Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of the characters in the series. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction for it. I'd make Naruto and either Kiba (favorite character pairing) or Hinata (favorite canon plot pairing) into a couple, and Itachi would be dead already.

Yaoi, but nothing graphic. So, if you don't like two boys in a relationship, or two boys in a relationship that aren't having sex, then don't read. If you still want to read, then go right ahead. Enjoy!


Naruto let out gasp of surprise as he was suddenly shoved into the classroom. He stumbled a bit before immediately turning around to ask Sakura what the hell she was doing. It was too late, though. The door had already been closed, and Naruto could hear Sakura locking it from the outside.

Naruto stood there, dumbfounded. What was going on? Sakura had asked him to come to the academy, saying that she had something important to speak with him about. When he got there, however, she led him to his old classroom, and then locked him in. He stared at the door, trying to figure out why his teammate had tricked him. He didn't have to think long, however, because a voice had softly called his name from behind him. He cringed. I know that voice! He slowly turned around, fear spread across his face.

Kiba.

Oh, shit!

Naruto immediately began banging on the door and screaming. "Damn it, Sakura! Let me out of here! NOW!" No response. He kept shouting and banging for a few minutes, before finally giving up. The door had been built to withstand damage in the event of an attack, and Sakura was either gone or ignoring him.

Kiba tried to say something after Naruto huffed and turned around. Before he could, however, Naruto began talking to himself. "Well, if that's how she wants to play it, then fine!" With that, he made his way across the room, walking past and very clearly ignoring Kiba, who had resigned himself to keeping quiet and watching what his friend would do next. "It's not like this room doesn't have windows."

As he reached the first one, nearest to the podium, however, the window was suddenly covered by a giant black shadow. Naruto jumped back in surprise. Shikamaru. Naruto moved on to the next window, but before he could get within a foot of it, beetles began to crawl onto the windowsill. Shino. Naruto thought for a second, and then smirked as he ran to the farthest window, thinking that he could trick them if he took a window out of order. He reached the window and cautiously put his hand on the edge. Nothing happened. Naruto smirked as he began to climb out of the window. It was a bit of a jump, but no problem for him. Suddenly, no less than fifteen kunai flew in front of the window, causing him to fall backwards with a yelp and hit his head on the floor. Hard. Tenten.

Kiba, who was now chuckling a little at the free show that he was being treated to, finally got up the courage to speak. "Give it up, Naruto. They obviously won't let us out of here until we talk."

Naruto quickly gave Kiba an angry glare. "You shut up! I'm getting the hell out of here! I don't care how many of you are in on this, I won't-"

"Gaara's visiting the village today." With that, Naruto's tirade immediately halted, and his face grew pale. "And for the record, I didn't know what they were planning, either. Hinata just told me to wait in here."

Naruto groaned, and slumped down in one of the seats in the front row of the classroom, his head lying on the desk. For a long time, the two remained quiet, Kiba looking at Naruto and Naruto trying to look anywhere but at Kiba. They both knew exactly why their friends had locked them in the room, but Naruto was choosing to be stubborn and refused to talk to the dog-nin.

Kiba's patience finally caved, and he began the conversation. "Look, Naruto, we're obviously not getting out of here until we talk this out."

"Yes we will. Sooner or later, one of us has to go on a mission, and they won't be able to keep us here. All he have to do is wait."

"You don't have a team anymore, remember? As long as your kept busy, Lady Hokage won't care if you're on a mission or not. And Kurenai-sensei is on a solo assignment right now, so my team has two more weeks off."

Naruto groaned. They had to have timed this. Out of all of them, Lee and Hinata would be the only ones who wouldn't be willing to starve the two of them into talking. In fact, he'd bet money that the old hag had a hand in this, too. She might have even sent Kurenai away just so that they could pull this little stunt.

Kiba smirked a little. Naruto seemed to get it now. He had to remember to thank his friends for this later. Naruto had been avoiding him like the plague for weeks. Kiba had tried everything from getting the same missions as the blonde, to offering to buy him ramen, but Naruto still refused to talk to him. Now, though, he had his chance. He sat down on the bench that Naruto was currently cradling his head on. "So, you ready to talk now, or do you want to try another window?"

Naruto glared at Kiba from where his head was. "What's there to talk about? You asked me out, and I said no. End of story."

"Like hell it is. You said yes, then changed your mind right before our date, and yelled at me to stay away from you, and damn it, Naruto, I think that I deserve to know why!"

Naruto cast his gave back down at the desk. "You wouldn't get it. It's more complicated than that."

"How? I like you, and you like me. Seems pretty simple to me. And don't even pretend that you don't like me, because you already told Hinata that you did. Why do you think I asked you out in the first place?"

Naruto finally sat up straight, although he was still slouched in his chair, and he still wouldn't face Kiba. "Look Kiba, just drop it okay? It was a bad idea from the start."

Now, Kiba was beginning to get frustrated. "No, Naruto, I'm not going to drop it. Believe it or not, I don't date people just for the hell of it like Ino does. I date people when I think that it could be serious, and I really like you Naruto, so why can't you tell me why I shouldn't?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Why not? I'm not a kid, you know. If you just don't care about me, then just say it already!"

Naruto got up from his seat and looked straight at Kiba. He couldn't argue with people without facing them. Kiba could see from Naruto's face that the blonde was just as frustrated as he was, and looked like he was about to burst. He began shouting, "Of course I care about you, dog breath! That's why I can't go out with you!"

"What? That doesn't make any sense, you idiot!" Kiba shouted back at his crush, just as loudly.

"That's because you don't get it!"

"Then explain it to me so that I will get it!"

"I can't go out with you because you won't be safe, you moron!"

"Safe from what? The Kyuubi? I already told you that I don't care about that!"

"I'm not talking about the Kyuubi, I'm talking about the villagers!"

Kiba's eyes went wide, and he felt the rage and frustration from before be completely replaced with shock. The villagers? What did they have to do with this? And why wasn't Kiba safe from them?

Naruto saw the change his Kiba's expression, and decided to continue. He hadn't meant to tell Kiba his reason for turning him down, but he had blurted it out in the heat of the moment. He couldn't take it back now, though, and since Kiba didn't seem like he was going to respond, he might as well elaborate.

"You saw what happened when Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei came out. Half the parents demanded that their kids be transferred out of Iruka-sensei's class, because they didn't want their children to be 'corrupted.' And, unlike me, Kakashi-sensei doesn't have a demon sealed inside of him. I know how it feels to be hated by everyone in the village, and if we went out, they'd hate you too. That's why I can't go out with you, Kiba. I don't want to put you through all of that. You deserve better."

After finishing his little speech, Naruto sat back down, relieved that he had finally gotten that off of his shoulders. Kiba, on the other hand, was dumbfounded. Ever since Naruto had begun avoiding him, he had thought that he had done something wrong, something that had scared the blonde off. He had been racking his brain for weeks trying to figure out what he had done to make Naruto despise him so much. Now, he had discovered that it was just the opposite. Naruto was avoiding him because he was worried about him. Because he cared about him.

Kiba giggled a little, then he began to chuckle, and then it rose into outright laughter. Naruto watched this strange change of emotion, a little put off. He had finally explained his reason to Kiba, and now the brunette waslaughing at it? Kiba saw this, and tried to calm down a bit to speak. "Heh, heh…Sorry, Naruto, but…heh…you're just so damn paranoid, heh."

Kiba let himself finish laughing before he continued with mirth in his voice. "I mean, think about it. Who's the one who got you to come down here?"

Naruto's eyebrows drew closer together, trying to understand what Kiba was saying. "Sakura did."

"Exactly. And who got me to come here? Hinata. And who's keeping us from leaving through the windows? Shikamaru, Shino, and Tenten." Naruto still looked confused, so Kiba went on. "Naruto, our friends are trying to get us together. I think that it's pretty obvious that they approve."

"But the rest of the village…"

"What can they do? If they try anything, we'll just kick their asses. And Lady Hokage's the one who decides who goes on what mission, so it's not like the officials can hurt us financially."

"Kiba…"

Naruto still didn't look convinced, so Kiba just decided to lay it all out for him. He sat down in the seat next to Naruto and slung his arm around the blonde's shoulder. "Look, Naruto, even if I hadn't met you, I'd still be dating guys, and that's not going to change. You're just the one I chose to date. If anything, it's a good thing that I chose you, because you've already gone through all that hatred before." Kiba put a hand under Naruto's chin, and forced the blonde to look him in the eye. "Naruto, I'm serious about this. About us. I want this to work, but it won't unless you let it. So I'll ask you again: will you go out with me?"

Naruto watched Kiba's expression. It was a rare expression for the dog ninja, soft and tender. Naruto knew that the usually brash and rough Inuzuka only made that face when he was being sincere. Kiba really did want to date him, and he didn't care what the village thought. Naruto really did care about Kiba, too. He was loyal and brave, and when he stopped acting like such as asshole, he was a very good and understanding listener when Naruto ever felt uncertain or upset about something. So, with a lot more certainty than he'd felt in a long time, he answered Kiba.

"…Sure."

Kiba smiled from ear to ear, and pulled his new boyfriend into a tight embrace. Naruto returned the gesture with equal vigor. The two of them stayed like that for a while, until they heard the click of the classroom door being unlocked. The two smiled at each other, and went to leave the room and face the rest of the world. They kept their hands clasped together as they left, and didn't separate them for quite some time.


A/N: Just so I'm clear, I'm not trying to make any Ino fans upset by any means. She just strikes me as the most likely of the group who would date just for the sake of dating. Also, Hinata is, in this story, very much okay with Naruto and Kiba dating, since she's the one who told Kiba that he had a chance. I don't have much else to say, so please review, and let me know how this story is.