Disclaimer: I don't own them, I never have, I never will. I'm not making any money off of this. I'm way too tired to crack disclaimer jokes.

Warnings: See first chapter.

Author's Notes: Look, look! I'm updating! Yay!

I'm really excited, because I totally like this fic and I'm glad I'm working on it again. I'm not sure exactly what the hell I'm going to do with it plot-wise…but that's okay! I will figure it out at some point! No worries!.:is worried:

Naruto's face was pink, his breathing uneven. His eyes were wide and hazy as he stared up at Sasuke. "Do—Do I have to do it?"

"We've already come this far, haven't we?" Sasuke asked by way of an answer.

"B-but...I…I'm not sure if I'm ready. I've never done anything like this before. I—" Naruto swallowed. His gaze slid sideways and his blush intensified. "Sasuke…I'm scared."

Sasuke fought off a smile. "Don't worry," he said gently. "It'll only hurt for a second. It will get better really fast, I promise."

"You promise?"

"Yeah."

Naruto smiled slightly, his blush looking less painful. "O-okay, then. I—I'll do it. I…I trust you, Sasuke."

"You ready?"

Naruto took a deep breath, smiling bravely. "Y-yeah. Yes. I—I'm ready. Let's…do it."

Kakashi rolled his eyes from the driver's seat of the car. "Jeez, will you guys stop that and just get out of the car? It's just school. Sasuke, it sounds like you're trying to talk Naruto into having sex with you."

Sasuke tried to dispel the mental image that comment invoked as Naruto sputtered indignantly, blushing all the way down his neck. Sasuke wondered absently if Naruto got this red only when he was embarrassed, or if he also flushed with pleasure. Did the blush stop at his neck, or did it run all the way down his chest…?

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke blinked. "What?"

"Get out," Kakashi said with no preamble. "I need to get home. Iruka's there."

Sasuke raised a dramatic black eyebrow. "Home? I thought you were teaching today."

Kakashi waved him off. "I am, but don't worry about it. My first class doesn't start till eight-thirty."

"…It's just about eight now, though, and it's a thirty-minute drive back to the house."

Kakashi smiled and wagged his finger at Sasuke. "Now, don't you worry your pretty little head about silly details like that. Kakashi-sensei will take care of everything. Now, out with you. You're running late, and Naru-chan here shouldn't be tardy on his first day."

Naruto swallowed audibly as he was reminded why he was sitting in this car in the first place.

Sasuke sighed. "Whatever, Kakashi," he said. "It's your job, and if you don't show up, fine by me—I'll have one less class." Sasuke popped open the car door and stepped out. When Naruto didn't immediately follow, Sasuke turned around and stuck his head back into the car. His black ears brushed the car roof and twitched in response to the stimulus. He extended a hand to the fox-boy, dark eyes several shades softer than usual. "C'mon, Naruto."

Naruto took a deep breath to steady his nerves, then grinned broadly. He grasped Sasuke's pale hand. "Right," he said. "Let's go!"

Naruto shifted uncomfortably on the school mat, promptly banging his knee on the underside of the low-hanging table.

"Ouch," Naruto muttered. "Ne, Sasuke, why can't we sit in chairs?"

"Some H.A.s have trouble sitting in chairs," Sasuke answered, pulling a spiral-bound notebook out of his backpack, "due to complications with tails and other things. The administration thought it would be unfair if some students sat in chairs and others sat on the floor, so now we're all stuck on mats."

"Oh." Naruto blinked. "Ne, Sasuke, what's an 'H.A.'?"

"It's an abbreviation for homo animalis. It's too tiring to keep saying 'homo animalis' again and again."

"Oh. Okay." A short pause. "Ne, Sasuke—"

"Be quiet and stop asking me questions."

"Bastard!"

"Hn." Sasuke took out another notebook and handed it to Naruto. "Here. Take notes."

"Oh, right. Thanks." Naruto stared at the notebook with a small frown of confusion.

Sasuke cocked an eyebrow. "…You can write, right?"

Naruto sent him a glare. "Well, duh I can write. I just…I didn't know you got me a notebook, that's all."

"Ah…don't mention it." A pause. "Ever," Sasuke added.

Naruto shrugged and shifted on his mat. "Ne, Sasuke, when's everyone getting here? Are there a lot of other kids? Do you think they'll hate me?"

"You'll find out as soon as the bell rings."

Naruto huffed, fidgety with impatience and nerves. "Well, when's the bell going to—"

The bell rang. Sasuke smirked.

"…Shut up," Naruto said, put-off.

Sasuke held up his hands in surrender as the classroom door opened and H.A.s flooded inside. Naruto blinked. He'd never seen so many different…species…in his life. Kids with bushy tails, kids with claws, kids with fangs, kids with strange coloring, kids with ears worn like hair, and even a kid who seemed to be molting brown feathers as she walked. The weirdest thing was, they interacted with each other as if everything was normal, laughing and pushing each other around just like the humans Naruto saw on the street every day.

Naruto gaped openly as a pretty, completely alien-looking girl seated herself on the place next to Sasuke that Naruto wasn't occupying. Her hair was a vivid color that could only be described as pink. She had black markings on both sides of her face and her forehead that swirled together in intricate designs. There was a light dusting of what looked like pink glitter on her arms, neck, and cheekbones. She wore a deep purple halter top, bearing her back so that her small, brilliantly colored red-pink wings were fully visible. Her eyes were large and green, a startling contrast to the almost overwhelming amount of pink on the rest of her body. There were small black dots arranged around her eyes in a circular formation.

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun," she cooed.

Sasuke grunted.

The girl blinked, evidently noticing Naruto for the first time.

"Oh, Sasuke," she said. "Who's your friend?"

"He's—"

"The name's Naruto," Naruto interrupted, stretching his arm across Sasuke to offer the girl his hand. "Nice to meet you! Hey, hey, I love your wings! They're so awesome! What species are you?"

The girl smiled at Naruto's flattery.

"My species is Anartia Amather," she said. "That's a red butterfly. I'm of the Haruno breed. My name is Sakura."

"A butterfly? That's so cool. I'd love to have wings. Can you fly?"

It looked like the girl—Sakura—blushed, but it was hard to tell since her face was dusted with pink anyway. She shook her head.

"Not yet," she said. "My wings are too small right now. I won't be able to fly for another ten years or so."

"What she means is," another female voice said from Naruto's left, "her wings are still too small to support her colossal weight. I'm flying in seven years."

A girl with a blonde ponytail dropped onto the mat on Naruto's left. She had dust on her skin just as Sakura did, but while Sakura's was pink, this girl's dust was pale yellow. And like Sakura, this girl had black markings on the sides of her face and her forehead, but they were arranged in a different design than Sakura's were. She didn't wear a halter top, but her shirt had a big hole in the back that revealed a pair of bright yellow butterfly wings. This girl's wings were slightly larger and brighter than Sakura's, but they didn't have the same swirl of colors that Sakura's did. Her eyes were blue to Sakura's green, and she lacked the dots around her eyes that Sakura possessed.

"Shut up, Ino!" Sakura flipped her pink hair over her shoulder angrily. "I'm thinner than you are, you pig!"

"At least my forehead doesn't take up half my face!"

"You take that back, porker!"

Naruto glanced at Sasuke with a look of alarm on his face. Sasuke shrugged apathetically, seeming to take absolutely no interest in the surrounding drama.

Naruto swallowed and started to try to ignore the girls' nosy argument when he picked up on a sharp, spicy scent. Next to him, Sasuke stiffened. Naruto blinked and lifted his nose slightly, trying to identify the smell. His ears twitched as someone came up behind him. He turned around. So did Sasuke.

Gracefully dropping to his knees was a creature. He was tall, pale, and visibly muscled, and power came off him in waves. His whole body was tensed and thrumming with barely suppressed energy, as if he could pounce at any moment. His scent was sharp and dominating—an alpha male if Naruto ever smelled one. His red hair was thick and choppy, much more like an animal's fur than human hair. Tiny triangular ears, colored a white-fringed red, sat atop his head. His hands were claws, strong and dangerous. His eyes were ringed in thick black circles—not from eyeliner, but because the actual skin around his eyes was black. His eyes themselves were ferocious. The irises were a luminous, piercing green, and the pupils were elliptical, like a cat's.

Naruto found him fascinating.

The creature glanced into Naruto's face, eyes glittering darkly.

Naruto swallowed. "Um," he said brilliantly. "Hi. I'm…new. My name's Naruto."

The creature regarded Naruto evenly. "Hello, Naruto."

Something akin to a growl came from the back of Sasuke's throat. Naruto shivered at the sound. The creature's eyes flickered over to Sasuke.

"Good morning, Uchiha. Feeling possessive?"

"Fuck off, Gaara," Sasuke spat. His voice was a low snarl.

The creature named Gaara impassively shifted his gaze away from Sasuke in silent dismissal. Gaara looked at Naruto with a fractional inclination of his head.

"I'll see you around, Naruto."

Naruto swallowed again. "Uh, heh-heh…sure."

Naruto turned toward the front of the classroom again, the hair on the back of his neck standing firmly on end. With another feral snarl, Sasuke turned around as well, his muscles tensed and ready to attack. It wasn't until then that Naruto noticed Sakura and the other girl—Ino—had stopped arguing.

The following silence was more than awkward.

Naruto laughed uneasily to break the quiet. He held a hand out to Ino.

"I'm Naruto," he said. "It's—uh—nice to meet you."

"Oh, right," Ino said, shaking his hand. "I'm Ino. Yellow butterfly. The Yamanaka breed."

"Gee, another butterfly. I wish I were you guys."

"I dunno…" Ino said, giving Naruto her best smile. Damn, this guy was hot. Was he a cat of some kind? Ino turned on the charm. "Those ears of yours are absolutely adorable." She reached out to touch them.

Ino's hand was stopped in mid-air when Sasuke grabbed her wrist none too gently.

"No touching," he warned lowly.

Ino blinked. "Uh…Sasuke-kun?"

"Just…don't." Sasuke released Ino abruptly and resettled himself into his place. Ino, Sakura, and Naruto all looked at him strangely.

"…Please," Sasuke added as a very late afterthought.

Any other conversation they may have started was cut off abruptly as the bell rang again and the teacher entered, a man with a toothpick hanging out of his mouth. With another confused glance at his new roommate, Naruto made himself as comfortable as possible on his mat, preparing himself to for his first forty-five minutes of school-induced hell.

When the bell rang at the end of class and H.A. kids bolted for the door, Naruto was among them. In the hallway, Sasuke seized the back of Naruto's shirt before he could carry out his escape plan.

Damn him.

"No! Sasuke! Please let me go!" Naruto squirmed in Sasuke's iron hold, though he knew from the start it was pointless. "I don't want to do this school-thing anymore! It's too boring!"

"Tough luck, dobe. You don't have an option."

Naruto huffed and crossed his arms, seeming to abandon struggling for pouting. Sasuke relaxed slightly, and when Naruto didn't show any signs of trying to flee, he let the blonde go. Sasuke started to head for their next class, carefully navigating his way through a posse of testosterone-high bucks. One of the guys apparently thought it a good idea to charge at solid objects, and presently rammed his antlers into someone's locker. Sasuke rolled his eyes at the resulting clang.

Idiocy wasn't a trait restricted to humans, apparently.

Naruto was momentarily blinded by a freckled rooster's incredible flapping, but when his vision cleared, he noticed that Sasuke was a little ahead. He ran to catch up. "Ne, Sasuke," Naruto asked, resisting a sudden, inexplicable urge to clamp onto Sasuke's arm. "Why do we have to go to school, anyway?"

"Animal Rights activists," Sasuke answered bitterly. "They figured that, since H.A.s have the same brain capacity as humans, we should be given the same opportunity to go to school. Some people like having their H.A.s work 'front man' jobs—a host at a restaurant, a salesperson, a model, stuff like that—jobs heavily based on pleasant aesthetics. Most jobs require at least some mathematic and grammatical knowledge." Sasuke snorted. "Of course, Kakashi couldn't care less about me working. He just wants me out the house so he can fuck his boyfriend over the kitchen table. What a man-whore. Sometimes I wonder if humans rut more than we do, and they just don't talk about it."

Naruto couldn't suppress a blush. Okay, he thought, both embarrassed for Kakashi's sake and uncomfortably turned-on by hearing the words "fuck," "man-whore," and "rut" coming from Sasuke's mouth. Waaaaaaay too much information!

Naruto was silent for a few more moments before remembering something.

"Hey, Sasuke?"

"Hn.

"What was up with that Gaara guy?"

Sasuke stiffened and stopped walking, right there in the hallway. The fur on his tail was raised in tense spikes. His sleek ears flattened against the top of his head, and the look in his eyes was chilling.

"Sa-Sasuke?" Naruto asked worriedly.

Sasuke blinked and shook his head almost imperceptibly. He resumed walking. Naruto relaxed.

"What about him?" Sasuke asked, his voice carefully neutral.

"Huh?"

"Gaara, dobe."

"Don't call me that!" Naruto's ears twitched angrily before relaxing again. "But, yeah, anyway. That Gaara guy. Why was he all…creepy and shit?"

"Because he's a slutty maniac, that's why."

Naruto briefly wondered how someone could be both slutty and maniacal at the same time without attracting a certain number of authority figures, but he let it slide.

"Alright…" Naruto said, changing tactics. "Well, what species is he? I really couldn't tell."

Sasuke grunted. "Red panda."

Naruto blinked, trying to recall everything he knew about red pandas. It wasn't much. "Oh," he said after a pause. "…I guess that explains the ears, then. And the ringed eyes."

"Hn," Sasuke said. "He's got a tail, too, but it looked like you were too busy checking him out to notice."

Naruto cocked his head. After a long silence, he grinned. "Sasuke…" he joked. "You're not going all 'jealous alpha male' on my ass, are you?"

Sasuke whirled around to face Naruto. It must have been a trick of the light, but it almost looked like he was blushing. That was physically impossible, of course, but it still kind of looked that way, Naruto noticed with glee.

"No," Sasuke answered firmly.

Naruto shrugged, still grinning. Perfect teeth flashed in a tanned face.

"Okay, Sasuke," Naruto said lightly. "It's just—well. It kind of seemed like you were jealous."

"I wasn't. I'm not."

"Whatever you say, Sasuke." Naruto grinned some more, his blonde tail swishing happily as they walked. Sasuke didn't know if he wanted to kick him or kiss him.

Probably more the latter than the former, unfortunately, Sasuke conceded sullenly.

Naruto collided into Sasuke's back before he even realized the taller boy had stopped walking.

"Ouch," he muttered, rubbing his nose.

"Watch where you're going, dobe."

"Don't stop so short, bastard!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Whatever. We're here, so quit complaining."

Naruto blinked, looking into the indicated classroom. Then he groaned.

"But I don't wanna!"

"Tough shit." Sasuke seized the excess skin on the scruff of Naruto's neck and began dragging the fox-boy into the room. "C'mon."

"Ouch!" Naruto tried to move his feet fast enough to avoid tripping. Unfortunately, this attempt was made more difficult considering he had to walk backwards and keep up with Sasuke's typical breakneck speed. "Hey, jerk! Watch it!"

Sasuke unceremoniously dropped Naruto onto a mat and sat down beside him. Naruto growled lowly as he righted himself, straightening his clothes and finger-combing his hair.

Sasuke smirked. Naruto was just so cute when he was flustered.

"G-good morning, U-Uchiha-kun," a timid voice said from behind Naruto.

"Good morning, Hinata-san," Sasuke said politely, half-turning in his seat and nodding in greeting. Naruto turned around as well.

Behind them sat a pale, fragile-looking girl with short black hair. She had very small, circular ears and a dark tail that was even longer and slimmer than Sasuke's. Her face was delicate and sweet, off-set by a startling pair of gray eyes.

When Naruto and the girl made eye-contact, the girl's face turned a dark, dark pink. Naruto wondered briefly if she felt alright.

"Hi!" he chirped. "I'm Naruto! Today's my first day here and so far I hate it. Your name's Hinata, huh?"

The girl nodded mutely, her strange eyes flickering between Naruto's face and the floor.

"Are you a black leopard?"

The girl nodded again.

"That's so cool! Awesome tail. Mine's all bushy and weird." Naruto wrinkled his nose in apparent distaste and waved his tail absently. "But whatever. It's nice to meet you!"

"I-I-It's nice t-to me-meet you t-t-too," Hinata stuttered.

"Hinata-san. Who is this?"

Naruto looked up. And up, and up, and up…

An extremely tall boy towered over Hinata. He had long dark hair pulled back into some sort of ponytail-type style. He bore a strong resemblance to Hinata, gray eyes included—they were probably related in some way. But while Hinata looked very sweet and kind, this guy was all about severity and toughness. His face was made of pretty, sharp angles that had an almost feminine edge to them. On anyone else, he would have looked hopelessly girly, but this guy merely looked like a very elegant, pristine young man with a lovely face.

Which, Naruto supposed, he was.

"Neji-san," Hinata said. She indicated Naruto with a slightly shaking hand. "Th-this is N-N-Na-Naru-Naruto-kun."

"Hi," Naruto said. "Um…Neji, was it?"

"Indeed." Gray eyes gave Naruto a thorough once-over. Naruto felt very naked under the heavy stare.

"Uh…I'm Naruto."

"A pleasure, I'm sure," Neji drawled.

Sasuke's tail lashed. Neji looked at it for a moment, and the grim line of his mouth curved a bit into something like a smirk.

"I'll meet you after class, Hinata-san," Neji said, taking a step back. He inclined his head towards Naruto. "Naruto-kun."

"Err…bye."

Neji nodded in Sasuke's direction. "Uchiha."

"Hyuuga."

"See you in Calculus."

"Hn." Sasuke's tail lashed again.

Neji almost smirked again and then retreated to the back of the classroom. Naruto watched as he gracefully kneeled, sweeping his impressive tail out of the way.

"He's cool," Naruto said. "Is that your brother, Hinata?"

"N-no," Hinata said shyly, almost apologetically. "My cousin."

"Oh. A black leopard, then."

"Yes. Though we're slightly different breeds."

"That's cool. How come—?" But he had to stop talking, because the teacher entered, and class started. Again. Naruto sighed.

A few hours later, Sasuke watched in mild revulsion as Naruto shoveled in his tray-full of cafeteria food with enthusiasm. He glanced away so he didn't have to look at the way half of Naruto's sloppy-joe was falling out of its bun.

"Sasuke!" Naruto said, his voice muffled by food. "This is so good! I really like this part of school! How many times a day do they do it?"

"Only once, thank God."

"Aww, really? That sucks!"

"Well, now you have something to look forward to all morning." And I have something to dread. Jesus, this is disgusting.

Naruto almost choked suddenly as someone collided with the back of his chair and his stomach slammed into the table. He whirled around in a fury.

"Hey, watch it!"

"Me? What about you? Why the hell was your chair out so far?"

"Maybe I like it that way!" Naruto shouted.

"Maybe you should suck in your gut, fatty!" the offender shouted back.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Great. As if his day wasn't hellish enough, now there was Inuzuka Kiba to deal with. Even if Sasuke didn't hate dog breeds on impulse, he wouldn't have liked Inuzuka Kiba. The guy was too loud, too brash, too…too. And when you added on the stupid floppy ears, those dumb face markings, and the precondition to hump people's legs, Kiba was nearly unbearable.

Well, to Sasuke, anyway. Aburame "Bug Boy" Shino seemed to like the mutt well enough. But mongrels and fleas always hung out together, didn't they?

"I am not fat!" Naruto was hollering, standing up to jab a finger into Kiba's chest.

"Well, you will be if you keep eating like such a pig!" Kiba countered loudly, his ears twitching in aggravation.

"Well…your ears are dumb!"

"Why you little—!" Kiba pulled back a fist. Sasuke was up in an instant, trying to decide which way would be the fastest to put Kiba out of commission, but before he could move, Aburame Shino had appeared. He reached up and gathered Kiba's dark ears in his hands, rubbing softly and rolling the fur around in his pale fingers.

It was like flipping a switch. Kiba's back arched and his head went back, baring his throat in an unequivocal show of submission. His claws twitched and moved back to grope at Shino's clothes. Tiny shudders made his body tremble, and every patch of skin was starting to flush and visibly heat.

Sasuke almost moaned at the rush of hormones he was suddenly hit with.

After about ten seconds of the display, Shino removed his hands. Kiba made a high whine at the loss, but quieted when Shino started petting and massaging the scruff of his neck.

"I apologize on Kiba's behalf," Shino said, his voice very even. "He's hotheaded, but actually quite harmless. His bark is worse than his bite, you could say."

Naruto sputtered, his face flooded with color. "O-oh. That's okay. No problem."

Shino nodded—at least, it looked like he was nodding. It was hard to tell with his sunglasses and high-collared jacket.

"You're calm now, right?" he murmured into Kiba's shivering ear.

Kiba made a low, weak noise in the back of his throat that sounded like, "Uhn."

"Good." Shino released Kiba and took a step back. "Kiba, perhaps you should apologize. I'm going to get some fresh air." Shino nodded to Sasuke and Naruto, then left the cafeteria.

"Uh…" Kiba's eyes followed Shino until he left the room. "Uh, sorry for calling you fat."

And then he was gone, bolting through the swinging cafeteria doors with his tail wagging behind him.

After a brief silence, Naruto coughed awkwardly into his fist.

"Well…" Naruto said, his blush still rampant. "Um, I'm full. How 'bout you?"

Naruto practically collapsed into Kakashi's car after the afternoon bell rang.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," he moaned into the seat.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and shoved the blonde over so he could sit down.

"Quit complaining," Sasuke said. "Today was an easy day."

Naruto moaned again.

Kakashi finished talking to Gai—the awful teacher of Naruto's physical education class who always wore green and tried to make the H.A.s perform advanced gymnastics—and slid into the driver's seat. He turned on the ignition and almost ran Gai over while peeling out of the parking lot.

"So," Kakashi said, happy as a clam, "how'd it go?"

Naruto kicked the back of his chair.

A/N: I know it's a weird place to end the chapter, but this thing is like, 4,000 words already and I've GOT TO GET IT OUT. So, this is what happens. :P Oh! I hope everyone appreciated my Shino/Kiba interlude, because I sure as hell did. I'm thinking about writing a companion one-shot about them. That'd be fun. Hee hee. :winks: