Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ People Lie ❯ Clients Lie: four ( Chapter 7 )

 

 

He awoke to someone shaking him.

 

“Huh? Whazzat?” he said blearily, sitting up and holding his head, which throbbed with pain.

 

“NARUTO!” Hinata cried, throwing her arms around him and sobbing helplessly into his jacket.

 

“Hinata? Hinata!” he exclaimed, his brain catching up with what was happening. “Hinata, I'm sorry!”

 

“Wannnh!” she cried harder, fingers balling into his jacket. She knelt, one leg to each side of his right thigh, giving him enough room to rise and her enough room to slump against him as if she was a puppet with its strings cut.

 

With a start, he noticed that her face had an ugly, purplish bruise across it, her lip was split, and one of her eyes had swollen shut and was turning deep red. His heart seemed to stop, and his blood ran hot for one long moment.

 

His fist tightened on her jacket and jerked her up, her tear streaked face meeting his.

 

“Hinata, what happened?” he demanded, his voice low and angry.

 

Hinata blubbered for a moment more, too distraught to answer.

 

He slapped her, just a light tap, on the unbruised side of her face. The shock made her stop crying for a moment and stare at him.

 

“Hinata…” he growled. “Who hit you?”

 

“S-s-s-sas-ssuke…” she finally got out.

 

He nodded, having expected that answer. For a moment he just sat there, the neck of her jacket in his fist, as if he'd forgot about her, staring into space. Then he shook his head, one quick jerk, and looked at her again.

 

“Why?”

 

“A-a-ah…” she stuttered for a moment, then swallowed and looked resolute. “Because I attacked him and threatened to kill him if he ever did… whatever he did to you again.” The tears fled from her eyes as a look of silent murder filled them.

 

“You threatened to kill him?” Naruto asked with a tone of mounting shock and disbelief, edging towards anger. “I've been cultivating Sasuke since we ended up on a team together, and while he's been openly distrustful of me, you were never on his threat list! And now you've threatened to kill him?!”

 

She flinched, expecting him to hit her. “He attacked you with wire, did something that made you very angry. I didn't understand it, but I didn't see everything and I'm sorry,” she said in a rush, losing the determination in favor of self recrimination. “I failed you, Naruto, and I promise it will never, ever, never happen again!” She grabbed at his hand with hers, holding it tight in her grip as if afraid he'd pull away from her.

 

“You didn't notice the wire, fine. Sasuke is a fiend with wire, even I didn't notice it and it was around MY neck. But you may have ruined…” He trailed off, then gave her a hard look. “What happened?”

 

Tears welled up in her eyes again. “After seeing you so upset I… I…” her voice filled with self loathing, “abandoned you and went to confront that bastard Sasuke. I held my intent, just like you showed me, took him down, showed him that I could kill him with a finger, then punched him in the face for a while.” Despite years of family training in reading expressions, Naruto remained blank to her, neither approving or disapproving. She hurried to complete her report. “He got in several blows to my head and face before I disabled his arms, then proceeded to make ironic comments to Kakashi-sensei, completely ignoring me as a threat despite the damage he was taking.”

 

“Ignoring you as a threat?” Naruto asked.

 

She frowned. “I don't really understand it. He acted like he was in pain when I hit him, but he never seemed afraid for his life, even when I showed that I was prepared to make a juken strike that would have killed him in one hit.”

 

“Really.”

 

“Yes. Then I threatened to kill him. Again, he didn't seem like he believed me. Sasuke can't hide his emotions like you can, Naruto-sama, and he was not afraid. He did not believe me. I was confused, and let myself be distracted long enough for him to kick me off and use a heel drop kick across my face, here,” she said, indicating the ugly red bruise and swollen eye. “I pretended to be knocked out as he rose and spoke to Kakashi-sensei, and when he looked away I rose and decided to kill him, but Sensei stopped me,” she hastily assured Naruto. “And he still didn't believe I would do it.”

 

Naruto nodded, still looking at her with a blank, unreadable gaze.

 

She wilted under his stare. “I'm so sorry, Naruto-sama, I took it upon myself and hurt your plans, and I abandoned you, and you got hurt somehow and I came to get you because Kakashi-sensei says it's time we moved on but you were hurt and unconscious and I couldn't wake you and I was scared and you woke up and I was so happy and I started crying and-“

 

He shook her gently, enough to cut off her babble.

 

“I'm sorry, Naruto-sama,” she said meekly. “Please punish me as you see fit.”

 

Suddenly his hands appeared, one on each side of her head, his fingers spread over the hinge of her jaw, his middle fingers digging into the hollow behind her ear.

 

Tears sprang to her eyes, one open wide, the other barely half open due to the swelling, and her jaw moved involuntarily with the pressure as twin lances of pain reached deep into her skull where Naruto's fingers touched her.

 

Her mouth parted slightly, and a faint “aaaaa,” of pain came tremulously from her lips, and Naruto just looked on impassively, his fingers digging harder.

 

Her vision started to white out, but his face loomed larger and larger, and then his lips pressed against hers hard enough to bruise, forcing her mouth wider despite the increase in pain it caused. His tongue slipped inside and found hers waiting, and, impossibly, Hinata kissed back, fighting the immense strength of his hands not to get away from the agony, but to take more of it and kiss back harder, completely accepting everything Naruto was doing to her.

 

They kissed for a long, long moment-

 

And then the pain was gone and so were his lips.

 

Freed from the paralyzing effect of the pain points behind her ears, Hinata moaned deep in her throat as she collapsed on him, her hands on his jacket, her breath coming hot against his throat, and her hips thrusting unconsciously against him.

 

Naruto wrapped his arms around her and shifted, raising his right leg beneath her to press from below.

 

Caught by this unexpected sensation, Hinata shuddered and quaked in his arms, her eyes rolling back in her head as she tucked a fold of his jacket in her mouth and bit down.

 

Naruto studied her little fit with the same impassive face he'd worn since she'd finished her story. Reaching a decision, he formed a seal behind her back and formed three clones which sprang into being around them, all of which stopped and stared at the quivering kunoichi in his arms. Two immediately turned to face one another and slapped each other lightly across the cheeks before one transformed into a clone of Hinata and they both leapt to rejoin the team.

 

The third paused a moment, kneeling beside them and stroking her hair a few times as she nuzzled into his chest. Then it, too, hurried away.

 

Gradually, the intense sensations faded to the point she could sit up and awkwardly smooth out the wrinkles she'd put in his jacket, rubbing briefly where she'd slobbered.

 

He grabbed her chin gently and tilted her head so she looked him in the eye. “I'm not mad. Things have been being kind of stale, and it takes conflict to shake them up. While I would prefer that things had been a little more controllable, I learned something vital about myself today, and we've got important clues about the situation we just have to put together.” He fixed her with a stern look. “However, no more threatening potential allies without my approval, okay?”

 

“Yes, Naruto-sama!” she replied quickly, her tone light and happy. He rather thought that, flushed and breathless and completely hanging on his every word, she was rather adorable.

 

Naruto sighed. “What am I going to do with you?”

 

“Anything you want,” was her prompt reply.

 

He smirked and jerked his chin slightly, as if repressing a single noise of amusement or pleasure.

 

“And what should I do with Sasuke?”

 

“Wait until we're in a fight with a reasonably dangerous enemy. Kill the enemy. Kill him. Make it look like enemy action.” Her words were clipped and prompt. She'd been thinking about the question.

 

He smiled, and it was not a nice one. “My little vixen.” She preened under his words. “No, no, that's always an option, and admittedly, after my unfortunate discovery, it was the one I favored for a while. But we will not kill allies just because they are dicks. It sets a bad precedent. In all likelihood, at least a third of the people we will end up having to work with will be assholes who are hard to deal with.”

 

She pouted, ever so slightly.

 

He laughed and pushed her off him, rising to his feet and pulling her along. “Come on. I sent some clones in our place, but we still need to keep up.” He began leading the way towards the road. “First, I'll tell you what really happened when Sasuke choked me. And then, we've got some plans to make. You've gathered the puzzle pieces, now we just need to figure out what it means.”

 

 

o/~

 

 

The road grew wider and better maintained, but they still didn't see anyone traveling it. As the day wore on the temperature soared, and they started running into more and more streams, mostly spanned by bridges, though there were a couple with stone laid washes. Sasuke walked across them on top of the shallow, fast moving water. Naruto and Hinata paused to splash their feet through the cool water.

 

The two of them had caught up and used kawarimi to take their doppelgangers' places while Sasuke looked in another direction. Kakashi looked up briefly from his book at the back of the pack, but Naruto figured that if he didn't say anything, it was either approval or tactic permission and, either way, quiet. Freed from their masquerade, the clones sped ahead to scout.

 

For the first several hours, including during the walking period that let them wolf down rice balls and drink from canteens, no one said anything. Sasuke, for all that his face looked exactly like his two teammates had spent a significant portion of the day pounding on it, traveled with an air of security and smugness that honestly made Hinata want to take another swing at him. At least every now and then he'd rub his shoulders, Hinata knew exactly how much it hurt and tingled after a limb had been disabled by a juken strike and was gradually getting its function back.

 

Naruto spent his time deep in thought, relying on Hinata to watch the surroundings. He spent a lot of time staring at the inside of his head. One thing he had not told Hinata was the dream he'd had after the chakra backlash from a clone stuck between forming and dispelling had knocked him out. Ordinarily, he'd dismiss a dream as just noise in the neurons. But Naruto didn't dream like that. Mostly, he dreamed of memories, memories, both bad and good, which came to him disconnected and nonlinear.

 

Walking through a town full of him, however, able to think, move, and remember like he was awake, that spoke of something new. It still might just be a psychic backlash from the clone, but he wasn't sure. It bore investigation.

 

Kakashi took them off the road at one point, and it was even hotter and more oppressively humid in the stillness among the trees, which changed from the massive, sheltering species that dominated the lands around Konoha to new types, mostly thinner, with fewer limbs except for the very tops and craggy, shaggy bark. Bogs and swamps became common, and it was getting rare to see dry land between the trees. Kakashi led them across the water at a run, and they were all grateful for the water walking lessons the previous day. Slogging through the water and muck would have quadrupled the time it was taking them to use the shortcut.

 

Finally, they emerged from the bogs onto another road, this one smaller and obviously not heavily traveled. Kakashi signaled for a stop and immediately pulled out his book again while his team of genin quickly took seats along the side of the road and rested. After a few minutes, a gentle breeze started blowing from the east, drying sweat and setting the leaves to rustling.

 

Hinata activated her byakugan and looked around, then rubbed her calf muscles thoughtfully, staring at her own legs. She looked around again.

 

Naruto pulled out three small rice balls from his pack, wrapped in seaweed. He tossed one to Hinata, and the other to Sasuke, aiming to hit the boy in the chest if he didn't catch it.

 

He caught it. “What kind of poison did you put in it?”

 

Naruto snorted. “Don't be stupid. It's antidote for the poison I put in your fish last night.”

 

Sasuke looked at it dubiously, then ate it when the others did. It made about two bites.

 

“Ano, Sensei, the chakra coils in our legs show signs of strain,” she said, having finished her own rice ball.

 

Kakashi looked up. “Feeling sore?”

 

“Some. But I'm beginning to have trouble focusing chakra properly, and I see the same indicators in Sasuke.”

 

“Naruto?”

 

“Except Naruto,” she agreed.

 

Kakashi hummed thoughtfully to himself. “So not everyone. Other than your legs, how are you feeling, Hinata?”

 

“Tired and sore,” she said, rubbing lightly at the now black bruise along the side of her face. “Sasuke kicks hard.”

 

“And you, Sasuke?” he asked, turning to the once handsome Uchiha.

 

“Nothing that would affect my ability to fight,” he replied stoically. His entire face showed bruises ranging from nearly black to light purple.

 

“Naruto?”

 

“Tired,” Naruto admitted. “Nothing hurts anymore, but I'm tired like I got my ass kicked this morning and then ran all day.” His own bruises and cuts had completely faded before they'd even had lunch.

 

Sasuke turned and looked at him, one eyebrow arched painfully.

 

Naruto gave him a wry smile. “You won this morning, no argument.”

 

“Actually, I was thinking about the fact that I carried you for over two hours,” Sasuke replied just as wryly. “Yet you still say you ran all day.”

 

Naruto smirked in return. “Are you sure you carried me, and not a clone?”

 

Sasuke's smirk dimmed.

 

“At any rate, I've…” he trailed off, looking thoughtful.

 

Kakashi lowered his book.

 

Hinata formed seals and looked around suspiciously, and Sasuke got to his feet, looking wary.

 

“What is it?” Sasuke asked, eyes scanning the trees.

 

“Blood,” Naruto replied quietly. “Old blood.”

 

“You can smell it?” Kakashi asked, his visible eyebrow raised.

 

“I have a nose, don't I?” Naruto replied.

 

Kakashi inclined his head. “Tell me, then, about the blood.”

 

Naruto frowned, closed his eyes and concentrated. “There's a lot of it, but it's a long way away. It's really faint… Hold on.” He formed a seal. “Kage bushin no jutsu.”

 

Two dozen clones were formed, spreading out across the road, some leaping into the trees. They all took up thoughtful stances, eyes closed, sniffing into the wind.

 

“Lots of it,” one clone in a tree confirmed.

 

“Probably spread out over an area,” another added from a tree on the other side of the road.

 

“Day, maybe day and a half old.”

 

“And…” another clone said thoughtfully, and paused. With a series of pops, the clones began disappearing, finally leaving only the real Naruto behind, who took a deep breath.

 

“Has the scent of punctured intestines in it,” he said finally. “Real savage, whatever spread that carnage around.

 

“Good, Naruto,” Kakashi said. “Now, what kind of blood is it?”

 

Naruto frowned. “I…” He frowned again. “I don't know.”

 

“Good nose. You need to train it.” Kakashi gave him a smile mostly hidden behind the mask. “It's cow.”

 

“Looks like we're going in the right direction, then,” Sasuke said. “Maybe we can kill whatever it is tonight.”

 

“I like that idea,” Naruto admitted. “And maybe have a good meal tonight. The smell is making me hungry.”

 

“The beef?” Sasuke asked.

 

“The carnage.”

 

 

o/~

 

 

The sun had dipped low in the sky as the road widened into a large clearing lightly screened with trees on the eastern side. There was a large house with a stone fence around it in the center of the clearing, wide and sprawling and brightly colored. A big barn, stone around the bottom and the rest wooden, loomed over the house a few hundred yards away, and split log fences ran every which way, especially around the several acre garden, warding it from the depredations of farmstock.

 

Naruto's nose flared. The scent of congealed blood was everywhere.

 

Sasuke stared. Hinata pointed.

 

“Live cows, next to the barn,” she said.

 

“They look… skinny,” Sasuke added. “And wary.”

 

Three emaciated cows stood close together in the shadow of the barn. Periodically, their heads would dip and grab a mouthful of hay from the small piles strewn there, but they would quickly raise their heads and look around suspiciously again.

 

“The house, first,” Kakashi said, breaking into a sprint, slow enough they could follow.

 

The house was dark and quiet. They prowled through it without so much as a squeak of loose floorboard, noting the lack of dust, the long cold kitchen, the lack of mess. No blood marred the place, other than the ever-present stench that wafted in from the outside. There were things missing, however. Walls with blank spaces clearly meant for pictures. Blankets. Clothes. Personal effects of many kinds.

 

They met again outside the front door, and a second Naruto joined them.

 

“Found the source of the blood,” he began without preamble. “Barn doors have been smashed open, looks like about two, maybe three cows' worth of bits. There's another spot just outside the barn where I think a dog died. And there's over a dozen separate kill sites in the trees and the pastures on the other side of the trees, ranging from about as old as the kills in the barn, to pretty damned old, weeks at least.”

 

“The people got scared and left,” the real Naruto noted. “When did they send someone to Konoha to pay for the mission? Did we have a time we were supposed to be here, or did they just get nervous and run?”

 

Kakashi shook his head. “This was a low priority mission that came in four days ago, and they sat on it waiting for the right team to be free, before they gave it to us. If they'd been immediately worried, they could have paid to make it more of a priority. Something changed.”

 

“There were nine people living in the house, and four more living in the quarters behind it,” Sasuke added. “It looks like they took as much as they could, but only the essentials. Whatever it was scared them even though there were at least ten, maybe eleven adults living here.”

 

“I saw wagon, horse, and several sets of people tracks leading away,” Hinata chimed in. “Looks like they were too heavily loaded to carry everyone. This was not rushed, they took at least a half day to prepare.”

 

“Excellent job,” Kakashi said. “Now, to find out who else has been here.” He pulled a scroll out of a vest pocket, bit his thumb, and unrolled and streaked blood down the scroll with a series of smooth, practiced motions. Then he formed a long series of seals, blood splattering both his hands, and thrust his hand down at the ground, where lines of chakra seemed to spread. “Kuchiyose no jutsu!”

 

With a large puff of smoke, five large dogs and one small one appeared, each dressed in oddly appropriate garb.

 

“Yo, Kakashi,” the smallest said, raising one paw. “Smells like a slaughterhouse.”

 

Naruto raised one eyebrow, staring at the nin-dogs with undisguised interest.

 

“Hey, Pakkun,” Kakashi greeted in return, giving a subtle nod of welcome to the other dogs present. “I'd like you all to meet my cute genin team: Sasuke, Naruto, and Hinata.” He gestured to each in turn.

 

Pakkun got up and walked around them each in turn, staring up at them. Naruto crouched to the ground and Hinata quickly followed, while Sasuke remained standing, looking down his nose at the small, pug nosed dog. Neither Naruto nor Hinata made any move to pet the dog, fearing that the gesture would be condescending.

 

“You smell like death and old blood,” Pakkun said thoughtfully, completing his circuit around Naruto.

 

Naruto looked surprised.

 

“You smell like lust and pain,” he said, coming back to the fore after his circle around Hinata.

 

Hinata looked embarrassed.

 

“You smell like hatred and frustration,” he finished thoughtfully, sitting on his haunches and appraising Sasuke's look of indifference before turning to Kakashi. “And these are your genin?”

 

Kakashi nodded happily. “Death, bloodlust, pain, and hatred. They're like wild dogs just recently met.”

 

The small dog nodded, then turned back to the motley trio. “Well. I'm Pakkun. If you're good, I'll let you touch my pads,” he said, lifting one paw again to show the underside. “They're really really soft.”

 

Ignoring the tempting offer, Naruto leaned forward, placing one hand on the ground for balance but keeping the other lifted, the way a dog might. He sniffed deeply. “And you…” he said thoughtfully, letting a puzzled expression form on his face. “You smell like floral shampoo and… trust?”

 

Pakkun and Kakashi exchanged a look.

 

“Yes,” was all Kakashi said.

 

“Anyway,” he continued, “I need you to tell me how many people were here, when they left, and what direction they left in. Also, I want to know what and how many killed the cows, where they came from, and where they left to.”

 

The dogs scattered in the blink of an eye.

 

“We'll watch from the roof of the barn,” Kakashi announced, and led the way. As they moved he watched his students carefully, noting their reactions to the nearly overpowering stench of day old cow shreds. Naruto and Sasuke seemed to have no reaction at all, and even Hinata didn't have much, though she did dab a touch of salve onto her nostrils. He wondered what their reactions would have been if it were the family brutally murdered in the barn, rather than just cattle. Being inured to wanton slaughter wasn't exactly a good thing. All of them needed more empathy.

 

The roof of the barn was a series of angles ranging from pretty steep towards the sides to not very at the peak. They clustered up roughly in the middle, since the side of the barn faced the house and it gave them relatively unobstructed views of both the house and the eastern pastures. The barn's shadow was getting extremely long as the sun touched the horizon to the west, making the house all but lost in the glare, and the trees to the east took on a more sinister air as the shadows between them deepened.

 

Kakashi's nin-dogs ran swiftly back and forth, following the invisible trails of scent. Pakkun and two of the others concentrated on the house, while the rest scoured the fields at a breakneck pace.

 

“That's a pretty useful technique,” Naruto commented.

 

“Yes, it can be,” Kakashi agreed, but didn't volunteer anything else.

 

Shrugging slightly, Naruto collapsed onto the roof, taking off his jacket and using it for a pillow. After a moment, Hinata did the same.

 

After several long, quiet minutes, Sasuke took a seat as well.

 

It took nearly ten minutes before a small brown and blue blur shot up to the roof of the barn in a series of leaps. Pakkun didn't seem the least winded by his exertions as he appeared in a seated position in front of Kakashi, the doggy equivalent of standing at attention.

 

“There were thirteen humans and four dogs living in and around the house long term,” Pakkun began. “Seven females and six male humans, two and two of the dogs. Three of the dogs were killed, one just outside the barn, two more in the trees. One female was a fearful sort and stayed close to the house, it left with the people along the road. It and all of the people smelled stressed and anxious, but unhurt. Additionally, two more human scents came, entered the house briefly, and left last night or early this morning.” The dog paused thoughtfully. “There were thirty seven dead cattle, mostly concentrated in the pasture beyond that screen of trees and more than a week old.” He paused again, looking at Kakashi.

 

Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

 

“I don't know what did it, exactly,” Pakkun confessed. “They smell musky, almost like a bear, but not exactly. It had more of a… greasy, predatory smell to it almost like a wolverine, but not like that either. The smell of rotting meat was left in the tracks, like something that killed with its claws and didn't clean them very often.” The dog wrinkled its pug nose in distaste. “It's not a pleasant smell. Whatever they are, they're foul and wasteful. Most of each cow killed was spoiled and left behind, we found the graves where the farmers must have buried the remains.”

 

“How many were there?” Kakashi asked.

 

Pakkun gave a dog equivalent of a shrug. “I'm not sure. At least five, there were three separate scents from two nights ago, but at least two more that were older and didn't match those. There may have been eight or more over time, but the scent was mostly washed away and I can't be sure.” The dog shook its head and stood up, walking up to the very peak of the roof and staring off to the northeast. “I can't even tell you exactly where they came from,” he said, and there was a trace of surprise in the tone. “They came from the swamp, and we lost their trails pretty quickly in the water, and I can't tell you how they managed that. They returned to the swamp as well, not always exactly where they came out from, and again, we couldn't follow the scent very far even though the scent should be easy to find in the stillness between the trees and pooled over the water.”

 

“Well, so much for tracking them down now,” Naruto commented. “I guess we'll have to wait for them to come to us.”

 

“There was one odd thing,” Pakkun added. “The two humans who visited after the main group left, their scents came in from the road, and left by the road. But we also smelled them again at the edge of the swamp. I can't tell you how they got there, or how they left. But they were there, briefly.”

 

Kakashi nodded. Then, oddly, he closed his eye for several long minutes, clearly thinking about the problem.

 

Naruto, privately, got a kick out of it. Watching Kakashi ponder thoughtfully was a lot like listening to Sasuke's say `hn' instead of real words.

 

At length, he opened his eye again and fixed them with a piercing look.

 

“Okay, students,” he began.

 

They perked up subtly. Clearly, it was lesson time.

 

“Knowing what we now know about the situation, what do you each think we should do?” he asked, raising his eyebrow.

 

“We should follow the trail our clients left behind and speak to them,” Sasuke replied promptly. “It's getting late in the day, but your dogs are following scent, the sky is clear, and there's going to be a waning quarter moon tonight.”

 

Kakashi inclined his head, acknowledging the answer, but not replying to it.

 

Hinata looked at Naruto, who had a thoughtful expression on his face. He shook his head and motioned for her to go ahead.

 

Frowning nervously at suddenly being forced to say what she thought, she swallowed and spoke up quietly. “A-ano, I think we should stay here for the night. The mission is to kill what was killing the cattle, and there are three cows left. If they didn't come last night, they should be getting hungry by now and should come again tonight. We can kill the ones that come tonight, then find our clients tomorrow.”

 

Kakashi inclined his head again.

 

“We should stay,” Naruto said quietly, then closed his mouth again. He looked down at the roof, then out across the pastures to the swamps beyond.

 

Kakashi gave him a moment, but it was Sasuke who spoke up.

 

“Stay? Why?” Sasuke asked, his tone becoming derisive. “Because you're too tired to keep going?”

 

Naruto gave him an even look in return, his eyes hard. “You have your point, Sasuke. We need to find the clients, because they may be in danger and we clearly need their information to deal with what is obviously not just a pack of wolves killing a few cows.” He paused, looking at Hinata. “I'll even admit that there's a very low chance of whatever it is returning tonight. Regular animals don't attack when large numbers of people are around and then stay away when no one is home.

 

“However,” and he leaned forward to make his words a bit more intense, “there are still things to be learned. We haven't looked at the tracks. We haven't looked at the remains of the cows. But most importantly, we ARE tired. You and I fought hard this morning. You and Hinata fought after that. And if none of our injuries are crippling, they still slow us down. Yes, we could keep going. None of us are even close to our limit, but we are tired and are hurting. If we hadn't spent a large portion of the day beating the hell out of each other, I'd say keep going. If there was some sign that the clients were in immediate danger, I'd say keep going. But as it stands, it's a risk we shouldn't make. Stay here, learn what we can learn, eat, sleep, heal, kill what shows up if anything does, and find the clients in the morning.” He finished, never wavering, maintaining eye contact with Sasuke the entire time.

 

Sasuke wavered, looking to Kakashi, who gave nothing away, then at Hinata, who was looking at Naruto, then back at Naruto. He blinked slowly, then nodded. “Okay.”

 

Naruto didn't smile, just nodded acknowledgement. “Okay, then my first suggestion is we look at the tracks, try to find any hair left behind, and then I want to look at the dead cows in the barn. How they were killed will tell us a lot about how the beasts we're after fight, whether they use claws, teeth, or what.”

 

Kakashi nodded. “We'll do that, then. You three do it, I'll watch.”

 

Naruto hesitated a second, then gave Kakashi a crooked grin. “Hey, since the people are gone, do you think it'd be okay if I sent a clone or two to raid their kitchen for anything left? I'm not kidding, the smell really is making me hungry.”

 

 

o/~

 

 

 

“Hair, Naruto,” Hinata said, bringing two strands back from a small bush. Tracks were all over the place, but the pasture had thick grassy sod and didn't take a print well, so they'd ended up in the boggy, wet ground at the edge of the east pasture where it met the edge of the swamp.

 

Naruto looked up from the large paw print he, Sasuke, and Kakashi were squatted around and carefully took the two hairs. The light was dying fast, and the shadows were getting long, but they looked more or less brown to him. He held them out to the other two, who had looked up from their intense study of the track to see the hair.

 

“Brown,” Kakashi noted. “That's consistent with some bears, at least.”

 

The track was, as pointed out by Kakashi when he found that their tracking skills weren't adequate to read details into unknown prints, more or less consistent with a bear, at least if the bear had steak knives for claws, given that the marks the claw tips made in the mud were nearly four inches from the pads. However, as Kakashi pointed out, the print was very large, but the track was disturbingly light in the extremely soft muck, indicating the animal must have been extremely gaunt, an odd characteristic given it killed the cattle but did not eat them.

 

“So we're looking for a really big, really skinny, brown bear-thing?” Naruto said dubiously. “You know, I always wondered how useful the academy lessons were, but I learned them anyway. And now, here we are out in the wide world, and, just like I thought, no one covered stuff I would actually like to know, like what the hell made this track.” He shook his head. “It's a damned good thing I studied stuff outside the academy lectures, or I'd be feeling pretty useless right now. Let's go look at the bloody remains.”

 

The barn doors were closed, such as they were. The hinges of one were broken on the bottom and so warped up top it seemed strained just trying to keep the door upright. Naruto managed to get the opposite door to swing open, noting the large chunks of splintered wood missing from it as well, and released the miasma of blood and offal, which rolled out as an almost physical cloud.

 

The inside of the barn appeared to almost be painted black.

 

Blood, when fresh, comes in a variety of shades of red, depending on how oxygenated it is. When allowed to sit around and clot, however, it turns so dark as to be nearly black. There was no mistaking it as anything but blood, though.

 

And bits of cow.

 

LOTS of cow bits.

 

The cows had been ripped to shreds and tossed violently around the insides. Stall walls, support posts, and part of the hayloft had been broken into shards and splinters by flying beef. Part of a head, the largest single piece in the entire barn, dangled by a strip of skin from a smashed part of the underside of the hay loft. One side, probably the side that had met the sturdy timbers of the loft, was smashed to pulp. The other side… There was a piece taken out of the left side, including the eye, ear, and horn. It didn't look much like a bite, more like a scoop, as if something had taken a swing at the cow with a razor sharp spoon.

 

Short lengths of guts dangled from nails and jagged ends of boards. Intestinal contents had be spattered across the ceiling. Some boards simply ended, sheared off as neatly as if they had been cut to length.

 

“Wow,” Naruto said softly, impressed. “Now THAT is impressive.”

 

Hinata looked around carefully, looking for incongruous clues which might be found under the gore.

 

Sasuke stood frozen in shock for nearly half a minute, which escaped no one's' notice, before he swallowed and regained his composure. “Yes, the cows were killed with some violence, as if the killer or killers were enraged.”

 

Naruto shook his head. “Nah, anyone can go nuts and slaughter an entire…” He hesitated, looking at Sasuke, then continued, “…barn of cows. Takes a little time and some effort, but you can get the blood smeared around just fine. No, I was talking about the flies. Or, that is, lack of them. I have no idea what could scare off flies from a feast like this. It's not like the barn was sealed, and the smell reached us miles away. Every fly in the surrounding twenty miles should be here buzzing around, but I haven't seen a single one.”

 

With a start, both Sasuke and Hinata realized he was right.

 

Naruto looked at Kakashi, who stood a little way apart from the group. “Sensei? Your student freely admits he does not know what the hell is going on here, and humbly asks your guidance.”

 

“Don't be sarcastic, Naruto, it makes you smell bitter,” Kakashi replied. “Pakkun was just too polite to mention it.”

 

Naruto looked offended.

 

“However, there is no trace of any chemical scent here that should keep flies away. I even looked for traces of chakra, like a lingering genjutsu aimed at flies, but there isn't anything of that nature either. The absence of flies may well be important to determining the nature of our prey.”

 

Naruto sniffed deeply, apparently with some satisfaction as he carefully took off his jacket and put it on a `clean' patch of dirt outside the barn. He also produced a flashlight from his backpack, and, stepping gingerly, walked into the barn.

 

“What exactly are you doing?” Sasuke asked, following, his curiosity getting the better of him as Naruto pulled a senbon out of his pouch and started poking carefully at a lump of flesh about the side of two fists put together.

 

“I'm looking for tool marks. Actually, bite marks or claw marks. Everything, sharp, dull, pointy, edged, whatever, leaves unique marks in flesh,” Naruto explained absently turning the meat over. “Round teeth like the canines in dogs, cats, or most other predators make puncture wounds. Incisors cut into the flesh, but they're usually really dull. Molars grind and tear. Most animals have to use their whole body to tear off chunks of flesh with strength, not by cutting. Claws, on the other hand, create curving puncture wounds. If they're pulled through the flesh, they leave big rips because they don't actually have sharp edges.

 

“You see, claws aren't actually used for killing. They're there to hold on to things. Grip. A cat grabs the mouse with its claws, but it kills with its bite. A dog mostly uses its claws to grip the ground while it bites. I'm not familiar with bears, but I imagine they'd do much the same thing, maybe a little more clawing. If I find claw marks and teeth marks on the meat, we know it fights one way, and if I just find teeth marks, we know it fights a different way.” He lifted another chunk of meat on the senbon and ran his finger down one side.

 

Sasuke watched neutrally.

 

Naruto shrugged. “Anyway, it's kind of difficult with everything spread out this way, but I should be able to figure out something of how whatever it is fights and kills.”

 

Sasuke didn't say anything. Naruto rather thought he looked tense, which was odd. Sasuke didn't seem like the type to freeze up around a little gore. He'd have to ask Hinata about it later, she was the expert in reading people.

 

Hinata, for her part, was looking around with her byakugan, looking underneath the blood for anything unusual, like perhaps something painted on the inside wall before the violence. It was sort of difficult, however, since the blood had soaked into the wood quite deep in most places. Focusing on her eyes had the additional benefit of tuning out her sense of smell. Despite a dab of salve in her nose, the place reeked.

 

“It's like they painted the barn with cow,” she murmured, turning slowly in a circle.

 

“While ordinarily I find cow to be very tasteful, I can't help but think this comes off as rather gaudy and gratuitous,” Sasuke replied quietly.

 

They stared at him in complete astonishment.

 

He ignored them. But there was a tiny smile at the corners of his mouth.

 

“Niiiice, Sasuke,” Naruto said, sounding tremendously impressed. “I didn't know you had it in you.”

 

Sasuke said nothing.

 

Shrugging, Naruto went back to his investigations, moving slowly through the barn, picking at the largest pieces.

 

“I'm a little worried about this, honestly,” Naruto said some time later.

 

Hinata looked at him in concern.

 

“I know I said that animals kill with their teeth,” he said thoughtfully, “but I've looked at nearly three dozen pieces of cow larger than a fist, and I haven't seen a single tooth mark. Unless Sensei cares to enlighten me with knowledge of some sort of animal that kills only with its claws, I have NO idea what we're dealing with.” He looked at Kakashi expectantly.

 

No enlightenment was forthcoming.

 

“There are claw marks, for sure. They match what we saw in the mud, a big curving puncture with a sharp tip and thick base, often opening up into big ragged tears. Makes sense, I guess, the bear-things must have batted the cows around like a cat with a ball of string and made some nasty wounds in the process. But, really, look at this.” He held up a flat, largish piece of meat not unlike a big steak, although of an unconventional cut, since the flat, smooth side clearly showed tendon and bone near the middle.

 

“It's trimmed neatly,” Hinata noted. “The edges aren't ragged.”

 

“Exactly!” Naruto said with some frustration. “And that doesn't make any sense. Claws are dull. Teeth are dull. But almost every piece of cow in her has been cut with something incredibly sharp about a foot long, and I have no idea what it is,” he hissed.

 

“A kunai?” Sasuke asked. “Maybe a kodachi or something similar?”

 

Naruto shook his head. “I'd recognize a kunai cut, they're really thick compared to regular blades. Each knife is different, too, and while a katana, kodachi, or something similar might be sharp enough to cut meat this cleanly, they'd leave different tool marks.”

 

“Are you sure?” Sasuke asked carefully. “I know you said you studied outside the academy, but I've never heard of being able to tell knives apart by their cuts.”

 

“We're also dealing with animals, not people,” Hinata added, interrupting Sasuke. “Pakkun and the other dogs would have said if people had done this.”

 

Naruto shrugged. “That's true, but still. I was taught how to tell tools apart by the marks they make in flesh by a master. This wasn't a knife. I don't know what it was.”

 

“I believe,” Kakashi said thoughtfully, making them all look at him in alarm, “that the reason for the shallow prints and your incredibly sharp cuts is one and the same.” He smiled at them, his eye crinkling in pleasure. “If you think about it.”

 

“One and the same?” Naruto asked, disbelief in his voice. “…okay… I'm gonna have to think about this one a minute.”

 

Hinata frowned, also thinking hard.

 

It was Sasuke who voiced the answer.

 

“Chakra.”

 

Kakashi smiled and nodded. “Very good, Sasuke. Naruto, you're thinking animals are all unintelligent and plodding. Did meeting Pakkun not teach you anything?”

 

Naruto's eyes widened. “Pakkun uses chakra when he runs, doesn't he? That's how a little dog would be able to keep up with the bigger, stronger ones.”

 

“Actually, they all use chakra. But Pakkun is exceptionally gifted with it.” Kakashi seemed inordinately proud.

 

“Are all animals able to use chakra? I mean, is it a training issue or a nature of the beast issue?” Naruto asked.

 

“Are you trying to ask if the ability to use chakra means that the animals have been trained or are being controlled?” Kakashi asked.

 

Naruto frowned thoughtfully. “Yes?”

 

Kakashi shook his head. “Not necessarily. Look at the tailed beasts, for instance, like the kyubi no kitsune. It could use chakra very, very well, and I'm sure it never had training from any human.”

 

“Ah. Well.” Naruto looked around. “Tailed beasts, huh?”

 

“It is unlikely this small scale carnage was caused by a tailed beast,” he added. “They are powerful on such a scale that this would be an insult. However, we are clearly dealing with something quite a bit more dangerous than just a rogue cat or wolf.”

 

“Yeah,” they all agreed.

 

“Are you finished, Naruto?” Hinata asked. “I couldn't find anything unusual under all the blood.”

 

Naruto shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, we learned what we came here to learn. It fights with its claws and chakra. Don't get caught by either of them. I wouldn't recommend letting it bite you, either, if it can.” He stretched and scratched himself. “I guess I should check on me and see how supper is going.” He looked around. “Anyone want steak with their meal?”

 

“No.”

 

“No.” Sasuke looked a little green.

 

“No.” Hinata blushed a little at her weakness.

 

“Eh… okay. Just checking.” He gave them a little grin.

 

“I do have a question,” Sasuke said quietly, looking at him.

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow.

 

“Where did you learn about tool marks in flesh?”

 

“I…” Naruto opened his mouth, then closed it again and smiled. It was not a nice smile. “You know, that's a funny story. It's directly related to why all this,” he gestured around them, “is making me hungry. I tell you what. After we eat, if you still want to know, I'll tell you.”

 

Sasuke nodded.

 

“Come on, Hinata, I could use a hand with the food, you always were better with the rice than I am. We'll have a nice supper on… the roof of the house.” He smiled. “Meet you there.”

 

 

o/~

 

 

“We alone?” Naruto asked, slicing pickled vegetables into thin strips.

 

Hinata peered around suspiciously at the kitchen, in actuality looking through the walls with her bloodline and scanning for eavesdroppers.

 

“Yes, we're alone,” she confirmed, resuming her task of adding salt and vinegar to the rice.

 

Naruto washed his knife and lay it aside. “Weird. That was probably the least subtle way of getting the two of us alone to talk I've used since we've been on this team. I'd have been curious.”

 

Hinata grinned at him, looking positively mischievous.

 

He chuckled. “Yeah, this whole team business did turn out a lot weirder than I imagined. I knew my plans had gone to hell when we got Sasuke, but I'm kinda starting to be glad of that. I'm not nearly as pissed at him now as I was earlier.”

 

Hinata shrugged. “He finally started listening to you, which is good. I still want to hit him in the face a few more times.”

 

“Trust me, you've done that enough for today,” he replied wryly, stirring sauce in a pan, which he then tasted by dipping in a finger and touching it to his tongue. “What did you notice when he froze up?”

 

She frowned thoughtfully, folding rice without looking. “I'm not sure, really. The smell didn't bother him, but he did react to the sight of blood. It doesn't fit what we know of him.” She smiled suddenly. “And if it doesn't fit what we know of him and he does it anyway, we clearly don't know him well enough, right?”

 

Naruto nodded, tapping the end of her nose playfully, jerking his finger back when she nipped. “That's my vixen.”

 

Hinata practically glowed with pleasure.

 

“Did you notice anything specific about the way he reacted?”

 

She nodded. “He remained tense and ready, but his heartrate slowed when he first saw inside the barn before it sped up. Blood is related to conflict for him, which isn't uncommon, but his first thought wasn't anticipation of battle, it was fear. When he first saw the blood, he looked to the top left. Then, he moved his eyes to the bottom right. He remembered a past traumatic event, one which caused tremendous fear and pain. He was most likely remembering the death of his family at the hands of his brother, or possibly some other even more upsetting event, which must have been horrible indeed if it was worse than the Uchiha massacre. However, he quickly blinked slowly and breathed, a meditation technique, and was able to regain full control over himself, with only a slight widening of his eyes to indicate shame at his loss of composure.”

 

Naruto added fish to the sauce, stirring it rapidly over the gas flame of the house stove as he listened to her report intently.

 

She finished spreading the rice. “It seems unlikely he would have seen comparable amounts of blood since the massacre, so he probably thought himself in complete control of his memories and emotions reguarding the event. To be so suddenly reminded that there are things in the mind you cannot fully control was most likely an unsettling revelation.”

 

“It is,” Naruto agreed without rancor.

 

“I would have expected him to shut his emotions in after that, but given the joke he made to defuse his stress, I would guess he's more likely to talk now than at any other time.” She sighed theatrically, tapping her wooden spoon in her hand. “And given the way your eyes have shifted up and your heart has remained absolutely steady for the last few moments, I have only been confirming what you already thought.” She paused, going crosseyed. “And you put pepper sauce on my nose.”

 

Naruto grinned at her. “No I didn't.”

 

“Yes, you did. I can see it.”

 

“No you can't. No one can see the end of their own nose without a mirror.”

 

“Well I can,” she declared, giving him an exasperated look.

 

Abruptly Naruto dropped his spoon and seized her in his arms, planting a rather wet kiss on the end of her nose that sucked off the tiny dab of sauce and quickly dropped lower as his lips met hers and she melted against him. He held her like that for several long moments, then released her and quickly saved his fish from burning.

 

“Happy now?” he asked rhetorically, not bothering to keep the smile off his face.

 

“…yeah,” she replied dreamily.

 

“I honestly don't know what I'd do without you, Hinata-chan,” he added. “I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier today. I rely on you so much I sometimes take you for granted, which I found out when I chased you away, then passed out. I really needed you then,” he said bitterly, carefully not glancing at her out of the corner of his eye as he removed the pan from the heat.

 

She paled, her heart skipping a beat as she remembered how she'd failed him, how she'd ran and not been there to protect him. “No, no, you don't have to apologise. I was… I was speaking improperly. I should have… I should have been what you needed, Naruto-sama. It won't happen again, I swear,” she said, the last coming out as a whisper.

 

“You are what I need,” he countered. “You read me better than anyone. You know my moods. When to be unnoticed. When to be deadly. When to play. You are my left hand, Hinata. You are the one closest to my heart.”

 

She smiled at him, and there were tears in the corners of her eyes.

 

He smiled at her like a fox with a cornered rabbit. “Together, we will make things be what we want. Never forget that, Hinata.”

 

She swallowed and nodded, a distant, hard look coming into her eyes. Unnoticed by her, the tough bamboo spoon snapped like a dry twig in her hand.

 

His smile became a grin. “And some things will be quite a bit easier if we have the amazing Uchiha as an ally. Listen, I think we should try something new tonight. Something which, ordinarily I would never suggest we do with someone we don't fully trust.”

 

“What do you mean?” she asked.

 

“You said Sasuke is more likely to talk now than we've yet seen. Let's bait him with some truth, and see if he gets hooked.” His eyes gleamed.

 

“Truth, Naruto?”

 

“Yes. I think you and Sasuke need to have a little chat. And tonight, well, you'll need to be reluctant, but here's what I want you to do.”