The very idea of rebirth is ridiculous. Multiple universes, timelines, and dimensions even more so. If these things exist, who knows what else does? Every book that was ever written could be a snapshot of a different universe or whatnot. Not only that, but the authors could have been in those very universes in their first life. It's all very... foolish. Which is why Kurama resolutely ignored the fact that he was pulled from his universe and thrust very rudely into a separate universe with a certain blonde brat once again as his host. He keeps himself hidden in the back of the very-much-dead-yet-somehow-living man's mind, falling into a sort of sleep as his chakra recharges (the process is much slower than usual, probably due to the much lower amount of chakra in this universe). Then, of course, the brat decides to meditate- who even does that? He thought the brat was supposed to be an impatient idiot, honestly, character growth is so overrated. Anyway, he meditates and rudely wakes Kurama up with a screech of what he thinks was supposed to be happiness. It hurt his ears.
After that, the bijuu got a lot less peace and quiet. Naruto takes to chattering at him whenever the blonde's bored, which is becoming an increasingly more common occurrence. Kurama loves his kit, he really does, but sometimes he wants to strangle the brat. He heaves a long-suffering sigh, mentally berates himself for what has to be the hundredth time for getting attached, and resolves his strength to suffer through another three-hour conversation.
"We're almost there!" Naruto screeches as he bursts into Kurama's cage-room.
"...Where?" The kyuubi asks warily, eyeing the near-vibrating blonde in front of him.
"Home, ish. Where the others are!" Kurama stares at the brat for a long moment before he sighs, shaking his head.
"Why do I care, again?" Naruto grins at him.
"Cuz you care about me!"
"I deny your claims and say you're a fool."
"Uh-huh sure. Keep telling yourself that."
"I will."
Kiba groans and stretches out on the couch, half across Shino. His teammate barely glances at him, used to his antics by now. A moment later Shikamaru passes him on his way to his claimed chair and drops a file on Kiba's chest. He picks up the files after a few seconds, holding it carefully over his face even though he'd much rather sink into the sweet oblivion of sleep. He may love dogs but completely retraining a non-summon/familiar out of bad habits was a pain and a half. Even Akamaru was exhausted by it and is currently flopped out on Kiba's bed, probably fast asleep by now.
"This is all we know about Tatara's attacker," Sasuke starts, falling naturally into the leader position with his wife in the absence of Naruto, "his appearance, what we know of his personality, guesses at motives, everything."
"It's a rather thin file," Kiba offers blandly.
"We don't know much," Ino returns.
"And here I had more faith in our resident genius." The lack of information was surprising but it's not like they can use the same strategies they did in their old world. Any scent would have been covered swiftly by the city stench and tracking chakra signatures is rather difficult when no one has chakra.
"I'm a genius, not a miracle worker," says Shikamaru.
"...What if he could do something similar to a henge?" Choji says in the quiet left after the playful conversation. That would probably explain why they haven't really found any record of him, Kiba realizes.
"If we go with that, it's entirely likely that the attempted-killer henged himself into the appearance of a real person in order to throw any trackers even farther off." Neji adds. Suddenly, this mission seems a lot more difficult. At least in the Elemental Nations they had known, roughly, what skills their enemies possessed. Here, they don't even have that luxury. They continue to come up with ideas for the next few hours, even as the others slowly leave, heading to their various jobs until only Choji, Shikamaru, Rock Lee, Sakura (who apparently has a day off), and himself remain. At this point, none of them are making much contribution. Shikamaru's half-asleep, despite the glares he keeps getting from Sakura. Kiba himself is exhausted by the menial work. He just wants to skip this shit and punch something. Maybe Naruto, if he ever gets his ass to Shizume. Then Sakura's phone rings and all the Shinobi end up reacting rather harshly (Kiba ends up toppling over to crouch behind the couch- don't laugh) except for Shikamaru who just cracks one eye open, the ass.
"Hello?" Sakura asks, pushing Lee away when he presses into her space a little too enthusiastically. Emerald green eyes sharpen and she's on her feet, rushing the rest of them even as she replies.
"We'll be there in a moment." Sakura hangs up and addresses them, "they found him." They're ready to go in an instant. Kiba whistles and there's a crash before Akamaru comes bounding down the stairs. His partner leaves the house a half a step behind Choji and Kiba closes the door, the last one out.
"Where to?" Kiba asks. As it is now, he and Akamaru are the fastest here, besides Lee, perhaps. Sakura rattles off an address but grabs him before he can pull himself onto Akamaru's back.
"Use a henge or a genjutsu, if you can," Sakura says lowly. "We can't afford drawing any more attention then we already have." Kiba nods sharply and unfurls his chakra for the first time in months. It curls around him nicely and some tension he hadn't even noticed bleeds from him. He might not have enough control to do big, powerful genjutsus like Kurenai-sensei had been able to do but it's enough for him to mold it into a simple misdirection. That finished, he pulls himself onto Akamaru's back mid-stride. His partner speeds up and a touch of chakra sends them flying along even faster, carefully avoiding the people that are everywhere.
It doesn't take them long to get to the address Sakura had given them and from there, it's easy enough to track the flares of red aura. Then a goddamn billboard is yanked down, flying at a man that Kiba vaguely recognizes as a HOMRA member. Kiba shoots forward, off Akamaru's back. His genjutsu wavers and shatters but he hardly notices, more focused on slamming bodily into the red clansman. He gets them out from under the billboard, which hits the ground with a crash and a plume of smoke, and drops the man into a heap on the ground.
"Akamaru!" He calls, darting after the man who had thrown the billboard in the first man hops up to the top of a building and, with careful application of chakra, he follows. Akamaru won't be able to launch himself up the side of the building, but Kiba knows his partner will find another way without too much trouble. He lands on the roof with hardly a whisper of sound but the black-haired man he had followed turns to face him.
"If you're here to fight, you'll end up in the same state as your clansman," the man warns. The edge of Kiba's mouth twitches. This is the most shinobi-like man he's come across since he arrived in this world and it excites him. He's not stupid enough to think this will be anywhere near a difficult fight but maybe it'll at least be interesting.
"A damaged pride but otherwise unharmed?" He offers with a grin. "And anyway- I'm not a member of HOMRA. I am a member of a clan, though I doubt you'd recognize it." The man's eyes narrow like it's an insult to him to imply that he doesn't know something. Kiba doesn't wait for him to speak, takes a step closer as he summons his aura forward. It's clearly black, even with it's transparency. It grows over his fingers like claws and he knows they're strong even though they look like they're made of glass. The clans and their auras could take on low level shinobi, with the auras' versatility. Of course, any shinobi higher than genin (besides Team 7, who're all still genin, even if Naruto is Hokage) would be too fast, too used to the casual cruelty of the shinobi world to be caught in a situation where a civilian, no matter the abilities given by their aura, could defeat them.
"There is no Black Clan," the man growls. Kiba shrugs one shoulder, shifting his weight to his toes in preparation.
"There wasn't," he corrects. "But our King is known for doing the impossible, so what's creating an eighth clan to him?"
"Impossible." Kiba levels the man a look because, honestly, what had he just said.
"Improbable. I'm Kiba Inuzuka, just so you know who's about to beat your ass," he introduces. The man stays quiet just long enough that Kiba thinks he isn't going to get a name. Then, the man speaks.
"Kuroh Yatogami-" The man's eyes widen and he just barely manages to dodge around the swipe of Kiba's new claws. He drops into a crouch to avoid Kuroh's counter attack, spinning to knock the man's feet out from under him. Kiba lunges at the downed man but Kuroh lashes out with some weird light blue, transparent arm extension that sends him stumbling away.
The hand-thing grabs him, tossing him straight up. Kuroh turns away, as if that was the end of the fight, and if Kiba was a normal human it probably would have been. But Kiba is a shinobi and an Inuzuka on top of it- it's going to take more than a wimpy toss to take him out. He twists midair, landing easily on all fours. He lunges at Kuroh, who has his back turned and is currently walking away. The clansman (or strain, he supposes, but he somehow doubts that) shouldn't have underestimated him, not that it would have saved him if he hadn't. He tackles Kuroh around the middle, slamming the man into the hard stone of the roof. The breath leaves Kuroh's lungs in an audible woosh but the man reaches awkwardly for the sword at his waist regardless. Stubborn, Kiba thinks as he easily pins the hand under one of his knees. He shifts to a sitting position, grabbing Kuroh's free hand by the wrist as he goes. He wrenches the hand behind Kuroh's back, ignoring the hiss of pain that follows the action. He does the same to Kuroh's other hand and holds the man's arms in that position with one hand as he uses the other to fish out the leash he's always got on him.
People here get weird when he doesn't put one on the dogs he's been asked to retrain or rehabilitate. Kiba can't imagine why, dogs shouldn't be tied to a rope. It's demeaning. He calls it cruelty, but that doesn't hold up in a place where people believe animals don't have thoughts and feelings of their own. It's rather annoying, actually, and maddening to deal with.
When he's finished tying Kuroh up, he gets to his feet. Kuroh gets dragged along and the man sends him a dark look promising pain. Kiba just grins in response. A moment later, the door to the roof swings open, the lock irreparable broken. Akamaru bounds onto the roof, looking faintly disappointed he missed the fight. There's something proud in him too and Kiba's just about to ask when a teenage girl, panting and out of breath, stumbles onto the roof behind him.
"God, I'm going to have to repair the door now," the girl says despairingly. She hasn't noticed Kiba and Kuroh yet, too busy staring at the door like it killed her entire family. Kiba snorts because that's probably not the best comparison to make considering exactly who is his clansman. The girl jerks around, raising a phone threateningly.
"Hi!" Kiba says, leaning forward cheerfully as if he isn't currently holding a tied up, bruised, scraping man. "Have you seen a white-haired kid? He was up here a bit ago but I seemed to have missed him."