A/N: Welcome back. Thank you to everyone who is continuing to read this story, and thank you for the kind reviews! I have a rough idea of where I want this story to go, and I do plan on dabbling with some slight romance in the future, but it won't change the storyline from cannon very much. Again, I apologize for any characters that are ooc, I do my best to portray them as true to their natures as I can. I will do some minor time skips, but overall I'm hoping the flow of the story will be mostly consistent. The first 10 chapters I'm working on establishing Sazuko's bond with the Akatsuki, as well as establishing the bases of her powers.
Fun Fact: Sazuko's name means "Bell Child of Dogs Hill" , While Yemon no Reihai means "Gate of Divine Service".
TW: Mentions of & allusions to rape.
Weeks passed after Sazuko's confrontation with the Akatsuki leaders. She found herself falling easily into the pattern of taking missions and training herself into exhaustion. Sazuko made it a point to try and avoid the trio whenever she could- she couldn't stand the pitying looks of sorrow and regret that flinched across their faces every time they caught a glimpse of her. Not that Sazuko could bring herself to actually care if they felt remorseful over their actions at the moment. With the admittance of her partners death had come a sort of numb, apathetic existence. Kurogaine said she was depressed, but she'd scoffed at the suggestion before putting much more force behind her next punch and sent him into the stone wall, so that he'd wisely decided to keep his mouth shut and take their spar seriously afterwards.
He was probably right, but Sazuko wasn't quite ready to pull herself from the blessedly numb cocoon she had wrapped her heart in. Sazuko knew she was going to have to deal with the emotions she was repressing sooner, rather than later. But she wanted to stay ignorant for just a little while longer. The emotions were still too raw for her to fully process, her heart still bleeding and the gaping void ever voracious. Sazuko didn't think the empty pit where her heart bond once resided would ever heal, but she would ignore the glaringly obvious hole for as long as she actually could. When she admitted Yemon was dead, a begrudging acceptance had come with it. Sazuko had been doing her best to deny the fact that her partner had been ripped from this world for the past year and a half for as long as she could- but that wasn't going to change the fact that he was actually gone. Denial was one of the hardest stages of grief to overcome after all. So, with that grim acceptance of finality had come a whole other slew of emotions that Sazuko just didn't have the energy to process at the moment. So, she did what she always did when faced with a problem she couldn't muster the energy to solve just yet: she switched to autopilot and took a break from her own shattered mind- pushing everything so far deep down like she had been trained to do, and put on the putrid mask of the perfect shinobi. It was unsettling to say the least- but at least she hadn't divebombed off the deep end into madness again, much to Kurogaines pleasure.
Sazuko would begrudgingly admit that the man knew what he was doing when it came to coping mechanisms. She bet he'd give a Yamanaka a run for their ryo if it came down to it. The man walked through truama like it was water, pushing and prodding till it either bent or it broke- and then spent however long it took to help pick up the shattered pieces. Sazuko could respect his tenacity, if not his methods. For her, Kurogaines process was simple: beat the utter hell out of her until she relented, and talked about her feelings and trauma. Usually while receiving said beating. Their spars were becoming legendary sights in the hidden base partly because of how long they lasted- the current record was four hours long: nobody would ever be able to say that the Inuzuka lacked Stamina. The other reason was simply because Sazuko was stubborn. If she didn't want to do something, well. You'd have to make her, and about the only person who could do that was Kurogaine- Nagato didn't count because all he had to do was give her that heartbreakingly beautiful puppy dog pout and she was putty in his hands- and that was by beating her so thoroughly into the floor that she couldn't move and then sitting on her until she spilled.
It was a brutal but effective method, and nobody could deny the results. It was how he had gotten her out of her initial feral state as well. With others, he used a far more gentle approach, and somehow, Kurogaine had found himself the official mental health specialist of the Akatsuki. Well, when he wasn't out doing missions with Sazuko, or beating her into submission. Damn Inuzuka and their dominance issues. Kurogaine knew that if Sazuko didn't hold back, she could probably wipe the floor with him, but it was a sign of willing submission on her part that she even allowed him to pound her into exhaustion- because she knew she needed help, and he was willing to give it. So, they made a little power dynamic between them, that allowed her to feel like she still had a pack behind her that she could turn to in her times of need, and it allowed him to get inside her head without actually forcing her to submit. He hadn't been lying to Yahiko when he had joked Sazuko would likely kill any man that tried to bed her. It would take a truly strong and dominating person to court the Inuzuka, Sazuko would only ever submit to someone who could force her to.
She'd explained it to him once, when he pointed out that it sounded like being forced, which she had kind of agreed with before she explained the dynamics behind it. The whole of the Inuzuka clan was that way- They were a pack, and the pack was led by the Alpha. Only the strongest could claim the title, which was proven with a display of dominance and fighting until a victor was declared. While the Elder Council controlled the political side of things, when it came right down to it the clan was led solely by the Alpha in all things. Traditionally it was a paired role, but after Tsume had usurped that tradition, things had mainly changed for the better. Still, the constant power struggle between the male and female roles of the clan leaders was something that would never end. To bed a female of the clan one had to assert their dominance, and every now and again the power dynamic had to be tested and reinforced. If a male was found lacking, he was removed from the role and other males were allowed to try their luck.
While it circumvented some of the issues, such as rape being an unfortunate case in the Shinobi world, it caused others. Clan women weren't supposed to be as trained as the males, that way it allowed enough of a power gap for males to overpower females and continue on the clan lineages. During times of war, females were encouraged to more easily submit to their male counterparts, something that Sazuko, and several other strong clan women didn't agree with, but that they didn't have the power to change.
Kurogaine asked her once why her clan couldn't just forgo the whole dynamic if it was such an issue but Sazuko had explained.
"It's in our blood. We are so closely entwined with the Canines that serve us that we can't. The very blood that flows through our veins prevents us from just rolling over for any man that comes our way. We have to fight- to prove they are a fit mate. It's so we can breed stronger bloodlines and shinobi. Survival of the fittest. Of course those that win through cunning and trickery are also suitable mates. But if you aren't strong enough to make us submit, you aren't strong enough to protect our pups. Next to Loyalty, the Inuzuka admire strength most of all. That isn't to say we don't love our mates- we do. But our mates have to prove their strength, we can accept nothing less."
"Of course, the closer to the Lupine bloodline you are, the more brutal it gets. There's a reason the main branch was switched from my bloodline to my cousins. It's much harder to subdue a woman of my lineage who is so directly descended from wolves, then one of Tsume-Sama's who's blood is more diluted with dogs. Not to say that Tsume-Sama isn't a force to be reckoned with, the Main Branch's females are still some of the hardest to subdue- but compared to my own, it results in fall less cases of death. My grandmother, Tsuki-baa-san killed six of her suitors before Hidiki-oji-san managed to subdue her. He only managed to give her three pups before she ended up killing him too. Loving an Inuzuka woman is like fighting a war: You have to be strong enough to preserver, but accept the fact that you could die at any given moment. Our love is a battlefield. One of which many do not return from."
"So, since you've submitted to me, does that mean I could..?" He had asked her jokingly, but his laughter had died when he caught the look on her face. She had looked at him with a deep sadness, her lips pulled into a sarcastic smile, but something dark lurked in the depths of those eyes in that moment when she answered.
"No, Kuro-san. There is a big difference between the two. I have willingly given you my throat to guard, but you are not truly my Alpha. You are my only pack in this world now, and I cherish your friendship enough to consider you as such. It is by my choice that I submit to you- not by your will, and I beg you to remember the distinction."
Of course, that subject had been brought up a while ago now, when they had first come to the agreement, but Kurogaine cherished the trust she had put in him to do this. So even though he felt bad about the bruises his impacts left on her body, he could help the swell of pride that grew in his chest every time she picked herself up and put herself back together. Kurogaine took pride in that he considered him part of her pack, and he loved her all the more for it. He knew he would stand at her back until the day he died, but he also knew he couldn't be the only one she could rely on incase he did. So he pushed her harder, forced her to interact with with others and form lasting bonds and friendships. Well, he tried to at least. The closest she had actually come to accepting anyone else into her pack was Nagato, and Kurogaine was pretty sure she saw him as a newborn pup she needed to protect rather than a friend. Things with Konan were strained, but Kurogaine was sure given enough time she would be one of the strongest support pillars Sazuko had. Yahiko was easy enough to get along with, but again, that relationship was currently strained, and only time would tell if that bond would establish.
Kurogaine sighed as he pushed the paperwork back on the desk before him, getting up to stretch for his next bout of 'therapy' with Sazuko, as he closed the room to the infirmary behind him. He had a surprise for her this time, and he was excited to see how the girl would react. Humming thoughtfully to himself, Kurogaine fingered the chakra paper in his black cloak as he strolled down the hallways to meet the woman at the training grounds.
"Alright, you know how to use this, right?" Kurogaine held out one of the scraps of paper to her, they only had a few, but given that they were both adults, Kurogaine figured they wouldn't use them all. Hesitantly, Sazuko took it from him, holding the paper in her hand, eyeballing it like it would bite her. She was nervous about this. Most of the Inuzuka weren't tested for chakra natures. They all had rather large reserves- their combination ninjutsus required a lot of chakra to maintain after all, not compared to their transformation jutsus, but they weren't generally big on nature based jutsus. What use did they have for them when their partner was all they would ever need?
Sazuko snorted at the short-sightedness of her clan. It made her angry, their stubborn refusal to even consider including elemental ninjutsu in their techniques could open a whole other doorway of possibilities to her clan. Sazuko clenched the fist not holding the paper. It made her even angrier when she considered her own predicament: If she was able to push the madness that came with losing her bonded away, and heal- why couldn't others of her clan in her situation do the same? Here she was learning to overcome her handicap, pursuing new skills to make up for her loss, to overcome the handicap that was such a glaringly obvious weakness to her clan itself-
Sazuko's heart shuddered at the sudden chill crawling up her spine as the answer came with sudden clarity. It was because they didn't see them as useful after they broke. They didn't care enough to fix their broken tools because it made it easier to control the ones which weren't broken. Sazuko's heart pounded, the blood rushing in her ears. She felt rather then saw Kurogaine shaking her shoulder at her sudden deathly pale complexion. But she was too caught up in her sudden train of thought to care.
Those old bastards purposefully allowed her broken clansmen to suffer as an example. They easily had the means and ability to fix those Inuzuka who lost their partners, Hell, the Yamanaka could fix someone's broken mind as easily as they shattered it. But the fact that those arrogant elders didn't even give them the option: That they purposefully weakened their own fucking clansmen. Sazuko was livid. All of those broken families. All of those lives so easily thrown away. Sazuko couldn't breathe, the air was stuck in her throat as she practically choked on her own killing intent. Panicking, she gazed at Kurogaine in utter helplessness, causing his breath to hitch in his throat. Dimly she was aware of someone yelling at her to 'knock it off!' before a sharp jab between her shoulders left her spluttering and gasping for air. Her killing intent sharply dissipated as she bowed over, clutching a knee as her other shaking hand came up to push her long brown hair out of her eyes.
"What the Hell Kurogaine? You're supposed to Fix her, not driving her to slaughter everyone in the damn room!" Sazuko thinks that might have been Yahiko. She really wasn't sure at the moment. Kurogaine was eyeing her sharply, but with no small amount of worry on his face as he leaned back and crossed his arms.
"That wasn't my doing." Was his quiet reply. His fingers came up to stroke his chin as he watched Sazuko gather her wits about her. With a few more deep gasps of air, Sazuko shakily straightened her posture, her hand was nervously carding through her hair, her eyes blown wide in worry, flickering around the room in rapid speeds before lighting again on Kurogaine.
"Kuro..." Kurogaine couldn't say he'd ever heard such a whimper fall from the womans lips before in his life. The amount of fear contained in that quiet whisper of his name had him on edge and his hands flying to the hilts of his kunai on reflex alone. Yahiko watched the pair warily, holding his hand out to stop anyone else from getting too close, incase she proved a danger.
"Kuro...t-the elders...t-the elders ar-are killing them." Sazuko sounded petrified in that moment. Gone was her earlier anger, a deep rooted despair taking place. Kurogaine understood what she was talking about in that moment, cursing under his breath as he released the kunai, his hands roughly grasping her arms before he roughly pulled her to his chest. He didn't flinch when her fingers curled into claws, her nails digging deeply into his shoulders. His face was drawn in a tight line as his body stiffened from the first choking sob that tore itself from his companions throat.
Kurogaine shook his head slightly at Yahiko's questioning glare as the woman in his arms finally broke down. He did his best to muffle her broken sobs in his chest, wincing at the slimy feeling of snot on his pectorals, but he'd deal with that later. Right now, this was the only amount of privacy he could give the woman. Seeing that some kind of hell crazed fight wasn't about to break out, Yahiko began ushering people out of the room, turning one last time to glance rather worriedly at the pair. Kurogaine mouthed 'I'll-tell-you-later' to their leader, before he sent one last worried look at them and fled the room, well before the keening cries of loss could haunt him in his dreams that night.
Hours later, Sazuko had considerably calmed down. Unfortunately she had lost the numb cocoon she had wrapped herself in, and a whole new pain had settled its thorny barbs into her heart. Old losses mixed with the new, and each beat of her vital organ left her feeling drained. She couldn't do anything to change what had already happened, but the realization that it should have never have happened in the first place was a bitter pill to swallow. She told Kurogaine as much. He couldn't help but agree.
Yahiko had come back some time later when things had calmed down, and begged her to control her future outbursts with more finesse. She had apologized profusely, even though the words sounded hollow, they were sincere and that was all he could ask for. Better for sudden realizations like that to happen in a place of safety rather then on the battlefield. The three of them were currently sitting on the training ground floor, steaming cups of tea between them as Sazuko came down from her emotional outburst.
"Are we ready to try this again?" Kurogaine chuckled, retrieving the chakra paper from his pocket once more. With a steadying breath, Sazuko reach out and took it once more. "Yeah...Yeah. I'm in a better frame of mind now." She muttered, narrowing her eyes on the paper as she slowly let her chakra free from her coils, focusing it to the tips of her fingers at the edge of the paper. Kurogaine had once described her chakra as deep and cold, like the trenches of the ocean. Sazuko thought it felt more like a brewing storm. Aparantly, they were both right in some ways. Kurogaines brow shot up as one edge of the paper folded, water dripping in a steady stream, while the other side started to wrinkle before they met in the middle and Sazuko released a short yelp before dropping the paper all together, shaking her hand from the shock she had received.
"Water, and Lightning nature? That's a good combination...odd for a Konoha nin though." Kurogaine mused, while Yahiko looked on in stunned silence.
"It makes sense though. Well, for my clan at least." At the mention of her clan, Sazuko hid a wince as another sharp pain lanced through her heart. "How so?"
"You remember what I told you before, right? How Inuzuka women pick their mates?" Kurogaine looked thoughtful for a moment as Yahiko settled back to listen.
"Yeah, I remember that conversation. But what's that got to do with your chakra nature?" Sazuko took a drink of her tea, holding the hot liquid in her mouth to savour the taste before she swallowed.
"The Inuzuka aren't tested for Chakra Natures, because we use Combination Ninjutsu, not Elemental. So it's entirely possible someone in my bloodline had one of the two natures, and nobody would be any the wiser." She paused to take another drink, her eyes sliding closed.
"From what I can remember of my father, he was an outsider, he wasn't clan. He didn't look like us, which the Elders gave my Kaa-san hell about, but he won the challenge for her hand- They later revised that rule, by the way. Non-Konoha shinobi can't participate in the competition any more, but I digress." She flicked her fingers in dismissal as she said this.
"Anyway, I don't remember where Kaa-san said he was from, but I do remember her saying she was glad I didn't inherit his dark skin, but that I have his eyes. I don't remember why he left, but the Clan Elders gave Kaa-san hell for years about it before she died. Shortly after that the Second War was in full swing so." Sazuko gave a light shrug of her shoulders, holding her tea in both hands and relishing the warm of the stone cup.
"Sounds like a Kumo-nin to me. Do a lot of Inuzuka not know their fathers?" Yahiko questioned, leaning back on one hand as he studied her carefully, gears turning in his head at the new information.
"A lot of the older generations do, but a lot of my own generation who were born during the Second War don't. That changed after the elders amended the rule though. Most of the younger generation know their fathers, even if their siblings have a different one. Records for offspring are kept rather meticulously so inbreeding doesn't occur. The Inuzuka aren't like the major clans with Dojutsu, we don't condone inbreeding to keep the bloodlines pure. It weakens the blood. We do sometimes intermix bloodlines to keep the clan strong, but we make sure nobody is too closely related." Sazuko paused for a moment, her face turned up in thought.
"For example, An offspring of the Wolf Line, like myself, wouldn't be able to compete for the hand of someone of the Shepard bloodline- We are too closely related, most of that branch are second cousins. But I would be able to compete for the hand of someone in the Bloodhound line, because the closest relation I have to them is a Great Uncle on my mothers side several generations back. The bloodlines carry on through the female line in my clan, not the male. It's why Clan Women are encouraged to have several different mates during their lifetimes- a way to distance the blood but carry it on. It's also why competitions are held every so many years for the woman's breeding rights. It's so we can birth strong children that carry on the linages without resorting to inbreeding." She admitted, her lip curled slightly as if she felt the whole thing disgusting- which she did to a point.
"That," Yahiko conceded, "Is fucked up. A woman isn't a piece of chattel." Sazuko dryly snorted her agreement.
"Thats true. It's just more stupid clan bullshit. But our very natures don't allow us the luxury of choice. There are couples who have been mated for the better part of 30 years or more- it's not uncommon for pairs to mate for life. But if the male isn't strong enough to win the competition for his mates hand, well. Another will take his place. Those couples who have stayed as a mated pair for so long have done so because the woman's mate has never been defeated by another. Our very biology dictates we find the strongest mate we can to continue the bloodline and produce strong heirs. That doesn't mean the relationships are loveless- quite the opposite. Most pairs that manage to stay together are very much in love." Sazuko pointed out easily.
"While I don't wholeheartedly agree with it, it works. I would even argue that it's because of that bond of unyielding love those pairs have for each other is what keeps them together. The sheer willpower to stay with one you've forged that kind of bond with? Only death can break it. There's a good reason their mates haven't been defeated, and it's not just because of physical prowess. It seems like...its a bad thing? To those outside of the Clan. And it definitely looks that way. But I guarantee if you asked one of the Clan Women with a lifelong mate, they wouldn't trade him for the world."
Yahiko pondered this for a moment, shooting his eyes to Kurogaines direction as the man let out a dark chuckle, already guessing the next question he was going to ask.
"What about you then? Where's your mate?"
The sinister smile that crept over the edge of her teacup, coupled with the dark predatory look lurking in those endless gold depths had Yahiko shuddering in fear. Amusement dripped like venom from her lips as she answered his question with a grin far too large with way too many teeth. A breathless growl punctuated her reply:
"I have killed every man who has faced me in the trials of courtship. I will not submit to the unworthy."