Icha Icha: Animal Magnetism
Chapter 2: Sakura
The next morning Naruto woke, slipping off his bed carefully as his tail felt pinched. Letting out a yawn as he swiveled his ears and shook out his tail, he headed for the bathroom with bleary eyes. After relieving himself he pulled out his toothbrush and started cleaning his teeth, eyes closed as he went through the routine blindly.
Bending forward he cupped some water into his hands, splashing it against his face and scrubbing hard. Sloshing his hands back, he ran the remaining water through his hair, and up over his ears. Turning away from the mirror he paused as a thought finally trickled into his mind. Turning back slowly his eyes widened in fear as he saw that he wasn't seeing things. He had a fluffy reddish-orange tail and a pair of matching ears in the proper locations, if he was a fox.
Two miles away, a farmer tending his fields looked up as a sudden panicked shriek filled the early morning air.
Peeling himself off the ceiling, Naruto set his mind to the task of figuring out just what was going on. His first thought was that he was still dreaming, and this was a nightmare. However, a quick punch to his gut later he was fairly certain that it wasn't a dream, and that they needed a better way of telling if people were dreaming or not. Pacing around his room he frowned in thought, trying to think of what could have caused such an odd change, maybe it was a genjutsu or something.
As soon as that thought left his mind, realization hit him like a punch from Lee. It wasn't a genjutsu, it was that Mesmerism no Jutsu that Erro-sennin taught him yesterday. It had to be that, and now came a new problem.
Looking out the window he sighed seeing the villagers walking around down below. Even running across the roofs he'd never go unnoticed by them, and cries of Kyuubi's escape would fill the air. He had to hide the ears and tail before he left.
The tail would be easy enough to hide in his pants, but he didn't think he had anything to hide his ears with. He never really liked hats, and his headband's cloth had been so cut and torn over the years it would likely tear apart if he used it fully deployed.
Sighing he cast his eyes over his apartment, looking for something to use to hide his ears. Spotting his old goggles from his academy days a grin grew on his face, Those would work nicely. Snatching up the goggles, he proceeded to stuff his ears into them before pulling the band down the backside of his head.
It wouldn't hold for long, but he only needed it to hold long enough to get across town, get the counter from Jiraiya, and allow him time enough to perform the counter. Simple really. Turning to the door he frowned as he saw the calendar he kept beside the exit. It was a team training day, and that meant he was already running late, and Sakura would probably kill him for skipping, not to mention what Kakashi-sensei might do. Heaving a sigh he pulled out a scroll and wrote out a quick note for his teammates.
After rereading the note to make sure that it had all the keywords to prove that it was written by him, he bit his thumb and summoned up his favorite pair of toads. Gamakichi and Gamatatsu appeared before him in a puff of smoke.
Naruto smiled as he tossed Gamatatsu a bag of chips and handed Gamakichi the scroll. "Listen guys, I need you to deliver this to Sakura-chan or Kakashi-sensei as fast as possible. I'll even throw in two bags of chips if you get back here within the next five minutes. Deal?"
At the mention of more snacks, Gamatatsu snatched up his brother and bolted out the open window. Naruto sighed and plopped down to wait for the toads to return. He had to hold up his end of the bargain after all. Removing his goggles he let his sore, fox ears unfurl, marveling at the new range of hearing these ears had.
He could hear the children at the academy laughing and playing before class, six blocks away. He could hear the wind blowing through the leaves in the trees outside. He could hear the pounding of feet and Sakura's voice screaming his name in a blind rage. He could hear the sounds of thousands of kunai hitting a wooden target over near where Gai takes his students.
These new ears weren't so bad, especially since they made Sakura-chan sound so near to him, like she was just on the other side of his door, that for some reason seemed to rattle with blows. Opening his eyes he looked over to his door, just in time to see it flying inward.
"DAMMIT YOU BAKA! WHERE ARE YOU! YOU'RE LATER THEN KAKASH… shi… sensei…" Sakura trailed off as she stared at Naruto, a faint blush spreading over her cheeks. "Umm… I mean… I got your message… and I… I was wworried about you Naruto-kun…"
Naruto blinked as he unfurled from the protective ball he had put himself into. Had Sakura-chan really called him kun? Maybe he had misheard her, but he was fairly certain he had heard her correctly, and why was she acting like that weird Hinata girl? Something weird was going on.
"Sakura-chan… I told you in the note that I was going to take the day off because I had to talk to Erro-sennin and baa-chan…" Naruto answered while using his hands to hide his ears. "In fact I was just about to go…"
Looking at his now demolished door he mentally sighed as he calculated the price for a new one, remembering the last few times that villagers had done it. This one might be reusable though, he thought optimistically as he inspected the damage; the hinges seemed to have popped out from the rattling instead of anything being torn off. His poor kitchen table however will never see another ramen binge again.
Walking over to the door and picking it up Naruto started setting it back in place, when he felt a sudden growth of warmth behind him, two soft points resting on his back. "Here… let me help you Naru-kun… it's the least I can do…"
The wildfire spread of red on Naruto's face when he realized exactly what was against his back almost threatened to ignite the door, if he hadn't pulled away to slip the bolts into the hinges.
Turning around Naruto came face to face with Sakura, her arms still against the door. There was a deep blush to her cheeks as she leaned in towards him. "I'm sorry for scaring you Naruto… how about we go out on a date so I can make it up to you?"
Naruto's mind seemed to tear itself in two over this, half knew something was wrong with this picture, the other half knew as well but really wanted to play along, and maybe see those two lovely little hills hidden under Sakura-chan's passionately red shirt.
Naruto however regained control of his hormones and slipped out of Sakura's arms. "Sakura-chan… I really like you, but you're not acting like yourself right now… so… I'm just going to go find Erro-sennin and see about getting back to normal… or maybe Baa-chan knows. See ya!"
With that the blonde-haired fox boy sprinted for his window, barely clearing it before Sakura could catch him. Getting up onto the roofs and sprinting away Naruto thought about what had just happened, and failed to notice the spread of weird looks women and men across the city were throwing up towards him in his wake.
Meanwhile, back in his apartment Sakura was blinking her eyes, as she leaned out the window. "What… just happened? I better tell Tsunade-sama…"
Sakura took one look at the sun and then sprinted off to Tsunade's favorite bar, as she'd most likely be there than anywhere else. She only hoped that Tsunade would know what was going on.
Neither of the ninjas noticed as a white haired form emerged from across the street, holding a pair of binoculars. This was turning out much better than expected, and if Naruto kept this up, he'd have not only a book, but an entire series after the kid. Chuckling at the thoughts racing through his mind, Jiraiya leaped off of the roof and started heading for the Hot Springs. He just had to see Naruto's face when he tells him it's irreversible, and that he'd likely have to spend weeks if not months with his new features.
