Series/Disclaimer: Naruto, which I don't own.
Pairing: Kankuro x Kiba
Warning(s): Not many, just the usual. Swearing and fun stuff like that.
Chapter OST: The Screen Behind the Mirror - Enigma
Author's Note: Well this chapter was suppose to be updated at the same time as the next chapter but I'm sort of being lazy on the editing front and don't want to edit the next chapter yet. -is lame- But I still want to update something! This chapter may seem sort of filler-ish but I had to do this to keep it from running on because, together, this single chapter would have been like eight pages. That seemed a little agonizing to read to me.

So yeah, I apologize for the slightly filler-esk seem of this chapter but it's necessary - promise!

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Kankuro shifted his pack on his shoulder as he continued retreating away from the village as well as that large body of water. The last place he wanted to be now, was anywhere near water. He had even hesitated in taking a shower for about fifteen minutes before deciding it was stupid to fear drowning in a shower. Now he was on his way back to Suna and his mind could not have been any clearer.

Kiba had chased after him to argue with him about leaving but frankly, Kankuro just didn't care, it wasn't worth it. Especially because the Village Hidden in Mist was on an island and, also according to Kiba, they were free to go swimming at any time. The Jounin realized it was his own fault for agreeing to go in the first place but Kiba shouldn't have shoved him anyway. He didn't care much about how juvenile it seemed to be blaming the other – the point was it was his fault. So now he was retreating back home and Kiba's boat had left nearly an hour and a half previously.

He also decided (or was trying to decide) that it wasn't that great of a loss to have Kiba completely hate him now. It wasn't so much that Kiba's opinion of him itself mattered, but more along the lines that Kiba had been the first masochist he had met that he'd been aware of. Kankuro was well aware that his abusive tendencies were the reason he never allowed himself close to anyone relationship-wise. Kiba being as masochist would have been perfect for him – but Kiba as a person in an honest-to-god relationship wouldn't have been so perfect. At least no from where he was standing.

He's a brat and obnoxious. It was hard enough standing him on this trip – how can I even begin to fool myself into thinking I would make trips and take time off to visit him? After all it was what most ninja did when their partner of choice didn't live in their village. Like any other shinobi, Kankuro had limited days off to spend on his own time. The only reason he could afford the two weeks he had gotten for this trip was because he didn't often take vacations. He had no need for them without anyone to visit or really hang around with – most of his time off was spent working on installing weapons into his puppets. He was completely fine with that.

Where did this relationship thinking even come from? He's some Konoha kid; apparently not dating has killed my standards. Kankuro sighed a little as he reached up to rub his eyes and continued walking. Kiba may have left an hour and a half ago but he was just now reaching the edge of the small harbor village. He wasn't sure why he was so late leaving but he knew he had been reconsidering abandoning Kiba at the inn. It was when he realized what he was thinking about that he jumped off the bed and started to leave.

However now that he had stopped reconsidering he was thinking about Kiba as a serious partner and wondering when he had agreed to that trade off. He would rather be thinking about reconsidering – even though he knew he wouldn't do it because he wasn't going to risk another session with drowning all for some stupid kid. The chances of Kiba letting this go if they ever met up again also seemed slim, Oh well, nothing to do now but put it out of my head.

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They had arrived an hour later than Tsume had anticipated but either way late was late and after being taken inside the house the only thing Kiba wanted was sleep. His thoughts and dreams were non-existent in his exhaustion and decided that sleeping in the next morning would be his new master plan. Once he woke up he would think about how to handle his lack of Kankuro and a new way to channel his complete anger at the kids that were bound to swarm him in the morning.

And swarm was exactly what they had done. They didn't even have the decency to wait until Kiba had woken up; instead the second youngest son and one of the twins ran into his room to leap onto his bed. The Inuzuka teen jolted awake only to be smashed in the face with a pillow and unconditionally have his hair yanked on as they tried to wake him up. Akamaru turned out to be quite grumpy in his master's defense as he woke up barking and chased the two out. Kiba cursed as he removed himself from bed and started to get ready.

The morning proved to be rather unentertaining as the two families gathered for breakfast where Kiba was careful to place himself between his mother and sister lest he be kicked at. Akamaru was with the other dogs that were enjoying their own breakfast on the yard. Kiba's eyes flicked over all the people in the order that they sat. To his left was Tsume who was talking to Kiri, a woman of about her own age with long black hair that's wavy curls were highlighted with a deep blue. Her eyes were a dark navy and she had her right eyebrow (or where her eyebrow should have been – they had been shaved off and painted on in the form of a rather impressive design) pierced four times as well as the nostril on her right side.

Just as it was customary for the Inuzuka to get their fang tattoos at a certain age, it was customary for this family to acquire a number of piercings. Kiba also knew that she had several other odd places around her body pierced that he had noticed when they went swimming as Kiri wore a revealing (but not disgustingly so) swimsuit.

Beside Kiri sat her youngest son Ritoru, who was only about six years old yet had managed to grow greatly since Kiba had last seen him, who was quietly eating through his breakfast. Ritoru looked a lot more like his mother than some of the other kids did – a feature which Kiba personally hoped he never grew out of. It seemed like Ritoru and Kiri were the only two he could ever stand on this visits besides a few people in the village that he sometimes didn't even get to see (and maybe Moya, as she never did much to be hated or liked). Ritoru was too young to have any piercings but Kiba was sure if he skipped another two years and showed up again – the boy would have at least one.

Next to Ritoru was Raikou, the second oldest son in the family and was a little less than a year older than Kiba. Raikou had his father's black eyes accompanied with his mother's dark hair which gave him a very threatening look despite his thin stature. His skin was lighter than either of his parents which partially made Kiba if it was genetics or because he just didn't go outside. Raikou had two small lip pairings on his lower lip near the right side when facing him. He also had two strange ones that hooked through his skin near the outer corners of his eyes near his temples. They didn't seem so much piercings to Kiba as they did sharp talons left over from some bird that had embedded its claws into his skin.

To his right sat the 'Devastating Duo' (a name that Kiba's mother had come up with on the trip back to Konoha) of Tsuyu and Moya – two twin sisters. Actually, Tsuyu was really the only devastating one – Moya was actually quite tame. They both had their father's strangely colored black-gray hair but Tsuyu had their mother's eyes while Moya had their father's. Even though they were twins, Tsuyu still considered herself the older for being born three minutes before her sister and thus often bossed her around. Moya didn't seem to mind though, she was too shy to care and had dubbed her sister always right anyway. They both had one piercing; Tsuyu's was an eyebrow piercing on her left brow while Moya's was the same but on her right.

At their side was their father, Arashi, who was Kiri's husband through all of these children and more years than Kiba cared to count. His hair was short and spiked in a way that showed he really didn't take much care of it beyond washing it. His eyes were so black that Kiba never dared look long enough to see if he even had a pupil – they reminded him of Sasuke's eyes. Arashi's eyes were normal compared to his hair, however, which wasn't quite black but wasn't the sort of gray that made a person seem old. It was more as though his hair hadn't decided to completely follow through with the black coloring halfway through growing up and stuck with dark gray. Arashi had an array of bridge piercings descending his nose in an orderly line that reminded Kiba of a pathway leading him to the end of his nose. Sometimes he wondered if anyone ever wanted to hit him there simply because it seemed like that's what those piercings were asking you to do.

There was an empty chair beside Arashi that normally sat the child Kiba could stand the least out of the large bunch. Another good reason for having Kankuro around would have been that their eldest son was seventeen as well as a Mist Jounin. Kiba was two years younger than him as well as a rank below, which often gave the teen a superiority complex when around him.

"Now what was the name of that boy that was supposed to have come with you?" Kiri asked. Kiba winced slightly at the question and turned to look at the two of them. Tsume was glancing at her son from the corner of her eye but soon looked back to Kiri.

"Kankuro had to leave at the last minute," she said. Kiba was thankful that his mom didn't feel the need to explain the entire argument between himself and Kankuro. Actually, it hadn't even really been an argument – he'd almost drowned his pretend 'boyfriend' who had every right to storm off even if Kiba would never have admitted that to his face.

"Ah, I see I see. Well then, next year perhaps?" Kiri looked almost excited or eager to have met someone new. She was a shinobi herself so it wasn't as though she never got to see beyond her own lands borders, but she probably hadn't ever met someone who came from a place as distant as Suna. Her eyes had found Kiba again with that eager expression and all he could do was shrug.

Suddenly Ritoru burst into tears and Arashi was shouting at the twins who had bumped into their brother and sent him against the little six-year-old. Kiri jumped to her feet to pick up her son and pat his back, which seemed to annoy Arashi slightly. "He isn't a baby anymore, Kiri," he mumbled, never having been one for babying his children.

"Oh hush, I'm still his mother," Kiri said, shooting her husband a look.

"And I'm still the boy's father," he snapped back. All the heads at the table turned to look at the dark eyed male who was completely fixated on his wife. Kiri seemed to be on the complete offense but Kiba watched as she backed down anyway, setting her sniffling son back in his chair despite his clear attempts to cling to her. The entire table echoed the tension that had warmed up between the gaze of the two adults.

He's such a freak, god the kid's only six. Kiba thought to himself as he turned his eyes back to his empty plate. Without hesitation the brunette stand up and headed for the kitchen with his plate, he decided he would rather have been washing dishes than dealing with the stress in this room. These visits were supposed to be calm and vacation-like but he couldn't remember the last time one of them had been either of those things. Arashi and Kiri always ended up arguing over something and the kids were so obnoxious Kiba could hardly stand them.

As though the annoyance in his head called out to them, the twins came into the room. Tsuyu was boasting about something she had done at the academy while Moya nodded silently in listening. The lighter eyed of the two immediately grinned to her little sister before executing her little special move on Kiba's leg. The Inuzuka boy grimaced as a sharp pain was sent up his leg from his knee being knocked forward into the cabinet and growled over his shoulder. Tsuyu was looking up at him with the most innocent eyes she could achieve – which weren't that innocent at all – while Moya's eyes were a bit wide.

"I took out your brother and I can take out you too," he mumbled.

"Nu-uh," Tsuyu spoke up, wiggling her hips as though it made her twice as superior seeming as she already was, "Nii-san won't let you."

"Then I'll just have to make sure he's out before I do it," Kiba growled as he scrubbed at his plate despite the fact most of what had been on it was washed off.

"Yeah right! I heard mom and Auntie Tsume talking; you're still a chuunin but nii-san is a jounin. He could beat you up easy!" Tsuyu seemed to have no problem boasting in her brother's place. Kiba felt his nose twitch into a snarl and he reached for a towel to dry off his plate.

"And who's still an academy student?" He asked after a moment. Tsuyu opened her mouth to make a comment but when one didn't come to her she closed it. She glared up at the back of Kiba's head and moved to kick him once more but Kiba turned around quickly and barked much like he used to do when he was younger and playing with his parents' dogs. The suddenness of the loud noise made Tsuyu yelp and run back the way she had came, leaving Kiba to smirk in slight triumph after her.

He turned around to finish drying his plate when a soft voice spoke up behind him, "S-Sorry for my s-sister…Kiba."

Moya's soft voice had spoken up from her place on the floor much like Hinata's shy voice did back in Konoha. The brunette turned around to see her standing with her face up at him and her eyes quite apologetic. He wasn't used to any of the kids really apologizing to him for anything, but the last time he had seen Moya she was a shy little ten-year-old who followed her sister around unconditionally. Where as Raikou and Tsuyu often enjoyed picking on him (Kiba would have beat on Tsuyu as much as he did Raikou and their brother except that Tsuyu was younger than him and a girl and his mother would have literally killed him) Moya often would just stand off to the side and pretend not to be there.

"Uh," he glanced around as though worried someone was putting the girl up to it. When he didn't see anyone right away he looked back to her and offered a slightly off-hand smile, "It's cool, if anyone apologizes it should be her, you don't have to do it for her or anything."

Moya's hands were in front of her, arm twisting a little as she put her hands together and laced her fingers together. She nodded a little and looked away as though she was embarrassed about something he had said. Kiba dropped his smile as he looked over her, "Something wrong, Moya?"

She looked up at him with slightly widened eyes and he thought he might have done something wrong but they soon settled as she lowered her head, shaking it furiously. "N-No, i-it's nothing."

Kiba had opened his mouth to ask if she was sure but just then he heard Tsuyu heading back towards the kitchen shouting out a wildly bloated version of what happened. He was sure she was dragging Raikou by his hand towards the kitchen to chase him out of the house. He glanced towards the back door and trailed his gaze back to the swinging door that led to the kitchen.

"G-go on," Moya said, already heading across the kitchen floor to head them off, "I-I'll detour them."

Wow, I knew I liked that girl. Kiba nodded as he headed for the door, "Thanks, Moya." The little girl nodded and pushed open the swinging door as Kiba took his leave out the back one.