The ceremony was, at best, boring as hell.
Nobody was more comfortable with admitting this than Kiba.
"Yes, but did you have to be so disrespectful?"
"Shino, think about it - it was a 5 and a half hour ceremony dedicated to a dead woman and Naruto getting a hat."
"There was food."
Kiba laughed, nodding in approval. "Yeah, guess there was - I'm just saying, my attention span aint that great anyway. Especially with Akamaru being so restless and all."
"...you should have left him with your mother."
"Hell no! He's my other half, y'know. We don't do anything apart anymore."
"Is that so?"
Both Kiba and Shino jumped, not expecting someone to listen in. "Hyuuga? What are you doing here?"
Neji raised a hand to his mouth, chuckling. "Just thought that I might see Hinata here. So she decided not to attend the coronation with her team?"
"Nah, she had something else to do. Something....more important, I guess."
"You mean she decided to stay with her father?"
Shino remained quiet, turning to Kiba again - like he could lie their way out of this one.
"That aint true, Neji."
"Of course it's not. That's why your heartbeat is increasing so dramatically - telling the truth just gets you off."
He ran a hand over his hair, straightening it as he passed them. "Tell her, whenever you see her, that I would like to meet with her this evening. It's important, Inuzuka - please make sure she hears that?"
It took a good 3 minutes after Neji had walked away for Kiba to respond.
"Yeah, well - WHATEVER!"
Shino just shook his head. "And I couldn't be on a team with-"
"Don't even go there, jitterbug."
They never noticed the ANBU op, who seemed to slink past them toward the Hyuuga compound seconds after Neji.
--------------------
Konoha's first night under Naruto's command was,
well let's be realistic - there was no immediate threat to the village, but there was plenty of paperwork; something nobody had, apparently, warned Naruto about. "Aw man! This is worse than drills!"
Kiba had been called to Naruto's big fancy new room over an hour ago, and so far Naruto's only real explanation had been 2 origami frogs, a card castle, about a dozen unsigned documents (all labeled 'high priority') and Naruto's retarded smile.
"Hokage-sama...was there even something that you wanted?"
"You mean you don't just want to...hang out?"
"Not really, man - it's um...kinda awkward now, actually." Kiba had taken a seat closest to the desk, wrapping his finger 'round and 'round a piece of thread he had found.
"Well jeez, talk about an asshole - yeah there was something.....um....."
Naruto shrunk back to his desk, tossing stacks of paperwork everywhere. "Yeah yeah, Sakura thought it might be a good idea if you took border watch tonight. The North border, I think?"
Kiba's jaw dropped. "The border with Sound? Did.....have we heard something?"
"No no! It might just be nice to have someone watching it, I guess."
"....you're kidding. You're stickin' me with a cold shift?" Cold shifts sucked. Usually, they were nothing but wild animals, drunken shinobi, and kids who thought they could get away with border-hopping for kicks.
"It's not that bad, you know - I'll bet you'll find lots of stuff!"
"....stuff?"
Naruto scowled, pointing authoritatively toward the door. "Just GO!"
"And you called me an asshole. Yes sir, Hokage-sama."
Akamaru followed Kiba out of the room, but not before stealing one of Naruto's rice cakes off his big fancy new desk.
------------------
The North border sucked. Nothing but trees, bugs, a very cold Inuzuka, and more trees.
"Stupid village. Stupid Naruto. Stupid......that's a big bug. Akamaru, did you see that bug?!"
Kiba had lost Akamaru to sleep a long time ago, and was left alone to his foot-long inchworm. "DAMN, that's a huge bug! Where the hell is Shino when you fucking need the guy?"
That was when he heard the screaming for the first time.
It was definitely male - too high pitched to be a Nara, too low pitched to be an Uchiha.
Not enough panic to be shock, not long enough to have been expected.
It was anywhere from 80 to 90 feet away from Kiba's post, and seemed to be coming from the Southwest.
These were the things that Kiba absolutely, without a doubt, knew about the scream.
It was what he didn't know that bothered him.
Like why, or exactly where, or who.
But he could smell blood on the air now, and the North border was looking more and more like a waste of time, if you asked him.
----
Each step he took was another question.
Was there a weapon?
(Was this even worth his time?)
Was that shadow moving?
Should he have woken up Akamaru? Damnit, he should have brought him with him.
Did he have enough Shuriken for this?
What about Kunai?
Was he.....heading toward the Hyuuga compound?
The blood seemed to be both entering and leaving the circle of land that the Hyuuga called home, and led right toward the center of Konoha - and if Kiba's nose was anywhere near right, it stopped between ANBU headquarters, and Naruto's tower.
Leaving Kiba with three possibilities - either a Hyuuga had attacked the Hokage (not likely, of course, but he had to take it into account), an ANBU agent had been attacked and ran toward the Hyuuga compound (also not likely, since few Hyuuga joined ANBU anyway),
or, the one Kiba liked least of all,
a Hyuuga had been attacked by an ANBU agent.
He took a deep breath before following the scent, making sure not to attract too much attention from the nearby patrolmen, who were-
wait a minute.
Nearby patrolmen?
Kiba paused, turning again to look over his shoulder at the three Hyuuga.
If he hadn't know any better, he'd swear they were intentionally looking the wrong way. Or they were doing that creepy beyond all reason 'eyes through the back of their head' thing. Kiba hated that.
----
It took Kiba almost 20 minutes to find his way to ANBU headquarters - something no civilian, or even novice shinobi, was supposed to be able to find.
"Guess they never protected this shit against an Inuzuka's nose."
The door didn't look like a door at all - it had been painted to look like wood that had rotten away, and after 5 minutes of fumbling with the boards, Kiba finally found a handhold.
"it's been almost 45 minutes since I heard it...."
And if Kiba had imagined the whole things altogether - if this whole fucking thing was an ANBU rep injured on patrol or something, Kiba could lose his rank for this.
But something just felt wrong. There was too much blood - too much fear - in the air.
Too much question.
So he pulled the rotted wood away from the entrance, stepping inside ANBU headquarters for the first time.