A/N: Something old I found on my flash drive and decided to upload it. I'm guessing it takes place near the beginning of Shippuden.~~~

Call of the Moon Song

Kiba shivered and pulled his coat close to his body, how he wished that he had his old coat with the hood and fur lining. Icy rain splattered against Kiba's clan markings as he looked towards the moon stained sky. Akamaru could sense the discomfort come flowing off his partner and rubbed against him, as if trying to warm him with his white fur.

"K-Kiba-Kun, did you find anything?" Came the soft, timid voice of the pair's partner, Hinata Hyuuga. Kiba shook his head, soggy brown bangs flopping over his eyes.

"Not a scrap...! The rains washed away all the tracks and scents..." He told her as he retied his headband to make it keep back his hair, which had gotten increasingly longer for the past two weeks, but being a tracking ninja he had no time to get it cut, "How about you and Shino? Any luck?" Hinata sighed, "No, all signs of the courier are gone." She informed him as they saw their silent companion come forth. Shino shook his head before holding his arms and waiting for their next move. Kiba sighed; they had been looking for the courier for a full twenty-four hours without any luck. No scent, no tracks and no chakra to be found.

"There is no more we can do, we should head back." Shino told them in a low voice, he was extremely uncomfortable by the rain because it was making his insects act up with in him.

The other two nodded and Akamaru let out a low whine, making Kiba ruffle his head fur and sigh.

"We should rest for tonight and head out early tomorrow." He told his squadmates as he looked around for shelter, luckily the others quickly agreed. Kiba's lips pulled back into a fanged smile as he spotted a small ledge just big enough for the four of them to sleep under.

"Let's try there, it's nice and dry." He said happily as Hinata gave sigh of relief and Shino simply nodded. Hinata stopped in front of the ledge, making the others stop and look to her.

"Do you think it's safe to have a fire?" She asked nervously, a shiver passing through her from the cold. Kiba and Shino looked at her, they both knew it would probably be a bad idea but their soft spots wouldn't let them say no to her.

"We can have a fire but before we do I think you should check if anyone's around, Hinata." Shino told her, making the girl nod before the insect keeper continued,

"Kiba, Akamaru should rest for the trip home so I'll have some insects keep watch and they'll awaken us if needed." Kiba nodded, letting Akamaru into the alcove first, knowing that he would shake some of the water off while Hinata checked the area with her Byakugan and Shino laid out the watch. Kiba watched his companions at work as he gathered dry pine leaves from the alcove floor and put them into a pile.

"C'mon, guys. Get in here before you get sick." He told them as he began to light the small fire. Shino and Hinata quickly followed him inside and took their spots, making sure that neither of the boy's spots were to close to Hinata's. The three realized that their wet jackets would only be a hindrance to their sleep, so the three-man squad slowly started to remove their top layer of clothing. Once his jacket was off, Kiba let out a shiver. All he was wearing was a fishnet shirt and a pair of wet black pants, the cold breeze of that midwinter night didn't help. Sighing, he looked over at his two dear friends. Shino was sitting with his back against the wall, secondary coat wrapped tightly around him. Kiba couldn't see if he was asleep behind those dark sunglasses but turned to look at his other companion. She seemed rather content, sleeping curled up in a ball wearing only a solid dark-purple shirt with fishnet sleeves and drying pants. Kiba sighed once again as he got closer to the fire, smiling as he realized that even if his squad was more of an outcast than the others, that these two would always be his friends and that he never wanted to ever hurt them.

Kiba awoke from his fitful sleep with a start and gasped for air as he felt the sweat drip down his back. Looking out from underneath the ledge with tired eyes, Kiba could see that it was early morning in the forest.

'It was freezing last night, why's it so hot this morning...?' He mentally asked himself as he heard his companions begin to stir and enter a world of awakening.

"Oooh... It's so c-cold..." Hinata commented with a shiver as she reached for her jacket which lay by the dead fire. Shino nodded in agreement as he pulled on his second coat and let the hood droop over his eyes. Upon hearing Hinata's comment, Kiba was quite shocked,

"What do you mean cold? It's gotta be like a hundred degrees out here!" Hinata and Shino looked at each other, concerned about their squadmate's words.

"Kiba-kun, do you feel okay?" Hinata asked shyly as she crawled over and put a palm to his forehead.

"No, I don't feel okay! I feel overheated and didn't sleep well!" Hinata fell back into a sitting position; she didn't know what she was more frightened of. That Kiba snapped at her and bared his fangs or the horrid fever he had. Shino didn't like Kiba's attitude towards the shy teenager and even though you couldn't see it, his anger came forth in a glare.

"I believe it's time to head back to Konoha." Shino told them as he exited the alcove and offered a hand to Hinata. The shy teenager quickly followed him but looked back at Kiba, who was just lying on the dirt like a sick animal.

"K-Kiba-kun...? Aren't you coming..?" She asked in a soft voice, but the boy just continued to lay there with his dog gently licking his cheek. Hinata looked up at Shino, concern showing in her violet eyes.

"Shino-kun, what do we do..? There's something really wrong with him...!" Shino sighed as he felt the worry drift off of her, causing him to turn to Akamaru.

"Akamaru, you'll have to carry him back to Konoha to be checked out." He told the large white dog who barked in reply and got up to stand next to Shino.

"Shino-kun, what do you think happened? He was fine last night..." Hinata asked her squad mate as he dragged the limp Kiba off of his place on the floor and lifted him onto Akamaru's back, but he only let out a grunt in reply since he wasn't used to moving something as heavy as Kiba. Hinata gave a small nervous sigh as she and Shino gathered their things and Akamaru made sure that his master was securely on his back.

It had taken quite a few stressful days of tree hopping, camping and looking after Kiba but they had finally gotten to the gates of Konoha, making the four stop to catch their breath.

"I'll go report in while you take Kiba-kun to go see the medical ninjas, ok Shino-kun." Hinata told him as she panted for air, the insect keeper nodded as he and Akamaru took off towards the hospital while she headed for the Hokage's office.

Hinata hurried up to Tsunade's office in order to give her the report of mission's failure but sighed as she got to the door. Her mind was with Kiba as she timidly knocked on the door and entering upon hearing "Come in" from the inside.

"H-hokage-sama...?" Hinata stuttered as she slowly walked towards Tsunade.

"Yes, Hinata. Back from your mission already?" She asked as she looked up from her tea and paper to see the shy teenager nod and hand her a piece of paper. Hinata pressed two fingers together as Tsunade took the report and looked over its contents.

"I see, so the courier got away?"

"Yes..." The Hokage didn't seem nearly upset as Hinata thought she would have been but instead was more concerned about what was at the bottom of the report,

"So Kiba has fallen ill on the mission field?" Hinata nodded and Tsunade continued. "Hinata, I will admit that I was suspecting the courier would escape a tracking team, even one as good as yours but the news about Kiba worries me a bit. Has he been taken to hospital already?" The shy little ninja nodded once more.

"Good, don't worry about the courier. I will send out another squad to recover the package he was carrying, meanwhile you and the rest of your squad should rest." The fifth looked past her mountain range of papers to see Hinata bow and turn to leave.

"Tsunade-sama, might I ask what was in that package?" Shizune asked once the young girl had left, causing Tsunade to sigh and take a drink of tea. "...The key to releasing something that when it is in grave trouble, can call all canines within a certain area and command them to do its biding." Shizune was shocked at the news and her eyes grew wide as the Hokage continued, "With all their powers put together they can destroy villages in a matter hours. So this thing must not fall into untrustworthy hands, which means we must get it at all costs."

~~~~~~A/N: Horrible, I know but bare with me please..