Venatori

Summary: Kankuro was a few minutes too late, and Kiba died. Now, Shino and Hinata work to ensure that no more traitors get away alive. Divergence from chapter 212.

The Laughing Phoenix does not own Naruto and makes no profit from this work, other than her sense of accomplishment.

WARNING: Character death. Blood, gore, and questionable use of medical knowledge and techniques. Some OOC-ness. Language.

Shatterpoint

Closing his eyes, Shino rubbed his brow. It didn't help the roiling, queasy feel of his throat and stomach, but that had been true all morning. Drawing a long breath through his nose, he turned his attention back to the table in front of him. He was supposed to be brushing up on his field medicine, the scrolls before him borrowed from Shizune for that purpose, but concentration was proving difficult.

Shaking his head a little, Shino bent over the diagrams, gaze darting from the anatomical sketches to the text beside them. He managed another few sections, then his gorge rose and he sat back in a hurry, eyes closed, breathing through his nose. Once he'd gotten it under control, he slowly opened his eyes and looked back at the scroll.

"Shino-kun?" Hinata tapped on the door frame, then entered, teacups and pot on a tray. She set them down on the table, then regarded him solemnly. Humming softly, she tilted her head to one side, reverting to the gestures they used in the field. "Are you feeling ill?"

"Nnn," Shino very carefully shook his head, "nausea. It'll pass."

"Hmmm." Hinata reached out slowly to rest her palm on his forehead, sliding slim fingers underneath his hitai-ate. Shino closed his eyes, letting her cool palm soothe the queasiness a little. Neither marked Shibi watching from the doorway.

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"Suit up, puppies," came the hissed instruction from behind Shino and Hinata, and they swung around to see Jakkaru's mask looking back at them from under the bridge they were sitting upstream of. "I need you at HQ by sundown."

"Of course," Hinata pushed upright, Shino right behind her.

"Recommendations?" Shino asked, almost lazily.

"Standard disposal kit, extra medical supplies."

By this point long-standing habit kept the Fangs' packs well-stocked and ready to be picked up at a moment's notice when Shino and Hinata were in Konoha. It was the work of a little over an hour to collect their things, change, and report to HQ, carefully letting themselves be spotted in other shinobi's peripheral vision along the way.

"Fangs!" Ryouken called them into his office at their knock. "Prompt as always. You're running backup to Jakkaru on this one - it's our assessment it'll take a whole pack."

"I've been chasing Renge off and on for a full six months." Jakkaru said, picking up the thread. "She's slippery, smart enough to lie low for extensive periods and skilled enough to avoid detection. Twice now I've gotten close, only to lose her. I've finally got a good lead, and I'd like to avoid a third escape."

"What do you need us to do?" Kuroi asked.

"We're going back to the classics for this one - we'll flush her out, then take her down as a team. She's used to watching for one pursuer, so the three of us should trip her up."

Two days later, Jakkaru had concluded that working with the Fangs was very different from working with the Inu. In fairness to the Fangs, the last mission he'd run with them, instead of debriefing them after the fact, had been nearly a year and a half prior. A lot could change in that span of time.

The Inu had been precocious and professional. Stupendously talented for their age and remarkably well-adjusted for the division, they'd worked solidly with the team and well within the bounds of good sense, at least as hunter-nin defined such things. The Fangs, by contrast, were nearly frightening. Oh, the talent remained - indeed, it had only been honed by the time that had passed - but they'd developed their partnership so far as to make it look preternatural. And while they obeyed his instructions as their senior and incorporated him into their plans with only a few hiccups, there was a clear difference between how he interacted with them and the sheer fluidity of how they related to each other. The trust between them was absolute, in ways he'd only rarely seen, and thanks to it they could - and did - take risks a lone hunter-nin would have avoided.

He'd once called the Inu his pups. By contrast, the Fangs were seasoned hunting dogs, grown into their paws. If Jakkaru didn't know better, he'd have thought some of the wilder rumors about the Fangs were based on direct observations of them, rather than the material he'd planted.

The takedown, at least, was cleanly done. The target was flushed and driven into an isolated area, and the team had worked as a single unit to put her down. It was a straightforward, merciful kill, and the Fangs showed no interest in the possibility of anything but.

(Jakkaru would have said he'd not been worried that the Fangs would develop a taste for killing - it was known to happen, but Konoha frowned on that and made a point of keeping individuals who enjoyed causing death out of the ranks of the ANBU. Jakkaru might have lied.)

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Picking up her teacup, Kurenai regarded her erstwhile students over the rim, trying to pick her angle of attack. She'd considered her battleground carefully, electing to have this conversation in her apartment - a sufficiently private territory for difficult conversations but one Shino and Hinata would not feel trapped in. How to approach the conversation itself was another matter entirely.

"It's been a while since we had the chance to do something like this," she said finally. "Nearly two months, isn't it?"

"That does sound about right, sensei," Shino agreed.

"You've been keeping yourselves busy," Kurenai went on. "I know you can't give me details, and I won't ask, but unless I'm very much mistaken you've been away on missions six weeks of the last eight."

Neither of the younger shinobi said anything, and Kurenai let the silence delicately stretch, like a creeping vine or a stalking cat. "I have always admired your dedication," she said once she'd judged the point made, then took a sip of her tea. "But please be careful not to push yourselves too far. I remember the girl who worked on her form late into the night," she glanced at Hinata, then let her eyes slide to Shino, "and the boy who was up before dawn to study."

"It was our hard work that brought us where we are today, sensei," Shino murmured, shoulders tensing fractionally. Kurenai didn't need to look at Hinata to recognize the sudden stillness of her face.

"It was indeed," Kurenai agreed. "Perhaps I'm being maudlin, but indulge your poor old sensei who misses her students, hmm?" She smiled.

Shino and Hinata chorused a protest at Kurenai's calling herself old, and the topic was discarded.

Three days later, Kurenai wondered if she should have pushed the issue further. She'd agreed to meet the pair at mid-morning to walk them through a genjutsu that was giving them trouble. When she arrived, it was to find the two well into some taijutsu practice, bouncing off or slingshotting past each other to extend their range and speed. The dust on their coats suggested at least an hour of this, possibly two.

Leaning against a tree trunk, Kurenai watched as Hinata ran towards Shino, who widened his stance and bent his knees in anticipation. As Hinata reached Shino, she leapt upwards and into his waiting hands. Exploding upwards, Shino launched Hinata further into the air, and she sailed over his head before landing. Hinata landed squarely, but her momentum got the better of her and she dove into a somersault to keep from falling, rolling to her feet.

Shino turned toward Hinata and asked a question Kurenai couldn't make out. Hinata's hand flew to her mouth and her shoulders shook as she giggled at whatever Shino had said. Kurenai sighed, folding her arms. They looked well enough at first glance, but she'd known them long enough to catch the lines of exhaustion around Shino's mouth and the droop to Hinata's shoulders. Making a mental note to discuss her concerns with Anko, she pushed upright and strode into the clearing, calling a greeting.

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No, not doing that again, Shiroi thought to herself. Their latest target was skilled with an exploding tag, and had either slowly saved up his purchases or made quite a few of his own. Going by the way Shiroi's attempt at a chakra-based shield had just caused one tag to explode far too close for comfort, the latter seemed likely.

Panting, Shiroi landed next to Kuroi in the ditch. A shared glance, a nod, and they were bursting out of it again, splitting and circling to trap the target between them. The shinobi snarled, flinging exploding tags in an arc, and Kuroi was forced to scramble back. Shiroi tried to press the advantage, only to have to suddenly perform a kawarimi to dodge another tag.

Kuroi spotted a flash of white, and launched three quick kunai at the target, forcing him to turn to deal with them. Shiroi took the chance and sent some of her poisoned senbon singing through the air - most were knocked aside when the target spotted the senbon and desperately detonated a small tag, trying to disrupt their flight, but two hit the mark. Another thrown flight of explosive tags and the target staggered and dropped.

Shiroi dropped back into the clearing and the Fangs approached the fallen shinobi from the sides. Their target was down, but not dead, Kuroi realized, noting the faint movement of his back. His mouth moved, and Kuroi picked up a gasped "taking..."

And then Shiroi's head snapped back. "Get back!" she shouted, hands already forming the seal for the kawarimi.

Kuroi, long-accustomed to responding to his partner's reactions in the field, particularly the shouted ones, instinctively did the same. He managed it not a moment too soon, as an explosion rocked the clearing. Their target had deliberately detonated his remaining tags, blowing himself up.

"Shiroi!" Kuroi called, looking for his partner.

"Kuroi, move!"

Kuroi looked up, then ran. A large tree, damaged in the explosion, was falling. Right on top of him. Dodging falling debris, he took a glancing blow to the side of the head from a branch but managed to kawarimi out of the way of the trunk. He landed hard, coughing as the dust settled.

"Kuroi!" Shiroi dropped into his personal space, and it was only long-familiarity with her that kept him lashing out. "Did you get hit?"

"Head," he gasped, and tried not to wince when Shiroi's questing fingers found the goose-egg starting to form. She hissed sympathetically and nudged him to sit. "You?"

"Fine," she said, "just bruises." Hold still so I can patch this up.

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Kuromaru chuffed under his breath at the little group coming up the pathway. Hana was in the lead, her adopted cousins behind her, the Haimaru triplets crowding their feet and winding between them as they walked. In Kuromaru's professional opinion, it was only the shinobi's excellent situational awareness that kept the younger two humans from tripping over the dogs.

It was not as though the Inuzuka ninken paid much thought to subtlety, but the Haimaru brothers were being particularly blatant in their chivvying of their clan-cousins.

"Hey, Kuromaru, is Mom in?" Hana waved.

"She went over to your aunt's to pick up a package. She'll be back in a bit." Kuromaru pushed to his feet and stepped up to greet Shino and Hinata. They returned the greeting properly, offering their hands for a sniff before burying them in his ruff for scritches, and Kuromaru rumbled approval.

"You'll have to come in and wait, then," Hana smiled. "Mom will want to see you both before you go back out - how many missions did you say you've been on this month, again?"

"Only two," Hinata smiled.

"That being said, they were longer ones." Shino gave the number of days each had taken, but Kuromaru was not listening. Shino and Hinata had turned to face Hana, and Kuromaru caught the scent off their coats. Stress and exhaustion had seeped into the lining, cuffs and collar, and Shino's had a distinct undertone of old blood. Hinata's lacked the blood smell, but the strong chemical odor was either the poisons she worked with or too many cleaning agents or both.

Hana nudged everyone inside and into the kitchen, keeping the conversation light while she clattered around. "You two want lunch? I'm getting peckish."

"Only if it would not be an inconvenience," Shino said.

"Shino-kun, you're supposed to inconvenience your older cousins," Hana teased. "We've got some beef buns, I can warm you one?"

"Thank you, Hana-chan, that would be very nice," Hinata serenely ignored Hana's shooing motions and retrieved plates from the cupboard.

Tsume was back five minutes later, shuffling a box from one hand to the other as she came in, and Kuromaru took advantage of the noise to mutter his observations to her. Tsume's lips tightened as she listened.

"Question for you, kids," Tsume said once she was seated at the kitchen table, her own bun steaming gently on its plate in front of her.

"Yes, Oba-sama?" Hinata asked, setting her bun down to give Tsume her full attention. Shino copied her, and Tsume smiled almost despite herself.

"How sure are you about your workload?" Subtle, Tsume felt, was something for other people.

"Oba-sama?" Shino frowned.

"Look, you two have done some amazin' things. Tobuketsu at fifteen is impressive as hell. Now, that bein' said, you shouldn't push yourselves too hard. The long missions you take, they're not easy jobs."

"We're managing, Tsume-obasama."

"An' I'm sure you are, but I'd like you to do more than 'manage', you get me?"

"I'm not sure that I do," Shino tilted his head a little.

"I'd like you to thrive."

There was silence for a moment as the teens contemplated this, trading glances across the table.

Shino broke it. "We'll do our best, Tsume-obasama."

Tsume smiled, a sinking feeling in her stomach. "That's all I can ask of you kids."

Later, when Shino and Hinata had gone, Tsume sighed and dropped a hand to Kuromaru's head.

"Somehow," the big dog rumbled, "I don't think that went the way we wanted it to."

"I'd agree." Tsume considered the matter for another minute, then sighed. "Tomorrow we go talk to Yuuhi, she might have an idea."

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"Another day, another hunt," Kuroi sighed, dropping from his tree to land near the ANBU patrol, then stepping sideways to allow Shiroi to join him. "Can we help you, cousins?" they called.

"Just passing through," the Black-Ops captain said. "Anythin' we can do for you?"

"Unless you've noticed any unusual burn patterns in the area, I think we are also just passing through," Kuroi said.

"Anybody?" The captain turned to look at her team, who to a one shook their heads.

"Worth a shot," Kuroi shrugged, Shiroi mirroring the movement.

"Thank you, cousins," the hunter-nin chorused, and vanished into the brush.

"Think you've got the burn pattern down?" Shiroi asked her partner a few hours later as they closed in on their mark, a kunoichi who'd started a lucrative sideline in forest fires. Her antics had aroused the ire of the Hi no Kuni daimyo and Konoha's council when her fires cut off trade routes and diplomatic ventures - the intel the Fangs had suggested at least one of them had been a deliberate attempt at scotching trade agreement negotiations. The briefing had been split on whether the deaths of the people caught in the firestorm had been deliberate assassinations or simply collateral damage.

"I'd like to practice it at least once more, but," Kuroi shrugged. Close enough to make it look like accidental self-immolation.

It was another three days before the Fangs caught up to their mark. Once she was in range, Shiroi planted three senbon painted with one of her fastest-acting toxins in the woman's skin, and less than two hours later the two hunter-nin were leaving a badly scorched clearing behind, a thoroughly burned body slumped in the middle.

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Shino jerked in bed, chest suddenly tight and heart racing. Marshalling his scattered thoughts, he concentrated on his breath, inhaling and exhaling slowly and deliberately until his chest loosened. Rolling over, Shino looked at the clock. 02:30. It is either way too early or way too late for this, and I don't know which. He sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes. It wasn't the first time he'd been awake at this hour for no real reason - too many late-night hunts, maybe. Or maybe the irregular catnaps he'd been catching.

The problems of being shinobi, he thought wryly, pushing his covers off and getting up in search of a glass of water. Didn't Anko-sempai say sleep cycles are the first thing to go?

In point of fact, Anko had once said something to that effect, but Shino knew there was a difference between disturbed sleep cycles - common enough among upper-level shinobi who might be called on at any hour to respond to a mission or be sent to perform duties requiring short periods of round-the-clock readiness - and whatever his current sleeping situation was. Even (or perhaps especially) shinobi needed a certain amount of sleep to maintain mission readiness. Between the nights where sleep refused to come and the ones where he woke up for no reason in the wee hours of the morning, Shino wasn't getting enough. And that was without taking into account the occasional disturbing dreams that left him shaking and staring, the ones he refused to call nightmares.

The catnaps helped a little, but it still wasn't enough. He'd managed so far, but Shino had the sense to know that sooner or later it'd catch up to him. He made a mental note to see if Shizune would let him into the hospital's library in the morning. There had to be some things he could try.

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Asuma listened to Tsunade-sama's briefing closely, half an eye on the team chosen to accompany him. It wasn't his usual squad of Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji, which was a bit of a shame, but all in all it wasn't bad. Shino, Hinata, Izumo, Kotetsu, and Genma were all good shinobi and would do well for this mission, acting as security at the wedding of the Daimyo's niece. Asuma, as both ranking jounin and member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, had command. The preliminary plan was for Hinata, Izumo and Kotetsu to be temporarily inserted as members of the household while the rest of them made themselves rather more conspicuous as security, though Asuma had the authority to change it at his discretion.

"Things'll probably change once we get there," Asuma admitted to the group at large when Tsunade-sama had finished. "It depends on what other plans the Daimyo's made."

Tsunade-sama clearly expected as much. "I leave the rest to your discretion, Asuma."

He nodded, then turned to his team. "Alright folks. Get your stuff, and we'll meet at the main gates in an hour." The team nodded, saluted the Hokage, and dispersed, Izumo and Kotetsu already muttering to each other.

If he hadn't happened to have a line of sight on the youngest members of his team, he would have missed it. Hinata's shoulders jerked once as she winced and brought a hand up, brushing her fingertips against her temple, her other hand lifting for a moment before she dropped it back to her side. Shino's attention was on her immediately, as Asuma expected, and he made an enquiring motion that Hinata answered with a sharp gesture with her free hand. The entire exchange took less than a minute.

Asuma hesitated for a moment, then decided to presume upon his relationship with their sensei. "Hinata-chan? You okay?"

Hinata blinked once, then lifted her head to smile politely at Asuma, dropping her hand. "Yes Asuma-sensei."

"Okay," Asuma said, recognizing that he wasn't going to get anything more out of Hinata. "Let me know if that changes, alright?"

"Of course, Asuma-sensei." Nodding politely Hinata left to collect her pack, Shino watchfully following on her heels.

Asuma kept a watchful eye on Hinata for the duration of the mission. He caught sight of only one more instance of what he was tentatively identifying as migraines, but he suspected that if there were more, she was hiding them. He made a mental note to ask Kurenai to check in on her, and maybe bring Anko along. Dojutsu users were prone to headaches to begin with, and he'd heard about Hinata's foray into poisons - if she was having a bad reaction to something she might need medical attention, and she was more likely to listen to her mentors than to him.

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Sighing, Jakkaru tossed the Fangs' latest mission report down on his boss's desk and rubbed his temple. "Ryouken? Is this about what I think it is?"

"If you think it's about their mission-readiness, you'd be correct." Ryouken tugged the report back towards himself and tapped it with his finger. "They get results, excellent ones, but I'm seeing a trend in these I don't like."

Jakkaru slumped in his chair. "Yeah, well, you're not the only one. Mitarashi had a word with me the other day - Inuzuka Tsume and Yuuhi Kurenai have already approached the Fangs with their concerns."

"And?"

"And a whole lot of nothing. You know those two, if they don't want to talk about something it takes Mitarashi or Ibiki to get it out of them."

"Jakkaru, Kuroi walked into a den of twitchy, heavily armed smugglers damn near unarmed. I do not care if he's a walking swarm of insects and was carrying enough poisons to kill a dozen men, he didn't have a single kunai on him. Shiroi's stunt with the guard wasn't much better. Last month, when we sent them after Ishida, they stayed in the kill zone so long they were nearly caught."

"In their defense on the Ishida assignment, there had been reports of Akatsuki activity in the area and they were trying to avoid detection."

"And the proper response would have been to pull back and wait until they were certain the coast was clear before taking Ishida. You know that. They know that."

Jakkaru nodded. "I know. I just…they're no more squirrely than the rest of us, is all."

Ryouken snorted. "That's supposed to reassure me?"

Jakkaru barked a laugh. "Guess not. How do we play this, boss?"

"This has to go to Hokage-sama." Ryouken sighed. "At a minimum I'd like to bench them until they work out the kinks in their strategy, but given everything else this has to go up the chain." Left unsaid was the Inu's youth, the Fangs' status as the Face of the hunter-nin, and all the politicking potentially tied up in their unmasked identities as Shino and Hinata.

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At first Neji didn't recognize her. He'd been caught up in conversation with Lee and Tenten, insufficiently focused on his surroundings, so when they rounded a blind corner and a girl coming the other way was forced to spin sideways or crash into them, his first concern was that they hadn't run her over. Lee practically doubled over with profuse apologies, and between his shenanigans and her reassurance that she was "quite well, thank you Lee-kun," all he had to go on was a fall of long, dark hair and a quiet voice.

When she turned to face him and Tenten, having convinced Lee to stand back up, Neji stiffened. "Hinata-sama, it has been a while."

"It has, Neji-niisan. You are well? And you, Tenten-san?" Hinata offered a sweet little smile.

"Quite, quite well," Neji managed.

"I'm doing just fine," Tenten chimed in. "Hey, congrats on the promotion, I know it's late but…"

"Not at all, Tenten-san."

Lee offered his own excitable congratulations, and Neji took advantage of the time to study his cousin. While Hinata's mannerisms had been changing before she moved out of the complex, Neji still half-expected her to behave as she had as a genin. That assumption was being torn to pieces. Instead of huddling into a bulky coat, stuttering and addressing the ground or her hands, Hinata stood effortlessly tall, head high and back straight as she exchanged pleasantries with Lee and Tenten.

"It's a shame we don't see you more often," Tenten was saying, "don't get me wrong, these two," she waved at Neji and Lee, "are great and all, but sometimes a girl wants to talk sharp objects with another girl, you know?"

Hinata lifted a hand to hide a small smile, porcelain-polished as any courtier. "I'm afraid Shino and I spend much of our time on longer missions, but I was lucky in Kurenai-sensei and Anko-senpai in that respect."

Tenten laughed. "How long are you back for this time? We should make plans."

"Indeed!" Lee chimed in. "It has been too long since we have had the pleasure of your and Shino-kun's company!"

"Not long. I believe we're off for Suna later this week."

"And we're on a long escort mission starting next week." Tenten hummed. "Maybe when we all get back, then."

"Perhaps, Tenten-san," Hinata agreed. "Best of luck on your mission next week."

"Thanks! Same to you, and pass on my congratulations to Shino for me?"

"Of course," Hinata nodded politely, and Neji hurried to offer his own congratulations. Hinata offered another glass-smooth smile, said her goodbyes, and was gone.

"Really is a pity they're gone so often," Tenten sighed. "How often do you see Hinata, Neji? Now that she's moved out, I mean."

Neji had to think about that. "This may be the first conversation we've had since some weeks before her promotion," he admitted.

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Tsunade listened as the Fangs reported in, fingers laced in front of her mouth as she studied the two, letting their words wash over her. Everything would be in their written report, and if something immediately pertinent was said Ryouken would make sure to follow up. At first blush the Fangs were their usual selves, moving in tandem when they weren't mirroring each other, picking up each other's sentences in a split narration. As the report went on, however, she recognized a certain manic energy in the pair, and her eyes narrowed. That was the behavior of the overextended and overtired, riding their second wind and a short step from crashing. There was some small mercy in that neither appeared to be hiding injuries, at least not beyond the pulled muscle Kuroi had admitted to.

Tsunade let the Fangs finish their reports without comment, considering the best way to start this conversation. In the end, she decided to get right to the point. "Good. Thank you for your, as always, excellent service to this village. You have the month off, enjoy your vacation."

"Hokage-sama?" they chorused.

"You two heard me. Time off."

"But Hokage-sama, we're happy to -"

"- serve in any way -"

"I know you are," Tsunade said patiently, cutting off the protests before they could build up momentum. "The Fangs are an excellent asset to Konoha and we thank you for it. That does not get you out of taking time off."

The Fangs took a moment to think that over, then bowed. "As you say, Hokage-sama."

"Exactly," Tsunade smiled. "You have the month. Think it over, maybe put in for a travel permit and go to a beach or a casino or something. Ryouken isn't going to give you a mission, and if Shino and Hinata show up at the mission desk, the administrative shinobi have instructions to turn you away."

"Hokage-sama!"

"This is not a punishment," she held up a hand to forestall further argument. "This is me giving you time to decompress, and you'll take it."

"If Hokage-sama insists."

"Hokage-sama does insist."

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Anko sat at a table in what passed for T&I's supply room, sorting vials of poisons, drugs, and other pharmaceutical odds and ends. Humming softly, she held a couple of vials up to the light, then shook her head and placed one to the side before returning the other to its box.

"Anko," Ibiki called from his office door. "Join me please."

Sighing, Anko quickly tidied up the worst of the clutter before shoving away from the table and turning to follow her boss into his office. "What's up?" she asked, shutting the door behind her.

"Sit, Anko." Ibiki nodded her to the chair across from his desk, dropping into his own. "What can you tell me about your kohai's mental state?"

"This official, or are we speakin' off the record?"

"Official. Anko," Ibiki caught her eye. "The last thing any of us want is to see two of our best and brightest young shinobi crack up. I know you've got an idea of what they've been up to lately, but you may not know all of it."

"...It's that bad?"

"Bad enough that Ryouken is seriously worried that they're going to get themselves killed."

Anko let out an explosive breath, dropping her face into her hands. "They're perfectionists," she began, lifting her head to resume eye contact with Ibiki. "Both of 'em. Neither one's good at casual friendships, an' they don't do large groups - the one exception to that's the Inuzuka kids, but good luck findin' the kids in anythin' but a pack, so that means less than it might otherwise. That said, they've been spendin' less time with the Inuzuka than they used to. They're still in contact with the Kazekage's family, but that's mostly letters, not face-to-face."

Ibiki waited patiently, and Anko made a face at him for making her say it all out loud. "They don't talk to their old classmates much. Shino chats some with his family when he's in town, but I can't tell you the last time Hinata spent more'n five minutes with her relatives, because I don't know. Outside each other, the hunter-nin, Kurenai, an' me? I can't think of anyone they've actually talked to - an' I mean really talked to, not just stuff about the weather or whatever - in months."

"They're self-isolating." Ibiki's lips narrowed, and Anko nodded.

"They're also really aware of their position as Face of th' hunter-nin," she continued. "An' not because they think it's somethin' to brag about. Hokage-sama said they'd have to be the best, so they're makin' themselves the best. If they're takin' truly stupid risks, I haven't heard about it, but they'll be pushin' themselves as far as they can go to be as close t' infallible as they can manage."

"Hells." Ibiki sighed. "I hate it when they have those kinds of motivations. Anything else you can give me? How much of this is residual from Inuzuka Kiba's death?"

"Kiba's death left scars, an' they'll probably always feel it," Anko said slowly, "but I'm not sure how much of this is due to that. In Sunny's case, at least, some of it's probably due to years of bein' told she wasn't good enough. That's not a problem Shino had, but I suspect he's still bein' ridden by the urge to make sure nobody else goes through what he and Sunny did."

Ibiki grumbled, scrubbing his face. "Right," he said, drawing a breath. "They'll need a full, formal evaluation. In your professional opinion, would it be better or worse if you took point on this?"

Anko gave the matter due consideration, turning it over in her mind. "Wouldn't be the first time I've talked to them about their motivations," she said, "but… no. No, I need t'be point on this. Or if not, I need t'be involved."

"You're sure."

"We're gonna need someone they'll believe when we tell them they didn't fail us."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Stopping outside Ibiki's office, Shino and Hinata exchanged a glance. Requests to report to T&I were more like orders, and while they knew that they were among the last people who would betray Konoha, that didn't make the prospect of a visit to Ibiki's office any more appealing. Even if it was for a briefing.

Hinata tapped on the door, then slid it open at Ibiki's "Enter." She paused in the doorway at the sight of Anko sitting across from Ibiki's desk. "Are we interrupting?"

"No, no, come in, both of you." Ibiki gestured towards two more chairs, and Shino and Hinata obediently took the seats, Shino sliding the door shut behind them.

"I called you in because there's going to be a change in your deployments," Ibiki rumbled. "I don't like doing this, and I particularly didn't want to do it with you, but it's become necessary."

"Sir?" Shino asked, voice sharp.

"As of today, Inu Kuroi and Inu Shiroi are suspended from field service, pending a full psychiatric evaluation."

Shino froze. Hinata gasped softly.

"This is not a reflection on your abilities. You are incredibly skilled at your jobs, and it would be a shame to lose you from the hunter-nin. However, if shinobi are the weapons of their village, it is part of my job to ensure that they do not shatter in its service. And there have been concerns raised about your well-being. If it appears as though your duties as hunter-nin are detrimental to your mental or physical health, you will be removed from the ANBU." Ibiki let the heavy silence stretch as he watched the two younger nin, then went on. "You'll be working with Anko, myself, and likely an ANBU-rated psychologist. However this goes, we're not going to just cut you loose and let you flounder." He gave them another long look. "Do you need a minute?"

Shino nodded as Hinata found her voice. "Excuse us, please."

"There's an empty office 'cross the hall," Anko told them gently, speaking for the first time since they'd walked in. "Take your time."

Shino and Hinata bowed and left, sliding the door closed behind them. On autopilot they found the empty room and shut themselves in it, turning to stare at each other. Later neither would be sure who moved first, but as they crumpled into each other it didn't matter. One of Hinata's hands clamped down over her mouth, the other fisting in the material of Shino's lapel. Shino clung to his partner, arms wrapped around her, hands knotted in her coat and the side of his head pressed against hers. Both of them shook like the leaves their village took its name from, drawing trembling breaths.

Some time later, perhaps a few minutes, they drew apart enough to touch foreheads. Ready to go back? Hinata glanced up at her teammate's eyes.

Behind the dark lenses, Shino closed his. No, but it won't go away, so we may as well do this now.

Hinata drew a shuddering sigh, and nodded agreement. Separating, the two shook themselves back into some semblance of order and returned to Ibiki's office.

"You good to continue?" the man asked.

Both of them nodded.

"Very well. As I said, you'll be working with Anko and myself, unless you'd prefer someone else."

Hinata shook her head, but it was Shino who spoke. "No, Ibiki-san."

"In that case," Ibki pushed back from his desk and stood. "Anko will take care of you today. No, no, you can have my office for now. I'll check back later." Shino and Hinata subsided into their seats as he left, closing the door firmly behind him.

Anko broke the silence. "How're you doin'?"

Shino huffed a laugh. "With all respect, sempai, what kind of question is that?"

"An honest one."

"I d-don't understand," Hinata whispered. She looked up at Anko. "H-how did we…?"

When Hinata proved unable to finish the question, Anko took up the thought. "How did you get benched? This isn't meant t'be punishment, Hina-chan. We're worried about you two."

"Worried?"

Anko's gaze snapped to Shino and she studied him a long moment. "Shino-kun, you've apparently been havin' nausea, and 'less I'm very much mistaken you've been havin' trouble sleeping."

Shino gave a very grudging nod.

"Hina-chan, meanwhile, has been havin' headaches, and it wouldn't surprise me if she's not been sleepin' well either."

"That's t-true, sempai," Hinata admitted.

"Meanwhile, your bosses have been concerned by your mission reports. They worry you're takin' too many risks."

"I - we're…" Shino failed to find words.

"Nobody's questioning your records," Anko said soothingly. "Y'do good work, kids. I'm sure Jakkaru's told you this more'n once, but your career's enough t' make any shinobi jealous. But that doesn't mean y'should let it eat you up alive - I know you know th' stats on shinobi life expectancy, but you're still only 15. Konoha doesn't use its people up and throw 'em away."

A/N:

Apparently I drop trees on people in my Naruto fics. The mission nearly a year and a half prior that Jakkaru references, by the by, is the one where five hunter-nin were sent after an ANBU codenamed Washi who'd cracked (Chapter 18: Busy Season).

I'll confess, this isn't my favorite chapter, but if I don't get it out now it's never going to happen. It's later than I'd hoped, but RL interfered. I lost my job shortly after posting chapter 23 when my boss ran out of money to fund the lab. Happily, luckily, I managed to find another lab job, but it made for a VERY rough fall and a lot of things got unceremoniously shoved to the back burner for a while, Venatori included.

I hated doing this to these two, but the plot demanded. I've written about this before, but I've struggled with anxiety/depression (most recently after losing my job, which… in retrospect may have factored into this chapter's delay, what with this topic hitting too damn close to home), as have some of my best friends. Every symptom Shino and Hinata display is true to the reality of anxiety as I know it or have had it related to me by someone I love.

Next Chapter: Kintsugi