Finding the Unexpected

Akumaru sniffed the warm morning air as they passed the open food stalls. Delicious smells wafted past both his and the girl's nose, making him whine and her stomach growl. He looked down at the girl from his position on top of her head. She had stopped and was counting some money in her hands. She moved her head to try and look up at him the best she could.

"Are you hungry?" she asked.

"Ruff!"

She walked over to a stall and ordered some pork fried rice along with a bottle of water. She asked for two bowls and a spoon, then, after paying, walked over to a bench to eat. Akumaru jumped off her head and sat next to her. The girl poured him some water first, then dug out some pork from the rice to give to him. The two happily munched on their breakfast as they watched the morning crowd go by.

The girl watched as a few kids her age went by; one blonde girl, and two boys, one having black hair and the other having hair of a reddish hue and marks on his cheeks. The one with black hair paused for a second to look at her and she got a better look at him. His hair was a bit spiky and he was a little on the skinny side, to her anyway. A call from one of the others sent him away from her view. A bump into her arm told her that Akumaru was finished. She looked down at him as the puppy panted happily.

She patted him on the head.

"By the way, you wouldn't happen to know where the Akihara's live, do you?" she asked. The puppy shook his head.

The girl sighed. "Figures. I get to one place but then hit another wall."

She stood up, and looked down at him. "So, ready to look for your owner?"

"Arf!"

He jumped off the bench and sniffed the air. He could tell he wasn't at the training sight, but then where else could he be? He then caught his scent. It was the normal Kiba, but panicked and annoyed. He whined; he knew exactly why he was running around.

He motioned the girl in the direction they had to go and she picked him up. The girl was expecting him to climb onto her head again, but he seemed to be content to be carried in her arms this time.

Kiba sat down on a low cement wall with a tired sigh. He had been running around in circles for an hour now, or so the clock tower in front of him claimed. He scanned the crowd, looking for any sign of something furry and tan. I'm so going to make him regret doing this, he thought sourly. His stomach gave an upset growl for not being full of anything but water and Tylenol. The restaurant district wasn't too far from here. He patted a few pockets to see if he had any money. Suddenly, a familiar scent hit his nostrils. He quickly looked up and around for the puppy.

"Ruff! Arf!"

He saw Akumaru making a wild dash between a number of people's legs. The puppy stopped directly at his feet.

"Akumaru!" Kiba said, relieved and happy that he had found him. He picked him up but then quickly put him back down, remembering he was supposed to be angry with him as his face grew stern.

"Akumaru, I told you not to wander off! I've been looking everywhere for you! Now we're both late for training," he scolded. The puppy whined his forgiveness.

"Where did you go anyway?" he asked. Blue sandals suddenly met his eyes as they stopped next to Akumaru.

"So this is your owner," said a girl's voice.

He looked up and saw a girl about his age with dark blonde hair and brown eyes. A green, curved triangle with two dots above it was tatooed under her right eye. She was smiling at him. He straightened up to look at her more fully. She had khaki shorts on with lots of pockets and black fishnet knee-highs. A see-through, flesh colored shirt with red swirls all over it and a black tank top over it was what she had on top. She smelled like a forest, and fresh air, and...something else. Some shadow of a scent teased his senses, but as soon as he came close to naming it, it would dissappear.

"And you are?" he asked, a bit surprised at his own bluntness.

"Ryu Akihara," the girl answered. "You?"

"Kiba Inukaza," he said. He petted Akumaru. "Thanks for finding him. I had no idea where he went this morning."

Ryu laughed. "Actually, he found me!" she said. "I got lost on my way to the village, and he found me while I was looking at a map. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here right now."

He looked at her, suspicion biting at the back of his mind. She had been looking for the village? Where did she come from then? Akumaru hadn't warned him about anything about her.

"Why were you looking for the village?" he asked, voicing one of his questions.

"I'm looking for some relations," she said. "My grandparents in fact."

Now he was puzzled. "You don't know where your grandparents live?"

Ryu smiled, a bit embarassed. "Uh...yeah. My dad didn't really have any contact with them. None really." she said, scratching the back of her neck as she did.

"So I have no idea where they live because of that or even if they're still alive."

Kiba looked at Akumaru. The puppy cocked his head while conveying a suggestion. He looked back at Ryu.

"You said your last name was Akihara?" he asked.

She nodded her head. Kiba got up from where he was sitting and found Ryu was about as tall as he was. He then looked down at Akumaru.

"Well, do you want to help her a little more?" he asked the puppy.

"Arf!"

"Help?" Ryu asked, looking puzzled. "With what?"

"Finding your grandparents of course!" said Kiba. She blinked.

"But... You don't really..."

He gave her a leveled look.

"Listen. This village is huge. It'll take you weeks to find your grandparents if you don't know where to look." he said. Ryu's look of puzzlement vanished as she smiled.

"Thanks!" she said. "I appreciate it! But, do you know where to start?"

Kiba looked around the square they were in. He pointed at a building.

"The post office. If they still live here, they'll have records of where they are." he said. Ryu's mouth formed a small "o" in understanding.

Akumaru took his normal position on top of Kiba's head and they walked over to the post office. When they walked inside, they found it was a bit of a madhouse. Messengers were running around every which way, picking up scrolls, letters, and packages. Receivers at desks were shouting at different messengers; some blatantly argued with others on who had to take what route and when to go. Papers were everywhere as well as open and discarded scrolls.

Kiba looked around, wondering as to who they were supposed to take to. he then motioned Ryu to join him in a line that was for mailing things out. When they got to the desk, the receiver told them to go to records, and pointed at a desk which had a young woman seated behind it as well as several very large and fat scrolls hanging behind her. They walked over to the records receiver, who looked at one young person to the other. Kiba took the initiative as Ryu hesitated to talk.

"We're looking for where the Akiharas live," he told her. She got up and pulled one of the scrolls open, revealing thousands of names on just one.

It took her a moment to find the section she was looking for. "I have four different Akiharas on file. Do you have their first names?" she asked while keeping a finger above the first Akihara. Kiba looked at Ryu.

"Kahn and Jin." she said. The woman looked back at the scroll.

"I've got them... Oh."

The receiver looked at little troubled as she looked back at them.

"What is it?" Ryu asked.

"That area was destroyed during the Sound invasion."

Her face fell at this news. Kiba couldn't help but notice the aura of ebergy he had felt around her dided down. Her eyes had lost a bit of their light as well. Akumaru whined in her direction.

"Oh..." was all she could say. "Thankyou..."

She turned and walked out of the post office. Kiba followed her outside and stood next to her as she took a moment. Akumaru jumped down from his head and pawed at her calf, whining sympathy and comfort. Ryu looked down at him and kneeled down to pet him.

"Thanks Akumaru, but I'll be okay. This may sound cruel, but I didn't really know them anyway," she said to him.

"Sorry Ryu," said Kiba, feeling as if he should say something.

She stood up. "It's okay. I'll just have to find somewhere else to stay."

"How are you going to tell your parents?"

Ryu looked at him with a mixture of surprise and blankness on her face.

"But that's why I'm here," she said. "My parents are dead."

He looked at her in shock. "So you came here...?"

"Yup," she said as she nodded her head. "But now that I think about it, I don't think they would have taken me in anyway."

"Is there anyone else you can got to?"

She shook her head. "Everyone else is dead."

Kiba didn't really know what to say at this point. The both of them stood in silence as the crowd went by. The clock chimed ten times, announcing to him that he was an hour late for training. The light worry of sensei killing him passed through his brain as he continued to dwell on Ryu's situation. She sighed and turned to him.

"Well, Kiba, thanks for helping me," she said. She gave Akumaru a final pat.

"And thank you for helping me get here," she said to him.

She started to walked away.

"Wait," he said. "Where are you going to go now?"

She stopped and looked back at him.

"I don't know," she said. "I guess I'll hang around here for a while, then... start traveling again."

"But where will you stay?" he asked. Akumaru trotted ahead, and pawed at her knees again.

"I'll find some place," she said as she gently placed the puppy back on all four of his paws. She smiled at Kiba.

"Thanks again," she said before she started walking.

A jolt of complete and pure impulse went through him as he watched her walking away again.

"Ryu!" he called to her. "You can stay with me!"

The girl stopped dead and spun around.

"I can what?!" she shouted to him, for she was a fast walker and was already quite a few feet away from him.

"You can stay with me!" he shouted to her again. She ran back to him.

She looked at him once she did get back to him, disbeleif and a little mistrust on her face.

"You're serious?" she asked, her tone dubious.

"Completely!" he said. He looked down at Akumoaru, who barked his approval and enthusiasm.

"But you don't even know me!" she said, exasperated at his generosity

"Akumaru trusts you," he said. "That's enough for me."

She looked down at Akumaru. "Do you really trust me?" she asked the puppy.

"Ruff!"

She looked from him to the dog and back again. She then smiled at him, a large, goofy kind of smile that he hadn't seen on her face yet.

"Okay! I'll stay with you!" she said. Akumaru barked while running laps around her feet.

She bent down and picked him up, giving the puppy a quick hug. She looked at Kiba, traces of the grin still on her lips.

"Thank you so much! You helped me out a lot!" she said gratefully. "But I don't know how I'm going to repay you or anything..."

He shook his head as she put Akumaru back down. "Don't let it bother you. I want to help."

"Arf!"

He looked at him. "What?"
"Arf!"

"Oh!" He quickly picked the puppy up, his eyes wide with panic.

"I've got to get to training!" he said to Ryu. "There's no time to take you to the house so you'll have to come with me."

He ran off a little. "We'll have to get there soon! Follow me!" he called to her.

He started running and she followed him, quickly catching up. As they ran, she saw they were moving away from the inner part of the village to the outskirts where the shops and buildings were replaced by grass and forest. He lead her down a beaten dirt path and they came to the training area, Shino and Hinata were already going at it while Kurenai supervised. She turned as she heard their approach.

"Why are you so late?" she asked before Kiba had a chance to speak. She looked at Ryu. "And who is this?"

"Part of the reason why I'm late," he said. He then looked at Ryu. "Should you explain or should I?"

She shrugged. "She's your teacher."

He took a breath before starting.

"Okay. So this morning I let Akumaru out and then when I went back to get him, he wasn't there anymore. So I went to look for him. What I didn't know was that he had wandered into the forest and had met Ryu, who had gotten lost on the way here. He helped her get to the village and then they found me while I was running around looking for them." he explained. He took another breath as Ryu jumped in.

"After I met Kiba, I told him I came here looking for my grandparents." she continued. "He wanted to help so we went to the post office to find out where they live. That's where I found out that my grandparents are dead and that I didn't have anywhere to stay while I'm in town. I was about to run off and start traveling again, but then Kiba said I could stay with him. Then we came here because he was late enough already."

She finished and Kurenai looked at her for a moment before turning to Kiba.

"Start working with Hinata and Shino," She said to him, and as he jogged over to the two, he heard her ask Ryu, "What's your name?"

"Ryu. Ryu Akihara."

She bent down a little to look at her face. From her expression, it looked like she was trying to figure something out.

"Can you smile for me?" she asked suddenly. Ryu thought this was a strange request, but did it anyway.

Kurenia's eyes widened as she murmured, "Oh my God,"

"What?"

She straightened up. "Is your father's name Tetsu?"

She nodded. Kurenai turned around to face her students.

"Stay here," she told them. "I've got to take of something."

She looked then looked at Ryu. "You stay here as well, and go home with Kiba."

The four young people watched as the women walked, equally puzzled as to what she suddenly had to do. Ryu looked back at Kiba, who shrugged at her perplexed expression. Hinata, who stood next to Shino, thought she felt a rise in heated energy around him. She looked at him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"There's something she's not telling us," he said, a hint of anger in his voice. "And it has something to do with that girl."

She looked back at Ryu, who stared back at her. She flinched shyly at her gaze. Ryu then sat on the ground, prepared to watch as the students began to train in whichever way they were best suited for. Though she wondered what was so important that the woman had to do.