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Thanks for reading and please enjoy

The Dream I Lived

-Chapter 3-

-Last Time-

Not waiting for a response, the fox walked off, whistling softly as he grabbed his dolly and made his way back the way he had come. All the while, Judy just watched with a confused and conflicted expression on her face, clearly wanting to say or do something but not sure of what.

However, just as Nick was about to round the corner back onto the main streets, he suddenly stopped to shoot her one last smug grin. "Oh, and before I forget, when you get back to the station, tell Cudsy I said thanks for the fun."

-And Now-

Judy was silent when the cruiser she called arrived and her fellow officer, a cheerful if a bit nervous Elephant woman named Pennington, helped load up the still unconscious and vomit covered Jensen into the back. Her body moved practically on its own as she made sure the hog was secured and unarmed before slipping into the passenger seat, which thankfully had a booster seat to accommodate her smaller size in comparison to her much larger driver.

The reason for her silence was none other than one Nicholas "Nick" Wilde, aka the suspect she had been assigned to tail all day by the Chief of Police himself. It was her first proper assignment as a police officer other than parking duty and she had been determined not to mess it up, to show that she earned her place in the ZPD…

'And yet I blew it big time, he knew I was following him from the beginning," The rabbit thought with a sigh, her ears drooping as she stared out the window listlessly, the fox's words kept ringing in her ears in that playfully casual tone, repeating her blunders over and over. What really irked her though is that she actually agreed with his little nitpicks. 'How could I forget to avoid being upwind like that? That was one of the first things they covered in Covert Ops class.'

She knew that she was still a rookie with only three and a half days of full duty served yet and that making mistakes was just an inevitability for everyone, but that didn't make it sting any less. Especially when it was the suspect she was pursuing of all people that ended up calling her out on her own lack of experience.

"-rian trick, huh?"

"Huh?" Snapping out of her thoughts, Judy blinked a few times as she was brought back to the present when the sound of someone talking got her attention. Once she got her bearings she finally noticed Pennington glancing at her questioningly as she drove, obviously waiting for a response for something. "Oh sorry, did you say something?"

"Sheesh, about time, was starting to think I'd have better luck talking to a statue," The elephant woman said with a giggle, making Judy blush lightly in embarrassment. "Anyway I was asking if you got hit by the old durian trick? The chief did put you on Fox Watch today, right?"

"Yeah, it was not- wait, Fox watch?" The grey furred rabbit started to say, shivering in disgust when she remember that horrific smell, only to suddenly cut herself off with a confused look.

"Ah right, I forgot you just started a few days ago so nobodies told you yet, have they?" The confused look on Judy's face was all the answer Pennington needed as she giggled under her breath again. Her laughter soon turned to a nostalgic sigh while she turned on the blinker for an upcoming turn. "Boy does this bring back memories of my own rookie days, they really got me with the hazing too."

"Hazing?" Judy parroted with a raised brow, her confusion only rising at her fellow officer's words before her eyes suddenly widened in realization. "Wait, are you saying my whole assignment was just a joke?"

"Oh no, no, no, that was the real deal and the chief will want a full report about it," Pennington said seriously as she shook her head, forcing Judy to duck to avoid getting whapped by the elephant's trunk as it flailed back and forth in the confined space. "The hazing part is that nobodies tell the rookie, you in this case, just what your getting yourself into. I'm sure you figured this out already but Nick isn't just some run of the mill mook you're dealing with."

'Yes I did.' Judy thought while nodding in agreement, her mind flitting back to her interaction with said fox once again. The way he talked and the way he acted when she had confronted him in that alley just rubbed her the wrong way.

He had been far too calm when he was chatting with her in a friendly conversation despite someone having just tried to frame him up for jail time. Then how he just bluntly admitted he was aware she had been following him and acting as if it was nothing more than a normal everyday occurrence for him.

"What you don't know is that Nick has been under ZPD's surveillance for a long time, and I mean a LONG time," She was broken from her thoughts once more when Pennington continued to speak while signaling for an upcoming turn. "The chief has been having him tailed at least once a week since before I was even in the force and I've been a cop almost four years now."

"Really?" Judy muttered with wide eyes, getting a nod from the elephant officer. "So what did he do?"

It must've been something really serious if the department sank so much effort into just one mammal for so long.

So you could imagine the bunny's confusion when her fellow officer just shrugged and said. "That's just the thing, far as I or anyone can tell he hasn't done anything."

"Say what?"

"Well we've been watching this guy for years and never once have we ever caught him doing anything even remotely illegal, sometimes he acts a bit suspicious sure but never actually against the law," Pennington stated. "And I've overheard a few of the senior officers talking about how this whole thing was just some grudge match between Nick and Chief Bogo."

"You can't be serious." Over four years of police resources wasted on a personal vendetta? Judy refused to believe that such a thing could be possible.

"I'll admit I never really dug into the case so it's possible although its more likely they were just griping because they got put on Fox Watch again," The driving pachyderm shrugged, frowning slightly when a giraffe cut them off rudely. "Nobody wants to get stuck with it since it's pretty much a one-way ticket to humiliation, he may never done anything against the law but that fox certainly knows how to show that he doesn't appreciate our presence. Hell he made a game out of messing with us."

"Now that I can believe, that jerk practically admitted to toying with me all day." Judy muttered bitterly, crossing her arms as an annoyed huff escaped her lips at once again being reminded of her miserable day. Although it did bring the rabbit some minor comfort to know that she wasn't the only one he'd been pulling these shenanigans on.

"Oh I don't doubt it, but that's not what I meant," Pennington said as she suddenly pulled to a stop at the curb. Before Judy could ask her why she'd done so, the larger mammal pulled out her cellphone and fiddled with the screen for a bit before handing it over to the bunny. "Just look for yourself."

Awkwardly grasping the device almost as big as herself, all question in Judy's mind vanished as she got a look at the screen. Playing across the touch sensitive surface was a pixelated animation of a golden fox jogging down a street while being chased by a red buffalo in a police uniform. All the while the words 'Uncatchable Crook' hovered above them in big bold letters and several game options sat on the bottom.

"He literally made a game out of us failing to arrest him," Judy muttered in disbelief, her eyes flickering over the screen several times before she turned back to her fellow officer. "This is a joke, right? Please tell me this is just part of the hazing still."

"Oh how I wish it was," The elephant grumbled in exasperation, idly getting the car back on the move as she spoke. "I'm surprised you haven't heard of it yet, it's been all the rage since it came out last year."

'Of course I didn't notice, I was too busy trying to become a police officer to worry about games about them.' Considering her hard she had her nose to the grindstone throughout her time at the academy, it was probably a miracle that Judy even remembered what month it was let alone what the passing trends were.

She kept these thoughts to herself though while tapping the character select, revealing a list of many different police themed pursuers, many of which looked incredibly familiar albeit with blatant pallet swaps. However it was the names that got her attention most, specifically the name of the Buffalo character she first saw: Police Commissioner- "Cudsy? The chief is Cudsy?"

"Yeah, fair warning, never say that word in front of the Chief, he absolutely hates it. In fact just don't mention this game at all," A shiver ran down Pennington's spine as she tried to stay focused on the road. "I swear I thought he was gonna burst a blood vessel when he first found out about it."

"Well why hasn't he had it shut down then? Surely this violates personal likeness and publicity laws." Judy said while gesturing to a character that was an obvious parody of Pennington herself.

"Oh Chief Bogo tried too don't get me wrong, even threatened to take it to court if he had too," Pennington said with a nod before grimacing. "The problem is Nick threatened to sue the entire department right back if the chief kept pushing him on the matter."

"Sue us? On what grounds?" The rabbit asked incredulously, making the driving elephant wince with an awkward chuckle.

"On the grounds that we maybe kinda sort of accidentally raided his property in the Nocturnal District without a warrant two weeks earlier."

Staring at her fellow officer for several moments in disbelief, Judy just could not help the deadpan that gradually replaced her shock with every passing second. "Please… puh-lease… tell me you aren't serious."

"It was an old office building that'd been abandoned for years, never a hint of anyone even remotely interested in the place. So when we got a few calls about suspicious individuals showing up in unmarked cars with large crates out of the blue the Chief thought we'd finally got a lead on a smuggling ring that we'd been trying to crack down on for a while," An awkward cough escaped Pennington's lips as she scratched the back of her head. "But as turned out, Nick owned the place and was just renting it out to a new plush toy company that was just starting up, but they ended up taking their business elsewhere afterwards. Pretty sure that really pissed Nick off because two weeks later he posted that game all over the app stores, and pulled out all the stops for marketing…"

So focused on her explanation of what happened, the elephant never noticed as her passenger stopped paying attention and her gaze drifted back out the window.

If one listened closely they might have heard a faint sound of Judy's mental image of the Zootopia Police Department getting smashed to pieces by the wrecking ball of these recent revelations. She had always pictured the ZPD as the best of the best, working hard to keep the mammals of Zootopia safe from criminals and ensuring that it stayed the city of opportunity. It was that image which encouraged her to work so hard to become the very first bunny officer ever, along with the satisfaction of proving that a bunny actually could be one in the first place.

Now here she was, not even a week after getting in, finding out that the entire department failed to catch a single guy and gets publicly mocked by him without repercussion on a daily basis due to a botched raid.

'So this is why people say that you shouldn't meet your heroes.' She thought glumly with an exasperated sigh as the station came into view.

"Hey… whazzit… where the bloody fuck am I?! Oi rabbit bitch! Let me the fuck out of here or I swear I'll make you pay!" Oh great, and now Jensen was up…

Almost an hour after wrangling one very angry hog through processing, which also involved more than ample amounts of threats and swearing, and into a cell later, Judy found herself in a small rabbit sized chair behind a similarly sized desk with a cup of coffee and a plate of baby carrots.

'Man, this has been one weird day.' She thought as she fiddled with a small compact digital camera as several pictures of a certain fox flicked across the screen, with each one causing the frown marring Judy's lips to grow just a little deeper and her brow to furrow.

Smoothing her ears against the back of her head with a tired sigh, she set the camera down while munching on the last of her carrots. 'Hopefully there won't be any more surprises today.'

"Hopps." Almost as if the universe was mocking her, no sooner had this prayer crossed her mind that a gruff voice called out her name, making her snap to full alertness and into proper sitting position. And just in time as a large muscular cape Buffalo in uniform marched right up to her desk with a thick stack of papers in hand.

"Chief Bogo sir, do you need something?" Judy asked in a quick no nonsense tone while giving a salute.

"I heard what happened on your assignment, you cant just shoot someone and throw them in the brig like it's no big deal," He stated with a stern. "You think I wouldn't notice you trying to skip out on the paperwork?"

'I… what?' Judy thought to herself in confusion, before her eyes widened suddenly when it hit her. In her haste to get things over with she'd completely forgotten to fill an incident report about the whole event, which was mandatory of all officers immediately after an arrest and/or firearm discharge."Sir, it just slipped my mind, I-"

"No excuses, procedure is procedure Hopps, I do not tolerate slacking," Bogo cut her off mid-sentence before dropping the stack of papers he held onto her desk, the force of the impact causing her seat to jump into the air almost an inch. Steadying herself out once she landed, the rabbit stared at the dauntingly large pile that literally took up the entirety of her desk and then some. "I want those finished and filed before you go home tonight, understood?"

"…Yes sir." Judy mumbled out with another salute, not wanting to risk making her boss any angrier than he was with her already.

"Good," With his piece said, the chief marched off to another part of the station. "Clawhauser! Stop stuffing your gullet and get back to work! Your break was over twenty minutes ago!"

"Y-yes sir chief!"

'Well at least its not just me he's mad at,' Judy thought, trying to stay positive while hoisting up the papers so she could get a pen from the drawer. 'It's just an incident report, I'll be done in five minutes.'

-Many hours later-

"Owww…" Dropping her pen with a pitiful groan, Judy flipped a thick manilla folder shut and flopped back into her seat as she nursed her aching wrists. Turned out her little incident report needed a full rundown of the events leading up to said incident which meant she had to write down her entire days events of following one Nick Wilde and why.

Then she had to write it down a second time afterwards for her official case report along with full documentation of all equipment usage and copies of the photos she'd taken. And of course she was nothing but thorough so she made sure to not spare even a single detail in both reports, which she was really started to regret.

Still she had one last thing to do and once the cramping died down a bit, the rabbit hopped to her feet and hoisted the folder into her arms.

"Holy… my middle school teacher was right… I need to learn how to summarize better." Judy grumbled, her legs buckling slightly from the weight as she awkwardly hobbled towards the filing room. Along the way though, she couldn't help but notice just how late it had gotten as the entire station was mostly empty aside from a few nocturnal mammal officers and a quick glance at the time showed it to be nearly eleven at night. 'I wonder if this qualifies for overtime pay. Heh, as if.'

Shaking her head with an amused giggle, the rabbit kept on her way…

"-ome nerve calling me."

[Aw come on Cudsy, is that anyway to talk to an old pal? And besides I didn't call I muzzle-timed you]

Only to freeze mid-step when a pair of familiar voices reached her ears.

Jerking her head to the source on instinct, Judy gasped softly when she found herself standing just outside Chief Bogo's office. The buffalo in question was standing by his desk with a mixture of anger and pure exasperation written all over his face as he glowered at his cellphone. 'Is he…'

"Just tell me what the hell do you want this time?" Bogo demanded while taking a seat, his gaze briefly flickering around prompting Judy to quickly duck out of sight on reflex. As she leaned herself up against the ball beside the door one of her ears swiveled backwards and pressed against the plaster surface.

[How your words hurt me so, can't a guy just call an old friend to see how he's doing?]

"We are NOT friends. And one of these days I will finally get the satisfaction of throwing your flea bitten ass into a cell for good Nicholas."

'So he is talking to Ncik,' Judy thought with her eyes narrowing as her other ear turn against the wall so she could hear better to compensate for her lack of sight.

[Cudsy, Cudsy, Cudsy, you've been saying that for almost twelve years now and yet here I am, without so much as a parking ticket to my name] Even though she couldn't see it, Judy could already picture the smugness on Nick's face as he spoke. [Although I guess there is always room for a new trick or two, like that adorable little rookie you sicced on me today. Must say I never thought I'd see the day that you of all mammals would actually allow a rabbit to join the force.]

"Who I decide to employ is none of your business."

[The mayor forced ya to let her in, didn't he?] Nick asked tauntingly, unknowingly making Judy flinch in her hiding spot.

"Grrrr…"

[I'll take that as a yes,] Nick said between fits of chuckles.[Well in any case I just called to see if you're still looking for any info on those missing mammals, specifically Emmitt Otterton]

Judy flinched again as a loud thump rang out through the room. If she had to guess Bogo had just punched his desk. "How the hell do you-"

[I have my sources]

"…What do you got for me?"

[Not much yet, whatever's going on the ones responsible are doing a damn good job keeping a lid on it for the moment. But I can tell you this there is more to this than just a few missing mammals, you might want to try talking to a certain bootlegger if ya want to hear more,] Judy blinked in surprise as all humor seemed to vanish from Nick's voice as he spoke in a completely dead serious tone, making Judy blink in surprise at the sudden change. However, just as quickly as it happened it was back as the red furred vulpine continued in his normal joking tone.[I'd suggest you hurry though because he's been acting flightier than a bat on jungle juice if ya catch my drift, till next time]

Hearing the telltale digital clicking of a muzzle-chat session ending followed by several heavy steps getting closer and low grumbling, Judy grabbed her folder and quickly ducked behind a nearby watercooler just before the chief's door burst open.

"I swear this had better be legit or I'm gonna ring that fox's neck." The muscular buffalo growled out as he stomped down the hall towards the main offices, not long after he could be heard barking orders in the distance. Peering out from her hiding spot, Judy just stared at the direction the sound was coming from for almost a solid minute before finally heading for the filing room again, which was thankfully just one more door down.

'I can't believe it… I just spied on my boss… I just spied on my boss talking to a wanted criminal about an ongoing case,' She thought while dropping her reports into the IN pile, idly rubbing the side of her head in a futile attempt to stave off her growing headache. 'This day just keeps getting more and more confusing by the minute.'

So many thoughts and questions were running through her mind that it was making her head start to swirl. And the more she heard and saw the more questions she had, like how does Bogo know Nick, why was he after Nick in the first place, and why did he trust him despite wanting to arrest him? There was just so much that she didn't know and it was beginning to drive her up the wall.

By the time Judy had made her way out of the station and on her way home for the night though, there was at least one thing she did know for sure. 'I need to get to the bottom of this, starting with who exactly is Nick Wilde…'

XxXxX

Cerulean eyes slowly flickering open, Naruto yawned as he stretched his arms and rolled his shoulders before grunting as his back cracked satisfyingly.

"Ah man, that was an interesting one," He mumbled with another yawn, rubbing one of his eyes while his lips curled into a sleepy smile. "I mean a bunny chasing after a fox? What will my brain come up with next, a meerkat in drag doing the hula?"

Chuckling to himself as he tried to sit up, the whiskered blonde ended up blinking in confusion instead when he noticed a weight resting on his lap. A quick glance down revealed said weight to be… a spider?

This wasn't just any regular spider though, this one was huge, almost as big as a melon with a bright white body covered in black spots and dark pink highlights on the legs and face. Its head was also distinctly unique, having a solid jaw instead of separated mandibles and its largest front two eyes having actual eyelids that were currently closed. Then there was the cute little pink nightcap it wore atop its head and the teddy bear clutched tightly in its forelimbs.

Now most people who woke up to a giant spider the size of their head would probably have either A: screamed like little girls, B: shit their pants, or C: all the above. But Naruto was not most people as evident by his smile growing even brighter as he reached out and gently scratched the spider's scalp, making its front eyes open to reveal human like reddish pink irises. "Good morning Shiro-chan, when did you get home?"

Nuzzling into his touch, the now named Shiro gave a soft almost musical sound cry while tapping her front legs against the bed in a seemingly random pattern.

"That late huh?" Whatever she was doing apparently made sense to Naruto though as he shook his head with a chuckle. "Should have figured Shino's folks would keep you over as long as possible again, they really can't get enough of studying you. Speaking of, they didn't hurt you or anything right?"

This time the spider shook her head negatively while chittering happily.

"That's good to hear, wouldn't want anything happening to my favorite arachnid." As he spoke the teen gently scooped Shiro up into his arms as he clambered out of bed, setting her atop his head once he was on his feet.

The speckle-pattered spider spun itself in a circle a few times, pulling off her hat with a foreleg and tossing it onto a nearby dresser while Naruto put on his headband, before settling into the golden locks with a content hum. She then tapped the metal plate of his headband with a foreleg while making another musical cry, only a bit more erratic sounding with a deeper echo.

"Yeah, I could do with some breakfast too," Naruto said as he headed for the doorway, patting his stomach as it grumbled hungrily. "So what are you in the mood for? I'm thinking-"

"Egg over rice with fresh fish." A new voice finished for him as soon as he opened the door, causing the whiskered blonde and white arachnid to freeze mid-step. Snapping their gazes to the kitchenette, the odd duo were greeted to the sight of a lovely woman with short light ginger hair, emerald green eyes, and dressed in a grey and white yukata.

She was in the midst of finishing up said meal, quickly cracking the eggs over the freshly cooked grains in three different bowls before tossing the shells over her shoulder and straight into the trashcan on the other side of the room.

"Dia-Nee?" Naruto muttered, snapping out of his surprise with a shake of his head as this Dia set the bowls out on the table. "What are you doing here? I thought you were gonna be in the Land of Lightning for another week on business."

"I ended up finishing early so I thought I'd come by and see how my best-selling writer has been doing while I was gone," Dia said with a smirk as she took a seat, snapping a pair of disposable chopsticks and stirring up her food. "I see you managed not to burn the place down at least."

Rolling his eyes, Naruto took the chair beside her while Shiro jumped onto the table and basically buried her face into her food, spilling bits of rice and egg all around her bowl.

"Aw come on, you make it sound like I can't take care of myself." He said as he grabbed stirring a pair of chopsticks and used them to stir up his own food first before breaking them.

"Oh I'm sure you can, that's why it was added to our contract that I'm required to make sure you do." The redhead shot back sarcastically with a smirk as she nudged the whiskered boy's side, making him pout and grumble sourly under his breath.

"Stupid… over protective… I told her I didn't need a babysitter."

Naruto was brought out of his foul mood pretty fast though when Dia draped an arm over his shoulders and pulled him into a one-armed hug.

"All teasing aside I see you managed to graduate," The redhead said while flicking the side of his new headband then ruffling his hair. "Of course I was sure you'd nail it but still, congratulations kiddo."

"Heh, thanks Dia-Nee." The blonde mumbled as he rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish smile which only grew when Shiro clambered back atop his head and nestled into his hair again. He didn't even mind the bits of have chewed breakfast that sprinkled onto his scalp, although Dia apparently did as she grabbed a rag to wipe the spider's face.

Shiro was not a fan of this idea though, scooching away with an unhappy chittering and swatting at the woman's hand with a foreclaw as soon as it got close. Unfortunately for the little arachnid, this didn't deter Dia in the slightest and after several seconds of squirming and squeaking her face was sparkling clean once more. Glowering at the redhead, Shiro tried to show her 'appreciation' by firing a blast of webbing at her face, which Dia easily ducked under with a giggle.

"So have you been assigned to a squad yet?"

"Nah, that's happening today… speaking of which, I've got to get ready." Quickly wolfing down the rest of his breakfast, Naruto rushed over to the sink to wash his bowl before he hurried into the bathroom with Shiro in tow.

"What's the big rush? Unless I'm mistaken the academy won't be open for another hour and a half at least." Dia asked as she continued to eat at a sedate pace.

"I know that, but I need to make a stop somewhere first." Naruto said as he and Shiro popped back out a few minutes later amidst a cloud of steam, towels wrapped around the blonde's waist and draped over the spider's abdomen, and headed straight for the bedroom. Some ruffling later they reemerged again fully dressed, the former in his usual bright orange jumpsuit whilst the latter had a cute little witch hat and makeshift robe.

The blonde then tried to lift Shiro up but she wrapped her legs firmly around his head and whining softly. "Come on Shiro, I have to go."

"Brrchlcke."

"No you can't come with me, you know that you're still banned you from the academy after what happened the first time."

"Chhhrrr."

"I said no Shiro, now let go of my head."

"Shreee!"

"Ah, this never gets old." Dia muttered to herself, giggling a bit as she watched the whiskered boy struggle to get his pet spider off his head, which she was quite adamant against. The arachnid in question leaned forward just enough so Naruto could see her pouting cutely with big sad watering puppy eyes.

"Don't give me that look, it's just one more day and then I'll be able to bring you with me every day… except on missions outside the village," Naruto said while rubbing Shiro's chin, quietly muttering the last part to himself, causing her to give a soft almost purring like hum. At the same time her grip finally loosen up enough for the blonde to lift her off his head and he gently set her onto the floor, straightening up her little hat when he noticed it had fallen askew. "Until then, make sure to keep an eye on the apartment for me, okay? Wouldn't want any little pests sneaking in again like those ants."

A chuckle escaped the blonde's lips as the odd spider gave a solute before scampering off to the other side of the room and up the wall. Tucking herself into the corner, she wove herself a silk hammock to lay in and started vigilantly scanning the room with all eight eyes.

"You should hurry, I give her five minutes before she gets bored," Dia stated while putting her dishes in the sink, once again ducking under a shot of webbing along the way. "We can get back to catching up later."

"Sounds like a plan to me Dia-Nee," The whiskered blonde said on his way out, stopping at the doorway in order to fish out a journal from his pocket. "Oh, but since you're here, Ayame and I finished the final draft for the next book so why don't ya give it a read through while I'm busy."

As he spoke, Naruto tossed the journal over to the redhead before leaving, the door slapping shut behind him…

*Fwip* Had he'd stayed just a second longer though, he would have seen said journal get hit by a thread of silk that yoinked it across the room away from Dia.

Sighing in exasperation, the woman turned to see Shiro giving her a smug look as she bundled the book into a cocoon and tucked it under her hat. "Really?"

The only response she got was a stuck-out tongue and a pulled down eyelid before the spider scurried away to the bedroom.

"Hey! Get back here with that you little webbed menace!"

"Skeskeske!"

Meanwhile, outside of the apartment, Naruto rolled his eyes with a chuckle as he heard the muffled shouting and crashing sounds started ringing out. "What was it she said? Oh right, never gets old."

-End Chapter-