Chapter 8

"Okay, you two be good, now," said Naruto to his two dogs as he walked out the door. Walking to his beat up red truck, he started the engine and drove out onto the street.

Every week, Naruto and his friends gather to a local bar near the police station, The Lillypad. It was owned by Jiraiya Sannin, Naruto's godfather and the closest man Naruto had to a grandfather. Him and his wife were the ones who took care of him in when his mother had gone to work and when she had died. He was supportive of Naruto's goal and even helped him train and study during his academy days. He opened the bar when he retired from the force, but it was mostly to support himself since his novels weren't as popular as he makes them out to be.

When he arrived, most of his friends were already there. Sai was saving him a seat between himself and Kiba. Sai saw him first and waved him over.

"Naruto, over here," he said.

"Hey, guys," said Naruto walking over to the table. "Where's Ino?"

"She's got a major court date tomorrow and she's reviewing her notes," said Sai.

"She'll be fine," said Naruto. "She's one of the strongest women we know."

"Yeah," said Sai.

"Hey, Naruto," said Kiba. "We heard that Kurogane passed his test."

"Yeah," said Naruto proudly. "With flying colors. I told Kakashi I could train him in just three months. He had the basic training already, and he's smart. I knew he'd get it quick."

"It usually takes a year to train and officiate a dog, doesn't it?" asked Neji. Neji was on Vice and while they regularly used dogs on their raids, he never handled one himself.

"Yeah, but Kakashi made a special exception with me." Naruto didn't say it was because they needed Kurogane to uncover Gato's hidden drug and dog fight ring. If he did, he was more than certain that Sakura would have a fit and Kiba would try to hog-tie him in a corner.

Over the past several weeks of training, Kurogane had displayed more and more signs of intelligence that he had never seen in any dog. At times he swore it was almost human-like in nature. He would locate items Naruto misplaced too easily, and Naruto had a nasty habit of misplacing items. He even put the keys to his car in the fridge. How Kurogane found them in there Naruto never knew.

"So what are you going to do now?" asked Sakura. Naruto was amazed that she actually got out of the Medical Examiner's office to see him. Last he heard, she had been swamped by three murders and a suspected murder/suicide.

"Wherever Kakashi sends me," said Naruto. "I can't wait to bust up some bad guys again."

"You sound as excited as a kid at Christmas," said TenTen.

"It is inspiring to see Naruto wish to fulfill his dream of being a law enforcement officer," said Lee.

"Okay, who gave Lee alcohol?" asked Kiba and the group laughed. It was an ongoing joke on how Lee could not hold his liquor. On his wedding, Kiba and Choji thought it to be a good idea to bring copious amounts of alcohol and share it. Lee only had one shot of tequila and was dancing the bar stripping. Sakura had a field day with the guys that day.

"You just be careful out there, Naruto," said Sakura. "I worry about you enough, I don't want tosee you on a slab in my morgue."

"Yes, Mom," Naruto said with sarcastic humor and ducked to avoid the fist aimed at him head.

"Jerk!" she said in a soft huff and took a sip of her fruity drink. For the next couple hours, Naruto listened as the parents in their kids. When the music turned upbeat and that perked Naruto up.

"Come on, Hinata, let's dance!" he said grabbing her wrist and pulling the blushing woman onto the dance floor. Kiba gave no protest. He rather have her dance with Naruto than some stranger. The gang watched as the two danced to the music.

"Are you sure he's not crazy?" asked TenTen. "I don't know much about dogs, but trying to rehabilitate a pit dog..."

"It can't be done," said Kiba. "Trust me on that. Some trainers may be able to get them domesticated enough to possibly be a house dog, and that could take years. As a K-9 dog, not likely."

"Then how is Naruto so sure?" asked Sakura.

"I don't know, but Hinata said something strange the other day."

"What did she say?" asked Lee.

"She told me how she met Naruto and the dog at the park, and the dog let Himawari pet him."

The girls gasped as the men looked in shock.

"Is she hurt? Is she okay?" asked Sakura, worried.

"She's fine," said Kiba. "The dog actually sat there and let Himawari play with his fur, like she does with Akamaru. But that wasn't the really strange thing."

"What was?" asked Neji.

"She said his eyes looked almost human."

That got the group stumped. How can a dog's eye looked human? Was there a difference? But what was also strange was hearing the way the dog acted around the toddler. Kiba had explained pit dogs to them and the near impossibility of their rehabilitation, so to hear that one was letting a two year old grab its fur and slobber all over it was very strange indeed. The friends didn't know what to make of that.

Naruto meanwhile, was having fun dancing with Hinata. The shy raven haired girl was usually such a wallflower unless dragged on the floor by either Naruto or the girls. Kiba sometimes managed to get her to dance, but usually obeyed his wife's wishes and stayed on the sidelines.

Naruto remembered Hinata from when they were kids. As the hieress of a large company and prostigious family, both six year old shouldn't have been able to meet, but Hinata's sudden kidnapping brought them together. It had been Kushina and Kurama who had found Hinata and brought her to the station. Naruto had been playing with one of the trainee dogs at the time and showed Hinata how to pet one. For a half hour they had been playing all sorts of games with the dog until her parents came for her.

They reunited again at the age of twelve when Hinata had joined her school's cheerleading squad in an attempt to socialize more and accompied them on their soccer teams away games. They talked between and after games and exchanged addresses and phone numbers.

Their friendship grew and they reunited again in college, where Naruto introduced her to Kiba and everything progressed from their. Naruto had known of the crush that Hinata had on him, and wasn't surprised when she confessed, and shot him down in the same sentence. She had figured out his sexual preference and wished him happiness. Six months later, she was dating Kiba and the rest was history.

Naruto thought of Hinata as a sister and treated her as such, and all of his friends knew it. Kiba never had to worry when Naruto danced with her or teased her in his friendly prankster way. It was his way of getting Hinata to join in and help get over her shyness.

He was also very protective of her. After her abduction, her father had signed her and her younger sister up for several martial arts lessons and excelled in all of them. Even though she had several black belts, she avoided violence as much as possible. She only had to use her training once, and Naruto was glad for it.

They danced on the floor and laughed at the ridiculousness of their moves when a man stepped behind Hinata. Despite her over shyness, she was a pretty woman and would easily get the attention of any man in the room, so it infuriated Naruto to see the man leering down at Hinata like she was a piece of steak.

"How about dancing with me than that guy,babe," he said with a sneer.

Naruto grabbed Hinata and pulled her behind him and glared up at the man.

"She's married, asshole," he said.

"See no ring on your finger, so it ain't with you," said the man with a lusty laugh. "Guess she's not too in love with her hubby."

"Actually, her hubby's behind you," said Naruto with a sneer. The man turned to see Kiba, Choji, Neji, Lee and Sai standing behind him. "And the man behind him with the long hair giving you the stink eye, that's her cousin, and this is a cop bar, and you just challenged a cop so..."

The guy looked around and saw that almost every patron was staring at him. He immediately figured out what a bad decision he made and backed out, but not before he gave Naruto a murderous sneer.

"Bastard," said Kiba glaring at the man's back.

"Asshole," agreed Naruto. He turned to Hinata who looked a little shaken, but luckily not scared. "You okay?"

"Yes," she said with a nod. "I'm sorry."

"Not you're fault," said Naruto. "Guy was an asshole who didn't know what 'Off limits' meant."

"Come on, babe," said Kiba, "let's sit you down."

Hinata nodded and followed Kiba back to the booth. The rest of the guys followed, except Sai who turned to Naruto.

"You coming?" he asked.

"Nah, I'm going to get some air," said Naruto. "Save my seat?"

"Yeah."

Sai turned back to the booth as Naruto wove through the dancing crowd toward the door. Walking to the side of the builing, he took a deep breath and leaned against the wall.

Naruto hated comfrontation. He'd just as soon go without it, even on a raid. Most people thought that the K-9 unit didn't see any action, but that wasn't true. They saw as much as any other police officer. Their dogs were trained to not just search for drugs and explosives, but also to take down a suspect if needed. There were even corpse dogs that found dead bodies.

Naruto had trained Kyuubi to do all of those things. It helped to have a canine that was diverse. He could only train Kurogane in the basic of drug sniffing. The black dog already had the basics of attacking down and all that Naruto had to do was teach him to do it on command. Kurogane was surprisingly a quick learner, which Naruto had suspected.

He didn't know what was so different about the dog. He was a surly and stoic as any human being. If he didn't know better, he would have thought that Kurogane was a human in a dog's clothing. There was no way a dog was that smart.

He heard a clatter and turned to see the man he had chased off standing in the front of the alley. He groaned. This guy was either drunk or stupid, or both. The worst idea ever made was to assualt a cop outside of a cop bar.

"Hey, man, whatever you're thinking, not a good idea," he said.

"I hate being humilated, especially from upstart punks like you," said the man.

"Oh, punk, haven't been called that in a long time," said Naruto. "Look, I'm just giving you a chance to back out now."

That was the last thing Naruto said before the man charged him.

XXXXXX

Sasuke watched as Naruto left, sitting next to the couch. Unlike Kyuubi, he refused to lay on the couch like an insipid lap dog waiting for treats and attention.

He actually didn't mind Kyuubi. The older dog was getting on in years and spent most of the dog sleeping. The only time he was awake was when he was eating or going for his walk. He never bothered Sasuke since Sasuke never bothered him. Sometimes during their walks when Naruto played with them, Kyuubi would try to play with him as well, but Sasuke never participated.

The only problem Sasuke had was at night. Although they had seperate beds, Kyuubi would climb into his and sleep on top of him. That annoyed Sasuke to no end and every time he tried to push the older dog off, Kyuubi would growl and nip Sasuke's ear. Sometimes, Sasuke would be able to roll the canine onto his side.

Sasuke swore most of the dog's personality came from association with the blonde. Like Naruto, Kyuubi loved to play and would often try to include Sasuke in his games. Most of the time he was unsuccessful, but sometimes, Sasuke would join in just to throw suspicion off. It would look weird if a dog did not play Fetch or Tug-of-War with another dog in a dog park.

Now was the perfect opportunity to escape. Sasuke had been watching Naruto over the past couple of weeks. Aside from work, Naruto stayed mostly at home. Except for every Friday when he would leave to hang out with friends.

And Sai.

Sasuke didn't know why the thought of Naruto and Sai together made his fur brissle. It was no business of his who Naruto decided to spend time with. They never went out, nor were they friends. They were rivals and that was it.

Although, they did look close the other day when Sai came over, and what kind of person carried a camera around randomly snapping pictures, especially of their "friends"? Was he a stalker? There was something off about him, and it wasn't just his fake smile.

Sasuke shook that thought out of his head. It was none of his business. Right now, he had to think of a way to escape. Getting up, he walked over to the front door. Like every time he left, Naruto locked the front door, but only the deadlock. Sasuke knew he could probably reach it thanks to his height and probably unlike it, but the problem was the doorknob. It wasn't a long handled one, but a turn knob. He might be able to do it if he used his teeth.

Sasuke knew he wouldn't be able to close the door after opening it. He didn't think that Kyuubi would run off. That dog was too loyal for his own good. Naruto had left the door open mulitple times, and Kyuubi never went outside unless ordered to by Naruto.

Sasuke was actually surprised by this. Depsite his personality, Naruto was a pretty good dog trainer. His mother probably taught him everything she knew and he picke dup a couple of tips from the Inuzukas. Looks like he wasn't as much as a dope as Sasuke first thought.

Walking up to the door, he reared up on his hind legs and placed his paws on either side of the door. Using his claws, he turned the bolt down and turned his attention to the doorknob. Opening his mouth as wide as he could, he used his teeth and whole mouth to turn the knob and smirked when he heard it click. Still on his hind legs, he walked backwards until he had it opened enough to slip through.

Finally, he was free, he thought as he ran down the street. He wasn't too worried about the collar. He'd find a way to get rid of it. It was a basic fabric collar, so get it wet and he could easily slip out of it.

Taking a deep breath, he exalled in his newfound freedom. After a year stuck in a cage and six months in domestication, he loved the ability to go wherever he wanted whenever he wanted. He wasn't too worried about Naruto. He had Kyuubi and Sasuke was sure the department would assign him another dog to portray a fight dog. He may not look it, but Naruto was smart. He'd figure it out.

Sasuke shook his head. Oh God, he just gave the moron a compliment. The world was coming to an end.

For hours, he walked, not really caring where he went, he just let his feet go wherever they wanted, so it came as a surprise when his nose came upon a familiar citrus scent.

Naruto was nearby. He doubted anyone else would wear that scent. Before he realized what he was doing, he walked toward the scent and found himself in an alley beside a bar. His eyes quickly adjusted to the dark and was surprised by what he saw.

Naruto was struggling against another guy who was obvious bigger than him. What the hell did Naruto do to get himself into trouble this time. And by the look of him, he wasn't fairing too well.

Sasuke gaped in shock when the man picked up a discard beer bottle and broke it against the dumpster. He barked and the man turned around, as did Naruto.

"Kurogane?" said Naruto in surprise.

Before his mind could tell his body not to, Sasuke ran toward the man and knocked him aside. The man managed to get a cut into Sasuke's leg and he cried out from the shock of pain. Landing on the ground, he held his injured leg up as he turned back to the man and growled. The man raised the bottle to stab him.

"Fucking mutt!"

He slashed down and Sasuke waited for the pain to come, but it never did. A black blur pushed in front of Sasuke and blocked the man's attack. The sharp copper scent of blood filled the air.

"Don't touch my dog!"

Sasuke looked up to see Naruto standing in front of him. The blonde glared at the man in front of him. The scent of blood was coming from him.

"Naruto!"

Sasuke barely heard Kiba's yell as he watched Naruto collapse. Blood covered Naruto's sunset yellow shirt and jacket. He watched as the blonde fell to the ground as his friends surrounded him. Suddenly, all he saw was red and he attacked.

The man yelled as Sasuke's teeth clamped onto his arm and his claws hooked into his clothes. He tasted blood in his mouth, his own snarls, yelling in his ear and felt hands grab him, but he refused to let go. He wanted to tear the man's throat out. All he could see was Naruto in front of him bleeding. Naruto smiling at him. Bathing him. Naruto got hurt because of him.

"Kurogane."

At first, the soft voice didn't register in Sasuke's brain, but somehow it penetrated Sasuke's daze. Letting go of the arm, he turned to see Naruto propped against a woman's chest. Sakura. Hinata was also beside him pressing a towel against his chest. The men were trying to wrestle Sasuke off of the assailant and keep hold of him.

Naruto was panting and holding one arm acrossed his chest to minimize the blood loss and the other limp on the ground. He looked pale, too pale for his skin tone, and struggling to stay awake.

Turning around, Sasuke walked toward Naruto, but stopped when a firm grip held onto his collar. He turned and growled at Kiba who was looking at him with a firm glare.

"No, mutt," he said tugging him away from Naruto.

"Kiba, let him go," said Naruto strained.

Kiba looked at Naruto, unsure, and Naruto nodded. Still unsure, Kiba let Sasuke go and the dog walked toward the blonde. Naruto laughed painfully.

"Hey, boy," he said . "Quite a pickle we're in."

'Why did you do that, you moron,' asked Sasuke as he stood next to Naruto. 'Why did you protect me?'

"Are you okay, boy?" asked Naruto holding up his hand as if to pet Sasuke, but stopped and lowered his hand.

It never hit the ground. Sasuke lowered his head and set the hand on it. Naruto looked up in shock and Sasuke sat down next to him. Smiling, Naruto scratched behind an ear before his world went dark.

TBC