Warm Fur.

This fic was inspired by doodlelover's story Hybrid

Prologue.

"GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" "Stop that." "grrRRRRRRRRRRrrr…" "I'm not telling you again." "GRRRRRRRR!" "Okay, you're sleeping in the doghouse tonight." The owner of this bored voice grabbed his disobedient pet by one big furry ear and started dragging him outside. "DAMMIT LET GO OF MY EAR! Kakashi! This is illegal!" The giant wolf-hybrid pushed his owners arm away. "Will you behave?" a soft growl and lowered eyes were enough answer for the masked pet owner.

His one visible eye crinkled up into an upturned u as he tiptoed in order to pet his grumpy companion on the head. "And to think you were such a cute little pup when I bought you, what happened?" the 'pup' grumbled something along the lines of "you feed me too much" while lowering his head so Kakashi could scratch him behind his ear. "Now, stop trying to eat my cake, you had your piece already, and let's watch the video. Okay?"

After settling down on the rundown and battered old couch Kakashi un-paused the video of two other hybrids fighting in what seemed to be a giant iron cage. "Now watch he jumps on his opponents back, don't ever let him get the upper hand, understand? He's like you, once the cuffs come off he's a feral monster and he'll go for the kill." "I'll take that as a compliment." The wolf frowned at the image of the red fox-hybrid who was gnashing at his cat challenger's throat.

Somehow the cat got the upper hand again and for another 10 minutes they watched the video while Kakashi made comments and his wolf, Zabuza, took in his opponent's fighting techniques. Afterwards they discussed the best way to battle him and took off to their respectable bedrooms. When Zabuza had been little he would often sleep at the foot of his owners' bed, but when he grew older he requested a room of his own. Mostly because he grew much faster and bigger than normal wolf-hybrids would. His genes had been mixed with those of the long extinct dire wolf, causing him to outgrow even the tallest humans, and acquire a body human fighters would kill for. He embodied power in every way.

As a cub he'd been small, cute and cuddly, but as soon as Kakashi started putting him through training he'd started growing into the monster fighter he was now. He'd been moved up class after class in order to even find any willing competitors for him. There was always the opportunity of random match-ups, but the chance that those battles became nothing more than a second long slaughter was too high. Zabuza liked his battles full of skill and fire, thus he was moved up to demon status.

The only other hybrids in that category had a strength and bloodlust that actually made their spectators believe they were witnessing a power struggle between beings found only in the depths of hell. The fox he was going to be battling in few weeks currently 'stood at the top of the food chain' as they in the business called it. However, he'd never been faced with the wolf's monstrosity before, and in Zabuza's mind there was no question to the fact that he would tear up the fox. Tear him to shreds.

That was what hybrids were made for after all, even though they'd originally been designed as domestic animals, the idea of an intelligent pet that would follow your every command had been appealing to a lot of people. He didn't really understand why though, as far as he could see he was more of a burden to his master than a help, but maybe that was just him.

The research project had almost been cancelled when the prototypes didn't turn out as desired; the nature of animals, combined with the human intellect killed the cuddly, obedient following behavior pet owners loved. Because let's face it, who wants an arrogant, headstrong spoilt little piss for a companion? But instead of ending the progress they decided to focus on those aspects to create living fight machines. Everyone had a bloodlust inside of them, no matter how much they might deny this. But since gladiators fighting to the death was deemed inhumane this provided a perfect alternative! Everyone could go see two hybrids rip each other apart, and since they were by law still seen as animals it was completely legal!

There were meeker kinds too, of course, like rabbit-hybrids or hamster-hybrids, and it was possible for them to be used as pets. He hated them, fat, lazy, useless animals that actually felt like they stood above him.

Discarding his thoughts for now Zabuza lay tossing and turning in his bed, his tail was annoying him; stupid thing kept swishing around while he was trying to sleep. Really, sometimes he felt like the thing had a life of its own. But even after the furry appendage had stilled he couldn't sleep. So instead of pointlessly lying there he got up and walked over to his owners' room. He had an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach, and it wasn't for the fight to come, so he had to make sure Kakashi had listened to him earlier.

"-kashi? You up?" he asked the darkness in the room after he'd opened the door. The covers moved and a grouchy face, complete with insane-professor-hairdo appeared from under them. "Am now, whaddaya want?" Zabuza closed the door behind him and sat down on the edge of the bed, nervously pawing the fabric of his sleeping pants over his knees. After a few big yawns his silver-haired owner sat up and patted the nervous giant wolf on his broad shoulder. "Still worried about earlier? I'll call off the order in the morning okay? The office will be disappointed; it really was a perfect match for you and they don't really know what to do with him…"

Zabuza looked up and showed him one of his rare thankful grins; at night there was no reason for him to wear the mask that hid his killer's teeth during the night, a habit he'd picked up from Kakashi. "Good. I already told you that I'm not ready for a mate yet." The other scoffed at that, and raised one eyebrow, "Not ready? Pup, you're far past the normal point in maturity other hybrids pick a mate at, and… is that… oh god! Is that a grey hair?" he playfully ruffled his companions' permanently grey wolf manes.

"Go to sleep now, okay? We'll talk about this some more tomorrow; Tsunade was going to send me some photos so you might like him after all! Now shoo, I need my beauty sleep." Zabuza nodded and stood, however he turned at the door with an unreadable expression on his face. "The cat, what is his name?" "It's a kitten, and his name is Haku".

The wolf left, knowing he would get no sleep again this night.