A/N: Yes, I know that I should be working on NW, but it and I are having a bit of an...argument. Mostly A to C issues involving how to get from A to B in order to reach C. This spawned, believe it or not, from my outrage at the number of furry and wer ficus out there that are badly written. Yes, I have found a few well written ones and bow down to such authors, but they are few and far between. So I decided to try my hand at it. I'll let you judge whether or not I made the cut.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Naruto characters. If I did, Sasuke and Naruto would be dating, Obito would be harassing the hell out of Kakashi, and Itachi would be a door to door soap salesman.
Rating: This chapter? PG. Overall? M for violence and perhaps a bit of lemony goodness at some point.
Naruto watched the rain as it ran down the window of his father's old beat up ford. The truck, like most of the cars in the one horse town, was way past its prime, but somehow still running. The small Tennessee town was a big change from the streets of LA, where Naruto had spent most of his life. His mother had been a big shot sci-fi screen writer, making the daily commute to Hollywood in order to sell her scripts. It was hard for him to believe that this was where she had grown up. Living his life in Southern California he was more used to the harsh desert landscape than the plush pine forest of the Appalachians. The smell of evergreens was thick, and the color of the changing leaves startling. The only time he had ever seen anything like this was on a postcard from the man sitting next to him. His mother and father had split on good terms a year after his birth. His mother wanted to chase her dreams and his father was all too content to be the sheriff of the town. Naruto had spent his childhood never doubting that he was loved by both parents.
"Are you sure that you want to start school today? It's okay with me if you wait until tomorrow. Your flight got in late last night," his father said sounding a little anxious. He looked a lot like Naruto; he was blonde and blue eyed with tan skin that most surfers would kill to have. Naruto just sighed and leaned back in the seat. He couldn't wait until his stuff finally arrived. He missed his bike with a passion.
"I might as well go. There is nothing else to do in this town," Naruto told him. His father stiffened a little at the wheel. His father loved this town, but what Naruto said was true. The town really consisted of a post office, school, and church. They had to drive at least two hours to the nearest grocer and even further than that if they wanted any kind of entertainment Naruto was used to. He was stuck in Hicksville and he hated it.
"Now, Naruto," his father began in his best lecturing tone. His father had never been good at the discipline end of things. He normally just left that up to Naruto's mother, but with her dead he was going to have to take on that responsibility too. "I know that we are way out in the middle of the boonies, but there are plenty of things to do. There's the lake, you can go hiking, and we have satellite TV." Naruto rolled his eyes as his dad came to a stop in morning drop off traffic. He was only about thirty feet from the school. He reached into the back seat and grabbed his messenger bag. It was a bright, almost blinding orange and a gag present from his best friend back home. He had gotten him an entire orange assemble for the up-coming school year saying something about how ridiculous he was going to look.
"Of course, Dad," Naruto said with a tone of long suffering, "we have TV. All my problems are solved. I'll see you tonight." Naruto opened the door before his father could continue on with his lecture. It wasn't raining that hard, but Naruto knew he was going to be damp before he made the overhang. His dad rolled down the window so he could talk to him.
"Call me if you need a ride home; I've got graveyard shift tonight," his father said and Naruto nodded slinging his bag over his shoulder. "And remember: home before dark." Naruto made a face where his father couldn't see as he walked away with a little half-wave. That had been his curfew ever since he was old enough to have a curfew at thirteen. His father said it had something to do with the fact that there was a thriving wildlife population and he didn't want his son to get hurt. Naruto chalked it up to his father being over protective. There hadn't been a wildlife incident in years. Naruto never said anything about it, though. There wasn't enough to do in the town to keep him out that late.
He hit the overhang not a second too soon as the pleasant rain shower had turned into a practical monsoon. He shook the water out of his hair, the gold spikes easily falling into the messy surfer look her preferred. He ignored the looks he got as he made his way to the office. He looked out of place in his burnt orange cargo shorts and black tee. He knew that his jewelry was getting as much attention as his looks. He had a yellow diamond in one ear and a couple of stud bracelets on his wrists. The town was backwater enough that he knew he was likely going to get it for his free California ways. He opened the door to the office and smiled at the receptionist. He knew her from his frequent visits to see his father and his father's family. Her name was Shizune and she was the best friend of his grandmother.
"Hey, Shizune," Naruto said as he made his way to the front desk. She smiled at him and immediately began searching through the stacks of paper on it. "Do you have something for me?"
"I know I put it here somewhere!" Shizune said as she shifted through growing amounts of paperwork. She made an ahah noise as she found the small slip of paper she was looking for. "I tried to put you in classes that I knew you would like, but this is a small school, Naruto." Naruto nodded as he looked at the paper. He made a face at some of the classes. He hated English and it was his first class! He could deal with that, though, because he had study hall afterwards and then lunch. It would've been great if there had been somewhere to go to eat.
"It's fine, Shizune," Naruto said offering her a grin. "I'll see you later." He turned to leave. She had looked like she was about to say something about his mother and it was the last thing he wanted to hear right now. All the sympathy he was getting from people was starting to smoother him. He knew what a loss his mother was, he didn't need to hear about from people who had barely known her. He walked back outside absorbed in the mini-map that he had gotten earlier. He could never understand why they insisted on making the type so small. So absorbed in his battle against the small type he never saw the guy he ran into. They both ended up sprawled on the ground, Naruto on top. Naruto did a one handed push-up, his other hand still clenching his papers.
"Sorry," he said as he got off the other. He offered him a hand. The other guy took it without a word. "I can be really clumsy sometimes," Naruto said laughing a little awkwardly. Now that he could see the other properly he found himself coming up with one word: beautiful. He was tall and slender with skin the color of alabaster and midnight black eyes. His hair was styled so that it stuck up in the back and was the color of an oil slick: black until the light hit it, and then it was a myriad of color. He wore black jeans and a red shirt with the words Armani Exchange written across it in white.
"Like something you see, dumbass?" he said his voice oddly rich. Naruto was half tempted to nod, but realized that he was surrounded by curious onlookers. That and he had just been insulted.
"Hey!" Naruto said, his anger catching up with him to the point were he had trouble coming up with some kind of comeback. The other just raised his eyebrow before shaking his head and walking around Naruto. Naruto followed him, turning. Before he could say anything the bell rang and Naruto was left to once more try to find his English class.
He ended up late to his English class which was taught by a witch of a woman. She had made him stand in front of the class and introduce himself. Not that Naruto normally had trouble with such a thing. He liked being the center of attention generally. But she made him tell everyone why he had moved here. Study hall had been a success in that it allowed him to map out the way to all his other classes so that he wouldn't get lost. It also helped that he had finally made a friend of sorts. Her name was Sakura. She had bright pink hair from a dye job gone wrong and green eyes. She was boyishly built and trying to make up for it by wearing the most revealing clothes she could get away with. She was nice, but very talkative. She had made it her mission to get him up to date on all the gossip he missed by not growing up here.
"And those are the unknowns," Sakura was saying as they went through the lunch line. Naruto turned his head to glance where she was pointing and blinked. At the table she was pointing to was the guy from earlier. He sat with four other students. They were laughing and joking around him, but he seemed to almost be apart from the exchange. "We call them that because no one knows a lot about them. They all moved here at the same time a couple of years ago. They never really made much of an effort to fit in. It's a shame really. Sasuke is so hot." Sakura led them to a table. There were three other people already sitting there. A long haired blonde girl and two guys: one black haired and one brown. The blonde looked up at him and smiled.
"You must be the new kid. I'm Ino. Everyone is talking about your fall with Sasuke. I'm surprised you're in one piece," she said making room on the plastic bench so that he could sit next to her. Naruto put down his tray.
"Why? It's not like the ground is that far away," Naruto said as he bit into his apple. He made a face and almost spat it back out. It tasted like wax. Ino giggled at his face.
"You learn not to eat the food here," she motioned to the fact that she and the other three were sporting packed lunches. Sakura had a tray like him and was sipping her juice box. "Sasuke Uchiha is a real oddball," Ino said in a hushed whisper. "He beat the shit out of some kid for hitting him with a ball in doge ball." Sakura nodded her head. Naruto looked at the back of Sasuke's head from where he was sitting.
"I heard that he was caught smoking outside the gym and rather than take the rap for it, put Coach Wills in a coma," Sakura said. "It's sad. He looks so good." The black haired guy from across the table snorted. Both Ino and Sakura glared at him. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail, but was so short it stuck up looking like a pineapple.
"Please," Shikamaru said. "You both know Coach Wills was in a car accident and Jim Davis challenged him to a fight because his girlfriend kept giving him eyes. Don't go filling his head with nonsense." Both girls made an indignant noise at his accusations. "I'm Shikamaru, by the way. And this is Choiji." Naruto nodded to the big brown haired guy next to Shikamaru.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he said before looking at the rest of his lunch in depression. Not even the mashed potatoes looked like mashed potatoes.
"Sheriff Minato is your father, right?" Choiji said between bites of his own lunch. Naruto nodded. Sakura let out a little squeal of excitement that had Naruto cringing away from her.
"Oh my god," she said clasping her hands together, "he is so dreamy. I used to have the biggest crush on him when I was little." Naruto wondered if it was possible to die from embarrassment. He, like most teenagers, did not want to think of his parents in terms of sex objects. It was wrong on so many levels.
"Cut it out, Sakura," Ino said poking the other girl with one of her carrot sticks. "You're going to make the poor guy sick." Sakura made a face. She had clearly been in her happy place, not that Naruto wanted to know what it contained. They were saved further lunch conversation by the bell. Naruto looked down at his still empty stomach and made a face. At least his father had bought groceries. He would be able to make something half-way decent to eat when he got home.
Naruto found his last class of the day without incident. It was honors biology and one of the few classes he actually liked. The teacher was a man who went by the name Iruka and nothing else. He had a large scar across his nose from a riding accident when he was younger and kind brown eyes. He had merely looked at Naruto's schedule and added him to his roll.
"Welcome to honors bio, Naruto," Iruka said with a smile as he surveyed the room. The class was packed. It was clear that whether you liked the class or not most liked the teacher and that was enough to fill his classes up. There was only one open seat in the room and it was next to Sasuke Uchiha. He sat on his end of the lab table looking bored. Iruka spotted the seat at the same time Naruto did and motioned him over to it. "Why don't you take a seat next to Sasuke?" Naruto nodded and went to sit down. He hung his bag over the back of the lab stool and got out a spiral notebook.
"Okay, class," Iruka said clapping his hands together to get the attention of his students. Once everyone was quite he smiled. "Today we'll be doing a lab on meiosis and mitosis. Can anyone tell me what that difference is?" There was silence in the room for a moment. Iruka sighed and feeling bad for him Naruto raised his hand. "Yes, Naruto?"
"Meiosis is the process used by single celled organisms to replicate via splitting into two smaller cells," Naruto said. Iruka nodded as he walked up and down the rows of lab tables.
"Very good. However, that is only half the answer. Can anyone tell me what mitosis is?" Iruka asked looking up and down the rows. Naruto nearly started when Sasuke just started talking; his voice wrapping around Naruto like warm liquid.
"Mitosis is the process that muliti-celled organisms use to regenerate cells. The process is more complex than the simple splitting of cells that meiosis uses," Sasuke said. Iruka nodded like this was normal behavior for Sasuke. Iruka went on to explain the lab which would consist of identifying different slides as either meiosis or mitosis, and if the slide was mitosis which stage of mitosis the cell was in. Due to a shortage of microscopes you ended up partnered with the other person at your table.
"Okay," Naruto said as he set the box of slides down. "I think we got off to a bad start. My name's Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto offered. He figured that if they had to work together he might as well try to make friends with the other. Sasuke looked at him for a second. He seemed almost angry about something before a blank expression covered it.
"Sasuke Uchiha," he said before reaching for the slide labeled number one. Naruto made a face at him as he looked into the microscope. This guy really was a jerk. "Meiosis," he said a second later. Naruto checked the little box labeled meiosis next to slide number one on the lab sheet. Sasuke reached for the next slide and snapped it into place. Seconds later he called out what it was. They went through three more slides that way before Naruto finally started to get irritated. He had a right to look at the slides too. It wasn't just the other's grade. He waited until Sasuke called out what he believed the slide to be before he made his move.
"Can I see?" Naruto asked moving so that he was almost on top of the other to get a look at the slide. Sasuke stiffened like he had been hit at the proximity. Slowly he moved away from the microscope and looked at Naruto. The anger from before was back again. He glared at Naruto for a second before moving away from the microscope.
"Be my guest, dumbass," he said as he traded places. Naruto gave him a look. "Just be sure you get them all right." Naruto glared, not even bothering with the slides.
"I'm not a dumbass! I have a name. Not only that, but I bet that I know as much about this subject as you. I did get half of the question Iruka asked right." Sasuke just sneered at him.
"The easiest half. I bet it was all just luck anyway," Sasuke said. Naruto glared at him wondering what would happen if he tried to kill the other with his ballpoint pin. Sasuke just watched, looking like he was bored. The lack of expression irritated Naruto as much as the words out of Sasuke's mouth. "What's the matter, dumbass? Cat got your tongue?" It was the last straw for Naruto and lunged at the other. They hit the ground again, this time with more force than before. Sasuke looked startled at the impact, while Naruto was immediately feeling remorse. He didn't want to get into trouble on his first day. His dad would be so disappointed. Iruka was there in an instant, the sound of the slides breaking when they hit the floor followed by the sound of the two of them alerting him to something gone wrong.
"Is everything okay here boys?" Iruka asked as Naruto got off Sasuke for the second time that day. He didn't offer Sasuke help up this time, though. He smiled at Iruka sheepishly. His mind could come up with nothing but the truth to tell him.
"I tripped and grabbed him to keep from falling," Sasuke lied. Naruto looked at him for a second in surprise, but quickly covered it. If Sasuke wanted to say that it was an accident he wasn't going to nay say him. Especially since he made it look like it was his fault.
"Alright," Iruka said motioning for everyone else to get back to work. "Get these slides cleaned up." Iruka took their paper and walked off with it. Naruto followed Sasuke out into the hall to get the dustpan and broom out of the janitor's closet.
"Thanks," Naruto said as he was handed the broom. Sasuke looked at him coldly for a second before heading back to the classroom.
"Don't get any illusions. I only said that because I didn't want to spend the afternoon in detention," Sasuke said. Naruto nodded understanding. This had been one hell of a first day of school.
Sasuke opened the door to his house. The place was huge. It had once been a thriving farm house, but the fields had long since been allowed to go back to their natural state. He walked by the answering machine noting the flashing red button. He pushed play as he walked into the kitchen to see about fixing something to eat. He never ate at school. He didn't want anyone to comment on his diet. He poured oil into a skillet, the temperature turned up to high as the message began playing.
"Hey, lil'bro, it's Kisame and Itachi," Sasuke smirked as he put his hand over the pan to test the heat. Kisame was his brother's best friend and had been since Sasuke was in diapers. The man was large and gruff, but had the heart of a teddy bear. Kisame and his brother were off touring the world looking for a cure for their curse. "I don't know what time it is over there, but I hope we're not waking you. We've found some real promising leads in India. It seems that your condition is more common over here than what we came across in Europe. Unfortunately, the reception up here is shit, so we may not call for a while. Don't worry." There was a couple of seconds pause and Sasuke put the piece of steak into the pan creating a hiss. He counted to five before flipping it over.
"Itachi says to remember to drive out at least sixty miles before the full moon and to watch your temper. We'll see you when we see you." There was a long beep as the message ended. Sasuke shook his head as he put the meat on the plate. It was still bleeding and mostly raw, but it was the only way he could eat it. His condition severely limited his diet. His brother couldn't even tolerate the meat cooked as little as it was now. Sasuke sat down to eat thinking about what the message had said. It was good news that his brother had found more people like them. Sasuke and Itachi had grown up thinking they were the only ones with this condition, a condition that revolved around thirty days and eight hours. Sasuke and Itachi were lycanthropes. They had caught the disease the way most did: an attack. Itachi and Sasuke had been out hiking when the crazy wer had come across them. They were lucky that Kisame had been in the area hunting. He had blown the wer's head off, but not before the two of them had ended up bitten. By the next full moon both brothers had come face to face with their beasts. Sasuke had met the sleek, black panther that was his other form and Itachi had met his regal tiger. They had coped the best they could over the years.
Sasuke put his dish in the sink as he finished the steak, wandering up to his room. His parents had died when he was eight and his brother seventeen. His brother had shown that he could take care of the two of them and court had allowed them to stay out of foster homes. Sasuke could only imagine the horror that foster homes would've been with his condition. Speaking of his condition, he thought of the blonde he had literally bumped into that day. His scent had woken his beast from its normal slumber inside him. It had tried to claw its way out of his guts as he stood there talking to the dumbass in the hallway. Biology had been agony. He had never had his beast react this way before. Most of the time it was content to stay quiet unless it was close to the full moon; it was then that Sasuke had to watch his temper. It was possible for him to call on his beast at any point in the lunar cycle, but it was the most active then. Strong emotions could bring it on.
Sasuke threw himself onto the bed, grabbing the remote to his stereo system, the melancholy tones of Cold filling the room. He rolled over then and started up his computer. One thing that both he and his brother found was that the internet was a great place to look for information about their condition. It had explained why the two of them had gotten sick due to the amount of vegetables in their diet and the bit about how their other form was meant to last about eight hours and that shifting before that time was up was dangerous. He went right to the information site that they had found to be mostly accurate. He began to look up reason for his beast to be active outside the full moon. Unfortunately, he didn't find anything on it being active outside of anger. Well, he had but he quickly disregarded it. There had been a short article on how beasts were able to recognize their mates and that this recognition could bring on odd behavior until the human took satisfactory action. Sasuke had dismissed the article because of the fact that Naruto was male and he was certain there was no attraction there.
Sasuke turned the computer off and walked back downstairs so that he could get his bag and get started on his homework. The whole way up and down all he could think of was the dumbass from his biology class and the one article he found. He decided to look at the other from an outside perspective, how his panther would think of him. Naruto was young, practically in his prime for the human species. He was strong if those swimmer built muscles meant anything and he was clearly healthy. Genealogically speaking, the two of them were opposites; Naruto blonde and blue eyed while Sasuke was dark. Genealogic diversity was important to animals and had been shown to be one of the factors of attraction between them. Naruto fit in all the categories that he could see his beast having. There was only one problem: mating was meant to reproduce. Naruto was male. There was no way the two of them could have children. What was his beast thinking?
Naruto had a pleasant surprise when he got home, having gotten a ride from Sakura in her F-150. The car was a monster and Naruto didn't even want to think about what it was doing to the environment. They had pulled into the driveway and found the moving truck was there. Naruto had practically jumped out of the moving truck in his haste to get to his stuff. Sakura had just laughed and waved, Naruto was her last stop and she had to get home to help her mother with dinner. She did, however, roll down the window to ask if he would need a ride tomorrow morning. He responded in the negative and she smiled as she pulled out of the drive. Naruto was nice if a little weird.
Naruto grinned as he saw his bike sitting in the driveway. It was a CC Lady in Black-one of only a hundred made and had cost his mother a fortune. It was no longer the black and red it had been originally, he had saved up and gotten a custom paint job. It now sported a running nine-tailed fox from Korean myth called a Kyuubi. He ran his hands down the side almost lovingly. While most teens wanted four wheels he was more than content with two. He was so concentrated on making sure that the bike was without a mark that he didn't sense his father coming up behind him.
"I think I can see why you were so eager for the moving truck to get here," Minato said as he crouched down to get a better look. Naruto turned to look at him with a smile on his face.
"Mom always said she was scared to death that I was going to wreck on it and break my neck, but that her worry was nothing compared to the joy she saw on my face when I rode it," Naruto said softly. He looked almost pained at the memory. Minato reached a hand up and squeezed Naruto's shoulder in an attempt at comfort. They had both lost someone precious.
"Sounds like your mother," Minato acknowledged as he stood. "What do you say we order a pizza and help direct the movers as to where everything goes?" Naruto's stomach chose that moment to remind him that his lunch had consisted on a single bite of a very waxy apple. He made a face at the thought of pizza. All that grease and cheese sounded so unappealing.
"How about I cook and you direct traffic? You are the cop after all," Naruto said moving out of the way of the playful swipe by his father. Minato nodded and the two of them walked into the house.
Two hours later Naruto had finally finished unpacking his room. What had once been nothing more than a wardrobe, a desk, and a bed was now full to the brim with his things from California. His sleek little apple laptop sat on the desk along with his iPod stereo. The speakers hung from different corners of his room so that it would be like surround sound. His surf board hung on the wall over his bed where it would likely stay until summer when he could try to convince his dad to let him spend some time with his best friend from back home. A mish-mash of posters of various rock artists and surfers now littered the walls, overlapping in some places. A scattering of CDs and books covered the entertainment center he had brought from home. In it were his TV and various gaming consoles.
Naruto sprawled across his bed as Reel Big Fish began to play on his phone. It was enough to bring a small smile to his lips. He slid the cover up on his phone so that he could see the keypad as he read the text message. It was from Kiba, his best friend from back home. They had never spent much more than the three weeks a year Naruto spent visiting his father apart. His mother used to joke that they were conjoined twins that had been separated at birth.
Yo, Blondie, how was school? Naruto read the message and thought about what to tell him. It had been uneventful minus that weird guy in his biology class. He was nice looking if a little odd. He reminded Naruto of a cat that one of his other friends had. The first couple of times he had met the cat it had been nasty, but it got used to him over time. Maybe that was what he needed to do with this odd guy.
Same BS, different state. Ran into an odd guy. Naruto hit enter and waited for Kiba to respond. Maybe he would have some idea on how to handle him. Not that Kiba was the person you went to when you wanted advice on friends. That had always been Hinata's department. Naruto's eyes flicked back to the screen at the tone.
I'm guessing literally w/ ur luck. How odd? Naruto bit his bottom lip as he thought. Sasuke really wasn't that odd when he got down to it. It was more like he gave off some weird vibe. It made Naruto want to know more about him. Why did he get angry whenever Naruto was around? Naruto winced as he heard his dad call from downstairs. He was leaving for work and wanted Naruto to start on his homework.
Just odd. G2G. Naruto hit the send button and rolled so that he was sitting on his bed. Seconds later he got a parting greeting from Kiba. He missed home. He missed being able to talk to Kiba for hours face to face not via text. He was certain that Kiba would understand what he meant about the weird vibe if he had met Sasuke. He wanted Hinata's advice on how to handle the situation even if she would blush and stutter. He wanted to go home.
