Nukenin

No longer being Genin had its changes. Chunins are getting harder and more dangerous missions. Also they are able to go on some of them without jounin. We still would have to attend training, but that was fine. We still had a lot of things to learn.

More interesting missions unfortunately also meant other things. Like that we had much less free time. We were either away on mission, were helping with something in the village or were training. At least we were getting more money from it.

And one time when we were working, a not so good thing happened. I was on a mission with another team since Sasuke had to do something in the village and Sakura couldn’t go with us since she wasn’t a Chunin yet. It was a simple mission. We had to quard some really rich guy and his daughter on their way.

It wasn’t a surprise that we were attacked. Rich people are often victims of bandits and thieves. It doesn't matter if it is for money and stuff that they have with them or a ransom. They really couldn’t go anywhere without an escort. Well, maybe it would be enough if they didn't(t dress for their trips like if they were going to some noble party.

The attacker seemed to be from one clan. They all had the same symbol on their clothes. A paw with long claws. There were more of them than us, but I wasn’t worried that we wouldn’t defeat them. While I was fighting one that got too close to the girl we were defending, I felt a sting on the back of my neck. Without thinking I just punched the guy in front of me which sent him to the ground and reached to my neck.

I managed to pull out a little dart. It could hold a small amount of liquid inside of it. I had no idea what it could be, but I felt okay so at least it wasn’t any kind of poison. I didn’t think anything about it and we finished the mission. But just to be sure, when we returned to Konoha I let Sakura examine me. She was learning about healing and these stuff for a while. When she didn’t find anything obvious I thought that it was okay. Maybe it was supposed to weaken me but it didn’t work for some reason.

Everything was alright until a few days after our return. I started to feel dizzy, so I went to the Hokage. She was the best doctor in the village after all. Examination was supposed to be quick, but just a few seconds after she started it was interrupted as I went to the ground, unconscious. When I woke up again, I immediately felt that something was horribly wrong.

“Naruto… Naruto, do you hear me? Can you understand me?” Hokage was asking me with a shocked expression on her face. I simply nodded and that was the moment when I noticed it. Right in front of me, instead of two human arms, I saw two furry paws. I wanted to yell from shock, to know what the hell was happening, but I couldn’t. No words escaped my mouth, just a hissing. I couldn’t even talk. The fact started to sink in. Somehow I changed into a fluffy orange cat. 

Hokage tried to calm me down, saying that they would surely solve it one way or another. In the end she concluded that it was probably the effect of the liquid that got inside me in combination with a technique. She told me that she would look at the sample that she managed to get from me before it went down the hill, and she would see what they could do next.

“Now we just need someone who will keep you with them. In this state you can’t stay on your own, it would be too dangerous. It would be best if it was someone from your team. Not Kakashi, he has a lot of work right now. And Sakura is helping in the hospital, we have a few injured ninjas that just got from a failed mission. Well, it looks like Sasuke is the only option.”

I couldn’t help but bristle. There was no way that I could stay with Sasuke. I wouldn’t survive this. He would either kill me for something stupid or let me die by not feeding me. I was sure about it. But my protests were left unnoticed as she already called someone to get him to her office. This was so unfair, not being able to defend myself in an argument.

To show how much I wasn't pleased with the situation, I hid under her table. It was so weird to be suddenly this small and walk on all four. I would be able to get into small spaces. Maybe I could survive the time with Sasuke hidden in some hole and get out just to eat. From my thoughts got me when I heard the door opening.

“Oh, Sasuke. I have a very important task for you. You have to look after this little grumpy guy.” She was telling him as she grabbed me and forcibly pulled from under her table. I hissed at her, but didn’t dare to scratch her. Sasuke didn’t seem to really understand what was going on and I couldn’t blame him. Normally newcomer Genins were doing pet sitting.

Hokage noticed his expression too, so she began to explain it to him. It was reasonable that he should know as he was going to be in charge in this mess. “This is Naruto. I still don’t exactly know how it happened, but I’m going to work at it. Meanwhile I need you to take him to your place. Nobody knows it's him and I would prefer to let it be this way.”

Sasuke looked like he was going to say something, but then he just nodded. Not even him dared to talk back to her. We all know how strong she was. Why tempt your luck by getting her angry, when you can just agree and safely get away. So he didn’t have any other choices. And like that we made our way to his house. I was just glad that he wasn’t carrying me and let me walk behind him.

I’ve never been to his house before. I walked inside and went right to look around. I would be living here for a while after all. It actually looked pretty nice. Quite a big apartment with a big window that allowed a lot of light to get  inside. Yeah, I would be able to withstand it here.

Suddenly Sasuke came to me and put something around my neck. I quickly realized that it was a collar. I tried to take it off with my paw, but wasn’t successful. “Don’t be mad, Hokage told me to do so. Don’t forget that nobody knows that it’s you. It would be bad if something happened and some random person took you with them.” He explained it to me.

I then jumped on a chest of drawers that had a mirror on it, so I could look at myself to see how it looked. It was a simple, dark blue collar with a metal tag. The tag looked just like a symbol of the Uchiha clan. He probably had a cat in the past. Where else would he get it this quickly? I literally changed less than an hour ago and he knew about it for even shorter time.

But I still didn’t like that it made me look like I was his pet or something. I had to acquiesce with the collar, but he could take off the tag. I tried to indicate it to him, even if it wasn’t easy without the ability to talk or gesticulate. All I could do was meowing, hissing and somehow using my paw. I would have to live with it but that didn’t mean that it was less irritating.

“Don’t even think about it. With this everybody will know where to return you if you try to run away.” Well, he thought really nicely about me. It’s a fact that I was not happy with my current situation, but I didn’t plan to run away. Like, I wouldn’t have where. I wouldn’t even be able to get into my place, since the door is locked and I didn’t leave a window open.

“Fine, I need to go do something now. You stay here and don’t break anything.” With one last look at me he went out of the apartment and left me alone. That was really nice of him. What the hell did he think that I would do here? It’s true that I could do something to piss him off. He told me to not break things, but I could do much more. Take all of his clothes out of the closet? Eat food from his fridge. “Piss on something? The possibilities were unlimited. But why would I do it. It was true that all of this wasn’t really his fault. What happened to me nor that I had to stay at his place.

Only thing that I could think about doing was talking to Kurama. I didn’t have much time for him lately and this said a lot since he is with me all the time. It was just that after missions and trainings with Kakashi I was always too tired. I couldn’t even remember when was the last time I was training with Kurama. Maybe I would ask for a few days off to make it up.

“Long time no see.” I smiled as I got to the place that I got to know so well. “How is it to be a fox inside of a cat's body?” I asked with a small laugh. Even in my mind I didn’t keep my human body, so I had to look even more up to see his face. “For me it’s not that much of a change, but it is still pretty odd.” He laid down, arms folded under his head.

I spent the time talking with Kurama until Sasuke finally got back home. He was carrying a bag of cat food with him. At first I thought that this was too much, but then I realized that my new body wouldn’t most likely be able to digest human food. I was going to miss my usual meals.

Once I finished my not that bad dinner, it was time to go to sleep. I was looking around where to lay, when I heard Sasuke talking to me. “You can sleep anywhere you want, but don’t even think about going to my bed, you understand.” Yeah, like if I had this in my plan. There was no way I would share a bed with him.