Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Rating: T, but will probably end up M.
A/N: This was originally supposed to be a collaboration story with another author who wanted to do a Suigetsu/Karin & Ino/Kiba pairing fic, but he dropped the ball after I had already written a few chapters. I'm not completely finished with the story, but I know the direction I'm taking with it. Again, I'll try and not leave it unfinished. Please, enjoy.
HOT PURSUIT
Chapter One: After 'em
Wailing sirens woke up Ino from a fitful sleep; groggily, bleary-eyed, she tracked the search lights' intense beams as they blinked from her window, and then her door burst open as Dad barreled into her room. In the half-light, she saw his pale face and sensed his distress.
"Sweetpea, get dressed. We've got an emergency," he said.
That was all. He slammed shut the door as he exited, and she listened to his quick, heavy footfalls as he returned to his own room. What. The. Hell. And she'd been in the middle of a killer dream, too. Sighing, she dressed and tied up her combat boots. After fixing her hair, she slipped on her flak-jacket. Then she checked her pouch and strapped on her kunai holster.
Downstairs, she yawned in her hand. "What's going…hey!"
Dad grabbed her arm and hauled her behind him; she winced from the sharp yank. She had no other choice but to move her leaden feet, but she did twist from his painful grip. "Dad! What's happening?"
"There's time to explain on the way," he said as they jogged through the front door. Dad didn't even stop to lock the door before bounding towards the roof-line. She trailed Dad to the rooftops, using the lip of a trellis and a veranda to get there, and raced after him, her heartbeat stirring from the feel of tension in the nighttime air.
Dad spoke over his shoulder at her. "Sasuke's cohort, Karin No Name, has been contained in a high-security area of the prison since her capture."
Ino knew about the mission into Iron country that had taken two combined teams, plus Hatake Kakashi and Sakura's mysterious new commander, Yamato, away from Konoha. They'd returned with a prisoner, who'd been in contact with Sasuke.
As they sprinted, he continued, "She's been broken out of prison. The guards were killed…some drowned by who we think is another associate of Sasuke's, a Hidden Mist shinobi by the name of Hozuki Suigetsu."
He paused to negotiate a rather difficult section of town, where the roofs were higher and lower and different distances from each other. She continued to follow as quickly as she dared, but she stumbled once or twice, banging her knee on hardened, dark tile. The sirens continued their shrill wailing; lights flashed to and fro over the cityscape of the village. Was this a dream? she thought. Am I still sleeping? It was very science-fiction.
"We assume Hozuki has taken Karin and they will attempt a rendezvous with Sasuke." Dad chuckled darkly. "Our only problem is that we don't know where that rendezvous will take place and what will happen afterwards."
"This is a search and recover mission," Ino concluded.
"Yes. Lady Hokage has expressed that we attempt to bring back Karin. Karin has withheld valuable knowledge about not only Sasuke's whereabouts and plans, but also details pertaining to Kabuto. Konoha needs her information."
"Dad, why didn't we, you know, suck the information from her mind? We're capable of it."
"That was the next stage of things. We just ran out of time, sweetpea," he answered. "We're gathering at the Hokage Tower for team assignments and objectives. And Ino," a meaningful glance in her direction, "if you're teamed with Kiba and Akamaru, don't let personal feelings sour the mission."
"What?" There had never been a time that she and Inuzuka had gotten along.
"Remember what you thought of Shikamaru and Chouji the first time you met them? Time will even out his roughness," Dad said, referring to Kiba. "We've got to hurry. Each second we waste is a second longer the fugitive has to escape."
Together, without further talking, but with exceptional fuming on her part, Ino and her father arrived at the tower. Lady Hokage was on a raised platform, frowning and looking for the world like she was ready to kill someone, and Shikamaru's father, Nara Shikaku, stood with her. A few of the other clans she recognized were there, but the majority of them were her cousins and of the Inuzuka clan.
"FALL IN LINE, SOLDIERS!" Lady Hokage's shout boomed out over the sirens. Everyone responded to her tone, forming up two ranks that extended crosswise along the roof. The hustle fell eerily silent, and Ino's heart leapt to her throat. "We've got a fugitive on the run with extensive and valued information regarding Uchiha Sasuke and Yakushi Kabuto. We want her alive and if not, use the Yamanaka clan techniques to forcibly take the information. Each of you will be paired in teams of one Inuzuka and animal companion and one Yamanaka."
Shikaku continued where Lady Hokage left off. "It is believed that another shinobi has helped her, but if he was acting alone or with a group is unknown. We have dossiers available for each team. I will call the names of the members for each team. You will come forth to the first point," he gestured to a table manned by four shinobi, "to get your dossier. You will then continue to Point Two," another gesture to a second table like the first, "and receive your objectives, where to begin your search, and a pack of necessary items that may aid you. We do not know how long this search will last, only that there can be one result: the fugitive's capture. I will begin reading the names of the pairings."
As the names were read, the sirens cut off, and the sudden silence left ringing in Ino's ears. Shikaku's bass voice echoed off the angles of the Hokage Tower, and as he quickly read, she had a premonition of this mission taking her from Konoha and of her having to deal with Inuzuka Kiba.
Lo and behold, when Shikaku read off, "Yamanaka Ino, Inuzuka Kiba, and his partner, Akamaru!" she felt the hot wash of annoyance.
Gritting her teeth, Ino stepped forward to Point One and turned to wait for Kiba to move his ass. She watched as he walked, fluidly, with definite animal grace, sorta hurrying, yet not, and the bear that was Akamaru beside him. One, Kiba wore a flak-jacket that molded to his broadened shoulders, and two, she hated that stupid smirk on his face. Annoyed that he sauntered up, she crossed her arms, and when he came to a halt in front of her, she huffed.
"Let's getting going, Inuzuka," she said. "We don't have all night."
"Sure thing, cupcake."
Irritating her right off the bat? Check that. Her first instinct was to slap him or punch him in the gut, but she resisted and whipped around to the table. Already another team approached. She accepted the dossier and strode to the next point where she again accepted a pack, plus a few more documents in the form of a scroll, sidestepping to an out-of-the-way corner to organize everything.
She bristled when Kiba took the scroll from her- -casually slipped it from her hands- -and opened it. His eyes studied it for a moment, and then he said, "Our designated point is half a klick west of the prison. Looks like our friend put up a few false trails. You gonna handle the pack, or should I?"
"I'll handle it," she replied. "We need to study these dossiers. Otherwise, we might walk into an ambush we could've avoided."
"Do we have a comm unit?"
Ino fished around in the pack, and did, indeed, find comms. She handed one to Kiba, and then put on and adjusted the neck strap comfortably. Kiba put the scroll into an open pocket in his flak-jacket, and Ino tucked away the dossiers. Together, they exited the Hokage Tower to their destination on the western point of the prison.
Several teams had beaten them there, but Kiba bypassed them and stopped at a deserted spot alongside the building, which was looking…watery. Deep puddles expanded out around the yard, muddy tracks crisscrossed where there was sidewalk. Ino did her best to sidestep the mess as she'd bought these shoes a week ago and didn't want them disgusting so soon.
Kiba put his forefinger and middle finger together in a concentration sign in front of his nose. His eyes closed, then he said, "I can pick up Karin's scent inside the building and there's this other scent over everything else. It's, like, in the water. Or the water itself, maybe."
Ino glanced at him. "You know what she smells like?"
"I was on the mission to track Sasuke and she was with him." He rolled his eyes. "Duh."
"Shut up and navigate," she answered, having forgotten that tidbit of information.
"They're not within my range," he added after a moment, "but I can pick up a distant, fresher scent that's within our search radius."
"If they're already out of your scent-range, they have a significant lead. They must be hauling ass," she added as a note to herself. "Can't you pick up scents within a mile or so diameter?"
He puffed up a bit. "A mile'n'a half."
"Fine, whatever. We have to pinpoint this fresher scent and follow it to where it leads, if it leads anywhere. You or Akamaru take point. I'll bring up the back."
Kiba nodded. "Keep up, cupcake. I don't go slow."
She was sure he never did, as she launched herself after them onto the surrounding rooftops. It ended up being Akamaru, Kiba, and then her at the rear. And they traveled fast. Keeping up was her sole focus, and thankfully the aching in her muscles eased out with the continuous movement, and furthermore, the searchlights had never been turned off, so she was able to see where she was going as they raced through deep shadows and darkness.
Akamaru took them through a small section of Konoha, an area that was waterfront, to a medium-sized canal that pushed water underground for the village. There, Akamaru and Kiba hopped to a standstill on the sloshing water. Ino landed next to them, wetting her toes and heels. She waited as patiently as she could as Kiba and Akamaru sniffed around. Their noses wiggled in tandem and they swayed their heads from side to side.
After a while, she huffed and crossed her arms. "Well? What's the verdict?"
Kiba and Akamaru glanced at each other. Communication transpired between human and beast, but Ino could not guess at its immediate meaning. Akamaru growled and ruffed. Kiba nodded his head in agreement.
"We think that Karin was transported into the canal with the use of jutsu," Kiba said, standing straight and facing her. "The canal feeds into the sewer system underneath Konoha. This water faintly smells like the water everywhere at the prison with traces of Karin's scent mixed in."
Would it be possible for Karin and her associate, Hozuki Suigetsu, to travel through water? Ino reached into her pack and withdrew the dossiers, opening tohis profile. She scanned his information, which confirmed her suspicions.
"If it was Hozuki who assisted in her escape, he could have used his jutsu to travel through water to a point beyond Konoha's barrier. We should follow this canal to its source."
"We agree," Kiba replied after sharing a moment's glance with his dog. "Let's move."
Ino replaced the dossiers and raced after when Kiba and Akamaru dashed helter-skelter from the water to another set of rooftops to trace the canal as it wound through a pocket of Konoha's civilization. Barely, she was able to keep pace with their mad sprint. They came to and mounted Konoha's great walls and dove as a set of quick, deadly shadows into the surrounding forest and greenery to traverse through Fire country after the fugitive.
A/N: Thanks for reading. I'll post the next chapter soon. Let me know any questions or concerns you have. =)
