Chapter 1

Sakura had stumbled upon the half transformed fox and wolf when she was exploring the surrounding woods between the two kingdoms. The people in the Haven had told her stories about the dogs, how they were ugly and cruel. She always wanted to find out for herself… I guess she finally did.

"Ahhhh! You– you– you're a dog sh– shifter!" cried a frantic Sakura as she hurried backwards only to trip over a tree root.

"So? Your point is?" replied a shocked Sasuke as Naruto hurried forward to help the pink-haired, emerald eyed cat shifter up.

"You're meant to be ugly and cruel," Sakura said matter-of-factly as Naruto fell about laughing.

"Excuse me? Who told you that?" Sasuke threw Naruto a dirty look and advanced on the now calculating Sakura.

"Well, nearly everyone in Cat Haven, my brother and my mother," Sakura stood tall as she said that last bit.

"So… You're one of those stuck up conceited cats?" Sasuke smirked as Naruto quickly jumped to his feet gasping.

"HEY! I'm not conceited or stuck up. You're the ones who are selfish wanka's," hands on hips, legs spread apart and eyes flashing to that of a cat's, Sakura stood and looked at the now nose to nose Sasuke.

"Hn. Don't think so, Pinky," glared Sasuke as he matched her stance, but instead of cat's eyes he had two blood red eyes with pitch black pupils.

"Well then, why would everyone tell me that?" Sakura changed her stance into a thinking one. Her hand on her chin and her eyes no longer those of a cat's.

"Dunno, probably the same reason my people told us bad things about you," Sasuke walked away as if the conversation was finished.

"Hey wait!! I'm Sakura, the p– I mean… Er… Never mind. What's your name?" Sakura asked, quickly stumbling over her words. She was about to say Princess, but stopped herself in time because she didn't want a friendship based on her heritage.

That would be a lie, not a real relationship. She didn't want that because most of the people at the Haven only liked her because of her mother and not for who she was. If the people had actually tried to get to know her they would see that Sakura was a strong-willed girl, with a heart of gold. But no one gave her the time of day; they just thought she was a weak stupid girl that wouldn't know battle if it bit her on the ass wearing dog ears and a dog tail. So she thought that she shouldn't reveal who she actually was and her position at Cat Haven, she would wait and see if the friendship was real first, and then she would tell them the truth… but for now she would just wait and see.

As Sakura asked his name, she grabbed his arm in an attempt to stop him. She really wanted to make friends with these strange people. She would be the first in her land to make friends with the dreaded dog shifters. But Sakura, being as smart as she was, was already thinking ahead. 'Maybe I could be the key to stop the war. Then we could have peace,' Sakura thought to herself as she awaited the answer of the dark, hunky boy in front of her.

"Naruto!!! I'm Naruto Uzumaki and I am gonna be the next Hokage, just like my father. Believe it!!" Naruto jumped around the clearing, tail and ears still intact.

"Peace Maker? Why would you wanna be that?" asked Sakura as she let go of the shocked black eared, black tailed, and black haired boy's arm.

"Cause… I'll get the respect I deserve," Naruto mumbled the last bit as his eye's look on a sad look.

"Don't be silly, I already respect you," tutted a laughing Sakura as she danced around them with graceful and agile movements.

"Really? Thanks," Naruto's grin reappeared as he pushed Sasuke forward, introducing him, "This is Sasuke, my Brother."

"Brother, really? You look nothing alike and your transformations aren't even of the same family. That's impossible," Sakura looked confused and suspicious at the same time.

"Naruto's parents died when he was young. His mother giving birth to him and his father 3 years later. My Family took him in. Naruto's father was once a Hokage, that's mainly one of the reasons why Naruto wants to be it. To make his father proud," the once quiet Sasuke sure had a lot to say.

Naruto's father was the 3rd Hokage, or as the others call them, the Peace Makers They were called this because it was their job to keep peace between the shifters. All the types. But there was no Hokage to take the 3rd's place, so Mikoto, Sasuke's mum, and Tsunade, Sakura's mum, took over the position as Hokages'. They created a treaty as soon as they ruled over their lands; the treaty wasn't favoured by all of their people, but the ruler's word overruled all of the people's so they had to agree. The people didn't like it, but they fumed silently.

"Naruto?" Sakura asked softly before screaming out, "STOP BEING STUPID, YOU BAKA! YOU FATHER WOULD BE PROUD OF YOU NO MATTER WHAT. HOKAGE OR NOT."

"S– Sakura??" Naruto stood there shocked before enveloping her into a hug.

"Can't breathe Naruto," uttered Sakura as her air supply was cut off.

"Sorry Sakura, hehe," Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, ears twitching.

"Oh!? Why are you both only half transformed?" Sakura poked at Sasuke's ears, making them twitch and the owner growl. But she just ignored him and kept playing with them, making him give off a soft smile at how it felt.

"Hahaha," Naruto laughed nervously, "we kinda can't transform properly."

"What!? At that age, why that's dreadful," exclaimed Sakura as she stepped back from Sasuke. Sasuke growled inwardly at the loss of comfort and warmth he felt from Sakura's touch. He felt nice when Sakura was rubbing his ears, and as soon as she stopped he wanted her to continue so he could get that feeling back, but he wasn't about to ask her to keep going because it would ruin his image and a Uchiha was not meant to be warm and cuddly… At least not in public, because he knew that his dad was warm and cuddly towards his mum otherwise she would have never mated with him or married him.

Sasuke shook his head, throwing those images from his head. His father had died along side his brother when he was 40, fighting the now dead king of Cat Haven (a.k.a Sakura's father), yet Sakura did not know that Sasuke was the son and brother of the men that killed her father. When her father died she had wept for months. Her brother always comforting her as her mother tried to keep the Haven stabilised. If it weren't for her brother, Sakura would have lost herself to madness. Her family was everything to her, just as Sasuke's family was to him. He looked up to his brother, he idolised him. His father not so much. He knew that his father wanted him to be great, but would still love him either way. So when the day came that he was told that two of his important people had died, he became emotionless. No one could get through to him. Not his adopted brother Naruto, or his beloved mother. It wasn't until 20 years later did he become his old self around Naruto and his mother. The only two people that were the most important things in his life. And now he had a third… Sakura. But he didn't know it yet.

Sakura was 30 when her father died. It was a dreadful day for her. She had been out exploring and picking flowers when it happened. She would always remember running into the battle field by accident and her father dying in her arms. She couldn't remember how he died as she was knocked unconscious. Her mother told her that the Dog Kingdom's ruler and one of the heirs had killed him. Everytime someone said that to her, she couldn't help but feel like it was a lie, that they weren't the ones who killed her father, but she didn't dwell on it. She was far too distraught. But she always remembered a massive python in the bushes, watching her as she cried and finally lost consciousness in a nearby cat shifters arms. Sakura didn't know why, but she always believed that it was a clue to her father's murder. That it wasn't the Dog Kingdom's fault, but that pythons. No one believed her though, so she dropped it, but she always thought about it when she had time. She just never told anyone.

"Hey Sakura, I was talking to you!" Naruto waved his hand in front of her face as she snapped out of memory lane. "Jeez, what happened to the both of you? You both grew pale as if remembering the same memory. I got worried,"

"I'm fine, what did you say Naruto?" Sakura looked at Sasuke as she said that, seeing him snap out of memory lane too. 'I wonder what he was thinking about.'

'I wonder what she was thinking about,' thought Sasuke at the same time Sakura did. 'It can't have been the same thing… but… if we both paled at the same time, I wonder what she was thinking about.'

"I said, 'we know it's dreadful, we've been told', then I said 'can you shift completely?'" Naruto was, of course, completely oblivious to the staring of the two shifters in front of him.

"Of course. I can do a complete tiger transformation. My other trans– I mean, I wish I had another transformation," Sakura quickly saved herself yet again from slipping up and giving clues to her heritage. Sasuke looked at her and thought,

'She's not telling us something… not that I can talk, I haven't told her about me either.'

"Cool, I wish I could transform completely too," Naruto, yet again, didn't realize the clues Sakura accidentally let slip.

"Welllllllll, I could teach you if you want," Sakura smiled happily as she awaited their answers.

"REALLY!? We'd love that… wouldn't we Sasuke?" Naruto looked at the older male in conformation.

"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt," Sasuke said as Naruto and Sakura whooped for joy. He secretly planned to himself, 'I will find out what she's hiding'.