Akamaru's bark brought Kiba's attention back to the road. They had just passed Clewiston, Florida on the Southern Boulevard and were now an hour and a half away from home. To the south were sugar cane fields as far as the eye could see, but for the next few miles his gaze was going to wander north to Lake Okeechobee. While he lived in Konoha and was no stranger to the waters of the Atlantic, this small stretch of the lake always seemed to hold his attention better than the entire ocean.
As though reading his thoughts, Akamaru gave out a bark that seemed more a laugh. Chuckling himself, Kiba admitted, "Yeah I suppose when I'm down on the beach, it's not the ocean I have my eyes on." Reaching out his right hand to scratch the dog on his ears, he turned his eyes back to the road to continue the drive home. "Been a long couple of days, hasn't it boy? Going to be good back home and in our beds, won't it?" Akamaru licked his lips, sat up in the car and leaned his head out the window.
The conference up north was some sort of new initiative in the war on drugs, and the expansion of the role of police dogs. While not strictly a K-9 Officer, his family had bred dogs for the police for generations. His sister was a K-9 cop, but she had other duties to attend to. His mother on the other hand had no such obligations, but was in the middle of an epic golf match with some out of state politician or businessman or some such personality as she often spent her time with. That left him to keep an eye on Akamaru in a room full of other highly trained dogs with entirely too much sniffing going on. For all that, the other officers were impressed with Akamaru, who was smart enough to confirm the type of drug he smelled by growling in response to officer's questioning. Still, it was a weekend of being cooped up, and being out on the road offered all the release they needed.
"Yeah, I'm glad we didn't take a plane either." While they could have been home yesterday had they taken a plane, Kiba was sure deep inside he would have wound up in the seat behind some teenage girl singing "Walk like an Egyptian" for the thousandth time in the past month. By this point on the eight hour road trip back home he had already gone through all the cassette tapes in his car's tray. "What do you think boy? Should we try the radio, even if it's not that reliable out here?" The dog turned his head and poked his nose at the glove compartment, which caused Kiba to roll his eyes at his own forgetfulness. Opening the glove box he found the tape he had put in there to hide from Shino last week for fear his friend would steal it for himself. Putting it in the player, he rubbed his dog's head again as Lionel Richie's "Dancing on the Ceiling" started playing. Clapping his hands on the steering wheel, Kiba drummed along to the song as he started turning his car south, away from the Lake and through the Everglades and towards Konoha.
The rest of the drive was uneventful, skipping the main highways added to his trip time but he wasn't too eager to get back into action just yet. He had to drop Akamaru off at his Mother's home in Doral before checking in at the station. It was farther out of the way than it needed to be, but his mother liked the community and the open spaces out there. For a trainer of police dogs, she was notorious around the golf courses in the area both in professional and recreational capacities.
Rolling into the driveway he was puzzled that neither his mother's nor his sister's cars were parked in the driveway. The garage was full with supplies for the kennels, and no car had ever been parked inside for as long as he could remember. Akamaru jumped out on his own and towards the gate before Kiba had even parked his car. He gave the dog a look that said "sit" and Akamaru was a disciplined police dog, for at least a few seconds. At just over a year he was still a puppy at heart, but he had done well at the convention. Emptying the bags from the trunk, he just left them on his mother's porch before pausing at the fence to the backyard.
"What do you say boy? Care to sleep over at my place tonight?" Akamaru's animated bark was all the answer he needed. "Yeah, we're going to the beach, we're going to play in the sand and get all dirty and tomorrow when I drop you back here mom will be furious with me at how I didn't give you a bath at all…" The crook to Akamaru's head and an impressive feeling coming from behind him was all Kiba needed to know about the situation, "Hi Mom, I'm back from Tallahassee." Turning around, Kiba saw the reason for his mother's stealthy approach. She had been driving a golf cart instead of her Challenger. "Leave your car down at the course?"
Without a word his mother approached him, reached into his left pocket to pull out a dog treat, pushed him aside, and gave the treat to Akamaru. "That's a good boy. Did you have a nice trip up north?" Standing up and leading the dog inside, she spoke without turning her head, "I already got a call about how the conference went. 'Flying colors, great potential' they said. So what are you doing down there lying on the grass, getting your good coat stained? Go out and party with your friends already." The smile on her face was genuine, but the look in her eyes was serious and almost menacing. A rare breed his mother was, scary and loving all at once.
"See you tomorrow then Mom! Come on Akamaru." Kiba flicked his keys in his hand and was about to leave, but he paused before his hand grabbed the door handle. Stepping back, he went over to give his mother a kiss on her cheek before leaving. She dismissed him with a nod as he drove east, out to the city. After a long day the last thing he wanted to do was work, and to be honest it would take a day or two to adjust back to being up all night as he was usually, but he'd have to stay active to make that change. "Forget the station, I'm sure whatever the chief wants to yell at me today can wait until tomorrow."
Arriving back at his house by the bay, the first thing to do was take off the seat cover he had over the passenger seat. It was one thing to have dog hair and claw marks on an ordinary service vehicle, but this was car was his baby, one of his most important tools in his line of work. Looking presentable and respectable was all part of the game here in Konoha. Sure his RX-7 Turbo might not have been as fast as the higher end cars the criminal underground and elite favored, but a car chase was more of a rally race than an Indycar race, which gave his "Red Fang" the edge. Shino still rolled his eyes whenever he heard the car's name. His partner was a good man, but he had little appreciation for classic, dramatic flair.
It was late in the afternoon by this point, time enough for a jog along the beach before grabbing dinner and crashing at the house. He changed into his shorts and a tank top before grabbing Akamaru's leash and a Frisbee and starting his jog across the Venetian Causeway down to the beach. While it made for a nice run, the causeway had two bascule bridges, and at the moment one was raised on its bottom of the hour schedule. Some rich, dark-haired boy on a yacht was sipping champagne and pretending to be a sailor to the delight of the young ladies aboard his vessel. Konoha, like every other city, had its classes; rich folks, working men and women, and the poor trying to get by from day to day. The first thing he had learned as a cop was the distinction between harmless vices, and ones that can do real damage. Case in point, college kids sneaking alcohol onto the beach the week before college started up to blow off steam was relatively harmless.
Sadly the city had some dumb ordinances against letting dogs run out on the sand, so keeping Akamaru on the grassy park was the usual way of things. He never had political aspirations, but if he were ever mayor he'd want to change that. "Go long boy!" Tossing out the Frisbee, Akamaru chased after, caught it, and returned it to Kiba while vigorously wagging his tail. "If only our local sports stars had your passion, we'd never lose a game."
Akamaru's ears perked up at the distant sound of a woman screaming. Running along the nearby road was a man clutching a satchel of some sort. For a brief moment he considered sending Akamaru after him, but that would involve way more paperwork than he wanted to do. Flipping the Frisbee in his hands, he slung it at the man's head. Coming in from the blind spot, the Frisbee made contact, not hurting him at all but the shock of it, plus his frantic speed sent him falling to the ground. Righting himself, the criminal dropped the purse and made a getaway. The work was like that sometimes. Criminals get away, but they don't always get what they're after either. The lady was affable about the return of her purse, saying she wanted to buy Kiba dinner, but he found a polite way out of it. Grabbing the Frisbee, Kiba nodded to the dog and the two started off back home.
Dry dog food and a fresh bowl of water for Akamaru was all the tired dog needed after a long day. Finished with that, Kiba turned to open his fridge, empty of everything but half a bottle of ketchup and a three-day old container of chinese food he didn't enjoy when it was fresh. Truth be told he wasn't all that hungry anyways. A glass of water and some beef jerky from the cabinet were satisfying enough for him, and that was good enough because that was all he had. A fancy house near the beach made for a nice appearance, but life needs more than appearance to be worth living… but that was something to ponder another day.
The answering machine on his phone showed six messages, he ran through them all rather quickly. Two from girls he had no interest in, one from Shino checking in on him, one from Sergeant Nara about needing the paperwork from the last case filled out, a telemarketer, and finally the landlord saying rent was going to go up in a couple of months. Not even the Super Bowl on tv interested him tonight. Maybe tomorrow would be enough to hold his interest, because today had done nothing but wear him down.
"Get some shuteye boy, going to be a busy day tomorrow." Stealing one glance out his window, he saw the lights of downtown shine in the dark, winter sky. Already sliding into a dream of some sort, and feeling like a superhero of some sort, he issued a challenge to those who live in the night, "Watch out criminals of Konoha, you have but one more peaceful night. For when the sun rises I'll return to duty. Then I'll pick up your scent and things will get wi-ld." Barely keeping it together, Kiba sat down on the floor and curled up with Akamaru before falling asleep.
Author's note. Just replace Miami with Konoha. I'll use most of the same neighborhood and street names native to Miami (such as Kiba's mom living out in Doral, and Kiba mentioning coming back from Tallahassee). So the only real change is Miami = Konoha.
Oh and for fans of Naruto who know Miami Vice, Kiba is definitely Crockett.