A/N: The second chapter of my first ever fanfiction. I have been a little busy, but I should be able to keep up with weekly updates easily. I forgot to mention, but in DC Canon, this story takes place right after the White Day case. Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed or Naruto
"Talking"
'Thinking'
The Demon and the Detective
Chapter 2
Kudo Manor
"So this is the bedroom of the legendary Kudo Shinichi," Naruto said, looking at the room with walls covered with Sherlock Holmes and soccer posters.
"Yeah," Ran replied, blushing. "Shinichi is a pretty big fan of soccer and Holmes. It can get a little embarrassing sometimes at how obsessed he is."
'I'm not obsessed,' Conan thought.
"Is that so," Naruto replied, chuckling. "I'm a pretty big Holmes fan myself. This makes me all the more excited to meet Kudo Shinichi."
"We should check the study next," Ran replied, leading the others out of Shinichi's bedroom.
Naruto was about to follow when he spotted a school uniform hanging on the back of the door. He walked to it and sniffed it. His eyes widened afterwards.
"Naruto-san?" Ran called from the hallway. "Are you coming?"
"Yes," Naruto replied, hurrying out of the room. "I just spaced out for a bit thinking about another Holmes fan. I haven't met many fans here in Japan."
"Oh?" Ran replied after Naruto met her, Conan, and Kogoro in the hall. "Conan-kun is a pretty big fan of Holmes too. He is almost as big a fan as Shinichi is."
"Oh?" Naruto said. "A lot of the stories have some pretty difficult kanji. You must be an incredibly smart kid to be able to read them at your age."
"Thanks," Conan said, rubbing his head in embarrassment. "Shinichi-niichan taught me how to read them for when he was too busy to read the stories to me."
"You two must have been pretty close then," Naruto replied. "I guess it would make sense for you to move in with the Mouri family since they have known you your entire life through Kudo-kun."
Conan's eyes widened at that. "Let's continue looking for clues about Shinichi-niichan," Conan said before Ran or Kogoro could say anything.
"Sure," Naruto said with a smile.
The four searched the massive study for clues to Shinichi's whereabouts for an hour. Eventually, they gave up the search and got ready to leave the Kudo family home.
"That's probably all that we can accomplish today," Naruto said. "How about we go out for dinner? It will be my treat."
"But we can't possibly ask a client to…"
"What are you doing Ran?" Kogoro exclaimed, cutting his daughter off. "He is offering us free food," he continued in a whisper. "We are already broke. Why would we pass this up?"
"We are only broke because you gamble away the money the rare times you do get a client," Ran muttered to herself. "Fine," she said, sighing.
Naruto chuckled at their antics. "Good," he said. "I know of a pretty good shabu-shabu[1] place a few blocks down the street. It's quite delicious. Shall we go?"
The four left the house with Ran locking it up behind them.
"So, Uzumaki, what do you do?" Kogoro asked as the four walked.
"Care to take a guess, detective?" Naruto asked with his signature amused smile on his face.
"I don't know," Kogoro replied. "I was just curious about how you have that kind of money. You offered me over a billion yen for a simple job and now you are offering us dinner. I know! Was it inherited?"
"No," Naruto said with a sad smile. "I never met my parents or any of my family for that matter. My parents died the day that I was born. The only thing got from them was a small house on a mountain that is long gone."
"What about that family katana?" Conan asked. "By the way, Naruto-niichan, if you didn't know your parents, how did you get that katana anyway? I'm sure that no one would have given it to you with how valuable it is. Also, how did you know about its history if your parents or other family weren't around to tell you?"
Naruto narrowed his eyes and frowned. He instantly schooled his features. "Just because I never met them doesn't mean that they didn't leave any notes for me. In fact, they each wrote a letter for me minutes before they died. As for the history of the katana, the village where I was raised has a vast library of history of just about everything, especially the major families that used to live there which of course includes the Uzumaki family."
"I see," Conan replied. 'Somehow, I feel as if he didn't actually answer the question,' he thought to himself.
"Do you want to take a guess on what I do for a living?" Naruto asked.
"Well you're pretty tanned and have fairly large muscles, so I can guess that you spend quite a lot of time outside," Conan said.
"That is true," Naruto said. "My job does require me to stand outside for a long time on occasion. Anything else?"
"Yes," Conan replied. "Your hands aren't quite as tan as your arms are. This probably means that you wear gloves a lot. Also, your muscles aren't bulky like a construction worker's. Instead they are more like a runner's where your legs seem to have been conditioned for speed. But, unlike most runners, your upper body has been conditioned too. This most likely means that you have to use most, if not all of your body for work."
"That is very true," Naruto said. "I have to stay in top physical condition to do my job. I do a lot of running, lift weights, and practice martial arts to stay in this condition. So, what do I do?"
"Well, if I also take into account that you said that you travel overseas on occasion for work, I would have to guess that you are a stuntman for famous movie stars," Conan said. "I can see a small spot on your right cheek where part of one of your birthmarks was covered with some kind of makeup."
Kogoro and Ran stared at Conan, surprised by his observations.
"That's most impressive," Naruto said. "Not many people are able to discern that amount of information about me in the little time that we have known each other. You are a pretty interesting kid. You definitely have the makings of an amazing detective. Maybe as good as Holmes if you can use his methods so well at your age."
"I just do what I see Shinichi-niichan and Kogoro-ojisan do," Conan replied, rubbing his head and blushing at the praise that Naruto had given him.
"And you do it well," Naruto replied. He stopped once he realized that they had arrived at the shabu-shabu restauraunt. "However," he said, pausing with his hand on the door, "I'm not a stuntman."
Naruto chuckled as he watched Conan's face fall into a frown. Kogoro just laughed at the boy and slapped him on the head.
"You can't be right all of the time, brat," Kogoro said as Naruto led the group to a table.
"As I said earlier, dinner is my treat," Naruto said. "Order as much as you like."
The four ordered drinks, side dishes, and sauces. Ran, Kogoro, and Conan looked at the large number of sauces that Naruto got with confusion clear on their faces. Naruto just chuckled to himself as they waited for the meat to arrive.
After they were done, Ran, Kogoro, and Conan could only stare after seeing the large amount of food that Naruto had eaten. It almost tripled what the three had all eaten combined. Naruto just chuckled and led the group to the cashier in order to pay for the meal.
"I'm glad it was his treat instead of the other way around," Kogoro said.
Conan and Ran could only agree. Suddenly, a woman's scream came from a table on the other side of the restaurant. Kogoro and Conan immediately snapped into action and ran in the direction that the scream came from. The scene that they arrived to was a woman lying on the ground, holding her throat, and another woman panicking while kneeling beside her.
"What happened?" Kogoro asked the panicking woman.
"We were just sitting here waiting for our boyfriends to come when all of the sudden, Rika said that she couldn't breathe and just collapsed," the woman said.
"Oji-san, we are probably going to have to call the police," Conan said with a grim face. "This woman is dead, and it seems like she has been poisoned."
[1]Shabu-shabu is a Japanese dish of thin slices of meat (usually beef) and vegetables cooked at table in a simmering pot of broth, then dipped into any of various sauces.
