Disguised Curses

I think it's been about a month, just over, since I updated. And after such a wait (considering the recent increase in writing) I bring you a double- update of some 5700 words. I'm sure you all will find it in your hearts to forgive me. Though, you may not when you're done reading. *grins*



Notes: Plot twists and some unseen sideline action that will come up again later. This is unbeta'd, atm, and I may edit when I hear back from my second. All mistakes are mine.





Sneakyfox and Djargo: You two are the highlight of my readers. It means so much that you both support my Hinata, even when I have to take the extra time to make sure she's staying to how I'm envisioning her (instead of the pitfalls of common fanfare). I hope you will enjoy the rest of the ride for this story.

 

 

Chapter 40

 

 

 

Neji woke to insistent scratching, tiny claws scraping at his blanket and low chittering. He wrapped a hand around Takeshi and pulled him to the side, sitting up a moment later. He blinked at the dim room. It was early, not even the grey of pre- dawn in his window's. “Takeshi?”

The ermine twisted in his grip, wrestling and scrambling toward the foot of his bed. Neji released him, watching as the rich brown body, nearly black in this light, bolted off the bed and froze before his door. Neji frowned at the behavior. Takeshi scratched when he wanted to go out, but this eerie stillness, waiting, was uncommon.

He was instantly, painfully awake, activating his secondary vision. Bodies were scattered throughout the compound, muted with sleep. Nothing and no one was outside his door. He clipped a leash to Takeshi's collar and slipped out the door, two dark shadows creeping down the hall.

He let the ermine take the lead, eyes sweeping the halls. The further he walked down the hall, the more tension gathered in his back, prickled the hair on his arms.

What the hell was wrong​?

Takeshi paused at a crossing of halls, nose swinging from side to side. To the left was the wing where Hinata, Hanabi, Kimi, and few other of-age single females had rooms. To the right was Hiashi's rooms and a private office. The hall stretched forward, leading to other parts of the house. Neji knelt and unclipped the lead. “Check on Hinata and Hanabi. I’ll wake Kimi. We'll do rounds then.” Takeshi nodded at the whisper, slinking into the shadows that concealed the line of wall meeting the floor. He disappeared with ease, only Neji's Byakugan tracking him as he scurried down the hall.

Neji followed in the ermine's wake, clinging to the other wall. Kimi's and Hinata's rooms were across the hall from each other and a couple doors down, close enough without being too close. He put his attention to the flare of chakra that was uniquely Kimi's, heading straight to her door and rapping softly. She answered quickly, and he held up a finger for silence before she could demand what he was doing approaching her door with his sight active. He wasn't going to give her the chance to ask if he was peeping, damn her. Not now. “Something's wrong,” he murmured.

She didn't answer him, but her chakra swirled down, quiet and sleek and tucking into her body until she was half the glow of before. Neji glanced toward the door he could hear opening, Takeshi's soft squeaks bringing reassurance that Hinata was safe. His cousin moved toward them, and he instinctively searched out Hanabi's room. The younger girl's chakra signature was muted with sleep, and Neji breathed a sigh of relief. There was still an eerie crawling sensation up and down his spine, the tingle of a predator stalking him. He refused to be scared, to let it cripple him, but he had to find the source of his unease.

“Hinata.” Barely a sound, but his cousin moved in closer. “Was Naruto here? Recently, within the last half hour, or due to be here soon?” He tensed when she offered him a negative twitch of her head, scanning the halls and rooms again. There wasn't many he'd come across to give him this deep a feeling of unease, very few within Konoha. “We've got a problem.”

It took but moments to split them up, Kimi heading out for aerial surveillance, Hinata and Neji splitting the halls. Nothing, absolutely nothing was out of place, not even the few extra sentries that had become normal these last couple months. But still there was a heavy feeling in Neji's gut as they finished the circuit and returned to the halls with their personal rooms. He escorted Hinata to her room, Kimi ducking away as soon as they passed her door. “Stay alert,” he offered, squeezing back when Hinata gave him a quick hug. She sympathized for his nerves, the instincts pounding at him to find the problem, find it now before the threat ate him. He pulled away and turned, ready to call Takeshi back to him.

A muffled thump sounded, and as his Byakugan flared to life he noted two people within Hanabi's room, and the bristling flare of Takeshi charging her door. Hinata was at his side, rushing to open the door and pour into Hanabi's room. The ermine didn't hesitate, leaping toward the body, but Neji could see the blade posed at Hanabi's throat, the way her body lay limply against the other body. Male, couple inches taller than him, low chakra presence, kunai at his cousin's throat. He had just enough time to process this as Takeshi reached the man's feet before the bodies flickered away. Hanabi and her abductor, gone in a flash of chakra, leaving behind a squealing, irate ermine, and a dread- filled pair of witnesses.

“Raise the alarm!!” Neji bellowed, no longer worried about maintaining quiet. There was no point for silence now. He grabbed up Takeshi by the scruff and bolted away. He had to tell Hiashi- sama.

 

***

 

He stared up into coal-and-bronze eyes, glinting above dark fur striped with pale color, muted moonlight illuminating just enough of the body to make out the large furred animal. The weight of claws pinned his shoulders, the large heavy head menacingly above his throat. He could throw the animal, he knew, but he could make out a dim outline of another form in his room, and held still.

“Hello, Hiashi Hyuga. I have a couple words for you, if you would stay still a moment and listen.” Human, male, and the shadowy form pulled out of the shadows enough to see the black outfit and cloth mask wrapped around the face. “I require your attendance and cooperation to a little meeting, if you would. I’ll leave you directions how to get there,” a hand flashed out and deposited a pale scrap of paper on Hiashi's bedside table. “I require your presence by noon, and have acquired a little leverage to ensure your full cooperation. As we speak a man is slipping away with your younger daughter, and I doubt I need to tell you what we'll do to her if you fail to appear.”

Hiashi had crawled his hand up his chest, certain he wasn't fooling the creature above him, but it hadn't given him any reason to stop. But once this man, this foolish man said those damning words, he shoved his hand up around the animal's leg. The blanket provided no effective barrier against the chakra attack as Hiashi forcefully shoved a lethal amount up the leg and toward the chest. The creature snarled and poofed away, in the manner of summons beasts everywhere.

The enemy in his room merely laughed, backing up across the room as Hiashi hurled himself from the bed. “Alone, at noon, or your precious little girl will find out what happens to captured ninja.” A smothered laugh escaped the man as the form turned to sludge and mud around Hiashi's wrist, his hand stuck where it had made contact with the body. An earth clone, a good one.

Hiashi was staring at the muck dissolving on his floor, seeping away between the wooden floorboards when his door was flung open, moments after he'd defeated the clone, and Neji entered with all the grace of a hurricane. “Hiashi- sama!”

“Hanabi is gone.” It wasn't quite a question, but it demanded an answer. He watched as his nephew nodded and an apology tumbled out, but he couldn't place the blame on his nephew. The ermine in Neji's hands was squirming, shrieking in high tones that Neji must have been ignoring in favor of his apology. “What is that thing's problem?”

“Takeshi, Hinata and I entered Hanabi's room right as her kidnapper disappeared. I believe he's still worked up about it. I'm sorry, I couldn't reach her in time to spare her.”

Noise was gathering in the halls, throughout the compound as word spread that the Hyuga had been invaded by unfriendly forces. Kimi and Hinata appeared behind Neji, taking in the condition of the room and Hiashi himself. “I want you three to go see Tsunade, now. Spread word for everyone to be on alert, keep all children under close watch. Whoever is in charge of this may not be content with just Hanabi.” His nephew and elder daughter immediately agreed, turning in the doorway to leave. Kimi stopped them a few feet outside of Hiashi's room.

"Takeshi, you smelled that?" He squealed and squirmed in Neji's hands. Kimi grinned wolfishly. "Want to help me track it?" He shrieked, nodding, and clambered over quickly when Neji loosened his grip.

"Kimi, what-?"

She leaned in, whispering against Neji's cheek as she dropped Takeshi's leash into his hand. "Your uncle was paid a visit by a musk- reeking predator. We will track it; inform Tsunade and send back-up." She moved around him, not bothering to wait and see the flicker of shocked realization in Neji's face, or if he would get Hinata out of there. Kimi knew Neji would do what he needed to do for himself and his family. He and Hinata had proven themselves stubborn to their own causes. They would see themselves safe, at least. And likely half the clan.

 

 

It was deceptively simple to round the corner of the house and find herself outside the wall of Hiashi's bedroom. If she listened she could even hear him give a last few orders to people, his voice raised enough to be heard of the low murmur of fear and chaos that had accompanied the alert. Kimi knelt close to the dirt, rocking on the balls of her feet and fingers pinched into Takeshi's fur. "Lead me true, little ermine." Takeshi nodded, fast and vigorous before bounding out of her hands and skittering over the ground along the wall. He paused and snuffled along an area of wall that could have been a concealed sliding door, then bolted over the ground in an odd jumping run. Kimi followed, eyes locked onto the mini predator. Houses passed, the perimeter of the Hyuga compound looming quickly when Takeshi made a hard turn and shot straight down a hole in the dirt. It was a fairly large hole, easier big enough for three ermine to run through side- by- side, and Kimi knelt at the edge to test the odor.

It reeked of musk, the same taint in Hiashi's room, thick and pungent and stronger than anything Takeshi could produce. It was something large, familiar, something she hadn't hunted by choice in ages because of the size and ferocity.

The tunnel stunk of badger, overly large claw marks scoring the dirt. It could even be wolverine, and she bared her teeth and grinned at the prospects. Her wings slid easily from her back and she ascended, eyes trained on the ground for any more holes, for Takeshi's moving body, waiting to see how far this tunnel went and where. It would explain how the enemy infiltrated without anyone the wiser, a secluded entry and fast escape.

If it had been her team, she would have approved the entry method. She would have recommended they cover their tracks a lot better, though. Leaving a hole of that size in the compound? Were they idiots?

The sound of a massive explosion reached her ears before she could wheel around and search the skies. From her altitude she could recognize the general neighborhood the flames and smoke were rising from, and she silently gave the unknown enemy another point to their tactics. So that was how they had hoped to evade further detection. Blowing up any area on or near the Uchiha compound, as empty as it was, would be sure to swiftly gather massive attention. Even as she circled back around and scanned, searching for Takeshi's familiar body, she was aware of the surge of ninja now swarming to the explosion. She had her own mission, not from loyalty or any debt to this clan, although she supposed she may owe them something.

No, she was pissed that someone had invaded what passed as her current hunting grounds and her nest and kidnapped someone within that area that was supposed to be hers, regardless of her feelings toward that person or their family. It was like stealing meat from a sibling's beak before they could swallow, an underhanded cheat she could expect from an animal. But to escape, to cheat their way out, this was human. And therein lay the game.

She caught up with Takeshi well outside the Hyuga compound walls, a few hundred feet out. It was a good distance to dig, and she was aloft long enough to watch the multiple jutsu being used to contain the fire over in the Uchiha neighborhood. But Takeshi's emergence and shrieking brought her circling down under the low trees, landing on her human feet and grinning down at him. "Any problems?" He shook his head, and she gestured at the forest floor. "Let's get back on the hunt then." He scampered off, running low, minimalizing the odd bouncing as much as possible. It was clear he had a strong scent trail, she could pick up traces but it wouldn't be enough to actively hunt the target. She was a sight hunter, not scent. She could spot a prey from far above and pinpoint its vulnerability with ease, just by her hawk eyes and slight flickers of motion. A hound would be better, probably faster, simply because a larger animal could cover more ground in less time.

She hoped the backup would actually have a team useful to her needs, if she couldn't contain this problem herself. Wild badgers tended to be fairly solitary creatures, but these were working with ninja. Between the humans and the creatures, there could be more in numbers than she could handle immediately, on her own. Having the right backup would mean the difference between losing her targets and the stolen girl and decimating them so no one ever dared to stalk on her nesting grounds again.

They were half a mile out before sounds and vibrations from behind made Kimi grab Takeshi's scruff and leap up into the branches of a tree. her eyes kept scanning her back trail, Takeshi's initial squeak of surprise fading to nothing as he studied her. Smart man, smart instincts. If only he were bigger, so they could cover more ground. It was taking far too long, they risked the scent trail going cold. And then forms, large bodies pressing aside the foliage, a line of three large dogs in an arrow, noses to the ground and a woman behind them, fierce wild visage and wild hair with red marks on her face. Someone from Kiba's clan, no doubt, and Kimi felt a grin breaking her lips. Good. Hunters like her.

She dropped from the tree and wasted seconds reassuring the ninja and dogs of her identity, her idea of letting Takeshi travel on one of the dogs, receiving blessed news that a proper team was being formed and coming along behind. Hana, the woman, seemed agreeable, if not restless and eager, and her dogs not much better, eager but silent, every movement of their bodies disagreeing with their visible control. The scent trail was reconfirmed from hers to the musk- drenched ground, and the dogs released again.

The hunt was on.