Hi.

Does anyone remember me?

I'm back.

Here's my new fic. I came up with the idea when one day I saw a rat in my garage. I know it seems a bit of a Cinderella story, but I'm doing what I can to avoid that.

Anyhoo...

Sasu/Naru

PG-13

AU (And maybe OOC, but I'm trying to avoid that)

Not my characters. But I own a little Naruto plushie thing! It's sooooooo cuuuuuuuuuute!

Chapter 1 Oh rats!

The tall man brought one hand up to his face, massaging his temple. "Sasuke, you must choose one of these girls. They are all nice and will do anything you ask, but please, just pick one already. I know I would. Look how hot that one is. And oh! Check out the chest on the one next to her! Really! Look!"

Sasuke pushed away his advisor. "I want nothing to do with her, or her, or any of them, Kakashi. Now leave me be." Sasuke sat on his throne, staring with bored, empty eyes into the crowded room of women. It was a small party in celebration of his coming of age. He would be sixteen in less than a month, and yet, he couldn't care less.

Since his family was massacred and his older brother, who had been in line for the throne, had gone missing in action, Sasuke had been in control of the kingdom of Konoha. But he had many advisors and caretakers to help him with the throne until he reached the appropriate age of sixteen. His heart had grown distant from those who tried to make any contact with him. The only person who could get more than five words average from him was Kakashi, a pervert, but a wise pervert none-the-less.

Sasuke waved his hand as though he were shooing away flies in his weak attempt to make all the guests leave. Kakashi began speaking again.

"You really should listen to me and look around for a future bride. And just because you won't need a bride for the title of king, it's still ethical to have one."

Lowering his head and speaking in a hushed, but threatening voice, Sasuke growled, "Shut up. Now, I'm tired. Leave. You and all these pathetic people." No one made a move, but no one had heard his small request, which had resulted in Sasuke's next action. He stood from his throne and yelled aloud, "Everybody LEAVE!"

All went silent and Sasuke smiled smugly, motioning with his hands and mouthing 'shoo, shoo'. The guests began to head out the door. Mumbles of annoyance and confusion were heard, but Sasuke paid no attention to it. He sat back down and sighed, enjoying the silence.

Kakashi tapped him on the shoulder, "You know, people will start speaking bad of you if you keep this up and that will cost you the throne, maybe. Do you care one bit for your kingdom?"

Sasuke looked up and stared blankly at Kakashi, showing no sign of interest, "Not really." And with that, he stood and left to bed for the night. Sighing, Kakashi watched the teenage boy escape to his room.

The young blond male sat up. The birds outside his window chirped cheerfully, as usual, singing their beautiful tune to start out the day. He sat up, his hair a wreck and his eyes cloudy, still at that short period of time where you're awake, but still asleep enough to remember what you had dreamed of. But it ended quickly, and the boy stood quickly, hearing the birds and knowing today was another day to be filled with chores, fun, and, most especially, ramen.

"Yahooooooo!" He yelled as he darted from his room and started the fire. He quickly dressed and ran outside to get some water from the nearby stream.

Returning back home within minutes, the cooking fire was big enough and ready, as the boy set the pot of water over the fire and poured in a bag of noodles and some mixture of spices. Grabbing a spoon off the counter, he began stirring the meal and hummed along with the bird's songs outside.

As the water boiled and the noodles grew soft, the small home began to smell of the spices he had put in earlier. The boy once more yelled in joy. He was known to be quite eccentric to his neighbors and those who knew him. Although, he was a very nice person, most people still disliked him.

He was an orphan.

That's all the boy knew. He knew nothing of why people hated him, and this had been one of the main causes to his optimistic attitude. He always saw the brighter side of things and his personality had grown bright and glowed with the same warmth as the bright sun in the sky.

After finishing making his meal and eating it up quickly, he splashed some water on the fire and watched it fizzle down to nothing before he left his small home.

On his way out, the blond spotted his neighbor, Iruka. He had known Iruka since before he could really remember. Iruka cared for him and helped him through some hard times.

Iruka waved and called out to the young male, "Hey Naruto, how'd you sleep last night? Did I keep you up?"

Naruto laughed, "No, not really. I know you had to work late, but I never heard you, I was pretty tired yesterday if you can remember." He laughed again and shouted some more, "Anyways, I gotta go! I'm probably needed in the fields. Who knows how angry some of the others night be?" And he rushed off.

By others, Naruto meant his peers. Naruto was about at the halfway point of his fifteenth year of life. Most youngsters about this time had to work in the fields. Although they didn't have to work as hard as the adults and their work wasn't quite as risky, they still became quite exhausted towards the end of the day.

The routine for Naruto was like this everyday, as it had been since he started working, nearly three years ago.

Iruka smiled and chuckled to himself, and went back to work.

The next night was a long one for Sasuke. Thunder outside rumbled in the distance, and even if it wasn't raining, Sasuke couldn't get one blink of sleep. He spent this time droning on and on in his head about how dull his life was and how nothing ever happened in royalty. And even though he had everything, or could get it if he wanted to, he constantly felt like there was something missing from his life. This feeling kept him awake on a lot of nights, bad weather or not. When he tried to shake his mind from that subject, he would soon think of his family, which had become a burden to him. His heart ached, but not in the way it would seem. As his heart ached and his blood would boil, he kept thinking it was his brother who had killed him family. It had to be. There was no sign of any invaders or any witnesses claiming to have seen anyone unknown enter the castle. But there had been a couple of people claiming to have seen his older brother, Itachi, leave. But then again, who would believe a peasant?

Sasuke's thoughts kept this way until late into the night. He would soon grow tired and eventually fade out of consciousness, only to wake up every morning to Kakashi standing in front of his bed smiling. And 'every morning' is not over exaggerated.

"Good morning," Kakashi said from behind his mask. He wore a mask from his chin to his nose endlessly, so much even that sometimes Sasuke wondered if the man ever ate at all. Sasuke shrugged all thoughts away and sat up from his bed. He saw that Kakashi had picked out an outfit for him already, but Kakashi's taste in clothing was that of which Sasuke would never wear. Sasuke grabbed the clothes from his blanket and threw them at Kakashi. His advisor acted crushed, "Aww, I thought you would like them, but," he sighed, "I guess not."

He watched as Sasuke left his bed and walked gracefully to his closet and picked out an outfit of his standards. Sasuke readied himself for the day and all while he was doing this, Kakashi spoke aloud.

"Me and your other caretakers had a talk, and since it'll be your birthday soon, we've decided to hold a ball that night. And if you are unable to claim a bride by then, you will no longer be a prince, or even a king, for that matter. I don't know who will take the crown then, but let's not hope it comes to that, okay?"

Sasuke was taken by surprise at Kakashi's announcement. He was only about half dressed as his torso was revealed, showing a few old scars here and there from his early childhood. Kakashi said nothing as the handsome boy stood, flabbergasted. But Sasuke then sighed in slight annoyance and turned on his heel to finish dressing, saying nothing to Kakashi.

He finished and made his way out of his room and out of the castle to gain some fresh air. Kakashi did nothing to stop him and smiled still.

Sasuke called upon the stable-boy to retrieve his horse and the boy had only just woken. The poor kid was overworked, but Sasuke didn't pay any notice, he just wanted away from that place for a short time.

His horse was beautiful and an obsidian color, matching Sasuke's eyes and hair, and his usual attire. He galloped out the gates and sped past the peasant's homes.

A woman in her late twenties had tripped on her way out of her home and fell right in Sasuke's path. Thankfully for her, Sasuke had heart enough to stop. But he yelled at her to hurry up and stand. "It's not like your legs are broken, are they?" The lady kneeled in front of him.

"If I have angered you my lord, then kill me. You seem angry enough." She spoke slowly, staring him directly in the eyes boldly.

Sasuke snarled slightly, "Move aside, lady."

She stood but still didn't move and she spoke once more, "Sir, may I ask you one thing?" And without giving him chance to reply, she continued, "Is it true what I have heard? Are you really going to choose a bride by the night of your birthday?"

Rolling his eyes and thinking of what exactly to say, Sasuke spoke, "First of all, that's two things you just asked me. Learn to count, lady, and second, I did not decide that to happen, but yes, unfortunately." The lady stepped aside and bowed as Sasuke started back up on his glorious horse, not knowing of the eerie grin that had appeared on the lady's face.

The woman had decided it was time to bring it upon herself to fix the future king's attitude. If he really were to make it to king. She conducted a simple plan and began practicing for her magic. It'd been a good few years since she had needed her magic, but now the time had called for it.
Over the next couple of days, Sasuke grew more and more annoyed with the female townspeople. Nearly every woman asked for him to choose her. And heck, even a couple of bold men were in that group. But Sasuke denied every single one. And after a week or so, this was all that was said between him and the female who wished for Sasuke to love her:

"Umm...Sas..."

"No."

"Huh?"

"No!"

And that was it.

The lady from earlier had been keeping a close eye on Sasuke over the past week, and more time before then. Her falling before his horse that day was no accident. She decided to put her plan to work now. Sasuke would pay for his cruelty and for breaking all those young women's hearts.

Sasuke was out one day on foot. He had been in search for food that wasn't prepared by the fat chef downstairs and had grown tired of the chef's son always dropping his meals before he made it to Sasuke. The lady appeared from behind one of the food stands and tapped Sasuke on the shoulder. He turned sharply and saw her as another idiot girl, not as the woman he'd nearly killed a week ago.

He snapped at her, giving her no chance of speech. "No, no, and no! I don't..."

The lady's lip curled in anger and her hand came up to Sasuke, slapping him across the cheek. He was surprised and tried to yell at the lady, but she spoke sternly, "Don't you dare interrupt me when I'm about to speak. Now boy, I've been watching you and how you treat people and I don't like it. I'm going to teach you a lesson."

"Yeah," Sasuke scoffed, "Right." And he was about to turn the other way when the lady brought her hand up to slap him again. He saw it coming and blocked it. But she had expected it and turned her hand back, slapping the unprotected side of his face with such a force, he was blown backwards. Sasuke landed harshly on his back, yelling out slightly when a couple a rocks wedged themselves into his shoulders. The lady followed the fallen prince swiftly.

She set one foot on his stomach and waited for him to struggle; when he did she would press hard into his stomach, causing a short gasp of pain from the prince. And be warned, she was wearing heels.

Her voice became thick with hatred and joy at the same time, "Now all you have to do is say one word, and I'll let you free of all charges. Say that you're sorry."

Sasuke glared and turned his head to the side. The angered the lady further and she pressed all her weight onto the foot on Sasuke's stomach. He yelled out. She leaned forward all the way so she could grasp his chin and make him face her.

The lady began chanting in some foreign language. Sasuke knew nothing of what was happening, but he soon found his body in a trance and the world around him gradually faded away. Last thing he knew of, the lady finished chanting and Sasuke could hear her words as she left him there: "Until you learn of how to be kind and until you learn to love, you will be stuck in this form. Your sixteenth birthday, by then, and if you have not learned these things, you will stay this way forever. If so, and you have learned, you will return to your normal self."

All went black.

Sasuke awoke late that night. He lay on his back still, while staring up at the dark clouds above. Thunder in the distance grew nearer with each flash of lightening.

He tried to stand but his body would not cooperate and the pain in his back grew a bit worse with each attempted movement he made, but he ignored it. Once more when trying to stand, he noticed something wrong with his feet and squeaked out loud.

Wait a second...

Squeaked?

A girl, who seemed in a hurry to escape the coming storm, saw Sasuke. She froze in place then screamed and ran off. "A rat! A rat!"

'What the…?' Sasuke thought. He searched for any shiny surface that might reveal his reflection and found a metal shield behind him.

Yes, the girl was right. He was a rat, claws, teeth and all.

Sasuke was scared. He tried to calm himself by saying it was all a dream, but two things there told him he was wrong. One: the searing pain on his back proved the dream theory wrong, and two: he couldn't talk! Whenever he tried, it would result in a squeak.

No, this couldn't be right.

Sasuke ran. He tripped a lot now and then, as he wasn't used to moving on all fours, but he paid no attention, he just wanted to run. Run away. Far away.

The storm had caught up with him and it poured. Lightening flashed without end. Thunder rolled in and out his small rat ears. He had to find shelter.

His energy levels were running low and his speed decreased greatly. Finding a small spot of land that had been sheltered from the rain, Sasuke ran under it and fell asleep.

The sun rose peacefully. The birds chirped their tunes once more. Naruto jumped out of bed yelling, "Yahoooooooo!" He readied the fire for cooking and was about to head out with his pot to retrieve water from the stream, when the second he opened the door, he spotted a small rat on his doorstep. He set the pot down and examined the rat. It was still breathing, despite the red that clumped lightly onto its back. Naruto picked it up carefully and smiled, nuzzling it, "Don't worry little fella, I'll nurse you back to health."

And with that, Naruto's daily routine had been changed.

TBC...
So? What do you think people? I'm trying, but see, I'm in high school now, and wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, it's rough. Anyway, tell me what you think and give me ideas for the next chapter please.

Thanks.