Gentle Caress

A Dove and An Olive Branch

Naruto furrowed his brow. "I think one of the girls should stay at the house tomorrow. Make an excuse: you aren't feeling well, you rolled your ankle and now it's swollen. Anything. I'll keep some clones here just in case. Our main focus is the safety of Tsunami, Tazuna, and Inari. The rest of you, stay sharp. Keep a low profile."

"Hai!"

"We should start heading back. Gaara? We should keep a scent on whoever that is."

"On it." He jumped from branch to branch before dropping on the grass below in a tiger crouch. "I'll be a minute."

"We'll be waiting." Gaara was one of their best trackers. Which was weird when you consider Hinata and Neji with their byakugan, but Gaara had something they didn't. Gaara and Naruto were both mothered by jinchuriki, they had grown and developed surrounded by bijuu chakra. It had a few side effects, ones that resulted with their animalistic behavior and appearance. With a superior sense of smell, hearing, and vision, they both reflected the animals that their tailed beasts stood for. So when Gaara popped his head out from behind the trees, they knew that they were in the clear to return to the house.

Tsunami was in the kitchen, washing dishes when they returned. "There you are. We were starting to get worried."

"Sorry..." Menma rubbed the back of his neck. "We kinda lost track of time, the forest is very nice at night."

Kiba scuffed, "you're a weird one..."

He shrugged, "to each their own." They headed upstairs to their bedrooms, a plan ready to act out when the morning came.

Hinata had volunteered to stay behind, she was their best choice after all. With her evolved form of the byakugan, her excellent taijutsu and ability to stay calm and collected in stressful situations, it was a no brainer. "Your main focus is to keep Tsunami, and Inari safe. If you have to, use anything. But their safety is your main priority."

"I get it. You can count on me, Naruto."

"I know I can. Take care."

"You too." She walked out of the room, her face red, warm with a "fever." So she was excused from work that day. Kiba was nowhere to be found.

Kakashi sighed, "he can fend for himself." His attempt to brush off his worry about his student was caught by the Hyuga.

Hinata coughed, "I'm sure he's fine. You should start heading to the bridge, we'll be fine."

He looked her up and down, giving her his signature cyclops' smile. "Get better."

"I'll try. Stay safe."

"No promises." And he turned away with the rest of his squad tailing close behind. She watched them leave. Turning into small dots in the distance. She wandered around the house, helping Tsunami do chores, giving Daichi his medicine, even trying to urge Inari out of his room with the promise of sweets. It didn't work but it was worth the shot. A slight noise put her on high alert. "Excuse me, Tsunami."

The older woman brushed her aside. "No need to excuse yourself. You're helping me around the house while nursing a fever. If you need anything, haler!"

"Will do." She calmly walked up the stairs and into the bathroom, where she prived open the window once she had locked the door. She crawled out onto the roof. It was a perfect vantage point, one could see anything from here. And with her byakugan, she had access to that and more. There was a group of three men, high level chunins from the flow of their chakra, heading in their direction. She could definitely handle them, but not at the same time. Wait! There was a fourth and fifth, smaller chakra signature. It was familiar...

Kiba and Akamaru had shown up in an oddly silent fashion. Sneaking up on one of the assailants as they snuck around the house. He picked them off one after the other. Hinata smiled, it seemed like things would work out just fine. For now at least. She deactivated her byakugan and slid back through the bathroom window. Kiba was in the living room, attending to a shaken up Tsunami. "Everything is under control. You and Inari are safe now." Huh? Kiba was never a soft spoken individual, but his tone was gentle. Yeah, he was shaping up to become a fine shinobi already. "Speaking of Inari, where is he? And Katsuri?"

"Inari hasn't left his bedroom. Katsuri is-"

"Right here. What happened?" She descended down the stairs, concern painted on her face.

Kiba handed Tsunami a glass of water. "Some rogue-nins, most likely employed by Gato. They showed up with the intention of taking Tsunami and Inari hostage. Luckily, we stopped them."

"Thank you! But did you know where they were heading?"

"Simple enough. Akamaru and I did some training last night and overslept. But on our way to the bridge, we noticed a malicious scent. Not too far from it was a boar, it was beaten to a pulp like someone was using it for practice. The whole area around there looked like that, and I noticed that it was heading this way. So, I connected two and two together."

"Wow! You're so smart, Kiba. How could we ever repay you?"

Kiba preened at the praise. "It was nothing. Unfortunately, we need to head back to the bridge. Something tells me that something big is going to happen there and my team might need my help. Can you take Inari, and Tsunami to the town? Oh! And your cousin too. You got street smarts so I trust that you can keep them safe."

She blinked, it was like talking to a different person. "I'm honored that you trust me with something so important. I won't let you down."

"Then Akamaru and I should get going. Good luck."

"You too." And with that exchange, they leaped out of the window. They could have easily used the door but she was pretty sure he had already used all of his brain cells.

However true to her words, she helped Tsunami up, who called for her son. Inari came down the stairs, his floppy bucket hat covering his face. A crossbow gripped firmly in his hands, a quiver of arrow tied to his hip. "Inari!" The boy clutched the crossbow closer to his chest. "Inari?"

"I'm- I'm sorry, mom." Was he crying?

"Inari? What are you apologizing for?"

"I've been mean to you and granddad. You have done everything to take care of me and keep me safe. And all I've done is mope around and that's not okay. I wanna... I wanna make things right. You heard Kiba, something big might happen today. And we're going to town... so maybe we can convince them to take our land back. We can try, at least."

Katsuri smiled, so many surprises in one day. "We can try." She reached out to pat the boy's head and he let her. "You're a brave kid, Inari. Just like your father." He preened. Tsunami smiled at her son, he was so much like his father. Her second late husband. "Come on. Let's rally some forces and start a coup."

"Yeah... I like that idea."