Author's Note: Yes I stole this from The Astronaut's Wife. Everybody knows I own nothing. Thanks to Fenrir and Kazuo for reviewing. Enjoy!
Chapter 3: The Water Trap
The room was perfect for his idea. The house appeared to have been literally cut in half diagonally, exposing the kitchen and the upstairs bathroom to the elements. He didn't go too far to find it, he didn't dare stray to far from his original position, figuring they'd come back here to the last place they'd seen him. Naruto went immediately to the sink, and was delighted to find that not only was it shallow and clogged, but the tap still worked. He turned it on full blast, then set about finding away to get upstairs.
There wasn't much by way of appliances left in the house, but he did manage to dig an old toaster out of a pile of junk. Setting this on its side on the floor, careful to let the water already spilling from the sink slosh into it and dampen the interior, he tied the plug to an old wooden kitchen chair he'd set in the middle of the floor. Akamaru, seeming to sense that the water on the floor was not a good thing, staying put on the counter where Naruto had left him, nosing interestedly at the old dishes stacked around him. Naruto had to move him only once, to look in all the drawer in the kitchen for the last thing he needed. For a few moments he thought he might have to move the chair over to the plug, but at last he found what he was looking for, an extension cord. The lights worked, miraculously, so he could assume that the complex probably had its own power system that was thankfully still going. Plugging in the extension cord and taking up the plug from the toaster, he picked up Akamaru and went to sit in the chair, the dog in his lap and his feet dangling in the water, waiting for them to return.
He didn't have to wait long. After only a few minutes he heard the barking of dogs and the sound of running feet. Akamaru whined, afraid, but Naruto whispered for him to be quiet, running a comforting hand along his back hushing him gently. He stared off into space, running over the plan in his mind and letting the sound of running water sooth him.
"This way!" called someone outside, making both boy and dog flinch, but neither of them moved. For this to work they needed to be found. A small, pitiful wall was all that stopped the kitchen from being right outside, but a great gap in the space between where the kitchen wall ended and it began made for easy entry.
This was where the four of them entered.
"Brat!" growled the woman, the three males filing in behind her, "get him!"
"Ah ah ah!" Naruto cautioned, holding up the two ends of wire in his hands, "don't come any closer!"
"Or what?" the woman snapped, eyeing the toaster and the water on the floor,"you'll make some toast?"
"I'll fry myself," Naruto told her, his tone as hard and as brave as he could make it, "and your leader's puppy along with me! You too, if you get too close!"
That gave the four of them pause. Naruto watched as the woman's eyes took in the toaster, the water, the two ends of wire in Naruto's hands, his feet in the water, and Akamaru in his lap. She was quiet a moment, thinking, weighing her options, but at the same time telling Naruto all he needed to know. The dog was indeed of value to her. She wouldn't do anything to put him in danger.
"You won't do it!" she challenged, taking a step forward but not daring to touch the water. "What would be the point, if you kill yourself?!"
"Is it really any worse than what you're going to do to me?!" Naruto called back, fighting to keep his voice from breaking.
"So what's your plan then?" the woman scoffed, her eyes darting left and right as she tried to find a way to get to him without stepping in the water. She wasn't stupid, she knew the behavior of a cornered animal when she saw it.
"So, you're just gonna sit there all night?" the woman continued, taunting him, "You're just gonna wait for me to find a way to shut the power off or get around the water? Is that your lousy plan?!"
"No." said Naruto simply.
That was when the water fell.
The water from the sink and bathtub upstairs at last began to pour over the edge of the ruined floor. Being that the woman, her three comrades and all their dogs were standing directly underneath it, it wasn't a surprise that they all got drenched and suddenly found themselves standing and soaked in the water. Before they realized just where they were standing, however, Naruto jerked his feet out of the water, and plugged in the toaster.
There was an awful buzzing and screaming, the smell of burning hair and charred flesh quickly permeating the room. Naruto held the quivering Akamaru tightly to his chest, His whole body scrunched up on the chair, waiting for the noise to die down.
When at last it did he unplugged the toaster and tossed the now harmless wires to the floor. Testing the water first with his toe, he found it to be safe and stepped down off the chair, Akamaru still clutched in his arms, to survey the room.
The four ANBU, and their dogs, were lying in the water. None of them were moving, but all of them were smoking slightly and sending off a smell of burnt meat and hair. Naruto went and turned off the tap, setting Akamaru down in the water, which was still streaming gently from upstairs, and then turned back to the four ninja on the floor. They looked dead. That didn't mean they were dead. At last he worked up the courage to tiptoe up to the leader and, bending down, he felt for a pulse. He found one, but it was weak, and he decided that if she wasn't dead, she was certainly incapacitated. He turned to simply leave them there, then a thought struck him. Bending down again, he extracted her weapons' pouch from her smoking body and peered inside. Plenty of kunai and shuriken,all sharp, and far more promising looking paper bombs. He discarded the pouch Tsubaki had given him and attached the new one, going to each of the other three and taking as many weapons as he could fit into it. He could only fit three more kunai and seven more shuriken, but he shoved some more in his pockets and took all the paper bombs, not wanting to waste a single one. He also found a lighter in the pocket of one of the men, and kept that as well.
Akamaru yipped happily, playing in the shallow water, and Naruto laughed. Standing up again he picked up the dog, then clambered on top of the dry counter.
"You know, Akamaru," Naruto said, scratching behind the dog's ears absently, "I think . . . it may be Kiba, that they're giving you to."
Akamaru gave him a worried look and whined nervously, as though to ask who that was, but Naruto shook his head.
"Nah, he's not bad. Not yet at least. I think those goons might be relatives of his, though. I hope he doesn't turn out like them."
Akamaru nodded vigorously in agreement, nosing at his hand when Naruto tried to stop petting him. Naruto laughed again and went back to scratching the dog's ears.
"Those marks on their cheeks, they look like the ones he has," he continued, staring off into space, "and they're not the only ones either. I saw people that look like my other friends, Shikamaru and Choji, from school. Do you think they could be members of their families? Do you think that . . . maybe they're the same?"
Akamaru whined as if to say he didn't know.
"You know I can't keep you, right?" Naruto asked suddenly, lifting the dog up to his eye level.
Akamaru whined and yipped as if in protest, though if it was to the way he was being held or the suggestion, or both, Naruto couldn't tell. He sighed, setting the dog in his lap again.
"I need to get you to a vet," he sighed wearily, "and then back to Kiba. You're gonna be his dog now, I suppose." He looked down at Akamaru again. "You know, if you're a good dog," Naruto told him, frowning thoughtfully,"maybe he'll be a good master. Maybe he won't turn out to be cruel like her, even if she is his family. Maybe, if you two are good friends, then he'll be ok."
Akamaru seemed to take a moment to consider this, then barked happily as if to say that seemed like sound logic to him. Naruto smiled.
"Hey!" he said after a moment, "You came here with her, didn't you!?"
Akamaru yipped the affirmative.
"Then, do you know the way back?" Naruto asked curiously, "Can you get us out of here, boy?"
Akamaru barked again, wagging his tail. He jumped down off the counter, Naruto right behind him, and went out to the street. He sniffed the air a little getting his bearings, then turned back to Naruto and barked. Follow me!
Naruto couldn't contain his grin as he took off down the street after Akamaru. It was over! Soon he'd be at home, safe in bed with his door locked and a cup of instant ramen in the microwave. He thought he might have had a cup of his favorite kind in the back of the cabinet, miso with little bits of fish cake all mixed in with the . . .
BANG!