It's a new fic by Aria! Yeah, yeah, I really should finish my other ones first, and poor Gift's gone FOREVER without an update it feels like T-T But, I was reading My Pet Hot Guys by red-flower11 (who's a great writer and you should read her works, she's very creative) and this plot bunny just MAULED me! I swear I spent five straight minutes giggling like a fangirl on soda...it was embarrassing.

Summary: Modern magical AU, Sakura accidentally knocks a curious spice off her grandmother's spice rack into her cookie dough and creates a huge disaster when she accidentally changes several friends into...

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto aren't mine, and the idea for this fic was inspired by red-flower11's My Pet Hot Guys. The ramen shirt Sakura's wearing on the other hand, is my creation, featured from the fic Belonging ^^

Note: I halved the age differences between the characters so Kakashi's 24, Shisui's 22, Itachi's 20, and the other three are currently 17. And uh...wow I just gave away all the pairings...go me...-_- so much for secrecy. =P And yay! This is my 11th fic! I feel like I should celebrate somehow...the number 11 is one I've grown fond of lately...

Enjoy!

Feral Instinct

Chapter 1: Deadly Delicious

"I'm sorry, Naruto," Sakura huffed, rolling her eyes at the fifteenth apology she had uttered in the last ten minutes. "But I really can't go, I'm busy."

"But Saaaakura-chan!"

"I'm serious," the rose-haired girl reprimanded, glaring at teaspoon as she measured out cinnamon, letting it take the irritation she was feeling towards the blond so vocally whining to her over the phone. "I've got a tutoring session this afternoon and I can't miss it."

The seventeen-year-old on the other end of the cell line groaned, filling the connection with unhappy noises, finishing with a muttered, "Stupid Advanced Calculus class," that seemed to succinctly sum up his emotions on that particular subject.

"Namikaze Naruto, there is nothing stupid about multivariable calculus, so kindly keep your opinions to yourself," the viridian-eyed girl said tartly, raising her voice so that he could hear her over the whirring of her hand mixer. "Just because you'd rather take another history class with Kakashi-sensei, doesn't mean any class not with him is worthless."

"Yeah but…but…ski resort…"

Sakura sighed. Honestly, dealing with her childhood friend now was sometimes exactly like dealing with him when they were five. "You're going with your family, and Kakashi-sensei, because your dad's having another one of his romantic episodes now that Grandma and Grandpa are gone on their silver wedding anniversary honeymoon and needs to have some time off, I'd only be intruding!"

"Sakura-chan, listen to yourself," the blond teased. "Tsunade-baachan and Jiraiya-jiichan are our grandparents, which makes you family, so why not? You're about as close to my mom and dad as Kakashi-sensei is."

"We are not arguing about this, Naruto," Sakura laughed, amused that he was trying to use logic on her. "I have tutoring and that's final. Besides, you and I are only cousins because my Tsunade-baachan married your Jiraiya-jiichan, not because my mom's your dad's sister, therefore as I've already stated, I'd be intruding. And Kakashi-sensei's your adoptive uncle, not mine."

Ignoring her blond cousin-by-marriage's unhappy whines, she sprinkled in a little more flour into the dough. "Anyway, I'm going to have to hang up now because it takes two hands to roll out cookie dough and I'm not coordinated enough to do that with a phone tucked in one ear, okay?"

"…Cookies?"

Oh crap…

Sakura laughed nervously, quickly wiping away the light sheen of sweat that had suddenly broken out across her forehead. "Uh yeah…I'm…I'm just…"

"Who are they for, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, his voice deceptively calm.

The emerald-eyed girl winced sheepishly, recognizing the signs. Naruto was falling into full-on possessive mode, over both her and the spiced jam cookies she was making, and it was in everyone's best interests to diffuse that particular bomb before any major damage happened. "N-no one, Naruto. I d-didn't feel like studying before my tutoring session so I…I thought I'd bake…" In desperation she threw out the best thing she could muster considering the circumstances. "I knew you liked spiced jam cookies so I'm baking them and I was going to run them by your place later this evening after you got home from the beach…"

It wasn't a complete lie; her choice to make spiced jam cookies had been influenced by her best friend's love of them, though her original intention had been to bake a snack for tutoring later that afternoon.

Her words were greeted by a tense silence, then…

"Spiced jam cookies! I promise I'll have Otou-san stop by when we're on our way home!"

Well at least that was one bullet dodged. Naruto had even seemed to come to terms with leaving her behind for his family ski trip. Go me, Sakura thought with a grin. "I'll see you toni-," she jumped, knocking over a canister from the spice rack as a loud knock pounded on her door. "Crap, someone's at the door…" Forgetting to hang up on her best friend, she hurried through the hall to the door, not noticing as the spice she had knocked from its place sprinkled a heavy amount of a silvery, sugar-like powder into her cookie dough.

"Tutoring isn't for another half hour…" the viridian-eyed girl murmured, half to herself and half to the person on the other side of her door as unlocked it.

"Hey, Sakura!"

"Sakura."

The girl in question raised an eyebrow, staring skeptically at the two males standing on her doorstep as a wry little grin twisted her lips.

"Hey, Shisui, Sasuke-kun…this is a…surprise," she said, teasingly sarcastic as she leaned against the doorjamb. "Why are you two here?"

"I borrowed your graphing calculator for my statistics exam last week, so I was bringing it back," the older Uchiha told her, smiling winsomely as he imitated her posture and relaxed against the doorframe.

Sasuke flickered his eyes at his cousin, their depths flashing with an emotion that was gone too fast for Sakura to register, before replying, "I was picking up some of the movies I lent Naruto-dobe from his place, and ran into Shisui as I was leaving."

It wasn't actually an explanation of why Sasuke had felt it necessary to follow his cousin all the way to her place, strawberry-haired girl's house being several blocks away from Naruto's, but she let it slide. She'd learned from long years of dealing with the stoic Uchiha that it was better just to accept whatever explanation he offered without question, and later pry the actual reasons from Naruto, Sasuke's unlikely partner in crime, via interrogation.

"Come in," Sakura told them both, mentally sighing in resignation as she invited the two into the house. "I'm baking spiced jam cookies right now, which I actually need to get back to, but you guys can have a few as long as you leave before…"

"Yeah, yeah, we know," Shisui placated the girl with a grin, running a hand through his disheveled obsidian hair as he and the younger Uchiha turned away, down a hall leading to the house's parlor. "Itachi's always so uptight about being focused."

"There's nothing wrong with not needing you two distractions around when tutoring," the rose-haired girl muttered under her breath as she headed back to the kitchen, away from the late-autumn chill outdoors. She hefted her forgotten cell phone, absentmindedly re-tucking it to the side of her face as she talked to herself. "I guess I could shower upstairs while the cookies are baking…I'll just have to tell Shisui and Sasuke that I'll have Otou-san hunt them down if they try anything."

The hitherto forgotten seventeen-year-old on the other end of the phone yelped, startling the rosy-haired girl into dropping her phone with a muffled curse.

"You're going to take a shower while Sasuke and Shisui are over at your place?!" Taking a huge gulp of air that was audible even over the phone line, the blond began to ramble at the top of his lungs, his words punctured by erratic crashes as he hastily attempted to get ready to leave. "I am…going to be…there…in like ten minutes…DON'T SHOWER UNTIL I GET THERE!"

And with a click the line disconnected.

Rolling her eyes, Sakura didn't even bother attempting to call back and instead tucked the phone back into the pocket of her school uniform skirt as she headed into the kitchen to finish the cookies.

Five minutes later, a thunderous pounding on her front door, accompanied by a metallic scrabbling, announced the arrival of her cousin.

"Where are they?" he demanded, bounding into her kitchen like an orange whirlwind, the spare key to her house dangling from his hand.

In the process of sliding a tray of cookies into the oven, Sakura merely shrugged in response, waiting until it was in and the oven door closed before straightening to reply, "They were headed to the parlor the last time I saw them. Now that you're here I'm going to…go…shower," she finished, raising an eyebrow at the now-empty space beside her, the blond having departed the premises as soon as she'd informed him of the others' whereabouts.

"Fine then, Naruto," she muttered, injecting a touch of petulance into her tone. "I'll just go shower then."

Setting the timer to her cookies, she wiped her flour-powdered hands on a handy dishcloth and headed upstairs.

"Sakura-chan…are the cookies done yet?" Naruto whined as soon as Sakura reappeared downstairs, flushed from her shower.

"Almost," she told him, flashing the boys in the parlor a lopsided grin as she disappeared into the kitchen. "Almost…"

She dumped the trays of cookies onto a wide platter, setting several aside for Naruto to take with him for his parents and Kakashi. "Naruto and his stoma-," the front doorbell interrupted her with a loud, musical chime.

"Coming!" she called as she trotted to the front door.

A small grin blossomed across her elfin features as she took in both her tutor, and the familiar orange sedan idling in the driveway, utterly careless of how she looked in her acid-green pajama pants and the orange "Life's Always Better With RAMEN" t-shirt she'd gotten from Naruto for Christmas last year.

"Baking again, Sakura-san?" her tutor asked, his obsidian eyes amused as he regarded her under hooded lids, taking in a deep breath of the warm, spicy aroma emanating from the interior of her house. "I assume the others are here too."

"An accurate assumption," she teased, suppressing the usual twinge of irritation at the formal honorific. They'd known each other since childhood but since middle school he'd gone from calling her "Sakura" to the more polite "Sakura-san," and the change hadn't been wanted on her part. "They're in the parlor. I'm just going to run out and say hi to Minato-san…"

"See you inside," Itachi said, easily slipping past her into the familiar Haruno residence as Sakura breezed by to the car in the driveway, forcing himself not to pause as her fragrance enveloped him in a light sweetness on her way out, a scent that momentarily overpowered the aroma of her cookies.

On her part, Sakura merely nodded as she dashed out to greet her aunt and uncles as they exited Minato's vibrantly colored car.

"Hey there, Sakura-chan!" her blond uncle greeted, swinging her around like a child as he enveloped her in a bear hug that warmed her to the core in the cool autumn afternoon.

"Hi, Minato-san, Kushina-san, Kakashi-sensei!" the rose-haired seventeen-year-old laughed as she was finally put down. "Are you here for Naruto-kun?"

"He's not missing out on our ski trip," Naruto's mother said cheerily, pulling her niece-by-marriage into a less energetic hug than her husband, long sunset hair tickling the girl's cheeks. "We figured if he wasn't home he was going to be at your place."

"You didn't try checking Sasuke's place?" Sakura asked with surprise. "The two of them are nearly inseparable."

Kushina laughed and shook her head, running her fingers through the younger girl's vibrant tresses. It was truly amusing to her how the sharp, practically sassy, girl didn't realize how appealing she was to the males around her. Naruto's mother had even caught Kakashi stealing possibly covetous glances at the girl when he thought no one was looking.

"Well, please come inside," Sakura urged, "I baked spiced jam cookies."

"We'd love to Sakura-chan," the crimson-haired woman apologized, "but we really do need to go. Could you get Naruto-kun out for us? You know if we come in we'll never be able to leave."

The girl smiled beatifically, "Of course. I'll go get him." And with a last wave, she trotted back indoors.

"Naruto-kun! Your parents are here!"

"Already?! But I haven't had any cookies!"

Tossing rose-hued hair over her shoulder, the high school senior laughed carelessly, "I already have a plate for you and your family to take."

The orange and blond blur that collided with her crushed her ribs as he nuzzled the column of her throat until she was breathlessly giggling in his arms. "L-let go!" she yelped. "I c-can't get…the cookies!"

Immediately, she was released.

"Hey, baka. Quit slowing Sakura down, you're not the only one who wants cookies."

The pair turned, the girl in question raising a single eyebrow at the sight of all three Uchiha boys standing by the doorway to the parlor.

"Oi, Sasuke-teme, stay away from my cookies!" Naruto snapped as Sakura peeled his arms off her and slipped into the kitchen for the sought-after cookies. "Sakura-chan never expected you to come over and have any!"

The seventeen-year-old blond winced as the emerging girl smacked him upside the head.

"Itachi is my tutor. I was going to send some cookies to their house when he left," Sakura admonished as she plunked a plate of her spiced jam cookies into the blond's hands.

"But, Sakura-chan-," Naruto began, glaring as smirks of varying smugness flittered across the faces of the three Uchihas.

"But nothing," the girl told him. "Your parents and Kakashi-sensei are waiting, hurry up and go."

"Okay, okay," the blond caved, throwing his best friend a puppy dog look, "I'll go. But…" he added, a cunning glint in his cerulean eyes, "I'll see you as soon!" And with a chilling snicker, he laid a lightning fast kiss on her cheek. "See ya!"

"Geez, Naruto!"

The cheeky blond laughed carelessly, waving at the three very jealous dark-haired males standing behind the strawberry-haired girl as he disappeared into the sleek orange sedan. He had been stealing kisses like that from his Sakura-chan since the two of them had been little kids, a point he had over the more strictly raised Uchiha guys who were less prone to such open displays of affection.

"Stop snickering to yourself and hand over some of the cookies," Kakashi said, stealing a handful of the warm treats.

A shout of "Oi, Kakashi-sensei!" floated back to the Haruno residence as the car peeled out onto the street.

Sakura sighed to herself. "He still acts like such a kid sometimes," the girl mumbled, reentering her house. "The rest of the cookies are in the parlor, and after you and you have some," she said authoritatively, gesturing to Shisui and Sasuke, "you need to go so I can get help on my calculus homework." Gaining the requisite agreement she wanted, she let a cheery smile brighten her features. "Then I'll go get milk for us, help yourselves to the cookies."

The baked treat was sweet; with a tangy hint of orange zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, and something else he couldn't quite name that complemented the raspberry-apricot jam deliciously, and strangely crispy. The obsidian-eyed male wondered if Sakura had added more sugar in the cookies than usual. They were crumblier and sweeter than usual, the taste accompanied by a slightly burnt flavor that usually occurred when the cookies were baked with too much sugar.

"These are really good, Sakura!" his cousin exclaimed, voicing his opinion with Naruto-like enthusiasm.

"Thanks, Shisui," his tutoring student replied, tucking a stray lock of rose-petal hair behind an ear as she reappeared with a jug of milk and some cups in one hand. "I added a little pumpkin pie spice to the mix this time."

"Shisui's right, Sakura," Sasuke added, taking another spiced treat. "They're very good. You should try one."

Sakura nodded agreeably as she, too, reached for a cookie, pushing the milk-filled tumblers to the others.

The cold, creamy liquid was refreshing after the sweet dryness of the spiced jam cookies, and Itachi thanked Sakura's absent parents for being sensible enough to buy whole milk instead of the watered-down fat-free and low-fat milk his parents were always getting.

Really, there was much about the emerald-eyed girl that was wonderfully beneficial, not merely limited to the fact that there was whole milk available at her house. As if magnified by the thoughts in his mind, Sakura seemed to blossom in his vision, her hair growing an even richer strawberry hue, growing taller until he had to look up into her sparkling, emerald eyes.

Wait, that wasn't right.

The cookie she had taken from the platter tumbled from her fingers, untasted.

"Sakura…you look…taller," Shisui said, voicing the thought that had suddenly blossomed in Itachi's own mind.

Her viridian eyes were wide, lips trembling as they moved soundlessly as she tried to speak. She was surprisingly pale, he noted, the normally rosy flush in her cheeks draining away to leave her looking almost unhealthily pallid. Her pink lips, the cherry blossom hue of her namesake, parted in a silent gasp as she took in a breath, and finally found her voice.

"I'm not bigger. You…" she swallowed hard, as if afraid to put voice to the words she was about to say. "You shrunk Shisui…you shrunk when you guys turned into cats."

Too cliche? ^^; I hope not. Yes, I did do the whole, turning people into kitties thing, but...hopefully you guys liked it? ^^

Please review and tell me what you think and whether or not I should continue on with this strange fic of magic and mayhem. The muse would appreciate her usual cookies ^^ thank you!