Disclaimer – This story is based on characters and situations created by Masashi Kishimoto and L. Frank Baum. The lyrics were written by Harold Arlen and E.Y Harburg. No copyright infringement is intended and no money is being made. Thank you.
"But mum…" Kiba whined, "Akamaru doesn't want to go to the pound!"
"I'm really sorry dear, but Orochimaru is complaining that Akamaru is an unmanageable beast, and if he doesn't get put down, he'll destroy Konoha. It's the Hokage's orders…" his mother replied sadly.
"No! I won't let you take him!" Kiba yelled, panicked, as he hugged Akamaru tightly. The small dog whimpered.
"Kiba, mum's right, now give him to the nice ANBU member currently standing outside our door…" his sister butted in, with a dejected look on her face.
"He hasn't done anything wrong! He's supposed to attack! That's what he is!" Kiba shouted desperately at the ANBU representative. The man wearing a raccoon mask shrugged helplessly.
"Kiba...come on, give him to me…there's a good boy…" his mother soothed, gently taking the dog out of his arms and handing it to the ANBU official.
"Why?! Why are you letting them do this? I hate you! I hate all of you!" Kiba yelled, tears streaming down his face, ignoring the distraught look on his mother's face as he ran to his room, slamming the door behind him.
He fell onto the bed, staring at the ceiling for a while, depressed at the thought of how scared Akamaru must be. Finally wiping his eyes, he rolled over and stared out the window, humming slightly to himself, for some reason feeling an odd urge to burst into song, quite a strange reaction to the current events.
"Somewhere…over the rainbow…" he started softly, in a smooth, somewhat deep voice.
"Way up high…" Upon realizing that this was cheering him up slightly, he sat up, looking over at the Hokage's office, which was probably where Akamaru has been taken.
"There's a land that I've heard of, once in a lullaby…" Starting to sing louder now, he walked over to the window.
"Some…where…over the rainbow! Skies are blue…And the dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true…" taking a last look at the cloudy, grey skies outside, he turned around and walked to his closet.
"Someday I'll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind…me…" he sang, opening the closet doors to reveal a wall of photos of him and Akamaru.
"Where troubles melt like lemon drops away above the chimney tops, that's where…you'll…find…me…" he smiled at a picture of Akamaru running down the street with his mother's underwear.
"Somewhere, over the rainbow…bluebirds…fly…" he turned away from the closet, shutting the doors behind him as he started to pick up some of Akamaru's toys from the floor.
"Birds fly, over the rainbow…why, then? Oh why, can't, I?" Dumping the armful of toys into Akamaru's basket in the corner, he turned back to his bed.
"If happy little bluebirds fly, beyond the rainbow, why, oh why…can't…I?" He finished, collapsing back onto the bed and putting his head in his hands.
"Ark!" he heard a high pitched bark, and looked up just in time to see Akamaru jump through his window.
"Akamaru! You came back!" he said gleefully, picking up the puppy and hugging him tightly. "You came back…" he muttered into his fur. Suddenly holding Akamaru out in front of him, he looked him in the eye. "They'll come find you… we have to get away! We have to run away!" he told Akamaru seriously, before putting him on the floor and throwing some things into a knapsack.
Akamaru whined and cocked his head to the side.
"I don't know where we're going, boy, but we can't stay here. Come on!"
"Ark!" Akamaru replied as he settled himself on Kiba's head, Kiba lifting himself out of the window.
Looking up and down the street, Kiba quickly ran down it turned a corner, happy to see that everybody was inside. Vaguely wondering why nobody was out, he continued down the street until he was clear of houses or buildings, and just now into open land.
I wonder how far the boundaries of Konoha go… he thought absentmindedly, turning left down a fork in the road.
Hang on…is that…Shikamaru? He thought in confusion as he saw the other boy leaning against some rocks and apparently cooking some sort of meat.
"Hey, what are you doing all the way out here?" Shikamaru said, glancing up as Kiba walked closer. "Oh, wait, don't tell me you're running away?" he asked, catching sight of Kiba's knapsack.
"What's it to you?" replied Kiba testily. "And what are you doing all the way out here, anyway?"
"Cooking," Shikamaru answered unhelpfully, gesturing at the sausages on a stick, which he was holding over a small fire.
"Ark!" Akamaru contributed, perking up at the smell.
Seeing the still confused look on Kiba's face, he spoke up again. "Choji steals all the food otherwise. Out here is the only place I can actually eat what I cook."
Kiba nodded in understanding, not noticing when Akamaru jumped silently onto the ground and started pulling a sausage off Shikamaru's cooking stick.
"Hey! Akamaru!" he said, finally catching sight of what his puppy was doing. "Don't do that! We haven't been asked yet!"
Shikamaru laughed. "Oh, don't worry about it. There's plenty more where that came from. Now, tell me, why are you running away?" he asked, adopting a more serious tone.
"Because they want to take Akamaru away from me…" Kiba told him, sitting down on a log and watching the small dog attempt to eat a sausage that was almost as big as his head.
"Ah. Well, don't you think you're mother and sister might be worried about you? I mean, just think about how much they've each taken care of you. Remember that time you got the chicken pox? Who stayed by your side and comforted you?" Shikamaru asked, a glint in his eye.
"My…mother…" Kiba answered, remembering.
"Don't you reckon they'll be awfully sad if you leave?"
"Probably…my mum sometimes worries so much she makes herself sick…oh, god! What if she gets sick because she's worrying about me? I have to go! Akamaru, come on!" Kiba said frantically, zipping his coat up once Akamaru jumped inside.
"But weren't you running away?" Shikamaru asked, poking at his dying fire.
"No time for that! Thanks, Shikamaru, see you later!" Kiba answered, running off.
Shikamaru watched him leave, then looked up at the clouds. "Man…looks like there's gunna be a storm…now I have to go home too…what a drag…" he muttered to himself, picking up his things.
Kiba ran down the road, even as the wind started to pick up. Finally nearing his house, he started yelling. "Mum! Hana!" he tried pulling the front door open, but it wouldn't budge with the wind pelting it. Akamaru whimpered and burrowed deeper inside his jacket.
"It's okay boy…they're probably out the…back…" he trailed off as he saw what looked like a tornado coming in from the distance.
"Shit…" he muttered, running around to the backyard, where he knew they had a shelter for this type of thing. "Mum! Let me in! It's me! Kiba!" he shouted, banging on the wooden doors of the underground shelter, but his mother obviously couldn't hear him over the roaring wind. He could see the twister coming even closer, and pulled the back door open, shouting in alarm as it was ripped off its hinges and into the sky. Dashing inside, he avoided flying cabinets and chairs, and slammed the door to his own room, throwing himself onto the bed and covering his head with his arms, but making sure not to squash Akamaru in the process. He yelled again as he heard something hit the side of the house, then felt a shudder go through it. Suddenly, everything was quieter, and he looked up and out the window. Seeing only grey sky, he stood up, and, holding the wall, carefully made his way over to the open window.
He gasped as he saw that he wasn't even on the ground anymore – the entire house had been ripped off the ground and was now spinning around inside the twister. He could see Ichiraku's ramen bar float past, Iruka still inside, eating quite happily. Iruka turned and waved at him, smiling, before going back to the bowl. Kiba waved back slowly, staring numbly as Sasuke floated by, sitting on a log and resting on his hands, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was inside a tornado. He continued watching as Gai, Neji and Lee floated by, Neji and Lee apparently training with each other, and Gai encouraging them. Gai looked up and gave Kiba a thumbs up before he was drags out of sight by either the wind or by the spinning of Kiba's own house. Kiba was about to turn around and go back to the bed when he saw Sakura, Ino and Tenten float by, all in their pajamas and all either painting their nails, braiding another's hair or reading a magazine. Kiba smirked in a slightly perverted way.
Must have been having a sleepover… he thought, before getting dizzy and falling back onto the bed. He didn't know how long he stayed in the air, but he finally felt a thump, and everything went eerily quiet.