Chapter 8:

They couldn't stay in Sasuke's house forever. Eventually they would have to come out. Surely anything was better than Naruto's teasing. Ok, maybe not. He was constantly pestering them and tricking them into cat games. It was humiliating!

But Sasuke caught a break…sort of. Kakashi had scheduled training for them that day, forcing Naruto to put aside the cat games and keeping Sasuke's condition a secret. Hopefully he would do just that.

Kakashi memorized the page he was on and put his book away. "Ok, let's get started. It's mostly review today."

"What?" Naruto whined. "Aren't you going to teach us some awesome new jutsu?"

"You can't learn something new if you're still having trouble with the old. Don't worry, this won't take long."

That was a lie. It took them four hours to complete the exercise. And too bad for Sasuke, it was another warm day. After only a little while, he was ready for another nap. Why do I have to be a cat? All they ever do is sleep! I've never felt so lazy before in my life… But at least no one noticed a change in him yet. He was still very agile, despite feeling so tired. Thank God for that.

At 1:00, Kakashi allowed them a break. Sasuke thanked his lucky stars and sat down under a tree. If he could just get a couple minutes of sleep, he should be fine. But Sakura wasn't having any of that. She sat down in front of him holding up another lunchbox.

"Um, hi!" Her cheeks were pink. "Do you want to share lunch again with me? I have boiled-"

"No thanks." Sasuke turned away.

Sakura hung her head disappointedly. "Oh… I understand. That's ok. But if you need anything…"

"Sure, whatever. Go away." He wasn't in the mood.

Sakura stood up and walked away sadly.

Sasuke started to shut his eyes when a second person showed up and sat down on his right. "What the hell do you want?"

Naruto grinned at him, showing every one of his teeth. "Hi."

"Don't start."

"Start what?"

"Go away."

Naruto frowned. "You're mean."

"Shut up."

He looked Sasuke in the face.

"What?" He was very annoyed now.

"You know…I think you would look good with whiskers."

Sasuke leaned away. "What are you talking about?"

Naruto gestured to his own cheeks. "Right about here. I think you'd look good with them."

I should have known he would pull something like this. He's probably going to draw them on my face when I'm sleeping. Suddenly an afternoon nap didn't sound like such a good idea. Naruto was the village prankster after all. There was no doubt in his mind that Naruto would go through with something like that. Sasuke moved away from him. "I'm good. I don't need whiskers."

"Aw, but I think they would look cute."

"I mean it, loser. If you so much as come near me with a marker, I'm gonna…" A loud yawn escaped him.

Naruto groaned and sat with his back against the tree trunk. "Ah, don't tell me you're still tired! You sleep all the time!"

"I can't help it." Sasuke rubbed his eyes. "Cats sleep 18 hours a day. I'm lucky if I can sleep for ten a day with all the things going on."

"But don't cats just take a lot of catnaps during the day? Why can't you just do that?"

That was a good point. "Maybe it's because their bodies are built for that. Human bodies can't."

"Why not?"

"How the hell should I know? I guess it has to do with how our bodies are made. They're meant to sleep all the time, humans are supposed to be more active so we don't, I guess." He really hadn't a clue. "How the hell should I know? Ask Neji. He seems to know a lot about cats."

Naruto sighed heavily. "So, it's just going to be another boring day of watching you sleep, huh?"

"Are you kidding?" Sasuke shot him a drowsy glare. "I'm not sleeping with you around. You'll pull something."

"Like what?"

"Oh, I don't know. Like maybe drawing whiskers on my face."

Naruto's grin was back. "Oh, I wouldn't do something like that," he sang.

"Like hell you wouldn't! I know you!"

The smile never left his face. "Ok, Sasuke… Let's just see how long you can last."

"Huh?"

"I'm just saying…"

"Saying what?"

Naruto leaned into his face. "You just look so sleepy. I wonder how long you'll last without nodding off on me. Judging from the bags under your eyes, I'd say you only have a few minutes."

"You think so, huh?"

"I know so. You won't last much longer than that. You'll be out cold by the time I count to ten."

Sasuke snorted. "We'll just see about that!" Sasuke folded his arms and sat with his back to the tree. There was no way he was falling asleep with Naruto around. He could stay awake all day if he wanted.

It was wishful thinking on his part. He felt so tired. Within only a few short minutes, his head started to bob. He wasn't lasting as long as he thought he would.

"I knew you wouldn't last," Naruto smirked. "Look at yourself."

Sasuke shot him another drowsy glare. "Just shut your mouth." He scrunched up his face in concentration. Stay awake, Sasuke. Just stay awake. Just a little bit longer. Don't fall asleep. Stay awake. The rustling of the leaves wasn't helping him. The sound they made was very soothing, lulling him to sleep. He gave his head a shake and forced his eyes open. Damn trees. Shut up, would you?

Naruto tapped his foot rhythmically on the ground. Up and down, up and down.

"Shut up…" Sasuke mumbled.

Naruto stopped tapping. But then he did something even worse. He started singing. "Lullaby and goodnight, go to sleep little Sasuke…"

"I said shut up!"

"What am I doing that's so wrong?"

"Just shut… up…" he yawned. It wouldn't be long now. Even he knew he wasn't going to last.

He could hear Naruto's snickering. "You're so stubborn. Just give it up already."

"Never!"

A few moments of silence passed before Naruto started humming the same song as before. This time Sasuke was too tired to tell him to stop. He started to nod off. Just as his eyes were about to close, he snapped his head up and forced his eyes wide open.

"Would you stop that?"

"What?" Naruto asked again.

"You know what! Stop doing that!" Sasuke slurred sleepily.

His tone only made Naruto laugh out loud. "You sound so funny!"

"Funny how?"

"Less intimidating, I'll tell you that."

Sasuke turned away. "Just leave me alone."

He wouldn't stop picking. Naruto started whispering in his ear. "You're getting sleeeepyyy… Very sleeepyyy… Your eyes are getting heeeavyy..."

"Shut up! That's annoying and creepy!" But that didn't change the fact that he was still getting sleepier by the minute. I hate being a cat!

Then Naruto did just about the worst thing you could do. He started scratching Sasuke behind the ear.

Sasuke's back arched and he leaned into Naruto's touch. Oh, no! Not that! Anything but that! He moved closer to Naruto and purred. Naruto chuckled and scratched a little harder. Sasuke purred noisily. "That feels nice…"

"Oh, really?" he grinned, as if he didn't know. "And what about this?" He ran his hand down Sasuke's neck and onto his back, giving him a back scratch.

Sasuke's leg kicked slightly. "More! More, more, more! Oh, yes! That's the spot!"

Snickering at Sasuke's antics, Naruto then flattened his hand on Sasuke's back and started to give him a massage. Sasuke purred and closed his eyes. After a while, Naruto rubbed Sasuke's back in a slower, gentler motion. Sasuke slumped forward allowing his head to dangle in front of his chest. He had stopped purring.

"Sasuke?"

No answer.

Naruto lifted his hands from Sasuke's back and watched as he slumped onto his lap. Apparently, Naruto's hands were the only thing supporting Sasuke and without them, he had nowhere to go but down.

"You asleep?"

Sasuke snored lightly.

Naruto smirked again. "I knew he couldn't do it," he said to himself and pulled out a black marker. But when he looked down, all he could see was a defenseless Uchiha curled up in a ball on his lap. Sasuke's knees were tucked up to his chest, his arms folded between them and his chest, hands balled up into light fists under his chin. Suddenly, Naruto found that he couldn't do it and lowered the marker. "You're too cute for your own good, you know that? Why do you have to look so helpless like that? You make it too hard."

As if hearing the remark, Sasuke nuzzled up closer to the blond and sighed peacefully. He must have been having a nice sleep. Naruto then began to wonder if he was having any dreams. What would Sasuke dream about anyway? In his ninja-cat state, it might have been about fish.

Unfortunately, Neji's afternoon wasn't going as peacefully as Sasuke's. He and the rest of his team had been called out on a mission and it wasn't an easy D ranked one, either. Their job was to find and subdue a rogue ninja from the Land of Stone. Despite his condition, Neji went with the rest of them, keeping up fairly well.

Neji scanned ahead with his Byakugan in search of their foe. His team needed him. He couldn't let something a trivial as being part cat hold him back. One would argue that being in his condition was a blessing. There were certain advantages to being part cat: agility, flexibility, keen sight, and the ability to land on his feet. But these were all things he was already gifted in being a ninja. Maybe he should just count his blessings and be thankful that he hadn't grown at tail and cat ears… yet. He still didn't know the extent of the potion's effects. For all he knew, it would get worse.

"I found him!" Neji called to the others as a flash of chakra came into view.

"Good job, Neji!" Gai gave him a thumbs-up. "Let's move out!"

They charged in, ready to take him down.

One last prayer and Neji followed the rest of them.

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