The red-head quickly shook her head, he'd be back before she knew it, she just had to keep getting stronger. Stop thinking about it.
If she couldn't handle being alone in a silent house for a few days, then how could she look at him in the face and claim to be strong?
Though...that was just it, wasn't it?
Whether she liked it or not, she wasn't just doing this for herself, but also for him. She simply couldn't stay this weak...so weak that she could be the back door that his enemies used to get to him...!
No!
She wouldn't be that way, that was why she was going to keep coming back here.
She wouldn't watch another family get destroyed.
Not again. Never again.
With new-found determination in her eyes, she opened the door that led to the elevator and went inside, heading to her destination.
"Wakey wakey! Rise and shine, kid!"
Kunou grunted softly, pulling the blanket over her head in protest. Unwilling to get up.
"Come on kid...you do want to eat, don't you?"
She did. But not enough to get up.
"...Don't want to..." Kunou grumbled out, slurring her words faintly.
Naruto rolled his eyes in exasperation, look at her...she was a far cry from the distrustful and wary princess that he initially met. Now she was just another child...
The shinobi then grinned, there was a very simple and effective way to get a child out of bed.
As soon as the idea sprung into his mind, he began to enact it by moving stealthily closer to the resting kyuubi with his fingers moving around in a threatening manner.
Then he struck.
"Ah...! No...wait! Please!"
Naruto gave no quarter, he wouldn't let the kid go...no matter what!
Kunou's ringing laughter was echoing across the cave, showing no signs of stopping as the shinobi kept tickling her without mercy.
"Give up yet!?" the blond questioned with a grin, completely merciless.
The little yokai tried to wiggle out of the older boy's torture, refusing to admit defeat, but the teen was relentless and followed her as she kept trying to roll away from him.
The tickling began to be unbearable, as her face grew red and tears began to overflow from her eyes from the constant laughing.
Then she broke.
"Ok...! Ok! I give! I give up!" Kunou shouted at the top of her lungs.
Naruto was smug as he backed up from the little kyuubi, he knew that he'd break her with his tickling.
Kunou finally gave out a sigh of relief at the reprieve. "...That was mean, you jerk."
The shinobi shrugged as he walked back to the still crackling fire. "I know, but then again...it is time to eat dattebayo."
The yokai princess looked up at the older boy from her position on the floor and stood up, moving to join him by the fire with her miko outfit fluttering faintly behind her.
"So..." the older blond began, after passing a ramen cup to the little girl. "I suppose we better get a move on today, we will be heading towards Kyoto...and if we run into more yokai, then hopefully we can explain the situation to them. If we got some half-way decent luck, then maybe we won't run into your kidnappers either."
Kunou absentmindedly agreed as she blew onto the cup on the palm of her hands, taking the chopsticks that Naruto just offered her right afterwards. "Ok, got it. So when are we going?"
Naruto grinned. "The second that you finish. We are going to take another way out of here instead as well, best not use the entrance in case there are...unpleasant people lying in wait."
As the young teen slowly began to put his things back into his bag, he moved his head towards the cave that he wanted to go to, implicating it. "We're going that way. Where you found me talking on the phone. That still moves us to our destination, so we won't lose that much progress anyways."
All he heard in response to his statements was the constant slurping sound of noodles, with the kyuubi eating ravenously. Boy...she must have been hungry.
It was only after she stopped gorging herself and put the cup down, that she responded.
"K."
Naruto blinked.
"...Well...you seem to be more easy-going." the whiskered teen pointed out bluntly.
Kunou just beamed. "Yep! It's 'cause I know that I'm going to be ok now!"
The shinobi chuckled, the pleasant feeling that her words gave him felt nice. "Of course you will, it's me after all."
With that said, the shinobi stood up and stretched slightly, before offering a hand to the small blond. "You ready?"
The little kyuubi nodded, confident.
"Yes!"
"How much longer do we have to wait? I'm absolutely itching to fight...I've heard more than a few rumors about the man that we will be fighting." Heracles complained audibly, tapping his foot incessantly.
"Oh calm down Hera-kun~ We're gonna go as soon as possible~" Jeanne cooed easily, as she was laying down on the floor. "Besides, we still have to actually find him! He's going to be our new recruit I hear!"
The descendant of the great greek hero snorted, both at his comrade's assertion and his nickname. "I don't think our great leader entirely feels that way...about recruiting Uzumaki I mean. Also...don't call me that."
Jeanne shrugged, completely ignoring his words about his nickname, although to be serious...she had no idea what went through their leader's head sometimes.
Both heroes were currently stationed at the small outpost that their faction has created as a temporary base of operations, a forward base for their ambitions in Kyoto.
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