Chapter 5

Sasuke stretched his leg and stiffened when he felt the pain shoot from his body. It wasn't the first time he had gotten seriously injured in the ten years he had became a dog, and it wasn't the first time he had gotten hit by a car. The first time it had happened, he was sure he was dying. It hurt to breathe and a bone had been sticking out of his leg. The driver had left him for dead in the ditch he had landed in and drove off. Sasuke had lain there for hours, waiting to die, but miraculously, he healed and woke up a few days later as good as new.

Sasuke never went out of his way to experiment his new healing powers, but it did seem that the worst the injury, the faster he healed. After a week, the bruises were already gone and his ribs mostly healed. He guessed another week until he was able to breath without stabbing pain. His leg was a different story. He overheard Kiba and his wife, Hinata, that it all of the bones had shattered, so it would be a while until he healed, even with his freakishly fast healing.

He looked around the kennel he was staying in. It was comfortable since Naruto "adopted" him. He placed a blanket on the flooring and gave him a sort of meatloaf whenever he visited, which was daily. Sasuke didn't mind the attention, but held do without the goofy attitude that his new "owner" had.

Sasuke didn't stay all day in the kennel of course. Sometimes, they would put some sort of wheel device on him and take him out for a walk with the other dogs that were recovering. The other dogs ignored them as they played and rumped in the dirt. Sasuke ignored them as well as he exercised his front legs and looked for a way to escape once his leg healed.

The worst part about being in this infernal places was the boredom. On the streets there was always something interesting going on, so he was always entertained, and he would scrounge the garbage for a newspaper to keep up with the news.

Here, aside from outside, he wasn't allowed past the kennel room unless they were giving him X-rays and checkups. Kiba, his so-called doctor, acted more dog than human and would be lucky to hold a conversation with his wife, but his blundering was entertaining to a idiotic degree.

Sasuke laid on his head on his paws as he looked around the veternary kennel. Even in the dog fights he was never this bored. He would ask for a book, but he didn't want anyone to start calling him Einstein or something equally as stupid. He'd never be able to live that one down.

"Hey, boy." Sasuke looked up to see Naruto walking into the kennel. The idiot still visited him, as if it was required since he "saved" Sasuke and all. "I thought you might be bored so I brought you something. I think you'll like this one."

He held up a book and Sasuke groaned at the title. The Watchers by Dean Koontz. Somebody hated him.

XXXXXX

"I don't see what the problem is."

"The problem is, Naruto, that you adopted the demon dog of the fighting ring," said Ino.

"Stop calling him 'the demon dog'. He has a name."

"Kurogane." Ino scoffed. "Not very original."

"It suits him."

He looked around the table to the rest of his friends in hopes of someone helping him, but they were all silent. Sakura Haruno, their medical examiner, looked down at her salad while her husband Rock Lee slurped some sort of green concoction. Shikamaru Nara looked away from the computer he was typing on and his wife, Temari, just looked at him. It was only half of his friends. The rest were in different departments but they got together once a week for games or to just hang out. Sometimes, they would bring their kids for a playdate and Naruto would bring Kyuubi. They would have a lot of fun and Naruto would get to keep childhood friends.

"What's so demonic about him?" asked Naruto after a minute of silence.

"One of the handlers that had been arrested said the dog nearly took his arm off when he was trying to get the dog into its cage," said Temari.

"Of course he did," said Naruto. "They were abusing him."

"Naruto, we just want you to know what you're doing," said Sakura. "Impulsively adopting this dog might be the worst decision you've ever made."

"Or the best," said Naruto. "Everyone deserves a second chance."

"Well, I agree with Naruto-kun," said Rock Lee. "Everyone does deserve a second chance, Sakura-chan, or else you wouldn't have married me."

Sakura sighed. That had been true. Everyone knew that Rock Lee had a huge crush on Sakura ever since middle school, but the strawberry blonde didn't give the boy the time of day. It had been only seven years ago that Sakura decided to try and date Rock Lee. Rock Lee had tried to get over his crush on Sakura and date other girls, but none seemed to get his eccentricities. No one knew how Sakura does, but the woman doesn't seemed too bothered by her husband's random acts of strangeness.

"Thank you, Lee," said Naruto.

"We just want to make sure you're thinking this through," said Temari. "Right, Shikamaru?"

"If you ask me, arguing about it is too troublesome," said Shikamaru. "You all know that once Naruto makes a decision about something, you can't change his mind. He learns from his mistakes, so we just have to watch and wait."

"Thanks, Shikamaru," said Naruto. "I guess." He turned to his friends. "Look, I know you're worried, but I have a feeling about this dog. He almost seems intelligent. I don't want to throw something like that away. I can't let them kill him. I just can't."

"What if it attacks you," asked Ino. "It is an attack dog."

"Maybe, but he hasn't attacked me. I've handled him a couple of times. He never hurt me. Looked more annoyed than anything though."

"Are you crazy, Naruto?!" said Sakura in shock. "That thing can hurt you!"

"He never even tried to hurt me, Sakura-chan, and stop calling him a thing. He has a name."

"It doesn't matter," said Ino. "What does matter is that you're trying to kill yourself."

Naruto set his fork down and stood as he packed up his lunch.

"You know, I thought that as my friends you would understand, but I guess I was wrong."

"Naruto..." started Sakura as Naruto left.

Naruto walked out of the cafeteria and back to the K-9 grounds. Kakashi was going to introduce him to his new canine partner and he wanted to get it over with.

Most people didn't know the connection between human and canine. It was similar to partnering with another human, but deeper. Dogs will stay loyal to its trainer, not because they were trained to, but because of mutual respect. You take care of them and they took care of you.

They reasons why Naruto wanted to adopt Kurogane were his own, and his friends couldn't see that. They didn't want to see the caring dog behind the scars and the mean gleam in his eye. The one time he asked his friends to visit Kurogane with him, they vehemently refused. So far, Kiba and Hinata were the only ones that near the dog without being forced.

Naruto actually came to like Kurogane. There was something about him that was familiar. He just couldn't place it.

Naruto walks into the K-9 department and immediately was greeted by the barking of dogs. Each one in a cage was either a trainee or a dog without a partner. Each of different breeds and had different methods of training. Usually, dogs stayed with their human partners but there have been cases where a dog would stay in the kennel, either because a spouse or child was allergic or because their apartment didn't allow dogs.

Luckily, for Naruto, that had never been a problem. He lived in the house his parents had bought and were going to move into when they married. Apparently, his parents were thinking big picture because it had three bedrooms. When Naruto was born, one became his room while the other became Kitsune's then Kyuubi's room. Even after the death of his mother, Naruto loathed changing his mother's room, but he finally moved everything out after two years and made his old bedroom a guest room.

Naruto wondered what had been up with Kakashi. He had been anxious lately, and only someone who really knew Kakashi would be able to see it, and since Kakashi mentored Naruto during the academy and training Kyuubi, Naruto knew Kakashi pretty well.

Naruto walked up to Kakashi standing next to a cage. The dog in the cage was a Malinois and was tail-wagging on the other side of the cage.

"Naruto, meet Hachiko," said Kakashi.

Naruto knelt down in front of the cage and held his hand out for the dog to sniff. Hachiko did and started licking Naruto's hand through the bars.

"What did you want to see me about?" asked Naruto. "I know it's not about a new dog, or else you wouldn't have wanted to be here."

Kakashi laughed softly, adjusting the eyepatch over his eye. He never talked about how he lost it, sore subject, Naruto guessed, but Naruto knew that it was personal.

"That ring we busted a couple weeks ago was only a small fry," said Kakashi. "The bigger ring is still going. Their main focus is of course, narcotics and dog fights. We need someone inside to get the big fish."

Naruto looked at him in shock.

"You want me to go undercover?" he asked.

"Yes." Kakashi sighed. "Naruto, I know I shouldn't be asking you this, but I don't know who else to trust. These people are always a step ahead of us. That last bust was either lucky or..."

"Or someone taking out the small fry," said Naruto.

Kakashi nods.

"The leader is a fan of fight rings, human and canine, mostly human. We managed to get some info on Gato on how they contact their spectators for each fight. We're hoping to put an opperative in the fights and get closer to the boss."

Naruto looks at the dog in the cage.

"With him?" he asked. "You want him to fight in the pit?"

"What's wrong with him?" asked Kakashi.

Naruto straightens and looks over at Kakashi seriously.

"Well, he looks like a puppy," said Naruto. "I'm sure he's been specially trained for this or something, but no one in those rings are going to take me seriously if I walk in with a pup fresh off its dam's teat. I need a dog that not only can pass for a fight dog, but also one I can trust."

"Kyuubi's retired, Naruto," said Kakashi. "According to regulations, he can't go back into the field. You need a new dog or transfer to another department."

Naruto sighed and thought for a moment. He didn't want to switch departments. The K-9 unit was his life. It had been ever since he could remember. He mother taught him everything he needed to know about taking care of dogs, training them, and spotting a fight dog from across the street, and there was nothing more that he would rather do than work with a dog and take out bad guys.

But he couldn't do it with that dog. He was sure it had been very well trained for this operation, but he couldn't take Hachiko into the fight pit. Fighting dogs were more than just trained as attack dogs. They had a look in their eyes that told people what they were. Hachiko looked too innocent to be taken seriously, and an expert trainer would spot that in a second.

Kakashi watched as Naruto thought. The boy had the blood and training of two of the best detectives in the city. Kushina taught him everthing he needed to know about fighting crime since he was in the cradle and friends from both parents taught him how to fight and shoot. He had the look and recklessness of his father but his mother's intelligence. Naruto took track to keep in shape and karate in self-defense. Since infancy, the only goal the boy had was to be a great police officer like his parents, and he was slowly achieving it.

Now he was watching Naruto achieve his goal. Kakashi couldn't be prouder of the young man.

"What about Kurogane?"

Kakashi looked at Naruto in surprise.

"Your new dog?" he asked.

"Yeah. He's already trained as a fighter dog, and he'll pass any trainer's inspections. He has experience. More than six month old Hachiko."

"Naruto, the point of rehabilitation is that the victim does not go into the same situation. Taking back to the fighting ring is the opposite of that."

"I can train him," said Naruto. "I can train him to not be a fight dog and be a police dog. I know I can do it."

"Naruto, we can't just take a dog from a known fight pit and make him a police dog."

"But he'd be perfect. I'm tell you, Kakashi, he's smart. I walk him around with the other dogs, and he doesn't fight them, even when they are fighting each other. He can do it. I know he can."

Kakashi sighed heavily and thought. It was against regulations to use dogs that had been in fight rings. The probablility of the dog attacking officers or innocents were too high. That was why they used specially trained dogs during raids or taking down suspects. They were easier to control and could stop an attack on demand.

But what Naruto peeked his interest. It would be a different way to take down the ring. Any cop they tried to take inside were immediately spotted and taken out. They thought that a different approach was needed, hence the dog fights, but if what Naruto suggested could work, then the posssibility of them getting a man inside would be easier.

"Three months," said Kakashi. "I'll give you three months after his injuries healed, and I'll be supervising. I don't want this to go belly up. I'll talk to Narcotics about your little experiment, and if they give it the okay, then we'll do it."

Naruto jumped Kakashi and hugged him tightly.

"Thanks, Kakashi-sensei!" he said. "I gotta go tell Kurogane."

He ran out of the door before Kakashi could say another word. Shaking his head, Kakashi looked at the cage.

"Sorry, boy," he said.

Hachiko whined.

XXXXXX

Sasuke looked up as the door opened and Naruto walked in. he carried a brown bag that Sasuke knew held a meatloaf that Naruto cooked up just for him. It hadn't taken long for the vets and Naruto to figure out that Sasuke refused to eat the dry dog food that was served to the recovering canines and even turned his nose from the wet canned dog food. The only thing he did eat was the food Naruto brought him. Sasuke wouldn't admit, even if he could, that he liked the food Naruto cooked. He had always heard that the man had an obsession with ramen when he was younger. Sasuke guessed that he had grown out of it.

"Hey, boy," said Naruto opening the cage. "Kiba said we'd get that cast off you soon and into a brace. Doesn't that sound great?"

It did. Sasuke couldn't wait to get back on his feet and back onto the streets again. He had spent the last four weeks doing nothing but watch dogs chase their tails and act like complete fools for the attention of people. Soon he'd be able to get away from this place.

"Kiba said I'd be able to take you home then," continued Naruto. "You won't be able to go upstairs yet, but I can put a doggy bed in the living room."

Sasuke groaned. Bad enough Naruto thought he "adopted" Sasuke, now he thought he'd take Sasuke home. Could his life get any worse?

"Gato escaped. Kakashi wanted me to go inside the dog fights. Even assigned me a specially trained dog to take with me."

'Good,' though Sasuke. 'Maybe then you'd leave me alone.'

"So I asked him to assign you instead."

Sasuke looked at him in shock.

'You did what?!'

"I figure you'll have a few week in the brace, but we'll start your training as soon as we get you home. I'll teach you how to find drugs, explosives, people. I already know you got the attack thing down, but we'll tweak it a bit."

Sasuke looked at Naruto in shock. Was he crazy? There was no way Sasuke was going to become a police dog. He was a stray, and nothing tied him down.

"If I don't, then I think Kakashi is going to put you down."

Sasuke snorted.

'Let him try,' he thought.

TBC