#kibainuzukaxreader

“Hm?” You look at them curiously. Another two hours had passed wandering aimlessly in the forest in the vague direction you had seen your teammates leave in. The sun would set soon, you were starting to get hungry, and honestly, you were thinking of giving up. Of course you would never admit that. You were way cooler, smarter, and better than the dog boy your sensei teamed you up with and there was no way that you would admit defeat. At least not until he had. 

“Something smells off here. Right Akamaru?” The dog let out a small whine, which you could only assume was a confirmation. 

“What is it? Do you think it could lead us to the scroll?”

“It’s the only lead we’ve had and we’ve been out here for four or five hours. I say we go for it.” You simply nod in response. “Akamaru, go on and follow the scent. We’ll be right behind you.” The dog yips before running off, you, Kiba, and Akemi close behind. 

He finally comes to a stop, not even five minutes later. You’re in another clearing and you assume that the scroll must be around here somewhere. As you search around you notice some footprints. “Hey Kiba, I think we might be a bit too late,” you say, pointing to the ground. “Do you notice any scents? Of Hinata or Hanae, or maybe Shino or Haruki?” Instead of Kiba responding, Akamaru does, bounding up to the fresh footprints and sniffing around. Looking to Kiba, it seems that he nods as he growls and whines.

“He says that it smells like Shino,” the boy translates. “They must’ve gotten the scroll first.”

“Shit!” you exclaim, frustrated that it took you so long to find a lead. But then you feel a mild tugging in the back of your skull. The feeling that accompanied Akemi having something important to show you through her eyes. “Shit, wait. One sec. Akemi might’ve found something.” You do your hand signs and then succumb to the feeling in your head, your brain adjusting to the vision of your cat, instead of your usual human eyes. And as Akemi finally opens them, you see it. You gasp.

“What is it?” Kiba asks you, but you can’t hear him when you’re in the mind of your cat. 

“Okay Akemi,” you mutter under your breath, “let’s get it.” You remain in the mind of your cat as she pads up to the scroll, grabbing it in her teeth, and once she is securely on her way back to you, you pull your mind out of her own. “She’s got it,” you tell him excitedly. “Haruki and Shino may have gotten to this area but they didn’t actually find the scroll. And no wonder, the brush it was under was so dense, I’m honestly even surprised Akemi could crawl through it.” Perfectly timed as always, Akemi showed up, scroll in mouth, and dropped it at your feet, as she sat down to briefly groom herself, getting the sticks and dirt and cobwebs out of her fur. 

“I’m surprised Shino didn’t use his bugs to find it. Maybe they didn’t even know the scroll was here when they came through,” Kiba mentioned offhandedly. “I guess it doesn’t really matter though.”

You nod as you grab the scroll, then drink some water and offer some to Kiba and the pets, before packing it all away in your bag. “Well dog boy, looks like we did it. Maybe we aren’t that bad of a team after all.” You smile at him and offer him your hand to help him stand up.

“You know, I was never the one to say we would make a bad team.”

“Shut up before I change my mind.” And for the third time that day, he found himself smiling at your retreating form, him and Akamaru following closely behind you and Akemi. 

As you returned to the training grounds, scroll in hand, you and Kiba laughed as he recounted a moment from earlier today, Akamaru and Akemi chasing each other, but not nearly as aggressively as they used to. But when you saw the six others sitting there, clearly waiting for your arrival, the smiles dropped from both of your faces. 

“Wait. You guys are back already?” Kiba asks, curiosity clouding his features. 

“I think you might’ve forgotten something,” you laugh, a smirk on your face as you hold up the scroll. “As always, I’m simply the best.”

“Hey! You can’t take credit for that! Akamaru did all of the work!”

“That’s so not true and you know it! If it weren’t for me and Akemi you would’ve left the clearing without the scroll! We were the ones who found it under all the shrubbery.” You let your face fall into your hand, frustrated with the boy you were finally starting to warm up to. 

“I guess it doesn’t really matter. What I’m more worried about is why you guys,” his gaze returns to your teammates, “came back without the scroll.”

“We gave up about an hour ago. At least that’s when Hanae and I did,” Hinata admits quietly, her gaze aimed directly at the ground. 

“Same for us, honestly,” Haruki agreed. 

“Oh well,” you sigh as you toss your sensei the scroll. “You know I've never been wrong when I say I’m the best. I doubt that’s gonna change any time soon. Seems a bit unfair that they did an hour less work than us, didn’t get the scroll, and then just got to sit around though.” You smirk at the twins before turning your gaze back to the jōunin. 

“Yeah, yeah.” Tanji waves his hand dismissively at you. “We’ll buy you ramen sometime this week or something.”

Kurenai speaks up, “And it seems that all of you have learned at least the basic intentions of this training exercise. The physical aspect was not nearly as important as the lesson you should leave here with. Working with other shinobi that you aren’t used to can be difficult, you have to take each other’s skills, needs, wants, and experiences into account before you can make decisions for the whole team. It doesn’t come as naturally as when you’re working with someone you’ve worked with every day for months, or years.”

“Nah, it was pretty easy,” you say before you pick Akemi up. As you pet your cat you don’t notice the knowing looks that everyone (except Kiba) sends your way. “Okay for real though. I’m so hungry. Is training over? Who wants to join me for ramen?” The six awaiting shinobi mumble admissions that they ate while they were still waiting for you to return. “You WHAT?! I can’t believe this! Can you believe this Kiba? What about you two?” you ask, looking from Kiba’s dog to your cat. “You can’t believe it either? That's because it’s ABSURD!” You jokingly glare at the group before you, then look Kiba dead in the eyes as you state, “I guess I’m getting ramen alone,” before storming off. 

You just wanted it to be over with. To retrieve the secret scroll hidden somewhere in the forest before your teammates and their partners did. It was such a simple task. On any other occasion you could send Akemi ahead while you hid in a bush, or in a tree, or behind a rock, or literally anywhere. She would spot the scroll, maybe even grab it for you, before trotting back to your location. It was such a simple exercise. But the dog wouldn’t let her get far without a whimper, which would alert any fellow shinobi of your location. Kiba wasn’t much help either. 

“Hey. Can you make yourself useful?” you asked quietly, praying he had some trick up his sleeve. “Do you know what the scroll smells like? Can you locate it that way? Could you do,,, literally anything at all except stand there and stare at me?”

“As much as I wish I could just sniff the scroll out, if I don’t already know what it smells like, I’m not going to be able to track it. I doubt Akamaru would be able to since he doesn’t know the scent either. And I’m sure they accounted for scent when hiding it anyways. Kurenai-Sensei is always good at using my strengths against me in training,” he sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “I’m sorry.”

“There’s really nothing to apologize for Kiba,” you admitted softly. You felt a little bad being so harsh on him. Sure he wasn’t contributing much, but it’s not like you were either. The two of you sat there on the rock in the small clearing you had found for another moment before you spoke up again. “Okay, it’s useless to just sit here. We might not be able to find it, but we definitely won’t if we don’t even search for it.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he said, a ghost of a smile returning to his face. “Come on Akamaru, let’s get moving.” The dog bounded back to him while Akemi climbed up onto your shoulder again, and the four of you walked off, deeper into the forest. 

As you wandered you found yourself recognizing less and less of the forest around you. I mean, it was all trees so it’s not like it was difficult to get lost. But you spent your entire life in this forest, training, exploring, even just relaxing, so of course it was a bit odd when you went a while without seeing at least one landmark you recognized. But you trekked on, walking until you needed to rest. Or at least to slow down. You didn’t want to admit it but Kiba was fast. Of course you were fast too, but his speed was prolonged. Able to continue at the same quick speed for longer periods of time. You were more of a sprinter. You could go fast, extremely fast, for shorter periods of time, exhausting yourself and your lungs quickly before needing a break. 

As you slowed down, Kiba turning to give you a look and see why you were stopping, you heard a noise. Unsure of the source and noticing Kiba opening his mouth to ask you the question on his mind, you lunge forward, covering his mouth with your hand, let out a quiet shushing sound, and pull him closer to you, his back against you, with your back against a tree. 

“Sorry, I heard something,” you whisper as quietly as possible and you slowly release him from your grip. To your surprise he doesn’t move away immediately, instead opting to stand there in silence, hoping whatever it was that created the noise you heard would repeat the sound. 

After a moment you were about to relax, but you heard a voice speak from a small bit away. You squish yourself closer to the tree, pulling Kiba to your side so he is as flush against the tree as possible while you listen. “Hanae I know you said your tracking jutsu lead you this way, but I really don’t know where it could be,” Hinata’s quiet voice spoke up.

“I know, I know, it feels like we’ve been walking for ages and I haven’t seen a single thing I recognized in at least an hour. I’m sorry Hinata, I really thought I had it this time. Maybe I should try using my jutsu again?”

Your two friends walk closer to the tree you’re hidden behind, you swiftly drop to a crouch in an attempt to make yourself as small as possible before you remember that both Kiba and Akamaru aren’t as skilled as you in the art of stealth. You grab his hand and tug, and getting the message he bends down to his knees, back still pressed flush against the tree. Akamaru hops into his lap while Akemi quietly makes her way to the other side of the pair you're watching, preparing to make a distracting noise if necessary. The two of you watch silently as Hanae does her hand signs, letting the chakra flow through her body and direct her to the scroll she is looking for. 

“I think I’ve got it!” she exclaims, grabbing Hinata’s arm and pulling her in the direction she believed the scroll to be. As soon as they are out of hearing range you let out a sigh, allowing yourself to relax against the tree. 

“So we were going in the right direction,” you mention to Kiba, who is still sitting in silence, Akamaru in his lap. “Do you think we should follow them? I mean it’s not ideal but I trust Hanae’s tracking abilities and-”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, we should do this on our own. And I’m sure they’ll be expecting to be followed, if not by us then by Shino and Haruki,” Kiba mused. He was right, and you acknowledged as much with a hum. “At the same time though, we really have no leads.”

“Yeah…” you agreed, before an idea dawned on you. “Wait a second. Kiba if Tanji or Kurenai were the ones who placed the scroll would there be any way for you or Akamaru to follow the trail they took? Obviously you don’t know the scent of the scroll, how could you, but you must be able to follow one of their scents?” you asked hopefully.

“That was the first thing I tried,” he told you, “that’s why I figured they masked any scents that might be on the scroll or any familiar scents to me or Akamaru.”

“Okay but masking a scent familiar to you would likely still leave a scent right? Like an unfamiliar one? Something would have to smell out of place? Right?” you offered, hoping that having it verbally acknowledged would allow for him to remember any unusual scents you may have passed. 

He hummed in recognition of your point, pondering the past few hours of walking. “Akamaru, you didn’t smell anything out of the ordinary did you?” The dog huffed back in response, and the look on Kiba’s face revealed that neither had noticed anything.