Started: July 6, 2016
Finished: July 21, 2016
He didn't know how it started. He just knew that one day he saw her walk by and realized that all he wanted was her. But he also knew he wasn't her type. And honestly? She wasn't his either. It would make for a rather cumbersome situation.
There was a bump against his shoulder, and Kiba looked up to see who had just knocked him around. Naruto grinned down at him. Kiba was sitting on the front steps of the school, Akamaru sleeping between his legs. The first bell hadn't rung yet, but when it did, Akamaru knew that was the sign for him to head home. Sometimes Kiba liked to sneak his dog into school with him, but he'd gotten caught too many times; one more time and he risked suspension.
Kiba wasn't the type of guy to get suspended. Sure, when he was younger, he and Naruto and a couple of their buddies had made it a habit of skipping school, but that had changed once Kiba decided to become a veterinarian. So not only did Kiba stay out of trouble, he also tended to get some of the highest marks in the class. All in all, Kiba Inuzuka was a good guy.
He did favors for his sister and helped his mom cook dinner and volunteered hours with his father at the local animal shelter. His best friend was a dog, for crying out loud. As his sister – the fanatic Grey's Anatomy fan – would say, he was the guy who would one day barbeque and teach his kids to play catch.
And then the first bell rang, and Akamaru stood up to yawn and stretch a bit. Kiba gave him the last treat he'd had stashed in his sweatshirt pocket, and after gulping it down, Akamaru turned and began the trek home. It was something that had taken Kiba weeks to perfect, and he always felt a swell of pride when he came home at the end of the day and found Akamaru waiting for him on the front porch.
Naruto pulled Kiba up to his feet, and they set off for their first class.
And that's when she walked by.
Kiba could've sworn he felt a breeze of wind because there was no other explanation for how her hair flowed like that. And were those angels singing that he heard in the distance?
And she looked up from her phone and right at him. Or more like, right through him.
Her bright blue eyes were trained in his direction, but there was zero recognition of his existence whatsoever. Her friend called her name, and she wrinkled her nose for a moment before responding. The action made the silver hoop in her nose shine in the light for a split-second. And she turned her head to Sakura, and the moment was over.
Kiba felt himself being shaken and blinked before focusing on Naruto.
"Bro, you good? You just froze up in the middle of the hall."
"Has Ino always been that hot?" Kiba asked, his throat dry.
Naruto looked at him as if he'd just grown another head. "Dude, you cannot be serious. Have you seen who she hangs out with?"
Kiba paused and tried to think of her friend group. There was Sakura, of course. And then maybe Tenten. Possibly that quiet Hyuuga chick? But that was all he could think of.
Naruto could tell that Kiba wasn't educated on the subject. He hadn't made any faces of horror or revelation or anything. "Kiba. Ino hangs out with the Akatsuki. And I've heard that like, half of them are in love with her. The other half is in love with Sakura. You have zero chance. You're not even her type."
And the world came to a screeching halt. Kiba's daydream of having little dirty-blond kids with Ino shattered into a million pieces.
Because he had just totally fallen in love with the girl that all the bad guys want.
The next few weeks were filled with being ignored, being ignored, and being extremely ignored. Kiba tried harder in class than usual in an effort to get Ino's attention, but he was learning the hard way that smart boys weren't her type. He found that he had two classes with her, and in both she sat in the back with her friends and usually ended up getting scolded by the teacher for talking during lectures.
At lunch, he saw her eating with the Akatsuki. Usually Sakura joined them, but on most days it seemed that Ino hung out with them on her own. Kiba saw the way she interacted with the members of the infamous gang, and there seemed to be a particular chemistry between her and the silver-haired guy who cursed like a sailor. But the way his violet eyes followed her ass when she walked away suggested that he was the type of guy to tell a girl, "Well, I can't fuck your personality."
And each time Kiba's eyes followed Ino in the hall, Naruto was there to try and deter his best friend from making apparently the biggest mistake of his life.
"Kiba, she wears a two way."
"She's into tough guys, which you are most definitely not."
"Ino loves rap metal. You're the douche who plays wonderwall on the guitar at parties."
Kiba resented that last one, but in his defense, it had only happened once when they were in middle school. He played much better songs these days.
In all honesty, he knew he wasn't her type. He was the best that she'd never have, but if she wanted him, he would be ready at any given moment.
He had been in love with her for about a month before she noticed that he existed.
He was just about to head home when he found Akamaru napping at the bottom of the front steps of the school. It wasn't a usual occurrence, but it happened occasionally. The school had never complained about the dog sleeping on their front steps, considering Akamaru was smart enough not to stir up trouble while waiting for his best friend.
Kiba knelt down to ruffle Akamaru's fur and scratch him under the chin – Akamaru's favorite place to be scratched. As he was about to set off in the direction of home, he heard a shriek. He turned around and saw none other than Ino rushing over.
"Oh my god, is he your dog? Can I pet him?" Ino asked excitedly, kneeling down and offering her hand for Akamaru to sniff. The silver-haired Akatsuki member sauntered over, following Ino.
"Yeah, his name's Akamaru. You can pet him, but he really likes it when you scratch under his chin," Kiba replied, putting all of his effort into keeping his voice steady. Ino grinned at the sight of Akamaru's leg thumping as she scratched under his chin. She cooed compliments to Akamaru, and Kiba had never before wanted to be a dog as badly as in that moment.
"Did you bring him to school?" Ino asked, looking up at Kiba as she allowed the dog to lick her hand.
"Nah. I taught him how to get to get here from our house. He comes to school with me in the mornings and goes home on his own. Every now and again, he's out here waiting for school to let out so we can walk home together." He was surprised at how easily the words escaped his mouth. The amount of times that he'd chickened out of talking to her in the hall was countless.
This information brought about another round of compliments toward Akamaru, this time praising his intelligence.
The silver-haired guy scoffed.
"How come you don't act like this around my dog? He's plenty smart," he said in an irritated tone.
Ino paused in the shower of praise she was giving Akamaru to look up at the man.
"Hidan, I once watched your dog attack his own leg because he thought it was another dog trying to steal his bone."
Kiba bit his lip to keep from laughing. His attention focused in on Ino again when she turned to look at him.
"You're in a few of my classes, right? I've definitely seen you around."
Kiba was calm, cool, and collected as he replied, "Yeah, I'm Kiba."
She wrinkled her nose. "Inuzuka, right? You're at the top of our class."
The way she said those words held a certain amount of distaste, and Kiba inwardly began to panic. He could practically feel her losing interest with each passing moment.
He scratched the back of his neck, feeling his ears turn red. "Yeah, but it's just so I can get into a good university. I used to cut class and sneak Akamaru into school with me, but then I decided I wanted to be a vet. Good programs don't like seeing bad marks on my transcripts."
Hidan snorted at this. He didn't say anything, but Kiba could tell that Hidan had officially passed him off as a goody-two-shoes.
Ino smiled as she stood back up. "I was just wondering, because I really suck at physiology, and I've been desperately trying to find a tutor. All my friends either suck at teaching or don't take the class."
Kiba nodded. "Yeah sure, I'd be happy to help you out."
Ino drew a sharpie from her bag and scribbled ten digits on his forearm in perfect, round handwriting. "Here; text me tomorrow and we can work out a time that's good for you. I have a concert I'm going to tonight, but that's all I have planned for a while."
She capped the sharpie and stuck it back in her bag. Then she turned on her heel and rode off with Hidan into the sunset. Or more like, she hopped into his black Trans-Am and they drove off with the windows down and loud screaming music pouring from the stereo.
Kiba looked down at Akamaru, then looked at his drawn-on arm, then back at Akamaru. And he decided he'd make a detour to the pet shop to get his dog the best dinner money could buy. Talk about wingman.
Ino had insisted on coming over to his house for their tutoring sessions because she claimed that Akamaru would motivate her to do her best. Kiba didn't complain, but it also meant he had to clean his room because the supposed love of his life was about to see it.
Hana stuck her head into his bedroom as he was vacuuming and raised an eyebrow. "What's the occasion?" Kiba took out an earbud that was blasting old 2000's hits and looked at his older sister who was propped against his doorframe.
"No reason. Just thought my room could use a cleaning for once."
Hana was entirely unconvinced of that reasoning but thought better than to argue. She'd find out the reason soon enough. She pointed out that he should probably do his laundry while he was at it, and then she was off.
Kiba was just folding the last of his shirts when the doorbell rang. He did a last once-over of his room, which was cleaner than it had been in literal years, and clicked his tongue to wake Akamaru up on his bed.
Ino stood on his front porch in her usual getup: fishnets under her shorts, a t-shirt featuring a band he'd never heard of, and scuffed up Doc Martens. She looked like she'd just walked out of an Avril Lavigne music video.
Kiba thought she looked beautiful.
After she had thoroughly greeted Akamaru, he took her up to his room and she dumped her bag of physiology notes out onto his floor. As he started looking through them, along with a copies of her first two tests, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that she was gazing around his room. Her blue eyes rested for a heartbeat longer on his guitar by his bed, but she made no comment.
She sat down beside him and he began to teach her.
They fell into lazy routine.
Ino would come to his house after school every Friday afternoon. They'd go over the lectures from the week and then review the latest chapters. After that, Ino would buckle down and do her homework on his bedroom floor; she liked having him there in case she needed help. In the past, Fridays had been Kiba's off-day. He usually got his work done during the week so he could have weekends free to hang out with his friends.
He noticed that she liked to chatter. She liked to talk about any and every thing, from her concert experiences to her most embarrassing moments to her friend's crushes on boys. It was as if she couldn't stand the silence. Even when he told her to be quiet and do her homework, she would put her headphones on and crank the volume up all the way so that even he could hear every lyric crystal clear. He wondered if her love for loud screaming music stemmed from a fear of silence.
A couple weeks in, he decided that he couldn't listen to her music from hell for a second longer.
"Ino, would you mind if I practice guitar while you work? It shouldn't bother you, right?"
Ino looked up from her human heart review and shook her head. She'd just finished telling him a story about how Deidara had once given her a sculpture for her birthday and then a day later, it had exploded in her bedroom. Between her topics of discussion were always a few seconds of quiet before she started speaking again.
Kiba pulled his guitar in his lap and checked each string, slightly tuning his E String before strumming a gentle chord.
He struck a few more chords, and then softly began to sing.
You got me wrapped around your finger
No lie no lie
No lie no lie
Promise to give you my all
Yes baby I swear that I'll try
No lie no lie
No lie no lie
You got me right where you want me
Why don't you tell me what you see
Lately it's been harder for me to breathe
Now baby can't you see
You need me
You need me
Now baby can't you see
You need me
You need me
Now baby can't you see
You need something to feel
To feel like you'll hold onto something
That could not be real
Well I got that in my pocket
And inside that is a locket
Oh it's us
It's us and it's the way that we love
And that's okay
That's okay
That's okay
You need me
With his eyes closed, he let the last chords fade out, soaking up the sound of his guitar. When he opened his eyes again, he found Ino staring at him with those wide blue eyes that he was convinced he'd drown in.
There was a heartbeat of silence. It was the loudest silence Kiba had ever experienced; his heart was hammering so loudly against his ribcage he was sure she could hear it.
And then Ino put her headphones on and cranked her music higher than he'd ever heard it.
The next day was Saturday, and Kiba was sleeping in. His father usually woke him up at the crack of dawn on Saturdays so they could take the morning shifts at the animal shelter. And as gratifying as the work was, Kiba just really appreciated this day off.
Of course, that wasn't the case for long.
Hana came knocking on Kiba's door at ten in the morning, which was four hours earlier than Kiba had expected to get up.
"There's some girl here for you, pup. She looks kinda dangerous, so don't keep her waiting for long, wouldja?" Kiba groaned at the sound of his older sister's nickname for him, a term of endearment she'd bestowed upon him when they were kids and had never let him grow out of.
He'd just pulled a shirt on when he got down the stairs and found himself face-to-face with Ino Yamanaka. He also became painfully aware of the fact that he hadn't put pants on.
Her eyes avoided meeting his. She didn't speak, and all he could hear was the thudding of his heartbeat in his ears and the sound of his sister cooking in the kitchen. He took her hand, and she jumped at the contact, and pulled her toward the door.
"We can go somewhere else, if you'd like," he said softly, and she nodded.
Akamaru slipped through the crack before the front door shut closed, and the streets were quiet. It was ten in the morning, but it was a Saturday. The kids that lived on his street were all sleeping, and their parents were probably taking their time getting out of bed on this first day of the weekend.
Kiba had let go of her hand the moment they'd gotten outside, but that was mainly for her sake; God only knows how long he would've been happy with her hand in his.
He led her down his street, to the park he'd spent day after day at with Akamaru when he was a kid. There was that playground where he used to play cops and robbers with Naruto and their friends. There was the baseball field where he'd played tee-ball. There was the open field where he'd trained Akamaru how to sit and lie down and roll over. There was the pond with the fountain in the middle, the one that Akamaru had jumped into one day to fetch a ball, and Kiba had gotten grounded for jumping in after him. There was the edge of the forest on the far side of the park that acted as something like a fence for them; as kids they were always warned not to go past the tree's edge. Sure, there were hiking trails and paths in the forest, but their mystery and shroud deterred any of them from venturing in. Thinking about it now, Kiba realized that he'd never gone into the forest. Those paths and walkways were just as much a mystery to the teenage version of himself as it had been to his elementary-aged self.
He looked around the empty park, save a few people walking their dogs or going for morning runs, and realized something.
It was about a five minute walk from his house to the park, and Ino hadn't said a word since she'd arrived on his doorstep. It was the longest time that she hadn't spoken in his presence.
But it had been a comfortable silence. Not awkward or empty, but comfortable. They were walking around the pond and in the direction of the forest when she finally spoke.
"I've never really liked loud music."
And he looked at her. Really looked at her. And he saw her. He saw the fishnets on her legs and the dark kohl rimming her eyes and the dark colors of her clothes and saw that it was dimming her. Her platinum blonde hair, her ivory skin, her bright blue eyes, they were all muted by the darkness of her clothes.
"I only listen to loud, screaming music because anything softer lets me hear silence. I hang out with the Akatsuki because they're always talking and yelling and being loud. I talk so much because I can't bear to hear silence.
They're at the edge of the forest now, and this time she's the one grabbing his hand. She's pulling him into the forest, along paths and between branches. She stops at a clearing, and it's covered in a blanket of wildflowers. She kneels down, resting among the flowers and she picks one, twirling it between her index finger and thumb.
Kiba sits across from her, and Akamaru runs off to chase a butterfly across the clearing.
"When I was little," Ino started, looking intently at the flower between her fingers, "my parents owned a flower shop. My dad really liked having local flowers in the shop, so every weekend he'd take me flower hunting. He taught me about the flowers we saw along the way. But one day, he decided to go off the hiking trail. He was convinced he'd find a certain type of plant if we went in a new direction. He lost his footing and fell into a brook. It wasn't a lot of water, but there were a lot of rocks. He got hurt. There was a lot of blood. I tried to do CPR, but I was only seven. What did I know?"
There was a pause, and Kiba waited. There was that silence again. That comfortable silence. He could hear the sound of Akamaru's teeth chomping together as he tried to catch the butterfly. He could hear birds singing from the trees around them. He could hear the distant sound of cars honking from town. He could hear Ino's breaths, steady and deep. And then a deep inhale before she spoke again.
"His cell phone had broken in the fall. We were all alone. I didn't want to leave. Something told me that if I ran to get help, he'd be gone by the time I came back. So I stayed there with him. I laid my head on his chest and he held me in his arms. I listened to his heart. I listened to its rhythm slow down. And I listened to it stop. And the world fell silent. When someone finally found us, it was too late. My mom sold the shop. It was too quiet in there for me without him. Too quiet for her. We ended up moving. Our house was too quiet. Too empty. We moved here. And my mom remarried. The house hasn't been quiet since. But I still can't stand the silence. For ten years, I've filled the silence on my own."
She looked at him then, with those enormous blue eyes.
"You're not my type. You're not loud or dangerous. You play quiet songs on the guitar and spend your free time with your dog. You're the kind of guy who is going to make something out of his life. You're not my type."
The way she repeated that statement felt like a weight on his chest, as if he was suffocating. But he stayed quiet.
"And yet… I like silence when it's with you. I'm scared of silence, but with you it feels…" she trailed off, struggling for the right word.
"…comfortable?" he finished. It was the first thing he'd said since they'd left his house.
She nodded. "Comfortable. For the first time, silence feels comfortable."
And as Kiba reached forward to cup her face in his hand, he figured that maybe his dream of those dirty-blond kids wasn't such a far-out dream after all.
He kissed her then and decided that it was definitely not a far-out dream at all.
First of all, before anyone asks, the song that Kiba sang is called Baby Can't You See and it's by a local band from my area named Found Vegas. Their version isn't as mellow as I portrayed it in this story, but the lyrics fit well I kind of had to use them. Feel free to check them out; my personal favorite song by them is Angels Calling and originally I tried to use that song's lyrics before using Baby Can't You See.
Also sorry for not proofreading this story at ALL. If there are any glaring mistakes I am so sorry but also way too lazy to do anything about it. Sorry.
This story took me fucking forever to finish. It was based on the song "Girl All The Bad Guys Want" by Bowling for Soup and I think I tried to make it funny in the beginning. Then shit went down and I killed off Ino's dad. So, yeah, not so funny anymore. Oops. I couldn't figure out where I wanted to go with this story whatsoever, except that Ino would be a punk rocker and Kiba would be a goody-two-shoes and Hidan would just be an ass. God, I love Hidan. I just had to make him Ino's potential bae. Shoutout to Something of Unearthly Love by DeGlace for making me fall in love with HidaIno. Also fuck you DeGlace for effectively ruining my life.
I'm considering writing a NejiTen soon so keep your eyes peeled for that. It will definitely include a certain boyband and a good amount of sexual innuendos. I look forward to making it happen.
I hope you enjoyed my slow, shitty writing and feel free to check out my other random oneshots about Kisame and Sakura. Sorry I haven't overcome my commitment issues enough to make a multi-chapter fic. Maybe it'll happen someday. And if it does, I hope it's my story about Sakura, the Konoha PD's most renowned police detective, who has been put in charge of a new operation. To battle Konoha's record-breaking crime rates, the PD has decided to hire a gang of serial killers to hunt down other criminals. Spoiler though: there's a bunch of betrayal and Sakura falls in love with an Akatsuki member. Plus, Kiba's the head of the K-9 unit. Should be cute. Wish me luck and maybe drop a review if you think this multi-chapter fic should become a reality.