Rubbing sleep from his eyes, Kiba yawned and sat up against the head of the bed. The light on the far nightstand was still on and the slight creaking of the rocking chair across the room provided a steady beat joined by the clicking of crochet needles. Running his fingers through his hair he finally realized what had roused him from slumber, several balls of yarn lay on the bed by where his head had once been. With a smirk he gave his wife a playful look.
"Very funny Karui, you could have picked another way to wake me up."
Not breaking her rhythm she laid down her knitting and gave him a firm but playful look back. "And where is the fun in that?"
Leaning back against his pillows, Kiba took a moment to take in the sight of her. A light purple nightgown seemed to shimmer in the faint blue tint of the light-bulb, making her red hair and gold eyes all the more striking. With a sigh she finally broke her tempo and leaned back in the chair, putting down her needles and placing a hand on her belly she inhaled ever so sharply as the corners of her mouth turned down.
"Pet, I need you to go out and get a few things." Her tone was serious, and for some strange reason he felt like a child standing in the Hokage's tower receiving an urgent mission from Tsunade. Thankfully he came to his senses when he remembered getting advice from his mother about Inuzuka pregnancies.
"Alright Precious," her use of 'pet' made it only fair that he use his own 'pet name' for her in reply, "What do you need me to get?"
"Late night cravings you understand…" Making an audible sound of hungry contemplation, she bit her lip and rolled her head as well as her ankles. Getting out of bed, Kiba knelt in front of her chair and rubbed her feet, using a bit of chakra to suppress his claws for the duration.
"You want to send me out now?" He looked over his shoulder at the clock on the wall. "It's 1:40 a.m. Aside from the 24-hour market I don't imagine there will be much open right now."
"That sounds like your problem. Your child wants…" she paused a moment to caress her abdomen. Kiba had felt it an interesting superstition in Kumogakure to not find out the sex of the firstborn child from doctors, but he had respected her wish. "Yes, a dragon sushi roll, some pickled plums, that cabbage salad they serve at the restaurant we went to on our honeymoon, and two hard boiled eggs."
Part of him was unsure whether his open mouth was from a failed attempt to raise a protest or out of an exasperated disbelief. Letting out a sigh, Kiba stood up, kissed his wife on her cheek, grabbed his jacket from the closet, put on his shoes and went out into the night.
Taking a moment before heading out, he opened the door to the kennel and peeked in on Akamaru sleeping next to his own mate. Shaking his head, he decided to let his friend sleep this night as he closed the door and walked off.
"Lucky dog." He laughed, realizing how much sense that old expression made.
The misty nights of Kumogakure were still foreign to him. His assignment here had been only an afterthought, truth was that the midwives of the Land of Lightning were widely regarded as the best in the land, and upon his mother's insistence he had come up here with Karui after she had gotten pregnant, despite the house that they had finished building back in Konoha.
Checking his watch did nothing to relieve his thoughts, 1:50 a.m. and there was literally nothing open in the city. The occasional streetlight illuminated the moisture in the air, creating an ethereal sort of visual, as though one were literally walking through cloudy skies. More than once he had gotten lost in the daytime here, the air currents moved too quickly for scents to linger, making his tracking almost useless. In conversations with the shinobi here who also had Ninken companions he was amazed to learn of their adaptation to the climate by sharpening their sense of hearing over their sense of smell for tracking.
The first stop was the supermarket. Other places would not be open, so he might as well get what he knew he could. Sure enough fresh ingredients had not arrived for the next day, but a can of pickled plums were easy to acquire. The shopkeeper gave Kiba a knowing glance and nodded his head.
"How is your wife?" The dark-skinned, white haired woman smiled as Kiba paid for the plums.
"She's fine, feeling a little hungry tonight though." For some reason this conversation was feeling more awkward than it should have been.
"From the way you were looking around the store, I can tell you have more on your mind than pickled plums."
"In the long term or the short term?" Kiba let out a laugh that was almost a bark.
The old woman politely laughed and smiled. "Let's stick with the short term, way I figure you have years to figure out the long term things." The wrinkles on her face fit her smile perfectly, seeming to write the story of a lifetime of happy memories.
"Well, my wife," Kiba paused at that word. He had been married to Karui for some time, but he still felt like a love-struck puppy, "she wants me to get some sushi and a special cabbage salad. But I'm not from Kumo, so I'm pretty much lost."
"The sushi is easy. There's a place down by the lake, sailors and merchants are down there around the clock. Look for a Pub called the Jasmine, only building with purple lanterns, you can't miss it. As for the salad… that could be Napa Coleslaw, it's one of our local delicacies. You could try to order some from the Jasmine, but if you want to go the distance you'll go to the Soto, the 5-star restaurant in the hotel across from the Raikage's tower. It's a bit pricey, but the night chef is always willing to give a discount price for a good story."
"Thanks obaasan." Paying for his plums, Kiba set out to running across town for his next two stops. Sure enough, the sailor pub was the place for nightly activity down by the lake. A few one-eyed veterans from the war recognized Kiba and the topic went from the dreary daily life to the glory of the fifth shinobi war, and rounds of kanpai roared through the place to lost friends and peace between the villages. One particular drinker was a regular at the Raikage tower and called Kiba out as a Konoha boy who "married up", an expression which got another raucous cry from the patrons.
With his order done, Kiba made his way to the exit, letting the older men drink the night away. Half-done with his errand, he quickened pace to make it to downtown to get to the hotel. Sure enough, the night chef was hard at work preparing random dishes and requests for any patrons wanting room service at this time of night; most of his work was in shouting for his single assistant to run bottles of alcohol up to rooms upstairs.
"Napa Coleslaw? You're not a guest here are you?" The chef looked him up and down, noticing the mismatch of his leather jacket and pajama bottoms.
"I'd say it's a long story, but it's really not. However it is a story of yarn, dogs, wise old women, sailors, and two hard boiled eggs."
With an ear turned towards Kiba, the chef was already slicing up cabbage and making a salad. The greens were finished and in a "to go" container just as Kiba finished. "Well that wasn't the funniest story I ever heard. But your wife gets a discount for waking you up with yarn. That will be five ryo. Have a good night."
Back home with his night's errand complete, he set water to boil and finished his wife's last request before placing everything on a tray and going back to the bedroom.
The light was still on, but the only sound coming from the room was that of his songbird. Karui was singing to their child as she rubbed her belly, a lullaby of clouds gathering in the night to watch over children as they slept and then their morning departure to welcome back the dawn and the new day. Looking over her shoulder she motioned to set the tray aside. Placing it on the bed, Kiba knelt beside his wife and let her guide his hands to feel kicking.
"All life is a miracle little one; you will grow to learn this - the old, the living, the honored dead, and especially you." Karui smiled at her husband's philosophy.
"Okay, enough mushy stuff," She licked her lips, "We're hungry, let's eat."