Chapter 10

"Where are my puppies?" called Naruto as he walked into the house.

Kyuubi runs up to Naruto and Naruto knelt down to receive Kyuubi's affectionate licks, wincing as he did. Even after spending a two days in the hospital, the heal cut on his chest hurt whenever he bend over or sat down. He would have gotten out sooner, but his doctor wanted him to stay in case of infection. He wanted to get back to work and his dogs, but his doctor ordered him off work until the stitches came out. Stupid old bat.

He looked up to see Kurogane sitting down behind Kyuubi, watching as the older dog greeted his master.

"Hey, Kuro-chan," he said, straightening. He winced as he pulled slightly on his stitches and walked over to the dog. "How are you doing?"

'I'm fine, and don't call me Kuro-chan,' said Sasuke as Naruto knelt in front of him. He lifted a hand as if to touch Sasuke's bandaged leg, but hesitated. Sighing, Sasuke held up his leg for Naruto to inspect. 'Such a softy.'

"How did you get out. I was sure I locked the door," said Naruto as he inspected Sasuke leg.

'For a normal dog, but not me.'

"We found scratch marks on the door," said Kiba walking in. "We think he clawed the lock open."

"He always was smart," said Naruto gently ruffling Sasuke fur. Sasuke snorted in annoyance.

'Watch the fur.'

"The girls made enough food to last you a while," said Kiba as Naruto straightened and walked into the kitchen. "Although you might want to reconsider Lee's."

"Shut up," said Naruto smacking Kiba on the shoulder with his good arm. "How were my babies while I was gone?"

'I am no one's baby,' said Sasuke as he followed the two into the kitchen.

"That black mutt creeps me out," said Kiba. "He watches me like a freaking hawk."

'You know it's rude to talk about someone when they're in the room, right?' said Sasuke as he sat next to Naruto. He didn't know why, but he had a sudden need to be close to the blonde.

"That's just the way he is," said Naruto. "Did you feed him the way I told you to? He loves my Italian chicken."

Sasuke involuntarily licked his chops at the thought of the chicken seasoned with tomatoes and herbs. It was delicious.

"You know feeding a dog human food too much will give them stomach pains?" said Kiba. "I tried giving him dog food, but he turned his noise at it. You spoiled him, Naruto."

"I told you. I've tried to give him dog food, but he refuses to eat it. If I hadn't, he would have starved."

"That's not typical dog behavior, Naruto. Even you know that."

Naruto did, like a lot of things he noticed about Kurogane, but he just stopped noticing. Kurogane was a mystery and as much as Naruto wanted to uncover it, he knew it would be fruitless.

Kiba stayed an hour longer and they talked about the recent soccer game. They also planned for a get together with the rest of the gang next game day. When Kiba left, Naruto went to the kitchen to start on dinner.

"What do you say to tempura tonight, boy?" he asked taking out the ingredients. "Something a bit traditional."

'Just don't burn the house down,' said Sasuke as he watched Naruto prepare the shrimp.

As he watched Naruto fry the shrimp and vegetables he wondered why Naruto made a full course meal when it was just him. It couldn't be because of Sasuke. Was it theraputic, nostalgia, or both. For a single man, it didn't make a lot of sense to make a lot of food for one person instead of buying frozen meals.

"How about fry some of this?" asked Naruto holding up a cherry tomato with his chopsticks. Sasuke gave a soft growl.

'You don't fry tomatoes!' he said.

Naruto blinked in surprised and set the tomato back.

"Okay, okay, no fried tomatoes," he said.

A few minutes later, Naruto was putting the battered shrimp and vegetables into the fryer, carefully sliding each in to minamize the oil spitting. He yelped when a bit of oil spat on his hand and he dashed to the sink to wash the oil off in cold water. Sasuke huffed a laugh at the blonde's antics and Naruto glared at him.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, pup. You wouldn't be laughing if it spat on you."

'I wouldn't have let it spat on me,' said Sasuke.

It wasn't long until both companions were enjoying their dinner. It still amazed Sasuke that Naruto even knew how to cook. He guessed the chef/ex-boyfriend taught the dead last something before breaking it off.

Sasuke briefly wondered if Naruto even had a love life. For such a chatterbox, he never said anything about a boyfriend other than the chef.

He remembered how Sai interacted with Naruto and his fur bristled before he could stop it. Why did the thought of Naruto with anyone annoy him? The other man flirted outrageously to Naruto and the blonde went along with it. What did Naruto see in that guy?

When dinner was finished, Naruto washed the dishes and put the leftovers away. It was strange to see the blonde so domestic. In the soccer games, it was strange for Sasuke to even consider that Naruto would be able to clean up after himself.

Naruto took out the meals left by his friends and started inspecting them. When he pulled out Rock Lee's, he opened it up and cringed away from it before putting the lid back on.

"No wonder Sakura does all the cooking. God, where did he even get that recipe?"

'Probably some hippy-dippy health food store,' said Sasuke.

Naruto put the lids back on the food containers and put them back in the fridge.

'From Kiba and Hinata, Sakura and Lee, Tenten and Neji,' thought Naruto as he put them away. 'Gaara gave me ramen. Probably had Temari get them since he's busy with his father's company Suna. Ino gave me her special soba recipe. Shino can't make anything not out of a frozen dinner box. It's about the only thing she can make. Choji his barbeque, and Sai...'

He paused as he held up the "meal" his friend gave him. It was a box of eatable underwear. His face first contorted into embarressment and then rage.

"That damn perverted artist!" he yelled as he threw the box out. "Why does he do perverted things like that?! How does Ino stand it?! Bad enough the Jiraiya-jii gave me one of his books, I don't need anymore reminders of my none-existing love life! I should have baachan beat him to a bloody pulp!"

Sasuke watched the scene with small interest. He didn't know who the "perverted artist" was. He remembered Ino from school. She was co-captain of the cheerleading squad in school and had been one of Sasuke's fangirls before his disappearance. He guessed she moved on. He had heard Naruto's speak of her having a husband when they were visiting.

After Naruto put the meals away, and threw out Lee's, they put on a movie. Even if he could talk, Sasuke wouldn't admit that this was one of his favorite parts of the day. When he and Naruto sat on the couch and watched shows quietly. Mostly quiet. Naruto had a bad habit of speaking aloud to characters or particpants in the shows he watched.

His shows were also diverse and mostly American. Criminalogy shows, supernatural shows and cooking shows. He particulary liked the cooking shows where the head chef yelled at the participants.

His movies were also diverse. They weren't placed in any order and some were very old. He had a collection of anime as well. Sasuke wasn't at all surprised he had the entire series of Menma, The Gutsy Ninja or Yu Yu Hakusho. He saw manga copies in the bedroom.

The blonde had quite the collection of books, which was surprising to Sasuke. He thought Naruto would be too lazy to read, but his library proved him wrong, though most of the books were unread. He had the inclination to read, just not the time.

That night, they watched a movie about a paralyzed man heading to a distant planet in his brother's stead, and with the use of a synchronized body in imitation of the planet's inhabitants, lead a revolution against the human trying to destroy the native's home. The movie was long, but enjoyable.

When the movie ended, Naruto put the movie away and turned to the black canine that had been laying at his feet the entire movie. Kiba's words went through his head. He knew Kurogane was strange. Kyuubi and Kurama had never stayed awake during an entire movie. They just slept right through them.

Plus he was almost always awake before Naruto, and when he sleeps past his alarm, Kurogane would wake him up. Almost always by jumping on him. At first Naruto thought that it was because the canine wanted breakfast, but it was almost always a half hour until he had to go to work. Enough time to make a quick breakfast before running out the door.

And then there was the night he was attacked. He was sure he had locked the front door, but Kiba had said he found it open and with scratch marks on the wood. He knew that specially trained dogs could open locked doors to get to of situations, but he hadn't trained Kurogane to do any of that. Someone had trained that to the dog, but event he most highly trained dog wouldn't take action without being ordered from their master. So the only obvious answer was that he was trying to escape.

"Why didn't you?" asked Naruto looking at the dog. Sasuke looked up at him. "You opened the door with difficulty. You were outside, but you didn't escape. You came right to my side. Why?"

'You wouldn't believe me even if you could hear me,' said Sasuke.

Naruto sighed and gets up.

"Well, since we don't have to go to work for a week, we get to sleep in tomorrow," he said. "But I'm beat. Let's turn in early, huh?"

'You've read my mind,' said Sasuke.

XXXXXX

Over the next week, the two companions pushed themselves into their training. Not even Kin could bring them down no matter how much she insulted them. Both dog and handler were strangely in tune with each other, more so than they had before.

"You should have seen him, Kiba," said Naruto at Kiba's clinic. His friend was looking over Sasuke's cut while Kyuubi waited on the floor dozing. Sasuke noticed the older dog had done that a lot in the past couple weeks. "He breezed through the obstical course and broke Senbon's new record. Kin was not happy about that. How's his leg doing?"

"Very well," said Kiba. "I'll be able to remove the stitches in a week or two if he keeps healing so well."

"Did you hear that, boy," said Naruto scratching behind Sasuke's ears. "You're Superdog!"

'Please refrain from the stupid nicknames,' said Sasuke as Kiba rewrapped his leg.

"How's Cheza?" asked Naruto as they lifted Sasuke to the floor. The month before, Naruto had taken Kyuubi and Sasuke to the Inuzuka kennel to be paired with a couple of females. Sasuke had ignored the female he had been paired with which confused the handlers. They guessed it was because of disinterest, which they were not wrong about, and had left at the end of the day.

"Great," said Kiba. "Pregnant. Confirmed last night."

Naruto turned to Kyuubi excited.

"You hear that, boy! You're going to be a daddy!"

Kyuubi wagged his tail but didn't lift his head. Kiba frowned at the usually energetic dog's actions.

"How long has he been lethartic?" asked Kiba bending down to kneel next to the dog.

'Give the mutt a bone, he knows a ten dollar word,' said Sasuke as Naruto knelt next to him.

"A few days, maybe a week," said Naruto. "I thought it was because of his age."

"Maybe, or it could be something else," said Kiba running his hand through Kyuubi's fur. "How's he eating?"

"Little bit every day. I've tried everything to get him to eat, even my roasted chicken. He'd take a couple of nibbles and leave it."

Kiba pauses to think before a moment before standing.

"I want to take a look, get some blood test," he said.

"Okay," said Naruto.

Kiba called his wife in to assist and they began a thorough check-up of Kyuubi. After taking a few blood samples, Kiba gave the dog a treat and turned to his friend.

"I'll call when I find something," said Kiba. "Thought I pray it's nothing."

"Me too," said Naruto petting his old friend. "I'll see you later. Come on, Kurogane."

Sasuke followed Naruto out of the clinic as Kiba called after them.

"See you later, guys!" he called.

TBC