Hours passed. Still no sign of Inuko. Kiba was beginning to get worried. When Okuri had killed father, Kiba and Akamaru had been devastated. Even though Okuri assured them there was a good reason he did it, they could not help but wonder why. It had been very hard for them to wait all those years to ask mother why. But then mother died! Just like the rest of the family! Then they had to hunt down Okuri themselves. That’s how they got into this mess…….
But that experience didn’t help him fully understand what Inuko would be feeling. His parents….were killed. He could blame their deaths on someone, and if he went out of his way, he could even avenge them. Her father….just…….died. Nobody stabbed him. Nobody whacked him over the head. Nobody slit his throat. He just stopped living. There didn’t appear to be anyone to blame. What could she do to make herself feel better?
He hunted the many halls of the fortress trying to find her. Of course, if Kiba had been able to drink at the time of father’s death, he definitely would have. So it only made sense Inuko would drown her sorrows in alcohol. Still, she was hard to find, with many of the rooms reeking of alcohol. Finally he locked onto Inuko’s scent, and followed it to the cellar.
And there she lay, sprawled out on the floor, drunk as a pickled toad. She glanced at him, and spoke in a terrible slur. “Oh, ish Kiba. (hic) HEY KIBA!”
“Wow. You really overdid it.”
“Well hey, the guy wih teh funny lookin’ hair said I couldn’t out drink him. We drunk is YA-HAG-I (hic) stuff and after 10 ittle ups he pashed out but I was still hirsty and ere was all dis (hic) light stuff layin around and (hic) well you know what happened next.”
“Wow. Just wow. You’re almost hammered beyond recognition.” Kiba walked over and scooped up Inuko as if she was a child.
“Hey! Wut you think yur doin wih me?”
“I’m taking you back to my room. I’m going to lay you down, and make sure you don’t do anymore drinking tonight.”
“Kiba, you had better not (hic) be thinkin of takin advantage of a (hic) sweet n pretty girl like me?”
“Oh, no. Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Wut? Awwww, shucks. I thought fer sure you’d bed me.”
“You’d be such a furious bitch when you woke up, it wouldn’t be worth it.”
“Yeah, that’s rue. I’d be sssshooooooooo pished if I caught you shneakin around in my pantsh!”
“Inuko, when I get into your pants, I won’t be sneaking. I’m going to bust down the door, rip off the hinges and knock down most of the walls too!”
“OOHH, Kiba, you could scare the pantsh right off a little girl like me!”
“Wouldn’t mind that either!”
They both laughed and soon they had made it back to Kiba’s room.
