Hajiki

Naruto is 7. He finds a puppy. Will the puppy be his friend, or just another deserter?

"Yea...this works..." Naruto finished making the preparations for his mischief the next day and took off from the Hokage's house. "Ha ha!"

A whine made him stop. He turned his head to see a little, black puppy sitting halfway under a bush.

"Huh?" he walked over to it and the puppy flinched away, but didn't move. "What's the matter puppy?"

It whined and Naruto saw that it had hurt it's paw. He picked it up and scratched it behind the ears. That calmed him down.

"Don't worry puppy! I'll take care of you!" he then ran home with the dog.

-

"Let's see...How about...Pocky?"

"Grrrr..."

"Ok...Ramen?"

"Grrrr..."

"Maybe...Spot?"

"Grrrrrrrrr..."

"Fine fine...Hajiki?"

"Bark!"

"Ok, Hajiki it is!" Naruto cheered.

He was bandaging the puppy's paw after cleaning the wound. Now he had a name, and he'd be Naruto's new and only friend.

"Come on Hajiki, you need a bath!" Naruto called happily as he began to gentle scrub the dog, avoiding the cut on his paw. Hajiki struggled.

-

3 weeks later

"Hajiki! Lunch time!" Naruto called. Nothing. "Hajiki!"

The blonde boy searched his apartment but the dog wasn't there.

"Hajiki? Hajiki where are you?" he saw his window open slightly and silently cursed. "Hajiki!"

-

A black puppy was crouching in the bushes, a little yellow band around it's neck. The target was in sight...20 ft away...Come closer, closer...that's it...closer...

10 ft. Soon he'd be able to jump him.

5 ft. Yes! Yes! Just a little closer.

2 FT! That's it! Now!

"Hajiki!"

He fell over.

"Huh?" the black haired target knelt down to see what had fallen down.

"Hajiki! Where are you?" Naruto called.

"A puppy? Where's your owner?" Sasuke asked the dog, seeing it's band.

"Haji-"

"Is this who you're looking for?" Sasuke held the dog as if it were a germ almost. Naruto beamed.

"Hajiki!" he ran over and grabbed the black dog happily. "Why'd you run off?"

"Bark!" he turned to Sasuke.

"Huh?" he looked at the boy in front of him. "Oh hi. Sorry about that. Thanks for finding him. I'm Naruto, who're you?"

"Hn." he scoffed and turned away.

"Bastard! How rude!" Naruto yelled as he walked away.

"Bark!" Hajiki ran after the black boy, leaving Naruto alone.

"Hajiki! Hajiki where're you going?" he called. The dog ignored him. "Hajiki?"

Sasuke looked down when the dog caught up to him and Naruto slid to his knees, then sat down. His own dog had left him...Course, it wasn't his dog, it was a stray he'd found. But, hadn't they gotten along well?

'Great...someone else that hates me for reasons I don't know.' Naruto turned and slowly walked off, not noticing that Sasuke had turned and had been staring at him.

-

"Bark!" he heard. The dark haired boy looked down to see Hajiki staring back.

"What are you doing? Go back to your owner, that...Naruto guy." Sasuke motioned towards the blonde. As he did this, Sasuke noticed Naruto was on the ground and turned to look.

His eyes were kinda glazed over and sad. He looked kinda betrayed. Hajiki jumped up into Sasuke's arms, but said boy ignored him.

'What's wrong with him?' he wondered.

Naruto stood up unnaturally slow and turned, walking away slowly. Sasuke watched until he was out of sight, then he noticed Hajiki barking at him.

"Bark! Bark!" he seemed happy at least. Sasuke gave a half glare.

"Why'd you follow me? Your owner seemed pretty down." he sounded like he was lecturing a 3 year old. Hajiki just licked him. "Ugh...come on...We'll go find that boy." and he walked off, taking the dog with him.

-

Naruto looked up from the ground as he continued walking. He wasn't going home, he was just walking. A man with silver hair was in a tree reading a book and a man with brown hair and a scar was ordering around the students at the academy he'd be joining.

Both wore ninja headbands and Naruto knew that he wanted to be one too. But right now...he didn't care.

A girl with pink hair and a girl with blonde hair, both long, were smiling as the pink haired girl spoke. Suddenly, the blonde got mad, and they started fighting. Naruto knew he could never have anyone to fight with, because he had no friends.

He saw the Hokage mountain and cursed at it. He'd be better than any of them! The ramen bar was to his left about 50 ft in front of him. Naruto had just decided to go there when footsteps caught his attention. They stopped right behind him.

"Naruto?"

He slowly turned around. It was the rude black haired kid! With Hajiki!

"Yea? What?' he snapped. Sasuke held Hajiki out to him, took Naruto's hands, and placed the disobedient dog in them.

"He's your dog. Not mine." Sasuke said plainly. "Make sure not to let him follow me. Cause I wont be so nice next time."

"Uh...uh..." Naruto blinked a bit. "Right!" he yelled enthusiastically.

'Why is he so enthusiastic?' Sasuke wondered.

"Anyway. I have to go." he turned and was leaving when a hand caught his. He saw it to be Naruto who stopped him. "What?"

"Hajiki likes you more than he likes me." Naruto gave Sasuke back the dog. "You take him. He's not really mine anyway. Just a stray. And my apartment doesn't allow pets anyway." he smiled. "Bye!"

He ran off.

"My name's Sasuke!"

He stopped.

Naruto turned around, smiled, and waved. Then he went back to running home.

"You cause a lot of trouble don't you?" Sasuke said to the dog. He set him down and watched calmly as he ran off to the hokage mountain. "Bye Hajiki..." he turned and left, smiling at the fact that the dog had tricked them, even if he had figured it out.

-

Hajiki paused at a bush and looked intently at it. A man walked into view, just below the mountain.

"Bark Bark!" he seemed happy, his tailing wagging 90 to nothing.

"Good job Hajiki. You may have started a lasting friendship." the old man said with a smile. "Thank you."

"Bark!" the dog's bark echoed as he vanished in a brush of the wind, like smoke from a dead fire.

"Even in spirit. Our best and closest friends remain to help us when we need it most. I cannot thank you enough, Hajiki..." the 3rd bowed slightly before returning slowly and leisurely to his office to continue working.

-

5 years later.

Naruto ran like the wind after the brown cat with the ribbon on it's ear. Sasuke threw some kunai at it's front paws, all three landing right in front of it. The cat freaked and turned around, only to be met by Naruto's closing grip around it's center.

Naruto clutched the cat like life itself. Sakura came out and hit the cat lightly on the neck, it went limp. Naruto handed the cat to the girl, grateful that he'd only gotten a few scratches this time. Sasuke called in to Kakshi.

"He'll be here in a minute. We should head back so we meet him halfway." he voiced in his usual monotone.

"We're getting better at this. 20 minutes to find it, 5 minutes to catch it...That's less than half an hour!" Naruto cheered.

Sakura, though annoyed slightly by his stupidity and need to count to figure that out, smiled because it was true. They were getting better at this. Sasuke scoffed, but they knew he agreed.

They had only been walking 3 minutes when Kakashi appeared before them.

"Good job guys, and girl." he congratulated. "Let's get back. You have one more D-ranked mission before your training is over for today." he smiled visibly and began to walk back, ignoring the bored looks he got at the mention of another D-Ranked mission.

"Come on you two." Sasuke said in his usual tone, regaining himself faster than the others. "The sooner this is over the sooner you two can go curl your hair." he inwardly laughed at the joke. Sakura followed happily, while Naruto finally got what his rival had said.

"Hey! I am NOT a girl! I don't curl my hair!" he yelled, throwing a fit in the middle of the clearing.

"Let's go Naruto! Just drop it. It was a joke." Sakura called back, smiling as she latched on to Sasuke slightly. He did nothing to restrain her, he knew it was futile.

Naruto growled and was about to walk after them when a sound caught his attention.

"Bark!" it echoed slightly and he turned around. A small black dog sat at the edge of the clearing.

"H-hajiki..." Naruto muttered, not fully knowing where that name came from. The dog smiled as Naruto walked over. "I know you..."

Hajiki barked softly, placing a paw on Naruto's knee and looking slightly to his right, where everyone else was. Naruto nodded, petting the dog.

"Ok...I understand...Bye Hajiki." he said happily, a true smile on his face. The dog whined happily and rubbed his head against Naruto's leg before he darted off towards the others, vanishing in a puff of smoke. Naruto locked eyes with his rival, who had apparently broken free of Sakura and glanced back.

-

"Let's go Naruto! Just drop it. It was a joke." Sakura called back to the blonde, latching onto Sasuke's arm moments after.

He somewhat heard Naruto growl and glanced back when he heard a bark. Sakura and Kakashi didn't seem to hear it, but he did.

"You guys keep going. I'll get Naruto." he motioned to the blonde who was staring into the bushes. Kakashi nodded, smiling as he took out his infamous little book and nudged Sakura forward with the corner of it.

"Umm...maybe later...we could...ow...go get lunch?" Sakura tried as she was pushed along. Sasuke shook his head and she turned and walked along willingly. Sasuke turned his attention to the blonde, who was sitting down now.

A black dog was next to him. He barked softly as Sasuke took a step closer and the dark haired boy saw the dog glance at him. Naruto pet the dog and smiled.

"Ok...I understand...Bye Hajiki..." he heard the muffled response to the dog, apparently thinking it said he should catch up.

'Hajiki?' Sasuke was reminded of a black puppy and he stared at the dog with a bit more care than usual.

The dog whined happily and rubbed his head against Naruto's leg before it bounded towards him. Sasuke saw Hajiki glance up at him before he disappeared in a puff of smoke. He looked to Naruto, who locked eyes with him.

"Oh hi. Sorry about that. Thanks for finding him. I'm Naruto, who're you?"

"My name's Sasuke!"

Both boys suddenly smiled softly. Friendship? It's unrefined. But it's there. Say hello to a new day, the sun is rising. Can you see it? Even when they're gone, true friends always continue to help you.

Sasuke walked over and extended his hand to Naruto. The blonde took it and Sasuke helped him up.

"You know...even back then you were a bastard." Naruto muttered as he passed his rival.

"Hn. You were annoying then too." he fell into step beside Naruto. Said boy smiled widely.

"Yea. But it was so much fun!" he laughed, putting his arms behind his head in a leisurely manner. "Come on." he began to walk backwards. "Let's catch up to the others. I want ramen and that's only gonna happen when this mission is over with."

"Might want to hurry then Dobe." Sasuke smirked.

"I'm not a dobe." Naruto scowled slightly, then laughed, turned around, and began to run after Kakashi and Sakura. "Come on bastard!"

Sasuke laughed once, then took his hands out of his pockets and ran to catch up.

I know. Not so great ending. I wanted it light-hearted. This actually kinda reminds me of the ending to Fruits Basket....after the Akito incident. Kindly review and tell me what you think, please? Anyways, this is the last one for now. If I ever come up with more, I'll post them here...most likely.