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. Language.
We Wear the Mask
When Temari and Goza, accompanied by a pair of Suna chuunin, appeared at the gates of Konoha they were cheerfully greeted by the chuunin on gate duty and asked to wait briefly for an escort. Less than five minutes later Temari straightened, pushing away from the wall at the sight of an approaching pair of shinobi. "Hey, Hinata-san, Shino-san! Are you our escort?"
"That is correct, Temari-san," Shino said, bowing slightly, then turned to the rest of the Suna-nin. "I am Aburame Shino, and my companion is Hyuuga Hinata. If you will come with us?"
Temari paced next to Hinata as they entered the village proper, letting the rest of her party trail behind with Shino. "So, are you two going to be our escorts for the whole week?"
Hinata shook her head. "The first few days only, Temari-san. We have a mission coming up. I believe Nara Shikamaru will be taking over as your escort then." She shot Temari a sideways glance. "I believe there was something about a game of shogi?"
Temari fought back the urge to flush. "Well, you guys owe me a tour before you leave."
"But of course, Temari-san," Hinata nodded. "Perhaps-perhaps this afternoon?"
"Sounds good to me." By this time the group was passing by one of the larger markets, and the increased traffic forced them to slow their pace. Hinata took advantage of the delay by pointing out landmarks, from the Hokage's Tower and the great faces on the Monument to restaurants and tea shops. Shino walked quietly, largely content to let Hinata handle the talking, though he did occasionally add a sentence here and there to embellish her descriptions.
Hinata's tentative tour was interrupted by a cry of "Shi-niisan!" as a small bundle of energy came crashing into Shino's legs. To his credit, Shino didn't miss a beat, reaching down to steady the child before scooping him up in his arms. Temari and the other Suna-nin watched in mild amusement as the little boy squirmed a bit in Shino's arms before settling and turning to look at the rest of the group. Instantly recognizable were the fang markings on the boy's face. "Hi Hina-neesan!" he chirped, waving at the girl.
"Hello Kosuke-kun," Hinata said softly, smiling. "How are you today?"
"I'm good!" The child, who as far as Temari could tell couldn't be more than five, suddenly seemed to notice the watching Suna-nin and shrunk back into Shino shyly.
"Kosuke," Shino turned the little boy until he was facing him again. "What are you doing over here? Were you with somebody?"
"Mhmm!" Kosuke nodded emphatically. "Me an' Kaa-san are shopping!"
"I see. And where is your Kaa-san now?"
Kosuke shrugged, supremely unconcerned. "She was looking at some veggibles or somfing, I dunno."
"Kosuke-kun," Hinata scolded gently, "did you remember to tell your Kaa-san you were coming to us?" When the little boy shook his head and buried his face into Shino's shoulder, Hinata sighed, then turned to the Suna-nin. "If you would excuse me for a moment?" At their nods, she bounced up a nearby fence to stand on the top, searching the crowd for Kosuke's mother.
As it happened, she found them first. "Kosuke! What have I told you about running off like that? Thanks for grabbing the little rascal, Shino-kun."
"It was no trouble, Shizuka-san," Shino gently set the boy down and nudged him back towards his mother, Hinata dropping down the fence to stand at his shoulder.
"All the same," Shizuka sighed, shifting her shopping to one arm to free up a hand so she could take her son's, "I'll be glad when Hoshi's back on her feet again."
"Is she alright?" Hinata asked, frowning. "Last I'd heard she was healing well…"
Shizuka shook her head. "Pulled her stitches, she did, and Hana's got her confined to the kennels until it heals up. Though," she grinned at the younger girl, "if you've got any extra jars of that all-purpose ointment running around, I'll take some off your hands."
Hinata nodded. "I'll see what I can do, Shizuka-san. Perhaps tomorrow?"
"Of course, of course, I can see you're busy." She nodded briefly in the direction of the Suna-nin. "Kosuke, say goodbye to Hinata-neesan and Shino-niisan, it's time to go."
"Bye Hina-neesan, bye Shi-niisan!" Kosuke called, waving as the two chuunin began leading the Suna-nin on towards the tower.
"Goodbye Kosuke-kun," Hinata said, while Shino waved. They turned back to their charges to find Temari grinning at them.
"Cute kid. That happen often?"
"Of-often enough, Temari-san," Hinata said hesitantly. "We d-don't get to play with the little ones as often as they might like."
"Still, you must hang out with him a lot if he calls you two 'neesan' and 'niisan'," one of the Suna chuunin pointed out.
"We were invited to become clan-kin to the Inuzuka about seven months ago." Shino's voice was almost disturbingly matter-of-fact. "Legally speaking, the head of the Inuzuka clan is our aunt."
Temari began mentally debating the best way to metaphorically eviscerate the hapless chuunin, but was forced to table the issue by the group's arrival at the Hokage Tower. Shino and Hinata led the group inside and to the Hokage's office, handling the beginnings of the introductions before quietly stepping back to stand by the wall. The standard pleasantries were exchanged, introductions made, and a few scrolls from the Kazekage were presented – credentials and messages.
Once the basic business had been concluded, Temari, Goza, and Tsunade hammered out a schedule for the negotiations. They decided to begin the next morning, taking the rest of the afternoon for the two Suna shinobi to rest from the journey and settle in to their rooms. Hinata and Shino were called forward, and the little group left, the two Konoha chuunin leading the Suna-nin to a suite of rooms in a building across the square that was reserved for diplomatic guests.
Most of the Suna-nin chose to remain in their rooms for a few hours to clean up and catch up on sleep. Temari's idea of 'settling in' seemed to be dumping her bag on her bed and walking right back out the door. "Come on, let's go while we can."
Exchanging amused looks, Hinata and Shino followed her back out of the building and into the square. "Well?" Temari asked, hands on her hips. "Where to first?"
"You have been to Konoha before, Temari-san." Shino pointed out dryly.
"Yeah, but that was for the Chuunin Exam," Temari waved dismissively. "I want an insider's perspective. Where the best restaurants and shops are and all that."
"Well, if you want to get a small afternoon snack," Hinata began, "there's a small café nearby that does good dango…"
With that, they were off, Temari following the duo as they first went for the dango, and then to a number of other notable locations: a weapons shop, a couple of teahouses, some restaurants, and a few shops selling odds and ends – clothing and food, mostly, although the Yamanaka flower shop made it into the tour as well.
A few hours later, they were back at the suite, collecting the rest of the Suna-nin and leading them to a nearby restaurant for dinner.
The next day, Shino and Hinata began a routine that would be repeated daily over the course of their turn escorting the Suna-nin. They would appear outside the suite bright and early, take them for a light breakfast, and then lead Goza and Temari to the Hokage tower. The Suna chuunin would then be taken to a training ground or walk around the village, and they would pass the time until mid-afternoon, stopping to eat a brief lunch. Goza and Temari had working lunches with Tsunade. Afterward, they would meet the Sunan negotiators at the tower, escort them back to the suite or wherever they wanted to go for another few hours, before taking them for dinner.
Temari usually opted for an afternoon wander with Hinata and Shino, and over the course of four days the three became more friendly, to the point where Temari dropped the '-san' in favor of '-chan' or '-kun', although she kept having difficulty persuading them to do the same.
When the group congregated at the suites before dinner on the fourth day, they were met by a slouching Nara Shikamaru leaning against the hall wall. "Good afternoon, Shikamaru-san." Hinata said.
"Hey Hinata-san, Shino-san." The lazy genius pushed himself fully vertical. "Shall we?"
Nodding, Shino turned to the group of Suna-nin at large. "This is Nara Shikamaru-san. He will be taking over as your escort for the remainder of your time in Konoha."
"Nice to meet you," Shikamaru said, hands in pockets. "Shall we go for dinner?"
Hinata and Shino trailed along with the Suna-nin, but they let Shikamaru choose the location and began directing any questions the Suna-nin had to him, making it as clear as they could that Shikamaru was the person to address now.
When the group finally returned to the Suna contingent's suite for the night, Hinata and Shino bowed to the visiting shinobi. "It has been a pleasure escorting you," Shino said, straightening and pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"W-we hope you en-enjoy the rest of your stay in Konoha," Hinata went on, "and that you may travel safely back to your home."
Most of the Suna-nin bowed back and responded with the appropriate pleasantries. Temari, however, trotted to her room. "Wait a minute!" she called back over her shoulder. She was back in moments, two scrolls in her hands. "I knew I forgot something," she said, handing them the scrolls. "Letters from Kankuro. Gaara also told me to extend an invitation to visit any time you're in the area."
"That is very kind," Shino murmured.
"If you would extend our thanks to Kazekage-sama upon your return, Temari-san, we would be most grateful." Hinata told the older girl. "It is likely that you will reach him before a letter from us does."
"You headed out on a mission?"
"We leave tonight," Shino said calmly, slipping the scrolls into a pocket of his coat. "We have just enough time to collect our packs, and then we must be off."
"Good luck, then. I'll see you later, both of you."
With a last nod from Shino and shy smile from Hinata, the two were gone. Sighing slightly, Temari turned to Shikamaru. "Oi, Lazy. Shogi tomorrow, you and me."
Shikamaru rolled his eyes, visibly fighting down the urge to mutter 'troublesome', but nodded agreement.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Hinata-san and Shino-san,
You'll be happy to hear that things quieted down on the border after you left. As far as I can tell, that team was the only one in the area. Nobody seems to have any idea what our guest was talking about when he went on about his god, though, so keep your eyes open.
Things have been going well here. Temari and I have been assigned a stretch at the Academy for any students looking to specialize. It's pretty boring compared to being on missions outside the village, but you can't have everything, right? Some of the kids are really small, absolutely tiny, and I've got a hard time believing they'll ever be able to handle the weapons they try to pick up. Temari laughed at me when I said as much, and Gaara, being Gaara, just sort of stared.
In more interesting news, we're supposed to start getting caravans from Nami no Kuni now that the bridge has opened things up a bit. It's been decades since the last one, and a lot of the people here are really excited – most of us have never been anywhere wetter than Konoha, so all the old stories about sea-goers have been pulled out and are being told all over the place. Sea monsters, people with fins instead of feet, and so on. One of the older shinobi was telling a bunch of kids how the people of Nami no Kuni learn to swim before they can walk and any child who doesn't learn fast enough is fed to sharks. I think the kids half-expect the merchants to look like some sort of fish-people now.
Gotta go – I'm technically on my lunch break right now, and the kids are getting anxious to get back to the weapons tables.
-Kankuro
Hinata-san and Shino-san,
Turns out I didn't get to send the earlier letter off with the messenger bags at all – I got sent out on a mission pretty suddenly, and didn't have time to drop it off before I went. By the time we got back, I'd forgotten it was on the table in my room until I found it this morning. So…you get two letters for the price of one, I guess.
The mission went pretty smoothly, no major injuries or anything. Then we found out that the bastard who hired us was attempting to pay us with funds he'd gotten by blatant fraud. Gaara wasn't impressed. Neither was Temari, come to that. Since Gaara wants us on hand in case he needs us until this is all sorted out, I'm back at the Academy again. At this point I'm starting to wonder if I should just look into teaching here. On the one hand it wouldn't be so bad – I'd have a chance to develop my puppets more, and, you know, collect some minions. On the other, some of these kids are more trouble than they're worth. One of them nearly set his classmates on fire the other day. Nobody seems to know how he did it, but he's not allowed to try jutsu without supervision anymore.
Still, the whole thing wasn't a total loss. I got a chance to test a couple of new upgrades I'd put in, and I now know that Karasu needs some more fire retardants worked in to the new joints. (Don't ask. The whole thing was nuts and it took Gaara smothering the flames with his sand to put the fire out in the end.)
Next time you're in the area, send me a note so we can meet up for dinner. It's always fun to see you Konoha-nin, and the opportunity to talk shop with someone who's actually interested is always a bonus. Neither Temari nor Gaara is remotely interested in poisons, sadly.
-Kankuro
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Jakkaru met Hinata and Shino at their usual training ground. Waiting just long enough for them to have noticed him, he flashed them the hand signal for 'follow' and took off through the darkening forest. The chuunin followed, bounding from tree to tree behind him. As he led them to HQ, taking a roundabout route that avoided both any shinobi doing late-night training and the usual patrols, Jakkaru glanced back at his erstwhile students and smiled tightly.
Every indication showed that they were ready. There was no earthly reason why these two might not become strong, powerful hunter-nin, credits to their village and their teachers. There are no fools in the hunter-nin however, as they tend not to survive, and Jakkaru knew full well that the future was always uncertain. Anything could happen from here on out – they could be killed or crippled on a mission, or crack up under the strain. They might not even make it through their first year. But Jakkaru was an optimist, and chose to believe that in the two chuunin following him were some of the best hunter-nin Konoha had ever produced.
One day it might even be true.
Shaking his head a little, Jakkaru brushed the question of their future success or failure from his mind. They had to be inducted first. Finding the entrance he'd been leading them towards, he undid the lock, briefly confirmed his identity with the guard, and waved his two puppies inside.
The ANBU mark came first. Hinata and Shino were led into two separate rooms, stripped to the waist, and seals painted across their torsos, centering on their upper arms – the left for Shino, the right for Hinata. A pair of ANBU knelt at either side, moving as one to finish the seals, which writhed silently across their bodies before condensing into the familiar stylized swirling leaf. When they were done, they were given the standard sleeveless top of the ANBU and led back out into the same room. Jakkaru quickly examined the marks and, having decided they were complete, led the pair down the hall to another room. They both shuddered slightly as they passed a seal barrier.
"The mark's your key," Jakkaru muttered as he opened the door to a room full of uniforms. "It'll get you into just about anywhere under ANBU seals, and it'll only show when you're within the seal barriers. When you're out in the field it'll remain hidden unless you deliberately channel chakra to it – I'll show you the trick to that later."
He presented the two to another silent ANBU, and waited while they were outfitted with the standard hunter-nin uniform: the dark brown singlet with hood, the armored chest plate, dark gray gi-like long-sleeved shirts and pants with the wide leather belt, black boots, and the heavy green hooded coat with thin mail sewn into it underneath the lining. The pale cloak all ANBU were issued was tucked into the top of the lightweight packs he handed them. The most basic rolls of surgical tools and bandoliers of poisons and drugs they were given would be improved later, as they customized their uniforms to meet their personal specifications. Jakkaru kept them with the basics, pointing out the specialized equipment but leaving it on the shelves – if they needed something specific for a hunt, they could always come requisition it before they left the village.
Finally, Jakkaru led them down another hall to a room where Ryouken waited, kneeling on the cement floor, two cloth-wrapped bundles in front of him. Stepping to the side, the younger man waved his charges forward before moving to take up a position along the wall.
Kneeling side by side across from Ryouken, Hinata and Shino accepted the cloth-wrapped masks he held out to them. "It is my very great pleasure," Ryouken said, "to name you to the force." He gestured to the masks, and the two chuunin carefully unwrapped them, coming face-to-face with their new identities.
The masks were the standard bone-white, the slightly angled eyes lined in black and the Konoha leaf on the forehead. Thinner black lines traced out stylized shadows from the outer corners of the eyes. The only recognizable difference was that the black marks were thicker on Shino's mask.
Ryouken turned to face Hinata. "Hyuuga Hinata. In putting on this mask, you swear yourself to the service of your Hokage. To hunt, fight, and kill on their orders, over any others you may receive. To be loyal to them and the village of Konoha over previous alliances. Do you so swear?"
Hinata nodded. "I do."
"Then put on your mask, Inu-Shiroi, and welcome to the hunter-nin." Ryouken turned to Shino as she did so. "Aburame Shino. In putting on this mask, you swear yourself to the service of your Hokage. To hunt, fight, and kill on their orders, over any others you may receive. To be loyal to them and the village of Konoha over previous alliances. Do you so swear?"
"I do."
"Then put on your mask, Inu-Kuroi, and welcome to the hunter-nin."
Shino did as he was told. It was four masked hunter-nin who left the room five minutes later, the seniors leading the new inductees to be presented to their Hokage.
"I have something for you two," Tsunade told Kuroi and Shiroi once they'd made their bows and she'd formally welcomed them to the ANBU Hunter-nin. Lifting two scrolls from her desk, she held them out to the pair. "The red seal is your first mission. The black," she smiled slightly, "is Order 66, a long-term semi-active mission to be put in your file. Any time Uchiha Sasuke surfaces, you will be the team contacted. At the moment, it costs us nothing to ignore the traitor, so there isn't anybody hunting him. When your captain deems you ready, he can activate Order 66 at his prerogative – once he does, it will be your priority. You will be the ones in charge of bringing in the youngest Uchiha."
The Inu bowed slightly, more than a little startled by the declaration. To have this kind of mission handed to them…neither one was sure if it was a commendation of their ability or not. Of more immediate interest, however, was the mission with the red seal, and they put Order 66 out of their minds for later consideration.
The briefing was quick and straightforward. The mission was a fairly simple one, the classic hunter mission. Their target was a rouge who appeared to have defected from Oto, preferring to appear in villages just on the Hi no Kuni side of the border and terrorize the civilian populace instead. Shiroi and Kuroi's job was to stop his rampage in a way that made it look like an accident.
Bowing to the Hokage one last time, they followed their commanders out the window and across the quiet village rooftops, headed back to ANBU headquarters. It took the pair only a quarter of an hour to finish selecting the gear they would need and ready their packs, and before long the four hunter-nin were bounding back across the sleeping village in the direction of the gates. The two senior operatives halted just inside the wall, watching as the newly-named pair took off into the night.
A/N:
Thus concludes what my notes call the first volume of Venatori. Two more are planned, and will be posted as part of this same story. Chapters 16 and 17 are currently being written.
This being said, I'm placing Venatori on (hopefully) brief hiatus. I know where I want to go and have a pretty good idea of some of the landmarks along the way, but much of the rest of it is missing. At the moment my other commitments are making life hectic (namely graduating college and finding a job) and my Naruto muse is being bash-your-head-against-a-brick-wall difficult, so I'm going to take some time off from actively writing Venatori to get my thoughts in order and plot out the missing pieces. Once I've got a better handle on it, I'll start posting again. I AM NOT ABANDONING THIS FIC. As a freebie, upcoming events include moving out, another mission with Suna, and the acquisition of their very own nickname.
On an unrelated note, Shino and Hinata's masks are based on my family's two Great Pyrenees (think a cross between a white wolf and a polar bear, or just google the breed). Their faces are completely white, except for the skin around the eyes, which is black. It makes them look like they're wearing heavy eyeliner and gives them quite effective puppy-dog eyes for 110lb dogs.
To those of you who expressed an interest in watching Hinata "drug Neji stupid", namely Quiet Insomniac et al, that's coming up very soon.
Next Chapter: Drawing and Entering
