"My reputation is at stake here you bastard!" Came a high pitched cry from one of the nearby classrooms, fearing the worst I dived behind some lockers and waited for the danger to pass; just like I would've done at my old school, oh how somethings never change. I remembered the days I spent dashing from locker to locker using them as cover as gangs of my enemies tried to get me to make me see the light that was their own beliefs.

"Look I'm just not that interested in you Sakura." Came a husky male voice, as two figures sauntered out of a nearby classroom.

"How can you not be interested in me, I've slept with almost every jock there is to sleep with. Except you! Once I've got your mark I'm done, just an hour of your time that's all I ask!" The annoying voice kept shrieking, both of them where getting closer to where I was crouching.

"No, ack get off me! I don't like you! Get that through your head! I'm NOT interested!" A pink blur flew past me, shrieking even louder than before - she reminded me of the mythical birds in story books, Harpies or Banshies or something like that.

"You'll regret this Kiba Inuzuka! You'll regret this!" Something thumped into the locker bay near me, and the person called Kiba released a heavy sigh.

"She'll probably tell everyone I'm gay. Ha! It means I won't have to keep hiding it from everyone. That would be nice, to freely walk these halls with a cute boy on my arm. Dreams, stupid dreams." Holding my breath I prayed that this boy would move on, instead a locker opened and the boy knocked a couple of books onto the floor, before he followed them down his lanky legs sticking out into the hallway. They where clad in baggy brown army pants, black converse snuggly tied to his feet, feeling nervous I dragged my hood over my head to cover as much of my face as possible, it wasn't that I was afraid; no, I was just agitated by the stories Moonshadow and the others had been filling my head with. "I just want freedom from this Akamaru."

'Arf!' Came a dog's reply to his plea, if only he wasn't a jock I might've revealed myself from my spot; but being bullied right now was not on my to-do list this morning. 'Arf!'

"Yes I know he's there... Are you just going to stand there or come present yourself!?" Shuffling my feet I slunk forwards to stand beside him, crouching down I watched his deep brown eyes focusing on the opposite lockers, a grey fur lined coat covered most of him; a small white dog watched me intently as I lowered to a kneeling position beside him, not knowing what to say or do.

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I was just heading to class." Brown lifeless eyes swivelled their focus to stare intently into mine, red triangles stood out on each of his cheeks, painted on just like my stripes. A smile travelled slowly across his lips, reaching into his eyes to spark an inner light that seemed to be hidden for too long, he reached up a tanned hand, nails long and pointed, tweaking the tips of the cat ears sitting upon my head his tight lip smile spread into a full blown grin, showing off pointed canines and almost blindingly white teeth.

"You must be new here, no-one at this school, which I know of anyway, wears cat ears. So what's your name Kitty-Cat?"

"Kankuro Sabaku, and you're Kiba Inuzuka, jock, and dog-breath."

"So I'm guessing Moonshadow and Solana picked you up, you're nice and warned about what'll happen now." Nodding slowly his smirk widened but quavered, almost caving into a sad strained smile, "I am sorry about this. What do you get when an emo, lazy bastard, genius, social outcast, shadow and kitty-cat sit together?" Going over a mental checklist of everyones names, I blinked in surprise at the one he'd presented me with.

"Kitty-cat? Really?" Kiba blushed making his red cheeks redder, it was rather adorable; I had to hold back on the temptation to pinch his cheek.

"I just... it just... you... cat... look like...umm..." He spluttered attempting, and failing, to regain his composure.

"Calm down dog breath, it's just a name. I take no offence to it mutt." He sighed, smiling slightly in relief.

"Good, good, I just hope the others accept what I've put you as. It would suck if you got named by some of them, it would be mean and cruel and they'd hurt you more... Not that I care." He lied quickly, trying to maintain that 'jock' persona I believe he'd more been presented with than chosen. Pushing a hand up under my hood, he ran his nails across my scalp, fingers carding through my hair, with a soft sigh he pushed the hood all the way off and stared up into my now revealed eyes. Tugging me forward just slightly he studied the sketches of purple over my face; only sort of breaking that personal space barrier. "Interesting, so different, unique. Is it permanent?" He asked a finger leaning in, reacting quickly I grabbed the wrist and retorted to stop the destruction of my masterpiece.

"Ah, stop breathing on me mutt, you really do stink like a dog." Kiba flushed and released my head, shifting the white dog on his lap.

"Maybe I need a cat bath Kitty." Laughing at his statement I rose from my crouch and began walking away from him, making sure to sway my hips teasingly at him.

"Maybe Kiba, maybe." And with that I sauntered off, making sure to keep my hips swaying in that tempting way which showed off my butt nicely, it would take a married man not to stare at my ass right then.

"I'LL BE KEEPING YOU TO THAT PROMISE!" He shouted after me, just as I rounded a corner and a smile brighter than I'd ever had on my face at any school shone out at the world. A bloody cute boy, who was a closet gay, was considering me as his 'friend' and what sort of idiot wouldn't pass up the chance to have a jock draped over their arm - even if they did smell like dog, but after a few 'cat' baths and some serious cuddling he would probably smell more appropriate.

"Hey Bro, what took you so long?" Gaara asked appearing at my side like he usually did, with no warning and out of thin air.

"I just ran into Kiba... a jock, I've got my name now." I stated trying to calm the grin still plastered across my face, but no matter what I did it just seemed to grow bigger and toothier.

"So what are you?" Asked Moonshadow dancing onto Gaara's arm. Maybe there was a secret class or something which taught these people how to appear out of seeming nothingness, I needed to learn that trick. I wonder if I could startle the dog with it? Concentrate Kankuro, no thinking about Kiba. Mentally shaking myself I answered her question, quelling the urge to smirk.

"Kitty-cat." Gaara and I laughed at it, Moonshadow just seemed confused but she too laughed at the statement after a little while.

"Well I can think of a couple of things they can do to you, but Kankuro you got off easy. Maybe they've finally lost their fire this year." Moonshadow said smiling, "Well at least Kiba has, which is strange because he's the one who usually has the worst bite." I was stunned, to say the least, Kiba was just another desperate closet boy who liked dogs and smelt like one too. Alright so I was kidding myself, he was kind of cute and worth at least some checking out, if I could convince him I might take him out eventually - somewhere nice of course... maybe a dog park, or the beach, or just take him out to the back yard and throw around a red bouncy ball - oh! he'd just love that... I tried not to snicker at my thoughts, but tried is the prominent word in that sentence.

"Class now! The three of you!" We all jumped, twisting to see a brunette standing in front of us, a scare across the bridge of his nose; we snapped to attention and scampered into the classroom.

"That's Mr. Iruka, our Maths teacher." Moonshadow hissed vanishing towards the back of the room as we trailed after her, letting Gaara sit with the rest of his friends I relaxed into an empty table next to a window - the desk painted black with purple images scribbled across them. One in the top corner caught my eye, it was a dog tethered to a cat, the two curled round each other in some what of a sensuous way (hard to believe but that's what it looked like).

TBC...