Chapter 19

Sasuke walked into the diner and looked around. Various diners ate and talked all around the room. He didn't see anyone that looked to be waiting for him so he sat down at an empty booth and ordered a coffee and English breakfast.

Sasuke had no idea who had sent to note to him three days ago. He had debated on not coming, but curiousity overran his caution and he found himself walking out the door at seven-thirty and walking into the Ichiraku Diner with ten minutes to spare.

His relationship with Naruto was coming along. Both of them texted or called every afternoon. Naruto proposed that they walk Kyuubi together and Sasuke had agreed. They scheduled it for that afternoon.

His breakfast had just arrived when a man sat down in the bench opposite him.

"Coffee, please? Thank you," said a man's voice and Sasuke looked up in surprise.

"Iruka?" he said in shock before he could stop himself. "What are you doing here?"

"Hello, Sasuke," said Iruka with a smile. "I'm here to see you. I was told you got the note."

"I did," said Sasuke.

"Then I'm here to listen."

Sasuke was confused on why Iruka was there. The only time he had met Iruka was at the station. The life-partner of the captain of the K-9 unit would visit, mostly to make sure Kakashi was actually doing his job, but sometimes to socialize with the officers. The man was kind and patient, and also stern when needed to be. He didn't take no for an answer when it came to getting things done and helped whenever he could.

But Sasuke had been a dog when they had met. He should not know that Sasuke had once been Kurogane.

"I don't understand," said Sasuke confused. "You're here to counsel me?"

"I minored in psychology before I joined law enforcement," said Iruka as the waitress set a cup of coffee on the table with a small pitcher of creamer. "Thank you."

"What makes you think I need therapy? I've been evaluated by the doctors at the hospital."

"But none of them would believe that you had been a dog for ten years."

Sasuke saw the point of that. Not even his brother would believe his story, despite Itachi being the first person to see him after his transformation. He knew Itachi wanted Sasuke to tell him what happened, but Sasuke didn't want to see the looked of disbelief on Itachi's face, or Itachi possibly placing him in an institute.

It might be a good idea to talk with Iruka. There were a lot of things he wanted to get around.

"One question, though," he said.

"Shoot," said Iruka sipping his coffee.

"What are you? I mean, other than a police officer."

"I am someone who can help you. I was one of the ones that voted for you."

"Thanks," said Sasuke.

For the next two hours, Sasuke and Iruka spoke of little things. Sasuke reintroduction to human life, his brother and nephew, his reaquantance with his friends. They talked about his father's death and his feelings toward it.

"I actually never felt freer," said said Sasuke. "My father always constricted my life. Since being turned into a dog and hearing about his death, I felt like I could finally be myself."

"You're not even a little sad that he died?" asked Iruka. "He was your father."

"That man provided the sperm, but he was by no means a father. Itachi and Mom raised me, not him."

"Did you feel anything?"

Sasuke shrugged. "I guess I was a little sad, but I was more angry. I wanted to prove that I wasn't the useless son he said I was. That I wasn't just the spare."

"Have you thought about what you want to do now that you're human again?"

Sasuke paused for a moment to think. He had taken serious thought over what he wanted to do next now that he was human again, but everything he thought of didn't feel right. He didn't want to work in his father's company, he was more than happy to let Itachi take care of all that, but he knew he had to do something. He couldn't just sit around the mansion and be lazy.

"I know I want to help people," he said. "I want to take what I learned on the streets to help them. People and animals."

"That admirable," said Iruka. "But it'll be hard work. Think you can do it?"

"I hope so, but I'm still..."

"Healing. I understand. Therapy helps, and also companionship. You should ask Naruto for advice."

"Why?"

"You're meeting him later, aren't you?"

Sasuke looked at him in shock.

"How did you...Naruto."

"He's very happy that you're back," said Iruka. "He also misses Kurogane. I think together you'll both help each other."

Sasuke paused to think that over as he left to meet up with Naruto. He didn't know why Iruka said what he did. How could he help Naruto? He had so many friends to help him with "his death".

Sasuke did want to be closer to Naruto. During his time as a dog, Sasuke had fallen in love with the hyperactive blonde and couldn't think of a life without him. Now as a human, he didn't know how they were going to become closer. They had very little in common except for soccer.

Naruto had the morning shift and had just gotten off as Sasuke pulled up to the station. Naruto wore a orange shirt and blue jeans after spending the night doing patrols. He didn't think anyone would look in orange, but somehow, Naruto did.

Over the last few days, Sasuke and Naruto conversed through texts and a couple phone calls. They talked about their hobbies and movies. Naruto steered away from the subject of what happened to Sasuke in the last ten years and instead told about his time at the academy and Naruto told some more embarressing arrests. When Sasuke invited Naruto out for coffee, Naruto declined.

"I have something better," said the blonde.

And that was how Sasuke had came to picking Naruto up at the station that afternoon.

"I'm glad your able to come," said Naruto as he got in. "I want to show you something."

"Okay," said Sasuke a little hesitate but also curious.

"You'll love it, trust me."

Sasuke nodded, still hesitant. He followed Naruto's directions outside of town and to what appeared to be a farm house. Infront of the Western farmhouse was a woman that looked a lot like Kiba, right down to the facial markings. Next to her was a dark grey dog that looked almost wolfish to Sasuke. He was certainly larger than Sasuke was when he had been a dog and had a scar that ran down his right eye.

Sasuke parked in front of the house and both men got out.

"About time you came to visit, brat," she said walking over to them. "I've had enough of talking to my idiot of a son. And it was about time for you to heck on your pups."

"I've brought some help," said Naruto waving at Sasuke.

"The Uchiha kid?" Naruto nodded and the woman walked over to him. Sasuke felt intimidated by the mere presence of the woman. "I'm Tsume Inuzuka. This is my partner, Kuromaru."

"She's Kiba's mom," said Naruto. "She helped trained me Kyuubi."

"She trains police dogs?" asked Sasuke curiously.

"As well as military and service dogs," said Tsume. "We also run a shelter for abandoned and abused dogs."

"A kennel?" asked Sasuke in surprise.

"We prefer shelter," said Tsume. Sasuke heard the slight offense in her voice and quickly apologized. "Naruto helps out every once in a while and a couple months ago, Kyuubi serviced one of our girls and is expecting a litter soon."

"How is the mom?" asked Naruto.

"She's doing good. In a couple of months, a healthy litter will be born."

Naruto smiled and Sasuke couldn't help but smile back. In one of their many talks, Sasuke told Naruto that he liked dogs and even helped a few strays while he was gone. He failed to mention that he was a dog at the time, but he didn't think it mattered. As soon as he mentioned it, Naruto went into a discussion about the abuse of strays and domestic dogs. Sasuke didn't have the heart to interrupt him. To hear Naruto speak so passionately about something made Sasuke smile.

"Come on," said Naruto pulling Sasuke by the arm toward the back of the house. Sasuke followed him.

Around back were several large barns and a chain-linked fence. The fenced area was filled with dogs of all sizes running around playing either with each other or handlers. Sasuke counted at least fifteen handlers. Not enough to take care of all the dogs in the area.

"Over there are the puppies that have been rescued either from off the street, abused homes or puppy mills," said Naruto pointing to a building. "And over there is the clinic. There's where they train the dogs for service. And over there are the problem cases."

"Problem cases?" asked Sasuke.

"Yeah, dogs that are so abused and mistreated that they'll attack anyone or anything. They require individual work because each one has a different temperment."

"How long have you been volunteering here?" asked Sasuke.

"Since I was a kid," said Naruto. "Kiba brought me here, and I just kept coming. I want to help, but I don't have enough time. I love my job and I don't want to quit, but if they had more hands to help, then maybe I would feel better about leaving here every day. They're so short handed."

"Naruto, this is amazing."

During the months he had been living with Naruto, Naruto would leave a couple times a week or on his day off. Sometimes he even took Kyuubi with him. Sasuke never figured out where Naruto had been going to until now.

Naruto lead him into a barn that housed a mass of puppies. Two handlers greeted Naruto enthusiastically and Naruto waved back as he got into the pen with the puppies.

"I had a dog, Kurogane, that came from a past not unlike these guys," said Naruto. "But I never brought him here because I didn't want him to revert back to his fighting days. Sometimes fight dogs will revert back when faced with other fight dogs. He made such progress as a police dog. I didn't want him to throw all that work away."

Sasuke watched as Naruto played and petted the puppies. This was another side of Naruto Sasuke did not know, but he desperately wanted to. Naruto wanted to help these dogs and Sasuke knew what that felt like to live in abusive or on the street.

The facility that he could see so far looked like it was on it's last legs. The Inuzukas were known to train the best dogs in the city, but this was obviously a side project that didn't generate enough money.

Looking around the room, his gaze came upon a puppy that was smaller than the rest. It had a black top coat and white bottom with a curled tail and thick fur. A larger puppy was attempting bully him, but the smaller pup was holding his own.

"That's an Alaskan Husky," said one of the handlers. "We rescued her six weeks ago. Someone found her as a newborn in a trash can, poor thing. She was so small we didn't expect her to survive."

"Tough little girl," said Sasuke.

"It's a good sign. Newborn and separated by her mother. Someone's especially cruel."

"She doesn't look pure-breed."

"Because she's not. See her eyes?" Sasuke did. They were a vivid shade of blue. Icy. They almost seemed to glow. "We think a stray Australian Shepherd or something with it mixed might of got in the pen and mated with the mother."

"What's her name?"

"Haven't named her yet. We like to name them for their personality. You can play with her if you want."

The handler left and Sasuke turned back to the puppy. Her ran around, chasing the other puppies despite her smaller size.

The puppy ran over to Sasuke and sniffed his leg. Looking up at him, she barked and sat down expectantly.

"Looks, like you made a friend."

Sasuke turned to see Naruto smiling at him. Sasuke reached down picked the puppy up. The puppy struggled to lick his face. Sasuke smiled a little.

"She about six weeks old," said Naruto. "Old enough to be away from her mother and trained."

Sasuke didn't know what made him decide to take the dog home with him. One second they were in the puppy room and the next he was with Tsume signing some papers.

"Here's our basic care package," said Tsume handing him a bag full of dog items. Sasuke saw a water bowl and feed dish, leash and dollar and a small bag of puppy food. "Lastly, what are you going to name her?"

"Aoi."

TBC