Title: Courage is a Dirty Word
Author: Cain
Email: R
Summary: I'm trying to substitute ninja training and ANBU warfare for war and soldiers so I hope this works, if not just bear with me as the story complicates itself.
Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine no matter what I am wont to believe.
Comments: Reviewing is an option but a very welcomed one, but if not, just read it and make me a happy little chappie.
Courage is a Dirty Word
Chapter 3: Kicking Puppies is Fun
The door slammed shut and Kiba was left in pitch dark once more. He spat out a mouthful of blood and felt around his jaw for broken teeth and other damages and then coughed and groaned in pain. He gingerly touched his abdominal area and winced again. Damn bastards had broken his ribs. There was a soft whining from somewhere in the darkness and Kiba started at the sound, but realised that it was only Akamaru. Good thing Akamaru was safe; they couldn't find him in the darkness where he was hiding. Kiba picked the puppy up and hugged him against his chest; breathing in the fur, calming himself down Akamaru licked his bloodied face. What was he going to do; he couldn't tell the others about this?
Shino and Neji were checking up on the new recruits. It was just procedure to ensure that none of them had deserted during the hour that they were left to unpack their things. You never knew, with spies, whether to trust them or not.
There was no one attending the infirmary at this time of night so Kiba just picked the lock and helped himself. He wrapped bandages around his wrists and ankles and then a firmly around his abdomen. He bent down, testing the hold on his ribs and decided it was alright. He then packed everything up neatly and locked the room once more.
Shino stared at them, as if looking at the innocent faces harder could have possibly made something happen.
"Akimichi Chouji," drawled Neji, obviously as bored as he was.
"Hai."
"Inuzuka Kiba."
Silence.
"Inuzuka Kiba," he said again, looking up from the list this time.
There was still no response so he crossed the name off the list.
"Nara Shikamaru."
"Hai."
The roll-book snapped shut.
"Where is Inuzuka Kiba?"
It was obvious the little idiots didn't know, thought Shino and then he did a retake. He was barely older than they were.
A runner from the Medical Centre chose to come in at that moment and whispered nervously to Shino. He frowned and nodded to the man who scurried away.
"Outside," he said to Neji.
Shino waited until they were out of earshot of the recruits and then he stared down a curious Shikamaru.
"The runner said that supplies were stolen from the infirmary to the southwest gates. You keep on checking the rest of the rooms and I'll go check it up. Find out who is missing."
Neji nodded, "You get the fun job, heh?"
Shino smirked and then turned on his heel and walked off to check on the medical supplies. There was more than one reason for him wanting to go; healthy muscle
Ten rolls of missing bandages and a jar of antiseptic? Shino sent out a horde of his bugs to find out where the hell Kiba was.
Kiba wondered why he was not inside sitting in the warmth right now instead of lying on the dewy wet grass listening to the wind and counting the stars. The moon was a wafer-thin line, bright in the sky and the darkness seemed clearer than daylight. Kiba could remember another time when he had been like this, letting the damp grass soothe his beaten body, but he couldn't recall ever being so peaceful in his life.
A bug landed on Kiba's dog-tag.
He smelt it before he heard the tap as it hit metal, a bug, and he knew what bugs meant. Jumping up from his lying position and scooping up Akamaru in one swift movement, Kiba ran away from the building, hoping that Shino was a long way behind his silent messenger. There was a forested area not too far ahead of him used for survival training and Kiba ran towards the trees as if his life depended on it.
Neji pointed at Zaku and Dosu.
"You two, come with me."
It was alright, Shino was nowhere nearby, and Kiba breathed a deep sigh of relief as he half squatted in the bushes. He relaxed and lowered his guard and checked that Akamaru was still asleep. For a minute longer, he looked at the dark barracks, just in case the bug-man decided to appear, and then he turned back into the dark of the forest…only to be met by the shining name tag, "Aburame Shino". There was a moment of silence, broken only by the sound of Akamaru waking up in Kiba's jacket.
"What have you two got to say for yourselves?"
Zaku and Dosu were silent, returning Neji's glare.
"Fine, then you will stay here until we find Inuzuka Kiba," Neji said and sat down at his desk and proceeded to fill out forms not offering the two a seat.
Dosu finally spoke up, "We had nothing to do with Kiba."
Neji's head snapped up. "What?"
"I said we had nothing to do with Kiba."
"Then how do you know about it?"
"News travels fast, Sergeant Hyuuga."
Neji gave then both a look. "Does it?"
"Was it you who stole the medical supplies?"
Shino took a step closer and stopped in his tracks, noticing the blood stains on the stolen bandages.
"What happened?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Tell me, damn it!"
"Nothing happened; I was stupid enough to fall down the stairwell."
Shino didn't believe him but Kiba didn't expect him to either.
"What really happened?"
"I told you, I fell – "
"You're not dense enough to think that I'm that stupid, Kiba."
"Oh, so you've started calling me by my name now, have you?"
Shino looked as if he was going to respond, and then sighed defeat. "Alright, Kiba, I'll take your word for it."
"You'd better, because that's what happened."
Shino leaned in closer to Kiba; they were almost touching, but not quite. Kiba could feel the fuzz on Shino's nose and smelt his scent, and the lust, and he was scared at what Shino might do. Shino leant in closer again, and ran his tongue over Kiba's bottom lip, once, twice. Kiba shuddered against the rough bark of the tree he happened to be leaning against and then, unexpectedly, Shino closed his mouth over his and they were kissing. The sunglasses-donned man couldn't get enough of the recruit beneath him and he sucked hard on Kiba's lips so that when he pulled away, they were swollen and bleeding. He kissed the blood away and then ran the tip of his tongue along Kiba's jaw line and down his neck to his collarbone. He sucked hard on his neck and it was all Kiba could do to not moan aloud into the silence of the night. Suddenly all he felt was the cold air, Shino had pulled away.
"Just no more lying next time, ok?" said Shino and he started to walk away.
"Hey! Are you going to leave me like this?" Kiba yelled after him, ashamed of himself and scared at what had just happened.
"Yep, liars don't deserve anything more," came the reply, and he was gone.
Kiba slid down the trunk and sat on the grass, his head spinning. Shino had just kissed him. No, Shino had more than just kissed him. Why? It was not as if Kiba had made a good impression on the sergeant on their first meeting. It was not as if he was attractive, if he was, Kiba was sure he'd be having more luck with the ladies…
…and the moon shone brightly through its sliver.
The first blow came from the left side, hitting him squarely on the temple. A well-aimed hit could have killed him, but unfortunately for Kiba, his attackers were well practised in the art of pain.
Kiba woke with a gasp and thrashed in his bed and fell on to the sleeping form of Shikamaru.
. Another one connected with his kidneys and Kiba felt his spine tingle and his legs spasmed under him. A swing fell across his stomach, and he felt the wind being knocked out of him. Damn, one of them had a metal bar.
"Wha –?"
Shikamaru held him firmly.
"It's okay, Kiba, calm down, you just fell from your bunk, that's all."
Lying on the floor, disorientated, Kiba could not find the strength anywhere to pull himself together and get up. It was then that someone took hold of his wrists and ankles and pulled him apart.
"But, when did I get there?"
A hand connected to his jaw, again and again, left side, right side, continuously until all he could see were swirling white dots in the darkness.
"Sergeant Aburame brought you here, he said we were to look after you until morning," Shikamaru said, checking his watch. "Well, actually it is morning now, so I have to take you to his office."
He only got himself back together enough when he felt the elastic of his pants being pulled down and a knife wedging itself against his balls and that quiet voice telling him not to move. So he didn't, he didn't make a sound either as he lay there with that unknown man so close to him, dreading what he would do.
With surprising efficiency for one who was unexpectedly woken up in the early hours of the day, Shikamaru dressed and put his boots on. Kiba didn't have to, he still had on his clothes from the previous day and the bandages, he noticed, that were covered in blood.
But he did not expect him to laugh, and laugh he did. And then the hands pulled away and they just went back to hitting him, over and over again.
"What's wrong, Kiba?"
Kiba shook the images out of his head. "It's nothing, don't worry."
"Whatever, well, come on."
Kiba slid his way off Shikamaru's bunk and landed heavily on the floor.
"Um. I don't think I can walk."
Shikamaru sighed, "How troublesome, but he did say that I may have to carry you."
With that, he picked Kiba up as if he weighed nothing and carried him out of the room. Cat-calls followed them down the hallway.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "Bloody hell, you'd expect them to be all asleep wouldn't you?"
Kiba said nothing, probably because he was already asleep.
Arriving at Shino's door, Shikamaru unceremoniously kicked at it three times.
"Come in!" came Shino's voice.
Shikamaru kicked again and there was a discernible sigh as the door was wrenched open.
"Oh, Shikamaru, come in! Put him on that chair."
Kiba was sat in an upright chair in front of Shino's desk and his head was allowed to loll down the back.
Shikamaru turned to leave, "Nara, I need one word with you before you go."
Kiba woke with a start as the stinging pain of the backhand jolted him out of slumber. For a moment, he thought he was reliving those moments in the staircase again, until he saw Shino standing before him with a huge smirk on his face. Kiba rubbed his palm over the visible reddening on his cheek.
"What did you do that for?"
"To wake you up."
"Well you could have done it some other way. Jesus, normal people don't hit other people for no reason."
"I told you my reason," Shino said, leaning over Kiba.
"Well that was a shit reason, I reckon – ah shit!"
Shino had his hand on Kiba's pants and his deft fingers were at work.
"Hell," Shino said, feigning surprise. "Is that from yesterday?"
Kiba struggled to talk, "Ngh, of course not!"
"So it's from today then? What has Shikamaru done to you?"
"Yes …– what? No! Not Shikamaru!"
Shino leant in closer, leaving his fingers still.
"So what has made you this excited, little puppy?"
Kiba gritted his teeth from the lack of friction. "Ngh…y…"
He suddenly pushed himself up from the chair, throwing it violently against the back wall.
"Fuck you! Just…who do you think you are?"
Shino couldn't resist a smile as Kiba fell down again, clutching his ribs and dragging in rasping breaths.
"Maybe you should take yourself to see the doctor in case it's more serious than you think."
Kiba glowered at Shino through his pain.
Shino shrugged, "Or you could stay here, whatever."
He walked over to his desk and sat down again, starting work on his papers. Someone rapped on the door and Shino looked up.
"Come in," he said.
Kiba couldn't believe it; the guy was totally ignoring him! Neji walked in and didn't look the least bit surprised at Kiba sitting on the floor, instead he raised an eyebrow. Shino laughed.
"Are you interested?"
Kiba was scared, what the hell was going on here?
"Yeah, but not now, I got work to do, you know?"
"Don't remind me what a good choice it was for me to transfer to the office."
They both laughed at the personal joke.
"Here is the information you requested yesterday, sorry it took so long, paperwork, you know," Neji said, then glancing at Kiba, added, "I have got to try dog one of these days."
As Neji left the room, Shino stood up and approached Kiba. He picked Kiba up by his collar and held him against the wall.
"So what do you think?"
"About what?" spat Kiba.
Shino sighed and pinned Kiba to the wall using his body while finding his hands and holding them up above his head by the wrists. Shino started kissing Kiba like he had done the day before and Kiba definitely wasn't complaining. The exchange between Shino and Neji had, in some strange way, aroused him, and in no time at all, Kiba found himself rubbing against Shino's unyielding body like a cat. Shino left one of his hands go of Kiba's wrists and held both with just his left hand. His right travelled down and unbuttoned the one done-up button on Kiba's shirt and then pulled his pants down, releasing Kiba from that exasperating restriction and…
…hit him so hard that black dots appeared in Kiba's vision.
Kiba crumpled up on the floor holding himself in pain.
"What the hell?"
Shino laughed, "You got so excited when I was talking to Sergeant Hyuuga I thought perhaps you were on heat or something. You're a little keen aren't you, for someone who's so cool and sure of himself."
Kiba didn't know what to say so he just sat there, dumb as a rock could be.
"So are you going to tell me about your fall?" asked Shino.
Jolted out of his silence by an unexpected question, Kiba choked on some air that had not gone down well and had a coughing spasm.
Finishing, he looked up, "What?"
"You know," said Shino patiently, "Yesterday in the survival training area with the moon shining brightly in the night sky and we met by moonlight…" Shino stopped at the look on Kiba's face. "OK, I'll stop if you're going to be such a spoiler for the good bits."
An awkward silence.
"Alright, perhaps I can help you, prompt the words out as it were," said Shino. "Which stairs did you fall down?"
"The emergency stairs to the southwest," replied Kiba.
"You are lying. There are no emergency stairways in the southwest because the land there is allocated to the Hospital Wing."
"Well, I don't know! The stairs outside where you found me yesterday I suppose."
"How did you fall down?"
"What?"
"How did you fall down? Head first, butt first, feet first or brain first?"
"Oh ha, I'm laughing so hard. Head first."
"Who pushed you down?"
Kiba looked at Shino's sunglasses, "You know what? I'm not quite as thick as you envision me so that I would fall for something as obviously put as that."
"Fine, be that way. Was it dark in the stairway?"
"Yes."
"Where the lights deliberately turned off or damaged in any way?"
"Yes, the bulb was shattered and I could feel the glass beneath by feet."
"So you were standing at the bottom of the stairs when you 'fell' then, were you? Let me ask you something smartass, how could you have 'fallen down' stairs when you were already on the lower level?"
"How do you know where I was standing?"
"You said you could feel the smashed bulb beneath your feet, there are no lights on the ceiling directly above the stairs, the only light in there would have been the single on in the centre of the ceiling three storeys up. If that had been smashed, the glass would not have landed anywhere on the stairs."
Kiba didn't say anything to that.
"So where were you really and what happened?"
"You know what? Go screw that Neji's brains out because I don't want to play your sick little games no more. You know why I don't tell you shit all? It's because I have no idea who did this to me, yeah that's right, you heard me. I didn't fall down the stairs, is that what you wanted to know? Does it make you feel better that the little dog-boy had the holy shits kicked out of him by a bunch of retards? I hope it does because that's all the satisfaction you're going to get out of me!"
What an impressive little outburst, thought Shino and then caught Kiba as he was pulling his pants up to head out the door.
"I'm sorry, perhaps that was not the best way it could have gone – "
"You're damn right it isn't!" yelled Kiba.
"And let me guess why you are so angry all of a sudden, it doesn't seem like you Kiba-kun."
His hands were wandering again and Kiba knew if he didn't take control of this situation now, he never would.
"Hey! Get off of me and don't call me that!" he yelled.
"Why not, Kiba-kun?" teased Shino, "Does it remind you of something…or someone, Kiba-kun?"
Shino kissed him for the second time that hour, slowly and softly, the way a lover would have done on their last days together. So sweetly and so full of a horrible, horrible feeling to Kiba…one called love.
"Don't…" said Kiba as a last useless stand against this onslaught of his senses.
"You see, I know everything that makes you tick, Kiba-kun," Shino whispered as he pulled away so that he could talk, "Even though you might not realise it, the army has files on every soul in Konoha, and yours is very, very detailed."
Shino nibbled his way along Kiba's sharp collar bones and ate his way into the hollow between them, and then down. Kiba gave up and gave a sad, soft little whimper.
"I can make you scream in agony without moving a finger," continued Shino, "I know your fears and all the secrets concerning you and your little dog."
A brief thought flashed through Kiba's head, he hadn't taken Akamaru as Shikamaru had carried him out of their room! No wonder Shino had been able to get this far without being seriously injured, Shino was unzipping his pants.
"I know what your weak points are and where your blind side is, I know what you like to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I know your preferred weapons and your worst enemies. I even know about your nightmares and do you know what the best part is? I know every dirty little detail of that little 'incident'."
Kiba let out a sob as Shino said that and lifted him off the floor, leaving only his shoulders to support him against the wall.
"Don't talk about that, please sempai."
"You see, little Kiba-kun, I can twist you around my fingers and there would be nothing that you can do about that."
And Shino pushed in without preparations of any sort and smiled in sadistic pleasure as Kiba gave out a cry of pain, his hands held on tighter to Kiba's hips to stop him from sliding down the wall, and started to move. Kiba pawed futilely at the wall behind him, as unforgiving as what was currently in him, trying to get away from the pain both physical and mental.
"Stop it, please stop it," he sobbed, more tears starting to form on his already wet lashes. "Stop…please, I'll do anything."
"Too late, Kiba-kun, the world doesn't quite work that way."
Kiba would have screamed it if wasn't for the hand that was suddenly covering his mouth. The friction of that thing in him was just too much to bear, he remembered the last time something like this had happened and how similar it had been. Shino moved faster, trying to get a reaction out of Kiba and was quite pleased to hear the muffled cry from under his hand as he changed the angle of his thrust and pushed a little harder. For Kiba, everything suddenly went white as that feeling he knew would soon come came and he was no longer struggling to get away from Shino and was instead pushing back, willing for that sinful contact once again. And it did, but not just once as the two moved with that graceful motion which comes naturally only to those who understand the other perfectly, sharing that terrible bond called love. Their bodies melded together seamlessly as Shino bent down to steal a kiss from Kiba, who, he thought, looked the ideal incubus, perfect in his full glory. Kiba felt Shino kiss him and he kissed back, partly aware of what he was doing, because he thought this was love and suddenly, for the second time in his life, Kiba felt truly afraid. As that cold bolt of fear sped through him, Shino gave one last bite and they both entered for a moment into that timeless ecstasy and Kiba fell, his shoulders no longer able to support his weight. Shino caught him halfway down and planted a kiss on Kiba's forehead as he did so. Softly, Kiba started to cry as the full implication of what had just happened hit him. Startled out of his bliss, Shino realised what he had done and held Kiba close.
"I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have done that," he muffled into Kiba's shoulder.
Kiba shook his head, "No, it's not your fault. It's me, it's always been me. Even that time…" he paused, "Even that time it was my fault. He told me it was my fault and now I know it is. He said that I was tempting him." Turning a tear-stained face to Shino Kiba asked him fearfully, "Was I tempting you like an incubus in the night? That's what he called me; it was all my fault wasn't it? Dosu, yeah, I probably deserved what I got for that one."
"No," said Shino taking his head out of Kiba's should and looking him in the eyes. "That wasn't Dosu on the staircase last night, we questioned him and he had an alibi. I'm really sorry. I should have stopped when you told me to."
"You shouldn't have talked about 'that'," said Kiba.
"No I shouldn't have. I knew you were still living through that bastard's after-effects."
Kiba unexpectedly laughed, "This is farfetched Sergeant Aburame, but do you love me?"
Shino stiffened.
"I thought not," said Kiba getting up, "At least that's one less problem I will have to worry about."
He walked out and closed the door softly behind him leaving Shino frowning on the floor.
Love, thought Shino, I don't really know what to say to that?
