Shadows and Fangs
Chapter 17
When he returned home to find Shikamaru waiting for him on the couch, Kiba had to force himself not to sigh. While he would readily admit that it was both sweet and endearing that Shikamaru was anxious to know about his interview, since he didn't exactly have good news to give him it made it even harder on him. "I didn't get the captain position," he blurted out before anything else could be said – before he could be tempted to change the subject or stall. He hated stalling.
Shikamaru closed his mouth with a sigh and then got up to walk to him and loosely wrap his arms around his neck. "I'm sorry," was all he said, knowing his lover didn't like to be actively cheered up when he failed at something.
Kiba couldn't help but smile back fondly and leaned in for a quick kiss, closing his eyes and breathing in his scent as he pulled back, holding him close – and yeah, as he'd thought, this was infinitely better than all the promotions in the world. "She's planning on promoting Lee," he then told him, starting with the 'good' news – and no, that wasn't stalling, just a selective order.
The Nara nodded back, having to concede he was a good choice – there weren't a lot of people around who could genuinely say that they didn't hold a drop of prejudice against shinobi from other villages, but Lee was one of them, hands down. "That's not so bad," he admitted.
"Oh, absolutely – I've got nothing against him getting the job!" Kiba quickly added, letting out a breath as he pulled back to look him in the eyes, knowing he was going to freak out. "There's just a small issue on the…reason why she decided not to promote me."
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at this, not liking where this was going – Akamaru had even gone off to his cushion and turned the other way, something he explicitly did when he didn't want to get involved at all. "And that reason would be…?"
"Us," Kiba replied straightforwardly. "Anko argued that some shinobi – mostly from Kumo and Kiri – wouldn't respect my authority without knowing me first. So she decided against it as the beginning of the division really isn't the time to test loyalties." Defending that argument hurt like shit and left a bitter taste in his mouth, even though the more rational part of him could understand the position she was in – more than that though, he really, really didn't want Shikamaru to blame himself.
Which he immediately did, of course.
"Please don't look at me like it's your fault," Kiba told him seriously, looking into his eyes.
Shikamaru frowned at him as he tried to move back before giving up as the arms around his waist wouldn't budge an inch. "But it is!"
"If I'd been with any other guy, the issue would've been the same – so there: it's got nothing to do with you," the Inuzuka declared pragmatically.
"But you're not with any other guy: you're with me," Shikamaru snapped back, not knowing what to do with his hands and finally crossing his arms over his chest.
Kiba resisted the urge to roll his eyes fondly. "I'm not going to argue with you about whose fault it is. I only told you because I don't want to hide it from you," he said with a shrug.
"Look me in the eyes and tell me you're not disappointed," the Nara challenged.
"Well of course I'm disappointed!" Kiba replied with a frown. "But I don't blame you! I blame narrow-minded and old-fashioned ways of thinking," he reasoned. Shikamaru chuckled despite his best efforts to remain annoyed and Kiba grinned at this. "Hey, I've still got a job anyway, and I can apply for another promotion the next time something opens up – people will have gotten used to me by then, and you know how relentless I can be!"
Shikamaru sighed as he uncrossed his arms and moved his hands to his face, shaking his head slightly and feeling worse because why was Kiba trying to cheer him up? "I'm sorry – it's always you reassuring me even when it ought to be the other way around," he mused quietly.
"I'd be lying if I said I don't enjoy it," the Inuzuka admitted with a smirk.
"I love you," Shikamaru told him seriously – needlessly – before moving to kiss him.
"That's way more important than any promotion," Kiba assured him against his lips.
Shikamaru chuckled and then just put his mouth to better use.
But he couldn't help it that every time someone learned that Kiba didn't get that promotion, he felt a clump of lead sink down into his stomach. Lee was the worst because he spent a good five minutes alternating between genuine elation and genuine confusion as he looked at Kiba.
And despite Kiba's reassurances, when it really came down to it, Shikamaru felt that it was because of him.
While the Fourth Shinobi War was now almost four years behind them, the ties between the villages hadn't been broken or weakened (yet, some pessimistic naysayers kept grumbling). The shinobi exchange program had eventually grown to be active between all villages (granted, not with the same level of success everywhere) and an active feature of the newly formed Allied division. As initially surmised, many who had participated in the exchange program, both before and after the division's creation, ended up joining its ranks, either in their home village or in another country. It had taken a few months to really get going, but once they got the hang of things the HQ in Konoha started working quite smoothly – Anko didn't suffer delays and promptly 'unstuck' any sticky situations, to her credit.
Kiba had to admit working under her never got boring, at the very least. And Lee had been a pure blast to work with, so he'd soon pushed away his bitterness at not having been promoted, because he still enjoyed his job. He was even part of a semi-regular unit, as he was often assigned to teams captained by a medic from Iwa who could seemingly outdrink anyone.
As expected, Karui had eventually transferred to Konoha – after Kumo's own HQ had become stable, remarkably swiftly – and moved in with Chouji, to the Akimichi's great satisfaction. Omoi for his part visited regularly, and even Tenten had managed a short visit as well in her time.
So all in all, it felt like the villages had never been closer.
That evening however, Kiba pressed his lips together in a thin line as he re-read his mission orders, trying to look for a loophole. But there was none. He knew it. Orders had to be obeyed.
Launch an invasion of the Twisted Kunai Hills.
Looking at the hills in question on the map, he sighed as he noted Omoi's troops were stationed there – he was an ally, damn it! He couldn't just invade his ally's territory! It would be the beginning of the end!
"That bad?" Omoi asked with a wince as he didn't like the way he was looking at him.
Kiba replied with a sigh and nodded gravely.
"Orders are orders," Lee noted solemnly as he reached to place a hand on his shoulder and squeezed briefly.
"Yeah…" Kiba muttered before reaching for the dice and throwing them to determine his attack's strength, moving a pawn to the Twisted Kunai Hills spot on the map, next to Omoi's little figure indicating a camp. "Sorry, Omoi, guess our alliance's over!"
"Wasn't it always bound to be so?" the Cloud shinobi wondered philosophically as he threw his own dice to decide his defenses' efficiency. The other two winced at his pathetically low score, and he sighed deeply as he reached for his drink. "And so ends an era of prosperity!" he declared as he emptied it. "Now your troops will raid my villages, destroy my farmlands, throw my economy upside-down, negate centuries of culture, and probably discover an allergy to our local specialties that no amount of healing herbs can cure!" he forewarned seriously.
"Nobody likes a sore loser," Kiba retorted smartly as he moved his own game-piece over the Twisted Kunai Hills.
"Game's not over yet, he could still do you over! Knowing you, you might even enjoy it," Karui reminded him seriously with a smirk as she reached for the pile of cards labeled mission orders and her smile turned upside down as she read it. "Hold a feast to raise your troops' morale! Pah!"
"But that's actually a good thing!" Lee reminder her in amusement – he wished he'd drawn it; his troops' morale was getting a little low…mutiny was drawing closer than ever on the horizon as things stood.
The kunoichi shrugged as she threw the dice, sighing slightly in relief as it wouldn't cost her too much. "Yeah, but my coffers are almost empty," she commented as she grabbed the morale up perk from the game box, eyeing Lee's quite large funds deposit. Maybe an alliance of their own wouldn't be such a bad idea down the road…she'd probably be able to turn this to her advantage, too.
"Are you still playing Shinobi Conquest?" Shikamaru noted in surprise as he returned home, automatically reaching a hand to pat Akamaru as he went to greet him. He'd already left them huddled around the board game several hours earlier, he hadn't expected to see them at the same spot when he'd be back!
"Well, we're off tomorrow anyway, so we might as well see it through, right?" Karui replied easily, not even looking up as she arranged her cards.
The Nara chuckled, feeling envious even though it just as often happened that he had a day off while they worked. He'd been working irregular schedules recently, too, which was why he was coming back in the middle of the night – but they'd returned from a mission earlier that day, so were well within their rights to unwind. Besides, he knew for a fact how addictive and captivating a good game of Shinobi Conquest could be. "How's it going?" he wondered as he walked over to take a quick look at the board over Kiba's shoulder.
"Kiba just betrayed our alliance," Omoi informed him before nonchalantly adding, "I just thought you should know you're sharing your bed with a vile traitor."
"Hey!" Kiba protested for the principle as they all shared a good laugh – except for Karui who just snorted her amusement at them as usual.
"We'll do our best to keep our voices down," Lee promised seriously, wanting to continue the game – he was sort of winning for once, after all!
"No need," Shikamaru dismissed easily as he stretched his arms behind his head. "I can sleep through anything," he added with a shrug and a yawn.
"Yeah, he once fell asleep at an Inuzuka family reunion!" Kiba added with an amused snort.
Karui frowned slightly as she looked between them. "I suppose that's your way of saying he can really sleep through anything?" she ventured a guess, humming at their nods. "Night then!"
Omoi waved at him and then reached for his own mission orders, smirking slowly as he eyed the as-of-yet unclaimed small patch of land called Centipede Reach that the card had just given him the right to annex – right in the middle of Lee's forces. Oh, how he was going to sow the seeds of dissent! Or, possibly, sell him the land for a hefty price, depending on the circumstances. He wasn't out of it yet!
Akamaru whined and Kiba laughed before translating. "He says this game brings out the worst in people!"
Nobody could deny this. (But wasn't it the fun part?)
The next day saw Shikamaru (as usual) yawning widely as he waited for his friends to arrive – they were actually supposed to go meet Kurenai and Mirai together for dinner, so he hadn't had the heart to turn it down despite being tired by the day's work. Ino's all-knowing smug grin as she lightly elbowed his side in greeting tired him even more, but Chouji's weariness was different. "What's up?"
"Do you know what happened at your place last night?" the Akimichi wondered with a pained frown.
"Did you absolutely have to word it like that?" Shikamaru wondered instead as Ino snorted in amusement.
"Did Karui come home in a bad mood?" Ino offered, straight on the mark. At Chouji's pitiable nod, she reached over to gently rub his back. "There, there…"
"She probably lost at Shinobi Conquest," Shikamaru supplied as they started walking towards the Sarutobi clan grounds.
This immediately cleared things up for Chouji. "She hates losing," he added with a nod.
Ino raised an eyebrow at this. "Shinobi Conquest is not a game for people who're afraid of losing. When you lose, you can lose bad," she needlessly reminded them. "Man, it's been ages since I last played!"
Shikamaru chuckled and then shivered, frowning at her puzzled look. "I just had a mental image of Sai playing the game," he told her.
"Oh yeah, there are just so many ways this could go bad!" she immediately agreed while Chouji nodded as well. Not that Sai was a sore loser, but he…got intense about games, treating them like an actual assignment, and there was no doubt he'd eventually get carried away. But then again…
"No," Shikamaru immediately said as he saw her open her mouth. "We're not playing a game with him to find out."
Ino pouted at this, grabbing both her friends' arms as she imperceptibly pulled them along. "Aw, come on guys! Where's your sense of adventure?" she teased them easily.
"Somewhere on the shelf next to my instinct of self-preservation," Chouji replied matter-of-factly, knowing that after all, if she really made her mind up to do something, then they'd be pulled along – she had that effect on them, always did.
And she knew it.
"Kurenai, could you please help us convince Ino that having Sai play Shinobi Conquest is a bad, bad idea?" Chouji tried nonetheless once they'd reached their destination.
"Shinobi Conquest? It's been so long! Count me in!" the teacher replied brightly instead.
All that Chouji could do was bow his head in regret as Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at him and sighed.
"Uncle Chouji and Uncle Shikamaru look sad," Mirai commented thoughtfully as she looked between the two. "Why?"
"Aw, they're just hungry," Ino reassured her as she pulled her into her lap and tickled her neck. "Right?" she asked the other two with a bright smile.
Kurenai could only laugh as they automatically confirmed it to reassure their almost-niece. Turning her eyes towards Asuma's picture, her smile softened. He'd been as powerless as Chouji and Shikamaru before Ino, and seeing them like this brought back good memories.
"Hey, do you want to play that game with us sometime? It might be a bit too hard for you on your own, but you and I can team up if you'd like!" Ino offered Mirai as she turned her around in her lap.
"Yes!" the little girl immediately replied happily. "Mommy, is that okay?" she then asked her mother excitedly.
"Yes, of course, we'll all play together!" Kurenai replied with a grin, chuckling as the other two relaxed at the thought of Mirai joining them and counter-balancing Sai's…seriousness.
"Even Sai will understand that when playing against children, the nice thing to do is let them win, right?" Chouji whispered to his friend.
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at this. "The guy who didn't have a childhood? No chance," he replied with a shrug before grinning slowly. "But he'll understand he has to let Ino win," he then added slyly.
Chouji had no choice but to laugh in agreement. It wouldn't be so bad, then.
In all honesty and seriousness, there was one thing Kiba knew he could never master the way Lee did it, not even in a million years.
It was his uncanny ability to make people feel absolutely guilty for not performing to the best of their abilities.
"I assure you Captain, it's not your fault! I just wasn't paying enough attention, is all!" a shinobi from Iwa assured him helplessly as he held his hands together.
"No, do not pretend for my sake!" Lee insisted as he pressed his face into the crook of his elbow. "I have failed you! I was not able to motivate you as I should have, as your captain! I should just hand in my resignation and spare you all the shame!"
"No, Captain, really it's not like that! You're extremely motivating!" he quickly insisted, resolutely blushing as he knew just how his words sounded and was sure new rumors would erupt from this.
"I am…?" Lee asked hesitantly as his tear-stained tentatively face came back into view.
"You're the most motivational of motivators, Captain Lee!" he replied evasively, keeping a bright grin on even as he noticed the amused looks surrounding them.
"Then…perhaps I can give myself one more chance…"
"Yes!"
Konoha's Junior Green Beast sighed deeply and then nodded. "Very well then. In penance, I shall do a hundred laps around the village on my hands! I suggest you also take a moment to reflect on your role as a shinobi, as we should all do," he encouraged seriously as he placed a hand on his shoulder and held a thumb up with the other.
"Will do, Captain!" he immediately agreed before running off. He'd never be caught off guard again.
"Sometimes, I swear, you scare me," Kiba told his friend honestly as he rested an elbow on his shoulder.
Lee shrugged his free shoulder at this, turning his sparkly grin to him. "Well, it's his business if he's bored with life and unsure what he wants to do with it, but if he lets go during missions, it's his superiors and fellow shinobi who'll be in trouble – it was time he realized that!" he noted modestly.
"And that's why sometimes you honestly scare me," Kiba repeated with a shake of his head. "Now he's gonna question himself because he won't want his captain to cry on him again – that was pretty sleek of you!"
"Sometimes people just need some perspective," the taijutsu expert replied serenely before sighing. "Besides, it really was because of my shortcomings as a captain that I didn't notice his state earlier, so I am to blame, to a certain extent," he insisted earnestly.
"How like you!" Kiba teased amicably as he ruffled his hair. "So you'll do those laps anyway, right?" he asked needlessly.
"Of course! One must never go back on one's word!"
The Nice Guy pose this exclamation came with was absolutely blinding, so the Inuzuka didn't reply anything and just wished him luck as he moved to returned to his work. His friend called him back as he left and he tilted his head to the side. "Yeah?"
"If you don't have something already planned in the next week, I would appreciate your support with a mission I've just been assigned. It's to the Land of Earth," he offered as he absently rearranged his protector around his waist.
Kiba hummed as he thought it over. "I have to double-check my roster, but I think that should be alright," he replied eventually.
"I'll turn in the formal request then!" Lee declared with a thumb up before leaving to do just that.
People cheered him on his way, and it further proved how appreciated he was. Shinobi worked extra hard when they were assigned to his unit, because he blamed himself like no one else when something went wrong. It was as hilarious as it was heartwarming, at times.
The Grand Youth HQ had to live up to its reputation after all.
The first thing Lee did once they reached Iwa's HQ, understandably, was to look for the deputy commander's office to report that they'd completed their mission on the way – tailing and capture of a separatist – and hand their prisoner over to the local authorities. Then he and his team had the usual mandatory medical examination to confirm they were alright – and under no genjutsu.
But in effect, the second thing he did was to look for Tenten to greet her. Loudly.
"Do you know him, Captain?" a kunoichi asked the weapons specialist as she pretended not to notice the looks they were receiving.
"No."
"But he just called your name. Loudly."
"A lot of people know my name."
"TENTEN!"
Tenten's shoulders sagged and she leaned over the railing to look down at Lee and his nice guy pose. "Stop blowing out everyone's eardrums and get your asses up here!"
"Not like I made any noise," Kiba muttered as he moved to follow their energetic captain.
"There's only two of you?" Tenten wondered as they reached her – clapping their backs for good measure and greeting.
"The other two are resting – we're planning on heading back tomorrow morning, Captain," Kiba replied teasingly – earning himself another slap, on his arm this time.
She nodded at this, looking over her shoulder at the time. "We'll be setting out together then, I'm leaving for Kumo tomorrow," she informed them with a grin. "I haven't been back there since I left the exchange program! I miss it! Do you know how Karui and Omoi are doing?"
"Karui moved to Konoha about a month ago, and she's doing just fine!" Kiba replied with a grin, chuckling as she wiggled her eyebrows at this. "And Omoi was just in Konoha actually."
"I believe he mentioned he was going to Suna next, and then Iwa," Lee added as he looked around, nodding at a few familiar faces – from Konoha, the war, or former missions.
"Mmh, guess we'll miss each other then," Tenten muttered with a huff and what suspiciously looked like a pout.
Lee noticed it and hummed before opting to change the subject. "How are things going here?" he asked with interest.
"Here? The HQ you mean?" she replied with a blink, shrugging at his nod. "Can't complain – at all, really. Work even manages to be fun, from time to time, if you'll believe it!"
"Lucky you!" Kiba teased her, raising his hands in peaceful surrender as Lee raised an eyebrow at him. "Omoi says it's going great in Kumo as well!"
"And obviously, we in Konoha are flourishing!" Lee added with a thumb up.
Tenten laughed at his choice of words and quickly looked around before leaning closer to them. "You didn't hear this from me, but I hear whispers it's not so hot in Suna though…"
"In Suna? Really?" Kiba repeated in surprise. "That's not what I'd expect with Temari in charge!" he added honestly – he'd met very few people who could whip others in shape the way she did, so effortlessly.
"Word is it's her deputy that's the problem," the kunoichi corrected.
Lee crossed his arms over his chest as he thought about it. "The deputy in Suna is from Iwa, if memory serves? Then it's no wonder you've heard about it but not us…" he mused thoughtfully.
"Then that means it's not so bad yet – otherwise you'd have heard about it too," Tenten opinionated as she sighed. "We knew this would be a challenge, right?" she added rhetorically.
Kiba nodded anyway, thinking about it. He'd been to Suna at the beginning of the division, and things had seemed fine, but that was probably before the 'problems' – whatever they were – had come up. He'd hoped to get more assignments to the Sand, truthfully, but the occasion hadn't presented itself at all in the past months, yet this new piece of information made him quite curious.
At the same time, missions from and with Suna's HQ kept coming, so whatever was going on didn't affect their dealings with the other HQs, something that really didn't surprise him, coming from Temari. He trusted her, implicitly, but if she really had troubles he wished there was something he could do to help. Of course Konoha was home, but he'd felt an undeniable sense of belonging in Suna, he'd never forget that.
Their rest in Iwa was short-lived however, as Lee had them geared up and ready to depart at the gate at the crack of dawn – unsurprisingly, Tenten had done the same to her team.
"You guys must've had the most gruesome training regimen," one of Tenten's subordinates commented earnestly around a jaw-splitting yawn.
"Hey, at least, I don't punish myself with the craziest impossibly physical exercises when I fail at something!" the weapons specialist tempered.
"It hones the spirit!" Lee insisted pragmatically.
"It kills the spirit," Tenten corrected deadpan.
"It is painful to watch," one of Lee's team, originally from Kiri, commented.
Tenten grinned smugly as though that point made her case.
"But somehow efficient," another kunoichi from Tenten's team added. "Few kunoichi are as resilient as the Captain!"
"And few shinobi are as fast as our Captain!"
Lee and Tenten both flushed proudly at the compliments, and Kiba snickered at that. "Few are so easily pleased, too!" he mock-whispered to the ones closer to him.
"Hey, did you guys know Kiba once fought Naruto in the Chuunin exams and was defeated by a fart?" Tenten asked brightly instead of rising to the bait.
"I hate you," he informed her with a groan as the others tried to hide their chuckles.
"You do that," she replied airily.
"Aw, don't feel bad, Kiba," his teammate from Iwa told him as she clapped his shoulder.
"Yeah, if it's any consolation, we already knew – it's a popular story in Konoha!" the shinobi from Kiri added with a grin.
"It's really not," Kiba informed him – and he actually knew they were already in the know. "Who even went around spreading that story?" he asked for the principle – although no one answered him, as he'd expected. Sure, ties with the other nations were great and all, except when they got in on the village jokes.
But laughter was the best way to form friendships, right? And nothing too easily gained was really worth holding on to. Much as he was loathe to admit it, Anko had been right way back when: even people who initially had a hard time with him because of his relationship eventually eased up once they got to know him and worked with him. But they were able to build these relationships as equals. If he'd been the one in command, some would have likely felt pressured to adapt, and the results wouldn't have been the same, he could see that now.
Besides, it was completely worth it to see Lee finally get the recognition he really deserved.
And Anko scared the scrap out of him so he was happy not to deal with her directly often, but that was another story.
TBC
Shinobi Conquest was born from my having personally witnessed friendships threatened by a game of Risk. I love board games. I think Kiba would be the one who gloats insufferably when he's winning until he loses it all to bad luck, and Shikamaru would be the one who's bored because he always wins in the end.