Scent

Kiba thinks very highly of his nose.

He's the very best at locating anyone, within a few meters, on scent alone. The few people who can rival this skill, Hatake Kakashi and Kiba's elder sister, Hana; say that given some years of training, the youngest Inuzuka child will eventually exceed every expectation. They call Kiba Inuzuka is a genius; a prodigy. He can find the things that others can't. Kiba knows where a person has been, what they've done and what they have tried to hide. He's a seeker, because he always finds what he's looking for, and more. He is indeed a special man.

Kiba knows that he smells of beasts. Of course, that's natural. His family bloodline is built on canines and their abilities. In a way, he smells of pure animal instinct, one recognized by any beast or human. A familiar musky scent. Some people cringe in disgust, but most find that it's a warm, comfortable smell. Kiba doesn't really mind, he's lived with it for long enough. It's rather mundane, and consoling.

He is quite unlike Shino. Shino's scent is one of darkness and decay, but it's not a bad aura, Kiba decides. As long as you stay on his good side, it can be a very welcoming scent. Shino's smell is constant; it seems to never change, no matter the stress or emotion he might be feeling. Whether he is splattered with blood – his own or of others, his overpowering smell remains the same, of shadows and decomposition. It's always consistent.

Hyuuga Hinata is like a ghost. Her scent is so faint, being constantly overwhelmed by the people around her. It's more than likely that if she was not on his team, Kiba might have never known she existed. He can't decide if it's a good quality, to remain hidden in a crowd, or a bad one, always being in the shadows of the powerful. She smells of wood, which seems to always blend in until it no longer exists. Cedar, willow, pine – the scents mix together until all Kiba can recognize is a forest, filled with leaves and life. She's quiet, very quiet; and easy to overlook, but always there.

Nara Shikamaru can be compared to Hinatas woody scent, but his smell is far stronger, and a little less pure. His scent is far more relaxed than any other ninja Kiba's known, consisting of grass and fresh flowers. The flowers, are not overwhelming, instead complimenting his already earthy aura. There is no anxiety, always cool and collected. Unnaturally, Kiba can more often than not catch the essence of barbeque potatoe chips. He blames Chouji for that development. Shikamaru is calm, without a hint of anxiety.

The Nara's best friend, unsurprisingly, smells of food. Kiba can identify the spices in Chouji's last meal – cinnamon, thyme, pepper, oregano. He feels that sometimes, if he were able to taste the air around the other boy like a snake, he would detect a five course meal. Like Shikamaru, he doesn't care for much – his team mates are at the top of the list, closely followed by a never wavering adoration for the village. Snacks are a very close third. He likes Chouji well enough, aside from he fact that being in his presense too long creates a never ending hunger in Kiba's belly.

Team Ten's final member doesn't fit with the other two. She's like the last puzzle piece that you try to force into the remaining spot, and whatever you try, the piece will not fit. The Yamanaka girl reeks of flowers; the smell of her alone sometimes makes him feel ill because the air around her is so strong. She seems - feels - artificial. By scent alone, you would not guess that she was a kunoichi, because there is no aura of danger or fear around her. There's hardly a trace of blood, only her own, and if Kiba had not known what she was, he would say that Yamanaka was a civilian; an ordinary teenage girl. Ino is one of the few kunoichi who is unfamiliar with the violence of the battlefield – her role is to gather information, not to fight.

Her best friend though, Haruno Sakura, could be her polar opposite. Sakura smells different than the rest. She smells of blood – they all do, but most of it's not her own. Kiba can practically see the mutilated bodies and dying shinobi in his mind's eye, the sort of people she treats on a regular basis. There are days her scent is overwhelming, enough to make the strongest man ill. But Kiba respects her for it, for her strength at facing the unfaceable. She is a shinobi, through to her soul, and he has never doubted it. Sakura smells of blood, gore and nightmares, but she tries to hide it, usually behind too-strong perfume. Sometimes it's a floral scent, sometimes it's of fruits, but it rarely conceals what her profession is. There are rare occasions when all he can detect is the powerful decimating scent of bleach, an effort to block out the aura of mortality and sadness. He can still smell the death on her. In some ways, Sakura is like her mentor. Both carry an air of blood and antiseptic, but Tsunade accepts it willingly. Kiba believes that she thinks that it completes her, a medic to the core.

Jiraiya's managed to get past the fact that the Hokage deals with the dying and hurt almost daily. He's consistently around, teasing and playing the well endowed woman. He smells like water, contaminated with slime and algae. There are faint traces of expensive soaps and salt, which Kiba suspects is from hanging around bathhouses for extended periods of time. Once a dirty old man, always a dirty old man.

Then there's Orochimaru, the very last of the Great Sannin. The very aura of that man made him want to retch, even just at the thought. The snake man smells of chemicals and wrongness, in the most despicable of ways. Orochimaru reeks of death, not in a somewhat comforting, kind way that medics are. His death is cold, a lonely death, and medics are comforting, a beacon on the road home. Kiba suspects that his body is rotting; slowly decaying even as that man continues to walk, speak and kill.

Uchiha Sasuke's adopted a similar scent, but far less sinister. He smells lonely, because there is no influence of others in his scent, devoid of a scent of his own. There is Sasuke, dark, cold and angry and there is his master, tainted and evil. In a way, Sasuke's scent is the purest of them all, because there's no one else around that has influenced his distinct signature. And yet, at the same time, the Uchiha is tainted, his soul has been painted black. Years ago, Kiba knows that he wasn't like this – a young child, just like the rest of them. He was warmer, more human. Now, Sasuke's the wolf among sheep, and there is no way he will hide from Inuzuka Kiba. He's become a monster.

Hatake Kakashi has managed to perfect the ability to change his scent. One day, the silver haired man will smell of salt water, which stings Kibas nose and makes his eyes water. The next, he might smell of old paper and mothballs. Kiba doesn't like him, for the lone fact that Kakashi can disappear off the face of the earth, and never be seen again until he wishes to be found. This is the one man who has managed to escape his nose.

Kakashi-sama's self-proclaimed rival is somewhat of a simple man. Gai is straightforward, and smells exactly as a stereotypical shinobi should – of sweat and hard work. His pupil, Lee is the same. Both have the air of raw power, muscles and hard work. No pain, no gain.

Their team mates are quite different; Tenten reeks of metal and polish, while Hyuuga Neji persistently smells of cleanliness. The Hyuuga has an air of soap, and Kiba can't help but laugh at him, not to his face of course; simply because Neji appears as someone who would smell of sweat and blood like his comrades. He's the odd man out. For Tenten, she's the classical kunoichi. Almost always, Kiba can sniff out the metal of her weapons, and identify if she's recently cleaned them.

His own master, Kurenai has changed. In Team 8's earlier years, she had the crisp scent of mixed cinnamon and apples. Kiba liked it, most likely for the fact that her aura reminded him of home. And yet, home was of animals, dogs and wildness alike. Why would cinnamon and apples bring it to mind? There is no correlation, but somehow, the remainder stays in his mind. Now, there's a hint of cut grass and sweets. He suspects it's the baby's fault - though really, he thinks, her aura is better than it has ever been.

Asuma, her lover; was consistently surrounded by a fog of cigarette smoke. Strangely, Kiba could rarely detect much more from the man – there were the occasional traces of soaps, tree sap, and the odd spice, but his aura was composed of the sweet scent of tobacco. Kiba can't help but sneeze in his presence, as the smoke tickles his nose.

Lastly, there is Sai. Kiba doesn't like him – the boy is a fake. Fake smiles, fake laughs, fake fake fake. The scent of ink irritates him when exposed to it for a time, because he tends to overlap his surrounding smells. There is no blood, no death, soap or nature on him, and to Kiba, it's unnatural. That boy is a fake, and Kiba doesn't like him. Sai is there, he is corporeal, present, but he leaves a gap where he goes. Sai is scentless, a hole in a world of smells.

Konoha. Konoha is unusual, because he can't name the villages scent. Everyone blends together, creating an aura of oneness and familiarity. There is Ichiraku, the ramen hut, smelling strongly of rice noodles and spices. Across the street, there are the bathhouses of soap and cleanliness. The school smells of paper, children and ink. Konoha smells like a home.

There isn't much that can hide from Inuzuka Kiba.

-fin-

A/N: I was bored. And I like Kiba. He's kind of a badass. :D