CHAPTER ONE
"Hey Kiba, who's that? He has those same stripey-things you got on your face."
The wild boy stopped petting Akamaru at Naruto's loud question, glancing over his shoulder in the direction the blonde was pointing. The two of them were in the yard of the Academy, where their class was learning kunai throwing. Their little group of troublemakers (though it was somewhat debatable as to how much Naruto was really a part of the crew) had been hanging at the back of the playground, nearer to the entrance gate, where a small crowd had formed.
In front of the Academy stood the Hokage himself, clad in his long cloak and signature hat, his own office joined to the school building. Next to him stood some old people Kiba only vaguely recognized as the advisors that usually hovered around his leader whenever he made a public appearance. They were joined by some of the Academy's staff and senior teachers. In front of them was a striking collection of people. Three children, around Kiba's own age if somewhat older, stood together, all of them with straight backs and wary looks.
The one in the middle and the front, designating him the leader of their trio, was a lithe boy with snow-white hair, green eyes and two red dots in the middle of his brow. Kiba thought he had a very regal appearance, somewhat like the Hyuuga famously had.
He disliked the stranger already.
Standing to the left of said stranger waited a tall, heavy-built boy (though he was positively anorexic compared to a healthy Akimichi) with spikey orange hair, while the boy on the right side of the arrogant looking one was the smallest of the trio, sporting light-brown, almost grey-ish hair and striking pink eyes.
While the orange haired one certainly looked like he could hold his own in a fight, the pink-eyed one seemed like a wimp in Kiba's (obviously expert) opinion.
Standing behind the three boys were a man and a woman. The woman was certainly pretty, with indigo hair, dark eyes and a fair face. She was clearly a shinobi herself, though not one that Kiba recalled ever seeing before. She also didn't wear a Konoha headband, he noticed. When Kiba's eyes landed on the man Naruto had indicated however, he frowned deeply in confusion.
"What? C'mon Kiba, the hell is wrong with you? You know 'em or not?" An impatient Naruto called out, now getting the attention of Shikamaru and Choji as well.
"I... do? Maybe... he looks familiar somehow..."
"Huh? Well tell us then!" Naruto said, excitement in his voice (which was… pretty much his standard voice), Shikamaru now studying the newcomers with a searching gaze as well (which was… also pretty much his standard gaze).
"That guy… pretty sure that's my uncle." Kiba said.
"You have an uncle?" Choji asked surprised around a mouthful of chips, the scent wafting over towards Kiba's sensitive nose (BBQ flavor this time, which was... also pretty much the standard smell that hung around the rotund boy).
"Or had. He might be dead for all I know. This guy has the marks and everything though, so he's definitely an Inuzuka, but I've never seen him before. And I'm pretty sure Mom had a younger brother, which would make him the right age, I guess..."
"Kiba, your marks are just tattoos: anyone can get them. Naruto here can get them. I know they are important to your clan, but if someone wanted to pretend they were a long-lost Inuzuka..." Shikamaru cautioned the wild boy, who waved his concerns away with a clawed hand.
"Nah, he has the smell of Inuzuka. Our ninken don't smell like your normal dog. 'Cause they're awesome." Kiba refuted, getting weird looks from the other boys.
"You can smell him from here? I knew the Inuzuka are famed for their tracking abilities, but still..." Shikamaru mused, while Naruto began jumping up and down in place.
"Hey! Hey Kiba! What do I smell like!?" the blonde yelled excitedly as Kiba turned towards him with a frown and a vindictive gleam in his eye.
"Like you should shower more often." The young Inuzuka immediately shot back, causing Naruto deflate as he went red in the face.
While mean, it wasn't untrue: as always, Kiba could smell several days' worth of off-brand ramen and cheap laundry detergent on the hyperactive blonde. Though that was perhaps a bit harsh, all things considered: at least on some days, the ramen would be of higher quality.
"Tch. I showered two days ago you mutt…" Naruto muttered under his breath, turning his back on the grinning Inuzuka as Shikamaru and Choji shared a glance, before they both surreptitiously checked their breath.
Shaking his head, Shikamaru elbowed Kiba in the side before he and Naruto could start a brawl, indicating Kiba's maybe-uncle who was apparently saying something to the assembled teachers and staff. While they were too far away to hear what was said, all the boys noticed the way that the Academy staff blanched at the wild man's words. Given that many of them were hardened active duty or ex-shinobi, whatever it was that the would-be Inuzuka had told them must've been spectacularly and creatively violent indeed.
"Alright, so the smell is harder to fake. Still, your uncle? The Inuzuka clan is hardly small. How do you know he's your uncle and not just some long-lost relative or halfblood or something? Is there anything particular you remember about the guy?" the Nara offered, while Naruto was standing on his tiptoes behind the fence, his blue eyes narrowed as he stared kunai at the small group of people opposite the Hokage.
"You okay Naruto?" Choji asked, tearing open a new bag of chips as the blonde nodded back distractedly.
"The Old Man is nervous. He doesn't show it, but I can tell. He's never nervous…" he muttered under his breath.
Meanwhile, Kiba had shrugged his shoulders in response to Kiba's prodding.
"Could be some rando. Maybe. I don't know much about my uncle. I probably never even met him, since he left such a long time ago. And mom doesn't like talking 'bout him. Pretty sure it's 'cause he did something bad. Really bad, like betray the village bad or something. I wouldn't even know she had a younger brother if it wasn't for a faded family picture she keeps in her bedside drawer."
"I see… wait, what were you doing in your mom's bedroom?" Naruto said, shooting a suddenly sweating Kiba a suspicious look.
"Oh, that's not important! Look over there! The Hokage is speaking with my uncle and those other strangers!" the wild boy said with a nervous laugh.
Thankfully, Naruto was an easily distracted person and Shikamaru, for all his laziness, couldn't help himself when presented with a mystery. Choji couldn't care much either way.
"Wonder why he's back after so long. And why the Hokage is talking with him. You think those other people are his family? The hair and eyes are all different, but stranger things have happened." The young Nara mused to a relieved Kiba, who shrugged.
"I dunno. I just know that guy looks like the pic my mother has of her little brother. Though he doesn't look so little anymore."
It was true, the man that was supposedly Kiba's long-disappeared uncle was the tallest guy any of the children had ever seen, standing as tall as Choji's dad, and as broad at the shoulders (though of course slimmer at the waist). He had the same triangular red marks on his cheeks that Kiba and his mother and sister had, the same slit-eyes (though Hana didn't have those) and the same wild, spikey dark-brown hair (which Hana also didn't have) which the man let flow down to the small of his back. All in all, there was definitely some family resemblance there. But his face was heavy-set and even more animalistic than even the wildest of the Inuzuka members, with thick brows, a rough-looking beard and lower canines that poked up from a thick lower lip. His hands, which were covered with fingerless gloves with a heavy metal plate on the back, were clawed and even his ears were pointed. He was clad in a heavy-looking trenchcoat with the sleeves rolled up with a tanktop underneath and rough cargo pants with a pouch strapped to his left leg.
All in all, he looked more like a beast-man or demon out of a tale instead of an Inuzuka shinobi.
"Scary looking guy, your uncle." Naruto said in a small voice as they kept observing the crowd.
The other teachers and staff looked somewhat weary, but Kiba was surprised to see the Hokage and his advisors seemingly surprisingly pleased instead, the aged Sarutobi even shaking Kiba's uncle's clawed hand.
"You sure the Hokage is on edge Naruto? They look pretty friendly to me." Choji voiced the other boys' doubts, but Naruto vehemently shook his head, his tone adamant.
"I know the Old Man. Those old geezers next to him look like they just won a year-supply of Ichiraku's, but the Hokage is definitely on alert. He only ever looked like that when he caught me snooping through the top drawer of his desk. He doesn't trust Kiba's uncle." The blonde said authoritatively and the other children accepted his judgement.
For all his trouble-making, the blonde's close relationship to the Village leader was hardly a secret, if profoundly strange to his exasperated classmates.
"You were caught looking into official state documents? No wonder Lord Third looked pissed. Honestly Naruto, it's a miracle you haven't turned up in T&I yet." Shikamaru drawled, only getting a dismissive shrug from the blonde.
"That's the weird part: there was this secret compartment, but there were no papers inside, just a little orange book. Dunno why the Old Man was looking at me like I had a kunai to his balls."
"Naruto!" Choji exclaimed somewhat scandalized, almost choking on a chip, though the blonde just shot him a weird look.
"What? He's very fond of those balls. Polishes 'em damn near every day! I mean, I probably would too if mine were as big and shiny as his are."
"Naruto… are you talking about Lord Third's crystal balls which he uses for his famous Telescope Technique?" Shikamaru eventually realized as Naruto looked at him in surprise.
"Uhm… yeah? Why? What balls were you thinking of?"
"We-… you know what, don't worry about it. Seems like the kids are about to be sent to the Academy." The Nara quickly diverted the conversation, and the ever-hyperactive Naruto easily let himself be distracted as the four boys continued observing the large group of strangers.
Even though the Hokage and the enormous Inuzuka had quietly been conversating and shook hands once more, it seemingly did little to defuse the tension amongst the Academy staff, that still regarded the man with the same apprehension as when he had first addressed them. For their part, the little family (if they were a family?) looked uncomfortable and highly alert themselves as well. When the Hokage stepped aside and indicated one of the teachers, the woman engulfed the pink-eyed one in a strong hug, while Kiba's uncle sunk to a knee, placing a hand on both the white and orange haired boy's shoulders, clearly instructing them on something important, though from this distance none of the troublemakers could make out what.
As the three children made their way over to the teacher (who shot the intensely staring adults a nervous look before leading them inside the Academy), Shikamaru spoke up.
"I recognize that guy. He teaches the class above us. Hinata's cousin is in that year."
"Who's Hinata?" Naruto asked, getting a dumbfounded look from the other boys.
"She's in our class, dumbass. The heiress of the Hyuuga clan?"
"Well, she's never talked to me, so how was I supposed to know?" Naruto asked loudly, sounding offended.
"Forget about it, what are we going-… oh crap, my uncle's coming this way!"
"Wait, what-?"
Turning around, Naruto found himself staring up (and then up some more) as a large figure loomed over the low fence surrounding their school yard. Kiba's uncle and his lady friend and the group of troublemakers stared at each other in silence for a long moment, before the beastly looking man spoke up, his voice low and gravelly.
"Well… hello there, Kiba. You probably don't recognize me. You were still a baby last I saw you. Well, ahem. I… this is more difficult than I thought. I'm your uncle, Inuzuka Hamaru. Younger brother of Tsume, your mom? I don't know if she talked much 'bout me, or showed you pictures… though I probably don't look much like them anymore, huh?" the man trailed off with an self-conscious chuckle, while the woman next to him shot him an amused glance, though her expression quickly became frigid once more as she regarded the group of boys.
"Wow… for such a scary looking guy, you sure don't talk like one." Naruto spoke up, once more showing off all the social graces that were to be expected from the village pariah.
"Naruto! You can't just talk that way to a stranger!"
"What?! It's true!"
"Just because it's true doesn't mean you should say it out loud!"
"… but you just said it out loud too-"
"That's different!"
As Naruto and Shikamaru kibbled, Kiba coughed somewhat uncomfortably, having picked up Akamaru and holding him protectively close to his chest. He was too young to actively consider it, but Naruto's words had triggered something in the animalistic boy's mind. As an Inuzuka, he was more keenly aware of body language than most and while he thought nothing of it, the blonde Uzumaki had accidentally made a very good point.
Why was a man, apparently scary and powerful enough to cower a whole group of experienced shinobi, and an Inuzuka no less, suddenly acting awkward around a group of preteens? The question briefly rattled around in Kiba's hindbrain before he remembered that this was the brother to the woman who had scared off her own husband.
If Hamaru had shared his entire childhood with her… yeesh.
It was the wrong conclusion of course, but there was simply no way for the eleven-year old to possibly know that.
"Hi, uhm… uncle Hamaru." He said instead, briefly hesitating on the title of familiarity.
The question and mistrust in his voice was unmistakable, and to Kiba's surprise he saw genuine hurt flash across the large man's rough-hewn expression before it disappeared again. Then again, they were all shinobi here (or, well, they would be in a year or so), which meant that they could be convincing actors when needed.
Though that was somewhat debatable as far as Naruto was concerned.
Feeling somewhat awkward under the intense gazes of the adults, Kiba gave a small cough as he continued.
"Uhm, yeah, mom doesn't talk much about you, but I saw a picture, once. You, uhm, yeah you look a lot different. A lot different. What happened to you?" Kiba asked, only then noticing the absence of something very important, something that every Inuzuka should always have with them.
"Where is your ninken? Wasn't he called Shiromaru or something?" he spoke up, even standing on his tiptoes to glance up and down the street while Naruto and Shikamaru kept bickering behind him.
This was very strange. The now-named Hamaru smelled overwhelmingly of ninken (and specifically ninken, not just dog or animal), so much so that Kiba half-expected to be tackled by one of the giant mutts any minute now, as they so often liked to do whenever one of the Inuzuka returned to the compound.
But there was nothing. The street was empty save for the Hokage and his advisors still standing in front of the Hokage Tower, the aged Sarutobi hiding his face in the shadow of his hat as his advisors seemingly tried to convince the man of something as he kept staring holes in the back of the enormous Inuzuka, though Hamaru either didn't notice or didn't care.
Focusing back on his supposed uncle, Kiba was once again surprised at the emotions he saw, the man's beastly face taking on a saddened expression when Kiba mentioned his dog companion.
"Yes, he was called Shiromaru and in a sense, I still carry him with me every day. Which is part of the answer to your earlier question. What happened? Well… it's a long story. A very long, sometimes funny, but overall very depressing story. In short, not one that should be told on the Academy's playground."
"Oh." Kiba said, somewhat disappointed now, still ignoring the three-way brawl now going on behind him (Choji having of course jumped to his friend's defence when the smug Nara got punched in the nose by a frustrated looking Naruto).
Kiba still wasn't sure if he believed the elder Inuzuka (it's not everyday someone just walks up to you claiming to be a long-lost relative after all, so it was only natural the boy felt somewhat wary), and if he did, it would mean that the man had done something so unspeakably awful Tsume hadn't uttered more than his name in over a decade. Still, he was intrigued at this point and the familiar smell of ninken had already begun to put him at ease with the enormous man.
"I would like to tell you about it though, if you want. I… I'd like to get to know my family here in Konoha better. It's been so long since… well. Maybe you can meet us for lunch?" Hamaru said, the pain and hope in his voice easy to pick up on even for Kiba.
"You're not staying at the Clan compound?"
"I'm not sure there'd be much of a compound left should I show my face to your mother there." Hamaru chuckled awkwardly, before pointing vaguely south.
"We have our own place in the village, not far from here. It's pretty huge actually: the Hokage owed me a big favour. Even if he's not exactly happy with me, the man fulfills his debts at least. So, why don't you go ahead and bring your friends too?" the tall man proposed suddenly.
At that suggestion, both Kiba's and the woman's eyes widened.
"Wait, they're not really-"
"So, one of them is that one? Which one is it? I can't feel anything." She spoke up, interrupting Kiba.
He frowned at her odd question, immediately paying more attention to her smell. While it was true that about 80% of what you said was how you said it, the Inuzuka also included a very important, yet often overlooked aspect of your physicality in this: how you smelled when you said something. Stress, deceit, confidence, they all influenced a person's chemicals and as such their smells and a trained Inuzuka would be able to pick up on such details easily enough.
While not fully trained, Kiba's nose was still leagues above the average, and yet all he picked up from the woman was a sense of sterile coldness. It wasn't a scent he was familiar with or really understood how to translate, so he kept a wary eye on her. Akamaru had a little more luck, softly yipping into the boy's ear from his position on top of his head that the woman faintly smelled of snake as well, but the scent was faded. Not that that told them much either, though judging by Hamaru's piercing look he had heard (and understood) the white puppy's barks quite clearly.
"You wouldn't, at least not in a situation like this: the Fourth's sealwork is like nothing you've ever seen. As for who it is, it's the blond currently being sat on by an Akimichi while a Nara is laughing in the visible parts of his face." Hamaru dryly responded, causing Kiba to turn around as the woman leaned over to look past him.
"How… impressive." She said dryly as Naruto's muffled screams reached them, getting a deep laugh from the beastly man at her side.
"Give him time. He'll grow into it. Eventually"
Unsure as to what Naruto was supposed to grow into (besides an even bigger nuisance) and wanting to get the conversation back on track, Kiba turned towards to his grinning uncle (and wow… that's a lotta sharp looking teeth…), once again speaking up.
"Sorry uncle, but these aren't my-"
"There'll be plenty of food, on me." The man said, shooting a calculating glance past Kiba's shoulder.
"Really now?" Choji immediately responded, somehow appearing at Kiba's side, making the boy jump a foot in the air.
"And just what kind of food we talking here?"
"BBQ?"
"How much?"
"As much as you can pack away."
"Deal."
"Wha- deal? Choji, there's no deal, this is my uncle-"
"You think you can hold a party without me?! Fat chance Kiba, I'll be there too dattebayo!"
"Of course you can come over if you want Naruto, that's no problem at all."
"Deal!"
"… dattebayo?" the woman asked, now shooting Hamaru a questioning glance, who for some reason was still grinning like a madman.
"It's a whole thing, you'll get used to it."
"I'd rather not." The woman groused.
"Guys, maybe we don't follow the complete stranger to his unknown house in the middle of the day-" Shikamaru tried, but by now Hamaru's teeth-filled grin was on full blast.
"It'll get you out of school and we have a backyard where you can cloud watch. One of my kids is a pretty talented Shogi player as well and has been looking for a challenge."
"Deal."
Feeling the situation spiral out of control, Kiba once again tried to interject.
"Will you all just shut up and-!"
"What's going on here?! Kiba, Shikamaru, Choji, Naruto, why aren't you practicing your kunai?!"
The voice of Iruka sounded out above their discussion, silencing the young troublemakers while Naruto turned white as a sheet. Prepared for a dressing-down, the kids turned around to face the music… only to see that Iruka was now just as white as Naruto as he stared past them and up at Kiba's uncle.
"There a problem?" Hamaru asked slowly and this time he sounded every bit as scary as he looked, his voice low and gravelly as he leaned on the gate-link fence surrounding the schoolyard.
The metal quietly groaned underneath his weight as his slit eyes stared straight into Iruka's widened ones, the earlier grinning, somewhat goofy looking man suddenly replaced by this deadly-looking shinobi. The shift was sudden enough the boys didn't even realize it at first until their sensei managed to stammer out a response.
"Inuzuka Ha-Hamaru. N-no, there's no problem. Ah, but my students here need to practice their throws and-"
"I was conversing with my cousin and his friends, inviting them for lunch so we may catch up after my years having spent outside Konoha. I trust that that is alright?" Hamaru pressed, Iruka swallowing heavily.
"But their kunai-throwing…" the teacher pressed once again, but Hamaru immediately interrupted him.
"Will not suffer from one missed lesson. As long as they stab the enemy with the pointy bit, they're fine."
"The Hokage-" Iruka tried once more, though by now the children had the feeling it wasn't so much their bukijutsu skills their sensei was worried about as the man tried to stand in-between them and the annoyed looking mountain of muscle.
"Has already approved me and my family staying here in Konoha. He may not have liked it, but even with my past, he accepted me into his Village, and allowed my kids to attend your school. Are you certain you wish to go against the Hokage's welcoming example, Umino?" the man rumbled dangerously as Iruka grit his teeth while attempting to stand his ground.
The children stood in mute awe as they observed this stranger effortlessly going against their sensei without a shred of fear. In fact, the lower and more growl-like Hamaru's voice became, the more frightened Iruka looked, which was almost a foreign concept to the group of troublemakers. They half-expected Iruka to whip out his famed Big Head Jutsu at this point, just to so he could hold his own against the beastly Inuzuka.
"Do you know who I am?" the woman at Hamaru's side suddenly interrupted in an icy voice, her expression dismissive, bordering on arrogant even.
To the surprise of the children, Iruka nodded, looking just as uncomfortable in her presence as he did with the looming (and far scarier looking) Hamaru.
"Good. Then there will be no problem if I teach them some bukijutsu after-hours in order to make up for a missed lesson."
It hadn't been phrased as a question and judging by her hard expression it hadn't been meant as one, so Iruka finally gave a defeated nod.
"Very well, I'll arrange permission slips so that Kiba and his friends can follow remedial lessons. But they will have to pass competency tests!" he finished on a surprisingly firm tone, putting his foot down on this at least, but it didn't seem like either of the other adults much cared.
"You teach and test your students however you want Umino. I just want to reconnect with my family. I'd have figured someone who preaches the Will of Fire to the next generation would understand better. My mistake, I guess." Hamaru merely shot back, sounding bitter until his girlfriend laid a restraining hand on his arm, shooting him an understanding look.
"Hamaru…" Iruka muttered with a surprised look, briefly appearing conflicted as the two men stared each other down.
The kids weren't sure exactly what was going on between the adults, but right now all they had heard was that their sensei had signed off on them missing school and having an Akimichi-sized lunch, so truth be told they didn't really care that much in the end.
They might be trained to be child soldiers, but right now they were still just children instead.
Kiba tried one final time to explain that, while he did indeed hang around with these guys, they weren't exactly his friends (they were hardly Akamaru after all), but seeing a triple set of puppy dog eyes (not very accurate ones in his expert opinion) aimed full-blast at him caused him to eventually relent with a sigh.
"Very well uncle, we'll go have lunch with you."
The other children cheered at that (which of course caused the rest of the class to give them weird looks as Iruka sighed in defeat) while they quickly packed up their gear. All of them ignored Naruto's suggestions to go to Ichiraku's for lunch instead with practiced ease, though Hamaru's girlfriend? Wife? Kept shooting the blonde strange looks. Being ninja in training, the four simply hopped the fence, looking up expectedly at Kiba's uncle.
"Kids… be safe." Iruka called over to them across the fence, struggling with what to say before finishing with a sigh as he looked between Kiba and Hamaru.
His glance rested on Naruto for a long moment, before the scarred man nodded to himself and returned to the rest of the class as he began yelling instructions and whipping them back into shape as they had all stopped to gawk at their sensei's confrontation with the unknown giant.
"Iruka's a nice guy. Why'd you have to act all mean with him?" Naruto spoke up softly as he stared at his teacher's retreating back before falling in line with the rest of the group, Hamaru remaining silent for a long moment.
"A nice guy! He gives you more detention than anyone else?!" Kiba asked incredulously, the blonde turning defensive.
"At least he only gives me detention when I did something wrong! And he actually sticks around with me!" the whiskered Uzumaki yelled back.
"Umino Iruka is a good guy." Hamaru suddenly agreed without turning back, stunning the boys.
"He tries at least, which… well, in this Village that's not always a given. And I'm sure that he's a fine teacher in the bare basics, such as reading, writing, history, how to not poke your eye out with a sharp metal pointy bit… I guess that was why I was disappointed when he looked at me with that same fear people have been looking at me ever since I returned to this place, to what should still be my home. Jumping in-between us as if he were protecting lambs from a prowling wolf." The beastly Inuzuka glanced back at them with a somewhat saddened smile, making his fangs stand out all the more.
"Give him time! It took him a long time until he didn't look at me like all the others do, I'm sure he can do the same for you!" Naruto tried to encourage the large man, who blinked a few times in surprise as the indigo-haired woman shot the blonde an appreciative look.
"I suppose I shouldn't blame him. I'll wait and see if he can change his mind about me as well, in time." Hamaru eventually conceded, his expression softer as he led the way again.
As he walked, he finally introduced the woman at his side.
"Kiba and friends. Meet Guren. She's an amazing woman and ninja. You can learn a lot from her." He said, pride clear in his voice, which was reciprocated with a beaming smile from the now-named Guren, the first positive expression the children had seen on the quiet woman.
"How did the two of you meet?" Shikamaru asked, his curiosity still overpowering his laziness.
To the surprise of the children, the two adults briefly looked uncomfortable, before Hamaru glanced back at them over his shoulder.
"How much do you know of what I did while outside the Village? Or why I'm now back?" he asked in a low tone, causing the children to share confused glances, before Kiba shrugged as he answered his uncle.
"We were asking that ourselves. Like I said, Ma doesn't really talk about you."
"What have you done while outside the Village? And why are you back, for that matter?" Shikamaru asked with narrowed eyes.
"As I mentioned before, that's a conversation better held behind closed doors." Hamaru curtly stated.
Intrigued, the children kept quiet as they continued following the adults to their home, which turned out to be about ten minutes away from the Academy, on the outskirts of the village's centre but still decently far away from its imposing walls. During their way there, it hadn't escaped the children how the people they encountered took one look at the towering Hamaru and either blanched in fear, or gained an expression of distrust and disgust. Whatever it was that Kiba's uncle had done while away from the Village had clearly been a big deal, though the whispers that followed in their wake were hushed enough that even Kiba's enhanced hearing couldn't make much sense of it.
Things came to a head when they passed a butcher's shop, Hamaru suggesting they buy in some extra stores now that they had promised an Akimichi an all-you-can-stuff-in-your-face lunch. Choji of course enthusiastically agreed, so the group quickly trooped inside. However, when they had eventually brought their stacks of ribs, steaks and whatever else Choji had deemed worthy enough for their lunch to the check-out, the clerk began to cause a scene.
The man had looked both frightened and appalled when they had all entered his store to begin with, though the boys had automatically assumed it was because of Naruto, including the blonde himself, who had gained a depressed and furtive look until Hamaru had dumped a bunch of frozen steaks in his arms and told him with a friendly grin to keep up.
When they tried to pay however, the clerk quickly revealed that it wasn't Naruto (this time) that he had a problem with, as he stood on trembling legs looking up at the towering Inuzuka as he swallowed heavily.
"W-we don't… ahem, we don't serve your kind here!" the clerk managed to spit out, covered in cold sweat.
Hamaru had stilled entirely, and Kiba caught how the man's shoulders briefly drooped before the man took a deep breath and straightened them, easily slipping into the same confrontational pose and voice that he had used on Iruka. Did he put up a front, or did he let out his real self? Kiba had no way of knowing since the elder Inuzuka's scent had barely even shifted despite his apparent cold anger, so he quietly observed the confrontation instead.
"My kind…?" Hamaru asked in a very low, very dangerous voice.
"And what kind would that be exactly?"
"T-traitors!" the clerk managed to shout back, his voice high and almost cracking.
Despite standing in a butcher's shop, Kiba was still almost overwhelmed with the stench of fear wafting off the man.
"You don't serve traitors here?" Hamaru slowly repeated, and in lieu of having his voice crack again, the butcher merely rapidly nodded instead.
Still staring the smaller mean dead in the face (a common intimidation tactic amongst Inuzuka and their ninken, Kiba noted), Hamaru's large claw came up and rested lightly on the clerk's shoulder, the smaller man rooted to the spot in fear.
"Good man! Konoha appreciates your loyalty! It does a Leaf Shinobi good to see a traitor-free store in this Village, which it is, because, after all, there are no traitors here!" The beastly Inuzuka suddenly exclaimed in a loud, cheery voice.
Before the boys could even keep up with the sudden tonal shift, Hamaru forcibly dragged the terrified clerk forwards as if he barely even weighed anything, his voice more a snarl than actual words.
"Right?"
Finally the clerk's self-preservation overrode the man's prejudice as his terror took over control from his (clearly not very clever) brain, the man nodding rapidly until Hamaru's signature large grin returned and he let go of the clerk, even patting him on the shoulder.
"Good man." He repeated calmly, before turning on his heel, addressing the boys.
"Let's go. We're done here." He curtly stated, stalking out of the butcher's shop without a second word and with the boys hot on his heels.
It was only after they had finished walking down the length of the street that a wide-eyed Shikamaru suddenly spoke up.
"Uhm, Hamaru-san?"
"Yeah?"
"We ah... never actually paid that guy for all this stuff..."
For a brief moment, the large Inuzuka faltered in his step before his broad shoulders sagged.
"Ah dammit, you're right. Don't worry, I'll take care of it. Leave him a note or something."
"You shouldn't have done that." Naruto said darkly, surprising both the adults and his fellow classmates, who considered Naruto of all people to be about the last person qualified on the moral injustices of shoplifting.
Not that he often did, but on the few occasions that he had done so, it had been loud, messy affairs which had been more reminiscent of pranks than actual theft, the blonde screaming back just as loudly as the shopkeepers as crowds inevitably formed around them.
It had happened only a few times, but even then, while people had stared, pointed and whispered at the blonde, none had actually interfered with him, which was oddly par for the course when it came to Naruto's pranks. For all that they complained about the blonde, none of the adults in the Village seemed willing to step in and oppose the blonde menace, which had likely fed into the boy's ongoing (and escalating) prank war against shopkeepers like the butcher Hamaru had just terrified.
"What, steal? Cause it was an accident, mostly-"
"No, I mean be all mean to him."
"Oh? What makes you say that?" the large Inuzuka asked calmly, clearly thinking along similar lines as the blonde's classmates, but instead of looking judgmental, Naruto merely looked saddened.
"He won't forget. And he'll make sure everybody else won't either. You mess with one of 'em, they all start talking behind your back." The blonde said with morose certainty born from experience.
For a moment, Hamaru merely look at the blonde who was hanging his head, before glancing at their surroundings. The crowd split apart around them, either openly staring, or ignoring them so obviously and with clear ill intent, they might as well have been staring at well. There was a good two meters of complete emptiness around their group, people giving them an unusually wide berth even in one of the bustling main roads of Konoha. The only thing that dared cross the empty gulf between them were the narrow-eyed stares and the furious whispers.
"They already do." Hamaru merely muttered back to Naruto, before shaking himself and forcing himself to give a nonchalant shrug as the group trudged on in silence.