Summary – Hana X Izumo, references to past tense Kotetsu X Izumo. Nothing explicit. The mission where a deceit was invented and a friendship was made.
Rating – T although it probably doesn't even need that high of a rating.
Hana finds herself on a mission with Izumo. She hates how people outside her clan treat her and her dogs, why should this one be any different.
Who are these characters? Izumo is one of the chuunin proctors and also one of the chuunin assigned to help the 5th. He is one of the two that tried to trick everyone into thinking room 201 was room 301 before the beginning of the chuunin exam. Hana is Kiba's older sister. She has 3 dogs who do not have canon names as far as I know. She is a vet but since she is an Inuzuka it is reasonable to assume she is capable of missions as well.
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A dog under a divine moon – chapter 1
Hana was having a bad day. No, Hana was having a horrible day. First, her little brother was trying to drive her crazy by bouncing all over the house and if he even thought of using that 'dynamic marking' technique in here, she would have him down on his back and her teeth in his neck. Unfortunately, even Kiba wasn't enough to distract her mother at a time like this.
"Hana!" Tsume screamed from the kitchen. "You need to be back from your mission by next Saturday. The entire clan is having its meeting and you are expected to be there. Your cousins will be there."
Hana tried to slump further into the pile of grey fur she was hiding under on the couch, unfortunately, her three dogs were not able to hide her from her mother, "Yes, Mother." Hana knew what this meant. The only reason her mother paid any attention to those annoying cousins of hers was that Hana would be expected to start seriously dating. Actually, she had been expected to do that a while ago, now that Hana was nearly twenty-one her mother was stepping in.
Her cousins were annoying, they were worse than Kiba for being non-stop screaming idiots. Now sure, all of Hana's clan were like that to an extent, but Hana was quiet for an Inuzuka. That doesn't meant she was quiet, just compared to her boisterous clan, she was a bit more demure. She could go hours without the need to wrestle anyone into submission.
Finally, she gathered up her pack and made her way to the door of the house followed by three large grey dogs. She didn't often go on missions with others, her and her dogs were more or less their own team. After the attack by sound, shinobi had been in short supply she was stuck doing more missions and missions with people she didn't really know. Sure she knew the people she graduated with from the academy, but not many of them were still around. She was twenty now, the attack by sound had been two years ago. The village was getting used to being run by the fifth, but this constant switching of teams was getting annoying. Hana just wanted to be back to doing missions by herself.
With only a short wrestling match with her mother and promises of being back for the clan meeting, she was tackled by Kiba and Akumaru (who was getting rather big) before finally making it to the path leading away from her home. She was going to miss the smell of the dogs and her family. Heck, she'd even miss the smell of her brother – not enough that the thought of throwing him in a river wasn't tempting though.
Hana trotted to the village, she was to meet her team by the village's main gate in another half hour. When she trotted up, after a quick stop in the village for some yakatori for her pack, she saw a chuunin waiting. He nodded at her as he looked over. His dark hair was in it's usual place of over his face and his bandana style forehead protector was covering his head. Izumo was a face she often saw at the mission desk or when turning in paperwork for the village's veterinary practice. She hadn't been expecting to see the desk ninja that was half of the near infamous dynamic duo here though.
"Hana-san, Team got reduced to us." He grabbed his pack off the ground and slung it over his back.
Hana knew Izumo briefly, well everyone in the village seemed to know him a bit. Him and his partner in crime (who rumor had it was more of a partner in the most serious sense of the word) were well known for being troublemakers in their off hours. "What happened?"
"Ko got a nasty paper cut." He bent down to look at her dogs, "You guys have gotten big since I last saw you."
Now, Hana was always appreciative of someone paying attention to her dogs, "Not as big as my brother's dog is getting." She tilted her head, "How did a paper cut keep him out of a mission?"
Izumo got back to his feet, "Oh forbidden Jutsu scroll jumped off the shelf and attacked him. He wasn't paying attention as usual. I'm sure the five of us will be more than enough to handle this, we should get going though."
Hana nodded, she didn't want to think about what all was hidden in the Hokage's tower. It was nice to have her dogs considered part of the team by someone else though. She followed Izumo out of the village, her dogs trailing behind her. They were going to be traveling to rock country to do some information gathering. According to the mission briefing, Hana was supposed to mostly be backup incase something went wrong with the rest of the team being the ones gathering information. Her dogs were there for tracking purposes and incase things got physical. She didn't know yet how the reduction in the team was going to affect things.
It would be a two-day trip there so that meant one night under the stars. Hana didn't mind. She actually spent a lot of nights outside when it was too noisy in the house to sleep. For some reason it seemed all the dogs could be quiet as mice when out on a mission, but get seven or eight dogs into the house and between them and her brother, it was non-stop noise all night between snoring and snuffling and tossing and turning. They were still in Fire country so Hana didn't berate herself too seriously for letting her mind wander. Besides, if anything was up, her three dogs would pick up on it. The sun was getting ready to set and they were approaching the border of Fire.
Izumo stopped in a clearing, "The trees thin out past here, it's a little early, but we made good time, this might be the best place to camp."
Hana nodded, "Sounds good." She started to gather up kindling for a fire as Izumo secured the campsite and set up some barriers around the clearing. He then walked over to where she was setting up the kindling and sliced his finger before making a seal around the fire pit. Hana hadn't seen that before so she asked, "What's that for?"
"It'll keep the fire from smoking. We're still in Fire country, but I don't want to be spotted, but it's going to get cold tonight so I want a nice fire." He smiled at her, "And I don't have three warm fur covered bodies to keep me warm."
She smirked, "Yeah, guess the last minute team change ruined that for you." She's been traveling with him all day, and Inuzuka were not known for tact, even is she was one of the more tactful of her clan.
He tried to hide a wince, "Yeah umm well yeah." He shrugged than kind of half-heartedly laughed as he lit the fire.
Hana blinked, "Umm, I mean. Rumor has it that you and Kotetsu are…." She glanced at her dogs as if they would help with something as decidedly human as being uncomfortable talking about mates.
Izumo tried to smile, but it came off a little weak, "Yeah, we were."
Suddenly Hana understood, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know."
"No, it's OK. No big deal, we're still friends and all, just not friends with privileges any more." He did a slightly better attempt at smiling as he got the fire going well, "It was only temporary from the start."
Hana nodded, it wasn't her place to question. She felt awkward in the silence that descended over them, if it were one of her own clan, she would simply tackle him and get into a wrestling match, unfortunately people outside her clan didn't tend to see that behavior as acceptable.
"I bet the dogs and I could scrounge up something better than ration bars to eat…"
He smiled at her and it wasn't a forced smile either, "That'd be great, I think I've eaten more meals of ration bars this year and actual food."
She nodded as she stood up, gathering up two of the three of her pack, telling the third to stay at the camp and guard. She hadn't realized even the desk ninja were being used for so many missions lately, but then again they were really short staffed in the village.
She trotted off with the two dogs in search of some simple game. Rabbit hunting was easy for the three of them and she was sure she could be back in an hour or less with enough rabbits for a nice meal for all five of them
She was right; except it didn't even take an hour before she had five rabbits pierced with kunai and was returning to the camp. As she approached, she heard talking. Slowing down, she approached carefully.
"You know, you're lucky. It would be great to be a dog. I meant look at how good you have it. Pretty girl to take care of you. No silly rumor mill to keep track of. None of this stupid, oh you have to do this or that for your clan even though they're all idiots. I mean, sure, I bet us humans don't have to worry as much about our fur getting matted or fleas or anything. Well, then again there was one time." Izumo laughed, "That's actually one that is better not talked about. The time Izumo got attacked by bed bugs when he was staying at some shithole is not something the rumor mill needs."
As Hana got closer, she could see the man sitting next to her third dog, scratching him behind the ear and talking to him, "I know I know, why won't this stupid human shut up so you can just enjoy being scratched right? Well I promise you some nice treats for listening and not trying to fix things."
Hana decided this was a good time to make some noise as she approached, as expected Izumo shit up and looked towards the noise. She called out, "We're back." And walked into the clearing holding the rabbit carcasses.
"Welcome back. Was just having a little talk with a teammate and all." Izumo smiled and stood up to take the rabbits from her, "You caught them, least I can do is cook."
She laughed and handed over the rabbits, "Sure thing, but it looks like someone is missing the attention."
Sure enough, the grey dog that had been left to guard camp was looking positively dejected from the rubbing coming to an end, until his other two brothers walked over and started wrestling him. She laughed again, "Oh guys, it is not the end of the world your brother has someone else's scent on him, I'm not jealous and you guys shouldn't be either."
Izumo smirked as he cleaned the rabbits and stuck them on stakes. In the meantime, Hana started setting up her tent. "They eat meat cooked or raw?" Izumo called out as he set two of the rabbits over the fire.
"Rare. They'll take them raw but it's better if they're cooked a bit." She was momentarily surprised he bothered to ask. Actually if her dogs were treated with this much thought on her other missions, she probably wouldn't have as much of a reputation for being grouchy.
She watched as he put the other three rabbits over the fire. Soon they were all eating, the dogs drinking from the collapsible bowls she always had with her. Night had fallen while the rabbits were cooking and now stars could be seen. It was going to be a dark night; the new moon had only been a few days ago. Hana sighed looking up at the moon; the night of the full moon was when her clan meeting was. Part of her knew she was twenty now and it was more than time for her family to start looking towards matching her up with someone. She just didn't want it to be some stupid cousin of hers. All her cousins were so … so like her brother. Loud and brash and … well so Inuzuka.
Not that she didn't like her clan and how everyone was, just she liked her quiet sometimes. She liked being alone with just her dogs sometimes. Her mom sometimes blamed it on her having the triplets. Some theory about since her and her dogs were a pack in and of themselves that she felt less need to have a pack. Maybe it made sense. She sometimes felt like she was an outsider when it came to interacting with the rest of the clan. She knew exactly where she stood with her dogs. With the clan, it was always so confusing. Her mom was so dominant and she knew her and her brother were both expected to have leadership qualities.
"I don't seem to be the only one being troubled?" Izumo's voice jolted her from her thinking.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry." She sighed and looked at her dogs. They had finished their food and were now lounging around the camp site.
"Love life or something else?" He smiled as he asked the question.
She smirked, "Lack of love life would probably most accurate." She started to clean up the remains of her dog's meals, burying the bones in the dirt, "Or should I say my clan's interest in my lack of a love life."
He snorted trying not to laugh, "Hope they don't meet up with my grandmother. I believe she is the village expert on how to drive your relatives crazy by trying to set them up."
She shook her head, "I don't think my mother needs much advice on the matter. I woke up to find folders on all my eligible cousins that were detailed enough to make Ibiki jealous." She couldn't not smile at her little joke.
"Is she equipping them with bento boxes and shoving them at you on your lunch breaks yet?"
"You're joking?"
"Oh, I wish I was. It's like a never ending parade of cute girls with no brains carrying badly made bento."
She couldn't help laughing, "I'm sorry to laugh, but that is just so funny."
He was laughing himself, then in a really bad imitation of an old woman he said "Izumo-chan, What is the Kamizuki clan to do with you. Stop picking through your bento, how can I die in peace knowing you are alone." He laughed some more, "Like she'd curl up and die when her favorite thing in the world is torturing me."
Hana couldn't remember having this much fun on a mission, "Well at least she isn't giving you measurements of all your eligible relatives … and I mean measurements."
Izumo tried not to laugh, he really did, but that was too much and he was flat on his back laughing. "Don't tell my grandmother that or she might start 'improving' the information on the dates she sets me up on."
Hana giggled, absently rubbing the fur of one of her dogs, "Are they really that bad?"
Izumo raised an eyebrow and started batting his eyes and forcing his face into a completely blank look before speaking in a high pitched ditzy voice, "Oh, like wow, you're really a ninja and all. So like, isn't that like dangerous or something?" He sighed and threw himself back on his back, landing close to the god he had befriended earlier, In his normal voice, "I mean like we live in a secrete village? Where does she find these girls?"
Hana smiled as she finished cleaning up, "Sometimes family is really annoying."
He just nodded, stroking the belly of the dog he had befriended earlier, "Yeah, but I guess they're still worth it. You should get some rest; I want to get an early start." He looked up at the moon as he lay there by the fire.
She nodded, "The dogs can watch. You don't have to stay up."
He looked over at her, "It's OK. This close to a new moon I can't sleep really anyways. Let them get some rest too."
"You can't sleep?"
"Well I can doze and stuff, but we don't normally spend a lot of time sleeping around the new moon."
She tilted her head, "A clan thing?"
He just nodded, "Yeah, can't sleep at all the night of a new moon."
She gestured for her dogs to follow her, "OK, just wake me up if you think you can get some sleep." With that, she crawled into her tent and snuggled into a pile of warm grey fur. This was probably one of the nicest missions she had been on with another person. At some point in the night, she realized one of her dogs got up and left the tent. Since it was the one Izumo had befriended earlier, she assumed he was just wandering off to check on the man and she went right back to sleep.
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Comments welcome. I know this is not a common pairing, or even common characters, but I think it works. The story is done, I will be posting a chapter every day or so until complete.