Chapter 3: A Small Fight

After a long walk to the south of Konohagakure, Yuriko and Sou arrived at a luscious, forest-like area. The saw a huge house surrounded by fences. Within the fences were various kinds of dogs, ranging from big to small, different colors. They looked at all the dogs in excitement, eager to play with them. The closer they reached the house, they noticed a man around the dogs. He was wearing a giant black hoodie, leaning down to feed the animals. Noticing people coming closer to him, the man glanced and stopped his actions. He looked at the two kids and smirked. I haven't seen these kids since they were babies...

"Oh, lemme guess: Yuriko and Sousuke, right?" The man asked, standing up. The kids looked at him wide-eyed, surprised that he knew their names.

"Ah! How do you know?!" Sou asked with a hyper voice, as nobody ever called him by his full name except when his parents were angry at him. "Have we met before?"

"You guys were too young to remember me, but please! Anybody could tell whose kids you were just by looking at you!" The man laughed as a giant white dog ran to them. The dog looked at the two kids for a moment, then approached them. He snuggled against Yuriko's body as she giggled from the touch. She bent down to ruffle with his fur, smiling.

"Wow, such a big dog!" She exclaimed cheerfully. "And there's so many! Ne, you're Mr. Inuzuka, right?"

Kiba nodded. Akamaru left Yuriko for his owner as the three made their way to an empty part of the fields where a nice scenery of the trees and grass were displayed afar from them. The two kids sat on the ground alongside Akamaru, who enjoyed licking them occasionall. Upon hearing the happiness yet calmness in the children's laughter, Kiba smiled. Those two are really glad to have these kids in their lives after all they've been through....

"Anyway, what brings you here?" He asked them.

"Ah, of course! We want to hear the next part of 'The Tale of the Raven and the Flower!'" Sou exclaimed.

Kiba looked at them dumfounded. "The Tale of the what?"

And once again, Yuriko and Sou gone off to tell what they have heard from the preceding members of the Konoha 12 about a boy named Raven returning to Konoha, according to their Uncle Naruto. Kiba had a sweat drop on his forehead. He cringed.

Why is Sasuke 'Raven?' Seriously, Naruto, you're the darn Hokage; come up with better names! As the children continued on about the date, Kiba's eyes widen and he gasped.

"He spied on a date? No wonder she was so mad at him that day," Kiba suddenly interrupted."Makes a lot of sense now."

"What day? What day? Tell us what happened!" The two kids pressured him on with too intense curiosity. Kiba sighed.

"I don't think I should have been there, but one day, I saw Sa-Raven, I mean," Kiba caught himself, embarassed at the substitute of names. It sounded so weird and ravens had nothing to do with Sasuke. Then again, at least Naruto didn't call him the traitor-who-was-so-cold-he-left-Konohagakure-cause-he-was-a-power-seeking-monster. They were just kids anyway.

"Anyway, I was at the training grounds when I noticed..."

Kiba moaned under the hot, burning sun. He had just came back from a mission and wanted to play around with Akamaru. But the day grew hotter and finally he decided to just take a nap on the training grounds, where it was peaceful at the moment. He looked up at the cloudless sky and sighed.

"Damn, I need some shade, too hot," He moaned, forcing himself to stand up though all he wanted to do was just lay for hours. He slowly walked to where all the lush trees were, with plenty of shade. He smiled in relief and fell to the ground. He let out a deep breath. he felt refreshed.

"At last!" He cried. But just as his eyes began to close, a loud noise came to his ears. His instincts got him to crouch up. He sniffed. Chakra. Two of them. Both were incredibly familiar but one of them, he hadn't felt in a long time. He walked to where the sound was and hid behind a bush. Through a small opening, Kiba leaned to see what was going on. His eyes flew wide open. There on the training grounds was a boy his age with spikey, black hair. He could only see the back but he was quick to know who it was.

Sasuke.

He bit his lips. It had been a while since he had seen him, and the rumors were indeed true of his returning. But why? Kiba then glanced to the figure across from Sasuke. It was a petite girl in a red outfit. Pink hair.

Sakura? Then his eyes trailed to where her hands were, on the ground, where a giant hole was made. He saw her expression. He had rarely seen Sakura like this. She looked dark. Her eyes were much more narrowed than usually. She glared at the man across from her. Kiba gulped. It was obvious: the two were-

"Having fun under the sheets?" Sou guessed, unsure of what the true meaning of what he said.

Kiba squeaked when he heard the little boy say that. His hands reached to Sou's mouth, covering it. "No! No! No! NO! They were fighting, okay?! Like real ninjas do! And don't ever mention that again, especially to your daddy, alright?! You don't want him to hurt your precious, Uncle Kiba, right?!" he chuckled nervously. Seriously, out of all the kids that had to come to him, it just had to be his. They probably learned this from Naruto. And Konohagakure chose him to be Hokage. Including him. He was supposed to be taking care of them for a week. Looks like he had been taking advantage of it too much.

"Fighting? But aren't they in love?" Yuriko asked, frowning."People in love don't fight like that."

"Not yet! But anyway, Flower was mad supposedly at that date Raven spied on. Either way, I dunno. Now, lemme finish the story," Kiba continued.

Sasuke and Sakura were indeed in a fight. Kiba never saw this before. It was hard to imagine what almost four years apart could do to those two teammates. Wasn't Sasuke always protecting her? But here they were, standing as equal, one wanting to beat the crap of the other. Kiba tried to sway his head around to look at Sasuke's expression but couldn't. All he could see was the side, but Sasuke's bangs covered his eyes. Sakura breathed heavily as she lifted her fist from the ground. Next thing that he knew, Kiba saw Sakura right in front of Sasuke, throwing a roundkick towards his face. Kiba was shocked. Sakura's that fast? Sasuke's not even moving! Is she stronger than him now-

Kiba saw an arm reach for Sakura's legs. Sasuke had caught it, the rest of his body unmoving. Sakura trembled, trying to free herself from Sasuke's hold. She cursed. She lifted her other leg up, using Sasuke's hand as a balance. It was reaching to his stomach. Kiba bit his lips. Sasuke's other arm caught it again. Wide eye, Sakura yelled as her body came crashing to the ground, face first. Just as she was about to get up, Sasuke's foot landed on her back gently, pushing her once again to the ground. She coughed. She couldn't get up. Kiba grew worried. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. Sakura was indeed in trouble but Kiba noticed that as Sasuke's foot did not use much chakra. He didn't want to interrupt whatever it was going on between them. he continued to observe.

He was shocked to hear Sasuke's deep voice for the first time. "I really don't want to fight you at the moment."

Sakura threw a punch to the ground. She turned her face to glare at Sasuke. "You were asking for it! I have been tired for the last two weeks at the hospital and when I got the chance to relax, you just had to ruin it! What the hell were you thinking?!"

Sasuke did not respond. At the same time, he refused to let go of his hold on Sakura. He shoved his hands into his pockets, irritating Sakura with his too calm behavior.

"Why did you embarass me last night?! I lost a friend cause of you!"

Once again, no response. Kiba was now confused. He had no idea what they were talking about. Then again, after the things he heard, he was not surprised at Sasuke's cold demeanor to whatever happened to that "friend." He saw Sasuke's foot get off from Sakura's back. He took out a hand towards her. Sakura glared at him, slapping it away from him. She stood up on her own, keeping a good distance between the two.

"Frogs have better vocabulary than you, but this is ridiculous! Why aren't you talking?!" She yelled angrily.

"You're stronger now."

Sakura's face soften. It wasn't hard with anger anymore. Kiba was sure he saw a red tint on her cheeks. Immediately, she shook her head.

"You're not the type of person to do that kind of stuff. Why were you there?" She asked him curiously. She held onto her breath.

There was a moment of silence. Kiba wanted to leave the scene yet at the same time didn't. He wanted to know what happened to Sasuke after all these years, after all the sacrifices that were made for him. For a moment, a terrible thought came to him: Kiba had risked his life as well as the others and Sasuke acted like it was nothing. It angered him for a moment. He assumed that Sasuke was trying to revive his ties with her, but to no avail. Sakura may have cared for him too much in the past, but it wasn't going to work now. Sasuke may have changed for the worst. Even if he did return.

Sasuke spoke calmly. "Naruto blackmailed me into it."

"UNCLE NARUTO MADE HIM?!" Yuriko and Sou repeated in shock. Their Uncle Naruto had never told them that. Their cheeks puffed, their faces boiling. They were so going to see their lying Uncle Naruto about this. Kiba looked at them.

"That's all I heard. Now that you guys told me about the date, it all makes sense. Raven was never the type of person to do such a stuff, even if he cared for Flower at the time."

"When does he confess his love for her?" Yuriko asked with hope in her eyes. Kiba shrugged.

"I don't know, but it sure wasn't at that time. Raven was not the type of person that let out his emotions easily. Not many people could read what was going on in his mind."

Yuriko's face dropped. "This sounds like a sad story."

Kiba panicked. "No, it's not! I swear, it ends happily ever after! I promise!" It was true. He hated giving out hints of the ending, but considering they were only kids, he didn't want to sadden them. Especially since he didn't ever want to deal with their father. Again.

The two kids stood up and bowed. "Uncle Kiba, thank you for the story! We're going to go talk to Uncle Naruto now! Bye!"

They waved goodbye to each other. Kiba watched their disappearing figures. He remembered what those kids told him about the date.

Poison, huh? No wonder Sasuke didn't answer much. He really did care for her then.

As he returned back to his dogs, Kiba noticed the monuments of all the past Hokages. At the very end was the recently new one. Uzumaki Naruto. The Sixth Hokage, the strongest ninja in Konohagakure. He stared at his rock face, remembering all the great things Naruto had done for the village. He actually did achieve his dreams. After a while, one question lingered in Inuzuka Kiba's mind:

Why did Naruto choose such a dumb title?