"Hey Tamaki, we're in the back," Kiba called from the back yard.
Tamaki walked around the house and unto the well-groomed back yard. Kiba was laying on the ground while a little girl chased Akamaru around the yard. Every once in a while, Akamaru would turn on the little girl and would playfully chase her.
The little girl got a hold of Akamaru's tail. She pulled it as hard as she could in attempt to make him come back and Akamaru yelped.
"Whoa Mirai, you need to be more careful," Kiba said standing up and walking over to the little girl.
Tamaki watched as Kiba picked up the girl and carried her fireman style over his shoulder. The little girl kicked her feet and pounded his back while screaming at the top of her lungs. Kiba put the girl down on her feet in front of Tamaki.
"Mirai, say hello to Tamaki," Kiba instructed.
"Are you Kiba's girlfriend," the little girl asked as she tilted her head.
Tamaki blushed and nodded to the girl, "Yes I am."
"Then I hate you," the girl shouted before running away.
Tamaki opened her eyes in shock, and her mouth opened and closed like a fish. The little brat didn't even know her.
Kiba sat back and laughed as he watched his girlfriend try and comprehend what had just happened. The little girl had gone back to playing with Akamaru.
"Sorry I cancelled on you so last minute," Kiba explained.
"You should be. Especially ditching me for a younger woman," Tamaki teased.
"Hey, I explained that I couldn't date her because I had a girlfriend, and she said that she was okay with us just being friends," Kiba retorted.
"You never asked me if I was okay with you being friends with a girl who's in love with you though," Tamaki continued as she pretended to be upset about it.
"Well Tamaki, can I be friends with Mirai?" Kiba asked.
"I guess so," huffed Tamaki. "But if she tries anything..."
"You'll show her her place?" Kiba interrupted.
"Yes, I'll show her her place," Tamaki confirmed.
Kiba sat down at a picnic table that was in the center of Kuranai's back yard. He watched as Akamaru gently played with the small child, and Tamaki watched Kiba. He was chuckling to himself as he watched his giant fighter dog, turn into a little puppy again.
KIba turned to his girlfriend, who was still standing next to the fence to the yard, and he patted the spot on the bench next to him. Tamaki understood and slowly walked over to Kiba and sat down next to him.
"I know that this wasn't what you were expecting for a date," Kiba admitted. "But Kurenai Sensei had something important to do and Shikamaru is off in Suna doing a very bossy kunoichi. I just happen to be Kurenai's second choice for a baby sitter."
"And you're happy being her second choice?" Tamaki asked.
"I would be her first, but Shikamaru feels a responsibility for the kid, because Asuma, Mirai's father, made Shikamaru the godfather on his deathbed. I'm not going to interfere with a man's dying wish."
"And that's the only reason why you don't demand to be her first choice?" Tamaki asked skeptically.
Kiba looked forward and stretched out all of his limbs. When they all fell back into place, his one arm was around Tamaki's waist.
"I also don't mind because the less I'm baby-sitting, the more time I get to spend with you, cat girl," Kiba stated coolly.
Tamaki giggled as Kiba pulled her in closer to him. Her head rested into his shoulder, as his hand held tightly onto her waist. It really wasn't that bad of a date.
The couple fell into easy conversation as Mirai Sarutobe played happily with Akamaru. The less attention that the couple paid to Mirai, the more attention she paid to them. She was constantly looking over her shoulder to see if Kiba was watching her.
All of a sudden, Mirai slipped and fell hard, and started to cry. Her wails cut off whatever sentence that Tamaki was in the middle of, and sent Kiba running to her side.
"Oh my goodness, what did you do to yourself?" Kiba asked the girl as soon as he reached her side.
"I swipped in da gwass," Mirai whimpered between sniffles as her baby talk seemed to thicken.
"Oh did you?" Kiba asked playfully. "Well we're just going to have to make sure that doesn't happen again, now don't we?"
"Mhm," the little girl nodded.
Kiba picked her up in his arms and held her tightly against himself.
"Tamaki, I need you to get the door, but be very careful about it, I can't have this poor injured girl get anymore hurt on my watch," Kiba called to his girlfriend as he over exaggerated his movements to prove that he himself was being careful as well.
Mirai started to squirm under his tight embrace, but it only made him grip her tighter as he walked. "You need to stay still so you don't fall again. It's also less likely that you'll fall if I hold you, so you aren't allowed to walk again."
This made the little girl squirm even more as she started to giggle at Kiba's strange logic. Kiba carefully carried the girl through the door and sat her down on the kitchen table.
"Do you feel safer now?" Kiba asked as he looked the girl over. He lifted up each of her limbs and sniffed them in a way that he knew always made her laugh.
She nodded her head in laughter as a response.
"Does it hurt anywhere?" Kiba asked, again searching her body dramatically for any sign of injury.
The little girl nodded shyly in response.
"Well, where does it hurt?" Kiba asked.
The little girl pointed to her knee, which had a tiny grass stain on it.
"Oh yeah, that does look like it could be a boo-boo," Kiba nodded as he sniffed it again, as to confirm his suspicions. "Yup, definitely a boo-boo."
"Can you kiss it better Kiba?" Mirai asked quietly.
"Well, I don't know, I think that you'll have to ask Tamaki if I can. She might get jealous if she sees me kissing such a pretty young lady."
"I don't want to," Mirai pouted.
"And why is that?" Kiba asked. "I'd have to ask Akamaru if you could kiss my ouchies, because I know that he loves you more than anything, isn't that right Akamaru?"
The giant dog barked in affirmation from the doorway.
"But you like Akamaru," Mirai stated. "So it's differwent."
"And how is it different?" Kiba pressed.
"Because I don't like the stinky girl," Mirai shouted.
"Now don't be mean, she's our guest here, and she's very important to me," Kiba explained.
"I don't like her so I don't want to be nice to her," Mirai retorted as she crossed her arms.
"And why don't you like her?" Kiba asked. "You barely even know her."
"I don't like her because you're mine, and she taked you from me."
"She taked me from you?" Kiba asked, mimicking the girls made up word. "And who said that I was ever yours to be taked from?"
"Me," Mirai stated.
"And who are you to make claim to me?" Kiba asked.
"I love you Kiba," Mirai whimpered as she started to cry. "I love you, and I want you to love me."
"I do love you Mirai," Kiba said. "But I also love the stinky girl."
Kiba was too focused on the crying girl in front of him to notice the uncomfortable girl behind him start to grow red and stiffen up.
"Love? Love? Did Kiba really just say that he loves me?" Tamaki thought to herself.
Just then Kurenai Sensei walked into the house. Her arms were loaded with groceries and she seemed a bit out of breath.
"Thank you so much for looking after Mirai," Kurenai stated as she walked into the kitchen. "I hope that she wasn't too much trouble."
Just then, as Miri heard her mother's voice, Mirai jumped off the chair and ran to her mother while still in tears.
"Why, Mirai, what's wrong?" Kurenai asked her daughter as the little girl stopped in front of her.
"Kiba has a girlfriend," Mirai cried.
"I know that sweetie, and she's a very nice girl," Kurenai stated as she looked up pointedly at Tamaki.
"I don't want him to have a girlfriend," Mirai cried. "Can't you put her under your magic and make her hate him?"
"Sweetie, that's not how genjutsu works," Kurenai tried to explain.
"But it has to momma, or else Kiba won't love me," the small girl wailed.
"Awe, come on Mirai, I love you, and so does Akamaru, and your mum, and Shikamaru, and Hinata, and Shino, you have loads of people who love you," Kiba tried to say.
"But you don't love me as much as you love the stinky girl," Mirai sniffled.
"I do love you, just not in the same way as I love the stinky girl," Kiba tried to explain.
"Is your love for me more important?" Mirai tried.
"It's just different," Kiba tried to explain to the little girl again. "You see, the love I have for the stinky girl, is one that makes me scared to lose her, where I don't have to worry about that with you, because no matter where I am, I know that you love me and that you'll never leave me. But I am terrified to lose her."
"So my love is better," Mirai exclaimed as she jumped towards Kiba.
"I didn't say that," Kiba tried to back pedal.
"You said that she's going to leave you, but I won't. So my love is better," the little girl tried to explain as she stuck her tongue out at Tamaki from over Kiba's shoulder.
Tamaki hadn't heard anything after hearing that Kiba was scared to lose her, on top of the fact that he loved her. Tamaki was stuck in place, and lost in her own world.
It didn't take long for Kiba to finally give into the little girl's boasts, because at least she was happy again. He said goodbye to Kurenai, and called for Tamaki and Akamaru to follow him out so that they could have a real date.
Kiba didn't even notice that his girlfriend wasn't following him, as she was still rooted in the same place in the middle of Kurenai's kitchen.
"Was that the first time that he's said it to you?" Kurenai asked as she watched the girl in her kitchen stare off into space.
Tamaki slightly nodded her head in response, still not completely receptive to the stimuli around her.
"You know, it took Asuma telling me he loved me without thinking about it four times without him knowing before it finally sunk in to his thick skull that he actually loved me. So, take it as a good sign. You know that he loves you, even before he may realise it himself. Now go on, or you're going to miss your date."