Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Naruto or Zootopia franchises. Comments/Criticism are fine as long as it isn't just hate or flaming
This story is a collaborative effort of myself and pain17ification
Thank you for reading and please enjoy
The Dream I Lived
-Chapter 1-
"Man, who knew checking how flowers for a wedding are doing could be so hectic?" Nick grumbled tiredly, the fox dragging his forepaws down his face with an aggravated groan.
Walking away from Mr. Big's place, his ears twitched as the sound of Fru Fru's joyful chatter to her father still reached his sensitive ears. Despite the incredible stress of this unexpected venture though, he couldn't fight the smile on his face at hearing just how excited the shrew was whilst he sucked on a pawsicle.
"I better get put on the VIP list for all this…"
XxXxX
Naruto smiled softly to himself as he finished those last few sentences in his journal before he pulled out some pencils and started sketching up the scene he'd written. He was currently seated at his favorite place in the Hidden Leaf Village, Ichiraku Ramen, working on the final touches to his most recent story.
On his forehead was a shiny new Hitai-ate, symbolizing his recent graduation from the Academy and his now official status as a Shinobi of Konoha. Seated around him were some of his fellow graduates of the academy, Kiba (with Akamaru tucked in his jacket), Choji, and Shikamaru, the four of them having agreed to go out and celebrate their graduation together.
He was right in the middle of shading Nick's fur when his book was unexpectedly snatched from his grasp by Kiba. "Oi!"
"Whatcha working on, Whisker Boy? Trying to make some stupid comic or something? Or is this your diary?" The Inuzuka boy asked tauntingly while flipping through the book at random. "What the heck would you even…write…about…?"
Kiba trailed off with a frown, his brow raised in confusion as his gaze flickered over the strange incomprehensible text written on every page. Turning the book this way and that, squinting his eyes, and even holding a page up to a light, he tried and failed to decipher what was written down for almost a full minute. "What the hell is all this gibberish, man? I can't make heads or tails of it! You using some stupid made-up language like little babies do?"
Rolling his eyes, Naruto quickly swiped the book back while Kiba was distracted and tucked it away in his coat before turning to an amused Ayame. "Can I get some red bean soup, sis?"
Kiba, Shikamaru, and Choji all blinked in confusion as their friend spoke, the words coming from his mouth sounding like nothing but incomprehensible gibberish to them.
"What do you say?" That confusion only grew for them then when Ayame not only understood him, but even responded in the exact same way.
Meanwhile, Naruto sighed in mock exasperation before saying, "Please?"
"That's better," The brunette said with a giggle while patting the whiskered boy's head. "Just give me a minute to finish your friends' orders first. One of them eats almost as much ramen as you do."
With that, she went back to the stove, leaving Naruto to deal with the three very confused boys sitting beside him.
"What was that?" Being the blunt straightforward person he was, Shikamaru wasted no time asking exactly what he and the other two were thinking.
"Just a little something I picked up in my down time," Naruto replied with a soft chuckle at his friends' faces. "It's called English and I can speak, write, and read it fluently along with Ayame-neechan."
"So she taught you it?" Choji asked curiously, making Naruto shake his head negatively.
"Other way around actually; I taught her."
"How the hell did a Dead Last like you learn some weird ass language and TEACH it to someone?" Kiba demanded as his other brow joined the first, his tone more than a bit condescending while Akamaru barked in agreement.
"First off, I'm not the Dead Last anymore, Kibble Breath. I haven't been the Dead Last for almost four years now." Naruto ignored the growl from the dog boy and jabbed a thumb at the lazy genius of the class. "Shikamaru's the Dead Last now, and that's only because he finds doing anything to be too much effort."
"Trying is troublesome…"
"Case and point," The whiskered boy stated while the others, even Ayame, couldn't help but rolled their eyes at the Nara's bland response. "But that's enough about me, what do you guys think the teams will be? I remember Iruka-sensei said that it'll be three Genin per team."
"I just hope that my sensei's a babe." Kiba answered with a grin as he started to daydream but was almost immediately be snapped back to reality by a loud chopping sound. Instinctively following the sound to the source, the dog boy paled when he saw Ayame giving him a dirty look while chopping a vegetable with just a bit more force then needed.
"I hope that horndog gets clipped." She muttered under her breath in English, causing Naruto to cringe slightly.
"…What'd she say?" Kiba asked the blonde hesitantly.
"Trust me, you really don't wanna know." Naruto answered seriously.
"Here's your orders, boys!" Ayame declared a few moments later as she delivered the orders of ramen and Naruto's soup with a "sweet" smile that made three out of the four sweat in pure terror.
"Thanks nee-chan," Naruto said with a little bow which earned him another head pat before eagerly digging into his food. "So…? What do you think for teams?"
"I think that even though Shikamaru was the lowest student he and I will be paired with Ino," Choji answered between mouthfuls. "Our dads are always talking about the next generation Ino-Shika-Cho trio after all."
"As troublesome as she is, Ino will most likely be our teammate." Shikamaru grumbled in agreement as he ate his noodles at a sloth's pace.
"Yeah, I can see that," Naruto said with a shrug. "I'm not sure who I'll end up with, I was middle of the class so it could honestly go any way…assuming certain issues aren't considered that is."
"Like the fact you used to be completely hopeless in the academy?" Kiba reminded the blonde with a smirk which only grew when Naruto simply responded with the bird. "Now that I'm thinking about it though, I'm betting I'd be paired with Hinata and Shino."
"Probably."
"Most likely."
"Why them?" Choji asked curiously after finishing off his food and ordering up another round.
"Tracking team, Akamaru and him have their sense of smell, Hinata has her Byakugan, and Shino has his beetles. And if that is the case I would be left with…" Naruto explained before suddenly pausing as realization kicked in, then promptly slamming his head on the counter table with a groan. "Fuck me sideways."
"Language!" Ayame scolded while bopping the boy on the head, only to be met with yet another groan of misery.
"Why HIM? Why does it have to be him?!"
"What's with him?" Choji asked with a raised brow, causing Shikamaru to sigh in exasperation at his buddy's obliviousness.
"He just realized that one of his teammates is most likely gonna be Sasuke."
"Ooooh…"
"Ha! Now that'll be fun to see! Those two get along like cats and dogs," Kiba commented with a chuckle, before he perked up and looked past the curtains of the ramen stand. "Ah crap, the Scream Sisters are coming by."
The others immediately knew who Kiba was talking about about, all of them having heard his "affectionate" nickname for the two loudest girls that belonged to Sasuke's Fanclub: Sakura and Ino. Shikamaru and Choji chose to just focus on their food and ignore the pair while Kiba and Akamaru covered their ears protectively in anticipation for what would more than likely occur.
Naruto, on the other hand though, actually kept an ear out after looking back and seeing the girls walking by, immediately noticing how both were carrying a familiar dark blue book with the silhouette of a fox on the cover.
"I'm telling you Pig, Menma Yasei has to be just a penname," Sakura was heard telling the other girl. "You can look at public records all you like, but there's nobody with that name living here in the village."
"But why all the secrecy? These books are wonderfully written! It's almost like Menma is actually living in Nick Wilde's shoes…or paws I guess." The Yamanaka Heiress complained and praised at the same time, hugging her book to her chest with a dreamy sigh. "I'd love to pick his brain…"
Unable to help himself, Naruto smirked knowingly as he listened to the girls continue to bicker amongst themselves about the ever-mysterious Menma's real identity. 'If only you girls knew… If only.'
-A few hours Later-
Naruto and Ayame could be found in the back of Ichiraku's, the former helping the latter clean up for the night like he did whenever he had the free time to do so.
"So any new dreams, Naru?" Ayame asked curiously in English, idly stacking up bowls as she glanced at the whiskered boy.
"Yeah, and this one was a real crazy one too," He said, also in English as it was just something the pair did when they were by themselves, while scrubbing out the inside of a large pot. "Some Predator Race citizens of Zootopia are going missing for some reason and Nick even heard a rumor that they were 'going savage' from Duke."
"You mean Duke Cud? I thought he was institutionalized after going mad?" Ayame muttered with a raised brow.
"Not that Duke; Duke Weaselton. You know the scam artist that Nick keeps in touch with and even helped bail out once?" Naruto clarified with a chuckle, getting the brunette to nod her head in understanding. "Nick heard it from him when he was on his way to visit his mom."
"Ah, and Nick trusts him?"
"With a grain of salt, of course; but the fact the news was being kept REALLY quiet about them even missing at all definitely has some merit," The whiskered blonde continued. "Duke apparently happened to see one of the missing Preds getting subdued and taken away before any witnesses could notice. And I can't deny he definitely looked pretty freaked out about it; like about-to-crap-himself freaked."
"That does sound worrying… Maybe Nick should tell the police about that, like give an anonymous tip or something?" Ayame suggested with a thoughtful expression while Naruto shrugged.
"Maybe. Sounds like the smart thing to do, at least."
A comfortable silence settled over the pair for a bit after that as they focused on their work. After about five minutes though, Ayame suddenly started to look a bit uneasy for some reason as she finished stacking dishes and moved on to scrubbing the counters down.
"…Naru?" She started out of the blue, getting said boy's attention while he started prepping bags of flour for tomorrow.
"Yeah, sis?"
"These dreams… You always tell me how lifelike they are… Have you ever worried about them being TOO lifelike?"
"Whatcha talking about?" Naruto asked as he looked at his sister-figure with a quirked brow.
"I mean, I've heard of people that…that had been so shocked by their dreams that it actually killed them for real…" Ayame stopped cleaning completely as she spoke, shivering slightly as the thought ran through her mind. "I know it's silly to worry, but the more I hear about these dreams of yours I just can't help but wonder… If you died in your dream, would you die for real? Is it so lifelike that your…death would actually kill you?"
Rolling his eyes good naturedly with a smile, Naruto set the bag of flour he was carrying down and walked over to the brunette, wrapping his arms around her in a hug from behind. "You worry too much, sis. I'm not gonna die for a very long time. Especially not before I start a big family with lots of kids for their aunty to spoil rotten. I promise, I'll be just fine; both in my dream and for real."
A strange mixture of a giggle and a sniffle slipped from Ayame as she visibly relaxed in the blonde's grasp before spinning around and hugging him back. "You better keep that promise, mister. Or I'll find your ghost and introduce him to my ladle."
The two shared a laugh and just held one another for a few more minutes, ignoring the outside world and enjoying the sibling embrace.
-Naruto's Apartment-
Naruto sighed contently as he flopped down in his bed, freshly showered, teeth brushed, and dressed in a comfy shirt and boxers. Stretching out on the mattress, he just laid there for a bit and smiled as he enjoyed the soft feel of the only expensive thing he owned after Ayame…insisted he get something better than his old one.
After a few minutes though, the whiskered blonde rolled onto his side and reached for his jacket sitting on the nightstand. Slipping his hand into a hidden pocket sewn into the inside, he fished out a journal much like the one he had been writing in before; one that was far older and more worn down.
Running a hand across the cover, tracing over the various dings and scratches, Naruto smiled softly as he trailed a finger under the writing sprawled in messy childish scrawl in the middle.
Zootopia: The First Kindness
This had been the very first script for the first book he had ever gotten published, based on the dreams he had for years of Nick Wilde, a lonely fox child living on the streets until he was adopted by Maria Wilde. Of how he grew up with her love and support in a city that claimed to be a utopia despite that being far from the truth.
Ever since he was an eight-year-old, Naruto could remember dreaming of living in Nick's place, experiencing his life, and eventually recording each and every dream in a series of journals. It was from these very journals that Naruto had taught Ayame English, the language that Nick would speak, and eventually led to her and Teuchi encouraging him to publish his journals as the Zootopia book series.
Knowing that not many would be willing to read a book written by a child, the duo helped him come up with a penname to stay anonymous. Ayame also helped as an editor and spellchecker, helping him translate it over to their language, and then they would mail the finished scripts to the publisher from the Ichiraku Residence.
It had a bit of a rough start, seeing as many in Konoha had not been very…excited about a book series revolving around a fox as the main character; and for good reason. But thankfully, sales picked up dramatically once circulation went past the village's borders. Before long the Zootopia series had risen in popularity, contending with other published works as a top seller within a few years. Not even the latent stigma of the Kyuubi attack could keep the younger generations of Konoha from enjoying his work.
Naturally Naruto kept most the profits from the sales into an account under the Ichiraku Family name to help keep things under wraps while his penname, Menma Yasei, became an enigma that fans hoped to uncover. Thanks to the ever-gossiping Ino in his class though, he was sure that they hadn't even gotten close to figuring out the truth yet, as the most popular theory so far was that Teuchi was the author.
That theory always got a chuckle from him and the Ichiraku; his family here in the village.
With a smile as he briefly leafed through the pages, Naruto snapped the book shut and tucked it away in its rightful place once more before laying back down, his eyes slowly closing as he drifted off into slumber…
XxXxX
"…Ugh," Groaned out a male voice as an anthropomorphic fox dressed in plain green pajamas sat up in his bed, rubbing his eyes a bit with a yawn before glaring at the sunlight streaming in through the window blinds. "Damn sun… Always got to wake me up don't ya?"
Naturally not getting a response, the fox just continued to grumble to himself as he climbed out of bed and made his way to the bathroom, stretching a bit with a yawn along the way.
'Another one of those weird dreams… I should probably see somebody about them one of these days.' He thought to himself while warming up the shower and brushing his teeth at the same time, before shrugging off the thought. 'Yeah sure, that'd go over well… 'Hey doc, I've been having these dreams where I'm some creature called a Human named Naruto trying to be a ninja'.'
Laughing to himself at the mental image as he started to undress, a loud ringing got his attention from the bedroom. Peering out of the bathroom, the fox found the source to be a cellphone sitting on the nightstand which he quickly picked up and brought to his ear.
"Yo, this is Nick."
-End Chapter-