As if waiting for a signal, in a rush, several memories hit her; memories of excitement and innocent wonder of seeing the world outside of Kyoto...of wondrous people going about their lives...of fun train rides with her yokai guardians...
Kunou went rigid, eyes widening, as images of men viciously attacking her protectors flashed through her head. Of their large hands circling around her neck...
The little yokai shook her head, desperate to get those images out of her head. She needed to find out where she was...she needed to warn kaa-chan!
With that sliver of determination growing in her stomach, she finally stood up to look around, taking note of the bags that were next to the fire.
She took a few steps towards the closest tunnel, seeking to at least check if the bag's owner was still present...
"Good!"
Kunou stopped, freezing in her tracks as a voice reverberated across the cavern, it was faint, but she was sure that she heard someone speak.
The little kyuubi crept forward, moving towards the corner to see who was speaking...
"Now I'm gonna hang up now, gotta get some rest to deal with these pesky-"
As the little blond kept creeping forward, she accidentally punted a little rock on the floor, knocking it forward and causing it to clack around the rock floor.
The voice silenced itself immediately, which forced the yokai to stop moving, fearing that she was found out.
"Ah...sorry about that, was distracted for a split-second. Anyways, like I said, say hi to Maria for me, ok? See ya later!"
Kunou let go a sigh of relief, then continued to move towards the corner, where after a few more crucial seconds...finally reached the corner and took a peek around it.
Golden eyes squinted slightly, trying to look through the darkness to see the man that was talking...but she couldn't see him...
"Yo!"
The little kyuubi yelped, jumping in the air, whirling around the second that she was able to.
What she saw shocked her.
A lightly tanned face, golden-blond spiky hair, large sapphire eyes, sharper than normal canines, and...
Whisker marks.
But all those observations completely slipped away from her mind as the older boy bent over in laughter, his obvious mirth echoing in the small cavern.
Kunou's fear immediately gave way to red-hot embarrassment.
"H-Hey! What's so funny!?" she cried out in anger, glaring daggers at the older boy.
The older blond just shook his head as his laughter gave way to incessant chuckling. "Sorry, sorry! I just...! I mean I had to, ya see!? If you were in my position, you would not have wasted such an awesome opportunity! Man...if you'd just seen your face..."
The little girl stamped her feet on the ground. "It's not funny!"
Blue eyes were filled with mirth, as the teenaged boy knelt down and met Kunou at her eye level.
"It totally was." the spiky-haired boy claimed, unrepentant.
Golden eyes flared as the little yokai prepared to throw a verbal beatdown, she wasn't about to be talked down to by this jerk-!
"Ah, by the way. My name's Naruto. Pleased to meet you." Naruto said amicably, offering his hand in greeting.
Kunou glanced at the hand, unsure of how to respond. So instead, her hand moved by instinct to take the hand in order to shake it, as her mother taught her to do.
Then she froze.
Her mother.
Kunou immediately took a step away from the mysterious blond, becoming defensive.
"You..." the little princess began slowly. "Where have you taken me?"
Naruto's eyes lit up. "Oh! Right! I completely forgot! You probably have no idea what's going on, do you? Well then...I suppose I gotta fix that. Come on, we'll talk about it over some ramen."
With that statement, the shinobi immediately made for the small camp fire, looking forward to some ramen goodness.
Kunou stared after the teenaged boy, confused, at least as much as she was cautious.
But, at least so far...this guy didn't seem so bad?
He even had some cute whisker marks on his cheeks...someone with whisker marks couldn't possibly be bad, right?
With that somewhat faulty logic in her head, the yokai princess followed after her strange captor, still wary, but at least willing to give him a chance.
...
"Well? Whatcha' waiting for? Hurry and eat, or it will get cold!"
Kunou decided that she wouldn't answer, but she still continued to stare at the cup of ramen in her hands with caution.
Golden eyes carefully peeked at the teenaged boy, seeing how he was practically devouring the ramen cup without remorse.
It was actually kind of...eh.
After more than a few more gross slurps, the older blond stopped eating for a moment to regard the little kyuubi.
"...Not hungry?"
Kunou slowly shook her head.
"...You gonna finish that?"
Kunou shook her head again, handing the cup as if it was an offering.
Naruto quickly snatched up the cup, inhaling it all in a matter of seconds. A feat that caused Kunou to gape like a fish, how the heck was he doing that?
The shinobi finished his food relatively quickly, licking his lips to get the little bit that he missed, and turned back to his fellow blond. "Alright, I suppose you want some info...but I also have no idea what happened to you as well. So how about you tell me what happened before the incident at the train occurred, and then I'll fill you in about what happened after that? Fair?"
Kunou straightened her back, her demeanor changed to a more overtly formal one. "No...I demand that you tell me what happened! As the daughter of the leader of the yokai...you will answer my question!"
Although her demand came out strong in an effort to push for answers, the yokai was still nervous of pushing her captor too far. So she waited with baited breath as the whiskered teen opened his mouth to-
"Sure. That's fine too." Naruto agreed, giving the little girl a thumbs up for effort.
The little kyuubi shot Naruto a suspicious glare, why the heck was he being so nice for!? It was really getting to her now!
"Alright...well, I suppose I should preface this by saying that I had no idea who you were before I helped you out. You were in trouble, so my friends and I stepped in. Simple as that." the whiskered teen began, recounting events earlier that day.
Kunou leaned closer, eyes widening. "Wait, you didn't kidnap me? Also, you had help from friends? Where are they?"
The shinobi raised a hand up, cutting her off. "Relax kid, no...I didn't kidnap you. As a matter of fact, I took down your kidnappers and saved you from them while you were unconscious. On a side note, my friends and I were forced to split away from one another...for a specific reason that I'm about to outline."
Naruto then proceeded to give her a sheepish grin and began scratching the back of his head in slight embarrassment. "Uh...well, it seems that someone sent yokai to rescue you since the train took too long to get back to Kyoto. So...they saw me holding you...and mistook me for your kidnapper. I ran all the way here to get away because they wouldn't listen to me."
"...Wait...are you serious!?" the yokai exclaimed, jaw unhinged. "You-wait...why? Who!?"
"...Were those questions for the kidnappers or for the yokai...?"
"Both!" Kunou shouted shrilly.
Naruto winced at that, she really had some lungs...
"Ok...uh, well...I don't really know the 'why' and 'who' of those humans, so I got nothing for that. But as for the yokai...well, one of them was a crow-like creature and the other was a chimera-like beast with a monkey face...it was kind of weird."
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