Gemini the abandoned signs with ShikaNaru or GaaNaru?
The air hums with theforce of a hundred thousand things in growth.
Naruto drags his fingers over the old carvings in the pillars,brought into sharp relief by the moss that clings to them, and the spillover fromthe aqueduct is cool and sharp against the muggy summer sun. He shakes the waterfrom his hair with a laugh, ducks through the stream and out into the garden,ducks beneath the trees thickly festooned with flowering vines. Birds circle,calling, but there’s an orange-gold shape in the undergrowth and Naruto doesn’tpause. He bolts through the thick greenery, verdant and wild, bursts out intoan orchard left to its own devices and leaps a stand of boulders only to land,tip forward, and roll beneath the snatching claws of the temple’s guardian.
“Brat!” Kurama snarls,winded.
Naruto laughs, twists back to his feet and dances out ofreach, grinning at his guardian as the massive fox stalks towards him. “Can’t keepup, old man?” he taunts, and Kurama snarls—
A bell rings, somewhere high up and far away, and Kurama freezes.Naruto looks for the source of the sound, and when he can’t see anythingimmediately he grabs the branch of the closest tree and swarms up the trunk, quicklyscrambling into the highest branches and squinting at the towers that arehalf-buried in green.
“It’s the warning bell,” he says, surprised, and leans outof the tree to look down at Kurama. “Kurama, Kurama! The warning bell isringing!”
“I can hear it,” Kurama says, annoyed, but the way his earsfold back is angry, or maybe just worried. With Kurama, there’s a fine line. “Getdown here before you fall and break your neck, kit. Again.”
Naruto makes a face at him, but he lets himself drop, twiststo land on his feet and immediately reaches for Kurama. “That was one time!” he protests.
“Six times,” Kurama corrects, unimpressed. “I’m keepingtrack. And someday I’m just not going to put you back together. Then we’ll seehow you like wandering around with your head on backwards or some shit.”
“Mom would come back from heaven just to yell at you,” Narutoreminds him, and Kurama winces before he can stop himself.
“We’re not talkingabout your mother,” he snaps. “Now get on, I want to eat an idiot archeologist.”
Naruto snickers, but he grabs Kurama’s ruff, hauls himselfonto his back and locks his knees against leanly muscled sides. “Too dusty,” hesays cheerfully.
Kurama snorts, conceding that with a flick of his tails. “Fine.But I’m going to make them piss themselves, wandering in here like they own thedamned place.”
Naruto kind of wishes they could, if only so he wouldn’t be stuck with just Kurama day in andday out. the gardens are big, but sometimes they feel too big, especially when Naruto is the only thing in them thatcares for a human shape most of the time. “You know where they are?” is all heasks, though, because he knows why having people wandering around is a badidea. They might let out something that’s meant to be kept sealed.
“Yeah,” Kurama says grimly, and with a surge of muscle hebounds forward, then leaps. Long claws sink into the mossy sides of theaqueduct, and Kurama snarls in effort, launches himself up and over, and Narutowhoops, lunging forward to wrap his arms around Kurama’s neck as he hits theedge of the temple’s shortest tower, then rebounds off of it. he skims atreetop, drops through an overgrown skylight, and lands hard on the mosaicfloor of the main entrance.
“Ugh,” Naruto complains, and slides off his back to thump tothe floor. “Kurama.”
“Get up, kit,” Kurama says uncompromisingly. He stalksforward, and as he moves, he grows. In an instant he’s as tall at the shoulder astwo of Naruto standing on top of each other, and he growls, a harsh,reverberating sound that rolls through the air in warning.
Beyond the wide arch of the entrance, the sound of voicesgoes suddenly, starkly silent.
Naruto rolls his eyes, but scrambles to his feet and followsKurama at a trot. Kurama gets grumpy, and he shouldn’t really eat anyone—Kushina gets mad about that. It’s one of the reasonsNaruto always has to be around to help chase visitors away, just so that Kuramadoesn’t do it literally.
There’s a group of people gather on the front courtyard. Explorers,Naruto thinks, because they have bags and gear and tools, and the man in thevery front has the stuffy look of someone who spends too much time with booksand not enough time outside. He’s currently staring at Kurama, pale eyes wide,mouth open, but Naruto’s eyes slide past him, checking the other faces. Scared,all of them, and—
There’s a teenage boy his age, in the very middle of thecrowd.
Startled, Naruto comes to a sharp stop, sinking his handinto Kurama’s fur. “Kurama!” he hisses.
There’s a growling sigh. “I know,” Kurama mutters, quiet enough that only Naruto hears it. “Butthey can’t come in.”
“Who are you?” the boy asks, and his dark eyes are on Narutoin return, narrowed but not angry. He pushes forward, and an older man with thesame bushy dark hair tries to catch his shoulder, but he slips right underneathhis hand. “How are you controllingthat?”
Naruto snickers amused by the very idea. “I’m not controlling Kurama,” he says. “Kurama’stoo grumpy to take orders from anyone but my mom.”
There’s a pause, and the boy looks from Naruto to the templeand back. “Your mom?” he asks slowly. “The temple—isn’t it abandoned?”
“My mom is Kushina-hime!” Naruto says proudly, because she’severything he could ever be proud of.“This is her temple.”
The stuffy dark-haired man in the front makes a noise likehe’s going to faint, and Kurama rumbles a laugh at the pale faces that greetthe statement. “The temple isn’t open to the public,” he says threatening, “sopack up you bags and start walking back the way you came.”
The boy groans theatrically. “But we just got here,” he complains,though the words are halfhearted.
Naruto jumps on the excuse. “They can stay the night!” hesays, wheeling around to grin at Kurama. “Come on, Kurama, they can stay in theentrance hall, and then they can leave in the morning!”
Kurama stares at him, eyes narrowed, but apparently Naruto’spleading face has gotten better, because he makes a sound of pure disgust. “Fine,” he snaps, and then say moreloudly, “Anyone who so much as pokes their nose out of the entrance hall gets eaten.”
Naruto rolls his eyes, because Kurama’s always overdramatic, and darts down the stairs. At least a fewpeople flinch away from him, but the other boy doesn’t. He just watches Naruto throughhalf-lidded eyes, careful but not afraid as Naruto comes to a stop in front ofhim.
“Hey!” Naruto says, beaming at him. “I’m Naruto.”
“Shikamaru,” the other boy returns, and tugs on one of thehoops in his ears thoughtfully. “Are you really the son of a goddess?”
Naruto shrugs. “She’s a goddess, but she’s my mom, too,” heconfirms. “Do you want me to show you the temple? Kurama won’t mind as long as you’rewith me!”
Shikamaru stares at him for another long moment, then looksaway, and Naruto thinks the tips of his ears turn red. “Troublesome,” hemutters, and then says, “You’re sure he’s not going to eat me?”
Judging by the way Kurama is glowering, Naruto canunderstand the concern. “He’s actually really nice,” he says in defense,because his mom is always busy being a goddess, and Kurama is the one who raisedhim. “He’s just grumpy.”
Shikamaru gives him a disbelieving look, but he raises hisvoice and says, “Dad, I’m going to go die horribly in the mysterious jungletemple.”
The man who shares his hair makes a sound of absent acknowledgementas he checks his bag. “Have fun,” he says.
“Troublesome,” Shikamarumutters, but when Naruto grabs his arm and tugs him forward he follows without protest.