TFATH 2

                              Ch. 2: The Hound's Dog's Sister! The Fox's Past

This woman's hair was a darker shade of the boy's, as were the fang marks painted on to her cheeks. 'Must be a pack thing…' Karui thought to herself, as her eyes narrowed back to normal. The woman stood a bit taller than her, Karui easing her mind at the warm smile aimed in the direction but tensing her body at the steely protective glint in the woman's eyes. "How long have you been standing there?" Karui asked the new person.

The woman shifted from her current position, not uncrossing her arms. "Long enough," Karui body relaxed as she caught the calm tone of her new company's voice, a slight laugh laced within the older woman's words. "You know, he doesn't get along all to well with strangers, I'm surprised he let you get so close to him." The lady now uncrossed her arms, walking passed Karui, the younger kunoichi eyeing the older woman suspiciously.  "Really?" Karui asked, turning around with a slight crease of confusion on her unseen forehead, "But Akamaru's been really kind to me…?"

The woman chuckled as she ruffled the bed-ridden shinobi's hair. "Yes, Akie's been raised well, especially to girls. He'd be the perfect gentlemen had he been born human. I was talking about my bratty little brother here." Karui cracked a small smile at this little sibling joke.

Not within the Karui's line of sight, the woman's eyes softened at the sight of her brother.  "I'm Inuzuka  Hana. The Sleeping Beauty here is Kiba. You weren't trying to wake him were you?"  Karui blushed a bit at the thought of kissing someone awake. "No!" The redhead declared without hesitation, shaking her head furiously "Of course not! Why would I do something like that?"

"I'm kidding, come down!" Hana said, covering with her laughter at the obviously flustered girl with her hand. The blush still on her face and not fading fast enough, Karui crossed her arm and looked at the opposite wall. In her peripheral vision, she saw Hana turn to the nightstand beside Kiba's bed.  Karui turned, her curiousity getting the better of her. What Hana held was a picture of what Karui assumed to be the other teen teammates.

In-between Kiba and another boy was a girl with short dark hair and white eyes—a Hyuga, no doubt—the other boy on her left, whose face was covered and had sunglasses on. The one on the girl's left was Kiba, grinning hugely with a mini Akamaru on his shoulder. All three of them stood in front of a beautiful woman with amazing red eyes. Karui had been studying to picture, when Hana started to speak again.

"My brother is many things: loud, brash, and quick to act without thinking sometimes. But I don't deny that he can be kind or thoughtful of others. His biggest strength and weakness his that he's loyal to the bone. The reason my dumb sibling is in here is because of the girl in the photo, from a recent mission."

"Rather than have her get hurt, even knowing that she could more than likely deflect anything, he jumped in the way of a pretty big attack. Hinata was a livid mess when they brought him in afterwards. One flaw about his loyalty is his goddamn protectiveness of those he considers his family, especially his teammates and sensei."

"You should have seen him when his best friend Shino asked me out on a date—it took me and several of our ANBU members to finally restrain him." At the memory, Hana gave a chuckle, looking back at the dark toned women whose eyes were asking 'Why are you telling me this?'   

"Did you notice that I never asked for your name?" Hana said turning back towards the girl. Karui tilted her head, rethinking their entire conversation thus far. She realized that she hadn't given her name or why she was in the room to begin with. When she opened her mouth to introduce herself after looking back at Hana, the elder woman continued, "It's because I already know who you are: Karui of Kumogakure, the Cloud's Bladed Fox."

"It's said that as a child many believed you to be the Nine Tailed Fox's carrier, what with your red hair and your eye color." Karui gritted her teeth as she began to remember those lonely days of her youth. Everyone had avoided her as a child, her family and Omoi been the only ones willing to get close to her. She felt her fist clench, as well as her heart from the painful nostalgia of that time, neither willing to accept or reject what she was being told.

"Attempts were made on your life early on, eventually leading your parents to go to the Raikage. What better protection, he had said, for a girl believed to be a demon than an actually demon? He assigned Killer Bee as your bodyguard, but eventually he became your sensei, teaching you in the ways of the sword and taijustu. It turned out you were a sword prodigy; by the time you were six and had entered the Cloud's Academy, rumors circulated that you were even as strong as one of the Mist's Seven Swordsmen."

At that Karui blushed again, but chose to speak up, refusing look away from Hana. "And what's your point? How do you know all of this anyway—how do you know the difference between was truth or false statements?

Hana stepped up to close the gap between them and was now face to face with Karui. "Did you know that people get rather defensive when they have the truth told to them? Besides if those rumors are true," Hana continued, spinning on her heel and back towards her brother. "They clearly didn't get everything correct."

'She's been right so far, as much as I would hate to admit it. What could she be missing' Karui's arms unconsciously crossed against her chest, her frustration of this absolute stranger spelling out her life story out weighting her curiosity to ask what Hana's lacked. Hana had now pulled back her brother's sheets, lifting his hospital shirt to check on his bandages. Karui leaned over slightly to get a glimpse of something, and caught a view of Kiba's fine tuned abs.

After making sure he was wrapped up well enough, Hana looked back towards Karui. The girl, for whatever reason, was looking towards the doorway and covering her nose with her left hand. The Inuzuka gave a chuckle and choosing to finish her previous statement, "What meant by not all the rumors being true, was that what they say about your beauty doesn't do you justice in person."  

Karui looked back as Hana, clearly caught off guard by this compliment, taking a step back and turning her whole body to face the empty beds on the other side of the room. She bit her thumb to try and keep herself from blushing again (what was it with these canines that made her do so? She never did it these much back home!).  After closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she turned to face Hana again once she had cleared her mind.

"Why are you telling me all of this? Why tell me about your brother and his loyalties; about my own past? What the purpose of all this?" Karui barked, thinking it would intimidate the women or rile her up (but she seemed to forget that this woman more than likely was someone who dealt with bigger dogs than Karui with even bigger bark and less bite behind them).

Hana looked up from her brother, her eyes soft but her smile this time slyer than the rest. "Foxes have a tendency to be curious just as much as they are clever, so I felt I should tell you about my brother.  And because you think he's cute." Karui's face was scarlet, from a mix of anger and embarrassment.

Since she couldn't scream without waking Kiba (not know the true extent of his wounds, she thought he could need as much sleep as possible), she simply grunted in frustration before marching out the room, sliding the door behind her quietly as she exited.

Hana couldn't help but laugh at how quickly Karui had exited. She looked back her little brother, who was still snoring peacefully. 'That girl really cares for you, you big idiot.' Hana thought, reflecting on how she had watched the kunoichi stroke through the boy's hair. 'I haven't seen a girl handle you that gently since mom rocked you to sleep as a kid. Besides I think you'd like her—she reminds me of you a little. I wonder how you'll do when you meet up.'  Hana kissed Kiba's forehead, the boy's scrunched face causing her to laugh again. Kiba's older sister gave Akamaru an ear scratch, before leaving the room.