Hello again! I'm soooooooo sorry for not posting sooner... I've been without the internet for nearly two months!

"Come on dog." Naruto called, as he turned the corner, switching on the lights in the main room. Sasuke followed the blond out of the bathroom and towards the bed which stood in the corner. The sky had darkened considerably Naruto stood beside it, yawning loudly, stretching his arms high above his back, flexing the muscles in his back. Sasuke watched as Naruto pulled open a draw and yanked out his favourite pair of pale blue pyjamas.

Naruto placed the nightwear on the bed and reached down and unbuckled his pants letting them drop to the floor. He stepped out of them and threw them onto the floor. He paused when his ninja training kicked in and he felt someone watching him. Naruto raised an eyebrow as he noticed the dog sat fidgeting, looking at him and then looking away suddenly. Naruto shrugged it off; ignoring the weird feeling he was getting and reached down to the waistband of his underwear.

Sasuke flung his eyes closed and didn't open them again until he heard the soft rustle of clothes being put on. He carefully opened one eye and checked that Naruto was adequately covered. Satisfied he wouldn't see anything he shouldn't; Sasuke sighed in relief opened both eyes and found himself face to face with Naruto, who just grinned at him. The boy was knelt down in front of the dog with an amused smile on his face. He pulled something from out behind his back and Sasuke felt something land on his head with a soft phump. Narutos smiled widened and he laughed loudly, clutching his stomach in amusement. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, wondering if he had, in fact, gone mad.

It wasn't until he glimpsed his reflection in a mirror on top of the drawers that he discovered what was so funny. Staring back at him was a furry blue dog; ears flopped down, with an overly large night cap on his head. It was a huge black triangular hat, the bobbled tip hanging down behind his head. Two large, unfocused eyes, either side of a round black nose stared back at him from on top of the hat, and two large, white teeth-like squares stuck out of the rim just above his eyes. It was the stupidest thing the Uchiha had ever seen. Naruto was still roaring with laughter at the dog in the hat. Sasuke growled angrily and shook his head violently sending the cap flying off his head. Then Sasuke turned and pouched on the offending article teeth bared.

Naruto stopped laughing when he saw his precious hat hanging precariously between the very sharp teeth of the nin-dog. Naruto gulped gently edged toward the dog, hand out stretched, eyes pleading,

"Nice doggy… please don't eat my hat." Naruto begged. The dog growled louder but didn't move, "That's a good boy… give the hat back to Naruto..."

Sasuke smiled to himself evilly, loving the control he had over the baka. Just as Narutos hand was about to close around the fleece cap, Sasuke jerked his head away and took off with the hat, dashing off towards the kitchen. Naruto gave chase and dived at him, just missing his leg as Sasuke dived under the table. Sasuke would have grinned if he could. He knew he couldn't get out of the apartment but it was still fun to tease the idiot.

Naruto groaned, muttered something and got down on his knees to look under the table. The dog sat there, head cocked to the side, looking like it had down nothing wrong, hat at its feet – with a large patch of drool and very obvious teeth mark around one of the edges. Naruto swore loudly and snatched the hat away from the dog, checking the object for any further damage. The dog, ignoring the angry stares Naruto was giving, carelessly trotted out from under the table and sat itself in the middle of the room. Naruto glared at the animal, wondering if keeping it here was a good idea after all. Sighing loudly he tossed the hat amongst his other clothes on the floor, stalked over to the other side of the room and flung himself, face down onto the bed.

Sasuke watched amused as Naruto flopped onto his bed. He rolled onto his side and looked at him, his head propped up on his hand. The two ninjas stared at each other for a moment. Naruto smiled and called over to him. Curious Sasuke trotted over stopped just in front of the bed. Naruto patted the spot on the bed just in front of him. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, swallowed nervously but didn't move.

"Come on dog." Naruto called, "You don't wanna sleep on the floor do ya?"

Sasuke glanced at the floor and then at Naruto. He wrestled with the idea before finally giving in and jumping up on the bed. Naruto smiled down at the dog.

"You need a name." He said, more to himself. Sasuke stared up at the blonde, wondering what god awful name he would come out with.

Naruto cocked his head to the side and stared seriously at the small dog. He needed a name, a good name, one that would take a lot of thought. He looked down at the dusky blue pup and smiled to himself,

"Aoi."

Perfect.

Sasuke glared up at the boy, instantly regretting Naruto being the one to find him. Even Sakura would have been better. Well perhaps not Sakura.

But surely he couldn't be serious. Why on earth would he name him something that simple and, quite frankly, insulting? Because, answered the voice in his head, Naruto is a simple person. Sasuke sighed heavily and shook his doggy head, which Naruto instantly took as some kind of acceptance of his new name. The blond smiled happily at him and gently patted him on the head. And Sasuke, suddenly realising the impending doom he had brought upon himself, just lowered himself onto the bed, silently hoping he might suffocate in the blankets.

It was still dark outside but thin rays of blue light from the high risen moon filtered through the window blind, highlighting the sleeping form next to him. Naruto lay only inches away, snoring softly. Sasuke found himself staring at the smaller boy. He had, he realised, began to do that a lot more recently. And not just within the last few hours. He lay close, feeling the warmth from the other boy, and his breath on his face. He hadn't forgiven him for giving him the worst and most unoriginal name but his angry had somewhat dissipated. As he silently watched the other boy, Sasuke wondered to himself when he had stopped seeing Naruto as a hindrance. When had the blonde stopped being an annoyance and became a friend? Sasuke allowed himself a small smile. He had never really had a friend before. Sasuke settled himself beside Naruto and the smiled stayed as sleep claimed him.

Sasuke was only vaguely aware of the sun calling in the morning as he was more concerned with the strange heat radiating from next to him and a heavy weight that lay across his back. He stretched out his arms, flexed his paws and yelped. Sasuke stared. He still had paws. He was still a dog. It hadn't been some horrible dream. Which meant that…? Sasuke swallowed and slowly turned his head until he was snout to face with Naruto. The other boy was still soundly asleep oblivious to the bright sun that glared down onto his face. Sasuke panicked at the sudden close contact and back away, only to find the dead weight about his waist was in fact, Narutos arm that had been casually draped over him sometime during the night. Sasuke cursed himself for not noticing this sooner and tried to wriggle out which only caused Narutos hold to tighten. The blonde mumbled something and dragged Sasuke closer to him, burying his face into soft, blue fur. Sasuke sighed dejectedly, trying hard to ignore the sudden pounding in his chest as Narutos breath gently swept across his neck. Slightly nervous, Sasuke glanced over at the clock on Narutos desk, the smallest hand pointing to seven, the other to six. Team seven were to meet at eight on the bridge, which meant that Kakashi would arrive about ten, nine-thirty at best. Hopefully, Sasuke thought, he should be back to normal by midday at the latest, although he really wasn't looking forward to telling Kakashi what happened. A soft movement beside him brought Sasuke out of his thoughts as Naruto stirred, lifting his arm from Sasukes back and stretching both limbs out above his head, yawning loudly. Blearily Naruto opened his eyes and looked down at him. It took a moment of realisation to occur when Naruto suddenly burst into a huge grin,

"Ohayo Aoi-chan!" he said, all too cheerfully. Sasuke nearly scowled, never being one for mornings, especially this morning.

Naruto smiled happily as he remembered the blue dog beside him. He couldn't wait to show Sakura-chan. Suddenly Narutos eye shot to the clock and swiftly flung the blankets from the bed,

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" he cursed as he raced around his small apartment trying to get ready. Why hadn't his alarm gone off? Even though Kakashi-sensei wouldn't turn up for another couple of hours he couldn't leave Sakura-chan alone with Sasuke-bastard! Naruto leapt about his room grabbing food here, and pulling on a t-shirt there. He tossed a biscuit over to Aoi-chan and paused in the middle of pulling on a sock to stare at the dog. Was it smirking at him? Naruto shook his head and pulled on his other sock before grabbing his protector and wrapping it around his head. The dog wolfed down its biscuit before leaping off the bed and trotting over to Naruto, who was already at the door. Naruto locked the door behind them and ran to catch up with the dog which very strangely seemed to know where they were going.

It took them only a few minutes to reach the bridge, and as usual Sakura was waiting for her team mates, leaning against the railings.

"Ohayo Sakura-chan!" Naruto called out happily, running up to the pink haired girl. Sakura smiled and waved as the blonde approached her. Naruto stopped next to her looking confused,

"Where's Sasuke?" he asked. Sakura shook her head and shrugged.

"Sasuke-kun is never late." She replied, matter-of-factly, "I thought maybe he was with you."

Naruto snorted, "Sasuke? Why would he be with me?"

Sakura shrugged again but her attention was caught by a flash of blue behind Narutos legs. The jusshin could barely contain the high pitched squeal that emitted from her as the dusky blue dog grudgingly walked out from behind Narutos legs.

"Naruto! Is it yours?" she squealed excitedly. Naruto beamed proudly and nodded as Sakura began to fuss over the dog. "It's so cute!" she cooed, "Where did you get it?"

Over the next hour Naruto gave Sakura a detailed account of how he had rescued the poor dog from starving, and had given him a home and food and how the unfortunate animal might have died if he hadn't have been there. Sasuke just sat and huffed at Narutos over exaggeration of the truth, trying his best to fight the temptation to bite Sakuras hand as it reached for him again. A sudden whoosh of chakra caught the students' attention and a familiar voice greeted them,

"Yo!"

The trio looked up to see the memorable form of their sensei, crouching on the bridge railings, a hand held up in greeting.

"Your late." Sakura said, starting their usual morning greeting.

"Ah, sorry," Kakashi began, "I got caught up in the whirlwind of romance and…"

"You mean you were reading those perverted books!" Naruto screeched, pointing angrily at his teacher. Kakashi merely smiled under his mask and jumped down beside his students, stopping to notice the blue dog next to Naruto.

"Well, well," he smiled, "what do we have here?"

Naruto instantly forgot his annoyance and smiled widely, "His names Aoi, I found him yesterday."

Kakashi's eye curved upwards as he smiled at Naruto and knelt down in front of the animal. He looked the dog over and carefully lifted the corner of his hitai-ate, exposing his covered eye. The blood red of the sharingan flared instantly and Kakashi raised his eyebrows slightly. Smiling to himself, the red of the sharingan receded and Kakashi pulled the cloth back down to cover his eye.

"Something wrong Sensei?" Naruto asked. Kakashi looked at the boy and shook his head,

"Nothing's wrong Naruto. Well, shall we get started?"

"Err, demo Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke-kun is not here yet." Sakura said, "Shouldn't we wait for him?"

"Sasuke won't be joining us today." Kakashi said with a knowing smile, eyeing the pup, "He is somewhat unavailable."

"Eh?" Naruto said, staring questionably at his teacher.

"Don't worry about it." the Jounin replied. "Why don't you bring your dog along Naruto? He might learn something too."

Sasuke glared daggers at his teacher. He knew what was going on. The sharingan saw straight through this jutsu, or whatever it was. He was sure of it. Kakashi knew he was really Sasuke and yet he was doing nothing about it! Sasuke glared ahead, watching Kakashi instructing Sakura and Naruto. Kami, he hated that hentai loving pervert.

As if called, Kakashi suddenly appeared, dropping down beside Sasuke smiling happily.

"Having fun Sasuke?" the jounin asked. Sasuke let out a deep rumbling growl.

"Ah, no need to be like that." Kakashi replied, patting Sasuke on the head. Sasuke snapped at his fingers, but Kakashi was too quick, whipping his hand away. The older man grinned underneath his mask and stared ahead, watching Sakura spar with Naruto,

"You should make the most of this you know." The older man said, not looking at his student. "Think of it as a learning experience" the jounin continued, "You rely on yourself to much Sasuke. You need to learn to trust others, to depend on them."

Sasuke stared up at him confused. Then, as what he sensei was saying sunk in, Sasuke frowned. He couldn't be serious. He was going to leave him like this? For how long?

"I'll change you back when I think you're ready." Kakashi said, answering his unspoken question before walking back to his other two students. He stopped a few feet away and turned to face the dog, "Or perhaps you can get yourself out of it?"

Sasuke watched him go curiously and then let out a defeated sigh. He was stuck with the dobe for kami knows how long. He slouched back against the tree and stared at Naruto. The blonde was still smiling like an idiot, despite his numerous failures.

Kakashi watched as his trio of students walked away from him. He couldn't wait to tell a certain brown haired teacher about all this. Perhaps if he was lucky Iruka might be willing to listen to his story over dinner.

A/N: Aoi means Blue in Japanese, and according to several online dictionaries it can also mean inexperienced, which explains the title and why Sasuke is a bit miffed about the name also it's common in Japan to use the suffix 'chan' when referring to girls, young children and pets. Yet another reason for Sasuke to hate the name!

!reposted this chapter cos i made a few stupid mistakes! D'oh! thanks to the people who pointed it out... teach me to proof read more carefully!