Naruto felt tearing flesh as he raked at the warm skin under his finger-tips. A strong embrace around his midsection was the only thing keeping him from falling backwards. His fox tail was intertwined with a long thin one. His ears were down, but he felt happy. The kitsune slowly fell backwards and landed on soft sheets. He moaned in pleaser as the strong scent of pine, water, and neko came over him.....

Uzumaki Naruto blinked his eyes open, happy to see again after his blinded dream, as filtered sunlight beamed on him from his window.

The blond tried to figure out what in hells name he had just dreamt.

Well, First off, the only cats I know are my cats. Don’t know any half-humans with cat sent. There hasn't been a cat since the First Hokage. He was right. The cat norm was every 100 years. The fox norm was 172 years.NamiKaze Minato was the last fox, making Naruto special to beat the odds!

Seeing as he knew no half-cat-humans, he ignored the dream. For now anyways.

~*~
Naruto couldn't pay attention to the free hour before school. It was called "free-time." You were basically supposed to hang out in the huge cafeteria until school started, and it lasted an hour. Most people either talked to friends, or snuck off to an empty classroom with a close friend...half returned with missing ears.

Suddenly, two boys slammed their stuff in front of the blond.

"Uzumaki, guess what?" Kiba’s voice and wolf-stench drew his attention from his daydream. Next to him was a raccoon, Gaara. Naruto was friends with the exchange student, but Kiba always seemed to invite himself to stuff...making their friendship difficult.

"You’re a girl?!" Naruto joked loudly to Kiba. A couple of boys not far looked at them, curious. Naruto spotted Shikamaru easily, his girlfriend Temari nearby. funny, they were earless today.....

When he looked back to Kiba, he looked a bit offended.

"Well, Kiba is." Gaara muttered.

Wait, the two hadn't had sex had they?! No, they still had ears, and they hardly got along.

"I am not!" Kiba growled.

"I'm lost.." Naruto said, rather dumbly.

The two let Naruto out, Gaara making sure the hallway was empty. More.. private.

"Your now on your own, virgin-kid." Kiba said, half laughing, his tail wagging.

"You still have your ears, Kiba." Naruto muttered.

"Way to point out the obvious." Gaara said. "We didn’t say it was a girl now did we?"

Now the kitsune understood. Your virginity signs only dissolved if it was a girl. He had found that out when he had been questioned last year, and a question was if he were a virgin. To him, it was a dumb question, because he had ears, then they made him repeat Heath....

"You and Kiba? With who?!"

"Shino..." Kiba answered rather awkwardly. Gaara on the other hand looked proud.

"Neji."

"Hyuuga Neji?! He’s a grade older! Wait, so Kiba’s uke? Gaara are you-"

"Yup!" He smiled.

The bell over head rang over head for class to start.
'Joy. Now I have to hang out with Neji and Shino...'

~*~

After role, Kurenai-sensei started talking about...stuff. School stuff. See, Naruto doesn’t even pay attention. Or at least..not until the words "new student" reached his ears.

The kitsune looked up as the scent of neko, forest, and water drew his wondering eyes.

In front of the class, a boy with long, beautiful raven hair that fell across his dark onyx eyes stood, black ears and tail positioned rather proudly. On the blackboards the characters: Uchiha Sasuke were written.

Naruto felt his face grow warm and twitched his tail irritably.

"Sasuke-kun, it seems there’s an open seat next to Naruto. You two apparently have the same schedule, so if you have any questions, ask him."

"Hn.." At first, it seemed to not even hear Kurenai, but he walked down the rows of hot stares to the seat next to Uzumaki Naruto.

Naruto looked away from him to the window as Kurenai-sensei finished her lecture. He didn’t want the Uchiha to see his blush.

"Uzumaki Naruto, correct?" A voice pulled his ears until he faced Sasuke.

"Uh...h-hai." Naruto answered. Suddenly, the blond wished he hadn’t faced the raven haired.

The neko was looking directly into his eyes, piercing Naruto's soul.

"Your eyes...they’re...nice." Was that a compliment? What would he say back?

"Um...Sankyu."

Okay, there was no doubt that Uchiha’s pwn all. So far, Sasuke was having no problems fitting in. Or at least...you'd think that. He was fastest in Gym, smartest in Science, best in Math, had already learned everything in History, and was a great writer in English. It was only Lunch, and Naruto still had to see how the boy would react to Heat and Drama. Especially Health.

But then again, it was Lunch. Naruto couldn’t care less if a teacher had a heart-attack right then and there. Yet he was troubled. Looking across the lunch room, he could only find Neji. Gaara, Shino, and Kiba had gone missing, and that really worried him.

Not wanting to sit alone with the older boy, the kitsune decided to try and find Sasuke. (LOL. Neji’s ganna be a ferret. Im so out of ideas...) He wasn’t hard to find. A huge group of girls (and some guys) were surrounding the Uchiha.

This was a reason why Naruto thought Sasuke wasn’t fitting in. He got all this attention from teachers and fan-people, but he either ignored it or pulled away.

The Uzumaki decided to go sit at a half-empty table, and started eating his pork and misou ramen.

Suddenly Sasuke’s scent hit Naruto like a wave. Like most people could tell who was in front of them, though the scents were dull. If it was a new scent, it hit you like an Icebreaker to a mouth not brushed in a month. (plz don’t ask how I know that.)

"You mind if I sit here? The bitches wont leave me alone." He sounded casual. 'He must move a lot.

"Uh, yeah sure. I don’t mind." The blond felt his face grow hot as he sat next to him instead of across from him.

"Cant wait till Drama!" Kiba and Gaara slammed their plates across of Naruto.

"Uchiha Sasuke? The class heart-throb?" Sasuke ignored Kiba’s comment.

"So, what’s so special about Drama?" Sasuke asked Gaara.

Health Class was...well boring. Then again, Naruto wasn't even paying attention...again. Its not like Asuma was saying anything important anyway, right?



Drama on the other hand was...BETTER!





Iruka stood in front of the stage, talking about...Acting...? Stuff...yeah, stuff.



"Oh,and by the way, I was able to clean the stage to day, Kiba, I believe these are yours." Iruka-sensei pointed off stage where a bucket stood that half the class had been eyeing. Most girls thought it to be dog crap. Kiba's "brilliant plan" that the bucket would fall on Sakura was, well, a failure.



"Wow, he cleaned the stage, now I feel sorry for him.."



"Why?" The kitsune asked.



"Well, after hearing Kiba's plan, I decided to play my own. Not to mention, there were multiple flaws in his plan. This morning, I saw Iruka getting ready to clean the set. I asked him when he'd be doing it. He said lunch. So at lunch, I knew Kiba was screwed. When I was 'in the bathroom' during heath, I offered to assist Iruka. When he left to get something to put Kiba's stuff in, I took advantage. Besides, I know Sakura's going to be up on stage first. Shes been bragging about being lead since I got here. To be honest, I'm not to impressed about air-heads.."



"What are you going to do?"



"You'll see." Whoa, was that a smile on his face?! Oh..very faint...



A few seconds later, Iruka called Sakura up on stage. Almost instantly, as soon as she put her toe on it, loud sirens went off, red lights flashed, practically forcing Sakura to back up in a quick jump where piles of garbage fell on her. When she tried to shake it off, she tripped over a cord behind her and ice cold water fell over her, sent the screaming brat out of the classroom, crying.



"Wasn't that a little cruel?" Naruto asked, laughing with the rest of the class.



"What? She got most of the garbage off with the water, didn't she?" He answered slyly.



"Who did this?!" Every one went quiet as Iruka yelled. "Well?!"



"I did." Sasuke stood up, his hand raised, his tail up, and ears pointed. He was proud that he had messed with her, and it showed.



"Go to the office!" Sasuke left, not looking back, nor down



The bell dismissing school was blocking out sensei's voice.



~*~



Naruto shifted his backpack so it was more comfortable. After all, it was a long walk home.



The trees rustling above him made the blue-eyed fox look up. Of course, he was to late. Sasuke landed right next to him, barely a tail-length away, leaves flying around them.



"Dobe! Watch it will you?! I almost hit you, baka! Oh. Hi Naruto."



"You walk home this way too?" Naruto ignored the swears. He knew that if Sasuke had hit, he would be more angry. It was just how he showed he wanted people to pay attention for their own good.



"Don't have much of a choice, now do I? Its not like my parents will pick me up." He looked down, avoiding Naruto's gaze.



"Why not?" The blond asked.



A small flare in Sasuke's eyes surprised him. "They just wont, ok?!"



The kitsune looked at the neko. That was the first time he had really been yelled at by the boy(and it wont be the last).



"Ok. Then, maybe you could hang out with me at my house sometimes?"



"I'll have to ask." He muttered.



"Ok, see you tomorrow?"



"Maybe..Naruto, what about your parents?" Sasuke asked, looking a bit afraid of the answer.



"Oh. Well, there not around anymore. My...their dead."



"How?"



"My dad was..you wouldn't believe me even if I told you." Naruto said. He was used to that, so it didn't matter much.



"I'll believe you." Sasuke muttered.



"My father, he was..never mind-"



"Will you just tell me?"



"Namikaze Minato. My mother was Uzumaki Kushina. There, are you happy now?" Naruto said, his tail bristling.



"Yes." Sasuke said looking at Naruto. There was something there..His onyx eyes were so soft..yet so cold at the same time. He was hiding something that had something to do with Naruto's parents. If not, it was pity. Naruto knew that look. He had it from Gaara when they first met. He pitied Naruto because he too had gone through the pain. If that was the same look, why was Sasuke giving it to Naruto?



"Sasuke?" Naruto whispered the name and blinked, and Sasuke was walking away down an unfamiliar street, heading home.



"See ya."

Naruto looked up at the empty seat next to him. "See you tomorrow?" "Maybe." So Sasuke wasn't coming...?

The classroom door opened and the cat scent hit Naruto. It was History, 5th period!

"Your late. I didn't see you in Homeroom." Kurenai said. "Do you have a note?"

The Uchiha handed over a pink slip. "Doctors Appointment." He said, casually.

~*~

Naruto was completely out of tune, ignoring Gaara and Kiba, and even Shino, who had joined the,. Not like it was important anyway. He instead was looking for a speck of raven hair topped with pointed black ears. There was no crowed, so he couldn't rely on the fan-girls to help.

He stood up, shoving his lunch remains to Gaara as he left.

"Hey, Naruto! Hora! Have you seen Sasuke?"

"Eww, fan-girls..." He muttered as Sakura and Ino ran up. "No, now leave me alone." He walked past them. How does he put up with them?

The bell rang over head. As he walked to Health, Sasuke walked right past him, the other direction.

"Oi, Sasuke, Health is this way." Naruto said, looking at the passing student.

"I'm not going." Sasukes mono-tone voice answered, not looking back.

"What do you mean, your not going? You can't just wonder the halls. Someone will see you."

"So? Who cares? I'll be the one in trouble, not you. Besides, I'm not wondering the halls, I'm going home. So just go to class like a good little boy." He said, not slowing down.

Naruto turned his back to the Uchiha. "Why are you acting like this?"

"Because I can, now go to class!" The Uchiha didn't want Naruto in trouble, nor did he want the blond to fallow him. If he's in class, he wont fallow him or get in trouble.

"Are you allowed to come over?" Naruto asked, matching Sasuke's mono=tone voice. The Uchiha stopped in frustration. He turned to look at the Uzumaki.

"Your still trying to be my friend? What's wrong with you?!"

"Are you!?" Naruto looked at Sasuke, frustrated too. Why was Sasuke acting like this when just yesterday he was Naruto's friend?

"No! Now go to class,I don't want to be friends with you!" Sasuke turned around and ran out the front gate, not waiting to see Naruto's reaction. He doesn't understand. He doesn't see that I'm trying to protect him...

"Teme!"