Konoha Children's Crusade Chapter 18 Part 3

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Kiba leaned against the guard hut next to the main gate. The dogs lay in a heap at his feet in the hot afternoon sun. They stretched out in the dust, tongues hanging out, trying to squeeze into the tiny patch of shade being thrown up by the wall. As usual, Kabocha crowded everyone else out.

Kiba nodded at the cool breeze filtering in to the village. "This was your doing wasn't it?" he muttered. The breeze rose and fell and he smiled. "Haven't changed a bit have you? Underneath that tough, no nonsense exterior, you've still got a heart for the underdog." He watched the old man and the young kunoichi being questioned by a group of stern faced shinobi.

The Nara kids crossed his line of vision. He gave them a nod and a wave. The girl nodded back, the boy just stared, trying to place who the scruffy, mean-looking guy with all the dogs was. Kiba glanced up at the clouds. "I always liked the Nara kids. Remember how when we were talking about kids you were so nervous. 'A child raised in two villages? How would that work?' I just pointed to them. 'Shikamaru and Temari can do it. Why can't we?'" He looked up at a babble of raised voices. A squad of Hyuga shinobi were examining the crates in the wagon and reporting their findings to a pair of ANBU, one in a wolf mask, the other in a bull mask. "I feel bad for the genin," Kiba grumbled under his breath, "I can't believe her uncle would get her into that much trouble. He must be a class A idiot." A short gust caressed his face carrying with it the scent of the woods. Kiba smiled. "You're welcome. Of course I would have tried to help them as well... Like you, I also have a soft spot for the underdog."

The interrogation appeared to end. The questioning Leaf shinobi were replaced by sterner and beefier looking ones. The Hyuga went into a huddle with the ANBU. After a quick discussion, the wolf mask ANBU pointed right at Kiba and the whole group turned to stop and stare. One of the customs agents broke from the group and walked over to him, nervously tapping a clipboard against his leg. "Oops, got to go sweetie," he whispered. "Here comes official business." He straightened up against the wall and gave the approaching shinobi a smile.

"Are you Kiba Inuzuka?" he asked in clipped tones. He glanced at Kiba and his pile of dogs, looking them over with his pale Hyuga eyes. Kiba nodded and took the cigar stub out of his mouth. "What is your relation to Ayoto and Katsuki of the hidden Cloud village?"

"Is that their names?" Kiba asked innocently. "I never caught them. I just met them a little while ago."

The Hyuga chunin nodded and placed a little check on his clipboard. "Can you describe what happened when you encountered them?"

Kiba scratched his head and looked thoughtful. 'Well gee, I guess me and the dogs were just heading back in from our LRP. We were running late because of some suspicious activity that I wanted to check out. Anyway on the road back to town, we ran into this cart, and the two people on it... What did you say their names were?"

"Ayoto and Katsuki," replied the chunin dryly.

"Right... well the old guy, Ayoto, he tells me that some shadowy mystery guy offers him eight hundred thousand ryo to deliver a set of mystery crates to an address in Konoha. Now he needs the money, but he thinks the whole thing is kind of suspicious, so when he met me on the road he asked what would be the best way to turn all of these over to the authorities for inspection." He looked up at the chunin and took another puff of his cigar. "Did you figure out what was in them yet? The dogs said all they could smell was a bunch of paper."

"And his niece?" asked the chunin making another check on his clipboard.

Kiba shrugged. "He said she was just along for the ride. He wanted to teach her the family trade."

The chunin glanced up at Kiba and tapped delicately on the clipboard. "So that's your official story?"

Kiba smiled brilliantly. "Yup."

The Hyuga studied him and leaned forward. "You're lying," he said quietly.

Kiba narrowed his eyes. "That's a terribly rude thing to accuse a man of."

The Hyuga chunin opened his mouth to retort, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. The wolf masked ANBU pulled him backwards and gave him a gentle shove back towards the main group. She stood there studying Kiba and the dogs carefully. Kiba gave her a friendly nod. "Nice mask."

"You once served with Hinata-sama, did you not?" the ANBU asked her voice muffled by the mask.

Kiba grinned and nodded. "Served with her? Hell, it was me, her and Shino Aburame tearing up the neighborhood back when we were all genin. Of course she was just a shy little thing back then."

The ANBU tilted her head as if mulling something over. "You were married to that kunoichi from the Cloud. Karui? Was that her name?" Kiba's eyes flicked away. He nodded. "I'm sorry for your loss," said the ANBU. "I always heard that she was a wonderful person."

"Thank you," muttered Kiba.

The ANBU brushed her long, black hair back from her shoulder. "So, to get back to business... Let's assume that your 'official' story is more or less the truth," she said. "I'm wondering if there might be any details that you might be willing to add to the unofficial story."

Kiba chewed on his cigar and looked thoughtfully upward. "Why don't you ask me the important questions and I'll do my best to answer them."

"Did you know that Ayoto-san has been suspected of illegal transport of goods for over ten years now? The Hidden Sand village has banned him outright."

Kiba shrugged. "Is he now? Like I said, I never saw the man before today. He seemed really shifty and nervous the whole ride. If he is a smuggler, he must not be a very good one." Kiba blew out a cloud of smoke. "The kid now, she shows some promise. She's just a genin you know."

The ANBU glanced over her shoulder to where Ayoto and Katsuki were standing. "She told us that she was his niece."

"She is," Kiba growled. "The cheap bastard wouldn't spring for a full escort so he pushed her parents into sending her along." Kiba took the cigar stub out of his mouth and used it to point at the girl who was staring daggers at her uncle. "She knew he was being an idiot and dragging her ass into danger and she still didn't rat him out."  He put it back in his mouth and gave it a puff. "Brave kid."

"Brave and stupid, just like her uncle," said the ANBU darkly. "She's on an unsanctioned escort mission for what looks like a smuggling operation. When all this is over, she'll be lucky if she's only sent back to the Cloud's academy." They both stood in silence for a while. Going on unsanctioned missions often led to being declared a rogue-nin. The penalty for being a rogue ninja was usually imprisonment. In severe cases the becoming a rogue meant  death.

Kiba knocked a pile of ash of the end of the cigar. "So… what I want to know is what her uncle though was so damn important about those crates that he decided to risk her honor, her career, and possibly her life for it."

"You really don't know what's in the crates?"

Kiba shrugged. "It's the Hyuga who have the fancy eyes. All I can tell you is it smells like a lot of paper."

The ANBU stared at him for a moment, thinking. "Officially I can't release any information until the report has been reviewed by the Hokage."

"I hope someone is there to help Naruto with the big words," Kiba grinned.

The ANBU stifled something that might have been a chuckle. "Unofficially the crates are packed with sealing tags."

Kiba's eyebrows shot up. "Tags?"

The ANBU nodded. "Normally we would have arrested the both of them by now for the transport of controlled items, but the tags are… incomplete."

"Incomplete? How?"

The ANBU shrugged. "Officially we haven't opened the crate and examined them yet. We're waiting until we can get someone who's an expert to take a look at them. Unofficially, they almost look like they have a reverse summoning inscription on them, but they don't have anything sealed into them yet."

Kiba blew smoke through his nose. "Huh… That's weird." He squinted at the uncle. "Have you thought of throwing uncle Ayoto in a small room with the interrogation squad and seeing if they can help him remember anything else?"

The ANBU made a dismissive gesture with her hands. "Transporting blank tags isn't a crime. The girl we can hold, because she entered the village without being on a mission or with an official pass but if our sealing expert can't find anything suspicious with the summoning tags, we are going to have to let him go."

Kiba looked up at the genin. There was a tight little breeze that blew through the street. It tickled his ears and he gave a slight nod. "Do you mind if Ayoto and I have a little chat?"

The ANBU tilted her head. "Why?"

Kiba smiled. "People just open up to me. I think it's because of my charming personality."

The ANBU tilted her head. "No I mean why are you taking such an interest in this?"

Kiba shrugged. "I guess I just have a soft spot for Hidden Cloud shinobi. I want to make sure the girl stays out of trouble."

The ANBU looked down at her feet. "Ten minutes," she said quietly. "I come with you and observe. You stop when I say stop, and I want no marks on his body."

Kiba grinned. "Deal." He pushed himself off the wall and headed over to where Ayoto and Katsuki were surrounded by guards. The dogs all got up and followed him. Tagging along behind was the wolf-masked ANBU.

Kiba stood outside the ring of guards. "Hey Ayoto," he waved for him to come, "We're going for a little walk."

Ayoto took a nervous step forward. The guards tensed and then parted at a small gesture from the wolf masked ANBU. Her partner, the bull masked ANBU straightened and tilted his mask in a questioning way. The wolf ANBU nodded her head, and he reached over and gave a tug on Ayoto's arm. Gingerly Ayoto stepped outside the circle. "Where are we going?" he asked quietly.

Kiba gave him a big friendly smile. "Just a little walk, we need to have quiet chat in private." He started towards one of the side roads and waved for Ayoto to follow.

"So Ayoto," said Kiba casually. "How's everything going?"

Ayoto looked up at him. "What is going to happen to me?"

Kiba frowned. "To you? Nothing. As far as we can tell, you're not transporting anything illegal."

Ayoto exhaled. "Thank goodness, for a moment there…"

"Did you know what was in the crates Ayoto?" hissed the ANBU from behind.

Ayoto looked up surprised. "What? No! I already told you that…"

"Who gave you the crates Ayoto?" she asked in a low voice.

Ayoto looked back at the ANBU and then forward to Kiba. "I already told you, I didn't get a good look at them."

Kiba nodded his head. "Yeah, you said that in your 'official' story… I want the unofficial one."

Ayoto narrowed his eyes. "Why should I tell you? You've already determined that I've done nothing wrong." He drew himself up with an indignant frown. "In fact, you have no right to keep me here! I demand that you release me at once!"

"Ayoto, Ayoto…" said Kiba placatingly, steering him around a corner. "You're not the one in trouble here."

"Well then, all the more reason why…"

Kiba coughed. "Your niece is."

"My niece?"

Kiba nodded. "Yup. She's in a foreign village, on an unsanctioned mission and without a guest passport. That kind of makes her being here an illegal intrusion." He took Ayoto's shoulder and gently steered him into a left turn down a smaller street. "I'm sure the Raikage would frown upon that. He might even declare her a rogue-nin." Kiba turned him again. "Do you know what they do to rogue–nin these days?"

Ayoto looked down and swallowed. "But... I'm free to go… Right?"

Kiba's smile turned grim. He dropped his cigar butt and ground it out under his heel. He took the older man's elbow and steered him into an alleyway. "Well, not quite yet. Your cargo still needs the official inspection first."

"And then I can go?"

Kiba shrugged. He turned and faced Ayoto directly. "Officially yeah, then you would be free to go… Unofficially…" He snapped his fingers. Burauni darted around behind Ayoto's knees and Kumo jumped up and struck him in the chest with all four paws. Ayoto cried out and tripped over Burauni. Burauni twisted out of the way and seized his left arm, while Poki grabbed his right. Kumo and Hoshi Akari each took an ankle.

Ayoto gasped for breath on the pavement. "What do you…" He froze as Kabocha lumbered up and looked down at him disapprovingly.

Kiba squatted down next to him. "Unofficially, the dogs here have decided that you're going to answer some questions that the nice lady here has. See they know you're a smuggler, and not a very good one at that. They can also smell when someone's lying, and they know that you've been telling a whole bunch of those. But most of all…" Kiba leaned forward and whispered in his ear. "They are most upset about your lack of concern for your niece… See the dogs here think that you should be going through every little detail in your mind trying to help the nice ANBU lady here, in the hopes that she will conveniently forget that your niece is a genin, and not just some ordinary kid."

"You can't do this to me!" sputtered Ayoto. "I'm a private citizen!"

Kiba shrugged. "I'm not going to do a thing… I'm telling you the dogs talked this over." He gave Ayoto a little smile. "C'mon man, Katsuki was willing to risk it all to protect you and your stupid crates. Don't you feel like you should do the same for her?"

Ayoto glared at them his face becoming more and more red. Finally he angrily turned his head away. Kiba sighed. "Suit yourself." He moved back a bit.

Ayoto cringed as Kabocha leaned over and looked at him with a frown. The dog made a little grumbling noise and then opened his jaws very wide.



Kabocha was getting antsy. The other dogs were bored. Kiba picked at his teeth and wished the ANBU lady would hurry up and finish her questioning. "So the mystery man never disclosed to you the nature of what was in the crates. He said that if you asked too many questions that you would be killed. If you let yourself be captured then you would be killed, and if the crates failed to reach their destination, you would be killed." The ANBU looked at her notes, sighed and closed her notebook. "And tell me why you accepted this job again?"

There was a pause and a strange wet noise. Ayoto coughed and gasped. "Because if I didn't do it…"

"… You'd be killed. Yeah, I think we could figure that part out," said Kiba grimly. "So what can you tell us about the mystery man?"

Ayoto frantically shook his head. "I can't say a word. If I tell, I'll be…"

Kabocha made an umph sound. Suddenly Ayoto's voice turned to muffled squeals.

After a while Kabocha looked up at Kiba with sad eyes. Kiba nodded and Kabocha let go of the man's face. Kiba leaned over while Ayoto shook his head and spat. "Aren't you getting tired of this yet?" Kiba asked dryly.

Ayoto sputtered for a while, but didn't answer. Kiba nodded to Kabocha yet again. Kabocha sighed and leaned forward.

Ayoto muttered something. The ANBU held up her hand and everyone froze. "Say that again please?" she asked politely.

"I don't know anything about him!" rasped Ayoto. "He wore a cloak with a hood the whole time. I never even heard his voice!"

The ANBU pulled out her notebook again. "Was he tall or short?"

Ayoto pursed his lips. Kabocha chose that moment to shake himself. The noise made Ayoto flinch. He glanced at the dog and said, "Medium."

The ANBU sighed. "How 'medium'? About my height?"

"A little shorter."

The ANBU nodded and jotted down a note. "Was he fat or thin?"

"Skinny. Really really skinny."

The pen scratched on the paper. "What did you mean by 'you never heard him'?"

"He would only whisper to his bodyguard. Then the bodyguard would relay the information to me."

"Uh-huh," said the ANBU. "And what did the bodyguard look like?"

"Tall, muscled. I couldn't see most of his face because he had a mask on."

"Most of his face?" asked the ANBU sharply. "What sort of mask was he wearing?"

Ayoto gave a resigned sigh. "He had on one of those cloth half masks that only cover your mouth and nose."

"So you could still see his hair and eyes then?"

Ayoto hesitated. Kabocha opened his mouth again and shut it with a click. "Dark hair, pale eyes," said Ayoto with a shiver. "He had some sort of headband across his forehead."

The ANBU's pen stopped in mid scribble. She stared at him. "Pale eyes?"

Ayoto nodded and tried to worm away from Kabocha. "Really pale, like grey? He had almost colorless eyes."

The ANBU reached up and slowly detached her wolf mask. She slid it over just enough to expose one eye. "Like this?" she asked quietly.

Kiba sprouted a small grin. "Hey! You're a Hyuga!"

Ayoto nodded worriedly. "Exactly like that."

The ANBU replaced her mask. She stood there quietly studying Ayoto. "If you're all set with your questions, I have one I'd like to ask," said Kiba brightly. He turned to Ayoto. "You were so insistent that Katsuki come with you on this boneheaded plan to smuggle a huge pile of mystery crates into Konoha. The charming people who hired you to do this made it quite clear that if anything went wrong, you were a dead man. Even the cheapest bastard in the world is willing to splurge a little with his life on the line." Kiba crouched down next to Ayoto and tapped him on the forehead. "You're niece has guts, but guts will only take you so far in a fight. Why was it such a big deal to have the girl along? A second ago you were ready to take off and leave her here to the tender ministrations of the ANBU."

Ayoto looked away nervously. "I'm a coward. I needed protection but I couldn't afford to go through official channels to get it. She was the only one I could ask."

Kiba sniffed the air. "You smell afraid. The dogs think you're lying. I tend to agree with them."

"Of course I'm afraid!" the old man snapped. "Your dog has been swallowing my face!"

Kiba grinned. "Oh no. Kabocha has only been holding your head in his mouth. I've been watching him. He's been as gentle as a lamb. If you want I can ask him to give you a demonstration of swallowing your face."

Ayoto turned to the ANBU. "I'm a citizen of the Land of Lightning! I demand that you release me right now!"

Kiba sighed. "Kabocha?" The dog looked up. "Eat his nose," said Kiba calmly. Kabocha looked down at Ayoto with disgust, but reluctantly opened his mouth. His jaws closed on Ayoto's nose

"They said they'd pay extra!" Ayoto squealed nasally.

"Excuse me?" asked Kiba very quietly.

"The bodyguard said that if I brought any young shinobi, like my niece, to the pay off point they would give me an extra one million ryo per child."

"They knew about your niece?" asked the ANBU with a note of surprise in her voice. "They asked for her specifically?"

Ayoto's chin dipped in a nod. "They asked for her, and any other genin I knew. They were interested in any young shinobi I could bring them."

The ANBU's hand twitched. "Why did they want them?" she asked, in a deadly calm voice.

Ayoto guiltily shook his head. "They didn't say."

"Why?" Kiba whispered.

Ayoto looked up nervously. "I just told you, I don't know why they wanted them."

Kiba looked up. His teeth were bared in a snarl. "No. If you knew this, then why would you bring your niece along with you? Were you planning on selling her?" He spat. "You're supposed to be looking out for her!"

Ayoto swallowed nervously. "I'm sure that she could get herself out of any situation. Katsuki is a fully trained shinobi."

"SHE'S YOUR BLOOD!" bellowed Kiba. Poki flinched at his shout and tightened her jaws. Ayoto cried out as the dogs fangs broke the skin on his ankle. Kiba took a step forward and pulled back his foot as if to kick him.

The ANBU put a hand on his arm and squeezed. Kiba winced and stopped his foot. "Kiba-san, can your dogs hold him there for a moment?"

"Huh?" Kiba shook his head to recover. "Sure, they'll hold him just fine. If you're worried I could have Kabocha sit on him."

"No, I just need to make sure that he is not going anywhere. We need to talk." She glanced at Ayoto and paced deeper into the alleyway.

Kiba watched her go. Then he looked back to the dogs. "Everyone stay. Kabocha, if he struggles… Eat an ear." Ayoto whimpered. Kabocha looked up at Kiba and sighed. Kiba gave him a sympathetic look, then walked back into the shadows of the alleyway.

The ANBU appeared beside him. "We need to talk to the Hokage," she hissed. "We need to summon a council and talk to the Hokage and Nara-san and Kakashi-taicho. We need to do it fast. I think something really bad is going to happen."

"Something bad is going to happen to Ayoto, I'm going to make sure of it," grumped Kiba, staring at the old man.

The ANBU shook her head. "No…" She looked at him for a moment, debating. "Look ,I'm not supposed to know anything about this, and you sure as hell aren't but, Kakashi-taicho has been sending out secret scouting parties gathering intel. He believes that there is a threat from…" She paused and looked at Kiba. "Well, he believes that there is a credible threat to the village." She glanced back at Ayoto. "I'm beginning to suspect that all this is connected somehow." She swallowed. "We've got to warn the Hokage, and then we've got to warn Hinata-sama."

"Hinata?" asked Kiba.

"If the Hyuga have gotten themselves wrapped up in this, there could be trouble." She looked up at Kiba. "I'd like you to meet with the Hokage as well. You can verify my report."

Kiba pulled out another cigar butt and clenched it in his teeth. "I can do that. Just give me a couple of hours to say hi to my daughter first." He grinned. "I'm about fifteen hours late coming back from my mission."

The ANBU nodded. "It will take some time to get everyone assembled. I will send for you." She turned to leave.

Kiba stepped around her. "What about mister charming personality over there?"

She studied Ayoto for a few seconds. "What do you think about the girl? Would it be any use to question her?"

Kiba chewed on the end of his cigar thoughtfully. "I doubt it. But if you want, I could ask her a few things before we let her go."

The ANBU nodded. "Okay, see if she knows anything and then release her. Tell her that her uncle has been detained on the suspicion of smuggling. Tell her that we are going to hold him until we figure out what those tags are."

"Do you need the dogs to help you take him anywhere?"

Kiba got the feeling that under her mask, the ANBU was smiling. "Nope."

They walked back over to Ayoto. "Ayoto-san," she said apologetically. "I'm terribly sorry to have done this. There appears to have been a terrible mistake." She turned to Kiba. "Inuzuka-san, if you would be so good as to call off your dogs?" Kiba whistled and the pack trotted back to him, with Kabocha giving an audible sigh of relief. The ANBU reached down and pulled Ayoto to his feet. "There. No harm done."

"What do you mean no harm?" snapped Ayoto. "That dog bit my ankle!" He jabbed a finger angrily at Poki. "The Daimyo of the Land of Lightning and the Raikage shall hear of this!"

"We'll make sure you get the finest medical attention before we release you," the ANBU said soothingly. "If you want, we will also give you the opportunity to air your grievances to the Hokage."

Ayoto gave Kiba a vindictive glare. "Thank you. I will take you up on your offer."

The ANBU nodded. "Now, if you will be so good as to come this way?" Ayoto turned. The ANBU reached out and gently touched him on the side of his neck. Ayoto's eyes rolled up into his head. She caught him as he collapsed and casually threw him over her shoulder.

Kiba grinned. "See you in a couple of hours." The ANBU nodded and vanished in a puff of smoke.