37 The Calm Before the Storm (1/2)
By the time that they had emerged from the underground base, the sun had just began its ascend in the eastern horizon.
The Anbu was eager to bring his wounded partner back home, but he still need to get Kiba and Hikari back to safety first. Not to mention, the girl's sudden appearance in that place had to be explained without drawing much suspicion.
Thus, he concocted a plan.
Forming a tiger hand sign, he activated Transformation Technique, changing his and his partner's appearance to resemble the ninja from Konoha's regular force. He also added a pair of fang-shaped red marks under their eyes.
After he was done with their disguise, the group moved toward the main road. They hadn't yet traveled that far before a girl's voice called out from above.
”Kiba!”
Leaping down from the treetop, a worried Hinata landed right in front of them, followed by Shino, Kurenai, and four Konoha Chuunin.
Before he could respond, Hinata had grabbed his wrists, pulling him a bit closer to her. She had activated her byakugan out of nowhere, using them to scan the flow of his chakra from head to toe. When she concluded that nothing had gone wrong with his body, her posture visibly relaxed.
”That's great, you're not hurt...”
The girl let out a relieved sigh.
”Um... Hinata?”
”Eh?”
Kiba was looking away from her, his cheeks flaring red. She finally remembered that she was still holding his hands. She quickly let go as her face started to boil up like a lobster.
”I-I-I w-was... I... I w-was j-just... hau-”
A gong sound echoed inside her head. After that, she fainted right then and there.
”Hinata?!?”
”Got her.”
Kurenai casually caught her falling body, and then carried the girl in her arms. Her movement was so natural as if she was used to the situation.
”Uh... is she okay?” Hikari asked, although her tone wasn't indicating worries, just genuine confusion.
”Yes. It happens a lot, especially when she saw that kid... by the way, who are you?”
Kurenai tilted her head slightly as she scrutinized the brown-haired girl with a sword on her waist.
Ignoring her imploring gaze, Hikari replied with a straight face,
”My name is Hikari. I'm staying with the Inuzuka of Konoha.”
”Oh?” The Jonin raised an eyebrow. ”And what is a citizen of Konoha doing here in the middle of the woods, far from the village?”
”Pardon me, miss Kurenai...”
The Anbu raised his hand, drawing her attention toward him. She immediately noticed those red marks under his eyes, the distinctive feature of the Inuzuka clan.
Seeing that she had taken the bait, the Anbu continued.
”We're the ones who had asked her to come along to help us pick some specialized training tools for our ninja dogs. It should've been a quick trip to a nearby village, but we got ambushed by bandits and my friend got injured during the fight. Thankfully, we were helped by Kiba and a ninja wearing animal mask.”
”That must be the Anbu from Atsushi's report...” Kurenai murmured. She then turned to the wild-haired boy. ”Kiba, where did the Anbu go? What about the enemies?”
”The...the-Anbu-disappeared-after-taking-down-the-enemies.”
He nervously blurted out the entire line that they had drilled into his brain in one go, prompting Hikari, Akamaru, and the Anbu to mentally facepalm.
”Kiba... are you okay...?”
”H-he's still shaken,” the man in disguise quickly jumped between her and the boy. ”Miss Kurenai, please help us to explain this to Lady Tsume. Just say you took the girl along or something. Actually... we're trying to replace some tools that we had broken in the training ground. If Lady Tsume got wind about it, she'll...”
He made a gesture of cutting his neck with his hand.
”...”
As much as Kurenai wanted to say that he was exaggerating, she couldn't rule out the possibility that they might really got cut into pieces with Fang Rotating Fang if that Tsume did found out...
”I... I can try, but...”
”Thank you very much!” He patted Kurenai's shoulders while giving her the widest smile that she had ever seen in her life. ”Well then, it's really impolite of me, but I have to bring my friend to the hospital as fast as possible. Please excuse us!”
”Eh, wait-!”
Before she could stop them, the man had disappeared into the darkness, carrying the unconscious person on his back. The rest of the ninja just watched with blank stare, not sure on what they should do. They were reluctant to hold him back since it was involving a wounded ally.
...What just happened? She felt like she had been duped somehow...
”Whatever, the most important thing is that you're back with us.”
When the signal from the insect that Shino had left with Kiba disappeared in the middle of the night, Kurenai had brought the group of Chuunin to sweep through the entire forest. She was about to give up hope when at dawn, Shino's insect suddenly responded again.
She was beside herself this entire time. Now that she had finally confirmed Kiba's safety, she felt her knees growing weaker from the sudden loss of tension. However, she tried her best to maintain a firm look on the outside.
”Let's go back. We still have to report the result of our mission to the assignment staff.”
---
Somehow, everything was wrapped up without any major incident.
Tsume yelled at Hikari and Kiba for an entire day, berating the former for going out without telling her for three whole days, and the latter for overestimating his own abilities by getting involved with in the Anbu's mission.
As punishment, they had to take charge of cleaning up the kennels for the entire month.
Still, he was quite happy with his son's first successful C-ranked mission. They had a steak party that entire night in order to celebrate, although Tsume tried to cover it up by saying that she just made more than usual because she got a huge discount for the beef.
All in all, it could be said this mission was a huge success.
”But man, it's a shame that I can't tell anyone that I've helped an Anbu...” Kiba grumbled a week later.
Team Kurenai had returned to their usual D-rank missions. It seemed that the sudden downtime after experiencing such an intense fight like the ones in the secret base had made him disillusioned.
”You can't let anyone know about a secret mission, no? Just let it go. More importantly, I didn't even manage to get his name during the entire chaos,” Hikari retorted with her own complain.
”It's normal to not know an Anbu's name. From what they told us in the academy, it's to protect their identity in case enemies wanted to take revenge against them. That's why they're all wearing those masks.”
”No, no, not that kind of name...”
She wanted to know who he actually was before he was reincarnated. Was he just a random cultivator, or was he someone that she knew?
Because... the way that he talked had honestly reminded her with someone close to her in the past life. Then again, could it really be so?
”Nevermind,” she shrugged. But then, she pointed at the thing that the boy was holding with a frown on her face. ”Wipe a bit harder, that bowl is still dirty.”
”Who cares!” Kiba groaned, ”the dogs wouldn't be bothered with a few stains here and there anyway!”
Unfortunately for him, Kuromaru had decided to enter the kennel at that exact moment. When he heard what Kiba had just said, he walked away with a sadistic smirk hanging on his snout. No doubt he was going to relay those words back to Tsume.