NARUTO: DOGS IN HEAT
CHAPTER ONE: FANNING THE FLAMES
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Temari had a secret. It's not really all that surprising, many of us do. But for her, it is a painful secret, one that she must keep hidden and suppressed from the world. In fact, she does such a fine job that even she may not know to what extent she's keeping it hidden.
Like other young ladies with odd hairstyles (and most of us can agree that many of the ladies in the Narutoverse have odd hairstyles), Temari got up rather early to fix her hair. She kept a strict schedule, bed at ten, awake at five-thirty to bathe and begin the ponytail process. It was a long and arduous task, taking much of the morning, aggravating to no end for both her brothers, Kankuro in particular.
"Freakin' a, Temari, what's taking so long!" the cat-eared puppeteer bellowed through the Kazekage's mansion.
"Just wait a minute, Kankuro! I'm almost done," Temari retorted, running down the stairs, just managing to grab her fan from the umbrella basket by the front door. Funny story behind that thing, one time when they bought an apartment in Konoha, one of the house-warming presents was an umbrella stand. When the siblings decided not to stay in Konoha after Gaara's ascension to Kazekage, they brought the stand with them because it was theirs. After ages of trying to figure out what to put in it, Temari slipped in her fan and kept it there ever since.
They got out the front door without any more shouting, much to Gaara's joy. Kankuro asked, "So Gaara, what are we doing in Konoha again?"
Irritated, Temari replied, "C'mon Kankuro, we talked about it last night. Konoha is having a festival to commerate the sealing of the Fox demon and they sent an invitation to us. Gaara is also going to ask about an alliance against Orochimaru. Good gracious, you're so careless. It's a wonder what'd you do without me here to keep you straight."
That statement is probably the closest thing Temari has ever come to understanding her secret. Temari has always wanted to go wild. She has wanted to run free, not caring about the consequences since she was a child. In fact, before Gaara was born, Temari was quite the wild child, but then Gaara came along, and she had to shape up to help keep his crazyness in line. She grew up very quickly in the savage royal family of the Kazekage. Subconsciously, she always resented her youngest brother, especially for getting the honor of being Kazekage; after all, he forced her to grow up, get all straight laced and sharp cornered and she had nothing to show for it. But she would never admit this to herself. In fact, she often acted the exact opposite of what she desired. She buried it so deep underneath the underneath, that Ibiki Morino would have a hell of a time getting it out of her.
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Kiba Inuzuka was an interesting person. In a team made of Hinata, Shino, and himself, Kiba was the one keeping things interesting. If team 8 was a caricature of team 7, then Kiba was Naruto. In fact, Kiba wishes he was Naruto, then Hinata would like him, as opposed to tolerate him. It bugged Kiba to no end. How could the Hyugga heiress like such a social retard? Oh well, maybe that nice girl at the reception desk would like to go to a movie. Kiba was roused from his reverie by Kurenai appearing before him.
"Hello Akamaru!" Kurenai virtually squealed. Kiba's face grimaced. Don't be mistaken, Kiba loved Akamaru to death, the wonderful dog, but it also aggravated him to no end that Akamaru could get more ladies than Kiba just by existing. Oh well, Kiba supposed that he could use it to his advantage.
"What is it Kurenai-sensei? And where are Shino and Hinata?" Kiba was used to his team waiting for him at the gate of the Inuzuka complex, but this time, there was no one.
"Well, Hokage-sama gave the team the day off." At this point, Kiba jumped into the air and shouted, "Yes! Day off! I'm gonna ask that cute receptionist to a movie! Thanks Kurenai-sensei!"
"Well, don't thank me yet, Kiba. After I notified Hinata and Shino, Shizune contacted me and said that there was one mission that still needed done. So you got volunteered."
"What?! You just told me that I had a day off! What's the Hokage need me to do?" Kiba knew that going against the Hokage was all but impossible for every ninja in all of Konoha. Except one, Stupid Naruto. He has Hinata trying for him, Hokage-sama likes him, he's even been trained by one of the Legendary Sannin! What's he got that I don't? Too bad Sandaime's Law prevents us from letting him know, eh?
"Shizune gave me this scroll with the mission specs, so here you go. I'm going to be at home enjoying my day off, so…See ya Kiba!" Kurenai ran off, jumped on a roof and hurried to her apartment, leaving Kiba alone and pissed off. Kiba opened the scroll and checked his mission out.
By the Order of Hokage:
To whomever has received this message: Your assignment is to
escort the Kazekage and his entourage around Konoha.
Let them see more of the town than the Hokage's tower and their
hotel rooms. They deserve a good time, especially just before the
festival. This is a D rank mission and will pay according to the
reply of the Kazekage and his escorts upon their arrival at the
Hokage's tower at 7:30 this evening. Good luck!
Tsunade
No way. A freakin' escort mission. I hate these (don't we all). Ya know, I haven't seen Gaara for awhile now. Wonder how he's doing. I wonder if he brought his sister? She might want to see a movie with me. She might want to castrate me with her fan too. Couldn't hurt to ask, thought Kiba as he looked over his mission scroll. He attempted to plan a day of walking around Konoha, but he couldn't get a reasonable schedule in his head, so he decided to go guided by his best feature: his instinct.
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He was waiting at the gates for the Suna ninjas to arrive. It was nerve-wracking for poor Kiba, after all this was the legendary Gaara of the Desert. The name and mental image of Shukaku awoke a primal fear in Kiba, but one that he conquered…well, he had it conquered when Gaara wasn't around.
"Well, hello, what was your name again?" asked Gaara, following Temari's suggestion that he act more hospitable during the trip.
Kiba yelped slightly when Gaara started talking behind him. Kankuro tried to hold in his laughter. Temari also tried to hold in her response, but as opposed to Kankuro's laughter, she was holding in disgust. After all, they had been assured that someone who knew the town would be showing them around it, instead they got a smelly, dirty dog boy. Temari externally looked disgusted to see him, but her inner Temari, weak, small, and emaciated from abuse and neglect, looked up with hope in her eyes.
Kiba turned around and stiffly offered his hand to Gaara, eyes shut tight making the red fang marks on his face curl around his eyes. Kiba felt his hand enveloped in another and tried to shake, finding inhuman resistance, he opened his eyes to a squint.
His hand was encapsulated in sand. Kiba couldn't think, in fact, he simply stopped thinking on a conscious level and blurted out whatever was on his mind. Interestingly enough, what was on his mind turned out to be, "Pleased to re-meet you Kazekage-sama. I am also pleased to make the acquaintance of your siblings, Kankuro the Puppeteer and Temari, Lily of the Desert. I am a humble shinobi of Konoha, please call me Inuzuka Kiba."
Gaara showed absolutely no expression on his face, but what he was feeling was known by his relinquishing the control for his sand shackles, which promptly dropped back into normal sand on the ground. Kankuro's eyes opened wide and he almost dropped Krow. Temari was the one that recovered quickest, "Very pleased to meet you Kiba. However Temari-san would be more than sufficient to address me. Are we to assume that you are the one that is to give us a grand tour of Konoha during a festival?"
Kiba got his hand away from the sand as soon as it loosened, too bad for him, he also got back his attitude, "Yep, that's me. I'll be taking all of you around, so's there any place you guys wanna go to first?"
Kiba was quickly and immediately clocked upside the head with a large metal fan. He finally registered who hit him, and possibly because he had brain damage, he took extra notice of her. She stood about six inches or so taller than he did, her sandy blond hair had managed to maintain a semblance of darkness even through the natural lightening of the desert sun from home. Speaking of that desert sun, it also graced her with a well tanned figure, instantly separating her from the inhabitants of Konoha and making her appear even more exotic. She was dressed in a one piece dress that went from her ankles to the top of her neck, several colors danced across it, reds, yellows, oranges, and even some purple at the edges, making it look as though she was wearing the sunset. Her beauty captured him and all he could do was drool.
Temari probably would have decapitated him with her fan, if it weren't for Akamaru. There was never a time in his life when Kiba was happier that Akamaru occasionally stole attention from his master. "Oh, it's such a cute puppy." Temari bent over to scratch Akamaru's belly. Kiba actually stayed on the ground for a few seconds to admire Temari's rump. At least, he would have, if Kankuro hadn't hoisted him up and gotten the group back on track.
"Well, you gonna show us around the town or are you gonna watch Temari pat your puppy all day? We've got stuff to do, including a meeting at seven tonight. It's already ten in the morning, so we've got nine hours to get around. Get moving!"
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The next chapter is one in which…things get troublesome, Temari finds some things to her liking, and Kiba turns down a very nice offer.