Don’t Mess with the Ninja Puppy! #6 Read online

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

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  Text copyright © 2014 by Nancy Krulik. Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Sebastien Braun. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

  ISBN 978-0-698-19313-0

  Version_1

  For Amanda, who sees the magic in everything!—NK

  For Aidan—SB

  Contents

  Copyright

  Title Page

  Dedication

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  Fun Facts about Sparky’s Adventures in Tokyo

  About the Author

  CHAPTER 1

  Clickety, clackety. Jingle, jangle.

  My paws start bouncing. My tail starts wagging. I know what those sounds mean.

  My Josh is home! He’s at the door!

  I leap off the couch and run toward the door.

  Whoops. My tail accidentally knocked something hard and clunky off the table.

  Oops. My paws step right on that hard-and-clunky something.

  Suddenly that big box against the wall turns on. The tiny two-legs inside the box start talking to me. Where did they come from?

  I can’t think about that now. Josh is home. That’s all I can think about.

  I run over and start scratching at the door. “Hurry, Josh!” I bark to him.

  The clickety-clackety things keep jingle jangling at the door.

  I keep scratching.

  Jingle, jangle.

  Scratchity, scratch, scratch.

  The door opens. And there he is! My Josh.

  My tail wags harder. “Josh!” I bark happily. “Josh! Jo—”

  Wait a minute. Who’s that with Josh? It’s a girl two-leg. She’s been here before. She and Josh like to play catch in our backyard. Sometimes they let me play. But not always.

  “Are you going to play with me today?” I bark to the girl two-leg. “Are you?”

  “Sparky, stop!” Josh yells at me.

  I don’t understand a lot of two-leg words. But I understand those two. So I stop barking.

  Josh pets me on the head and starts talking to the girl two-leg. It sounds like, “Sophie. Blah, blah, blah. Sophie. Blah, blah, blah. Sophie.”

  I think the two-leg must be called Sophie.

  Sophie sits down on the couch. She smiles at Josh and says something that sounds like, “Josh, come.”

  Josh walks over to her.

  Then, Sophie pats the couch and says, “Sit.”

  Josh sits beside her on the couch.

  This is very strange. Usually Josh is the one who says things like come and sit. And I’m the one who comes and sits beside him. I do that because Josh is in charge of me. I wonder if Sophie is in charge of Josh?

  Josh and Sophie sit on the couch for a long, long time. They say a lot of two-leg things I do not understand. They watch the teeny, tiny two-legs who live inside the box.

  Then Sophie stands up. She says some more two-leg words. The only word I understand is go. And Josh goes—right toward the door.

  Wow. I guess Sophie is in charge.

  I start to follow Josh and Sophie outside. But Josh says, “Sparky, stay.”

  I stop following. I know what stay means.

  As Josh closes the door behind him, I jump up onto the couch and look out the window. I watch as Josh and Sophie get into the metal machine with the four round paws and go away.

  Wiggle, waggle, boo. I’m alone with nothing to do.

  Wait a minute! I know something I can do all by myself. Something really, really fun.

  I squeeze my way through my doggie door and out into our backyard. I race over to Josh’s flower bed. And I start to dig. Diggety, dig, dig. I’m a great digger.

  Dirt flies everywhere. I’m digging a hole. A deep, deep hole. Diggety, dig . . .

  Wow! Look at that!

  It’s a bone. A bright, beautiful, sparkly bone. Sitting right in the middle of my hole.

  Sniffety, sniff, sniff. This bone smells good. Like chicken, beef, and sausage all rolled into one.

  I just have to take a bite . . . Chomp!

  Wiggle, waggle, whew. I feel dizzy—like my insides are spinning all around—but my outsides are standing still. Stars are twinkling in front of my eyes—even though it’s daytime! All around me I smell food—fried chicken, salmon, roast beef. But there isn’t any food in sight.

  And then . . .

  Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!

  CHAPTER 2

  The kabooming stops.

  I look around. I’m definitely not in my yard anymore. I can tell because there are lots of trees here. I only have one tree in my yard.

  There are lots of two-legs here, too. There’s only one two-leg in my yard— Josh. And maybe, sometimes, Sophie.

  What’s going on? How did I get here?

  Wait a minute. I know. It was my bone. My magic bone. I chomped down on it, and kaboom! Here I am.

  Wherever here is.

  This isn’t the first time my magic bone has kaboomed me somewhere. It’s done it before. Like the time it took me all the way to London. Talk about a yummy, yum, yum place! You wouldn’t believe all the sausage, fish, and chips the two-legs dropped on the ground! And every dog knows: If it’s on the floor, it’s dog food!

  Another time, my magic bone kaboomed me to Rome! The meatballs in Rome were delicious! But the cats were really mean. Which didn’t surprise me. I know a cat at home named Queenie who is the meanest thing on four paws.

  Once I chomped into my bone and ended up in Switzerland. It snowed so hard there I could barely see. Luckily for me, my nose could still sniff, because it sniffed out some yummy, yum, yum cheese.

  I sure hope they have some yummy food in this place. I can’t wait to start exploring.

  But first, I have to bury my bone. I don’t want some other dog finding it. I’m going to need it again. My magic bone is the only way I can get back to Josh.

  I carry my bone over to a big tree that is right across from a giant water bowl. There’s water shooting up from the middle of the water bowl.

  I’m going to bury my bone next to this tree. That way, when it’s time for me to dig up my bone and go home, all I will have to do is look for the tree that is right a
cross from the water that sprays up into the sky.

  I start digging. Dirt flies. The hole gets deeper and deeper.

  I drop my bone into the hole and push the dirt right back over it. Now my bone is completely hidden. No one will ever find it—except me, of course!

  All that digging was hard work. It’s time to play. But is there anyone here for me to play with?

  I see a group of two-legs over on the grass. They’re smiling. And laughing. And dancing around.

  I know how to dance. I learned when the magic bone kaboomed me to Hawaii. A two-leg named Lolani took me to her hula-dance school. Lolani made me wear grass around my belly when I danced. That was strange. But the dancing was fun.

  “Me too! Me too!” I bark as I run over to the group of dancing two-legs.

  I stand on my hind legs, and I twirl around.

  The two-legs laugh.

  I keep twirling. Fast. Faster. Fastest. Twirl, twirl, twirl. Wiggle, waggle, whoa . . . I’m getting dizzy.

  I stop twirling.

  But everything around me keeps on twirling. And swirling. And whirling.

  Splat. I fall down on my belly.

  The two-legs laugh harder.

  “That wasn’t funny,” I bark. “You’re being mean.”

  Sniff, sniff, sniff.

  Hey! There’s someone sniffing my butt! Sniff, sniff, sniff.

  “Are you okay?”

  I turn around and come face-to-face . . . with a big Akita. Well, face-to-neck, really. The Akita is very tall.

  “Yeah,” I tell her. “I just was twirling too much.”

  The Akita stares at me for a minute. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

  I shake my head. “I’m from Josh’s house,” I say.

  “Where’s Josh’s house?” she asks me.

  “Next to Josh’s yard,” I tell her. “Whose yard is this?”

  “This isn’t a yard,” the Akita says. “It’s a park. Yoyogi Park.”

  “Yo . . . yo . . . gi,” I say slowly. “That’s a funny name.”

  The Akita bares her teeth and growls. “No, it’s not. It’s a beautiful name for a beautiful park.”

  Wiggle, waggle, uh-oh! I don’t want to make this Akita angry. She’s got sharp teeth and a scary look in her eyes.

  “It’s a very beautiful park,” I agree quickly. “Um . . . my name is Sparky. What’s yours?”

  The Akita smiles, a little. “I’m Nanami,” she says. “Kon’nichiwa, Sparky.”

  “Kon’nich-what?” I ask.

  “Kon’nichiwa,” she says again. “That’s how we say hello here in Tokyo.”

  Tokyo! That must be the name of this place.

  “Kon’nichiwa,” I slowly say back to Nanami.

  Grumble. Rumble. Suddenly, my tummy starts talking. I speak tummy. So I know “grumble, rumble,” means “feed me!”

  “Do two-legs share food with dogs in Tokyo?” I ask Nanami. “They do in some places. In Rome, some dogs get to sit right at the table with their two-legs.”

  “Rome?” Nanami asks. “Is that where Josh’s house is?”

  I shake my head. “No. I went to Rome because my mag—”

  Whoops. I stop talking right away. I don’t want to tell Nanami about my magic bone. That’s my secret.

  “Um . . . no,” I say quickly. “I just was in Rome once.”

  “Oh,” Nanami says. “Well, here some two-legs share. I know a place where you can get food. Do you want to go with me?”

  My tail starts wagging. My paws get ready to run. “Wiggle, waggle, woo-hoo! I sure do!”

  CHAPTER 3

  Owie, ow, ow!

  Nanami and I haven’t been running long when I hear a terrible noise. It’s loud and screechy. And it hurts my ears.

  I cover my ears with my paws. But I can still hear the noise. Owie, ow, ow!

  “What’s that?” I ask Nanami.

  “A two-leg howling in the karaoke club.” Nanami points to a building with open windows.

  “Kara-whatee club?” I ask.

  “Karaoke club,” Nanami repeats. “It’s a place where two-legs howl while music plays.”

  I don’t know what music is, but I know howling when I hear it.

  “See?” Nanami says. “There’s a two-leg howling up there in the front.”

  I peek through one of the open doors. Sure enough, there’s a two-leg standing up. She’s squawking. And squeaking. It’s awful.

  And then, suddenly, the squeaking and squawking stops.

  “Hooray!” I bark happily.

  The two-legs inside begin to hit their paws together. It makes a funny sound. Clap. Clap. Clap.

  I also try to hit my front paws together, but they don’t make any sounds.

  Just then, a two-leg comes out of the karaoke club. Uh-oh. I know what that means. He’s probably mad at me for barking hooray when the howling stopped. He’s going to shoo Nanami and me away.

  But wait. What’s that? He’s carrying a bowl in his hands. And he’s smiling.

  The two-leg puts the bowl onto the ground. He reaches out his paw.

  I don’t know if this two-leg is really my friend. Two-legs can be sneaky. A two-leg in London once pretended to be my friend. He turned out to be a dogcatcher!

  Nanami is brave. She goes over and sniffs the two-leg’s paw. I think maybe she knows him. She begins to gobble up something from the bowl.

  If I don’t get over there, she’s gonna gobble it all up before I can get any.

  I run over to the bowl. Sniffety, sniff, sniff. It smells fishy, like salmon kibble. I stick my snout in the bowl and grab a piece with my teeth.

  This isn’t hard like my kibble. It’s squishy.

  “This squishy fishy is yummy, yum, yum,” I tell Nanami.

  “It’s called sashimi,” Nanami explains. “Raw fish.”

  I take another piece of the squishy fishy. And another.

  While I’m chewing, Nanami finishes off what’s left in the bowl. She looks up and smiles at the two-leg who brought the food.

  I smile at him, too. Maybe he will get us more squishy fishy.

  But the two-leg doesn’t go back inside. Boo! No more squishy fishy for me.

  “Sorry, Sparky,” Nanami says. “I have to go to work now. Sayonara.”

  I don’t know for sure what sayonara means, but I bet it’s good-bye. Because Nanami runs off—leaving me behind.

  And then, suddenly, I hear that awful squeaking and squawking again.

  Oh no. Not more karaoke! My ears can’t take it.

  “Wait up!” I call after Nanami. “I’m coming with you.”

  CHAPTER 4

  I try to keep up with Nanami. But it’s hard. Two-legs on skinny metal machines with only two round paws keep coming between us. They don’t move fast. But there are a lot of them. And they don’t stop for dogs.

  I don’t want to stop, either. I don’t want to lose Nanami. So I race right past the shops that smell like yummy fish. I swerve around the two-legs on their slow-moving metal machines. And I . . .

  Uh-oh.

  I don’t see Nanami anymore.

  I’m all alone. I don’t know where I am. I don’t know how to get back to Yoyogi Park. How am I going to find my magic bone?

  “Hey, you!”

  Suddenly, I hear someone. It’s not Nanami.

  Slowly, I turn around. I see three dogs—two boys and a girl.

  “Kon’nichiwa,” I say, and I smile proudly. I remembered how they say hello here.

  The three dogs do not smile back. They do not say kon’nichiwa. They bare their teeth and growl. At me.

  Did I say it wrong?

  I smile wider and try to look friendly. “My name’s Sparky. What’s yours?”

  “Saya,” the girl
dog growls.

  “Takito,” the chubby dog says.

  “Kaito,” the third dog grumbles.

  “We’re the Ninja Dogs!” they all growl at the same time.

  “The what-a dogs?” I ask.

  The dogs glare and show me their teeth—again.

  “Where is she?” Saya demands.

  “Where is who?” I reply.

  “Don’t play dumb,” Takito says.

  “He’s not playing dumb,” Kaito snarls. “He really is dumb if he thinks he can outsmart the Ninja Dogs.”

  Kaito has something stuck inside his collar. Something bright, beautiful, and sparkly. Something that smells meaty. Like fried chicken, salmon, and roast beef all rolled into one.

  Oh no! Kaito has my magic bone! And by the way it’s tucked tightly into his collar, I can tell that he’s holding it prisoner.

  CHAPTER 5

  “Where did you get that b-bone?” I ask nervously.

  “We’re asking the questions,” Kaito says, stepping closer to me. “What did you do with our queen?”

  There’s a queen who lives in a big house in London. And there’s Queenie, the cat who lives in a yard near me. But I haven’t met any queens in Tokyo.

  “I don’t know your queen,” I say.

  “You’re lying,” Saya says.

  The dogs puff up their chests and show me their sharp teeth.

  I’m trying to not look scared. But a big yellow puddle is forming under me. That happens whenever I’m afraid.

  “We demand you return our queen, Nanami,” Kaito says.

  “Nanami is your queen?” I ask.

  “Yeah. And we want her back,” Kaito says.

  My tail tucks itself between my legs. It’s scared. And so am I. But Kaito has my bone. So I take a deep breath and try to sound brave.

  “I didn’t take anyone,” I say. “But you took my bone. I want it back.”

  Kaito laughs. “Not so fast, Wizard Dog.”

  Wizard dog? I’ve heard of shepherds, terriers, and collies. But never wizards.