AN: I do not own Naruto. If I did, there would more battles where the guys shirts are torn off.
Kiba and Naruto ran through the pouring rain towards the nearest friendly house. The two had been out training when the downpour had started, and tried valiantly to ignore it as best they could until both of them were sopping wet and shivering. Still, not ones to give in so easily, they picked a destination and decided to race through the wet streets of Konoha to decide who had trained the hardest that day.
Little did the Hyuuga's know that the destination they had decided to pick was their home.
Both boys stood panting on the front porch, arguing heatedly over who won. However, neither of them really had the breathe.
"I totally won! Believe it!"
"Phh… Whatever! Making clones to trip me up is cheating!"
"Yeah, well, so is using Akamaru for a springboard!"
"Look, lets just say we both won, and knock on the door already before somebody comes out here and yells at us! Alright?!"
"Whatever man… Your team mate, you knock. Besides, angry Hyuuga's are not something I want to deal with right now. I already have to put up with the smell of wet dog."
Kiba growled but knocked on the door.
Hinata opened the door just as Akamaru decided to shake himself dry. She gave a squeal and threw up her hands to shield herself with a laugh. Naruto nudged Kiba in the ribs.
"Wait to go, stupid. Can't you control your dog?" He hissed.
Kiba, not taking kindly to the elbow in the ribs, gave Naruto a hefty shove that sent him flying off the porch, and face-first into a puddle. "Hey Hinata. Sorry about Akamaru getting you wet. It's only because he loves you."
Hinata nodded her agreement as she stared at Naruto's wet form hauling himself out of the puddle angrily. Then, forcibly dragging his cool back, waltz up onto the porch between Kiba and Hinata and grinned.
"Hey! How's it going Hinata-chan? You look good today."
She blushed at the compliment, but Kiba shoved Naruto out of the way before she could say anything in way of a reply.
"Look, we were wondering if we could wait out the rain here. We got caught out on the training field." he said tiredly.
"But it started raining an hour ago!" Hinata said in alarm, speaking for the first time since she had opened the door.
"Only an hour?" Naruto said rubbing the back of his head in disappointment. "Damn. We must be getting old Kiba."
He snorted. "No. Your getting old. I've still got plenty of life left in me, old man."
Naruto was about to shoot back a retort of his own, when Hinata (thankfully) interrupted him. "Why don't you come inside out of the rain? I'll get some towels for all of you." She said, stroking Akamaru's fuzzy head. He barked his approval and follow her inside before the boys could say anything.
Naruto looked at Kiba curiously, who just shrugged and strode through the door.
"Stay here." Hinata commanded with a gentle firmness. "I don't need you guys tracking water through the house." They nodded before she turned to walk away.
Kiba kicked his shoes off before he started yanking his jacket off. Naruto stared at him.
"What are you doing?" he asked incredulously.
"Getting out of wet clothes. I don't want to get sick, do you?" he replied, finally free of the offending material.
Naruto nodded, as if this made sense, and started talking off his own shoes, jacket and shirt, intent on hanging them up on the coat rack along with Kiba's stuff.
Naruto had just hung up his shirt and was shaking his head to get rid of some of the water, when a high pitched scream came from the other end of the house.
"Hinata?!" Both men cried as they raced through the house. They skidded to a halt in front of the laundry room, kunai and shiriken drawn, expecting to find all manner of enemy nin in the small room.
Instead, they found Neji in his boxers huddled on top of the drier and holding Hinata, who was suspended up off the floor and desperately trying to calm her cousin down enough to release her.
Neji caught sight of the two of them in the doorway and promptly pointed to the other end of the room. "Kill It!!" He comanded. "KILL IT, PLEASE!!!"
Both of them looked across the room at the small spider on the floor. With a sigh, Kiba flicked his kunai out and let it thunk lazily into the floor, pinning the poor spider and letting it struggle its life away. Neji cringed, and refused to get off the drier until the dead spider was gone, but finally released Hinata.
She, in turn, handed the boys some towels, and shoved them out of the laundry room with a bright red face. "!!" was all she said before closing the door behind them.
And the two boys were left in the hallway, too confused and shocked to say anything.
*****
A few minutes later, Naruto, Kiba, and Hinata were sitting around the kitchen table. The boys still hadn't put new shirts on, instead draping their now damp towels around their shoulders.
"Sorry about that." Hinata mumbled. "Neji's terrified of spiders."
"What? Why?" Naruto asked, his confusion all over his face rather innocently.
"It's from his fight with that freaky spider dude, isn't it?" Kiba clarified.
Hinata nodded. "He's been terrified of spiders ever since. It makes things rather difficult on missions, although most of the time he manages to keep quiet."
Kiba snickered. "He screams like a girl."
"I heard that, and I will get revenge." Neji said walking into the room. He was wearing a pair of sweatpants and muscle shirt. When they looked at him strangely, he mearly shrugged and said, 'laundry day,' before he continued. "I mean, we all almost died in those battles. Don't you two have some lasting fears from them."
Both boys shuddered in response.
"Ok. Maybe the fear of spiders isn't quite so silly anymore." Kiba muttered.
Naruto shook his head. "No, it's still silly. But now we understand it."
Hinata looked at them both in confusion. "Why? What are you two afraid of?"
"Two-headed freaks."
"People with webbed hands."
"I know that Lee is terrified of weapons made of bone. Shikamaru can't listen to anything played on a flute without tensing up. And I think Chouji is claustrophobic." Neji muttered, flexing his fingers.
"Ack!" Naruto yelled falling out of his seat. "Webbed hands!"
Neji smiled, another head swinging around from behind his own to grin at them. Kiba yelped, standing up to run, knocking his chair over, and tripping over the legs. Neji laughed as he released his transformation jutsu, and Hinata chided him lightly.
"Nii-san. That wasn't very nice." She frowned.
"No. But it was worth it." He grinned.
"Spider, Nii-san." She said lightly, sipping on her drink.
"Very funny-" She pointed at the floor between them to reveal a spider the size of a small dog looking at him. He twitched, staring at the eight-legged creature momentarily before bolting from the table with a girly scream.
She smiled as the other boys crawled back to the table warily.
"Hinata… How did you..?" Kiba started.
There was a poof of smoke, and the spider turned into Hanabi's fat lazy cat. Hinata grinned. "You don't honestly think that's the first time I've ever used that trick, do you?"
AN: I suppose I could do another story like this about the other guys, but I'd like to know if this was any good first. Not to mention that I don't think another story could live up to Neji screaming like a girl. That made my day. And no, I don't hate Neji. I love him. He's just so easy to poke fun at. J