Chapter 1: Kemonomimi
"Shishishi", Naruto giggled thinking of his new plan "Sasuke-teme won't even know what hit him!"
Naruto, as the master prankster of Konoha, had a little surprise for Sasuke up his sleeve. He had been thinking on getting revenge on Sasuke for humiliating him and get him out of Sakura's sight (just a little prank couldn't hurt, right?), and now he had the chance to do it, and not only that, but he would make Sakura forget Sasuke and fall in love with him at last!
He had asked Iruka to teach him some basic sleeping genjutsu a couple of weeks ago (he'd been training day and night). Him not being a genjutsu type ninja didn't know how to perform even the simplest illusion, but his kind-hearted teacher had given him a special training, surprised by Naruto's uncommon determination to learn. But why, oh why had Naruto learned to perform genjutsu? Because there was no way he could fulfill his plan with big, mean, scary Sasuke-teme awake! He had found a lot of suspicious-looking scrolls about potions in the old man's tower when he had sneaked in the Hokage's secret library, all of them of numerous different-colored edges and covered dust (Naruto sneezed a couple of times and covered his mouth fearing that an ANBU ninja may discover him as a sweat drop slid slowly down his now purplish face).
Transforming People into Humanoid Pets "Kemonomimi"(1) was the title of the last scroll of the immense shelf. It had velvet red edges that were finely decorated with golden spiraling stems and leaves that swirled along the whole worn-out scroll and ended on the lower right edge of it where a golden drawn flower lay.
Naruto let his cerulean eyes roam over the scroll's finely drawn motifs devouring every little detail they might come across. Making a mental list of the kanji symbols that he did not understand, he put the scroll in his pouch and then put the other useless scrolls away warily (as cautiously as Naruto can) before making his way back home through one of the tower's windows.
The next day he asked Iruka the meaning of all the symbols he could remember (not many) and wrote down their meaning. "What are you up to, Naruto?" The blond had hoped his teacher wouldn't suspect him, but now he had to think up of an excuse, and a good one at that. "Eh? Nothing Iruka-sensei. Why do you ask?" Naruto replied innocently as the skeptical teacher eyed him suspiciously. "Why you ask, you little rascal! Because you are never this eager to learn anything at all!" Iruka pointed his finger accusingly at the uneasy genin, "Not even when you were at the academy!" Well, Iruka did have a point there. "So? You should be happy then! Now that I do want to study you don't wanna help me? What's with you adults?" Naruto then replied feigning indignation. "Mmm...well you see, it's just that it's really weird of you to come asking for my help like this..."Iruka then scratched the back of his head as he laughed embarrassedly, "you are the number one hyperactive, knucklehead ninja of Konoha after all." "Hey! I'm not! Well..." Naruto then thought of an excuse that might actually trick his former teacher, "it's, just that Sasuke's been learning a lot of genjutsu lately and I wanna learn too! I found this genjutsu scroll with an awesome technique that I wanna learn, but I don't understand most of it!" It was partly the truth, and it would certainly fool Iruka; now Naruto just had to wait for the older man's reaction.
"Mmm...alrightl if it's just that I don't think it will matter...wait! What kind of jutsu?" Damn it had been so close..."Uh...a confusing genjutsu, er...it..." Naruto had to make up another lie. Why couldn't Iruka just let him go? "It...makes you think you're uh...trapped! Yeah! In a box or something and so you can't fight! It's just for self-defense sensei." 'Self-defense? Trapped in a box? Laaaaame ¬¬. Way to go Naruto...well Shikamaru did tell me something like that...' Naruto just smiled that foxy (and somewhat nervous) smile of his as he scratched the back of his head waiting for Iruka to say something. "Eh? I can teach you that! It sounds like the 'False Surroundings' technique." 'Really? -`w´- ? Nice, I managed to fool Iruka-sensei again, 'ttebayo! ¬w¬ '
After lots of hours of practice Iruka finally got tired and left ("Heh? Wait Iruka-sensei! I can do it, see?"). 'Well I didn't wanna learn that jutsu anyway -`3-.' Naruto made his homeward way too, storming through Konoha's streets with his arms crossed behind his head and his eyes closed. When he got home he made sure he got the definitions in a paper in his pocket and prepared some cup ramen (He wasn't in the mood of going to Ichiraku's, surprisingly). When it was ready he sat down and ate thinking about his revenge.
His plan was foolproof. Sasuke's hair was jet black and resembled a bird's butt, so he would probably transform into an ugly crow or perhaps into a hideous, fire-breathing lizard. Perfect! He would be so gross Sakura would never want to see him again! So he took his scroll and the necessary materials to make the potion (He'd bought them on the way home) and mixed them without a second thought (He had already lost much time!). It was late at night when he finished, and went to sleep, looking forward to another day.
Next day they had some missions, and again Sasuke ended teasing him and calling him loser. How could he be so perfect? Naruto had given his all for those missions and still failed most of them while the Uchiha had done an impeccable job without even trying. How he hated that bastard.
"Mah, I guess that's it for today. You're dismissed." Their silver-haired sensei called indifferently as his visible eye roamed over the pages of that perverted book of his and then vanished in a poof of smoke.
"Nah, Sakura-chan," Naruto called playfully with a foxy smile and his hands behind his back, "would you like to eat ramen with me?" The blond genin put on his best grin and gave her a happy but pleading look as he pointed to his chest with his right thumb hoping that today his pink haired princess would say yes.
"Naruto! Go away!" Sakura yelled disgustedly as she pushed him out of her way and ran to her crush. Naruto fell to the ground on his butt with a loud 'thump' and whined. It felt as a giant stone with the word 'LOSER' carved on it had fallen on his head. "But Sakura-chan-!" He looked at her teary-eyed and extended his hand in her direction as she flirted with the Uchiha.
"Sasuke-kun would you like to go on a date with me?" Sakura asked with her hands clasped in a cheerful way in front of her chest, as her eyes sparkled with joy and hope almost looking as hearts. Oh yes, Naruto was definitely jealous of that bastard.
"Hmph, get lost." Sasuke scoffed and turned away starting to leave the training grounds in the clearing near the memorial stone where they'd had lunch. The girl was extremely annoying. It sickened him how she would treat Naruto like trash when the kid did so much to get her attention, but would annoy him to no end with her squealing voice trying to get his attention when he couldn't care less. Couldn't she see she was acting just like the dobe? They were both idiots and were more interested in flirting than training, constantly wasting his precious time. Sure he would also take some time to tease Naruto, but that was different. They were rivals, and still Sakura was far more inconsiderate with him, she could easily beat him to a pulp for no reason at all. Besides, Naruto couldn't defend himself or fight back, because she was a girl, the coward. Still, he had no time for her love nonsense; he had to become stronger as fast as he could.
He leapt gracefully to a large tree's branch and made his way to the forest deep in thought. It was really hot outside, (it was mid-summer after all) and the scorching sunrays burned the raven's pale face; the young genin decided then to train in the shady woodland. When he arrived there he sat down for a while thinking about the day's mission. It had been a simple task; they'd just had to look for the Fire Lord's wife's cat again. Sasuke had been a little reluctant to take Tora back though, the poor animal had to tolerate that exasperating woman's hugs and pets all day long. No wonder why Tora tries to escape so often.
Sasuke looked down to his left hand. Three bright red lines scarred his index finger and his knuckles, how could he have been so careless? Tora surely was a skilled little beast if she had managed to scratch him (Well, it's not that surprising considering how much practice she must've gotten after all of those times she's tried to escape.); luckily no one noticed.
Shaking those thoughts away, Sasuke focused on his training again as he channeled his chakra to his left hand and to his eyes as they turned to a scarlet tone and two tomoe's appeared around each of his pupils activating his doujutsu.
(1) Kemonomimi literally means "animal ears". Kemono is the term used to describe humanoid animals from Japanese folklore tails and legends, and literally means "animal" while "mimi" means ears. Therefore by changing 'kemono' for the name of a specific animal one would be referring to a human with those animal's ears (and perhaps tail or paws). I.e. Nekomimi means 'cat ears' therefore the human would have cat ears (and maybe tail and paws too).
^^Ok that's it so what do you think? Hope you liked it see ya!