Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Dog Breath
Prologue: Mutt
"It's an Inuzuka alright, look at that hair and the teeth on it."
"But there's not clan markings."
"A mutt then?"
"Maybe, do you think Orochimaru-sama will still want it?"
"Just put it down, he'll be disappointed in us if we bring back something with no viability."
"I don't know, what if she's important?"
"We don't have time for this, those Konoha-ninja will catch us if we delay too much."
"Let's flip a coin."
"Don't be stupid we ha-YEOW it BIT ME!"
A slap cracked through the silent street and a low whimpering sounded before a deep growl took its place. The two darkly dressed ninja looked over into the alleyway and stepped back slowly as two red eyes glowed in the dark. It was followed by three more glowing pairs of eyes and suddenly the two ninja found themselves surrounded by a pack of large mangy looking dogs. They backed up a step, keeping hold of the struggling child in their arms and weapons out ready to attack and defend.
What they hadn't counted on was for the entire dog pack and the child in their arms throwing back their heads and howling at the moon. Alarms went off, shouting was heard and in the process of panicking and trying to escape the two ninjas were captured in under five seconds by the child they had been trying to kidnap. They looked up at the thin, rangy child that they had held captive only moments before and shuddered at the bloodied grin the child gave them. It was leaning against a scarred old dog that was twice its size and had its arms crossed over a thin chest.
"Good job doggy." The child turned to the voice and smiled happily as Tsume-sama patted her head as well as the dog she leant against. "Are there others to fetch?" the leader of the Inuzuka Clan asked the girl.
"No" the girl said with a rough voice, deeper than most children her age. "Don't smell any others, and neither does the pack."
"Alright then, back to the den then."
The girl slung herself onto the back of the grizzled old dog and the rest of the pack followed after them, they disappeared into the night as quietly as they had snuck upon the hapless and incompetent enemy-nin.
"So…" Tsume-sama said and her sharp fangs glinted in the night and the feral woman took great satisfaction in the whimpers the two ninja's gave, "can you tell me about what you are doing in Konoha?"
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The girl made it back to the Inuzuka Clan compound, led the ninken pack back into the sleeping pens, she and four of the partnerless ninken had been on den patrol tonight when they had caught a whiff of the infiltrators and acted. The girl then turned towards the young clan heir that waited for her outside of the pens with a first aid box in her hands.
"Come here then." The Clan heir Hana said and she waited for the older girl to slink forwards and take a seat in front of her. "Did you catch them?" Hana was only five years old, her thick tufty hair was pulled back in a messy tail and she had been woken up by the alarms and the howling of the den patrol.
The girl grunted and tried to turn her head away from Hana's probing fingers as she inspected the cut on her lip from where the enemy ninja had slapped her. It wasn't a deep cut and it would heal quickly.
"I'll take that as a yes." Hana grinned and quickly took care of the girls split lip before slapping her happily on the arm, "all done, you can get some sleep now."
Bowing to the Clan heir the older girl stood gracefully and moved back towards the ninken's sleep pens only to be stopped with a hand on her shoulder.
"You can sleep in the house Eri-chan."
Dark brown matted hair fell into golden eyes and the girl shook her head. She pulled away from the Clan heir and went to settle with the dogs.
Hana sighed as she watched the dirty, silent girl. It was still almost like pulling teeth to get the girl to speak to her and Hana wanted someone desperately to speak to other than her Three Haimaru Brothers, even if her ninken were the greatest friends and partners anyone could ask for.
Hana waited until she was sure the injured girl was settled before she left for the night, tucking the first aid box under her arm and set off to get more sleep.
Once Eri was sure Hana was gone the girl sighed and allowed herself to relax. It had been three years since she had been found wandering outside of Konoha with two ninken's and no understanding of human speech. Tsume-sama had taken her in, given her a name and had tried to help her become a little more human and less dog.
Tsume-sama had had her DNA checked to make sure she was Inuzuka Clan blood, but no one really knew who she was or where she had come from. Her assimilation into normal society had taken a long time and she still felt better sleeping in the same pen with Sen and Kaja than anywhere else. The two old war dogs were pretty much her only family and she saw them as more like her mother and father than anything or anyone else. At seven years old she would be starting the academy soon, she would be there a full two years before the Clan heir and she would make it her job to protect her expanding family.
She had grown to love Tsume-sama and her daughter, as well as the partnerless Ninken who could not bond with another ninja as much as they had with their first partner. It had become her job within the Clan to help calm and reintegrate the Ninken into the Clan and help them to overcome the loss of the ninja partner.
Snuggling down into the warm heat of Sen She drifted off to sleep, content that her and the sentry pack had sniffed out the infiltrators and had helped to capture them, keeping the den safe once more.
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AN/ first try at a Naruto fic….we'll see how it goes, prob won't follow much of the storyline – this is a bit of an experiment.