Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto series.

A/N: Criticisms are fine. Don't like, don't read. I apologize for any mistakes in advance.

Warnings: Fem Naru

Pairings: Sasuke/Naru

Beta: VivyPotter

~Chapter 1: Human or Cat?~

What does it mean to be human?

What does it mean to be a demon?

What is saving?

What is killing?

Where are the lines drawn? And where do the lines even begin?

Am I human? Or am I something else? It doesn't matter… I shall make a promise to myself… I'll never return back to my human form… being human… hurts…

xxxxx

'Hmm… being a cat isn't so bad… people at least don't glare at me or whisper behind my back, calling me Kyubi brat.' Naru thought to herself as she walked along the streets. The only problem for now is… getting food. Well, she can't do anything but hunt. She walked into an alley and jumped onto the roof to get a better view of the forests in Konoha.

"Aren't you the happy cat? You should be glad you were born with Ying-Yang release, and made me trust you enough to give you a shape shifting ability. Otherwise, you might as well suffer from those villagers for the rest of your puny life." Kurama's deep voice came from within her mind.

'Hello to you too, Kurama. The bloodline is a pain in the butt to master though; I only got the healing parts down – and that's only the basics – and the hiding parts down. Saved my life more or not.' She contacted the grumpy demon back.

"Don't forget our pact. As long as Madara doesn't get you – in extension me – then everything will be fine and dandy. I still don't get why you had to choose being a cat, nevertheless." He muttered before cutting the link between their minds.

Naru sighed. The Biju is such a Tsundere. But first thing first: food. She quickly hopped from building to building until she felt herself collide with something warm and hard. 'Which ninja bastard is it?' she thought, but out loud, she only let out a pained, "Meow!"

"Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't see you." He apologized and she found herself face to face with Itachi's younger brother: Sasuke.

"Meow!" she struggled to get out of his grip, but the 7 year old had a surprisingly strong grip for one of his age, and she had certainly underestimated him.

"Today, I wanted to try roof-hoping. Maybe I shouldn't do it for now…" he trailed off and checked the cat for any injures it may have gotten. It was a golden furred cat with bright blue eyes. He had never seen a cat like this before, so he was fascinated.

"You're a bit small… a kitten?" he commented and found himself being bitten for the offending remark. "Ow… what was that for?!" he demanded, shaking the cat slightly. Naru only turned her head to the side, ignoring him. He gained a tick mark on his head as he grabbed the kitten and jumped back down to the ground.

"I'm taking you home. You're paying for your crime!" and Naru struggled to get out of his grip.

"Meow! Meow meow meeeeoooooowwww!" 'Hell no! I'm hungry and I need to get food! Let go you stupid Teme!' she raged, but of course, he didn't understand the cat language she had chosen to talk in.

xxxxx

Fugaku found himself with a slight tick over his brow as he looked down at the creature his youngest son had brought in. "Sasuke… what is this… kitten doing here?" he asked his son as he shrank back and tried to hide the golden-furred cat. Said kitten didn't care about them. All she was focused on was the food a meager few feet from her on a dinner table.

Not noticing the father and son's astonished looks, she walked up the walls and headed straight for the food Mikoto had placed on the ground once she noticed the kitten Sasuke brought in. To say they were surprised was nothing as she appeared in front of her temporary bowl and dug right in.

Fugaku had turned on his Sharingan the moment she had started to walk on the wall and had noticed the steady stream of chakra the kitten had use to stick to the wall and walk. So, his son had somehow found a nin-cat. Turning to his son who still had a flabbergasted look he cleared his throat and Sasuke turned to his father, curiosity burning in his eyes.

"Sasuke, you have somehow founded a nin-cat. Where did you find it?" and a bowl wacked him in the head for that comment. His face, still in the mask of coolness, turned toward the offender with a glare and steel in his eyes. "What was that for, you lowly kitten?"

Naru's fur was fluffed up as she hissed at the clan head before turning her attention back to the bowl. Fugaku was very tempted to kill the kitten, but it could be put to good use. He turned back to Sasuke with a raise eyebrow. "So?"

"I found it on a roof when I tried roof-jumping." He answered weakly, and to his relief, his father didn't say anything, merely turning his back and going to the dinner table.

xxxxx

Naru yawned in bliss. Her stomach was full, she had a bed, and a place to stay, it seemed. She didn't really dislike Sasuke, the target had been changed to his father – who was an arrogant bastard. 'How dare he call me an 'it'?!'

But since she was in such a fluffy nice bed with a blanket and pillow as well, she decided to think about things later… it was… time to… sleep. She closed her eyes and drifted off to dreamland.

Next morning…

Naru purred in her sleep. 'Ramen… food… all I can eat…' her eyes shot open when she was grabbed out of her bed and a surprised, "Meow?" left her mouth.

Sasuke held her at arm's length and explained his reasoning. "Aniki said that you were a nin-cat, so I'm taking you with me to the academy!" he grabbed his things with a still bewildered Naru under his arms as he ran out the door yelling a hasty, "Later!" over his shoulder.

When she had finally sorted out her thoughts, she cried for her bed. "MEEEOOOOWWW!"

"What are you crying for?"

'My bed and dreams…' she answered, but he of course, didn't understand the cat's language.

xxxxx

As Sasuke neared the Academy, he slowed himself to a walk and calmed his breathing. His face was set into one of coolness as he tried to copy his brother's stoic manner and way of character, but alas, he was still a very excitable child so his eyes shown his emotions perfectly well.

Naru herself, had long given up trying to escape and instead took to falling asleep in his arms as he petted the soft golden fur.

Sasuke walked into the Academy and went to his classroom to greet his sensei. Today was just the day for individual students to go and introduce themselves to their new sensei's, as well as getting some information on what they were going to start working on when classes did start. And it didn't start for almost another three more months, so it gave people plenty of time to get the things they needed to do done.

For some of the more serious pupils, they may even start their studies earlier.

He was greeted by the sight of a kind-looking shinobi that had brown hair in a high pony-tail, and his most noticeable feature of a scar across his nose. The teacher had noticed him coming in and walked over to speak to Sasuke. "My name is Umino Iruka. If you came to the right classroom, then I'll be your sensei, call me Iruka-sensei." He introduced himself and took notice of the golden kitten. "Ah, what a cute kitten you have there, mind if I ask what breed she is?"

Sasuke nodded as he petted the snoozing kitten absently. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke, nice to meet you too, Iruka-sensei. I don't know what breed she is, father said she is a nin-cat and I just happened to find her yesterday." He answered.

A look of surprise spread across Iruka's face. "A nin-cat! That's not something a person can just find every day, they are usually trained by someone." He hummed in thoughtfully. "I suggest learning how to work well together with her like the Inuzuka's if you wish for her to be your partner and to train her. You still have three months, so that's plenty of time!"

Sasuke thanked him for the advice and left, pondering if he could ask his aniki to help him. But first things first, they are going to do some training! With a gleam in his eyes, he ran home with Naru still sleeping peacefully without a care in the world. Not that that would last long.

xxxxx

Sasuke's chest huffed as he lay on the field with cuts and bruises littering his body. Naru sat calmly on the side as she watched the Uchiha train. He had been training for around an hour, took around thirty minutes going through the hand-seals for Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique) and trying to use it, only to fail each time until the final try, where he finally managed the fireball technique. His face lit up- he finally did it! He could show his father and make him notice him! But first, he needed to rest since he had used a lot of chakra and he was extremely low, even if he did have a bigger reserve than those of his age tended to have.

Naru sighed at his recklessness, but she did learn some things during the process. Apparently, Uchiha's took learning the Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu as a sign of coming of age. It was a fairly common technique that the Uchiha's particularly liked to use, and Itachi himself had only taken one try to use it successfully. But of course, he was the prodigy.

But Sasuke himself was also above average since it only took him a week, when it took others much longer. Naru sighed and got to her paws. She sauntered over to the exhausted boy and settled herself on his chest, surprising him as he weakly tried to push her off only for his eyes to widen in shock as he noticed his injuries healing at a faster pace. He also didn't feel as tired as before since his chakra was filling up faster than he could naturally replace it and he sighed in bliss as a warm chakra spread through his body.

Naru took care to carefully push her healing chakra into him as to not accidently overload his chakra coils and damage them. Good thing he didn't get any serious injuries since she could only heal minor ones, and any chakra that Sasuke's body didn't use to heal itself, naturally went to fill his coils. Once she was satisfied with his healing, she leaped off and he got back up with his hands on the side, holding himself up.

"You… healed me?" he asked as he shook himself out of his daze from the warm chakra. A grin spread across his face. "That means I can do twice the amount of training I usually do!" he cheered only for a paw to land on his face like a slap.

Naru, with her tail up high stomped away as the Uchiha scrambled after the kitten who was walking back to the Uchiha compound.

'I'm not something that can be used to heal him all the time, but he does have passion.' Naru grudgingly admitted to herself as she stomped back toward her new home before being picked up and carried home since Sasuke couldn't wait to show his father what he could do.

xxxxx

Fugaku had a look of pride on his face as his youngest son flawlessly executed the Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu. He may not be as good as Itachi, but he was stronger than others nonetheless. "Very good Sasuke, you may now wear the clan symbol with pride."

Sasuke beamed at him, but it was quickly wiped off by his father's next words. "However, don't follow your brother's footsteps anymore. You are strong in your own right, all you have to do is prove yourself." He told his son, who was confused.

Itachi was his role model, but father told him not to copy him? He was proud of him, like he was to Itachi? Happiness spread across his chest as he nodded at his father before remembering something that he hasn't told the man.

"Father the, err, cat I picked yesterday can heal wounds and replace chakra," he reported. He had to pick a name soon, it seems.

At that, Fugaku had to raise an eyebrow. That is not what he would think the kitten could do. It seemed the kitten was more useful than he previously thought; having the ability to heal others and replace chakra was a huge thing in the Shinobi World. People died from injuries and chakra exhaustion all the time, after all.

"That is an interesting ability, and one that is unheard of in a nin-partner. Usually it is something summons would have, like Tsunade's slug summon. It would do well in missions, and you better pick a name for it soon, or it may wander off." He voiced his thoughts to his son who nodded, already think about a name.

'Ume? Nami? Maki? What kind of name… better go ask, don't want my hand bitten or something if she hates the name.'