Bestial

AN: So I’d really like to thank everyone who has been reviewing, it means so much to hear from you! Keep them coming! Oh, and for those who are wondering where exactly this fits in the series, I don’t remember if I said it before and I’m too lazy to check, but this takes off around that two-year split, but we’re in the future. The “Rookie 9” are 20 years old. Do the math for everyone else with that.

As always,

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I would make Kakashi, Neji, and Gaara my love slaves, and they wouldn’t be in your anime/manga. Obviously, since you’re still seeing them, I don’t.

::blabla:: Inner Sakura

mmmmmm scene break

Soundtrack for this chapter (i.e. written while listening to): Chanson d’ami, zazie

Chapter Five


It was past noon when I woke up—I could tell from the sunlight that was slanting in through my windows. Ugh. I felt like crap. But I was thirsty. I rolled over to get off the bed and saw a glass of water on the bedside table. I narrowed my eyes at it. I didn’t put it there. However, I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and I greedily drank from it and swallowed the painkillers that were next to it. I shakily stood up and stumbled to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. That completed, I was heading back towards my bed when I heard a very soft tapping on my door. I could only think of one person who would knock like that, and I was right.

“Oh, hey Hinata. Come on in.” She darted inside and turned to face me.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, but Kakashi stopped me on my lunch break and said you had chakra backlash, a-and that I should check on you—I mean, I wanted to see how you were too, and…” she trailed off with a shrug of her shoulders. “Oh! But you should be sitting down Sakura!” She firmly took me by the arm and steered me towards the couch. Hinata has lost some—but by now means all—of her shyness as she has aged, and now she’s an odd mix of confidence and uncertainty. She’s completely confident about anything related to medicine, but she becomes shy when she feels that she’s the focus of attention—which is pretty much any time she talks to someone purely for conversation. Once she starts saying what is on her mind though, conversation usually flows smoothly. We got to be fairly close since we both started learning medical jutsus from Tsunade—Hinata began learning from Shizune, but when I was away all that time hunting down Orochimaru and Sasuke, she began to learn from Tsunade as well.

Hinata had activated her Byakugan, and was holding her hands near my head. I closed my eyes and concentrated so I could “see” what she was doing with my chakra. My chakra flow was looking pretty good, actually—well, aside from a large concentration of it in my head, which I felt Hinata smoothing out, and I helped the process by influencing my chakra to flow faster. In no time the pressure in my head eased as my chakra became evenly distributed in the correct flow patterns, and I opened my eyes with a sigh of relief. I excelled at chakra control, but when your chakra circulation system becomes messy, it’s always nice to have a helping hand to tidy it up.

“Thanks, Hinata. You really didn’t have to go out of your way to come over here.” And it was true; I would have been fine after another few hours of sleep. However, I would hate to sound ungrateful, especially since she knew that I could heal myself too after I slept. She was probably afraid of offending my healing abilities, which are pretty damn amazing, if I do say so myself.

“O-oh. No. It’s really no trouble at all, Sakura. I—I was glad I could help,” she said as her voice became softer. Time for a new topic!

“Actually, I’m glad you came by. I’ve been wanting to ask you about something.” Was it just me or did that sound vaguely creepy?

“Y-you did?”

“Have you heard about this whole maturity and balance thing?” Now I was starting to feel like a pervert—I definitely knew way too many of them. Obviously I needed to broaden my circle of friends.

“Oh! Yes, yes, I have. My father told me about it when he found out that I was on a team with Shino and Kiba. I’m not sure how he knew, though.”

“You’ve known since we were genin?! Why don’t they tell us medic-nin about it?!”

Hinata shrugged. “It really doesn’t apply to everyone. What do you know about it?”

“Only that your…scent…changes because you’ve reached some sort of balance. But it doesn’t make sense—if all kunoichi take birth control, shouldn’t we all have balance?”

“It’s more than that. It means that you’ve reached started to reach the peak of your abilities—that’s why they usually call it maturing. Think of it like this—for most of us, our bodies mature faster than our ability to control and expand our powers. For others—genii—their powers mature faster than their bodies. They’re the ones who become jounins when the rest of us have just graduated from the Academy.” From anyone other than Hinata, that would have sounded bitter. But she was in “lecture mode”—you could totally tell she was an instructor!

“Eventually, everyone reaches a limit that they really can’t go beyond—there are always special cases though. At some point as your power reaches a sort of plateau, it’s apparently marked by a physical change in scent. The only ones who I know can smell it are the Inuzuka clan, the Aburame clan, Kakashi, and Naruto.” Hinata fell silent.

“Gaara,” I said.

“What,” Hinata squeaked.

“I bet Gaara can smell it too,” I said. “He has…an “animal” inside him as well.” Talk about euphemisms.

“Oh, yes. You’re probably right Sakura.”

“So is there any other way of telling if someone has reached a balance? What about your Byakugan? Or if I go into a trance?”

“I can’t see it with my Byakugan. From what I understand from Neji and my father, recognizing it is almost instinctive. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be looking for, and I think that my use of it may not be refined enough. That and my Byakugan has never been as strong as Neji’s,” Hinata sighed unhappily. Wow, I couldn’t believe she got the nerve to ask Neji about it.

“Maybe it’s because you haven’t reached your balance. You only just reached jounin status—I bet you will figure it out, and when you do, you can show me what to look for.” I wasn’t about to let other unsuspecting young girls run around not knowing about the predators lying in wait for them.

::Yeah! We’ll kick their asses! Girl power! Hell yeah!::

Hinata turned red. What did I say?

“Hinata?”

“W-well…um…” she pushed her index fingers together. “You’re right, I haven’t reached my peak yet.” She was silent for a while and I waited, but I wasn’t feeling terribly patient. “K-kiba comes around the hospital every day to...um…smell me and make sure…that I haven’t. He…he always grumbles about how he has to make sure he can keep me away from Naruto.” Hinata finished this on a whisper with a face that was competing with a tomato for color.

I stared at her. She refused to look at me. Then I started giggling, and she looked up at me.

“Mental image,” I managed to get out as I started laughing my head off. Hinata looked startled, but then smiled a bit.

“He does go a bit overboard, especially when it comes to Naruto.”

That sobered me up. “Hinata, do you still have a thing for Naruto?”

“Um…” Uh-oh. Not good. How to break it gently about Naruto and Kiba fighting over me without sounded completely self-absorbed? Boys weren’t really a topic I discussed with Hinata, mostly because we were usually talking about something related to medicine, and also because I knew it was a topic that always made her sputter into silence from embarrassment.

“You…you misunderstand,” she said, interrupting my train of thought. “Naruto…he…he was—is the person I admire most. He has tried so hard, been so optimistic, even when he was so alone when we were academy students. I—I used to like him like that…but…but…it was more hero worship than anything else. We are friends, and…that makes me happy. I didn’t see him much for several years, and grew out of my girlish love, like you, Sakura—and now I still admire him…and I like him, but…we are only friends…and that is all we will ever be.”

During those years he and I were chasing down the Akatsuki, and before that we were chasing down Orochimaru and Sasuke. Or trying to concentrate on Orochimaru and Sasuke while running from the Akatsuki. Priorities, you know. Actually, it’s a wonder Naruto and I even lived to make it to jounin status, we were gone on missions so much for those years. And the longer you’re gone on a mission, especially for A-level and S-level, the more likely it is that you’ll end up dead. It’s simple fact, if you look at the statistics.

“I guess it’s just not really that important to me now,” Hinata mused. “Being a medic-nin and training genins is time consuming.”

I totally agreed—of course, I was an active jounin, so I was on missions rather than training brats (I still am not a fan of children), and I had a bit more free time, but it wasn’t all peaches and cream. I spent a lot of my free time at the hospital, and then I had to deal with stupid crap like the maturation of power and people not keeping me informed about it. Kakashi had a big kick in the butt coming his way from me.

“What about Tenten? Has she reached her peak?”

“I don’t know.” Hinata wrinkled her forehead. “I haven’t seen her around lately.”

“Hmm.” My eyebrows snapped together. “That’s odd. She wasn’t where she usually trains yesterday either. Maybe she went on a mission.” Tenten was in ANBU. We assumed she was on a mission if we didn’t see her for a couple of days. Her missions usually didn’t take very long—she was a fighter, not a spy.

“Shikamaru and Neji left today. I saw them this morning.” Oh yeah, Hinata probably knew who everyone in ANBU was, or at least what they looked like, with the Byakugan. No wonder everyone wanted to unlock the secrets of the Hyuuga clan.

“Dammit, he was supposed to be my bodyguard,” I muttered. I heard a muffled snort from Hinata and then some soft laughter. “I knew I should have told Tsunade yesterday.”

She laughed louder. “Are there so many then? I thought…” she trailed off, and blushed.

“Kiba, Naruto, Shino.” I said in a low voice. Her eyes widened, and she looked a little sad.

“I’m sorry, Hinata,” I leaned over and looked her directly in her eerie eyes. It didn’t really feel like eye contact since she had no easily visible pupil. “If I had known I would have avoided Naruto, or Kiba. Wait, or is it Shino? But I thought you didn’t like Naruto like that! I really thought Naruto was over his crush on me, I mean it was so long ago,” I started to panic. I felt so bad, but I had no control over it.

“No…no…well…no, I guess I really don’t,” Hinata said, sounding a little surprised. “I guess I’m just tired—of being last,” she grimaced.

That made total sense. “Ah. I felt that way when I was on a team with Sasuke and Naruto…Well, if it’s any consolation, I think that I’m really just another thing for Kiba and Naruto to compete over.” Ever since Naruto and I came back and started training to be jounin, Kiba and Naruto had become more and more competitive. It was like Sasuke and Naruto all over again, except friendlier—unless they were competing.

“I’m sure that’s not the case,” Hinata said rather firmly. “But…be careful, Sakura.”

“Oh, I know that Hinata,” I stretched. “As far as I’m concerned, Kiba and Naruto can beat each other into the ground. And Shino…well…as long as I watch out for his little insect spies, I’ll be alright. I’m really not interested in getting involved with a guy right now, you know.”

She frowned. “You don’t have a choice.”

It was my turn to frown. “What do you mean? I have three men to choose from. Talk about options!”

“Not every mature ninja attracts those who can sense the change.” Hinata was starting to become really flustered, and was looking at her hands, which were twisting in her lap.

A sense of dread started growing in my stomach. “Hinata?”

“It’s a measure of your ability…and your compatibility…who you attract. Of how high your peak is. Just because they can sense the change doesn’t mean they’re instantly attracted to you.” Well, that made sense. Otherwise nothing would get done because everyone would be chasing after each other all the time. Besides, if a weaker ninja was attracted to me, I’d just walk all over him—even Naruto can barely withstand my “love taps.”

“But my compatibility with them—that’s where the smell comes in.”

“Yes,” she said.

“So I’m basically sending out selective pheromones for ninjas who are as good as I am or better.”

“Yes.”

“I see.” And I did. The picture was becoming all too clear. “And if I tried to put them off by getting involved with someone else, they’d just beat him up—especially Naruto. He’d probably kill him accidentally—well…maybe on purpose.”

Hinata still looked troubled. “I…I don’t think you understand…”

“No, no Hinata, I understand. I’ll just have to go out of town on a journey…I mean, a long mission…something that lasts a year or two. Or maybe I could be like Jiraiya and become a hermit. Yeah!” I hopped to my feet and walked towards my door.

“Well, it was nice seeing you Hinata, and thank you so much for all of the information, but I have to go see someone about a journey—heh heh, I mean a mission.” I pulled on my sandals and Hinata was quick to follow me and do the same, but she was still frowning.

I opened my door and nearly walked into Konohamaru, who had his arm raised to knock on my door.

“Ah, Sakura. The Hokage would like to see you at fifteen hundred hours.” Then he disappeared. Heh, must have a lot of messages today. I glanced over my shoulder at the clock in the kitchen area. It read 2:45. He’s damn lucky I was on my way there already, I growled to myself.

::Kick his ass!::

“I’ve got to get going! Bye Hinata!”

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I walked into Tsunade’s office and saw that Kakashi was there.

“Whoops, sorry, I’ll just be—”

“Stay, Sakura. You have your details, Kakashi. I will see you in two weeks.” He gave a small bow and salute to Tsunade before walking out. A small cloud of smoke marked his departure outside the office.

“So. I hear that you’ve got quite the following.” Tsunade leaned back in her chair and propped her feet on her desk.

“How—never mind. I came to request a mission. Preferably one that’s long,” I grimaced.

“Yes, I have one for you. It’s a retrieval mission, it shouldn’t be too hard. Kakashi will have the details for you. I called you in because another member of your team will be Kiba. I thought you deserved fair warning.”

“Why not Naruto?!” I really wasn’t on teams without Naruto very often. When he was away training, of course I was, but it wasn’t the same. And really, I trained by myself under Tsunade and went on missions as needed. My days of training with a team had been put on hold until Naruto came back. There’s a certain level of comfort—I know how he’s going to move so we work well together, we get along (unless he’s being an idiot and then I have to knock some sense into him), and he doesn’t really need me to heal him very often so I can concentrate on the other ninja on our team—or ninjas.

“I had already sent Naruto on a mission before I received a notice from this client. But isn’t he also a potential match?” Damn. Well, if Kiba gets too close I’ll just punch him. I’ll pretend he’s like Naruto—harmless, loud, and playful.

“It’s not a problem. You expect that it will take us two weeks then?”

“That is the estimated time.”

“Very well. I will see you in two weeks.” I saluted and left the building, then turned to Kakashi, who was standing against the wall, reading of course.

“We’ll leave tomorrow morning. Nine hundred hours.”

“Right, so I’ll see you at twelve then,” I shot back with a smirk. He raised his eyebrow but said nothing, just did a displacement jutsu and left. Yeah, I’d be there a nine hundred hours. Once Naruto and I decided that we’d be on “Kakashi time” and be three hours late for a mission departure time. He surprised us by poofing into our bedrooms and waking us up. I got him back for scaring the crap out of me though, because I punched him into my wall.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I didn’t feel very refreshed when I woke up—I had spent the rest of the day in the hospital, and ended up staying pretty late into the night because I wasn’t tired. Then when I did sleep, I had dreams I don’t really remember, just flashes of people yelling, and hot breath on my cheek, and a hand in my hair. I showered (probably the last one I would have for at least a few days—it’s not glamorous being a kunoichi), grabbed my things, and buckled and strapped them on as I went out the door.

I gave myself a pep talk as I went. Kiba has Akamaru, who really is a sweet, fluffy dog.

::Yeah, if by sweet and fluffy you mean killer!::

The way that he is so close to Akamaru shows that he has a soft and playful side. I’d seen them playing games on more than one occasion.

::Yeah, but I bet Akamaru thinks training to kill people is a game too.::

It was cute that he could understand Akamaru and talk to him.

::That’s what got us into this shit in the first place—those beastly powers.::

He was a good, strong fighter, and did his best to remain calm and think things through—unlike Naruto, who even now still had a tendency to lose his temper and go in with fists flailing. Although, Naruto has gotten a lot better about it. As long as I remembered to use scent-covering jutsus when I was near Kiba, I should be okay. He was a nice, sweet, innocent guy just like Naruto.

I came over a rise and saw Kiba lounging against the bridge, waiting. It was breezy this morning, and I had the breeze at my back. Shoot, I hadn’t expected to be second—I quickly performed the jutsu, but Kiba was already looking in my direction expectantly, and as I came over the rise, he looked at me with a wicked smile.

What had I been thinking? Kiba wasn’t like Naruto at all.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

What does Kiba have to say to Sakura? Who will be the fourth member of their group? When will Kakashi show up? Find out next week!

Oh, and please, leave a review before you go!