I do not own Naruto.
Chapter 7
The Fourth
The fourth time he saw her, he was nervous. Not "oh wow, she looks gorgeous" nervous, more like "holy shit I'm going to die" nervous.
Kiba had briefly made eye contact with her as she was walking down the stairs in the bleachers, taking his helmet off to get a good look at her. He took note of her short skirt and thigh high boots, before he recognized a giant blonde blur as it smacked right into him.
"Kiba, what's wrong with you?" was the first thing he heard as he looked up at the ceiling. The blurriness in his vision slowly dwindled as he recognized the faces crowded around him.
"There's a reason why you're supposed to keep your helmet on the entire time," Neji said, as he crouched down to help him slowly sit up.
Sai sighed, "You think he'll be even dumber than dickless now?"
Naruto ignored the rude remark as he crouched down in front of his roommate.
"You ok? What happened? You just completely stopped and I couldn't dodge you in time."
Holding his head, Kiba mumbled something about being fine, as he looked up into the bleachers to see if Koharu was still there.
Shikamaru frowned, and followed his line of sight to see the girl standing up against the glass, with a bewildered look on her face.
"Oh, I get it," Shikamaru frowned as he crossed his arms.
"Wha…" Naruto started, before he and everybody else on the team looked up to see Koharu. "Hey, why's Koharu here? Practice isn't done yet."
"Actually it ends in 10 minutes," Neji stated. "But let's just end here since Kiba's injured."
Neji and Sasuke helped Kiba up, leading him towards the locker room. Everybody else followed except for Shikamaru, who skated towards Koharu.
The boys finished changing and were walking down the hallway towards the exit. Kiba was carrying an ice pack against his head, with Naruto babbling next to him about the upcoming game and how they needed to have an after party.
"Yo," Shikamaru stated, appearing from around the corner. Koharu followed behind him, gaining a mixture of surprised and happy looks.
"Hey!" Naruto shouted, grinning from ear to ear. "What are you doing here? The girls don't normally come to our practices. You came just in time when Kiba got murdered by me."
Sasuke and Neji watched silently, as they both had already heard from Shikamaru what had been going on.
Koharu tilted her head innocently, "Oh you know, just visiting. I just finished practice so I thought I'd come to visit. Your practices sure look interesting."
"And you look awfully cold," Sai commented, noting the way she crossed her arms in an attempt to warm herself up. The thin sweater she wore didn't seem to do anything, and the skirt didn't help much either.
Without thinking, Kiba brought down the ice pack on his head to hand her the jacket that was draped on his duffel bag. She looked surprised, before thanking him nonchalantly and putting it over herself.
Shino observed the small gesture and quickly caught on the strange feeling in the air. Shikamaru, Neji, and Sasuke obviously knew something; Kiba never offered anything to a girl unless it was Hinata, and Koharu did not look like she had just finished practice. Anybody could tell that she had taken the extra time for her appearance.
"You think you'd wear more if you went to an ice rink," Sai painted on his smile, knowing very well how rude his comment was.
"Uh…" Koharu paused, not accustomed to his attitude. "I've actually never been to one, so I wouldn't know."
She stared at him, wondering if he would try to test her. She knew the other boys quite well, but her interactions with Sai had been very limited. All she knew was that Ino praised him as the ultimate loving and doting boyfriend.
"Well," coughed Shikamaru, turning his body as a signal for them to head out. "I have a lot of work tonight."
They all exited the building and headed towards the parking lot. Everybody began slowly splitting up, but Sai chose to stick next to Koharu. Shikamaru, Neji, and Sasuke were forced to follow as they were all heading back to the house.
"I thought you didn't have a car," Sai pointed out.
"… I don't," she narrowed her eyes at him.
His lips continued with the same fake smile that he had perfected over the years.
"Then why did you walk to the parking lot with us? It would've been much faster for you to walk the path towards campus."
Koharu didn't comment immediately, but shifted her eyes towards Shikamaru. Her eyes screamed at the boy, begging him to get Sai to just leave. Kiba awkwardly stood by, unsure of what to say. Sasuke and Neji chose to remain silent, not wanting to get pulled into the trap.
Done with the unpleasant feeling, Koharu smiled innocently, "Sai, did you ever tell the guys where that stain on their couch came from?"
Ino never had a problem detailing her sex life, and the day that Koharu ran into her and Sai on the couch happened to be a very messy one.
Sai's mouth snapped into a straight line. He immediately turned around and walked away towards the direction of the car.
A look of disgust crawled onto Shikamaru's face, mumbling "We need a new couch…"
Without saying another word, the boys followed Sai, surely to question his actions once they all got into the vehicle.
They ate dinner at a shabu shabu restaurant, as Koharu had yet to try many of the dishes that were popular in the region. Joking and getting to know each other more, Kiba brought them back on campus afterwards.
"I hate you," she giggled.
He held her hand as he pushed open the doors towards the ice rink.
"Oh come on, it'll be fun. You can teach me how to do a backflip or something later in return."
During the day, the campus rink was reserved for private practices for student athletes and teams. At night, it opened up to the student population. People could rent ice skates and spend as much time as they wanted on the ice.
After lacing up, Kiba headed straight for the ice. He waited patiently as she walked awkwardly on the carpet. Once she reached the entrance to the rink, her grip on the side wall turned white.
"I'm not down anymore."
"Scared?" he teased. He moved closer, taking her free hand and lightly pulled her onto the ice.
The minute Koharu's skates skimmed the surface, she shrieked and slipped. Kiba's laugh rang loudly as he acted quickly, expecting this type of reaction from the small girl. He moved closer and wrapped his other arm around her, allowing her to hold onto him for balance.
"How is this fun?" she yelled, looking up at him.
Kiba couldn't help but smile as he looked down at her. She was clearly flustered from the unusual environment, and lost her normally proud and mighty attitude. They had been constantly texting each other throughout the week and slowly learning more about each other. It was odd; he had grown to be naturally curious about her and had been waiting for this night since they finished that puzzle.
The night continued on. Koharu fell almost a dozen times and Kiba's laughter grew louder every single time. Once they grew tired, he escorted her out and drove her back to her apartment.
"Oh, before I forget," she held out his team jacket that had his name sewn onto the sleeve.
Kiba looked down on it for a moment, then grinned, "Nah, keep it till the game. You can't seem to survive in the cold for some odd reason."
A smile grew on her face as she stepped forward, her hand reaching up to touch the side of his face.
"Thanks…" she whispered softly.
Kiba leaned in, wondering why it took him so ridiculously long to do this.
At the last moment, Koharu stepped back and held in her laughter. The look on his face was priceless.
She shouted goodbye as she ran into her apartment building, leaving Kiba confused and somewhat disappointed. Once she was out of sight, he couldn't help but grin; despite not kissing her, he considered it a successful date.
He drove back home quite content with how the evening had turned out. He had to wake up early for work in the morning but honestly didn't care. He stepped into his apartment to see Naruto and Hinata on the couch.
Naruto's head popped up, "Where the hell were you? It's getting late."
Kiba sneered, "I was on a da-"
Freezing up, Kiba's eyes widened. Hinata noticed the look of fear in her friend's face and grew worried.
"Kiba-kun? What's wrong? Did something happen?"
His mouth still open, he was trying to recognize what he was about to say. The idea that he was going to say "date" honestly terrified him. Whenever Kiba went out with a girl, he never considered it a date; he hadn't used that word for himself since his first year with Sakura. Not only that, he didn't even know if it was a date. His stomach tightened at the idea – was it a date?
Did he want it to be a date?
