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Kiba stared at his little cousin. Then he stared at the thing his cousin was holding in her arms. Perched on his human's head, Akamaru growled two octaves too low for what such a little dog should have been able to manage.

"Oko, put that thing down!"

His cousin, three years old and stubborn, stuck out her chin. "No. 'S mine."

"It'll bite you!" Oko nodded at Akamaru, who was now baring pointy fangs at the interloper. Kiba did a little dance of frustration, causing Akamaru to slide off his perch and plop into his human's hood with a yelp. "Not like Akamaru does, dammit! It's /poisonous/! Where did you find that damn thing, anyway?"

Oko clung to her new pet with one chubby arm and used the other to point towards the riverbanks, her expression sour. "You're just jealous."

"I--what?"

"'Cause your puppy only has four legs. Mine's better, it gots eight."

Kiba stared at Oko in disbelief, before turning around and bellowing, "MOM! HANA! I COULD USE A LITTLE HELP OVER HERE!" His shout was answered by the ruckus of incoming Inuzuka dogs.

= = = = =

Fifteen minutes later, when he judged it was safe, Kidoumaru slipped out of the trees lining the opposite riverbank and fished his traumatized tarantula out of the water. He patted its thorax reassuringly, baring teeth in the direction the retreating Inuzuka tribe had taken.

"I hate this damn village already. When did Orochimaru-sama say we were gonna go in and kill their Hokage?"

Sakon rolled his eyes as he watched his unofficial second-in-command pat-drying his infant god summon with the corner of his tunic and murmuring reassurances to it. "I should have brought Tayuya. At least she's not sentimental about her pets."

challenge was: animals