Kannin turned to the source of the voice, and said "Who's there?"
"Oh, no one...Just an old soul..."
Trying to peer through the inky void where the voice came from, Kannin eventually decided to light a flare to get a better look. He fished a flare out of his pack and began sparking the fuse, saying,
"Look, I know you can probably see in the dark much better than I can, so forgive me if I make some light."
"...Polite...Very good. I don't mind the light, it's just been a while since I've seen any." The raspy voice echoed
Kannin was not super enthusiastic hearing that comment, but if he wanted a chance to escape this place, he would need his vision back. He got the flare to light, and a blazing red light began illuminating the room, painting it a faint crimson. He saw what looked like simple earth and grasses comprising the walls and ceiling, though the floor was decorated with all sorts of furniture, carpets, bookshelves, and the like. It seemed like he had stumbled on a Victorian house set into the dirt.
Curious about who lived here, he got up and went over to what looked like a study: there was a desk with quill and ink beside a number of small bookshelves. Looking over the paper on the desk, he saw what seemed like indiscriminate scratching with ink, rather than any writing system he was familiar with. Looking over the rest of the desk, it was similarly off--the ink was spilled, but still wet, and the quill was a feather from a bird he didn't recognize.
"Getting nosy are we?" The voice sounded again
Kannin looked around to see if he could get a view of the voice's owner, to no avail. He cleared his throat before responding, "Well, I can't see you, but I would like to know who's house I'm intruding on. Apologies if it offended you." Kannin was certain he didn't want to anger whatever he was talking with, so he was trying to be as polite as he could.
"Oh I'm not offended, not at all. I love curiosity...but if you'd like to know something, you can just ask me. I won't bite--not yet at least." Kannin could tell, even without being able to see it, the voice's owner had a big grin.
Kannin sat down in the chair by the desk, and stared out into space, asking, "Who are you? Where am I? Are you going to eat me?"
"Well, the answer to the third one is up to you, hehehe..." The voice responded, "I have one question for you before I answer yours, if you don't mind."
Kannin couldn't exactly refuse, "Go ahead."
"Are you the one who left the offering at the shrine? It was quite delicious..."
"Yes I put a sandwich by the fox shrine. I made a small prayer, and when I opened my eyes, I was summoned here...Wait a minute, you wouldn't happen to be the fox, would you?"
"Bingo!" He heard the voice say, this time with a little glee, "I'm that fox, little boy, and you're in my den!"
As the voice resounded this time, Kannin saw emerging, as if from nothing, a large, platinum coated fox. It walked up to him, and sat down in front of him, staring at him with its deep green eyes. Kannin waited a moment to see if it would say anything else, but he realized what the fox was doing.
"I have more sandwiches, if that's what you want."
The fox's face lit up when he said that, and she began excitedly pacing and hopping around Kannin.
"Hold on! Hold on! I need to get them out first." Kannin couldn't help but chuckle a little seeing the terrifying voice from before reduced to a little dog happy for treats. He got the scroll where he had stored all of Kushina's sandwiches and brought two more out, one for himself and one for the fox.
The fox ate the sandwich, a turkey club, in a flash and sat down again, as if wanting more. Kannin laughed at how food motivated the fox was, and asked, "You really like sandwiches, don't you?" as he handed it another one.
After inhaling that sandwich, the fox said through a full mouth, "While these are pretty good, it's really just that I haven't had food in a while."
"Why's that?"
"People haven't been leaving offerings for a very long time." The fox said, its face lowering
"How long has it been since someone left an offering?"
"...473 years." The fox stated.
"What?" Kannin was astounded by the length of time.
"Yeah...People stopped thinking so positively about us foxes after that demon with our skin began rampaging around."
Kannin detected a hint of anger in its voice, and Kannin could only guess that it was the Kyuubi it was speaking of. He asked it, "So you've been down here for almost 500 years all alone?"
The fox turned its head in confusion, before responding, "Alone? This is the spiritual den for all true fox spirits. The others either withered away or are too afraid to come out right now."
Kannin thought for a moment. He had never heard of spirits vanishing, but he guessed it had something to do with the reduced faith and offerings. He got another sandwich out before asking,
"What's your name, little fox?"
The fox, seemingly irritated by the word 'little' stood up with a huff and enlarged to its full stature, nearly 6 ft tall at the shoulder, before proudly declaring, "I am Kiyo, greatest of the fox spirits! Now give me another sandwich, or face my wrath!"
"Well hello there, Kiyo, I'm Kannin. If it's any consolation, I'm also one of the last of my kind." He said, offering yet another sandwich.
Kiyo proudly took the sandwich from Kannin's hand with her mouth and chowed down. Kannin laughed looking at the haughty fox eating from his hand so obediently, before a thought came to his mind
"Kiyo, how many fox spirits are here? I could probably give them all sandwiches."
Kiyo looked at him, and as much as a fox could, she smiled and made a terrible screeching noise before returning to her sandwich