Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters.
Note: Please keep in mind that this story is based upon Jane Lindskold's novel Through Wolf's Eyes and is not all of my own creation.
Through Fox's Eyes
Chapter Ten
Deep blue eyes blinked childishly at the young teen. His mussed, spiky hair was a rich sun kissed blonde, that if properly cared for would be stunning, and his skin was a perfect shade of tan that any girl would die to have. The boy, around her age from his looks, slowly stood and Sakura blushed as his arms fell to his side, exposing his naked chest. She lowered her eyes only to bring them back up as the lounge pants began slipping lower on his slim hips. "U-um…" She stuttered, glancing furiously from his face to his feet that were barefoot. "Who's this, I-Iruka-sensei?"
Kitsune slowly stood, curiously looking at the creature before him. It looked human, it had two arms and two legs, but anyone could obviously tell something was wrong with it.
For beginners, its fur was one piece that started above the knee and ended at its shoulders. It then split up the sides and its legs suddenly turned black beneath it making Kitsune shudder at the sight. The deep red fur reminded him of blood and her green eyes were of a color he had never seen before, this creature surely wasn't human then with eyes like that. Slowly traveling upward, he took in the protruding lumps on her chest and her atrocious pink hair that matched her claws perfectly.
And it smelled bad.
Every time he sniffed the air, his nostrils were filled with a horrid, overpowering stench that stung his nose and eyes. He couldn't place the smell, but it was certainly coming from the creature and it was making his head hurt the longer he stayed near it. Kitsune leaned slightly closer to get a better look at the creature before backing away again, a sudden conclusion coming to mind: It was sick. His eyes widened and he quickly retreated a safe distance as to keep the sickly thing at bay, warily watching its every move.
Iruka stepped aside and waved Sakura in, "It'd be better if you came in Sakura."
"Thanks Iruka-sensei." She said, smiling a bit as she stepped into the mansion, her sandals clapping against the marble floor. She quickly slipped her shoes off and into a pair of slippers that probably belonged to the boy now standing a couple paces away.
"You don't have to call me that anymore, Hatake-san is your sensei now." He said as he closed the door, not wanting to relay Naruto's past once again.
Clasping her hands in front of her, she looked around the sparse room and said absently, "I guess it's just habit really."
"Why don't you sit down and I'll make you some tea."
"Oh, that's all right, I just came by to make sure Sasuke-kun is all right. He disappeared without a word and scared everyone at the hospital, but I thought he'd come home, it seemed plausible."
"Well, you always were one of my brightest students." Iruka smiled.
Sakura smiled back and looked around for the now missing boy, spotting him by the stairwell, inching his way towards the first stair. "So um…who's he?" She asked, pointing at the blonde, who froze, his eyes as large as saucers.
"That's Naruto."
"Hi!" She called, giving him a friendly wave that sent him halfway up the stairs.
The blonde quickly retreated, crouching down and looking at Sakura from between the banister. Wary fear filled his eyes and he bared his teeth in a half snarl, hoping to scare the disease away.
"Naruto!" Iruka reprimanded, shooting him a disapproving look that the blonde had the decency to cower at. "I expect better manners from you, come down here this instant and greet Sakura properly."
"No." He narrowed his eyes challengingly.
"I said, come down here."
The blonde shook his head vigorously, vehemently refusing to budge from his spot.
Sakura frowned, "Is he an exchange shinobi from another village Iruka-san? Is that why I haven't seen him before?"
"You could…say that." He answered, "He doesn't understand much of our language so I'm teaching him. He's a special case, he hasn't had much training and so I'm trying to catch him up to speed with his peers."
"That's so cool!" She gasped, clasping her hands together with a loud clap.
"He's a bit skittish as you can see, he doesn't trust people easily."
"Why's he here though? With Sasuke-kun?"
"Sasuke seemed to be the first to gain his trust." He said truthfully, "Naruto doesn't want to leave him and we can't leave them."
"We?" She asked quizzically before her eyes widened. "Oh! You mean Kakashi-sensei and you. So then Ino was right about you two being a couple."
Iruka's face faltered before sputtering, "W-what? A couple? Me a-and him?"
"Aw, why so shy koibito?" A deep voice asked before the teacher was pulled into a strong embrace. "Everyone already knows…"
"K-K-Kakashi!" He yelled, vainly trying to pull away from the jounin's grip.
"How about a little kiss, hmm?" His eye crinkled in amusement as the teacher's face became tinged with pink at the thought. Not being able to resist, Kakashi bent down to nuzzle Iruka's neck teasingly but instead found himself being slammed into a wall without any warning. Iruka…? Opening his eye, he groaned as his head began to throb and focused slowly on the teacher before his gaze slipped downward.
Standing between him and Iruka was an enraged Kitsune, his eyes dilated to small slits and a killing aura radiating off him. His body was bent low to the ground, one hand bracing him on the cold marble while the other hovered over it, and his eyes focused solely on Kakashi. Despite the fact his eyes were still blue, his fangs had grown and were slightly protruding over his bottom lip while his fingernails had grown longer and thicker as if they were claws.
This was truly Kitsune, not Naruto or Kyuubi, but the one who was half fox and half human. He was the most dangerous for he thought like a human but had the speed, the power and the cunning of a fox. "Shit." He whispered as he pushed away from the wall, and that about summed it up. Pissing off Kitsune was practically asking for your execution and it was something that Kakashi and Iruka had learned to avoid.
"Mine!" The blonde fox growled, clenching one claw tightly.
"Easy Kitsune," Kakashi said slowly, taking a hesitant step, "I was only joking around."
Blue eyes darted from Kakashi to Iruka and then back again. "You hurt nii-san."
"No!" Iruka said, snapping out of his stupor. "No, Kitsune, he was only kidding. I'm fine, see?" He gave the blonde a large smile and held his hand out to him.
Kitsune cocked his head, "Fine?"
"Yes, I'm not hurt."
Very slowly, the blonde fox stood, his eyes warily watching the silver jounin, but he didn't attack. "What is…joke?" He asked after a minute, his canines and claws shrinking back.
"Prank, doing something without…meaning it." Iruka tried to explain.
His brow furrowed. "No understand."
He sighed, "Joking is—"
"Why don't you ask Sasuke what joking is, Naruto?" Kakashi broke in, his eye crinkling in a smile. "And then bring him down here, okay?"
Kitsune nodded and began up the stairs, but kept glancing back to make sure his nii-san was still all right. The fox within him kept whispering to kill him, he had hurt his 'mother' and it was only right to do so, but Kitsune didn't think Iruka would approve so he ignored the fox. He would hunt later tonight and feed the blood lust within him while all the others slept.
Kitsune knocked on the door before entering, something Iruka told him was important for some reason. He didn't understand why tapping on wood made it safe to enter, but humans were weird.
"Dobe, you're supposed to wait until I say 'come in' and then enter." Raven-Hair murmured from his bed.
"Huh?"
"Never mind." The boy slowly turned on his side and cocked an eyebrow at him. "What do you want?"
"Told ask…" he frowned, "what joke?"
Raven-Hair grimaced at his vocabulary, or lack thereof, and shook his head. "Unless you can use proper grammar, I will not answer you."
"G-grammear?"
"Gramm-ar." He slowly pronounced.
"Grammar." Then he gave him a quizzical look. "What's grammar?"
"It's speaking correctly."
"Oh."
Raven-Hair sighed, "Was that it?"
The blonde fox bit on his bottom lip, trying to decide if he should bring his alpha near the diseased creature. "Wanted downfloor but…me not want downfloor." He finally said brokenly.
"Downstairs dobe, its stairs, not floor."
"S-stairs."
"Good."
The fox knew that word and beamed up at his alpha. It was a good thing Raven-Hair decided to stop sleeping because he was starting to get bored without his odd playmate, without the dark human the den had become much too dull. "How joke gram-ear…good?"
Raven-Hair gritted his teeth, dulling the sharp response on the tip of his tongue while curious blue eyes stared up at him, waiting. "Say 'what is a joke?' dobe, not 'what joke?'"
"What is joke?" Kitsune asked, his mind mulling over the word 'dobe'. Raven-Hair called him that often so maybe it was a name of endearment like 'Naru-kun.' He crinkled his nose, he had no idea where that name came from but it was making his head hurt thinking about it.
"To joke means to say something without meaning it or do something for fun."
"What?"
Raven-Hair ran a hand through his hair, rolling his eyes as he slid off the bed. "Close your eyes." He commanded, walking towards the blonde fox as the confused youth did as he was told. "Now give me your hand." Slowly Kitsune outstretched his hand, his lips quirked in confusion while keeping his eyes tightly closed. Raven-Hair smirked as he grabbed Kitsune's wrist and spit in his hand.
In surprise, Kitsune grabbed back his hand and hissed, scowling at the human. He snorted while wiping the spit on his pants and then crossed his arms over his chest, his lips forming a pout. "Teme."
"That's a joke." Raven-Hair said just before walking passed the blonde and down the stairs to meet the others.
Kitsune looked at his right hand curiously, puzzling over what he had just learned. Spitting in one's hand was a joke? So…joke meant doing something another didn't like? He pondered over it while he blindly followed his leader, not even thinking about where he was walking until they were nearing the kitchen where the sick human's scent reached his nostrils. Sneezing, he shook his head to clear his mind of that awful smell and grabbed Raven-Hair's wrist in an attempt to keep him away from the sickness. "No."
"What?" Raven-Hair glared over his shoulder at him, focusing on where Kitsune's hand encircled his wrist.
"No. Bad. No go." He said, biting his lip as he tried to form better sentences.
He tried to pull his wrist away from the blonde's grip, but the fox was proving more powerful than he had first thought. "I'm hungry, now let go."
"No." The grip tightened painfully and Raven-Hair had to fight back a wince.
"Why?"
Kitsune pondered over as the sick creature appeared in the doorway with a large smile on its face. Pointing at it, he thought back to what Raven-Hair told him earlier, though it was hazy. "D…deadly, bad, p-poi-sion-ed, bad, bad, bad." He said while the creature's face became red with each passing word. "Cursssssed?"
"WHAT?" A shriek came from the creature.
Sasuke groaned inwardly, Sakura's face was red with anger and getting redder as the blonde dobe continued to babble words about her. His teammate was very sensitive to anything said about her looks and forehead, it always sent her into a rage, which was usually towards her best friend/rival Ino.
"WHAT?" She shrieked, bringing the other two ninjas to the juncture between the kitchen and the living room. "How dare you! Do you even know who you're talking to your brat?" Screaming, she pointed at Naruto—who had taken to hiding behind Sasuke's legs—and took a step forward, "I'm called the Flower of Konoha, I'm one of the most beautiful women in the land and you dare insult me?"
Naruto cringed, whimpering and shrinking lower to the ground. She was scary and he didn't know what to do other than let Sasuke deal with it. He was stronger after all. "Scary." He muttered, closing his eyes against the girl.
"Scary? Scary? I'll show you scary you idiot! I'll show you how to treat a woman, even if I have to beat it into you." She rolled up her sleeve on one arm and began towards the blonde to pummel him into the ground, but Kakashi pulled her back, shaking his head.
"Calm down Sakura, he doesn't know what he's saying." The jounin said.
Sakura turned her deadly gaze on her sensei and pointed at Naruto. "That thing just insulted me and you want me to stay calm?"
"Do you remember what he just did to me a couple minutes ago?" He asked in a calm voice, his eyes never wavering from hers.
She paused, her anger dissipating at the thought of what the blonde could do. "I…"
"If he was truly angry or thought you were a threat to one of us, you'd be dead."
She looked back at the frightened blonde; he didn't look like anyone who could hurt another. He even looked like a civilian, unable to protect himself from an attack, but what Kakashi-sensei said was true, he was able to hit their teacher—a feat they hadn't even been able to do yet. Oh, they've come close, but they had never drawn blood or even got a head on hit in before. "I didn't think…"
"Right, you didn't." Then Kakashi turned away and disappeared into the kitchen, humming a tune as he moved to finish setting the table.
"Naruto." Sasuke said coolly, making the blonde look up at him with confused and fearful blue eyes. He had never been yelled at like that and it scared him, he didn't understand why. "Come on, aren't you hungry?"
A slow nod.
"Then come on, we should eat."
His eyes darted from Sasuke to Sakura, who stood in the doorway, and then back to Sasuke. This time he shook his head, scooting back from the girl. He didn't want to get sick, it was dangerous because most foxes never survived illness, and going near that girl meant getting sick.
"Sakura, go." The genin commanded, his eyes still focused on the little blonde fox at his feet.
"But—"
"Go."
With one last glance at Naruto, she moved back into the kitchen and away from sight. She didn't want to leave him with that dangerous creature, but she couldn't disobey Sasuke, especially in his house.
Moving towards the couch, Sasuke sat down and waited as the fox crawled onto the couch beside him, his eyes darting nervously from Sasuke to where Sakura had stood. "Bad." He mewled, trying to make Sasuke understand the danger he was in.
"Why?"
"What?"
"Why is she bad?" He asked, watching as the blonde's face scrunched up in thought.
Tapping his nose, he wrinkled it and said again, "Bad."
Sasuke tried to muffle his bark of laughter, so that's what the problem was. "She smells bad?"
"What?"
"Smell," he pointed to his nose and breathed in, "she smells bad."
"Hai!" Naruto nodded vigorously, pleased Sasuke understood him. "Smell bad."
"But that doesn't make her deadly."
"Huh?"
"She smells bad, but you can still go near her."
"No. Bad, poissioned."
"Poisoned."
He nodded his head, glancing at the doorway again.
As Sasuke pondered over that one, he watched the blonde fox sitting on his couch constantly watching for his teammate. He recognized the words as what he used earlier, he must've picked up on them and understood them as 'bad', but why say that about Sakura? "…Do you mean sick?"
"Ssiick?" Blue eyes focused on him again, that confusion there but he thought he might've glanced understanding there too.
"Do you think she'll make you sick? Make you bad?"
He nodded vigorously, smiling at the brunette.
Sasuke sighed, dropping his face into his hands; how the hell was he going to explain that Sakura wasn't sick? It had to be the perfume, he always thought she wore too much and that it would give them away to any enemies nearby, but he never said anything about it.
"Sasuke? You sick?"
"No, dobe, I'm not sick and neither is Sakura."
"What?"
"Sakura—" He stopped, confusion filled those eyes again, great, he didn't even know who Sakura was. "Come on." Standing, he grabbed the blonde's elbow and dragged him into the kitchen as he muttered about psychotic feral children. Three pairs of eyes settled on them—well, two and a half—as they entered and watched as Sasuke pulled Naruto over to the table.
Naruto struggled as the sickening scent got stronger, his eyes going wide with fear at the thought of being anywhere near the creature. "Sasuke!" He whined, pulling at his arm in a feeble attempt to get it free. "Nooooo."
"Dobe," he muttered, finally stopping when Naruto sat perched atop his seat like always. Pointing, he started with Iruka and moved right, "Who's that?"
"I-ruu -ka." He answered, still confused.
"And who's that?" Sasuke asked, moving his finger towards his lazy sensei.
"Kakakashi."
Dark coal eyes settled on bright cobalt, "Who am I?"
Naruto gave him a brilliant smile, "Sasuke!"
"And that's Sakura." He said, pointing at the nervous pink haired girl standing beside Kakashi.
"…What?"
"Sakura."
"Sak-u-ra?" Naruto asked, cocking his head at the girl.
Sasuke nodded and then sat down in the next chair. "And she's not sick."
"No sick? No…bad?"
"No."
Confusion resurfaced in his eyes as he tried to understand what Sasuke was telling him. As far as he was concerned, the creature was certainly sick! The weird fur, the horrid smell, the lumps on its chest and the black skin—black skin and bad smell always meant illness. "What is?" He asked finally, pointing at the young girl.
Iruka smiled, "She Naruto, Sakura is a girl."
"Huh?"
"Female dobe."
That he understood, though he had only seen a handful of females in the woods. Eyes brightening, he jumped down from the stool and approached Sakura with unveiled curiosity. Her being female explained everything! Though he never scented a female with such a horrid smell… "Sakura!" He chirped, staring up at the girl from his crouched position.
Sakura pushed her back against the kitchen counter, "Is he brain damaged?"
"No, but he hasn't had much socialization." That he can remember at least… Iruka added silently. He watched as the blonde fox examined the girl, pulling on the end of her dress and sniffing it with curiosity. Naruto snorted and shook his head, spitting at the strong scent before retreating back to his seat looking utterly horrified.
"Sick." He yowled, his eyes hooded as he watched Sakura from his perch.
Sakura growled, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at the blonde fox. "Maybe you should teach him Konoha mannerism before our language."
"It's your perfume." Sasuke muttered, not looking anywhere really. "It's too strong and so he thinks you're sick."
"How…did you find that out?" Iruka asked, it had never crossed his mind that Sakura's smell might've brought up this wary side of Naruto.
"He told me. Not in so many words, but…" He shrugged, looking annoyed for having to say more than he had originally intended.
Kakashi nodded, one arm wrapped around his chest while the other supported his chin. "His senses are more heightened than ours; it's why he doesn't respond well to spicy foods either. Anything with a strong smell or taste is unappealing to him, he doesn't like saké either."
"And how, pray tell, would he know that?" Iruka asked, slowly rounding on the jounin.
"He was thirsty!" He defended.
"So you gave him saké?"
"…What's wrong with that?"
"He's thirteen! He's not even a genin and you're giving him alcohol? What's wrong with water, milk and juice?"
"It's all I had at the moment!" Kakashi said, taking a step back as the fuming teacher took a step towards him. Sure he was usually stronger than the chuunin, but when Iruka got angry, there was nothing that would save the poor soul who had stirred Iruka's wrath. "Besides, he appeared and asked for the bottle! It wasn't like I went out and bought it especially for him or anything."
Iruka took another step towards the man, seething. "And it never occurred to you that he might not know what saké is?" Sometimes he wondered about the jounin, like, how exactly did such an idiot become a jounin and an ex-Anbu Captain?
"Whoops?"
"Oh, you better believe so!"
A sharp yowl interrupted their 'little' argument and everyone turned to where the blonde fox sat, looking more miserable with every passing second. "No! No, no, no, no, no, no." He shook his head vigorously, looking with worried blue eyes between Kakashi and Iruka. "Joke? Yours joke? Hai? No…" he paused, "no hurt? Bad."
The two older ninjas looked at each other and then at Naruto again. "Sorry Naruto, we didn't mean to upset you." Iruka finally said, giving the blonde a soft smile.
But that didn't appease him, jumping from his chair; he crossed the tile floor to where the two stood. He held his hand out, grunting at Iruka until the chuunin followed with his own hand. In the background, Sasuke let out a horrified groan as Naruto grabbed the pale wrist and spit into Iruka's hand. "Joke? Hai? Joke?" He asked, pointing at his spit.
Sakura watched the scene unfold silently, but she finally said, "Ew! That's disgusting."
"U-um…yes, joke Naruto. Good job…" Iruka said while wiping his hand off on a nearby towel. "Very good, we're not fighting so go back to the table and I'll get you something to eat, okay?"
Still uncertain, Naruto looked at Kakashi, demanding his hand as well, but the jounin held both hands up in surrender and shook his head. "We were joking! Just a joke Naruto, nothing to worry about, neh?"
Blue, unblinking eyes remained steadfast on the jounin, waiting for the ninja's hand. "Joke?"
"Kakashi, give him your hand." Iruka commanded.
"But…"
"Kakashi."
Sighing, the silver nin put his hand out and waited until Naruto spit into it before saying, "Yes, joke."
Nodding, Naruto returned to his seat and waited for his food, watching with avid wide eyes as Iruka set five bowls down at the table. The blonde frowned, he didn't understand numbers well, but he did know that was more than usual. Watching silently, his eyes followed every movement one of them made until they were all sitting down at the table, each bowl paired with a human. Huffing, he gave up trying to understand and looked down at the new food given to him with unveiled curiosity. "What?" He asked, watching the noodles swirl slowly in the amber liquid.
"It's ramen dobe, just eat it." Sasuke muttered as he slowly toyed with his own food. He hated this stuff, too much saturated fats and salt in it for his taste, and just smelling the broth made him lose his appetite.
Very slowly, Naruto stuck his finger in the hot liquid, hissing and jerking his finger back in surprise. Whimpering, he stuck the sore digit in his mouth and sucked on it, trying to ease the pain that was already diminishing. As the last droplets of ramen broth fell onto his tongue, his expression of pain quickly turned into joy. "Good!" He chirped and lowered his head to lap at the broth.
"Naruto!" Iruka scolded. Blue eyes looked up and Naruto sat up with a pout on his lips, broth dripping from his chin. "Use your fork and spoon."
The blonde gave a small groan, obviously unhappy with the command, but picked up his fork anyway. Battling with the noodles, he was slowly able to eat it, slurping and chewing loudly as he made joyful guttural sounds and nodded his approval of the weird food. "What?" He asked again, pointing at the meal.
"Ramen."
"Ra-meeen." He said, cocking his head.
"Very good!"
"Rameen…day?"
Iruka frowned, "You want ramen tomorrow?"
The blonde nodded, slurping the last few noodles in his bowl.
"Well…maybe."
Naruto beamed at the prospect of the new food, one of the few he actually liked. Of course, he still preferred his hunts, but this 'ramen' was a good supplement for now. Looking over at Sasuke, he saw the dark shinobi hadn't touched his bowl yet and cocked his head. "Sasuke no?"
"What dobe?"
"No Sasuke ramen?" He asked, licking his lips as he eyed the bowl of noodles.
Pushing it away slightly, Sasuke glared at the offending food. "No."
"Mine!" The blonde called before grabbing the bowl, effectively sloshing broth all over the table and Sasuke, and dug into his second helping.
"Dobe!" Sasuke yelled, standing up to avoid getting soaked any more.
Iruka jumped up from the table and quickly began cleaning up the mess. "Naruto!"
Sensing the anger directed towards him, the blonde fox quickly set to yowling his distress, only making the others more irate. His precious ramen had been spilt over the table and now two angry ninjas were yelling at him. All he wanted was the food and no one understood that. Letting out another piercing yowl, the blonde began to cry.
"Idiot! Shut up!" Sasuke growled, stomping away to change his clothes.
"What did you do to Sasuke-kun?" Sakura raged at the blonde.
Grabbing another towel, Iruka set to scolding the blonde. "Naruto, you know you're not supposed to—"
"Now Sasuke-kun will hate me because I helped with the ramen."
"—grab things that don't belong to you. Now look at the mess you made, you should be the one cleaning it up instead of me."
"How can I fix this now? He'll never let me over here again!"
Naruto let out another heartbreaking cry, as he sat glumly on the chair.
"I've told you this again and again," Iruka continued, "to not grab things that don't belong to you. You ask! And this is why, because you—"
"Idiot or not, I'll get you back Naruto." Sakura swore vehemently.
"—might break or knock something over."
Kakashi sighed as he continued to stir his ramen, watching the scene play out silently. He thought ramen might be a bad idea, but he wanted to see how the blonde responded to it. Seeing the scarred nosed chuunin cleaning up the table while scolding the upset fox, Sasuke most likely grousing up in his room as he changed, the blonde crying for his lost ramen and Sakura tearing her hair out about how to get back into Sasuke's good graces again almost made him laugh. They were a family all right, but the most fucked up family he'd ever seen, but for some reason, he wouldn't want it any other way.
Dhampir
Page 10
02/17/06
Note:
Hey all, sorry for the longest disappearance ever. Yeah, like I said, my computer broke and is dead (xx dead computer) and because I had to use the family computer, I had to be careful when I wrote. My mom would kill me if she saw half the stuff I wrote and I don't like people looking over my shoulder anyway as I write, so yeah, I got like ten minutes a week to write.
Anyway, thanks for being patient everyone and I got a new laptop so hopefully I can get chapters out like I used to! I can't promise anything though because I go to school full time and my job refuses to give me less hours. Isn't it usually the other way? Like, they don't want to give you more hours? Eh.
So yeah, here's the tenth installment of Through Fox's Eyes. Thank you everyone for reading so far and being patient! Sorry again.
Reviews:
rAiNwAtEr: Hehe, I don't know yet. I think I might later rewrite the chapters in yaoi form, but I don't think I can handle another story as of yet, even if it is a split. And for Iruka and Kakashi, I haven't decided…
fallon: I don't know about pairings yet. As I said above, I might rewrite it as yaoi later, but as of now, it's more about Naruto trying to figure out being human.
oOKeairaOo: Hmm…I had thought the massacre was when he was six, but maybe I read that wrong. Thanks for pointing that out to me, if you even remember putting that in… - Anyway, as for the jealousy thing now that Sakura has shown up, I hadn't even thought about it. I will now.
Blindseer: Yay! Someone who knows Fire Keeper! Hehe, I love that series, if you've found out yet. Anyway, maybe a Naruto-Hinata pairing, but is she an animal lover? Also, I don't' know if Naruto will pair up with anyone because he's more fox right now than human, it might be hard for him to do so. I don't know yet…kinda following whatever the heck my fingers write in this fic.
Dreamsraven: No sasu-naru yet and probably for a long while…sorry! But thanks for liking it still. Hehe.
Koyoru: Yes, it is Byakugan. Thanks for pointing that out to me, I always screw up that word even with it right in front of me. Sakura does seem pretty useless…eh, every story needs a fan girl, right?
Alex: Both, just yaoi later as a split story.
Insane Dragon Slayer: Yeah, I try to make my chapters long, but of course that makes it harder to update as well. Hopefully ten pages is pretty good…
Foonting Turlingdromes: I don't know, you're right he isn't such a worrywart in the manga, but he just seems to be the type to me. He's always nervous at least so for me I figured if he had someone to care for, he'd be a worrywart.
B.J. Sanders: "Through Wolf's Eyes." Such a great story…I love it to death. Oddly enough though, I don't own it…
Lunabasketcase: Nope, I won't ever leave a story unfinished, but when things happen, I unfortunately will disappear like this. I hated it too…sorry again.
FallingStAr: Sorry! I understand if you don't like me anymore, I'm annoyed with myself as well for letting so much time elapse between it all.
Everyone Else: I really have read everyone's reviews and appreciate them all! But I only answer questions usually. Thank you so much for reading up to Chapter Ten so far: 377 reviews! Sorry for the long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long update. I'll try to do better but no promises unfortunately.