Chapter Three

My Kogitsune

Almost Twenty Years Ago

The little boy stood outside the orphanage and stared into the nearby woods. He thought he'd heard something. He wasn't sure, though. He'd been here at this orphanage for a week now. He reached up and rubbed his forehead under the bandage. He looked over and heard someone talking nearby.

Nonō Yakushi watched from the doorway as their newest child at Konoha Orphanage outside of Tokyo's outskirts. He seemed distant. She looked up as one of the other caretakers walked up to her. "Where did you find him?" the older lady asked.

He was just sitting in the middle of a road not too far from here with the head wound. He can't remember anything about who he is, it seems." Nonō sighed deeply. She smiled as one of the other children, a gregarious little boy named Urushi walked up to him.

"You need a helmet!" he said and shoved a metal spaghetti strainer over his bandaged head. The boy looked at him and blinked owlishly. The night before Nonō had given him a pair of glasses when she realized that the child couldn't see well. Urushi smiled and put his hands on his hips. "You don't have a name either! You are gonna be Kabuto!" he said and nodded in affirmation. "Now don't hit your head again, Kabuto!"

He took off and ran down into the forested area. The little boy watched him and saw the woman that rescued him disappear back into the building with the older woman. He turned as he heard the sound again. It was something like a squeak or meow or something. Strange, he thought, as he walked slowly toward the small wood. At almost six years old, he had no idea where he had come from. And he also had no idea where he was going. He only knew that he was different and he was alone. He kept walking toward the pitiful sounding creature that he heard. As he got closer, the cries became panicked and desperate. He knew why soon.

There was the front quarters and head of a fox kit, a very small one, most likely a runt of a some sort. It was making horrific sounds and looked odd.

He tipped his head to the side and realized why. It was being consumed by a snake, still alive and trying to escape. The snake had coiled around it tightly, and it was slowly swallowing it down from the tail end to the front. Kabuto had knelt down, watching the struggle and wondering which would win. He could have saved the baby fox. But the sounds it made were so pitiful and made his heart beat faster. He wasn't afraid, not at all. He knew it was a Mamushi, and he knew that he shouldn't be this close to it. They were deadly.

As the fox's front paws disappeared into the unhinged looking jaw of the snake he was sad. He wasn't sad that the fox had been swallowed whole. He was sad because the act was complete. He'd never seen something so amazing in his life as the snake curled up, a large bulge in the middle that was still moving slightly. The snake seemed to be sated and unafraid of him. He reached out and pushing on the bulge and feeling the fox struggle against the confines ineffectively. He sat there until the bulge inside the full snake moved no more.

"Kabuto?" Nonō said from the doorway of the orphanage. "Dinner is ready."

Kabuto smiled and watched as the sluggish and overfull snake inched away from him. "Yeah, I'm starving," he said as he turned and ran back to the doorway. He smiled brightly at Nonō and was led in for food. Still, the little boy with no name dreamed again and again, watching that whiskered face disappearing into the snake and his heart wanted to beat from his chest when he woke. He didn't know what it meant, but he wanted to find out.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Present

"Sir, so, you're reporting that your neighbor has stolen a cadaver and taken it into his house? And ah, what evidence do you base this on? Are you sure it wasn't just a big rug?" Yamato was regretting being the desk officer on duty this weekend already as he put his hand on his head. Around him, the rest of the room was filled with people not dealing with crazy housebound people. "Look, I am taking you seriously, it is just…highly unlikely that anyone would take a cadaver. I understand that he's a med student. Alright, look, I'll send an officer round, will that work for you?"

Yamato put the phone down and waved at Sergeant Iruka Umino. He was one of the heads in the community safety division. "Yo, Iruka, that paranoid housebound invalid called in again. Go check it out," he said handing him the note.

"He thinks he took a cadaver home. Or something. He thinks he saw him dragging a body bag into the house Friday morning at around two am. Last time wasn't it one of the neighbors was smuggling drugs and it turned out that she had brought home several sacks of flour for Christmas baking?" he asked, looking up.

"Yeah, so it is probably the same thing."

"Do I go in and search the house?" he asked.

"Eh, I'd just go see if there's a smell or anything weird. You know how this dude is," he said with a sigh.

"Alright, I'll call in if I need anything, but really…I doubt it. This is like five or six times in the last year," he muttered and looked at it again.

He headed to his car and headed to Kimimaro's apartment. He knocked on the door. Haku answered as always.

"Kimi, did you seriously call the police again?" he said with a long suffering sigh.

Kimimaro rolled into the foyer. "Well you didn't think it was important. Obviously it is important enough to send someone around."

Haku started to speak but Iruka put his hand up. "No problem, Haku, I'll check it out and let you know if we find anything wrong. I know that Kimimaro worries over people around here a lot."

Iruka honestly didn't mind too awful much when he came by. He was supposed to take care of community security, after all. He thought that sometimes the things the guy saw were really odd, though. He had a very vivid imagination, Iruka had found. He sighed went next door and knocked on the Kabuto's door. He opened it after a few seconds.

"Oh, can I help you?" Kabuto said and pushed his glasses up his nose.

Iruka had met Kabuto a few times, and he seemed like a nice enough fellow. He was always nervous seeming, or just awkward maybe, though, and something just seemed a bit off about him. It was the sort of thing that tickles at the back of the mind but can't get any further.

"Just a wellbeing check. There was an anonymous call that someone thought they saw someone dragging a body bag down the sidewalk recently. Silly, I know, but have you seen anything out of sorts?" he asked with a shrug.

Kabuto shook his head and pushed his longish hair behind his ears. "No, I don't think so. Would you like to come in and look around? I mean, I don't have any body bags or anything, but if you need to come in…"

"Ah, well, I'll step in for a minute so I can tell the boss I've checked all the places in this row thoroughly," he said with a nod.

Kabuto nodded. "Gotta keep the boss happy, huh?"

Iruka followed Kabuto into the place. "Huh, these are actually pretty spacious…" he said as he looked around. It looked identical to the one next door but Kabuto had a sparse living room set up where Kimimaro's had his bedroom. Featured on one wall was a large tryptic ukiyo-e of foxes. It was the only real wall decoration, but it was quite nice. Iruka glanced around and saw that he had a futon on one side, a small television, and a low table. The only other real feature was a lamp that had a base that looked like a coiled snake holding up the shade.

Kabuto nodded. "Oh yes, they are quite nice," he said turned and looked at Iruka placidly.

"You get on with the neighbors pretty well?" Iruka asked as he glanced around, taking a moment to sniff at the air. No perfumes, no air fresheners, no odd smells at all.

Kabuto nodded. "Yeah, actually I do. I sometimes get annoyed at Kiba's mutt, Akamaru I think his name is. He comes sniffing around the back of the house now and then, but that's about it. He always apologizes afterward, so it doesn't really bother me. Can I get you tea?" he asked as he stepped into the kitchen.

"Oh, no thank you. I've just always thought these houses were interesting, the way there's six of them like this. There's a second bedroom upstairs and a small basement in them, aren't there?" he asked with a glance at the narrow stairs.

Kabuto nodded. "Yeah, the basements are very nice though, just mostly dirt with a shower built into the side and a toilet. Looks like someone tried to make another room down there and just gave up," he said with a snort. "Come on, you gotta see it to believe it. I was surprised when I moved in," he said and led Kabuto to the basement stairs.

Iruka shrugged. "Sure," he said as Kabuto took him down into the basement and showed him the unfinished space. He shook his head and glanced at Kabuto. "Why would anyone just stop halfway with this kind of work?" Iruka asked.

Kabuto shrugged. "No idea, but one of these days when I'm not so busy, or I find a…romantic interest…that has an aptitude for construction to do it…"

Iruka nodded. "But the upstairs bedroom got finished, huh?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, sure, here, I'll show you what they did up there. They could have used the space down here in exactly the same way, and I just don't see why they didn't."

Kabuto shrugged and led him up to the main floor then up to the upper level. As they came off the stair, to the right was a long thin bathroom, and to the left was an open bedroom. There was what looked like a sliding panel that could close off the bedroom, but Kabuto didn't have it shut at the moment. Iruka nodded.

"They could have done that in the basement easily, just reversed so the stairs down faced the front instead of the back," he commented.

Iruka hadn't thought he'd find anything here, but now he was sure. There were no smells. There were no bulging black bags that a body could have been in. There was, however, a large tatami mat on the floor that looked new.

"I like the weave in the mat you have up here," Iruka said conversationally.

"Oh yeah, do you like it? Oh gosh." Kabuto looked at Iruka suddenly. "I'm afraid this whole mess is my fault!"

Iruka looked at him. "Huh?"

Kabuto shook his head. "I was at a swap meet on Thursday evening, that big one that they put up down at the University, and I ended up trading some of my old textbooks for that mat since it was so new. I would bet that your anonymous tip was from Kimimaro next door. Poor thing! I bet he saw me dragging this thing in! I'd had a bit too much to drink while I was there and passed out for a bit in the common room, so I imagine he saw me dragging this big bulky thing down the sidewalk by myself! It had to have been three am by the time I got home that night. I regretted it Friday, I assure you!" he said and made a sour looking face.

Iruka smirked. "I bet that's it. Kimimaro tends to get a little overprotective of things in the neighborhood."

"Well, no wonder, the poor man won't live past the age of forty, if he even makes it that far," Kabuto said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Really? I just thought he was wheelchair bound?" Iruka asked.

"Oh no, the poor man has FOP. Short version is that his soft tissues in his body start turning to bone, and eventually, he'll become trapped inside his own skeleton. He's housebound because any injury triggers the response to grow more bone and speeds up the diseases' progress," Kabuto said sadly as he sat down on the end of his bed.

Iruka nodded, seeing that Kabuto had one of those platform style beds with a thin mattress on it. The platform kept it about two feet off the floor, and there were drawers underneath it. He shook his head and reached down, pulling open one of the drawers on the side he sat. He pulled out a packet of tissues and dabbed his eyes.

"Apologies, allergies have been acting up lately," he said and stood up to walk Iruka back downstairs.

Iruka nodded, heading down behind him, but something struck him as out of place. It wasn't something obvious, and it was somewhat not even conscious, it was just there…at the edge of his notice. He shook his head and continued, chatting further with the medical student about his studies. Iruka told him farewell and walked back over to let Kimimaro know that all he'd found was a large tatami mat bought at a swap meet.

Kabuto watched him go, a placid smile on his lips. There was not a worry in his mind even with a police officer in his small place. He'd made arrangements over the couple nights. He didn't sleep much as it was, but converting the space under the platform bed had been easy enough. The drawers all pulled out on both sides still, of course. If someone was really curious though they'd notice that five of the six only pulled out a couple inches and were stuffed with what looked like linens.

Kabuto headed back up the stairs and hummed to himself as he stopped in the bathroom, washing his hands thoroughly. He couldn't take chances with his new toy Kogitsune. He hummed to himself and picked up a suture kit that he had sitting under his bathroom sink. He picked checked it over and pre threaded the needles quickly. It wouldn't take long, this part, of course. Now, the second half of his alterations would take a bit more healing time.

He opened the small box that he'd received in shipment today at the post office box. They looked so real, he thought as he picked up the two triangles of orange, white, and black. He'd always been slightly fascinated by nature since he was a child, this in particular.

Now he ran his fingers over the realistic feeling prosthetics he'd ordered. At the base of the fleshy feeling ears was a flat piece that was meant to be used to adhere to a skullcap or a person's scalp for a costume. The thin, flexible material had been insufficient for his purposes, of course, so he had altered it by inserting a bar of surgical steel and attaching it. A slight incision in the scalp to peel away the flesh, then stitch the skin together around the metal bar and to the prosthetic… He smiled. He glanced at the other box. That would have to wait for tomorrow, though. He had yet to decide the exact method to attach that piece. He had considered connecting directly to the tailbone, but he didn't want his toy to die from meningitis or something if he introduced a foreign bacteria into the epidural space.

He took the suture kit and the prosthetic ears into the bedroom and sat them both on the bedside table. He turned and slid open the closet door. He would need to keep his head still…but he couldn't remember if he had a halo here or not…oh he did have one. He took a stepladder and opened it in the closet and pulled down a metallic halo often used in brain surgeries. He wouldn't drill into his skull, well, maybe later, but this would keep his head still long enough to do this simple surgery.

He sat it by the chair and went back to the bed. He knelt and pulled one of the drawers that didn't come out very far. He yanked twice in quick succession and the drawer slid the rest of the way out. About two inches deep, the drawer had a false back, and inside the rest of the drawer were medical restraints. He grabbed a few and attached them to some rings that were installed on the sides. He went over and pulled out a plastic drop cloth and a set of sponges. The bleeding would be minimal if he was careful.

"Ah, my little toy, time to have some fun," Kabuto said as he pulled up the mattress on the bed.

The alterations had been incredibly simple. He had made the drawers smaller, leaving a three foot by six foot space in the middle of the bed. He'd placed a steel locking top where he'd removed the platform piece and then slid down two stainless steel sides to keep it separate from the drawers. There was another steel panel at the foot. One of the false backed drawers had a hole in the back of it through which a tube ran into it. He noted that the foley bag was nearly half full. He traced his eyes down the line of the tube where it ran into his pretty little fox.

"See, now wasn't that easier than having to hold yourself from urinating all day while I was gone?" he asked with a smile.

Ah, such a pretty little toy fox, Kabuto thought as his frightened blue eyes settled onto his face. That look made his heart leap. That look… The primal instinct that the animal is trapped with no escape. Yes, that was what he liked to see reflected in those lovely eyes of his. Trapped and helpless. He knew well enough that he heard everything said outside the confines here. However, he could make no sound in his prison. Kabuto liked the look of strait jackets, and they were so effective. He'd used one and wrapped his arms up around him, but left him otherwise nude. It was quite delightful playing a bit that morning with the catheter and sounds before he left him. He'd used a different gag, though, one that would muffle him better. He'd thought about using some of the metal gags, but they weren't good for long time use. Plus, he could still make sounds with them on. So he'd gone for the regular sex toy rout and used a gag that had a rubber piece that stuck inside the mouth. The length was just enough to lightly gag him, but not enough to make him vomit. Of course, it was large so it pressed down completely on his tongue and left his jaw open wide. Making sounds like that was more than difficult.

"I hope you rested while I was gone. We have a long weekend planned for us, my little fox kit. I'm just going to eat you up…" Kabuto muttered as he leaned over and spun the lock combination into the frame.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Naruto was shaking violently by the time the frame closed again over him. The white jacket over his arms was liberally splattered with blood and his scalp was burning. He hadn't been able to see what he was doing, but he very obviously had cut open part of his scalp and sewed something into it. He hadn't bothered with any pain medications or numbing agents. The entire time, he'd left the gag in his mouth and had used that thing to keep his head from moving while he did whatever it was. He kept telling him that it wasn't a big deal, he was a doctor after all, and it would heal up quite nicely once it was all done. He shifted uncomfortably and whined a little because he wanted this thing out of his bladder. He wanted out of this horror altogether, that's all he wanted. As it was, he let the darkness enclose him and wondered how long he had been in this hell. It crashed into him hard as he realized it hadn't even been two whole days…

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"Hey, Iruka, how's it going?" Kakashi asked as he saw the other officer wander by.

"Good, actually, you look beat, though…" Iruka said, stopping and standing in the doorway. "What's going on?"

Kakashi sighed. "Remember that kid that was being stalked for so long?"

"Yeah, you said that he'd laid off and that worried you…ah, he didn't get killed did he?" Iruka said with a grimace.

"No, but he was abducted Thursday night after his show at The Station. No one saw anything, no cameras caught anything, we're at a wall," he said and rubbed the eye he kept covered with the bandana. He glanced over and saw a call had been transferred to him. He sighed and picked it up.

"Inspector Hatake," he answered with a sigh.

"Inspector. My name is Itachi Uchiha," the cultured sounding voice on the other end answered.

"Uchiha-san. You must be the young man Sasuke Uchiha's brother," Kakashi said as he glanced up at Iruka.

"Yes, I am. I was calling on behalf of my little brother, with an offer to assist with the abduction of his friend, the Uzamaki boy."

Kakashi blinked, mostly in disbelief. Firstly, Itachi Uchiha ran Sharingan Corporation, an optical technology and security manufacturer. They specialized in cameras, surveillance, and more. In fact the Sharingan Corporation was responsible for a lot of the technology that was used in the police department. So that was the least unbelievable part of him calling. The other part was that Itachi Uchiha was rumored to head a small group that was whispered about in the shadows of the crime world. Akatasuki was rumored to be a small branch of Yakuza operations that specialized in white collar crime and extortion. However, the fact that Itachi Uchiha was completely impervious to their attempts to investigate him, the organized crime division had opted to let them be until something more came up.

"Oh, well, any help would be appreciated. We seem to have hit a standstill on the investigation," he said with a cautious look to Iruka.

"My brother left one of the cards with me to send through my lab. I did find some interesting abnormalities, but I am unsure if they will help in this case. However, I would like to meet with you and discuss it," Itachi said with a flat tone.

Kakashi nodded. "Of course, are you free tomorrow? I could come to Sharingan Tower."

"Ten am?" Itachi confirmed.

"Ten am."

The line cut off and Kakashi looked at Iruka. "Well, that is either very good, or very bad."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"And you're sure this is the stuff that four eyed idiot said might be used?" Sasuke said as he looked at the list the girls had given him.

"You know, if you don't like the answers I find, go find your own. What I looked up on the internet matches what he told us, so I don't see why it would be much different," Sakura said with an exasperated sigh.

Sasuke glared at both of them and back at the list. They were sitting in a local pho place near where Sasuke's house was. It was Saturday morning and they were nowhere closer to understanding what was happening. The clock was ticking, and Sasuke knew it.

"You realize that after forty eight hours, the chances he's alive…" Sasuke began.

"Don't say it," Ino said, chewing her lip for a second.

"Be realistic, stupid," Sasuke snapped. "We have to figure this out. The idiot police and my idiot brother have gotten nothing in two days. This has been going on for a year. There is no way that this person left no clues along the way. He had to have messed up somewhere along the way."

Ino looked up at the TV and gasped. "Oh dear…"

Sasuke turned around for a moment. He snapped his head to the counter. "Turn that up!"

The boy behind the counter started to argue but saw the look on the angry boy's face and nodded, picking up the remote and increasing the volume.

"…police request that if anyone has information on the whereabouts of local Tokyo University student Naruto Uzamaki, please contact them immediately. An inside source at the police station claims that the nineteen year old economics major, pictured here with the band he headlines called Shinobi Five, was abducted Thursday evening. Details are being kept close to the vest, but the police believe that the student is not a runaway. Sources state that Uzamaki has been the victim of a stalker for several months prior to this."

The female reporter's face panned out and a male news anchor was sitting at a desk. "Tragic, we do hope that someone out there has information on the young man. Such vibrant boy…"

"Turn it off," Sasuke snapped and without having to look, the boy behind the counter turned it off.

Ino had tears in her eyes, and Sakura was just staring at the blank TV. Sasuke growled under his breath and picked up the paper the girls had given him. "Crying isn't going to fucking find him, idiots," he said and stormed out of the place.

He was so angry he couldn't stand it, to be honest. Seeing Itachi the day before should have done something, but it hadn't. All he'd gotten was that his brother was meeting with the Inspector this morning. He shoved his hands into his pants and headed toward his house. He couldn't believe that after everything, he didn't protect him. No one did. He was still taken away, and that…

Sasuke stopped and stared at the door of his house. There was a card and an instant photo taped to it. He reached up and pulled them both off. The card was facing up, the instant photo down. The card read, "My Little Fox" and Sasuke flipped the instant photo over and stared. For a moment he didn't really understand what he was looking at. Then he realized with dawning horror that it was Naruto's head, well, a photo of the top of his head, where it looked like someone had sewn a pair of fox ears into his scalp. The skin was sutured over some sort of anchors and it was obviously freshly done, still beading blood.