Venatori

Summary: Kankuro was a few minutes too late, and Kiba died. Now, Shino and Hinata work to ensure that no more traitors get away alive. Divergence from chapter 212.

The Laughing Phoenix does not own Naruto and makes no profit from this work, other than her sense of accomplishment.

WARNING: Massive spoilers in future chapters. Character death. Blood, gore, and questionable use of medical knowledge and techniques. Some OOC-ness.


Recruitment Procedures

Leaving the Hokage Tower together, Shino and Hinata were startled when a figure wearing a hunter-nin mask, this one with black-rimmed eyes and tan lines running from the inside corner of the eyes to the edge of the mask level with the jawline, passed them at the door with a slight wave.

Ryouken smiled softly to himself as he passed his two potential subordinates, amused by their startled expressions. They had promise. Oh, they weren't ready to become full hunter-nin yet; there were some gaping holes in their training and they desperately needed experience before they were sent out on any real missions as a member of his division, but they were intelligent, driven, hard working, and ambitious, and he'd be a fool to ignore that. Nobody had ever accused the head of the hunter-nin squad of Konoha's ANBU of being a fool.

Ryouken largely ignored the reactions he got from the people in the Tower as he climbed the stairs to Tsunade's office, from the wary glances out of the corners of the older jounin and chuunin's eyes to the blatant staring coming from some of the genin. As he stepped onto the landing outside of the Hokage's office, a dark shadow detached itself from the wall to land at his shoulder.

"Sorry I'm late, taicho," Jakkaru said quietly, passing a pair of scrolls to his commander. Ryouken nodded calmly, taking the scrolls and knocking on the door to Tsunade's office, the pair entering at her irritated 'Yes?'

Tsunade was alone in her office, her assistant presumably elsewhere, and fully alert. Upon seeing the pair at the door, her eyes narrowed and she laced her fingers in front of her mouth. "What brings you here today, Ryouken?"

Ryouken bowed, Jakkaru closing the door and doing the same behind him. "Lady Hokage, I am here to request permission to recruit two chuunin to the hunter-nin."

"Oh? And these two chuunin are?"

"Aburame Shino and Hyuuga Hinata, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade sighed, leaning back in her chair and rubbing her temples. "You just had to choose the difficult ones." She glanced at the pair of hunter-nin. "I don't suppose there's a chance I can persuade you to put off this conversation for another three years?"

Ryouken grimaced behind his mask. "I'm afraid not, Hokage-sama. Those two have done well on their own, but at this point the only way their skills will truly improve is with a hunter-nin's education. They are too valuable to risk losing at this time."

There was a valid reason for the suggested delay. Shortly after Uchiha Itachi had pulled of a psychopathic attack on his clan, all ANBU applicants under the age of 16, the shinobi age of majority, were carefully screened to prevent a second such occurrence. Adding in the fact that the pair were both highly placed in their respective clans, the paperwork was going to be a nightmare.

Tsunade groaned. "So much paperwork," she muttered to herself. "Right," she sat up and leaned forward, bracing herself on her desk. "Do you have the recruitment forms, at least?"

Ryouken handed over the scrolls Jakkaru had passed him earlier, and the pair watched silently as Tsunade read through the contents of each. Once she'd finished, she rolled them back up and surveyed the hunter-nin. They did have a valid point, and it probably would be the best thing to do with those two, but she wanted to make sure that her hunters had thought this through. "What do you have planned for them?"

"At least six months of training before instatement," Ryouken began, rattling off the list he'd made earlier. "Mentorship under as many hunter-nin as are in the village – since our missions are timed differently than most, the odds are good that they'll end up taught by at least three-quarters of the division at one time or another. During training, they'll still take on the occasional mission as a progress evaluation. We're still not sure how we want to deploy them, but we'll have them capable before we let them loose."

Tsunade nodded once, approving the logic they'd shown thus far. "And their clans?"

Jakkaru stepped forward. "I've been observing them for a few weeks now. It may interest you to know that Hinata-san's been planning to move out of her clan compound for some time. She set up a separate bank account just before her first Chuunin Exam, and her mission pay since then's been going in there." That got a pair of raised eyebrows, even if only one was visible. "It is highly likely that with a little persuasion Shino-san will do the same, perhaps even moving into the same building or splitting an apartment."

"As to the clans themselves," Jakkaru shrugged. "I don't see the Aburame being a problem. Of the Aburame members who go into the ANBU, most tend to gravitate towards the black ops or hunter-nin anyway. The Hyuuga might be a little trickier. A little birdie told me that Hinata-san's younger sister is all but officially declared the heir, and that Hinata-san is largely out of consideration, but she's still the clan head's oldest daughter. The fact that she's planning to move out suggests that she wants to split from her clan, and we may have to work with that."

Tsunade tilted her head to the side. "Are you suggesting emancipation?"

"It's probably the best option," Ryouken mused. "It'd be such a waste if we got her all trained up and then her father pulled something on us. I'm not familiar with Hyuuga clan law, but we can get somebody on that."

"Have someone research Hyuuga clan law and get that information to me before you bring Hinata in as a full member," Tsunade ordered. "The last thing we need is for her to be suddenly attacked or branded – I've heard there are nasty side effects to branding anyone older than eight. I want to be kept up to date on their progress as well, and you will bring their evaluations to me before you initiate and deploy them. Those two are politically valuable, and we don't need anything going wrong." She glared at them across the table. "If you had been any less convincing and your arguments any less valid, then you would not be getting those two chuunin for another year and a half at least. Do not screw this up."

Both Ryouken and Jakkaru winced, but nodded. Seeing that she'd made her point, Tsunade quickly signed and sealed both the scrolls before passing them back across the desk to Ryouken, giving the hunter-nin permission to take on two trainees.

"Now," she said, settling back in her chair, "was there anything else you had for me?" Jakkaru handed Ryouken a small stack of papers, and the two hunter-nin began to brief the Hokage on the latest bounty changes and addendums to the bingo book.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

The morning after they got back from their mission, Shino and Hinata met their sensei at the usual training ground. Although slightly mollified by their extended explanation, that didn't stop Kurenai from putting them through a brutal genjutsu practice. At the end of it, the pair were tired and headachy. Once they'd finally been dismissed for the day, Kurenai telling them to be back the next day for a mission 'with me, this time', the pair walked slowly off in different directions.

Hinata headed back into the village, pausing only briefly at the Hyuuga compound to pick up some incense and a small hand broom. Upon reaching her final destination, the cemetery, she lit the incense before gently cleaning Kiba's gravestone and uprooting the encroaching weeds. As she worked, she took him through a detailed account of the mission.

"Kurenai-sensei wasn't happy with us," she finished, tidying up the weeds into a bundle for later disposal. "She had every right to be, you know, we did go off on a mission without her and she worries about us. So she had us doing genjutsu drills all day." She bit her lip, trying to decide what else to tell the stone. "I think I might go by the Inuzuka property tomorrow, and see how Hana and Tsume-obasama are doing. The last I saw them Hana told me that there are five different pregnant ninken all due within the same week. I should see if any of them have had the puppies yet. And a cousin of yours – Ichirou, I think, although I keep getting him mixed up with Hiroto - told me that a couple of the littler ones were asking for us the other day."

Hinata sat quietly for another couple of minutes, only to be pulled from her reverie by a soft cough behind her. Turning swiftly, hand flying to her weapons pouch in reflex, she found herself staring up at a masked ANBU.

"Hyuuga Hinata, Hokage-sama requires you at the tower in twenty minutes." The ANBU bowed briefly to the graves, then vanished into the shadows.

Moving on automatic, Hinata collected her bundle of weeds and other supplies, bowed once to Kiba's stone and walked out of the cemetery. Once she'd cleared the borders and disposed of the weeds in a nearby bin, she took off in a hurry, leaping to the roofs of buildings to avoid pedestrian and civilian traffic. It was about twelve minutes from Hokage tower to the cemetery at a walk. She would make it in eight.

Unlike Hinata, Shino had gone straight to the Memorial Stone after training ended. He gave Kiba his own rendition of the mission before dropping into a light meditation. He was brought back to awareness by the ANBU landing on the branch just over his head.

"Aburame Shino, Hokage-sama requires your presence at the tower in twenty minutes."

Bowing briefly to the Memorial Stone, Shino broke into a shinobi's bounding run, taking to the trees, and when they thinned out, to the rooftops. It was a good seventeen minute's brisk walk to the Hokage's tower from the stone, but only ten minutes after receiving the summons Shino landed at the door to the tower and hurried inside. Hinata was waiting on the landing below Tsunade's office, wringing her hands in front of her.

"Sh-Shino-kun!"

"Hinata," he nodded up the stairs. "Did they say…"

She shook her head. "J-just that Hokage-sama wanted me here," she took a breath, checking her internal clock, "nine m-minutes from now. You?"

"Same." Shino's eyebrows furrowed, and Hinata caught the unspoken question. What would she summon us for at this time of day?

"M-maybe there was something a-about the mission?" she suggested. She rather doubted it, as they'd turned in their report a little over twenty-four hours previously, but she couldn't think of anything else.

"Possibly," Shino mused. He tilted his head to one side as he glanced back at Hinata, gesturing slightly to the stairs with one hand. Shall we? As they started to climb the stairs, he murmured, so softly she thought she imagined it for a moment, "you don't suppose…"

Hinata bit her lip. It had truthfully occurred to her that this might be about their attempt to train for the hunter-nin, but hard experience had taught her that anything good only came about after putting herself through a self-induced hell of working to exhaustion and pain, and even then only rarely. Further bitter experience had left her wary of disappointment, so she'd been quashing the bright little bubble of hope building in the pit of her stomach for the past ten minutes.

"I-I think it w-would be best f-for us not to a-assume anything, Sh-Shino-kun. Th-that way…" her voice trailed off, but the miserable undertone of her voice and the way her shoulders hunched, drawing her back in on herself, made the point for her. That way if it is not what we want, then we will not be so disappointed.

Shino stopped, midway up the stairs, and laid a gentle hand on Hinata's shoulder. Her eyes widened as she turned to look at him, but he simply held eye contact for a few minutes before turning to continue to the Hokage's office. Hinata could not help but smile as she followed him. Although repeated interactions with the Inuzuka, who were by nature incredibly touchy-feely people, had made them more used to physical contact, that did not change the fact that simple touch remained uncommon for them. Coming from Shino, that slight gesture was the equivalent of a strong, comforting hug.

Three minutes early, the pair knocked on the door of the Hokage's office and were admitted by Shizune, who was leaving with a number of scrolls tucked under her arm. Tsunade sat behind her desk, apparently alone, but as the door closed behind Shizune two masked figures joined them, one dropping from apparently blank ceiling, the other stepping from the shadows of the corner.

Bowing briefly to Tsunade, the pair were startled to realize that they recognized both the masks – one was the hunter-nin who'd given them their 'test' assignment, the other was the hunter who had waved to them two days earlier.

"Good evening, Jakkaru-san," Hinata said softly, Shino bowing his head alongside her.

"Hinata-san, Shino-san," Jakkaru nodded, a smile evident in his tone.

The pair turned to the other hunter-nin, Shino speaking now. "Forgive us, hunter-san, but we don't know what you prefer to be called."

The unknown hunter-nin chuckled softly, waving a hand in conciliation. "No offense taken, you two. I'm Ryouken, the commander of the hunter-nin division of Konoha's ANBU. And, if all goes well, in six months time the pair of you will be calling me taicho."

Hinata's breath caught in her lungs, and she felt Shino stiffen at her side. Six month's time…taicho…that meant…

"It will be an honor, sir." Shino spoke for both of them, bowing again. Hinata quickly copied the movement.

"Right, since you're being recruited into the hunter-nin, that gives us a set of pretty little problems," Tsunade interjected, resting her head on her hand. "Firstly, there's your age. I tried to get them to hold off for another few years, but it is the opinion of the experts," she waved her other hand at the two hunter-nin, "that everyone would be better served by snatching you up now."

"D-does this have something to d-do with the Uchiha M-massacre, Hokage-sama?" Hinata asked softly, pale eyes fixed on the corner of the large desk.

There was a moment of silence, broken by Ryouken. "I'm impressed, little Hyuuga. You've got it in one. Some have theorized that the Uchiha Massacre was in part instigated by the pressure Uchiha Itachi was under due to the stress of his position as an ANBU Captain at the age of thirteen. As a result, it's recommended that we don't recruit anyone under sixteen. If the two of you weren't as good as you are, we wouldn't be making this exception."

"Basically," Jakkaru broke in, "if we don't get you some proper training soon, you're going to start to stagnate. There's only so much you can teach yourselves."

Tsunade made a slightly irritated noise in the back of her throat. "Going back to the complications, the other main problem you two present is your clan standings." She turned her gaze on the pair. "We have a number of Hyuuga and Aburame within ANBU – you may run into some of your kin within the hunter-nin, in point of fact – but clan heirs are something of a special case. You're too valuable to your clans to be risked unnecessarily, and some would argue that bringing you into the hunter-nin would be doing just that. While I can forcibly trump your clans with the oaths you two took to the village if they make a fuss, I'd rather not have to."

Shino and Hinata nodded quietly, thinking that over. A minute later, Hinata spoke up softly, looking determinedly at the ground and away from everyone in the room. "A-ano, H-Hokage-sama, m-my position in c-clan Hyuuga s-should not be a-an obstacle."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "You are main branch, the eldest daughter of the clan head, and putative clan heir, are you not?"

"A-ah, y-yes, I a-am main branch a-and daughter of th-the clan head, b-but I'm not heir. F-Father decided y-years ago that Hanabi w-would make a better clan head."

"But you're still main branch, and the village records still list you as clan heir." The older woman pointed out.

Hinata frowned slightly at that. "I-I don't know why the v-village records wouldn't have been changed. M-maybe it has something to do with Hanabi's age? Sh-she's still so young, and…"

Ryouken made a mental note to go into the records and have a look at the Hyuuga files. This was getting interesting. "So you think it may be because your sister's younger and this way you're, I don't know, still an option if something happens?"

Hinata bit her lip again. They were heading into dangerous waters now, and she didn't want to embarrass anybody. "That's possible," she said slowly. "I-I do know why I'm s-still main branch, though." She took a breath, letting Shino's concerned presence at her side calm her, and continued on. "I-I'm female, s-so if I m-marry w-within the clan then it w-won't m-matter. I-I'll still be m-main branch. A-and if I m-marry outside the clan there aren't…" her voice failed her and she had to try again, "there aren't many nobles who will accept a sealed Hyuuga bride."

Jakkaru banged his head against the wall. "Another thing to look out for," he muttered. "Predatory nobles and marriage arrangements."

Hinata bowed her head, eyes trained on the floor. "Gomenasai," she whispered.

Tsunade threw a glare at Jakkaru and turned back to the girl in front of her desk. "There's nothing you could do about that, Hinata, so don't apologize. If I remember the basic clan laws correctly, your family can't start arranging marriage contracts until you turn fifteen, correct?" When the young Hyuuga nodded, she went on. "Hopefully by that time you'll be part of a specialized division of Konoha's ANBU, and thus far too valuable to be married off, so it won't be a big issue. At any rate, it gives us more than eighteen months to find a solution."

Sensing that the matter of clan Hyuuga was closed, Shino chose this moment to interject his own comments. "Clan Aburame will not have a problem with my joining the hunter-nin, Hokage-sama. My clan has a long tradition of ANBU members, and if it comes down to clan responsibilities," he gave a slight shrug, "I have two first cousins a couple of years younger than myself who would make acceptable clan heirs."

Tsunade nodded. "When you're inducted as a full member, bring your father in to see me and we'll work something out. Now then," she straightened, picking a pile of scrolls up off her desk. "We've got a little paperwork to finalize, and then I'll hand you over to these two."

The next fifteen minutes were a blur of signing papers and repeating oaths to the two chuunin, as they filled out the forms that would render them trainees of Konoha's Hunter-nin and made the necessary financial arrangements. They were privately a little surprised by the sheer number of fail-safes that had been built into the contracts. There were clauses guaranteeing them a stipend while they were in training, legal arrangements to protect them if a mission for the hunter-nin, which by necessity would be done under a codename, forced them to fail or abandon a mission they had been openly assigned. Forms with basic identification information and history had to be filled out to start a supplementary 'black-ops' file for their hunter-nin missions that would only be accessible by the Hokage and their commander. There were a couple of paragraphs covering medical treatment for injuries occurred while on a mission as hunter-nin, briefly describing a subset of the medical forces that neither had known existed, and a form that would function as a basic living will until they were brought in as full members, at which time they'd be required to draw up a formal one.

Once they'd finally finished the paperwork, the two hunter-nin led their new trainees into a small office just down the hall from Tsunade's. Closing the door behind himself and quietly activating a silencing technique that would permit them to speak freely, Jakkaru watched the two teens. They appeared to be a combination of shell-shocked and ecstatic, and he knew that their recruitment hadn't sunk in yet. He had something of a vested interest in these two, as he'd been the one to evaluate them and it had been largely on the basis of his report that Ryouken had consented to allow them a test.

Ryouken quickly began to describe the training program. "Right, here's how it's going to be. The two of you will be trained by whatever members of the division are in the village at the time. Each of us has a variety of methods, but we all possess the same basic set of skills – tracking, assassination, and body disposal. We'll show you what you need to know and give you an idea of the areas of skills you need to work on. You'll be expected to build your own particular methods on your own, because what works for one us won't necessarily work for you. You can ask other members of the division for help, but do remember that there are certain oddities inherent in the work we do and there's no way to guarantee that any one of us will be in the village for long. This means that your training will be sporadic. Expect to be called out for training at pretty much any time. There will be times when you spend six or seven days at a time training with us for sixteen to eighteen hours a day, and there will be times when you won't see more than one of us for days. With me so far?"

The pair nodded silently. Jakkaru thought it was likely that they didn't quite understand, but as long as they had the basic idea that was okay.

"Once a month, we'll arrange a mission for the pair of you. The details will vary, but they probably won't go beyond B-rank. Anything higher and folks will start to ask questions. These missions serve as performance evaluations. We'll probably have a hunter-nin shadowing you to see what you do and what you need to improve on. At the end of six months, we'll make a decision about formally inducting you. We may decide to keep you in training, we may decide to get you your masks. It all depends."

The two nodded again. "Your training will start in two days," Ryouken said, turning to his second-in-command. "Jakkaru, who's in the village at the moment?"

Said hunter looked at the ceiling, running through the squad in his mind. "Well, the two of us, obviously. Fukurou is in, as is Koumori, although she's due to leave at the end of the week. Kobura will be here for a while, but he's on medical leave and the last I'd heard was that he was ordered to refrain from training for another few days. Teria sent in a message with one of her little birdies a few hours back saying she got her mark and should be in within the next couple of weeks."

"What about Feretto, Kawauso, and Mujina?"

Jakkaru shook his head. "All out on long-term hunts. We'll be lucky if they get back within the next two months. If I may, taicho, we might want to use Mitarashi-san for some of their training. She likes them and there are very few people better at disguise when she wants to apply herself, not to mention that she's an excellent assassin."

"That may become necessary." Ryouken seemed to consider that for a moment, then gave himself a shake before turning to the silent teens.

"Right, here's the deal. Obviously, you aren't going to know who the hunter-nin training you are. They'll identify themselves to you by calling you 'puppies' or 'Jakkaru's pups'." At the looks of confusion on Shino and Hinata's faces, he explained further. "Jakkaru was the one who brought your names up for consideration. Until formally instated, trainees are usually referred to as their sponsor's codename's young."

The pair cast a surprised look at the hunter-nin leaning on the wall. Uncomfortable with the attention, he shrugged. "Word got around that a pair of thirteen-year-olds were growing fast and Mitarashi-san's name was being tossed around. I got curious, figured out who they meant, and began to keep an eye on you. I saw potential."

Hinata bowed to Jakkaru, Shino feeling the motion at his shoulder and matching her. "Thank you, Jakkaru-san." Hinata said softly.

"Ah, no problem." Jakkaru rubbed the side of his head. He dropped his hand and pushed away from the wall. "I'll see you two day after tomorrow. We'll start with a full evaluation and I'll introduce you to the members we've got in the village."

"Jakkaru will be your primary contact until you're brought in as full hunter-nin," Ryouken told them. "Go to him with questions and problems if you have any. Any last questions?" Hinata and Shino shook their heads. "Then you're dismissed."

Hinata and Shino left the Hokage tower in a slight daze, still riding the euphoric high. "We did it," Hinata murmured. Shino nodded in agreement, his hive buzzing agreeably, the resulting hum in his bones making him feel almost giddy.

In the plaza in front of the tower, the two separated, moving quickly from a walk to a run. Despite the fact that it was getting on to dinnertime, however, neither went home – Shino took off at an angle while Hinata went in the opposite direction to clan Hyuuga's compound.

Hinata reached the cemetery quickly, dropping to a walk as she reached the gates. It was an unwritten law that running or using teleportation techniques was considered taboo within the cemetery walls, except in cases of extreme emergency. She quickly picked her way in the fading light towards Kiba's stone, dropping to her knees before it. "We did it," she whispered fiercely. "We're there."

It took Shino a little longer to reach the Memorial Stone, but he was fortunate enough to find himself alone when he arrived. Landing in a crouch in front of Kiba's name, the Aburame let some of his control over his hive loosen, allowing some of the insects out of his sleeves and collar to work off the excess energy. We did it, my friend. We're the Hunter-nin's newest trainees. We've been assigned a primary mentor and we'll be starting in two days. He straightened up, absentmindedly calling his hive back to him as he did so. It's late, so I can't stay long, but this couldn't wait.

Both Hinata and Shino were late to dinner that night. Aburame Shibi just raised an eyebrow at his son, picking up on the high level of excitement still humming throughout Shino's body, before returning to his meal with a slight chuckle. Halfway across the village, Hyuuga Hiashi gave an internal sigh, asking his daughter what had kept her. On hearing that Tsunade had summoned her, he'd nodded once and gone back to his food. As little as he liked for the household routine to be altered, a Hokage's orders took precedence.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

In the Hokage tower, Tsunade and Shizune finished up with the last of the paperwork rendering Hyuuga Hinata and Aburame Shino the newest members of Konoha's Hunter-nin.


A/N: *Sinks into deep bow* Perdonadme. This is over a week late, and I have no real excuse. It is also rather unfortunately short, but I couldn't really extend it without it becoming obscenely large. And, to add final insult, it is unbeta'ed. Pyrozia had too much work to check it over for me. Once again, perdonadme.

This being said, I am going to do my level best to get my act back together and get back into my original system of updating every fortnight. The next chapter should be longer too, and at the moment it looks like it's shaping up to cover a lot more time – something like a month to a month and a half.

Thank you to everyone who reviews/favorites/alerts for giving me a reason to get my lazy behind moving. It means a lot. Special thanks to megi52, Sepsis, x-Malicious-Me-x, Kouden, QuietInsomniac, and White Rose of Oddity for being repeat reviewers. You rock my socks.

Ryouken – Commander of the Hunter-nin. His codename literally means 'hunting dog'.

Next Chapter: Apprenticeship