KIBA

Kiba didn’t know what he’d expected, but this wasn’t it. His nose twitched as he tried to process and categorize all the different scents going on around him. So many of them unfamiliar. 

The Inuzuka compound smelled like dog and dirt and metal and blood and family. The Greater Neighborhoods smelled like blood and rot and fear. The majority of the bodies hurrying to and from locations gave off no feel of chakra which meant they were civilians and Kiba didn’t understand the way that all their heads were kept down to look at the ground as they walked. Didn’t know why there was so little conversation around him. 

He leaned on a corner of a tall building and watched for a few more minutes. It was very obvious he was a predator in a field of prey and it would seem, by the way that anyone who shuffled past him looked at him, he wasn’t the only one who knew it. On a normal day he would have been proud. He’d worked hard to become strong. A true shinobi like his family wanted him to be. 

He didn’t feel particularly proud as he watched everyone walk around him like he was a wild animal. Akamaru yipped from inside the front of his jacket and Kiba’s attention shifted to the side. 

A few blocks down a couple of tall men had turned the corner and were walking down the sidewalk. Cars sped up to pass more quickly and the civilians switched sides of the street to avoid walking by them. The stirrings of chakra in their system made Akamaru and Kiba shift into slightly more ready positions. 

The two of them had milky white eyes and long dark hair that Kiba could recognize anywhere. He never really got to leave the Inuzuka compound except for clan meetings and events, but he still knew all the clans worth knowing, and the Hyuga were definitely an organization that had to be known. 

Kiba retreated a little further into the shadows of the building and tried to tamp down on his own chakra, though it wasn’t something he was good at since he’d rarely had need to do so. Either it worked, or the two shinobi walking by him didn’t care, because they didn’t stop or even glance at him. 

They were talking loudly about the Aburame clan. His mother had mentioned something about a feud between the two different families but Kiba rarely kept up with those things. He preferred spending his mental energy on working with Akamaru and learning new jutsus. Hyugas were generally stuck up and rude though, he knew that much. And they always smelled like sweat. Most shinobi did, but the Hyuga scent of sweat was strangely acidic and it often burned his nose. 

The two Hyuga adults passed and Kiba waited a minute before he moved to leave. Standing still in one place was starting to make him feel vulnerable and the stares he was getting were making his skin itch. He didn’t like being here. It all felt bad. 

After a couple steps towards the street Kiba froze. Two screams lanced through his sensitive ears and made his head pound for a second. He pivoted on his heel in the next second and ran toward the sound. Akamaru jumped from his sweatshirt and landed on the ground to keep pace with him.

A few more shouts of alarm and the sound of flesh hitting flesh and Kiba finally rounded a corner and saw what was happening. The Hyugas that had passed earlier were now looming over a woman and a small child, assumedly a mother and son. The mother’s face bore an already rapidly darkening bruise on the left side of her face and the small boy was crying silently as the mother pleaded for a little understanding. 

“Your little shop is well within the Hyuga borders, you know. You should be grateful to us, not demanding more!” one of the Hyugas said very calmly. His hand was raised in a silent constant threat. 

Kiba looked behind the group and noticed the small grocery shop they were standing in front of. The second Hyuga was holding a large box of apples that he’d clearly just picked up from the outside display of produce. 

“You’re right, shinobi-san, I apologize. I was out of line. Take whatever you desire on the house, of course,” the woman said, eyes not meeting theirs and her hand firmly pressing her child further into her legs and out of sight of the men. 

Kiba flinched heavily as she was smacked across the face hard enough to make her collapse to the side in a jumble. The child still never made a sound, merely hurried over to help his mother up to her knees. 

“It’s a good lesson you’re learning here, kid!” one of the Hyugas mocked. 

The other added, “In a place like this you’ve gotta know your place.” 

The mother didn’t bother to try and stand but she did return to pressing the child to her side and started to shift the kid behind her body to shield him. 

Kiba didn’t fully understand what he was looking at. The Inuzuka compound was on the very edge of the city and surrounded by high walls. Very few civilians were ever inside, but he’d never seen those who were ever treated so poorly as this. In all 10 years of his life he’d never seen his mother or any of his clansmen raise a hand to a non-shinobi. 

“I think we’d better make sure this lesson sticks real well,” the man holding the apples said. Kiba’s blood ran hot as he watched the man place the box on the ground and reach behind the woman on the ground to grab hold of the boy’s shoulder. The mother screamed and grasped for her son but she was hit to the ground once again and the child was dragged forward to stand a few inches away from the shinobi. 

“Listen to me, kid.” 

The child refused to look up and tears continued rolling down his cheeks but he didn’t attempt to break free. “Look at me!” 

More tears and the small body began to shake but the boy couldn’t seem to make himself look up. A smack to the side of the face made eyes dart up and then away once again. Kiba’s heart clenched at the small sound of fear and pain that had broken through the kid’s facade. 

He was moving before he’d decided what he was going to do. 

Akamaru and him both targeted the back of their knees. Akamaru went for one set of legs and Kiba for the other. He swiped out with fingernails that had already lengthened to claws. The strike landed where he wanted but his hand bounced off of what must be thin plated armor under the Hyuga’s pants. Kiba didn’t waste time cursing his mistake, he put his weight on his hands and raised his legs to spin around and sweep for the enemy’s feet. 

His attack was dodged with the kind of grace his mother often scoffed at back at the compound. She didn’t see the point of grace and light feet. She’d take firmly planted paws over jumping acrobatics any day. Kiba agreed with her. 

Unfortunately, he also wasn’t used to sparring against someone who didn’t share a similar mindset to him and his mother. Akamaru retreated to Kiba’s side and they watched as the two Hyugas turned their full attention to him. The mother and child quickly disappeared into the shop and Kiba grinned. Mission successful! 

He barely dodged the jab at his head and he turned back to the two approaching adults. Mission sort of successful, he corrected himself. He braced his feet and fell into a wary crouch, Akamaru reflecting his actions next to him. Kiba was one of the fiercest fighters of his clan. He’d been told that he had the spirit and strength of their ancestors, the ones who had first signed the contracts with the Pack. 

He was also well aware that he was still ten and often lost to his cousins who were older. His chakra crackled under his skin and he had to bite back the shout of “fang over fang” that kept trying to escape. They were in a small space surrounded by businesses and civilians. He didn’t have enough control over that jutsu to make sure he didn’t hurt someone inadvertently. 

Kiba bared his teeth and growled as he charged the disgusting shinobi. He clawed at long hair and pale skin and avoided the blank eyes and reaching fingers with some luck, skill, and a lot of instinct. Two things became very clear as Kiba swerved and bit. He wasn’t winning but he also wasn’t losing. “Beast clone mimicry!” he shouted. Akamaru disappeared in a puff of smoke to be replaced with another Kiba who growled just the same. 

They attacked together and the Hyuga were forced to retreat a few steps before they caught up to the change in the fight. Breathing heavily and barely able to keep up, Kiba knew he was in trouble. Back in the compound he’d have back up and undoubtedly a lecture waiting for him. Here, in the Greater Neighborhoods, he had no idea what was going to happen to him but it wouldn’t be good.

A powerful jab hit him in the side and he felt his body shiver and go cold in the area. Another hit to his shoulder and his arm went cold as well. A couple more hits, one to his leg, another to his already damaged arm, and Kiba could feel his chakra sputtering and crackling under his skin. Not in the way it did sometimes when he was angry, but more like when the garbage disposal at home got clogged. 

Gentle Fist, Hana had called it. He thought he understood what she was talking about then, but having it actually happen to him was terrifying. He could feel an unnatural weakness creep up his spine as his chakra imploded and got all mixed up inside him. His heart hurt with each pound it gave and his hands were shaking. 

“Fuck!” Kiba shouted as one of those stupidly perfect looking hands slammed into his chest. He fell down to the ground and coughed. A few drops of blood fell to the cement beneath him and his lungs weren’t functioning properly. His entire chest was alight with a buzzing pain. “Fuck!!” 

Akamaru jumped in front of his collapsed body, once again in his canine form, and growled at the Hyugas. Kiba snatched him up and pulled him underneath his body to hold the pup to his chest. No way were these sickos going to hurt his partner. He’d die first. 

He struggled to his knees and bared his teeth once again. Both men were looking down at him with anger that was being slowly drowned out by amusement. Kiba could taste blood and could feel it coating his mouth and teeth. He coughed some more and cringed at the increase of the viscous liquid. He was in trouble. 

He glanced around but no one was in sight. Not that he’d really want some civilians to jump in. He saw how outmatched they’d been earlier. 

“Who are you, kid?” one of them asked. 

The other replied, “A dirty dog, one of the Inuzuka, obviously.” 

“What’s an Inuzuka doing in this part of the city? Your sort aren’t welcome around here, you traitors.” 

A foot slammed into Kiba’s head and he fell back to the cement with a small cry of pain. He hadn’t even seen movement from either of them. He was in more pain than he’d ever been in his life but he was also more scared than he’d ever been. The two almost canceled each other out. 

“Fuck off,” he sneered at them. Akamaru whined and licked at his chin but Kiba didn’t dare look down and away from the threats. 

“I’d watch my mouth if I were you, kid.” 

“Your dog breath family gave up their rights to these grounds when they refused to sign the Clan Accords. You know what that means?” 

Kiba did not. The Accords were something that wasn’t talked about in his home. Kiba scoffed and spat out some more blood. “It means I’ve got better things to do than beat up some mom who can’t fight back.” 

A kick to his ribs was the answer he got. He squeezed his eyes shut and pushed Akamaru even further into his chest. He thought of the mom and her attempts to hide her son. He looked at his partner and whispered, “I’m sorry, bud.” 

“Are you listening?!” Another kick. 

“You’re out of your borders, mutt. Which means we have the right to make an example of you.” 

Kiba didn’t think he’d die before he hit puberty, but he’d never been particularly lucky. He saw the next kick coming which meant they must not find it necessary to use their shinobi grade speed anymore. He was little more than a punching bag now. He coughed some more blood up when the foot connected. He braced himself as best he could for the next one, half cocked ideas for escape forming and dissipating in panicked disjointed thoughts. 

There was a thud as the next kick connected with something that wasn’t Kiba. He turned his head to the side and saw orange and black. There was a kid standing between him and the Hyugas. Kiba rolled a little onto his less pained side so he could see better. Akamaru wriggled out of his grip so he could sit in front of Kiba and growl at the scene. 

The new kid had both his hands wrapped around the Hygua’s ankle, and the man’s foot was still shoved into his chest. How had he not fallen over? Or gone flying? 

“Back off!” the stranger said. His voice was deeper than Kiba expected and rough around the edges like a dog’s growl. Akamaru barked in an instinctual response to it.

The Hyuga in front ripped his foot away and kicked out again. This one hit the kid in the shoulder but his small frame barely moved from the impact. “What?” the Hyuga asked no one in particular. 

“You’re pathetic!” the kid spat out. “Picking on a kid a third your age. You should be ashamed of yourselves!” 

“Who the hell are you?!” the farther Hyuga demanded. 

A shrug and then, “I don’t really know most days.” 

“Purposefully forgotten,” a new voice said. Kiba turned painfully to look once again at a newcomer he hadn’t sensed. She was even smaller than the other one and she was wearing a large pink sweatshirt with torn jeans and a bandana in her hair. Hair that was bubble gum pink. Over her shoulders she was resting a hot pink baseball bat, both her wrists hung over the top of it like she was waiting for her turn in a dug out, not staring down two grown shinobi. “That’s what I’d say you were, Naruto.” 

“Sakura,” she was greeted with a nod from her apparent friend. Then the blond turned back to the Hyugas with a glare. “I’ve never been a fan of the Hyugas. I don’t like any of the clans.” 

“Good riddance,” Sakura muttered. 

“But my friend here with the pink bat, she’s got a real grudge against you guys in particular.” 

She swung her bat and smiled. One of her front teeth was missing and it somehow made her look as young as she was and even more terrifying. Kiba slowly got started on struggling back to his feet. When he moved the blond moved as well, putting himself more firmly between Kiba and the men. That was a pack reaction. They weren’t pack though, and he would have remembered people like them if they’d met before.

“Kids these days,” one of the Hyuga mocked, Kiba didn’t care which one. “No respect for their elders.” 

“With all the lessons we’re giving out for free, we should really get paid by the academy.” 

Naruto and Sakura exchanged a look. Kiba pushed himself to his knees and then stopped to pant and breathe through the pain. He snatched up Akamaru when Sakura and Naruto both charged the adults in a dizzying blur of pink and orange. 

Sakura slammed her bat into the knee cap of a Hyuga as Naruto whipped out a kunai from nowhere and went for a chest. Kiba couldn’t tell the two adults apart from each other and couldn’t really keep track of Naruto’s movements at all. Sakura was a little slower though. Each hit she struck with her bat made a crunching sound. Blood flew through the air near Naruto’s blurry body and Kiba swallowed heavily. 

A new adrenaline started to sluggishly pump through his body at the show and he used the slight strength it gave him to stand on unsteady legs. 

“Rotation!” Kiba startled at the shout and then felt the blast of chakra as a spherical barrier popped up around the two Hyuga men. Naruto went flying into a wall and very nearly slammed straight through the brick. Sakura went flying in the opposite direction but managed to catch herself on the side of a different building, her bare feet instantly sticking where she hit. 

Sakura showed no sign of concern for Naruto though Kiba feared for the petite blond. The kid just jumped down from the indentation he left in the wall and landed on his feet with a shrug. No sign of pain or injury was visible to Kiba. 

The Hyugas weren’t overly injured, covered in scratches and one of them was clearly favoring one leg over the other, but they were still standing. And they were very very angry. 

“You brats!!” 

Kiba gulped but didn’t run. Not that he’d be able to get far. He swished the blood in his mouth from one side to the other as he looked at Sakura and her blond friend. “Do you two have a plan?” he asked gruffly. He swallowed a glob of blood and grimaced at the nauseating sensation. 

“Not usually,” Sakura replied. “But he’s right, Nar. Time to finish this up before more Hyuga come. Or the Uchiha.” 

Naruto scoffed and waved his hand. “There’s not enough Uchiha left for them to merit a friendly spar like this with their presence.” 

She glared at him and scolded, “Naruto!” 

He sighed while he reached into a pocket. “Alright, alright. Whatever you say, Sakura.” 

“You think you can hold your own against us?” Kiba didn’t even bother looking at the Hyugas. “I’ll admit, you surprised us, but now we’re going to--” 

Naruto darted forward with something white in his hand. He slammed it into the ground in front of the two men and then retreated to his spot from before. A quick pair of hand signs and Naruto exclaimed, “Minor barrier jutsu!” 

A shimmering blue circle of chakra came up from the ground, starting from the seal that Naruto had placed on the ground and encircling the two shinobi. Immediately they started banging on the barrier but Kiba couldn’t hear a thing. “That’s so cool,” Kiba said without thought. 

Naruto turned and one of his hands came up to rub at the back of his neck as he smiled. “Thanks! It’s actually pretty simple.” 

Sakura dropped back down to the ground with a small thump. Her bat returned to its resting position over her shoulders as she looked at Kiba with an exasperated expression, though he didn’t think it was really directed at him. “He’s lying,” she said. 

“No, I’m not!” 

“Okay, it’s a simple seal to make, maybe, but to make a minor barrier that can hold two elite shinobi takes more chakra than I have in my entire body, Naruto. Take some credit where it’s due.” 

“But--” 

“Take the credit or I’ll tell on you to Granny Tsunade and she’ll give you another speech about--” 

“Okay, okay!” Naruto pouted but his expression was still happy. “You win!” 

Sakura rolled her eyes, “Like always.” 

“Who are you two?” Kiba asked in wonder. They didn’t look like all that much. Naruto was wearing what looked like joggers and a jacket he’d stolen from a dumpster and his hair was a wild mess of tangles and dirt. Sakura wasn’t nearly as dirty or bedraggled looking, but her nails were still filthy and her hair was braided to keep the greasy locks out of her face. 

“We’ll explain on the way,” Naruto said. He headed for the street and took a confident left turn and disappeared from sight. Kiba stumbled forward a step after him and hissed at the pain that echoed through his bones. Sakura was next to him in the next moment looking at him intently. Her eyes were very green.

“Let’s get out of here, then I can do something about those blocked chakra points and your ribs.” 

“What?” Kiba questioned. 

She gripped her bat with her right hand and moved her left to grab his arm and drape it across her shoulders. “Come on.” 

They walked for a while and Kiba, who didn’t know the area well but had great direction, was immediately and absolutely turned around and lost. The three cut through alleys and through apartment buildings, over a shop, and then through a tunnel. They came to a stop in front of a mostly collapsed warehouse that looked like it had been abandoned well before the clan uprising. Naruto and Sakura led him through one of the lower windows and then up into a surprisingly clean area. A few blankets and lights were thrown around as well as some scrolls and weapons. 

“Is this where you guys live?” Kiba asked. 

“Nah, not really,” Sakura said. 

“We don’t really stay in one place,” Naruto added. 

“Whatcha mean?” Kiba asked. Sakura was forcing him to sit down on the only chair in the space. Her hands immediately lit up in green chakra and Kiba couldn’t help but gasp. “You’re a medi-nin?” 

Sakura smiled wide, that gap in her teeth even bigger up close. “Still in the academy, but no one needs to know ‘bout a little hobby, right?” 

“How’d you learn it though?! Are you a clan kid?” 

“Do we look like clan children to you?”

Naruto snorted and then fell into a giggle fit that Sakura rolled her eyes at. “Clan kids?!” he gasped out. 

“No, we’re not clan kids. I’m Sakura Haruno. That idiot over there is Naruto Uzumaki.” 

“Uzumaki. That sounds familiar, don’t it?” Kiba asked Akamaru. “More important though, what happened? Is this normal? Ninjas attacking random people?” 

Sakura gave him a blank look, though her chakra never faded from his ribs, and she asked, “How could you not know?” 

“He’s an Inuzuka, right? Which means his family’s in that compound, not clan affiliated, officially,” Naruto said. “Pervy sage was telling me about them, how they haven’t made any efforts to stop the clan oppression but they aren’t making it worse, you know?” 

“No,” she bit out. 

“So this is the Greater Neighborhoods?” Kiba asked.

“Welcome to the land of dreams.” She pushed him further back into the chair as she stood up. “Alright, your ribs are done, let me at those chakra points, where’d they hit you?” 

Kiba pointed them out and relaxed back to allow her full access. Akamaru sniffed along the edges of the room and Kiba started asking questions. He had a lot of them. 

And Naruto, unlike everyone else in Kiba’s life, answered them. Fully and truthfully and without hedging around the dark bits. He was thankful for each blunt answer and absolutely disgusted by the truths handed to him. The Greater Neighborhoods were despicable. Backwards ideals and tyranistic behavior. How had so much been going on without his notice? How could his family, his clan, remain so detached from it all? 

“Is this how it’s always been?” Kiba asked, still in the same chair, but Sakura had finished long ago. She was laid out with her head in Naruto’s lap as they talked and Naruto was sloppily rebraiding locks of the pink strands as they all talked. 

Naruto muffled a yawn before he said, “Not always. Ninja villages used to be run real different. They had hokages, you know.”

“I’ve read about that in my history books,” Kiba said. Though he hadn’t been paying much attention during those lessons.

“Me too,” Sakura said. “I thought it was propaganda at first, but that’s too subtle for the bastards that run this city. It’s just something they haven’t bothered covering up, because who could ever rebel or question them? They’re all powerful here.” 

“Are they really? All powerful, that is.” 

“They like to think so,” Sakura snarked. 

“But you don’t think so?” 

Naruto answered for the both of them, “Nothing is all powerful. If they were I’d already be dead. Sakura would be in an orphanage or forgotten and dead on the streets. If they really could control everything, the three of us would never have met.” 

Kiba felt the smile forming on his face and he didn’t fight it. It was slow growing and full of excitement. “So what’s your plan?” he asked. 

Sakura lifted her head just enough to be able to look over at him properly. Naruto slipped his hand underneath her neck to support the uncomfortable position. “What do you mean?” she asked. 

“Oh, don’t try the innocent act with me, Haruno. I saw you two take down two chunin with ease, Hyugas no less. You’ve spent the last three hours telling me all about the horrors you’ve witnessed and the things you would change. I don’t believe for a minute, even a second, that you two don’t have a plan of some sorts.” 

She smiled in return and let Naruto’s hand hold all her weight. “Long term?” she asked. 

“We make it up as we go,” Naruto replied. 

Kiba snorted and ran a hand down a sleeping Akamaru’s back. “My kinda plan. Count me in.” 

Sakura laughed, loud and carefree, and Naruto gave him a sunny grin that Kiba almost squinted at because it was so bright. “Welcome to the club,” Naruto said with a wink.