The Jackal, the Mignonette and the Wolf

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Three days in a row. Three days in a row, this woman had taken him to work with her and slipped him biscuits when no one was looking from within the pouches sewn on her apron. Didn't she know chocolate was bad for dogs? Idiot woman. Said raccoon dog, whom was called Gaara, as Naruto had corrected her yesterday when she'd only, called him 'that', sat watching in his normal corner of the café as she wiped down the tables since there were five minutes before closing time and pocketed some left over change, giving some to Lee in return who gave her a blindingly white toothbrush commercial smile (which Gaara winced at from the sheer volume of whiteness). He blinked and nibbled a bit more on the biscotti situated between his two paws upright while he not so discreetly spat out a chocolate chip; aiming to hit the woman known as Hyuuga Hinata.

He watched her turn after she felt something tap her shoe momentarily and he watched as she slowly spaced out, staring at the floor where the chocolate chunk lay. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth parted just the slightest. Gaara's tail twitched at a sudden spine prickling feeling as he gnawed messily on the hard cookie. She hadn't moved, her eyes were glazed over and for a moment, Gaara wondered if she had died standing up.

The raccoon dog thing sat up and gulped down the rest of his snack, approaching the woman Naruto had dumped him with. She blinked and suddenly he could see her breathing again, moving around and his ears flipped back momentarily. He watched her cater to another customer who was waiting for her to take his order.

The look in her eyes was distant, fleeting and it was as though she was looking into the future like an oracle. A dreamy sort of gaze, dreams ran and nightmares crept. Golden eyes ringed in obsidian blinked at her slowly, once and he returned to his spot, tail curling over his paws where his head remained alert. Odd thing, she was. He heard the click of her uniform heels coming and he lifted his head higher to look at her. She was smiling a bit and had a bowl in her hand, "Here," she placed it down and he saw there was milk in it. He looked back up and gave her a blank stare. She sighed and her fingers twisted a bit, "That was all we have to spare right now, so just drink it and," she dug around in her apron pouch to produce a plain hazelnut and almond biscotti, "Eat this for now." She placed it on the ground and scurried away to turn the sign to 'Closed'.

The raccoon looking dog stuck his muzzle in the bowl and lapped at the milk, keeping watchful eyes on the young woman who could probably break her neck by tripping over her own feet. Licking at his lips, he turned to look out the window, standing up on all fours when across the street, a young man ran, tripping and Gaara saw what he was running from. A large black wolf trotted after him calmly, bright red eyes gleaming in the darkness and the downpour. The man, Gaara saw, screamed and ran faster. The wolf followed and the man made the mistake of going down a dead end. A final, blood curdling scream – silence. There were heels and a soft voice.

"Gaara, what's wrong?" she murmured, bare tips of her fingers brushing over the few longer hairs on his right ear. He turned his head to her and snorted, feeling his fur fluff up on instinct. She sighed and mumbled a, 'weird dog' beneath her breath while she untied her apron and folded it on the counter while Lee gave her another smile and told her good night.

She picked up Gaara's leash (he very much wanted to gnaw the leash off, but rules were rules and a little gratitude was needed since she was unknowingly taking something very dangerous in) and tugged on it so he would follow her. She picked up a large umbrella and opened it once they were outside and he stayed under it as much as he could without touching her. His ear flipped when he heard her sneeze.

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Sasuke threw his head back and blood dripped from his lips, crashing with the ground and smattering only to be washed away. His tongue ran over abnormal teeth and his lips while he looked down at the man who was twisted in an awkward angle at his torso, doing a status report. He was breathing heavily and blood squirt from the holes in his throat. The black haired youth backed away and the man watched as he reared up, catching sight of three identical black commas running in a circular pattern on the boy's shoulder. "Yo…you're…" he began coughing and hacked up blood all over his trench coat.

"I'm?" Sasuke waited for him to answer and only saw a finger weakly pointing at him.

"O…one…o-of those…" he coughed again while Sasuke stared down at him dispassionately, toeing him in his ribs. "T-things!" he gasped his last word before he coughed and there was a muffled gurgle in his throat before his chest remained still. Obsidian eyes gleamed red in the darkness suddenly and he reached over the pick up his discarded trench coat, slipping into it with ease.

Sasuke looked down at the dead body lying at his feet and scowled, "It's bastards like you that made me what I am." He sniffed the air and froze suddenly, looking to the end of the alleyway where he had entered. A blonde man with odd scars on his face that looked similar to whiskers stood and shocking blue eyes stared at the corpse. Silence reigned in and suddenly an abnormally large orange colored fox with numerous black tipped tails that swished snarled at the black wolf that stood in the downpour. The wolf's ears pinned back and he bore his teeth silently and threateningly.

"Sasuke! You son of a bitch! You're not supposed to" –

"Kill them?" the wolf licked his lips and the silent commentary they were having went on unnoticed. "They die, we live. They live, we die. Simple, no?"

The fox's hateful orange reddened eyes narrowed and his snarled, taking a step towards the motionless black wolf that snorted mockingly at him. The wolf spoke once more, "Gaara found someone to give him a sanctuary. So did you." The wolf shook his head and circled, laughing to himself in what sounded like low toned growls and grunts, red eyes gleamed. "That's against the rules, not to mention cowardly - running with your tails between your legs."

The fox snarled back, "I'm not the one whose someone's dog Sasuke!" he snapped and he moved quickly, leaping over a trashcan and landing on the ground heavily. The wolf was moving, lowering his stance and opened his jaws wide while the fox snapped his teeth, jaws closing on one of his tails and flinging him into the wall. There was a crack and the fox let out a yelp but twisted and latched on to the ankle of the wolf's hind leg. The wolf yelped and tried moving back to shake the fox off, but he wouldn't let go, allowing himself to be dragged.

Snaps, yelps and snarls carried on in the alley way and the thunder rolled, lightning flashed and the rain continued to pour relentlessly on the two.

The heavens wept while the moon shamefully hid behind a blackened veil of wispy clouds, hiding her stars when a lone howl carried in the wind.

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Gaara could feel the strain of being in this much more compact version of his original form and resisted the urge to scratch at the skin on his forehead; right above his left eye. He mildly watched the Hyuuga woman go down the hall for a shower. She was innately boring, immaculate, shrouded and discreet in everything she did, but she, like everyone else he had come across in his life, had a secret life. Naruto (that damn meddling fox) told him bits and pieces about Hinata, and tomorrow, Gaara realized was her 'movie night' which meant he was going to be alone.

He was going to be all alone for nearly an entire night and he could hunt down the Uchiha. He listened to water running. Gaara's nostrils flared and he lifted his head, feeling his fur rise up slowly when a prickle, tingly sort of feeling overcame him. Far off, he heard a distant howl, long and low that somehow overpowered the pounding of the relentless and ruthless rain. Gaara felt his hackles rise and he slipped from the comfortable sofa silently, having only a loose and thick black collar on him instead of that damnable leash. The howl came again, but closer. Gaara snapped his teeth in agitation and looked over his shoulder to see that the bathroom light escaping from the small crack at the bottom of the door was still radiating and sounds of bathwater were still running.

His ears pulled back harshly when there was a scratch at the door. Just one and that was all. His lips pulled back and he turned to it, tail fluffing up in agitation when he heard it once more and low breath on the other side.

Lightning flashed and no longer the raccoon dog stood, but in its place a red haired youth with an agitated pose. His eyes narrowed at the door when no sound came from the other side and his grey green eyes gleamed. "Uchiha."

On the other side, there came a muffled, yet harshly hissed out, "Sabaku."

Silence reigned in and Gaara heard the bathroom door open up, steam rushing out and a self satisfied sigh. His bones compacted almost immediately, feeling them crunch and crumble on themselves, his face narrowing it and elongating while his ears grew out. The redheaded male was gone leaving an ill at ease dog thing that looked like a raccoon. Hinata stopped to look at the dog which gave her a deceptively blank look before looking back at the door, and Hinata looked at the door in confusion. Had there been someone there when she'd been gone?

She walked to the door and unlocked it, peering out of it curiously only to see a dark road with some sort of dark looking canine figure in the middle of the road, looking back at her house. Red eyes gleamed and Hinata's breath rushed out. She felt soft fur brush her calf and she looked down. "Gaara…?" she asked quietly. The raccoon dog was breathing hard and his eyes were extremely wide, a grin on his face. His fur was puffed out and he looked twice as large, abnormal grey blue designs on his fur looking odd.

The tips of her fingers touched the end hairs of his ear and she watched it twitch before he snorted in response. "I feel like spicy chicken burritos. What about you, Gaara?" the raccoon dog turned to her once the black figure was gone, had vanished. She was an odd clumsy little idiot. She never once fed him any of that crappy dog food and fed him what she ate. She probably never actually took care of an animal before in her life.

She rubbed the coarse hairs on his ear absently, since that was the only amount of contact he would tolerate and she didn't want to touch him too much either; he was too weird for any bonding. She got a huff in response before he trotted off to the sofa and she heard the television flicker on, soap opera music from, 'You, Me, We, Them' playing and she stared out in the darkness before closing the door, shutting off the cold wind from her bare calves while simultaneously tightening her knee high silk robe's belt around her waist.

She stopped movement and looked at the door when she heard a lone howl amidst the rain.

Silence and she listened the main characters argue over who the father was. She looked over at Gaara and saw a red haired young man leaning against her couch leisurely with his head against the arm of the sofa. She blinked and stepped back with a hand against her mouth. A gold and grey blue colored raccoon looking dog thing lay on the couch lazily watching the television before dark king's gold eyes flickered up to hers in inquiry.

She shook her head, hand still to her mouth and she walked away, blinking rapidly till tears were summoned. Dreams of dreams, so dreamy, dreary, dreamy and dreamy of another's dream… daydreams would be the end of her. Hinata let a hysterical, tiny laugh bubble up from her throat while she stood in the kitchen.

The thunder rolled and the lightning flashed quietly. Dreaminess, dreamy dreams…

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To akuma de soro, it is slightly similar to Wolf's Rain, however, in this story they are not hiding from humanity specifically and the line between 'good guy' and 'bad guy' blurs for everyone. :D Hinata's more or less the cliché person who gets stuck in the middle, but she doesn't stay in the middle forever. XD

Also, this story may seem to border on romance, but in all actuality it's going to be dealing with the world a government hides from its people, the need for compassion and trust in the world and friendship. :D Yeah, I'm a dork. Also, despite the title only containing three, Naruto and a couple others will play an enormous part in this story. I know Gaara is abnormally 'mild', but he won't be for long. Trust me. :D Have a nice read and day folks.