The next town they went to was as boring as the one Kiba had been able to steal some food from and just about every other town they had visited.
He had once been erroneously lead to believe that the Land of Fire was a large and vast land with many different things to find. But after being lugged around by Zabuza to just about ten different towns that seemed exactly the same, the ex-Inuzuka had come to the conclusion that his teachers had been liars and needed to travel more.
Zabuza was set on walking past the litter of puppies. But Kiba wasn't about to pass up the chance to try and grab a dog to raise, so he made his way immediately over to the box.
Recently, the man's choice of work had become clear to Kiba. It had been obvious before to the boy, the man's scent was inundated with blood and death. But the ex-Inuzuka had just attributed that to being a retired ninja from the Mist when he had first met the man. Now, though, that they had spent too much time together and Kiba had seen him covered in the blood of his enemies while counting his newly acquired money, the mon's current profession was more than obvious.
They'd never had a talk about why Zabuza wanted Kiba around. The man had just kind of begun to train him in the art of tracking and hunting without even telling Kiba that this was what he was doing. The only reason Kiba knew that it was training and not just interesting games of hunt and catch because his mother and father used to play these games with him before.
Kiba's pride swelled in knowing that Zabuza was actually taken aback by him being more than just average when it came to sniffing out the buried pieces of chicken.
"You're not getting one."
The man didn't even have to turn around and look back at his charge to know that Kiba was already crouched beside the box of free puppies. But Kiba merely stuck his tongue out at him and picked up the smallest pup in the box, one with brown spots on his ears and an adorable brown nose.
It barked and seemed to smile at him, all the while his tail began to wag wildly.
"I'm going to call you..." Kiba thought for a moment, then smiled broadly. "Gigi!"
The dog's tail stopped wagging then. The boy looked at him for a second, pursed his lips, then nodded.
"You're right. That's no name for a nin dog." Kiba consented, then brought the dog closer to his chest. "You need something awesome, like Kuromaru... But you're not black, so you can't be Kuromaru Jr."
"Kid, put the dog down and keep walking."
Kiba ignored Zabuza's growl to instead begin to ruffle the scraggly fur at the top of the pup's head. "You're pretty white... And cute... And awesome... Awesome... White..." The boy fumbled for his knowledge of clan names for dogs, then gasped and smiled brightly at the pup. "Akamaru!"
At the new name, the dog yipped and its tail began to wag wildly again.
"Akamaru! It's perfect!"
A shadow loomed over him now and when Kiba looked up, he found Zabuza glaring down at him.
"You're not going to leave that dog alone, are you?"
"Not at all." Kiba smiled cheekily up at the man, making him growl.
"What if I were to kill him? You wouldn't be able to drag him around then."
Kiba, instead of reacting to the violent threat, merely hugged the pup tightly with a smile still on his face.
"Aren't we supposed to be tracking down a target now?"
There was a moment of silence in which Zabuza just looked down at him. "How did you know that?"
"Because you always do the same thing in each town. We arrive, you head over to the target's position, you kill them, and then come back with blood and money. If you thought you were being careful, you're an idiot." Kiba smirked at the man, then placed the pup down on the floor with a final pat on the head. "If you don't let me keep Akamaru, I'll foil your assassination."
At this, Zabuza crossed his arms and quirked an eyebrow questioningly. "And just how would you do that?"
Kiba had never smiled wider before. "It'll be hard to cash in on a target that's already dead and missing, right?"
"You're not that good, kid."
"Wanna try me, Zabuza?"
"You have no connections."
"If that's what you want to believe." Kiba shrugged, then looked down at Akamaru. "Come on, boy. We have a bounty to cash in on."
He heard Zabuza scoff cockily. But Kiba just smiled broadly and ran off with Akamaru at his heels.
Zabuza would see just how dangerous he could truly be.
~/~
The next morning, Kiba walked up to Zabuza with a broad smile on his face and a wad of bills in his pockets. And when he offered them to the man, the Mist nin actually almost gasped. He didn't, though, much to Kiba's annoyance.
"Where'd you steal this from?"
Akamaru barked at the insult, even though Kiba just smiled. "Tracking and hunting is my greatest skill, Zabuza. I hunted the target down, incapacitated him, and cashed in on his grubby body." Then he winked at the man, "Sometimes they pay more for a live target than a severed head."
Zabuza grunted at the boy's words, but still pocketed the money the kid had handed over.
Kiba wasn't all that annoyed by it. He had known Zabuza would most probably take all of his money. So he had taken out a part of the winnings to be able to buy a few things he'd want next time they went anywhere.
The subject of Akamaru being allowed to stay was never spoken of again. Zabuza never said he wouldn't kill the pup. But he also didn't say he would.
And as they walked over to the next town and the next bounty, Kiba and Akamaru had a great time making impressions of the man. Zabuza, though, didn't have such a great time.
It was nice to have a dog with him again. Kiba had kind of missed the feeling of having a loyal companion around. Zabuza counted as a companion... But he wasn't all that sure if loyal was the correct word to use. Maybe insane was a better word? Insane companion. Yeah. That sounded just about right. Insane companion.
Please review. And to those celebrating it today, I wish y'all an awesome Thanksgiving. And to everyone else, I wish y'all a great day!