Hiraeth - A Naruto Fanfic

Chapter 1

I am so sick of girls.

Kiba Inuzuka had a lot of respect for women, for the most part. He kind of had to since he'd been surrounded by them his entire life. His mother and sister were female, his sensei and teammate were female. His girl… person he'd slept with, was female. But damn, they were annoying.

Ami gave him that look again, that judgmental glare and curling lip. He thoroughly regretted escaping the disaster with Hinata today. He'd much rather face those girl problems now than come here to meet a distraught "cuddle buddy". If she weren't crying already he'd probably blurt out every insult he'd thought of for her. Instead, he took a moment to disconnect from reality and observe the woman in front of him objectively. Her oval face was framed by some of the softest hair he'd ever ran his fingers through. Her red rimmed eyes were a deep shade of violet like the smooth locks of her hair. Her lips pursed only for a moment, never wasting a chance to release outrageous accusations of- Betrayal?

He leaned in to kiss the salt off those lips, cupped his hands against her sticky face and wiped off the sparkling trails dropping off at the end of her rounded chin. That 'oughta shut the bitch up for a second. She pulled back first with a frown tugging her face down, sure was ugly when she cried.

"Everyone hates me." She muttered quietly, pressing onto his hands with her own. Shit. Sometimes, looking into those eyes made him forget why she drove him so crazy. Then she opened her mouth again. "And you don't care."

He sighed, "Ami, no one hates you. Hana was only annoyed earlier because you aren't entitled entrance to our home."

"Well, why not!" She interrupted. Kiba removed his touch from her and took a step back, nearly tripping over a mound of dirty grass. He narrowed his eyes in confusion, taking in the entirety of this crazy broad. What the hell was he doing with a person like her?

She stepped forward, following him by pushing her body into his. Kiba felt an unsettling attraction at the catch of her scent, and the conflicting emotions caused him to grimace. She always smelled so good, even after the sweating and running through trees all morning. He hugged her back after some apprehension.

"We're together, right?" She asked, cutting through the silence. He rolled his eyes.

Kiba wasn't much for commitments. He'd only just started his career - his whole life! Why did anyone get married anyway? Especially those in the business he and Ami were getting into, it made more sense to keep their options open and have fun. Ninja weren't known for their long lifespans, save for the occasional safe player or genius, neither of which applied to him. He knew already, someday he'd die for an important cause. Starting a family seemed foolish, though perhaps he just wasn't mature enough to understand.

Whatever. He didn't care.

He hugged onto her tightly, speaking through her aromatic hair into her ear, "When we started this thing, I thought we both agreed we wouldn't be attached that way…" she jerked her head away from him and pushed back on his chest.

"Kiba, that was forever ago. I can't do it anymore if you aren't going to commit a little." She spoke not like a psycho maniac. Of course, that's what someone with feelings would want. That was also one of the many things they didn't share in common.

"Right now isn't a good time for me," How cliché. He'd make it up to her later. Maybe tonight he'd sneak her out and bring her somewhere nice, in public, then maybe she'd be in the mood to party later. After thinking it over for half a second, Kiba decided he'd rather have her than nobody. "Let's go out tonight, then we'll talk about it."

"So you're just gonna let your sister treat me that way? Your mutts almost attacked me and you won't apologize? I don't get it." She turned from him and swayed her hips as she walked away. He growled audibly.

"I'll talk to her, Ami. Just try to understand, it's not right to walk into someone's house without permission. Especially when there are guard dogs." His sister's Haimaru brothers weren't the most friendly toward strangers who were intruding their territory. It surprised him that they hadn't torn her to shreds by the time Hana caught her attempting to break in their front door in this morning.

"Fine. Guess I'll see you tonight then." Ami twirled to face her boy with a grin and disappeared into the trees, making him wonder if he'd just been played.

So. Sick. Of. Girls!

xxx

Kiba had a perpetual scowl set on his face. It twisted incredulously, his bottom lip pouting outward impossibly far. His eyes slit into terrifying thin lines and his nostrils flared uncontrollably. Ever so slowly, he reached upward, hands clamped tightly onto his fuzzy hood.

"Naruto." He growled deeply as he pulled the hood over his line of sight. He crossed his arms in a resentful huff, throwing his head back against the tree behind him. Just speaking the kid's name aloud left a bitter after-taste.

Kiba's ears twitched at the sound of his mocking laughter. Nails on a chalkboard would have been preferable to the annoying variations in his pitch.

He wanted to murder Uzumaki - or at least hurt him. Really bad. Just to get that idiot to shut the fuck up.

Apparently, Team 7 had just returned from a dangerous mission. A real honest to god, not D rank, mission. The plentiful low ranks were not cutting it anymore for the impatient young man. Kiba's teeth ground as his jaw tightened, lips pulling back into an ugly snarl. He never cared much for the other team before, but now he loathed them.

Normally he wasn't in such a piss mood. Naruto had just been the final straw to top off the already shit-day.

This morning's training sucked. Hinata was more than slightly frustrating and he may have lost his temper during their spar. He never meant to hurt her, all he ever did was care about her! She just needed a little push- or maybe he just needed to work on his patience like Kurenai sensei said…but whatever. The girl needed help and she failed, ended up getting herself hurt. He'd take it back over and over if he could. Including Akamaru, it was painfully obvious how disappointed his teammates were.

Of course he couldn't forget how Ami was being a royal bitch this morning. And that was saying something, considering that insult was banned from his family's household.

"Um…Kiba?"

His angry eyes jerked up toward his questioning teammate, who's tightly bandaged arms hugged around her body.

"Shouldn't we be, I- I don't know, congratulating Naruto?" Of course. Hinata to the rescue for her precious Naruto.

He scoffed, turning his head back down hatefully at his fellow graduates. Through the mass of leaves he could see Naruto stick his tongue out at Shikamaru and Choji. Sasuke kept his eyes closed, donning a subtle smirk on his face with Ino clinging to his side. Sakura beamed proudly, looking as if she were standing 10 feet taller than the rest.

Fiery jealously scorched his insides. What the hell made them so special?

He wouldn't have cared so much if it were any other team, hell, Sasuke and Sakura weren't even that bad. Just entitled and annoying…but at least he had some respect for them.

It was Naruto. That incompetent brat had no right to brag so much about 'kicking ass' during his first real battle.

Kiba groaned loudly, ignoring the fact that his teammates could observe all of his tactless behavior.

How did that idiot manage to survive a deadly fight anyway? Against a rogue ninja? Must have been Kakashi's fight. His mouth twitched into a near smirk at the thought. Kiba wouldn't have bothered listening to the story anyway. Naruto was notorious for embellishment, chances were they didn't even have a fight the whole trip. It should have just been a standard escort mission, right? He held in the urge to spit in their direction as the voices began to fade.

Kiba felt a tickling underneath his chin as Akamaru peeked out of his coat. The puppy growled quietly with each quick breath, mirroring Kiba's jealously.

He pat the little dog's head, "That should have been our mission." His harsh words cut through the tense air.

Hinata winced, annoying Kiba further.

"That's not entirely true." his even more, if that were possible, quiet teammate Shino spoke up.

Kiba rolled his eyes. "What?"

Shino remained unmoved, he was like a slightly-more-vocal statue… which was stupidly accurate since Kiba rarely saw his mouth move as he spoke. "We wouldn't have gotten that mission. Even if we beat Team 7 to the administrators."

"Oh really." Kiba annunciated each dry word.

Hinata glanced back and forth between her bickering teammates. Her lip quivered and mouth parted slightly, as if to add something to the argument.

"What do you think, Hinata?" Kiba bantered, her mouth snapped shut. "Shino's got it wrong, doesn't he?"

Hinata looked down, digging her chin into her chest. "I don't know." A small pang of guilt wormed its way into Kiba's gut.

That girl could be so ridiculous. Someday he'd get her to fight for herself- maybe. Until then…Fine. He'd just keep his opinions to himself. Not like anyone bothered to agree with them anyway. Why was everyone in the leaf village such an ass?

Kiba slid off the large branch quietly, not bothering to say goodbye to his team. He landed softly on the ground, and hustled far away. Opposite from the group of friends reminiscing about their time in the land of water, of course.

-xxxxx-

"Good morning, sir!"

Ibiki Morino slouched sideways in his chair, glaring heinously at the stacks of paper landing on his desk.

The petite assistant scuttled away quickly; delivering piles of paperwork upon anyone's offices she could slip her convoluted self in. Ibiki moved no more than an inch since she'd came and went - delivering a copy of Kakashi's, surprisingly not-overdue, report. The man craned his head up toward the ticking clock. He'd dare to admit it was actually early.

He rubbed abrasively all over his face and straightened out his posture, taking little comfort in his more than spacious office as he prepared for his upcoming 'appointment'. He clenched onto a mug of black liquid and drowned his impending groan with scalding coffee.

The jonin had nearly zero sleep the past few days; even during the slower times of year the paperwork never seemed to let up. Along with a partner, he could work continuously for weeks straight and probably still find more work left to do. He had been home a total of ten hours the past three days, just trying to catch up. Ibiki may have been a genius in the art of torture, but having to read and write the necessary reports was a cruel punishment of its own.

He quirked an eyebrow at the thought, maybe he'd force his next adversary to fill out their own paperwork. Another vicious gulp of coffee scorched down his esophagus as he pondered, almost insane enough to half-consider the idea.

But not quite. Plus, It'd take a considerably longer amount of time to get the work up to his ridiculous standards… mores the reason for each tower of jobs littering his work space. The human 'fine-toothed comb' could detect the slightest lapse of quality, he couldn't afford to make any mistakes in his line of work. That essential habit flowed over to other aspects of his job description, including desk work (not that he enjoyed it any more). So no. That plan didn't sound very good at all. He wasn't a goddamn babysitter.

The bored man stretched out his arm sluggishly and flicked up the corner of the fresh set of files, sending cascades of paper off his desk.

"Beautiful."

He pressed his fingers into the pressure building underneath his sinus. This office shit is what caused him to suffer those daily migraines, no question about it. Granted, the hokage paid him quite well for his irregular and interminable schedule.

All of the mind-numbing paperwork: it was well worth the wage, and he deserved it too. He was good, damn good, at his job. So much so he'd had to learn when to appropriately reign in on the mind games. More than a handful of times he'd gotten innocent, well somewhat innocent, enemies to confess to uncommitted crimes worthy of decapitation. The burly man sighed with a hint of grin on his face. That was just for fun.

No one outside of the force asked him about his tactics, most people were content knowing he could be relied on for getting the job done, and that's it. If, god forbid, civilians were to witness the worst of what he was capable of, it would make any sort of personal relationships with them impossible.

Professional affairs aside, Ibiki could be an entirely separate fun-loving, easygoing person. Of course, he was human too. A human who enjoyed delicious food, cunning entertainment, copious amounts of caffeine, oh and a little undercover people watching definitely sat atop the list. He could go on and on about what he'd rather do than read reports, but he needed to know what to expect- from the person sitting in the room across the building.

He scratched at his chin, snagging his glove every so often on the stiff stubble and rough scarred skin. With a frown on his face, he glanced over at the photo of a young woman lying on the floor beside his chair. His fingers stilled on his chin contemplatively.

He was getting too old for this.

Age itself wasn't the issue here. If he weren't K.I.A. before, he probably had at least 35 good years left before he'd retire. Instead it was the long disputed realization as the years passed, Ibiki Morino, called 'sadist' behind his back as long as he could remember, had a growing soft spot for younger females.

The man scoffed, gripping the arms of his chair tightly. "Soft." He hissed through his teeth. That word alone could invoke hostility.

Just because they were female didn't mean they were any less dangerous, he knew this from experience. Even so, statistically speaking, there were obvious hints of leniency in his actions toward women.

Ibiki efficiently buried the small shred of pity he automatically had for the girl. She'd very likely been trained to appear scared and helpless under these circumstances. It would be foolish not to work those charming features: The constant upturn of her eyebrows, the slight frown tugging at the corners of her mouth, and those expressive bronze eyes…He didn't buy into those big ol' doe-eyes for a fucking second.

Now irritated, Ibiki left his chair to gather the disorganized files off the scuffed linoleum. It was about time he get the report read and over with. Another large swig of coffee left an empty mug thrown across the table as he flipped open the file of the girl known as Kaiya Yuki.

-xxxxx-

A fiery sunset cast it's warm glow through the chalky, elongated window. Threads of dancing light seemed to widen the stale room, inhabited by a narrow wooden table with a few occupied chairs. Gray walls and floor were barren of any decorative distractions, save for a set of irritating fluorescent balls on each side of the only exit. How boring.

The young woman held back a desire to yawn, fighting against her blurring vision. Her eyes focused in and out on the two silent men sitting in front of her. She settled her gaze on the morphing sunlight on the wall opposite of the window. It took every shred of discipline to not immediately pass out on the table. There was no time to sleep yet. She needed to be alert; to expect the worst scenario.

Before her 'visitors' arrived, Kaiya spent the entire day stranded in there. She silently thanked whomever it was that transferred her into the room with the view. The peaceful landscape helped calm her fraying nerves, keeping her mind off of the insidious anxiety and pestering hunger.

It was beautiful outside, she wasn't used to seeing such bright colors which accompanied the leaf village. Most of Kaiya's life she had been surrounded by either gray fog or dark rainy clouds. She rarely got to witness the true beauty the sun could yield; but there was little time to admire the quaint atmosphere of the Kohonagakure. Her lips tightened into an expressionless line, careful to maintain her reserve.

Her wandering eyes froze, having been captured by the intimidating gaze of the shinobi in front of her. Dammit. Her lip twitched slightly under the mounting pressure. Two ninja in front of her remained quiet and still, observing her behavior and micro-reactions. Annoyance nagged at the back of her exhausted mind. These people were pros against a child, and it sucked.

Kaiya had expected this "interview" to happen. She'd mentally prepared herself for days already, yet her breath unintentionally quickened. The way this case had been described to her so long ago: she hadn't expected it to be so accurate. Her stoney guise hid the nauseating wave that twisted inside her gut. She hadn't expected herself to react this way. If she didn't appear calm, they would think she was hiding something.

She'd never felt this threatened by a jonin's eyes alone, the one other jonin she'd met was Zabuza who's eyes only demanded respect. Then Kakashi came along; but he had the sort of warmth to his eyes nearly on par with Haku.

This one sitting in front of her would not hear her out easily.

Kaiya cursed herself for not taking the counter tactics she'd learned more seriously and silently prayed she was able to handle the leaf ninja in front of her, but she could already feel herself crumble underneath a weight of uncertainty. The soundless, scarred man would witness everything; his dull eyes then flickered over her body quickly, making Kaiya feel somehow violated. This bastard was going to make her admit to something that isn't true!

Just don't say anything that could be considered incriminating.

He would most likely understand exactly what she was thinking, judging only her posture and subtle body movements. Even though it was beginning to dim in the room, he'd be sure to see the thin line of sweat begin to bead on her forehead. She wouldn't dare move to wipe it off.

Careful to relax her jaw, she pressed the tip of her tongue against the back of her teeth, intending to scrap along a jagged edge to alleviate her mind from the torturous silence. It was the only way she could distract herself now, not knowing what he was going to do or say. It made her feel powerless, though she wouldn't express that on her face. They'd stripped her of any weapons to defend herself with. Only a precautionary measure she agreed to when she asked to speak to the Hokage.

Her eyelid twitched unintentionally and she had had it. This silence needed to end.

"Is this how your village treats all of it's vulnerable refugees?" She instantly bit her tongue. Taking on such a defensive standpoint was reckless. Hopefully the man could see in her eyes how scared she really was. How desperate she was to have Kakashi as her new mentor. If she failed, it would mean the end. Haku had opened her eyes to the potential she carried; now that he was gone, she had nothing left but a dark world to return to. Assuming she could escape her new tormentor.

A hearty laugh roared from across the table, making Kaiya blink in surprise. Her eyes narrowed in confusion as the shinobi's partner shook his head empathically. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably as he adjusted the clip board in his hands, all while scrawling notes over the page.

"Interesting choice of words," her attention was brought back to the scarred man, "but we'd hardly consider you a vulnerable refugee." His posture slacked, easing the tension in the room slightly. He rested his elbow on the table, chin lounged on the back of his curled hand, "I'm going to be honest right now, dear. Based on your previous company, I'm having a difficult time convincing myself to not execute you right here." After delivering the stunning threat he leaned backward and crossed his arms smugly, "We've got a long way to go before I ever consider granting your absurd request."

A sharp pain of hopelessness shot through her chest, causing her to lean in toward the table, crossing her arms into an X over her chest. Kaiya blinked again and frowned, confused by the man's body language contrasting his dialogue. What's going on? Was he provoking her?

"I understand you don't know me very well, and I can't tell you to trust me based on my word alone," her voice tapered off. She was digging herself into a hole. "But your village owes me." She growled.

"Uh huh, this is gonna be good." He sneered.

"My grandfather hired your men for a simple escort mission. Then they killed my sensei; my only biological family!" The man bore his eyes into her.

He held his hand up. "Wait, wait, no."

"I'm n-!"

"Try again, sweetheart." His voice boomed over her accusations.

"Your grandfather- lets ignore the fact he lied to us which could have gotten all of you killed. Tazuna needed protection. From your sensei."

"It's not so black and white." Kaiya hung her head. Being reminded of how terribly they'd been taken advantage of, how she could have lost Tazuna to people she put her trust in. It was too much to bear anymore.

Her chest tightened uncomfortably, "I hate Zabuza for what he did. It's so hard." She gasped. "So hard for me to forgive Haku for defending his cause."

Nobody spoke as she doubled over. Her body trembled as her breath became jagged, irregular.

"It was just a job to them." She looked up at the jonin through dry eyes. "I reject what they've done, but I will do anything to make myself the strongest I can. If I had gotten the chance to tell them sooner who their target really was…maybe this would have turned out differently."

"So tell me." He deadpanned. "What's going to stop you from assassinating your sensei's killer when you get your hands on him?" Her body conveniently collapsed over the table, giving in to total exhaustion.

The man stood abruptly, causing his chair to scoot hideously against the floor. He glared over her figure once more before signaling to his partner that they were done for now.

Once again, Kaiya was left all alone.

AN: Throughout the story I've made the characters a bit older, I don't like the idea of teenagers going from nothing to gods within a couple years, haha. Thanks for taking the time to read. I'd really appreciate your feedback, especially constructive criticism.