Chapter 22

Naruto walked into the coffee house and looked around. It was a pleasant looking place with a fair amount of customers despite the early afternoon. Soft music played through speakers to relax the diners as they drank and ate snacks.

He was meeting with Sasuke for their bi-weekly coffee. Originally unsure, he was now glad that he agreed. He liked being with Sasuke and talking to him. It was easier than his previous boyfriends and he was easier to be around. A couple of his ex-lovers couldn't handle being with a cop that would run out the door at all hours of the day and night or had such a close relationship with his dog. He even dated a veternarian that was jealous that Kyuubi was getting more attention than him.

Naruto didn't mean to ignore his ex-boyfriends, but he guessed that they didn't grab his attention as much as they wanted. Sasuke was different though. He didn't mind that Naruto paid more attention to the dogs. In fact, he played with the dogs alongside Naruto. Even at the shelter he played with the puppies and smaller dogs.

Sasuke had a strange understanding with the dogs. They seem to congregate around him and obey his every command, except for the puppies. They never listen to anybody. He brought Aoi in a couple of times to train and get ussed to other dogs. Aoi's training was coming along and Sasuke was gaining confidence as an owner.

For the last couple of weeks, Naruto had been working with a puppy to train to be his new K-9 partner. The dog's name was Toboe, which Naruto found slightly ironic since the puppy loved to howl over every little thing. Toboe was only a temporary until Kyuubi's puppies were born and old enough to be placed in training.

He spotted Sasuke easily. Even though it was one of the few times he didn't have Aoi with him, he was recognizable by his hair and relaxed posture. Smiling, Naruto walked over to Sasuke and sat down. Sasuke smiled back.

"Naruto, how was work?" asked Sasuke. "Toboe still playing with the dummy?"

Naruto laughed.

"Yeah," he said. "He still hasn't learned that he's supposed to attack him, not chase."

Sasuke laughed.

"Puppies."

Naruto placed and order to the waitress and turne dback to Sasuke.

"Speaking of puppies, how's Aoi?"

"She finally sat when I told her too," said Sasuke proudly. Naruto nodded happily.

"See, I told you. Show her who's top dog."

"Excuse me, Mr. Uchiha."

They looked up to see a reporter with a digital recorder nearly shoved under Sasuke's nose.

"The country wants to know, where have you been for ten years?" asked the reporter. "Most people suspect rehab, but others say criminal underground."

Sasuke stammered. Itachi had been very good at keeping the press happy by telling everyone how much Sasuke had recovered and that he wasn't speaking of his past, which was mostly true. Sasuke never spoke to Itachi or Konan about what happened and both accepted it, although Itachi did look like he wanted to learn more. With Fugaku, they learned early on that the answer they were given was the answer they were going to get.

Sasuke hoped to someday tell Itachi at least an abbreviated version of what happened. His brother deserved that much.

Sasuke opened his mouth to tell the reporter to leave, but Naruto spoke first.

"Why don't you just leave him alone?"

Sasuke turned to Naruto in surprise. The blonde looked at the reporter in annoyed anger.

"Excuse me," said the reporter, as if just realizing Naruto was there. "And you are?"

"A very good friend of Sasuke's and you're disturbing our coffee," said Naruto.

"The people have the right to know..."

"But not by interrogating the man," said Naruto. "If Sasuke had something to say about the time he was away, then he would say so."

The reporter ignored Naruto and turned to Sasuke.

"There are rumors that you have been in a mental institution or even rehab. Is that true?"

"Did I mention I'm a cop," said Naruto. "I can have you arrested for disturbing the peace."

"That's false imprisonment."

"My peace. Now get going before I call my collegues. I'm really not looking forward to the paperwork."

The reporter looked to argue some more, but the look of annoyance in Naruto's face was enough for him to leave in a huff.

"Could you really do that?" asked Sasuke after the reporter left.

"It's a grey area," said Naruto. "I hate reporters. Vultures."

"Yeah," said Sasuke laughing softly. "Thanks for making the reporter go away."

Naruto watched Sasuke take a sip of his coffee. Something in his voice made Naruto guess that it wasn't the first time that had happened.

"How many times has that happened?" he asked.

"This would be the eighth. I swear they wait outside my house to swoop in and interrogate me for a story."

"Like I said, vultures."

Sasuke looked at Naruto thoughtfully. Naruto and Itachi were the only ones that didn't continually ask what had happened to Sasuke during the ten years he had been gone. He kenw that Kanon wanted to know as well, but she never said anything either, probably because Itachi asked her too.

"Why haven't you asked me what happened?" asked Sasuke.

"Well, you said it didn't you?" said Naruto. "You were in a bad place and needed to get your head together. Seems like you did."

"But, as a cop, I'm sure you're curious."

"Oh, I'm more than curious, but if you don't want to tell me, you don't have to."

Sasuke hesitated for a long time before speaking.

"Let's take a walk."

Ordering a cup to go, they walked out of the café and into a nearby park. They sat on a bench and Naruto waited for Sasuke to speak again. It was several minutes before Sasuke spoke again, the coffee in his hands going cold, undrunk.

Sasuke had to spend several minutes trying to construct a plausible story that wouldn't make him sound crazy, because no matter how a person could spin it, saying that a sorceroress had turned you into a dog for ten years made you sound crazy.

"I was on the street for a while," he said. "Scrounged in dumpsters for food, curled up in abandoned sewer tunnels to keep warm. I was just too ashamed to return home. I thought my family was better off if I was gone.

"Your family loves you," said Naruto.

"I know, but I was so angry back then and I wanted nothing to do with the, so I ran. By the time I wanted to go home, I couldn't."

"Why?" asked Naruto.

Sasuke shrugged.

"Stupid stuff at the time. I believed they wouldn't want me to, plus I had started working for a crime gang."

Naruto gaped.

"Why?" he asked.

"Got to eat somehow, and it wasn't like I had much of a choice. Working for them meant I had a roof over my head and lived another day."

"Did they...?"

"They treated me about as well as any of their employees," said Sasuke. "They didn't know they had Sasuke Uchiha working for them. If they did, they'd have ransomed me off, not force me to fight for them."

"How did you escape?"

"A police raid. One second I was fighting this hulk and the next, there was shouting and shooting. All I could think about was escaping. By the time I realized I was shot, I was already far away from there."

"That's awful," said Naruto. "I'm glad we caught the guys."

Sasuke smiled at him appreciatively.

"Me too," he said.

Naruto smiled back. He didn't like the sad look in Sasuke's eyes.

"Let's talk about something else," he said. "Like...your favorite movie?"

That was how they started talking about the difference between movies and the books they were based on. Sasuke says the Lord of the Rings books was better, but Naruto liked the movies.

"Well, it would help if you had read the books," argued Sasuke teasingly.

"It's not my fault the guy spent three pages talking about a leaf. A leaf! And what was with the grammer? I couldn't understand two words!"

"It's called Middle English, doofus."

The discussion went to science fiction and which movie or show was better.

"Please, at least mine made sense," said Sasuke. "A team goes through a portal and fight alien bad guys. Yours is about an average person cleaning up the messes of geniuses. And I bet half of their science is made up."

"Maybe, but you have to admit mine is funnier, especially the episode where the bank was missing."

Sasuke snickered a little. He had seen a few episodes of the show while staying at Naruto's since it was the man's favorite television show. He did admit it was funny, but he still prefered his.

"Someday, we're gonna have to have a marathon and vote which is better," said Naruto.

Sasuke's chest tightened at the anticipation at the thought of a marathon with Naruto.

"Wouldn't be much of a vote if we vote on own favorites," he said hesitantly.

"But it'll be fun," said Naruto taking a sip of his coffee.

Sasuke ran his finger around the rim of his coffee cup in thought.

"How's Kyuubi," he asked. "Have the puppies been born yet?"

Naruto looked at Sasuke in shock. Another thing that seperated him from his ex-boyfriends.

"Kyuubi's okay, and that's about as good as it can get," said Naruto. "He's getting slower.

Sasuke reached over and placed a hand on Naruto's.

"I'm sorry," he said. "He's a good dog."

"Yeah," said Naruto sadly. "He's my best friend. I don't know how I'm going to go without him."

"You have your friends, and me. Just call and I'll be there."

Naruto smiled at him gratefuly.

"Thanks, Sasuke," he said. "This was nice. We should do this a lot more."

"Too bad your job isn't more time management," said Sasuke sadly.

"Yeah, but I don't mind if it meant spending more time with you."

Sasuke smiled.

"Well, there's the shelter, and our scifi marathon," he said.

"I'll hold you to them," said Naruto.

"You can count on it."

TBC

I would like to thank everyone for their patience with me. As I was attempting to write this chapter, a plethora of new stories came to mind. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the rest of the story.