AN: Well, an update! xD

I have to warn you: from here on starts the Sakura-bashing.

Believe me, I've got nothing much against Sakura, but she'll be a big bitch in this fic… I actually really like her (in the manga, after the time-skip), but nyah. If you like Sakura: then this is not your fic n.n though I doubt most of you yaoi-fans really care XDD.

Anyway, enjoy!

The Prince And The Fox

By SmexLemur, worship her!

Chapter 2: Ah, fair Fox! Thou must serve!

Naruto walked behind Kakashi curiously, looking around at all the things he had never even seen before. He didn't know what half of the things were inside the castle—there were weird pictures with humans on them (Naruto had tried poking them, but found out they weren't real. Kakashi had called them paintings), flowers that were stuck in jars and the ground underneath him was red. When Naruto had questioned about that, Kakashi had merely chuckled as if he had been a small child asking a ridiculous question (which, in Kakashi's eyes, it was) and had said that the red floor was called a carpet.

There weren't many windows, at least not in the corridors of the castle—to be honest, Naruto thought the atmosphere was kind of depressing. Then again, the Prince—now known to Naruto as 'Sasuke'—had been depressed as well, so perhaps it rubbed off on the castle? Or maybe the other way around. Naruto couldn't be sure.

They halted in front of a big wooden door, where Kakashi turned around to face Naruto. "Well, here we are, Naru-chan," he said cheerfully. Naruto cocked his head in confusion—Naru-chan? "Knock on the door first and wait until Prince Sasuke says you can go inside, 'kay?" Naruto nodded. "Good, I'll leave you here then." Kakashi gave him a small bow, a wave and then hurried off. The blonde boy looked at him with raised eyebrows, muttering something about 'crazy humans', before knocking on the door. There was a brief moment of silence.

"Come in," a muffled voice said and Naruto opened the door, heart beating rapidly in his chest. He closed the door behind himself and scanned the room—it was much bigger, twice as big he guessed, than the room he had been. There was a very big bed near a large window, a lot of comfy looking chairs, carpets and paintings. His eyes rested on Sasuke, who was sitting in a chair near the window, with an odd square-like-thing on his lap, looking at him intently. Naruto shivered under the cold gaze—it was weird. When he had been a fox, Sasuke's eyes would look at him with much more warmth in them.

"What's that?" The blonde finally asked after a long moment of silence, pointing at the square-like-thing on Sasuke's lap. Sasuke looked at him as if he had lost his mind.

"It's a book," he merely said. Naruto raised an eyebrow. A book? He had never heard of that.

"What's a book?" he walked over to Sasuke, who looked a little surprised at the insolence of this boy, and took it out of Sasuke's hands, eyeing it. There were strange things on it and Naruto couldn't really make out what they were. Sasuke stood up and grabbed it back.

"A book is something that tells a story," he said, finding it the most simple explanation for it. Naruto tilted his head a bit.

"Really? I didn't hear anything," Sasuke resisted the urge to smack his hand against his forehead. How could this person not know what a book was? Was he really that stupid? "Anyway Sasuke, why did you want to see me?" he asked him. Sasuke gritted his teeth.

"It's either 'Prince Sasuke' or 'Your Majesty' for you… dobe," he said, narrowing his eyes. He did not like this boy's attitude.

"Why? Your name is Sasuke, isn't it? And what does 'dobe' mean? Kakashi said 'Naru-chan' to me too, but I don't know what that means either. Is it like a nickname?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the mentioning of Kakashi calling him Naru-chan—that perverted old man had no right to call him that! He smirked when he saw the confused look on the blonde's face. The boy, despite his idiocy, definitely was rather cute. Especially in those clothes—they were slightly too big on him and hung loosely on his body. The shirt showed a big part of his neck and a small part of his tanned chest.

"Yes, it's like a nickname," he said. Naruto perked up a bit, before he grabbed the book from Sasuke and opening it, curiously looking inside. "I called you here to ask you a few…" his words drifted away when he saw Naruto sniffing the book. "What are you doing?" Naruto looked up, blinking.

"Eh?" Sasuke shook his head and took the book back again.

"Never mind. I wanted to ask you a few—Pay attention!" Sasuke growled, seeing Naruto bouncing across the room while he was speaking. The blonde boy tried to focus, but he couldn't help it—humans had such a different world! He wanted to know much more about them. Naruto turned around and grinned sheepishly at him, while scratching the back of his head. "Where are you from?" The blonde thought for a moment. Now, what did Kyuubi say again? He couldn't tell Sasuke what he really was, right? And something about not being able to tell his true feelings… whatever that meant. Or else he would get turned back into a fox. Well, he didn't want that to happen! Some of the foxes had taught him a bit about cities—now, what did they say again?

"I'm from… Suna," he finally said. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"The city in the desert? You came all the way from there?" Naruto nodded his head quickly. Sasuke for some reason found it hard to believe, considering the way the blonde guiltily looked away.

"What were you doing here then?"

"I… was looking for a job?" He grinned sheepishly at him. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Naked?" Naruto blinked for a moment. That's right, humans normally wore clothes, right? Damn, what the hell was he supposed to say now? "Never mind," Sasuke said, shaking his head when he noticed the lost look on Naruto's face. This boy was so easy to read, it made him sick. "You can stay here in the castle—" he didn't get a chance to say anything more.

"Yatta!" Naruto exclaimed loudly, throwing his hands in the air and bouncing through the room, before he threw himself in Sasuke's arms. "Thanks, Sasuke!" he said, grinning.

The Prince's mind went blank. No one had ever, ever hugged him. Not since his parents—

He quickly shook his head to get rid of that awful thought and focused back on Naruto, who had detached himself from Sasuke and instead opted to jump around. The Prince wondered vaguely why the blonde was so happy to stay—had it been his plan, or something? He shook his head—nah, idiots like him didn't have any plans. He probably got mugged in town and had been dumped by the river or something. Things like that sometimes happened.

He first wanted to keep the blonde as a servant in the castle. He would get paid a very small amount of money and would get to live in the castle, provided that he would serve, of course. But now… talking with the idiot was rather nice, he noticed. The blonde was interesting and didn't seem to know much about anything.

"Dobe, shut up," Sasuke snapped. Naruto did as he was told, though grumbled a bit. "In exchange, you'll be my personal servant, which means you work for me and for me only. You don't have to listen to anyone else, besides me and you will follow me every day. If you don't abide by these rules, I will have you punished. Understood?" Naruto was taken slightly aback by the harsh and cold tone, but nodded. He knew the Prince wasn't the most warm person, but did he have to snap like that? He was beginning to think this was a big mistake… if it hadn't been for the fact that he got to learn so many things about humans, he would've returned to the forest immediately.

Kakashi seemed civil enough though.

"Good, you start tonight. There will be a banquet, so you did come at a good time. Ask Kakashi for further information, you may leave," Sasuke said and waved towards the door. Naruto stared for a moment. "Well?" he asked him, with a raised eyebrow. Naruto childishly stuck his tongue out, before hurrying towards the door and slamming it shut.

Sasuke stared after him, torn between amusement and annoyance.

--

Naruto glanced around the corridor, wondering which way he should go. The Prince-Bastard said something about Kakashi and that he should find him, but where the devil could he find a suspicious masked man with silver-ish hair?

Maybe he should ask? Good thinking Naruto.

"Eh, excuse me?" he said politely to one of the female servants dusting something. The girl looked at him, a slightly snobbish expression on her face. "Do you know where I can find Kakashi?" The girl blinked, before she looked really annoyed.

"That pervert? He's probably reading some of his perverted books by now!" she exclaimed, making Naruto cock his head. "Go to the second floor, second door to your right. He's probably with his boyfriend." Again, Naruto became confused.

Perverted books? They had perverted books? Did that mean—Naruto blushed slightly.

"Thanks," he muttered to the girl, who didn't bother to reply.

--

An hour later, Naruto found himself wondering why he was getting dressed up like this. It was all the idea of a man named Iruka—apparently, he was the boyfriend the girl from before had been talking about. Kakashi was looking at them with mild amusement, especially when Naruto would get irritated.

"Doesn't he look cute?" he said, grinning a bit. Naruto scowled at him—he did not like being called 'cute'. Kakashi nodded, before pulling Iruka onto his lap and holding him there. The scarred-man blushed a little. "Still, don't you think it's weird for His Highness to actually make him his personal servant? He's never really taken a liking into anyone," Iruka mused.

"Mhm," Kakashi muttered.

"He's never had a personal servant before?" Naruto questioned them. "And why is he such a bastard anyway? He acts like he's better than everyone else!" Iruka gasped softly—this kid really did have some nerve to be calling the Prince that. Kakashi merely chuckled.

"Some things… happened in his past, that you don't need to know. I'm actually surprised you don't know about his history," he said thoughtfully. "Anyway, he's had them before, but none of them really lasted long enough since they got on his nerves." Iruka smacked his boyfriend, making Naruto wince. Humans sure were violent… "Ouch! What did I do?" he pouted.

"Naruto shouldn't be calling the Prince a bastard!" Iruka scolded, narrowing his eyes at Naruto. "He could be severely punished for that. I do hope you didn't call him that in his presence." The blonde pondered for a moment.

"No, but I did hug him and said 'Sasuke', he didn't seem to like that though," he said nonchalantly. Iruka gasped. "Oh! And I stuck my tongue out at him." Iruka gasped some more.

"You hugged him and you're still alive?" he looked at Kakashi. "That's amazing!" Naruto looked a bit surprised and confused—was it really such a big deal? "Has he ever let someone hug him?" Iruka questioned Kakashi.

"Besides his mother? No. He never lets anybody even touch him," he replied, shrugging. Iruka smiled fondly.

"Maybe he's finally opening up a bit more," he suggested. "Ah, but Naruto," he turned to the blonde boy in question, who tilted his head a bit. "We should teach you the do's and don't's for tonight's banquet. If you do things like that when other royalties are around… well, I don't know if you'll get away with it that easily. So let's get started!" Iruka chirped cheerfully.

Naruto grinned—this Iruka-guy was really nice. He was really helping him! And not because he had to, but because he wanted to do.

The blonde sighed happily… it was like he found a family, even though he had been there for only one day.