Hey everyone, Aleina here! I haven't written a KibaHina story before, so please review! I don't know if this should be a one shot or a multi-chaptered story, so review and let me know! Oh, and I don't own these characters, just this story idea. Enjoy!

The night was dark and warm, and the wind in the village was heavy and wet. Clouds blanketed the sky, swollen with the promise of rain, and the moisture clung to clothes and skin, and saturated the air in the people's lungs. It was humid and hot, difficult weather for the citizens of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. In the Hokage Tower, Tsunade was angrily wiping sweat from her forehead as she perused a plea for help from a neighboring village. Shikamaru Nara was rolling over in his bed and glaring at his wife, Temari, as she fanned herself smugly with a small fan. At the Fallen Soldier's Monument, a lone Kakashi stared down at the names of his dead comrades and remembered past nights like this.

But Kiba Inuzuka was up on his rooftop, waiting. He patted Akamaru and grimaced when the dog's hot breath hit his face. "Jeez, buddy, you stink. You're too hot, get off!" The dog panted some more but whined and scooted away from the nineteen year old ninja. He scanned the skies once more, and checked the rooftops, sniffed the moist breeze that came from the direction of the trees. His brow furrowed. "Come on, you should have been home by now," he muttered. He checked his watch and growled deep in his throat before standing up and stripping out of his heavy shirt. He scratched the skin underneath his headband, then pulled it off and instead tied it around the newest injury on his arm. He'd gotten the cut a few days ago, when he'd gone on a recon mission with Hinata. She'd been covering for him, intent on keeping them both safe, and had neglected to cover her own back- so he'd done it for her.

A scent carried on the wind, and Akamaru whined. Kiba sat straight up and grinned, searching wildly for who he was waiting for. There she was, straight ahead and moving fast. She seemed uninhabited by the slow moving air. Her midnight hair flew out behind her, and her body was swift and lithe, the only movement in the heavy night. His heart thumped just looking at her. Akamaru whined and nudged the ninja, then got up and turned around, probably going back to their room.

Kiba stood up and started to wave, but his eyes widened- her step was faltering. His jaw dropped as she started to fall, and he leaped after her, pushing chakra into the soles of his bare feet and clawing at the air to bring him to her faster. He watched as she fell sideways to the edge of the narrow roof, and he shot his arms out, leaping after her and wrapping his arms around her, desperately twisting to keep her from hitting the ground that was three stories below them. His hand scrambled for purchase on the side of the house, and suddenly there was a rod beneath his palm. He grabbed it and gritted his teeth as they swung wildly in the air, his feet crashing through a window and sending them flying into the room.

As soon as the glass settled around them, a searing pain shot over his chest, all the way up to his shoulder. He gasped and clamped a hand down on his skin, feeling a long bloody cut sliced clean through his skin and following it up until he found the piece of glass embedded in the wound. "Shit," he muttered, and heard a gasp behind him. Hinata sat up, her eyes wide and horrified. He hastily tried to cover the wound, his big, rough palm flat against his heart.

"Where are we? I remember I was on the rooftops, and then I think I just hit my limit… this mission was awful, Kiba-kun." He nodded, not focusing on her words but instead the lilting quality of her quiet voice. She looked around again, nodded silently at the Konoha emblem painted on the old wall.

"Kiba-kun? What happened?" He pasted a smile onto his face at seeing her unhurt, although she looked too damn confused to focus on her own well being. He winced and felt for the glass sliver again, wanting it out of his flesh. "No! Wait, Kiba, let me-" She activated her Byakugan and scanned his body, her face growing paler as she did so. He waited silently as she extracted the sharp object carefully, throwing it aside and looking to him once again.

"Well I was waiting for you to get back from your mission, and I saw you coming. You started to fall, so I tried to catch you and we sort of went through this window." He looked around at the empty room, recognizing it as an old warehouse where he'd gone to train when he was younger. But when he'd received Akamaru, the dog hadn't liked the musty old place, so he hadn't been in there in years. "I'm guessing that when we went through the window of this old warehouse, a piece of glass caught me. No big deal." He shrugged and hissed; the movement hurt. Hinata's hand s wavered over his skin, and he gently pushed them off. She really did worry too much. He grinned to himself when he thought of the expression on her face- she must not know how unbearably cute she looked when she was concerned.

"I- I'm s-sorry, Kiba," she stammered, and he was surprised to see tears on her face. He patted her on the shoulder and stood up, searching blindly for the light switch by the door. His fingers ran across scarred wood and cool glass, and then found the little plastic switch. The lights flickered on, a warm golden color that made his tan skin even more pronounced. He saw her look down at his body and blush, and chuckled to himself- being a ninja meant he'd trained his body until there was no softness left. He glanced down himself and felt sick, the blood from his latest wound was slowly dripping down his chest, and the lighting made it look black. She gasped once more, and went to join him. She shrugged her jacket off (How could she even wear that thing in this heat? Kiba thought) and dragged a kunai from its sheath on her thigh. With one swipe she cut the bottom lining off and got a little bottle out of her ninja pack. He watched in fascination as she dipped her finger in the bottle and spread the paste over the fabric. It smoked slightly, and without warning, she pressed it along his newest wound.

"Ow!" he howled, and leapt back a little, wincing. "What is that stuff?" she blushed and looked down, mumbling something too quiet for him to hear. The sting faded minimally, and he flushed in shame when she turned away from him, her eyes downcast. Kiba knew she was trying to help, and when he inspected the wound, he saw that it wasn't bleeding anymore. He stepped forward and gritted his teeth, giving her the go-ahead to continue. She apologized constantly as she applied more pressure to the laceration, as the sharp pain dulled and started to throb. When her shaking hands moved away, he looked down and saw a dark scab where the cut had been. "Hey, thanks, Hinata!" No answer. He glanced up and saw her standing turned around, staring at her hands. Her shoulders started to tremble, and he touched her softly, worriedly.

"What's wrong?" he asked her quietly, and she spun around, tears flying from her eyes. She held up her hands for him to see, and for a second he panicked at the slippery red liquid covering her palms. The air grew even warmer, and sweat stood out on the back of his neck.

But then she whispered, "It's all my fault." And he understood. It was his blood, on her hands, not her own. Another realization followed quickly on its heels- she blamed herself. "For the entire time we've been on the same squad, you've always been protecting me." He opened his mouth to protest, but she kept talking, her voice broken by tears. "All these years… you've been getting hurt because of me! It's my fault, and I- I don't think you can do it anymore." She shut her eyes tight and curled her hands into fists. "You don't have to do this anymore. You don't have to hurt yourself for me."

Kiba stood, completely shocked at her outburst. She thought he felt entitled to protect her? It didn't make sense to him. The only reason he threw himself in front of her to keep her safe- the only reason he'd suffered through the broken bones, the weeks in the hospital, was to make sure that no one ever touched her. And now she was asking him not to, because she though he didn't want to. Anger rushed through his system, coiling in his stomach and turning immediately into determination. He roughly grabbed her chin and pulled her head up, out of her hands, until she was looking him deep in the eyes. He noticed how soft her skin was, and the dewy blush that rose in her cheeks when he touched her. It tore at his heart to know that she didn't think she was worthy of his protection. Then, he raised his other arm, and her confused eyes scanned his muscular skin and focused on a long, silvery scar.

"Two years ago, we were in the Hidden Mist Village. You were knocked unconscious, and I grabbed you right before the senbon needle slit your throat." She didn't say anything, but her soft fingers caressed the old wound, sending shivers down his spine. His large fingers grasped her hand and moved it to his shoulder. She felt a little groove there, right between his collarbone and his shoulder. "Right here- the year we started training together, the Uchiha bastard and Naruto went at it, and you tried to keep the blondie from getting hurt. Sasuke had already started his attack and it was too late to check it. I covered you with my own body, and his kunai slammed into my shoulder, when it probably would have gone straight through your arm."

"Kiba-kun, I'm sorry-"

"Wait." His voice lashed out, and she fell silent. He stood up straighter, and let her hand travel down his bare chest, across the newest cut and down his stomach. He bit his lip when she explored the half-healed cut, noting that she had the soft hands of a Gentle Fist style user instead of the usual battle worn hands of a kunoichi. She shivered lightly at the hard muscle tone beneath his skin, at the light, downy furring of his chest and stomach which only grew darker right below his navel. A long, puckered scar slashed across his side, right above his hipbone. "This is from the mission to Orochimaru's hideout- the one where our team leader and comrade were killed, and just you and me were left. You were in a paralysis jutsu, and couldn't go in with me. I was captured." He could still remember the terror of not being killed immediately, he'd been pushed deeper and deeper into the snake's nest until he was well and truly lost- he'd left Akamaru to protect Hinata. He took a deep breath, loving that her hand was still and warm on his skin, her thumb running over the ridge of the scar. "They tortured me for information about you- they knew you were there somewhere and rumor has it they wanted your Byakugan. I thought I was going to die, Hinata." His voice broke, and he looked up, seeing fear and horror reflected in her eyes.

"But I didn't give them information. Nothing I said was incriminating. They beat me worse than I've ever been beaten- you remember the state I was in when you guys got me out of there. There was this genjutsu they had me in… I thought you were already dead, I thought I'd told them everything, and it was my fault that Konoha was in ruins. When nothing else worked, they sliced me across my stomach and left me to die."

She shuddered violently at the harshness in his voice, and he felt a twinge of fear at the memory- he'd broken twenty seven bones in all, four of which were completely shattered. He'd had internal bleeding, multiple gashes, and was more dead than alive when they found him. Hinata had woken up shortly after he'd unknowingly killed the caster of the jutsu which had incapacitated her. She'd gotten help, and just in time- he wouldn't have lasted much longer.

"Kiba," she said quietly, "I'm sorry I made you do that." All the fight went out of his body; and the young man groaned and leaned his head on her shoulder, making her gasp. He felt her hands come up and trace his shoulders, and heard her breath come out in one unsteady sigh. She smelled like a mixture of lavender and skin, something he couldn't give a name to, but that he'd recognize in an instant. When he spoke next, his voice was soft, pleading.

"Hinata, when will you understand? I never did this if I didn't want to. I did this because you mean so much to me that it would kill me if you got hurt. I protect you because-" He hesitated, and pulled away slightly, looking her in the eye and swallowing down his anxiety. She nodded slightly, her mother of pearl eyes searching, waiting, and hoping.

"I protect you because I love you."

So- one shot or more? Hope you enjoyed reading this, please review!