Thanks for all the Faves, Follows and Reviews!
The-lonely-night: Thank you! I've also noticed the dark aspects being kind of brushed under the rug. Not that its bad! It just reminds me of romanticizing pirates or knights and it doesn't have quite the depth I like without the grittier aspects. I'm glad you liked it, and the doggy form too!
milkazen: Cordelia cracked me up with that.
.96780: The whole team got held back and don't worry, Sakura's not going to be useless. with Sasuke just being a grump instead of the 'brooding, lonely prince', I don't think her infatuation would be nearly as obsessive.
Guests: thank you! And Niko-Niko was almost a malamute before I smacked myself on the head and said 'Akita!'. Fun-fact: Akita's have webbed feet, little built in snowshoes.
Thanks for reading, everyone, and sorry this is posted so late at night! Hope you enjoy it and hopefully the big info dump didn't wanna make you smack your own head. Or mine. Until next time!
Chapter Ten
Kaida sat on the outer deck of the Inuzuka clan heads main house with a wide toothed, metal comb, carefully brushing Niko-Niko's fur, looking for any thorns, ticks or anything that might hurt him.
Kakashi was away on a mission, c-rank at most he said; so he'd left Kaida in the care of Tsume once more.
Kakashi would be gone for three days and it was on the second of those, giving him time to learn some Inuzuka techniques and how to properly care for Niko-Niko.
Tsume had gathered all the younger clan members together and shown them how to make a special drink for both them and their nin-ken that would keep them both upright for the rougher tracking missions. The target wasn't gonna wait around for you to catch up, she said, and they'd better be prepared for a long, hard slog.
They practiced tracking through the compound itself, finding little balls of cloth. Tsume even had Kaida practice in his dog form.
If Kaida's nose was sensitive as a human, his dog nose was almost overwhelming and Tsume had him sit and go through each scent until he'd could identify them individually before letting him try to track.
It was a lot of mental work and wasn't something Kaida could rush through if he wanted it to be second nature.
He could use his chakra in dog form, specifically his chakra 'net'. If need be, he could be an effective sentry in both forms. That would be useful in foreign villages, where too many human shinobi might be taken as a threat.
What was one more dog with an Inuzuka?
Tsume had told him he would probably be part of a tracking specialized Genin team. They apparently tried to get one out of every graduating class. Kaida wondered how it was going to work out, because he could think of multiple combinations that would work as a tracking team.
Now, he had the afternoon off so after he thoroughly groomed Niko-Niko, he was on a mission of the utmost importance.
Mission: Find Anko
it might also turn into mission: bribe Anko.
Niko-Niko shook his fur into one big floof after Kaida let him go, galloping around in a circle while Kaida did his best to brush Niko's hair off his shorts.
Hina was waiting for him at the compounds gate, Adzuki in her shirt with just his head peaking out of her vest.
"ready?" she asked and Kaida gave her a thumbs up.
She set Adzuki on the ground and said "find Anko." Adzuki chuffed and stuck his nose to the ground, snuffling down the lane.
"Does he know Anko's scent?" Kaida asked, trying to think of a time the two met and Hina grinned at him "He met her the last time we went to dango."
Kaida smiled back "we should probably have started there before setting Adzuki on her trail."
Hina shrugged "good practice, and look-" she pointed to the turn Adzuki had taken trotting right up to the dango shop.
They only stopped long enough to ask if Anko had been sighted, and took the cooks suggestion of a pop up store that sold chocolates Anko liked. They set back on the trail, both keeping an eye out and Kaida casting his invisible net out.
She wasnt buying chocolates and when they followed the owners advice, she wasn't at the weapon shops flash sale either.
Their wild goose chase ended at the T and I building, a squat, sad looking thing without windows and only one obvious door. Adzuki chuffed and pawed at the door.
Kaida took a deep breath, walked up and threw the door open "Ibiki! You home?"
the tall, crow of a man caught the door mid-swing and leaned down, intense eyes focused on Kaida's "you shouldn't be here, pup." He said lowly.
Kaida snorted and pushed at him "come on Mori-chan, you really outta know that that doesn't work on me anymore, not when you don't really mean it."
not that Ibiki couldn't intimidate him when he wanted to, it was just that he didn't want to this time, he was just bored.
He sighed and let Kaida pass, with Hina and the dogs on his heels.
The room was dim and cool and reminded Kaida strongly of a basement despite being at ground level.
Facing the door was a metal and veneer desk with a rickety looking spinny chair, which was Ibiki's. There were two smaller desks on the left and right wall, with the far wall leading down underground.
That's where the scary stuff was.
Ibiki refused to let him go down there.
The man himself stepped back, sitting on the front edge of his desk with crossed arms "is there a reason you've come to T and I? Did Kakashi hide something again?"
Kaida shook his head, falling into a more serious manner "We need to talk to Anko." he gestured back out the door "we've been all over the village and cant find her. I haven't been able to catch her chakra signature either. Do you know where she is?"
Ibiki stared at them, unblinking, fingers tapping his crossed arm before he spoke "stay here."
They nodded silently and he got up and disappeared down the steps of doom, his footsteps fading.
"he tries really hard to be spooky." Hina said, then shrugged and admitted "he's pretty good at it."
Kaida nodded, running his fingers through Niko-Niko's toast colored fur and going over his questions in his mind until he heard the solid clunk of two pairs of boots and Anko crested the stairs behind Ibiki.
She gave a sharks smile at seeing them "Hey kids, did Kakashi finally decide to sell ya?"
Kaida gave her his own sharky grin "nah, but I'd still like to talk to you." he said, dropping the grin.
"oh, and whats in it for me?" Anko asked, taking Ibiki's spot on the front of the desk as the man disappeared back underground.
Hina held up a box of dango they had grabbed before leaving and she snatched it out of Hina's hands "Fine, talk."
"why doesn't 'Kashi like snakes?" he said bluntly, watching her carefully for a reaction.
She went kind of dead-faced before her eyes sharpened and she gave them full attention "did something happen?"
Hina nodded and said "a snake crawled out of a creepy statue's mouth at the hot-springs. He said never to trust them."
"sounds like him." Anko said quietly, looking oddly offended but she sobered quickly and gestured for them to grab a seat in one of the chairs scattered around.
Kaida drug two up in front of anko and they both sat, giving her rapt attention.
She took a kunai out and started to fiddle with it, flipping it from finger to finger and back again "Kakashi hasn't had the best experiences with snakes." she finally admitted, looking at Kaida with something like pity.
Kaida didn't like pity at all.
"what do you mean?" Hina asked for him and Anko rubbed the back of her head, looking like she was thinking her words over carefully for once.
"how much do you know about what your folks were mixed up in, Kaida?" she asked and he shrugged and said "I know my dad went to assess a threat that was supposedly awfully similar to one we had over here, and that there was a war and that they died in it."
Niko-Niko pressed against his leg and Kaida dropped a hand on his head. It was hard to miss someone you never knew but it still hurt, somewhere inside of him in a place he couldn't quite describe.
"theres was this...bad guy." she swallowed on the word, like it hurt "here, who did some awful things. Your dad was still a kid but was a part of the team who cleaned up after this guys mess." she said, her shoulders rolling "and your dad was always a 'righteous fury' type person so when someone similar popped up outside, he volunteered for the mission."
Kaida nodded, waiting for the rest.
"This person on the other side, he had a lot of similarities but the main one was the...fascination of snakes." she rolled the kunai over her knuckles "and this guy on the outside, voldysnort? I don't remember his name, but he had it out for your dad since day one, but then it turned into an obsession because of a misheard prediction."
"prediction?" Hina asked into the silence.
Anko snorted "the other side have these people, 'seers' they call them and they're like spies who pull their info out of nothing, out of their own heads."
there was probably more to that, Kaida thought, but Anko tended not to pay attention to anything she deemed unimportant.
"and this snake guy, he had a real spy. A real dumb one. He only listened to half of what this woman had to say before scuttling off to his boss. Now Kaede, or James I guess, had a real target on his back, Him'n Lily."
her shoulders slumped "I really liked your ma, the time we met." she said before seeming to shake it off "this thing, this 'prophecy' said that James and Lily would have a weapon that would defeat this...jerk." she obviously censored herself on that one.
"a weapon, like a jutsu?" Kaida asked, squeezing Niko-Niko's ear gently.
Anko tipped her head "hmm, no. You." she said, poking him gently in the chest "you were supposed to be the only thing to be able to beat this guy. He tracked your parents down after that rat betrayed them."
"they died because of me." Kaida said softly.
He'd known they'd died in a war, died fighting like all the best shinobi but not that it was his fault, that it was because of him.
Anko flicked him in the nose "no, they died for you. There's a difference."
"what happened, then, with this bad guy?"
Anko's sharks grin was back "what he gets for not checking his facts. There was an unless in the prophecy and that unless was one Hatake Kakashi."
"'Kashi got the bad guy?" Kaida asked, perking up a bit.
"sure did." she said "got him before he even reached your nursery and cut his head clean off with that special chakra your family has." she made a slashing motion "and it destroyed all these things connected to him, including this massive snake the guy loved like it was a wife."
Hina made a face at that.
Anko smiled at her "made our job easier. There was a whole squad of us searching for a way to break these gross little things this guy used to keep himself alive so when they just shattered, we partied."
Kaida looked down with a frown, fiddling his fingers.
It still didn't sit well that someone had died because of him, or for him, or whatever.
Anko sat back "ever since then, Kakashi has hated snakes."
"because it reminds him of the bad guy?" Kaida asked, looking up.
"Because it reminds him of your da." she corrected "and Kakashi has always been the type to wear guilt like a coat made just for him."
"yeah, he's stupid like that." Kaida said, giving Anko a crooked smile "but I've been working on it."
"good kid." she murmured.
"thanks for telling me, Anko." He said, sliding out of his chair "and you too, Ibiki." he said to the shadow lurking on the stairs "for letting us take over your office and apprentice."
He grunted and said "go straight to the Inuzuka's, I don't want you wandering around."
They agreed.
Kaida had to much to mull over to go wandering about.
Outside in the fresh air, Kaida took a large, steadying breath and let it out in a rush.
Hina hugged him, pulling back her face "your parents sound like they were real cool."
Kaida smiled "yeah, they did, didn't they. Kashi too." he added "he cut a guys head off with chakra."
"is it bad that I kinda wanna learn how?" Hina asked and they both snorted and broke apart, making their way back to the Inuzuka compound hand in hand.
He'd make sure he didn't prank Kakashi with snakes.
He'd also make sure to thank him.
For everything.