her warm body into his torso.
What was even warmer was the trust of this being. That and her unconditional love, and understanding.
His cursed, tormented life felt a little brighter, like the sun peaking through a rain-streaked sky.
