Just to let people know, this story goes AU after the Rescue Gaara arc, this is a year or two on from that though. This is also one of those annoying, establishing chapters… Bear with me? Please?
And just in-case some people don't like reading them: there's a mild, non-graphic lemon about half-way through this…
I own neither Naruto nor the lyrics to 'Sway' by The Kooks.
CHAPTER 1:
Do whatever you have to do, to get it out and not become a reaction memory
To hurt the ones you love you know you never meant to but you do
X
Sakura had just completed her favourite mission, one she was requested for four times a year. She accepted it whenever she could so this had been her third time meeting up with Nakamura Shinji.
The man was relatively young for such an established merchant and was tall and fit by civilian standards. He had made his name by cheaply importing regional variations of sake into his underground bar in Lightning Country (some may be inclined to call this boot-legging but Sakura liked to think her client was just an opportunist).
He had quietly expanded his business as much as possible until finally deciding to go legit nearly four years ago, with the help of a benevolent investor.
He moved his seedy bar above ground as it gained reputation, introducing more kinds of imported, hard to come by alcohol and eventually began selling his stock in a store-come-off-license in a building close to his now infamous road-house.
A year later he opened another store on the far side of Fire Country.
To keep thing 'fresh' for his patrons, Nakamura liked to move his stock around seasonally and decided to hire Konoha shinobi for the dual purpose of escorting him safely and carrying his merchandise like a pack-horse.
Sakura accepted her first solo escort mission (C-ranked but with surprisingly good pay) for Nakamura a little over two years ago.
They got on well together. Despite the age gap (Sakura was still 15 at the time while she suspected Nakamura to be edging into his late 30s), the man was a shameless flirt. And while she was a little put off by his intimate looks and flippant remarks at first, she now looked forward to the comfortable atmosphere the man carried with him. And she now knew him well enough to know that he didn't actually mean anything by it.
She liked Nakamura, or Shinji as he preferred her to call him, because he never got a bruised ego when she carried five times the weight as he did or insisted on a male shinobi escorting him instead of some, ''little girl playing dress up in her brother's clothes.''
And he always slips her a few bottles of high quality sake when they part ways.
This time it was a well aged, ornately designed bottle from Mist and an experimental new recipe, supposedly much more potent than regular sake, from what Shinji assured her was a, ''deliciously quaint little village in Tea Country, they do things properly there little Sakura, let me tell you! They know how to brew their alcohol!''
Sakura wrapped the bottles in layer or two of clothes to avoid inconvenient breakages, bowed to her client and leapt into the trees.
As she ran, she slipped a solider pill out of the small inside pocket in her weapons pouch.
The journey to Shinji's store had taken five full days travelling at civilian pace but Sakura was aiming to make it back to Konoha within two days max.
Her time with Shinji had been pleasant but uneventful. They hadn't encountered anything more deadly than a protective mother bear and her cub and they had easily managed to traverse around that.
These five days had been the longest she had gone without combat, friendly or otherwise, in quite awhile now and her body was feeling well rested. She was hoping that once the effects of the solider pill kick in she would be able to run straight to Konoha without the need to rest.
X
Sakura stopped suddenly, just seventeen miles from Konoha's gates.
She was being followed.
She silently cursed her oversight as the three enemy chakra signatures unmasked themselves - she was surrounded.
As the shinobi stepped out from the shade of the trees, Sakura's brain was already running through battle strategies and evaluating their impromptu battle ground.
The clearing she was in was dimly lit due to the heavy overhang of leaves in the tall trees. The forest is too densely packed and as Sakura drops gracefully to the well packed dirt floor, she silently laments that she probably shouldn't attempt using her signature, earth-shattering technique for fear of felling too many trees.
The leader of the opposing 3-man team speaks up, from her distance away from them, Sakura can see the gleam of his hitai-ate but cannot make out the symbol declaring his loyalty, ''Kunoichi, you will return with us to Sound for interrogation or you will die where you stand.''
Said kunoichi chuckled, a sound too light and soft to be considered threatening but it effectively conveyed her scorn at the other man's words. Did he really expect her to willingly trot off to Sound with them?
''You think this is funny? Ryo-kun doesn't make threats lightly, bitch!''
Sakura ignored the other kunoichi exclamations and turned her gaze back to 'Ryo-kun', the supposed leader of this little group of Sound-nin.
She cast a quick, image distorting genjutsu over herself and swiftly left a shadow clone in her place as the real Sakura masked her chakra and hid in the trees behind Ryo.
No one seemed to notice the switch so her clone began talking, keeping the shinobi's attention trained away from where her creator lurked in the bush, readying a series of kunai.
''So, asshole, or should I call you Ryo-kun?'' the clone giggled impishly, trying to rile up the enemy while simultaneously getting them to underestimate her seriousness as a shinobi, ''What is it you so desperately need to interrogate me about?''
Sakura had a pretty good idea why, however. She knew she was already in at least one bingo book - Mist's. She had a nice price too.
If these shinobi knew who she was and how close she was to Konoha's leader then why wouldn't they want to interrogate her?
Ryo smirked, ''That's for us to know, little girl, and you to find out.'' His hand twitched to reach for the katana strapped across his back when a kunai suddenly pierced his shoulder.
He moved instantly, easily dodging the barrage of shuriken that followed but Sakura was still surprised she had managed to get such an easy hit in.
His male team-mate, who had yet to say anything, made quick work of her shadow clone, slicing her body through with a katana identical to that of his two comrade. Sakura could hear him mutter the word, ''Kage Bunshin,'' like it was a curse before pin-pointing her true position and diving after her.
She was already locked in hand-to-hand combat with Ryo, parrying his katana with twin kunai. She drew her chakra into her foot before throwing her leg up and hitting him square in the chest.
The other man was clearly not expecting the sheer amount of force that came with the kick and failed to set his balance to counter-act it. Instead he flew backwards, sailing straight through three trees.
Sakura jumped after him, again making use of the weapon scrolls TenTen had taught her to use. She saw the look of pure shock that passed through Ryo's eyes before the well aimed group of kunai and shuriken hit him in the torso.
Sakura's medic trained eyes took note of the fatal wounds and quickly turned around to face the rest of his team.
A scream jarred her senses. The kunoichi, a pretty, if somewhat plain, brunette with green eyes and sugar pink lips stared in horror at the fallen nin.
She could see he had stopped breathing, his bright blue eyes were glazed and un-seeing.
''You… You k-killed him… How could she… Why?'' The girl stopped and Sakura could see her eyes glisten with unshed tears as she turned to face her, ''You little bitch! You killed him! How could you, you fucking cunt?!''
The Sound kunoichi's tirade ended in a feral, heart-broken shriek as she whipped out a kunai and attacked Sakura.
It was not hard for Sakura to fend her off. The girl wasn't thinking clearly for battle. About a year ago Sakura and Naruto had spent a couple of weeks training with Kurenai, Kiba and Shino for the jounin exams. The woman had drilled into the four of them how important it was to keep a level head in combat.
And now Sakura could see why.
The kunoichi was making rookie mistakes, constantly leaving her guard wide open and her aim was god awful.
Raising her arm to block a roundhouse kick aimed for her head, Sakura managed to get a foothold on the girls comparatively short shoulder and back-flipped away from her.
Sakura began a quick series of hand seals and blew a small fireball at the woman who only just managed to dodge it. Shiranui Genma had been teaching her fire jutsus even though it wasn't her strongest element.
She made a hasty replacement jutsu, counting on the fact that her opponent was too blinded by grief and anger to notice the switch and she snuck up behind the Sound-nin.
Gathering chakra to her finger tips she kicked the woman in the upper back, forcing her to fall forward.
Sakura followed and pressed her fingers to the kunoichi's temples. The anesthetising chakra reacted instantly, knocking the girl out before her brain could even register the invading chakra in her system.
The last remaining member of the Sound squad stood just five or six metres from her, an un-readable look on his face.
''You haven't yet killed her. Are you sparing her out of pity?'' The man's voice was carefully free of emotions.
''My reasons are none of your concern,'' Sakura answered.
Truthfully, she didn't know why she didn't finish off the woman when she had the chance, and now that she was unconscious Sakura would find it morally difficult to kill her since she was completely defenceless.
''Pity, then,'' the man replied. ''That's futile. Yuko lived her life only to be with Ryo. Now that he is dead it would be kinder to kill her too. She wouldn't be able to stand being spared by the woman who took away her reason to live.''
The nin's assessment of his team-mates mentality was brutally honest and accurate.
Sakura gave herself a second to process his words and be thankful that her days of recklessly obsessing over boys were long over.
Sure, maybe Yuko's relationship with Ryo was true, mutually devoted love and not a blindly one-sided crush like she had with Sasuke but still, the other man's evaluation of the girl hit a little too close to home.
Ignoring the flashes of her past that assaulted her momentarily, Sakura idly swung a kunai around her index finger by the ring before flinging it at the man.
It speared his forehead and his shadow clone disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Immediately, she felt a rush of air behind her and she ducked to avoid the chakra infused fist that would have smashed her skull open.
She dropped to the ground and rolled away when she sensed the shinobi aim another chakra charged punch toward her.
''Hm… It's been a long time since I've been able to use taijutsu against someone else with perfect chakra control,'' she told him, smirking. ''I hope you know what you're doing,'' she teased.
They had moved to a larger open space in the woods she decided to break up the earth a little in hopes of catching him of guard. He obviously had the same fighting style as her.
She raised her foot and slammed it back into the ground. A crack appeared right under her and spread across the forest floor in the Sound-nin's direction, throwing up large lumps of packed earth in some places and causing craters in others.
He stood up straight and bowed slightly to her, ''So you are Haruno Sakura then.''
She nodded solemnly, somewhat puzzled as to why he would have tried to capture her if they weren't sure who she was.
''We were warned not to just presume according to hair. You'd be surprised how many of the ninja in our Bingo Book have strangely coloured hair,'' he clarified, seeing the bemused expression on her face.
His stance shifted into a position she recognised from her own training with Tsunade, ''Then this will be a chance to test my own abilities!''
His sudden enthusiasm surprised her but she crouched low as he introduced himself, ''My name is Tanizawa Toshinori and I will be honoured to be the one to defeat you!.''
The man was instantly in front of her but Sakura was prepared for the bone crunching punch that came her way. Knowing better than to try and block it, she manoeuvred her body efficiently out of the way, twisting around his body to land her own hit to his side.
She could feel the solid muscle of his upper arm bruise and tear under her force and didn't miss the sharply controlled hiss of pain that escaped the nin's lips.
Tanizawa ignored the injury and his next three attacks came in quick succession, leaving Sakura no time to launch her own offensive.
Realising that his opponent was leaving no holes in her defence, he quickly spun around her body and the sharp heel of his elbow came down like a jack knife on the soft, tender area where her shoulder blade met the middle of her back and she arched away from him in agony.
It had been months since she and Tsunade had had time to train together and Sakura had almost forgotten how the pain of a well placed hit, amplified with the amount of chakra she could place into it, could feel like being stabbed repeatedly.
In her distracted state, Tanizawa managed to land a kick to the back of her knees. Sakura let herself fall forward, landing on her hands and kicking her legs into the air.
Predictably, Tanizawa had intended to follow through on his last attack and her foot made contact with his nose as he approached her.
Pivoting around to face him as she stood, she figured she had broken his nose, judging by the amount of blood that was pumping out of it.
Suddenly, the Sound-nin was couching against the forest floor, clenched fist creating a shallow crater in the dirt.
In compensation, several small boulders blew out of the earth but Tanizawa was waiting for them and he punched them forward towards Sakura.
She dodged them easily and used the brief seconds of low visibility between her and the other man to reach into her bag and pull out a small glass vial.
Her plan was formed quickly, she could end this fight in seconds if the man continued to be so predictable a fighter.
Even without the sharingan she could read his moves like the movements of a kata.
Deliberately getting close to him, Sakura lowered her guard for just a moment. But it was all Tanizawa needed to land a concisely controlled, chakra laced fist to her chest.
She could feel her ribs give out under the pressure even as she flicked her wrist towards the Sound-nin, praying that he would ignore the small prick of pain in light of his supposed victory.
His eyes, dark brown and tight with concentration, showed no recognition that he had been bested even though the muscle numbing, short lasting poison drifted through his blood stream. His adrenaline and fast heart beat would only help the toxin to disperse.
Sakura was working on healing the worst of her broken ribs the moment she stopped crashing through trees.
Tanizawa had followed her through the bush, presumably to finish her off, but by the time he was 12 feet from her his limbs had begun shutting down.
He only managed another two steps before his body collapsed to the ground.
Her chest still felt like someone was slowly sliding a serrated blade through her but she couldn't afford to expend any more chakra on healing herself right now.
Sakura stood up and approached the fallen nin.
"What did you do to me?" His voice was wheezy, a side effect to the dehabilitating poison.
She spared no time in answering, eager to finish up and return home, "It's a poison that affects certain parts of the nervous system," she explained mechanically. "It prevents controlled movements of the limbs, hands or feet, effectively causing paralysis."
Sakura swiftly tied his body upright to a nearby tree, ready for her questions.
"Ok, Tanizawa. What do Sound want with me?"
The man was silent for several seconds and Sakura, though largely uncomfortable with the idea of torturing a prisoner for information, began to think back on the interrogation courses she had taken with Ibiki after she was made jounin.
"I'll tell you whatever you want to know. I bear no loyalty to Orochimaru-sama's legacy in the face of death." His voice stunned Sakura from her thoughts.
"I'm sensing you have conditions?" She questioned.
"My team-mate, Suzuki Yuko, let her live."
There was a pause as Sakura's brain shifted through the information.
"I thought you told me it would be kinder to kill her," she answered.
"That is true… but I want her kept alive for selfish reasons." He paused and swallowed slowly, "My wife died in childbirth. I would hate for my daughter to be taken to an orphanage after my death. Yuko is the child's aunt, she will take care of her."
His explanation was devoid of any feelings or remorse but Sakura could see the regret in his eyes.
"Very well," she began, "But understand that if you lie to me, I will trace your daughter and team-mate back to Sound and kill them as retribution for your transgression."
The bound man nodded.
"What does Sound want with me?" She repeated.
"There are standing orders from the Otokage that all Konoha-nin of jounin standard encountered are to be brought back to Sound for interrogation," he smirked, but it seemed forced, "It's nothing personal."
"Why?"
"I have no idea, just following orders." His reply sounded truthful.
"And who is the Otokage?" Her question was simple but direly important. After Orochimaru's death at Sasuke's hands a couple of years ago, Sound went through a period of near civil war when no one could agree on a suitable successor.
In the last year or so, someone had managed to subdue and control the troops of shinobi and had named themselves the new Otokage, but neither Konoha nor her allies knew the man's identity.
Their ignorance would be a serious disadvantage if the rumours of a Sound-Mist-Cloud alliance were through.
"Orochimaru-sama's rightful successor is Uchiha Sasuke. As Orochimaru-sama's killer he has proved himself to be the strongest nin in Sound and is the only shinobi to have truly earned himself the honour of the title of Otokage-"
"Get on with it Tanizawa," Sakura's interjection was curt.
A slight cough and the man continued, "But Sasuke appears to have alternative goals to the ruling of Sound. He aims to kill his older brother, a man who, they say, murdered his own-"
"I did not ask for the life story of the Uchiha. I asked for the identity of the current Otokage." This time, the pink-haired woman sounded somewhat bitter, she had heard about Sasuke's 'goals' all too often in her life.
A sudden look of realisation dawned on the face of her captive, "Ah, I remember," he said, mostly to himself, "Haruno Sakura, apprentice to Konoha's Hokage, former team-mates with the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and Uchiha Sasuke… How could I forget?" He laughed slightly to himself and opened his mouth to say something else but Sakura cut him off once more.
"I told you to get on with it Tanizawa," she all but growled.
Sensing it was a sensitive topic, Tanizawa moved on, "Yakushi Kabuto. That's the name of the Otokage. I've never seen him but apparently he was Orochimaru-sama's second in command before Sasuke betrayed him."
"Kabuto," Sakura repeated. That was who Konoha's intelligence had suspected to have taken the position but it was still important to confirm.
"And there's a woman too, a pretty red-head with glasses, I've only seen her once, but apparently she's his most trusted advisor, or else just his lover, depending on who you believe."
"The red-head, is her name Karin?" Sakura asked, curious.
"Yeah, she used to be one of Orochimaru-sama's chief experimenters, and then she joined Sasuke's team when he left Sound," he explained. His voice suddenly sounded a lot more hoarse and tired.
It was another affect of the poison, in order for the state of near paralysis to wear off, the body tended to shut itself down to properly metabolise the toxin. It was similar to passing out after drinking far too much alcohol.
Sakura pulled a kunai out of her weapon pouch and approached him, severing the bonds that secured him to tree.
He fell forwards, unable to support himself on his useless arms, "You're not going to kill me, are you?"
She ignored the rather smug tone to his voice, "You're about to pass out, you should regain consciousness within the hour."
She left the clearing before she had the chance to regret her actions and before she could hear Sasuke's voice in her head telling her she would always be too weak to kill her prey.
X
Sakura's mission report to Tsunade was short, four simple words were uttered on the subject, "A success, Hokage-sama," and the matter was dropped.
The events which transpired after her mission, however, were recorded in great detail. The thought that Kabuto wanted Konoha shinobi specifically captured alive for information was understandably worrying to the Hokage.
"And you left two of the team alive, Sakura?" Tsunade questioned, incredulous.
"I feel uncomfortable killing people who have already been neutralised if it's not for a mission objective, Tsunade-shishou. The man clearly holds no loyalty to Kabuto, he's not going to prove a problem in the future and he's not going to tell Kabuto what he told me for fear of punishment," Sakura explained her reasoning clinically.
The older woman snorted, "He's still the enemy, Sakura."
The girl didn't bother pointing out that he was also a father.
Tsunade 'hmm-ed' and frowned and sighed for another few minutes before finally telling Sakura that her mission was complete and she was free to leave.
"Although Sakura," Tsunade's voice called to her as her hand rested on the knob of the door, "I just thought I should let you know that Kakashi and Naruto returned from their mission a couple of hours ago," the woman paused for effect, clearly up to something.
"I'm sure you want to go home, take a shower and rest up, but maybe you should get Blondie's inevitable need for attention out of the way before tonight…"
Sakura knew that by 'Blondie', Tsunade was referring to Naruto. Her best friend had been absent from the village for nearly two weeks and would more than likely hunt her down later if she didn't find him first, but Sakura was confused as to what was so special about tonight-
"After all, that disrespectful, dog-breath boyfriend of yours is due in from his mission around 9 this evening," the woman added with a wink.
X
''Fuck, Kiba!''
The Inuzuka's pace was relentless and the curiously pink haired kunoichi pushed her body harder to match his force. The pair were naturally competitive in all areas of life, Kiba because of his rather canine influenced genetics and Sakura because she spent her youth constantly trying to prove herself against team mates who had a natural advantage over her, and sex was no different.
He groaned and it sounded almost painful, ''Hurry up! I'm gonna… Ugh… I need to come.''
''Please, Kiba, please,'' she could feel his cock pulse demandingly inside of her and appreciated the fact that he was holding on for her, but Sakura knew how impatient he was.
He was hovering over her on the bed; the sweat beaded off his naked chest and dripped down on to her tits, which were jerking sporadically in time with her heavy pants. That visual alone forced him to trust harder, deeper.
''Fuck it… Oh God! Kiba!'' She moaned her release and Kiba could feel her walls pull and tighten around him.
'Finally,' the word briefly flew through his mind before a long, feral roar ripped from him as his subconscious informed his dick that he could now come, guilt free. Then all cognizant thought left him and all he could think, feel and smell was Sakura. Come exploded from his cock as he blindly pumped into her, her tiny body riding out the end of her own orgasm.
Slowly the feeling of complete and perfect ecstasy left him and in the pleasant after-glow he became aware that the sweat glistened kunoichi beneath him was laughing at him.
He pulled out but stayed above her, his strong arms effortlessly supporting his weight. He glared down at her slightly.
''What the fuck, Sakura?'' Kiba was not a self-conscious man but his sexual abilities were not a laughing matter. She stopped giggling and smiled sweetly at him.
''Your orgasm face is hilarious,'' she did a (poor) imitation of him; closing her eyes tightly with a look of constipated concentration on her face, tongue lolling out of her mouth and continued, ''You're a ridiculously beautiful man, Inuzuka, but I once walked in on Naruto doing a crap in my apartment when the lock on my bathroom door was broken and he looked exactly like that!''
Sakura began shaking with laughter again as Kiba rolled off of her and lay down by her side. ''Shut up, Pinky. That's the last time I wait for you. You can finish yourself off next round.''
This made her shut up. He sounded serious.
''Kiba?'' She pushed herself up on her side to look him in the eye, ''Kiba?'' No answer, he just grinned at her smugly.
''Hn. At least I'll have an orgasm face.'' She presumed he was referring to her inability to get herself off. In that way she needed him.
''Kiiiiba! I'm sorry, ok? I didn't mean it, Kiba?'' She gazed imploringly at him and then trailed her fingers down his muscular thigh. ''What if I made it up to you, hm?'' She gently cupped his balls, ''Would you forgive me then?''
She smiled when he took in a quick gasp of breath and arched his hips into her hand.
He moaned lowly and grinned broadly at her, ''Make it up to me all you want, sweetheart, just don't complain when I leave you wanting-''
He was quickly cut off by three curt raps at his window. Kiba swiftly pulled the off-white sheet over the both of them and yelled out, ''Yeah come in!''
His window was pushed open and an unidentifiable Anbu gracefully stepped into the room from outside. The cool white mask betrayed no awkwardness but the man coughed a little nervously before speaking, ''I am sorry to… disturb… you, Inuzuka-san, Haruno-san, but you are both needed at the Hokage's office immediately.''
Sakura spoke up, trying to ignore the deep red blush covering her cheeks, ''Eh, how did you know I was here?''
''I didn't,'' the Anbu swiftly replied. ''I was to stop and alert you at your apartment next.'' He gave a quick, shallow bow and left through the still open window, the pane sliding effortlessly back into place after him.
Kiba chuckled low in his throat and raised himself off the bed. ''We should shower together,'' he told her with a grin, ''it sounded urgent so there's no time to waste.'' He moved shamelessly to the other side of his bedroom to pull a clean pair of boxers out of his chest of drawers.
It would take him significantly longer to find all the necessary elements of his jounin uniform and he suspected that both of his regulation flack jackets were still covered in blood.
The thought was enough to gross out even him, the blood on one of them would have to be weeks old.
Sakura voiced similar thoughts, ''Inuzuka Kiba, your bedroom is disgusting!''
She was all but screeching, with a repulsed look on her face as she gazed around at the week old piles of food smeared plates and dishes stacked haphazardly in random corners; used underwear and sweaty training clothes were strewn across the floor. She was horrified to see her good, black lace bra thrown on top of a pile of odd socks that seemed to have something growing on them.
''Ugh! You're not part dog, you're part pig!'' She exclaimed. Wrapping the sheet (she didn't even want to think about the last time it was washed) around her naked body, she gingerly stepped across the room to retrieve her rather expensive lingerie.
''You weren't complaining about it half an hour ago,'' Kiba muttered to himself, not bothering to remind her that he wasn't actually part dog.
Well not physically at least.
But he knew she only said it to rile him up. He dug out a relatively clean black wife beater to go over the one mesh shirt he had found that didn't smell too badly of sweat.
His clothes were washed weekly when his mother came over to stock his fridge and make sure he wasn't running too low on toilet paper, so normally his bedroom wasn't in such a state of disarray.
However, his mom was due tomorrow so Sakura had got to see a weeks worth of build up.
She snorted, ''Half an hour ago I was too horny to concentrate on the smell.'' She had dressed into the clothes she had been wearing when she arrived at his apartment a little over two hours ago - TenTen called it her 'instant hot' dress; Kiba called it her 'fuck me' dress.
''I'm gonna run home and change,'' she softly told him, sauntering over to where he stood, ''I'll meet you at Tsunade-shishou's office in 15, ok?'' She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. ''If I stay and shower here we'll never make it up there.''
''You know,'' his voice was low, practically a growl, ''Whenever you put that on it makes me want to rip it right back off you.'' He was talking about the dress; his hands wandering down her sides to linger at the hem that just barely covered her ass.
He heard her giggle before she evaporated into a small pile of fresh smelling cherry blossom leaves. She was gone.
Sighing as he gazed around his room, he headed for the shower. Kiba hadn't intended for Sakura to see how big of a slob he really was so early in their relationship.
In the six months they had been together she had only come over to his apartment once. It had only been their forth or fifth date but he knew he wanted to hang on to her so he enlisted his genin team mate, Hyuuga Hinata, to help him woo her.
By the time Sakura arrived his apartment had been as immaculate as the day he moved in, and the pink headed girl seemed genuinely impressed by the 'home cooked' meal that his indispensable former team mate had so thoughtfully provided.
Hinata had progressed no further in rank than a chuunin and was now training to be an academy teacher but she had remained a close friend of Kiba's.
He really appreciated her faultless companionship now that Shino had left the village. Though his departure was only temporary of course.
After having failed the jounin exams, the other member of Team 8 had left to further his training with a sensei in Sand who specifically dealt with chakra controlled insects.
Kiba had met the Suna nin once. He was stern and old, old enough that both Shino's father and grandfather had learned under his tutelage.
With none of the team mates from his childhood running in the same circle as Kiba, after being promoted to jounin he began hanging out with the other members of the Konoha 11 who had moved up in the ranks at the same time as him.
He easily rekindled his friendship with fellow childhood trouble-maker Uzumaki Naruto and through him grew closer to Haruno Sakura, a girl he knew from his academy days but never had much interaction with.
The stoic Hyuuga Neji, flamboyant Rock Lee, their female team mate TenTen and Sakura's only close female friend Yamanaka Ino had all made jounin at the same time and the 7 of them had become close throughout the following few months along with Ino's old team mates Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji who were still chuunin but occasionally joined them on missions.
Several of them have since drifted from the group after Chouji was killed in a accidental confrontation with a pair of Akatsuki members six or seven months ago.
Lee began training to be a jounin sensei to new genin teams. It would be several more years before he was actually given the responsibility of protecting and teaching some fresh-out-of-the-academy twelve year olds but he seemed to enjoy it.
Ino took Chouji's death the hardest and threw herself into training as a medic and has become a full time staff member of Konoha's only hospital.
She seemed to deliberately distance herself from her shinobi friends, quietly blaming the lifestyle, and by extension them, for the death of her best friend.
Her blatant rejection stung Shikamaru the most, obviously, but he too was deeply affected by his friend's death and withdrew his application for the next round of jounin exams.
He and Chouji had made a pact not to take the exams until they were both sure they would pass.
Shikamaru, however, continued to socialise with them whenever possible, unlike Ino. The only time Kiba ever saw her was when he or one of his friends landed themselves at the hospital. She had become an amazing medic but refused to treat shinobi-related injuries unless it was a life or death situation.
Instead she focused on civilian healings and Kiba had heard from Hinata that Ino was training to specialise as an OBGYN.
He knew the girl's departure deeply affected Sakura, the two had become nearly inseparable after making jounin together and this sudden and complete separation was hard on her.
Sakura was regularly called in to the hospital for some of the more dire shinobi cases and Kiba could tell she hated seeing Ino now that there was an enforced distance between the two.
Sakura's medical training had taken a back seat in preparation for the jounin exams a year and a half ago and, while she was still constantly improving on her skills in that department, she never went back to the discipline with as much fervour.
Sakura remained, however, a fantastic field medic and often went on Anbu missions as an assigned medic-nin. She was only 6 Anbu level missions away from being considered for an automatic promotion to a member of Anbu.
They hadn't talked about it much but Kiba was sure it was a position she wanted.
Naruto had recently had his status specially upped to Anbu without having to take the exam and had received his black Anbu tattoo two weeks ago. The 7 of them had gone out to celebrate but he could see the worried look in Sakura's eyes as she watched him.
She would jump at the chance to be Anbu just so she could keep a closer eye on Naruto during missions.
Kiba had no doubt they would be constantly put on the same team, just as the were when they were both jounin. The whole village knew how well the worked together.
What irritated Kiba was that she would then be taking more and more dangerous missions on a regular basis.
The double threat of a consistently more aggressive Akatsuki and imminent war from the Cloud-Sound-Mist allied front meant Anbu and upper level jounin were being sent on increasingly fool-hardy, although necessary, assassination and reconnaissance missions.
It scared Kiba that he was really, really, starting to like this girl and she seemed to be more than willing to put her life on the line for any one of her friends, and for random strangers.
He frowned at the thought as he finished pulling on his boots and leapt out the window, hurrying towards the Hokage tower.
His feelings for the petite, freakishly strong, pink-headed girl were making him angsty.
He wasn't used to actually like liking the girls he slept with and 'relationship' territory wasn't one he was unfamiliar with. He was unsure about many of the more non-sexual aspects to their relationship.
It didn't bother Kiba to admit that at seventeen and a half years old, Sakura was his first girlfriend.
But he knew enough about committed, intimate relationships to know that girlfriends were not supposed to admit to loving other men.
It fucking pissed Kiba off no end that Haruno Sakura was perfectly comfortable telling him, her notably possessive boyfriend, just how much she loved and couldn't fucking live without Uzumaki Naruto, self proclaimed future Rokudaime Hokage.
And it really didn't help that Naruto was the man she had lost her virginity to.
The canine influence in Kiba's blood demanded that she would belong to him and him alone, body and mind.
It was sometimes difficult to dampen down the rage and the urge to express a physical dominance over her and her 'boys' when he saw them together.
On top of Naruto, Kiba also had to worry about her closeness with Kakashi, her old genin sensei, and Sai, the ROOT Anbu member that had replaced the traitorous bastard Uchiha on Team Kakashi two years ago…
Thinking about his girlfriend's possibly divided feelings made him snarl in anger but he carefully pulled back his emotions as he climbed in the window of the Hokage's office.
He instinctively ducked his head to avoid the potted plant that came hurtling towards him.
''Can't any of you disrespectful little shit-heads learn to use the fucking door like normal people?! And when your Hokage throws something at you, you let it hit you, Inuzuka!''
This time Tsunade flung a ceramic cup in his direction but Kiba was prepared for her little outburst and dodged it. Luckily, the Godaime had already turned away from him to yell at someone else so she couldn't see him directly disobey her order to let her nail him on the head with airborne crockery.
''Nara, you lazy bastard, get you feet off of my desk before I forcibly remove them!''
Kiba took his seat next to Sakura, who smelt distinctly less aroused than the last time her saw her.
'Bad thoughts,' he said to himself, trying not to picture her in the ripped, silky thong he had found on his kitchen floor before he left his apartment mere minutes ago. He would never live it down if he got a hard on in the Hokage's office of all places.
Kiba realised Tsunade had finally finished her rant on respect and obedience and using doors instead of windows and had moved on to the reason why she had called them here. With Anbu captain Neji sitting straight-backed in the seat between Sakura and Shikamaru Kiba could safely assume it was for an impromptu mission.
''Now, I'm sorry to call the four of you in here so late. I'm aware that some of you,'' she gave a pointed look to Sakura, who blushed a light shade of pink, and then Kiba, who smirked rather smugly, ''Were busy. Nevertheless, we have just received a rather urgent request from the Kazekage. Suna's first Anbu captain Takeshi Sho has been captured or killed. Either way, he contains important information pertaining to both Sand and Leaf. Suna intel believes he was captured by Cloud 21 hours ago and is being transported to an interrogation base in neutral land close to the Earth country border. The rest of his squad were killed.
''Cloud's rumoured alliance with Mist has been confirmed and any information they can get out of Takeshi would be extremely detrimental to Konoha should they decide to attack. The Kazekage will not have shinobi skilled enough to deal with the situation for another 24 hours at the very least and by then it will be too late.
''Your mission is to track down Takeshi and his abducters. Should he be alive you will send word to the Kazekage and he will send out his own team of Sand-nin to help you after the retrieval to get him swiftly and safely back to Sand. If he is dead you are either to destroy the body or, if able, return it to Suna for proper burial.
''Hyuuga, you're team leader. This mission is A-ranked and you will leave A.S.A.P. I want up to date reports daily. Inuzuka, where's the fur-ball?''
''Sleeping, Hokage-sama. But Akamaru will be awake and ready to go by the time I get back. He knows the drill,'' Kiba answered smoothly.
''Very well, get going. Hyuuga, you have five days at the very latest to have all four mission reports on my desk, understood?''
If Neji was any other man he would have smiled, that last command was Tsunade's way of saying, 'your team is important to me. Keep them safe and make sure they're all returned in large, easy-to-reassemble pieces.'
''Understood, Hokage-sama.'' He bowed respectfully and proceeded to the window where his comrades were already leaping out into the cool night air.
''Do you brats ever listen to a single thing I say?! Use the goddamn door!'' The aging woman stopped shouting and sighed, sitting down heavily in her chair.
Sakura turned around and smiled at her, ''Don't worry Shishou, see you in a few days.''
.
Tsunade snorted but smiled back a little cynically, ''Just don't mess up, Sakura,'' she loved the girl, she truly did and assigning her this particular mission left her with a bad taste in her mouth. ''Go on, get out of my sight,'' she commanded, pointing disdainfully at the window.
Sakura's smile grew, ''See ya.'' She waved casually as she left, flitting out the window and into the dead of night; ghosting over the roofs of houses until she disappeared from view.
X
Oh, yes, you know, I will give it you all…
XThe KibaSaku is just a side paring, don't worry, Sasuke shows up next chapter! You can probably see I have no idea what I'm doing here (like seriously, Yakushi?? Is that even his name?), so constructive criticism would be most appreciated!
If you've made it down this far then thanks for reading!