Author's Note: The world of Naruto and it's characters belong to Kishimoto Masashi.

*edit: I went through the original writing of my first chapter and made several changes. Hopefully it's not as bad as it was before.

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It was early, but the sun was already out shining on the village of Konoha. The villagers were out setting up their shops for the day, children were rushing to the academy, and the morning birds were singing, and yet a young man slowly made his way to the local grocery shop. He scratched the back of his head, messing up his already disheveled brown hair as he let out a yawn. The young man walked up to the grocery shop and reached out to open the door. It wouldn't budge. "Uh...?" He mumbled as he squinted at the sign hanging on the door. "Open: 8 AM-7PM." He rubbed his eyes, blinked a few times, then stared at the sign again. "Are you serious...?," he asked himself, "IT'S NOT EVEN 8AM???" The young man covered his face with his hands and let them slide down in frustration. "Hana's gonna pay for waking me up this damn earl- OW!" He turned around to see the little rascal who threw the rock at his head. The kid yelled at him, "Store's not open for another 15 minutes, ya bum!" Angry, the young man yelled back, "You're lucky it's so damn early in the morning! If I was wide awake I'd go and kick your ass!... and I'm no bum! Ya stupid brat!" The child stuck his tongue out and continued running at full speed towards the academy.

"At the moment, your appearance makes others believe you are a bum, Kiba-kun," said a sweet voice next to him. He turned only to be face to face with a light skinned, dark haired beauty. "Oi, g'mornin Hinata." Kiba blushed, suddenly aware of his shabby appearance in front of his beloved teammate. The bottom of his pajama pants were torn, a result of carelessly walking over them repeatedly, part of his shirt was crumpled up underneath the elastic band of his pants, and he hadn't even bothered to wash away his 'morning' face. Embarrassed as he was, he couldn't tear his eyes off of the lady Hyuuga. Her pale eyes shone brightly as the morning sun landed on her face, and her long navy hair seemed to shimmert. That morning, she chose to wear a light purple sweater with a white undershirt. Cropped jeans adorned her bottom half and the outfit was completed with a pair of black and white sneakers.

She smiled at him underneath the hand she had covering her mouth. "Good morning, Kiba-kun. I'm surprised to see you out this early in the morning. It's not even 8." He grinned back at her, "Yah... Hana woke me up and made come here to buy some milk." Hinata tilted her head and looked at him curiously. She's so cute he thought to himself. "Really? She's not ill, is she?" she asked with a concerned tone in her voice. She's always so caring... Kiba smiled sheepishly, "Nah nah, she's fine. Just ah... last night Akamaru and I drank the last of it... and I guess I kinda put the carton back in the fridge..." Hinata laughed out loud and her cheeks began to glow with a tint of pink. "You would do something like that, wouldn't you?" She could clearly imagine Kiba, looking no different from now, with Akamaru at his side, slowly making their way to the fridge, grabbing the carton of milk, finishing it, and placing it back inside. "Oh!," Hinata gasped, "Where is Akamaru? I just realized he's not with you." "Akamaru's still at home, sleeping...(that lucky bastard...) I couldn't get him to wake up and come with me," Kiba told her, pouting. Hinata giggled again, her soft laughter filling Kiba's heart with warmth. Oh, how he loved the sound of her laughter.

A door opened. The two friends turned as the shopkeeper came out. The shopkeeper greeted them both, "Good morning! We're open now, come on in!" Kiba nodded, "Oi, mornin' and thanks!" He turned back to Hinata and spoke, "Well, I better get the milk back to Hana before she hunts me down." Hinata just laughed and said, "I'll wait out here for you... if you don't mind..." Kiba blinked a few times before he finally spoke. "Ah, no I wouldn't mind at all. It'll only take me a sec! Hang on!" He sprinted inside the shop, took care of his business, and came back outside milk in hand. Hinata looked at Kiba as if she were going to speak, then looked down at the ground as a blush began to creep up her face again. Kiba stared at her, trying to figure out what was wrong. "What's up? You all right, Hinata?," he finally asked. I wasn't expecting to run into HIM of all people this morning, Hinata thought to herself, ... but since I did... "Y-Yes, I'm fine. I was just out walking this morning, and I was wondering if... uhm... if you'd mind if I walked back with you before I headed home," she replied, all the meanwhile avoiding his gaze. "What? Really?" he exclaimed, "Yah yah, of course you can Hinata!" Kiba was so thrilled that he failed to notice the deep blush that developed on Hinata's face and her stutter.

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"Dammit Kiba! Where the hell are you?!" yelled the older Inuzuka sister. "I sent him to get the damn milk over half an hour ago!" She slammed a fist on the kitchen counter when her gaze wandered to the window. Hana spotted a mess of brown hair bobbing over the fence, and dashed to the front the door. She swung the door open and was about to yell when she heard the laughter of a young lady. Her jaw fell open when she noticed that the one accompanying her ignorant younger brother was none other than the heiress to the Hyuuga houselhold. She quickly retreated back into the house and quietly shut the door.

"Are you SURE you don't want to come in? I can make something for us to eat. I mean... since I'm already up and it's still early enough for breakfast... and Akamaru! Akamaru misses you!" Kiba pleaded with Hinata. She smiled and shook her head, "Thank you Kiba-kun, but I really need to head back home. I promised Hanabi I'd spar with her for a few hours." Kiba was running out of ideas. It had been so long since they've spent time together, what else could he say to her? He started scratching the spot behind his left ear and averted his eyes from hers. "Uh... what are you doing after that?" Hinata's eyes shot up to his face as he asked. Her blush came back more furiously than before and she quickly looked down at her feet, smiling. "I'm not sure. I don't really have any other plans..." She started playing with the sleeves of her sweater as she hoped and waited for some sort of invitation. After what seemed like forever, Kiba finally said, "Well...when you're done just uh... give me a call or drop by. I'll just be here with Akamaru all day. We don't really have anything else planned either."

Hinata's heart skipped a beat. She mustered up all her courage to lift her head to face Kiba. "S-sure, it'd be nice to hang out again. (It has been a while since we did last...) ...I do miss the old days with you." She smiled and watched as a wide grin formed on Kiba's face. He began to blush wildly as her last sentence slowly registered in his brain. He couldn't help it when she was smiling in front of him like that. He wanted to just wrap his arms around her and hold her close. Instict would've made him too, if his body hadn't suddenly decided freeze. She missed hanging out...with me... He was so shocked that all he could manage to say to her was, "Same here." Kiba mentally kicked himself for his eloquent choice of words.

The young Hyuuga, still blushing, smiled at him and turned around to begin walking to home. After a few steps, she stopped and faced Kiba again. "Ok, well as soon as I'm done, Kiba-kun, I'll come by!" With that, she waved and jogged off into the distance. Kiba dumbly waved back, even though she was already a ways away. Still holding onto the carton of milk, he raised his arms into the air and silently yelled, "YES!! (This is awesome! Just me and Hinata...)" He turned around and started towards the front entrance of his home. As the saying goes, ignorance is bliss, and it was in a state of bliss that he opened the front door.