Chapter Two
The trip wasn't as fun as Naruto thought it would be, it seemed like Iruka led them through the most uninteresting trail, and what made it almost unbearable was that Iruka wasn't one to talk while traveling.
When they arrived at Konoha, Naruto followed Iruka inside and noticed all the people and the buildings; Konoha was beautiful.
Iruka suddenly stopped in front of Naruto, turned to look at him, and seemed embarrassed. "I'm sorry Naruto, are you hungry?"
Naruto really was hungry but didn't know what was the polite way to say it. Back home there were set times to eat and if you missed the time you didn't eat. "Um, maybe a little." Naruto answered trying to express his hunger and be polite.
Iruka seemed to understand. "Alright, do you like ramen?" Iruka asked.
"I've never tried it, but I've always wanted to." Naruto answered.
Iruka started walking again. "Well you're in luck! Konoha has some of the best ramen ever. We can go to my favorite place, Ramen Ichiraku." Iruka said excitedly.
As it turns out Naruto loves ramen and he found out that Iruka did too. After they finished eating they headed to Iruka's place. When they arrived Iruka let them in and led Naruto up to where his room was. "This'll be your room while your here Naruto."
Naruto's room had dark hard wood furniture, orange curtains with a matching rug, and an orange bed spread. "I hope you like it, I asked Tsunade what she thought you would like." Iruka said.
"I love it. Thank you." Naruto said already starting to unpack, excited to be settled in to his room.
"Well I guess you'd want to get out of the company of an old person like me for a while." Iruka said jokingly, setting Naruto's bag on his bed.
"Not really, I'm used to Tsunade so you won't bother me." Naruto said, putting his clothes in the dressers.
"You know, 'Oh Iruka you're not old' would've been just fine too." Iruka said half amused, half disturbed at being compared to Tsunade.
"Oh I know, I just assumed you like being considered older and I didn't want to be rude by disagreeing with you." Naruto said moving to unpack his second bag.
Iruka smiled. "Are you going to be okay by yourself, if I go out to run errands?" Iruka asked.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Naruto answered. Naruto heard the door close behind Iruka and decided that he would go out and look for a bookstore, after he finished unpacking. On his way out the door, Naruto noticed that Iruka didn't have any pictures of family or friends anywhere and wondered if the white wolf was lonely.
Naruto had been wandering around for about a half hour before he decided he needed to stop and ask someone for directions.
The first person Naruto decided to ask was an older man, who was an alligator. "Excuse me sir?" Naruto asked, getting the mans attention. The alligator turned his attention to Naruto, took in his appearance, and walked away without saying anything. Well that was rude. Naruto thought.
The next guy Naruto asked was closer to him in age and was a mouse. "Excuse me? Could you tell me where the bookstore is?" Naruto asked. The man glanced at him and ignored him, just the same as the man before him. Geez, this is just like back home. Naruto thought, remembering that if he went anywhere alone in his home village he was thoroughly ignored.
Naruto walked around for another hour before he was ready to give up and go home. None of the men in town would speak to him and all of the women seemed to be busy.
On his way there he accidentally bumped into someone who started apologizing profusely. "No it's my fault. I'm sorry." Naruto said righting himself and looking at the person he bumped into.
The man had long, brown spiky hair, red upside down triangles on his face, and black and brown dog ears; he was attractive and a man! "Hi I'm Naruto." Naruto said happily, his tail swishing behind him, and his ears perked up.
"Hi I'm Kiba and I know who you are this village talks." The man, Kiba, said.
Naruto all but pouted. "Not to me they don't." He replied ears drooping a little.
"Well that's probably because you've been talking to alpha males all day." Kiba said.
"Have you been watching me? And what does it matter if the guys I talk to are alpha males or not?" Naruto asked
Kiba completely bypassed the first question and answered the second one. "Well you're spoken for, so they won't speak to you. Naruto, did you notice you really didn't talk to any women?"
"All the women I saw were busy. And what do you mean 'spoken for'? I haven't met anyone I'm in love with or anyone whose in love with me." Naruto said loudly.
Kiba noticed that Naruto was attracting people's stares. "Naruto, maybe we should go somewhere and talk quietly." Kiba suggested.
Naruto thought about that, Kiba didn't seem like a bad person, even if he was a stalker, besides Naruto wanted to know what the hell the guy was talking about. "Alright lead the way." Naruto said.
Naruto followed Kiba to a clearing, it looked like it was used for something important, and Naruto wanted to know what, but decided he'd ask about it later.
Kiba and Naruto sat under a shady tree and once comfortable, Naruto was all business. "Alright Kiba, start talking." He said his arms crossed.
Kiba sighed. "Well when they think your ready, your parents are suppose to give you a talk about how relationships work in our world."
"How do they work?" Naruto asked, not knowing anything about the talk.
"I can't tell you, its not my place." Kiba answered, laying down where he was just sitting.
"What do you mean you can't tell me? You can't just tell me something like this and not explain it!" Naruto said, watching the dog get comfortable.
"Sorry, you'll just have to ask Iruka he's your guardian, so he should tell you." Kiba said nonchalantly.
There was a silence between the two as Naruto thought about what Kiba said. "Kiba how do you know all this stuff?" Naruto asked.
"Part of its because these things are common knowledge and part of its because the person whose spoken for you is my best friend." Kiba said, yawning tiredly.
"Who is this guy, Kiba?" Naruto asked. No answer, "Kiba?" Naruto asked again. Kiba was fast asleep and didn't seem to be waking up any time soon. Naruto only wished he had a marker to draw on Kiba's puppy dog face.