Hey all you NaruKiba fans. I know it has been a while since I posted anything. School and everything. BLEH! Anyway, I don't own Naruto or any of its affiliates. But I do hope you enjoy this latest chapter in the ongoing soap opera that is my mind.
"Prelude to a Kiss"
"You are goin' down Naruto." Kiba boasted as yet another sweat drop fell from his brow.
"Yeah right, in your dreams dog-breath." Naruto spat back, grunting with the added force over his elbow.
"I hope you like the smell of soap fox-boy. Cause when you lose, you're gonna have to clean my room and give Akamaru a bath." Kiba smiled.
"Ha! Yeah, well I hope you've got a lot of money. Cause when you lose, you're gonna treat me to Ramen, for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and everything in between." The blonde boasted.
The two friends had been at it for at least an hour, neither one backing down or calling it quits.
Their elbows were getting sore over the fine grained tree stump that served as the table for their wrestling bout. The two had worked up quite a sweat, Kiba most of all.
Sort of a clinching decision making process really, the two teens were too thick headed and stubborn to discuss matters peaceably. So it stood to reason that whenever they needed to settle a debate, they did so with a fair arm wrestle.
Though to call it fair wouldn't be very accurate. Naruto always had the upper hand, something even the Inuzuka pup was willing to admit. The unbridled power of the demon fox gave the blonde way too much strength. That's why he won most of their bouts. But every now and again, Kiba would win. In either case, this sort of creative problem solving actually became quite popular between the two teens and soon enough they would start an arm battle simply for the sake of having fun.
"Uh Oh! Someone's slipping." Kiba mocked, not at all convinced that his ploy worked.
"Not likely!" Naruto barked back.
"Face it Naruto, you can't beat me."
"Funny, I was about to say the same thing." The two shared an equivalent smile.
Naruto, the childhood companion of the Inuzuka child. Though the blonde grew up being despised by the village that would eventually come to call him its hero, the brunette in question always knew of his merit and admired him for it.
For a time, the brunette cub even tried to compete with him. Tried to gain the repute that he had over the village. But in secret, all he was trying to do was gain the favor of his young counterpart. If he could manage to prove himself as the dominant alpha male, maybe Naruto would see him as a worthy friend, comrade, companion, and as his feelings began to develop, his mate.
Though as time passed, he thought less and less about competition. It seemed that the small blonde wanted to share his friendship with him even if he proved himself or not. His will to fight was demolished in the Chuunin exams. The very thing he was fighting for, Naruto's friendship, was something that the blonde freely gave to him. So when he lost in the Chuunin exams, ironically to the very person he wanted to best, he gave up his ambition to win his heart over with strength.
He still couldn't explain it. The feeling he got when his friend smiled at him, like that smile was meant just for him. He also gave up trying to decipher it, and decided instead to allow this feeling to surround him.
"I will beat you this time Naruto." He never regretted his decision.
"Not this time." Naruto pushed the other's arm close to the grain of the wood.
"I'm gonna win…." Naruto jeered just before that crucial moment.
"Hey! There you are!" a familiar voice broke the determined stare of the two friends.
"Huh?" Naruto turned his gaze away from the Inuzuka to see his life long sensei standing in the clearing, waving a friendly jest at them both.
Suddenly, with the full force of distraction on his side, Kiba forced Naruto's arm all the way back down to touch the wood, declaring his victory of their game.
"Oh Yeah! You better wear your bathing suit Naruto. Akamaru has been crawling in mud all week." The Inuzuka crazed about his victory.
"Hey no fair! That was interference!" Naruto pouted.
"All's fair in arm wrestling."
"Dammit." Naruto turned to face his teacher.
"What is it Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto barked, knowing full well he had to keep his promise to clean Akamaru and the Inuzuka's bedroom.
"Hey Naruto, just thought I'd let you know that Jiraiya is looking for you." The Jounin crossed his arms waiting for a response.
"Jiraiya? What does he want with me?"
"Don't know. But he said it was important."
"Okay, tell him I'll see him tomorrow." Naruto turned to face the laughing brunette again.
"Actually, he would like to see you right now."
"Now?"
"Now."
Naruto pouted, exhausted from the hour of heavy excitement.
"All right. Hey Kiba, I'll see ya later okay?" Naruto posed to his friend who had inveigled his way closer to the blonde shinobi.
"Sure. I'll see you later Naruto. Don't forget, you have to clean my room and wash Akamaru." The brunette smiled.
"Dammit." Naruto sauntered away, defeated and dreading the day that he will have to clean that crafty and quick pup.
Naruto and his teacher were well out of view, leaving the brunette to his thoughts.
'Hm…I wonder if he'll really wear his swimsuit.' The brunette thought pleasantly.
He wandered from the small clearing where the two had engaged in their usual fun. It had been the place, they came to realize, where they played together as kids. He followed the dirt path that they had carved out from their many visits there.
Kiba walked lazily back to Konoha village, a place that, he was sure, wouldn't be called a complete village without their adorable idiot, his idiotic smile, the childish way he plays. Even now he still was as rambunctious as ever.
Back at the Inuzuka residence…
Kiba laid on his downy soft bed, his stare reaching the ceiling, listening to the creatures just outside his window. The crickets chirping and the owls hooting, the usual shrill calls of the night.
He heard his door creak open and a very puffy canine walked past the threshold to greet him after a long day of swimming in mud and trying to catch the cats of Konoha.
"Hey Akamaru."
The fuzzy ball of muddied fur walked to the edge of his master's bed and sat on his tiny haunches. The stale smell of dried earth plagued the brunette's already sensitive senses.
"Geez you stink." The teen remarked.
"I don't smell anything." The dog barked back.
"Well you reek." The brunette held his nose for emphasis.
"Yeah, well you don't smell any better."
"What?"
"You smell like wet dog." Akamaru quipped, his feather duster of a tail wagging incessantly.
"Now you're just lying. If I did smell, Naruto would've told me."
"Maybe he was just trying to be nice."
"Do I really smell bad?" the brunette sat up on his bed, a stern look of concern in his eyes, and smelled his jacket and his sleeves.
"Gotcha!" the tiny quadruped snapped.
"Seriously, that's not funny."
"Why not? I thought you didn't care about what you smell like."
"I don't."
"So then why did you shower before you went to see Naruto? Why do you put on such strong cologne sometimes?" the mutt started to prod.
"So I like to be presentable, so what?" Kiba hid.
"Uh-huh. This wouldn't have anything to do with you liking him would it?"
"WHAT?! Are you crazy? Naruto and I are good friends." That didn't sound very convincing. The Inuzuka teen sat up on his heels began to burn with color.
"So why are you blushing?" Akamaru was quickly gaining ground in this argument. He could tell when his master was hiding something forbidden. He could feel it when Kiba tried to cover his tracks in a cold lie.
"Don't be so smug you mutt. He's gonna come and give you a bath. By the smell of it, you really need it."
"Ouch, that hurts. I bet you told him to wear his bathing suit didn't you?" Akamaru laughed haughtily. Kiba froze, his cheeks flushed with a dry pink blush across the bridge of his nose.
"Why? Is it because you want to see him all wet?" the dog played. Kiba's ears started to sing with rushing blood.
"Just don't get jealous when he's holding me, soaking wet with nothing but his wet swim shorts on. And you know I hate baths. I won't go down without a fight. So don't be surprised if a little accident happens. Say for instance, his shorts should come flying off." Akamaru baited even further.
Kiba covered his lower waist with the comforter of his bed. His eyes started to dilate as his nose began to bleed. He quickly covered the small crimson stream from gushing over.
"That's what I thought." Akamaru huffed.
"Shut-up!" Kiba wrapped his hormone wracked body in the cloth of the comforter, trying his best to hide what his friend's little story had erupted in him.
"You know, it would probably be easier if you just told him how you felt."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Kiba turned again.
"Don't play stupid. You know exactly what I'm talking about." Akamaru huffed proudly.
"I don't feel anything. Naruto is a friend. Nothing more. The fact that you even think that he and I…that is, me and him…could possibly be anything more is just…"
"Stupid?" the dog barked in retort.
"Yes!" the brunette swiveled under the covers.
"I don't think you believe that." The dog prodded even more.
"What is this, the third degree? Can't you go somewhere else? You're smelling up my room." Kiba dismissed the quadruped, trying his best to hide his face.
"Okay, fine. I'll go, but remember…" Akamaru left his master bundled up in his comforter sheets. He reached the threshold of the door before turning his head to his life-friend.
'Oh here we go. He's gonna say something really corny.' The brunette half expected his friend to tell him to tell Naruto how he felt or he would lose him some day or something similar that was supposed to spur him to spill his guts.
Akamaru smiled an evil sort of smirk.
"…I'm gonna be riding HIM tomorrow." The dog spat in wicked whisper.
Kiba's eyes shot open and he instantly threw his closest pillow at the dog in the doorway, nailing him in the butt as he marched out triumphantly.
Assured that he had made his point, Kiba turned away from where the dog had been seconds before, the still almost nauseating stench of his dirtied coat making the teen huff in anxiety.
He pulled his sheets closer, lifted the other pillow he had been sleeping on and reached underneath to grab something he knew was there.
His fingers felt their way around, searching for the item in question, but for some reason couldn't find it. Panicked, Kiba threw the pillow off the bed.
"Where is it?" he asked the accusingly empty mattress.
The brunette desperately dug through his room, through the layers of clothing, weapons and shinobi gear to look for it. But to no avail. Whatever had happened to it, it was gone.
"Looking for something?" a smug little whelp came from the base of the door.
That small, innocent, deceptively cute Akamaru came back, smiling at his master through the partially lit room.
"Akamaru?" Kiba barked.
The small wad of tan fur started to wag his tail, holding at his side the item that Kiba had been looking for.
"I found this under your pillow yesterday." The dog put matter-of-factly. He studied the cover quickly and darted his gaze back to his master. He knew he was treading on some sensitive ground. Some snarling, dangerous, sensitive ground.
"You really do think of some sappy stuff." The dog commented. Kiba started to lean on his knees, ready to pounce, the blood boiling in his ears.
"Give it to me Akamaru. Now!" the teen demanded.
"No way! Maybe I'll mail it to him." The dog suggested.
"Akamaru, I swear, if you do anything with that…" Kiba didn't bother to finish. He jumped from his perch on his bed at the smaller dog.
Akamaru quickly clasped his jaws over one of the edges of the picture and ran with it. He ran as fast as his little paws could carry him, the photo slipping every so often from his grip.
"Akamaru, give it back !"
"So what you're saying is that I have no choice?" Naruto asked the much older and experienced shinobi.
"Naruto, you always have a choice. I'm just offering you another option. Think about it. If Akatsuki wanted to, they could march into this village, kill whoever they wanted, and take you away."
Naruto sat on his heels and listened to what the experienced hermit had to offer him.
"I know you don't want to leave this place. But think about what's best for the village. If you're not here, then Akatsuki would have no reason to invade."
"I don't know. Maybe you're right. But…will I ever be able to come back?"
"Of course! All you would need to do is to become stronger." Jiraiya said nonchalantly.
"Okay. I think I'll do it." Naruto resolved.
The orange clad shinobi lifted himself off of the dirt, the older ninja pleased with his response.
"We should leave as soon as possible." Jiraiya stated.
"Really? Um, can we leave tomorrow some time? I have this thing I have to take care of."
"What?! What could be so important that you have to do it right now?"
Kiba returned to the safety of his room, the secret diary he finally managed to grab away from his smaller friend was slathered in his spit.
"Akamaru, why do you have to be such a jerk?" Kiba wiped the item off as best as he could, trying to preserve its original luster.
Finally, after all the frustration he had endured up until now, the invasion of his privacy, not to mention the blood loss, he gathered himself and his possession and sat on the welcoming downy mattress.
He stared at the soft bound journal, trying to smooth out the weathered abrasions left by the smaller dog. He took one long inhale and started to write again, right next to the last entry that he had made no more than two days ago.
He tapped the pencil on his chin incessantly, shifting his weight from one side of the bed to the other, wrestling with his words.
Truthfully he had never considered writing a diary about what he felt. But he couldn't tell anyone about it either. So the only logical answer seemed the corniest. He had to go out and buy a small, spiral bound notebook in which he allotted all of his thoughts, so at least they were written down. Otherwise he might have gone mad, like keeping a huge secret that guilt and the knowledge of knowing it would slowly eat away at better judgment.
It had wishes, it had dreams. More of specific daily events that the brunette saw as special, recorded with a pencil that he had been chewing on for the past week.
It wasn't anything really obscene or suggestive, but in the mind of the Inuzuka, it meant the world. For whatever reason, whenever he read it, he felt a surreal sense of place and an often foreboding sense of hope.
He never understood why, but that hope that he sometimes looked forward to was scary. What if he and Naruto could be more than just friends? It was something he thought about every time he saw what he wrote, knowing what it meant to him.
"It makes sense, right?" he asked in the darkness.
"I mean, he is who he is. I am who I am. We would be good together wouldn't we?"
'Oh my god, I can't believe I'm even thinking about this.' He turned his attention away from his savage thoughts and focused on the empty pages in front of him.
'We had another arm wrestling contest today.' He started.
'I think he let me win again. I hate it when he does that.' he took a moment to think.
'But I guess I can't complain. He has to give Akamaru a bath and…' he carefully thought of what to say. He remembered their wager. Naruto had to clean his room as well, as part of their arrangement.
'…at least I get him in my room.' Kiba wrote.
He heard a sudden rustle of the leaves outside his window and sharp snap of a twig, causing him to quickly stash the book back under his pillow.
"Psst. Kiba!" a whispered yell came floating through his window.
"Huh? Who's there?" the brunette quickly jumped to his feet and stalked over to the open window.
"Naruto?" the brunette asked, poking his head out the window. There, in front of his house, standing just under his nose was the hyperactive blonde.
"Hey Naruto. What's up?"
"Hey, nothin'. Uh, actually I was wondering if Akamaru was ready for his bath."
"Huh? Oh, you came to see him." Kiba sounded almost disappointed.
"Uh, yeah. I mean, didn't we agree that I would give him a bath?" the blonde juxtaposed.
"Well yeah, but it's eight o'clock, can't it wait until tomorrow? Why don't you and I do something?" Kiba tried to excuse.
"No, actually it can't wait." Naruto's eyes met his feet, his sudden lackluster attitude caught the Inuzuzka by surprise, and deep down, made him worry.
"Tomorrow? You have to leave tomorrow?" Kiba chanted again and again.
"Jiraya actually said tomorrow?" the brunette questioned again for the third time in as many minutes.
"Well, the sooner the better. Hold still Akamaru!" the small dog jumped through the foam of the bubbles, chasing his tail and tromping through more dirt.
"I hope you don't expect me to wash him again." Naruto tried to tease, any sort of positive reaction out of the Inuzuka was a very welcomed change. He hadn't said two words since the blonde told him he'd be leaving. Even now, Kiba hung his head low, hiding his real feelings.
"Heh…" Kiba perked his lips into a disingenuous smile.
"Come on Kiba, say something that isn't so depressing. I'm trying to make you laugh here."
"Why? Why do you have to go?" Kiba asked, sitting respectfully on a nearby tree stump.
"Well, it makes sense right? Akatsuki is after me. So if I leave, they would have no reason to invade the village."
"Akatsuki? Who cares? I mean you could stay at my house until this whole thing blows over. There's no need to leave the village altogether is there?"
"I don't know. Jiraiya thinks it's for the best."
"I don't care about what he thinks." Kiba jumped from the tree, scaring nearby forest dwellers into a frenzy and scampering away.
Akamaru had taken this time to saunter away from the two teens, hiding in the rich green shrubbery behind their house.
"What's with you all of a sudden?"
"What's with you? Why are you trying to leave the village? This place not good enough for you anymore?" Kiba pointed at the blonde, who in turn tried to capture him with his azure stare.
"Whoa! Where did that come from?"
"Well you must be leaving for a reason. Are you tired of all your friends? Not enough adventure for you?" Kiba snapped, crossing his arms.
"That's not it and you know it." Naruto barked back, lifting his fists in defense.
"Why would you leave the safety of the village. You'll be a much bigger target out there by yourself. If you stay here, you know the whole village will fight to protect you." Kiba argued.
"That's the point. I don't want the village to get involved. I'll let Akatsuki have the stupid nine-tails before I get you guys caught up in my mess."
"Oh you are just stupid." Kiba growled at him.
"What?" Naruto sat attentively on the wet grass, the bath water seeping under him.
"You didn't ask for this, this whole nine-tails thing. As far as I'm concerned, this isn't your mess." The brunette sat back down across from the blonde, joining him on the wet grass. He had to try anything to get Naruto to stay.
"It is. I have to go. I don't know why it's such a problem with you."
"Have you told anyone else?" Kiba asked.
"Well…no. But I'll say goodbye to everyone tomorrow."
The more Kiba heard, the more he wished he hadn't. Why did it hurt so much? Why did his gut feel like it was empty? Nothing but sour news seemed to come from the determined blonde. Maybe what hurt the most was that Kiba was losing him, possibly forever, and there was still so much he left unsaid.
"So, you're just gonna go?"
"Fine! Go ahead, go. Run away from your responsibilities like you always do."
"Hey! Now that's not fair! This is my responsibility. I owe it to the whole village. I can't just stay here knowing that these psychotic ninjas are waiting for the chance to grab me and probably hurt whoever they can."
"Naruto…what about everyone who cares about you? You're just going to leave them on a whim like this? I mean what about…me?"
Naruto looked confused. His utter lack of understanding innuendo was appalling.
"Kiba, we'll still be friends. It's not like I'm leaving for good." The brunette slumped near a tree and groaned out loud, grabbing his lush head of hair.
"You don't get it!"
Naruto watched his counterpart closely, trying to analyze his odd behavior. Kiba paced back and forth trying to calm his nerves when he suddenly and without warning snapped into attention.
"Hey, can I come with you?" Kiba asked immediately.
"What? Why would you want to come with me? We don't even know where we're going." The blonde made his way to his feet, and then to eye level with the Inuzuka cub who was a good arm's length away.
"It doesn't matter, at least this way I can protect you." The Inuzuka's blush started to erupt in the darkness of night.
"But I won't need protection. Jiraiya is there." The blonde retorted.
"The more protection you have, the better, right?" Kiba rationalized.
"Um, okay. Maybe you're right. But Jiraiya said that I shouldn't get any one else involved. In fact, I shouldn't have told you that I was leaving." Naruto rubbed his wet arm from the incessant scrubbing he had done on the little Inu-pup.
"Stop making excuses!!" The Inuzuka burst.
"W-What? I'm not…" Naruto took a few steps away from the brunette who had since his emotional explosion taken very large paces towards him.
Naruto held his hands in front of his body in defense, waiting for his friend to wail on him. He looked like he would resort to fisticuffs any time now. His eyes were glazed over with anger, his hands raised as if made to grab. And they did.
Kiba fisted the blonde's orange jumpsuit and forced his back against the closest tree. Naruto's mouth jutted open to release a silent grunt, his teeth clenched and his arms tried to push away his attacker.
"You are making excuses, Naruto. Why don't you want me to come with you? I thought we were friends. What, do you hate me or something?" Kiba demanded.
Naruto opened his surreal azure eyes and caught the Inuzuka in an empty stare. Behind the hurt expression in Kiba's eyes, past the veil of the night, he could see something else in his companion. He could see hurt, betrayal, longing. Something that Naruto never thought Kiba possessed when it came to other people.
"No, I don't hate you. I thought you would understand. I thought, if we are such good friends, you would be able to understand. But I guess I was wrong." Naruto spat.
"Don't you dare! Don't you dare say that I don't understand. You think I don't care?" Kiba challenged, his grip getting rougher the more the kyuubi struggled against the tree. He wondered when his full strength would explode outward and blow the Inuzuka away. But he didn't think much about it. He would face the nine-tails itself to keep Naruto here.
"You're a liar. You don't understand. You're willing to risk the village by keeping me here? You don't know what it feels like to have something like the nine-tails inside of you. You don't even ca-…"
"Say it! I dare you to say it! Say that I don't care!" the Inuzuka challenged again. His fists curled upward toward the blonde's collar.
Naruto stared at the brunette with stern eyes, trying to gain some ground against him to offer the opportunity to flee. But the brunette kept him securely fastened to the wooden post, forcing the blonde to look at him.
His eyes seemed softer for some reason, and something suspiciously akin to tears seemed to light them up. Naruto stared hard at the Inuzuka and said the words he was defied to say.
"Kiba… YOU DON'T CARE!"
He had no sooner finished his sentence when the back of Naruto's head collided with the trunk of the tree, his lips sealed shut.
Kiba pressed deeper, his mouth greedily trying to climb over the other. All his instincts, all his frustration channeled relentlessly to make the kyuubi his.
Naruto struggled, his feet desperately trying to kick the brunette away. He felt Kiba's fingers release his jump suit and opened into empty palms that pushed against his shoulders. He could faintly feel Kiba's fashioned fangs graze over his lips every time the brunette tried to push in for a new kiss.
Their lips separated several times, but never long enough for Naruto to voice a response.
Kiba could feel his cheeks begin to burn, his knees grow weak and his heart threatened to jump into his throat.
He started to get dizzy the more he forced himself onto Naruto. He continued to push against the blonde, forcing his hips to meld against him. Whatever it was he was feeling inside, he wanted more of it. That raw, aching heat he felt as soon as he and Naruto kissed.
Finally, Kiba released the kyuubi from his mouth, a small trail of spit was the only thing keeping them together. Naruto hurried his breathing to shake the light headedness that followed.
Kiba was no better. His breathing was much more labored from his combined efforts to keep Naruto detained and the bruising kiss he gave him.
"Don't…say that." The brunette warned again. The blonde looked on still in his daze.
"Don't say that I don't care." Kiba broke the small tie of saliva from his overly affectionate kiss. He finally softened the hold he had over Naruto's shoulders, letting his back slide down the tree trunk.
"I care about you." The brunette confessed. Both of them stifled their rampant breathing as the minutes wore on and not a word spoken between them. Naruto looked at his companion, trying to find an answer as to why he kissed him.
Of course being new to the whole thing, Naruto wasn't sure how to react. He hadn't been kissed in his whole life, either by a boy or by a girl. But something about how the Inuzuka did it, it almost seemed like he had been practicing.
He had heard about this thing called love, many times actually. More along the lines of simple every day occurrences like "Oh I love that new dress you're wearing" or "I love you Sasuke" and so on. When he had asked his sensei about it, Iruka simple smiled and laughed.
He told him that when you love someone, something special happens, and it only happens around them. It was something that could not be replaced by someone else or be copied. It was meant for one and only one person, which is why Iruka said that he loved Naruto. He was like a son to him.
Simple enough to understand, but yet so complex. The same resolve he found in his sensei's smile, he saw in Kiba's eyes. Which was confusing to say the least. He could not recall when, if ever, he had felt this strange sensation in his stomach.
But Kiba said he cared, and that was enough to keep him there. No one had ever said that to him, outside of Iruka-sensei.
Naruto was pulled out of his haze when the brunette in front of him started to barter the conditions of his release.
"I'll let you go if you promise not to run away." Kiba bargained. Naruto nodded.
The brunette slowly let the orange jumpsuit go completely, letting the smaller teen some room to breathe. He took a few steps away and watched carefully, expecting the kyuubi to run.
But he didn't. The blonde, whether for a complete lack of what to say or out of utter shock, stood complacent. Kiba watched, waiting for the sudden jump and the inevitable chase he would have to make.
The two didn't say a word to each other. The ambience of the night grew sullen. Even the crickets stopped chirping, surrounding the teens in perpetual silence.
Kiba looked at the ground, finding escape from the azure stare he knew Naruto was giving him. He didn't want, nor did he plan his first kiss with the blonde to be this way. Never under these circumstances. Out of desperation, and perhaps a bit of fear and loss, he pushed all common sense away for an instant, and took what he wanted.
It should've been special, just as he always envisioned it to be. Usually during the sunset hours or on his birthday, or even at night on top of his roof.
But instead it had to be like this. The kiss was more longing and desperate than passionate. He knew it hurt. How his teeth chafed Naruto's mouth. It was fast, it was rough, not like how he wanted it to be. As much as he wished he could try again, he couldn't.
Kiba hesitantly raised his head to meet Naruto's still discombobulated gaze. He trudged forward, taking smaller steps so as not to scare the other teen.
"Naruto…would you say something?" but the blonde didn't spare a word.
Taking his silence for consent, Kiba found himself closing in for his second try. He gently nudged the blonde's chin with his nose, the distraction allowed his fingers to lace around the other's hips. Kiba held his breath.
He felt his heaving chest press against the other, forcing him back against the tree trunk. The brunette slowly let his lips climb over Naruto's, cautiously bringing his parted lips closed in a rhythmic kiss. This time however, before their lips could make that crucial bond, Naruto disappeared in a cloud of smoke. In his place, he left a sizable log, giving him the opportunity to run without the Inuzuka able to give chase.
"A substitution?" Kiba yelped as the log hit the ground.
The confused brunette did not stay that way for very long. He looked around for the other teen, trying to track him by whatever scent he could get. But there was none. The wind, he thought would've helped carry any sort of smell for him to trace, but he was downwind. Any hope of finding the blonde was quickly dashed.
But the wind helped more than it seemed. Naruto's house was the opposite direction. If Kiba couldn't smell him, it was probably because the blonde was going with the wind, straight back home.
Kiba wasted no time. He gathered himself and quickly took to the treetops, following his instincts, all the while thinking about what he would say. The small reminder of what he did to the smaller teen started to dry on his lips, but he could still taste the subtle essence of ramen. But it was beginning to fade, causing the brunette to speed towards the Uzumaki residence.
'Naruto…please be there.' He silently prayed.
'You better not leave before I get the chance…' he paused. What exactly did he have in mind when he found Naruto again? In the privacy of his own home, so many things could happen.
'…to say I'm sorry.' He found his way to the house high in the treetops, an ever growing sinking feeling swelling in his chest when he saw the dark, empty house sitting in the glow of the moon.
TBC