My breath came out in small clouds of fog, the cold night air never relinquishing its' hold of my heavy breathing. I flung another assortment of kunai at the old, ragged dummy that was predestined to be torn to shreds by the time I was done with my training.

The constant music of my movements lulled me into an automatic state, my instincts taking over. Swish, clunk, clunk, swish. This had become a nightly dance for me. Training my self; pushing myself to my limit. That's what I was determined to do, but I guess fate had something more in store for me.

A bush rustled behind me, about fifteen feet away. My senses heightened at the possible threat and without having to think, I twirled about a hundred and fifty degrees to my left, the shuriken between my knuckles being flung in the direction of the moving foliage.

A soft thump was heard, followed by a low groan. Kunai in hand, I walked towards the bush cautiously. I was met with familiar, now pain-filled, black eyes.

He looked up at me in slight annoyance and pulled the thin metal from his shoulder. I sighed and knelt down, taking it from him and putting it back in my pouch.

"That's what you get for spying on people, Kiba." He glared at me, swatting my hands away from his arm.

"I wasn't spying on you! I'm trying to teach Akamaru to conceal himself now that he's so big." I helped him up and watched as his usual cocky smile graced his fanged lips. "but if you want, we can go play hide and seek at my house…"

I rolled my eyes. "How we have stayed friends so many years with your continuous flirting is beyond me."

"You'd think you'd recognize my chakra after so many years, too, Ai. We've been friends for like what? Eleven years?"

I blushed heavily, much to his pleasure. "H-Hey! You know that I get lost in the fight when I get started. I don't really pay attention to anything, but who I'm fighting!"

His smile dropped, "Yeah. I know. You really need to work on that, too. It's going to get you killed one day. The last thing I want to do is lose you."

My heart skipped a beat, the same way it always did when I was around the animalistic male. I tried not to read too far into his words and turned my back to him to go and get my discarded weapons.

"I…I know that, but I don't know how to go about it. I mean, how would I go about it? It's not like I'm like you. I can't smell a two day trail or anything…"

He put his hand on my shoulder. "I could help if you want." I turned to him, my eyes searching his for any of the usual mischief that usually lurked there. Finding none, I nodded. I smiled at him.

"That would be great, but how?" He smirked and placed his fingers in his mouth and let out a high-pitched whistle. Akamaru came bounding up from behind me. I ducked, anticipating it. Kiba jumped into the air and landed on Akamaru's waiting back.

"We'll meet here tomorrow about noon. Wear a swimsuit under your clothes. Now, want a ride home?" He offered a hand to me, which I gladly took and he hoisted me up onto the hefty dog.

My arms immediately hugged his waist, and I unzipped the pockets of his jacket, my hands finding warmth in them. I sighed in content and leaned my cheek on his wide back. I didn't realize how tired I really was.

He dropped me off at the Hitsuka compound gates and I watched as he rode off to his house, which, to my happiness, was just down the road from my compound.

I went inside the compound and down the walkway towards my home. I veered to the right of the main house directly in the middle and made my way up the stairs of my home. The lights were still on so I checked my watch, finding out that it was only eleven o'clock.

I chuckled. Kiba sure had a way of interrupting my training tonight. I usually wouldn't be done until about one on days that I didn't have missions.

My mother was surprised to see me walk into the kitchen, barely even out of breath. "O-Oh! Aiaka! This is early for you! You didn't wear yourself out, did you?"

I shook my head, pulling a bottle of water out of the fridge. "No. I sort of, accidentally, may have hit Kiba in the shoulder with my shuriken while I was training…It was an accident of course! He was looking for Akamaru and I heard him moving so I thought it was someone bad!"

My mother sighed lightly, and then laughed. "It's not nice to kill your boyfriend, Dear." My face fumed and I glared heatedly at her.

"He…He's not my boyfriend, Mom! We're just friends! And I wasn't trying to kill him!" She laughed again, wiping a tear from her eye and waving me off.

"Sure, sure. Well, dinner is in the fridge. I'm going to say good night to your father and then I'm going to bed. Good night, Aiaka." I nodded absent mindedly, giving a small 'love you' and focused myself on getting the food unwrapped from the foil.

Thinking of my father, I faltered a bit in pulling the wrappings from my stir-fry. My father had gotten sick when I was about eight. With each day that went by, he got worse and worse. I knew that he wasn't going to make it much longer.

On my ninth birthday, my mother was on a mission that lasted all day, so my grandmother had stayed at the house to take care of my father while I was at school. I remember sitting in class, between Kiba and Naruto, when my grandmother came into the room. She walked to Iruka-sensei who

smiled kindly at her.

She whispered into his ear and that smile instantly vanished. They both looked at me, sadness swimming in their eyes. I knew then what they had spoken of. My father had passed.

I cried the whole way home. My mother found out when she got back from her mission. We slept in her bed that night, both crying ourselves to sleep.

I shook away my thoughts and finished up so I could go to bed. I needed my sleep. Knowing Kiba, I was in for it tomorrow.