Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto so don't sue me.
Author's Note- For fans of my story They're WHAT! I deleted it because I lost inspiration for it. Sorry guys. I promise I'll put something else up as an apology.
Chapter One
A familiar pink-haired kunoichi sat atop a lonely hill, her slender fingers absentmindedly picked at the flowers. She watched as citizens in the village below bustled about, finishing errands or just simply walking. They looked so happy, so… content with their lives. Sakura sighed as she ran a hand through her signature pink tresses, trying to relieve some pent-up stress.
Lately she had been ignored by her teammates and her friends seemed to have less and less time to spend with her. Ino, Hinata, and all those people were always off on some mission or training. Sasuke, Naruto, and the other members of Team Seven were always "avoiding" her and jumping ahead of her on missions. Even now the rest of the team was away on some mission, everyone except her. They had given her orders to stay behind. Was she slowing them down? Was she not good enough? Pbfft, like hell! Sakura was one of the strongest and most revered kunoichi in all of Konoha- possibly the nation!
"Just give them some time; I'm sure they have a good reason as to why they're so busy." Tsunade had consoled her, "They are ninja too."
Sakura and they were all jounin and higher, and Sakura had become one of the most accomplished medic nins out there. She was hailed and adored throughout Konoha, yet despite her popularity, she didn't have any suitors. It disturbed her that she was so popular yet she couldn't get any male attention- well, aside from the usual Lee and Naruto rituals.
"You know what?" she remembered Ino talking about it when they were dead drunk at a bar, "I think that none of the guys around here will follow you around because they think Sasuke, Naruto, and Sai would beat the crap out of them if they did."
Of course back then Sakura had taken it as a joke. But as time went by, she noticed that her teammates would glare at any man who dared to cast a flirty glance her way. She remembered a time when Sakura was at a bar, celebrating Neji's new job as an ANBU captain. There was a jounin there, probably in his mid-ages, drunk as hell, and he was trying to make a move on Sakura. Sai and Sasuke had walked calmly up to the man and dragged him out to the back of the bar. She never saw that jounin again for the rest of the night- and even after the incident the jounin would duck behind a corner every time she came near. Maybe they were paying more attention to her than she thought…
She was knocked out of her thoughts when something slimy and small sloshed its way up to her. It bowed and offered to her a scroll. Sakura made a face at the slug. "Honestly, Tsunade. You need to find a more graceful way to deliver your messages."
The slug disappeared with a poof as Sakura unrolled the scroll. Inside was her sensei's familiar script, except it seemed rushed and a bit messy. Was that… a claw mark in the corner?
Sakura,
I need you back at the tower ASAP! Something terrible has happened, but don't panic. Whatever you do, DON'T PANIC! We got enough crazy people here as it is. Crap, I probably just put more questions in your head. Just back here as quick as you can, or else… I'll… deduct every minute you waste from your pay!
Tsunade
The strawberry haired kunoichi sweatdropped. Leave it to Tsunade to write a letter as urgent yet hilarious as this. Sakura sighed and stuffed the parchment into her pocket. "Well, better do what Tsunade says. After all, my salary is on the line."
"You wanted to see me, Tsunade?" Sakura called as she opened the door to her shishou's office. The emerald eyed female paused for a minute as she heard quite a ruckus go on inside. A few voices were yelling, she identified one of them as Tsunade's. The other sounded like… a hissing cat? What the-? Come to think of it, there sounded like there were two or more cats hissing and growling, while her shishou shouted frantically.
"AH! Get back," Tsunade rolled up a scroll and used it to swat away another figure in the room. Sakura couldn't see who or what it was.
"Tsunade?" Sakura questioned as she pushed the door open all the way. As soon as she opened the door, all the chaos in the room came to a halt and everything fell dead silent. Suddenly, something large and strong knocked her to the floor.
"Oof," Sakura felt the wind get knocked out of her lungs, "What the hell?" Something big was on top of her, and it was… licking her face?
"Meow! Sakura-chyaan!" it purred as it licked her more. Sakura blinked. The thing on top of her had radiant blonde hair, and striking cerulean eyes. Come to think of it, it looked a lot like…
"Naruto?"
"Meow!" the thing nodded in approval as he bent down and licked her face once again.
"Ew!" Sakura wiped the saliva off her cheek and pushed "Naruto" off. She backed up towards the wall and got a good look at the Naruto thing. Her eyes widened. The thing looked exactly like her teammate, except this one had… cat ears? And… a tail? What the freak? Okay, now this was getting messed up.
"Sakura, finally!" Tsunade threw her hands up in joy, "What took you so long? I had to deal with these monsters and look what happened!" She lifted up her arms to show a few scratches- nothing too serious, though.
"Meow? Monsters? More like adorable little babies!" Naruto retaliated as he hopped over next to Sakura. She squeaked and hid behind Tsunade, confused as hell.
"Dobe, you're scaring her." Another figure said as he stepped out from the shadows. He dragged Naruto by his tail and led him to the other side of the room, away from the frightened kunoichi. Sakura's brows furrowed. She recognized that voice, but the figure ran back into the shadows before she could get a good look at him.
"Scaring her? Please, the only thing that scares ugly is her face in the mirror every morning." Wait, only one person called her ugly…
"Stop arguing!" Tsunade slammed her fists on the table. "Don't you three realize what type of predicament you're in? You can't fight your way out of this one."
"What?" Sakura started, "What's going on here? Tsunade?" Viridian eyes looked curiously up at her sensei. Tsunade stared at them for a moment and hesitated.
The Hokage sighed. "Sakura take a seat."
The kunoichi did as she was told and resituated herself on Tsunade's lavish sofa. The sannin pulled out a sake bottle and drank heavily from it. As soon as the pink haired jounin got comfy, Naruto popped up from his hiding place and plopped down next to an apprehensive Sakura. She was still trying to get over that Naruto meowed, had a tail, and cat ears.
"N-Naruto? Are those real?" she pointed to his ears.
He smiled and cocked his head to the side. "See for yourself." Sakura looked bewilderedly at him. "Meow? Come on, they don't bite."
Sakura gulped and reached a shaky hand out and gently pet the ears. They were soft and velvety under her touch, causing her to delve deeper and start scratching them like one would do with a normal cat. Naruto purred in appreciation.
A book suddenly came flying at the kitsune, causing him to yelp and jump up excitedly. "What was that?"
"Stop trying to get Sakura to molest you," two voices growled.
"If you all are finished," Tsunade cut in, "I'd like to explain to Sakura what happened." The silenced and nodded. "Good. But first things first, Sai, Sasuke, step out to where we can see you."
There was a pregnant pause. "No."
"That wasn't a choice. It's an order."
Wait, what? Sasuke? Sai? Where did they come from? In the corner of the room, two figures shifted from the shadows and took a hesitant step out into the light. Sakura's hands instantly flew to her mouth. "Oh my…"
Standing in front of her were her two other teammates, except both sported a pair of cat ears and a tail, not to mention a set of whiskers to boot. Sai and Sasuke stared at her, and she noticed that their eyes even looked like a cat's. A tiny fang poked out from Sasuke's thin line of lips.
The Uchiha's face softened at the Haruno girl's shocked expression. "Please don't look at me like that, Sakura."
Sai said nothing but turned away ashamed.
"S-Sasuke? S-Sai?" she rose and went to them. A slender hand lifted to feel their cheeks, sort of as a reassurance that these things were really Sai and Sasuke. "You guys are………SO KAWAII!" She embraced them in a bone-crushing hug, "Oh your little ears! Squee! And that itty-bitty fang poking out of your mouth! Ooh, and those adorable fluffy tails!"
What the hell? Tsunade's jaw dropped to the floor. "Sakura?"
"What? Oh sorry. Please explain what happened." She replaced herself on the sofa once more. Sai and Sasuke sat beside her while she absentmindedly scratched Naruto's ear again.
"Well, at least you aren't deathly afraid of them," Tsunade took another swig of her liquor, "Where do I begin… See, on the way to their next mission, your team got lost and wound up in some forest. While they were there, some things attacked them. Unfortunately, Sai, Naruto, and Sasuke wound up bitten. Using the last of his strength, Kakashi brought them back here to Konoha… but not before they turned into cats."
Sakura listened with wide eyes, taking in each and every detail. "Is Kakashi resting now?"
"Yeah, it definitely took a lot out of him. Well, when he brought those three in, they already had tails and ears and everything. We suspect a cat demon of some sort bit them, but we aren't sure. Shizune and the others are working right now to try and find a cure for them. In the mean time, I decided it was best if they stay with you."
Sakura blinked.
She blinked again. "Um, excuse me, Tsunade but can you repeat that?"
"They are to stay with you for the time being."
"WHAT?" Sakura stood up and pounded her fists on the table. "No, you're kidding me right? Please, Tsunade, I can't possibly take care of these three!"
"And why not?"
"B-Because," Sakura sputtered, "Well for starters I never even owned a cat. And two… just look at them!" She pointed over to where the trio was resting.
Naruto was using his foot to scratch behind his ear while Sai licked his paw, err, hand. Sasuke was busy grooming himself. They blinked. "What? Whoa, whoa, whoa, they might be cute and all but you don't really expect me to take care of them."
"Meow," Sasuke said, "We're still half human, so it won't be so hard taking care of us."
"Well," Tsunade folded her hands, "They've been turned into half-cat half-humans. Obviously they're going to have some animalistic qualities about them. And plus you're their teammate, they're most familiar with you."
"Well they'd better be house broken." The Haruno girl snorted.
"Oh haha very funny." Sai scoffed.
"No," Naruto cut in, "We're cats. So we're allowed to go inside the house." Suddenly another book came flying his way. Naruto hissed at it. "Ow!"
"Dobe." Sasuke resumed his grooming.
"Anyways," the sannin continued, "They are to stay at your place, Sakura. I will provide a weekly salary to help pay for their expenses. Sasuke, Sai, Naruto, you three are not to set even a finger outside of her door. Can't have you out biting others, can we? Nobody else is to know what happened to you guys until we can cure you. Is that clear?"
"Hai," Sakura sighed.
"Alright, now get going." Tsunade grinned.
Sakura took them by the arms and led the boys outside. "Meow, stop pulling so hard!" Sakura sighed. This was going to be one long mission.
Agh, first chapter was kind of sloppy, but review anyway! Thank you, no flames!