Chapter 3: Fur Flies

Shikamaru opened his eyes and found himself in a familiar place. He was in his bedroom. He looked at his small bookcase, his dresser, this rug, his closet, his backpack. Everything was as it was before. Everything looked perfectly normal. He looked down at the shogi board he left on the floor. He still hadn't gotten around to picking that up. Eventually he would but not now. He was still groggy.

He stretched out on the bed, something thumping against the headboard. It must have been his head. Strange, he didn't feel any pain when he hit his head. Maybe he was still half asleep so it dulled his senses. He opened his mouth and yawned. He was feeling a lot better. Maybe all he needed to do was sleep it off. He didn't feel sick anymore.

Now he had to go into the kitchen and see if his mother had dinner ready yet. She was going to be upset with him if he didn't show up for a meal she worked so hard to make. Shikamaru rolled his eyes at the thought. His mother wasn't happy unless she was complaining about something. He should get a move on before she started pounding at his door. He moved to get out of bed.

He couldn't sit up. Odd. He tried again. His body wouldn't cooperate. He tried lowering himself onto the floor with his left leg first and slide out from there. So far so good, then his body went tumbling all at once onto the floor with a loud thud. He lifted his head. Why weren't his limbs moving properly? His body was taking a long time to wake up it seemed. He tried standing.

Clop. Clop.

He stopped. That was an odd sound. He looked around. He was still on all fours, but something was off. It looked like he was standing up. Everything was in his normal field of vision but he was still on all fours. If he were on all fours, his perspective should be a lot shorter than this. Did he grow in his sleep or something? He tried standing on two legs. He pushed off from the ground with his arms. He was a lot taller now. Too tall. He wasn't normally this big standing up. His legs wobbled. He couldn't stay upright. He lost his balance and fell back down on all fours.

Clop. Clop.

There was that sound again. To test it, he walked to the left. The noise happened again.

Clop. Clop. Clop.

It was his movements. Every time he took a step that noise would occur. But why? That noise. It sounded a lot like...

Shikamaru looked down. He saw hooves. He lifted his right arm. The right hoof lifted off the ground. He stomped his arms on the ground and the hooves matched his movements.

"No way..."

He trotted over to his closet. There was a mirror hanging on the inside of the door. He would use that. He tried to open the door but the hoof couldn't get a good grip. He kept trying. Finally he managed to open it. The door swung open and he looked in the mirror.

He saw the reflection of a deer. A six pronged male deer with brown eyes. His eyes. He winked, and so did the reflection. He opened his mouth and so did the deer. He tilted his head to the right and then the left. It mirrored his every action flawlessly. The deer was him. He had turned into a deer.

"Ahh!" Shikamaru screamed and backed away from the mirror frantically. He bumped into his dresser, his board game, this backpack. "This has to be a dream! Wake up! Wake up!" The image in the mirror never changed. Running into things caused him pain. This wasn't a dream. This was real.

His mother knocked on the door. "Shikamaru, what is going on in there? Stop that racket right now and get in the kitchen. Your father isn't back from his mission but that's no reason to not have dinner together. Get your butt out here now."

He ran to the door hearing her walk away. "Mom! Mom, wait!" He couldn't open the door like this. His hooves couldn't turn a knob. He kicked the door with his hooves, trying to get her attention. "Mom! Mom!" He tried turning the knob with his teeth. It worked. He opened the door and ran into the hall. "Mom!" She wasn't here. She must be in the kitchen. "Mom!"

There she was at the table, laying out the food to be eaten. Two places were set at the table. One for her and one for him.

"Mom!"

She turned around. She jumped at the sight of him.

"Mom, it's me. Something happened and now I'm-"

"Deer!" She grabbed a broom and started beating him over the head with it.

"Ow! Mom! Ow! Stop it! Ow! It's me! Stop! Ow! Ow! Mom, knock it off! Ow! It's me! Shikamar- ow!" She wasn't listening to him. She kept swinging the broom at his head. "Mom, stop! Ow! That hurts!"

"Shoo! Shoo! Get out! Out of my house!"

He had no choice. He backed toward the front door and went outside. She kept swinging until he was out into the street.

"And stay out! Shoo!" She slammed the door behind him.

"But mom!" It was no use. She wasn't listening to him. He sighed and looked around. Some people were eying him from where they stood and others had yet to notice. To them, seeing a deer this close must have been amazing. But he wasn't really a deer.

Why was he a deer anyway? He felt sick, went to bed, woke up and now he's a deer. How did this happen?

His eyes narrowed. "Naruto..." He turned and galloped down the street. He had a bone to pick with a certain annoying blond ninja.

Naruto woke up in his own bed in his own room. He didn't remember falling asleep but he was happy he did. He was feeling a lot better. "I knew I just had to sleep that off. All I needed was a nap." He looked out his window at the sky. The sun was still out but he could tell evening was fast approaching. "It should be about dinner time now. I guess I should get something to eat."

He started to stretch. His foot landed on something soft and he felt a slight pinch. He looked down. It looked like a furry pillow. He didn't remember having anything like that. He tried pulling it out from under him. When he did, he felt a sharp tug on his body. "Ouch!" It felt like someone was yanking on his tailbone. The fluffy object moved between his legs. It was a tail. "What the hell is this?" Was there an animal in his bed?

He got out of bed and stood on the floor. Nothing was in bed with him. He felt something touch his legs and turned. There was the tail again. Right behind him. Poking out from the back of his pants.

"What the hell?"

He gave the tail a tug and felt pain. This tail was attached to him. It was his tail. An orange fluffy fox tail.

"Oh, cool!" Naruto wasn't bothered by this as much as he should have been. The idea of having a tail was actually pretty neat in his book. Plus, it was nice and soft. He stroked his new tail with his hand. "Oh, wow, it's so soft." It wiggled involuntarily. "Ha ha!" He started chasing it, running in circles where he stood. This was fun!

After a few minutes, he got tired of this and started to wonder why on earth he had this tail in the first place. How did he grow one in his sleep? He couldn't have taken more than a two hour nap at most. This tail was the real thing, very different from the Chakra tails he grew from time to time in the heat of battle or during training. This was an actual fox tail.

"Maybe I should go to a doctor or something. Maybe I can ask Sakura. Who knows? She may think it's cute and treat me like a pet. That'll be awesome." Suddenly all he could think about was Sakura cuddling him and stroking his fox tail. He decided to go see her first.

Naruto left his apartment without bothering to try hiding his tail. He thought it was cool. He started down the street toward the hospital where Sakura assisted the doctors from time to time. Naruto wasn't sure if she was just volunteering or if she actually worked there. Either way, he knew that was a good place to start.

"Naruto!"

He turned around and saw a deer galloping towards him. It halted, stirring up dirt under its hooves.

"Naruto!" it shouted in a familiar voice. "What the hell did you do?!"

"Sh... Shikamaru?" Naruto leaned in its face. It had his eyes and his voice. "Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me. Now what did you do?"

"Me?!" More blame on him now? "What do you mean what did I do?"

"We came back from the mission just fine, we were pissed at each other and now I'm a freaking deer!"

"Hey, I didn't do this! Besides, look." Naruto held up his tail. "I've got one, too."

Shikamaru looked at the tail, calming somewhat, but he was still upset and panicked. "And that doesn't bother you at all?"

"No, why would it? I've got a tail. How cool is that?" Naruto was smiling, undaunted by this strange transformation. "And you're a deer. That's pretty neat, too, don't you think?"

"Hell no!"

"Come on! What's so bad about being a deer? Your family works with them, don't they? Plus, it matches your name. What's the problem being a deer?"

"Naruto... deer are hunted for meat and their antlers. People eat deer!"

Naruto blinked. "Oh... Oh, yeah."

Shikamaru was quick to blame Naruto for this but this didn't seem to be his doing. He was changing into an animal, too. Now that he had calmed down, Shikamaru looked around, trying to think of where they should go to get help.

"I'm going to try and find Sakura. Wanna come?"

"Yeah, that sounds good."

They went to the hospital and started searching. Naruto asked nurses if they had seen Sakura anywhere. One nurse knew exactly where she was and pointed them in that direction. At the end of the hall, Sakura was coming out of a room on the end.

"Sakura!" Naruto came running over with Shikamaru by his side. "Sakura, hey, we could use your help."

She looked at the deer in surprise. "What's with the deer?"

"It's me, Shikamaru."

"We need your help, Sakura," Naruto said again. "Something weird is going on and we're not sure what it is. Can you help us?"

"I can try, but what's with the deer?" she asked, pointing.

Shikamaru blinked. "I just said it's me. I'm Shikamaru."

"He just answered you."

Sakura frowned. "No one answered me, Naruto. Now tell me, what is up with this deer?"

Shikamaru blinked again. "Sakura, didn't you hear me? I just answered you. Don't you understand what I'm saying?" He turned to Naruto. "I don't think she understands me. Naruto ask her if she understands."

"Uh... Sakura, don't you understand him?"

"Understand who?" She looked annoyed. "You mean the deer?"

"Yeah. He just said who he was. You didn't hear him?"

"Of course not. I don't speak deer."

Naruto looked at Shikamaru and back. "He's speaking just fine. I can understand him."

"He's making animal sounds. That's all I'm hearing."

Shikamaru's mouth opened. "She... she can't understand me. Naruto, am I speaking deer?"

"You sound fine to me. I can understand you ok."

"Yeah, but she can't. Naruto, you have to tell her who I am."

"Ok, ok." Naruto pointed to the deer. "Sakura, this is Shikamaru. He's been turned into a deer."

She looked at the deer. "Are you serious? This is really Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru nodded his head up and down.

"How did this happen?"

"We don't know. That's why we need your help. I'm getting like him, too." Naruto held up his tail. "See?"

Rather than cuddle him the way he had hoped, Sakura looked shocked. "Naruto, you have a..! What the hell did you do?"

"What is this, blame Naruto day? I didn't do anything!"

"Well, I don't know what to do! I deal with sick people and people with injuries. Not animal transformations! We have to go see Lady Tsunade."

The Hokage was always busy doing paperwork but was always happy to take a break from it to do just about anything else. Seeing the trio come in, she jumped at the chance to help them, not only to avoid doing paperwork but because they were in serious need of help.

At first, it was like a regular doctor visit. She listened to their hearts and checked their temperature. Then she asked them a series of questions.

"Look, we just became like this after when we got back to the village after our mission. That's it. We didn't do anything out of the ordinary."

Tsunade nodded. "I see. Unfortunately, I've never heard of anything like this happening. I can tell you that this is not the work of a Jutsu. At least not one I'm aware of. I just tried using a release but as you can see it didn't do the trick. If I try anything else without having more information about this, I could make things a lot worse. That's all I'm willing to try right now."

"We changed after the mission and..." Shikamaru stopped. "Right, she can't understand me. Naruto, you have to translate everything I'm saying."

"Why me?"

"Because you're the only one who understands me."

Naruto groaned. "I don't get why no one else can understand you but me."

"Maybe because we're both animals. Me more so, but since you seem to be turning into a fox, technically that makes you an animal too so you should be able to understand animal language," Shikamaru explained.

"You probably understand him because you're both turning into animals, Naruto," said Sakura. She had understood Naruto's question and answered it, not knowing that Shikamaru had already finished explaining.

The deer sighed, annoyed. This was going to be a pain if no one understood him except for Naruto and they needed questions answered. If he had something to say, Naruto had to translate. That sounded very time consuming to him, but there didn't seem to be another way.

"If this happened when you returned from your mission, then I think it's safe to say that a spell was placed on you two during that time. After all, you didn't leave on good terms with them," said Tsunade.

"So they may have been cursed?" asked Sakura. She looked worried.

"They were fine when they left. They failed the mission and were sent home. When they returned, they're... as you can see." Tsunade gestured to the boys in her office. "I think you should go back to that village and see what you can find out. With any luck, they'll have a way to change you back."

"Why?" Naruto practiced wagging his tail. It wasn't the easiest thing to control but with was fun to try. "This isn't so bad. I kinda like it."

"Naruto, this could get worse!" Sakura looked very concerned. "You could turn into a full animal just like Shikamaru. We can't leave things the way they are."

"It may be even worse than that," added Tsunade. "If he's turning into a fox, something can happen to the seal. We have no idea what this transformation could do to you or the nine-tailed fox."

"Good point."

Naruto hadn't thought abut that. What if turning into a fox loosened the seal? What if he turned into the nine-tailed fox itself? This was serious.

"Naruto." Shikamaru nudged him with his head. "What about Sai? He was in the village with us. What if he's an animal, too?"

"You're right! We have to find him." Naruto had forgotten all about him. Sai was with them on the mission and so far everyone who went to that village started to turn into animals. "Grandma Tsunade, we have to find Sai. He was with us at the village for the mission. He might be an animal, too."

Tsunade's response wasn't good. "He already left on another mission. I sent him out this afternoon."

"What?! Call him back!"

"I can't. He left over an hour ago."

"Did he look funny to you? Anything animal-like about him? Did he mention feeling sick at all today?" Shortly after feeling ill, Naruto turned into an animal. Shikamaru was the same way.

"No. He seemed fine."

Naruto and Shikamaru looked at each other. "Maybe he didn't get cursed? Maybe it's taking him a while?"

"In any case, let's focus on you two first. When did you change?"

"Uh... a little while ago? I took a nap and when I woke up I had this tail. I slept for a couple hours, I guess. No more than two."

Tsunade nodded. "That was around the time Sai was in my office getting his new assignment. Nothing was odd about him."

"Except for the usual..." Naruto muttered. "I don't get why you gave him a new mission the same day he comes back from one."

"We're very busy and he's a high ranking ninja. It's not uncommon." Tsunade walked to the door, leaving. "Wait right here, I'll be back in a minute."

When Tsunade returned, she brought two people back with her, neither of which were Sai. It was Shino and Ino. They stood beside Sakura in a line. Ino kept glancing at Shikamaru muttering something to herself.

"I'm sending you on a new mission. Sakura, Ino and Shino will accompany you. Shino will be team leader."

"Why them?" Naruto complained. "Why these guys? Can't we do this on our own?"

Tsunade threw him a look. "I'll explain it to you in a way hopefully you can understand and accept. Usually more than two people are sent off on missions. You know this. Given the circumstances, you'll need a team more so. Shikamaru can no longer speak in a way we can understand but you can. You'll have to translate. But over time, I fear you may become more like him in that you will also no longer be able to communicate with human beings. In which case, you'll need people around to help you. They know your situation, so they'll be able to ask people for help. It seems pretty pointless for you to go all the way to that village only to arrive as complete animals and have no one understand you. What do you think will happen then?"

"Ok, good point."

"In addition to that, I've made sure to assign people from your usual squads to help you, since they know you best and have skills which should help you on this mission. Sakura from your team and Ino from Shikamaru's."

"Why not Choji?" Naruto and Shikamaru asked at once.

"Because of Ino's Jutsu. Who knows what will happen on the mission? Her skills could be of good use on this mission... especially if one of you decides to go running off." Tsunade glared at the soon-to-be fox. "I have many reasons for assigning who I did. And as I've said before, Shino will be your team leader."

"But that's five people. That's a pretty big team, don't you think?"

"It's three people if you don't count the animals," Ino said smugly.

"But why Shino?"

"Because he has good tracking skills which may come in handy on this mission."

"Why not Neji?" Naruto asked.

"He's already on a mission. He left yesterday."

"Hinata?"

"She went with him."

"Kiba?"

"You and Akamaru don't seem to get along. Kiba told me how he reacted to you this afternoon. I don't think it's such a good idea."

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"He's on a mission, too."

"Bushy-brow?"

"He's on a mission with Gai and Tenten. Naruto, there is no one else available. Shino is the only one free. He has no assignments and he hasn't had one in days. He's willing and able so stop complaining. He'll do fine."

Naruto sighed. They were stuck with him. "I just don't want him to give me fleas or something."

"Keep talking like that and I will."

Naruto stuck his tongue out.

"So," Tsunade continued, "you will head out immediately to the village Naruto and Shikamaru just came from in order to find out what had happened to them and how we can fix it."

"Can't they just go and we'll stay here?" Naruto asked. "We just came back and now we have to go out again?"

"What if they have a way to fix you but you have to be there in order to do it? Then they would have to come all the way back here to fetch you and then go all the way back there. That's a lot of running around. It's just easier if you go along. Besides, it would be nice if you were there to show everyone what happened to you. It could make it easier for them to know what's wrong with you other than taking someone else's word for it."

"And Sai? What about him?"

"Let me worry about that."

Shikamaru nudged Naruto and asked him to translate.

"Uh... Shikamaru says it would be hard for us to go back because... say again? Oh. Uh, because the people at the village said we were banned and can't go back."

"Still, only your team was banned. Not these three. It should be fine with that loophole. In any case, you have to go back if you want any hope of changing back."

"And if we're fine with it?"

"You're going anyway, Naruto."

Ino approached Shikamaru, looking him up and down. "Is that really you, Shikamaru?"

He nodded his head.

"And you can't talk?"

He shook his head.

Ino sighed heavily. "Why couldn't it be the other way around and Naruto couldn't speak?"

"Agreed."

"Totally."

"I'm right here!"

Ino touched Shikamaru's back. "Oh, wow!" She hugged his neck, rubbing her face on his hair. "I've never been this close to a living deer before and I've never touched one that wasn't mounted on a wall. Your fur is so cool. This is fur, right? Or hair? Whatever it is, it's awesome. Sakura, come here and touch him."

Shikamaru moaned. "Don't..." Still, he didn't move away and let them touch his body and his antlers.

"You should move out at once," said Tsunade.

"Yes, milady."

"Whoa, whoa! Wait a minute! Right now?" Naruto protested. "It'll be sunset soon and we just came back from a mission this afternoon! Now we have to turn around and go back? Give us time to breathe, would you? And leaving now of all times? It'll be dark before we make it halfway!"

"Afraid of the dark, Naruto?"

"No! It's just harder to find things in the dark, that's all."

"I agree," said Shikamaru. "It's troublesome and sounds exhausting, but we have to. The sooner we leave, the sooner we'll be cured."

"But now? Can't it wait until morning?"

"It's best if we leave now and shave some time off estimated arrival," said Shino. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we get there. If it's too much, we'll set up camp and we'll still arrive around the same time we would if we had waited and not rested."

There was no point in arguing. The decision was already made.

Everyone packed up their things and prepared to leave. Naruto packed up some supplies in his backpack and slung it over his shoulder. Shikamaru packed nothing. Not that he could in his current form. So Naruto packed a few extra things for him. Everyone met at the entrance of the village and left.

"I hope this isn't going to be a waste of time," Naruto complained. "I still think it can wait until morning. Look, the sun's going down now!"

"We still have a couple hours of good light. Let's get a move on."

Naruto looked back at the gates of the Hidden Leaf and sighed. It felt good to be home so he could rest after a difficult day and even worse mission. It was all too soon he had to leave. For once, this restless ninja wasn't ready to leave his home.

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