Chapter 4

A/N. Heeey author person here! If you you have criticisms, complaints (nice ones!), or simply want to see something happen in this story, I'd greatly appreciate you leaving a review. I'll gladly take it into consideration.

"Arata? Oh. This way, come in!" The head veterinarian, a middle aged women named Ume, urged me inside.

We're currently in a fairly big nursery on the outskirts of the compound, getting me sorted for my compatibility test. Along with all the usual nursery stuff it also has many other things. It definitely has a more laboratory feel with all the seals lying around doing.. something. What isn't exactly clear, though I can tell there's chakra running through the lines connecting them.

"Take a seat, Arata, I'll just be grabbing some forms here and there." She scrambled around for papers on her desk. Next to it, there was a large cradle with no one in it. "How's the Academy going?"

It's been about three days since my bout with Anko, and my school life hasn't exactly gotten much different. We're still at orientation, going around the school, making sure we know where everything is, along with every single rule they managed to invent. There are lots. From the attitude of a few of the senior students though, half of them are hardly reinforced. That is, unless you have Chizuru-sensei. She's turned out to be the single most hated teacher ever, to the point where even the teachers avoid her. Why? Well, on top of very strictly reinforcing the rules, she also has a habit of verbally tearing someone down psychologically on the smallest of things. It often gets very personal. She's already made two kids cry, and we haven't even actually started class yet. On top of that, Anko didn't take very kindly to being beaten in our fight and has taken to glaring at me in class and trying to get her group try to harass me at every point. They seem reluctant, and there haven't been any attempts yet, but it's still disconcerting having to constantly look out for myself in case something happens. So yeah, school hasn't exactly been great.

"..Great." She sat down in the chair in front of me with a clipboard in her hand.

"Very convincing." She deadpanned. "Now, I'm just going to ask you a couple of yes or no questions, ok? Do try your best to try to answer them."

She asked me seemingly random questions, like what's your favorite food, interlaced with more serious questions, like 'how would you describe your chakra,' (chocolate and a river delta of caterpillars) etc. I suppose the lighter questions are there to mask the actual questioning line, but what that line is? No idea.

"Good, good. Now for a physical. Stand up for me please."

We usually get physicals every other month or so as part of the whole kennel raising program so this isn't really needed, checking the usual stuff like blood pressure, balance, and chakra levels.

"Good, good. Well, I think it's about time to meet the puppies! Are you excited?" I stared at her. What does this woman want from me? "Of course you are. Follow me."

She led me down a corridor deeper into the building. Now that I think about it, there's an awful lot of random hallways connecting everything here. Probably for security, but some of them lead absolutely nowhere. At the very end of the building, we climbed down some stairs to come into a door heavily locked with seals. Ume spoke up.

"Hold on. This won't take long." She said as she started a series of hand seals. The seals on the door started glowing and the door opened up all dramatic like. A blinding amount of light encompassed the narrow and dark corridor, smothering it entirely. When the light passed what appeared was a completely white room with dashes of orange and brown, adorned with a great many dog tools. In the corner there was a whelping box, where a great many tiny little white fur-balls surrounded a much bigger white fur-ball.

Ume ushered me inside with an expectant look. The mother, Chiyoko if I remember correctly, glared at me and started growling. Hesitating, I stopped and looked to Ume.

"Don't worry. Just let her smell you."

Slowly, slowly, I approached Chiyoko and stuck out my hand. She started sniffing me, eyes still focused upon mine. Eventually, after more awkward staring, she seemed to give me a pass and gestured over to her pups. The puppies themselves, who were asleep up until now, woke and looked at me curiously. They all looked like more of a cross between a shiba inu and a coywolf than a straight up dog.

"Try picking one up." I did so, carefully taking the leftmost of the litter into my grasp. "Now try to form a connection." I looked at her dubiously. She gave me another expectant look.

Very helpful. Now how..?

I looked in its eyes, chocolate brown ones reflecting my face back to me. Subtly, very subtly I could feel my chakra reaching outward to his. A few seconds later, the connection suddenly broke off and he looked away, expressing a clear desire to be put back down again.

Putting him down again, Ume reassured me. "Don't worry, that's going to happen a lot. You'll know which is the right one when you sense it."

I picked up another one, an eccentric female in the middle who looked very excited to try. Looking into her eyes, a darker brown this time, I tried to form the connection again. After about thirty seconds I gave up and put her back down again. The look on her face was heartbreaking.

I tried this process with two more dogs, and no dice. The connection actually started with them, but still ended up breaking seconds later. Ume didn't look worried, so this must be a regular occurrence. It's your partner for life after all, so maybe that's warranted. The looks Chiyoko was sending me though, told another story.

After trying out the fifth one I noticed there was a puppy in the back who had already gone back to sleep. Slightly annoyed at the action, I picked it up perhaps a little more roughly than I was supposed to. Chiyoko growled, but Ume waved her off. That is, until she saw who I was holding.

"M-Maybe it's a good idea to try another one? Surely you'd like someone else, right?" She said nervously. I raised an eyebrow. Why the change in attitude?

Ume's trepidation didn't exactly do wonders for my hopes of this one succeeding, but I tried anyway. I looked into the puppies' eyes, a male, with… red eyes. OK then. It stared lazily back at me, then opened its eyes alarmingly wide, and instantly the connection I had been trying to form reached him. Where the previous connections were more like a string attached to both sides, this felt more like really thick rope, or steel bars or something. Strong, very very strong.

Looking into its eyes, I could see every fiber of its being, and I knew that it could see mine. Our red strings started intertwining and fastening to each other. Tightly. The sensation was unreal, being warped into someone else's psyche. Especially a dog's. I was surprised at the extent of it, considering he probably isn't older than 8 weeks. It was like Dormammu's Dark Dimension, but light instead and every flare of color represents something in his psyche. Abruptly, I was taken out, and thrown back in reality.

He looked the way I was feeling, incredibly shaken by what just occurred. Next to us, Ume looked like she was caught mid-sentence, gaping at us with an expression like an ocelot jumped her.

"Well, I think we've.. Found a match." She said, recovering from.. Whatever the heck she saw.

"So what now?" I looked back at the dog. He looked back at me and lazily put his head on the hand that was holding him, falling asleep. OK then. "Well, we're going to keep him here for a few more days and.. Since you're a son of the clan head you'll have to wait for Haimaru to come and name him. He'll decide what you'll be doing after that."

"Who's Haimaru?" I asked.

"You're Hisao-sama's son and you don't know who Haimaru is? What do they teach you in those kennels?" Nothing. "Haimaru is one of the Elders part of the Head family." Then why have I never seen him before? "Normally, it'd be done by your father, but he doesn't come in for another few days."

"Does that mean he's coming back soon?"

Ume furrowed her brow. "You mean you didn't know? Do they tell you anything at all? I swear, these caretakers.. Anyway, yes they're coming back in a few days. We've got word by hawk that their outpost has been cleared and most of the ninja there will be sent back home. Which, naturally, includes your parents.

I felt a well of hope swell in me. It was a welcome feeling.

A/N. So yeah, I know it's kinda short this time, but this chapter was really blocking my thought process so I just had to get it out there. Also, like four hours of studying different dog breeds and whelping and the controversiality around coywolves and I didn't even use any of it. So there.

Revised 4/23/2020