First Days of School

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: We found more kittens! There's four of them now; Mystique, Pebbles, Bam-bam, and Miracle. I miss my kittens. : ( And I have been SUPER lazy with this story, so a lot of these events are a few months old.

-!-!-!-!

Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Journals, 1843

-!-!-!-!

Naruto crawled forward underneath the portable. He'd never known it was so cramped down here! No wonder they absolutely needed him, he was the smallest person in the class, with his growth spurt not yet kicking in. The mewing sound was coming from somewhere above him and it wasn't easy to pinpoint the source.

"It's fine if you cut open the insulation, Naruto. You need to find that fox." Gai assured him. The tall man was hunched by the side of the portable, along with the rest of their class. Gai had sent him with scissors to find the fox that could be heard mewing from inside the portable.

The mewing came again, this time almost directly above him. Naruto carefully cut a slit in the insulation and two pairs of frightened, glowing eyes met his. Naruto pocketed the scissors and slowly, so as not to scare them further, reached a hand up and gently scooted them forward so he could catch them both in his jacket.

"Did you find him?" Lee, a tall kid that dressed and acted like Gai, called.
"There's two!" Naruto replied, crawling backwards, eyes on the ground and the kits to make sure that he didn't step on anything sharp. As he slipped out from beneath the portable, Sasuke reached down and took the bundle that was Naruto's orange jacket with the two kits from him in one arm and offering a hand up with the other. Naruto accepted the help up, his face dusty and pupils dilated because of the sudden light.

Sasuke turned so that his back was to the sun and uncovered the bundle and looked at both kits. One was a raggedy gray with a black-tipped tail. It had crystalline blue eyes, like a Siberian husky. The other's fur was closer to brown than red and had bright green eyes. Sasuke recognized the underlying gleam in those eyes; it was one that Naruto got often when he had a prank in mind. The darker one was a troublemaker, no doubt about it.

Gai looked at the kits. The yellow fluff of insulation was tangled into their matted fur and they were thinner than Kyuu had been. "Sasuke, Naruto, go clean these foxes up and beg some milk from the cafeteria."

"Sure."

Both of them set off down the hallway, Naruto taking the darker fox. "We're gonna need names for these too, ya know." Naruto held up the fox. "I think this one's a girl."

Sasuke agreed. Anything with that ready-for-trouble gleam was either female or pure evil.

"Ne, Sasuke, whaddaya think of the name Jessamyn?"

"Where'd you come up with that?"

"Found it in a book."

"You read the oddest books. Got a guy's name?"

Naruto studied the gray fox. "How's Asher sound to you?"

"That sounds like a husky's name or something. But sure."

"Here, I'll wash them up." Naruto gently plucked Asher from Sasuke's arms. "You go beg for milk."

"You're better at begging than I am."

Naruto grinned at him lopsidedly. "Yeah, but who could ever resist you? You're so charming."

"Mmhmm." Sasuke began heading for the cafeteria, while Naruto jogged up the stairs to their Biology class. Haku-sensei wouldn't be able to resist helping Asher and Jessamyn. Haku looked up from his papers that he was grading, raising his eyebrows. "More of them, Naruto?"

"Not our fault. Akamaru's barking was the only reason we knew they were down there."

"Just make sure they don't shed in my sinks."

Naruto set down the kits, making sure that they were far away enough from the sink's edge that they didn't decide to jump. It turned out he didn't need to worry. Jessamyn wasn't going anywhere, looking warily into the sink and Asher was more concerned with pawing at the taps.

Naruto took several paper towels, wet them, and gently ran it over Jessamyn's fur, lightly tugging at the knots and picking out the insulation. Jessamyn hissed at the cold water and gave him a cat's version of a glare. Naruto ignored it. He was too accustomed to Sasuke glaring at him for that to affect him anymore. A sudden powerful spray of water that got both Naruto and Jessamyn absolutely soaked made Naruto blink at Asher, who had a foxy version of a grin on his furry features.

Two voices chuckling made all three turn to look towards the front of the room. Haku was muffling a laugh in his hand, brown eyes sparkling with mirth and Sasuke had two cartons of white milk in his hands, a smirk on his lips.

"You two are so much help." Naruto remarked dryly, reaching for Asher. Asher leapt away from his hand and darted beneath the stools.

Both of the darker haired males moved to help, Sasuke setting the milk down on the black tabletops. Haku crouched down, reaching slowly for the kit. The wary blue eyes narrowed before he neared the man. Just as Haku was about to pick him up, Asher sprinted away, crawling up Sasuke's pant leg. The Uchiha jumped a bit at the surprising sensation, his hand knocking the milk cartons and making them hit the floor, breaking open. Naruto, who moved forward to help Sasuke, slipped on the milk, pulling Sasuke down with him. The blonde let out an "Oof." As the wind was knocked out of him when Sasuke crashed down on him.

Haku, laughing, went to help them up, but they tried to get up at the same time, so their flailing legs tripped Haku, which made him fall face forward as well, landing beside them.

As they all lay there, stunned and laughter beginning to bubble from their lips, Asher crawled forward and licked milk from Sasuke's ear while Jessamyn did the same to Naruto's cheek.

"Do I want to know?" A deep, amused voice asked from the door.

All three looked up to see Zabuza standing there with arms crossed. He was a tall, muscular man with tanned skin and very dark eyes.

"No, not really." All three replied before bursting into laughter once more.

-/-/-/-/-/

A/N: Yeah, I know it's been a while since I updated this. I just kinda forgot to keep updating this. But my freshman year of high school is done in four days! So I will update this for every one of those days left.