Chimera

Chimera
Part 6
By Mieren


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Naruto returned to camp in much higher spirits than when he had left, having eaten a few fish from a nearby stream, a couple of rabbits and a wild turkey. His metabolism had been high when he was only dealing with Kyuubi, but tack on Manda and he flat out needed food in mass quantities, mostly meat since both of his symbiotic demons were carnivorous. As he approached, he noticed that the two watching shinobi appeared to be Gai and Neji, trusting that the Byakugan user to recognize him before he was within striking distance. Apparently Gai wasn’t as smart and launched over a dozen kunai at him before he had so much as set foot into the camp grounds. Not wanting to wake everyone else with a burst of chakra, Naruto simply shot to the left, snorting loudly.

“Knock it off, caterpillar-eyebrows,” he growled softly. “And tell Mr. ‘I have no pupils and squat for irises’ to quit glaring at me!”

“That’s it, I’ll kill him myself,” Neji spat.

“I’m not going out without a good tussle, which will naturally create quite a ruckus. You really want to wake up Sakura, Ino *and* Tenten?” Naruto asked slyly. “Bring it on. Your funeral, white-eyes.”

Neji glared death at the transformed ‘Chinese dragon’ from where he stood smirking. “I hate you,” he hissed. Internally, he wondered why the ‘dragon’ knew it was a *really* bad idea to wake up those particular three women. He eventually shrugged it off as something that every male of every species should know. Never wake a sleeping woman. He only wondered for a moment why Hinata hadn’t been included in the group before deciding that her jumpiness and blushing earlier had tipped off their new companion.

“Why hate me when you could stand a change of heart?” Naruto whispered, brushing closely by the other teenager on his way towards Sasuke’s tent. In passing, he teasingly brushed his fingertips across the other shinobi’s inner thigh, causing his white eyes to become absolutely huge and completely blanking out any prior thoughts he’d been pondering about their new charge.

Snickering at his new form of teasing and Gai’s poorly muffled laughter, followed immediately by a smacking noise as Neji cuffed the older ninja forcefully, Naruto headed towards his and Sasuke’s tent, heading in quietly in case his friend was asleep. He found himself face to face with damp obsidian eyes.

“Naruto,” Sasuke said silently. “You avenged him. Please, did you see anything more? Is he alive?”

Naruto hung his head. How could he answer this? His best friend was asking him, and he couldn’t lie to him, not when he was crying. The very sight almost broke his heart.

“Can you keep a secret?” Naruto asked, not good at starting or maintaining conversations.

“Yes,” Sasuke answered instantly, willing to promise to anything if it told him what happened to his best friend. Still hating at referring to him self in the third person, Naruto answered.

“None of this is to ever be repeated.” Sasuke nodded assent, leaving Naruto to hesitantly continue. “Orochimaru tried to gain the power of Kyuubi by blocking Naruto’s powers and fusing him with Manda.”

“Why didn’t he fight back?”

“At first, it was chains and a chakra restricting collar,” Naruto said softly, looking away from Sasuke. He didn’t want to see the hatred or revulsion when he revealed what had truly occurred. “After Manda started to fuse… I… tore off my own jaw, knocked out my teeth and scalped myself to get that damn collar off and try to escape with the fox’s help. Kyuubi was stronger, but Manda already had the advantage. They killed each other and left me like this.”

For several moments, Sasuke just stared at him. For a moment, it appeared as though he didn’t understand or couldn’t accept the information given to him. The former blond couldn’t stand the thought that he had just driven away his best friend. “Naruto?” Sasuke asked in a bare whisper, his voice so hopeful and pleading that it almost made the former blond cry. Amethyst eyes clouded slightly with tears as he awaited the disgusted dismissal, knowing that the dark-haired boy would leave when he found out that his former friend was now a bona fide monster.

“Yes.”

“WHY?” Sasuke exploded, lowering his voice when Naruto frantically tried to shush him. “Why didn’t you tell us you were alive? Who you were? Why don’t you even look like *you*?”

“I can’t help what I look like!” Naruto said deadly, eyes moist. “Don’t tell anyone who I am! I was hated enough when I was just the seal for Kyuubi. Now I’m a fused version of Kyuubi and Manda, and I really *am* a demon. Two demons if you want to get down to it. If I can fake looking like the last Chinese dragon, then maybe I can live a normal life. Please, Sasuke, don’t take that from me.”

For the first time since his entire clan was slaughtered, tears slipped from Sasuke’s eyes. He silently leaned forward and drew Naruto into his embrace, refusing to let go. “I won’t tell a soul,” he vowed almost inaudibly. “Just… just don’t leave me alone again.”

“So does this mean I can still stay with you?” Naruto asked softly. “I know I annoy the hell out of you, but can I still stay? I just… I just want to be with someone I know and someone who knows who I am…”

“Stay!” Sasuke demanded harshly, unwilling to lose one of the few things he had left in his life, no matter how strange he looked.

“I’ll stay on the condition that you don’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t say anything, just stay,” Sasuke said firmly, as close to begging as he could come without losing all hopes of dignity.

“Okay,” Naruto agreed slowly, stupefied by his friend’s vehemence. Was he so lonely that he would take in anyone who would accept? No, that couldn’t be it or raving fan girls would have taken over his estates. Was it possible that Sasuke had pulled the stick from his ass and now acknowledged him as a friend and didn’t want to lose that? Slowly, he lowered them both onto the same futon. “Um… Sasuke?”

“I’m sorry!” Sasuke said almost frantically. “I’ll move, just…”

“Cork it,” the former blond cut him off, knowing that his friend was just going to plead that he stay again. “I was just going to say that I can’t maintain this form when I fall asleep, so don’t freak out when you wake up next to a thirty-foot pile of fur. Speaking of which, I think I need to get out of these clothes so I don’t destroy them.”

“Then… you’re sleeping…”

“In the nude, in the buff, buck-naked, in the birthday suit, and any other euphemism you care to use to say that I’m about to be blowing in the wind,” Naruto finished for him. Sasuke blinked.

“That settles it.”

“What?”

“It’s definitely you.”

That was it. Naruto started laughing, eyes watering as he shucked off ‘his’ clothes. Still snickering, he managed to get out another question merely for the sake of watching Sasuke turn as red as Neji had been.

“So… you sleeping nude too?” Naruto asked slyly, just waiting for the blush.

“Do you want me to?”

Now it was Naruto’s turn to blush. Grinning wickedly, he turned the joke right back around, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. “So if we’re both nude, want to have some fun?” Naruto awaited the blush or shudder of revulsion, always eager to taunt his rival. Once again, Sasuke astonished him.

“Yes.”

Holy hell. Was he serious or was he trying to get Naruto to sputter? It was impossible. Sasuke didn’t joke around. The Stick-of-Doom crammed up his ass didn’t allow it. Hints of pink started to show up on his porcelain skin, causing Sasuke to finally break down into hysterics, which for a normal human being meant snickering. Apparently, someone had removed the Stick. Now he just had to find the Stick and beat Sasuke across the head with it. When he scowled, Sasuke started laughing louder, resulting in Naruto’s sudden resolve to find said Stick and return it to its proper resting position.

“You suck,” Naruto grumped.

“Only you,” Sasuke returned, his trembling shoulders visible proof that he was about to start laughing again. The former blond almost smacked him upside the head before reconsidering. Now it was personal. It was a competition and he wouldn’t lose to that stuck-up prick. Come hell or high water, he would find The Stick.

“Promise?”

“Yes, but only you.”

Naruto growled and planted his kneecap in a place where it would have really hurt had it been a few inches higher. Sasuke curled up and gasped loudly, staggering a few paces back to prevent similar attacks on his person.

“What was that for?”

“I will not stay here as a pity case! I don’t care if Kohana is at war!” Naruto hissed, humor forgotten.

“Fuck the war! Fuck Kohana! I want you back, Naruto! I don’t care what you look like! I don’t care if you’re human or not. Just come back. You came after me when I betrayed Kohana and left to go to Orochimaru for power. I wasn’t exactly human then, was I? But you were still there! How could I not come back for you?”

Naruto suddenly wilted, going absolutely still. Now he understood. The only reason that Sasuke had been taunting him and humoring his perverse jokes was to get back the one person he had acknowledged as his best friend. He had lost everything and now he had the chance to regain something that had almost broken him when his best friend had been taken from him as well. Sasuke wanted someone who understood him. He wanted his best friend back. Amethyst eyes searched black, finding only loneliness and defeat. Naruto capitulated.

“I’ll stay,” he said softly. Seeing Sasuke relax, he tried to lighten the mood in the only way he knew how. Obnoxiousness. “But if you try to grope me in my sleep, don’t be surprised if you find something fuzzy.”

Sasuke actually collapsed in relief, waving his friend to lie down beside him. A bit more gracefully than the dark-haired boy’s flop, Naruto settled down to sleep beside his best friend. After a moment, he pulled Sasuke’s slimmer frame to him, holding him in his arms like a teddy bear as he fell into an immediate relaxed slumber. He was still known for who he was, still appreciated and recognized.

Though initially shocked, Sasuke settled quickly, not protesting the arms wrapped around him or the face pressed into his unruly hair. No matter what his new appearance and sudden affectionate tendencies, Naruto was back and had all but promised to stay. Besides, even if Naruto was nude, he was not. For once in a long time, a genuine smile graced his lips where his face was resting comfortably against his friend’s neck.

Content, Sasuke allowed sleep to claim him, waking only once briefly when his bed partner finally lost control of his jutsu in his sleep and stretched out to his thirty-foot fuzzy glory. The fur now pressed against him was amazingly soft and silky, a pleasantly warm tail pressed against his back, and he willingly buried himself into its warmth and comfort as he again fell asleep.

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To Be Continued…
Someone knows! Now it’s up to everyone to figure it out. My work schedule doesn’t allow much time for writing, but I am trying, so please R&R!