Chapter Six

Nosy Neighbors

Sunday, early morning hours

"Akamaru!" Kiba shouted as he tramped around the lot behind the six plex that he lived. "Akamaru! Where are you?" he grumbled as he shoved his hands in his pockets. The dog was usually so good at coming when he was called… He honestly didn't want to be tromping around outside at three am.

Akamaru came bounding around the side of the building with something in his mouth. Kiba frowned because he wasn't walking straight and he could hear him whimpering. He took off and dropped to his knees by the enormous Great Pyrenees. He was drooling and Kiba knew he'd eaten something he shouldn't so he ushered him into the front room where he ran for the phone to call his mom.

"I need you over at my place!" he said.

"What is it?" she said, coming awake immediately.

"Akamaru, he's sick, like he's eaten something, he's drooling a bunch and acting weird!" he said, starting to panic. He knew that he was getting close to six years old, which for a dog his size was pretty old. Still, he didn't want his dog to die from eating something poison.

"Alright, you still have that stuff to make him vomit I gave you when he ate that bunch of poison plant?" she asked and he could hear her getting dressed. "Give him one dose, and keep an eye on him."

Kiba did as she asked, and before long he was sitting on the floor in the bathroom with him throwing up everything he'd eaten. At first he panicked, because there was blood in the vomit. Then he realized that he'd eaten something that had blood on it. He looked up as his mom came into the bathroom.

"How is he?" she asked.

"Well, he threw up this…" he muttered and looked up at her.

She knelt and looked. "That's…like medical gauze…where the hell would he have gotten something like that from?" she asked, looking up at him. "It isn't like there's medical facilities that would toss out something like this around. And this is soaked, like used as a sponge, not just a person treating a wound…"

Kiba nodded. "Is he going to be okay?"

"Let me take him with me, I'll take him to the clinic in the morning, and I'll stay up with him tonight, you've got class in the morning," she said and picked up the enormous dog easily despite her slight stature.

He stood up, running a hand through his dark hair. "Okay, mom, let me know if something happens, okay?"

He watched her leave and then went back out himself with his phone. He flipped the light on and started to look around for any trashcans that were knocked over. He didn't find any knocked over, but he did find the lid off one of them toward the other end of the building. He frowned, shining the light inside. It looked like it might have been the one Kiba's dog had been in. There was more of the gauze inside it. He looked around, because there was no way to tell where it came from. Their six plex and the one across the alley all put their trash in the bins here. He wondered if he should do anything… He put the lid on and headed back to his place, far too worried about Akamaru to even think of worrying over someone dumping blood soaked bandages in a trash can. Still, he had enough thought to text his mother and tell him what he'd found.

He didn't really want to touch the bandages, who knew if they had been used on someone with some sort of infection, so he left it and went back to his apartment. He picked up the phone and reported the incident. A couple hours later, he got a call telling him that the foot patrolman had looked into it, and had found no bloody gauze or anything in the trash. Kiba put down the phone and wondered what the hell was going on. Someone would have had to go out there and take it out of the trash after he'd been out there. So did that mean that it was someone in their row? He didn't know what to make of that.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Sunday

Kimimaro didn't know what to do. He'd seen Kabuto leave and come back, but there was no indication of what he did or why he left. He sighed and rolled away from the wheelchair, wondering again if he could get anyone to listen to him. The Uchiha boy maybe would listen, but he hadn't figured out how to contact him. If he told Haku what he wanted to do, he'd laugh at him. While Haku was fixing breakfast, he got on his laptop and looked up the band again. He managed to find the band's page on a social media network. There was a contact button. He clicked it and hoped this worked.

I know you are looking for your friend. Please, everyone thinks I'm crazy, but I think something is happening with my neighbor, and it started the day your friend disappeared. It can't be a coincidence.

He sent it and hoped that the one that ran the page was the Uchiha boy. He turned and headed back into the living room. Haku was in good mood, it seemed, but then he usually was when Zabuza came to visit.

"Are you still moping, Kimi?" Haku asked with a half smile.

"I wish you would listen to me. I know something is happening," he said as he stirred his tea.

Haku sighed, running a hand over his head. "I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon, Kimi, so I'll be gone for a couple hours. Do you think you'll be okay without me? It's my yearly hormone appointment, so I need to make it."

Ever since he'd been with Kimimaro, he'd let himself go without hiding his features like he did when he left. The softness of his face, and the gentle curve of his chest always made people stop and stare. He was rather androgynous looking, but then, most people with Klinefelter's syndrome were. He had refused the hormone therapy from a young age despite the doctors' insistence he had to do it. Zabuza had supported him, though, and for that he was grateful. Just because he didn't look like others didn't mean he had to change himself.

"I'll be fine, Haku," Kimimaro said and smiled at him. When Haku stared at him. "I promise I won't do anything while you're gone."

Haku nodded, hoping that Kimimaro kept that promise. Zabuza came to get him around one, and Kimimaro just sat at the window, waiting for something, anything. He didn't expect someone to knock on the door at almost three o'clock. He rolled himself over and opened it to see a very angry looking boy standing there. It took him a second to recognize the boy from the photographs of the band.

"You said you might have something," Sasuke said, glaring at him.

"Yeah, come in," Kimimaro said and wheeled backward to let him in.

Sasuke had checked the messages this morning, but hadn't told anyone he was going to find the person. Finding the guy that sent the message had been easy enough, and he really had no patience to wait for longer to try and find his phone number first. He decided to just show up and talk to him. He'd rather look someone in the eye to know if they were lying to him or not.

"Sasuke, right?" Kimimaro said as he rolled into the living room to the sofa. "Come, sit down."

Sasuke walked over, hands shoved into his pockets as he walked over. "Yeah."

"Kimimaro is my name, and um, I just, I'm not having any luck getting anyone to listen to me. I thought it was funny that I started noticing something weird with my neighbor the same night your friend disappeared," Kimimaro said.

"Tell me," Sasuke said and waited as Kimimaro gave him the whole story. Sasuke listened without comment and when he finished was quiet a long time.

"So you think this guy next door is doing something weird. And it started the day Naruto disappeared."

Kimimaro nodded. "Yeah, I know I've been wrong in the past, but it is possible, right? That this guy is the guy that took your friend?"

Sasuke wasn't sure what to think. The time frames were right. Could it be? "I'm going to talk to the detective. If this guy does have Naruto, I can't go barging in like I want to. He could hurt him more, and I don't want that. I'll try and do it the right way."

Without another word, Sasuke left, leaving the other guy to his own devices. He walked all the way to Kakashi's office and beat on his door.

Kakashi opened it with a sigh. "Sasuke, I haven't…"

"Look, I got this message from a guy named Kimimaro."

"Kimi…the paranoid guy in the wheelchair?" Kakashi asked with a sigh. "Come in," he said, slighty exasperated. He sat down and looked over the desk at him.

"Kimimaro calls us a lot on unfounded claims. He's a bit paranoid, and I doubt…" Kakashi began.

"Look, the time frames match up, and I'm annoyed as shit you didn't realize it. The same day this Kimimaro called in about his neighbor dragging a body bag into his house, Naruto went missing. This guy is in the medical program at the school we go to. He has been bringing in large packages lately. And Kimimaro has been hearing strange noises from there. He also goes out at random times and comes back empty handed," Sasuke said with narrowed eyes at him.

Kakashi sighed. "Okay, okay, I'll see what I can do. Iruka went into the place, and he didn't find anything out of place, Sasuke. Hearsay isn't enough for me to walk into someone's home, especially after Iruka has already been in there and found nothing."

Sasuke growled. "Alright, I'll give you time. But tell me you agree that this matches up."

Kakashi nodded. "Yeah, with the missing medical supplies at the teaching hospital, yes, it does. But this guy isn't leaving any substantial clues."

Sasuke nodded and went on back to his routines. Kakashi tried to do something, anything, to find out if what Kimimaro and now Sasuke thought about this Kabuto was right. The problem was, all of a sudden, the clues stopped coming for almost three months.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Sunday

Naruto was in hell, he was sure of it now. He couldn't sit anymore without leaning forward and supporting himself with his hands. The metal plates made sure that he couldn't move backward. The tail Kabuto had attached was annoying, and the collar he'd put on him was frustratingly tight. Now, he sat on the floor in the living room, naked other than the attachments and the collar he'd put on him. Kabuto sat on his sofa reading as though it was perfectly natural for him to have a human being sitting on his floor like this.

The muzzle he'd put on Naruto kept him from making more than a muffled noise, and Kabuto told him that now he was his pet, so he had to act like it. Naruto didn't know what to do. This was the first time he'd brought him out and made him sit like this. He stared at the paw looking mitts on his hands and hoped that this was as far as he went. He didn't want his legs amputated. He didn't want that at all, so he had to make sure he did what he was told. If that other version of him came back, Naruto was sure he'd end up dead.

Kabuto looked down and smiled at his Kogitsune. "You've been so good, come on, we'll have a treat," he said as he stood up and beaconed for him to follow.

Naruto had no choice but to crawl. His ankles were still throbbing and useless. He followed him into the kitchen and sat back down and looked up at him. "I know it is hard, my Kogitsune, but you'll get used to this, I promise. Before long, you won't remember being human!" he said with glee.

Immediately, Naruto felt the tears rise to his eyes. This was what he wanted? To make him forget what it was like being a person? He watched as he began to cook something. After a while, he put a bowl down on the floor with some sort of broth and finely minced noodles or something. It was more than humiliating, it was dehumanizing to think that he wanted him to actually eat like this. Kabuto reached behind his head and took the muzzle off and smiled at him.

"Here, Kogitsune. I'm sure you'd like something like this rather than just being fed through the tube," Kabuto said with a smile.

"I want to go home," Naruto said as tears started down his cheeks again. "Please, just let me go, I…"

The look on Kabuto's face changed again and the next thing he realized he was writhing on the floor. It was a shock collar, he had put a shock collar on him…

"What was that, Kogitsune? Pets shouldn't talk at all, especially not like that. Do I need to do something about your voice too?" Kabuto said as he pushed the button again, sending electricity through the collar again.

Naruto gasped as the electricity stopped and just stared at him. What…what was he supposed to do… If he talked he was going to take his voice, now? He couldn't help the sob that came with that realization and then nearly screamed as the collar shocked him again. The world faded for a bit and then he blinked to realize he was in the basement again. He was chained in the big shower, this time, without a blanket or a cover. He shivered as he tried to curl into a ball against the wall. He didn't know what to do.

Time blended together. Thankfully, Kabuto didn't do any other alterations. Naruto's scalp healed, and the surgery site on his tailbone healed up as well. His mouth felt funny without his teeth, but he got used to it. He figured out quickly how to avoid Kabuto's punishments, but now and then he did something that led to him being shocked or tied down in the basement again. A couple times, Kabuto had used a belt on him that left him in pain for a couple days afterward for not doing what he was told.

Kabuto wanted a pet, and Naruto did everything to give him what he wanted. He had to do so or he was afraid he would end up dying at his hands. He ate from the bowl when he gave it to him, he drank from the water fountain thing he'd bought. Naruto knew his ankles were healing, though, and he was happy about that. His last hope was to escape once he could walk again.

That thought, however, was dashed when Kabuto came home one day with a package. He opened it and pulled out some sort of reddish colored material He then used them to wrap Naruto's calves to his thighs, forcing him to walk on his knees. That in itself was horrifically painful, Naruto realized, but it seemed Kabuto had a solution for that too. He attached a sort of kneepad that looked like it had a paw attached to it. So now, he really did look like he had four feet when he walked. It took some time to get used to it, and he couldn't get used to feeling of having his legs bound in that fashion. Because of that, he tried to avoid moving anywhere unless he had to.

Luckily, he hadn't seen the version of his captor he called the Predator.

After a while, though, he began to feel somewhat happy. He enjoyed the routines, and soon, he wasn't forced to stay in the cage during the day. Kabuto left him out in the upstairs and he'd stay there all day, spending most of it curled on the bed. Slowly, steadily, thoughts of escaping began to fade. His world became his master. Even his master's name began to fade from his thoughts. He loved his master. His master loved him.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Three Months Later

Kakashi couldn't believe that nothing, absolutely nothing, had come up in three months. No supplies had gone missing from the teaching hospital. No new photographs had been left on the band members' doors. Even the Kimimaro lead had gone dry. They'd been unable to get a way to go back in, but they'd put his place under surveillance. Nothing happened. There were no odd noises. There were no unusual happenings. There was nothing strange at all. Even Kimimaro admitted that he had not seen or heard anything at all.

Sasuke came by each week to find out if anything had happened, and every time, Kakashi had to send him on his way. His fears were that this was an incredibly bad sign. He was afraid this meant that Naruto had died due to the alterations this crazy bastard was forcing on him. It was the only thing that made sense. He didn't tell Sasuke this because the boy was beside himself over this as it was.

Sasuke had just left Kakashi again when his phone rang. Kakashi picked it up. "Hatake here," he said.

"It's Tsunade, we've had bunch of supplies go missing, and we caught the thief on security cameras. You need to see this," she said.

Kakashi headed out to the teaching hospital and made his way to the security room. Tsunade was waiting for him at the door. She shook her head. "This is impossible," she said as she led him into the room.

She started the tape, a feed outside one of the supply closets. Everything seemed fine, then the feed went blurry like something had been placed over the camera. There was a vague person shape that picked the lock on the door and went into the supply room. A few seconds later the same shape exited with a backpack. The haze over the camera was gone and all they caught sight of was a pale colored hand as the person shape left.

"They knew about the camera?" Kakashi said in shock. No one knew about the cameras. They were hidden, even.

"That's what I mean. Someone knew about the camera. There is no way I can think of anyone could know about it. This is impossible," Tsunade said with a sigh.

"Either we have another thief, or Naruto's still alive and his captor ran out of supplies," Kakashi said.

Tsunade nodded. "I've kept a close eye on the grad student, Kabuto, too. He's done nothing out of line at all. He participates at school events, he does things that all the other TAs do, and he never misses his classes. I don't know; maybe it was coincidence after all."

Kakashi sighed. He didn't believe in coincidence.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Kimimaro watched out the window again. Kabuto hadn't done anything suspicious in so long that he was almost convinced that he had been wrong after all. The only other odd thing had happened three months ago when his neighbor Kiba's dog had gotten sick. Nothing at all since then. He was about to turn and go to bed when he heard what could only be described as an inhuman shriek.

"Haku!" he called out, but he apparently didn't hear him. He went to the door and wheeled himself outside, dusk just now setting in. He heard another scream and sped his way toward Kabuto's house because he was sure now that was where it was coming from.

The door opened and Kimimaro gasped as he saw someone trying to get out the door. Then Kabuto was standing behind the blonde haired boy that was trying to escape. Kabuto tilted his head to the side and reached down, grabbing the boy by the back of the head and then slamming his head into the frame of the door. The boy crumpled and Kabuto was coming toward Kimimaro.

Kimimaro tried to roll backward, but he felt his chair was grabbed and he looked up and saw Kabuto smile.

"You are too nosy for your own good, Kimimaro, now you'll regret it," Kabuto said, and there was a look on his face that Kimimaro had never seen.

"No, no, just don't…" he stammered but the world blacked out as Kabuto landed a blow to the side of his head.

Kimimaro woke in what he knew to be the basement of the place next door. There was a ball gag in his mouth and he was sitting in a shower of some sort. His hands were handcuffed and hooked to a bar above his head. He glanced over to see he wasn't alone. The blond that had been trying to escape was lying on the floor of the shower beside him. He was hooked to a bar on the floor by a chain that was attached to a thick collar with a box on the side.

He looked up as he heard the stairs creaking.

"You know, now I have a problem," he heard Kabuto's voice before he saw him. "I didn't intend to have to deal with anyone else, but Kogitsune just had to have a problem when I told him I was going to take his legs off at the knee. Why would it bother him? I mean, I'm pretty sure his calf muscles are atrophied after the last few months with them bound. It just isn't aesthetically right, not without taking his legs off, you know, just not quite right," he said as he knelt and ruffled the blond hair on the other boy.

Kimimaro could now see that the boy had ears on his head, and now that he was close, he saw that he was completely naked and had a bushy looking fox tail. His hands looked like they were covered with something that looked like paws. His legs were bent and covered with some sort of thing that kept his lower legs attached to his thighs.

Kimimaro muttered "why" through the gag and Kabuto smiled.

"I wanted a pet, you know," Kabuto said as he smiled. "But he's been naughty, so he's going to stay down here tonight with you. I know you have some problems with your condition. So I won't leave you here long. Just until I decide what to do with you. I might just put you out of your misery, I mean, it wold be a kindness. The kind of pain you'll endure before you die…I can't imagine that kind of future."

Kabuto smiled and went back up the stairs, leaving Kimimaro with the boy, Naruto had been his name. He had been right. This whole time, he'd been right, and this boy was next door, suffering. He deserved to die. He started as he heard movement He looked over to see Naruto had woken up. He pushed himself into a sitting position, well semi-sitting, using his arms to support him as he leaned back on his legs. He turned and looked at Kimimaro in surprise. He then looked around the room and sighed. He put his head down on his arms then and watched Kimimaro.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"Kimimaro, did you say something?" Haku said as he came down the stairs. He looked around the room in confusion. "Kimi?" he called as he walked over to check the bathroom. "Kimi?" he called up the stairs as he went up, finding him not up there either. He frowned and went down to check the basement now. He was gone.

Haku ran to the door and threw it open, calling for him. "Kimi!" he yelled as he ran up and down the sidewalk. A few minutes later, Kiba came out with Akamaru.

"Haku, what's going on?" Kiba said as Akamaru tried to lick him.

"Kimimaro is gone! He…he was in his wheelchair. I heard him say my name, but I was in the bathroom, and when I got out to see what he needed, he was gone!" Haku said, in near panic.

"Okay, okay, here, Akamaru can sniff him out, got something of his?" Kiba said, putting a gentle hand on Haku's shoulder.

A few seconds later, after sniffing one of Kimimaro's blankets, Akamaru followed his scent right to Kabuto's door. Just as they got there, Kabuto was opening the door. He stared at the two men and the dog in confusion.

"Do you need something?" he asked, pulling his door shut and locking it. "I was heading up to the school for an event…so I'm in a hurry if you need something from me."

Haku stared at him. "Kimimaro is missing, he just disappeared!" Haku said. "I thought he might have come over here for some reason.

Kabuto shook his head. "No, haven't seen him," he said and shrugged as he went down the steps leaving the two men watching him. Both turned and stared at the door.

Kiba knelt and touched a spot on the frame after Kabuto was out of sight. He looked at his finger to see it was stained red. He looked at Haku. "Blood?" he asked.

"I'm calling Inspector Hatake…" he said as he took off back home.

Kiba stared at Akamaru. He kept sniffing around the door. He knew that meant that Kimimaro had gone in there. But there was no way to prove that.