Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto or any of its trademarks, characters, places, etc.
-2-
"I'm not blind, I just have no eyes," the Kusagakure courier bluntly answered the voice while she leaned against a tree outside of the Konoha hospital. More footsteps continued towards her as she scratched the chin of the furry beast before her.
"Tsunade told me that I would be your guide for the next three days," the young man's voice continued as the footsteps stopped a few feet from her, "My name is Kiba Inuzuka and that magnificent beast you're petting is Akamaru."
Hitomi dropped her hand from Akamaru's chin and stayed silent; she had no interest in playing friendly with Konoha shinobi while she couldn't see where their hands were.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"That isn't important," she changed the topic, "Can you fight?"
She could hear the surprise in this person who identified himself as Kiba's voice, "Yeah, I'm a shinobi. Why do you ask?"
"Good, help me get my flak jacket and katana from the hospital," Hitomi gave a confident grin; "We're going after a group of rogues."
"Um…"
"Did I stutter Konoha shinobi?" if she had eyes, she would have glared at whatever that Kiba was.
"You're crippled," his voice was filled with confusion, "Why would you want to go hunting rogues?" Hitomi was beginning to become annoyed with all of the stalling from these Konoha shinobi, for all she knew, the rogues could be using the letter they stole from her to plot a coup on Kusagakure. And here she was, leaning on a tree with a cane, having to rely on others for help.
"If you won't help me, I'll do it myself."
"Listen, Tsunade told me specifically told me that you weren't to leave the village until the operation was complete," Kiba himself was starting to now get impatient.
"And those rogues I'm going after have something that could possibly endanger both of our villages," she folded her arms and tapped her cane in front of her.
The Konoha shinobi groaned, this woman was making his job much more difficult than it needed to be, "Can't it just wait until after you get your damn surgery."
"Do I have a stuttering problem, Konoha shinobi, do I keep fucking stuttering?"
Kiba grabbed her arm, "Just follow me and shut up."
The Konoha Shinobi dragged the protesting Kusagakure courier to Konoha's Dango Shop. The two sat at a table across from one another with Akamaru sitting next to Kiba. Hitomi kept her arms crossed and faced to the right of where she assumed Kiba would be sitting.
He held a dango to her lips, "Can you please just eat it?"
"Not until you promise me you'll help me hunt down those rogues," she protested, moving her head from the dango.
Kiba's arm followed her, "I already told you that you can handle it after the operation. Can you eat it now; I don't need Tsunade mad at me because you're starving yourself."
"And I already told you, not until you promise to help me," she moved left to dodge the dango, "I don't need your Konoha food, Konoha Shinobi!"
"Just eat the damn dango already!" he shouted out of frustration. The rest of the occupants of the Dango shop turned to see the argument. Hitomi opened her mouth again to protest, but Kiba quickly took the opportunity to shove the dango in her mouth.
Hitomi grabbed her throat and started to choke out, "I…won't eat…your food….Konoha Shinobi!" She spat the dango out in the direction she thought Kiba was and instead hit a customer.
The Konoha shinobi sighed, holding his head up with his hand, "You're making this harder than it has to be…"
"Your lack of concern leaves me appalled," Hitomi grabbed her cane that sat on the seat next to her and began to totter out of the shop and into random customers, "I'm going to find those rogues on my own…after I locate a bar."
"It's still morning," Kiba called to her as he jumped to his feet and followed after her, which wasn't saying much since she only took one step every minute. The courier slowly stumbled down the street, striking the ground with her cane to give her a clue of her surroundings.
"I don't care," she mumbled, as she struck her cane into someone's foot. She heard a loud shout and was pushed into another person, that person being Kiba.
"Sorry," Kiba called to the man and helped Hitomi get back to her feet, "Tsunade won't want you drinking this early, and you're already crippled enough now."
"I don't care," she repeated as she dusted herself off and continued down the crowded street, striking several more people in the feet with her cane until the entire street had given her a clear path to walk. Kiba had to continually call out 'sorry' as he followed her. One rather large man stood right in Hitomi's way however, waiting for her to strike him, and when she did, he grabbed her by her yukata.
"Whatchu hit me for punk!" he shouted straight into her face, as pieces of saliva flew onto her face.
Kiba rushed up to his side, "I'm so sorry, she's blind and didn't see-"
"Let the punk talk, eh!" the large man shouted once again, cutting Kiba off.
The courier just smirked, "I dare you to hit me, I seriously dare you!"
"She didn't mean that," Kiba nervously negotiated, trying to pull her from the man's clutches.
"You dare me, punk? You seriously dare me?" the large man chuckled as he ignored the Konoha shinobi's pleas.
"Yeah I fucking dare you!" she egged him on, tapping on the bandages that covered her left eye-hole, "Right here."
The large man didn't need to be pushed any further and chuckled at the whole situation. He didn't realize that Hitomi was a kunoichi and could figure out the location of his face from the angle at which his fist hit her face. So he took the dare and pulled one arm back, then struck her right where he eye would have been. Before he could pull his arm back, she grabbed it with one hand and struck him in the cane with the other. The large man dropped her to grab his aching head, letting Kiba catch her and race away with Akamaru.
"Hey, where you goin' punk! Get back here so I can slug you one again!" the large man called after them.
Kiba decided then that she'd probably much easier to deal with drunk.
About eleven drinks into Shushuya and a fat check later, Hitomi was slumped out on her stool while Kiba and Akamaru sat next to her waiting until she finished. She held both hands out on the bar to keep her up and called out, "Heeeeeey kiddo how old are you anyway?"
"Seventeen," Kiba grumbled in response.
"Awww, that's so sad," she held up an empty bottle of sake and leaned back on her stool, "'Cause you Konoha folks reaaaaaaally know how to make a drink. My friend Arata back home can make a mean brew but this is amaaaaaazing!"
Expecting her to fall off her stool, Kiba held an arm out and caught her before she damaged herself any more. He got up, grabbing her cane and carried her out of the restaurant, "I'm taking you back to the hospital."
"But kiddo, I think we're getting somewhere here. You're like, my escort right? Escort me around more, I don't wanna go back there," she protested, although drunkenly.
"Nope and I'm going to ask Tsunade to give you a different escort," he continued as he dragged her through the street. Hitomi didn't want to go back to the hospital just to so she could lie around or worse, get reprimanded by a bunch of people she couldn't see because she went drinking. Kiba, however, was sick of dealing with someone who was as stubborn as she was.
"You're giving up on me already? C'mon kiddo, we've spent like what, two hours together?" she grabbed onto his back for support, "Hey let's start over, my name's Hitomi. What's yours kiddo?"
"I told you that two hours ago," he grumbled, "And if I told you it now, you'd probably forget it again anyway."
"C'mon kiddo, we can all be chummy now!" she gave a nervous laugh, "Y'know what hurts?"
He sighed as they neared the hospital, "What."
"Being broke, blind, and bedlam."
Hitomi was dragged back into the hospital and handed off to the nurse who she had awoken to earlier. She brought her back to her room while Kiba went off to beg the Hokage to revoke his escort job. The nurse was quite cross about how drunk Hitomi was, and told she would be forced to drink water and eat all day.
After the nurse put her IV in and left, Hitomi sat in the chair by the window, which had been pushed to face the window, soaking in the sunlight that poured into the room. The door creaked open and she could hear footsteps enter the room.
"Don't worry, don't worry. I can drink this water by myself," Hitomi called back, holding the sippy cup of water up for who she assumed was the nurse to see. When she received no reply and heard the footsteps continue, she prepared herself for what she assumed was an attack. Instead the footsteps stopped at the window in front of her. She heard what sounded like a body slump down and sighing.
"The Hokage said I was stuck with you." Hitomi broke out into maniacal laughter at this. So the Konoha shinobi had come to tell her that his big plan to quit had backfired on him.
"That's just rich, just rich!" she continued to laugh.
"She said I had to stay with you every day until your surgery until dusk," he continued to groan. Hitomi began to keel over in laughter, dropping her sippy cup at her feet while the Konoha shinobi just glared at her.
"I bet you don't even remember my name," he challenged her. Hitomi had to think about it. She did recall him mention it and it shouldn't be that hard to remember, considering he was one of the only people that she had come into contact with since awakening from her coma.
"It's um...it's Kiba."
"You...remembered," she could hear the surprise in Kiba's voice, "I guess you aren't just a stupid drunk after all."
"A stupid drunk!" she was taken aback, "I am jonin of Kusagakure and their finest courier! My memory and vision are my most valuable assets!"
"I'm not sure you can really consider your vision that anymore," Kiba chuckled, "Considering your lack of eyes."
"Whatever the case, now that you're here, we can discuss our plans to get that letter back."
"I've told you this already, you can't go after anyone in your state," he sighed, he didn't have the patience to argue with her about that again.
"Ok, maybe we won't go after them today, but maybe you can track them down for me to handle after my surgery, eh? I'm sure there are plenty of tracking dogs in this village," she motioned over to her bed where her belongings sat, "There should be a short blade in my things, one of my attackers used it and it should have his scent still on it."
"Haha! I could track it myself," he boasted, rummaging through her things for the short blade.
"I don't know what you mean, but whatever. As long as I get that letter back I don't care," she scratched her head in thought, "Now I'm pretty sure I fainted not so far from your village gates, so that would be the first place I'd look if I were you. You can take my headband if need be."
Hitomi pulled her headband from her neck and held it out to where she thought Kiba was. He leaned over and grabbed it and continued to look through her things until he found the short blade wrapped in cloth in her bag.
"I'm not sure I want to help you in the first place, what if you're leading me into a trap?" he questioned.
"How does that make any sense? Am I stuttering again Konoha shinobi?" she shook her head at his logic, "How about this, if you do this for me, I'll make the next few days for you a cakewalk, eh? The stress of losing the letter is my problem and you tracking it will make me so much mellower."
Kiba considered it for a moment then finally gave in; "Fine, I'll search for it."
"Thank you Konoha shinobi!"
