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.


Busy Season

Hinata was not immediately able to spend much time in her new home. With the warming of the weather came an upswing in missions. Hinata and Shino spent most of the late spring and early summer months out of the village, both as themselves and as Shiroi and Kuroi. No sooner had they returned from a courier mission to the Daimyo's capitol than were they sent off as backup for a genin team that had gotten themselves into trouble cleaning out a bandit nest. Once they returned, delivering two of the genin to the hospital, one for surgery and the other for overnight observation, they were given a day to rest before being summoned again.

"Good work with the bandits," Ryouken told them as they sat in his office. "Unfortunately, there's a lot of work to do and almost none of it is interesting, so you're off to do much the same thing again." He passed out dossiers, giving the two a chance to look them over.

"Is this a simple clean-up, like the mission with the Oto-nin?" Shiroi asked, glancing up at him.

"Not quite. This is a bit more than a simple pack, it's something of a federation. The bandits don't operate as a single unit, but they will coordinate raids. As far as our intelligence can tell us, that's due to four of the commanders, all ex-shinobi. Your orders are to terminate the targets and make it very clear how they died and why." Ryouken shook his head a little. "The object of this exercise isn't to remove the bandits, but to scare them."

"Make examples of the targets, you mean?" Kuroi exchanged a long look with his teammate. "Parameters?"

"The typical protocol is to accelerate the standard disposal process – I'll leave exactly how you go about this to your discretion. Any further questions?" both shook their heads. "You have your orders. Stop by the quartermaster's on your way out, make sure you have everything you need, and we'll expect you back in two to three weeks."

The mission was a headache from the start. Finding the bandits was easy enough, but twin discoveries dropped them into a logistical mess. The first was that, while only four of the gang members had been shinobi, another dozen were moderately chakra-sensitive. The renegades had taken advantage of this and put them through minor training, teaching them just enough to augment their bodies. Luckily for them the Inu figured this out early, when Shiroi saw one of the bandits tear apart a log for firewood.

What Shiroi couldn't determine was if they were using chakra to enhance their sight or hearing. It arguably wasn't a major problem, they'd had practice evading people who turned the use of augmented senses into an art form, but it was sets of eyes and ears they hadn't been expecting.

The second complication was that, despite being embedded in different camps more than twenty miles apart, the missing-nin communicated regularly through a combination of jutsu and a rat summons. It wasn't much, just a confirmation of location, but the messages were frequent. When on the third day of the Inu's surveillance a message was delayed, the hunter-nin watched as the intended recipient got more and more nervous, clearly expecting an attack. The rest of the bandits responded to his anxiety and by the time the summons showed up, four hours late, most of the camp had a hand on or near a weapon.

If the Inu were going to take all four of the missing-nin out, they would have to be fast and coordinated. Too slow, and the survivors would realize something had gone wrong and run for it. At the same time, they had to be careful not to raise the suspicions of their targets until it was much too late to warn the others.

Retreating to their temporary camp, the two pored over the information they'd been given on the rogues and sketched out a map of their locations. The oldest and only jounin of the lot, Akihara, was stationed in the southernmost camp, set in a valley in the scrubland. The rat-summoner, Yoshi, was roughly central, the camp established in a forest clearing. The two other missing-nin, Katsu and Izumi, rotated between the two northern camps, where the forest began to climb the hills.

"I think Yoshi will have to go first," Shiroi murmured, eyeing the map. "Summons move faster than we do, we can't risk them raising the alarm."

Kuroi gave a considering hum. "It may be more efficient to travel south to north," he traced a finger along the sweep of the camps. "Otherwise we'll have to backtrack and risk losing time."

"Akihara first, then," Shiroi said. "We can't afford to leave a summoning contract in the game."

"Should we snatch the contract, do you think?" Kuroi cocked his head to the side, then shook it at the same time Shiroi shook hers. "Only if it's readily available," he agreed.

"Now, disposal," Shiroi murmured. "Thoughts?"

There was some argument about methodology, but eventually they came to a mechanism they could agree on.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Two days later they were lingering in the hills a quarter-mile from Akihara's sentries, waiting for dusk and the shift change. Once the reliefs had settled in and night had firmly settled, Kuroi ghosted past, aiming for Akihara's tent at the edge of the camp. Shiroi cut around him, heading for their chosen disposal site near the midden, just inside the sentry line.

At the tent, Kuroi carefully picked his way past Akihara's traps. As he worked, his companions slipped from his clothes and into the tent, settling near-noiselessly on the jounin's form and siphoning away his chakra. By the time the hunter-nin was inside, they'd sent Akihara into a deep sleep. Stepping carefully, Kuroi crept closer to Akihara's bed, drawing a long-bladed kunai. Once at the side of the man's bedroll he took a moment to center on his target, then struck, slamming a hand over Akihara's nose and mouth and burying the blade in the man's heart.

The jounin jerked, but it was too late. Kuroi let the body settle for a minute, then carefully peeled back the bedding, coaxing his swarm back under his clothing. Channeling the minimum amount of chakra through his body so as not to startle the dozing bandits, he lifted the body in a fireman's carry. Applying a 'notice me not' genjutsu, he slipped back out of the tent and made his way to Shiroi.

She was waiting for him, necessary implements to hand. Working in silence they quickly arranged the body, then snuck back out of the camp. Perhaps an hour had passed. Once they were away from the camp, they poured on the speed, making for the next site.

This time, it was Shiroi's turn to go after the target while Kuroi prepared for disposal. Like Akihara, Yoshi slept at the edge of camp. His lean-to was close to the midden, presumably for the convenience of his summons. Unlike Hatake Kakashi, Yoshi was not in the habit of supplementing his own security with his summons. Shiroi channeled chakra to her eyes, making her way through his tripwires with very little difficulty.

Yoshi slept on his back, one hand under his pillow and wrapped around the handle of a kunai. Slipping a senbon between her fingers, Shiroi moved to stand above his head. Once in position, she pounced, slamming a hand down on a pressure point in his arm and shoving the senbon up his nose and into his brain. A quick twist of her wrist, and the body shuddered and went limp.

Wrinkling her nose at the smell of Yoshi's releasing bowels, Shiroi tugged the bedding away from the body. The summons scroll proved to be under the edge of the thin mattress, up against his hip, and she slipped it into her coat. Before long she had the body up and over her shoulder and made her way back past the traps. There was a moment of uncertainty when Yoshi's dangling foot nearly caught on one of the wires, but she managed to ease the corpse up and over. Once back with Kuroi, they disposed of the body and snuck back out of camp.

They pushed northward again, moving as fast as they could. There were perhaps five hours to dawn, and they had two more targets to go. Katsu was sleeping in the next camp, and Kuroi made the kill and retrieved the body without complications.

Izumi however, was awake and moving around her tent. A brief but silent discussion ensued when Shiroi reported on the chuunin's activity. They couldn't leave the job undone, but they couldn't rely on Izumi falling asleep before the other bodies were discovered either. In the end, Kuroi made for the midden and Shiroi for the tent.

Crouching beside the tent, Shiroi carefully slit the ties holding the flaps shut. Watching with the Byakugan, she held position, kunai in one hand, until Izumi turned her back to the flap. Exploding through the opening, she wrapped one hand around the taller woman's mouth and slammed the kunai in and up under the ribs.

Izumi struggled, but Shiroi's aim had been true, and a minute later she was easing the body to the floor of the tent. Shifting it up onto her back, Shiroi snuck back out of the tent and to Kuroi. Between them they had the body in position and were away from the camp a moment later, putting as many miles behind them as they could.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

In the scrublands of Hi no Kuni, a bandit camp was woken by the terrified screaming of a sentry. Scrambling awake, the rest followed his screams to the camp midden. Akihara's head, eyes closed and face pristine, rested at the top of the pile. Below the neck the corpse had been flayed and nearly skeletonized, white bone glinting in the rising sun. A gently curving notch in his ribs was the only sign of the wound that had killed him.

Three other bandit camps woke to the same sight. The Inu had taken their commander's suggestion to heart.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Shiroi and Kuroi made it as far as a Konoha outpost before their exhaustion caught up with them. Stumbling in the door, they managed to make their manners to the ANBU on staff and find a room with bunk beds before they collapsed, leaving a handful of tripwires to alert them if someone came in.

Kuroi woke first, eight hours later. Deciding to address his empty stomach, he sat up and pulled on his coat and mask. Shiroi, in the bunk above, shifted and gave a sleepy "Nnnnn?"

Kuroi rested his hand on top of hers. "I'm going to get some food. Go back to sleep."

Murmuring something vaguely affirmative, Shiroi dropped back off.

Slipping out of the room, Kuroi carefully reset two of the tripwires as he went. Once in the hall, he retraced his steps from the day before, aiming for the common spaces at the building's heart.

"Hey, little brother!" The ANBU at the desk called cheerfully. "You must be on the team that came in last night."

"Inu-Kuroi," Kuroi introduced himself.

"Taka," the ANBU said. "Your partner still asleep? Any injuries?"

"No injuries, though if you could direct me to a kitchen Taka-san I'd appreciate it."

"I'll do you one better. The canteen's through those doors behind you, there's stuff out all-hours." Taka pointed out the doors in question. "You can bring whatever you like back to quarters, just make sure to put the dishes all back when you're done."

Thanking the senior shinobi, Kuroi headed into the canteen. At this mid-morning hour it was almost completely empty, the lone occupant being an unmasked shinobi lounging at one of the tables with a book and a pot of tea. Kuroi gathered up a tray of buns and fruit, carefully balanced two glasses and a carafe of juice, then retraced his steps to the room he shared with Shiroi. She was still asleep, so he set the tray on the small table and quietly ate his share, drafting notes for their report.

By the time Shiroi woke an hour later, Kuroi had finished his draft and was meditating quietly against the wall. Moving softly so as not to disturb him she helped herself to the remaining food, pouring over his notes. Tugging a piece of paper over, she jotted down her own notes. She finished about the same time as Kuroi, and together they cleaned up the food and returned the tray before going in search of showers.

The outpost had set up bathing facilities as small but serviceable units, each with a separate shower cubicle and lock on the door. The Inu took adjoining units, borrowing towels from the general supply. Once clean and in fresh clothes, they packed and headed out, aiming for Konoha.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

It was Chouji who spotted Shino and Hinata walking through the market. Stuffing the leeks he'd selected into his bag, he trotted down the aisle after them. "Shino, Hinata, hi!"

The pair turned to face him, Hinata hefting her basket a little higher on her arm. "Chouji-san, how are you?" she asked.

"Not too bad. How about you two, how's it going?"

"We're well, thank you," Shino said, inclining his head.

"Good, that's good. I haven't run into you guys in a while."

"We've been out of the village on missions," Shino explained. "We just got back from the border, out by Yu no Kuni."

Chouji groaned. "Lucky! I don't think we've been out of the village for more than a night in the past six months."

"I admit I'm looking forward to some time at home," Hinata said softly. "We've been very busy."

"Sounds like it." Something was bothering Chouji about the conversation, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what. "Well, it's good to see you guys. My team gets lunch at Yakiniku Q when we finish our missions, you should join us sometime."

"We wouldn't want to impose." Hinata demured.

"Well, think about it," Chouji said. "I've got to be home soon, so I need to run, but I'll see you around!"

It wasn't until Chouji got home and was helping his mother put the groceries away that he realized that Hinata hadn't stuttered or blushed once.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Hinata and Shino had three uninterrupted weeks in Konoha. They split their time between the necessary maintenance of a shinobi career and visiting with the Aburame, Inuzuka and other friends and acquaintances. They replaced and repaired gear, stocked up on traveling rations like nutrient bars and jerky, and went over everything with a fine-toothed comb. Hinata spent a day with Anko discussing poisons and antidotes, then the next morning coaxed her senpai into the stillroom she still used in Aburame Shibi's house.

"Ohayo Shino, Shibi-san," Hinata called, seeing the two Aburame seated at the kitchen table with a pile of papers. "Senpai and I were planning to work in the stillroom today."

"Of course, Hinata-chan," Shibi said, "Mitarashi-san, always a pleasure."

"You too, Aburame. Shino," Anko nodded, letting Hinata tug her down the hall and into her workspace. "Aburame lets you work here, huh?"

"Mhmm," Hinata nodded. "I make up extra ointments and things for the clan when I have the chance."

"Not bad. Alright Sunny, let's get to work!"

Afternoons were split between working (and sometimes having tea with) Kurenai and visiting the Inuzuka. More than once the two were deputized to collect the youngest of the Inuzuka and Aburame studying at the Academy, leading home a gaggle of children and puppies.

Their downtime was brought to a screeching halt by messengers knocking on their windows at 03.00. Scrambling out of bed, the three were dressed and at ANBU HQ within twenty minutes. "Up and at 'em folks, we've got a runner!" Jakkaru called, waving them into a room full of Black-Ops and Hunter-nin. Ryouken, standing at the front of the room, called the assembly to order.

"About twenty hours ago, a member of ANBU Black Ops codenamed Washi rabbited. He failed to return from patrol, and when his superiors retraced his steps they found he'd gone over the village wall. They followed, under the assumption that he'd seen something and didn't have time to report in before he pursued It took them four hours to catch up, and when they did he attacked his teammates, seriously wounding them, and took off again. Happily, they got back to Konoha without further incident and are in the gentle hands of our medical personnel now."

There were a couple of stifled chuckles at that. Ryouken rolled right over them. "We've gone over the reports from Karasu and Komadori. At this time, we do not know if Washi is attempting to defect, or if this is the result of a mental breakdown. However, we have to assume the worst. Black-ops, you're here because your patrol routes are being scrambled, as are any missions command thinks Washi had sensitive information on. Hunter-nin, you're being sent out after him. If possible, take him alive. If the poor bastard cracked, he needs help. If he's looking to sell Konoha out, Morino Ibiki is very interested in the identity of his buyer." Most of the ANBU gave a slightly sympathetic shiver. "Dismissed!"

The Inu followed the other hunter-nin out of the briefing room, headed for Washi's last known location. "For goodness' sake, was it necessary to wake the puppies for this?" a senior hunter-nin the Inu hadn't met before grumbled, hands on her hips.

"Ah, give it a rest Heko," Koumori called. "They'll be fine."

"This should be an easy job," Heko insisted. "Let the puppies sleep while they can, our sleep schedules are crappy enough in this division."

"Don't be such a pessimist," Jakkaru told her. "Everybody ready?"

There was little active tracking for the Inu to do. The older hunter-nin relegated them to the back of the pack, grumbling about how sending five hunter-nin after a single black-ops was an overreaction. Koumori, the resident night specialist, took point, bounding through the trees along the track Karasu had left hauling himself and his teammate back to Konoha. Heko and Jakkaru stayed right on his tail, catching up on ANBU scuttlebut as they traveled. About two hours in, at the beginning of false dawn, Heko pulled jerky from her belt pouch and tossed strips to the other hunter-nin. They ate quickly, shifting the masks just far enough to expose their mouths.

Once they reached the spot at which Washi's teammates had caught up to him, the hunter-nin dropped to the ground. "Fan out," Jakkaru instructed the others. "I'll take east, Koumori, I want you on south, and Heko, double-check the west and make sure we didn't miss him as we came in. Inu, I want you two to head north. We meet back here in fifteen minutes once we've established the target's trail."

"Hai," the hunter-nin scattered, and when they regrouped it was Koumori who'd found Washi's trail. They set out along, traveling in a loose wedge formation, close enough to hear and see each other but wide enough that they didn't present a cohesive target. It was fast going - Washi had been taking very little effort to obscure his trail, and though it weaved back and forth through the trees the hunter-nin had no trouble following it.

They found Washi an hour later, sprawled unconscious in a bush. "Poor dumb idiot," Heko muttered as they approached, circling around him. "Who wants the honors?"

"If I may," Shiroi murmured, lifting a hand, senbon glittering between her fingers in the morning sun. "A simple sedative," she explained at her fellows questioning gestures. "It shouldn't react with anything and it'll keep him out while we get him ready for transport."

"Go for it," Jakkaru told her. Once the senbon had sunk home, the rest of the team approached. "Looks like he did a number on himself." Jakkaru reached for a sealing scroll and pulled out a roll of bandages. "Better patch him up before we bring him back, just to be sure he doesn't die on us."

It took the team perhaps half an hour to patch up their prey. Once they had him secured (and Shiroi had judiciously applied a few more items from her supply of toxins) they set off, taking it in turns to carry Washi. When they finally delivered him in late afternoon, the team was tired but pleased - it had been a relatively easy mission for them.

"Kuroi," Jakkaru pulled the younger man aside once they'd left Washi in the hands of the ANBU medical staff. "When you get the chance, I want you to see one of our medics about getting some more training. I noticed you were using medical jutsu back there, and we can always use more of that in the squad. Come by later, I'll have a couple of names."

Kuroi nodded, stifling a yawn. Jakkaru clapped him on the shoulder. "Go get some sleep, kid, it's back to the daily grind tomorrow."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

As promised, the hunter-nin kept the Inu busy. It wasn't all chasing missing-nin - there was a certain amount of simple espionage involved as well, and periodically there'd be a group of 'civilian' criminals who knew a little too much. A particularly nasty outbreak of drug-induced illness led the Inu to join up with Heko to hunt down a would-be mad scientist who was dropping his concoctions into wells. Another hunt, this one for a jounin who'd terminated his contract with Kumo over a desire to return to civilian life and then promptly moved to a border town, led to a three month hunt that ended in a tense but pointedly civil conversation with the Kumo hunter-nin interested in taking the jounin.

Once, as summer was fading into fall, they were sent out on a reprise of the 'example' mission, pointed at a missing-nin-turned-mob-boss with instructions to use him to make a point. Two weeks later, the Inu were back in Konoha, a bit battered but mostly uninjured. The mob boss' head had been taken with them, the headless body left seated upright in his office chair and the door locked from the inside.

On top of hunter-nin business, Tsunade seemed to have decided to keep her promise and utilize Shino and Hinata's diplomatic education. She sent them on regular missions to both the capital of Hi no Kuni and to Sunagakure, typically as couriers or bodyguards. On one memorable occasion they were sent to protect Hi no Kuni's ambassador to Kaze no Kuni. The mission parameters sent Hinata in undercover as the ambassadors' niece while Shino traveled openly with the guard, and their covers were very nearly blown by the Suna jounin Isago when he recognized Shino.

When they weren't out on missions Shino and Hinata kept busy. There was training to do and Inuzuka children to play with, and when the two were in town they frequently wound up helping to mind their younger 'cousins'. Shino had semi-regular appointments with a friendly medic-nin who did his best to train Shino into a battlefield medic. Hinata met with Anko as often as their schedules allowed. Kurenai insisted on as close to weekly dinners as they could manage and they frequently trained together.

Shino and Hinata carried on a sporadic correspondence with Temari and Kankuro as well. The older shinobi seemed to have taken a liking to the two, and notes and packages traveled back and forth between Suna and Konoha as a result. Kankuro liked to compare notes on venomous insects and arachnids, while Temari was more interested in the village news and frequently asked after the Inuzuka children. Once, after Temari spent a few days in Konoha as a courier, Gaara sent a short letter thanking the two for escorting Temari around and rather awkwardly invited them to spend an extra day the next time they were in Suna.

Tsunade found the whole thing entertaining as hell. Messages in and out of the village were monitored as a matter of course, and the letters were innocuous, so she was perfectly happy to give the kids their head and see what happened. Closer relations with Suna could be useful. When for New Years' Kankuro and Temari sent a package of dried desert flowers and a packet of Sunan sweets, Tsunade laughed and made a mental note to tease Shino and Hinata the next time they came in.

Anko was less sanguine. She'd been keeping a close eye on her kohai, and to her eye they were drifting away from their peer group. Other than the odd hello in the street, and a single lunch with team 10, they hadn't spoken to any of their graduating class in months. There had been two extended interactions with team Gai, mostly facilitated by Gai and Lee's...Gai and Lee-ness. Hinata had yet to spend more than the very rare half-hour with her sister, even though she'd moved out months before. That wasn't entirely unexpected, given the circumstances - Hanabi didn't spend much time outside the Hyuuga compound and Hinata still wasn't on speaking terms with most of her family. Still, their increasing formality with anyone outside their immediate circle concerned her.

To be perfectly frank, if it wasn't for their open affection for the Inuzuka clan and the whatever-it-was with the Kazekage's family, Anko would have spoken to Ibiki by now. Reticence in new ANBU, particularly the young, was a frequent indication that they were having trouble with the stresses of the job, and at a little over a year in they were about due for cracks to appear. She had a vested interest in these two's well-being - if at all possible, she'd like to keep the cracks small.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

In Tsunade's office, the ANBU commanders wrapped up their semi-regular and frequently rescheduled meeting. Reports given and tasks parceled out, they slipped away in ones and twos, carefully-cultivated paranoia scattering them across the village. Jakkaru was waiting for Ryouken in his office. "Anything important, boss?"

"Mostly housekeeping, but we do have this," Slipping a variety of scrolls out of his pocket, Ryouken selected one. He passed it over to Jakkaru. "I'm thinking of giving it to the Inu."

Rolling it open, Jakkaru read it over. "Sir, all due respect, but this is a disaster waiting to happen."

"That's a strong reaction," Ryouken said mildly.

"With good reason! Sir, this mission involves masked hunter-nin openly interacting with at least one Suna jounin on at least three occasions. Why wasn't this given to the regular pool of jounin?"

"It is the opinion of the Hokage and my colleagues that the best way to complete this mission while minimizing loss-of-life is to send the hunter-nin." Ryouken settled into his chair, folding his hands on top of his desk. "I argued against combining the mission with the Suna-nin, but Suna's cooperation is apparently contingent upon it."

Jakkaru made a rude noise behind his mask. "So we send in our jounin to play nice with their jounin while a hunter-nin handles the dirty work behind the scenes. We've done it before."

"Apparently that would pose too high a risk to our relationship with Suna. That's why I want to give it to the Inu, they're the only pair we've got who's on anything approaching friendly terms with Suna-nin." Jakkaru made a skeptical noise, and Ryouken shrugged. "You object?"

Jakkaru sighed, dropping the mission scroll back on the table. "I don't like it. They're still green and if it's a Suna-nin they know the odds they'll slip are higher. Seriously, sir, I'd pull a couple of the senior hunter-nin for this, we do team hunts often enough. Heko and Mujina, maybe, or Fukurou."

"Heko reported in last night, she's got a lead on her target and she'll be following up on it for the immediate future. Mujina still hasn't fully recovered from that broken ankle last month, and Fukurou's due for a short furlough, since she's been out of the village for the past six months. Meanwhile I can't pull Saru without compromising his cover and Koumori's chasing a target in Mizu no Kuni." Ryouken leaned forward, snagging the scroll. "We're criminally short-staffed, Jakkaru, and if I could put this off until Mujina was ready to go or hand this over to the general pool, I'd do it."

"I know," Jakkaru said, folding his arms. "For the record, I still think this'll end badly."

"That's almost exactly what I told Hokage-sama," Ryouken muttered. "Go head and forewarn the Inu, I want to see them tomorrow at 10.00."


A/N:

Fun fact: dermestid beetles can skeletonize a carcass in a matter of days. The Smithsonian in Washington, DC and the National History Museum in London keep colonies of them for that express purpose - whenever they get a particularly delicate specimen they want to preserve, they'll lay out the carcass in a box and put the the insects in with it for a week or so. The beetles will eat everything but bone, leaving it ready to mount. You can watch them here: .

Next Chapter: Konoha's Dogs