
Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/1082952.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
  Category:
      M/M, F/F, F/M
  Fandom:
      Naruto
  Relationship:
      Uchiha_Sasuke/Uzumaki_Naruto
  Character:
      Uzumaki_Naruto, Uchiha_Sasuke, Orochimaru_(Naruto), Uchiha_Itachi, Hyuuga
      Hinata, Inuzuka_Kiba, Haku_(Naruto), Momochi_Zabuza, Hatake_Kakashi
  Additional Tags:
      Human/Fox_hybrid, Half_Demon_Naruto, Alternate_Universe, Rape, Rape
      Recovery, Hybrid_Rights, Sasuke_Being_an_Asshole, Uke_Uzumaki_Naruto,
      Seme_Sasuke, Sasuke_Has_a_Heart, Romance, Pervert_Uchiha_Sasuke, Torture,
      Violence, Abuse, Brothels
  Stats:
      Published: 2013-12-14 Updated: 2016-12-26 Chapters: 7/? Words: 30099
****** A Present for Keeps ******
by phoenixreal
Summary
     Sasuke comes of age and his brother insists he purchase his first
     hybrid. He is not interested until he sees a three tailed fox hybrid
     that he has to have.
***** For Sale: Unique and Rare *****
Sasuke couldn't believe Itachi had drug him along to another of these stupid
auctions. They never had anything good. He kept insisting that Sasuke needed a
neko because his had become such an integral part of his life. Sasuke couldn't
give a flying fuck about the stupid hybrids that were all the rage among the
upper class these days. He found them disgusting and distasteful creatures who
were mostly programmed to be nothing more than a pet. He hated that. To say the
younger Uchiha had morals was a streach, he really didn't, but something about
making a human into a pet struck a chord with the raven haired boy. It was a
week before his eighteenth birthday, and Itachi had insisted on his present
being his own Neko. For fuck's sake, he thought. It was like a damn right of
passage these days. It wasn't marriage anymore; it was buying your own personal
fuck toy. He sighed and sunk into the seat beside him.
Itachi shook his head as always as the "goods" were begun. Sasuke barely
watched until his brother leaned over and whispered in his ear.
"This is your last shot at picking your own. I pick if you don't choose today,"
he said softly. Sasuke fixed him with a glare and sat up as the row of eight
nekos were stood on the stage in a line, to be walked in front of the group and
around to the curtained back. They all wore nothing more than what would be
considered skimpy underwear so their bodies could be seen by all who viewed
them like some chunks of meat before a butcher window.
Everyone was permitted to see what was available before the bidding began, so
if there was something they particularly wanted they could hold off and wait.
The first one was a female cat, annoying, Sasuke thought. Then there was a male
dog, equally annoying. He didn't like fucking mewling and barking. And though
they were part human, the dog hybrids could be annoyingly loud, and the cats
extremely needy. Another cat, another dog, how boring. Then there was a rabbit,
he arched a brow at the white fully cotton tail gracing her back. That was
interesting. The next was paraded up, this one a lion hybrid it looked like,
apparently the more exotic breeds were being presented at the end. The seventh
was a little more exotic, a thickly muscled bear hybrid, a true rarity that had
everyone mumbling at the large male.
"And without further ado, the reason most of you are here today, our prize for
the day…" he said and the bear turned and left something standing at the stage
that made Sasuke straighten up and lean forward. He missed the smirk on his
brother's face.
He was short, maybe five foot five inches tall, leanly muscled and tanned skin,
but what caught the attention of Sasuke and everyone in the room were the three
fluffy fox tails swinging behind him, each one seemingly of independent
thought, and the glittering blue animalistic eyes. On his head of perfect
golden hair sat a pair of fox ears that twitched and were tipped with snow
white, just like the tips of the three fox tails. Unlike the rest, this one was
fitted with a collar and cuffs, a chain running from the collar to the cuffs.
He growled at the man who came up to drag him back, and a shiver went through
Sasuke.
The other auctions had no interest to him. Soon enough the kitsune hybrid was
brought back up and the auctioneer grinned.
"And finally today, we have a fierce one for you. Five owners since he was
released from the lab five years ago, and none have been able to fully tame
him. The touch of demon fox is to blame, no doubt, so he is not for the light
at heart," he said and the man holding tightly to the boy's arm was receiving a
glare and a snarl, pointed canines looking lethal. "As you can see, he's an
absolute beauty of a creature, and if you want the feisty creature, this is one
highly recommended. He's never been with an owner that could let him go free,
with that wonderful untamed spirit. So be prepared to keep yourself in chains
and whips, dear buyers, because this one spends as much time snarling as he
does anything else."
Sasuke was entranced by the figure. Sculpted body and muscles, but he could
see, even at this distance the scars that crisscrossed him. It was obvious that
the boy had been under a whip more than once, and to go through five owners,
that was significant. He looked as he saw several of the bidders leave other
than those who had already made their purchases. Obviously the description was
enough to put them off, but it didn't put the younger Uchiha off in the least,
it only made him want that one for himself.
"Is that what you desire, little brother?" Itachi said softly in his ear.
Sasuke nodded fervently. "Yes, it is…"
Itachi didn't hide his grin this time and jumped headfirst into the bidding. To
Sasuke's amazement, the bidding kept going higher and higher, and he wondered
when his brother would chicken out on it. It was well over a million now.
However, when Itachi Uchiha decided he wanted something, he got it. Soon it was
him and another bidder that had a sadistic gleam in his eyes. The telltale
twitch in his elder brother's eye told Sasuke he was done with the rabble.
"Three point five million," he announced, over shadowing the last bid by nearly
a million. Sasuke smirked. His brother wouldn't be outdone. The other man
looked at him with a shocked expression.
"Going once, going twice, sold to Itachi Uchiha for three and one half million.
You may arrange for pick up after payment has been made. Congratulations to all
the winners today, please remain, the rest are dismissed," the auctioneer
announced as the kitsune was drug off the stage, glaring at his new master.
Soon they were left alone and Itachi made the arrangements to transfer the
money and have his purchase delivered directly to Sasuke's birthday party in
one week. Once the arrangements were made, Sasuke only had to wait. There was
no way to take possession now, since it was a requirement to be eighteen to own
a hybrid. Taking him today would have been a hassel in paperwork, since Itachi
would have to take him then transfer him, and everything would be filed twice.
"So, ya got the kit?" a voice said beside him. He turned to see a man with gray
hair and a facemask.
"Yeah, what of it?" he asked, eyeing the one eyed man.
"Kakashi is the name, I run the Hidden Leaf Dojo. The kit is good, so if you're
interested, bring him by and I'll let you both in for free. I miss him around
the dojo," the man said, smiling behind the mask.
"You've worked with him?" Sasuke asked, frowning. "Were you his owner?"
Kakashi shook his head. "No, a friend of mine, Jariya was his first owner. Good
man. Taught him to protect himself, which was a blessing and a curse, I guess,
considering the next four owners didn't like it."
"If he was such a good man why'd he sell him off?" Sasuke couldn't keep the
bite out of the remark.
Kakashi sighed heavily. "Hard to keep a neko when you're dead. Unfortunately,
he had debts, and the poor thing was used to pay them off. I wanted to buy him,
but I just couldn't afford it. Even had I sold the dojo and everything I owned,
there was no way."
Sasuke nodded. That was indeed tough. "I may bring him by to see you then, but
it will be next week. My birthday is the day he is to be delivered."
Kakashi nodded. "Ah, well, I was hoping he'd be leaving today. The man who has
him now, he's not known for his kindness."
"They won't dare damage the property of an Uchiha, or they'll face my wrath,"
he said confidently and walked away to his brother. Kakashi turned and left,
his only purpose was to see where the kitsune had been sold to. His heart ached
at not being able to buy him once again. He'd had a quote on the dojo and all
his life savings, but it didn't even amount to half of what the Uchihas had
bought the boy for. But better him than that fiendish man who had tried and
failed the last three auctions to acquire him. He shivered to think what would
befall him if that horrid man had gotten his hands on him.
For Sasuke the week crawled on. The house was buzzing with news that he'd
finally decided on his Neko. As if it was just assumed. But he supposed it was,
his bastard brother was going to buy one whether he liked it or not. He growled
as someone entered the room.
"Sasuke!" the overly cheery pink haired "friend" from school said as she
bounced in the room.
"Sakura, what are you doing here?" he said grumpily.
She rolled her eyes. "It's your birthday silly, we're here to party with you! I
hear your brother has some big surprise for you today!"
Sasuke looked up, seeing his other friends, Lee, Ino and Neji coming into the
room. He sighed. He used the words friends, but they were really just people he
tolerated more than everyone else and people that could stand his caustic
personality on a daily basis. Sakura, though, seemed sure that one day Sasuke
would fall head over heels in love with her. He really should inform her that
she had the wrong equipment for him to find her in any way attractive.
"Just a stupid hybrid," he said with a huff.
The group exchanged glances. "He bought you a hybrid? My god, Sasuke, what
kind?"
He shrugged looking up as a man entered. He waved him over and took the pile of
papers from him. He quickly filled them out and handed them back. The man
looked them over and typed into a pad at his waist. A few seconds later, a
paper came flittering out and he handed a set of tags to Sasuke.
"I'll microchip him before he's presented to you, the tags must be visible at
all times, and if at any time he's found out alone, he can be picked up and you
will be fined. Did you have something in particular you want him to wear or
should I have his handler choose for you?" the man said, keeping an even face.
Sasuke waved at him. "Just whatever is fine, as long as it isn't what he was in
the godforsaken auction in," he muttered, looking over the certificate of
ownership.
The man bowed and left the room. Sakura gawked. "It's a boy? I thought you
would have got a girl like your brother's cat hybrid?"
Sasuke shrugged. "I liked what I saw, so I chose it. Otherwise Itachi was going
to choose, and I'll be damned if I take what that bastard thinks I might like.
Besides, I bet I'll have the most fuckin' unique hybrid in the whole town as of
today."
He called over a servant and handed him the tags with instructions to attach
them to the collar he'd already purchased. He had done that at least on his
own. Again, he didn't want anything his dumb brother chose. He looked back at
the frowns.
"How much did he cost?" Neji said.
Sasuke thought. "Um, I think Itachi dropped three point five."
"Three point five hundred thousand?" asked Lee, shocked.
"Nah, nothing like that. Million."
He stood up and walked away, straightening his white suit that had the Uchiha
symbol etched on the back of the jacket boldly. He heard the murmuring of shock
and awe behind him. It was a significant amount of money. The highest priced
Nekos ran for maybe two or three hundred thousand. Only the exceedingly rare or
one of a kind ran into the millions. He turned back.
"He's one of a kind in case you're wondering," he explained with a smile. "Of
course, no less than one of a kind for me."
The others shook their heads and they headed to the party where family and
acquaintances were gathering. He hated these events with a passion. He glanced
around at the other hybrids that had come to the party with their masters. His
brother's cat hybrid was on all fours chasing after a mouse hybrid gleefully.
Why anyone would want a fucking mouse hybrid he'd never know. He made idle
chatter and then it was time for the cake ceremony which he was bored with
before it even started. Finally the masses had been fed cake and the presents
were given. He numbly opened gifts, which he was glad to see were more for his
new pet than for him. This was actually something he was happy with. No one
knew what it was yet, so there were generic gifts for use with any hybrid, and
quite a few gift cards to places that catered to hybrids. He would definitely
need that for clothing.
A hush settled over the group as everyone was seated and Sasuke was led up onto
a podium where a curtained area was set aside. It was a large cage that had
been dropped off moments ago. He knew the feisty creature would be inside it,
and he had no intention of letting him out at the party. That would just be
asking for trouble. The kitsune didn't know him and he certainly didn't know
his intentions. He heard the faint rattle of chains from inside the cage and
frowned at Itachi who in turn glared at the handler who stood beside the cage
impassively.
Itachi cleared his throat. "Since our parents are no longer with us, it is up
to me to grand the rite of passage to adulthood for my younger brother. Sasuke
and I have had our share of difficutlies along the road, but we have both come
out the better. And now, despite his opposition to the initial idea of
receiving the honor of his own hybrid on his birthday, he has come around. And
in true Uchiha fashion, my brother has chosen perhaps the most challenging
hybrid known to man."
Sasuke rolled his eyes at his brother, people in the audience starting to talk
among themselves wondering what in the world was under the cover. Most hybrids
were presented by hand, very few were presented in a cage to new owners. That
alone was odd, but the fact that Itachi was confirming that this case was
different was enough to set tongues wagging. Sasuke looked up to see that every
hybrid at the party had cornered themselves together in the farthest point away
from the cage they could get without leaving the area. He frowned and looked at
Itachi.
"Ah, and as a warning, those of you with hybrids, if you haven't noticed,
they've moved away from the cage. Please, I suggest you keep them at a
distance, and, to be honest keep yourself at a distance. Sasuke and I decided
to leave him in his temporary caging until after the party, so please do not
ask for him to come out at this time. Our home is new to him, and he is no
doubt going to be troubled at first. I have said we are taking on a challenge
and I mean that quite seriously. Sasuke has chosen a one of a kind hybrid. Cost
his dear brother a lot to get it, but anything to please my little brother,"
Itachi said with a grin.
Sasuke rolled his eyes. Itachi continued. "Without further ado, I present my
younger brother his present for his eighteenth birthday."
The handler pulled the sheet off and a loud hiss and growl along with the
clinking of chains met the ears of those present. There was a keening from the
other hybrids as some of the weaker ones dropped to their fours and transformed
into their full animal forms before the creature before them. Sasuke could feel
the vein in his head twitch. He was going to seriously kill someone. Perhaps a
lot of someones.
He'd been dressed in something more appropriate for a hooker, super short jean
shorts that lay below his tails and barely covered his ass and a tight t-shirt
that looked way too small. He had broad cuffs on his wrists and ankles, both
connected to the collar at his neck. And from what Sasuke could see, he had a
black eye and far more bruises on him than he deemed acceptable, including a
bright purple hand print on one of his bicep and one on his thigh. His three
tails swished back and forth angrily, and his blue gaze flitting around the
area and catching the handler's gaze he growled and hissed even louder. The
whisker marks on his cheeks were nearly glowing bright red with anger. There
was a headband with a closing seal on his forehead. He knew it was used to keep
a hybrid from changing to their other form, and his ears were flat against his
head. He was standing as much as he could, which was not much with the shackles
on his ankles and wrists.
Sasuke walked up to the handler and though he were much taller, towered over
him and grabbed him by the shirt. Itachi said nothing, only watched, a grim
smile tugging at his lips. It always amused him to see his normally stoic
brother get angry. It was always a slow storm.
"What did you do to him?" he growled.
The man's mouth worked. "Ah, he didn't want to do what he was supposed to so…we
had to…"
"Didn't my brother pay last week for him?" he continued.
"Ah, yes, yes sir, but possession was for today and so he had to be held with
our other hybrids…and he tends to incite them…and…" the man stammered realizing
his toes were about to leave the ground in the extremely strong grasp of the
young man.
"My brother paid you three and a half fucking million and you couldn't house
him separately for one fucking week and keep your goddamned hands off of him?"
he growled, getting gasps and whispers among those in the crowd.
The man looked like a fish. "Um, well, it was…well you see…"
"What did you do to him? I already asked that, tell me so I know how much to
beat out of you," Sasuke continued.
The man shook his head. "I'm…I'm just his handler for today, I put the chains
on him…the rest was before I picked him up today, I swear!"
Sasuke put him down. "Then I won't beat the cost of his injuries out of you.
Who do I need to see?"
The man looked around and locked eyes with Itachi and he realized that the
older brother was not going to help him at all. "The…the security at the house,
he…he's the one that…beat him because he wouldn't let him touch him…and so…you
know…it happens with these hybrids like that…" he stopped and looked around
nervously. "One of the perks of working with them…"
Sasuke got very serious. "You're telling me some security officer took it upon
himself to not only beat my property but decided to do so because he didn't
want him to fuck him? And so he did it anyway? To my property?"
The guy looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel in his head, as he
nodded furiously. "You…you'll have to talk to the seller, he's the one that
arranged everything for th-the auction and the sale and where he would be held
until today…"
Sasuke nodded. "And what the hell is he wearing? I didn't buy a fucking
prostitute."
The handler swallowed nervously. "Well, it was the most…decent thing his
previous owner had for him…I'm sorry I tried to do the best with what I had."
Sasuke snarled. "Give me the fucking keys and get the fuck out of here. If you
are really fucking lucky, you'll never see me again. And inform the fucktard of
a seller that I'll be seeing him. And if he's smart, whatever asshole took it
on himself to fucking rape my purchase is going to be waiting at the police
station with a full confession before I find his ass."
The man paled and was gone in a flash. Sasuke stared at the thouroughly
confused kitsune in the cage who was watching with wary eyes. He shook his
head, pocketing the keys. He moved up and looked at him. He was definitely
bruised from what he could see. He shook his head.
"You have a name?" he asked softly, seeing him relax a bit at the tone.
"N-Naruto…" he said, and Sasuke was already in love with his voice. He nodded.
"Not many ask you that do they?" he asked him. The kitsune shook his head.
"Okay, look, there's too many hybrids here today, so I'm going to leave you in
there for now, can you sit?"
He nodded and eased himself down to sit on the floor of the cage. "Okay, we'll
talk after everyone is gone. I'm sure everyone is going to come see you, but no
one, I repeat no one will touch you, or I'll rip a fucking arm off, and they
all know it, okay?" The kitsune nodded.
As expected everyone made their way to the cage and discussed him. Most talked
about him, and few talked to him. He looked around nervously and his tails
swished constantly. No one had ever seen a hybrid like him. To say he was
unusual was an understatement. Fox hybrids were rare, but to actually have a
demon fox hybrid…that was simply unheard of.
Finally, all the guests except for Sasuke's closest friends had left. He headed
over to the cage with Sakura, Lee, Neji and Ino. He nodded to him as he
approached and he stood up tentatively.
"Okay, Naruto, I'm going to introduce you now to my friends. They'll be around
and they're safe to be around, okay? This is Sakura, Lee, Neji, and Ino.
They're around here a lot, so if you need anything, you can find them okay?"
Sasuke said nodding to him.
"Now, I'm going to take you out, and take those stupid chains off you. You've
got to promise me you're not going to try and run away, okay? You know what
happens to runaway hybrids, I'm sure…" he received a curt nod and so he
unlocked the cage, reaching in for him and pulling him by the chain that held
the shackles together. He stumbled, limping slightly.
He set to unhooking the wrist and ankle locks, then unhooked the heavy collar.
He stood still for a while, rubbing his wrists and looking around, as though
planning an escape route. The high walls set with guards were clearly visible,
so it was obvious there was no getting out. And he really didn't want to end up
in that place again…
Sakura was standing behind him and he flinched, looking over his shoulder. She
shook her head. "I'm sorry, your tails are beautiful," she breathed. "I've
never seen anything like that…"
He nodded and continued to examine his surroundings. "Come on, let's show you
to your new room," Sasuke said and the kitsune just stared open mouthed.
"What's wrong?"
"Master will give me a room?" he said softly, shock lining every word.
Sasuke frowned. "Of course, where else would you sleep?"
He shifted uncomfortably. "I've always slept at the master's feet…in their
bed…"
The unspoken expectation of being property was hanging in the air and Sasuke
refused to acknowledge it. "Look, I know you've been through hell, five owners
in five years sucks…"
"Two years," he said softly. "Four masters in two years."
Sasuke gasped. "What?"
"M-my first master I had for three years when I left the lab with him until he
died, and then the others…" he said, still softly. "No one wants me for long,
and I'm sure you'll sell me just like they did."
Sasuke swallowed and looked at his gathered friends who were giving him a look
saying to comfort the creature. He shook his head. "Nh, get going, you got a
room, you need sleep, then tomorrow we're getting you some fuckin' clothes that
don't like you raided a hooker's closet."
***** A Kitsune's Secret *****
Sakura and Sasuke were rifling through the suitcase of clothes that had come
with the hybrid. Sakura wrinkled her nose and held up something that looked
like a school girl skirt with a notch cut out of the waistband, apparently for
a hybrid's tail.
"Was this bastard a pervert or something?" she said, dropping it into the trash
pile, and continued rummaging, automatically tossing the undergarments, both
male and female varieties.
Sasuke shook his head. "Most of these nekos, hybrids whatever you want to call
them, end up in homes as fucking sex slaves and nothing more."
Ino walked in and exchanged a look with Sakura. "Seriously? How do you know
about this anyway?"
"Because I've actually talked to them," Sasuke said, lifting up a decidedly
feminine looking lacy shirt. "I've spent a lot of time with them when our
'guests' bring their hybrids with them. Nine out of ten spend their time being
raped on a nightly basis and they can't do anything about it because they're
nothing more than property. And even the best owners still take advantage of
that fact. It's disgusting, they're still part human."
Sakura wasn't sure what to say as she lifted a set of denim shorts that looked
to be something a child should wear. If it weren't for the notches and holes
for the tails, it wouldn't be apparent that this stuff wasn't something a
prostitute would wear. And it made sense.
"Well this guy was a real pervert," Ino said, lifting up another article, this
one a maid's dress with a hole cut for the tails. "Half of this stuff is made
for girls. If he wanted him to dress like a girl, why didn't he just buy a
girl?"
Sasuke snorted. "Because, idiot, they can't feel as powerful over a female. To
subdue another male…that's the thrill for these bastards. Then to embarrass and
humiliate them into wearing this…shit. Just because they can't say no, and if
they do they end up in the hybrid shelters."
"Okay," Sasuke said, shoving the pile into the trash. "We're putting him into
something I own, no fucking way are we taking him out in that outfit. Sakura,
go through my closet and find him something with drawstrings or something. I'll
go get him."
Sasuke knocked lightly on the door, and frowned when he didn't get a response.
So he opened it carefully, calling out as he entered. "Naruto?"
He saw the kitsune, curled into a ball at the foot of the bed in his fox form.
His three tails curled around the soft red orange fur of his body. The clothes
he'd been in were folded on the dresser and his big eyes were closed, and one
foxfoot twitched in his sleep. Sasuke couldn't help but smile at the sight. He
was cute, especially as a fox. He reached down and put a hand on his back and
shook him gently.
The small face lifted and yawned and then he saw Sasuke and he stiffened
visibly at the sight, glancing around the room nervously, standing up on the
bed.
"Hey, what's wrong, Naruto? We're going to get you some clothes, okay?" Sasuke
couldn't believe he was being gentle. He wasn't gentle with anyone. "Let's go,
dobe," he said, getting a growl in response.
He led him into the room with the girls and he jumped right onto the bed,
sniffing through where the clothes had been, and then looking off the bed into
the filled trashcan. He looked up at Sasuke.
"Ah, you are not wearing that junk anymore, dobe. You'll get some decent
clothes, but until we get there, you'll have to wear this. Now come on, change
so we can get out of here and get something for you to wear," Sasuke said and
watched as the kitsune hybrid smoothly morphed into the blond male from
yesterday, standing completely nude before him and the two girls.
"Ah," Sakura said, handing him some clothes and turning her back to him. Ino
stared with a cocked eybrow.
He tilted his head to the side and wondered what the fuss was about then Sasuke
had grabbed his arms and started actually looking at him. His right ankle was
swollen and bruised, and there were large bruises across the small of his back
and hips. The area where his tail connected with the flesh was red and
irritated, and it looked like there were deep gouges of the flesh of his hips.
He stared but kept his hands up where he was moved to.
"Sakura, gimme your camera phone, now," he growled.
Sakura still had her back to him. "You aren't taking perverted pictures of…"
"Shut up, Sakura, look at this…" he growled, snatching the phone from her hands
as she turned around and gasped.
She looked up at the confused face of the young kitsune. "Oh my god, Naruto,
what happened to you?"
Naruto looked down and shrugged. "I'm no good at doing what I'm told," he said
softly. "I don't like to be touched. It ends like this. But at least this time
I don't have a broken bone…"
Sakura and Sasuke exchanged glances as he quickly snapped pictures of the
damage on the body. "You mean this happens to you often?" Ino asked, brow
creasing.
"We're created to please our masters. I guess when they made me they forgot
that part. I fight too much, and then I get hurt for it. But that's the life
we're made to live," he said, watching as Sasuke took a picture of his hands
and wrists where they'd been worn raw by the cuffs.
Sasuke reached back and took out the collar he'd bought, but caught the flinch
when he brought it close to him. He sighed. "Look, I don't like it any more
than you do, dobe, but it has to be. I don't want you ending up in a hybrid
shelter if I can help it, okay?"
A visible shiver shook the boy. "Are they that bad?" asked Sakura as Sasuke
buckled the soft leather around his neck.
He nodded. "Yeah, they chain you and if you aren't good…they beat you and then
you're expected to please them whenever they want…"
Sasuke stepped back to examine the collar. It was soft leather with the Uchiha
symbol all the way around it. The tags had silencers on them so they didn't
clink together, one was the Uchiha symbol with the owner code on the back, the
other was the pet information with Naruto's name and address. The collar would
shift with him between forms, making sure no matter what, he could be returned
to the Uchihas. And of course, the microchip that had been implanted in his
forearm would ensure that as well. He handed him the clothes back, a too big
black t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. He pulled them on but his tail was an
issue. The three tails were simply too bushy to be put inside his pants, and
his pants would ride really low if they put them under his tailbone.
Ino pulled a pair of scissors from her bag and proceeded to make a hole big
enough to pass the tails through at which he smiled and wiggled them. He
grinned up at his new master.
"Thank you, master!" he said, grinning widely and scratching the back of his
head.
"Oi, cut the master, shit, dobe," Sasuke said, walking out of the room, the
girls pushing Naruto ahead of them with a grin.
They headed out to Sasuke's favorite car, a hatchback Chevy Malibu. It was four
doors, and perfect for taking people with him and going shopping. Sakura took
the front seat and Ino helped Naruto buckle into the back, finding a
comfortable position around his tails. He watched the outside pass with face
pressed to the glass in amazement so much that Sasuke snorted.
"Hey, don't you ever get to go anywhere in a car, dobe?" he asked, glancing up
into the mirror then back to the road.
Naruto shook his head. "No, not really, I'm always caged for rides…I never get
to see what's outside."
Sasuke hid a smile. Well, at least he was enjoying the ride. Eventually, they
found themselves at a large store with a sign that had a reclining Neko cat on
it. He started to get out and Sakura handed him the leather leash. He snarled
at it.
"Sasuke, you know the laws, if you take him out without one…" she warned.
Naruto had gotten out and was looking around as Sasuke came up holding the
leash for him. His eyes widened a bit and he pulled back to the side of the
car.
"Look, again, I don't like it, but when we're in public, we have to do it,
okay? I'll take it off once we're in the car," he said and snapped the clip
into the ring. Naruto nodded, obviously uncomfortable at being leashed.
"You've had a leash before, right?" he asked. Naruto only shook his head.
"Masters don't take me out to places…" he said, frowning.
Sasuke sighed. He should have guessed his greedy, perverted masters wouldn't
take him out in public. "Let's get you some good clothes."
So, the four entered the building and as expected, stares followed them, or
rather the triple tailed fox. They found their way to the counter.
"Hi, I need to get a wardrobe for my new hybrid," Sasuke said curtly to the
salesgirl.
"Oh, good! Welcome, come back to the dressing room, and we'll proceed with
choosing some appropriate pieces for your lovely pet," she said with way too
much enthusiasm.
Soon, Naruto stood in the center of a circle of mirrors with Sasuke, Ino and
Sakura watching. He'd been changed out of his clothes into a pair of tight
fitting boxer short underwear with a place for his tail in the back. She came
back a bit flustered.
"He's a bit of a challenge, Mr. Uchiha. His tails take up a bit more room than
a normal Neko, so we may have to alter your choices unless you choose undertail
pieces," she said with a smile.
Sasuke frowned. "Undertail? That shit looks slutty; we'll alter it if we have
to."
The lady snickered. "Ah, you possessive owners are so cute. Most who had a
lovely hybrid like this would want to flaunt every inch of him!"
He wanted to retort but felt a hand on his arm. He glared at Sakura who shook
her head. He growled under his breath. He wouldn't make a scene. This time.
Soon enough, the flustered hybrid was dressed, undressed and redressed. Sasuke
had a hard time ignoring the fact she kept putting very girly pieces on him,
even a skirt or two. Finally, he'd picked out several pairs of jeans, a nice
set of slacks, some shorts, and about a dozen and a half shirts for casual
dress and a nice shirt and jacket for events. Which the first of which would be
the next night. He glanced down at his feet. They were slightly feral, and he
had a feeling custom shoes were in order. He asked the girl and she sent him
off to a special store for neko shoe needs.
They found their way to the shoe place and it took forever, it seemed, but
finally, they had to go with sandals. Closed shoes just wouldn't do it with his
slightly clawed toes. So they found a few sets of sandals and a nice pair for
the dress clothes. He settled on a set of tabi to go with the Japanese style
sandals he chose for formal attire. He was pleased with himself. Now off to the
grooming store. He'd gotten at least three cards for this place, apparently the
best grooming and care store for these pets. As soon as he walked in, every eye
was on the oblivious Neko who was now wearing a pair of the jeans and a blue t-
shirt with his new sandals. He was wide eyed and he tugged relentlessly on the
leash that Sasuke held trying to run every direction at once.
"Naruto, stop it," he hissed, pulling on the leash to get his attention. He
swallowed and came back to his side, smiling sheepishly.
A sales man came out and greeted them, and recognizing the younger Uchiha
nearly bounced with glee. Then his eyes settled on the hybrid and he gasped,
walking around him.
"I heard you purchased a one of a kind…but I had no idea…" he said.
"Yeah, yeah, well, what kind of things does he need to take care of himself? I
don't know what washing and combing stuff he needs," Sasuke said with a roll of
his eyes. Ino and Sakura had escaped and were looking over the things in the
shop.
"Hum," he said, reaching out to touch his head, only to get a flinch and a
growl. He frowned at the hybrid. "Not very tame, is he?"
Sasuke snorted. "He's fine, just don't grab him outta nowhere. No one likes
that shit."
The owner didn't look pleased with that statement. "Really? You'll let him get
away with such things? We have a training and punishment section I highly
recommend you visit before you leave."
"Hn," was the only response that the man got from the younger Uchiha.
Eventually, he had picked out soaps that were good for his fur as well as his
skin, combs and brushes for both of his forms, several toys for his animal
form, and a collar charm that Sasuke couldn't deny him (it looked like a spiral
fishcake you'd put in ramen, which he discovered was the hybrid's favorite
dish, having apparently spent time in Japan). Finally, he gathered up most of
his goods and he tugged Naruto to look down the only aisle in the place they
hadn't looked, labeled training.
The stiffness that came into the body beside him was enough to know that the
hybrid was more than familiar with the items for sale here. Sasuke frowned,
fingering a package for a set of shock collars and remotes. Serioulsy? He
thought. There were other things he thought would have been better served in a
sex shop, from whips and ropes, to shackles and other things he didn't even
want to read the packages of. Several books on "hybrid discipline" sat there
and the titles alone made Sasuke's head swim. "Taming the Beast: Guidebook to
Hybrid Submission for Beginners", "The Willful Neko", "Whip and Crop Techniques
for Intermediate Users".
He shook his head and pulled Naruto out of the aisle. It was like they were
treated less kindly than real animals. It really and truly sickened him that
humans could do such a thing to something like the nekos and hybrids and make
them nothing more than beasts. He would never understand it! They could think,
they could talk, they had wants, needs, hell they had favorite colors and
foods! Unfortunately, Naruto had no idea the real reason behind his master's
ire, so he was scared. Usually when his masters got this kind of angry, he was
in for a sound beating, even if it wasn't him his master was angry at, so as
they sat in the car with the two girls, he couldn't stop the whimper that
escaped his lips.
Sakura looked behind her to catch the slight tremble in the hybrid and he
smacked Sasuke upside the head. He glared at her. "You're scaring him, teme,"
she said under her breath.
Sasuke looked back and saw the fear written in the creature's eyes and sighed.
"Dobe, I'm not mad at you, okay?"
This did nothing to stop the fear coursing through him. It didn't matter if
master was angry at him or someone else. His purpose was to be there for the
master no matter what he was told. Even if he did have a hard time answering to
his masters. Usually at first, out of fear of the shelter he would be good, but
it seemed less than two days he was already going to feel the wrath of his
master. He supposed sooner was better than later so he could judge his
preference for punishing him.
"Hey, I said I'm not mad at you, didn't you hear me?" Naruto flinched and
nodded, his ears flattening against his head as he crossed his arms over his
chest. "The hell are you still scared of?" Sasuke asked, turning around fully
to look at him.
"When master's angry…it doesn't matter if I'm the cause," he said, dropping his
head.
Sasuke felt his jaw clench and looked at Sakura. "Fuck these people and what
they do. You want to know what got me worked up? It was the discipline section.
Might as well been in a fucking BDSM store."
Sakura nodded. "Why don't we get him home, maybe he can relax?"
Finally they were home and it seemed the hybrid had calmed down, but as soon as
they walked in, Hinata, the gray cat hybrid of Itachi's came skittering into
the room and nearly knocked Naruto over. Behind her was a dog hybrid with wild
brunette hair and white fur around his face.
"Hinata! I think I might love you!" he called, loping around the corner and
skidding to a stop seeing the cat hybrid tangled up in someone else's limb and
leash.
Naruto wasn't sure what to do, he looked up to find a very pretty cat hybrid
lying on top of him, and he scented another one in the room. But just as
quickly, the male dog hybrid dropped to all fours and began a throaty growl and
Hinata's eyes widened in absolute terror as she scrambled away from the body
underneath her, whining low in her throat and careening almost into the dog
behind her. Naruto slowly sat up, his tails swishing out from behind him and
dropping into a defensive stance.
"Hinata! Kiba!" Itachi's voice called, and he came around the corner. "Oh,
brother I thought you'd be out longer, terribly sorry…I just brought Kiba home,
a friend for Hinata when I'm gone."
Sasuke looked down at the defensive posture and snorted. "Naruto, get up from
there, what's your problem?"
Naruto looked up and Sasuke took a step back reflexively, making both Ino and
Sakura look and take him the blood red eyes the kitsune hybrid was sporting.
Sasuke looked at his brother who was staring wide eyed as the kitsune turned
his gaze back on the others, crawling back away from the other hybrids and
muttering under his breath.
"No, no, go away…no…get out…I don't want to lose another master like this…" he
practically mewled, shaking his head.
"Kiba, stand down, now!" Itachi ordered and the growling male stopped the
rumble in his throat and his ears drooped as he sat slowly on the floor,
followed by Hinata who still sat carefully in front of him, her whines stopping
as well.
Sasuke kneeled beside the kitsune as he looked up the eyes vivid red and his
nose seeming to elongate as he shook his head. "Back…" he muttered and then his
eyes started to calm, fizzling back to their normal crystal blue. He heaved a
huge breath and fell flat to the floor panting.
"Itachi, what the hell was that? I don't remember that being listed…" Sasuke
looked up to see a confused Itachi looking back at him.
Naruto raised his head, tears collecting in his eyes as he spoke. "Sorry,
master, sorry…I'm sorry, please don't sell me again…"
"I don't understand why the lab wouldn't have listed something like that sort
of aggression, they should have known after he was created, after all…" Itachi
said, pulling his phone out. "I'll call his originating lab and find out."
"No!" Naruto said, panicking. "No, you can't call them, please, please, they
won't know who I am!"
This brought a curious glance from everyone in the room. Sasuke frowned. "What
do you mean, you weren't created in that lab? Where were you created?"
Naruto couldn't see any way out of it. He heaved a choked sob. "I wasn't made
in a lab…"
Itachi and Sasuke exchanged glances. "But the records…" Sakura said, kneeling
beside him.
Naruto shook his head. "Master Jaraiya had to forge them, so he could bring me
back when I was…was a kit…after my human mom…she died…and he saved me…from
them…and m-m-my father is a kitsune demon…so…so I'm not a neko at all, I'm a
half demon…"
He gasped and placed both hands on his mouth, sure he'd condemned himself to
death. But as he looked he had six sets of eyes on him, but to his surprise, no
hatred came from them. Only shock and surprise at his revelation.
"P-please don't have m-me destroyed…I don't want to d-die…" he said with a gasp
at the admission he'd just made.
Sasuke looked at his brother and read him like he always had. "Naruto, why
would you be destroyed?"
"B-because no one wants me as it is…I'm too much trouble…and I can't always
control the demon…and I don't know what to do…because I scare myself!" he said,
eyes downcast now.
Itachi sighed. "Look what you got us into, little brother."
"I'd expect no less from an Uchiha," a voice behind Itachi said, and Sasuke
looked up to see the grey haired man from the auction house, Kakashi had been
his name.
Naruto looked up and practically leaped at the grey haired man, yelling out in
glee, "Kakashi-sensai!"
There was an oof as the man was tackled by the much smaller male and found
himself the victim of being licked all over his face as the animal side kicked
in. "Naruto, no licking in this form, remember…"
He sat back and blushed. "Sorry, Kakashi-sensai…I forgot…"
Kakashi sat up, wiping his face. "I saw the Uchihas at the auction so I decided
to see if they'd let me come visit you, and I see it came in none too soon a
time, huh?"
The kitsune hung his head again. "I'm sorry, but the pup was growling and the
kitten landed on top of me…and it just…"
The grey haired man ruffled his hair kindly. "I know, I know. But that's
exactly why I'm here. I thought that perhaps the Uchihas would be more
receptive to who and what you are, my kitsune."
"And what exactly is that?" Sasuke said, moving forward finally.
Kakashi grinned under the mask. "Why he's the son of Kyuubi, the nine tailed
fox king, of course…"
***** Of Hybrids and Masters *****
Chapter Notes
     Please excuse errors in Chap 1 and 2, both will get a hard edit when
     I get to five. :)
     I want to thank every one of you that read this.
     However, I do have a favor to ask. I'm looking to get my original
     Yaoi Novel, On the Training of Doctors, published this year. I would
     appreciate it if you would help make it a success. My original
     fiction is more detailed and polished, of course, than my fanfics,
     and I have both an amazing co author and artist. Please visit goo.gl/
     VS2QQs or look up On the Training of Doctors on Kickstarter.
                                        
“Okay, wait a minute, so you’re saying he’s not a lab created hybrid?  Those
exist?” Sasuke said with a deep frown.
Kakashi had managed to dislodge the fox kit off his lap and stand.  “They were
the first, the children of the demons and humans were the first hybrids.  It
was based off their DNA that scientists came to create the nekos and other
hybrids of today.”
Naruto sat on the floor cross legged beside him, still embarrassed about the
incident before with the dog and cat hybrids.  “My father was the Kyuubi,”
Naruto said softly.  “Jiraya saved me but he couldn’t hide me forever.  Without
my mom to protect me, I was alone and too young to be left after that snake man
killed her and tried to take me away.”
“Snake man?” Itachi asked, leaning back against the wall and ruffling Kiba’s
messy hair.
“His name is Orochimaru, and he’s the man you were bidding against at the
auction.  He is well aware of what Naruto is, and wishes to use him, for what
end, I’m unsure,” Kakashi said, sighing.  “Every time Naruto comes up for
auction, he’s there, and it was sheer luck you happened to be there because you
were the only one capable of outbidding him.”
Naruto whimpered suddenly.  “He tried to take me from my mother,” Naruto said
softly.  “She-she called Jaraiya to come help, and…and he almost didn’t make
it…” he said softly.
Kakashi smiled, scratching the pert ears gently.  “Yes, I know, little one. 
Almost didn’t make it, I know.  Poor little thing could barely stand when
Jiraya came to my dojo with him.  It was hard to get all the things in place. 
We did it though.”
Sasuke frowned.  “What does this mean?  For me, now that he belongs to me?” the
younger Uchiha said with glare at the way Kakashi was ruffling his hair and how
content Naruto seemed to be.
“Well, as long as he only has three tails, you’re pretty fine, and he can
control himself,” Kakashi said, realizing that Sasuke was not keen on the way
he was acting so familiarly with Naruto.  “Go on back to Sasuke, little one, be
a good boy, okay, and maybe you can come to the dojo,” he said firmly, standing
up with a grin.
Naruto looked at him with a sad grin then sat down on the floor beside Sasuke’s
feet, not looking at anyone.  “What do you mean, when he has three tails?”
Kakashi sighed and crossed his arms.  “When he gets agitated, more tails
appear, and the more tails he has, the more demon and less human he becomes. 
His natural state is three.  Four and five, he is mostly aware of his
surroundings, more than that, he can’t think let alone recognize people around
him.”
Naruto tried to ignore the things that were said about him; after all he was
used to some things like that.  Still, hearing how dangerous he was made him
sad because he knew one day he was going to lose control unless he could find
his father to teach him.  He was exhausted though and leaned against Sasuke’s
leg and sighed.  The conversation went on, but Naruto faded off to sleep
instead.  He had always been really good about tuning out conversations around
him.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Things seemed relatively calm for the next three weeks.  Naruto got used to
Kiba and Hinata, and actually would play with them now and again, though he
tended to stay in fox form more than human form.  He also had a hard time
getting used to sleeping in his own room because he was so used to being made
sleep at his master’s feet.  The solitude was nice, but at the same time, he
wanted Sasuke to pay more attention to him.  He supposed it was better than
being forced to do other things for his master every day. 
Then, one morning he woke to find Sasuke in his room packing a bag of his
things.  He sat up on his bed and watched.  “Master?” he asked, worried by the
action.  Had he sold him?
“Come on, Naruto.  Itachi and I have a meeting and can’t take you.  You’ll have
to stay in a boarding village for a week until we get back.  Don’t worry,
Hinata and Kiba are going with you too,” he said, snapping Naruto’s collar and
leash onto him and pulling him behind him.
Naruto didn’t want to leave the house.  He knew the things that happened at the
boarding houses for hybrids.  “M-master, no, no, don’t…”
“Shut up, dobe, you’re going, don’t fuss about it.  You’ll be fine, with as
much as they fucking charge,” he muttered, opening the door and shoving Naruto
in the back beside Hinata and Kiba who were excitedly going over the brochure
that Itachi had given them.
“Naruto, look!” Hinata said, showing him the brochure.  There was a picture of
a nice spa where several hybrids were being pampered by the staff.  “We’ll have
fun there!  Master Itachi said it is the best one in the area!”
Naruto just couldn’t say anything.  They wouldn’t understand.  They weren’t
exotics.  They weren’t rares.  He’d heard stories in the shelters from other
rares.  Commons didn’t have a problem; it was the rares and exotics.  He just
hoped that this one was different, and that Hinata and Kiba were right and
there was nothing bad there.
The place was lavish, and Naruto clung to Sasuke while the three were checked
into the place.  Naruto didn’t trust the smiling woman behind the counter. 
They always smiled so nicely at the shelters.  The last time he’d shared a room
with a bear hybrid.  The things she had gone through when her family boarded
her were worse than anything that had happened to Naruto in the shelters.  At
least at the shelters, the guards and the doctors were all there were to worry
about…
“Dobe, stop this.  Go on,” he said, shoving him into the waiting room before
they came down and gave them their rooms.
“Please, Master, don’t leave me here…” he started.
A man in a suit came up behind him and put his hands on Naruto’s shoulders. 
“Now, now, come on, this is the most lavish hybrid resort for the entire
state.  You will enjoy your stay!” he said, and Naruto felt the pressure being
exerted expertly on the nerve in his neck.  No, he thought, as Sasuke left
him.  The man leaned forward and whispered in his ear.  “Welcome, pretty pet,
you’ll do just fine here,” he muttered and yanked him backward, nearly off his
feet and away from Kiba and Hinata.
“Hey!” Hinata called but was stopped by the door that swung shut and locked
behind Naruto and the man.
Kiba frowned and looked at her. “What the hell?”
A woman in uniform came and ushered them to a lavishly decorated common room
with a lot of other hybrids in various stages of repose.  Some were playing
games, others sat and talked, a few swam in the indoor/outdoor pool.  No one
answered them when they asked where Naruto had been taken.  Hinata began to
worry when several hours passed and they hadn’t seen him.
“Kiba, where did they take him?” she whispered, not wanting to draw attention
to their discussion. 
Kiba was about to speak when they heard someone make a strange comment.
“Oh, I’m so glad I’m not a rare,” a tiny mouse hybrid said as she sat down. 
She’d just come in, apparently.  Hinata casually moved and sat down opposite of
her with Kiba and picked up a magazine.  She was talking to a bunny hybrid with
tan ears.
“Oh, I know, the stories they tell, do you think they’re true?” she said,
sipping tea.
“I know that my Master used to have a lion hybrid.  He brought her to one of
these places and two weeks later when he picked her up she was pregnant!” she
said, leaning over in a near whisper.  “Master was furious, ended up suing them
for damages, and had the cubs auctioned off as soon as they were born.  He got
the money, of course, but poor Ida hung herself in the bathroom when Master
told her babies were gone and called her a whore.  She swore she never let
anyone touch her, that they’d forced her, but no one believed her, of course. 
Who takes the word of a hybrid over the owner of a place like this?” she said
under her breath.
The bunny nodded.  “I know, I’ve noticed you don’t ever see any rares or
exotics in these places.  It took a while to figure out they took them upstairs
and rented them out while they were here.  What master notices when we’ve been
used by someone else? I hear they’re very good at trying to keep them from
getting impregnated, but accidents happen like the Lioness.”
Hinata gripped Kiba’s hand and stood, leading him in the corner.  “What if…what
if they’ve…”
Kiba nodded.  “We’ve got to call Master Sasuke.  But how?” he asked.
Hybrids didn’t have the rights that humans did.  There were no laws that kept
people from abusing their hybrids, and even if someone forced themselves on a
hybrid, the most that happened was a demand for monetary compensation from the
owner.  They were owned creatures; they had no rights at all, no more than a
full animal.  No one would take the word of a hybrid over a human.  It just
didn’t happen.  Not to mention the fact that they made them wear the collars
that kept them from transforming.
Hinata’s face changed. “Wait, Master Itachi, he gave me that emergency tag on
my bag.  He said if something happened, I just had to push it.”
Kiba nodded. “Tonight, when we go to bed, we’ll use it,” he said softly.  It
would be suspicious if they left the common room before night call.
Later that night, Hinata picked up her bag and turned over the tag that read
her name in a digital readout along with Itachi’s information.  She pressed it
gently.  It flashed twice and a message appeared.  “What is wrong?” it
flashed.  Hinata swallowed and pressed on the buttons, each press making a
letter appear.  Slowly she managed to write “Narto trble hlp pls” and there was
a beep and it flashed “ok” and went back to flashing her name and Itachi’s
information again.  Now they just had to wait.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Naruto just wanted to go home, more than anything.  The pillow under his head
was soaked by now from tears and spit and he just wanted to get away from these
awful people.  They were right.  This was far worse than the shelters. The door
opened again and he winced.  He would have screamed but the ball gag in his
mouth stopped most the noises he would have made.
“There, now, be a good boy, I’ve brought you a new friend,” the man in the suit
said and Naruto whimpered as he felt someone lift his face and look at him. 
“What a beautiful toy,” the strange man said, stroking his cheek softly.  “You
are worth the money, just look at you,” he said, and the door closed as the
steward left, the lock clicking behind him.
Naruto’s hands were chained together and locked to the top of the bed with
enough play that he could roll to his front or his back.  The man left him on
his belly, running his hands down his spine and petting the tails one at a
time, agonizingly slow.  He hated the ones like this.  The quicker ones were so
much easier to take.  He didn’t know how many had come and gone.  It was a haze
in his mind. 
They’d brought him up and told him that he would do as he was told, or they’d
give a report of his bad behavior to his owner.  They said they were going to
video everything and if anyone asked, he did these things because he wanted to
do them, and before he was put in the room, they made him tell a camera that he
was not being forced to do anything he didn’t want to do.  Of course, the shock
collar they were threatening him with was the reason he said what he was told
to say.  It wasn’t the pain he feared, it was losing control of the demon fox. 
He tried to distance his mind, like he always did.  How many times had this
happened?  He tried to fight them so many times, and he ended up in the same
place.  His kind were things, and no one cared what happened to them.  He’d
watched others die from being raped and beaten in the next cage to him.  It
didn’t matter, their bodies were dragged away and no one cared because they
were animals, not humans. 
He felt him lift his tails and move to slide into him and he started to cry
again.  He was glad he was behind him this time.  The last one had put him on
his back and when he cried he got angry and punched him, blacking his eye.  The
steward didn’t like that.  He said he’d have to tell his owner that he got in a
fight.  He was rougher than he started, and he felt his hands digging into his
hips.  He’d have bruises for a week.  He’d have to stay in animal form to hide
them from Master Sasuke.
He almost didn’t notice when the door slammed open.  He felt the strange man
jerk and then he was off him suddenly and he heard something like glass
breaking and a huge cacophony and of noise.  He was scared, had he done
something wrong?  He jerked when he felt someone touch his face.  To his
surprise it was Sasuke that was looking at him with a look of pure, unbridled
fury.  Naruto felt his heart drop.  Surely, he would sell him or worse, having
him destroyed for doing such things.  He couldn’t help it, he started to panic
and tears flowed more rapidly than he could imagine possible and he started to
hyperventilate around the gag.
Sasuke had left the night before on the next plane.  He didn’t know, or care,
what was going on, but he was going to find out.  Itachi had no idea.  He’d
used the place for Hinata several times, and she loved the place.  He stewed
about the possibilities on the plane and had spent time researching hybrid
boarding places.  What he found was disturbing and the more he read the angrier
he got.  Officially, there was nothing to be found.  However, he found Hybrid
advocate groups that reported that they often sold “services” to high dollar
customers and would often use the more rare and exotic hybrids as some sort of
prostitutes while they were in house.  More and more Advocacy groups were
claiming that these things were commonplace, and they were pushing for Hybrid
Rights.
To say that they were surprised to see him come back early was an
understatement, and just the look on their faces when he demanded they bring
him Naruto was enough to confirm his suspicions.  He had glanced into the next
room and saw both Kiba and Hinata were watching him.  He saw how upset Hinata
looked, her gray eyes nearly tearing. 
When he was told that Naruto was in a punishment room, Sasuke lost it and
pushed  past him into the private hallway, throwing open every door he came
across until he opened this one and saw the head of yellow hair and the fluffed
out orange tails as the bastard had his way with his property.  Sasuke was sure
the guy would walk funny for several weeks, and when Itachi got back the next
day, the entire place would rue the day they tried to take advantage of
anything the Uchihas owned.
“Naruto!” he gasped as he watched him completely descend into a total panic. 
He imagined his anger wasn’t helping.  He reached around and unhooked the gag
first; yanking it out then ripping the ring the cuffs were attached to right
from the wall.  Sasuke pulled him up into his arms quickly.  “Please, don’t,
stop, why are you upset?  I’m here, I’m here,” he asked, starting to worry as
he heaved breaths rapidly.
Sasuke looked up as Itachi came into the room with Kiba and Hinata in tow.
Sasuke looked up at his older brother not knowing what to do.  “Sasuke, take
him home, I’ll take care of things here.”
Sasuke nodded and grabbed a robe from the table beside the bed and wrapped it
around Naruto’s shoulders and picked him up.  Naruto clung to him but still was
nearly insensible, muttering random words and sobbing into Sasuke’s neck.  He
got into the back of Itachi’s car with him and told the driver to take them
home.  He tried to calm the upset kitsune but it didn’t seem that he heard
anything he said.  Finally they got home and he lifted him up again, walking
quickly up the stairs to his bathroom.  He pulled off the robe and turned on
the sunken tub with his foot and stepped down into the pouring hot water with
him.
As soon as the warm water touched his back and feet he started and Sasuke
struggled to hold him as he tried to scramble away.
“Naruto!  Dobe, stop it!” he said, finally getting him down into the water.  He
was shaking still and Sasuke didn’t really know how to handle this at all. 
“There, there, you’re fine, see?” he said, sitting him against one side while
he grabbed the bottle of soap and squeezed some on a rag.
Naruto looked at him with wide tearful eyes and Sasuke didn’t understand why he
was acting so strange.  Sasuke understood what had happened, hell he caught the
bastard in the middle of raping him, but he didn’t know why he was so scared of
him.  He started to wash his face and hair slowly but when he flinched away
from him he stopped.
“What is it?  Why are you looking at me like that?  I’m not fucking going to
hurt you, and you know it,” he said, starting to get annoyed.
Naruto’s eyes filled up again instantly and Sasuke winced internally.  He
really sucked at this, he thought to himself.
“Master…I’m sorry…I’m sorry…” he muttered, shaking his head.  “I didn’t want
to, and they…they made me say that I did, I didn’t I really didn’t you have to
believe me, don’t…don’t send me away…I know I’m dirty and used and awful and
you should…”
Sasuke put a finger to his lips and sighed.  “Is that what this is about?”
Naruto blinked his crystal blue eyes at him slowly.  “You think I’m going to
get rid of you because of what those fuckers did to you?”
Naruto nodded, putting his head down.  Sasuke pushed his head up but pushing
with his finger under his chin.  “Naruto, how many times has something like
this happened?”
Naruto looked at him and shook his head.  “I don’t know…it’s a part of being
what I am, I’m…I’m supposed to serve my master and whoever they want me to
serve…” he said softly.  “And I’m…I’m an animal so they can do that, I’m not a
person,” he said, looking down again.
“The fuck you aren’t a person,” Sasuke said suddenly, making Naruto start
again. “Sorry, I’m not mad at you, dobe, I’m mad at myself for not realize
where I was sending you, I should have listened when you didn’t want to go. 
Have you been in a boarding house like that before?”
Naruto shook his head. “No, I’ve heard stories though, exotics and rares, that
they used us like that, b-but I thought maybe it w-wasn’t true…”
Sasuke nodded and sighed deeply.  “No more,” he said, and Naruto looked at him
with a confused look.  “No more.  You are a person, even if you’re my person. 
No one has any right to touch you without yourpermission, understand?  Not even
me.”
Naruto stared at Sasuke for a long time before he leaned forward and hugged him
tightly and whispered, “Thank you, master,” with a deep sigh.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
“Sir, are you unwell?” the servant asked the master.
“Get out.” The curt reply.  The servant left.
“Lord Orochimaru…” a voice spoke from the couch before the desk.  “You know, if
you just keep trying to buy the stupid creature it isn’t going to work.  Why
don’t you just take what you want?”
The pale, dark haired man snorted at the man with the vaguely blue hue to his
skin and hair.  “Kisame, I’ve tried to avoid that.  He knew how to keep me from
getting to him, and knew that I wanted to keep my business above the table. 
But I will have that kitsune brat one way or another.”
Kisame stood and stretched.  “Well, we know who has him, it’s the Uchihas.  Why
do you need the bastard anyway?”
Orochimaru grinned, which was scary in itself.  “Because I want Kyuubi.  And
the only way to lure the demon fox is to use his son.”
“What for, I mean, he abandoned him, what does he care?” Kisame said heading
toward the doorway.
Orochimaru smiled.  “I have a feeling he didn’t quite abandon him as much as he
would have us believe,” he said, pulling up the videos from the boarding
house. 
Itachi Uchiha had shut the place down completely, and the owners were jailed
for illegal use of Uchiha property.  He had what he wanted, either way.  He
smiled and watched them again.  He would have the brat.  He would be his once
and for all.  And then, with control over the wretched creature, he would gain
the power of the nine tailed fox demon.
***** Changing Perspectives *****
 
Sasuke had managed to get Naruto into his room, but that was it.  He couldn’t
get him to go into his own room at all.  He seemed to be unable to relax so
Sasuke had ended up sitting on the bed beside him.  Naruto had cried until he
fell asleep and Sasuke couldn’t help but feel entirely at fault.  If he had
just realized sooner…  He found himself brushing his hand over his head again
and again as he slept fitfully beside him.  He didn’t know how to deal with
this.  He couldn’t figure out what to do with him.  If he were human, he would
be in a hospital or a facility to help him deal with trauma, but they didn’t do
that for hybrids.  If he took him somewhere, they’d tell him that if he was
mentally defective, to have him destroyed.  The thought sickened him more than
he could even think about.
Sasuke pulled out his phone and started looking up some of the people who had
been active in these Hybrid Rights circles, and he landed on a page that he
thought would help him convince Itachi that there was something seriously wrong
with the whole situation.  So far Itachi had dismissed Sasuke’s concerns,
stating that he was overreacting, that this was just the way things worked in
the world.  Itachi took care of his pets, and he didn’t understand why Sasuke
didn’t believe that the people that treated them badly were the minority of
hybrid owners.
Sasuke didn’t buy it.  He’d talked to too many, and while they didn’t say so
out loud, he knew by looking at their faces and the way their bodies moved that
they were hurting inside and out.  Even Itachi’s friends that he claimed were
good people, he’d seen the reactions.  If nothing else, Sasuke was observant. 
He noted the way when they visited that they would flinch away from someone, or
they would look down when someone tried to speak to them.  At worst, they
wouldn’t come out of their animal form at all. 
He found something that made him take a breath and think.  He looked down the
page and found the contact information and was on his phone within seconds.
“Zabuza speaking, what can I do for you?” came a man’s voice.
Sasuke almost froze before he shook his head out of the dullness that
threatened to still his tongue.  “Yeah, um, I found the page you run, um, the
Hybrid Rights Alliance, and I wanted to meet with you.”
The man paused.  “I see.  Well, that’s not something I normally do…”
“I really think we should meet,” he said, feeling Naruto’s head nuzzle under
his hand and he felt him wake up beside him.
“Look, I just…it is a risk that I can’t take for my family.  I don’t meet up
with anyone…” he started.
Just then, Naruto yipped and started to panic, not knowing where he was. 
Sasuke nearly dropped the phone.  “Dobe!  Stop, it’s okay, stop!” he said,
trying to keep the hybrid’s claws from slicing him open.  “It’s me, just me,”
he said and Naruto finally looked up with teary eyes.
“M-master Sasuke, they were there, I saw them, and you didn’t come this time,
and…” he whimpered against Sasuke’s leg.
Sasuke put the phone on his ear against his shoulder.  “Nh, come here, Dobe,”
he muttered, pulling him in to his lap slowly.  “I’m on the phone,” he muttered
before turning his attention to the phone.
“Look, I know what you say, but I think you need to meet with me,” he said into
the phone this time.
The other man paused.  “What happened to him?”
Sasuke sighed, running his hand over Naruto’s head and trying to shift to get
the phone again.  He was crying against his leg, Sasuke could tell, he felt the
warm wet tears against his pants.  “My brother bought him for me.  He…he was
scared and beaten and they’d done things to him.  I…I didn’t know, I just
thought it was the place he came from.  Then, we had to go out for business,
and I left him and my brother’s two hybrids at a boarding house,” he said,
feeling the body under his hands flinch.
“Is he rare?” the other man asked quietly.
“He…he’s more than rare, my brother paid 3 and a half million for him. 
He’s…he’s like nothing else, and they fucking let people come in and rape him
after they forced him to tell a camera that he wanted them to do it to him, and
I can’t…I can’t believe that this is how anyone gets treated and I can’t stop
it by myself,” he said, chewing the inside of his lip thoughtfully.
There was a startled gasp.  “For that much…what…what breed is he?”
“He’s a demon fox,” Sasuke said, threading fingers through the blond hair. 
“He’s not lab created either.”
Naruto looked up with frightened eyes at Sasuke.  “What…” the man said on the
other end.
“Look, just show up at my house.  Bring whatever stuff you have about what goes
on, all that stuff from the webpage, I need my brother to see it, to
understand, so we can do something,” Sasuke said, feeling Naruto nuzzle into
his lap further, burying his face in Sasuke’s stomach.
“What’s the address?” he said quietly.
“The Uchiha mansion,” he said and hung up before the other man had a chance to
respond.
Naruto looked up and gripped Sasuke’s waist harder, his eyes still wet.  “M-
master?  Who was that?”
Sasuke sighed, and bit back a comment that it wasn’t important, but he instead
smiled at him.  “It was someone who is going to help us stop this stuff from
happening.”
“This stuff?” Naruto asked, moving to sit up and slide more against Sasuke’s
body. 
“What they did at the shelter to you, what they did at that boarding house, all
of this, it’s wrong.  And it needs to stop,” he said, adjusting to lean back
and let the smaller hybrid put his head in the hollow of his shoulder.
“I don’t understand, we’re animals, we’re not people, so they can…” Naruto
started.
“No,” Sasuke said loudly, nearly making Naruto jump out of his grip.  “Sorry,”
Sasuke said.  “I’m no good at this stuff, okay, but I know that you are far
more than an animal, Naruto, and you deserve to be treated as well as any
person ever has been.”
Naruto didn’t know what to think as he looked at Sasuke and felt for the first
time since Jiraya had taken him that he was safe.  He nodded and put his head
on Sasuke’s chest and listened to his heartbeat and breath.  He thought that he
might actually care about someone again, and it felt strange.  He hoped it
would last, but he was frightened that it wouldn’t.  He wasn’t a normal
hybrid.  And eventually, he’d lose control of the demon.  He was scared that
when that happened Sasuke wouldn’t want to be with him anymore.
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Zabuzu Momochi stood in awe outside the gates to the mansion.  He had seen it
from the distance, of course, everyone had, but you had to be buzzed into the
grounds to even get close enough to see how positively enormous the place was. 
Of course, the Uchiha family nearly owned the city of Leaf Valley.  It was a
relatively large city, however, it was run by old blood.  The Uchiha family had
essentially helped found it, and had started as the sole business in the area
in the early 1600s.  Since then, the small family business that sold lenses for
glasses, binoculars, monocles, and spy glasses had become a mutli-national
powerhouse of advanced optic technology and biotechnology research and
development.  Sharingan Associates brought millions of revenue to Leave Valley,
and there had been several Uchiha family members that had been city council
members or mayor of the city.  Currently, Itachi chose to merely sit on the
city council as a member.   However, everyone knew that if the man ever ran for
an official office, there would be no contest.
So now, Zabuzu stood in front of the massive ornate gates after being shuttled
down from the entrance to the grounds on a small cart by a driver.  He walked
up to the screen at the gate and pushed the buzzer.
“Can I help you?” came the voice of a young sounding boy.
“Um, yes, I…uh…I was told to come see…uh…someone…here about a hybrid?” he said
nervously, shifting the laptop bag he carried with his digital and physical
files from one shoulder to the other.
“Who?” queiried the boy.
Zabuzu chewed his lip.  “I don’t know, he called me, sounded young…?” he said.
“He didn’t give you any other information than to come here?” the boy said.
“No, um, at the other gate they said they’d been informed I was coming…” he
said, nervously, looking around because the uniformed security officer in the
little shed was looking at him.
There was a long sigh.  “Sasuke,” he muttered.  “Enter.  I’ll have the young
master meet you in the conference room.”
The gate buzzed and a doorway sized piece swung in.  Zabuzu felt a jolt as he
walked through it and knew he’d been scanned for weapons.  Of course, it was
the Uchihas, their scanning devices were the highest caliber on their own
property.  He paused, glancing around the immaculately landscaped yard and the
massive mansion.  There were tall columns of swirled marble framing the doorway
that went up all three stories of the house and held up an overhanging above
the darker marble steps leading up to an ornate wooden door.  As he got close,
it opened and a young man of perhaps thirteen or fourteen nodded to him and
motioned him into the foyer.
“Master Sasuke is waiting for you,” he said, leading him from the foyer into a
large open room to the right where the younger of the Uchiha brothers was
arguing with someone under the large table.
“Dobe, get your ass up here,” Sasuke growled under the table.  “Stop that!” he
snapped and looked up at the other man.
Sasuke gave the man an appraising look, running a hand over his head as he
stared at him.  “Zabuzu Momochi, correct?”
Zabuzu nodded.  “Um, yes, sir,” he stammered not sure how to address the
younger Uchiha. 
Even as confident as he was, Zabuzu was in unknown territory.  This was
different than anything he’d done before because this time, there was more than
he could imagine at state.  If things went well here, and now, he, Reiko, and
Haku could stop running.  They could actually find a way to be happy and free
together. 
“Nh, don’t sir me,” Sasuke said with a sigh, scratching the back of his neck
before he disappeared under the table and reappeared with a struggling form in
his arms.
Zabuzu blinked and moved around to get closer to the blond hybrid. 
“He’s…amazing…” he breathed, kneeling in front of the seated Sasuke and
reaching a hand out to put on the wriggling form.  “I’m not going to hurt you,”
he said, pulling the scarf down from his face.
Naruto turned and fixed his crystal blue eyes on the new person and stilled
from trying to push Sasuke’s arms off him.  He was just wanting to go away, and
he didn’t want to see any strange people.  He’d had enough people lately.  He
wanted to hide in Sasuke’s bedroom, in his fox form if he had to, and stay
there.  He knew he couldn’t because Sasuke was his master and he had to do what
he said because he’d end up in the shelter or destroyed if he didn’t listen. 
He still hadn’t figured out that Sasuke wasn’t like anyone else he’d been
with.  His tails swished franticly, though, the only indication of his frantic
state.
“Dobe, for fuck’s sake,” Sasuke growled again, pulling him to sit flat on his
lap.  “Stop it!”
Naruto whimpered and looked down at his hands trying to stay still.  He jerked
when the man with scarf tried to touch him, though, and fixed his eyes on him. 
Most of Naruto’s bruises had turned a bright reddish purple.  His face
especially looked bad where he’d had his cheekbone cracked.  Because of the
sheer amount of bruising, Sasuke had tried to dress him lightly.  It seemed
like at first, he might not have been manhandled that badly, but after a few
hours at home, the scope of how roughly they’d treated him at the boarding
house became apparently.  It seemed l like new bruises would appear every time
Sasuke got a good look at him.  Naruto’s wrists were rubbed completely raw and
his face was bruised around his mouth from how tightly they’d gagged him.  That
didn’t even touch the bruising on his back, hips and thighs. 
Sasuke had put him in a loose wrap that feel to the middle of his thighs,
hoping that the man that was coming to see him today would see and understand
how serious Sasuke was.  He wanted this guy to know that he was more than
angry.
“You poor thing,” Zabuzu said, glancing over him.  “This happened at that
boarding house?”
Sasuke nodded.  “Well, most of it.  Some he hadn’t really healed from when we
bought him after those fucking bastards at the auction house beat the shit out
of him,” he growled, feeling Naruto tense under his hands.  “Stop, please, I’m
not mad at you, Dobe,” Sasuke muttered, moving one hand to rub Naruto’s back.
Zabuzu nodded, standing.  “I…I wasn’t sure how to react to your call.”
“Nh, no one likes me, so whatever.  But this…fuck this, no one gets to be
treated like this,” Sasuke said, feeling Naruto finally start to become less
tense and turning into him finally, putting his head on Sasuke’s shoulder and
looking at Zabuzu now and then.
Zabuzu sat down and pulled out his computer and glanced at Sasuke.  He said no
one.  He hadn’t called him an animal.  He hadn’t called him a pet.  He hadn’t
called him a hybrid, even.  Maybe, just maybe this would work…
“So, tell me, Sasuke, um, why did you call me?  I mean, I understand that you
were upset with how this house treated him, but considering that I heard there
was a boarding house that mysteriously shut down yesterday without notice, I’d
assume you and your brother took care of those people…” Zabuzu said, wondering
exactly how far Sasuke was willing to go with this.
Sasuke moved Naruto a bit and sighed.  “First I was pissed off that anyone
would fuck with Uchiha property, I mean, my idiot brother paid three and a half
million for him to show up with bruises all over him and shit.  But I took care
of that.  That fucker won’t walk right for a month yet,” Sasuke muttered,
threading his fingers through Naruto’s blonde hair and pausing to scratch
around the pert fox ears.  “Then, I didn’t listen to him.  He fucking begged me
not to take him there, and I told him to stop being stupid, and then…” 
Naruto looked up.  “M-master, you didn’t…you didn’t know what they did…I just…I
just knew I heard from others…it might not have been that way…”
Sasuke frowned and looked down at him.  “You didn’t tell me how awful every
single person treated you, Dobe. You didn’t tell me how horrible every day
was.”
Naruto looked over at the other man.  “It’s just the way it is,” he whispered,
putting his head back in Sasuke’s neck and sighing.
“Well, it fucking sucks, and I’m not going to live anywhere where this shit
happens to a living, breathing, fucking sentient person.  I don’t care if you
have fucking fox ears and three tails, you’re still a person,” Sasuke said, and
Zabuzu saw Sasuke’s grip tighten on Naruto’s body as he spoke. 
“Well, I think that…” Zabuzu began.
“Sasuke, what are you doing…?” came Itachi’s voice as he came into the
conference room.  “We have a visitor?” he asked, turning to Sasuke.
Sasuke glared at Itachi.  “Yes, we fucking have a visitor.  Sit down and listen
to him and if he doesn’t fucking change your mind, then I’ll leave you the hell
alone about the hybrid stuff,” he said as the Hinata and Kiba came running into
the room, both in animal form and came skidding to a halt and stared at
Naruto.  Of course, they sensed Naruto’s discomfort.
Itachi sighed.  “Little brother…I don’t have time for this nonsense…”
“Make time, sit down, dammit, Itachi,” Sasuke growled out and glared at him. 
Itachi started to respond and shook his head, sitting down beside Sasuke and
across from Zabuzu.  “I’m Itachi Uchiha, pleased to meet you…?” he asked.
“Um, Zabuzu Momochi,” he said, nodding.  “Um, Sasuke here asked me to come talk
to him, I didn’t…I didn’t realize I’d be talking to you as well…”
“Mr. Momochi, I don’t have all day, obviously my little brother thinks you can
influence my decision to remain neutral in the issue of hybrid rights that he
is pushing me to become involved with,” he said, sighing.
“Ah, okay, well, I’ll make this as brief as I can,” he said, and pulled out a
file folder and passed it over to the two brothers.  “This is Haku.  Haku is a
rabbit breed hybrid, bred to be a courtesan.  He was to be used as a companion,
both in physical sense, but also trained and educated to be an appropriate
consort in public.  A sort of escort, with intelligence and grace.  This was
the initial breeder advertisement for him,” he said.  The photo was of a
beautifully dressed male rabbit hybrid, soft faced and gentle looking.  His
puff of a tail sat peeking through the back of the long silver and gray robes
he wore.
Itachi nodded, having seen this sort of advertisement before.  The market for
courtesan and consort companions among the wealthy was high.  Having a hybrid
was a mark of distinction, especially one of great beauty and grace.
“I was a solider, special forces, and I saw a lot of things along the way,”
Zabuzu said, holding another folder in his hands against his chest.  “I got
hired by this man named Gato.  He wanted me as a guard for a little
‘expedition’ he said.  No big deal, I’d been a mercenary since I left the real
military.  I thought I could see death, dismemberment, horrors that most people
can’t imagine, and not flinch.  I was wrong.”
Itachi frowned and listened even more intently.  Naruto’s ears had turned
toward him and his whole attention was focused, it seemed.  Zabuzu continued. 
“At first, I thought it was a hunt or something.  They had dogs, viscious dogs,
and a few dog hybrids, but they were feral, like they had nothing human left in
them, you know, and there were cages, but I couldn’t see in them.  Gato told
everyone to get ready and all these men with dogs and guns and all sorts of
weapons were gathering.  Gato told me to make sure no one broke into the area,
as it was fenced in and private.  I didn’t get what was going on yet, and then
as I stood there, all these cages opened and about twenty young hybrids ran out
of them, and I realized the cages had been electrified to make them come out of
them, and that just seemed wrong, but I didn’t know…”
Zabuzu grit his teeth together.  “The men stood there talking around an hour
after they forced them out.  Then, they let these dogs go and these hybrids,
all of them rabbits, mice, you know, prey animal hybrids, they were still out
there, running, scattered throughout the forested area.  The men were screaming
running after them and I thought they were catching them, but no.  There was a
little female mouse hybrid, she ran toward me where I standing by the fence,
and I couldn’t believe it as these two dogs almost as big as she was, just
leapt on her and literally ripped her in half between them.”
Itachi’s brows furrowed and he glanced at Sasuke who wore a disgusted look. 
“But that wasn’t the worst,” Zabuzu said, looking away, and sliding over the
next folder.  “This wasn’t the hunt I’m talking about, but these are images
that I captured with hidden cameras in similar area,” he said.
Itachi opened the folder and blinked with a shocked look on his face.  “Haku,
poor Haku…” Zabuzu said, sighing.  “I ran, through the forest, and I found
they’d brought him down, and one of these men had taken a spear and staked his
arms to the ground.  Another was…was…he was raping him, and while he was doing
it, the other one had this scourge, you know a whip with the tails but it has
barbs on it, and he was flaying the flesh off his back, laughing as this
beautiful creature screamed in agony.  There was blood everywhere, I couldn’t…I
didn’t think.  I don’t remember even killing the two men. I came to my senses
outside a military base where I knew the doctors, holding this half dead hybrid
in my arms and crying,” he said, sighing.  “I hadn’t cried in years, not since
my wife and I got married.”
“Gato, you see, he bought pretty ‘rejected’ hybrids for these hunts.  Of
course, none lived, but before they died they suffered.  These bastards would
get aroused by the hunt, and they’d do truly unspeakable things.  I…I wish I
could say I was exaggerating, but as you can see from those photos I’m not,”
Zabuzu said, sliding over a folder of Haku’s scarring.  Some, Sasuke had seen
online. 
“Haku doesn’t leave home, wherever we are, we have to keep running,” Zabuzu
said.  “We keep moving because Gato will come after us.  He knows I have this
but he doesn’t think I can do anything with it.  And of course, this is just
the hunting aspect of what happens to them,” Zabuzu said turning his computer
around to face Itachi and Sasuke.  “There’s more.  This isn’t one group, this
is many.  This is a current listing of the organizations and people I’ve found
affiliated with hunts, hybrid sex slavery rings, experimentation, and many
other things.  I can’t…I can’t do anything because there’s always someone that
stops me.  I can’t even get to any major news outlets, the stories are killed
before they can be aired, and I never can get to the reporters again.”
Itachi pulled the computer closer and began going over the listing line by
line.  Sasuke glanced through the photos and was nearly sick. 
“They…they’re…what the fuck,” Sasuke whispered, seeing a particularly gory
image of a still alive hybrid being what could only be described as literally
skull fucked.  “People, people do this…”
Naruto glanced over and nodded.  “They took me to one once, my second owner
said I would make the best sport, and whoever caught me, he’d give a prize…” he
whispered and Sasuke looked at him.  “The demon got out.  They all died.  He
sold me the next week.”
Zabuzu looked at Naruto and swallowed.  The demon got out?  Suddenly, he was
very afraid that he might have just gotten into something that was far beyond
what he thought he could handle. He cleared his throat and continued. 
“The doctors couldn’t believe what they’d done to Haku.  He was in a coma for
several months.  His injuries were so severe that they were unsure if he would
wake up.  Blood loss and shock alone should have killed him, they said,” he
said sighing. 
He pointed to the photo of his scars.  The young hybrid’s back was a mass of
scar tissue.  It appeared that great swaths of flesh had just been torn from
his back and stomach.  His face had several long ripping scars, and there was a
nasty scar around his neck.  His legs had gouges, probably from class of the
dogs or dog hybrids, in them.  His entire body was a pattern of interlocking
scars, it seemed.  His wrists were slightly deformed from being impaled.
“He can’t be around others unless he’s covered.  He wears the prettiest kimonos
that I can buy him, I try to make him feel better about himself, but you can
imagine that he finds himself ugly.  He has a white mask he’ll wear when we are
around others to cover the scars on his face.  My wife, Reiko, and I do
everything we can to make him happy, but as long as we’re in danger, we’ll
never be happy.  He’s begged me that since he’s of no real use to just leave
him, that Gato will stop chasing us if he we leave him.  We won’t,” Zabuzu
said, looking at photo fondly of him, a current one, dressed in a kimono, but
without a mask.
Itachi had remained completely neutral in appearance the entire time he spoke. 
He turned his head and saw that both Kiba and Hinata were sitting nearby,
shifted now into their humanoid form, and Hinata sat in Kiba’s lap and they
both stared into space.
“You’ve seen this,” Itachi said to them.
Hinata glanced at Kiba and back to Itachi.  “I…I knew a lot that disappeared
from the shelters.  Cats, mice, rabbits, rats, the foxes were too rare, but the
ones that were really common, they disappeared,” she whispered, looking at
Itachi, knowing that he wanted the truth from her.  “I…I was told that if no
one came for me in the next few weeks, they’d come for him for the hunts.  But
then you came to the place I was in, and took me away.”
Kiba nodded.  “I…I had been told that if I got sent back again,” he said,
looking down at his slightly clawed fingers.  “If I got sent back again…they’d
send me to be in one of the fight rings,” he said quietly.
“Fight rings?” Itachi said, glancing at Zabuzu.
Zabuzu nodded.  “There are ‘dog fighting’ rings.  They take dog hybrids and
make them fight.  The winner gets to live to fight another day, the loser is
killed.  They fight or die.  They force them to attack ‘training’ animals,
cats, other prey animals, the most common hybrids that breed quickly, or they
don’t get to eat or just get killed.  They train them to eat their prey as
well.  There are also some rather disturbing trends of breeding some of the
hybrids as ‘food’, delicacies, of sorts, among some circles of upper class
people.”
Itachi’s face was still inscrutable.  He wore no expression, only continued
looking through the amount of files on Zabuzu’s computer.  He finally reached
in his shirt and pulled up a chain.  It appeared to be a necklace, with the
Uchiha symbol, but Sasuke, who had one as well, knew it wasn’t just a
medallion.  Itachi clicked it open and a USB connector popped out, which he put
into Zabuzu’s computer.
“I’m cloning your drive,” he commented, waiting a moment until the device
beeped softly.  Itachi removed it, putting it around his neck and standing.  He
moved to the door and stopped, glancing at Kiba and Hinata.  “Stay with Naruto
and Sasuke tonight, you don’t want to be with me for the next few days,” he
said, and left.
Zabuzu wasn’t sure what to think, but he looked over to see Sasuke smirking. 
Zabuzu then smiled and stood again.  “Can I see to him?  I’ve learned some
hybrid medicine since I’ve been dealing with Haku.”
Sasuke nodded, pushing Naruto off to stand up on the floor and pulling the robe
off him.  Naruto gasped at the sudden exposure, but at least he wasn’t naked. 
Sasuke let him wear underwear, which no one usually did.
Zabuzu was amazed at the tails as he moved around behind him.  “Naruto?  I’m
going to check the tails for any bone chipping or fractures, tell me if they
hurt when I touch them…”
Zabuzu started at the tip of each tail and worked his way down each one,
feeling the bones all the way up almost to where they connected with his body. 
He frowned.  “Fascinating, each tail is completely independent with its own
separate bone structure,” he muttered, feeling the young hybrid jerk as he felt
the area where the tails connected to him.  “I’m sorry, this will take a
moment, I’m sure they won’t careful and sometimes the connective tissue around
the tail can be damage, and a lot of time it doesn’t show up immediately. It
can cause a lot of pain if it doesn’t heal correctly.”
Sasuke could see how panicked this was making him so he moved in front of him
and put his arms around Naruto’s shoulders.  “Hush, Dobe, he’s not going to
hurt you here, if he did, I’d fucking cut his heart out,” he muttered, pulling
Naruto’s trembling body into him, running one hand over his head as he panted
on him.
Zabuzu didn’t feel any tearing or damage to the ligaments and tendons, but the
three tails were so unique that he couldn’t be sure.  They were grouped in a
triangular fashion, two tails emerging higher, and the third emerging at the
point where the typical “tailbone” on someone was.  He couldn’t be sure, his
training in hybrid biology was still rudimentary, but it seemed that the
hybrid’s spine literally split off into three tail bones, meaning that his
nervous system would be different than any other hybrid he’d ever seen.  Naruto
gave a small yelp when Zabuzu’s finger grazed the dip at the center of the
three tails.
“Did that hurt?” he asked, standing.  Naruto nodded and Sasuke could see tears
squeezing from his closed eyes. 
“What did you do?” Sasuke asked.
“The point where his tails come together, there’s a space between them, it’s
like an upside down triangle, where the tails are each a point on the corner. 
The center, it feels strange to the touch, I don’t want to do anything else,
but other than that area being painful, his tails are in decent shape, some of
the ligaments are stretched, probably were pulled too hard, but that should
cause no long term issues.  Let’s see your ears,” Zabuzu said, moving around.
Naruto stared at him as he pulled his hair away from the area around his ears. 
Naruto whimpered a little when he grazed the area where they connected to his
head.  “Yeah, you need to watch his ears,” Zabuzu said thoughtfully.  “See a
hybrid doctor, don’t take him there, but I’ll give you a list of things to
get.  He needs to have the area where his ears connect to his scalp cared for,
it is very red and irritated, again, probably pulled on.  Sometimes that point
can have some scaling and can start to itch if it isn’t dealt with, and I’ve
seen some lose their ears over it.  The tails, he needs to avoid moving them a
lot, so try and avoid agitation, otherwise, the ligaments might stretch more. 
The area between them…just…I don’t know what that is.  Just don’t do anything
at all, avoid touching it, and in general keep him clean until the abrasions
and contusions heal.”
Sasuke nodded, watching as Zabuzu made a list and handed it to him.  “Don’t,
whatever you do, don’t take him to a hybrid doctor.  The vast majority of them
are disgusting ‘vets’ who don’t have any knowledge of hybrid physiology.  Most
when they encounter a hybrid with something wrong will recommend euthanasia. 
And any facilities that want to keep them overnight are dangerous.  I’m going
to be at that number, but if for some reason, it stops working, I put another
two numbers I keep for emergency use.”
Sasuke nodded, pulling Naruto against him.  “I’ll call when Itachi decides our
course of action.”
“You…you think he’ll do something?” Zabuzu asked, frowning and glancing out the
door he’d left through.
“Oh yeah, his monologues that this stuff hardly ever happens just went down the
fucking tubes.  He’s pissed.  The only thing is, when he gets pissed, he gets
quiet and makes thing happen.  I just fucking beat the shit out of people,”
Sasuke said, and found himself stroking Naruto’s blond head again.
Zabuzu nodded and left the Uchiha mansion, for the first time in years, feeling
hopeful.  Things could change. 
***** Hybrid Medial Care *****
 
Sasuke sighed, holding Naruto’s hand and leash in the same hand. It was the
only way he could avoid feeling like shit when he put the damn leash on him. He
at least, this way, knew that it wouldn’t pull on his neck. He didn’t
understand how people could put leashes on other people. He looked up at the
sign. It was garish, tacky, and neon. It stated the doctor’s name. Dr. Amachi.
He felt Naruto’s hand flex in his as he looked up at the sign and the
obnoxiously painted front of the building. As far as he could find out, this
was supposedly the highest rated and most recommended hybrid doctor in town.
Somehow, he believed that Zabuzu’s comment that hybrid doctors were washed up
vets for the most part struck even more true standing in front of the place.
“Let’s go, Dobe,” he said, heaving a sigh, and pulling Naruto behind him.
As soon as he entered, he disliked the place even more. There was a smell of
ammonia and industrial grade cleaners permeating the place, but even then,
there was still the smell of excrement and blood in the air. He saw Naruto
tense beside him. Granted, he knew Zabuzu said not to take Naruto to this
place, but Sasuke wasn’t leaving him alone, not again. He’d even moved Naruto
into his room, letting him sleep in the bed with him, and left the other bed in
the other, and making it his play and rest area. The front looked like any
veterinarian office. There was a waiting area and a counter. There was a lift
up counter portion and you had to go through that to get to the back where the
hybrids were kept. There was a door to the right, in front of the counter, that
he guessed was the exam room. There was a woman behind the counter with far too
much of a smile.
“Hi there! What can we do for you today?” she asked, fluttering her eyes as
Sasuke.
“I need to talk to the doctor,” Sasuke said.
“Oh, is your pet in need of a doctor’s care? Dr. Amachi is the best around!”
she said, smiling still.
“Yeah, whatever, he’s not touching Naruto, I just need some supplies from him,”
Sasuke said, looking around.
The lady almost lost her smile. “Oh, I’m afraid if you are receiving any
medications, Dr. Amachi must at least do a basic exam on your pet.”
Sasuke frowned. “Fine. But I don’t leave him.”
The lady looked from her computer. “Well, that’s an usual request, Mr.?”
“Sasuke Uchiha,” he said, not looking at her as he spoke. He noted the quick
intake of breath at his name. Lovely, another bitch who wanted to take a shot
at getting his money. Fucking bitches, he thought to himself, squeezing
Naruto’s hand in reassurance when he felt the tremble.
“And your pet?” she asked, but Sasuke could hear the excitement in her voice.
“Naruto,” he said, still avoiding looking at her too cheery face.
“And what breed?” she asked, typing away.
“Fox, sort of,” he muttered.
She stopped. “Sort of?” she asked.
“He’s a unique, okay?” Sasuke said, fixing her with a glare.
She nodded, smiling at him broadly. “Of course he is, I’m sure that there is
nothing but the best for you, Mr. Uchiha. Please have a seat and the doctor
will see you soon. He has one small matter to attend to before he sees your
pet.”
Sasuke resisted the urge to growl at her and tell her to use his fucking name.
He led Naruto into the waiting area and sat down. There was a small window into
a hallway behind it. Naruto, curious as always jumped up and went to kneel on
the seat and look through it. Sasuke didn’t say anything just sighed and waited
in his own chair. He smirked though, because when Naruto was curious, his three
tails swished at different intervals. He seemed okay, he thought, looking away
for a moment.
Then, Sasuke heard the growl start in Naruto’s throat, the deep one that he’d
heard when he’d encounter Kiba and Hinata by surprise. He turned, brows
scrunching to see all three of his tails still and fluffed out. His fox ears
had turned flat on his hat, and to Sasuke’s shock, he watched as from the spot
in the center of his tails that Zabuzu didn’t know about, another tail began to
manifest. It was a thin, misty, fuzzy red outline at first that began to
solidify into another tail. He gasped and jumped up, making noise enough that
Naruto turned to face him, his eyes blazing red and the whiskered marks on his
cheeks burning red. His face, though it didn’t elongate into a snout, had
somewhat turned more fox like.
“Naruto!” he gasped, not know what to do. 
Naruto growled, jumping from the seat and running toward the door that led to
the back. Sasuke was after him, remembering what Kakashi had said, that four
tails were somewhat okay, that he still could reason, but five was pushing his
ability to think. More than that, he became more demon than human or fox. He
slammed through the door, and Sasuke heard the girl yelling at them, but Sasuke
didn’t care about that, he was after Naruto. He followed him around the bend
and they were coming around to the area the window looked out from. Naruto
skidded to a stop in front of the door and growled louder than Sasuke had heard
before.
Sasuke came up and pulled Naruto back, not really thinking, just wanting to
make sure Naruto didn’t get injured. Luckily, enough of Naruto was there that
he didn’t attack him. He saw then what had set Naruto off.
There was a man in there, and he had what appeared to be a hybrid chained to
the floor. He was a thin creature, lanky, with white hair and bright green
eyes. There were two perfect purple dots on his forehead above those eyes.
Around his face, though, spikes protruded and Sasuke believed that this had to
be only the second time he’d even seen a hedgehog hybrid in his life. He’d been
chained by both wrists and necks to a chair, and the doctor was about to give
him some sort of injection, it looked like. Sasuke knew exactly what this
doctor was doing.
“Put it down,” he demanded, staring at the doctor.
The doctor looked at him, surprised, holding the hand up with the syringe. He
had beady eyes and gray hair, and just looked creepy to Sasuke. “What is this?
You cannot be back here.”
Naruto growled again behind him and Sasuke said again, “Put. It. Down.”
“I’m just doing my job, boy,” he said, stepping back as Naruto moved around
Sasuke, and Sasuke saw the ephemeral beginnings of another tail as he stood
between the doctor and the bound hybrid.
“You’re murdering him,” Naruto growled, his voice somewhere between human and
something else that rattled the very teeth in Sasuke’s head.
“I’m euthanizing him, humanely. He’s ill, and I can’t help him. Believe me, it
is better this way,” he said, stepping back from whatever it was Naruto was.
“Um, is he yours? Because I can sue you if he damages anything.”
Sasuke smirked, leaning against the doorframe. “Sure, go ahead. I’m Sasuke
Uchiha.”
Dr. Amachi paused, glancing between Sasuke and Naruto. “Oh, well, I didn’t
realize who you were, but…um could you reel him in, he’s quite magnificent,” he
said.
“Nh. Let’s see what he does,” Sasuke said, crossing his arms, and watching with
interest as the fifth tail began to solidify. “Why don’t you explain why this
is for the best?”
Dr. Amachi glanced between the two and shook his head. “I’m one of the best
euthanasia doctors, I have put down many sick and unteachable hybrids. That
is…one of the things some hybrid doctors will not do. I do it with a high
success rate, and completely painlessly for them. It is far more humane than
sending them to the shelters to live out their lives in those horrible
conditions.”
Naruto’s fifth tail finalized and there was almost a tangible crackling sound
in the air, and the red on his cheeks became even more pronounced. The five
tails were in constant motion, and Sasuke could see that the center was indeed
the nexus where the additional tails emerged. They tapered down to go into that
between space at the ends.
“I don’t think he likes that answer. You know, I’ve never seen this happen
before, but I hear he can get up to nine tails. Now, we’re up to five, so
there’s four more to go. I don’t know what happens, so…” Sasuke said, looking
at his nails and sighing, looking quite uninterested.
“What? Stop him!” Dr. Amachi yelped, moving to the wall.
“I can’t, don’t know how, see, he’s kinda special. He’s a demon fox hybrid.
And, well, no one has ever pissed him off this bad, well at least that
survived. Seems he doesn’t like to see other hybrids killed with no real
reason,” Sasuke said, still leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed
over his chest.
“There is a reason! They have to be put down if they’re sick, the owners won’t
pay to have them cared for, so they just let them die! I offer to put them down
so they don’t suffer! If they go to the shelters, they’ll be put through hell,
and if I can save that, then it’s a good thing! There’s nothing to be done,
that’s the way it is!” he said.
Sasuke shook his head. “Let that hybrid go. He’s coming with us.”
“What?” he asked, looking at him.
“Let him up. And give me the name of a real fucking hybrid doctor, not a
fucking quack idiot like you,” Sasuke said pulling Naruto back from the chair
as the doctor scrambled to unlock him.
The pale hybrid didn’t move, staring at Naruto’s enraged form. Sasuke shook his
head. “Naruto, back down, now,” he said. When Naruto didn’t respond, Sasuke
reached out and grabbed one of his clawed hands and squeezed it hard. Naruto
turned and stared at Sasuke, growling deep in his throat. “Dobe, push it back,”
he said, to seemingly bothered at all by Naruto’s intimidating show of power.
Naruto’s eyes blinked and his eyes rolled up into his head and shut for a
moment before Sasuke looked to see first one, then the other, extra tails
simple evaporated, and his face settled back into normal. His body shivered as
his claws on his hands and feet receded to normal.  He panted, falling to his
knees. Sasuke kneeled and put his hands on his face.
“Dobe, change into your fox form, I’ll carry you,” he said to him. Naruto
looked at him with wide blue eyes and nodded, before morphing into the fox and
passing out on the floor. Sasuke knelt down and picked him up, cradling him
carefully in his arms. He glanced at the other hybrid. “Come on, you’re coming
with us.”
He stood up slowly, glancing at the doctor and back to Sasuke. “Give me his
idents. And a doctor that actually can help him.”
Dr. Amachi scrambled and grabbed a file, handing it over, and scribbled a name
and address on a paper. “Just go,” he said. “And don’t come back with
that…that…monster.”
Sasuke glared at him. “The only monster I see here is you.”
With that he turned, leading the other hybrid out of the office, pausing at the
receptionist who was staring at him. “By the way, sweetheart, you aren’t my
type. You’re not a man.”
He turned and stalked out of the office to his car, putting the hedgehog into
the back seat, buckling him in, and putting Naruto on the seat beside him. He
pulled the belt around him too, just in case he slid off the seat.
Sasuke got in the driver’s seat and looked in the mirror. “What’s your name?”
“Kimimaro,” he said, looking at Sasuke with a strange sad look. “I...I am sick,
but I also don’t listen well,” he said. “They…they were taking me to the
shelter if he wouldn’t kill me. It is okay, I do not mind, I am tired of
being.”
“Of being what?” Sasuke asked as he headed for the address that the asshole had
written.
Kimimaro tilted his head to the side and looked at the mirror. “Just of being,”
he said slowly.
Sasuke ground his teeth. He was going to have to buy a mouth guard at this
rate. He got to the address and to his surprise found it wasn’t a doctor’s
office or a vet, but a house. There was a large yard and he could hear laughter
from it when he opened the door. He moved around, picking up the still sleeping
fox, and then opened the door for Kimimaro.
“Come on,” he said.
Kimimaro nodded, following Sasuke to the door. He knocked and there was a pause
in the laughter at the yard. A few minutes later a woman in a loose top that
featured her incredibly large breasts almost spilling out. It didn’t bother
him, of course, he could care less for those annoying lumps of flesh. She had
blond hair and piercing eyes.
“What?” she asked, frowning at him.
“I’m Sasuke Uchiha, and I was given your name by a fucking idiot named Amachi
who gave himself the title of doctor. He said you were good with medicine for
hybrid. Well, he didn’t say that so much as indicate it by giving your name and
address when Naruto here almost ate him,” he said calmly. Kimimaro just looked
at the ground.
“Which one is Naruto?” she asked.
Sasuke lifted the fox in his arms a bit. “He overdid it, but I was looking for
someone to see to him after the fucking assholes at the Hybrid retreat we took
him to beat the shit out of him and let people pay to rape him.”
Tsunade looked at him and was sure that this kid was different. “I’m Tsunade,
come in,” she said, letting them in. “What caused your hybrid to have an issue
with Amachi? Did you tell him to attack him?”
“Nope, he went after him on his own,” he said, sitting on her sofa with Naruto
in his lap, gently petting his back and smiling. “It was great. He saw that he
was going to kill this Kimimaro. Amachi said he was sick and disobedient so he
would put him down. Fuck him. Unless he can’t be helped by medicine, no one
should put him to death.”
Tsunade leaned back, crossing her legs and staring at this young man. She’d
heard tales, after all, about the intense younger Uchiha. But to see him…
“So, why are you so worried about all this? Why are worried about how these
hybrids get treated? They’re just property, after all,” she said.
Sasuke’s eyes snapped to her and he clutched Naruto to his chest. “They may be
fucking property but they shouldn’t fucking be. They’re people, and if I have
to I’ll fucking look through every damn doctor for a hundred miles until I find
someone that realizes that,” he said, standing and moving to leave without
another word.
“Stop,” she said, smiling.
Sasuke turned back, eye twitching in annoyance. “What, going to go on more
about how this is the way it is and I should leave it alone?”
She smiled, “Not at all, Sasuke. Come, I’ll introduce you.”
As they walked toward another door Naruto squirmed and lifted up his fox head
to blink at Sasuke. “Hey, you awake?” he asked him, smiling. All three tails
began to wag a bit. Kimimaro followed behind, not knowing what else to do.
They opened the door, and as soon as they did, Sasuke saw three hybrids quickly
transform into their animal forms and back up against the fence together.
Tsunade frowned, turning and glancing at Sasuke.  Sasuke put Naruto on the
ground and he shook out his fur.
“Three tails?” she asked, seeing that Naruto had three tails. “He’s not just a
hybrid…”
She looked over at the three others, a pig, cat, and a rabbit. Naruto sniffed
the air and locked eyes on the three of them, and all of them let out a
displeased noise. Naruto whined, putting his head down on his front fox paws
sadly for a moment before he transformed back into his humanoid form, nearly
falling over when he stood.  Sasuke grabbed him and steadied him as he wavered.
“I’m sorry, they’re scared of me,” he said, looking at Sasuke with teary eyes.
“I still smell like the demon fox,” he said, frowning and rubbing his arms.
“I’m sorry, Master,” he said, looking down.
Sasuke sighed, moving around and tipping Naruto’s face up to him. “Shh, Dobe,
stop that right now, you didn’t do anything wrong, the smell will go away and
they won’t be as scared. You got up to five tails, so I guess that means you
were angry.”
“Five?” Naruto said, his blue eyes widening in shock. “But…but I remember what
happened, all of it…and…and I didn’t feel like it was consuming me…” he said.
“I didn’t realize I had the other tails…”
“Wait, what is this?” she said, eyes narrowing.
Naruto sighed, shaking his head. “I just want Master Jariaya again…” he whined.
“Jariaya?” Tsunade asked, frowning. “Wait, you’re…he actually found him?” she
said.
Naruto looked up. “What? You knew Jariaya?”
“Yeah, well. Really well,” she said, looking at him. “He was going to the
forests to find the demon fox. He said that he’d been studying the hybrids and
found a link between demons and hybrids, but he needed to see if Kyuubi would
speak to him.” She looked him over. “You weren’t kidding when you said they
beat the shit out of him. Come on,” she said. She looked at the others.
“These are my hykids, well that’s what we who have them call them. I never
could have children, so these are my children. I’m not the only one, but others
are more covert than I am. I’m also working on establishing regulation for
adopting hybrids so they aren’t used as if they’re less than animals.” She
smiled, gesturing to them. “The one that’s a pig right now, that’s Shizune.
Since that breed is so rare, she was the first one I rescued. I found him in a
makeshift brothel. The rabbit is Hayate, and I rescued him from a hunt ring.
The cat hybrid is Kabuto. He…just showed up one day, and I took him in.”
She led them back into the house through it. Kimimaro was still with them,
having followed silently as they moved around to another door into a room that
was basically a hospital room. Naruto clutched at Sasuke’s hands. Tsunade
gestured at Kimimaro. “You first,” she said.
She set to work examining the hedgehog hybrid.  After a bit, she looked over
what she had. “I’ll take some blood to verify, but it’s very treatable, a
common virus among Erinaceinae species hybrids.”
“Now, why don’t you go out to the back and play with the others? I’ve got a lot
of toys out there, and there’s a small refrigerator in the garage with snacks
and drinks stocked in it. Help yourself, hon,” she said, smiling.
Kimimaro nodded hesitantly but did as she said, heading out and finding the
others had resumed their humanoid form once Naruto had left. Naruto clung to
Sasuke.
“Now you,” she said to him. “Come on, if you don’t get examined properly, you
could get very sick, hop up here.”
Naruto looked at Sasuke with pleading eyes. “Dobe, get your ass up there,” he
muttered steering him up to sit on the bed. He looked at Tsunade, tails
swishing back and forth on the bed.
Tsunade did the same things she had for Kimimaro, took his temperature, checked
lungs, heart, eyes. She got a quick blood sample then had him lay on his back
to check his stomach and the brusing that wasn’t all faded yet.
“Now, the part you aren’t going to like,” she said, looking up at Sasuke. “I
need to check for injuries from when they had him at that boarding house.”
Naruto sat up and shook his head at her, grabbing Sasuke and pulling him close
to him. “No, no, no, it…its fine…”
Tsunade sighed. “I’ve got to check. And you’re a male with testes and penis,
right?”
“There’s other kinds of males?” Naruto said with wide eyes.
Tsunade sighed. “Yeah, there’s more than one type of male. I need to check you
out and make sure they didn’t do anything to you that is going to cause
infection. Have you had any pain?”
Naruto shook his head furiously, until he felt Sasuke put his hand on the back
of his neck, squeezing just enough to get his attention. “Dobe, tell her the
truth,” he said in a voice that left no room for argument.
Naruto whimpered and seemed to shrink. “When…when…I use the bathroom
sometimes,” he said quietly. “And sometimes, things feel weird with the front,
like itchy, and I just…” he said, turning bright red as he spoke.
“Okay, come on, let’s get this over with,” he said, smiling at him. Get out of
those pants, here put this on your lap,” she said, handing him a white sheet.
When he just stared she rolled her eyes and turned her back to him. “Okay, go
ahead.”
Naruto slid of and slid his jeans and underwear off, then got back on the
table, covering himself with the sheet she’d given him. Sasuke rolled his eyes
and started petting his head. “Relax, she’s not going to hurt you.”
Naruto couldn’t speak, but she moved around and started checking over his tail.
He yelped when he felt her touch the spot in the middle of his tails. She
looked up at Sasuke. “This isn’t like anything I’ve ever seen…I don’t know what
to think of this from a medical standpoint. It has tissue in there, but not
like anything I’ve ever encountered. Obviously it’s sensitive.”
“The other tails appear there,” Sasuke said. “Like, they start out a red
outline, then the like slowly come into focus and then taper down into that
space, but it’s like they’re connected spiritually, not physically. He had two
of them, and they both tapered down into that space.”
Tsunade nodded, feeling the tails each individually. “Yeah, his spine splits
here,” she said, pointing on his back. “This is the last spinal vertebrae,
after that they each have their own nerve and muscle system attached to a
separate tale. You are going to have to be careful with this,” she said,
looking at Sasuke.
“Like how?” Sasuke asked, looking closely at what she was doing.
Tsunade arched a brow at him. Sasuke realized what she meant. “Hey, I don’t do
that to him! I have never made him do anything!” he asked, feeling immediately
defensive. “Those other fucking bastards raped him, I would never do that to
anyone.”
“I didn’t indicate you were forcing him into anything, Sasuke,” she said. “Even
in consensual acts, care needs to be taken with these tails. The nerves run
underneath them, and they’re usually attached in a circular fashion with
ligaments. Those ligaments, on a regular hybrid, function without a problem.
This, though, there are three sets of ligaments attached to completely
independent tails. Damage to any one of them is going to put him in severe pain
moving any of them. And with this unique configuration,” she said, pointing to
the way the tails came out in a triangular fashion. “You see how the ligaments,
if they were in a circle around the tail, would go right under where this spot
in the center is?”
Sasuke nodded, seeing what she meant. “The problem is, I don’t think, from the
strength and thickness of the ligaments here,” she showed him the outer edge of
the tail, putting Sasuke’s finger against it. He felt the pull under the skin
when the tail flicked. “That’s thicker and stronger because there are no
ligaments on this side.”
Sasuke nodded. “So, unlike another hybrid, he only has ligaments on one side of
each of his tails, or close to that.”
“Right, and that makes those tails more vulnerable. Naruto, have you had a lot
of times when your tails were damaged?” she asked him, patting his back.
“Um,” he said, still trembling as they stared at his back.  “Yeah…wh-when
they’ve pulled on them…or, or…there was once that this man w-wanted to see if
the three of them could-could…be b-braided…he br-broke one, the bottom one,” he
said quietly. “And it…they always hurt after…after…they do things. They push
them up and the bottom one gets sore a lot,” he said, and Sasuke could see that
he was having a hard time with this.
“Naruto, you’ve been naked in front of me and everyone in the house multiple
times and didn’t mind it, what’s the matter now?” Sasuke asked.
Naruto looked down at his hands. “I’m sorry, Master…I just…got used to be…being
able to wear clothes, and not…not…”
Sasuke took his hands. “Hey, stop that. It’s okay. That’s good, okay?” he said,
smiling. “You should have to go around without clothes or in clothes that are
just for some asshole to get off on.”
Naruto nodded. Tsunade came and looked at him seriously. “Alright, let’s get
you checked for anything those people might have passed on to  you at that
awful place,” she said, smiling at Naruto.
“Do I have to?” Naruto whined.
“Yes,” Sasuke said.
“Okay, let me pull this out,” she said, moving a lamp over and pulling a stool
over. She then pulled out metal stirrups and patted Naruto on the knee. “Okay,
this is going to be weird, but you aren’t going to fall off, promise. Lay back,
and scoot down to the end. Put your feet up in these. You’ll feel part of the
table come out from under you, but it’s to let your tails drop underneath you.
You won’t fall, okay, promise. This is a table designed for just this purpose.”
Sasuke looked at her. “They…they make tables to be able to treat them for this
sort of thing?” he asked.
“Well, that and normal care. The ones capable of giving birth can have
complications, or there are infections that can happen, they have lots of
reasons for using these. But…yes, most common use of these type of hybrid exam
beds is to deal with examining and treating rape victims. Even though our laws
don’t even acknowledge it as rape, only misuse of property.”
Sasuke nodded, helping the nervous fox lay back slowly. Naruto’s leg muscles
were shaking, though so he and Tsunade helped put up his legs. She reached
under the table and there was a click, and Naruto gasped, grabbing the table
with both hands, digging all ten claws into the material.
“And that’s why it has fabric instead of plastic covers,” Tsunande muttered,
adjusting the light and finding that Naruto had his knees together tightly.
“Naruto, I need you to relax. I need to figure out what’s going on, or you
could get very sick,” she said, sighing. 
Sasuke took his hand and petted his head slowly. “Come on, Dobe, I’m here,” he
said.
Finally, he relaxed enough and let his legs fall outward. Tsunade adjusted the
sheet over his knees so she could see. “Ah, that’s what I thought,” she
muttered, reaching behind her and grabbing a swab.  Naruto flinched.
“What was that?” he asked.
“I think you have Clamydia, at least,” she said. “Usually, there’s a partner to
that one,” she muttered.  “Naruto, I need you to stay calm, because I’m going
to be touching you and examining the inside. So you’ll feel cold from the
lubricant as I slide my finger inside, but it shouldn’t hurt, okay?”
Naruto’s eyes went wide and he shook his head. “I don’t like it,” he said. 
Sasuke shushed him. She grumbled under her breath. “Dammit,” she muttered.
“Naruto, I’m going to use something so I can get a swab, it might cause some
pressure, but I will be done quickly.”
Naruto’s eyes went wide and he grasped hard on Sasuke’s hand. “What…what…Ah!
Don’t do that, stop!” he said, eyes wide.
“Just a second more,” she said, getting the swabs as quickly as she could.
“Please, take that out of me,” he whined, tears starting to fall, as he held
Sasuke’s hand hard.
“Okay, done,” she said, sliding the speculum back out, dropping it into her
basket to be sanitized again.
As soon as she cleaned him up from the gel and put the bottom back into the
table, he sat up and grabbed onto Sasuke, burying his head in his chest. Sasuke
patted his back and held him, looking over at Tsunade.
“Some internal fissures, and he’s got a nasty case of gonorrhea, and probably
chlamydia too. I’ll send the swabs to the lab, but I’m going to start treating
him for it with antibiotics anyway. And by the look, it has developed into a
case of proctitis, or inflammation of the rectum. My guess is this isn’t his
first infection. Honey, why didn’t you say something? You have got to be in
pain.” she said, patting him on the back gently.
“B-because it…it…happened a lot…” he said slowly. “I thought…I thought that it
was supposed to…to feel like that…” he muttered.
Tsunade had to turn away for a second to collect herself. “Okay,” she said. She
went to the cabinet and pulled out several things and put them in a bag. “Start
him on the antibiotics right away, twice a day for ten days, use this for pain,
apply it using gloves, I’ve put a box in this bag,” she said showing Sasuke a
jar of some sort of salve. “There’s a rundown of dos and don’ts during the
healing process, I’ll check the blood and the samples, but it takes a week to
get them back. Go ahead with treatment until then, I’ll contact you with
anything else that might be an issue then.”
Sasuke nodded, looking at the bag that she kept throwing things into. “This is
a salve to use around his tails until the ligaments completely heal,” she said.
“This is for the area around his ears. Make certain that none gets into his
ears. Also, be careful with his ears during bathing, it’s very easy to get
water in them and cause an infection before you realize it. Follow these
instructions, and come back in one week. I’ll have to recheck him, but if
everything seems to be healing, and the inflammation is going down, then we
should be in the clear. If it doesn’t, I’ll have to run some more tests on it.”
Sasuke nodded. “O-okay…” he said as Tsunade smiled.
“I’ll step out, he can get dressed and you both should go home and he should
rest,” she said with a smile.
Sasuke nodded, completely forgetting about the hedgehog hybrid, but as he got
Naruto seated in the car and walked around the car, he heard his voice and
laughter. He smiled and nodded to himself. If nothing else, he had someone that
could help him when he needed a doctor.
***** Matters of Between *****
Chapter Six
 
Sasuke found that trying to deal with Naruto after visiting the doctor was
turning out more difficult than he imagined. He would hide from him when he
needed to put the salves on him. The first time, he’d found him under the bed.
“Get your ass out from under there, Dobe,” he said, growling at him. “You know
that you have to have this done, so stop this nonsense. The fox whined in
returned, tails fluffed up as he flicked them around to cover his face. Sasuke
sighed. “You get out from under there right now, or I’m calling her and telling
her you won’t let me do it. Then she’ll come here and do it herself.”
Naruto didn’t really want to have her come see him again, even though he knew
he had to go back in a week. So he’d slunk out from under the bed and returned
to his humanoid shape, staring at the floor. Sasuke sighed. “Up on the bed,
let’s take care of it.”
“But…I don’t want…and can’t I…” he whined.
“Dobe, you have claws, exactly how are you going to do this?” Sasuke asked,
glaring at him. “They’d rip right through the gloves, and I don’t even want to
know what you could do to yourself.”
It was true that having claws was something Sasuke couldn’t imagine dealing
with. Normally, they weren’t too much of an issue, just a bit longer than
normal fingernails, but something so delicate…there was no way he was letting
him try to do it on his own. He nodded, climbing up on the bed and sitting
down, staring at his hands.
“Lay down, Dobe, on your side, remember?” Sasuke said with a sigh.
Naruto did as he was told, tails flicking as Sasuke pushed them away. It didn’t
take long, but Naruto did feel somewhat more comfortable with Sasuke than he
had with the lady doctor. He whimpered though, several times through the
process until he heard Sasuke pulling off the gloves behind him, dropping them
into the trash.
“There we go,” he said, turning to see him staring at him with wide eyes. “What
is it now?” Sasuke asked, feeling exasperated with him again. It was a common
state of being, he was finding.
“M-master?” he asked, sitting up on the bed on his knees.
Sasuke sighed, wondering if he was ever going to get him to stop calling him
master. “What?”
Naruto sighed, fingers twining together. “Um, I just…I wanted to say thank
you,” he said, looking down, and Sasuke saw that he was blushing.
Sasuke leaned over and pushed his face up by his chin, locking eyes on his
clear blue ones. “What for, Dobe?”
“For…for this…taking care of me, and…and…not being like the others,” he said,
looking down again.
“I don’t need thanks for not raping someone, Dobe,” he said with a sigh.
“But I’m not someone, I’m a…property, so you could…if you wanted…do whatever
you wanted,” he said slowly. “Not that anyone would want to with…” he said,
looking away.
Sasuke’s brows knitted for a second, wondering if Naruto was saying what it
seemed like he was saying. “You’ll be well soon, a couple weeks, remember?”
Sasuke said. “It will be cleared up, and you’ll feel better.”
Naruto nodded. “But…but…” he stammered, before stopping to look away.
“But what?” Sasuke said, sitting down against the head of the bed and looking
at him.
“I…I…I…” he stammered again, his cheeks nearly as red as the whisker marks on
his face. “I like you, master,” he finally whispered.
Sasuke’s first thought was he wished he would stop calling him that, then that
ground to a halt when he realized what he’d said. “What?” he asked, frowning at
him.
“If…if you w-want me, I want to be yours,” he said, shifting and looking away
again.
It took Sasuke a minute to put together what he was saying and he realized what
it meant. “Naruto, I don’t expect anything from you. I told you, you don’t have
to please me, not at all.”
Naruto nodded. “Th-that’s why…because you…you don’t demand it. I…I want to
give…give myself to you,” he said, looking up at him with eyes that were
starting to tear up. “I want…want to know what its like…to feel…feel happy and
loved…and…and…” He flushed again and covered his face with both hands.
Sasuke moved and pulled his hands away from his face. “Naruto, are you asking
me to do what I think you are?”
Naruto nodded slowly, his hands still in Sasuke’s. To his surprise, Sasuke
leaned forward and planted a gentle kiss on his forehead, then one on his nose,
and finally, he placed a gentle chaste kiss on his lips. Naruto’s heart was
beating so fast he didn’t know what to do as Sasuke sat back and stared at him.
He clutched Sasuke’s hands in his desperately, not wanting to let go of him.
“Dobe, you are an idiot,” he muttered, smiling at him and sighing. “Look, when
you are healthy, we will talk more. But you get to choose whatever you like.
Okay?”
Naruto nodded, still blushing as Sasuke leaned back and pulled him over with
him on the bed, laying down. “Come on, sleep, you need the rest. Did you take
your medicine?”
Naruto nodded, putting his head on Sasuke’s chest and listening to his heart
beat for a long time before he fell asleep there. Sasuke ran his fingers
through his hair, sighing. He wasn’t sure how to handle this part. Part of him
wanted to tell Naruto no, that it was just his training to please his masters.
However, part of him responded to Naruto’s presence in that way, and he wanted
to hold him, to possess him in every way. But only if Naruto wanted it. He
sighed, falling asleep with the hybrid on his chest and wondering if the next
few weeks would be as interesting around her.
The next day, Sasuke found out that things were going to be interesting because
Itachi had returned home after his trip, and summoned Sasuke to a meeting he
had with his board. Sasuke brought Naruto, of course. He wasn’t leaving him
anywhere anymore. Itachi started to say something but didn’t when he saw the
possessive way Sasuke sat at the side of the room with Naruto tucked under his
arm.
“Uchiha, what is this about?” asked one of the board members. “And why is your
brother and his pet here?”
“They are what this meeting is called, at least, my brother and Naruto is why
I’ve spent time looking into the situation with Hybrids,” he said, looking
around.
“Sir, with all respect, we’re not involved in sale or regulation of Hybrids, so
I don’t see how…” another man started.
Itachi glared around the room. “This is part of the problem. No one wants to
step forward. So I, and this company, is going to step forward as a public
supporter of the Hybrid Rights Association.”
There was murmured discussion. “Sir, that is a polarizing topic, we could lose
stock value immediately…” stammered one of the.
“You want to know what I’ve found out recently?” he said, looking at them. “I
found out they have hunts, where they chase hybrids with dogs and murder them.
But before they do, they torture and do horrible things to them that no human
should do to any creature. They are used as sex slaves all over the country.
They are sold and traded as commodities. They are property, and this is wrong,”
he said, sighing deeply.
The board members exchanged glances. “Sir, that’s the state of affairs, there
is nothing to be done.”
“This is slavery,” Itachi said. “Pure and simple, there’s no other way to put
it. Canada allows hybrids to be citizens, did you know that? They’re free to do
as they will, working jobs, having their own families,” he said, glancing among
them. In some places, they’re treated with reverence, but still not allowed
freedom, like the Asian countries. They are treated as sub human almost world
wide.”
“But sir, they’re not human,” someone piped up. “They’re animals.”
Itachi stared at him for a long moment. “Do they think? Do they feel? Do they
reason?”
“Yes, but…” the man continued.
“No, that’s your answer. There’s no excuse that this country allows it. We are
supposed to be about freedom. No, this isn’t a discussion, it is already
happening. And I’m working with the HRA to draft laws that can be easily
implemented on the local scale, and implementation will happen.”
The board talked among themselves until Itachi dismissed them, going over to
Sasuke and Naruto. “How have things been?”
Sasuke sighed. “Well, I found a doctor that treats hybrids like human beings.
She found out he’s been given a couple nasty infections by those bastards that
attacked him. I hope they all got the clap afterward,” he muttered annoyed.
“Well, the one you got your hands on will certainly think twice before putting
his cock where it is not wanted,” Itachi muttered, looking to see that Naruto
still cowered a bit, but he was getting better.
Itachi knelt down, though, surprising Naruto as he locked eyes on him. “Hush,
now, you’re fine,” Itachi said, smiling at him. He sighed. “I’m sorry, for not
realizing this sooner. I might have saved you some of the harm you’ve endured,”
he said reaching up and putting a hand on Naruto’s face. “But I’m going to try
now.”
Sasuke resisted the urge to slap Itachi for touching Naruto. He sighed and
nodded. “I’ve got to get him back for his medicine,” he commented, standing up
and leaving Itachi kneeling there watching them go off.
Sasuke wasn’t happy with the way Itachi was acting. He was being too familiar
with Naruto and he wasn’t going to have it. Of course, Naruto only could tell
that Sasuke was annoyed and tugging him along through the house quickly. He
thought perhaps he’d done something wrong and he didn’t know how to fix it. Had
he gotten mad because he said he wanted to be with him in that way? He should
have known better, he was a used creature, and even had the nasty things that
came with it. He felt like he wanted to crawl under the bed again and hide from
Sasuke but he was afraid he’d get even angrier at him, so he didn’t, he just
stared at the ground and followed him quickly.
They got back to Sasuke’s room and Sasuke slammed the door, making Naruto jump
and whimper out loud. Sasuke turned and glared at him and Naruto was sure he
was going to hit him because he was mad.
“Dobe…” he said in a surprisingly soft voice as Naruto felt a hand on the back
of his head. “Hey,” he said, using his other hand to tip his face upward.
“I’m going to tell you this once, okay?” Sasuke said, staring into Naruto’s
eyes. “You are mine.” Naruto felt a shiver run down his spine but it was
different from ever before. He actually wanted Sasuke to say those words. “You
are mine not because you’re a piece of property, because you aren’t. You are
mine not because you’ve been given to me like some whore, because you aren’t
that either. You are mine because I want you, not a fucking hybrid pet. I want
a person, one that I want to be around, one that can…” Sasuke sighed deeply.
“One that can love me despite what an asshole I can be at times. And who can
stand up to me when I go too far. I know you can do that, because I’ve seen
that demon come out. I’ve seen that side of you, and I know that you’re no
pushover, no matter what you’ve learned.”
Naruto put his hand over Sasuke’s hand where it held his chin. “Even…even with
what…what they did?” he said quietly. “Even…even though I’m…dirty?”
Sasuke’s face dissolved into a smile. “I don’t care about that, Dobe,” he said
leaning forward and pressing a gentle kiss on his nose. “I’ll gladly be your
first, if you want.”
Naruto scrunched his brows. “But there’s been others…” he started, his heart
beginning to race.
“Not any that you gave yourself to,” Sasuke said, running his hands over his
head. “They may have taken you by force, but they never got here,” he said,
poking his chest thoughtfully. “You are just as valid and human as I am, and
you will be fine. I’ll make sure that you don’t go anywhere, okay?”
Naruto nodded, eyes welling with tears. “Okay,” Naruto said nodding.
Sasuke smiled, leaning forward and kissing his lips just lightly. “Now, we have
some medication to get in and on you,” he said.
Naruto groaned and whimpered a bit but followed him to the bed again.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
“Boss?” Kisame said, coming in and handing a file to Orochimaru with a grin.
Orochimaru looked up and took the file. He thumbed through it without much
thought then smiled. It was exactly what he was looking for.
“Where’d you find this?” he asked, smirking at Kisame.
“Well, you said dig up all the legals on that fox kit. So I did, and I found
this one. I thought I had remembered you talking to this guy, back when he
first bought him. And you paid him something so that he’d have to sell him to
you afterward. So that addendum is in his contract of sale. Since he didn’t,
then they have to repeal his current contract,” Kisame said with a smirk.
“Good, good, I think the lawyer arranged it, and I hadn’t remembered,” he said
smiling. “But this is perfect, start the proceedings, should take a month or
two to process through the court system, but by the time it’s over, that demon
fox will be mine…” he said, smirking.
The young one would be a beneficial byproduct, after all, he was after the
secrets held by the demon fox. He turned and steepled his fingers under his
chin, his eyes flickering for a moment become the inner membrane flicked over
his eyes for a second. He smiled, licking at his fangs for a moment. He was
hungry. So hungry…
He got up slowly and went to the small attached room. As soon as the light
flipped on there were squeaks of fearful hybrids. He looked around the room,
eyes landing on one of the mouse hybrids.
“Hmm, you’ll do nicely,” he said, going to the cage, reaching in and grabbing
her by the hair. She could yell, she was gagged, of course. “You look…tasty. A
race, how about that?” he said into her wide gray ears.
He drug her out of the room, opening a hatch beside his desk that led into a
large, elaborate terrarium filled with different kinds of snakes.  He pushed a
button, and the snakes all moved to another part. He smiled at the frightened
mouse hybrid, his forked tongue flicking out for a second and he smiled. He
pushed a button on her collar that forced her into animal form. He tossed the
mouse through the opening, closing it with a smirk. He moved around to watch
through the glass as she raced around the enclosure, then he smiled, shifting
smoothly into the python and sliding through a one way opening into the
enclosure. A human could open the door from the inside, of course, that was how
it was arranged. He slithered after his squeaking prey.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Itachi sighed, wondering how he was going to manage convincing these people of
his seriousness about the Hybrid Rights Association. He supposed that the
Zabuzu guy would help, he had gotten plenty of evidence from him. However, he
needed a focal point, and he knew that the rabbit hybrid Haku wouldn’t do for
that. Rabbits were common and not memorable, for one, but also he was mentally
unable to handle what he needed. He tapped his pen thoughtfully. He could use
Naruto, he was perfect as far as uniqueness and such, but Sasuke was a problem.
He could tell that his little brother was more than possessive of the hybrid,
and in more than a master and his pet.
He sighed, wondering how he would manage to draw attention to his plight. So
far his campaign was mostly made up of anecdotal evidence, and a couple people
who could testify personally, and he had pictures of several hybrids from the
morgues throughout the city. But people needed someone to recognize, gravitate
to, as a representative of all other hybrids. He needed Sasuke to let him use
Naruto for that. Who wouldn’t support such a cute, innocent looking hybrid?
He knew that earlier, when he was talking to Naruto, Sasuke got jealous. But he
wasn’t interested in his hybrid like he thought. He saw potential in him to be
a spokesperson for all the hybrids of the world that were mistreated. He saw it
there, and he needed to figure out how to convince Sasuke. But now, he’d made
him mad, and his little brother was such a pain when he got it in his head that
he was angry at Itachi.
He sighed, wondering how to make Sasuke be less angry. He couldn’t go tell him
what he wanted, because Sasuke would take that the wrong way too. He smiled to
himself, pulling out his phone and dialing a number.
“Zabuzu,” came the answer on the phone.
“Zabuzu, Itachi, I wanted to present you with a proposition,” he said evenly.
“What kind of proposition?” Zabuzu asked hesitantly.
“Well, I don’t know if you’ve caught up with the news, but I’ve been publicly
supporting Hybrid Rights lately, and I believe my little brother is suspicious
that I don’t have good intentions. I’d like to offer you and your small family
a chance to stop moving around and come stay at the mansion until things work
out for everyone,” he said with a smile on his face. This would do it, he
thought.
Zabuzu was quiet for a long time. “What’s the catch?”
“No catch, I’m offering you a stable home for you, your wife, and Haku. In
return, all I ask is that you continue to help me with the Hybrid Rights work,
behind the scenes of course, and that perhaps you and your family may be able
to help Sasuke and Naruto in the healing process they go through together,” he
said, hoping the man would take his offer. He needed Naruto to be in the best
condition mentally to do what he wanted him to do.
“What assurances do I have?” he asked tentatively.
“I’ll offer you a contract, legally binding, if that’s what you’d like,” he
said. “Easy enough, but I would like to see Naruto eventually become a HRA
spokesperson. I believe that he could very easily influence people to realize
that hybrids deserve rights, and I think that you and your family would help
with that.”
Zabuzu paused again. “And what if Naruto doesn’t like this idea?”
“Then hopefully I’ll find another hybrid that would like to do it by then.
However, I’ll never know if Naruto wants to if he doesn’t move forward and
recover from the trauma he’s been through. I do want to see him happy, but I
want to put a stop to the travesty of how these people are treated, and I know
you do as well,” Itachi said, sighing. He really did want to see things change,
but he feared that without a vocal hybrid representative it wasn’t going to
happen. He had to make them people in everyone’s eyes and not animals.
“Can you send a car to pick us up? We do have a few things, not many,” he said
softly.
“Of course, give me the address, and I’ll have a van sent out,” Itachi said,
grabbing a pen and paper.
Zabuzu gave him the information, and Itachi did as he promised, sending a van
to them right away. They would be here in a couple hours. He summoned one of
his maids and requested that she prepare two of the rooms close to Sasuke’s for
them to stay in. She headed off to do it, and Itachi believed that for once, he
was doing something right, for the right reasons. He sighed though, because he
had a feeling things weren’t going to go smoothly.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Naruto had fallen asleep on Sasuke’s chest after they’d wrestled through the
application of the medications. Sasuke was stroking his head without much
thought and reading a news article when he started to twitch in his sleep. He
frowned, putting his phone to the side. He was obviously locked in some sort of
nightmare. He was muttering and panting, hands and feet twitching and Sasuke
felt the release of power. He yanked down the cover, and realized that four
tails were simultaneously appearing in the space, light red outlines quickly
materializing.
“Naruto! Wake up!” Sasuke gasped, shaking his shoulders hard.
Naruto’s eyes flew open, blazing red and he blinked, the blue fading back into
his eyes and the tails fading away. He panted and then grabbed Sasuke in a
tight embrace around his chest, and Sasuke could feel tears wetting his shirt.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he repeated, and Sasuke stroked his head,
shushing him.
“What happened?” he asked.
Naruto looked up at Sasuke, eyes full of tears that just kept spilling out of
them. “It was the bad one again,” he whispered.
“The bad one?” Sasuke asked, frowning, and wiping Naruto’s tears with his
thumbs as he stroked his hair on the sides of his face.
“Dreams, there’s one, one I hate more than anything, and it…it is the worst,”
he whispered.
“What is it?” Sasuke asked.
Naruto seemed to burrow even closer to him, and swallowed thickly. “I’m
running, in a forest area, and now, now you’re there too, calling my name, and
I’m happy. I’m running toward you and I want to see you, but then something
grabs my tails. And it hurts, like shooting this horrible pain from the tip of
my tail to my ears, and my eyes start dripping blood…I see it on my paws, and I
fall down…and then I look behind me…and…and there’s a snake…a big snake…and
its…its swallowing me…and I can’t get away, and it swallows me all the way up,
and then everything turns red because the demon comes out, and…and I can’t stop
it…and I burst through the snake’s body, but…but I don’t know you…and I
rip...rip your throat out and keep running…running…” he swallowed, looking up
at him. “It…it’s the one I’ve had since before. Before it was Master Jariya.
Then…then it was Kakashi…and now you. I can’t control it, and it hurts everyone
I care about!”
Sasuke sighed, pulling him a bit tighter. “Hush, now. It’s a dream,” he said
softly, but Sasuke was worried. The unbridled fear in Naruto’s eyes frightened
him.
Naruto knew it wasn’t a dream. Jariya had worried endlessly over the dream, and
had tried to figure out what it meant. He’d gone to the forest so many times to
try and find Kyuubi, but he would never emerge again, not since Naruto’s mother
was killed. The demon was in mourning, and had been for many years now. He
didn’t want to emerge, and he resisted the calling when Jariya called him.
Naruto had tried, when he was little, but his father wouldn’t answer him
either. He had loved his mother more than anything, and he couldn’t face the
world without her.
Naruto finally fell asleep again, with Sasuke’s hands petting him and stroking
his head and back. Sasuke had a feeling in his gut, though, that he didn’t
like. The snake. It reminded him of someone, but he didn’t place it. The face
flashed before him, but he lost it as he fell into his own dreamless sleep.
During the night, neither the sleeping hybrid nor Sasuke saw the silent figure
in the room. The outline was faint, very faint, a barely discernable reddish
color that formed a figure of a woman with long, vibrant red hair falling down
her back. She sat on the bed, running her hand over Naruto’s head, though she
could not feel him in her limbo state. She sighed, standing and looking out the
window at the moon. She was stuck between worlds, and would remain so until her
son and Kyuubi were together. She would remain, a silent watcher between the
worlds of demons and humans. Naruto was the bridge that linked them, and no one
realized how desperately important that was. They didn’t know, of course. None
of them were like her. None else would slide into the in between to wait rather
than die. She wasn’t alive, of course. Her body had been left behind that day.
With her last strength, though, she’d cast an ancient magic that slipped her
between worlds. She wasn’t sure the outcome, of course. Naruto would either be
able to open the bridge between worlds, or he would be able to seal it forever.
That choice, however, was only with him.
***** Learning to Live Agan *****
                                        
Naruto learned the next morning that they were going to have guests. Itachi
came down and knocked on Sasuke’s door just after breakfast. Sasuke opened it
and glared at his elder brother.
“What do you want?” he grumbled at him.
“I wanted to say that I offered Zabuza, his wife, and their hybrid Haku a place
to stay. They’ve been running a long time, and I thought it would help him, and
it is somewhat self-serving for me as well. I wish to utilize Zabuza to help me
with the Hybrid rights initiatives I’m beginning.” Itachi nodded, and turned
and left. Sasuke watched him go.
“I don’t trust him,” Sasuke muttered turning back to see that Naruto was
snuggled around his pillow. He sighed, not wanting to wake him. He wandered out
of the bedroom into the living room and sat down to watch the news.
He was about to fall asleep when he heard noise. He sat up and saw that there
were servants moving around. He got up and stretched, going to the front where
Itachi was welcoming Zabuza into the house. He had a woman with him and the
Rabbit hybrid from his photos. As Sasuke came up he nodded to him.
“Sasuke, Zabuza and his family are here,” he said. “This is his wife Reiko and
Haku.”
The rabbit was wearing a pretty kimono and the white mask that he’d seen in
Zabuza’s photos. The woman wore what looked like a track suit and had short
pixie cut hair. If he didn’t already know she was a woman, he would have
thought her a man. Of course, he knew appearances were deceiving.
Sasuke nodded. “Hey, so, Naruto’s asleep. So welcome and all that,” he said
with a shrug.
The shriek from behind Sasuke sent him spinning around and running toward his
room. “Shit!” he said as he came skidding to a stop and went in to find Naruto
tangled into the covers again, in the middle of a nightmare again. “Shit, shit,
shit,” he muttered as he started to untangle him.
Zabuza had come after him with his wife and the hybrid and were standing just
inside the doorway. Sasuke growled under his breath as he managed to finally
get him uncovered.
“Oh, fuck,” he muttered seeing that he was up to two extra tails already. “Oh
fuck,” he muttered again, and crawled up onto the bed and shook him in an
attempt to wake him up. “Dobe! Naruto! Wake up!”
Haku, who was standing beside Zabuza nearly screamed and tried to run out of
the room, only to run in to Reiko. She held onto him tightly as she stepped out
into the hallway. Even Zabuza and Itachi could feel the almost electric
sensation in the air and crackling sound.
“What is this?” Itachi asked.
“Naruto…come on, I need you to come back…” Sasuke said as he tried to avoid his
elongating claws. He yelped when his back claws sliced through his leg as he
wrestled with him. “Shit, Dobe, that fucking hurts!” he said as he managed to
get him onto his stomach so he could watch the tails. “Itachi! How many?”
“How many what?” he asked.
“Tails! I don’t want to let him go to look, how many fucking tails does he
have!” he yelled as he pinned his wrists to the bed to avoid his front claws
and had his leg over his ankles to keep the back ones out of him.
“Um, the three and like three red colored ones…” he said slowly.
“Shit, shit…um…Itachi, one of you, get me some water or something, we have wake
him up, or we’re in trouble…” he yelled as he realized he was not going to be
able to hold him for long.
Sasuke gasped as he was thrown to the floor and Naruto was up, eyes wide and
burning red as he was on all fours now, arms and legs transforming to some
strange mix of fox and human. Sasuke pulled himself to his feet just as Itachi
came back with a pitcher of ice water. Sasuke grabbed it and slung it onto him.
For a minute nothing happened and then Naruto shivered and his eyes flickered
between red and blue.
“Wha…” he whispered as the changes started receding immediately. He gasped and
looked at Sasuke who was bleeding through is pants and shook his head as the
tails disappeared. “Master!” he gasped. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
Sasuke crawled back up on the sopping wet bed and pulled him over. “Shut up,
Dobe. Come on, let’s get you changed and I think I might need stitches…” he
muttered.
Naruto was sobbing, though, as Sasuke ripped his pant leg open and looked at
the four long cuts in his leg. They’d stopped bleeding.
“Ah, no stitches,” he muttered and looked at Naruto. “Stop it, I’m fine. You
had a bad nightmare again.”
“I hurt you!” he said as he seemed to wilt to the floor at his feet.
“Yeah, whatever,” he said as he stood up and went to the dresser and pulled out
some dry clothes. “Here, let’s change you.”
Naruto looked at him. “You…you aren’t mad…”
“No, stupid. Come on, we’re going to talk to these people, remember Zabuza, his
family and him are here,” Sasuke said and turned nodded to them as he shut the
door.
Naruto got into the new clothes and watched as Sasuke changed his. Naruto
couldn’t help but watch him intently as he did it because he thought Sasuke was
beautiful. Sasuke looked at him and snapped his fingers. Naruto looked up at
him.
“You okay?” Sasuke asked.
Naruto nodded. “I…yeah,” he said.
Sasuke took Naruto into the living room then where Reiko, Zabuza, and Haku were
all sitting. “Okay, so here’s Naruto when he’s not demonified,” Sasuke said as
he dropped into the chair with a wince. He still had hold of Naruto’s hand
though, and pulled him down onto his lap. Naruto gasped but didn’t mind at all.
He looked tentatively over at the others and then hid his face in sheer
embarrassment.
“Does this happen often?” Zabuza asked.
“Nah, just when he has a really bad nightmare,” Sasuke said as he threaded his
fingers through Naruto’s hair. “After what those fucking people did to him, I
don’t blame him,” he said with a deep sigh.
Haku looked up then and stared. He could see the scars on the other hybrid now,
criss crossing his back and arms. He got up and went over to him and put a hand
on his shoulder. Naruto winced but looked up at him. He couldn’t see it but
Haku smiled.
“I’m Haku,” he said softly.
Naruto nodded. “Hi,” he said and swallowed. “I’m sorry I scared you, I scare
everyone,” he muttered as he looked away.
“It’s okay,” Haku said with a very gentle voice. “I was just surprised. I’ve
never felt something so…strong.”
Naruto nodded. “I don’t know how to control it,” he whispered. “I need to find
my father so I can learn,” he said and tucked his head under Sasuke’s chin.
Haku tilted his head to the side. “Your father?”
“Naruto isn’t a lab hybrid. He’s actually a natural one,” Sasuke said as he
rubbed circles on Naruto’s back.
Haku knelt down beside them and looked at Zabuza and Reiko.
“Natural?” Reiko said with a frown. “There is such a thing?”
“All hybrids are based on what Naruto is,” Sasuke said with a smile. “His
father is one of the tailed beasts, the big nature spirits everyone thinks are
demons. Kyuubi, guess he’s this nine tailed fox guy. But he’s one of the only
ones left that comes to the world anymore because they fear what we’ll do to
them.”
Zabuza nodded. “It makes sense. The concept of hybridization had to come from
somewhere, and there had to be a map to teach people how to make them in the
lab. Are there others?”
Sasuke nodded. “I found one, in Japan, he’s confined to a shrine, to the one
tailed beast, Shukaku. His name is Gaara, and from what I’ve found, he’s pretty
much left alone. There may be other. If this Shukaku demon is one tail, and
Kyuubi is nine tailed, there must be others in between.”
Zabuza nodded. “Makes sense. Japan is rather protective of their hybrids, if
they don’t give them rights, at least they aren’t abused like Naruto and Haku
have been here.”
Itachi smiled at them. “I’ll set up the next set of rooms for you, so you can
be near Sasuke and Naruto. I think it would be good for Naruto to be near
another hybrid that’s had a similar experience to his own.”
Itachi left and Sasuke narrowed his eyes at him with suspicion. He still didn’t
trust his brother. He looked down to realize Naruto had fallen asleep on him.
He smiled and pushed some of his hair out of his face.
Reiko smiled at him. “You love him, don’t you?”
Sasuke looked at her and rolled his eyes. “Why would I do something stupid like
that…” he muttered but there was no bite to his voice. Reiko smiled at Zabuza.
“You know why we took to treating Haku as our own?” she asked him gently.
Sasuke looked at her and shook his head. She reached over and took Zabuza’s
hand.
“We were both orphans, that’s one of the reasons we fell in love with each
other. We knew what we’d each had gone through. I can tell that you have
suspicions. Would you like to hear where we’ve come from? Would that help if
you knew us? I’d like to see you trust us,” she said gently.
“Whatever,” Sasuke said. “Talk if you want. Doesn’t matter to me.”
Reiko smiled. “Okay, well, I guess I’ll tell you about myself. I spent a lot of
time with foster parents. That’s why when we took on Haku it was so important
he stay with us. I bounced around a lot, once I even had some con artists for
fosters. Well, they tried to be. The woman couldn’t act to save her life, so
their ‘slip and fall’ con fell rather flat. She over acted or under acted. Was
really embarrassing to watch, especially when she threw a tantrum. The man was
good, but she was not. She used to try and tell me that lungs were in the
throat, and that’s why people died when they were choked. She also thought
there were sixty two states for some reason. She couldn’t explain that no
matter how many times I asked,” she said with a sigh. “Another time I found a
really nice family, and they almost adopted me, but it didn’t work. They had
another child who had a very aggressive cancer. They couldn’t support me and
take care of him.”
Zabuza nodded. “Wasn’t much different for me,” he said with a sigh. “There were
good ones and bad ones. Most were good people. Once I was one of five kids with
this one really good family. But then, the mother got pregnant with triplets.
It was fine until they were born, then she was just so tired all the time. She
used to send me to the store when I was seven or eight to get food because she
couldn’t. Me and the older kid had to leave, and we went on to another family.
There were more, but both me and Reiko aged out eventually. I went to the army
and she went to school for a while.”
Sasuke nodded. “I guess that explains why you’d be good parents to Haku.”
Haku looked at Sasuke. Parents? He was quiet and listened some more. “We’ve
been on the run so long,” Reiko said with a sigh. “I’d love to give Haku a
sibling, but…this life is no good for young ones. Until we can stop running, it
won’t happen.”
“You say you are on the run, I thought you legally had Haku?” Sasuke said
having looked over the files in depth.
“Yeah, but Gato doesn’t care about that. When I exposed it, we got his papers,
and we got a lot of money, but that was just the legal aspect of it. It just
didn’t matter to Gato. I turned on him. He wants me dead, as well as Haku,”
Zabuza said with a sigh. “No one wanted to do anything because all the people
were wealthy, and here, money buys everything. That’s why when you called, I
came to see you. Only money will stop this, I fear.”
“I suppose Itachi is good for money,” Sasuke muttered. “He wants to use Naruto
as some sort of spokesperson.”
“He told me about it,” Zabuza said with a nod.
“But I don’t want anyone to use him. He shouldn’t be used. He’s not a thing. No
one should be used,” he muttered. “If Naruto wants to help, then fine. But no
one is going to use him without his consent ever again.”
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Naruto sat curled into the sofa and watching a show on TV. He jumped when Haku
sat down beside him. He gasped and looked at him. He had his mask off, though.
He smiled.
“Hi,” he said to Naruto gently.
Naruto nodded. “Hi,” he responded and looked away.
“You know, it is okay to feel sad about what happened to you,” he said to him
and reached out to take his hand.
Naruto let him. “I want to be happy for Master Sasuke.”
“You have to get over being sad before you can be happy, though,” Haku said
with a sad smile. “So you should be able to do that. Be sad so you can become
happy.”
“I’ve never been happy, not since I left Master Jiraya.”
“He was a good person?” Haku asked.
“He was. He wanted me to be safe and happy,” he said with a sigh. “Master
Sasuke…sometimes I’m scared of him. But…I think he’s a good person. I think he
just…doesn’t know how to show it.”
Haku nodded. “He doesn’t know what to do with feelings, does he?”
Naruto shook his head. “Neither do I.”
“What happened to you?” he asked gently.
Naruto looked at Haku and swallowed. “I went to a man who liked me because he
liked little boys. He thought that if he had a hybrid that looked like a little
boy, he wouldn’t do bad things. Then I went to a man that wanted to put me in
the hunts, like you were in. But the demon got out. I killed them, but they
couldn’t do anything because the hunts are illegal. So he sold me. Then my last
one…he was really terrible. He made me…made me do things with his friends at
these parties he’d throw,” he said as he bit his lip. “There were women, and
men, and they would all do such things…” he whispered. “I was so humiliated so
often. Then…I did something bad…and the demon got out and he sold me off, and
told the people to hurt me as much as they could. Master Sasuke has been kind,
though. And he doesn’t want me to do things that I don’t want to do. He even
calls me a person.”
Haku smiled. “I’m glad he does that.”
“He…he took me to a doctor because I had some not good things after the
boarding house,” he said and looked down. “I feel better now, and I haven’t
felt better in a long time.”
Haku nodded and pulled a bag he carried up onto his lap. He pulled out a book
and handed it to Naruto. “Here, this is something that you might like,” he said
with a smile.
Naruto took it and glanced through it. “I…I can’t read…” he said and looked at
him.
Haku smiled. “I’m sorry, I forgot. Reiko taught me to read when I moved in with
them. Do you want me to teach you?”
“Can you?” Naruto asked with a wide eyed look.
“Of course,” Haku said. “Here,” he said and scooted closer to him and opened
the book. “This is the title, see, The Lost Bunny Boy. It’s about a rabbit
hybrid like me that gets lost in a forest, and this wolf hybrid finds him,
tells him he’s going to eat him up, but instead they fall in love. It’s very
sweet.”
Naruto smiled and touched the words. “The…Lost…Bunny…Boy…” he repeated.
Haku smiled and turned the page and started reading to him. Behind them, Zabuza
and Sasuke had been watching them together.
“It’s good for him,” Zabuza said with a smile.
“Yeah,” Sasuke said. “He’s right though. I don’t know what to do. I’m no good
at this stuff. I get angry and he gets scared. And then I don’t know what to do
to make him understand that it isn’t him. I just…I have trouble directing my
anger.”
Zabuza nodded. “Well, something tells me that given some time, that boy is
going to give you a run for your money in the anger department. Once he gets
some confidence and isn’t so cowed.”
“How long do you think?” Sasuke asked. “I’d like to see some fight in him,
instead of him just doing what I say and agreeing with me. I’ve seen it, a few
times, that spark they tried to beat out of him.”
“Just give him some time. He’s got fire in those eyes, and not from the demon.
He’s something else, Sasuke Uchiha. And you’re gonna have your hands full when
he starts being himself,” Zabuza said as he smirked and left him.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
By the time Tsunade had contacted those she needed to contact, she was even
more sure that something was going to give this time. It seemed that Itachi
Uchiha was very much serious about moving the Hybrid Rights Act forward in the
United States, and bringing it closer to the Canadian model. She couldn’t help
but be suspicious, though, there always seemed to be problems when people
decided to “help” with hybrid rights. So it was that she was standing outside
the gates to Uchiha mansion on a Monday morning. Surprisingly she was allowed
entry quickly, and met at the door by Itachi Uchiha.
“Uchiha-sama,” she said with a tilt of her head.
“Itachi, please, Tsunade-san, correct? Sasuke told me about what you did for
Naruto, I’m pleased to finally meet you. Please, come in,” the proper sounding
man sad.
Tsunade nodded and followed him not the living area where he saw Sasuke seated
sprawled on a small sofa with Naruto having fallen asleep in his lap. He was
reading a book and threading finger’s through the hybrid’s hair as he slept. He
noted another man and woman who were seated nearby, looking at a laptop, and a
rabbit hybrid who was watching TV intently.
Sasuke looked up. “Hey, Doc,” he said with a nod.
“How’s he doing?” she asked with a smile as she came and sat down beside
Naruto’s feet.
“Better, we finished all the medications, and he says that he hasn’t felt so
good in a long time. I’m just mad I didn’t realize it at the start,” Sasuke
said with a sigh.
Tsunade nodded and Naruto stirred, sitting up and yawning. “Master, I’m
hungry,” he muttered sleepily.
“Dobe, quit calling me Master,” Sasuke muttered. “Look, Doc came to see you.”
Naruto’s head snapped around and he scrambled away from Tsunade and into
Sasuke’s lap. “You aren’t going to look at…at stuff…again are you?” he asked,
clutching Sasuke desperately.
She shook her head. “No, I came to discuss some of the Hybrid Rights things
with Itachi. But if you aren’t feeling all better…” she said with an arch of
her brow.
“No! I’m fine! I don’t need you to look at the stuff there again!” he yelped
and then hid his face in Sasuke’s chest.
Sasuke sighed in exasperation, but this time he just patted his back. “Well,
good luck. Maybe you can help him with his ideas. I’m more interested in just
helping Naruto get back to normal. Well, not hybrid normal, human normal,” he
muttered and to Naruto’s shock, he leaned forward and kissed the top of his
head.
Naruto blushed even harder and clung a little tighter to his Master. He would
always be his master now, no matter what happened.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
“Sir, the papers are ready. You sure this is what you wanna do, boss?” Kisame
asked as he handed them to Orochimaru to look at.
He smiled. “Of course,” he said and signed them. It was a writ of legal demand
for release of property. The Kitsune would be his by this time next week. He
laughed and a hissing sound came from him as he handed the papers back to
Kisame and leaned back in his seat. Yes, he would have the power, even if he
had to beat the Kitsune nearly to death to get it…
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