Disclaimer: I own nothing involved with Naruto.
This story just occurred to me, and I had to write it down, so sorry if it's not good. This story is much softer than anything else I've written. Also, I've portrayed Kiba's family very badly, so if you don't like that, I advise you to hit the back button. The dream part is in italics, real time is normal.
--
Kiba's Cry
Hinata was awakened by a rough whimpering sound. She forced her head up, and her eyes open, knowing that even though she was exhausted, she couldn't to afford to ignore even the tiniest sound. Not now.
She looked groggily around the darkened room, seeing the blue curtains, half open, moonlight streaming in, scattering across the polished wooden floor like water. She looked again for the whimpering sound, realizing with a jolt that it was not the baby, but rather her husband.
"Kiba...Kiba...wake up...Kiba please...wake up...Kiba...!"she whispered, desperation creeping into her voice as her dog-nin husband didn't immediately jolt awake. It wasn't like him, especially these days, now that they had their baby, Shizuku Inuzuka.
She shook him harder, trying to rouse him, then, without warning, he spoke from the depths of his dream "No...Daddy...please...I'll be good...I don't want them!!" he cried out, thrashing wildly in the bed, whimpering and whining.
Hinata frowned, leaning in close, concern clouding her face, "Kiba, what's wrong?" she asked quietly, sadness overtaking her voice.
Kiba only whimpered in response, his dreams plaguing him, and seemingly unable to wake, his dreams tormented him more and more.
He thrashed wildly, whimpering and crying out, the dreams terrifying him.
"I wish I could know what you're dreaming," said Hinata tearfully, stroking his face.
Kiba only whimpered.
--
(Kiba's Dream POV)
"No Daddy, I don't wanna, I'm sorry, don't make me!!" cried four year old Kiba Inuzuka hysterically, fighting tooth and nail to get free from his father's iron grip.
"Kiba, stop crying this instant!! Inuzuka's don't cry!!," His father yelled, smacking him roughly, "Besides, you should be proud, this is a great day in the life of an Inuzuka, you officially become a member of the clan!!"
"I don't want to be an Inuzuka!! Let me go, I don't want to!!" yelled Kiba, tears pouring down his face, trying to dig his feet into the ground, "Please, Mommy, help me, I don't wanna!!"
"Kiba Inuzuka, this is a disgusting display of cowardice!! You will stop this instant, this isn't a big deal!!" His mother scolded sharply, crossing her arms to glare at him.
"Yes, why can't you be more like your sister Kiba, she didn't cry a tear when she did this, why are you being such a baby!?" his father yelled, smacking him again.
Kiba cried and protested, and tried to fight as hard as he could, terrified out of his mind as his father dragged him closer and closer to that toothless old hag who was grinning at him, holding that needle in her wizened old hands.
Finally, his father forced him the final few steps into the chair, where he sat bawling, as the lady smiled, and said, "Now you hold still young man, this won't hurt a bit!"
She raised the needle to his face, and Kiba pulled away, sobbing.
"Damn it Kiba, you are so weak," his father said disgustedly, "Here, give me that!"
His father snatched the needle from the old hag woman, grabbed Kiba roughly around the throat with one huge hand, hauled him up, ignoring his whimpers and sobs, and pressed the needle to the side of his face.
Kiba screamed as pain exploded across his face, and burned across his skin, he sobbed, and screamed from the pain.
His father looked at him furiously, "Shut up, do you want me to screw this up?!" his father snarled in a feral way, squeezing Kiba's throat roughly, doubling his pain.
Kiba cried harder and harder, begging his mother to help him, she ignored his pleading, and told him he was disgracing the clan by crying like a newborn pup.
Kiba couldn't help but cry, it hurt so bad as his father carved the needle across the left side of his face, before then digging it across the right side of his face.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, his father dropped him with a disgusted snort, upon which Kiba promptly fell back into the chair, crying and holding his face on both sides.
"Kiba, stop that this instant, you're finished, and it didn't even hurt!!" snapped his father harshly, causing Kiba to cry more.
Kiba jumped out of the chair, and stumbled, still crying, to his mother, holding his arms up, waiting for her to pick him up.
"Kiba, I'm not going to pick you up, cuddle you and tell you that you were a brave boy, because you weren't that was one of the most disgraceful displays I've ever seen, "his mother snarled, pushing him aside roughly, going to grasp Hana's hand.
Hana had been sitting in the corner the whole time, quietly watching in amusement as her brother had screamed himself sick.
"Hey, Mom," she said in a gloating voice, "Why do we even keep Kiba around, Inuzuka's don't cry. Ever. And Kiba cries."
His father snorted, and muttered something about,"...damn straight...she's dead on...,"before his mother told him to shut up.
"Come on Kiba," said his mother in a stiff voice, leading Hana out by the hand.
"Mom, I'm too old to hold your hand, come on!!" he heard Hana whine as his mother, father and sister walked out.
Kiba whimpered sadly to himself and the empty room, tears still slipping down his face, he rubbed his hands over the raw patches his father had carved into his skin.
He looked around the room again, noticing a mirror hanging in the corner, he walked shakily to it, stood on his tiptoes, and looked at himself in the mirror fully for the first time.
What he saw scared him even more than coming to this horrid place.
Where Kiba Inuzuka, happy little boy, with the "cutest little face I've ever seen!" according to his grandmother, had stood, was now a boy, face red from crying, red finger marks on his neck from where his father had strangled him, and two blazing, raw red claw marks on his face.
He whimpered, touching the painful, raw, still bleeding from the rough job, tattoos on his face, and sobbed harder than ever before, dropping down to the ground, hugging his knees tightly to his chest.
He stayed like that for a while, sobbing as hard as he could, tears pouring down his face, mixing with his fresh blood, knees pulled tight to his chest, his tiny chest echoing heavily with the force of his sobs.
When his tears finally dried up, and his sobs finally stopped shaking his body, Kiba sat, knees still hugged tight, his chest feeling empty, and his heart feeling broken.
Finally though, he managed to push himself to his feet, stumble out of the backroom, and push his way out of the tattoo parlor, and onto the busy street, where he stood, impossibly small, and impossibly alone on the crowded street.
Kiba pushed forward through the crowd, and stumbled around, and around, stumbling down one street after another, getting more and more lost.
After wandering around for hours, Kiba watched as the sun sank low in the sky, and people all scurried off home, leaving him alone in the street.
He was cold, starving, having not eaten since yesterday, and completely lost.
Finally, however, a Jounin ninja, one of the many ninja who patrolled the streets at night, and kept watch over Kohona, saw, and took pity upon him.
She appeared to him in a puff of smoke, bent down to his level, and asked him where his mother was.
Kiba broke down in a fit of sobs almost immediately, crying hysterically that he was lost, and he was hungry.
She took pity on him, she took him to the ramen shop, and talked to him as he feasted on three bowls of ramen. She told him her name, Hanaka Hyuuga.
"Hyuuga? That's a really pretty name!" Kiba declared, smiling happily at her.
She laughed, and smiled, she then told him about her daughter, who was his age.
"My daughter's name is Hinata," she said, smiling gently at him.
She then noticed his fresh, painful, and blood crusted new tattoos, and she cleaned them, covered them in healing salve, and wrapped his face in bandages, and told him to change them twice a week.
Then, she took him back to her house, telling him it was too late in the night to bother his parents.
She let him stay in a bed so soft Kiba felt like he was on a cloud. His own mother never let the Inuzuka's have beds these soft, claiming they made you soft.
"Plus," she'd added, "We've got to stick with our dogs, and they don't sleep in beds, so if we do, we have to make them as close to our dogs' as possible!"
Kiba had always thought that this logic was weird but he never interrupted her, after all, runty pups never got to correct their mothers.
That night, he got to meet Hinata for the first time, because the Hyuuga house didn't have any extra beds, he'd had to stay in Hinata's bed with her.
Hinata was the nicest person Kiba had ever met, she let him borrow some pajamas of hers, and Kiba didn't even mind that they had kittens on them, even though good Inuzukas were supposed to hate all cats. Hinata even let him share in her and her mothers nightly ritual. They'd both been bathed, dried, put into pajamas, given a snack of fresh cookies and milk, then Hanaka let them both crawl into her lap, and she read them a story, then they went to bed.
The next day, Kiba ate breakfast with the Hyuuga's and loved it.
For once, his sister wasn't sitting next to him, scarfing her food with her hands, bits of food hitting him. For once, he didn't have to eat his food so fast it gave him a stomach ache, because, for once, there were no hungry, poorly trained dogs who knew that if they could get your food away from you, it was rightfully theirs. For once he didn't have to fight to be heard over the din of a hundred hungry Inuzukas who each thought what they had to say was the most important thing in the world. For once, he didn't have to jump on the table, crawl over people, plates, dogs, puppies, and a thousand other things, to get to the syrup, or the milk, so he could eat his cereal.
The Hyuugas were polite, ate with silverware, and were friendly, for the most part, and everything was great.
After breakfast, Hanaka had cleaned his face tattoos again, and then returned him to the Inuzukas.
When they arrived, Kiba immediately knew was meal time, he could hear the shouts, barks, crashes and other various noises that meant a typical Inuzuka breakfast. Even worse, it was his stupid cousin, Ikuku, who answered the door.
Ikuku was the biggest loser Kiba knew, even among the Inuzukas he was looked down upon, probably because he let his three dogs run wild, whelp whenever, with whoever, was lazy, a slob, and worst of the worst, he let himself, and his dogs get fleas.
The worst part, however, was that he invited Hanaka in, and took her to the dining room, which was chaos, then proceeded to tell everyone about how she'd brought Kiba home.
Worse than that however, they hadn't even noticed he was gone, and they admitted it to him, without blinking.
"Kiba, you were gone? When?" asked his mother, looking mildly concerned.
Kiba's face burned red from shame, he couldn't bear to look at Hanaka, and he ran away to his room, where he cried for the rest of the day.
--
Hinata was getting more and more worried by the minute, she was shaking Kiba as hard as she could now, and calling him as loud as she could.
"Kiba!! WAKE UP!!" She shouted, forgetting for an instant about the sleeping baby in the next room.
"WAAHHAHAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" the scream split the night, Shizuku Inuzuka was not pleased.
Hinata winced at the sound, amazed that her daughter could scream so loud and long, 'Wow she's got a pair of lungs on her...she must have inherited the Inuzuka screaming genes...'thought Hinata, returning her gaze to Kiba.
Sure enough, Kiba's eyes were open, and looking at her. Shizuku's cries never failed to rouse her father from sleep.
"Hinata..."he gasped, looking at her, and Hinata could've sworn that it wasn't a trick of the light that made Kiba's eyes look wetter.
"Hinata...could you...go get her...I want to see her...please...,"Kiba practically begged her, a tear slipping out of his eye.
Hinata was stunned, but she got to her feet, and left the room, returning a few minutes later, holding a now quiet Shizuku, only to find their room deserted.
She went to the small bathroom that adjoined hers and Kiba's room, and saw her husband, in only his boxers and a white T-shirt, staring at himself in the mirror, running his fingers over his claw mark tattoos.
He was glaring at himself in the mirror with a look of self-loathing, running his fingers over his tattoos again and again, then, without warning, he smashed his fist into the mirror, shattering it into a million tiny pieces that rained into the sink. His knuckles were cut into ribbons, pieces of mirror lodged into them.
Hinata stood still, knowing better than to say anything, she knew he was dealing with something the only way he knew how, and he could only do it himself.
"Hinata," he said, reaching up to touch his claw mark tattoos again, "Would you...would you care if we didn't get Shizuku the tattoos?"
Hinata blinked, mystified, "But aren't the claw tattoos the marks of your clan?" she asked, looking at him, confusion clouding her eyes.
"They are, but Shizuku isn't just a Inuzuka, she's part Hyuuga too, isn't she?" he asked, looking at her, sadness clouding his features.
"Yes, but I thought you'd want her raised as an Inuzuka," said Hinata, startled.
"I thought so too, but I want her to be able to make the decision herself, so I think that until then, we should raise her as a Hyuuga," said Kiba, coming to stand before Hinata, his eyes pleading.
"Okay," said Hinata, confused, "But why?"
Kiba sighed, "Hinata...when I was young, being a good Inuzuka was all I ever thought about, I just wanted to be accepted by my family, but everything they did, I wanted no part of it, but I had no choice." he said quietly, "I never wanted to be loud, or scarf my food, or eat out of the same dish as the dogs, or sleep at night, curled up next to a giant, flea ridden furball, but my whole clan, they all believed in all of that, I had no choice, I learned to be a good Inuzuka. I want our daughter to make the choice for herself."
Hinata smiled at him, reaching up to caress his face, "Kiba, I'm so sorry, but I am glad you did learn, because I love you, just the way you are, loud, energetic, and wonderful, but if you don't want her raised as an Inuzuka, I'll support you no matter what." she said gently.
He smiled, "No matter what, I don't ever want her to be afraid to cry." he said quietly, smiling lovingly at his wife.
Hinata smiled gently at him, "I understand, Kiba, we'll let her decide," she said quietly, comforting him.
Kiba grinned at her, showing his very predominant canines, before pulling her into a tight hug, careful not to squish his beautiful little daughter.
His beautiful little daughter, the first child in Inuzuka history to have a choice.