Cocoon
Chapter 9
~o~
"Where are you taking me?"
"Somewhere where those Aburame creepers won't be able to find you..."
Kiba had taken Hinata deep into the thick of the woods, far beyond where most shinobi were allowed to even explore. The brush was scratchy and practically impenetrable, but Kiba and Akamaru seem to cut through it as easily as a fish through water. Hinata hardly had any idea where she was, but she trusted Kiba.
"How do you know they were Aburame?" Hinata asked while gripping tight to Akamaru's coarse fur.
"Did you see them?!"
"I was kind of delirious..."
"Well, for one, they were trying to inject bugs into your belly. Two, I crashed into their estate to rescue you. They were Aburame, for sure."
"Why were they after me?"
The question was rhetorical, but she wanted to see what was going through her team mate's head. Anything to keep her mind off the looming hurricane of anxiety.
"Well, they seem to think that you're pregnant with Shino's kid."
"But I'm not...it's Naruto's." She stated without hesitation. Even she was beginning to thoroughly believed it. Kiba gave her a look.
"Listen Hinata, what goes on between you, Shino, and Naruto is none of my business, but the Aburame are after you for a reason. I don't think Shino is aware of what's going on...he's been pretty fucking reclusive for the past month, but I think if he knew his family was doing weird shit to his team mate, he'd be the first to interject."
Hinata took a moment to chew on that. What had she gotten herself into? Kiba seemed to be implying that she knew a lot more than she thought, and she was starting to feel guilty for not being more honest with her team mates. But how could she? Well, it was her own fault, she supposed...the only thing she had done the past few weeks was run away from the inevitable, and now here she was fleeing into some mysterious thicket she'd never been to.
"Aha, smell that? We're about five minutes away."
She did smell it...it was a repugnant odor...like piss and wet dog. Hinata buried her face in the thin robe wrapped around her, attempting to shield herself from the unbearable stench.
"Boy if you weren't so used to hanging around me, this smell would knock you right out. It's a defense mechanism for the den of the Wolfmother."
"The Wolfmother?" Hinata squeaked through stench-induced tears.
"Yeah, that's who I'm taking you to. She's basically been the caretaker for every Inuzaka mother in the past four or five generations. She's like, I dunno...four-hundred something. Anyway, my mom came to her when she was preggo with me, and my grandma too. She'll make sure you're well taken care of."
Hinata wasn't sure what to think of that. But, soon enough, they reached a clearing. A filthy little shack was built into the side of a cliff, and formed a small cave. Surrounding the area were a series of gardens, animal pens, and most noticeably...about a dozen frighteningly enormous wolves.
The wolves could have eaten Akamaru, and Akamaru was the biggest canine Hinata had ever come across. Yet when the three came into the clearing and Kiba and Hinata dismounted, a few of the beasts happily trotted over and greeted Akamaru with the amicable butt-sniff. Kiba gave one of them a rub on the ear, and another a pat on the snout.
"Hey there buddy, it's been a while."
Hinata stuck close to Kiba, pinching her nose all the while. The smell had not gotten any better...she was beginning to fear whether this place was sanitary enough to raise a child in. As the two approached the shack, a paper door slid open, and the most shriveled little lady Hinata had ever seen ooched out into the open. She had a face like an apple that had been peeled and set in the sun for a week, adorned with the Inuzaka facial markings that had been distorted by layers of wrinkles. Her thin, blanched hair was braided into two long pigtails that dragged along the dirt as she walked. In her hand was a gnarled staff twice as tall as she was, and had a few dangling bones tied to it. When she saw Kiba, she shuffled over to him as quickly as her little feet could and welcomed him with a hug.
"Kiba! My fuzzy little Kiba-kun...so good it is to see you again!"
Kiba returned the hug gleefully. "It's good to see you too, Okami Ba-chan."
The Wolfmother immediately turned to Hinata and stared at her with beady little eyes.
"Is this your woman, Kiba-kun? She has eyes like glass."
"Wolfmother this is Hinata Hyuga, she's my teammate and dear friend of mine."
Hinata took a polite bow. "Hajimemashi-oh!"
Before she could finish her greeting, the strange little woman began sniffing her all over. She lifted her arms and sniffed her sides, grabbed her hair and sniffed that as well. Then she placed her clawed little paws on Hinata's stomach, and took a big long whiff of that too.
"Mmmm...this is no Inuzaka child, Kiba," she said curtly.
"Well, yeah...that's kind of the problem...see Hinata here's in some big trouble...she's currently pregnant with-"
"This is the son of the Ichihokage, ma'am," Hinata hesitantly interrupted. The woman looked at her for a moment, then frowned.
"I do not appreciate lies, child. The life within you is no fox child. That is the child of beetles in that troublesome womb of yours."
Hinata bit her lip. "How do you know?" Another rhetorical question.
The Wolfmother tapped the side of her nose. "No truth hides from this nose."
"Either way, I just snatched her out of the claws of the Aburame clan themselves. They were trying to do some kind of weird experiment on her. I wanted her to be somewhere safe while she goes through her pregnancy, and this was the only place I could think of. Can you do it?" Kiba interrupted.
"Mmm...I am not familiar with raising children from other clans. If she is to stay here, she will work with the same regimen as any other Inuzaka."
"Hinata's the toughest girl I know. She can take whatever you can throw at her."
The Wolfmother held a finger to her chin. "I am also concerned with these Aburame you spoke of. They may be strange to us, but surely whatever they were doing would not have been to cause harm to the girl."
"They were trying to inject me with bugs!" Hinata yelped. Flashes of the scene before went by in her mind, and the thought made her feel nauseated. The smell of the den wasn't helping either.
The Wolfmother closed her eyes. "Well, if you think it is best to keep her here, Kiba, I will take her in for your sake..." She looked to Hinata. "I hope you are prepared to work, girl. My services are not free, and don't expect to lie on a bed of feathers and have your feet rubbed just because you are with child."
Hinata bowed her head. "I understand, ma'am."
"Very well, it is done. Kiba, you may return to your village. I imagine you have quite a bit of business to attend to now that you've kidnapped Hiashi Hyuga's daughter."
"Hey, I didn't kidnap her...I reclaimed her!" Kiba stated confidently before turning to Hinata.
"You'll be safe here, okay? I'll take care of everything else...you just worry about taking care of yourself and your kid."
"Thank you Kiba, thank you so much." Hinata embraced him with a few tears welling up, and Kiba returned the hug. She had never felt so grateful to her smelly team mate in all her life.
~o~
The work was grueling. The Wolfmother was a strong believer in not-taking-it-easy. Almost every day she would say "Strong work makes a strong child." Fortunately she didn't make Hinata lift anything heavy, but she did do quite a bit of cooking. Her entire day consisted of feeding the hounds, feeding the Wolfmother, feeding the livestock, and feeding herself. With so many enormous beasts on the property, there was quite a lot of feeding to do, so by the end of the day, Hinata collapsed on her cot in absolute exhaustion. The work kept her mind off other things though, so she couldn't bring herself to complain...not that she would anyway. Hinata had a feeling the Wolfmother would banish her from the den if she gave her any back-talk.
It took about a week to get used to the smell of the place, and Hinata felt as if the stench would never wash off. Even the rough brown work uniform she had been given stunk of animal musk. She was getting plenty of good food, though. Farm-fresh vegetables and meat were certainly going to give her the best nutrition, and the Wolfmother had even introduced her to her own elixir of who-knows-what, which supposed made up for her lack of hospital brand prenatal vitamins. It tasted like rubber, but if Kiba had faith in the woman, so would Hinata.
Speaking of Kiba, he ended up being Hinata's only source to the outside world. As suspected, chaos had risen in Konoha not a day after she went missing, so Kiba informed all the right people that Hinata had almost become the victim of a group of rogue shinobi that were after Naruto's son, so he felt it would be best if she was kept in a safe and confidential location. When Hinata asked him what Shino knew, Kiba told her that he had fallen for the same fib. Apparently, his family wasn't saying anything about the incident whatsoever, not even to Shino.
"Shino was not worried about me?" she asked timidly.
"He's a mysterious fellow. I asked him if he wanted to see you, but he told me that you wanted nothing to do with him. That was the end of that conversation."
"And Naruto? Has he returned yet?"
"There was actually an official letter received from his caravan, but all it said was that their mission was taking longer than expected, and the details were "confidential," whatever that's supposed to mean."
Hinata sighed, and continued to wash the carrot she was cleaning off in a basin of water. She didn't really want to think about anything at this point...she had finally found a clear head space at this kennel, and even if she seldom had time to relax, it was refreshing to not be swimming in anxiety for once. According to Kiba, it sounded like things were relatively stable, so she wouldn't have to worry about anything for at least seven months or so. Besides, stress was bad for the baby.
Then, all of a sudden a lurch of nausea swelled up in her stomach, and she clutched her hand to her mouth.
"Are you okay, Hina-chan?" Kiba asked, resting a light hand on her shoulder. She shook her head.
"Sick...gotta...throw up..."she spat out. A few moments later she found herself puking behind the chicken coop, with Kiba rubbing her back comfortingly.
"Poor honey...this pregnancy thing's a reach bitch, isn't it?"
Hinata coughed, and dabbed her mouth on her sleeve. "Wolfmother says it's normal, but it happens almost every day. I have to keep my fluids up..."
It was more of a reminder to herself than informing Kiba of anything. She felt like she was throwing up an abnormal amount, but the Wolfmother had assured her that she simply needed to get used to the food, and that some children fight harder in the womb than others. She would also experience quite a bit of spotting, but Wolfmother said it was just her womb stretching to make room for the child.
"Want me to punch Shino in the face for you?" Kiba asked.
"Don't joke about that..." she replied, clutching her aching stomach.
"Who's joking? He's the one who got you into this in the first place...don't you think he deserves a good sock to the kisser?"
"Shino didn't do anything..."
"Yeah right...inviting you into his sleeping bag every night to 'protect you from the cold'? Pretty good pick up line, I'd have to say..."
Hinata's eyes widened as her gaze snapped up at Kiba. "How did you know about that?!"
"Oh please, Hinata...don't insult me. You think you and Shino can have your cuddles without my nose and ears knowing? You can smell your pheromones from five miles away. I knew you two would start fuckin' eventually, but Shino takes his time with these things, I guess."
Hinata curled up in tight in a ball of utter embarrassment. Kiba chuckled at her reaction.
"Hey I'm not mad about it or anything, I just wish you'd have asked to join me a few times! Share the love, ya know?"
She slapped him.
"Hey! I'm just saying, if you can fuck Naruto and Shino at the same time, why not add your ol' pal Kiba?"
She slapped him again.
"Because you're crude, incorrigible, loud, and you smell terrible!" she cried.
"That's some thanks for someone who broke you out of Aburame Science Lab 101," Kiba replied while rubbing his cheek.
Hinata was about to slap him again, but she retracted, and resumed her huddled position.
"Hey, relax...I'm just teasing you. I don't care who you've slept with or who you have feelings for, that's all your business and obviously that's a lot of business that you need to sort out. Regardless, all I care about is that you and your kid are safe and content."
Hinata sighed and looked at him with a weak smile. "Thanks, Kiba."
"But if you wanna thank me with a blowjob I wouldn't object."
Kiba then received a slap so hard, even the Wolfmother felt it.
~o~
End of Chapter 9
