I don't own Naruto, but it means a lot to me.
"Hey, punk!" Inuzuka Kiba's voice is rough like a growl. In his arms, a small boy giggles and squirms under the Inuzuka's grip with a gaggle of nearby children echoing the giggles around.
"I don't care if you broke your arm, you little shit, get the hell off Akumaru's tail."
The child, if he heard the command at all, pays no heed. The giant canine's tail continues to sway like a wave, giggles and squeals following each peak and trough in the motion.
"Ah, Inuzuka-sama." A voice squeaks from behind the mountain of fur and giggling children. "Please, sir, don't call the children profanities."
"Well, what the hell am I supposed to do?" He retorts, rolling out the aches he feels along his back and shoulders. "If they're being little shits, I call them little shits."
The young nurse squirms, but her conflict is resolved by the call of the head medic as she walks by on her rounds.
"Oh, Kiba!" Sakura greets the man with a warm smile, pausing in her stride. Upon her arrival, the sound of giggling intensifies as Akumaru's tail wags.
"I didn't know you were coming in today."
The Inuzuka alpha shrugs, channeling all his energy into an aloof air.
"Yeah, well. I heard these little brats were whining." He asserted. "Figured I'd come in and shut them up."
Sakura gives a sideways glance as two patients, age four and six, bury their faces into Akumaru's fur. Their muffled cackles radiate throughout the ward.
"I see." She nods sagely. "The children I bring my honorary Child Life consultant in for are known for being..."
Sakura pauses as the patter of footsteps introduces another child, squealing in excitement at the sight of the massive animal and his master.
"...what was it you called them? Little shits."
Kiba tries to keep his eyes froward, but there's a small sparkle as the newcomer, a girl of no more than five, wraps her arms around Akumaru's tail. There's a smile tugging at his stoicism, and Sakura does nothing to hide her happiness.
It's been twenty-five years since Inuzuka Kiba has been a front-line soldier. While the Inzuka clan were never as committed as their Hyuuga or Uchiha counter parts to, in their words, 'all that formality bullshit', the pack still needed a leader. Like so much else, the narrowly avoided apocalypse had convinced both Kiba's mother and the rest of the clan council that a new leader would be needed to face the challenges of the new shinobi world.
He hadn't been the first pick, granted. The Inuzuka clan didn't really have strong feelings on whether they had a matriarch or a patriarch heading their pack — just so long as there was an Alpha. Hana, being the older of Tsume's two children, had been the original choice for the role. The realities of being clan head — and the distance that entailed from ANBU missions and her team of nearly three decades — however, had proven unappealing to the heiress. Her abdication left Kiba in charge, and the wild man had done what he did with most everything else in his life.
Just kind of rolled with it.
The realities of clan head life, however, weighed their toll on Kiba, as well. While the gruff man had never pushed for ANBU status, there was only so much politicking and bureaucracy a wild soul could bare before needing to break out. Sakura remembers the shock of finding a nervous looking Kiba standing outside of her office one morning, Akumaru asleep at his feet. The fanged man pitched a socialization scheme, something where the younger puppies "ain't social enough — they needed to be around some people" and he wanted to start a program where the children could teach the puppies how to handle, in his words, 'obnoxious little brats'.
If she were a betting person, Sakura would have never predicted that Kiba Inuzuka would be the catalyst of an emotional support dog program that would soon become a prized program of her hospitals. She could see why Tsunade lost so much when making bets.
"Good morning, Ana!" Sakura beams as one of the specialists exits a nearby room. The young woman's smile lights up the room, her dark brown hair bobbing behind her as she glided through the corridors.
"Sakura-sama!" She greets, eyes a twinkle as they follow the wag of Akumaru's tail and the giggles that follow. "I didn't know you'd be joining us today!"
"Ah, just checking on our consultants, here." Sakura replies, patting a hand on Kiba's shoulders and squeezing. The woman notices the man wince. "They are helping, not hindering, I presume?"
"Absolutely." Ana answers with a laugh that seems to float through the hall. "Unorthodox, I admit, but very much helping."
"Good." Sakura answers, releasing her hand from Kiba's shoulders to the man's visible relief. "That's always good to hear. Sorry to bother you!"
"Any time, Sakura-sama!" Is the reply. Both Sakura and Kiba smile as the specialist returns to the room, the sing-song of her voice echoing down the hall. "Now, who's ready to get out of that sling?"
With Ana gone, the sound of muffled giggles returns to the forefront of their attention. Kiba raises a single eyebrow as not one, but two children bury themselves underneath Akumaru's fur in a strange game of hide and seek with themselves.
"You're early." Sakura says, a soft smile pulling her cheeks as she watches the shenanigans unfold. "You usually don't come for another week."
Kiba shrugs. "Eh, got bored. Shino's cooped up with an outbreak and I needed out of the house."
"Tsume and Hana giving you shit?" Sakura grins. Kiba groans.
"What a fool was I," he answers, "to believe that they would just let me run things without the need for color commentary."
Sakura nods gravely. "A fool, indeed." Kiba rolls his eyes.
"It's just request after request, bullshit form after bullshit triplicate." He gripes. "I can see why mom and Hana were so excited to pass this shit off to me — they're the ones that seem to be getting the most enjoyment out of all of this."
"Hmm." Sakura hums, half-listening and half-enjoying the sight of now four children trying to overpower the bear sized dog in the hallway. "Naruto complains to me about a similar problem."
Kiba snorts. "Yeah, no kidding. I bet he does. I couldn't imagine the stress that idiot is under. If I was him I'd have hit my limit a week into the job."
"Oh, he's alright." She smirks. "I think he's not smart enough to know or understand limits, honestly."
Kiba's laugh is like a bark, rough and light at the same time.
"Sounds like ole Naruto." He chuckles, giving a light kick of his feet as one child tries a bit too eagerly to open Akumaru's jaws. The child only giggles louder as Kiba's boot slides him to the side, buried under a wall of fur.
"I'm not late for my next checkup, am I?" He asks, a sudden concern filling his voice. Sakura thinks for a moment before shaking her head.
"I'll have to double check," she replies, "but I think you're next month."
Kiba nods, pleased with himself for not being late.
"I can never remember if I'm one month or two months after Shino's visit. Good, I'll be here."
She tries to hide it, but Kiba notices the small shiver that Sakura gives at the memory of Shino's visit.
"Ha! Not a fan of his beetles, still?" He jabs. Sakura scoffs.
"It's not that I'm not a fan." She counters. "It's just always a little…jarring is all."
Kiba gives another bark of a laugh, the sound of giggling children matching his own.
"You don't have to play coy with me, Sakura. I've been his best friend for almost thirty years and that shit still grosses me the hell out."
"The anatomy is just…" Sakura tries to find the right word to describe her feelings in a professional manner, but the word 'weird' just feels too fitting.
"Unique?" Kiba offers, voice dripping with a well-practiced euphemism. Sakura nods emphatically.
"Well, I know he was happy to get a clean bill of health, regardless." Kiba continues, one eye lingering on the three children attempting to play jump rope in Akumaru's tail. Sakura gives him a questioning glance.
"He was?" She asks. "That's…well, he isn't the most expressive of patients."
Kiba chuckles, nodding in agreement.
"Yeah, you get to know him enough you learn to read between the lines. But he was telling me he'd postponed dealing with one of his problem colonies for a while just to get a clean bill of health from you before doing it."
Sakura turns her attention from enjoying the spectacle in the hallway to give Kiba a curious glance.
"A problem colony?" She asks. "He didn't mention anything about a problem colony."
"Yeah, I'd be surprised if he had." Kiba nods. "But it's a big one. I've never seen him so worked up about a colony, before. He's got the whole clan on lockdown right now as they handle the migration to a permanent home."
"What is the colony?" Sakura presses, unable to fight the growing concern and curiosity at the vaguely ominous descriptions she was receiving.
"A mutant from a Root colony." Kiba answers, his voice dropping to a more conspiratorial whisper. Sakura's eyes widen.
"Root?" She hisses, "As in Danzo's root?"
Kiba nods.
"Yeah. You remember one of Danzo's bodyguards was Shino's cousin? Dude had some beetles that basically ate the chakra in your system. Shino was the only one who could fight him, because that shit would have killed anyone else — maybe even Naruto."
With a yank, Sakura pulls the Inuzuka head into a nearby patient room and quietly shuts the door behind her.
"Kiba what the hell!" She demands. "Am I dealing with a bioweapon at one of the clans? Is Shino okay?"
"No, no. He's fine." Kiba reassures. "There is literally no one on earth more qualified to handle this situation than Shino. I've already asked if I should get involved, and he insisted he had to handle it."
The answer gives Sakura some manner of relief. She wasn't even sure what kind of help she could be able to offer, but Kiba's experience with Shino was leaving the translation far more dramatic than she was comfortable with.
"You said it was a mutation?" She continues. "As in the colony somehow became more dangerous?" Because that was important to know about the beetles already capable of killing the average person in minutes.
"Yes and no." Kiba answers. "No, because the first colony was wildly spreadable. They bred like monsters and, without control, could just wreak havoc. Shino said the new colony has lost almost all of that breeding profile and isn't something that can be used for techniques."
"Okay." She exhales. "I mean, I'm thrilled to hear Shino isn't dealing with a spreadable catastrophic bioweapon. But you said there's also a yes?"
"Yeah." Kiba nodds. "The old beetles eat chakra. These new ones eat cells."
"Cells?" Sakura blinks. "Cells as in human cells? Beetle cells?"
"Cells." Kiba reiterates, emphasis on the cells. Sakura inhales with a nod.
"Okay, okay." She speaks. "So, we've traded big swarms of chakra eating bugs for tiny swarms of flesh-eating bugs."
"Kiba, I don't know if this makes me any less concerned." She admits, and Kiba gives a laugh that isn't funny, but he doesn't know what else to say.
"I'm with you, but it's a what can you do situation," he explains. "I trust Shino with my life, and I know he'll do what he needs to."
"I…" She hesitates, but nods. "I mean, I suppose you're right."
"Yeah." Kiba continues. "So, it's pretty wild. Shino was explaining how they work to me, but I was still caught up at the flesh-eating bug, bit. Something like they literally paralyze the cellular regeneration process and eat the cells before they have the chance to regenerate. Shit was crazy."
Sakura's mouth is open to reply 'wow' or 'yeah', but a thought like a lightning bolt hits her mind and seizes her entire body.
"What?" She whispers, "What did you just say they did?"
"What?" Kiba asks. She's freaking him the hell out, and his body language shows it. "Like, that they're crazy?"
In a whirl, Sakura is grabbing Kiba by the collar and staring into into his eyes like looking into his soul. Akumaru barges into the room into the room, sniffing the tension and shock in his master with several startled child in tow.
"Kiba." She says again, her voice almost shaking. "What do the beetles do, again. Did you say stopped cellular regeneration?"
"Uh, yeah." He stammers, increasingly wondering if he should have not mentioned potential bio-weapons to the city's chief of medicine. "Yeah, something like that."
It happens so fast, Kiba processes the occurrence for a full minute before realizing what occurred. Sakura's eyes seem to sizzle, a spark igniting behind pools of emerald that reminded Kiba of a fire he'd only ever seen in one other person. The embodiment of the Will of Fire.
The next nano-second, Sakura is gone in a swirl of leaves. One of the little girls gives a frightened yelp, and Akumaru instinctively herds the children against his body with one whoosh of his tail. By the time Ana returns to the commotion, a confused and concerned Kiba is standing in an empty room.
"Is everything okay, Kiba-san?" She asks. Kiba thinks long and hard about how best to respond, but his own words click back to him. Sakura's the best person on earth to handle that situation — whatever it was — and he should just trust her.
"Uh, yeah!" He replies, forcing a cheery smile back onto his face. "Sakura was just late for a meeting, but all is well!"
A special shout out to my best friend.
