Kiyoshi came downstairs with Giggles hanging from his hands, infatuated by the puppy's eyes to the point of stupidity. Kakashi and Pakkun were patiently waiting for the insincerely late boy to stop petting the puppy before doing the deed.
"Can you ask him where he was when the incident started?" asked Kakashi.
"Who said it's a 'he'?" asked everyone simultaniously.
Kakashi took the awkwardness of the situation out by rubbing the back of his own head, "Hai, hai, my mistake. you have my apologies," he said to the puppy.
"Arf!" The little creature happily exclaimed.
"Apology accepted," translated Pakkun.
Several barks followed, frequently interrupted by long gaps of silence. "Grarf!"
"She said somebody was calling out to her," explained Pakkun, "She was at home when it happened, there were loud yells all over Konoha for the past few weeks, I always ignored them, but that time I decided to check it out."
Kiyoshi turned to Kakashi. He hadn't heard anything, but he wasn't around for too long, and perhaps Kakashi knew something about this phenomenon. "Did you hear any yells?"
Kakashi shook his head, "No, there was nothing. Perhaps somebody had been working a genjutsu?"
Roku shook her head, "Impossible. I was home all the time and would've sensed it. And besides, who would spend several weeks targeting Giggles?" she smirked, "Giggles isn't the only one to have attacked your new Hokage."
Kiyoshi over at her in shock, "How did you know?"
"It was my job to know back in the day. I still have habits of watching the village and the happenings of life. You have no idea how much information people hold without knowing it. Pieces of information put together always reveal something very valuable."
Kakashi smiled; he wasn't surprised. He decided to resume the task "So how is it that Giggles can hear these yells and we can't?"
Kiyoshi thought about it for a moment, "Let's figure it out after we hear the full story. There might be clues."
Another series of low grumbles and barks came from the puppy. Pakkun looked up at Kiyoshi and Kakashi, "She says she can't remember anything after ten minutes of following the yells..."
"Arf!" Interrupted Giggles.
Pakkun resumed, "She said she could only remember scratches on a wooden floor and very strong scents of dog blood and that blond kid's odor."
"Just as I thought," said Kiyoshi, "Somebody is trying brainwashing dogs into hating Naruto."
Kakashi sighed and shot an elastic band at the blond boy. "You didn't need me to come along. You can do this on your own..."
"You're right," agreed Kiyoshi, "I didn't need you. But I did need Pakkun." Kiyoshi turned to the chubby dog and said, "Thanks for helping us, Pakkun."
"Oi, no problem!" Pakkun replied, "But next time will cost you a limb."
"Seriously?"
"No, but a doggie treat would be nice,"
Kiyoshi turned to Roku, "Thanks for the tea."
"Ah, no problem, kiddo," smiled the old woman.
Kakashi and Kiyoshi walked out and went through the obstacle course once again before reaching the street and stopping.
"What do you think?" asked Kakashi.
Kiyoshi yawned and rubbed his eyes, "Well, we know that whoever the culprit is, he or she is within a ten minute walk's radius around this house. We also now that the floor is scratched up. And finally, we know that he has a way of calling out to dogs and only dogs."
Kakashi smiled, "That visit was very informative. What do you want to do now?"
"Well," said Kiyoshi, "We could start searching, we could start listing suspects, we could look for a method to talk to dogs without anyone else knowing it, or we could find a dog, wait for the yell to happen again and have it lead us to our culprit."
"That's a no-brainer," said Kakashi, "Let's find ourselves a stray dog."
Kiyoshi smiled, "But that's too easy. We have plenty of clues to go by without having to do a stakeout."
"You seem to be having fun," suggested Kakashi.
Kiyoshi looked at the sky, "I wonder..."
"So what are you going to do?"
Kiyoshi thought about it, rubbing his own chin, "I need a shave," he thought. He then looked up at Kakashi, "I got a great idea."
"Want to share?"
"Well, I've already figured this whole out, and you probably already had it figured out a while back."
Kakashi shrugged, "So What?"
"Let's give Naruto a crack at this case. Because if we consider the culprit's intent, Naruto is much more suited for busting him open."
"It's up to you," shrugged Kakashi, "I don't really understand the intent."
"Neither do I," agreed Kiyoshi, "I can only guess, but to me it looks as though there could only be one intent." He paused, "Then again, I don't know this village all that much."
Kakashi turned to walk away, "Whatever the case may be, Naruto is the target of the culprit, therefore he's involved. If you're going to leave it to Naruto, be there to back him up if things get out of hand."
"That goes without say," agreed Kiyoshi, "But it seems you don't know Naruto's power yet."
"I do," Kakashi corrected him, "I think it's you that's underestimating the fox."
"What do you mean?"
Kakashi stopped walking away and turned to Kiyoshi, "The nine-tails is a crafty creature. The ichibi has a funky personality, and the nibi has its arrogance, in the same way the nine-tails's personality is that of a clever fox."
"Are you suggesting that Naruto doesn't have it under control?"
Kakashi looked up, "I wonder..."
Kiyoshi took some exercise out of jumping from roof-top to roof-top of Konoha's houses on his way to visit Naruto. It had been a long and boring week, but Saturday was coming up, and he would have some rest from his usual lazy naps; sneaking out of Konoha was much simpler during the weekends.
"Shit!" He remembered, "Naruto's birthday is coming up!"
For the rest of the roof-tops Kiyoshi didn't contemplate his weekend training session, but tried to come up with a gift of Naruto's liking. "Need to consult Hinata," He concluded.
Naruto had finished a fresh pile of paper-like crap that was so uncomfortably piled all over his desk several hours beforehand. He was now sipping some peach-aroma'd tea that Hinata had given him.
Kiyoshi walked in the office to find his whiskered friend's wide grin kissing the rim of the tea-cup. "I got some information for you."
Naruto looked up, "But you didn't solve the case?"
"I thought you might want to do it."
Naruto paused for a moment, "Why'd you think that?"
"Would you not?"
Naruto paused for another moment, "Eh, sure. I'm done here for now anyways."
Kiyoshi pulled up a chair, "Alright. I found out that dogs are being brainwashed into hating you. Another dog told me..."
"Whoa!" interrupted Naruto, "You speak dog?"
Kiyoshi froze, "Don't be stupid."
"Hai. I'll just assume that Pakkun translated for you."
Kiyoshi shook off the ironic truth and continued with the information. "The dog told me that there were scents of dog blood, your scent, and there was also a scratched up floor."
"But how can someone brainwash dogs with just that? What'd they do? Walk around kidnapping puppies?"
"He's getting smart," thought Kiyoshi. "You're absolutely correct. There's no way anyone could do something like that without somehow attracting the dogs. According to the puppy that I interviewed, somebody was yelling out to it from across Konoha."
"Nobody yells around here, it's been very quiet and peaceful lately."
"That much I figured," said Kiyoshi. "I also have an area, within which the one that's responsible operates."
Without hesitation, Naruto replied, "Nah, he wouldn't be there. He wouldn't brainwash dogs using blood in the same place where he lives."
"Nice rationalization," agreed Kiyoshi, "But how do you know it's a guy?"
Naruto grinned, "Kiba's a guy last time I checked."
A/N: Well, sorry for another wait. And sorry for this chapter being half-assed (needed to set up the story for what comes next). And sorry for the attitude my Microsoft Word is giving me (spelling mistakes may still occur). And sorry for being sorry so much.
Merry christmas to those who celebrate it, and happy whatever it is you celebrate, because I'm too stupid and ignorant to know anything else.