Refined and Rebellious

Genesis

"Kiba, wake up. You're supposed to be helping your sister today." Tsume shook her son in attempts to wake him. She gave Akamaru a wink, he knew what to do. Akamaru wagged his tail and jumped on his partner, giving him a heavy dose of slobbery dog kisses.

"I'm up, I'm up!" Kiba exclaimed, trying to wipe the slobber off his face. He began his morning routine by stepping in the shower, rinsing all of Akamaru's spit and fur off his chiseled body. After he finished eating his breakfast he made his way to the vet's office, Akamaru didn't like going with him, Kiba didn't blame him. Kiba hated seeing sick and injured animals, he didn't understand how his sister could do it. Kiba had been helping her out a lot lately, since she was planning her wedding. She was starting to turn into a "bridezilla". She had her good days and she had her bad days, Kiba hoped today would be a good day, since the last four were bad.

He walked in and greeted his sister with a warm hug, she shrugged him off and told him to work the front desk today. It was a pretty quiet day, only one person came in because their dog had gotten fleas. Later in the day, Hana had cooled down and said she was going to go to dinner with her fiance, Ryuu, and that she'd come back to close. Kiba nodded, knowing that disagreeing with her would be suicide. Not even five minutes after she left, the door jingled signaling a customer's entry. Kiba looked up from his amature drawings to find a distressed girl around his age walk in, she was half carrying, half dragging what seemed to be a large cat. The cat had a couple puncture wounds, but what seemed to be the real problem was dehydration and exhaustion. Kiba looked up at the girl, her features were slim and graceful, like a cat. She had plenty of curves, and very shapely legs. Her face looked soft, and she had big, worried yellow/green eyes with slits for pupils, like a cat's. Her long, black hair was tied into a low ponytail and almost looked like a cat's tail. Kiba was so disoriented by her cat-like appearance he hadn't greeted the potential customer.

She cleared her throat, "Excuse me, can you help me? My panther needs medical attention." Her smooth voice threatened to put Kiba to sleep, but instead of making a fool of himself, if it wasn't too late for that, he helped her carry the large cat to an examination table. He gave the panther an IV and examined some of it's wounds.

"My sister runs this place, she's coming back for close. Could you give me any information on what happened?" Kiba asked, picking up a pen to write down any details that might be of use. When nothing but silence followed, Kiba looked up questioningly at the girl. She rubbed her misty eyes and said, "I don't know."

Kiba sighed, sometimes people come in with injured animals and don't want to explain what happened in case they get in trouble for it. Whether it be dog fighting, abusive pet owners, or just an embarrassing accident. Although they check up on animals with a history of abuse, all information given is confidential.

"We're not going to report any of this information, it's all confidential. We only ask because information leads up to a better treatment for the animal." Kiba said, as if repeating the lines from a manual.

"I don't know what happened because I don't remember." The girl said in a frustrated tone, then continued, "I woke up in the forest outside this village, I was laying on Ruka and we were covered in blood. I couldn't remember what had happened, all I knew was that we needed to be safe. Ruka led me to this village but collapsed as we were being led to the Hokage's office. The person leading me said to come here and report to the Hokage later. I think before I woke up in the forest I was running from someone. And… I think maybe… there was poison possibly involv-" The girl clutched her head as if she were stopping it from exploding. She winced and Kiba ran to catch her as he saw her knees buckle, he carried her to a chair and told her to relax as he brought her a cup of water. She downed the first one as soon as it touched her lips, he brought her five more until she finally seemed sated. However she still appeared to be in extreme pain as she refused to open her eyes. Kiba wished she would, he liked looking at them.

"Ruka." The girl whispered, looking desperately into Kiba's eyes. Kiba cursed, running back to the examination room to tend to the cat. He did as much as he could, which wasn't much. He cleaned and bandaged the wounds, after taking blood samples for poison. He then left to sit with the girl and comfort her. He knew how scary it was when your companion was in critical condition.

"My name's Inuzuka Kiba, what's yours?" Kiba abashedly smiled, scratching the back of his head. The girl bit her lip for a few seconds before finally recalling her name,

"My name is Ren." She brightly smiled, as if she had just made a big accomplishment.

"Well it's nice to meet you Ren." Kiba smiled and continued the conversation, "Ruka is in a stable condition now, I took some blood samples to check for poison, but we will have to wait for my sister Hana to take a look at her. I know it hurts to try and recall any information of your past, but would you mind telling me the things about yourself that you do know? You'll probably have to repeat this information to the Hokage later." Kiba softly smiled, patiently waiting for her. Ren was grateful to have met someone as patient and thoughtful as Kiba instead of dealing with the Hokage or other officials. It was stressful enough having an injured companion and no memory, Ruka was the only thing in her memory she really remembered.

"Well I know my name is Ren and I'm a part of a very wealthy clan. Our clan uses cats as our partners in battle. Ruka was given to me at a very early age, perhaps when I was around seven. Ruka was a newborn when she was given to me. I think I'm a part of one of the main families in the clan, I remember there being a large amount of pressure on me. That's all I can really think about at the moment." Ren finished, wishing she could remember something that could lead her to remembering the rest of her life.

Kiba nodded as asked, "So you're a ninja? Do you know what rank you are? Genin, Chunin, Jounin?"

Ren twisted her mouth around as she thought about it. "I don't think we ranked our ninja with specific names, but I remember being trained a lot by the elders, and I didn't fight alongside people my age. Also, I remember a lot being expected of me."

Kiba nodded, perhaps she could serve Konoha until she regained her memory. Kiba was about to ask another question until he heard the bell from the door jingle. Kiba walked over to let her sister know she might not be closing for a while. Kiba awkwardly watched as she kissed Ryuu and smiled, at least she wasn't in a bad mood.

"Ready to go, Kiba? Did we have any more patients?" Hana asked, ready to turn off all the lights and lock the doors.

"Sorry sis, someone walked in just as you left. She has a panther, I gave her an IV because she was dehydrated. But it seems that she has been stabbed with some kind of weapon dipped in poison. Hana's posture and smile faltered as she sighed,

"A cat?"

"I know, but we're the only ones that can really help her." Kiba encouraged, as Hana walked to the examination room to find Ren stroking Ruka's silky fur. Kiba briefed Hana on Ren's situation and showed her the blood tests as she started working on Ruka. Hana nodded glad Kiba was of some use,

"Kiba take Ren to the Hokage before it gets too late," Hana then looked to Ren, "I'll take good care of Ruka, I'm not used to working on cats as big as her, but I'm the most skilled vet here. She's safe with me" Ren nodded and looked to Kiba for guidance.