A/N: I'm writing this out of boredom. I need some reprieve from my other story so… Yeah. I'm not very confident about how this story will be received, so please point out my mistakes. If this story isn't that well received, I'll delete it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, which is a relief because I have enough problems with my school work. I don't need hundreds of fans mobbing me and complaining about the pairings, people who died, etc.
Chapter 1: Animal
The stars winked playfully in the dark blanket that enveloped the world. A breeze picked up and swept through the clearing, rustling the tops of the trees. Crickets chirped in the grass as the moon took its place in the sky, casting light on the world. A young blond lay in the deserted clearing, just gazing up at the stars. His name was Uzumaki Naruto. The boy sighed in contentment, feeling at ease in the midst of nature. He was going to enter the academy tomorrow and wanted to forget about all the hate filled glares and all the villagers ignoring him.
Suddenly, a rustle rang out in the clearing, causing the blond to jerk into a sitting position and scooting into the forest to hide. The blond waited with bated breath as the rustling got louder, indicating that something was approaching. As the seconds dragged on, Naruto's imagination went wild, his fantasizing becoming more out of hand until something finally burst out of the clearing. The blond heaved a sigh of relief and slight disappointment as all his fantasies were shattered. Naruto re-entered the clearing and approached the small animal, studying its white coat which was interrupted only by the tell-tale black lines alternating down its body. He marvelled at the soulful blue orbs not unlike his own as he stared at the tiny paws placed firmly on the ground.
'Cat?' was all that ran through Naruto's juvenile mind as he chanced touching the small animal. The tiger cub growled in response, circling the blond, inching closer with each revolution. Naruto backed away, only for the tiger cub to pounce on him, gunning for the blond's neck. Naruto cried out in surprise and flailed wildly, trying in vain to get the tiger cub off. The tiger's claws sank into the blond's flesh as he ran into the bushes, stumbling as he tripped on a log and ended up crashing head over heels into the brush. "Ow…" the blond groaned, propping himself up with his elbow and rubbed the back of his head in an attempt to ease the pain. The young blond glanced around after untangling himself from the bush and found the tiger cub prone on the floor, whimpering in pain as blood gushed from a wound on its neck, staining its pristine white fur a stunning scarlet.
Drops of water fell from the sky, drawing Naruto's attention towards the clouds. "Rain?" Naruto mumbled before pushing through the foliage and back into the clearing. The young blond turned his head upwards and blinked as droplets of rain impinged his eyes, the sky truly overcast. The rain came down a little harder, finally becoming a sheet of rain cascading down from the heavens. Naruto burst back into the brush and was about to run home when the tiger cub's stark white fur caught his eye again, the owner of the pelt whimpering pathetically on the ground as it pressed its tiny body on the floor as far as it would go. Naruto poked the tiny animal, eliciting another pained whimper from the feline. "Mr. Cat, if you don't get home soon you'll catch a cold," Naruto said to the cub. The tiger cub didn't provide a response, falling silent as its eyes drooped closed. "Mr. Cat?" Naruto tried again.
Not receiving an answer, the young blond decided to show the animal to his Jiji, cradling the cub in his arms, struggling a little due to the weight of the young tiger. Naruto ran through the rain, the liquid hammering a watery tattoo into the sidewalks as he made his way towards the Hokage Tower. Sarutobi was going through paperwork and was about to wrap up and go home before he heard the sounds of arguing outside. 'Must be Naruto, but what could he want at this hour?' the Sandaime walked around his desk and yanked open the door to his office.
The sight that greeted him was that of Naruto, dripping wet with a bundle in his arms, arguing with his secretary. "Naruto? Come on in," the Sandaime called to the blond, his secretary shooting the boy a dirty look. His secretary was one of the few whom held no hatred for the boy. The reason she was so irked was that Naruto was dripping wet and leaving mud stains all over the floor. That, as well as the fact that he'd caught her in a paintball trap that day and coloured her so vividly, a rainbow would have looked away in shame. After the blond had closed the door behind him, the Sandaime asked, "So, what brings you here so late? And why are you so wet?"
"I went to the forest and found this. Then it started the raining," Naruto told his grandfather figure, placing the tiger cub on the desk.
"Why'd you bring that here? That thing is dangerous," the Sandaime told the young blond.
"It's bleeding, so I brought it here," Naruto replied simply.
"Put it back, Naruto," the Sandaime sighed.
"But it's hurt. Can't you heal it?" Naruto stared at his grandfather figure with large blue eyes.
"Alright," Sarutobi caved and inspected the feline. He produced a roll of bandages and disinfected the cub's wound before bandaging the cub's neck.
"It's just a flesh wound. Nothing that won't heal after a while. Just send it back to where you found it and-" Sarutobi was cut off by Naruto.
"Thanks Jiji," Naruto called as he exited the room. Sarutobi just sighed tiredly, shaking his head at the young blond's antics.
Naruto carried the tiger cub home, sneaking the animal in past the landlord. The young blond opened the door to his apartment before setting the cub on the floor and locking the door behind him. Naruto tiptoed into the shower, not wanting to wake the tiger cub up. The blond peeled his drenched clothes off of himself and tossed them onto the floor before stepping into the bath, running the shower and enjoying the feeling of warmth each drop of water brought. After his shower, he emerged from the bathroom wearing his pyjamas, steam permeating the air in the bathroom. The young blond staggered into his bedroom and flopped into bed, leaving the tiger cub in the living room.
Throughout all the events, the presence of a symbol on his neck going unnoticed. It was an intricate design depicting a paw and was situated right over the wound he'd received from the tiger cub during the scuffle. Strangely, the wound had appeared on the tiger as well and while the wound on the cub spurted blood, his had not bled at all.
'Why's it so hot?' Naruto thought, turning onto his side under the covers. Eventually the young blond kicked the covers off in a desperate bid to cool himself. An argument from the next apartment over assaulted his ears with perfect clarity, causing a groan to escape the young blond as he squashed the pillow over his ears. Naruto threw the pillow across the room as he flipped onto his stomach, his eyes cracking open. The young blond gave up on sleep and padded into the kitchen, bringing a carton of milk and gulping down the contents. He tossed the empty carton into the bin and retrieved his pillow from across the room when he got back to his bed. He collapsed back onto his bed, sighing in relief when the argument died down.
His relief did not last long because pain lanced up his legs causing him to clutch both appendages until it died down into a dull ache. A headache pounded at the back of his head, threatening to split his head in two as he whimpered in pain. Pain struck him in random parts of his body throughout the night, causing the young blond to bite his pillow to stop from crying out as the temperature fluctuated, going from hot to cold and back in an instant, pain blooming in his eyes. Finally, he drifted into the sweet embrace of sleep.
Sunlight assaulted his sensitive eyes and pierced them even through his eyelids. The young blond slowly opened his eyes and looked around wearily, bracing himself in case more pain struck. Nothing happened. 'When did I fall asleep?' Naruto wondered as he rolled out of bed. He padded into the bathroom and looked into the mirror, chuckling when he saw the state that his hair was in. The most noticeable bed head features were the two tufts of hair sticking up at the top of his head and two jaw length bangs framing his face that had not been there before. Just then, the tiger cub entered the bathroom, yawning as it did so, revealing its impressive canines. "Good morning Mr. Cat," Naruto laughed.
"Firstly, I'm a tiger, not a cat. Secondly, I'd rather be sleeping now," the cub yawned again for emphasis.
"Whoa! It talked!" Naruto exclaimed, backing away from the tiger.
"I'm not an 'it', I'm a 'he'. Please, get it right," the cub said indignantly.
"Sorry. Do you have a name, or can I call you Shiro?" Naruto asked tentatively.
"Shiro's nice. I'll keep that name," the tiger cub said dismissively.
"Okay, Shiro. I have to go to the academy, so what are you going to do during that time?" Naruto asked, grabbing a toothbrush and applying tooth paste to it.
"Could I follow you to this 'academy'?" Shiro asked, watching Naruto brush his teeth.
"What?" Naruto shouted, spitting globules of foam out in the process.
"You heard me. So can I?" Shiro licked his paw in an effort to clean it.
"I guess…" Naruto trailed off before washing his face. Naruto dried his face and looked back up at the mirror, throwing the towel back onto the rack. He left the bathroom, Shiro trailing behind him as he headed for the living room, grabbing a carton of milk from the refrigerator.
"So, what do you eat anyway, Shiro?" Naruto inquired, flinging the empty carton into the bin.
"You don't have to worry about what I eat," Shiro answered, jumping onto the windowsill.
"Shiro?" Naruto chanced, only for the tiger to jump out the window and snag a bird between his teeth, landing gracefully on the tiles of the roof. "Wow! That's so cool, Shiro!" Naruto shouted. Shiro pinned the bird down and snapped its neck, before devouring it savagely, blood flying across the roof as Shiro consumed his meal. Naruto turned away, grabbing a slice of bread before joining Shiro on the roof, a bird carcass assaulting his vision. "I'm done," Shiro declared.
"I should clear this," Naruto sighed before gingerly picking up the entrails, re-entering his house, and tossing them in the bin. "Ew…" Naruto complained, washing his hands at the sink, his slice of bread clamped firmly in his mouth. Naruto poked his head out the window saying, "Shiro, next time you hunt, please don't do it on the roof," Naruto said.
"Sorry. I was just so hungry, I couldn't help myself," Shiro said sheepishly. The blond changed into a black shirt and was about to pull on an orange jumpsuit when Shiro growled in irritation, complaining that it was too vibrant. Naruto sighed and decided to forgo the jumpsuit, pulling on a pair of black pants, unhappy with the ensemble. The blond grumbled before exiting his apartment through the window after the tiger cub. Shiro ran across the rooftop and jumped, crossing the space between the two roofs and landing on the next roof over before stopping, "Where is this 'academy'?" Naruto sighed before leaping off the roof and landing on street level with catlike grace, stunning the few pedestrians below.
"Come down, Shiro. I can't roof-hop like you, you know," Naruto called to the cub. Shiro landed a few metres away, Naruto trotting towards the tiger cub. The villagers stared, startled by the feline, before their looks soured into ones of disgust as they turned away and ignored the blond. By the time the two reached the academy, they had already established that only Naruto could understand Shiro, if the villagers looking at the blond like he'd gone insane didn't clue them in on that fact. Naruto entered the classroom and immediately covered his ears in pain as the noise generated from the ruckus crashed over him. The blond slid into a seat at the back of the classroom and slowly adapted the noise.
"Oh my God! That's so cute! Is it yours?" a voice squealed from beside him. Naruto looked up and nodded numbly as a blonde girl swept Shiro into her arms and proceeded to hug the life out of the tiger.
"Ino! Don't do that! It's a tiger! Get away from it before it attacks you!" a pink haired girl warned the newly identified Ino.
"Shiro's harmless, right?" Naruto gave the tiger cub a look that said 'don't attack her, she's not a threat'. Shiro nodded and purred, burrowing into Ino's embrace.
"Kawaii!" Ino squealed again, turning to her friend and saying, "See, he's harmless."
"If you say so. Sorry, we didn't introduce ourselves. My name's Sakura and she's Ino," Sakura said, pointing to her blonde friend.
"Naruto," the blond grinned. Just then, a boy wearing a hooded jacket, a small white dog peeking out of it, walked over. His eyes were feral, two red triangles that resembled fangs adorned each cheek.
"You reek of fox and cat. How on earth did you manage that? Name's Kiba by the way," the feral looking boy introduced himself.
"Cat? That's probably from Shiro, but why fox?" Naruto mused, only for Kiba to shrug.
"Okay everyone. Please sit down," Naruto's ears perked up as he heard this and turned to the front of the class where he saw a brown haired teacher, who was mostly being ignored.
"Sit down and shut up!" the man exploded, grabbing everyone's attention. "Okay from now on, I'll be your teacher. My name is Umino Iruka. I'm supposed to have an assistant, but he's not here today, so for today I'll be teaching alone. We'll be studying history for this period," Iruka announced, producing a book and chalk as he started the lesson.
A/N: This story was, as I've said, done mostly out of boredom, but please take the time to review and point out my mistakes. It would help greatly in my writing so I thank you in advance. Naruto is really young then and you have to remember that he doesn't have parents to teach him life lessons and etcetera, as well as everyone ignoring him, so I assume he doesn't know what a tiger is.