A/N: Please, let's not question the fidelity of any of the animals... I'm devastated that leopards are not mates for life like wolves are. But this is set in a desert jungle… So, I'll just wallow in grief in my own corner. I'll try to stick as close as I can to the facts.

Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters belong to Kishimoto; this fanfic, however, belongs to yours truly.

Day 7: Animal Kingdom

It was dusk when the animals gathered near the watering hole. Dense forest surrounded them; providing a safe haven for them. Slowly, amongst the animals, some of them morphed into humanoid figures; hybrids. Hybrids maintained some of their animalistic features like claws, wings, tails etc. These hybrids were some of the most ancient and powerful of their species. They believed that when an animal reached a certain age, the moon spirit grants them human figures and human intelligence so that they can protect themselves and their tribe from danger…

Sakura yawned as she lazily lounged atop a tree branch. She eyed the other animals that came to rest at the watering hole; she paid particular attention to the hybrids. Ino, a gazelle, was currently drinking from the watering hole. There was Naruto and his mate, Hinata; the lion and lioness were directing their pride towards where Sakura was currently resting on. He spotted the jaguar in the tree and grinned brightly at her,

"Yo, Sakura-chan! How are you doing?" The king of the jungle inquired well naturedly as Hinata gave her a shy smile. Sakura morphed into her human form and return the gesture. Naruto shook his head,

"You know, you're not really pink in colour in your original form… Wonder how'd your hair turn that colour?" Naruto teased. Sakura rolled her eyes at him and pinched a lock of her hair between her thumb and index finger,

"You know that our appearance come from our personalities, it's what suits us best. Besides, your hair is as ridiculously wild in human form as well as your animal form…" She jested. Naruto scratched the back of his head before he started looking around,

"And where would your mate be, Sakura?" He asked. Sakura shrugged,

"Sasuke's probably just checking the territory; he'll be here soon. You don't have to worry your head off, Naruto." She answered him before she turned towards Hinata and grinned widely,

"Now, I see that you're hiding something from me, Your Grace of the pride." She mentioned as she pointedly ignore Naruto's unsightly wail of not being addressed as royalty. Hinata blushed prettily,

"Ah, I'm expecting soon, Sakura-san. I just found out about it…" She answered before she turned shy eyes towards Sakura. Naruto practically jumped in excitement,

"Whoa, you are quick, Sakura-chan! Even I just found out about it today! I'm so excited, this would be our first!" He gushed excitedly as he wrapped a protective arm around his mate. Sakura gave her congratulations to the happy couple just as her mate came out from the shadows of the trees, his stride confident and powerful, which caused Sakura to whistle in appreciation. Sasuke threw her a smirk and went to the edge of the watering hole for a drink. Naruto eagerly made his way to Sasuke,

"Teme, I have great news to tell you! Hinata is pregnant; I'm going to be a father!" He chattered excitedly. Sasuke spared him a glance before he morphed,

"Congrats on your wife's pregnancy, dobe. Make sure to treat her well." He congratulated and advised his friend before making his way up to the branch where his mate was. Sasuke nudged his wife into a sitting position and then nuzzled her head in affection when she did so,

"How are you? I hope you didn't strain yourself too hard, today?" He probed his mate gently. She shook her head,

"No, I'm fine. A little tired, but it's nothing I can't handle." Sakura assured as Ino walked towards their group. Hinata gasped softly while Naruto looked confused,

"Uh, guys… What's going on?" He questioned as he scratched his cheek. Ino sighed,

"For the king of the jungle, you're pretty dumb." She mumbled. Naruto turned his head towards the other blonde of the group and pointed an accusing finger at her,

"Well, you're pretty brave to enter a group of carnivores!" He accused. Ino rolled her baby blue eyes,

"Back off! Do you want to know what is going on or not?!" She hissed impatiently. Naruto's shoulders slumped, for a king he was always being bullied by other hybrids, he sulked. And why was a gazelle so damn fierce anyways?! Hinata giggled at her mate's antics as the others shook their heads. Naruto's ears perked however, when Sakura cleared her throat,

"Naruto, Sasuke-kun and I are also expecting our first child… Just like you and Hinata-chan." She explained. Naruto's eyes grew as wide as saucers,

"Seriously?! Oh my god, Sakura-chan! That's really great news! I would hug you if I could climb trees!" He cheered enthusiastically. He pointed a finger at Sasuke,

"You've got to make sure that Sakura is safe and sound!" He encouraged the male leopard. Sasuke nodded his head dutifully,

"Speaking of keeping her safe and sound, we've got to keep our guards up now. I was about and I caught the scent of humans, poachers. They're quite close to us… I think it's best that we keep the young ones close to the group and perhaps move locations." Sasuke suggested. Naruto hummed in agreement as he stroked the bottom of his chin. He looked around the group of hybrids,

"I'll send out a warning to the rest of the groups tomorrow. For now, we should at least spread the word to the others here." He suggested and gestured towards the watering hole. He then clapped his hands together,

"Oh right, we should also revert back to animal forms. We don't want the humans to find out about hybrids. It'll probably cause quite a huge commotion in the human world." He instructed them. They all bowed low in agreement and then immediately morphed back into their original forms. The sun was almost gone and Sakura stretched lazily on the branch,

"Well, I'm heading for a drink. I'll warn the others since I'm there anyways." She declared before she stepped over Sasuke on her way down. He looked at her,

"Want me to go with you?" He offered. Sakura shook her head no, it wasn't like she was hunting anyways. Ino perked up,

"I'll go with Sakura. My herd's back at the watering hole anyways." She informed them before taking her place beside Sakura.

Sakura took a lap of water as Ino chattered anxiously with her herd. It was then that she heard it, the sound of a twig snapping. Sakura's entire body stilled and Ino's head jerked towards the direction of the sound,

"It's faint since we're upwind, but, I can pick up the distinct scent of humans." Sakura whispered. Ino's head bobbed up and down,

"Let's act natural and try to get nearer to the others. I don't think they'll want to risk hunting us when there are more predators around." Ino advised. Sakura was about to make her way back to where Sasuke was when an impala at the far end of the watering hole suddenly shot up on hind legs,

"OW, W-WHAT THE- HUMANS! THERE ARE HUMANS HERE!" It yelled out loud. The effect was instantaneous, all at once, all the animals ran amok. No one knew where the humans were, just that they should figure out a way to get the hell out of there. It was a shocking sight, however, when one by one, the animals started to get caught in the invisible traps that were set. Ino pushed at Sakura,

"Go, Sakura! We have to get out of here!" She screamed and together, both leopard and gazelles sprinted across the watering hole. A poacher suddenly appeared in front of them and Sakura lunged at him and her strong jaws crushed his windpipe. She got off him immediately and kept the pace with Ino's herd. It was Ino's horrified screams however, that made her stop short in her tracks. Sakura turned around and saw that there were a few humans that had tranquilised her friend; Ino laid limp as the poachers dragged her into a cage. Adrenaline racing, Sakura hissed in anger and pounced on one of the poachers who immediately let go of the gazelle. The rest of them stepped back in horror and aimed their guns at Sakura. She had pounced onto another human when the poachers shot the tranquilizers. Sakura raced for the pain but it never came. She looked up and gasped in shock; Sasuke had taken all the shots for her. He glared at the poachers before he turned his gaze back onto his mate,

"Get the hell out of here, Sakura. I'll take care of them, okay?" He nudged at her; his entire body covered hers, not giving the poachers a chance to take a shot at her. The tranquilizers were working fast and Sasuke could feel the drowsiness settling into him. Sakura nodded her head; she needed to keep her child safe. She was not in any position to attack a group of poachers with loaded tranquilizer guns. Sasuke smirked at his mate and lifted his body from hers. She immediately sprinted away at full speed towards the jungle. The poachers were startled and aimed their guns at her. Nonetheless, Sasuke was having none of it; he roared loudly to bring their attention back onto him as his mate vanished into the dense jungle. Mission accomplished, his entire body slumped into unconsciousness.

Sakura ran and ran and ran. She knew what she had to do; she had to find Naruto and come up with a plan to get the captured animals back. She just had to find a way to convince the king of the jungle that it wasn't an incredibly stupid plan to attack human poachers. Now, where the hell was Naruto?

It turned out that the king of the jungle didn't need any convincing; he was itching to attack the humans right now. After all, they had taken away his precious mate and unborn child. He stalked the clearing within the jungle angrily as the other animals watched on in grief. Many other animals had their love ones taken away from them; it just wasn't right that the humans were to be left alone. Sakura stalked up to Naruto,

"We have to save them, Naruto. It's best if we don't waste any more time if we want to get them back." She advised him. He turned to look at her,

"I know that, Sakura-chan! But we need a plan! We can't just waltz up to them and attack… At this moment, I really can't think of a plan that is guaranteed the freedom of all the animals caught." He confessed. Sakura nodded, deep in thought. She looked up suddenly,

"I think I might know the perfect animal for plans." She whispered in epiphany. Naruto raised a brow at her, and she smirked at him.

"He is Shikamaru the owl, you may have heard of him as The Great Intellectual. He's a close friend of Ino's." She supplied. Naruto's lips curved upwards devilishly. Time to pay a certain owl a visit…

The moon was high up in the sky when Sasuke stirred; the pounding in his head a constant reminder of the tranquilizers that the poachers had used on him. Sasuke blinked blearily as his eyes adjusted to the bright lights that the poachers had set up. All around him, the sounds of the other animals called for help from the great moon spirit as they paced around in their respective cages.

"I see you're awake, Sasuke." A voice spoke up from beside him and Sasuke turned to look; it was Ino who had spoken. She shot him a brittle smile,

"They've just about finished with securing the cages. I heard that they were about to set for town soon. Apparently, there were many orders for exotic animals as pets this time around, so none of us were actually skinned on site." Ino explained to him. She looked towards him,

"Do you think there would be anyone coming to save us?" She asked him, her voice filled with worry. Sasuke shrugged and Ino let out a sigh,

"But, it seems like those two idiots didn't get caught. So if anything, Naruto and Sakura would probably charge straight into here to free us all." Sasuke mused. Ino chuckled humourlessly,

"I hope not, that'll be pretty stupid. They'll just end up being caught. Plus, Sakura shouldn't strain herself like that. Not when she's with child…" Ino muttered as Sasuke nodded his head. Suddenly, her head shot up,

"I hear something from the jungle…" She uttered. She snapped her head back to Sasuke,

"You're the one with better vision. Tell me; is there anything straight ahead of us into the jungle, about 50 metres?" She inquired. Sasuke looked and was thoroughly shocked when he saw Sakura staring back at him in her humanoid form. He smirked,

"It looks like our cavalry arrived." He whispered to Ino as his gaze stayed on his mate. She signalled at him and he gasped in shock. Ino looked at him, the suspense was grating on her nerves,

"What? What? What's she saying? What's going on?!" She expressed her confusion. Sasuke turned back to Ino with his eyes wide,

"She wants us to morph…" He breathed out. Ino stared at him,

"What? Is she nuts? That'll give our secret away to the humans! They'll freak…" Ino hissed before the realisation settled in. She gaped at Sasuke,

"It's a diversion." Sasuke confirmed. Ino grinned widely at him,

"That means that there won't be any human survivors…" She exclaimed as her eyes twinkled. Sasuke backed away slightly. Seriously, this gazelle was probably supposed to be a predator… Ino turned and began calling the attention of all the hybrids that were captured. She told them of the plan and slowly, grins started to appear. One by one, they started to morph…

"We're pretty much done here… Let's start packing the goods onto the tru- OOOH MY GOD. BOSS! T-THE ANIMALS TURNED TO HUMANS!" A poacher shouted in horror. The leader of the group turned around,

"Whadayya mean humans? Are ya stupid or som- FUCKING SHIT! YOU'RE RIGHT! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?" He exclaimed before he ordered his men to check the other cages. All around, exclamations of excitement were heard.

"Boss, this on turned too! Man, this is freaky!"

"This one was supposed to be a leopard! Now it's a hot chick with long limbs and tail!"

"What the hell is going on?!"

The leader of the group cackled maniacally as he processed what was going on.

"Good, this is the jackpot! Imagine how much we'll make if we sell these to the rich people who wanted exotic pets? Or research centres all around the world? Hell, we'll make millions! No, BILLIONS!" He exclaimed joyfully and the rest of his crew cheered with him. Too engrossed with the extraordinary findings, no one took notice of the shadows that circled them. It was sometime later when one of the poachers noticed that something was unnaturally wrong with the jungle,

"Wait, wait guys. Keep it down. There's something wrong…" He silenced the other guys. They looked around and then laughed it off,

"You're too paranoid. There's nothing wrong with the jungle. Wimp…" They jeered. He hushed them,

"No, listen. What do you hear?" He encouraged them. They kept silent for a while and listened hard,

"We can't hear anything man, stop being a chicken." Another hunter called out. The first guy shook his head,

"Don't you see the problem? It's too quiet. There aren't even any insect calls." He pleaded. That statement got their attention. They listened again and suddenly a chill went down their spine. It was too quiet for the jungle. The leader called out to his men,

"Start the cars! We're getting out of here as soon as possible!" He commanded. The drivers went to their assigned vehicles to start the engine. Only, the engines were dead. No matter how much they twisted the key or stepped on the accelerator, the vehicle didn't make a sound. One of them bent down to check if there was anything below the car that could have sabotaged it. He staggered back in terror when he saw that there were deep gashes across the bottom and sides of the vehicles. He called out towards his leader,

"Boss, someone or something sabotaged the cars. We've got no way to start them at all." He explained just as a light nearby shattered. Everyone jumped in shock, some had even screamed in fear. Then, more and more lights started to go out. The leader anxiously commanded another guy to start calling for backup as the jungle around them dimmed further with each light that went out.

"I can't get any signal, boss!" The guy with the satellite phone cried out. They were now all huddled together in the area of the last light with their backs to each other, their guns raised and pointed. The last light went out and all of them braced themselves for the pitch blackness. What they didn't expect were the hundred pairs of glowing eyes that gazed back at them in the darkness…

The watering hole was filled with screams that night.

~Up next, Day 8~