"Naruto! You're home early. No missions today?"
"None that required the service of an able bodied jounin like myself!" I said, as I playfully grabbed my wife and kissed her. She giggled a little bit, but I noticed a bit of a hesitation to kiss me back, so I let go of her.
She gave a contented sigh to herself and started meticulously organizing the napkins, almost as if she knew she had made things awkward. "It will take a little while to get used to your new jounin status, I think!" she said.
"I'm used to it." I said as I sat down.
I noticed her eyes dart towards the guestroom and then quickly back at me with a smile.
"He still here?" I asked.
Kiba had come to us in the worst emotional shape I had ever seen anyone in. While he was away on a mission, his pregnant wife whom I had never met took their two sons for a walk. When he returned two weeks later, she wasn't at home
She nodded. "He hasn't eaten anything since he got here." She answered. "I'm starting to get worried."
"Don't you think it's time we took him to a hospital?" I said, standing up. "I mean… that's where he belongs."
"No." Hinata shook her head. "He belongs in a loving home right now."
"I think it would be better for him to go someplace where they can help him." I pushed.
"He's been through a lot already." She said. "I don't want to move him around until he's settled."
He waited out the day and then went to look for her.
"He's got to eat something." I concluded. "It's been what…a week?"
"Eight days." Hinata said quietly. She was keeping track.
"Has he even come out of that room?" I said as I made a move for the room but Hinata grabbed my arm.
"Why are you so eager to get rid of him?" she asked, getting that look on her face that suggested she was on the brink of tears.
She had been murdered, and the two boys left to die. Kiba found them, he freaked, he came to us. Hinata brought him in while I wasn't home, and when I came home she explained he was troubled. I didn't realize at first how troubled he was.
"It's not—" I stuttered.
Hinata was fragile, and I tried my best to be sensitive to her needs, but the truth was I had always known she fancied Kiba above me for years, but he never knew. When we were young, I realized she liked me, and when I finally confronted her, I realized something new; she now liked Kiba.
He got married young—real young—and I knew it crushed Hinata. It crushed me to see her so sad and act so happy for him. After all, he considered them 'friends' and such, so she had no choice but to act happy for him.
So Hinata and I married young—real young—just later on that year.
For three days all I could hear was him crying through the walls. Beside me, Hinata was in tears as well, and when she thought I was sleeping, she stood up and walked around, hugging herself. I wanted to stand and comfort her, but something told me to stay put.
"It's not that." I managed finally. "I just feel like it's important for him to get help and he's not getting that help here."
"We can help him." Hinata begged. "We just have to try harder."
"Hinata," I said, putting my hands on her shoulder. "I'm not trying to start an argument with you. I'm just saying what I think is best for him. And the thing is, Hinata—"
I debated with what I was about to say, and then decided against it.
"What?" she said. "What is it?"
"Nothing." I said.
"I hate it when you do that!" she said angrily. "Tell me what you were going to say, please!"
I took a deep breath. "The thing is," I said regrettably. "If it was one of my buddies you would—"
"If it was one of your buddies?" she repeated in utter disbelief, tears forming in her eyes. "Isn't Kiba one of your buddies too?"
After the first three days, it was silent. He stared at the wall, and wouldn't respond to us when we called to him. Sometimes he slept, and sometimes he lied there with his eyes open. His head moved slightly if one of us entered the room, but we hadn't heard a word for him in long enough.
"If his plan is to starve himself in our guestroom then I won't have it!" I said finally.
"I'm sure that's not his plan!" Hinata said as she buried her face in her hands and went to the table. "He just has to work things out!"
I went over to her as she sobbed, and I put my hand on the back of her head. She jerked her head away and spun around in the chair, facing the wall, her sobs matching those of the ones we had heard from Kiba.
"Naruto," she said. "We're doing fine. We have a baby on the way, and you're finally a jounin. Kiba's lost everything and he just needs a little while to get a hold of himself. Please let him stay."
I ran my fingers through my hair. Stupid me always bending over backwards for my wife.
Too bad I loved her so much.
"All right." I said, circling around her. "Two more days."
"Two more—?" she trailed off.
"If he doesn't get any better in two days, will you promise to let me take him to a hospital?" I asked.
She paused for a long time. A long, long time.
"All right." She swallowed. "Two more days."
"It's the right thing." I said, getting down on my knees and holding her hands.
She wiped her tears away with her shoulder and nodded. "I know." She said. "I just want to see him get through this."
"I know you do." I said, trying to smile. "We all do. And he will get through it, just like he gets through everything else, you know it."
"Thank you so much, Naruto." She said, wrapping her arms around me and hugging tightly.
I slowly rose to my feet so we were both standing, and I held her for longer than she had had to think about sending Kiba away.