Title: Positive Reinforcement

Summary: They say the best way to train a dog is to give it what it wants.

Rating: T for Teens

Disclaimer: Do you think if I owned Naruto, this would be on fanfiction? The way to train a dog is also not mine. I took it from a website. If you want a link to it I'll have to find it but I will but…do you really need the website I took dog training advice from?

A/N: Will be a series of one-shots I make with KibaxOC. Will go from pre-relationship to established relationship so don't expect consistency. All these one shots will probably have nothing to do with each other so you can pick and choose which chapter you want to read first without having to read previous chapters. Will be marked as complete but will be adding more chapters as the ideas come. This chapter will be an established relationship one-shot. Mentions of other OCs.


The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.

Thomas Jefferson


There were a lot of things that Kiba did that pissed Kai off. Firstly, the stupid rivalry between him and Naruto always set her off. Kai could swear he spent more time training to beat Naruto than being with her! Second was the way he slobbered all over her when they kissed. When they make out tongue would be warm against her - teasing and heated – but that guy can pack a drool. Third Kai never had any peace when she was with Kiba. Kiba could keep a conversation for hours at a time; often times even with himself.

There were a lot of things that Kiba did that made Kai angry. Even some stuff Kiba didn't do made Kai angry. Boys.


"Miss, do you need any help?" Kai's arms burned and her back ached; in she wasn't a ninja and had no pride whatsoever she might have had enough sense to take it.

"No, I'm fine," She grunted, flashing a reassuring smile to the pleasant man who asked to help carry her groceries. The bags she had them in were nearly breaking and two seconds from probably falling all over the place but she was supposed to be the taijustsu master of her team and she wasn't going to sink low enough for someone to help her take home some groceries. Even if she wasn't good at taijutsu – she was a kunoichi after all. She had to have some pride in herself; she was supposed to carry herself in a different way. A stronger way – what would the villagers think of ninjas if they needed help with the simple task of carrying stuff?

With a pack of groceries, Kai made her way back home. She shifted her groceries between her arms trying to make herself more comfortable from the burning sensation of the strain. Passing by a small shop her eyes wandered the magazine area, reading the headlines. Kai scoffed at it all – all so dumb, so unimportant. How could people buy into this stuff? Didn't anyone see how irrelevant this stuff was?

Putting down her groceries she flipped through some of them. In a few weeks a federal princess was going to get married; a set of high-end actors and actresses getting picked for a big box office film; the latest and most effective diet. Who cared?

Determination and jealousy glowed in her eyes – she deserved to be on the cover of one of these magazines! With dusky eyes and tan skin and long black hair, with a lithe and pear shaped body she could easily pass as one of these models. She could see it in her mind already! The headline could be: EXCLUSIVE! Konoha's Strongest and Most Beautiful Kunoichi Unleashed! Interview Inside!

In fact just last week her and her team went on a mission protecting a rich merchant travelling from here to Suna. She could say how she saved them all from utter ruin when a pack of Sound Ninja came in and attacked them. Her moment was glorious and she was thanked profusely.

Flipping through the magazine she sighed heavily. Who was she kidding? She didn't look like anything like the girls in the pictures. Kai's skin wasn't smooth like theirs but roughed and callused over the years of harsh training and instead of a beautiful skinny Kai was lanky. Ok and maybe it wasn't just her that saved the merchant from doom but her team as well, and maybe it wasn't a group of sound ninja instead was just two.

"Hey," The store manager barked at her. "If you're not going to buy, you can't look!"

"Yeah, yeah," Kai rolled her eyes and threw the magazine pack in the stand. "I gotcha!"

"Damn ninjas," The managers whispered harshly under his breathe. "Thinking they're entitled to everything just because of their rank."

Kai turned to glare when her eyes spotted a small book inside the store. How to Successfully Train Your Dog. Kai gulped nervously; should she? She shook her head quickly. What was she thinking? She couldn't! Kiba was her boyfriend, not her dog, not her plaything! Just because he acted like one, doesn't mean-

"Hey, you!" The manager yelled again, swatting at her with his newspaper. "I said scram!"

"I'm buying something, I'm buying something," Kai sneered, getting the small blue book and paying for it. "Geez Grandpa no need to be so cranky. Miss your twelve o'clock nap or something?"

Before he could reply Kai was off.


A week later Kai still hadn't opened the book. The small blue book lay on her desk collecting dusk as she had refused to open it. She thought about returning it but every time she passed the little shop the old man there would be there, sneering at her from a distance. When she would walk by with Kiba a ping of guilt would touch at her as she sneered at him back over Kiba's shoulder.

Lost in thought during a joint training sensation between her Team and Team 8 she didn't notice when it was her turn to attack. Her team – Team 9 – specialized in infiltration and elimination and their whole dynamic required them all to work together cohesively. One false move and –

"Gatsūga!" Suddenlyshe was on the ground with Kiba on top her looking down at her questionably. Akumaru barked a few times and licked her cheek, making sure she was ok. Her team groaned loudly.

"Good job, Kai," Her teammate Rin said sarcastically. "Another loss against Team 8. Another one and we can qualify for a trophy."

"That would be counterproductive as two weeks ago you had beaten us at sparing quite like this scenario," Shino commented starkly.

Kai didn't have to justify herself as Kiba gave her a big, wet kiss.


Kai spent the entire night reading the small, blue book in one fell swoop. Once informed, all she needed was to piece it together and plan it. Not everything in the book could easily be translated to train a human – much less a guy – but Kai was determined not to get slobbered on again.

What Kai took from the book was as soon as your dog performs the desired behavior, reward him immediately with a treat and verbal praise. Keep training sessions short and fun. You want your dog to associate good things with obeying your commands. Gradually back off the treats and use them only intermittently once your dog has learned a new behavior. Eventually they'll no longer be necessary. Continue to use positive reinforcement to maintain the behaviors you desire.

The plan was easy and fool proof. What Kai didn't predict was her foolishness.


Training a human was a lot harder than training a dog that was for sure. Especially with a human you were particularly very fond of. Kai could even say she had fallen in – No! She couldn't think of that now! She was on a mission – and Kai never failed on missions.

In a matter of a month she was sure the thing had worked. Only when Kiba had retracted his drool would she react to his kisses and eventually the drool stopped all together. Whenever he complained about Naruto she would simply nod along until eventually that stopped as well. Little did she know that stopped all conversation as well. His responses were short and simple, telling the bare minimum of what she had asked. It was the drool-less, quiet Kai wanted all along.

It was gut wrenching.

"So," Kai began one day on their way to a ramen stand. "How was your day?"

On Akumaru, Kiba shrugged looking at the sky, "It was good. I trained with Shino and Hinata again."

"Oh yeah?" Kai breathed, kicking a stone on the middle of the road. "Did you see Naruto? He was training with Kakashi-sensei today."

"Oh yeah?" Kiba asked, an annoyed look on his face appeared. Kai's heart skipped a beat; maybe he would say something… "No, I didn't see him. That's nice he's training."

A moment of silence appeared like a dark cloud. Dammit, why did Kai have to go and get herself into this situation! Losing control of herself and wanting to unravel the past month of her mistake she screamed, "Yes! Yes it's good so he can finally can catch up to you, right?"

Kiba's eyes widened looking at her, "What are you talking about?"

"I'm sorry," Kai's voice cracked. Jumping off Akumaru Kiba placed his arms on her shoulder, looking at her worriedly. "I'm the one who did this too you. I'm so sorry I've acted so indifferent this month. I-it was just so annoying what you were doing, but I never knew it would be more annoying that you weren't doing it! There was just this book, and the nasty old man, and the swatting and I was felt so guilty and then mad-"

"Wait, wait," Kiba softly shook her, looking at her confused. "Slow down. What old man?"

Explaining everything from grocery shopping all that time ago to now, Kai was nearly hypervenulating when she was over. Kiba looked at her shocked, "You… bought a dog training book… to train me?"

Kai nodded softly. Kiba laughed at her, "And here I thought you were on your period. You could have just told me."

Kai's face grew red. "Yeah, sorry."

Kiba softly kissed her cleanly, making that the end of it. Frowning into it Kai slavered all over him. With a laugh the rest of the night went easily. Kiba talked about how he was going to train harder to keep up to Naruto and talked more about his training with Kai smiling and completely listening to him. He wasn't perfect but Kai was totally in love with him. Her face grew red once again.

After all that who knew he had her positively reinforced?