Chapter Thirty Seven

Animal Issues

Tsunade glared at the list of ninja available for this…er…"mission". She was avoided saying or even thinking the word war. It was true that she wanted a few veterans of the last war to go, but actually finding said veterans was going to be harder then she first thought. Quite a few of them were dead, and those that were not were backing away from the idea of going to war again rather fast.

There was another complication, of course. She could not send to many ninja with to the Sand, not as many as she would have liked. There was still the threat of the Akatsuki out there, as well as whatever the traitor Uchiha was planning. The ANBU had reported that not only had Sasuke killed Orochimaru and Itachi, but that Sasuke was now working with the Akatsuki. Though they had not launched any more attacks, there was still a possibility that they would once Tsunade sent ninja to fight a war. She needed to keep her bases covered.

In fact, she was going to have to a little bit of team rebuilding anyway. The "Konoha 11", as they were being called, were the best people to send. After all, Rock Lee, Shikamaru and Neji were their comrades, and Tsunade had a feeling that if she did not assign them they would go anyway. Asuma's team had proven that! Plus, it would keep Naruto from barging in here demanding that he be allowed to go. Annoying little punk! She had already decided to keep Ino and Choji on Guy's team (and it was good thing that Guy had, in fact, fought in the Third Great Shinobi war, although you could not really tell from the way he acted. He had shown almost no post-traumatic stress after it, which was odd and actually a bit worrying). Team 8, on the hand, had no one to lead them with Kurenai pregnant.

Who should lead them, then? Kakashi was being reassigned to his old team. She felt like she would need as many of the ANBU here to keep up the flow of information from their so far useless spying on the Akatsuki. Beyond that, she knew that Kakashi would want to keep his students under his eye if they were going to war, something that probably made him nervous. Not that Tsunade could really tell. It was hard deciphering Kakashi's feelings at times.

But who to assign to Kiba's team…

She would have to think about this.

Hiashi was now really regretting letting the tribe into his compound. Not only did they eat just about everything in the place, but now one of their evil natured horses had attached itself to his daughter! Unbelievable.

Eventually Hinata had managed to calm down Zeera, who was still looking at Hiashi balefully. Hiashi thought that only nin cats could give you that particular mixture of disdain and dislike in one glance, but apparently an Iifernati horse could do it as well.

By the time Hinata had finally gotten Zeera to stop glaring at Hiashi, Gaara showed up looking harried and vastly irritated. He took one look at the glaring horse, the still fuming Hyuga lord, his aunt and the fidgety Hinata and blinked.

"What is going on here?" He asked.

Hiashi, who badly needed someone to blame for this, decided that he was going to blame both Katsu and the Kazekage. It was either that or get bitten or stomped by the horse.

"Your aunt's animal kidnapped my daughter! And it keeps trying to bite me!" Hiashi said in his coldest tone of voice, which could probably be used to power refrigerators.

"Excuse me? My horse did not kidnap anybody. You came in stomping like a hippopotamus with a toothache and scared her!" Katsu snapped.

"Wait…why is the horse biting?" Gaara tired to remember what Kankuro had said about Iifernati horses. All he could remember was something about wings…

Katsu sighed. "Listen to me, please, because I am getting really really tired of repeating myself. An Iifernati horse…is kind of like your ninja animals. They are very smart and sensitive creatures. Most of them while fixate on one certain tribesman and bond with them, and Zeera here has chosen Hinata has her rider."

Gaara blinked. "Isn't that bad?" He remembered Kankuro saying something about Iifernati being very defensive of their horses.

"It bites, of course it is bad." Hiashi glared at the horse, which glared right back and stamped.

"Zeera won't bite Hinata." Katsu said. "Now, if you keep shouting and acting like a buffoon, then she might take a chunk out of you."

Hiashi stared at Katsu "Did you just call me a buffoon?"

"I said you were acting like one." Katsu replied, now grinning evilly.

"I do not want that thing in my house!" Hiashi said.

"Well, first of all they don't live in houses; they usually have these things called stables. Perhaps you have heard of them?" Katsu said with mock sweetness. "Second, my tribe is not going to like it either. City squa-er…city people are not supposed to be given Iifernati horses, much less a ninja from another land."

"Then take it home." Hiashi said through gritted teeth. He was losing the last of his patience.

"I would, but that would be like barging in one of your ninja dog clan's homes and taking their dog away. Zeera…wouldn't react well to it."

Hiashi was about to tell the irritating woman that he did not care how sad the stupid horse was going to be, he did not want that thing around him or his daughter! But then he remembered a certain woman and her son, and how attached they were to their annoyingly large hairy smelly dogs. He had seen how attached they were to the animals, and if these horses reacted like Inuzuka dogs…

"Well shit." Hiashi grumbled.

Hinata completely forgot to be nervous and looked at her father in astonishment. "Father…did you just swear?"

Hiashi, who by now was probably more stressed then he had been in a long time, did it again.

For some reason Hinata found this extremely funny.

The Hyuga leader was not the only one who was stressed by his guests. The entry of the Aburame clan was in a state of uproar. Only those who were used to the Aburame's subtle changes in mood could have seen it, but the frequent annoyed buzzing that frequently erupted from their dwelling clued the rest of the village in to the mood.

The bats and their handlers had been banished to the other end of the house, as far away from the bugs as possible. The Aburame were not trying to be rude, but at the same time it was the only way they could get any peace. The bats apparently thought that the Aburame were walking talking snack bars, and would flap about their heads squeaking in delight whenever they encountered one of these movable feasts. This did not please the bugs. At all.

Unfortunately this forced segregation did not always work…

This became apparent that morning, when Shino was awaked to someone frantically calling "Lucky! Lucky! Where are you, you little fuzzball!"

This could not be good.

Annoyed, Shino looked around, keeping his bugs as close inside of him as possible. He did not want them to be munched.

Eventually he found one of the bat handlers peering into a pot as if looking for something. Shino had a feeling he knew what must be lost.

"Lose someone?" He asked.

The bat handler jumped a mile. "Er…yeah. Lucky is missing. Stupid thing never listens to me!"

"…Lucky?"

"Yeah, he does this a lot. Gets into places he should not. Lucky to be alive, is what we call him. Ack! Gremlin, Stripe! No!"

Shino stiffened. To little bats had emerged from the boy's collar and looked like they were going to pounce. He was never going to think unkind thoughts about Akamaru again! Dog drool and hair were nothing compared to the hungry looks he was getting from…Gremlin and Stripe? This boy had weird names for his critters.

Shino knew he would not be able to relax as long as Lucky the bat was wandering around his home eating who knew what, so he volunteered to help look for it. It would have been alright if the remaining bats had just stayed hidden, but they kept sticking their noises out of their handler's clothes and sniffing at Shino.

Shino distracted himself from the hungry looks by talking. Okay, this was Shino, so it was more like an interrogation, but it was better than having to concentrate on those beady little rodent eyes.

"How many are in your clan?" Shino asked.

"To be honest, we aren't a clan at all. There are no clans in Suna after all." The bat handler said as he looked behind paintings. "He can slip into the strangest places, so look everywhere."

"I assume that your people were once part of a clan before they went to Suna." Shino said. "I have heard how Suna got ninja in the first place."

"Yeah, Toshi the Fatherless, I know that story." The bat handler said. "But the first bat handler of Suna…well he was not a wronged family man. He was a bandit that was thrown out of the Land of Lightning. He…wasn't a nice man."

Shino stared at the bat handler. "Did he join of the tribes?"

"No, he operated alone, except for the kids he stole."

"Stole?"

"How else was he supposed to pass his jutsu down?"

Shino stared at the bat handler some more. "He stole children in order to pass his jutsu down?"

"Yeah."

"…and how did you end up with bats?"

"Oh, I like bats. It's not the same now. Now bat handlers will still search for a kid who might be able to handle bats, but the kids have the choice now. I did it because I like them."

Shino shrugged.

At that moment Shino's own bugs started to rattle in alarm, and a total of four bats stuck their heads out of their handler's clothiers and started to lick their lips.

Shino glared at the bats "How many of them do you have?"

"Five."

"I think my bugs sense your friend."

"…that can't be good."

Shino felt a kind of internal tugging. The bugs were not coming out, but they could still guide him. He felt like he needed to go to his room…

Sure enough, the moment he entered his room he heard something crunching. He opened one of his bug habitats and a small brown bat poked his head out, a bit of beetle shell dropping out of its mouth.

Shino felt his bugs actually cringe.

"Oh Lucky…" the bat handler sighed.

"It…is not as bad as it could be." Shino said grumpily. "These were not rare species. I can easily get more." Shino noticed the four other bats staring at Lucky with big sad eyes and dropping ears. It was pathetic.

"Please, get them something to eat. I don't want to lose any more bugs." Shino said. As if agreeing with him, one of the bats (Shino thought it was Gremlin) stomach gave a little grumble.

The bad handler scooped up his wayward bat and placed it on his shoulder, where it migrated to his ear and hung there by its feet like a large fuzzy brown earring. "That's probably a good idea. I can't tell you how sorry I am about this."

"…just go."

"Right…" the bat handler turned to leave, then paused for a moment. "My name is Zirru."

"…Shino Aburame."

As Zirru left Shino sighed over his lost bugs.

He defiantly preferred dogs.

"That Sasuke is a terrible whiner." The Runemaster grumbled to Cragga as they watched the aforementioned traitor as he ranted at the one called Madara. The Runemaster's rune covered mirror, a thing that practically glowed with the power of his kind, could be used to spy on others. The Akatsuki, arrogant and foolhardy to the Runemaster's eyes, had no idea they were being watched.

Unlike most before him, the Runemaster was no impressed with Sasuke Uchiha. The boy's power was nothing special. What good was knowledge with no effort? A waste of time! Spoiled brat! And apparently the childish creature did not like the fact that his new "allies" had stopped their advanced to grinding halt. "This is the boy your Orochimaru took on as an apprentice?" the Runemaster snorted "A broken down mule would be a better apprentice!"

"Hmmm, he does seem rather easily led…perhaps that is why…" Cragga shrugged as she gazed into the mirror. "He is raw power, but no brains. Oh there is plenty of book intelligence, but no wilyness. There may be something there…but…"

"Cragga, he has the Demon's eyes! A cursed bloodline! He has all their qualities! Selfish! Lazy! Foolish and arrogant! How could one of Them…"

"Ah! Add that to the list of questions, my Runemaster!" Cragga grinned. "Keep the pack in line; I am going to visit our old friend Kabuto!"

The Runemaster snorted. "I can't see how that will help. The snake is dead! What good is the snake's dog now?"

Cragga chuckled. "Don't you know, old friend? Even a dead snake still has venom."