Furry, part one
Title: Furry (Petit Loup, if you have a better idea, don't hesitate^^)
Author: Mayabeille on LJ and NF/ Maeve Fantaisie on ff.net
Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me, everything is Masashi Kishimoto's propriety.
Summary: '"Naruto". It was only the third time he was hearing that word. He didn't know what it meant. He closed his black eyes, unconcerned. How could he have known at the time, really?'
Rating: Oh, my. PG-13/T to be safe.
Pairing: Light SasuNaruSasu. :)
Note: Here is the first part of my Secret Santa gift of 2010, organized on NF (I know, I know T.T). Dragonwolf on NF/ ookami_ryuu was my receiver. :) Petit Loup, I'm really sorry for being this long. Here is the first part, and I'll post a second part immediately after that. You've already read this part on NF, but I did some corrections to, let's hope, reduce my "frenchiness" and make the reading easier. :)
Happy reading to you, and to those who happen to come across this. :D
Parts: one / two.
xXxXxXxXx
Furry - part one
Sasuke had a quiet life. Well, not so "quiet", really, but he was happy. Oh, he showed it as much as a cat could show he was happy, mind you, and only when he wanted to. If he wanted to.
But he was.
With a mistress like Sakura, though, it was certain that his life wasn't quite as quiet as he would like it to be. She had... quite the temper, to say the least. And was unpredictable.
- Oh, Sasuke! - snif - It's unfortunate that you don't - hic - don't understand what they're talking about! So - snif - tragic and so romantic !
It was fortunate that he didn't even try to understand what they were talking about, as he simply didn't care.
Never come near Sakura while she is watching a romantic movie. This girl, in all her sobbing glory, wouldn't control her strength and you would be crushed against her. Crushed. Sasuke had done the mistake once, he wouldn't ever again.
And if you want another advice, never come near her when she is angry either.
- This little sh-! If he comes near me ever again, I don't care: he'll be destroyed.
The table of the living room still remembered with distress its encounter with her fist.
So, yes: unpredictable, lunatic... and a little crazy. If Sasuke was honest, he would say that all in all, she was pretty cat-like herself. Or maybe it was just a human girl thing.
Anyway. Even if not really "quiet", Sakura still stayed bearable. Especially when she brought him milk.
...Hum.
Beside Sakura, the other human that was allowed in his house was her best friend, Ino (Sakura might have been Sasuke's mistress, or might think so anyway, but the fact remained that Sasuke was the real master of the house. It was his house, not anybody else's. Not that he was territorial or anything). Sasuke liked thinking he was only "tolerating" her. Sakura might have been annoying at times, but at least she knew the sense of the word "quiet".
Sasuke was forced to acknowledge that the blond girl had guts, though.
- Little kitty-cat Sasuke, how are you today? Did flies get caught in your fur again, for you to lick it like that? No worries, though: you're still the prettiest of all.
And, with a mischievous smile and glinting blue eyes:
- Princess kitty-catty Sasuke-kun
Oh, she was so lucky he tolerated her! He scratched her, once, but never did it again: she had gotten that look in her eyes and he had listened to his instincts and... hadn't run, exactly, but had simply quickly found a place where she couldn't reach for him (SAKURA! Sasuke scratched me! Do you imagine if he were human? I'd be marked. Marked).
In those situations, it wasn't cowardly to escape, but simply clever. Sasuke wasn't ashamed to recognize that human girls could be sometimes downright scary.
They had their moments, though. Like during those evenings, when Ino would stay over and the girls would curl up on the couch and watch a film, lights off, the sounds of the TV gently lulling them to sleep. Sasuke would lie between them, and if he happened to purr Ino wouldn't mock him for it, and Sakura's fingers would stray in his fur, light and warm against his skin.
So, Sasuke was happy. He really thought he was.
This day, when Ino showed up, she was wearing anxiety like a coat. It was in the way she didn't tease him upon arriving as she did usually, the way she couldn't keep from throwing him glances anyway, oddly silent, her fingers in her mouth; the way she was wearing far more perfume than usual, as if to hide the new odour that was covering her clothes since the beginning of the week; something wild that smelled of earth and wood and bouncing river, and strangely of ramen, the nasty food that was sold down their street.
Sasuke knew she was planning to move in with Sakura. Them living closer to the Veterinary School the two girls were attending to, it was easier for her. He hoped she knew he wasn't against it. He wouldn't be more explicit about it than he already was (he "tolerated" her. That meant she was welcome, the silly girl).
Ino sat on the couch, her eyes still on him from across the living room. Sakura sat in front of her.
- Do you think he will accept him?
From the floor, curled up in his basket, placed under the heater, Sasuke yawned.
Sakura smiled.
- Don't worry. Sasuke can be pretty difficult, that's true, but... You remember Mikoto, don't you?
Ino nodded.
- The little bird?
Sakura's smile broadened.
- Yes, the little bird. Sasuke was in the garden, under a tree, and it fell off its branch and landed on him. I thought he would snap at it and kill it, to tell the truth, but... he adopted it. I think he loved its chant.
She giggled.
- Once, I was angry and was yelling while it was asleep and Sasuke hissed at me, spitting and all.
Sasuke's tail flipped once, annoyed. Sakura grinned.
Ino frowned.
- But the bird got killed.
Sakura sighed.
- I know. It crashed againt an ITACHI OPTIC truck, by accident. Sasuke can't read, but sometimes it's as if he could: the letters of the logo were big against the side of the truck, and since this day Sasuke can't stand being near one of those vehicles, or one of ITACHI OPTIC's employees. He hates them.
They kept silence, in memory of the little bird. After a while, Ino's brow furrowed.
- Their red lenses are totally cool, though
- I know.
The two girls sighed together. Sasuke glared at them.
Sakura coughed.
- Anyway, you don't have to worry. Sasuke may act tough, but he really isn't. Not really. Plus, he isn't that much older than Naruto, isn't he? Why wouldn't he accept him?
She squeezed her friend's hand gently. Ino slowly smiled.
- You're right.
- I'm always right.
Ino laughed.
- Thank you...
They carried on chatting animatedly after that, but they didn't talk about Sasuke anymore and he stopped listening.
His ear twitched.
Naruto.
It was only the third time he was hearing that word. He didn't know what it meant.
He closed his black eyes, unconcerned.
How could he have known at the time, really?
xxx
He was sleeping on the heater, the window slightly ajar above him, his limbs carefully folded under his body, when he heard it, from the depths of his consciousness, a grinding sound etching itself into his bones like a warning.
And then he met him.
The window suddenly burst open, something heavy landing on him and sending him brutally crashing into the floor.
Sasuke let out a breathless gasp, his eyes flying open, all his senses violently awaking one after the other - hearing, smell-
...sight.
From above him, two bright eyes were staring straight back at him, blue like he had never seen before, deeper than the sky. He realized, then, that he had orange fur everywhere, two front paws pinning him effectively to the ground, pointy ears twitching, a fluffy tail waving slightly from behind.
The muzzle of the animal, near his cheek, started sniffing gently and Sasuke, in turn, breathed carefully, his eyes opening wide at the familiarity of the scent.
Wildness. Earth and wood and bouncing river, and something as artificial as ramen, warm and full to the brim.
Something clicked in his mind, videos that Sakura had showed him all week about an animal that wasn't really a dog and wasn't a wolf either, mischievous and ginger and untamed.
'Fox' he whispered in his cat way, silently hissing.
The fox grinned.
'Cat' he breathed himself, tail twitching once.
And then, before Sasuke could react, the orange fox jumped him, as if he wasn't already all over him, tail wagging madly and tongue sticking out.
'Play with me! Play with me!'
Oh dear milk God.
The door opened suddenly, Ino calling Sakura frantically, panicked eyes darting everywhere.
- I've lost Naruto on the way! He-
She stopped short when she saw them, a mess of ginger and black sprawled on the floor at her feet.
When Sakura's head popped out of the kitchen, she turned towards her:
- Nevermind. Sasuke's found him.
No, really.
xxx
It occurred quickly to Sasuke that Naruto was, in fact, a freaking baby. A wild fluffy orange blue-eyed freaking kit, that jumped past personal boundaries like he would jump to catch butterflies.
Granted, they probably had only a few months of difference, but it was sufficient to attain a considerable difference in maturity. Sasuke thought so, at least, as he was observing Naruto trying to catch his own tail between his teeth, without much success.
Sasuke snorted at him, shifting his black tail a little.
The fox immediately stared at it with a keen interest and Sasuke quickly folded it securely around his paws, glaring.
'No.'
Naruto pouted. He actually pouted.
Sasuke showed his teeth.
And he thought Ino and Sakura could be annoying.
The two girls, though, were totally taken by the little fox, smiling at his antics, Sakura slipping a hand in his fur with a familiarity that made Sasuke's stomach clench.
- Here is Naruto, Sasuke. He will live with us from now on. We hope you'll become friend with him.
Ino was looking at him with hopeful eyes, and yet it was Naruto's gaze that unsettled him the most, bright blue eyes too sharp in their innocence and boring into his soul.
Sasuke exhaled. After a few seconds, he mewled his approval.
He could try.
xxx
Naruto was, as the girls called him, a "little ball of sunshine", or, as Sasuke preferred refering to him, a frustrating ball of unending energy. He couldn't stay still, was always moving around, sniffing, exploring, taking his scent with him everywhere, so curious that it had to physically hurt.
On this first day, after having - finally - exhausted himself, he simply dropped on the floor and fell asleep where he was, on his back, just in front of the front door, his limbs sprawled around him like a strange ginger star.
Sakura nearly tripped on him when she came back from shopping.
Sasuke snickered in his cat way, the fox scrambling to his paws to hide under the table, Sakura running after him after she realized the real mess that had become her living room after the passage of the orange typhoon.
After a while, though, she came to find him under the table, calmer. She had a cup of milk with her.
It was then that the ugly feeling first appeared in Sasuke's chest.
xxx
After that, this feeling only kept growing, twisting in Sasuke's stomach like a black snake, dark and malicious. Naruto was everywhere, at the edge of the girls' smile, on their lips when they were talking, everywhere in the house when Sasuke was looking around him, everywhere in the air when he was smelling it. He had become the first to be petted when Sakura and Ino were coming back from their school, another cup of milk had been placed next to Sasuke's, and the black cat had once spotted Ino trying to put Naruto into his bed, his basket under the heater, as if it was perfectly normal in the world.
He had hissed, spat, black tail huffing angrily. She hadn't insisted, but she hadn't understood.
It was simple, though. It was Sasuke's house, Sasuke's basket and Sasuke's milk. Hell, it was Sasuke's girls. They were his family, his and his alone and Naruto was, Naruto was-
- Sasuke? Don't you want to come with us.
Sasuke turned his head towards Sakura. He was sitting at the top of a bookshelf, out of reach. Sakura was looking at him with something akin to concern in her green eyes, Naruto's head tilting from behind her legs.
When the fox saw he had Sasuke's attention, he barked happily once, his tail wagging, his clear and hopeful eyes staring straight back at him.
'Sasuke?'
Sasuke huffed, turning his head the other way.
Sakura clicked her tongue against her palate, annoyed.
- Alright. Just keep on sulking, then!
She joined Ino in the living room.
Sasuke rolled into a ball, definitely ignoring the way blue eyes were still boring right into him.
xxx
By night, Naruto was even worse.
'Sasukeeeee, come back here!'
'No.'
Naruto pouted. He had to know it annoyed Sasuke to no end and do it on purpose. He had.
'But I can't climb! Last time I tried, Pink Lady scolded me. She was totally scary.'
"Pink Lady". Naruto's name for Sakura when she was angry. If she was in a good mood, she was "Pink Princess". Naruto had surely picked these nicknames from Ino.
Ridiculous, really.
From the bookshelf, Sasuke scowled, his tail flipping angrily.
'No. I won't budge.'
Naruto eyed his tail, but didn't move. Good, he was learning. Last time, he had tried to catch Sasuke's tail while he was on the bookshelf and had fallen off, crashing on the floor spectacularly.
Instead, he whined; quite loudly, at that.
'But it's soooooo lonelyyyyyy, down here!'
Sasuke hissed in warning, his ears pressing themselves against his head.
'Shut up, idiot. You're going to wake them up!'
Naruto huffed, blue eyes blazing.
'Make me.'
They glared at each other for some time before Sasuke sighed, resting his head gently against his paws.
'Why are you doing this?'
Naruto's eyes flared.
'Why do you ignore me?'
Sasuke scowled, his dark eyes reduced to slits.
'I asked first, dimwit.'
Naruto's fur puffed angrily. Sasuke was certain he didn't even know the sense of the word, but it sure had to sound insulting.
He recovered soon, though, surprising Sasuke. He had grown up.
'I told you. It's lonely down here.'
There was something in his eyes, something in the way he turned his foxy head to the side, that Sasuke didn't like at all. A feeling oddly familiar that clutched at his entrails, cruel and cold and as sharp as a knife.
Sasuke shook the feeling away, stubborn.
'You are this annoying during the day, too, so that's not the reason.'
Naruto glared at him.
'You just keep ignoring me. And it's also lonely during the day.'
Sasuke snarled, suddenly vicious. This ugly feeling was beating again against his ribcage.
'You are with Sakura and Ino during the day. You certainly aren't lonely.'
'That's not it!'
Naruto's eyes were pulsing, now, some sadness mixed with the anger, blue so pure it was painful to watch.
'They don't... they can't understand. They... You...'
The fox fumbled a moment with his paws and then straightened his head, gazing straight back at him.
'They don't understand.'
They are not you. It was left unsaid, but it was hanging in the air, and Sasuke's pupils suddenly widened, memories that he didn't want to remember unfolding each after the other in his mind: evenings in the snow with noone around for miles; a cold, cold feeling, slowly creeping up his heart and eating him alive.
He backed up brutally as if slapped, hitting the wall. The entire bookshelf trembled but he didn't care.
'Shut up.'
Naruto scowled.
'I'll do what I want. I'm tired of hearing you-'
Sasuke hissed violently, the hair in his back straightening, his claws poking out and his ears pressed against his head.
'I told you to shut. Up.'
Naruto's eyes went wide. And suddenly, as if he was expecting this for a long time, he smiled, dangerous and feral, his fangs bared.
'Make me.'
Sasuke dived.
It was brutal, and it was bound to happen since the beginning anyway, like a bubble slowly increasing in size and finally bursting, the two animals rolling on the floor in a mess of claws and fangs and fur. Sasuke was hissing and spitting, Naruto was growling, and at that very moment nothing else mattered. The world had disappeared into a flurry of scratches and bites and there was nothing but the other anymore. There was nothing else.
And gradually, without them realizing it, the claws slowly got in again; the fangs were hidden.
And their fight became something else entirely, almost a game, the two of them rolling before getting up and chasing the other across the room, and tackling him all over again.
And when they stopped at last, exhausted, Sasuke was on top of Naruto and Naruto was laughing his fox laugh, barking breathlessly, and it was the most joyful sound Sasuke had ever heard.
'So. Much. Fun' Naruto breathed, playfully nuzzling Sasuke's cheek.
And, it was.
It was only when they heard panicked footsteps hurriedly approaching that Sasuke realized what exactly he was doing and scrambled hastily to his paws.
The lights went on.
- Oh my God.
Sakura and Ino were standing at the entrance of the living room, looking at the chaos around them.
And chaos it was.
The little table that was at the center of the room was turned over, the papers that used to be on it having flown all around, the carpet scratched and torn. Some books that were previously on the bookshelf had fallen onto the ground, wide opened, some pages folded in an awkward way. A cushion of the couch had been sliced open and feathers were sprawled everywhere.
Naruto sneezed.
Ino yelled.
- MY CARPET!
Sakura turned slowly towards them, eyes wide and stunned.
- What happened...?
With a jerk, Sasuke woke up and ran across the room, straight to his basket. Ignoring Sakura and Naruto and everything else, he curled up into a ball, his face towards the wall.
Sakura remained petrified. After a while, giving up on the cleaning, Ino had to tug her sleeve, yawning.
- Come here. We'll clean up tomorrow...
Sakura nodded once and followed her quietly, turning the lights off as she left the room.
Naruto shifted.
'Sasuke...?'
Sasuke closed his eyes against the world.
xxx
It had to stop. The ugly feeling inside of Sasuke was slowly eating him up and he was allowing it to do so. It was easier, far easier, to do this than to accept Naruto. Than to think about the memories he had awoken in him or to think about this disastrous night. It was even easier, he noticed, to hate him than to ignore him. Far easier to transform anything he had inside of him into hate. Far easier.
Naruto was still everywhere, but he wasn't only around him anymore: he had made his way inside of him, inside his head, inside his heart and it just wasn't possible anymore. He was far too much like him and at the same time far too different, far too bright to not destroy him in the process. To not, by his presence, simply erase Sasuke's existence from inside out.
And it was the day Naruto took Sasuke's place between Sakura and Ino on the couch while they were watching a film that he decided to do something about it all.
'Go away' he told the fox that night, not thinking about the way the blue eyes dulled, not thinking about the way he felt his own heart freeze and crack inside his chest. 'You don't belong here.'
That night, Naruto disappeared, and Sasuke didn't turn to watch him go.
xxx
End of part one / part two.
Author: Mayabeille on LJ and NF/ Maeve Fantaisie on ff.net
Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me, everything is Masashi Kishimoto's propriety.
Summary: '"Naruto". It was only the third time he was hearing that word. He didn't know what it meant. He closed his black eyes, unconcerned. How could he have known at the time, really?'
Rating: Oh, my. PG-13/T to be safe.
Pairing: Light SasuNaruSasu. :)
Note: Here is the first part of my Secret Santa gift of 2010, organized on NF (I know, I know T.T). Dragonwolf on NF/ ookami_ryuu was my receiver. :) Petit Loup, I'm really sorry for being this long. Here is the first part, and I'll post a second part immediately after that. You've already read this part on NF, but I did some corrections to, let's hope, reduce my "frenchiness" and make the reading easier. :)
Happy reading to you, and to those who happen to come across this. :D
Parts: one / two.
xXxXxXxXx
Furry - part one
Sasuke had a quiet life. Well, not so "quiet", really, but he was happy. Oh, he showed it as much as a cat could show he was happy, mind you, and only when he wanted to. If he wanted to.
But he was.
With a mistress like Sakura, though, it was certain that his life wasn't quite as quiet as he would like it to be. She had... quite the temper, to say the least. And was unpredictable.
- Oh, Sasuke! - snif - It's unfortunate that you don't - hic - don't understand what they're talking about! So - snif - tragic and so romantic !
It was fortunate that he didn't even try to understand what they were talking about, as he simply didn't care.
Never come near Sakura while she is watching a romantic movie. This girl, in all her sobbing glory, wouldn't control her strength and you would be crushed against her. Crushed. Sasuke had done the mistake once, he wouldn't ever again.
And if you want another advice, never come near her when she is angry either.
- This little sh-! If he comes near me ever again, I don't care: he'll be destroyed.
The table of the living room still remembered with distress its encounter with her fist.
So, yes: unpredictable, lunatic... and a little crazy. If Sasuke was honest, he would say that all in all, she was pretty cat-like herself. Or maybe it was just a human girl thing.
Anyway. Even if not really "quiet", Sakura still stayed bearable. Especially when she brought him milk.
...Hum.
Beside Sakura, the other human that was allowed in his house was her best friend, Ino (Sakura might have been Sasuke's mistress, or might think so anyway, but the fact remained that Sasuke was the real master of the house. It was his house, not anybody else's. Not that he was territorial or anything). Sasuke liked thinking he was only "tolerating" her. Sakura might have been annoying at times, but at least she knew the sense of the word "quiet".
Sasuke was forced to acknowledge that the blond girl had guts, though.
- Little kitty-cat Sasuke, how are you today? Did flies get caught in your fur again, for you to lick it like that? No worries, though: you're still the prettiest of all.
And, with a mischievous smile and glinting blue eyes:
- Princess kitty-catty Sasuke-kun
Oh, she was so lucky he tolerated her! He scratched her, once, but never did it again: she had gotten that look in her eyes and he had listened to his instincts and... hadn't run, exactly, but had simply quickly found a place where she couldn't reach for him (SAKURA! Sasuke scratched me! Do you imagine if he were human? I'd be marked. Marked).
In those situations, it wasn't cowardly to escape, but simply clever. Sasuke wasn't ashamed to recognize that human girls could be sometimes downright scary.
They had their moments, though. Like during those evenings, when Ino would stay over and the girls would curl up on the couch and watch a film, lights off, the sounds of the TV gently lulling them to sleep. Sasuke would lie between them, and if he happened to purr Ino wouldn't mock him for it, and Sakura's fingers would stray in his fur, light and warm against his skin.
So, Sasuke was happy. He really thought he was.
This day, when Ino showed up, she was wearing anxiety like a coat. It was in the way she didn't tease him upon arriving as she did usually, the way she couldn't keep from throwing him glances anyway, oddly silent, her fingers in her mouth; the way she was wearing far more perfume than usual, as if to hide the new odour that was covering her clothes since the beginning of the week; something wild that smelled of earth and wood and bouncing river, and strangely of ramen, the nasty food that was sold down their street.
Sasuke knew she was planning to move in with Sakura. Them living closer to the Veterinary School the two girls were attending to, it was easier for her. He hoped she knew he wasn't against it. He wouldn't be more explicit about it than he already was (he "tolerated" her. That meant she was welcome, the silly girl).
Ino sat on the couch, her eyes still on him from across the living room. Sakura sat in front of her.
- Do you think he will accept him?
From the floor, curled up in his basket, placed under the heater, Sasuke yawned.
Sakura smiled.
- Don't worry. Sasuke can be pretty difficult, that's true, but... You remember Mikoto, don't you?
Ino nodded.
- The little bird?
Sakura's smile broadened.
- Yes, the little bird. Sasuke was in the garden, under a tree, and it fell off its branch and landed on him. I thought he would snap at it and kill it, to tell the truth, but... he adopted it. I think he loved its chant.
She giggled.
- Once, I was angry and was yelling while it was asleep and Sasuke hissed at me, spitting and all.
Sasuke's tail flipped once, annoyed. Sakura grinned.
Ino frowned.
- But the bird got killed.
Sakura sighed.
- I know. It crashed againt an ITACHI OPTIC truck, by accident. Sasuke can't read, but sometimes it's as if he could: the letters of the logo were big against the side of the truck, and since this day Sasuke can't stand being near one of those vehicles, or one of ITACHI OPTIC's employees. He hates them.
They kept silence, in memory of the little bird. After a while, Ino's brow furrowed.
- Their red lenses are totally cool, though
- I know.
The two girls sighed together. Sasuke glared at them.
Sakura coughed.
- Anyway, you don't have to worry. Sasuke may act tough, but he really isn't. Not really. Plus, he isn't that much older than Naruto, isn't he? Why wouldn't he accept him?
She squeezed her friend's hand gently. Ino slowly smiled.
- You're right.
- I'm always right.
Ino laughed.
- Thank you...
They carried on chatting animatedly after that, but they didn't talk about Sasuke anymore and he stopped listening.
His ear twitched.
Naruto.
It was only the third time he was hearing that word. He didn't know what it meant.
He closed his black eyes, unconcerned.
How could he have known at the time, really?
xxx
He was sleeping on the heater, the window slightly ajar above him, his limbs carefully folded under his body, when he heard it, from the depths of his consciousness, a grinding sound etching itself into his bones like a warning.
And then he met him.
The window suddenly burst open, something heavy landing on him and sending him brutally crashing into the floor.
Sasuke let out a breathless gasp, his eyes flying open, all his senses violently awaking one after the other - hearing, smell-
...sight.
From above him, two bright eyes were staring straight back at him, blue like he had never seen before, deeper than the sky. He realized, then, that he had orange fur everywhere, two front paws pinning him effectively to the ground, pointy ears twitching, a fluffy tail waving slightly from behind.
The muzzle of the animal, near his cheek, started sniffing gently and Sasuke, in turn, breathed carefully, his eyes opening wide at the familiarity of the scent.
Wildness. Earth and wood and bouncing river, and something as artificial as ramen, warm and full to the brim.
Something clicked in his mind, videos that Sakura had showed him all week about an animal that wasn't really a dog and wasn't a wolf either, mischievous and ginger and untamed.
'Fox' he whispered in his cat way, silently hissing.
The fox grinned.
'Cat' he breathed himself, tail twitching once.
And then, before Sasuke could react, the orange fox jumped him, as if he wasn't already all over him, tail wagging madly and tongue sticking out.
'Play with me! Play with me!'
Oh dear milk God.
The door opened suddenly, Ino calling Sakura frantically, panicked eyes darting everywhere.
- I've lost Naruto on the way! He-
She stopped short when she saw them, a mess of ginger and black sprawled on the floor at her feet.
When Sakura's head popped out of the kitchen, she turned towards her:
- Nevermind. Sasuke's found him.
No, really.
xxx
It occurred quickly to Sasuke that Naruto was, in fact, a freaking baby. A wild fluffy orange blue-eyed freaking kit, that jumped past personal boundaries like he would jump to catch butterflies.
Granted, they probably had only a few months of difference, but it was sufficient to attain a considerable difference in maturity. Sasuke thought so, at least, as he was observing Naruto trying to catch his own tail between his teeth, without much success.
Sasuke snorted at him, shifting his black tail a little.
The fox immediately stared at it with a keen interest and Sasuke quickly folded it securely around his paws, glaring.
'No.'
Naruto pouted. He actually pouted.
Sasuke showed his teeth.
And he thought Ino and Sakura could be annoying.
The two girls, though, were totally taken by the little fox, smiling at his antics, Sakura slipping a hand in his fur with a familiarity that made Sasuke's stomach clench.
- Here is Naruto, Sasuke. He will live with us from now on. We hope you'll become friend with him.
Ino was looking at him with hopeful eyes, and yet it was Naruto's gaze that unsettled him the most, bright blue eyes too sharp in their innocence and boring into his soul.
Sasuke exhaled. After a few seconds, he mewled his approval.
He could try.
xxx
Naruto was, as the girls called him, a "little ball of sunshine", or, as Sasuke preferred refering to him, a frustrating ball of unending energy. He couldn't stay still, was always moving around, sniffing, exploring, taking his scent with him everywhere, so curious that it had to physically hurt.
On this first day, after having - finally - exhausted himself, he simply dropped on the floor and fell asleep where he was, on his back, just in front of the front door, his limbs sprawled around him like a strange ginger star.
Sakura nearly tripped on him when she came back from shopping.
Sasuke snickered in his cat way, the fox scrambling to his paws to hide under the table, Sakura running after him after she realized the real mess that had become her living room after the passage of the orange typhoon.
After a while, though, she came to find him under the table, calmer. She had a cup of milk with her.
It was then that the ugly feeling first appeared in Sasuke's chest.
xxx
After that, this feeling only kept growing, twisting in Sasuke's stomach like a black snake, dark and malicious. Naruto was everywhere, at the edge of the girls' smile, on their lips when they were talking, everywhere in the house when Sasuke was looking around him, everywhere in the air when he was smelling it. He had become the first to be petted when Sakura and Ino were coming back from their school, another cup of milk had been placed next to Sasuke's, and the black cat had once spotted Ino trying to put Naruto into his bed, his basket under the heater, as if it was perfectly normal in the world.
He had hissed, spat, black tail huffing angrily. She hadn't insisted, but she hadn't understood.
It was simple, though. It was Sasuke's house, Sasuke's basket and Sasuke's milk. Hell, it was Sasuke's girls. They were his family, his and his alone and Naruto was, Naruto was-
- Sasuke? Don't you want to come with us.
Sasuke turned his head towards Sakura. He was sitting at the top of a bookshelf, out of reach. Sakura was looking at him with something akin to concern in her green eyes, Naruto's head tilting from behind her legs.
When the fox saw he had Sasuke's attention, he barked happily once, his tail wagging, his clear and hopeful eyes staring straight back at him.
'Sasuke?'
Sasuke huffed, turning his head the other way.
Sakura clicked her tongue against her palate, annoyed.
- Alright. Just keep on sulking, then!
She joined Ino in the living room.
Sasuke rolled into a ball, definitely ignoring the way blue eyes were still boring right into him.
xxx
By night, Naruto was even worse.
'Sasukeeeee, come back here!'
'No.'
Naruto pouted. He had to know it annoyed Sasuke to no end and do it on purpose. He had.
'But I can't climb! Last time I tried, Pink Lady scolded me. She was totally scary.'
"Pink Lady". Naruto's name for Sakura when she was angry. If she was in a good mood, she was "Pink Princess". Naruto had surely picked these nicknames from Ino.
Ridiculous, really.
From the bookshelf, Sasuke scowled, his tail flipping angrily.
'No. I won't budge.'
Naruto eyed his tail, but didn't move. Good, he was learning. Last time, he had tried to catch Sasuke's tail while he was on the bookshelf and had fallen off, crashing on the floor spectacularly.
Instead, he whined; quite loudly, at that.
'But it's soooooo lonelyyyyyy, down here!'
Sasuke hissed in warning, his ears pressing themselves against his head.
'Shut up, idiot. You're going to wake them up!'
Naruto huffed, blue eyes blazing.
'Make me.'
They glared at each other for some time before Sasuke sighed, resting his head gently against his paws.
'Why are you doing this?'
Naruto's eyes flared.
'Why do you ignore me?'
Sasuke scowled, his dark eyes reduced to slits.
'I asked first, dimwit.'
Naruto's fur puffed angrily. Sasuke was certain he didn't even know the sense of the word, but it sure had to sound insulting.
He recovered soon, though, surprising Sasuke. He had grown up.
'I told you. It's lonely down here.'
There was something in his eyes, something in the way he turned his foxy head to the side, that Sasuke didn't like at all. A feeling oddly familiar that clutched at his entrails, cruel and cold and as sharp as a knife.
Sasuke shook the feeling away, stubborn.
'You are this annoying during the day, too, so that's not the reason.'
Naruto glared at him.
'You just keep ignoring me. And it's also lonely during the day.'
Sasuke snarled, suddenly vicious. This ugly feeling was beating again against his ribcage.
'You are with Sakura and Ino during the day. You certainly aren't lonely.'
'That's not it!'
Naruto's eyes were pulsing, now, some sadness mixed with the anger, blue so pure it was painful to watch.
'They don't... they can't understand. They... You...'
The fox fumbled a moment with his paws and then straightened his head, gazing straight back at him.
'They don't understand.'
They are not you. It was left unsaid, but it was hanging in the air, and Sasuke's pupils suddenly widened, memories that he didn't want to remember unfolding each after the other in his mind: evenings in the snow with noone around for miles; a cold, cold feeling, slowly creeping up his heart and eating him alive.
He backed up brutally as if slapped, hitting the wall. The entire bookshelf trembled but he didn't care.
'Shut up.'
Naruto scowled.
'I'll do what I want. I'm tired of hearing you-'
Sasuke hissed violently, the hair in his back straightening, his claws poking out and his ears pressed against his head.
'I told you to shut. Up.'
Naruto's eyes went wide. And suddenly, as if he was expecting this for a long time, he smiled, dangerous and feral, his fangs bared.
'Make me.'
Sasuke dived.
It was brutal, and it was bound to happen since the beginning anyway, like a bubble slowly increasing in size and finally bursting, the two animals rolling on the floor in a mess of claws and fangs and fur. Sasuke was hissing and spitting, Naruto was growling, and at that very moment nothing else mattered. The world had disappeared into a flurry of scratches and bites and there was nothing but the other anymore. There was nothing else.
And gradually, without them realizing it, the claws slowly got in again; the fangs were hidden.
And their fight became something else entirely, almost a game, the two of them rolling before getting up and chasing the other across the room, and tackling him all over again.
And when they stopped at last, exhausted, Sasuke was on top of Naruto and Naruto was laughing his fox laugh, barking breathlessly, and it was the most joyful sound Sasuke had ever heard.
'So. Much. Fun' Naruto breathed, playfully nuzzling Sasuke's cheek.
And, it was.
It was only when they heard panicked footsteps hurriedly approaching that Sasuke realized what exactly he was doing and scrambled hastily to his paws.
The lights went on.
- Oh my God.
Sakura and Ino were standing at the entrance of the living room, looking at the chaos around them.
And chaos it was.
The little table that was at the center of the room was turned over, the papers that used to be on it having flown all around, the carpet scratched and torn. Some books that were previously on the bookshelf had fallen onto the ground, wide opened, some pages folded in an awkward way. A cushion of the couch had been sliced open and feathers were sprawled everywhere.
Naruto sneezed.
Ino yelled.
- MY CARPET!
Sakura turned slowly towards them, eyes wide and stunned.
- What happened...?
With a jerk, Sasuke woke up and ran across the room, straight to his basket. Ignoring Sakura and Naruto and everything else, he curled up into a ball, his face towards the wall.
Sakura remained petrified. After a while, giving up on the cleaning, Ino had to tug her sleeve, yawning.
- Come here. We'll clean up tomorrow...
Sakura nodded once and followed her quietly, turning the lights off as she left the room.
Naruto shifted.
'Sasuke...?'
Sasuke closed his eyes against the world.
xxx
It had to stop. The ugly feeling inside of Sasuke was slowly eating him up and he was allowing it to do so. It was easier, far easier, to do this than to accept Naruto. Than to think about the memories he had awoken in him or to think about this disastrous night. It was even easier, he noticed, to hate him than to ignore him. Far easier to transform anything he had inside of him into hate. Far easier.
Naruto was still everywhere, but he wasn't only around him anymore: he had made his way inside of him, inside his head, inside his heart and it just wasn't possible anymore. He was far too much like him and at the same time far too different, far too bright to not destroy him in the process. To not, by his presence, simply erase Sasuke's existence from inside out.
And it was the day Naruto took Sasuke's place between Sakura and Ino on the couch while they were watching a film that he decided to do something about it all.
'Go away' he told the fox that night, not thinking about the way the blue eyes dulled, not thinking about the way he felt his own heart freeze and crack inside his chest. 'You don't belong here.'
That night, Naruto disappeared, and Sasuke didn't turn to watch him go.
xxx
End of part one / part two.