Foxed!

Summary: Due to a freakish accident while spying on Sasuke, Naruto is now sporting a fluffy orange tail with matching ears!

Warnings: OOC syndrome…although we were going for that so…yeah… This story should be tame compared to our other ones…but we're not making any promises! Also it is Yaoi! You have been warned!

Pairings: SasuNaru! So there!

Rating: PG13…for now…if we don't lose our minds in the process of writing…again…

Chapter 7: The Truth

Then something surfaced in his memories...the one entry in his diary he was afraid of someone reading...Iruka had the diary so he was sure he'd probably read it by now.

The day Sasuke had 'died'...the darkest few hours of Naruto's life. He'd felt as if something had been ripped out of him and there was a hole in his side...he hadn't even been able to think straight...

Naruto sighed and buried his face in his hands, he knew, he knew how he felt as he watched Sasuke die in his arms. Naruto also remembered after the battle when Sakura had yelled at him that Sasuke was okay, that he was alive. Naruto felt tears sting his eyes...why was he such an idiot? Why couldn't he have seen this sooner?

"Naruto...?" Iruka asked after Naruto hadn't said anything for a while. Naruto lifted his head from his hands. Tears were running down his cheeks but he ignored them.

"I understand..." Naruto mumbled. "It's...it's been there the whole time hasn't it? I just couldn't see it..." He hung his head. "Now what do I do...?" He asked quietly. He'd just run out on Sasuke...maybe he would think he was fickle and unreliable...he probably wouldn't take him even if he begged...

Iruka sighed and patted the blonde's shoulder, "It's probably best to eat something and get over that cold of yours..." Iruka answered, and Naruto blinked up at him, he wasn't all that hungry but he was actually really sleepy and light headed and it was a wonder he was sitting there talking to Iruka at all. Nodding his head numbly Naruto sighed.

Iruka watched as Naruto got up and headed for the door, but got up and placed a hand on his shoulder before he could leave.

"Naruto...think carefully about how you want to talk to this person of yours...if you suddenly throw yourselves at them you might scare them away..." He said. He knew who Naruto was talking about...and he knew Sasuke's personality, he'd taught him for years.

Naruto smiled tiredly. "Thanks, Iruka-sensei." He said, and Iruka let him go out and wander into the streets on his way home.

He sighed. "...Good luck..." He whispered and closed the door.

----

Naruto sighed as he shut the door behind himself and drug his feet to bed, hopefully in the morning he wasn't going to be as sick...maybe then he could talk to Sasuke...

But the next day the talk with Sasuke never came...if anything there was a wall between the two boys. Neither one would say a word to each other which was not surprising for Sasuke, but in Naruto's case it was kind of scary. He blamed it on the cold he had though.

This went on for...too long...Naruto was afraid to voice his feelings to Sasuke for fear that he wouldn't feel the same for him anymore and Sasuke thought that Naruto hated his guts and was trying to keep away from him for his sake...neither one realized what the other was feeling, and they took huge steps backwards instead of forwards for every day they didn't say a word to each other.

Naruto's cold went away...and he occupied himself by training practically every moment that he didn't have a mission or had to sleep...in fact sleep was something he didn't seem to do a lot lately anyway...

Sasuke for his part wasn't sleeping much either, he kept waking up with nightmares and to avoid them the dark haired teen would stay up all night training.

Kakashi sighed as he watched his two top students relationship sink like a rock in water... what had gone wrong with them anyway? Was it that they were just to shy with each other to explore there feelings? Or something else? Kakashi called a halt to their training, nothing much was getting done anyway.

Sakura went home, exhausted. She shot one worried glance at Sasuke before she left. He was still viciously attacking a dummy, but he looked tired...so did Naruto for that matter but she didn't pay him much attention. Kakashi told the two of them to get some sleep that night, and disappeared, leaving Naruto and Sasuke alone. Naruto hacked at the practice dummy in front of him, then dug his kunai into it and sunk to the ground, exhausted. Here was another opportunity to tell Sasuke...and he'd made himself too tired to even speak...

Before Naruto could summon the energy he needed to get up off his ass and open his mouth to speak, Sasuke was already at the edge of the training ground walking away.

Naruto opened his mouth to call to the other boy but he bit his lip instead. That slight hesitation was enough for Sasuke to disappear from the blonde's view. Cursing himself for hesitating Naruto pulled himself to his feet. He knew he should run after Sasuke, make him listen or something, but the most Naruto could muster out of his tired body was a sight hobble in the direction Sasuke had disappeared in.

He reached a hand out in some kind of futile attempt to reach Sasuke as his vision swam...he wobbled on his feet, and pitched forward. The world was already black by the time he hit the ground.

----

Naruto groaned as he opened his eyes and breathed in grass and dirt. He very slowly pulled his tired aching body up so he was sitting on the ground and looked around. It was night...he must have passed out...but it was unusually bright for being so late at night...

Looking up into the sky Naruto spotted the full moon which illuminated the training grounds. At first Naruto was not really thinking much of it but when his heart started hammering in his chest and his head felt like it was splitting in two the blonde boy began to panic...he was lucky he passed out again before he sprouted the ears and tail...who knew what Naruto would have done then.

Kakashi landed beside the little fox lying on the ground and sighed. Why did these two have to be so difficult? He wondered, and picked up Naruto, tucking the small form under his arm. This called for drastic measures...this would either let their relationship actually get to a start or sink it altogether...he hoped it was the first one it was more interesting.

----

Sasuke looked up from the book he was reading in the dim light of his living room as someone knocked on the door...who would be visiting him at this time of night? He put the book down and got up, pulling the door open.

Kakashi was standing there with that little orange fox sleeping in his arms. "Sasuke, take care of this for a bit okay?" he said thrusting the little animal into Sasuke's arms and was about to leave, but turned back as if he remembered something, "Oh and don't bother looking for Naruto for a bit, okay?" he said then disappeared, leaving Sasuke very, very confused and annoyed.

He twitched and closed the door but looked down at the little creature in his arms and sighed. He'd missed the little guy...where had he been all this time? Kakashi must have been taking care of him, he figured. It was asleep...or unconscious and when Sasuke poked it, it didn't wake up, so he lay it on the couch cushion and picked up his book. He'd feed it or something when it woke up...he wondered if it would remember him...and why Kakashi was such a completely weird guy...

Naruto's nose twitched... he smelled strawberries again...every time he smelt strawberries now, Naruto had an urge to look around for Sasuke but the guy was never there. This time though when Naruto opened his eyes, he was confused when he saw the dark haired teen sitting beside him reading a book. Was Naruto dreaming? Over the past month he had not been able to get this close to Sasuke to talk to him…the best he could get was, like, 2 meters away and then that was just to throw something at him while fighting. But now was his chance! He was going to speak to Sasuke! He had to listen! Naruto opened his mouth and was horrified when all that came out was a series of whines and squeaks.

'What the hell!' Naruto cursed and looked down at his hands...and to his absolute and total horror he realized that they were paws again...he swivelled his head around to look at his body...his furry orange body...his poofy tail...he was the fox again? How had that happened? He had to be having a nightmare...he had to wake up...He bit down on his arm and yelped in pain. If this was a dream it was the most realistic, painful one he'd ever had...

Sasuke looked over just in time to see the small fox bit down on his own arm and yip in surprise. Sasuke chuckled and reached over scratching it behind the ear, "Of course that's going to hurt," he muttered "Do you have fleas?" he asked the fox knowing full well that it couldn't answer him, but Naruto could glare and glare he did...unfortunately Sasuke thought it was rather amusing.

Sasuke chuckled again and reached out to pick Naruto up, placing him on his lap. Naruto tried to escape for a moment but stopped. Strawberries...they were all around him. He couldn't smell them when Sasuke was so far away...would it hurt him to just...let himself enjoy being close to him even if it was all a sham? He sighed as Sasuke's hands manoeuvred through his fur apparently looking for any signs of fleas.

Although Naruto highly doubted he was going to find any, the blonde let Sasuke's fingers work through his thick fur...after all it felt really good...and Naruto knew he was a mooch through and through. Sighing contentedly Naruto rested his head on Sasuke's arm. He really wished he could talk to Sasuke right then...he had a long time to think about what he wanted to say but now when he was close to Sasuke...he couldn't even speak a word.

"Well, I don't see any fleas..." Sasuke said and smoothed the fox's fur. It seemed to recognize him...and was contented with his presence. Once more, however, he was struck by how alike this creature was to Naruto...and that just pushed him back onto the train of thought he'd been so desperately trying to stay off of.

Naruto. He was acting strange lately. He didn't have his usual energy...for anything really. He fought half heartedly, talked hardly at all to anyone, and Sasuke was pretty sure he was getting little if any sleep judging by the bags under his eyes...

Sighing, Sasuke couldn't help but wonder what was going on inside Naruto's mind...if anything at all. Did Naruto hate him that much to lose sleep over it? He probably thought Sasuke was a pervert for even thinking of liking another guy... why else would he have run away when he read his diary...

He sighed, as that tiny, miniscule, barely noticeable ray of hope once more shone in the dark recesses of his troubled mind. What if...it was a big what if but it was there. What if Naruto was just scared? What if he actually did like Sasuke and couldn't tell him, or hadn't sorted out his feelings yet? What if...

He sighed and hung his head. 'What if's' never got anybody anywhere, it just gave them false hope so that when the inevitable happened the hurt would be that much more piercing,

Feeling dejected all over again, Sasuke stood up with the little fox in his arms, he really needed to get some sleep and the fox in his arms was all but sleeping himself. Dragging his feet up stares to his bedroom Sasuke firmly shut the door behind himself before putting the orange animal down on the bed. He really did not want to have to explain why the fox had run away form him a third time wail Sasuke had been sleeping.

He pulled on his pj.'s and crawled into the bed, and the fox curled up next to him, comfortable and warm against his chest. Sasuke smiled a little and stroked it's fur as he let sleep take him...he felt like he hadn't slept in ages...

----

Naruto's eyes flew open as pain and a horrible gut wrenching sick feeling overpowered him. He backed out from under Sasuke's arm, not even bothering to wonder how it had got there and looked out the window...it was early, early morning and the sun was just starting to come up...and the moon was slowly disappearing.

Painfully slowly.

Beside him Sasuke stirred as Naruto couldn't help but emit a painful groan as his body transformed. It hurt, it really, really hurt!

Sasuke blinked in the morning sunlight that was streaming in through his window...what was wrong with the fox? Sasuke's eyes flew open as he watched the small orange body grow larger, the ears shrink, and the face flatten. Not understanding what was happening he grabbed hold of the shoulders that seemed to be shedding at an alarming rate.

It let out a howl, which gradually turned into a human scream of pure pain...a familiar scream... Sasuke's eyes opened wide as the fox features morphed and changed into a face he knew so well...but it was twisted in pain. Arms reached up to clutch at him as he screamed again...the last of the fur fell off, the tail disappeared, the whiskers shrunk back into lines on his face, and Uzumaki Naruto fell forward, panting and naked, onto Sasuke's chest.

Sasuke stared dumbly down at the boy he held in his arms...he couldn't even think something to explain this to save his life. The only thing that ran through Sasuke's mind was the fact that Naruto had somehow ended up in his arms naked ...not that he complained, but it was just too strange...especially with the whole fox turning human before all this...

Sasuke's face when crimson...god Naruto had been the fox all this time! He knew! he knew more then what his diary had said!

Naruto opened his eyes and tried to focus through the pain that still lingered all over his body. That had been worse than the first time...far worse, and for a moment he didn't even know where he was. Slowly he came to the realization that he was leaning on something...no...not something...someone...

He groaned and lifted his head up, and froze. Even with his vision blurry he could see who it was. Sasuke...staring at him with a look that he couldn't place...but he didn't like...

"I-It was you..." Sasuke said in a voice Naruto would never have thought to hear out of Sasuke's mouth, "The whole time, you were the fox..." Naruto blinked up at Sasuke and tried to open his mouth to say something but nothing came out. Sasuke's eyes hardened and he pushed the smaller boy off of him and stood up.

He glared down at Naruto and all Naruto could do was stare with wide, horrified eyes. It was those eyes...those eyes of hatred that the townspeople always threw at him, the ones he dealt with every day and shrugged off.

Sasuke had never looked at him with those eyes before...it hurt...it hurt so much...He wanted to say he was sorry...he didn't know why it had happened, he hadn't meant to hurt him, anything to make those eyes stop hating...but his mouth was sealed shut by a lump in his throat.

Sasuke turned away form Naruto and stomped out of his room, he did not look back to see the tears that were now falling form Naruto's eyes. He could not hear the choking sob that filled Naruto's being as he tried to hold back the tears. He did not hear or see this because he was trying to hold back his own tears of pain and betrayal as he tried to escape the pain.

He ran out of his house and into the woods near it, searching for somewhere he could vent his anger on a few trees...Naruto had played him like a patsy! Worming his way into his life as the fox, probably just to get some kind of dirt on him...and he certainly had it now. Naruto knew everything...everything about his family, everything about the self he tried to hide from others, everything about his love for the blonde...and he was probably laughing at him or something right now.

TBC…

MN: Um…sorry…for taking way to long to get this to you. Just so you know…we will be slow in getting the next chapters out so please be patient.

E: Yeah…it's hard to get this kind of thing done when you have school, and novels to read coming out your backside, and essays and tests and…oy don't mind me as I die. This was done with a few unexpected days of freedom that were given to me, so who knows when it might happen again. And yes it's an evil cliffhanger…sorry about that'