Kiba's P.O.V.:

After spending more time with the man, Kiba had decided the guy was a weirdo.

At the beginning, his insufferable smirk had irked the dog nin to no end. But after he had been given some food, the man had apparently noticed how much of a jerk he was being and began to blush slightly. It wasn't a very noticeable blush, but Kiba did notice it. And he had also began to speak to Kiba as if he were another human being, not just some piece of meat to annoy.

It was weird to see that Hidan was actually capable of being a polite human being. And the change in his demeanor confused Kiba bit. But he did rejoice in it because the change made Hidan become just a bit more bearable.

Quite frankly, he had never met anyone in his life that Akamaru liked as much as Hidan. He had been surprised at first to see the dog actually walk up to the man without any hesitation, but had chalked that up to the dog being curious. But now that Akamaru had willingly gone with the man into the forest rather than stay with his master, Kiba knew that there was more to Hidan than just a foul mouth and confusing temper.

Inuzuka nin dogs were not too keen on strangers. When a child from the clan adopted his nin dog, they would be partners for life. And the only time Kiba had ever heard that an Inuzuka's dog liked someone else... Well, Hana must have been exaggerating. It couldn't be only for mates, right? Maybe Akamaru liked Hidan's strange way of being and had decided he would be a good friend for Kiba.

Besides, if Akamaru could smell the same thing Kiba did from the man... Kiba couldn't hold anything against the dog then.

As Hinata prepared lunch for the group, Kiba and Shino sparred a bit. This time, though, Kiba made sure to not piss the Aburame off and flirt with being launched by the other once more. One time had been enough. And that time had ended up with him landing on Hidan... So he wasn't too keen on repeating the experience.

They had ended up only using taijutsu and Kiba found slight happiness in finding out that he wasn't completely out of Shino's league when it came to that fighting style. Even though Shino still wiped the floor with him, Kiba was proud in his growing abilities.

When Hidan returned, Kiba was surprised at the sight of him.

The first thing the boy noted was the fact that he was not bare-chested anymore. Instead of being treated to hard muscle, Kiba was now being tortured by the sight of said muscle covered by and stretching a tight white shirt that left literally nothing to the imagination. The way those muscles rippled and force the shirt to move with them... Well, it was enough to make any teenage girl swoon.

Kiba had not swooned. He had... Merely looked at the hard mass of muscle for a little bit... But no matter what Akamaru might argue, Kiba had not gawked at Hidan like a bitch in heat. He had merely observed the tight muscle for a small while... Not much, though...

To add to Hidan's change of appearance were two more things. A leather jacket that, for some reason he could not understand, made Kiba's imagination run wild with all kinds of images of Hidan taking said article off...

If anyone were to hear his inner monologue, they'd think he was nothing more than a horny teenager.

But, even though Kiba managed to keep his staring to a bare minimum because of both those articles of clothing, there was something completely different to them that made the boy stare openly.

A large scythe.

Kiba had seen many weapons before in his life. But never had he witnessed one that exuded this much power and grace. Which, now that he thought about it, made no sense because it was Hidan's scythe.

The large weapon rested lazily over both of the man's shoulders, his arms dangling over its' sides as if it weren't more than a simple stick or baseball bat. The way he carried himself and carried the weapon was both careless and confident and for some reason Kiba found the sight incredibly interesting.

"I'm back!" Hidan called with a smile as he walked up to the camp site, Akamaru bouncing up beside him in clear amusement.

Okay, maybe Hidan wasn't that much of an old man...

Kiba shook his head rapidly to try and dispel those thoughts, then smiled at the man. "Get everything you needed?"

These thoughts made no sense to him. But he would be a fool to try and ignore the way that Hidan's body was made. He was handsome. He was also pretty strong and sure of himself. All three points that didn't make him ugly in Kiba's eyes.

Besides, what was the problem with looking?

"I sure did." Hidan answered the teenager as he walked towards the kid, eyes softening slightly as he did so.

Hidan was an odd one. He had been smiling so cockily a few minutes ago, back before he had noticed Kiba was looking at him. Why did his cockiness seem to fade as soon as he knew Kiba was looking at him?

Hidan's odd moods were, of course, odd to Kiba. But he could see some form of amusement in playing with them.

"So, want some lunch?" Kiba asked, motioning to the pot over the fire. "We're gonna eat, then head out on the open road." He explained.

"Alright." Hidan answered simply, then moved the scythe from resting on his shoulders to leaning against his side, all the while placing a hand on his hip. "What's there to eat?"

The journey back to the village proved to be... Eventful.

Traveling with Hidan was rather amusing. The man's mood would change depending on who he was talking to. Even though he was a complete jackass when he growled at Shino- complete with all kinds of swear words and threats to sacrifice the bug nin to Jashin- he was almost a gentleman to Hinata. He barely swore when around the purple haired girl and talked to her as if she were an actual human.

The fact that he acted so different when around his friends made Kiba both confused and amused.

But he guessed he shouldn't really be surprised. In the time they had been together, Kiba had been able to piece a few things about Hidan.

First of all, the man was overly religious. It was always 'Lord Jashin' this or 'Lord Jashin' that. On more than one occasion Kiba had been on the scolded side of Hidan's rant against heathens, but he wasn't really bothered by it. Hidan was always using the god's name, but had yet to try and shove his propaganda down the boy's throat. And while he had tried to convert Kiba and Hinata on more than one occasion, he had not been overly annoying about his beliefs. He never tried to convert Shino, though, and when Kiba asked about that, the old man had merely stated: 'I don't like the kid. He can burn in the after life... You and Hinata, on the other hand...' And had promptly tried to convert Kiba once more.

Something else Kiba had noticed was how the man always seemed to try and keep Kiba in good spirits. When they were walking and Kiba said something that upset Shino, the man would tell Kiba Shino was being a hardass and make the boy smile. Whenever Shino kicked his ass during training sessions, the man would stand a few feet away with a large grin on his face and root for Kiba to kick the bug bastard's ass. And when Kiba wound up being injured for actually trying to defeat Shino, Hidan would help treat his wounds while calling him an idiot for either having fallen for one of Shino's traps or for going left when Hidan yelled to go right.

One thing that stirred up great amusement in Kiba, though, was the fact that Hidan was basically a bastard and a jackass to anyone that wasn't one of Kiba's teammates. Whenever they found themselves crossing through a town to get some supplies, the man would glare at anyone that dared look at any of them and had even threatened more than one shop keep with his scythe for trying to steal from the genin.

Quite frankly, Kiba found Hidan to be a complete weirdo. But he knew that he truly enjoyed his company and kind of loved the fact that he was so protective of Team 8.

And the last thing Kiba knew for certain about Hidan was how the man always seemed to blush when Kiba happened to show some skin. Even though the man acted like a macho man that was always in control, it seemed that he became a stuttering mess whenever Kiba ended up in a 'compromising' position. And Kiba loved to use this whenever he could.

A day or so ago, Kiba had come across a waterfall in their travels. And while Hinata and Shino prepared their dinner, Kiba, Hidan, and Akamaru had all gone to the body of water to start washing up. At first, Hidan had seemed hesitant about going with Kiba, but then they had managed to convince him to go with them. And when they reached the water, Kiba began to strip.

When he was down to his underwear, he noticed the tense silence that had fallen. This was odd, because Hidan usually always filled in whatever silence there was with whatever dumb words he could think of without putting any real thought into what he was saying. But when the boy turned around to face Hidan, he could see why the man wasn't in any position to be talking.

The man's face was the reddest Kiba had ever seen. Actually, it kind of reminded him of Hinata whenever she fainted because of Naruto being too close. His body was stiff and his hands were clenched tightly into fists at his sides.

"Hidan?" Kiba asked, slowly walking towards the man.

And the most unusual thing happened. Hidan began to walk backwards. For each step Kiba took forward, Hidan took one back. And that small dance continued until Hidan found himself with his back right against a tree and Kiba only a few steps away.

It was as he saw Hidan trying to flatten himself against the tree that Kiba understood what was happening.

"Does my being naked bother you?" Kiba asked with a smirk, taking yet another step forward.

If Kiba had had normal hearing then, he would not have heard the small squeak that escaped Hidan. But because he was an Inuzuka, he had been able to hear just that squeak and his smirk became predatory.

So Hidan was bothered by an almost naked Kiba. He could use this.

"Not at all, you bastard!" Hidan tried to save face, glaring at the younger male. "But... I... Uh... I remembered I promise Hinata something!" He shouted hastily, and before Kiba could try and stop him, the man was gone and racing back to the camp grounds.

Kiba was left standing in the same spot as he blinked slowly at the retreating man, then a bark of laughter escaped him. Who knew Hidan could act like a blushing virgin?

After that Kiba had begun to test just how far he could push Hidan before the man fled. The next morning during breakfast the dog nin had seated himself in front of Hidan and stretched out with his legs wide open and his arms to either side behind him. Then, when Hinata and Shino were both doing whatever it was that they did during the mornings, Kiba had moved his right arm from behind him to trail his hand from the top of his jacket all the way down, unzipping it at the same time and opening it to show Hidan his unclothed chest.

The man's face had quite literally resembled a tomato as his eyes followed Kiba's hand down his body. Then when he had been awarded with the teenager's tanned and muscular body, he had choked on his breakfast.

Kiba had scrambled up and gone to him immediately to help him dislodge the food from his throat, even though he was doing that barking laugh of his the whole time. When Shino asked what had happened, Hidan had only glared at the bug nin before cursing young dog nins.

Now the group of teenagers and one old man were only a few hours away from their village's walls. And Hidan was acting a bit strangely.

Kiba found himself a bit worried about the man as they set up their camp. It was already night and Shino had deemed resting for the night and returning to their village in the morning would be best for everyone.

Instead of entertaining Akamaru or helping Kiba with his tent like he usually did, Hidan had excused himself and wandered off into the dense foliage of the forest some time ago. On the inside, Kiba worried that he was the reason why Hidan was acting so weirdly. But he also couldn't believe that wholeheartedly because Hidan had been acting pretty fine up until Hinata had announced how close they were to the Hidden Leaf.

With a sigh, Kiba patted Akamaru's head and looked down at him. "You know what's wrong with him?"

The dog barked and accused Kiba of playing games with the man's head, but the teen only scoffed at the dog. "It's not that, boy." Kiba told him with a glare, then sighed, "It's got to be something else. Even though he blushed when I did that..." Kiba drifted off as he remembered what he had done during breakfast, "But he was fine after that. He even yelled at Shino to stop being such a bastard after that... No, Akamaru, he got weird when Hinata told us we were so close to home."

Akamaru barked at him, telling the boy that maybe he was right, but before Kiba could smirk and snark back at the dog, movement to his left caught his attention.

Standing up immediately from his crouched state, the boy looked at Shino and Hinata, who had both noticed the movement. "You guys saw that, right?" He asked his friends, who both nodded but said nothing else.

Kiba sniffed at the air, but couldn't smell anything weird. There were Shino's and Hinata's scents mixed in with that of the forest and Hidan. Hidan... His scent was near.

"Hidan?" He called into the forest, taking a step towards where he had seen the leaves dance. "Are you trying to prank us? Because that would be pretty fucking stupid."

Kiba had picked up a bit of Hidan's bad habits while with him.

But there was no answer. The man didn't answer.

Kiba's eyes narrowed immediately. If it really had been Hidan, then the man would have ruined any surprise attack by yelling out that he was not stupid.

"This doesn't feel right." Shino muttered softly and Kiba nodded, taking a few steps back so he was standing in a back-to-back circle with his friends. "Stay alert." Shino instructed, all the while he raised his hands into a defensive stance.

After the bug nin had said this, the small group kept their silence while they surveyed the area nearby for whoever it was that was playing tricks on them. When Hinata activated her Byakugan, the girl gasped softly and narrowed her eyes.

"Whoever is out there, it's just one person."

Suddenly a type of battle cry broke through the stillness of the night and a large man jumped out of the treeline, a large, mace-like club held high above his head as he aimed a hit straight for the group of teenagers.

"Scatter!" Kiba shouted and managed to just dodge out of the way of the attack before the club dug into the spot he had been standing before, cracking through the ground and sending particles of dirt flying.

"Where is he?!" The huge man shouted in an deep voice, all the while he straightened his stance and began to life his club once more. "Where is Hidan!?"

Kiba's eyes narrowed at the man's query and jumped away to fall into attack stance with Akamaru landing on top of his back. "I don't know who you are, but you just attacked the wrong group of teenagers, bud!"

And the fight began.

Hope you all enjoyed this! Please review.