A/N: Feels good to be writing again! This is the second chapter to the tie-in Tails of the Inuzuka War! For more intensive backdrop on what's going on, you can read Shikamaru: Shippuuden! Cause that's a good story! Yeah!
Tails of the Inuzuka War: 02
There's More Than One Way...
"Father, Mitsuo definitely has the more comfortable rock. Tell him to budge over!"
"I do not! Grow up, Mikio. We're on a damn mission."
Kiba rolled his eyes at the twins' playful banter, annoyed that they were still going at it like this, even though they were several years Kiba's senior. He often wondered what it would have been like to have an older brother, but every time he was harangued into missions with Mikio and Mitsuo, the curiosity died rather quickly. His sister, Hana, was insufferable to be sure, and lorded over every little thing he did wrong, but at least she wasn't downright annoying.
"Quiet, boys," Takeo shushed them with a stern whisper. "The target is approaching."
As silly and combative as the twins were, they were experienced ninja and hands down the best physical combatants the Inuzuka had to offer, they fell silent instantly. Kiba heard the almost imperceptible patter of sandals among trees, the whistle of displaced air as ninja leapt from branch to branch. Akamaru's fur raised on his hackles as the ninken tensed beside Kiba, the fibers brushing his leg gently.
"The leader is in the middle of the formation," Kiba whispered. "Intercept in ten, Mikio, Misuo you're on the front guard, Uncle, you've got the rear."
The ninja nodded, counting out ten seconds that felt like an eternity. The sounds of ninja high speed movement grew louder and louder before four men and four dogs leapt from the trees simultaneously, their movements no more than a blur. A splatter of blood accompanied Mikio and Mitsuo's contact with the target and that was all Kiba saw before he tackled his own, leaving him awash in a sea of red hair.
Brown skin flashed through his eyes, an arm, reaching toward the hilt of a sword.
Kiba pumped his thigh, firing a hard knee into the Kumo nin's stomach and halting the motion. He knew he had to incapacitate the enemy before the sword came into play. They hit the ground in a tangle of limbs and the wind left his lungs in a rush. In that moment he gasped for breath, the assailant rolled into a half mount, then wrenched him into a full arm bar, twisting it painfully.
Kind of a stupid move for a ninja to use, Kiba thought, immediately reaching for his kunai with his left hand. By the time he'd secured one, though, he realized that it wasn't so stupid after all. The sword made almost no sound as it left the scabbard and Kiba realized what was about to happen immediately. Oh shit! I'm gonna get decapitated!
He was surprised, albeit happily, when instead of the swift embrace of death, he was met with a femine cry of pain. He twisted his neck around to see Akamaru with his teeth firmly grasped around his assailant's wrist, the sword hanging limply from her injured hand.
"Good boy!" he exclaimed, driving his kunai into the kunoichi's thigh.
The pressure on his arm released and Akamaru leapt away, just in time to dodge her own blade, but she was wounded now. Kiba leapt atop her, immobilizing her with a hasty genjutsu. He propped open her mouth and worked his fingers around her teeth and gums, but found no suicide pills. Good. They needed her alive.
Working quickly, he cut away her gray flak vest and bound her hands and legs, then tied her, sitting upright, to the nearest tree. No sooner had he tightened the last knot than his genjutsu wore off. Twenty seconds, he thought to himself. Kurenai Sensei would be proud. Last year I could barely knock out Konohamaru for eight.
But the enemy nin was coming around, and if the silence of the forest in either direction was any indication, his cousins and uncle would be heading back now, finished with mopping up the Amegakure platoon.
"You fucking scum," the woman snarled, glaring at Kiba.
He rolled his eyes. "Just be glad you're not dead," he retorted. "And….Hey…Have we met?"
The woman squinted at him, then shrugged. "Maybe. I've met a lot of people. Just get it over with you wuss. Torture me to get some extremely irrelevant information then execute me, and go get promoted to Jonin already."
Kiba blinked. "I did meet you. We fought together in the Fourth World War. I was in the fifth division and we came to support your unit. You were working with Hyuuga Neji."
"Oh yeah, now I remember," she replied drily. "That arrogant bastard with the white eyes. You and your smelly fucking dog, how could I forget?"
Akamaru whined in protest. "Ignore her, Boy, you're not smelly."
The woman snorted, rolling her surprisingly bright amber eyes. "Oh, kami, I hurt it's feelings. You Konohan's are pathetic."
"Karui!" Kiba exclaimed, surprising himself that he remembered the name. "You held your own pretty well out there."
"Yeah."
"Yeah….."
"So….."
Karui now looked flat out annoyed. "Way to go, genius, now this is awkward."
"Fuck you!" Kiba shot back. "You're an enemy nin! I could execute you on the spot!"
"But you won't now, dumbass, cause you've gone and remembered me. Shit, I knew who you were as soon as I smelled your damn dog, but did I sit around strolling down memory lane? No, I tried to behead your ass. SO fucking unprofessional."
"I will too! It just…."
"Sucks now, right?"
"Yeah. Look, why don't you just tell us what you know. Save the torture part. As kind of a favor."
Karui spat on his vest. "Suck my dick, pansy."
Akamaru growled loudly, clearly ready to take another bite of her and Kiba drew his kunai again. "Fine, have it your way. You're gonna talk though, one way or another."
He poised the blade above her arm, its razor sharp tip pressing on her skin and ready to slice her tendons and sinews and ligaments.
"Your mom gave birth to a girl."
"That's it!" Kiba growled, slashing the kunai across her skin. "Still not talking?"
Karui just cocked an eyebrow, looked at the tiny cut he'd just inflicted and back at him. "Really?"
Even Akamaru whined loudly, embarrassed for his partner.
"Look," Karui began, "You clearly suck at this torture thing-"
"I do not!"
"-So let me help you out. First you want to ask a question. Otherwise I don't know if you're asking for my favorite color or the key to the Raikage's apartment. Then you want to actually hurt me when I don't answer. And, no, paper cuts like that one don't count."
"Why are you telling me that anyway? Are you some kind of masochist?"
"I'm not a masochist, and believe me, if our positions were reversed, I'd be bringing the pain right now."
"Oh, really?" Kiba shot back. "So you're a dominatrix? And when I'm done getting every last drop of intelligence you have, I'm afraid I'll be killing you, so it makes little difference, I think."
Karui stared. "What have you been doing in torture training? Sleeping? Kami, you Konoha-nin are idiots. That was a line out of a movie."
Kiba's face brightened considerably. "You've seen Kunai of Legend too?"
"Favorite fucking movie," Karui deadpanned.
"Really? Mine too! I love the part when-"
"No, dumbass, it was terrible! Are you torturing me or what? This is killing me."
Kiba, sensing an opportunity, promptly smirked and assumed a knowing expression. Karui's countenance instantly fell, horror overtaking her features.
"No," She murmured, realization dawning on her ask Kiba made another tiny cut, unsure of exactly why he hadn't simply severed some vital tendon.
He didn't want this drawn out fiasco of a kidnapping to get any worse. He'd already run smack into a former ally, one he'd personally fought beside, and who'd saved his life more than once.
She, however, seemed to think differently. "You're not horrible at torture at all. You're incredible at it…Just being around my torturer is torture, and you don't even have to physically hurt me. These tiny cuts don't hurt, but whenever I move, they make me uncomfortable. Enough of them and any movement at all will make me wish I'd just told you instead of suffering this way. OH KAMI! I SOUND LIKE OMOI!"
"Yeah," Kiba replied, cutting her lightly again. I guess this isn't too bad, he thought, going along with her rather illogical reasoning. But I'd better hurry and get the information from her or Uncle and the twins will really hurt her. "Something like that."
"I'll tell you what you want to know, just don't break me!" Karui begged. "Don't turn me into him!"
Kiba blinked. That one went over his head. "Huh?"
"STOP IT!" she hollered, "I can't take it anymore! What do you want to know?"
That works.
The puzzled Chuunin launched into the real interrogation. "What is the size and composition of your force? Why is Kumo helping Amegakure? What are your troop positions and any supply lines or weapon caches?"
The only response he got was laughter.
"You actually thought I was serious?" Karui cackled. Akamaru, laying on his belly, put his paws over his eyes, whining sadly.
"Of course not!" Kiba tried to play it off, adopting a casual expression.
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!"
Unsuccessfully.
"You Konoha dummies are really fuckin' stupid, y'know that?" Karui continued. Kiba heard a rustle in the leaves approaching quickly. He had to shut her up before they arrived or he'd never live it down.
"Sarcasm no Jutsu!" Karui continued, now listing to the side, but still fastened to the tree by the ropes that bound her. "HAHAHAAHAHA!"
Kiba gritted his teeth, his anger boiling over. He was now being openly mocked by a ninja that HE had captured. Who cared if she had been an ally once? She was a total bitch!
"Oh, look at me!" She said, in the girliest voice she could muster. "I'm from Konohagakure! I'm chivalrous and kind and won't use torture like a normal ninja! Because I'm so GOO-"
"SHUT UP!" KIba hollered, and for a moment, he wondered why she obeyed him. Then the red cleared from his vision and he realized why.
He'd punched her in the face and now she was unconscious, blood pouring into her hair from her head's violent collision with the tree behind her.
"Oh," he muttered. "That's better."
"Kiba!" Takeo's voice rang through the trees. "Were you successful?"
"Uhh," Kiba drew his hand back guiltily, then inspiration struck him. "Yeah! Yeah, I was."
"So, where are their supply facilities?"
"She's going to show us," Kiba smirked. "But first we need to get out of here and cover our tracks."
Takeo glared at the girl. "I hope desperately, Kiba-kun, that you are not bringing a prisoner."
"Yeah. I've got an idea."
After checking to make sure she was still unconscious, Kiba lifted her surprisingly light form and tossed her over Akamaru's back, tying her down with a small harness he kept for this exact reason.
"Lets go. We need to be far from here by night," Takeo instructed. They followed him into the trees, running fast and hard.
No team could outstrip a group of inuzuka when it came to travelling long distances quickly. And it was only an hour or so later that Kiba instructed them to stop. Approaching a clear, winding stream that was nearby, hidden in the shade of a tall oak, he untied Karui and laid her in the shallow bed, where brown dirt became mud and water could wash away all traces of a scent.
"What are we doing here, cousin?" Mitsuo asked, crouching and cupping water in his hands to drink from the clear stream. Mikio dropped next to him, dunking his face into the water entirely. "I thought we didn't have time or resources for prisoners."
"We don't," Kiba replied, "She won't be our prisoner. Not for long anyway."
Takeo raised a scraggly eyebrow. "I see."
"Akamaru," Kiba instructed. "Dynamic Marking!"
Akamaru stared at him, tongue lolling out to one side and panting softly for a moment before giving the canine equivalent of a shrug. He lifted his leg over Karui's still form and marked her. Mikio laughed while his twin turned away in disgust.
"You call that a strategy?"
"Just do me a favor," Kiba replied, tying her to Akamaru once more. "When she escapes, pretend not to notice. You know what to do Akamaru?"
The ninten barked once in affirmative before splashing through the stream, careful not to get too much water on his package, before rejoining his master in their mad dash from the scene of the abduction.
Thump….
Thump…
Thump…
She was falling, soaring downward in one of Killer Bee's training exercises. Low circling clouds flashed past, as the great stone cliffs of the lightning country rushed upward at her side, not two meters away. An outcropping narrowly missed her, gently scratching the back of her outstretched arms. Omoi sailed down beside her. Offering only his trademark frown.
Thump! She landed on the Hachibi's long tentacle, suddenly arresting her fall, then it released her again and she fell.
Thump! Caught again. Falling again.
Thump! Caught again. Why was bee catching her so quickly. He'd always let her fall much farther before. She hadn't done such short falls since she was a genin.
Thump! Come to think of it, where was Omoi? Hadn't he been right here with her?
Thump! This time she landed on her face, instead of gracefully like she'd been taught. She slid away from the slimy tentacle and wet fur bristled into her nose and eyes.
Thump! Why does bee-sama have fur now?
Thump!
Karui coughed and blinked her eyes open to see the ground rushing toward her at a frightening pace.
Thump! She stopped suddenly, a pressure on her gut and the barest hint of a stout branch flashing past, and the ground was rushing by again. She tried to scream, but she had been bound and gagged, tied to the boy's dog like so much luggage.
Always alert, she surveyed her surroundings. They were in the western forests still, just before dusk. The last rays of sunlight were chasing right side and the dog's rear, so they were heading east. Probably toward Konoha. A likely location for their base of operations in the sector, as close to their hidden village as possible.
She quickly weighed her options. On one hand, she could go with the flow, allowing them to take her to their base, then try to signal the allied Shinobi forces against the Konohans. She quickly dismissed that idea. She would be imprisoned properly if she was captured, she knew. Chakra-shackles and all. Very probably she'd be executed after they extracted all useful information she had. They had those mind-walkers, Yamanakas. And Ibiki Moreno. That man had a reputations ten miles long.
Her only chance was to simply escape now. Pulling at her bindings, tried to work her way loose, but it was to no avail. She was tied to some harness, and bounded hand and feet. She slipped a little on the dog's sweat soaked back, looking desperately forward, but the other travelers had not noticed her wakefulness.
Thump!
It was infuriating! How had she allowed that little shit to capture her in the first place. To top it off, he had punched her!
She growled softly to herself, twitching and wiggling as much as she could manage, slipping lower and lower on the harness.
Thump!
She slipped much farther than she intended, completely hanging from the dog's sweaty underbelly now. Her hand caught something metal and it sliced her wrist open. She gritted her teeth in pain before she realized what it was. The latch to the harness!
Thump!
Something brushed her exposed side, where her light tunic ended above her navel. She frowned quickly, wondering what could possibly have…
Thump!
There it was again. Every time the dog's legs came forward to push them from the next branch, it seemed to…
Thump!
Karui's blood ran cold. Fearful eyes peered down past the white fur of his shaggy flank to see exactly what was touching her.
Thump!
Karui froze, her curiosity rewarding her with something worse than torture.
Thump!
Blood leaked down her arm, her wound forgotten.
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
"MMFFFFFFFFFFF!" Karui screamed behind the gag. Staring at the dog's member as it continued to brush her exposed side. "MMMFFFMFMFFF!"
She worked the latch frantically, trying to release the unfamiliar mechanism
Thump!
Each passing second increased her ferocity, and she forgot to time her release. The latch opened and the leather thong her arms and legs were tied to slipped quickly away, leaving a rough burn where it rubbed against her skin. She slammed into the next branch instead of being carried over it and fell in an uncontrolled descent, hitting several more branches and finally landing in a prominent thornbush.
"MFFFFFFF!" she hollered before reaching up painfully and ungagging her mouth. "I'm gonna KILL HIM!"
A/N: Hope you liked! R&R
Paperazzi OuT!
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