Title: Good Dog

Fandom: Naruto

Characters: Naruto, Asuma, Sakura, Ino

Story collection: Bits and Pieces: Horror Edition

Word count: 844

Warnings: talks of: bitten off fingers

Urban Legend: The Choking Dog

AN: Last one for the time being. Back to editing things.

Groaning as he closed his front door behind him, Naruto brushed his hair out of his face and dropped the keys onto the hall table he had. Smiling, he locked the door, pulling the curtains shut on either side and looking over his living room. After having to deal with the Crying Baby killer, he had moved along with Kurenai and Asuma, choosing a suburb that was closer to the city center and their work.

He had also picked up a beautiful Doberman who was just too sweet to be much of a guard dog like his mother had been. While Dobermans were sweet dogs when trained and socialized right, a guard dog who greeted an intruder wasn't the best kind of dog for protection, but he had fallen in love with the beautiful male.

That had been close to six months ago and he loved his days off. During those days, he would get up earlier than normal and go for a slow bike ride to the nearby dog park and let Maru socialize. Kurenai would often join him on the bike rides. And for jogs before work and the walks after work. He had even put in a doggy door that would electronically open for Maru.

And usually, Maru would be happily barking and greeting him at the door, which made Naruto frown when the dog wasn't there. "Maru?" Naruto called, heading for the living room where Maru usually laid in his bed when not in the backyard. He found him on the floor, not so much choking as hacking on something caught in his throat. "Maru!" he cried out, running over, and falling to his knees.

He ignored the fact that the floor was hard wood, and he had most likely bruised his knees, too intent on forcing his dog's mouth open. Looking into Maru's mouth and down his throat, he saw something stuck, but it was too far down for him to grab.

Grunting, he swept Maru up into his arms and ran for the door, stopping on to grab his keys and wallet before he unlocked and ran out to the door. He took two seconds to lock his door before running down the steps. Putting his dog into the front passenger side seat, he climbed into the car and started it, pulling out, yanking his seat belt on as he drove, heading for the emergency vet that he had found when he had gotten Maru.

Parking in the first space that he could, uncaring that he was crooked, he rushed in with Maru in his arms, uncaring that he hadn't locked his car and just needing to get his dog seen. "Hey! I need some help! Maru is choking on something that I can't get to!" he called. A nurse looked out from the back room, took one look at the choking dog, cursed, and ran out to collect him.

"Sakura, take his information! We got Maru!" Temari called out, a pink haired woman coming out with a wane smile.

"Hey, Naruto. What happened?" Sakura asked as she sat down at the computer, logging in to take information.

"No idea," Naruto admitted, shrugging as he watched Ino rush to the back rooms with Temari and Maru. "I came home, and found that he was choking on something. I pried his mouth open and saw that there was something suck in his throat, and I couldn't get to it," he admitted. Sakura nodded and took down the rest of his information, smiling when he realized that he had forgotten Maru's cards. "Let me go back home real fast to get that. Then I'll come pay for the emergency bill," he said. "Since it's likely they're having to put him lightly under."

"Most likely he'll be spending a night with us," Sakura admitted, smiling softly. Naruto hummed and left with a promise to be back in a few minutes. As his car pulled out of the parking lot and headed to the house, Ino came running out, holding a specimen jar in one gloved hand, pulling down her mask.

"Where's Naruto?" she asked, eyes wide. Sakura, staring at the jar, pointed out the door. Ino cursed and lunged for the phone, picking it up and dialing by memory. "Naruto? Shit! Don't go in there! That thing that you saw stuck? It was a human finger. Three of them we think, but one got fully swallowed. There's an intruder! We all know how sweet Maru is," she nearly yelled into the phone. She pulled the headset away from her ear and frowned at it as she was hung up on. "He said he had to call a cop and to take care of Maru…"

Sakura whimpered. "Can you take that and put it somewhere else?" she whined. An hour later, Naruto was returning, complaining about how he seemed to attract idiot killers and intruders, escorted by a slightly amused Asuma. Sakura just pointed them to the back for the fingers, the vet office learning that the intruder was the brother of the last owners, intent on raiding their house for anything that he could sell on the way out of town.

Apparently, his motives had also included hurting whoever was there since he had had an aluminum bat, and that had set off Maru's protective instincts. Naruto called him a good boy and promised him a brand new toothbrush bone once he was free from the vets. Maru just soaked up all the attention, wagging his tail.