Title: Points of Connection

Author: Galanthus

Translation: 7toublesome

Beta-reader for Russian version: Никарина

Paring: Sasuke U./Naruto U.

Genre: Romans/fantasy

Status: finished

Permission for translation and posting: officially given by the Author (Many thanks, dear Galanthus! It is a wonderful story!)

Disclaimer: Kishimoto

Warning: AU, OOC, Sasuke-neko

Autor's note: It was written for myself. The Author is not a philologist.

1) Before reading it is recommended to consult the warnings and the heading.

2) There is only the name and appearance of neko.

Interpreter's note: un beta'd

Summary: They have saved a strange creature, beautiful, wild and dangerous. But is he intelligent? And while they were trying to find his home, the creature managed to steal Naruto's heart… That prissy Baby, with cat ears and fluffy tail…

Chapter 2.

There was a reason Naruto had named the neko "Baby". He was positively graceful, not fragile but plain graceful to the very core. He was rather tall but almost half a head smaller than Naruto in height. Besides, Baby was incredibly handsome even according to human standards, so there was not surprise they attempted to make him a sex toy for some rich pervert. Definitely the beautiful creature did not deserve such fate and Naruto was sincerely happy they managed to rescue him.

On the way home Baby went to deep slumber and snored with slight whistle, his black ears twitched from time to time. But the very moment the car stopped he jerked up awake immediately. Naruto petted his head soothingly.

- «We are home».

Naruto always talked to his charges and it made no difference to him whether they understood him or not. Baby was looking around taking into his surroundings, sniffing and studying new smells all the time. His gaze was a mixture of fear, curiosity and alert. Naruto lived in a small cosy house with tiny but beautiful garden. As a matter of fact he was not so fond of gardening and did it only when he was in the mood for it. But all the plants as well as animals probably loved him a lot and did not demand constant attention and care. Everything in the garden grew surprisingly well but there was an air of primal wild beauty about it. Returning his gaze back to the neko, who was turning his head around all the time Naruto thought that Baby would look wonderful among all that green of the garden.

- «I live alone here», - Naruto continued to explain while carrying Baby into the house. – «And now we are going to live here together».

He started to worry about what to feed to the neko. Naruto didn't like to cook himself and preferred to use semi-finished food products, but he was sure these would not suit the neko. Naruto's mother often scolded him about his eating habits but her struggle against them was futile. In spite of the fact that she was a wonderful cook and her son had grow up accustomed to home made and healthy food as a child, Naruto could not overcome his aversion towards cooking as a grown up. At present there was nothing eatable except milk and ramen in the house's fridge. Thinking that the neko would very unlikely have his eye on ramen and still thinking that he had some qualities of an ordinary cat, Naruto decided that the creature probably might like some milk. So he carried Baby to the kitchen and put him on a chair.

- «Now we are going to have some food», - Naruto said taking out a milk box from the fridge.

Without any hint of a hurry, under scrutiny of these curious and watchful black eyes he was doing every motion very slowly. Pulling out two glasses, he opened a milk box, poured some milk into a glass and pushed it gently towards the neko.

- «This is called "milk". I think you are going to like it».

First of all Baby sniffed at the glass, cutely wrinkling his nose, as he carefully licked the offered substance. Naruto suddenly pictured him lapping up the milk like an ordinary house cat and considered whether he ought to pour the milk into a saucer instead of a glass but things turned out well somehow. The neko took the glass into his hands and made a small sip. Pausing with the milk inside his mouth and taking into its taste the neko finally decided to swallow. Actually he liked the milk as the glass was emptied within a blink of an eye and the neko watched Naruto with hungry insatiability. The offered portion of milk turned out not to be enough. Black eyes watched Naruto pleadingly and Baby produced a small meow. The human calmly moved the whole milk box towards the guest.

- «It is good, isn't it? I just so knew you would like it. Drink, I have some more».

Naruto didn't feel hungry himself, at the very moment he felt only weariness. That had been a rather tiresome rescue operation. He sipped milk with small swallows watching the neko feed. Baby satiated his hunger and felt full only when he finished the whole milk box. And now he was contentedly licking his mouth clean, making the human smile.

- «We will go to the food market tomorrow, the one which is around the corner, and we will buy everything you like. As long as you live with me, I promise I will feed you only tasty food stuff. This is the least I can do for you.»

Baby listened to his words very attentively while looking him in the eye. He finished licking his mouth and appeared to look very serious. Such intense and close gaze was unsettling for Naruto as it seemed to be very intelligent.

Apparently the neko was warm-requiring as he constantly wrapped himself up in a warm blanket being offered to him some time ago. Naruto thought that maybe the weather was a lot warmer in the neko's home dimension. Baby gave a huge yawn not trying to cover his wide opened mouth with his hand as all humans did. Even at the laboratory Naruto had noticed the neko's canines to be a bit longer than the human ones, but all the rest of his teeth looked quite the same. They both should have some rest, Naruto thought, but before they both should shower or rather take a bath. Naruto wanted to have a bath, very much so, but he was not so sure how the neko would take the idea. This was a totally unknown matter. To tell the truth the evident feline resemblance of the neko was confusing and forced the human to have certain associations. The thought occurred to Naruto: what if the neko would be afraid of water, or what if he preferred to lick himself clean with his tongue. Before Naruto's mental eye, an image of the neko licking at his genitals quickly appeared. Naruto's face flushed and he felt ashamed and hot. Indeed he should have some good and much needed rest in order to prevent stupid thoughts and images from flooding his mind.

Tiredly he shook his head. Everything should be a lot more easy. And one should not think too much and just test the idea with actions, so the human came up to the neko, took his wrist and pulled him after himself.

- «Now we are going to have ourselves cleaned».

The neko definitely liked the bath. The idea with licking clean with a tongue immediately went dead. The neko dipped into warm water with great pleasure, producing a long contented sigh. At first Naruto thought to help his guest to clean, then to help him to get to bed and get clean himself only afterwards. But the matters turned out to be completely different from what he initially had planned for himself as the neko was definitely against the idea. Baby produced a growl full of evident discontent and ordered Naruto with gestures to get into the bath with him. However, Naruto decided not to take off his underwear. The salve invented by his granny worked wonders as the neko's skin already started to heal and small healed patches already started to appear on tore back, they probably would become slightly visible and even disappear within several days. Still Naruto was very careful while soaping Baby's back with a washcloth.

After taking a bath, Naruto thoroughly blew the Baby's hair and tail with hairdryer. The neko liked it immensely and placed himself, his tail and his head under warm stream of hot air with evident pleasure. Naruto helped him to wear terry bathrobe and Baby appeared to look sleepy and content. Naruto also noticed that the neko stopped being afraid of him and liked the fact very much. What was more, as a sign of gratitude Baby rubbed his head at Naruto's shoulder again and meowed once more. Naruto smiled at the act and was pleased to see the smile in return. This was a wonderful sight. This incredible creature knew how to smile and that smile made him look even more beautiful.

- «You are so very cute», - Naruto said and could not restrain himself from petting silky locks again.

The neko made content purr and half-closed his sleepy eyes.

- «So, now we are all clean and ready to bed».

Not asking for permission the human took the neko into his arms and carried him to the guest room. Having put him into bed and tacking him with a warm blanket, Naruto lied down at his side and for some time lightly stroke the black ears with his fingers. Baby curled up into a ball next to him, spooning and snuggling, and went to sleep really quickly. When the neko was deep asleep, Naruto quietly left the room. Before going to bed himself, he called his father and reported the evening's events.

- «Hi, dad! I'm all right. Yeah… we got along quite well actually… Yeah, I fed him with some milk, washed him and put him to bed».

There was laughter at the other side of the line.

- «Naruto being the Mommy-hen…»

Then suddenly Minato went very serious.

– «Be careful. He is considered to be of absolutely unknown species».

- «Stop it, Dad. You are treating me like a little kid, as if I'm taking care of an unknown creature for a first time…»

- «I know, I know, but still, please, be careful with him».

- «Got you and don't worry, tell mom I said "hi" to her».

All these small talks with his father always humoured him. Naruto made one more call, Sakura. He wanted to know the latest news on the neko's situation. Having finished the checking the samples, the girl was sure to confirm that the neko's physiology and anatomy were similar to the human's, but genetically his species was absolutely incompatible with humans.

- «To what extent?»

- «Both our species cannot be compatible enough to have children».

- «Oh, that's what you are talking about…»

- «Aren't you interested in that?»

- «Not quite, actually I'm more interested whether he is intelligent or how we can send him home. What about the database?»

- «The criminals attempted to damage the database and shoot the computer virus at the time of attack on their building. Sai couldn't deal with it all by himself and Shikamaru's team is working on it at the moment. But Shika is saying some files are impossible to be restored».

- «What's with portals?»

- «These were the exact data which had been the most damaged».

- «I see. Once you get some news, call me».

- «Yeah, right. Till then».

He should probably write his observations into a report diary which were due to be written in such cases, but Naruto thought it could wait till tomorrow morning. He went to bed and fell asleep immediately. After sometime he was rudely woken up by angry hissing. Baby sat on his bed, totally naked and all his appearance clearly showed his deep displeasure. He resolutely went under covers with Naruto. It was strange, but the neko was shivering all over and his body was cold to the touch. Apparently he was missing the body heat of the human. Before lying down, the neko traced his claws along Naruto's torso leaving thin scratches on tanned skin. His eyes were full of anger and reproach.

- «Are you cold?»

Naruto patted the neko's head and almost got immediately bitten in retaliation. He was being scolded at and angry with.

- «Come on, lie down already and stop swearing. And by the way, going naked is indecent».

Baby preferred to place his head comfortably on Naruto's belly, curled into a ball, showing flexibility not typical to humans, and embraced the man, capturing him with his hands. Naruto covered them both with the blanket. No, the neko was too much of a feline for his own good, Naruto thought, and he was definitely intelligent, but it was still unclear to what extent he was intelligent from human point of view.

- end of Chapter 2-to be continued-