DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO!!
Summary: Uchiha Sasuke is a Wolf, banished from his Pack because of his brother. As he strolls along the forest, he bumps into a Fox named Uzumaki Naruto. Only, he isn't your ordinary Fox – he's a hybrid. What happens when Sasuke is mixed up into Naruto's Pack?
Warnings: (Supposedly) aloof Naruto, short chapters, possibly slow updates, possible OOCness, rating may go up, YAOI, SHONENAI, more warnings adding onto later
Pairings: NaruSasu, KakaIru, ShikaTema kind of later, GaaNaru kind of later, ChoujiShika friendship, slight ShikaNaru, NejiHina sibling bond, GaiLee student-teacher bond, KibaHina, LeeSaku, NejiShika, ShinoKiba friendship, ShikaIno friendship, NejiTen friendship, NejiLee "friendship", AsumaKurenai?, adding on more each chapter or so
IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE STORY, DO NOT READ IT! CRITICISM IS NOT APPRECIATED!
Review Replies:
reychop: Wow, thanks so much!! Your review brought me so much joy!! – Hands you five cookies –
Aduro Witch: Thank you!! I worked really fast on it and thought that it might be a bit rushed but you proved me wrong!! Thank you so much!! - Hands you four cookies –
Stained Wolf: All right, I'm glad it's okay. Thanks for saying my story are great. - Hands you four cookies –
Asian Tinkerbell: Yay! I'm so glad you like the Sasuke in my story!! As for Gaara and Naruto… you're going to have to wait! XP Too bad! I like leaving you readers in suspense! – Hands you four cookies –
m3rokoyui: Yeah, it was short because I rushed it a bit. Is your new story out yet?? I want to read it… - Hands you six cookies –
Disgruntled Minion: Thanks for your review! Wow… every time you review, I always feel like updating. No, really, every time I'm about to update, you review! OO How ironic… XP
I'll accept six reviews for a short chapter – but remember: NO REVIEWS EQUALS NO CHAPTER!!
Ehh… sorry for the late update?
Let's read now, shall we?
(We're still on Naruto's birthday.)
--
"Speaking"
"Speaking in animal Form"
'Thinking'
Friendship/ Close Relationship Messages
--
The Wolf, the Packs, and the Hybrid – Chapter Seven: The Betas and Co-Betas
Sasuke and Naruto entered the quiet village.
"Naruto…" Sasuke caught Naruto's attention; "What exactly is inside that paper?"
The gray-eared and –tailed Fox looked at the paper and good-naturedly beamed; "This is something from a few good friends."
'Few…? But only Kakashi gave it to me,' Sasuke reflected.
He noticed that Naruto's eyes were glued onto the sheet, as if reading it over and over again; after a while, he suddenly leaped in joy and hugged it to his chest with his tail wagging ever so quickly.
Sasuke was startled at this sudden uncommon gesture from Naruto and asked, "Eh… are you okay?"
Blinking, Naruto turned his head towards Sasuke; then, he looked back to the note; he did this a couple of times before realizing he had just jumped in glee in front of Sasuke; he blushed – since when did he feel comfortable enough to do that in front of the Wolf??
"E-eh… sorry…" the Fox barely apologized, his Fox ears against his head and tail ceasing movement.
It took a while for Sasuke to figure out that Naruto was blushing – the Naruto was blushing because of him!! (or something related to that)
"Hn," replied Sasuke, not knowing how to react.
"Naruto!!" a voice called out.
Naruto responded, "Iruka-sensei! Hi!"
Iruka ran up to the Fox and Wolf and gasped for air; "Ah, Iruka-sensei, are you all right??" Naruto frantically asked, arms waving around for emphasis.
"N-Naruto…" Iruka spoke out, "they're… vacation… back…"
Naruto tried to comprehend the three words and then, when he realized what Iruka was talking about, his eyes bulged out.
Sasuke, on the other hand, was confused; "Naruto, who's 'they'?"
The blond Fox didn't answer him and waited until Iruka had regained his breath.
"Naruto-" the nose-scarred Fox began to speak but was then disrupted by violent shaking from said Fox.
"Iruka-sensei, where did you see them?! Tell me please! Where are they?!" Naruto anxiously questioned him, tail wagging hurriedly and ears alert.
"N-N-Nar-ruto, I c-can't t-tel-ll you if you k-keep sh-aking me!!" Iruka told the Alpha Male.
Hearing this, Naruto stopped shaking him and then waited for a response.
Iruka sighed at Naruto's ecstasy and then informed him, "They're both at the nursery and-"
The nose-scarred Fox couldn't finish his sentence because at the word "nursery", Naruto had disappeared.
Sasuke blinked at the spot where Naruto just was.
"Iruka-sensei," he said, "Who is 'they'?"
The older Fox responded, "Ah, I'm sorry, Sasuke. You never knew of these two. Well, they're the Betas – Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama."
--
"Ero-Sennin, O-Baa-chan, where are you?!" Naruto yelled, running throughout the nursery.
"Naruto!" Kiba reacted, jumping backwards; Akamaru yipped in surprise.
"…" a Fox wearing a green jacket with a hood, black pants and sunglasses responded.
"Naruto, don't scare us like that!" Tenten notified the Alpha.
Naruto greeted them, swiftly, "Hey, Kiba, Shino, Tenten!" and then rapidly ran to another room.
Kiba blinked and then turned to Shino; "Is it just me or is Naruto a little crazy this year on his birthday?"
Shino slightly shook his head before returning to the Evas.
The bun-haired Fox sighed and placed her hands on her hips; "Kiba, Akamaru, the Evas are going to go crazy without their lunch," she told them.
Akamaru barked and Kiba stood up; "Okay, Tenten, don't rush me!"
'Boys,' Tenten thought to herself.
--
Konohamaru glared at the taller, older, female Fox before him.
She had blonde, shoulder long hair and was wearing gray tang top and black pants; a green cloak covered her shoulder; her eyes were a dull yellow and a small purple diamond was in the middle of her forehead; she looked probably no older than in the twenties to thirties, but she was actually in her fifties. There was also a yellow-green headband around her waist.
Next to her was an older looking Fox. He had waist-length spiky white hair and wore gray pants and shirt with a red coat with two yellow dots hanging over it. He wore a fishnet shirt under and had two thin red lines from his eyes to the end of his face. He also had a yellow-green headband around his left shoulder.
"What are you doing here, Baa-chan?!" Konohamaru demanded, fuming.
A vein formed on Tsunade's forehead and she retorted, "I came back to my village, you twerp – what do you think?!"
"You shouldn't have left in the first place if you were going to come back!" Konohamaru shouted.
"Konohamaru…" Udon tried to stop his friend's outrage.
Jiraiya crossed his arms and looked down upon the three Evas; had they lost respect for the second most important rank??
The scarf-wearing Fox continued yelling; "You left for so long that the Co-Betas probably would've been the Betas already! But, with Naruto-niichan being the great leader he is, didn't do that!"
"Oi, give us some respect!" Jiraiya ordered, finally growing tired of this.
"Why should we you Ero-Sennin?!" Konohamaru demanded, and his friends had to restrain him from punching the two.
A vein formed on the white-haired Fox's head; who knew Naruto could be such a big influence?!
"Listen-" he was about to say but was interrupted.
"Ero-Sennin, O-Baa-chan!!"
The two tall Foxes turned towards the door, seeing a sweating and panting Naruto.
"Naruto!!" Tsunade responded, as Naruto caught his breathe.
Once he had finished wheezing, the younger male blond stomped up to them and snapped, "Do you KNOW how long you've been gone?! Do you KNOW that the Pack was in danger during half of that?! Do you KNOW what we went through?" He tried to punch Tsunade but she dodged it; "You were gone for THREE YEARS! You and Ero-Sennin were gone for so long that I had to have Co-Betas!"
Jiraiya and the youngsters watched the one-sided fighting scene before them.
After a few moments, Naruto stopped punching and he looked to the ground, bangs hiding his eyes.
Right when Tsunade was about to flare-up, she felt pressure around her waist; Naruto was hugging her!
"Do you know how much I've missed you?" he asked, muffled because of her clothes.
Tsunade gently smiled and placed a hand onto her favorite Fox's head; she felt something wet fall onto her clothes – Naruto was crying.
Jiraiya smiled at the scene; 'That brat's still the same as before.'
All of a sudden, he fell down; "Ero-Sennin, I missed you too!!" Naruto exclaimed, tears still falling.
Despite the earlier starry-eyed scene with Tsunade, the scene with Jiraiya was embarrassing and funny; Konohamaru and his friends couldn't help but laugh.
"Darn it, Naruto!" Jiraiya yelled as Naruto sat on the ground, wiping his eyes; "Why does Tsunade have a gushy scene while you make a fool out of me?!"
Naruto blinked; "Aren't you a fool already?"
Konohamaru laughed out loud at that; "N-Naruto-niichan, y-you're so f-funny!!"
Said blonde turned toward the laughing Foxes and grinned; "Yep!"
Jiraiya just banged Naruto's head with his fist.
"You little brat," he muttered.
"Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon, isn't it time for you three to have lunch now?" Naruto asked.
"Aah, Naruto-niichan is right, Konohamaru – we have to hurry or else every will eat the cookies!" Moegi screeched, tugging both of the boys' clothes.
"Bye, Naruto-niichan!" they simultaneously shouted, the two boys being dragged by Moegi. Naruto chuckled and then placed his arms behind his head.
Naruto repeated, "I really did miss you two" with a soft smile.
He was hugged again by Tsunade and she replied, "We know."
Jiraiya reacted, "Okay, enough with the mushy stuff. Let's talk about more important stuff – did you mate yet, Naruto?"
"Jiraiya!" Tsunade shouted angrily, bonking him on the head.
Naruto just laughed it off and shook his head; "Nope, sorry, Ero-Sennin."
Tsunade reacted, "Naruto, it's been about four years. When are you going to recover from then?"
The younger blonde changed the subject; "Hey, did you hear? There's a new Wolf in the Pack!"
I'll talk to you about it later.
Jiraiya asked, "Really? Does she have a good figure?" His tail wagged with anticipation.
Sure, don't worry about it.
"No, no, Ero-Sennin, not a she – a he," Naruto corrected the white-haired Fox.
Said Fox's tail drooped; "Naruto, didn't you pick up any girls in the last four years?"
He obtained a rather strong punch on his head from Tsunade.
Naruto laughed at the normal show of the two.
"So, what's his name?" Tsunade asked.
"Sasuke U-" Naruto bit his cheek right before he said Sasuke's last name.
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow but didn't question any further when he saw the young blond's discomfort.
Abruptly, Naruto remembered something; "Drat, I left Sasuke behind!" he exclaimed, running towards the door, "I have to hurry! He'll be mad at me!"
As he reached the door, he slowed down his pace. "Hey, O-Baa-chan, Ero-Sennin…"
"What gaki?" Tsunade managed to inquire with a vein throbbing in her forehead because of her "nickname".
"It's too hard to forget," he mumbled, barely audible but the two of the three Legendary Sannins managed to hear it.
Jiraiya informed his young student, "You don't have to forget – you can still remember him."
"Naruto, before you leave," Tsunade called out, "Happy birthday."
Naruto exited the door but not before whispering a "Thanks."
When he was out of hearing range, Tsunade and Jiraiya smirked; "It looks like this little 'Sasuke' is opening Naruto bit by bit."
"Yeah," Jiraiya replied, "I haven't seen Naruto this youthful since before then."
Tsunade sighed at the word "then".
'Let's hope it won't happen again.'
--
Naruto raced around the village at the speed of light.
'Drat, where did Sasuke go??' He didn't know why he was so upset about the possibility of Sasuke being mad with him; something about that made him feel bad…
He suddenly bumped into a figure and fell down with an "oof". He looked up and shouted-
"SASUKE!"
The gray-tailed and -eared Fox glomped the Wolf, sending both of them tumbling down. For some reason, he felt really glad that he found Sasuke.
Said Wolf blinked at Naruto's unusual behavior and saw that they were receiving some weird stares.
He blushed in embarrassment and reacted, "Naruto, we're being stared at!" He struggled under the strong Fox's grip.
Naruto blinked and then looked down at Sasuke; his face turned beet red and he immediately jumped off.
'Since when did I feel comfortable enough to do that to him?? The only one I've done that to is Gaara!!' Naruto screamed in his head.
He couldn't contemplate on the subject because Sasuke's voice rang him out of his thoughts.
"Naruto, where have you been?" he questioned him.
"Err…" Naruto responded, Fox ears flattening against his head; "I kind of was excited because Ero-Sennin and O-Baa-chan were back…"
Just when Sasuke was about to ask who the two were, a familiar and new voice called out, "Naruto!"
"Ah, Asuma-sensei, Kurenai-sensei; hi!" Naruto replied, waving his arm back and forth, his ears now popped up.
There came two Foxes: one male and one female.
The female had extremely wavy brown hair, orange-brown eyes, and bandages around her thighs and the bottom half of her arm; her whole wardrobe looked like giant bandages with black lines and occasional spikes coming out of those lines. You could see part of a fishnet shirt around her chest and a long red sleeve was on her right arm. ('It's a unique wardrobe,' Sasuke noted.)
The male had something white in his mouth and had a beard; he had spiky blue hair and wore a dull green vest. He had blue pants and there was some kind of… handkerchief hanging at the end of his shirt; it had some red kanji on it. He wore two blackish rings around his wrists and you could visibly see the blue shirt with a red circle under his vest.
"Hey, aren't you that Asuma person from the festival?" Sasuke remembered.
"Sasuke, you forgot to add the '-sensei' part!" Naruto scolded the Wolf.
The male waved his hand and dismissed the issue; "No worries, Naruto. So, I've heard the new Wolf's name is Sasuke."
Even after months had gone by, the topic of new Wolf was still going around.
"Yeah," Naruto reacted, "Has the title of Co-Beta burdened you two too much?"
The female Fox objected, "No, it didn't. You worry too much, Naruto." She ruffled Naruto's blond hair.
The Alpha Fox pouted before introducing the two to Sasuke; "This is Asuma-sensei and that's Kurenai-sensei. Rumor's been going 'round for a while that they're a couple but they keep denying it."
"Naruto!" the couple both exclaimed, faces reddening.
"What?" said Fox responded, looking genuinely perplexed.
Sasuke looked back and fro from the two Foxes. 'They look like a good pair, I guess…' he said.
"Hey, Naruto," Sasuke said, "What is a 'Co-Beta'?"
"A Co-Beta is a Wolf or Fox that covers for the original Beta when they aren't there," Naruto answered, "Why? You've never heard of it?" Sasuke shook his head.
Asuma inquired, "Naruto, when should we start harvesting?"
The younger Fox responded, "I think we should start in about two or three weeks. Snow won't be here until next month."
"Snow?" Sasuke repeated, unfamiliar with the word.
Naruto stared at Sasuke, weirdly.
"Yeah, snow – winter. Haven't you ever seen it before?" Naruto questioned the Wolf, "Wait… Sasuke, where did you live before?"
Sasuke responded, "In the forest, where else?"
The blond Fox scrunched his eyebrows together and then exclaimed, "No wonder you've never seen snow!" He gave him a toothy grin; "I can't wait to see what your face will look like when you see it!"
Kurenai told the two, "We have to tend to the village now. We'll see you two later."
She ruffled Naruto's hair as did Asuma.
"So, Sasuke," Naruto called out, as soon as the Co-Betas were out of hearing range, "let's go to my house."
--
Naruto's house wasn't much different from everyone else's; it had the essential furniture and was surprisingly tidy.
Not seeing much interest in it, Sasuke just sat down on Naruto's couch.
"Sasuke, I'm going to take a shower, all right?" Naruto informed Sasuke, looking over his shoulder. Sasuke nodded, indicating he knew.
After a while, Sasuke fell asleep, bored out of his wits.
Only a few minutes afterward did Naruto finish his shower. He came in wearing nothing but an orange towel from his waist to his knees and his hair clinging onto his forehead; he walked up to the snoozing Wolf and thought, 'Did I really take that long on my shower again? Well… Gaara always said I was a water-waster.'
The nearly naked Fox gently picked up the Wolf and then tucked him into his bed. Beside the bed was a small desk with two drawers.
Naruto stared at the Wolf as he wondered…
'When…
'When did I feel so comfortable around him?
'So comfortable that I can be carefree around him?
'So carefree… like when I was with Gaara…'
--
I have this feeling that this chapter is a little suckish… Oh well.
Hehe, did anyone notice I didn't add any Betas in until now?? I mentioned that a few chapters ago so you should remember it.
This chapter mostly focuses on Naruto and Sasuke (doesn't every chapter?). I need to start filling in hints and such for the new pairings. (The drawer next to Naruto's bed is a major key point!!)
Ooh, we're feeling some love here!! XP Is Naruto and Sasuke's relationship going too quickly? Please tell me so I can slow it down!
No preview this time either. – B – But before you can say "Boo!" I'll tell you what it's about! Sasuke's going to experience his first snowfall! And guess who's going to guide him through it! There will be hints of the pairings and such, don't worry. – BOO! – Sorry but I haven't started on the next chapter yet. You'll just have to wait.
I made a poll on my next story but it won't be out soon enough. :( It depends on how fast I update really. Could you spare a moment of your life to vote? Thanks. :)
Well, remember to review! (Recap from opening message: NO REVIEWS EQUALS NO CHAPTER!) How about some cake this time? Well, please review. I hope this chapter wasn't too bad.
Bye now!