Chapter 13

Sasuke walked beside Naruto as they walked toward the warehouse where Kakashi's intel said that was the next location of the dog fighting ring. Naruto had a leash attatched to Sasuke's collar and held it as if he was keeping Sasuke in control, but Naruto knew that Sasuke never needed controlled. He worked with Naruto willingly, for whatever reason he couldn't figure out.

They walked toward the warehouse door and Naruto knocked. The door opened slightly and an eye peeked out.

"Gato sent us," he said.

The man nodded and opened the door fully. They walked in and Sasuke got a good smell of the dogs in the warehouse, some he had beaten, and the human owners. Naruto lead Sasuke to the ring and watched as they used smaller dogs to bait the fight dogs.

"Horrible," said Naruto under his breath.

Sasuke had to agree. The smaller dogs were either breed or snatched off the street to rile the bigger dogs into fighting, and they rarely survived the night. They used to try that trick on Sasuke, but he never laid even a tooth on them, which annoyed the audience, for it got them riled up as well.

Sasuke softly growled as the audience cheered when pit bull grabbed the small dog and started shaking it like a rag doll. Naruto put a comforting hand on his head.

"Easy, boy, easy," he said softly. "We'll get them."

'Damn right we will,' thought Sasuke.

"Haven't seen you here before." Naruto turned to see a man walk toward him. "Are you new?"

"Yes," said Naruto. He held out his hand to him. "Menma."

"Ibuki," said the man shaking Naruto's hand. "Is that your dog."

"Yeah, this is Karasu."

Ibuki looks down at Sasuke with a studious eye.

"He looks docile," he said.

Naruto smirked.

"Just wait until he gets into the ring," said Naruto.

Ibuki didn't look impressed.

"He looks familiar," he said thoughtfully.

"Doubt it," said Naruto. "I got him from a farm outside of town. Scrawny thing, but he grew up strong. I've never trained a better fighter."

"So this isn't your first time?"

"With this crowd, yes, but not with fight dogs. I used to go to the ones on the other side of town, but I heard that the ones here were better."

"From who?"

"Mizuki," said Naruto thinking of the first criminal tied to fighting rings that he could.

Ibuki seemed to be convinced and pointed toward the side of the warehouse.

"Kennel's over there," he said. "you're to keep him there until it's his turn." He pointed toward a man wearing glasses and holding a ledger. "Bookie. Tell him the amount you're betting."

Naruto nods.

"Thanks," he said.

Keeping a firm, but gentle hold to Sasuke's leash, he lead Sasuke to the cages filled with dogs. Each one were barking and snarling at them as they walked to an empty one. An employee handed him a lock and key and Naruto used it to lock Sasuke's cage so no one would hurt the canine before his turn. He locked Sasuke's cage and pocketed the key.

Kakashi put a lot of thought into Naruto's undercover identity. If someone knew who he was, there was no doubt that they would gang-up on him and linch him. They only person who knew Naruto's false name and location was Kakashi, and Naruto knew his boss and father's old trainee would never rat him out. Back up was a call away if Naruto needed it.

Naruto walked around, acting the part of a new guy looking around, and went to the ring. Several men had their phones out to record the fights and were cheering their favorites. Naruto also had his phone out the record, but he didn't record the fights. Instead, he recorded the handlers, the bookie and the other employees. So far, he didn't see the ring leader, which intel suspected was Gato. Naruto hoped it was accurate. He was more than ready to get the slimeball behind bars where he belonged.

Handlers wrestled the dogs back into their kennels and a man walked out onto a platform overlooking the improvised ring. It was Gato. Intel was right.

"Thank you all for coming in today," he said. "I hope you all placed your bets for the first round..."

As Gato made his announcements, Naruto put a hand in his pocket and pressed the red button on his car remote lock.

A minute later, the door crashed open, and men in black protective gear with the word POLICE written acrossed the helmet stormed in.

"Police! Nobody move!" yelled Kakashi as he lead the teams inside.

Naruto ran with the crowd, but instead of running to the EXIT, he ran toward the kennels and let Sasuke out.

"Let's get to work, boy," said Naruto as he knelt down and pulled out his reserve gun from his ankle.

Sasuke barked and agreement. The sooner they were out of there, the better.

The partners hurried toward the end of the warehouse where all the employees where running toward to more than likely save as much of their product as they could before high tailing it out. Sasuke lead Naruto toward where he was getting the faint odor of drugs.

As they neared, Sasuke heard voices. He knew Naruto couldn't hear them with his softer ears. A man and a woman. He turned toward the sounds and stopped when he saw two people arguing. One was Gato and the other a very familiar woman. Standing next to the woman was a very familiar dog.

"I warned you that a cop was going to be undercover on one of your fights," said the woman. "You should have relocated."

"This warehouse was planned weeks in advance," said Gato. "Relocating meant loss of money and clients. And product!"

"Mr. Orochimaru is not happy," said the woman. "And when he's not happy, he sends me."

Sasuke felt Naruto move next to him, and stopped when he saw who the woman was.

"Kin?"

The woman turned toward them.

"Fuck!" she yelled. She unhooked the dog from the leash. "Attack!"

Instantly, Senbon went from passive, to a killing machine. He charged toward Naruto and Sasuke with murderous intent. He felt Naruto raise his gun but he never let the blonde have the chance to use it. He jumped between Naruto and the dog, again, and fought fang and claw against the other canine. He nearly choked against the strong smell of drugs off him.

Naruto watched as Senbon charged toward him and Kurogane got between them. The two rolled on the floor, trying to get the upper hand, and as much as Naruto wanted to help his partner he had to stop Gato and Kin. Leaving the two canine to duke it out, he ran toward where the two had ran off.

Turning corners from two crates, he found them running to an exit. Naruto lifted his gun and fired a warning shot before they could reach it. It hit the door just as Kin was reaching for it and she turned her gun onto him, but didn't fire.

"Why, Kin," he asked, keeping his gun on her. Gato ran away, but Naruto was focused on the bigger threat. "Why betray the department?"

"It would be hard to betray something I don't believe in," said Kin slowly sliding away but Naruto followed her step for step. "Everything I do is for Mr. Orochimaru."

"The crime lord?"

Orochimaru was the largest crime lord in Konoha, but the police couldn't never pin anything on him. None of the members of his gang would rattle on him so there was no way that they could arrest him. He controlled all smuggling, drug deals and fight clubs in the city.

It also didn't help that he funneled his money through is legitiment businesses, so there was no way they could connect the money to him. Not even tax evasion could be connected to him.

Every good cop in the city wanted to take him down.

"When did you start working for Orochimaru?" asked Naruto.

"I have always worked for him," said Kin. "Ever since he took me in off the street when three foster homes kicked me out. He gave me a home and a purpose. I could have gone into smuggling or drugs like my brothers, Dosu and Zaku, but Orochimaru saw something better in me. By the time I was sixteen, I trained all of Mr. Orochimaru's prized fight dogs."

"You never trained Senbon to search for drugs, did you?" asked Naruto, trying to keep talking until backup arrived.

"Why would I?" said Kin with a laugh. "It would have defeated Mr. Orochimaru's purpose. Senbon is the best attack dog I have ever trained. He will tear through your mutt like butter."

Naruto felt someone walk up beside him and chanced a glance down to see Kurogane standing next to him. There were a few bloody scratches and his mouth was bloody, but Naruto was relieved to find him alive.

"Looks like mine's better," said Naruto smirking.

Kin's face turned red with anger at the loss of her favorite pet.

"No!" she yelled and leveled her gun toward him.

Five things happened at once. Kurogane leaped between Naruto and King's gun, Kin's gun went off and Naruto's went off as well. Naruto heard a yelp from both Kin and Kurogane, and Kurogane landed on the floor.

When he heard Kurogane's yelp, Naruto's heart shot into his throat. More thana nything, he wanted to check on his partner, but he had to secure Kin, so he ran toward the down woman, kicked the gun out of reach and took out his cuffs.

"You shot my dog, you pitch," he said as he cuffed her to a shelf.

"Soft, weak, pathetic..."

Naruto, who rarely hit a girl, socked Kin in the temple and she went out like a light. Getting up, he ran to Kurogane, who was struggling to get up.

Sasuke gasped as a searing pain shot through him. After getting rid of Senbon, he ran toward Naruto's side and when he saw Kin level her gun toward Naruto, he didn't think. He jumped to grab her gun arm when the gun went off and he felt a searing pain in his chest. He dropped as soon as he felt it and stuggled to breath.

The bullet entered his chest and nicked a rib cage, which splittered and the splinters shot into his lungs while the bullet grazed his heart before lodging into the back of his rib cage. His struggle to breath was caused by his blood filling up his lung. He was drowning in his own blood.

He heard a shuffled before Naruto ran to his side and knelt next to him.

"Kurogane! Kurogane, can you stand?" asked Naruto.

Sasuke struggled to stand, but fell back down on the ground. He felt Naruto's arm around him and held him to the blonde's chest.

"Help!" Naruto yelled. "Somebody help!"

'Naruto,' said Sasuke, fighting to keep his eyes open. 'I'm sorry.'

TBC