SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY GAHHHHHH!

I haven't updated this story in so long that it's ridiculous! But I swear, I SWEAR that I am back into my writing full-fledged. I will be bringing update upon update on ALL of my stories. Anyway, since it's been so long, I won't ramble any longer because this has been postponed WAY longer than it should have already.


"Run it again, Kiba," Anko screeches.

Kiba is panting like a dog (no pun intended). Anko has been making him try to perfect this jutsu for two hours now, and he's not much of a Ninjutsu fighter. If it weren't for Kabuto's newest injection, he'd have passed out twice by now.

Kiba forms his hand seal, gathering his chakra. Various parts of his body begin to spark; his chest, his shoulders, his legs. Then they all catch fire, surrounding his body in flames. This isn't the hard part, really. The hard part is keeping this jutsu going while doing a Fang Over Fang.

"Anko, I can't…"

"Yes you can, Kiba!" Anko shouts. He thinks she's trying to encourage Kiba, but to him it sounds like sarcasm. Maybe when he can hear something over the blood pounding in his ears he'll be able to make a better call on that.

"Okay," Kiba breathes. "Fire Style: Scorching Fang Over Fang!"

Flames engulf his spinning body as Kiba throws himself through the air. Normally Kiba has to use his sense of smell to find his target in the Fang Over Fang, but the fire is making that a lot more difficult. And even if it weren't, the tree in front of him doesn't have much of a scent anyway.

He only manages to take out a branch, but that's the closest he's gotten to a hit all day. They decide to take a break when Anko has to put out the fire.

This is going to be a long day.

NARUTO's POV

"Hey Granny, do you have any missions I can take?" Naruto squeaks happily. He barges into the Hokage's office, completely un-announced, successfully taking the woman by surprise.

"Oh, Naruto," she stutters, startled. "I wasn't expecting you. Are you feeling alright?"

Naruto rolls his eyes. "I'm fine, I just needed some sleep."

Tsunade isn't convinced. She does a quick once-over on Naruto, checking blood pressure and stuff like that in a matter of minutes. When she's finally sure that he's medically fine, she sighs.

"I don't have any missions that would entertain you, Naruto," she sighs. "Why are you so eager? Not that you aren't always, but still."

"Sasuke's catching up with some of the others, so he wanted some time to himself today," Naruto shrugs. "Come on, there's gotta be something I can do!"

She sighs again (she seems to enjoy that today) before pulling a packet of papers from beneath her desk. She extends the papers to Naruto, who grabs them. "What's this?"

"The Chunin exams are coming up and Anko needs to get ready," Tsunade reports. "This is the information she needs. Think you can get these to her?"

"Of course," Naruto sighs. "I was wanting another bandit mission or something. This is Genin stuff."

"All of the Genin are out of the village. One might think you'd want to wind down after the war…" Tsunade teases. "Please, Naruto?"

Faking a smile, Naruto takes the paper with a nod. Leaving with nothing more than a wave, Naruto runs off to find Anko-sensei.

KIBA's POV

"How was that?" Kiba gasps. The tree is little more than a smoking husk, the results of Kiba's new jutsu.

"Still needs work, but good," Anko smiles. That smile means a job well done to Kiba, so he takes the opportunity to fall on his back for some rest. Anko rolls her eyes, smiling as she goes to clean up the mess Kiba's jutsu made.

What a kid. Running a jutsu like that so many times, I'd almost believe he's a Jinchuuriki, she thinks.

Kiba breathes a happy sigh as he throws his hands behind his head, looking up to the clouds. If he can get this right, all he needs to do now is get Naruto to teach him how to do Shadow Clones. With that combination, and the rest of Kabuto's drugs, beating Sasuke is going to be a cakewalk.

Okay, maybe not a cakewalk, but at least he won't get killed two seconds in. Stupid skeleton-thingy…

"Hey, Anko-sensei!" Naruto calls. Kiba perks up, painfully leaping to his feet after so much work. His mind is racing.

Why is Naruto here?! Shouldn't he be with Sasuke or something? This is a day for training, how much did he see? I hope I didn't—

"Oh, hey Kiba!" Naruto grins.

"H-Hey, Naruto," he stutters shamefully. Anko rolls her eyes and walks up to Naruto.

"What do you need, Naruto? We're kind of busy here," she groans, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"A message from Lady Tsunade. You need to be preparing for the Chunin Exams," he reports. Naruto hands her the envelope from the Hokage.

Kiba tries to push his heart out of his throat and back down into his chest. Did Naruto see him training? God he hopes not, because he's sure it was less than glamorous. Watching Kiba try to learn Ninjutsu is like watching a slug learning to do a cartwheel.

"What was that jutsu you were working on, Kiba?" Naruto inquires, turning away from Anko as she reads the packet.

"Oh, it's-uh, something Anko and I came up with," Kiba stammers. "A variation of my Fang Over Fang."

"Can I see?" Naruto grins, bouncing on his toes slightly. Kiba hesitates, trying to remember how to swallow the increasing amounts of spit in his mouth. Silently, he nods.

He performs the hand seals, ending in Tiger. After a deep breath, he speaks. "Fire Style: Scorching Fang Over Fang!"

Kiba flies through the air, a vortex of flame darting across the earth and headed towards the forest. The grass below his spinning body blackens as he flies, the tree before him sliced in half and catching flame. He slows to a stop, his sandals sliding across the earth.

"That was awesome!" Naruto compliments, running up to meet Kiba. Kiba smiles at Naruto's wide grin, his bright white teeth lifting his mood a little.

"Thanks. We've been working on it all day just to get it there," Kiba admits, his cheeks heating up. "I'm not much of a Ninjutsu fighter."

"No no no, it was totally great!" Naruto comforts. "But you know what would make it even better? Shadow Clones!"

Oh my God he's doing my job for me, Kiba thinks. Smiling widely, Kiba nods. "Can you teach me?"

"Sure no problem, it's easy!" Naruto brags, surely over exaggerating the simplicity of his signature jutsu. Dragging Kiba to the center of the field by his hand (coaxing yet another blush from Kiba – he really needs to work on that), Naruto grins and makes the hand seal.

"The whole point is making an exact copy of yourself, of course," he begins, taking on a superior tone. "You just have to picture yourself in your head, down to the last detail. Then focus your chakra outside of your body and to where you want to make the clone. You won't be able to do it very far away unless you're making multiple clones."

Kiba nod, mimicking his hands and gathering his chakra. He secretly thanks Kabuto for this one, because all of Kiba's power bends to his will at the slightest effort. This stuff really lives up to expectations.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" the brunet yells, trying it out for the first time. A puff of smoke appears beside him, a copy of himself looking back at him. Kiba's eyes widen, concentration lost and ending the jutsu as he falls back onto the ground.

"Nice job, Kiba!" Naruto praises. Kiba shakes his head quickly, his hands finding either side of his head and locking over his ears. Naruto praises Kiba some more but he refuses to listen, and Naruto notices this.

"Kiba, what's wrong?" Naruto asks softly, leaning down to check on his friend. Kiba's eyes are squeezed shut, tears leaking through and streaming down his cheeks.

"Kiba, what's wrong with you?" Anko yells as she runs over. Kiba presses his hands tighter around his head, shaking it again, and squeezing his eyes tighter. "Naruto, what happened?"

"I-I-I don't know, he made a Shadow Clone and then…this happened," Naruto stutters, his thoughts racing. Kiba's arms start shaking somewhat violently, his arms and legs trembling as his tears intensify.

"Take him home, we're done for today," Anko orders. She walks off to somewhere Naruto can't see, allowing them a bit of privacy. Naruto scoops Kiba up in his arms princess-style and jumps into the village, Kiba's eyes never opening once. His crying and shaking stops, but his hands never leave his ears.

Arriving at the front door of Kiba's home, Naruto kicks the bottom of it a couple of times to knock. Nobody answers for a couple of minutes, and Naruto doesn't feel any chakra inside, so he runs around his home to the balcony he'd seen when he stayed the night with Kiba. He leaps onto it, stepping through the glass door and entering Kiba's bedroom.

Kiba doesn't relax when Naruto sets him on his bed, crawling on his hands and knees to come up beside the brunet. Kiba's heart races, sweat gathering on his skin as the shaking returns. Naruto worries about some kind of seizure, but Kiba seems totally conscious. He's just in shock.

"Kiba, are you alright?" Naruto asks, his voice raspy with concern. Kiba slowly opens a single eye, landing quickly on his crush and relaxing him a little. His eyes are still half-lidded but open when he sits up, his hands slowly coming down from his ears.

"I'm sorry" is all Kiba says as he turns his head away from the blond.

"Kiba, what happened?" Naruto asks.

"I don't want to talk about it…"

"Kiba, please…" Naruto pleads, his hand inching closer to Kiba's subconsciously. While Kiba would normally blush beet red, his thoughts are too scattered even for Naruto right now.

"It's about Akamaru," Kiba frowns, his eyes finding their way back to Naruto. Naruto's huge blue eyes meet with slit black, the stark difference sparking something in Kiba's stomach. So close to him, now. So close…

"What does any of this have to do with Akamaru?" he asks softly.

Kiba brings his knees up to his chest, holding them against him with his crossed arms. "When…when we would fight, Akamaru and I would use Man-Beast Clones," Kiba explains sadly. "And he would transform to look like me. For a second there, I…" Kiba balls his fists tightly on the sleeves as the memories flood him, all the years fighting alongside his best friend. Tears gather at the corners of his eyes again.

The teens sit in awkward silence for a while, Kiba trying to keep ahold of himself and Naruto trying to figure out what to say. He wants to comfort his friend somehow, but no words seem to fit the situation. What does he say? I'm sorry? He has nothing to apologize for, but it seems like the only thing that fits.

"I should get home, Sasuke's waiting for me," Naruto says softly, breaking their silence. He stands from the bed, turning to exit through the balcony where he came in. Eyes snapping open, Kiba lurches forward and grabs the back of Naruto's shirt hopefully. Naruto looks back to Kiba, surprised.

"Please…don't go," Kiba pleads, pulling the blankets tighter around him with his free hand. "Not until I fall asleep."

Completely shocked, Naruto nods and crawls into bed with his friend. It feels awkward to Naruto, but Kiba breathes a sigh of relief as he scoots closer to Naruto under the covers. Naruto smiles and leans his head against Kiba's strong chest, weariness beginning to take its toll on him as well. Any feelings of awkwardness simply melt away as Kiba's steady breathing slowly begins to lull Naruto to sleep. The Jinchuriki can't help but smile a little when Kyuubi speaks a single sentence into his host's mind.

"You see, Naruto? He's really something special," he says. Nodding to his inner demon, he quickly finds himself drifting into a dream.


Thank you so much for reading this chapter, and I promise more will be coming soon! Check out my other stories and check back often for more updates! Reviews are greatly appreciated and make me want to write more (wink wink)