Title: Strength

Author: ishala8

Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Romance

Rating: K+ (contains long winded explanations)

Word Count: 1095

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I wouldn't spend every day lamenting Itachi's death.

Summary: Akamaru's struggle.

Delay due to: Exams. Sorry. *winces*

Last Revised On: 02/07/11

Interlude One: Always a Team

Akamaru remembered the day he was first entrusted to Kiba clearly. That day a young, untried pup had met another, neither willing to bend and acknowledge the other as their partner.

The human child he had met then had been silly, irresponsible and rash. He might have been the heir, but Akamaru had refused to accept a weakling as a master.

It had been a bumpy ride, but soon the ninken had seen the heart of gold hiding under the boy's rough façade. With knowledge of the other came acceptance and they came to work together, forming a resilient bond between them.

Many in the clan had commented on their bond, its strength and potency. They made a great team, one of the best the clan had ever seen. Unlike many others before them, they had managed to form what was known as a life bond.

The Inuzuka clan had discovered life bonds by chance some time during Konoha's formation and had assumed them to be an asset. Life bonds allowed two beings to bind their energy so closely together that they literally became one.

As the clan members were so attuned to their ninken, the bonds formed naturally. It wasn't until later that a jutsu was devised with the purpose of strengthening that connection. When the original bond allowed the two to work as one, the jutsu allowed them to become one. It allowed them to see the world from the other's eyes, share their chakra, thoughts and emotions, and always maintain a connection with the other.

It became the clan's greatest strength and most deeply guarded secret. It worked between partners and soon the clan idealised the idea of a life bond, passing it as a union greater than marriage.

However, with this new development came complications. It was alright to bind a human with their ninken. They fought together and died together no matter what. But with humans, not both were sent to the same mission, but if one died, so did the other. Instead for mourning a single loss with every death, they had to mourn two.

As the clan's numbers thinned, life bonds became a forbidden art. Natural ones had to be discovered individually and the jutsu that accompanied them was soon lost in time.

Akamaru had heard whispers of it from some of the oldest in his pack and in a way, he was glad to realise that his own bond with Kiba was so potent and pure. Even with chakra to aid them, it was a known fact that ninken would never live past their fortieth year. With the bond, however, they would age and die with their partners, never having to deal with premature loss one way or another.

On the other hand, a bond so strong could prove problematic in cases such as this. The ninken could feel his partner's pain as if it was his own and it was stretching his limits, driving him insane with the need to do something, make it better and make it stop.

There was nothing he could do, though. Like Kiba, he was also missing his memories so there was nothing he could offer to ease the suffering. He couldn't even get close enough to reassure the other that things would get better as closing the physical distance between the two of them would mean bringing each other to their knees due to the sheer strength of their shared, rampant emotions.

It was because of his inability to help that he chose to stay away. There was nothing he could do but trust Kiba to make things right and while his mind called that cowardice, his instincts screamed with the rightness of it all. This was Kiba's battle and until he was ready to take the next step into adulthood and leave all innocence behind, Akamaru could do nothing but wait for him at the other side.

He never wanted to leave him, but Akamaru was too wounded to defend Kiba on his own. His only bid to save his partner from a cruel fate was to make it to the village or intercept the rescue team his team mates were sure to have sent after the two.

He was the only who could track Kiba's natural scent. The boy was so in tune with his surroundings that his own scent and chakra would change the longer he remained in one place so as to blend seamlessly in with his surroundings. Kiba was literally able to blend in and disappear at will in any environment, but the same could happen unwittingly, something that would cause problems in situations like this.

It was the clan's bloodline that carried the skill. While not as potent or effective in most clam members, it was still present. That was the reason all had to be partnered with a ninken as the animal had chosen them based on the faint, undiluted scent that was hidden deep within an Inuzuka's being. Only partners could recognise the other's pure essence and that's why the village needed Akamaru's help.

Kiba was a prodigy amongst the Inuzuka. The diminishing bloodline had manifested in the heir stronger than ever before, leading the clan to shelter him more than normal. He was the oddity who was kept in the dark about clan and village politics so as to grow naturally and unhindered.

That was the way of the Inuzuka – to never push gifts and bloodlines, but rather nurture them and allow for nature to take its course. It was what had led other clans to call them weak and foolish, yet they believed it to be strength. The clan was united and no Inuzuka had ever broken to pressure.

Now, that same clan quality that had protected Kiba's innocence would be the thing to break him. The boy was innocent, pure and ignorant to the darkness of the shinobi world. He would never survive captivity and so Akamaru pushed on despite his weakened state, desperate to prevent his partner's slow and painful death.

So immersed was he in his struggle to keep running, he didn't see the back guard of the missing-nin trailing after him. By the time he noticed, he was surrounded and there was nothing he could do but brace for a hopeless struggle.

He would not fail his partner – not now, not ever. If one went down, the other would follow, but until then, they would both fight tooth and nail for survival. The ones who dared threaten them and forced them to separate would pay.

A Few Things to Clear Up:

Chapter

I wanted to show a bit of Akamaru's perspective and his role in the story. A bit of Inuzuka clan history somehow found its way in the mix… No, I don't think the chapter does everything I wanted it to, but it could get there. Frankly, I think I've made you wait long enough for an update so this is all I can do for now.

Rush

Personally, I think that the entire fic is kind of rushed. The point right now is to manage weekly updates and get through the plot. I might edit it later, but until then, let me know what you think.